Tank Kai'Sa build with runes and items. Tank Kai'Sa guide offers in-depth how-to play, skill order and tips. Play Tank Kai'Sa build in League of Legends Patch 26.2!
Mark (Snowball) for a go-in tool if you want to be more aggressive and make picks.
Exhaust
Defensive option. Exhaust for peeling against enemy divers and assassins and protecting your carries.
Ignite
Offensive option if you are feeling spicy. Grievous Wounds + some damage. Good in early fights and you can score some kills, but reduces your going-in potential. Especially later.
Optional Runes
Presence of Mind
Triumph is better overall (heal + gold), but if you want to have easier time with your mana, go Presence of Mind.
How it works
You play Tank Kai'Sa.
You rush Heartsteel #1 and stack as much HP as possible.
You build items that scale and benefit from HP, then add Armor and MR depending on the enemy team.
Playstyle
Rush Heartsteel and get tons of HP. 💪
Auto attack everything to get stacks - your HP depends on it. ⚔️
Adapt your tank items to what the enemy team is throwing at you. 🎯
How to play
Getting started
You rush Heartsteel.
Guardian's Horn is a surprisingly good item for its price. You can keep it for a very long time (or even have it as 6th item).
Item Order
Item Order after Heartsteel is flexible. You need to see what you need in particular game:
Get Overlord's Bloodmail for more damage and AD.
Get Warmog's Armor as anti-poke item (helps you stay in lane) and for some sweet HP.
Get Unending Despair, if there are prolonged fights in which you can stay near enemies (or enemies near you). The items gets better, the more HP you get.
Get various Armor and/or MR items to counter enemy team.
Get Titanic Hydra for more fun, more damage and some survivability.
During fights
Your main damage and power comes from auto attacks - Grasp of the Undying and Heartsteel.
This is auto attack oriented Kai'Sa build, so do it! Especially if running with Titanic Hydra or Sundered Sky.
You can prioritize switching between champions in the fight, just to farm more Heartsteel procs.
Remember to consume your Heartsteel procs!
Adapting
You need to adapt your items to the game. Enemy team heavy on AP? Buy MR. They heavy on AD? Buy Armor. You need some damage? Well buy that.
Sundered Sky is very good damage item for this build (as #2-#4 depending on the game). It scales off your HP. It gives damage and pretty good sustain in fights. Remember to switch targets to maximize the effect!
Runes
Second Wind scales off with your HP, so it is going to be powerful sustain rune. You can use it by purposefully triggering it by letting enemies poke you a little or walking over some harmful spells.
Triumph is better (heal + gold), but if you want to have easier time with your mana, go Presence of Mind.
Remember to consume your Grasp of the Undying procs!
Tips and Tricks
Champion
General
You can evolve your abilities while using portal (frost-gate)!
You don't need to have all evolutions.
For example when playing AD oriented builds, probably Icathian Rain (Q) and Supercharge (E) evolutions makes sense, but Void Seeker (W) not mandatory.
When playing AP oriented builds, Void Seeker (W) is must-have, but Icathian Rain (Q) or Supercharge (E) are pretty much optional.
Void Seeker (W)
For easier Void Seeker (W) hits - make sure to hide your W animation. Shoot from fog of war, or from bushes. Change your position often and change the angle from where you are hitting. This way your enemies won’t easily predict your W and you’ll consistently land more Ws for more poke.
Change the angle. Instead of firing directly down the lane, step to the side and ult from an off-angle. Shooting diagonally often catches enemies off guard, since they expect projectiles to come from the center of lane.
Riot
Try to catch enemy carries alone to burst them with Icathian Rain.
Work with your teammates to set up your Ultimate and optimize damage with your passive.
Make sure to buy items that will evolve at least 1 or 2 of your spells.