Caitlyn is one of the premier ADC champions in League of legends. Considering that, it’s quite fascinating that she still has the highest base auto-attack range along with Aphelios’ Calibrum and ignoring Senna’s infinitely stacking range.
Caitlyn is a very poke-oriented champion who also holds the ability to oneshot her enemies with her traps when she is ahead. Although she is a very simple champion, many ADC mains have found themselves attracted to her when she is allowed to exist in the meta.
This is what you should know about Caitlyn as a champion in League of Legends.
Caitlyn is a high-range, high-burst AD champion in League of legends. She can only build AD due to her reliance on auto attacks to do damage. Even though she has an AP ratio on her e, building AP on her is akin to trolling your team as you will not be able to do anything realistically speaking.
Her full AD build allows her to scale massively into the lategame while being as obnoxious as humanly possible in the early-mid game. This means that few strategies properly counter Caitlyn in a world where she is allowed to excel.
When first laning as or against Caitlyn, you will notice one thing right away. She is one of the most oppressive ADC champions in the game due to her range alone. This, coupled with the fact that it can be a challenge and a half for an engage support to stick to her due to the traps she has on hand as well as her e, makes her very hard to lane into.
When Caitlyn is paired with something like Lux or Morgana, where she can freely poke alongside her support at all times, she can push her lead far beyond the laning phase well into the match.
Once Caitlyn is fed, it can be near impossible to kill her because you would need to go through her whole team as well as her traps and finally through the slow on her e, that’s assuming you don’t die to her damage in the first place.
Is Full AD Caitlyn Worth It In LoL?
Full AD Caitlyn entails many benefits for the one who chooses to build it. Caitlyn allows you to do the same damage as a full stack Darius ultimate in the form of physical damage but from 650-1300 attack range (depending on traps).
If a full AD build is worth it on anything else, it’s more than worth it on Caitlyn. Caitlyn is perhaps the best champion in the game to utilize damage hypothetically since she has one of the highest critical strike damage with her headshots from traps as well as the longest range in the game to boot.
How to Play Full AD Caitlyn in LoL?
If you are looking for a build for Caitlyn that will dominate while working well in the current meta, We have it.
Best Runes for Full AD Caitlyn in LoL:
- Fleet Footwork- Moving and basic attacking generates Energize stacks, up to 100.
When fully Energized, your next basic attack heals you for 10 − 100 (based on level) (+ 30% bonus AD) and grants 20% bonus movement speed for 1 second. Against minions, the healing is 10% effective. This effect is especially broken on Caitlyn because she can simply take bad trades in lane and heal off of enemy champions with her insane range.
- Presence of Mind- Scoring a takedown against an enemy champion restores 15% of your maximum mana after a 1-second delay.
Damaging an enemy champion increases your mana regeneration by 1.2 − 8.8 (based on level) mana per second for 4 seconds. Follows the same principle as Fleet, since you can attack from afar and gain mana for free, the mana which you can use to spam Q in lane.
- Legend: Bloodline- Gain 0.4% life steal per Legend stack, up to 6% with 15 stacks. At maximum Legend stacks, gain 100 bonus health.
Gain Legend stacks for every 100 points earned, up to 15:
100 points for champion takedowns
100 points for epic monster takedowns
25 points for large monster kills
4 points for minion kills
- Coup De Grace- Deal 8% increased damage to champions below 40% maximum health.
- Absolute Focus- Gain 1.8 − 18 (based on level) bonus Attack Damage while above 70% of your maximum health.
- Gathering Storm- Gain increasing Adaptive Force every 10 minutes that grants a total 0 / 4.8 / 14.4 / 28.8 / 48 / ∞ (based on minutes) bonus Attack Damage; this results in a very lethal Caitlyn lategame which can enable picks of the sort that no other ADC can realistically manage.
For bonuses, go AS, AD and armor or Mr depending on the matchup.
Best Full AD Caitlyn Item build in Season 12 (in order):
- Galeforce: You don’t particularly need another dash to be relevant in most situations but it is nice to be able to finish someone on the press of a button since it does missing health damage on the lowest health enemy near the direction you dash in.
- Berserker’s Greaves: Good attack speed steroid on every ADC champion.
- Collector: This is lethal when paired with Caitlyn’s Trap headshots and her Ultimate.
- Infinity Edge: Good 3rd item on any ADC for increased damage since it increases the damage on every critical strike if you have more than 60% critical strike chance.
- Lord Dominik’s Regards / Guardian Angel: Armour pen (go this if the enemy has an armor stacker) / Gives you a second life, great for avoiding random one-shots.
- Bloodthirster / Mercurial Scimitar: More life steal to survive fights longer / A cc ignore item that can be useful against heavy cc teams (something like Morgana, Ahri, etc).
Even though Caitlyn can build all 3 Mythics, Immortal Shieldbow and Kraken Slayer included, Galeforce gives Caitlyn the flexibility to step forward more than she normally would be able to. However, Kraken slayer is an exceptional secondary choice for anyone looking to play Caitlyn.
Additionally, Caitlyn can also build situational items like Mortal Reminder, Rapidfire Cannon, Stormrazor, Wit’s end, Death’s Dance, and Maw of Malmortius.
What Lane Is Caitlyn?
Caitlyn was designed to be a bottom-laning ADC as much as Draven or Twitch. That is not to say she cannot be played in any other lane, as I’m sure you will see some brave people pick her midlane.
However, I think it is best if you stick to the bottom lane with the build listed above. Caitlyn already isn’t the best ADC in terms of winrate and how strong she feels to play, so playing her in a lane that isn’t even suited to her needs would only exacerbate the problem more and result in an even further reduced winrate.
When Should You Pick Caitlyn?
Caitlyn is a suitable pick when the enemy does not have many heavy burst champions like mages or assassins or even high burst ADCs like Jhin, Tristana, and Samira. She performs decently with supports that can help her thoroughly in the late and early games. Most enchanters will fit this role, and if she is allowed by her laner to scale, she can go above and beyond to carry her team to victory.
Additionally, since Caitlyn is a heavy AD champion, it is best to pick her when your team hasn’t already locked in 3 or 4 other AD champions. Caitlyn suffers heavily if she has to integrate Lord Dominik’s Regard as a secondary item instead of a quaternary one due to the enemy team stacking armor, so it is better to avoid her when your team is already going a lot of AD.
Final Thoughts
Even though Caitlyn is not the best ADC in terms of winrate and never usually is, the ones devoted to her playstyle can find tons of success while playing her. If you are looking for the easiest way to win in the bottom lane, you should probably steer clear of Caitlyn. However, if you are open to trying out new playstyles and experiencing the longest range in the game on a champion, do give Caitlyn a try.
We hope this article has helped you understand the basics of Caitlyn and what picking her entails for the player and the enemy. As always, leave your suggestions and comments down in the comments section below. Until next time!
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