The Ultimate League of Legends Kaisa Guide

The Daughter of the Void has survived in the harshest environments as a human entrapped for years after an accident took from her the chance to live as a normal human. It’s time to look at one of League of Legends’ most popular marksman by discovering the best way on how to use her on the rift. This Kaisa guide aims at giving out tips and tricks on how to use her more efficiently on the bottom lane because of her aggressive nature and unique kit.

The Daughter of the Void’s Strength

In the middle of the Shuriman desert, a small village was consumed by the void in catastrophic appearance that claimed the lives of everyone there – or so, they thought. A little girl awoke in a monstrous world with very little chance for survival. However, her determination and tenacity allowed her to adapt to the world. As she grew up, parts of her body assimilated with various voidlings which has become both her armor and weapons to hunt the monsters that took her humanity away from her.

Kaisa is one of the most popular marksman in professional play because of her flexibility in being either an aggressive dive champion that can instantly remove the backline of the enemy or as a poke champion that throws out abilities to chip the opponents away. Because of her incredible mobility, she is one of the champions that is capable of mechanically outplaying the opponent. Something that we’ll learn in this Kaisa guide as we move forward.

Kaisa General Gameplay

Kaisa is a short-ranged ADC which means that she requires mobility for offensive and defensive means without getting caught out by the opponent. She has a very strong ability kit that makes her extremely deadly if allowed to freely attack the opponent up close. In our Kaisa guide, we will be talking more about how to work around having short range in order to prevent the opponent from bursting you down while you try your best to take them out quickly.

Kaisa Guide: Skills and Abilities

First up on our Kaisa guide, we’ll be showcasing the different skills and abilities that Kaisa has that makes her unique among the marksman class. Kaisa’s skills and abilities all help her deal damage and don’t purely act as defensive utility unlike a lot of other marksmen. She is one of the champions where players will be constantly spamming her abilities in and out of a fight in order to function as the main damage dealer of her team.

Passive: Second Skin

Innate – Kai’sa’s basic attacks deal bonus magic damage based on Plasma stacks.

Innate – Caustic Wounds: Kai’sa’s basic attacks, damaging abilities, and nearby allied champion’s immobilizing effects and polymorphs apply Plasma stacks up to 4 stacks for 4 seconds with the duration being reapplied every successive hit. Kaisa’s attacks or damaging abilities against a unit with 4 Plasma consumes all of the stacks, bonus magic damage against the target, capped at 400 against monsters.

Innate – Living Weapon Kai’sa can evolve her abilities once they meet the minimum required amount of stats specified in the ability. Upgrading an ability requires a 2 second cast time. If Kaisa loses the stat requirement for the upgrade, the upgrade will be lost.

Kaisa’s main damage source is applying as many Plasma stacks at the enemy as possible. Because of this, she values support champions that can apply a lot of CC like Nautilus and Leona which have a lot of immobilizing abilities in their kit. Try to get close to champions that have a lot of CC so that you can passively apply Plasma stacks which will increase your DPS significantly during a fight. Popping the 4th Plasma stack will deal a lot of damage if the opponent has lower health.

Q: Icathian Rain

Active – Kaisa releases a barrage of 6 void missiles that evenly targets as many visible enemy units, each one landing after 0.4 seconds of each other. Each missile deals physical damage with minions taking double the damage if they are below 35% HP. Non-minion targets that are subsequently hit by a missile take 25% less damage from the minions after the 2nd shot.

LIVING WEAPON – Upgrades if Kai’sa gains [100 – 66 (depending on level) ] attack damage from items. Once upgraded, Kai’sa shoots out 12 missiles instead of 6.

Icathian Rain is the highest damage dealing ability in the game. It quickly applies 2 stacks of Plasma which allows her to speed up damage. Make sure to stack using Icathian Rain as soon as you get in range of opponents. It’s a good way to deal damage. When using this to take down specific champions, try to move away from other targets such as minions or other enemy champions so that this ability will lock onto that one champion as much as possible without the damage being shared.

W: Void Seeker

Active – Kai’sa fires out a void missile that travels in a direction, granting sight a short distance around it, and dealing magic damage to the first enemy unit hit and applying 2 Plasma stacks on them.

LIVING WEAPON – Upgrades if Kai’sa gains 100 ability power from items. Once upgraded, Void Seeker applies 3 Plasma instead and refunds 70% of its cooldown if it hits an enemy champion.

Void Seeker provides a nice amount of poke but isn’t necessarily a primary target for the Living Weapon upgrade. This is a good skill to start or end a fight with because of the amount of Plasma stacks that it provides which might just execute the opponent if they are low enough. You can also use this ability as a setup for your Ultimate Ability – Killer Instinct. Always try to hit the backline to scare the opponents for a potential backline assassination.

E: Supercharge

Active – Kai’sa charges herself up while she freely moves around. During the charge time, Kai’sa becomes ghosted and gains bonus movement speed according to her attack speed.

After charging up, Kai’sa gains bonus attack speed and her auto-attack windup is reduced to 6.44% for 4 seconds.

LIVING WEAPON – Upgrades if Kai’sa gains [ 100 – 70% (depending on the level) ] attack speed from items. Once upgraded, this ability applies stealth on Kai’sa for 0.5 seconds.

Supercharge is an important ability to upgrade early on. This ability allows Kai’sa to kite enemy AoE abilities or skillshots. Upon being upgraded, this ability allows Kai’sa to freely reposition while stealthed to negate a good portion of the damage from the enemy. Make sure to abuse the bonus attack speed by continuing the aggression after charging in with Supercharge if you’re playing offensively. You can also use this defensively if you get caught out by the enemy.

R: Killer Instincts

Active – Kai’sa instantly shields herself for 2 seconds and quickly dashes to a target location near a nearby visible enemy champion with a Plasma stack on them. The duration of the shield is refreshed after the dash completes. During Killer Instinct, Kai’sa can cast her other abilities.

Killer Instinct is Kai’sa signature ability and is what makes her the ultimate mobility marksman. Remember that Killer Instincts isn’t only used offensively and can be used defensively to gain better position, avoiding the biggest threat in the teamfight and moving towards an area with an enemy that’s higher in the prioritiy. Don’t be too much of a hero that dives into the middle of the enemy team if you don’t think that your allies can’t follow up immediately.

Kaisa Guide: Items and Builds

Next up on our Kaisa guide, we’ll be discussing this champions abilities and builds. As a marksman, she likes to build pure AD and Attack Speed so that she can immediately upgrade her Icathian Rain and Supercharge abilities. Unlike in previous seasons, Kaisa no longer builds hybrid damage since she draws out most of her damage from the on-hit effects.

Starting Items

Doran’s Blade – The best starting items for marksmen will always be Doran’s Blade because of the balance in survivability, sustain, and damage. Doran’s Blade allows Kaisa to be a threat in lane and lifesteal off of the smaller minions when being attacked to last longer in the laning phase.

Core Items

Kraken Slayer (Mythic) – This item works really well with Icathian Rain as it quickly applies the passive ability to instantly pop the opponent. It also makes her an excellent on-hit marksman with this ability combined with Kaisa’s Plasma stacks dealing bonus damage against the enemy champion. The mythic passive also makes it faster for Kaisa to upgrade Supercharge without focusing on building attack speed specifically.

Phantom Dancer – The best source of overall damage modifiers for marksmen and other AD champions. This item also gives much-needed bonus movement speed that makes Kai’sa a bit slippery to deal with since she can move in and out of a fight to activate Icathian Rain.

Recommended Items

Infinity Edge – Once you build the other two Core Items, Kai’sa will have enough Critical Strike Chance to activate this item’s passive. This is the biggest damage item for Kaisa and is recommended to get built as soon as possible but not before you gain enough crit chance.

The Collector – A great item to have to easily kill off enemies by basically reducing their max HP by 5% when you are attacking them. There are times when Kaisa deals just enough damage to leave a little under 3% or lower HP which allows the enemy to survive. This item prevents that from happening.

Guardian Angel – Once Kaisa gets this item, she won’t be afraid to dive into the middle of the fight as long as your team is planning to engage after you. As an ADC, you’ll most likely be targeted and focused on by the enemy team. If that happens, you might want to build this before The Collector.

Lord Dominik’s Regard – Great item overall to boost damage especially against pesky tanks that are trying to zone you out of their team. Build this to round out your build as the last one on your inventory.

Kaisa Guide: Runes

Primary: Domination

Keystone: Hail of Blades – Increased attack speed allows Kaisa to quickly apply a lot of Plasma stacks which make her extremely deadly which allows her to instantly pop a champion alongside the Kraken Slayer. Very easy to apply this passive since she has a lot of abilities which increase her attack speed.

Taste of Blood – Good item to add a bit of sustainability both in the laning phase and during teamfights. Can easily be applied if you can hit Void Seeker from a safe distance so that your healing will be well worth it.

Eyeball Collection – This item ramps up Kaisa damage a bit more so that she’ll become an effective carry. Make sure to force kill participation even if it’s just hitting your Void Seeker onto one or more of the enemy if you’re too far away from the fight so that you’ll gain a lot of stacks.

Ravenous Hunter – Much like Taste of Blood, this rune will give Kaisa more sustainability in teamfights. Again, you need to force kill participation so that you can get a lot of stacks faster.

Secondary: Inspiration

Magical Footwear – AD Carries are very dependent on buying items. Being able to save 300 gold on free boots means that they can buy one basic item with the 300 gold instead to speed up the stacking. However, you won’t have that much mobility before 12 minutes (assuming you have no takedowns).

Biscuit Delivery – An extra source of 15 gold or mana since Kaisa likes to spam her abilities. This item provides more sustainability and prevents her from losing too much resource during the laning phase that forces her to recall during a bad time.

Kaisa Overview

In our Kaisa guide we keep discussing that she is very reliant on building the right items quickly. She has a tendency to become aggressive but a true Kaisa master knows that her mobility is reserved for excellent positioning that will prove to be the biggest strength of this champion. It’s not a champion that’s easily picked up by League of Legends beginners but after 10 games and reading up on this guide, you can master this champion too.