Caitlyn can be a frustrating marksman to play against in League of Legends.
She has a powerful early game due to her long range and can zone off opponents from creeps with her traps. If she gets going, she becomes unstoppable and can roam to other lanes easily as well. But if Caitlyn gets shut down early on, she might have issues reaching her item power spike, so this guide should help anyone looking to master the marksman avoid those bad situations.
As with all League champions, specific items are going to be more effective depending on the situation. But there are a number of items that are good to build on Caitlyn no matter the matchup.
Runes
Precision
Fleet Footwork: This keystone ensure that you get good trades early on without giving your opponent an opportunity to hit back. The high range of Caitlyn combined with the movement speed buff from Fleet Footwork will keep you mobile throughout the entire duration of the game. The heal effect is a nice bonus as well.
Presence of Mind: This row is flexible. But Caitlyn needs to spam abilities a lot, especially traps, to take control of objectives. To avoid running out of mana in crucial fights, this item will increase both your mana cap and restore some mana if you get a takedown.
Legend: Bloodline: This is a basic rune to grant you additional lifesteal. To avoid wasting 900 gold on a Vampiric Scepter and delay your core builds, take this rune and your lifesteal issues will be solved.
Cut Down: This rune helps you penetrate beefy frontlines even easier. Since you aren’t going to build any health items, this item will be able to be activated quite often against tank champions. If no tanks are present on the opposing team, then feel free to take Coup de Grace instead to deal more damage to those low-health enemies. Coup de Grace combined with your passive can deal devastating amounts of damage.
Sorcery
Nimbus Cloak: The extra movement speed is extremely efficient especially during the laning phase. From being barely picked to picked by most champions in the game, this rune ensures you get a small ghost effect when you use any summoner spell. It works great with Caitlyn, who only has a slight dash on her E. It allows you to escape those pesky ganks by blowing your heal without using Flash.
Gathering Storm: Gathering Storm is a straightforward scaling rune to increase your damage output the longer the game goes. If you want additional AD early on, you could go for Absolute Focus instead.
Bonuses: +10-percent attack speed, +9 adaptive force, +6 armor
Starting items
Doran’s Blade
Having some early lifesteal and attack damage is crucial for Caitlyn. Doran’s Blade also grants you 80 bonus health to make you a tad bit tankier early on. This item can be purchased multiple times if you’re having early game issues and need power as soon as possible.
Health Potion
During the farming phase, you are going to take damage from enemy champions. Health potions heal back 150 health over 15 seconds and will give you extra time before having to base.
Core items
Berserker’s Greaves
Berserker’s are core boots for Caitlyn, rushable as a first item before you get any other items. It gives you movement speed to move faster in the laning phase and allows you to roam to other lanes easier if you dominate the opposing bottom lane. The attack speed is also very valuable since Stormrazor doesn’t have a lot of attack speed while Infinity Edge has none.
Stormrazor
Stormrazor is the core item on Caitlyn, which synergizes well with Fleet Footwork. It grants you core stats of attack damage and critical chance, while also having some attack speed thrown in there as well. The effect is great to help you orb walk in teamfights and kite properly. While you want to rush this item in most games, if you’re significantly ahead of your lane opponent, you can rush Infinity Edge instead.
