For those who main ADC, they either love her or hate her. She is a lane bully, with a huge powerspike in the late game. She is also the ADC with the longest range in the game (650 units). In case you still don't know who we are talking about, it's Caitlyn, The Sheriff of Piltover.

Caitlyn is a marksman that every ADC main needs to learn and consequently master. Lately, we have seen a lot of Caitlyn picks in competitive play. For example, in the 2016 LoL World Championship she received an outstanding 63.6% Pick-Ban percentage, rank 7 out of 57 champions. This is a detailed guide about Caitlyn, analysing her kit, items, gameplay and much more. Without further delay, let's take a look at Caitlyn's kit.

SPELLS

Passive - Headshot

Every 6 basic attacks, or any attack against a target she has trapped or netted, Caitlyn will fire a headshot dealing bonus damage that scales with her critical strike chance. On trapped (W) or netted (E) targets, Caitlyn's Headshot attack range is doubled. Basic attacks while being in a brush count as 2.

Q - Piltover Peacemaker

Revs the rifle for 1 second to fire a narrow piercing shot dealing physical damage. After hitting any target, it opens into a wider shot that deals less damage. Always deals full damage to trap revealed targets.

W - Yordle Snap Trap

Sets traps that an enemy Champion can spring, immobilizing them for 2 seconds and revealing them for a short duration. Traps last for 90 seconds. Only a standard number of traps may be active at once. Trapped enemies take additional increased damage from Headshot.

E - 90 Caliber Net

Fires a net, knocking Caitlyn backwards. The net deals magic damage and slows the first enemy hit by 50% for 1 second.

R - Ace in the Hole

Takes a second to line up the perfect shot on an enemy Champion at a massive range. The shot deals physical damage, yet other enemy Champions can intercept it.

SKILL ORDER

As far as your skill order as a Caitlyn is concerned, first you need to max out your Q (Piltover Peacemaker) in order to maximize your damage output with your spells. Then, the skill order varies to every player, because while a lot consider maxing out your W (Yordle Snap Trap) before your E (90 Caliber Net) can help you in sieging situations, maxing E helps mostly if you fight all the time and you want your only escape tool back up sooner. You can even level up both of these spells together, as a "middle ground solution". Lastly, don't forget to level up your R (Ace in the Hole) whenever possible. Now let's move on to Caitlyn's itemization.

ITEMS

STARTING

Nothing out of the ordinary here, just the Doran's Blade every ADC needs early on to survive the early pressure.

CORE

We all know that Caitlyn is an attack-speed based AD Carry that can throw continuous critical strikes only with her abilities. But let's examine what each item has to offer Caitlyn.

Runaan's Hurricane: Runaan's is mostly bought for its passive, which gives bonus bolts to your autoattacks, up to 2 enemies.

Usually built early on to help Caitlyn clear waves faster, have more AoE in fights, and also boost her attack speed, her critical strike remarkably less and give flat bonus damage to her autoattacks. Remember that the bolts can critically strike (depending if the primary shot critically striked), and all apply as an autoattack (so Cait can basically have the Headshot every 2 autoattacks if used properly). An item that is truly gold-efficient on Caitlyn.

Infinity Edge: Caitlyn can critical strike only with her abilities, so having some extra critical strike and 250% critical strike damage is a massive advantage for her. It also gives her some attack damage to get her going in the mid-game.

Berseker's Greaves: All attack speed based ADCs need their boots before the teamfights, so as to boost their attack speed and help them get away easier. Why would Caitlyn be an exception?

Prefer to have these 3 items built before the 25-minute mark, or else buy them as fast as you can, we will talk about build-pathing later.

FULL BUILD

In addition to the core items, there are also some that fit her playstyle like a glove. Let's see what these consist of.

Rapid Firecannon: Although many tend not to buy this at all on Caitlyn, this is probably the most suitable item for her outside her core ones. It gives a huge chunk of attack speed, critical strike, some mobility and a marvelous passive that gives bonus range to your next auto-attack when you hit 100 stacks (it is not too difficult to hit 100 stacks when you are fighting, it usually takes no more than 5 seconds).

Lord Dominik's Regards: Lord Dominik's Regards is a Last Whisper upgrade. It gives AD, bonus armor penetration, and a passive that lets you deal more damage depending on the HP the enemy has in comparison to yours. In other words, the more HP than an enemy has, the more damage you do to him. Despite being a really important item for Caitlyn and the majority of AD Carries, it does not come at a high cost (2700 gold).

The Bloodthirster: Bloodthrister gives a huge amount of AD, lifesteal and a passive that lets you stack up a shield on top of your HP when you autoattack. Its stats and passive combined with the fact that Caitlyn has massive attack speed and a ton of critical strikes in the late game, makes this item a lot more valuable than other lifestealing items.

Below are some other items you may as well purchase.

OPTIONAL

Maw of Malmortius

The Maw gives AD, magic resistance, and a passive that when you fall below 30% of your HP, it procs giving you a shield and some bonus combat stats. Can be proven really useful when skirmishing against mage burst damage dealers.

Mercurial Scimitar

Mercurial Scimitar can get you out of trouble a lot of times, as you basically have a Cleanse every 90 seconds. Despite that, this item gives AD and lifesteal. It is the most expensive item in the game so it is kind of impossible to build early. People buy it before the possible last fight, when you will have to skirmish a lot and one minor mistake can get you killed, to give them a second chance.

Guardian Angel

Speaking of second chances, we have the Guardian Angel. This item is mostly bought when facing some burst enemies (like Fizz or Zed) that most of their damage output comes from their Ultimate abilities, and once it is gone you don't have to worry anymore, or against a hybrid damage composition. It is a heavily defensive item, that gives a lot of armor, magic resistance, and a passive that revives you after you die placed on a 5-minute cooldown, however. it is also really expensive, so tend to buy it in the late game.

Phantom Dancer

The Phantom Dancer is a similar item to Rapid Firecannon. It gives attack speed, critical strike, bonus movement speed and a passive that makes the last person you autoattacked deal 12% less damage to you. So the next time the enemies are all damage dealers, you know which item you shall buy.

Mortal Reminder

Mortal Reminder is the other upgrade of Last Whisper, that gives the same stats as Lord Dominik's Regards, but a whole different passive. Its passive makes an enemy you autoattacked receive a lot less healing for 5 seconds. Really useful against sustain comps with Mundo, Swain, Vayne, Soraka etc.

Now that we have covered all the items that Caitlyn can buy, let's move on.

RUNES & MASTERIES

For Runes, you should run 9 Greater Marks of Attack Damage, 9 Greater Seals of Armor, 3 Greater Quintessences of Attack Speed and 9 Greater Glyphs of Magic Resist.

If you want, you can run attack speed on Glyphs, but at the cost of being more vulnerable against AP threats.

For Masteries, here is what your main page should look like, not only for Caitlyn, but for the majority of AD Carries.

After the Ferocity Tree rework, you should no longer have Warlord's Bloodlust as your main keystone but Fervor of Battle, as now it gives flat bonus AD, which scales off better in the late game (because of Caitlyn's critical strikes and attack speed). Bloodlust is a good option when you have to face a lane bully opponent and you constantly need to sustain, something that almost never happens with Caitlyn. In the Ferocity Tree, select Feast for some sustain in lane and Battle Trance to maximize the burst damage from your spells + passive synergy. These, in addition the 12 points on the Cunning Tree will help you have an even more aggressive laning phase, thus you can scale better in the mid game.

LANING PHASE

Caitlyn has one of the best (if not the best) laning phases as an ADC. She has the biggest auto attack range in the game, good wave clear, an escape ability, and maybe the most important part of her kit, the early game traps. Traps are an important tool that you can basically rely on in order to win your opponent in lane. Traps can be alternatively upgraded first instead of Q, and be placed early, slightly towards the enemy turret. By doing so, if you place your traps with some distance in between, the enemy will have to go around them and stay between the traps in order to farm, and that way he can get hit by skillshots more easily. That is why Caitlyn is at her prime with an aggressive support like Leona, Blitzcrank, Zyra or Karma.

For build path, first you need to be able to realize what your main goal is in that game. If you want to play the AD game and out-damage your opponent in fights, go for a pickaxe and/or a BF sword on your first recall. If you want to scale up faster, build a pickaxe or a BF Sword, and then buy Runaan's Hurricane. You should almost never buy a full Runaan's Hurricane first, as this way neither will you have damage in case a fight breaks out, nor will you be able to skirmish 1 versus 1. So prefer to buy some AD before buying the Hurricane.

Officer Caitlyn Skin

The laning phase of Caitlyn consists of 2 things. Farming and poking. So, use your extra range wisely, outsmart your opponent, and always be ready for approaching ganks.

TEAMFIGHTING

Caitlyn teamfights in a very similar way that she lanes. In fights, Cait can peel for herself with her traps, so place them correctly and keep in mind every way an enemy can reach you. Having to peel for yourself also makes your allies focus on killing the enemies, and not constantly thinking about your "well-being", so just a Caitlyn pick can make your teammates' job way easier.

Having to peel for yourself in addition to having to deal huge amounts of damage makes Cait a very skill-reliant ADC. Despite having a relatively easy lane, in the mid-game her damage output starts to fall off, and she has to stay alive all the time in order to stay up in the damage charts.

Your ultimate should almost NEVER be used after a teamfight. That is because it is more useful to deal even a little amount of damage to the enemy carry before the fight breaks out, as this might defy their death. Also, Ace in the Hole has a really short cooldown the more you upgrade it, so you may be able to use it before AND after the teamfight, to finish off a target. So, remember that your ultimate should always be used before the fight starts, targeting the most important enemy target.

GIF courtesy of techtonicactivity from tumblr

CONCLUSION 

Overall, Caitlyn is a very skill-reliant ADC. She has a smooth laning phase, due to her big auto attack range and her traps. In the mid game her damage falls off a little, and her true powerspike comes in the late game. In teamfights Cait is able to peel for herself with her traps, and not have to make her teammates protect her all the time, like other AD's do. And always remember "So many bad guys, so little time!"

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