EPTIntroduction
![[image loading]](http://www.fearlessgamer.com/wp-content/gallery/caitlyn-skins/attachment-2-php.jpg)
~Best skin because it makes you harder to click on in bush
Caitlynn has, by virtually 99% of all LoL players, been seen as a bad champ. This is true in some ways. However, just because she does not handle like a typical ranged carry does not mean she is bad. Just because her ult is canceled by virtually anything (not that it does that much damage to begin with) doesn't mean she's bad. You just have to find ways to deal with it.
Now before I begin, you guys are clearly going to be trolling about my tiamat build. You make the argument that Tiamat simply isn't worth the gold because the splash range is minimal. Well good sir, it just so happens that it doesn't matter. Caitlyn is strongest at two phases: the early game (levels 1-6) and the late game (whenever her IE and PD is done). Unfortunately, you are very weak in the midgame, which coincidently happens to be the most important period of the game.
My solution is to simply skip the midgame phase. How do you do that? By farming like a madman, abusing your early game strength, and in general getting gold until you have your items. To be sure, champions like Kogmaw, Miss Fortune, Kassadin, and the like will carry harder than you can. So ideally you want to end the game before they can do so.
Now onto the Masteries and Runes:
Masteries are 11/0/19. I have points in Crit Chance, Attack Speed, and Armor Penetration. As for Utility, I have points in Perseverence, Maximum Mana, Mana Regen, 1 point in EXP boost, Movement Speed, Ghost, Flash, and cooldown. You notice that I do not get points in neutral creep bonus. This is simply because even with red buff you are not going to be doing very much. Any gain in duration is inconsequential to a tad more movement speed or EXP.
Runes are armor penetration reds, Mana per 5 per Level yellows, and straight CDR blues. I run movement speed quintessences on Caitlyn as well.
Skill Order:
I always leave my first skill point unused. This is because at Level 1 you have no idea what you will need. If you go for an early gank, all 3 are useful. If you don't go for a level 1 fight, all 3 are still useful. I usually don't pick a point until I absolutely need it. For example, if I need to run for whatever reason, put the point in E and use it to escape. If we can stack a stun on an enemy, I get W and throw down the trap. If I need to last hit an enemy that's running away, or I'm getting zoned really hard, I use Q to shoot the enemy creeps/whatever. If the lane is being pushed hard, I use Q to weaken the creeps and stop the push. And so on. I typically will have Q and E by level 2, then level 2 Q at level 3.
After that, I tend to get one point in W (if you haven't already) followed by R>Q>E>W. Your Q is strongest early game, so I max it out asap to abuse this advantage the most. E is good for lowering the CD for your blink. W is essentially pointless to level. And your ultimate is fun.
Summoner Spells
Ghost/Flash. Duh. Ghost is good for running around and Flash is useful for escaping. You can actually cast your ultimate and then flash away while its channeling to be sniping in a safer spot. Although I'd rather use it to run from a Jax or something.
Item Build:
This is probably the part you are looking forward to. Here it is:
Doran's Blade
HP Pot
Boots of Speed
Pickaxe
Tiamat (prioritizing damage, then mana regen items in recipe)
Boots of Swiftness
Tiamat #2
Last Whisper OR Tiamat #3 (purely situational, although I find the LW is more useful. Alternatively you can skip this item).
Infinity Edge
Phantom Dancer (sell Doran's Blade, prioritize Zeal first)
You should be buying HP pots whenever you can (I like to have 2 or 3 on me just in case). Pop them whenever you dive a tower or are escaping a gank or are just low on HP. Be more conservative with your first HP pot though.
How to actually play Caitlyn properly
![[image loading]](http://www.tinychan.org/img/Retard-Horse-HERP-DERP.jpg)
Caitlyn is very hard to use.compared to all other champs. While the skills are all very straightforward, using them properly requires a bit of thinking and judgement that you often have to learn while playing. Most people who play Caitlyn play her for a little bit, do shitty, claim the champion sucks, and stop playing (ex. Cassiopeia). But every loss you get with Caitlyn (and I assure you you will have many losses) makes you stronger. As does every win, I suppose.
You should be farming nonstop the entire game. In the laning phase, keep your attacks to last hits, unless they're at your tower, in which case try and weaken all the creeps so you can Q them all at the same time. After laning phase, wander around to a safe looking lane, throw down a trap at a nearby bush where people may come, and then Q the creep wave and then just shoot the creeps/last hit as necessary.
Anyways, here's how you use your skills.
Q-Pillover Peacemaker
This is used for two purposes: harassing/killing and farming. In fact, I often use it at the same time for both purposes. The best way to aim it when farming is simply right down the middle of the creep line. If you're targeting an enemy champion, never aim at where they are. Instead, aim at the side of the target closer to more open space, or if they are clearly playing very passively, at the path that would take them further away from you. It requires judgement and practice to really get the aiming right. But aiming this correctly will make you a much stronger player. It does stupid amounts of damage, even with the so called damage reduction, so abuse its long range to harass and farm. Aiming it into fog is also useful-just guesstimate where they would be given their movement speed, aim a tad ahead of that, and fire. I use this in combination with E a lot in teamfights. Also use it to check bushes. If you hear a weird squishy sound, you've hit something.
![[image loading]](http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/1388/caitlyn1.jpg)
Aim like this. It cuts off their line of retreat. This also works near their tower.
W-Yordle Trap
This is an almost worthless ability but it has its merits. In the beginning of the game, I put a trap into the side bushes (in the corner closer to me in mid) or in the bush on the river (if in a side lane). If they decide to go trigger it you harass them and Q them in the face. But you're not going to catch anyone with the traps. But by forcing jungle gankers to go in a weird way, it buys you just a little more time to escape. This is where those ms quints and masteries come in handy. You can also use W to check bushes, although its far more unreliable and functions just like Nidalee traps. The duration for it to arm is about the same as a Nidalee trap as well. Thus, when running away when an enemy is attacking you (Yi, Akali, and co come to mind) throw it about a certain distance ahead of you. This forces the enemy to go around it, buying you more time to run away. The other good use is when the enemy is currently stunned by an ally. The trap will set in time for the stun to wear off and you can get easy kills like this. Other than that, just use them like Nidalee traps to have some map control. You only have two though so make sure you don't burn your own traps behind you, if you know what I mean.
One cute tactic I do with the trap is I put one right under me. Then, when some melee comes to kill me, they trigger the trap. I then cast E and cast Q at them, thus dealing lots of damage and getting away to a safe distance. Pretty easy way to get kills if you're careful.
![[image loading]](http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/9843/caitlyn2.jpg)
Good places to put traps at top as an example. The one at tower is so the enemy can't attack it without you being able to harass safely. Also, you might get lucky.
E-50 Caliber Net
This spell is straightforward but also about as reliable as me carrying. If you stand right on the edge of a cliff, it will propel you over. But if you're trying to blink across like Tristana (where there's a thick wall in the middle, like the one near the second tower on the right side) it won't work. It only works when going from a lower to a higher elevation (and vice versa), and you have to be very precise with it. Since it's really a matter of luck, I usually just shoot it at the enemies coming to me and away from the direction that you want to run. Also, don't use it for chasing, unless you're completely spent or 100% sure your ultimate will finish them. Don't spam this. You need it at hand at all times.
![[image loading]](http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/6857/caitlyn3.jpg)
Do this to chase, but don't expect anything amazing, the actual gain in distance is quite small.
R-Semi-useless Spell
This is tricky. At the beginning of the game you can use it to score free kills at your opponents in lane. This is kind of a duh. Just make sure to click so you have enough time before they run into a bush, and so on.
It's a bit harder to use in teamfights. If you have Tiamats and the enemy is packed together, I sometimes use it to initiate the fight-properly farmed, you can take out half of the enemy team's HP before they realize what's going on.
You can also use it to snipe targets, but it's really hit or miss and depends a lot on luck/how stupid the enemy team is. Still, as it applies on-hit effects, those items work with it. But the only one good for burst damage is Tiamat-hence, this build.
Passive-Headshot
This is actually both your passive and your range/autoattack. You have the best attack animation in the game. Abuse it. Last hit creeps with ease. Caitlyn has the closest thing to moving shot out of all champions. Click the enemy and move, click the enemy and move, and so on. Just get your attack timing down (if you attack at say 1 attack/second, shoot the enemy, walk, count to a second, click on the enemy again). You can use this to both kite and chase enemies. As for headshot, if the enemy is in range, I shoot them with it, but I'm perfectly fine hitting minions too. I'm not sure if this is 100% correct, but it feels like whenever headshot is up, Tiamat's splash range is larger. So go experiment with that.
And there you have it. After my games with Caitlyn, this is how I feel about her so far. She's definitely very frustrating sometimes, but she's also hilariously entertaining.
