The Best Caitlyn Tips & Tricks For Beginners

Caitlyn is the Sheriff of Piltover and is one of the champions that has been a constant dominant force in the bot lane for both professional League of Legends and solo queue. As one of the stars in the Arcane Netflix series, her play rate has skyrocketed since the release of the show. Today, we’ll be sharing some of the best Caitlyn tips and tricks that will help new players get a better idea on how to play this champion.

The Best Caitlyn Tips and Tricks

Caitlyn is a powerful AD Carry with the highest range at the start of the game. Because of her long auto-attack range, she can secure early health leads by poking the enemy and chipping away at their health using headshots. Headshots are her main strength so you can expect it to be mentioned a lot in this Caitlyn tips and tricks article. We’ll help you understand her entire kit so that you can abuse her strengths and cover her weaknesses as a champion.

AD Carries have a relatively linear playstyle and goal as compared to other lanes when it comes to their styles. However, ADCs often see the most action during the different stages of the game which makes it one of the most fun roles to play in League of Legends. In this Caitlyn tips and tricks guide, we’ll help you become better at this champion as a powerful bot lane hyper-carry champion by giving you a better idea on how to maximize her champion’s kit.

Taking Advantage of Headshots

Headshots are Caitlyn’s primary strength as an ADC. Most marksman champions source all of their damage from their auto-attacks which are usually modified by their passive abilities that either include additional on-hit effects or increased damage and crit strike. Headshots deal increased damage to targets after Caitlyn lands 6 auto-attacks (5 while inside a brush) or when an enemy gets hit by a trap or her 90-caliber net.

Since Headshots deal a ridiculous amount of damage, Caitlyn usually reserves it to deal damage to the enemy. Use your first 5 auto-attacks to secure CS on the minion wave and carefully approach an enemy champion to consume your headshot stack which will allow you to get a massive health advantage over the opponent. It’s a good idea to keep track of your headshot stacks to know when you should start moving closer to the enemy bot lane.

Don’t Overuse Your Q!

A common mistake that a lot of inexperienced players do is overusing their Q ability – Piltover Peacemaker – to poke the enemy bot lane. Take note that Caitlyn doesn’t have a lot of mana as a champion so the cost of using your Q ability can easily expend your entire pool, leaving your champion vulnerable to an all-out attack. The best usage of the Q ability is to clear the wave but do so in a way that also threatens to hit an enemy champion in the same direction.

We’re not telling you to use your Q ability to farm the wave. Remember that you want to use this ability only when necessary. The best time to use this ability is when you go all-out during short skirmishes and as an emergency method of securing CS in the lane. Otherwise, you might want to consider conserving mana as much as possible. You can always use your headshots to poke out the enemy in the lane since it doesn’t cost mana.

Lay Out the Perfect Trap

The best way to secure headshots from a safe distance is to lay out the perfect trap using Caitlyn’s W – Yordle Snap Trap. Unfortunately, 95% of your opponents probably won’t willing walk over the big trap in the lane so they’ll find a way to walk around it making most those traps useless. The best way to utilize your traps is to place them where the enemies can’t easily notice them like inside brushes or behind large objects in the game that cover them.

The most common places where Caitlyn mains place there traps is inside the enemy’s brushes to discourage them from entering without vision or inside your defensive tri-brush or river brush patch to alert you if a jungler is trying to gank. Another good way to use the snap trap is to coordinate with your support’s CC abilities. If a champion gets hit by an immobilizing effect, try to place a snap trap under them to ensure that they’ll get snared immediately.

Covering for Limited Mobility

Caitlyn’s E ability – 90-caliber Net – has two major uses for our Caitlyn tips and tricks. The first way you can use this ability is to offensive land headshots on enemies by resetting your auto-attacks with a well-timed E onto the target. Keep in mind that Caitlyn will jump backwards so make sure that you close a bit of distance between you and the enemy before using this ability to land a headshot.

The most common usage of this ability is to create more distance between you and the enemy. Caitlyn doesn’t really have a lot of mobility and is actually a really slow champion in general. Her E ability allows her to prevent the enemy from charging onto her for free since she’s able to snare them when they try to run at her. Keep in mind that you can also use this ability to jump through thin walls around Summoner’s Rift which can be a true life-saver in certain situations.

Don’t Be Afraid to Steal a Kill!

Caitlyn is a sniper designed to take some names and as an AD Carry, you’re entitled to taking all the kills even if you didn’t work hard for it. The AD Carry is the most important champion on the team and every decent League of Legends player understands that they need to keep their ADC fed if they want to win the game easily.

Use Caitlyn’s Ace in the Hole ability to secure kills from a distance. It’s a good idea to time it properly since the delay is very long and enemy champions can block it with their bodies. Don’t be afraid to steal a kill that isn’t yours since your teammates will most likely understand. If they don’t, they’ll still be grateful that you’ll carry them later on… probably.