Well, I was somewhat surprised to find that there are no up-to-date guides for my favorite champion, so here's my guide for Kayle, the Judicator.
Kayle, the Judicator
Hero Type(s): Melee, Tank, Support, Caster
Health: Very Strong (10/10)
Attack: Average (5/10)
Magic: Average (5/10)
Basic Overview: Kayle is one of the more instantly recognizable champions in League of Legends, both on and off the battlefield. As her design suggests, she's one of the more durable tanks in the game. That armor isn't for show. As an angel, she wields her greatsword and divine energy with equal prowess, making her capable of many roles, even though she only really excels at a few; namely, tanking and support.
Note: This guide is for Kayle as she currently is. Her current build was introduced around the start of October, after a "light rebuild" in mid-September that was a huge nerf.
Abilities:
Reckoning: This is arguably one of Kayle's most important abilities, especially early-game. The damage is pretty good and it has 1:1 AP scaling, as well as a pretty decent slow attached to it. It even has a “quirk” of sorts; when Vengeance is active, Reckoning deals 25% more damage.
Divine Blessing: One of Kayle's two support abilities, Divine Blessing is useful early-game for laning but not much else. A level or two of this is always useful, but the amount healed is small compared to other healing abilities. It does have a movement speed boost, however, so is a decent fleeing ability. It can also be used to chase down a fleeing opponent, though it's not the best option.
Righteous Fury: With this ability, Kayle has the option to throw off the shackles of a melee hero, if only temporarily. She also gains a decently large splash percentage, especially at high levels, and a decent chunk of bonus damage. Again, however, it isn't as useful as it should be; a low cooldown is balanced by a short duration. It's good for taking out swarms of creeps and towers (just make sure you're not splashing on an enemy champion).
Intervention: Perhaps the ultimate tank/support ability. While her sister can make allies immune to spells, Kayle can make a shield capable of repelling all damage for a few seconds. The cooldown is on the short side for an ultimate, but it can make the difference between life or death. It doesn't, however, protect against debuffs and other afflictions, such as stun, slow, silence, blind, or getting pushed, pulled, or sent flying, unless those status effects are additional effects of damage (the slow from Frozen Mallet, for example, would be negated, while that from Singe's goo wouldn't be). It can be used both to escape ganks, to push towers, or to chase a fleeing enemy past the defenses of their base.
Divine Fury: Kayle's passive gives a decent bonus to attack speed to surrounding allied champions (not minions, unfortunately). Also, whenever an allied champion dies nearby, Kayle gains the buff Vengeance, further increasing her attack speed and the damage of Reckoning.
Strategy:
With the right build, Kayle can easily become quite a hard champion to kill. When laning, especially early game, she can be somewhat easily harassed by ranged champions. Don't be afraid to hide behind your minions; staying in lane and getting experience is more important than getting kills. You can keep your opponent at arm's length with a Reckoning every now and then, but they cost a chunk of mana, especially early game, and most champions will be able to shrug one or two off from time to time. Again, worry more about staying in lane; if you are killed or forced back to base even once before you reach level six, you're doing it wrong. Ideally, your first trip back to base should be to buy both a Philosopher's Stone and your boots of choice. If you're having major problems with the opponents in your lane, don't be afraid to call for help.
Once the game gets going, your job is all-round support and tanking. Draw enemy attacks away from allies, slow enemies on the offense or defense, and heal/boost your teammates whenever you can. If a teammate is about to die, Intervention is always a good way to save them, but try not to waste it; if the noob is feeding, chances are he'll still die anyway. Also, it's a good idea to save it for the more “instant-kill” ultimates, such as Warwick's Infinite Duress or Ryze's Spell Flux; the latter is especially easy to counter with a well-timed Intervention. As far as tower-diving an enemy goes, Kayle can use her ultimate to gain the time needed to kill them if they're almost dead, but it's not something to do on a regular basis.
Occasionally, I find myself drawn into the role of carry for my team. Kayle fits that role surprisingly well, even with a tank build. Her damage output is high enough to take out most champions with a bit of back-and-forth, and Reckoning keeps them from running away.
Throughout the game, your priorities should be first and foremost on the turrets and inhibitors. A turret kill is more important than a champion kill, and an inhibitor kill is easily worth three champions. This is one of the places where Divine Fury really shines; the extra damage helps you get down towers quickly, though not quick enough to backdoor one unless it's already almost dead.
All in all, Kayle is less built for getting kills and more built for being an immovable bastion, whether on offense or defense.
Items: Tank/Support Build
Starting Item: Regrowth Pendant or Meki Pendant: Health and mana are your two more basic and most important resources. Both of the pendants are very useful early game, as they keep those two resources topped off. In addition, you can fuse the two of them to create a Philosopher's Stone, which is a very good item early-game.
Early-game:
Your early-game items focus on staying alive, viable, and productive in your lane. Health and mana regeneration are vital, while movement speed is very useful. Survivability items are good, especially for tanks, and extra gold never hurts.
Philosopher's Stone: This item is a step up from the Regrowth and Meki pendants, combining both their effects. In addition, it provides one gold every
two seconds, or 30 gold a minute. It pays for the recipe cost in eight minutes, and from then on makes you money.
Ninja Tabi or Sorcerer's Shoes: Movement speed is always a good thing to boost early-game (but not as your starting item). The Ninja Tabi is the tank's pair of boots, providing armor and a dodge chance. A caster build is better off using Sorcerer's Shoes for the ability power boost. I tend to frown on Boots of Swiftness because they only provide extra movement speed and nothing else.
Mid-game:
Here's where you start beefing up and getting your arsenal of spells ready. Health is important, while more mana regeneration is almost a necessity. Cooldown reduction is also quite useful, especially if you find yourself using your spells often.
Soul Shroud: This is a very useful item for a tank/support. It provides a good chunk of health as well as an always-useful cooldown reduction and mama regeneration. It's generally better to get the Giant's Belt before the Force Manipulator, and don't even think of using the Manipulator to replace your Meki Pendant; the pendant builds something much better early-game.
Warmog's Armor: This is a top contender for the best tanking item in the game. Health and health regeneration in an increasingly good package. Not much to say about this one.
End-game:
Most of the time, by the time it gets this far into the game one team already has a big advantage, if it's not already over already. You're approaching level 18 and the carries are dishing out huge amounts of damage left and right. Armor or magic resistance, depending on the enemy team, is going to be vital to tank out the slew of damage and/or spells. Some extra damage can help to make Kayle an un-ignorable threat on the battlefield and a solid center for the team.
Atma's Impaler: By this time, you'll have upwards of 3,000 health. Atma's Impaler will turn this into at least 70 bonus damage. The extra armor and criticals are also a plus. As a tank, you don't want to waste too much gold pumping damage, and the Impaler gives you a lot of bang for your buck.
Banshee's Veil: If you're having trouble with a pesky caster, this solves most of those problems.
Enough said.
Warmog's Armor (again): Yes, these stack. If you have gold to spare, you could swap your stone for a second one. Two of them let you hit 5,000 health, which is an extra 100 damage from Atma's and one nigh-impossible to kill Judicator. That being said, you might want some offense at this point.
Sunfire Cape: Passive damage is useful. If you're fighting champions at close range a lot, this can help sap their health pretty fast. In addition, it's even more health and armor. At this point, extra health might seem redundant, but it's always useful.
Frozen Heart: Armor, cooldown reduction, and extra mana. Add some slow to that, and you have an item that is useful for a more aggressive Kayle.
Frozen Mallet: Again, if you're winding up as the carry more often than not in team fights, slow is always useful. The mallet also gives a nice health boost.
Final Notes:
I appreciate any comments, additions, criticisms, compliments, or acknowledgments. I consider this guide a work in progress, though it should be more stable now that the game has finally been released to the public. I'm aware that the formatting isn't very good; I wrote this in OpenOffice and pasted it into this post.
Kayle, the Judicator
Hero Type(s): Melee, Tank, Support, Caster
Health: Very Strong (10/10)
Attack: Average (5/10)
Magic: Average (5/10)
Basic Overview: Kayle is one of the more instantly recognizable champions in League of Legends, both on and off the battlefield. As her design suggests, she's one of the more durable tanks in the game. That armor isn't for show. As an angel, she wields her greatsword and divine energy with equal prowess, making her capable of many roles, even though she only really excels at a few; namely, tanking and support.
Note: This guide is for Kayle as she currently is. Her current build was introduced around the start of October, after a "light rebuild" in mid-September that was a huge nerf.
Abilities:
Reckoning: This is arguably one of Kayle's most important abilities, especially early-game. The damage is pretty good and it has 1:1 AP scaling, as well as a pretty decent slow attached to it. It even has a “quirk” of sorts; when Vengeance is active, Reckoning deals 25% more damage.
Divine Blessing: One of Kayle's two support abilities, Divine Blessing is useful early-game for laning but not much else. A level or two of this is always useful, but the amount healed is small compared to other healing abilities. It does have a movement speed boost, however, so is a decent fleeing ability. It can also be used to chase down a fleeing opponent, though it's not the best option.
Righteous Fury: With this ability, Kayle has the option to throw off the shackles of a melee hero, if only temporarily. She also gains a decently large splash percentage, especially at high levels, and a decent chunk of bonus damage. Again, however, it isn't as useful as it should be; a low cooldown is balanced by a short duration. It's good for taking out swarms of creeps and towers (just make sure you're not splashing on an enemy champion).
Intervention: Perhaps the ultimate tank/support ability. While her sister can make allies immune to spells, Kayle can make a shield capable of repelling all damage for a few seconds. The cooldown is on the short side for an ultimate, but it can make the difference between life or death. It doesn't, however, protect against debuffs and other afflictions, such as stun, slow, silence, blind, or getting pushed, pulled, or sent flying, unless those status effects are additional effects of damage (the slow from Frozen Mallet, for example, would be negated, while that from Singe's goo wouldn't be). It can be used both to escape ganks, to push towers, or to chase a fleeing enemy past the defenses of their base.
Divine Fury: Kayle's passive gives a decent bonus to attack speed to surrounding allied champions (not minions, unfortunately). Also, whenever an allied champion dies nearby, Kayle gains the buff Vengeance, further increasing her attack speed and the damage of Reckoning.
Strategy:
With the right build, Kayle can easily become quite a hard champion to kill. When laning, especially early game, she can be somewhat easily harassed by ranged champions. Don't be afraid to hide behind your minions; staying in lane and getting experience is more important than getting kills. You can keep your opponent at arm's length with a Reckoning every now and then, but they cost a chunk of mana, especially early game, and most champions will be able to shrug one or two off from time to time. Again, worry more about staying in lane; if you are killed or forced back to base even once before you reach level six, you're doing it wrong. Ideally, your first trip back to base should be to buy both a Philosopher's Stone and your boots of choice. If you're having major problems with the opponents in your lane, don't be afraid to call for help.
Once the game gets going, your job is all-round support and tanking. Draw enemy attacks away from allies, slow enemies on the offense or defense, and heal/boost your teammates whenever you can. If a teammate is about to die, Intervention is always a good way to save them, but try not to waste it; if the noob is feeding, chances are he'll still die anyway. Also, it's a good idea to save it for the more “instant-kill” ultimates, such as Warwick's Infinite Duress or Ryze's Spell Flux; the latter is especially easy to counter with a well-timed Intervention. As far as tower-diving an enemy goes, Kayle can use her ultimate to gain the time needed to kill them if they're almost dead, but it's not something to do on a regular basis.
Occasionally, I find myself drawn into the role of carry for my team. Kayle fits that role surprisingly well, even with a tank build. Her damage output is high enough to take out most champions with a bit of back-and-forth, and Reckoning keeps them from running away.
Throughout the game, your priorities should be first and foremost on the turrets and inhibitors. A turret kill is more important than a champion kill, and an inhibitor kill is easily worth three champions. This is one of the places where Divine Fury really shines; the extra damage helps you get down towers quickly, though not quick enough to backdoor one unless it's already almost dead.
All in all, Kayle is less built for getting kills and more built for being an immovable bastion, whether on offense or defense.
Items: Tank/Support Build
Starting Item: Regrowth Pendant or Meki Pendant: Health and mana are your two more basic and most important resources. Both of the pendants are very useful early game, as they keep those two resources topped off. In addition, you can fuse the two of them to create a Philosopher's Stone, which is a very good item early-game.
Early-game:
Your early-game items focus on staying alive, viable, and productive in your lane. Health and mana regeneration are vital, while movement speed is very useful. Survivability items are good, especially for tanks, and extra gold never hurts.
Philosopher's Stone: This item is a step up from the Regrowth and Meki pendants, combining both their effects. In addition, it provides one gold every
two seconds, or 30 gold a minute. It pays for the recipe cost in eight minutes, and from then on makes you money.
Ninja Tabi or Sorcerer's Shoes: Movement speed is always a good thing to boost early-game (but not as your starting item). The Ninja Tabi is the tank's pair of boots, providing armor and a dodge chance. A caster build is better off using Sorcerer's Shoes for the ability power boost. I tend to frown on Boots of Swiftness because they only provide extra movement speed and nothing else.
Mid-game:
Here's where you start beefing up and getting your arsenal of spells ready. Health is important, while more mana regeneration is almost a necessity. Cooldown reduction is also quite useful, especially if you find yourself using your spells often.
Soul Shroud: This is a very useful item for a tank/support. It provides a good chunk of health as well as an always-useful cooldown reduction and mama regeneration. It's generally better to get the Giant's Belt before the Force Manipulator, and don't even think of using the Manipulator to replace your Meki Pendant; the pendant builds something much better early-game.
Warmog's Armor: This is a top contender for the best tanking item in the game. Health and health regeneration in an increasingly good package. Not much to say about this one.
End-game:
Most of the time, by the time it gets this far into the game one team already has a big advantage, if it's not already over already. You're approaching level 18 and the carries are dishing out huge amounts of damage left and right. Armor or magic resistance, depending on the enemy team, is going to be vital to tank out the slew of damage and/or spells. Some extra damage can help to make Kayle an un-ignorable threat on the battlefield and a solid center for the team.
Atma's Impaler: By this time, you'll have upwards of 3,000 health. Atma's Impaler will turn this into at least 70 bonus damage. The extra armor and criticals are also a plus. As a tank, you don't want to waste too much gold pumping damage, and the Impaler gives you a lot of bang for your buck.
Banshee's Veil: If you're having trouble with a pesky caster, this solves most of those problems.
Enough said.
Warmog's Armor (again): Yes, these stack. If you have gold to spare, you could swap your stone for a second one. Two of them let you hit 5,000 health, which is an extra 100 damage from Atma's and one nigh-impossible to kill Judicator. That being said, you might want some offense at this point.
Sunfire Cape: Passive damage is useful. If you're fighting champions at close range a lot, this can help sap their health pretty fast. In addition, it's even more health and armor. At this point, extra health might seem redundant, but it's always useful.
Frozen Heart: Armor, cooldown reduction, and extra mana. Add some slow to that, and you have an item that is useful for a more aggressive Kayle.
Frozen Mallet: Again, if you're winding up as the carry more often than not in team fights, slow is always useful. The mallet also gives a nice health boost.
Final Notes:
I appreciate any comments, additions, criticisms, compliments, or acknowledgments. I consider this guide a work in progress, though it should be more stable now that the game has finally been released to the public. I'm aware that the formatting isn't very good; I wrote this in OpenOffice and pasted it into this post.
