[Lulu Update]

There's a debate of Hybrid vs. Pure AD. There's also the bruiser-kayle build. From personal experimenting, and from watching streamers (mainly Zekent), I would conclude as follows:

1. The pure AD build is strongest for late game. The pure AD build essentially allows your team to have two ranged-AD carries. This can be quite strong in certain team comps, or against a kytable team.
WEAKNESS: Not as strong mid-game. Game might end too fast before you can make a contribution.

2. Hybrid build is strongest for mid to late game. Hybrid build will make your Q very strong, while maintaining good damage on E.
WEAKNESS: Your damage late-game doesn't scale well. You do no damage to strong tanks/bruisers. During late-game, if the enemy front-lines are very tanky, the only people you can really damage are going to be the ones being protected... You won't be able to make damage impact without overextending yourself.
In summary, late game, once everybody is farmed, you will be more useless compared to the pure AD or bruiser kayle, and probably more useless than the enemy jungler (who is usually an initiator or tank with higher utility). This is assuming that the enemy team isn't 100% squishy.

3. Bruiser build is good if you need to be the initiator, and good if you can somehow really keep up in farm and levels. Kayle has very high base-health, and has potential to be the tankiest ranged-AD in the game. Tanky-DPS kayle can control space pretty well in team fights, and can easily save her ult for your other team mates. Bruiser kayle USED to be good, but has fallen behind ever since the jungle nerf (can't keep up in levels anymore with solo-lanes).
WEAKNESS: If you fall behind in farm, you will have no damage + no tankiness. I would only suggest this build if you are willing to steal farm from a weak solo laner :3



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ALL GAMES START LIKE THIS:


first item:



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AD KAYLE I GENERALLY BUILD LIKE THIS:

FIRST ITEM: I prefer or FIRST to build into , or into .

SECOND ITEM: to build into . I usually don't get it before an IE or BT unless I really need the movement.

SUSTAIN: if you need sustain.

BOOTS: OR (cdr)

OPTIONAL: (cdr)

OPTIONAL: may be built after or before depending on how the game goes. Good item for objective-control. Good combo with bloodthirster. This item is not a necessary item for kayle, since she isn't reliant on wriggles for jungle clear-time.


VIABLE ITEMS BUT WEAKER IMO:


COMMENTS: for AD kayle, your goal is to have IE+zeal, or BT+PD. Once you farm these up, it will greatly increase your damage, making you very strong in any team skirmishes or fights. It may take a bit of time and farm to get these items though, so think like a Jungle-Yi: farm everything!
WHY WOULD YOU EVER BUILD A GHOST BLADE?: I think Ghost blade is a decent item on kayle. If you plan to get one, finish it early as your first item. It gives you a strong mid-game, which is important as a jungler. With ghost blade, you can quickly steal objectives (use melee attacks to extend ghostblade) and melt almost anybody during mid-game skirmishes. Q + 4-seconds master yi mode + ghostblade stats = melt mode. Ghost blade is good vs. squishies without good escapes who you want to melt fast during teamfights (i.e. kog'maw, veigar), but not good vs. kyters (i.e. Riven, Lebonk, Kennen).






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FOR HYBRID I BUILD LIKE THIS:

FIRST ITEM: into

BOOTS: OR (cdr)

AND THAT'S HYBRID KAYLE IN A NUTSHELL! Once you have the rageblade, you will be a very strong presence. Your Q will do tons of burst, and your autos will be very strong as well. However, this damage only be noticeable through mid-game, since late game you won't have strong crits.

GOOD ITEMS TO GET AS THE GAME PROGRESSES:
(the items I usually go for in a hybrid build)
(shred)
(expensive, sustain, mostly good for the active)

COMMENTS: Aside from the rageblade, hybrid kayle is awkward late-game, so it's up to you if you think your team will benefit more from shred, trinity, or the gun-blade active.





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FOR RANGED BRUISER I BUILD LIKE THIS:

MID GAME GOALS:
BOOTS: or
LATE GAME ITEMS:


COMMENTS: Wriggles + ninja = good armor. Wit's end + phage + mercs = good burst protection. I felt this used to be the staple jungle-kayle build before the jungle nerf. Since the nerf, this is no longer an optimal build path. Once again, your goal here isn't just items, but to really keep up in levels and farm. You won't be a good bruiser if you aren't getting your really high +93 health per level :0





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Sample End-Game Builds:

AD:

SUPER LATE GAME AD: (ult + super lifesteal = terror)

CDR+AD: (100% E uptime)

HYBRID:

BRUISER: