[11.12] THE ULTIMATE S11 GRANDMASTER Kai'sa Guide! (2024)

Hail of Blades

We go Hail of Blades here because of Second Skin. Simply put, most of Kai'Sa's damage revolves around her ability to proc her Second Skin and having 3 quick auto bursts allows her to not only become an unstoppable carry but also an assassin. There's no other keystone ATM that is viable on her because of this. Always go Hail of Blades.

Presence of Mind

Presence of Mind allows us to take full advantage of our low cooldowns early game and help us sustain since we aren't going Manamune in this build. You'll notice that while Kai'Sa's abilities don't use up much mana, the fact that their cooldowns are pretty low later into the game and at the start makes it so that it is heavily recommended to go Presence of Mind.

Taste of Blood

Taste of Blood serves as our sustain early game - giving us that bit of sustain that'll carry us in trades and later on, in sustaining after fights. While its heal is pretty low, it adds up very quickly if you check after a game, you'll see that the healing is pretty OP. The other viable pick would be Sudden Impact, but you'd lose that vital healing for some extra damage which Kai'Sa doesn't really need.

Legend: Bloodline

We take Legend: Bloodline because, if you saw my take on Taste of Blood to the left of the screen, you saw that Kai'Sa already has high base scaling on abilities so taking extra lethality or damage in general isn't really necessary. Now, going Legend: Alacrity is an option, but seeing as you already have Hail of Blades you should have enough attack speed in your kit so Legend: Bloodline 99% of the time will be a more efficient rune.

Zombie Ward

Make sure that you know what this does, because Zombie Ward is really good when you actually take down wards, but if you're not actively looking for these and playing with your support to grab wards, this will be useless. I'd recommend only taking this if you're Platinum + because it's pretty hard to synergize with your support on low elo. If you're low elo, it may be better to take Eyeball Collection instead since you don't have to do anything but farm enemy champions.

	Offensive: 10% Attack Speed
	Flex: 9 Adaptive Force
	Defensive: 6 Armor

Ravenous Hunter

Last but not least, repeated multiple times during this runes section, Ravenous Hunter offers even more lifesteal on top of our Taste of Blood sustain and Legend: Bloodline. You don't really need any of the other ones since our ultimate is on a pretty low cooldown and we don't need out of combat movement speed since we have our Supercharge and Killer Instinct giving us plenty of it.

Flash

Flash is pretty self explanatory... You take this to reposition yourself, may it be offensively or defensively, always take this. I'd say be careful with using Flash care free because this ability has a 5 minute cooldown and will be mostly used to secure kills/ run from potential ganks/ when you cut it close

Heal

We're probably going to be taking Heal 90% of our games because of the extra movement speed + burst heal that it provides us. I can't express more the importance of having a heal that also gives you a 30% burst in movement speed, so if you don't need any of the other summoner spells, go Heal.

Cleanse

We go Cleanse whenever you see heavy CC on the enemy team such as whenever you're up against a Leona. We won't be going this summoner spell often as it doesn't offer anything but the ability to Cleanse or remove one ability of CC from you. Remember that Leona can still stun you with her other abilities after you Cleanse so keep that in mind before you go cleanse her Shield of Daybreak and get hit with a Solar Flare right after.

Exhaust

Exhaust is the more aggressive approach to a secondary summoner spell, and I'll usually take this if I'm up against something like a Tristana Leona where I'm confident I can dodge their abilities and 1v1 the Tristana with my Exhaust. Make sure that you can calculate exactly how much damage you need to before all-inning because this summoner spell doesn't give you the ability to back-pedal like Heal does.

Barrier

You'll take this secondary summoner spell the least of the bunch. We're only going to be taking this when we're paired up with a Yuumi or any other enchantress that is going Heal to better utilize the summoner spell because they have Revitalize. Keep in mind that ATM enchantress champions aren't the meta so you won't be seeing this often.

Kai'Sa's basic attacks deal 4-10 (at levels 1-16) (+ 1-5 (at levels 1-17) per Plasma stack) (+ 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20% of ability power (based on Plasma stacks)) bonus magic damage.

Caustic Wounds: Kai'Sa's basic attacks, Void Seeker and nearby allies' immobilizing effects mark enemies with Plasma for 4 seconds, stacking up to 4 times. At 4 Plasma, Kai'Sa's next attack ruptures the target, dealing 15% (+ 2.5% per 100 AP) of target's missing health as bonus magic damage, capped at 400 against monsters.

Living Weapon: When reaching a certain amount of stat from items and base stats, Kai'Sa can evolve the related basic ability. This has a channel time of 2 seconds, and the upgrade is canceled if the said amount of stat isn't reached anymore.

To fully utilize Second Skin, we're taking Hail of Blades. The idea is that with the burst of attack speed and your Void Seeker, you can instantly proc this passive to deal burst damage on-top of whatever DPS you did before it. If you can't land your Void Seeker, you can do the Killer Instinct auto cancel if you see my combos section.

Kai'Sa releases a swarm of 6 missiles that evenly distributes among nearby enemies, each dealing 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 100 (+0.4 per bonus attack damage) (+25% of ability power) physical damage. Minions below 35% health take double damage. Non-minions take 25% damage from missiles beyond their first.

Living Weapon: Requires 100-72 bonus attack damage to upgrade (depending on level) - Icathian Rain fires 12 missiles.

We're going to want to use our Icathian Rain on isolated targets, kind of like how Kha'Zix uses his Taste Their Fear. You can also use this as a poke in lane whenever your opponent is going for a cs, you can sneak in a few autos and a Icathian Rain.

Kai'Sa fires a Void blast in the target direction, stopping at the first enemy hit, dealing 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+1.3 per attack damage) (+70% of ability power) magic damage, revealing for several seconds and applying 2 Plasma.

Living Weapon: Requires 100 ability power to upgrade - Void Seeker applies 3 Plasma and refunds 70% of cooldown against enemy champions.

This is great for proccing your Second Skin and you'll wnat to buffer this before preferably because it takes a while to cast. You can use this ability during your Killer Instinct (see the combos section) and do quicker all-ins.

Kai'Sa charges for 1.2-0.6 seconds (based on bonus attack speed), during which she gains 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75% bonus movement speed, increased by 0-100% (based on bonus attack speed).

After charging up, Kai'Sa gains 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% bonus attack speed for 4 seconds. Kai'Sa's basic attacks reduce Supercharger's cooldown by 0.5 seconds.

Living Weapon: Requires 100% bonus attack speed to upgrade - Supercharger grants invisibility while charging.

With Supercharge, you can go invisible after upgrade and cheese kills giving you extra time to escape or get into a better position for a fight. We're not really going to be using this in between our combos unless we have to and keep in mind that every auto attack is going to reduce the cooldown on this ability so if you fit enough auto attacks, you can use this again (sort of like how Vayne spams her Tumble.)

Kai'Sa dashes to a target location near an enemy champion with Plasma and shields herself for 75 / 100 / 125 (+1.0 / 1.5 / 2.0 per attack damage) (+75% of ability power) for 2 seconds.

This ability is what makes Kai'Sa the menace that she is. Not only does she output a million damage a second but she also can protect and reposition herself toward an enemy champion. Whenever we use this ability to engage, always buffer your Void Seeker to have your burst set-up and one shot the enemy. Don't be afraid to go in, because if anything later in the game, you can just go invisible anyway.

As with a majority of champions, put points into your ultimate whenever possible, at levels 6, 11, and 16.