A Caitlyn Guide

By Bishop

Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover is the strongest ADC to master. She seems mechanically simple, but has many complex hidden decisions.

I chose to One-Trick Caitlyn because she is strong at all phases of the game, with many mini power spikes as she finishes items. Caitlyn excels as a lane bully in the early game due to her 650 range, she excels at sieging mid game due to her trap usage, and she dominates the late game because of those facts and the insane headshot/Runaan’s/IE synergy.

First, I’ll overview Caitlyn including spells, skill order, item build, runes and masteries. Then I’ll go over the early game laning of Cait, the midgame of Cait, team fighting with Cait, and the late game. Finally, I’ll devote an entire section to trap placement.

Overview Spells Skills in Depth / Animation Cancelling Skill Max Order Q First W First Item Build Runes and Masteries Support Combinations

Trap Placement

Overview Spells

Skill information is copied from http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Caitlyn

Thanks!

Headshot

INNATE: Caitlyn’s next basic attack against enemies rooted by Yordle Snap Trap or slowed by 90 Caliber Net gains 650 bonus range and deals 50% (+ 0.5 × total critical strike damage modifier × critical strike chance) AD bonus physical damage, modified to 150% AD versus non-champions.

Additionally, Caitlyn gains 10% bonus attack speed and her regular basic attacks each generate a stack of Headshot, doubled when attacking from brush, granting her next basic attack the same bonus physical damage at 6 stacks, though this does not benefit from bonus range nor is it consumed on other instances of Headshot.

Author’s Notes: Headshot is the reason Caitlyn has one of the highest damage outputs in the game. Learning to utilize the 2x Headshot and 3x Headshot combo separates the good Caitlyn players from the great Caitlyn players. Fighting while in the bush is key to maximizing Cait’s damage in the laning phase and jungle team fights. I’ve flashed into bushes before to ensure I win 1v1’s when Lucians or other all-in ADCs attempt to jump me from river. Additionally, in fights you can step into a bush to remove vision and trap the areas where the enemy may enter the bush. If you get a free headshot proc via the trap, you’re almost guaranteed to win any skirmish.

Piltover PeacemakerRANGE: 1250

COST: 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 MANA

COOLDOWN: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6

ACTIVE: After 1 second, Caitlyn fires a projectile in the target direction that deals physical damage to the first enemy it passes through, after which it expands in width but deals only 67% damage to all enemies it passes through thereafter.

「 PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 30 / 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 (+ 130 / 140 / 150 / 160 / 170% AD) 」

Enemies revealed by Yordle Snap Trap always take full damage from Piltover Peacemaker.

Author’s Notes: The damage from Cait’s Q is almost always underestimated early game. With just a Doran’s and Pickaxe/BF Sword her Q starts hitting for 300-400 damage, based on enemy armor. Her Q can cancel the animation of her E. I’ll discuss this further down.

Yordle Snap TrapRANGE: 800

COST: 20 MANA

RECHARGE TIME: 45 / 32.5 / 20 / 12.5 / 10

PASSIVE: Caitlyn periodically stores a charge of Yordle Snap Trap, up to a maximum amount stored at once.

MAXIMUM TRAPS: 3 / 3 / 4 / 4 / 5

ACTIVE: Caitlyn sets a trap at the target location that arms after 1.1 seconds and lasts up to 90. After the maximum amount of traps is laid down, deploying another immediately destroys the oldest one.

Enemy champions who step on a trap set it off, rooting them for 2 seconds, during which they take increased damage from Headshot, grant True Sight of themselves for 9 seconds, and become immune to Yordle Snap Traps for 4 seconds while they remain in the area.

HEADSHOT DAMAGE INCREASE: 30 / 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 (+ 70% AD)

Author’s Notes: This skill is the most important skill to master on Cait. I’ve devoted an entire section to this skill at the bottom of the guide. If there’s one thing you read about Caitlyn, it should be that section. The main functions of the trap are kiting, sieging, cutting off ganks, winning brush control in lane, objective control… the list goes on. With this skill you can create zones where enemies have 2 choices: pass through and die, or go around.

90 Caliber NetRANGE: 950

COST: 75 MANA

COOLDOWN: 16 / 14.5 / 13 / 11.5 / 10

ACTIVE: Caitlyn fires a net and dashes 400 units in the opposite direction, dealing magic damage to the first enemy hit and slowing them by 50% for 1 second. This triggers Headshot.

MAGIC DAMAGE: 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+ 80% AP)

Author’s Note: Caitlyn’s net is not only her escape and repositioning tool, but it also does much more damage than listed above. Cait’s net gives her a free headshot proc, which means a level 1 net (usually you level net at level 2) does 70 (+80AP) + 50% (+ 0.5 × total critical strike damage modifier × critical strike chance) AD. The math looks large, but it essentially does 70 plus a free crit auto. Additionally, this “resets” your auto attack. While not a true auto reset, you can cancel the end part of an auto attack with casting net. Net is also key to your animation cancelling combos. Your early lane harass pattern will usually be Auto, Cancel auto animation with net, cancel net animation with q, auto if still in range.

Another use for E is wall hopping. Most small walls that you can dash over you can E over as well. The net moves you 400 units backwards and in order to move over a wall you must fire the net perpendicular to it. You can get over Baron/Dragon wall, most thin jungle walls including wolf pit, golem pit and the thin parts of red/blue buff’s walls. A common team fight in the jungle tactic is to ensure you have wards for vision, E over a wall and place traps in the bushes that lead to where you are. You can auto over the wall, and when an enemy comes for you they pass through traps.

Ace in the Hole

RANGE: 2000 / 2500 / 3000

SPEED: 3200

COST: 100 MANA

COOLDOWN: 90 / 75 / 60

ACTIVE: After a brief delay, Caitlyn locks onto a target enemy champion and channels for 1 second. At start of the cast, Caitlyn gains True Sight icon true sight of the target.

If Caitlyn completes the channel, she fires a homing projectile toward the target that deals physical damage to the first enemy champion it hits. Other enemy champions can intercept the shot.

PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 250 / 475 / 700 (+ 200% bonus AD)

Author’s Notes: This skill is usually hard to determine when to use. If Cait has lane dominance at level 6 you can use it to chunk someone out of lane. If the enemies are backing at 6 and you’ve already shopped and have enough HP to stay in lane, you can roam mid to help your mid laner with it. Usually, I use it before our jungler is planning to gank to make the enemy squishier and discourage their jungler from ganking. The cooldown isn’t very long so you can spam it to gain lane dominance. Note, don’t spam it against heal/shield supports like Soraka, Janna, Lulu. They will heal before you reach them in lane. Instead, use it at the end of a fight you’ve won as they flash away after they’ve used their heals.

Skills in depthCaitlyn isn’t known as a champion for her animation cancelling, but I would argue I animation cancel in a Caitlyn game more than a Riven in their game. Your net (E) is cancelled by most of your animations and cancels your auto attack animation. The E-Q, E-W, AA-E-Q-AA trades will win you a lot of fights you normally shouldn’t. The A-E-Q-A trade:

The standard combination is an Auto Attack followed by an animation cancelling E (Net) followed by an animation cancelling Q (Peacemaker) followed by an auto attack. Your auto attack does 100% AD, your net does base 70, your Q does 70-110 + (130-150% AD) which means this combo does 350% AD + 140. This is one of the highest damage combinations for an ADC to have and if you land all of the skills will win you most trades.

The reason this works is because E has a small amount of time it takes to move you from your initial location to the end of the dash. You can use Q during that movement time, taking a 1 second spell cast while you’re moving. This also puts you out of range of most other ADCs, removing their ability to retaliate.

The E-W kite:

Normally your W has a small arming time to ensure it doesn’t stun instantly. This is mitigated by E-ing an enemy and W-ing in their path while they’re slowed. They either have to move around the W, saving you time, or they walk on the trap or get stunned. In some cases this allows you to kill them with your headshot damage. The Net procs a headshot as does the trap, which allows you to double headshot them. The E animation can be used to cast the W at the same time as you travel backwards.

The Double headshot combo:

You can “stack” headshots, meaning that gaining a headshot from a trap or a net won’t override your 6th auto attack headshot. Additionally, you can start this with 5 autos as the net/trap auto gains you your 6th headshot stack. This means, if you have a headshot saved up and an enemy walks onto a trap, if you’re in range your next 2 autos will headshot. If you can auto the enemy that’s on a trap once and then net that enemy, you’ll also gain two headshots. Combining these two leads to Caitlyn’s highest damage combo, the triple headshot.

Triple Headshot:

Same as the above combo, except you can start with 4 or 5 headshot stacks. The combo is as follows: hit an enemy that stepped in a trap with a headshot (going from 4 to 5 stacks, or 5 to 6 stacks) net them in place (auto attack, going from 5 to 6 headshots stacks) and auto them with the net headshot, and then use your 6 stack headshot as the last ability. You can also E-Q combo in this, adding the Q’s damage to the slowed/stationary target. Some ways to set up this combo are listed in the Traps section.

Skill Max Order:

I start with Q or W 100% of the time, based on the lane I’m in. If it’s a melee support and low ranged ADC, I’ll usually start trap. This lets me control where they can stand to CS. You’ll find a lot of ADCs will “pseudo” random walk, but in reality they will walk back and forth from the same 2 places. I’ll place a trap where they usually stand to auto the lane and hopefully get 1 or 2 level 1 headshots. You can also arrive to lane early and trap the bush and a lot of supports will walk in to check bush and let you headshot for free.

Level 2 I usually take Net regardless of what I took level 1. The Net headshot will do more damage than a Q will, and if I took Q level one the E/Q combo does much more damage than a trap/Q combo will. If I have lane dominance level 2, which I should as Cait can clear creeps faster than almost any other ADC level 1, I’ll take Q and Trap so I can control where they can stand to CS and punish them if they take a certain route to walk. This usually only matters if I took Q level 1. Also, I almost always take net as a way to escape the early jungler ganks without blowing a summoner spell.

Level 1: Q I take 75% of the time / W 25% (melee/short ranged only).

Level 1 Q -> Level 2: E 95%, W 5% (shoved to tower level 2 AND jungler vision).

Level 1 W-> Level 2 E 75%, Q 25% (if they have stepped on traps level 1, if I want to shove lane, if they stay behind creeps and I can’t net them AND have jungler vision).

Then from there I max Q if I’m shoving the lane constantly and I have good vision on the jungler. The best way to get killed as Cait is an early gank. Usually, I’ll shove wave into tower, trap near the tower, and get harass down.

Usually though I max W. Most Cait players don’t max Trap, but I feel like the control it gives me over my opposing laners and objective control are worth it. The ability to block off entrance to the red side jungle while taking dragon / trap the wall in dragon pit for early dragons is great. Also, when you have 4 traps you can trap your bush in lane to detect ganks, trap your tri bush to detect ganks, etc… Plus, 4 traps lets you place a trap in between the turret and the wall and 3 traps between turret and the jungle wall, blocking the enemy laners from walking forward/backwards of the traps.

My standard level is: Q/E/W max W, max Q, max R whenever you can. I like the ease of escape of having E maxed over the pushing power of Q max as Runaan’s allows you to shove fast anyway.

Item Build:

The Build on Cait is generally pretty standard. I start Doran’s Blade and a potion. This is the best ADC start in the game right now, and you’d have to show me damning stats to change it.

Next, I try to stay in lane for 36+ creeps to get a first back BF Sword. Coming back to lane at level 5 with a BF Sword usually means you’ve won lane. However, if the enemy is a scaling ADC like Vayne/Kogmaw, denying them CS at the cost of yours is sometimes Ok. I’d rather I have 25 cs and they have 15 over us both having 36. The true test of laning is CS differential, not total CS. If I have less I’ll pick up a Pickaxe.

After my AD item I’ll buy boots of speed. Movement speed is key to keeping your opponent in your zone of danger while not being in theirs. Then I’ll pick up a dagger/brawler’s glove/Zeal/Recurve Bow. I’d prefer to back with another 1300 gold and buy the zeal outright, but if I can’t I’ll pick up the recurve bow. After my first attack speed item, I’ll buy finished boots.

My first finished item is almost always Runaan’s Hurricane. Hurricane is the single best item for Caitlyn, as all 3 attacks stack headshot. This item lets you headshot every 3 attacks instead of every 6. Finishing Runaan’s literally doubles your damage in skirmishes/team fights of 3+ targets.

Next, I’ll almost always buy an IE. Infinity Edge raises the damage Caitlyn’s headshots do. This is the 2nd most powerful item on Caitlyn by far.

After these two items Caitlyn has a huge power spike. She can bully people off of tower very easily and almost single handedly win teamfights via headshots.

My 3rd major item is almost always Rapidfire Cannon. This item raises your range which stacks with net/trap range increase. You can very easily hit someone for 800 damage if they step on a trap from 1000 units away. A RFC/Trap/Ult combo can outright kill many ADCs from 1000+ range away.

However, if the enemy team has a fed assassin I’ll build Bloodthirster. The shield and lifelink allows you to stay alive during their combo and your Headshot lifelink should not be underappreciated. If they have a fed AP assassin, I’ll build Mercurial instead.

However, if I’m an item ahead of the enemy ADC, I’ll pick up a 3rd item Guardian Angel. Cait does an insane amount of damage with only IE/Runaan’s, and staying alive is your priority. If the enemy dives you and your team is there to protect you after you rezz, you usually can just clean up teamfights easily.

As with most ADCs, the first 3 items are generally the same (IE, Hurricane, Boots) and the last 3 are situational (Lord Dominik’s Regard, Bloodthirster, Mercurial Scimitar, Guardian Angel are the most common however.)

Runes and Masteries:For Caitlyn I prioritize lane dominating runes and masteries over late game scaling ones. Most games are won by whichever team had a more successful laning phase, so I make sure that Cait is a more successful lane bully than usual

Masteries are pretty generic for ADCs, but I go 18/12/0 making sure to pick up Feast, Battle Trance and Warlord’s Bloodlust. A lot of players suggest taking Fervor on Cait now as it gives AD which helps her crits scale better late game, however the ramp up time doesn’t outweigh the early sustain of Warlord’s. You don’t have to worry about killing as Cait, but you do have to stay alive. I take Greenfather’s Gift as it’s harass early game adds an additional 40 damage per auto. This with First Blood work’s well to ensure you win early trades.

Updated as of 7.5: I’ve started going 18/0/12 and taking First Blood. The increase in healing from the resolve tree works great with Warlord’s Bloodlust.

Runes I take 9 AD Reds, 9 Armor Yellows, 9 Scaling MR blues if they have a non ap support, 9 MR Blues if they have an ap support, and 3 Attack speed quints. This is stat wise the best bang for your buck in runes.

Support Combinations

Caitlyn performs best with a support that has some form of CC. This allows you to place traps under the feet of the stunned enemy for huge bursts of damage. I’ve found a lot of success with supports like:

Braum, Nautilus, Thresh, Trundle, Nami and Sion.

Each of these supports offers peel for Cait and a chance to get a trap under someone.

Standard combos with these supports:

Braum: Place a trap under the opponent as you stun them with the 4th auto off of Braum’s passive.

Nautilus: As Naut hooks an enemy place a trap where they will land (1/2 way between the two) for free headshots.

Thresh: Same as Naut, but you can also trap where they will be flayed.

Trundle: The slow of the pillar makes it easy to land traps onto enemies.

Nami: Bubble makes it pretty simple to land traps, just place at the shadow NOT at the enemy’s model. Also a good damage combo is to have 4 headshot stacks and have Nami E you. This let’s you get headshots 5/6/Headshot off onto a slowed enemy.

Trap PlacementThe most important thing to learn as Caitlyn is how to best use Yordle Snap Trap. What an unassuming name for one of the strongest skills in League. LaningWhile laning there are three positions you’ll be in. Shoved to tower, frozen mid, shoving to tower. While you’re farming under tower, the best place to use traps are in an arc towards the enemy side of the map to block them from diving you. Based on what side you’re on you may also want to block the jungle entrance nearest your tower with 2 traps.



When the lane is frozen you’ll want to place traps where the ADC would stand to get CS. If they try to step around it, you can place another trap to cut their path off. If done right, you can block them from getting a CS. If done great, you get headshots off.

When you shove the enemy to tower bot lane you want to place 3-4 traps in between the tower and the jungle wall. This forces them to go through the space between the tower and the outside wall to get cs. When they do place another trap blocking their escape off. Since Caitlin has 650 range you can auto them without being in tower range at this point. If they go to escape you can pull off the triple headshot combo.

As they walk towards the trap between the tower and outside wall get in position to hit them with your net. Auto, trap headshot auto, E/Q combo, headshot with increased range auto. This will kill most ADCs under half hp early game.

When pushing a tower you should place traps in a way to make it difficult for enemies to get near you. I would place a diagonal line of traps going from the tower towards the enemy base. This makes them have to walk around the diagonal to get to you, in essence move away from you then walk that distance back, on the other side of the traps. When they move up towards the opening of the trap line place a trap at the green star. This blocks them off, wasting 1-2 seconds of their time and forcing them to eat a trap to get to you. If they do eat a trap, do the 3 headshot combo if safe.

In teamfights place traps in locations that enemies will have to go through to reach you. Gaps in the jungle they have to walk through, etc… If you’re kiting back through a jungle place traps in the entrances of bushes, or directly around the corner of a bush. A lot of players just click where they want their champion to end up and the auto pathing leads them directly into your traps.



If you’re being chased try to place a trap ahead of where you’re walking and as you walk over it perform the net trap animation cancel and place another trap in the direction the person chasing you turned to dodge the first trap. In this example, if Nasus is chasing Cait (N and C) I would place a trap at the red spot directly in my path. As he avoided the trap to the left or right I would net in his direction and place another trap to the left or right of the first trap. This makes him either turn back in the case of the green trap or go further around in the case of the blue trap.



If I’m being chased into a jungle I’ll place traps at the entrance and exit of a bush, and if I have time I’ll place another trap below them where they are visible. The visible traps make the enemy think they should walk into the bush.

For Baron or Dragon fights I trap the walkways between the Jungle and the River. This forces an enemy to step on a trap in order to get near the objective. Additionally if the enemy jungler has a way to cross baron wall or dragon wall I’ll place a trap near the wall where the enemy would cross from the bush outside of the pit into the pit. This is so you can hopefully kill the enemy jungler before they steal baron.

I’ll be creating a couple of video’s detailing the Caitlyn techniques I’ve talked about here. With any questions, DM me on Reddit or Twitter (@League_Lessons) or email gg.e5business@gmail.com

Eric Pitts

e5 Bishop