Caitlyn has always been one of the best AD carries in League of Legends due to her ability to space out any teamfight with her massive auto-attack range, Yordle Snap Trap, and short dash on her 90 Caliber Net.
She is the perfect marksman to add to many team compositions since she can apply a ton of damage while remaining relatively safe. It is a good idea, however, to bring a bit of peel for her, just in case she’s jumped on by an engage champion or an assassin trying to blow her up before a teamfight even starts.
Caitlyn is not a difficult champion to start with, but she can be hard to master. She provides great late-game insurance and can walk the walk with the best ADCs on Summoners Rift. Here is the best Caitlyn build in season 14.
Runes
Precision
Fleet Footwork: With Caitlyn, you need to be constantly moving as you look to stack up your passive for the next headshot. This likely means you will take extra damage as you look to go aggressive on your opponent. Fleet Footwork grants Caitlyn an energized auto attack once you have reached 100 stacks. This energized auto attack grants you healing plus movement speed for one second.
Presence of Mind: Caitlyn burns through a lot of mana in the early game, which is why Presence of Mind is a great rune for the bottom laner. As Caitlyn, you want to constantly harass your opponent with the range advantage you will have over them, meaning you will go through mana to inflict damage onto them. Presence of Mind will help Cait regen her mana quicker so she can stay in the fight longer.
Legend: Bloodline: Legend:Bloodline is an excellent rune choice for ADCs’ needing extra lifestyle in their arsenal. This rune grants you 0.35 percent lifesteal for every legend stand. Players can earn a stack for every takedown on a champion, epic monster, large monster, or minion.
Coup de Grace: Coup de Grace is a no-brainer for Caitlyn, whose empowered auto attacks can quickly chunk an enemy to below 50 percent health. The later the game goes on, the harder Caitlyn hits. Her auto attacks will be able to chunk the health of even the tankiest of champions. Meaning her ultimate could very much execute a champion below 40 percent health.
Sorcery
Absolute Focus: Absolute focus is a nice rune to have on Caitlyn. With Presence of Mind, there isn’t really a need to go for the Inspiration tree because you will be regenerating mana and health anyway. As you will be healthy from your other runes, you will be granted adaptive bonuses of up to 18 attack damage.
Gathering Storm: Gathering Storm makes the most sense for Caitlyn’s remaining runes in the Sorcery tree. Every 10 minutes, you will gain adaptive bonuses. In Caitlyn’s case, every 10 minutes, she will be granted extra attack damage.
Bonuses: +10 percent attack speed, +9 adaptive force, +10-180 health
Items
Starting items:
Doran’s Blade: Doran’s Blade is the generic starting item for most ADCs in the bottom lane. And Caitlyn is no different. Doran’s Blade grants you +8 attack damage, +80 health, and the items passive grants you omnivamp. There is not really any other starting item that would make sense on Caitlyn in the current meta.
Core items:
The Collector: Collector has recently risen in priority in League, so it is now becoming a primary item for many AD Carries. The Collector is the first item players should be building on Caitlyn, the item grants you +60 attack damage, +25 percent critical strike chance, 12 lethality, and finally takedowns reward you with 25 gold. On top of that, when players are below five percent health, your damage will execute the target.
Berserker’s Greaves: With Caitlyn, you need to move as fast as possible while auto attacking. This is where Berserker’s Greaves comes in handy. This item gives you extra attack and movement speeds, which is ideal for stacking up your headshot passive. Caitlyn’s movement speed comes from both her runes and Berserker’s Greaves, as she is expected to pop in and out of fights while auto attacking.
Infinity Edge: This is where Caitlyn’s damage goes up a notch. By this point, Caitlyn has scaled enough in terms of attack speed and movement speed to where she needs to start doing significant damage. This is why Infinity Edge is a really good item for Caitlyn earlier in the game than later. IE gives players +80 attack damage, +25 percent critical strike chance, and +40 percent critical strike damage. You should be chunking players out with your auto attacks by this point in the game.
Late game items:
Rapid Firecannon: There is nothing wrong with having even more range on Caitlyn, which is what Rapid Firecannon provides. Caitlyn has one of the longer auto attack ranges of any bottom laner in League, but RFC in the late game makes her extremely difficult to deal with unless you have hard crowd control. This item gives you +35 percent attack speed, +25 percent critical strike chance, +seven percent movement speed, and finally, your energized attacks deal bonus magic damage while having extended range.
Lord Dominik’s Regards: Lord Dominik’s Regards is the ultimate tank buster in League. You will likely always have to include this item in your build because a champion on the enemy team will usually stack armor. Therefore, you will need an item to burst through that armor. It provides you with armor penetration, and you also receive more critical strike chance(25 percent).
Bloodthirster: Although runes will provide some healing, you will want to have a healing item to finalize your build on Caitlyn. Bloodthirster makes the most sense on a champion like Caitlyn; you gain the extra attack damage while getting some lifestyle into your build. What makes Bloodthirster a great item is the passive, which converts your healing into a shield if you are already at max health.
Situational items
Guardians Angel: If you do not feel the lifesteal is needed in your game, then going Guardians Angel could be your best option. If you are getting immediately blown up or constantly targeted by champions with hard crowd control, you will want to pick up GA just to give yourself some breathing room in the teamfights.
Mortal Reminder: Mortal Reminder is a solid situational item in League, not only does it apply grievous wounds, which will stagnate any champions who have healing abilities, but it also provides extra armor penetration. A great example of this is against a champion like Soraka. She can change the game in a second, thanks to her healing. Therefore, you need an item that can negate some of the healing she is doing.
