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How to play League of Legends’ brand new Kayle
League of Legends’ patch 9.4 is nigh, bringing with it a series of new changes, including a reworked version of Kayle. We run down how you can play her best on the Rift.
It’s long overdue, but Kayle, everyone’s favourite sword-wielding, golden plated, mid laner has been reworked. She was once a strong pocket pick, a champion that could go head-to-head with the mightiest characters on the Rift, however, she’s since been packed away in the broom cupboard and left to gather dust.
League of Legends’ Patch 9.4 finally brings Kayle back into the limelight and she’s looking better than ever. Riot Games have put their best foot forwards and have given us a Kayle that’s worth picking in champ select. Instead of being a mid laner defined by her strange mishmash of melee and magic, she’s now much more refined. She’s a well rounded champion that has a solid identity, a characteristic that will hopefully see her picked a lot more in Solo Queue.
Ahead of her release with Patch 9.4, we jumped into the Public Beta Environment (PBE) to give her a spin. We’ll run through her new abilities, her playstyle, as well as how she may be built, and what runes work the best for her on the Rift.
Kayle’s abilities
A collage of Kayle’s abilities
© Riot Games
Passive: Divine Ascent
Kayle’s new passive has been completed flipped on its head. It’s one of her defining characteristics and it’s what gives her a new scaling win condition. Divine Ascent has four stages throughout the leveling process. Her first stage starts at level 1, and her final form is achieved at level 16.
Zealous (level 1): Kayle will begin the game with her first form, Zealous. Her attacks will grant a stacking attack speed buff, that, at maximum charge, becomes Exalted and gives her an extra boost of movement speed.
Aflame (level 6): When Kayle has reached her Exalted state, her attacks become inflamed, dealing area of effect bonus magic damage.
Arisen (level 11): Kayle arises at level 11, abandoning her melee state, and transforms into a fully ranged champion. All of her abilities, and her auto attacks, will have a sizable range.
Transcendent (level 16): Kayle essentially becomes Super Saiyan at level 16; she takes on her final form, and is permanently in her Exalted state.
Q: Radiant Blast
Kayle throws out a portal that shoots a flame blade at an enemy, before exploding on impact, bouncing to the nearest target, and dealing a sizable chunk of damage.
Radiant Blast also shreds armour and magic resist, as well as applying a snare to the target, that allows Kayle to easily chase a target, or follow up on a well-timed gank.
W: Celestial Blessing
Similar to her previous W ability, Celestial Blessing heals Kayle, and gives her an extra burst of movement speed. However with the rework, the ability now also heals and provides a speed boost to a targeted ally.
E: Starfire Spellblade
Passive: Kayle’s auto attacks deal bonus damage that scales with both ability power and attack power.
Active: Kayle’s next auto attack is ranged and deals a portion of the target’s missing health as bonus magic damage. After achieving the Aflame state at level 6, Starfire Spellblade damages enemies next to the target as well.
R: Divine Judgement
Divine Judgement grants Kayle, or a targeted ally, invulnerability for a few seconds. While invulnerable, swords will fall in a circle around her target, damaging enemies in the area.
You can’t attack during your ultimate – you can only move. It doesn’t matter if you ult yourself, or your team-mate – it’s the same.
It’s important to note that the Divine Judgement’s cast time is 1.5 seconds, whereas the invulnerability effect lasts for is 2 / 2.5 / 3 seconds. This means you’ll have 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 seconds after the cast ends to get in a few auto attacks, or execute with your Starfire Spellblade (E). It may not seem like a lot, but particularly in the late game, when you’ve presumably stacked up a good amount of Attack Power (AP) or Attack Damage (AD) – those few seconds will account for a decent chunk of damage.
Kayle’s Aether wing skin
© Riot Games
How to play her
From level 1 to 6
Kayle is a versatile champion, and she’ll fit comfortably in the mid or top lane. She’s a champion that benefits greatly from scaling, and it’s important to take this into consideration when you pick her. In the early stages of the game, you’re going to be incredibly weak. It’s likely that you’ll be constantly on the back foot and struggle to trade with your opponent. Your kill potential is low and you can easily be abused by ranged champions. You’re pretty much a sitting duck until level 6.
You should aim to farm as much as possible, and try to avoid skirmishes. In most situations you’ll come out on the losing side in a duel, however, versus some melee opponents, you may be able to go toe-to-toe.
If you’re falling behind in Creep Score you should farm behind your tower and bide your time. If your jungler is sensible, they’ll help you with a few, and hopefully well timed ganks. It would be the perfect scenario if you secured a kill, but if not, the extra time they’ve provided you is still valuable.
From level 6 to 11
When you hit level 6 you’re not suddenly going to dominate, but the laning phase will be much easier. At this point your ultimate and your Aflame passive will come into play. Farming will be dramatically easier and you’ll be much more difficult to gank. This will mean your laning phase will become a lot more straightforward. It’ll still be difficult to kill lane bullies, but you’ll have the capability to trade.
As the game continues, the laning phase will become much less prevalent, but for the time being you’ll still need to protect your tower. You’ll have much more space to roam, and group for skirmishes, however.
From level 11 to 116
Once you’ve reached level 11 you’ll start to become a real threat. It can be difficult to control your side lanes and your jungle, but if you’ve farmed up, and you haven’t allowed your enemy mid laner to get out of control, you should be in a strong position.
It may seem like a tedious waiting game to have to rely on scaling so much, but it can be worth the wait. You’re a character that has the potential to single handedly sway the tides of the game. Once you’ve hit the mid to later stages of the game, you should have a few items under your belt and be able to deal a good portion of damage.
You’ll be a ranged champion at this point because of your Arisen passive. You’ll normally fair well in a one vs. one scenario, but if you’re reasonably fed, you’ll have a distinct advantage. Your opponents should be afraid of you at this stage of the game.
From level 16 to 18
The late game is where things suddenly become a lot more interesting. In the early stages of the game, you’re fragile and weak, but at level 16 you’re the hyper carry. You’ve unlocked all the tools under your disposal and you should take advantage of the situation.
Your auto attacks suddenly feel like an axe to butter. You have a bonus 50 percent attack speed, the highest base AS in the game, and you deal true damage. When you’re Exalted, you move faster facing towards an enemy, but since you’re permanently Exalted at level 16, your enemies will have a hard time escaping.
This means you’re in an extremely strong position in the late game. Your team-mates may have been previously flaming you and insisting you’re useless, and should uninstall, but when you’re level 16, it’s a different story. The late game scaling makes a huge difference and you shouldn’t be afraid to skirmish. You can easily kill squishy targets with your long range, your huge damage, and your super sonic attack speed.
But not only the squishies, the tanks are for the taking too. Because of your true damage your blade cuts through armour with ease. If you’re in a team fight, you’d usually be focusing on the squishies, however, if you take the safe option, and sit behind your frontline, you should be actively aiming to take out the tanks. If you can chunk down a target and create a four vs. five scenario, it’s likely the fight will fall in your favour.
You’re a champion with a lot of burst Area of Effect (AoE). You still shouldn’t be afraid to aim to burst a single opponent down, however. A possible deadly combo could be Radiant Blast (Q), into a quick auto attack, then Gunblade, and finally finish with your Starfire Spellblade (E). It’s that simple.
What items should I use?
There’s plenty of potentially strong builds available to use. That being said, August Browning, Riot’s senior champion designer, explicitly stated that hit items such Nashor’s Tooth are the best intended options. Considering Kayle is going to be extremely weak in the early game, it may be a smart move to first buy Corrupting Potion, rather than Doran’s Ring. It’s best to have the sustain. Afterwards, you could buy a Dark Seal, or two, then build into Berserker’s Greaves. Attack Speed is important and it should be a priority when building Kayle.
You now have a couple of options. You could buy a Sheen. It’s a reliable item that fits well in the laning phase and it builds into Lich Bane, an item you should look to buy in the later stages of the game. If not, and you already have an advantage, you can build straight into Nashor’s Tooth.
After that, Gunblade is a powerful item. You could buy Rageblade instead, but Gunblade will likely be a more reliable option. At this stage of the game you’re starting to hit your power spike, and you can trade your Sheen in for a Lich Bane.
This is a bread and butter build path; it’s now generally best to head down the Attack Power route. That means Luden’s Echo, Void Staff, and Rabadon’s Deathcap, but Hurricane is also a viable option.
What runes should I use?
This rune page is a viable option
© Riot Games
The runes for Kayle are relatively basic. You’ll want to combine Attack Power with Attack Speed where possible. There are a few options – it’s best to play around with them though, while we’ve also created an example rune page that would work wonders. It has pretty much everything you’d need ingame, and it can be extremely effective.
Will you be grappling with the new and improved Kayle?
