For anyone who missed it, Kayle got a bit of an overhaul in this last patch that has made her much stronger, particularly once she’s acquired a few items. I was never a Kayle player and rarely a Kayle fan. She was usually useless until level 16, when, with some CD reduction, her ult would get down to a 36 second cooldown. Now, it’s an entirely different story.

The biggest change was made to her passive, which now reads as follows:

Holy Fervor (New Passive): 30% of Kayle’s attack damage is added to her ability power and 15% of Kayle’s ability power is added to her attack damage.

That is one kickass passive for a hybrid toon. The other major change was to Righteous fury, the bonus damage from which is now applied as magic damage (and scales with AP). Other than that she got some cooldown reductions, a few leveling tweaks, and better attack range on both her regular attacks and Righteous Fury.

On the whole, nothing big changed about Kayle, but the small changes were enough to pick her damage up to very competitive levels. I spent a bunch of time playing Kayle yesterday, mostly on Twisted Treeline, and I can’t help but wonder if she wasn’t overbuffed. Early game she still struggles with mana regen, but by the time you have a Nashor’s, Kayle is a devastating force. The synergy between Reckoning and Righteous Fury tears anyone apart. I mean anyone. I was shredding a Singed with both Rod of Ages and a Rylai’s, all while healing myself or my team and waiting to hit Intervention to save someone’s ass.

For now, my Kayle build is a Nashor’s rush with Guinsoo’s after. I follow that with either an Aegis if I need survivability or a Trinity Force for some general goodness. At some point I’d like to try a more damage heavy build after the Guinsoo’s, but I’ve always need to get more health in the games I’ve played.

For a skill build, I take Reckoning at level 1, then one rank of Righteous Fury. After that I alternate between Reckoning and Divine Blessing, taking my ult when I can. At level two you can hand out a surprising amount of damage with just a Reckoning -> Fury combo. Righteous Fury also deals bonus damage to towers, so once you have your Nashor’s you should be trying to push since you can really tear into some buildings.

As Slygoat said on the forums, I think Intervention needs to be reworked. Even with the increased cooldown (up to 90 seconds at all ranks), it’s virtually always up for teamfights, the cast range is enormous, and it essentially nullifies what was probably many of your opponent’s best skills.