[14.9] Complete Kai'sa Guide to Dominate Your Games (2024)

Here we will be going in-depth on how to optimize Kai'Sa's damage by using her abilities well. At first glance her abilities are rather straightforward, but they can be easily misused. Knowing how you can maximize your damage and still survive a sticky situation will make playing this champion much more rewarding!

Do keep in mind that sometimes the optimal is not always feasible, meaning that to score kills or outplay your opponent you may need to go against what is “optimal” for her Second Skin passive usage for example – but at the same time, using this ability well will allow you to score way more kills.

Players who are new to Kai’sa or who are not very advanced in their mechanics might struggle to use her abilities well consistently. This is FINE – take your time, practice, and have fun first and foremost. You don't need to play perfectly.

Your passive is pretty straightforward: you auto champions, you stack your passive. You hit Void Seeker, you stack passive. You deal magic damage with each auto. You like having CC on your team. Proc your passive and you get a huge damage bonus.

This means that what you should be looking for in fights is stacking it as fast as possible. But what can you do to achieve this?

For starters, you could take the rune Hail of Blades, making sure to auto the same champion three times in succession to make the most out of the rune. Really good early game when you don’t have a lot of attack speed.

You’ll want to use auto resets such as Void Seeker + AA or Killer Instinct + AA and always hit your W to get your damage off faster – especially early game. Guinsoo's Rageblade also helps, though it doesn’t fit every build. Teams and supports with plenty of CC are also great to have.

Getting Second Skin to proc is very decisive in your early game damage. It is sometimes worth it to Flash on an enemy sitting on low HP and 4 stacks to proc your passive because it’s a lot of damage. It may not seem like it at first, but the small details can make a huge difference. Paying more attention to this ability is a nice thing to focus on if you want to master this champion.

Icathian Rain is your bread and butter to deal damage so you usually want it to evolve first and use it well.

It deals a huge amount of damage to isolated targets, so naturally you want to position yourself in a way that allows you to hit just your target. In teamfights this could mean kiting away from grouped enemies and staying at max range. You want to single out one champion – Supercharge and Killer Instinct can help with that.

It is ideal to fight away from enemy minions and jungle monsters during all stages of the game.

In lane, your Icathian Rain can help you push lane, but keep in mind it deals more damage to low HP minions. You should auto-attack them until they have less than half their HP and then use Q to insta kill them.

This ability is also a great trading tool. If you can get away with it, trade with the enemy ADC or support with auto and isolated Q (as isolated as possible). You will catch many enemies off guard with your damage, especially if you can make full use of your Hail of Blades. If you manage to hit Void Seeker as well it’s great.

Extra tips:

You can cast Icathian Rain just before Void Seeker and Supercharge to deal damage while you are channeling those abilities.

Sometimes you will use Q and see it is targeting minions instead of the enemy champion... How to avoid that? Well, your Q range is slightly smaller than your auto range. So use your Q when you are in auto-attack range and you will most likely hit it!

First, keep in mind that if you go full AD you are never going to evolve this ability. You need 100 AP to evolve it and depending on your build it won’t be worth it.

Hitting this ability will grant you true sight, which means you will be able to see champions like Akali and Shaco when they are supposed to be invisible. It will also give your 2 plasma stacks (3 if evolved), which allows you to use Killer Instinct on the marked enemy.

When you are only building AD, the main purpose of this ability is to allow you to go in with your R, combo, stack your passive, and snipe enemies. When you have it evolved its poke damage can be pretty okay and hitting it will make your burst combos and “burstier”, so it’s important you don’t miss it.

You can combo Void Seeker + Flash to reposition it and make sure you hit it, especially during laning phase. Your W will go to the targeted direction but it will be cast from your new location. If you time it just right though, you can make what is called "Phantom W", which is a visual bug that makes it look like your W is coming from the place you were before flashing.

In the early game you will want to use this ability to combo and trade/all in. You will see many players using this ability to poke enemies, and in a lot of cases that’s just not worth it.

When can it be good to poke in lane?

You have a poke/long range harass support and you want to help them harass

You want to get an assist/help teammate but you are too far away

You have this ability evolved

What are the best ways to use this ability?

Using it to get vision and avoid face checks

Using it to catch a mispositioned enemy you can kill by following your W with Killer Instinct

Using it as an auto reset

Comboing it with Killer Instinct (R + W) to quickly burst a squishy target

Using it to stack your passive faster

Sniping low HP targets

Why you would want to combo R+W?

Let's assume you have a Rell support and she managed to engage on the enemy bot laner. You could W immediately to stack your passive faster... but what if there is a minion in the way? Or a champion who is not the priority target?
In these cases, you can R behind all these obstacles and MAKE SURE the enemy gets hit by your full combo - Your W, your isolated Q, your autos.
You will need some practice to get the combo right while mid-air!

You want to have this ability evolved after your Q and it evolves when you have 100% attack speed. Supercharge has two main uses: to run away or to go in.

Usually, you want to use this ability to dodge important abilities and to kite. Only use it to go in if you can get away with it (if the enemy can't punish you for using your mobility). One exception to that is when you evolve it and gain Invisibility – You can use it to go into range of a vulnerable target from fog of war and surprise them.

When you are pushing into the enemy tower you can use E to take platings faster, but beware if you don't have vision. If there are enemies nearby it is best to use this ability to run away in an emergency. Otherwise, using it for plates and turrets is not that bad since auto attacking will reduce this ability's cooldown.

Some extra uses

In the early game you’ll usually not build Berserker's Greaves, so you can use your E as an attack speed steroid and mobility to compensate for your lack of boots, so use it wisely.

You can use Supercharge before a fight as a way to increase DPS once you’re in... it gives you a nice setup to R in and blow up vulnerable targets. But especially when your target is surrounded by their allies it is a good idea to save E in order to have some mobility. Killer Instinct is one of your main defensive tools, so if you use it aggressively you want to at least have your E for survival, especially if you have it evolved.

You can also use E combined with other mobility tools to run away. As an extreme example (which I have had to use when mispositioned): you can Killer Instinct to go around an enemy, Supercharge to run away and Flash over a wall. When you have all your mobility tools you are pretty slippery, so don't waste them mindlessly. You may be tempted to use E aggressively or to move faster, but it is a self peel tool so be aware of how you are using it.

Ideas on how to juke enemies with your Invisibility

Pretend to go in one direction, E and turn around

Use invisibility so that enemies can't use targeted abilities on you ( Yasuo E, Annie Q, Teemo Q)

Use it as a way to counter auto attack steroids and autos in general ( Xayah W, Kog'Maw W, Ashe Q, Vayne autos, Jhin 4th shot)

Use E to dodge a skillshot and then go in (this often catches enemies off guard).

Now here's the ability people probably misuse the most, and that is because it can be both an offensive tool and a defensive tool. The ability is at its best use when you can use it both offensively and defensively!

You will see some Kai’sa players hitting Void Seeker on a seemingly isolated squishy target, R in and then die soon after because the entire enemy team was there. This can be avoided by exercising self restraint and thinking before acting!

Because of how Kaisa works, you ideally don't want to R into the entire enemy team. Make sure you are sticking to the sides of the teamfight so that you can run away if things go ugly and you can isolate your target.

An important thing to know about Killer Instinct: it counts as a Dash, which means it can be interrupted by Vex and Poppy. You are not untargetable, if you try to R on a Jinx and you fly over her traps, you will get trapped. If you get caught on Poppy ult you will fly away. If you Ahri lands her charm mid air your R will be interrupted and you will get charmed.

Let's look at its offensive uses

Isolating a target to hit Q

This is especially important in teamfights. You can use Killer Instinct to reposition and isolate the priority target. You should be cautious and ideally use R like that when the enemy has used their CC and self peel on someone from your team instead.

Engaging or following up on an engage

This is pretty straightforward. Maybe you or your support manage to get your enemy marked, you see their team is not there and you go in for the kill. You can also use it to help a teammate if they have CC to mark the enemy.

Using it as a auto reset for more burst

This is a use people often overlook but I suggest you do try to practice it in your 1v1. Basically, you can aa+R+aa. Make the most use from that after using your Hail of Blades, you will get 2 stacks quickly after the first 3 you get from the rune.

Using it as a auto reset when you have already engaged on the enemy means you don't need to R to reposition yourself - instead, you can use it in a 1v1 to dodge, get a shield and reset your passive. Your Ult won't go to waste if you use it both offensively and defensively!

Now the defensive uses

Repositioning

Maybe you are caught in the middle of a teamfight and enemies surround you - but suddenly, you see your team has caught someone on the sides with CC – You get a free out of jail card! You can also get yourself out if you hit Void Seeker on a distant target.
Maybe the enemy is standing close to a wall and you need to get away. You can R over the wall!

Juking enemy abilities

Morgana Q, Seraphine R, Sett W - you name it. If you have enemies marked you can R to juke important abilities.
One tip that works best against bruisers and the kind is: when they are going for you, run away to one side and R to the other. This might glitch their minds for a moment and you may get away from a champion like Sett or Riven who used their abilities predicting you were going to follow a direction only to see you dash to the other one.

Getting a shield

Killer Instinct gives you a massive shield. If the enemy has a lot of damage you will want to R to both reposition yourself and soak up damage instead of engaging.

Last useful tips:

Your Void Seeker range is the same as your Killer Instinct range at max level

To be able to R on a target they have to be inside your range. If you R into someone from max range you will be able to cover the area that is out of your normal range. If the enemy is barely out of range but you can see the area of your passive is inside your range, you still CAN'T use Killer Instinct.

You will see a visual indicator (a "pulsation") when you can R someone out of your screen. Useful for getting away!

You will land where your cursor is and will not follow enemy champions. If you R to catch up to someone and they Flash over the wall, your R will go to the direction your cursor was when you cast it rather than following the targeted champion.