Talk:Kayle/@comment-173.180.154.18-20120531113406/@comment-2124153-20120531202828

Core for my Kayle is Berserker's, double Doran's Blades, and Zeal (which ultimately becomes a Phantom Dancer). Most everything else is negotiable, whether it's a BT, IE, Zeke's, Stinger, etc. My top lane build tends to be more expensive than my jungle build (for obvious reasons... junglers have to make do with a smaller salary).

I build her AD/AS because that's generally the most effective way to leverage her kit (I have a different build for 0 CS support, however). AP is garbage. Hybrid is half garbage, half noob trap. On-hit is solid, but has serious shortcomings that can't be ignored (bad lategame scaling, lack of pushing power, weak sustain). Bruiser doesn't work in my elo: people aren't stupid enough to attack someone with Armor/MR, Kayle can't make you focus her in order to bypass that part, and without significant AS investment she is not a serious damage threat.

Randuin's is useful even against people who don't rely on AS, but it's useful in the same way that Nashor's is useful. Better than an empty slot, sure, but you could have spent the 3075g on something that was a more efficient use of your resources. This soldier would prefer a Bloodthirster in almost all situations.

I generally skill Q dead-last. You get the majority of its power with one point, the next four ranks only give you +200 magic damage and +4% damage amp. The cooldown stays the same, as does the %slow and duration, and the cost goes up. Meanwhile, the pushing power on E is considerably different between rank 1 and 5 (because it takes base AD into account for the splash), and W can make you as slippery as a wet bar of soap in the lane with a little bit of investment.

That's not to say that I don't use alternative builds, but I don't shoehorn Kayle into a weird build just so that I can play Kayle. If my team needs me to play top lane AND needs a tanky initiator, I'm not going to try to make bruiser Kayle work, I'm going to play Irelia.