Guide · Top

Kayle Guide

the Righteous

Marksman

Mage

Tier C Top

Kayle, the Righteous, is a marksman and mage champion that is demanding to master. Across our 313 analysed ranked games, Kayle is mostly played in Top (77% of its games), and more rarely in Mid (23%), with a 50.8% win rate in that role: tier C among Top champions (#42 of 48, ranked by win rate). Kayle's damage is mostly magic (72%): magic resistance items are therefore effective against this champion. Win rate varies with game length: 63.4% in long games (over 35 min, 41 games) versus 47.1% in medium-length games (25 to 35 min).

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Average KDA

4.9 / 6.0 / 5.5

ratio 1.7

Damage / min

697

CS / min

7.7

Gold / min

416

Kill participation

36%

Vision / min

0.82

Averages measured over 240 Top games played with Kayle, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Written guide · based on the official ability texts

Kayle is a fighter who scales: her wings ignite with her levels and skill points, giving her attack speed, movement speed, range and waves of fire. Radiant Blast passes through and reduces resistances, Celestial Blessing heals, Starfire Spellblade empowers her, and Divine Judgment makes an ally invulnerable.

The trade

E AA AA AA AA

When: An enemy is within range.

Radiant Blast slows, damages and reduces resistances; Starfire Spellblade unleashes celestial fire on your next attack.

Protection

When: An ally is under threat.

Celestial Blessing heals you and the nearest ally with a speed bonus; Divine Judgment makes an ally invulnerable.

See all 3 Kayle combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Survive the laning phase: your power comes from your levels. Starfire Spellblade deals bonus damage based on the target's missing health.

Common mistakes

Trying to kill before you have your key levels.
Using the ultimate on an ally who is not the target.
Neglecting Starfire Spellblade: it adds damage based on missing health.

Riot's official tips for playing Kayle

Using Divine Judgment on a high-DPS ally can turn the tides of battle by giving your ally free reign to attack.
Kayle's attacks become incredibly powerful once she gains attack range from Divine Ascent. Play safe until then.
Kayle benefits greatly from Attack Damage and Ability Power, making hybrid items like Nashor's Tooth and Hextech Gunblade very effective on her.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Dusk and Dawn, Rabadon's Deathcap, and Nashor's Tooth (73 games, 63.0% win rate).

73 games · 63.0%

Shadowflame

27 games · 63.0%

Rabadon's Deathcap

Nashor's Tooth

Shadowflame

24 games · 75.0%

Skill order

Max order : E > Q > W42.3% · 26 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q		●						●		●		●	●
W			●											●	●
E	●			●	●		●		●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 45 games).

Starting items

Doran's Blade

Health Potion51.8% · 27 games

First completed items, in order

Nashor's Tooth

Dusk and Dawn

25 games · 44.0%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3298 gold, 65 CS, 4525 XP. At 15 min: 5013 gold, 104 CS, 7757 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Teleport51.6% · 128 games

Flash + Ghost51.1% · 47 games

Exhaust + Flash54.5% · 44 games

Most-played runes

Press the Attack + Sorcery

54.4% · 125 games

Primary tree · Precision

Absorb Life73%

Legend: Alacrity100%

Last Stand89%

Secondary tree · Sorcery

Celerity100%

Gathering Storm89%

Shards

Attack speed66%

Adaptive force92%

Health scaling72%

Lethal Tempo + Sorcery

47.2% · 53 games

Primary tree · Precision

Absorb Life74%

Legend: Alacrity100%

Last Stand96%

Secondary tree · Sorcery

Celerity92%

Gathering Storm89%

Shards

Attack speed96%

Adaptive force94%

Health scaling85%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Kayle's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team48.8% · 84 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Nashor's Tooth 52.2%

Dusk and Dawn 50.9%

Rabadon's Deathcap 69.4% ▲

Shadowflame 57.1%

Guinsoo's Rageblade 38.5%

Statikk Shiv 36.4%

The item that stands out most is Rabadon's Deathcap: 69.4% win rate, +7 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team56.3% · 71 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Nashor's Tooth 57.1% ▲

Dusk and Dawn 56.8% ▲

Rabadon's Deathcap 62.5%

Shadowflame 54.5%

The item that stands out most is Nashor's Tooth: 57.1% win rate, +5 points versus its usual win rate.

Balanced enemy team48.2% · 85 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Nashor's Tooth 48.6% ▼

Dusk and Dawn 53.1%

Rabadon's Deathcap 55.2% ▼

Shadowflame 66.7%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Counters and matchups

How to play against Kayle

Divine Judgment only grants Kayle or her allies immunity to damage. Slows and stuns can still be applied, so trap them if they're being overzealous.
Kayle is usually a fragile target. If you see her ultimate cast on an ally, switch to attacking her.
Kayle starts the game as a weaker melee champion. Try to put her behind before she ascends to her ranged form.

Riot's official tips.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Kayle's matchups.

Kayle Top: what our games say

Laning phase against the Top average

Measure	Kayle	Top average	Gap
Gold at 10 min	3298	3580	−281
CS at 10 min	65	71	−6
XP at 10 min	4525	4754	−229
Gold at 15 min	5013	5655	−642
CS at 15 min	104	111	−7
XP at 15 min	7757	8297	−540

Measured over 45 Kayle games with a timeline; the average covers 82 champions played Top in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

short under 25 min50.8 %61 games

medium-length 25 to 35 min47.1 %138 games

long over 35 min63.4 %41 games

Best result: long (over 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Kayle in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
Mid	73	46.6 %	8.6	453

Roles where we have at least 40 Kayle games.

Abilities

PassiveDivine Ascent

Kayle's attacks are empowered by the heavens as she levels up and spends skill points. Her wings are lit aflame as she progressively gains Attack Speed, Move Speed, Attack Range, and waves of fire on her attacks.

QRadiant Blast

Kayle conjures a portal, summoning a celestial sword that pierces through enemies, slowing, damaging, and reducing the resistances of all hit.

WCelestial Blessing

Blessed by the divine, Kayle heals and grants Move Speed to herself and the nearest ally.

EStarfire Spellblade

Passive: Kayle's celestial sword, Virtue, deals bonus magic damage to enemies she attacks.

Active: Kayle's next attack smites her target with celestial fire, dealing bonus damage proportionate to their missing health.

RDivine Judgment

Kayle makes an ally invulnerable and calls upon former Aspects of Justice to purify the area around her target with a holy rain of swords.