Caitlyn Build Guide: Best Runes, Items, and Counters for S14

Caitlyn is a dominant ADC champion, often referred to as the Sheriff of Piltover, known for her long-range harass and zoning tools. She is a highly effective pick in Season 14 due to her early-game lane dominance and ability to scale into the late game. This Caitlyn guide will cover optimal runes, builds, and strategies for both experienced and new Caitlyn players.

Caitlyn’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

• Extremely long range, which gives her excellent poke and zone control in the laning phase.
• Passive, Headshot, provides bonus damage and increases her trading potential.
• Powerful zoning tools with Yordle Snap Traps (W) and 90 Caliber Net (E), allowing for strong disengage and setup for her passive.
• Scales exceptionally well with critical strike items, making her a late-game powerhouse.

Weaknesses:

• Vulnerable to hard engage and champions with gap closers that can quickly close the distance.
• Can struggle against tanky champions until she has critical strike and armor penetration items.
• Requires strong positioning to avoid getting caught out of position due to her squishy nature.

Runes for Caitlyn

Caitlyn’s runes are crucial for enhancing her early-game pressure and late-game scaling. The most popular rune setup is Precision as the primary tree, with Sorcery as the secondary tree, allowing her to kite effectively and sustain through fights.

Primary Rune Tree: Precision

• Fleet Footwork: Best for laning sustain and mobility, this rune helps Caitlyn heal and kite more effectively, making it a solid choice for safer laning.
• Lethal Tempo: This is one of the most popular keystone choices for Caitlyn, ideal for extended fights by increasing her attack speed and allowing her to deal more sustained damage.
• Though Press the Attack was once popular for maximizing burst damage in trades, it's currently not as commonly used. More often, Caitlyn players opt for other keystones like First Strike from the Inspiration tree, which provides additional gold and burst damage in trades, making it a more viable choice in the current meta.

Secondary Rune Tree: Sorcery

• Absolute Focus: Increases Caitlyn's damage when she's at high health, allowing her to poke more effectively during the laning phase and gain an advantage in long-range trades.
• Gathering Storm: Provides additional scaling into the late game, giving Caitlyn more AD as the game progresses.

Alternatively, Celerity and Nimbus Cloak can be chosen for more mobility, especially in high-movement games where Caitlyn needs to reposition often.

Shards:

• Offense: Attack speed to improve her auto-attack DPS.
• Flex: Adaptive force for bonus AD.
• Defense: Health scaling with level is now the preferred option, as armor was replaced earlier this year with tenacity and slow resistance. This helps Caitlyn mitigate crowd control and provides more survivability as the game progresses.

Caitlyn Item Builds and Path

Caitlyn’s item builds focus on critical strike and attack speed to maximize her damage and Headshot procs. She is known for her ability to poke enemies from a distance and burst them down with crits in the late game.

Starting Items:

• Doran’s Blade + Health Potion: The standard start for most ADCs, providing sustain and damage in lane.

The Most Popular Core Items:

• The Collector: Adds lethality and execution damage, further increasing Caitlyn’s burst potential.
• Infinity Edge: Provides a massive power spike, boosting Caitlyn’s critical strike damage and making her Headshots devastating in team fights.
• Rapid Firecannon: Increases Caitlyn's attack range and grants a charged attack with bonus damage, allowing her to poke from a safer distance and further enhancing her zoning potential in fights.

Popular Build Paths:

1. The Collector → Infinity Edge → Rapid Firecannon
2. Playstyle: This build maximizes Caitlyn’s ability to burst down targets with crits while providing extra range from Rapid Firecannon, allowing her to poke from a safe distance.
3. The Collector → Infinity Edge → Lord Dominik’s Regards
4. Playstyle: This build focuses on shredding tanks and squishies alike, with Lord Dominik's Regards providing armor penetration to deal with tankier opponents.
5. Kraken Slayer → Rapid Firecannon → Infinity Edge
6. Playstyle: This path emphasizes burst damage and crits, perfect for players looking to quickly eliminate priority targets.

Boots:

• Berserker’s Greaves: Standard for ADCs, offering attack speed to increase her DPS.
• Boots of Swiftness: A good alternative when you need extra mobility to kite or dodge skill shots.

Lane Phase Strategies

Bottom Lane (ADC):

As one of the longest-ranged ADCs in the game, Caitlyn excels at bullying her opponents in lane. Use your Piltover Peacemaker (Q) to poke and clear waves while setting up Yordle Snap Traps (W) to zone enemies. When trading, try to weave in Headshots by positioning yourself near bushes or using your traps.

Mid Game (Levels 7-13):

Once Caitlyn completes her core items, she becomes a powerful sieging champion. Her range allows her to safely poke and whittle down enemy towers. During skirmishes and team fights, stay at the edge of engagements, using your range and mobility from 90 Caliber Net (E) to stay safe while dealing damage.

Late Game (Level 14+):

In the late game, Caitlyn becomes a backline powerhouse. Your role is to deal consistent damage from a safe distance while using Yordle Snap Traps (W) to protect against enemy engages. Position carefully, as Caitlyn is vulnerable to assassins and burst champions, but can melt through enemies with her high critical strike damage.

Caitlyn Combos

Mastering Caitlyn’s combos will help you maximize your damage output and utility in fights.

• Basic Combo: W → Q → Auto-Attack
• Use your trap to lock down an enemy, follow up with Piltover Peacemaker and an auto-attack for an easy trade.
• Advanced Combo: Auto-Attack → E → Q → Auto-Attack
• Engage with an auto-attack, use 90 Caliber Net for a Headshot proc, follow up with Piltover Peacemaker, and weave in another auto-attack for a quick burst of damage.
• Expert Combo: W → Auto-Attack → E → Q → Auto-Attack → R
• Use Yordle Snap Traps to trap an enemy, combo with your abilities to deal as much damage as possible, and finish them off with Ace in the Hole.

Countering Caitlyn and Who Counters Her

Caitlyn Counters: Caitlyn excels in lanes where she can poke from a distance, but struggles against champions with strong engage or gap-closing abilities.

• Zed: His burst damage and mobility can quickly delete Caitlyn if she’s not positioned properly.
• Leona: Leona’s hard engage makes it difficult for Caitlyn to escape once locked down.
• Ashe: Her similar range and crowd control can mitigate Caitlyn’s lane dominance.

Best Supports with Caitlyn:

• Morgana: Morgana’s Black Shield and Dark Binding synergize well with Caitlyn’s traps, making it easy to lock down enemies for easy Headshots.
• Blitzcrank: Blitzcrank’s engage and peel allow Caitlyn to play more aggressively while staying safe.
• Lux: A poke-heavy support like Lux helps Caitlyn land her abilities and control the lane with strong poke and trap synergy.

Caitlyn Tips and Tricks

• Maximize trap placement: Position Yordle Snap Traps in choke points or behind enemies during sieges to create zoning pressure and make it harder for them to engage.
• Use Q for poke and wave clear: Piltover Peacemaker is great for both poking enemies and clearing waves quickly to maintain lane control.
• Save E for disengage: Don’t use 90 Caliber Net carelessly. Keep it ready to escape ganks or dodge key abilities.

Conclusion

Caitlyn remains one of the strongest ADCs in Season 14 due to her incredible range, poke, and scaling. Her versatility in itemization, from critical strike-focused builds to more aggressive lethality-based setups, allows her to adapt to any game. Focus on maintaining strong positioning, leveraging her long-range poke, and scaling into the late game to carry your team to victory.