The main reason why i wrote this guide is beacause I genuinely think it does work, though it may not compare to "real" supports on a serious play level, still works pretty well, and I just find it very fun to play. I quite compare her to AP mages in the support role; especially something akin to playing Lux support, since it plays in a very similar way and has more or less the same pros and cons compared to other supports.

Essencially you're gonna be playing Lethality Caitlyn, but oriented more towards Ability Haste rather than lethality itself, taking advantage of Caitlyns powerful early game to ensure an easy lane phase for your ADC, while using the utility in your kit to help your team take down objectives together.

Although most of this guide is built around the support Caitlyn theme, some of the resources here are aplicable as well when playing in other roles, especially when going for lethality builds.

Considerations before picking:
-Off-meta build/pick. Picking support Caitlyn may be objetively worse than any meta pick, consult your teamates before picking in ranked.
-Compared to other supports Caitlyn lacks healing and meaningfull CC, it would help if anyone in your team could provide that.
-Cailtyn offers decent peel for your adc, though lacks in initiation, if your team doesnt have it better pick another champion.

Pros: Strong early game and harass. Potentially strong mid and late game. Helps securing objetives. Actually does have peel. Zones enemy support out of the bushes. Another AD support option. Easy gank mid.

Cons: Easy to kill. Provides no healing or shield. Only provides light CC. Requires good aim to work. Falls behind if youre on the losing team. Sucsesptible to ganks/dives. Lacks aggressive initiation.

Dark Harvest may be the best option in the broader game sense, since it is already a good rune for lethality builds, though may be too late-game oriented, which is not the best for a support role. It is escentially good in the bot lane since you have a partner that can deal damage as well. Remember that you need to stack it as often as possible in order to make something useful of it by the late game.

Hail of Blades in the other hand may be a better option in for an aggressive early game, but falls behind if your team fails to take advantage of that aggression.

Taste of Blood is a good rune against agressive supports and useful to stay in line for longer, whilst Cheap Shot grant consistant damage, though it wont be as easy to proc in the earlier stages.

Ghost Poro over Zombie Ward may be a difficult choice, both serve the support role and prioritize vision, wich in the end becomes also useful to Ace in the Hole. Zombie Ward is the best option if you like to rush Umbral Glaive

Ultimate Hunter is the best option for Cailtyn, though Treasure Hunter can be a personal preference.


Manaflow Band provides just the right amount of mana needed for laning phase and a very good mana regen on late game, Also sinergies with Muramana.

Scorch provides a strong early game damage, which sinergyses too well with the game style of support Caitlyn.

Transcendence and Gathering Storm can be chosen for a more meaningful late game, but as a support the early game focused runes work better.

As for the lesser runes, replacing Abilty haste for extra Adaptative damage could be something debatable and up to personal choice. Attack speed only for the Hail of Blades tree. On the second rune extra Adaptative damage is the main option, but extra movement speed may be useful against ver aggressive matchups.

Flash and Exhaust would be your to go in almost every situation. Flash I would say is irreplaceable, but that may depend on the meta, wich could unexpectedly change in the future. Exhaust on its side provides extra utility that Caitlyn as a support may lack, particularly for saving your Carry from ganks in the early game, while staying useful in the late game against assassins that may see you or your carry as a weak targets.

Ignite would fall on to a very aggressive play style for me, so i really dont like playing it on the support role, perhaps reserving it for All-in supports like Leona. Also Ignite's cast range is considerably shorter than Caitlyn's usual range.

Barrier Can turn out helpful on some particular ocassions, but your Carry might find it selfish, as you would be lacking protection for them throughout the whole game.

Heal is also very useful, particularly if your Carry decides not to choose it. This is something that also may depend on the meta, as we have previously seen double Heal being played in a previous season.

The standard build for support Caitlyn would be Umbral Glaive into Muramana plus Bloodsong and boots. Then choose from a Defensive item and an Utily item, preferably in that order.

In case of a very favorable gold advantage for your team (especially for yourself) rush an offensive item instead, then ditch either Umbral Glaive or Muramana

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Core

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After your fisrt back your best purchase is Tear of the Goddess plus Serrated Dirk, though most games you wont afford that. Serrated Dirk will provide enough damage to keeep harassing the enemy lane.

Backing with less than 1400G, you want Tear of the Goddess plus Long Sword. Going for boots instead though may be a wiser decision if you're having a difficult time with the enemy support.

After your first core item it is best to buy and upgrade the boots, though once again, boots order has always been linked to meta, and i would suggest to stick to the general rule on the current meta. Ionian Boots of Lucidity is my to go with this build, and i really wouldn't change them.

Do not forget to replace your Stealth Ward with Oracle Lens once your quest item has been upgraded.

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Aggressive

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Youmuu's Ghostblade may be considered the best item for Lethality Cailtyn and provides a strong powerspike when built if you're ahead in gold.

Hubris is another good choice when your team has the advantage, but have in mind that by building it you'll be commiting to the aggression to capitalize on its passive.

Both Axiom Arc and The Collector are pretty good items that synergyse well with the build, but fall behind on utility. I personally never buy them, but you might want to do so if you're literally carrying your team or your team either has already too much utility or lacks damage. Also if the enemy team has too much DPS carries it might be better to just provide extra burst damage.

Ravenous Hydra on lethality Caitlyn used to be a thing many seasons ago but i find it to expensive now, might be a questionable choice.

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Utility

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Umbral Glaive may may be considered a utility item, since its main purpouse is to deny vision to the enemy team, but it's stats and low price make it worth to build as first or second item anyways. By buying Umbral Glaive you are free to get Farsight Alteration instead of Oracle Lens.

Chempunk Chainsword and Serpent's Fang are basically tech items, you buy the former if the enemy team has to much healing, either by healer supports or self heal skirmishers, or you either buy the later if they gain too much shields. Important note, even if your enemy team has one of those strenghts dont rush any of this items, you still want them to be either your fifth or sixth item.

Serylda's Grudge is quite expensive, but also very useful, though quite situational. Its slow really comes in hand agains melee enemies, i would consider it a priority (after core items) if the enemy team has more than three meele champions, especially if your teams lacks CC.

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Defensive

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Maw of Malmortius is your choice against AP enemies. There are two main reasons to buy it, either the enemy team does mostly AP damage, or your enemy team has an AP assasin or busrt Mage that can easily keep you out of the teamfights. Even if they're not targeting you specifically AP casters usually have constant AoE harass damage.

Guardian Angel is therefore your Armor option. Buy it if your enemy team has at least two AD threats for you, or one that is far ahead in economy. Those threats are Assassins and Divers, specially when they have too much mobility such as Zed.

In this section i want to break down an otherwise long paragraph of ability descriptions and instructions, explaing with detail how to effectively use all of your skills to ensure an appropiate support experience.

For the Learning order i would always go for Q > W > E, leveling of course R at the proper levels.

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Headshot

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Caitlyn's passive Headshot is a very realiable source of damage, and the core of her whole kit. It does scale with Critical strike chance but that does not stop it for being useful on Lethality builds. As Caitlyn Support you may not get to charge it as fast as an otherwise farming ADC, but you on the other hand get to save it to poke the enemy champions since you dont have to keep farming.

In the late game, as a Lethality build, you wont also get to stack it too often, but that shouldnt be much of a concern to you since most of your damage will come from your abilities.

Tips: In the early game help your Adc farm by damaging the enemy minions until you charge your passive, you can do it from the bushes to charge it faster, although by doing so you reveal yourself, wich may not be worth sometimes.

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Q: Piltover Peacemaker

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Piltover Peacemaker, as a Lethality build will be your main source of damage. In the early game you want to pacify your enemy Carry as often as you can, but you should be careful in doing so as your mana would fall very limited on those early stages, especially if you decide not to run Manamune.

Missing your Q could be very punishing to you in the early game, not only because you're wasting mana while doing no damage, as you wont get your Manaflow Band proc, nor your stack of Tear of the Goddess, if you bought it. You're also not procing neither Taste of Blood nor Scorch. So even though you want to use it as often as possible you should only use when you know you can hit one of the enemy champions. As a general rule dont fire when the enemy is running away from you, unless they are slowed.

You'll also most of the time want to avoid hitting the enemy minions in the laning phase since it reduce the damage it does to your desired target, and specifically do not accidentally steal CS from your Carry. Though it's generally a good idea to damage the first waves to get level 2 and level 3 before your enemies, and to prevent getting their wave shoved in your turret.

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W: Yordle Snap Trap

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As your main uitlity ability Yordle Snap Trap serves multiple purpouses that you may want to priorize depending on the situation. The first thing to note is that it enables a double damage Headshot on the enemies that step on them, so despite counting as no-damage actually does more damage that Piltover Peacemaker in the late game. Do not miss your Headshot on the rooted enemy unless you're running for your life or the risk of doing so can put yourself in danger.

The second thing i want to mention is that you really should not misspend your traps, specifically in the early game, and i've seen many caitlyn players do so. Do not place all your traps in the bushes hoping for your enemies to walk into them, you cant rely on your opponents being bad as your win condition.

I would like to divide this ability into three main functions. Agressively; by tossing it to your opponents feet, trying to predict their movement in order to hit them with your Headshot. Deffensively; By tossing one of them between you or your Carry and a charging enemy to block their path. And strategically; By placing them on key spots in order to deny space and paths to your opponents, especially on bushes.

Always keep in mind that Yordle Snap Traps have a 1 second delay once you place them to be ready to root enemies, and once they do they gain inmunity to further traps for 3 seconds. These are important timings you naturally want to master to use them properly. Also since the root has a duration of 1.5 seconds there is a way to trick all of this numbers, but its tricky, so i'll reserve it for the tricks section.

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E: 90 Caliber Net

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Few things to add on 90 Caliber Net, it is a defensive ability that helps you repostition yourself or escape difficult situations, something other supports may not have. It can also be used to help your carry escape from a dive, but its slow wont save them if they have already been dived.

Important note: Never use this ability to escape form an enemy skillshot, if you cast it straight from your enemy the disatance you move is not enough for ablitites like Dark Binding or Bone Skewer.

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R: Ace in the Hole

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Your ultimate Ace in the Hole should be a pretty straightfoward ability to use, you cast it on a low health enemy and if everything goes right you get a kill. In the late game, although being still more useful as a finisher, its relatively low cooldown may let you use it before a teamfight if you're too far away from it; this is especially useful if you builded enought utility items like Serylda's Grudge.

Champions with proyectile blocking such as Wind Wall are definitively a problem for your ultimate as well as enemies building Zhonya's Hourglass, but i would mind them too much, after all if they spend that resource for your ultimate they can be left vulnerable to an ally skillshot.

Little tip: Always do check your ultimate's damage in order to better predict wheter or not it will kill your target. Still in the early game would also be worth to shot a low health enemy even if you know they wont die in order to farm a stack of Dark Harvest.

Here I'll disclose some help to guide you trough the game phases. If you're already a good player and you have experience with either aggressive supports or Cailtyn in general, feel free to use your own ideas.

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Early Game

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If you start by leashing your jungle remember to stay in the bush to proc Headshot faster. Walk to lane once the minion waves make contact. May be a good idea to get to lane with your Headshot charged.

If you dindt leash, get to lane with your adc as soon as possible to attemp to capitalize bushes for a surprise attack when the enemy duo walks in.

On the very first waves try to help your adc push the waves to get level 2 and 3 before the enemy duo. On level two learn Yordle Snap Trap if you need to be defensive or 90 Caliber Net if you want to be aggressive. At level 3 you can put a second skillpoint on Piltover Peacemaker if the enemies are low health, but be careful of a possible gank from their jungler.

Keep yourself where you feel safe from the enemy duo intiating on you, while always mantaning a threatening positioning so you can get an easy Piltover Peacemaker shot on one of them.

If you managed to get their adc back to their fountain help your adc crash their wave on the enemy turret for a perfect recall. If you recall after crashing a wave walk towards mid for a potential assistance, then go back to bot once your adc gets their wave to the river.

After dragon spawns help your adc keep the wave near the middle, freeze if you have the health advantage or your jungler is near for a gank, and push if their adc lefts the lane or your team wants to take objectives.

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Mid Game

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Once either team bot turret gets destroyed you want to change your focus towards mid and the river for a while. Help your mid laner make plays or help your jungler take objectives while prioritizing vision in the river.

Often an Ace in the Hole gank is all it takes for a teammate to score a kill.

Leave your adc to farm for most of the mid game, but keep vision near the bottom so your adc doesnt get caught when you're away. Follow them if they push past the river or if they go mid lane or top lane for a turret.

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Late Game

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On teamfights try to keep your distance from the enemy team, always follow behind your tank, and attack when you feel in a comfortable position.

When pushing towards objectives try to use Yordle Snap Trap as often as possible, at this point they recharge very fast and you can pretty spam them every time you get to a chokepoint. Also remember to place them down when retrieving from a teamfight.

In the early game the best momment to land a Piltover Peacemaker or a Headshot is when the enemy wants to last hit a minion. Always keep sight of low health minions in your wave.

The rule of thumb that i usually follow for Yordle Snap Trap in the early game is to keep one for each purpouse. Place one in the entrance of your opponent's closest bush to deny it, use another to try to root a misspositioned enemy, and always save one to stop an enemy charging at you or your carry.

Even though you can deal high ammounts of damage to the enemy champions during the lane phase it could be hard to your team to score a kill until you have your ultimate ability, so dont get greedy and focus in asuring a safe farming to your carry, while denying it to your opponent.

Caitlyns high damage and Headshot provide your team an useful advantage while taking down objectives like turrets and dragons. Yordle Snap Trap is also a very strong zoning ability wich really helps your team to do so safely.

After level 13 your Headshot should start doing real damage and you should have no problem in deleting a misspositioned enemy, especially with your combos.

In the late game you may have enough damage as an assassin, but you dont have their mobility so do not think of flanking your opponents as you would leave yourself vulnerable to the enemy team.

As a lethality build you dont want to focus your damage on the tanks untless there is no other enemy in your damage zone, still landing your CC to them is always useful. Most of the time you want to attack whoever enemy is threatening your carry.

You can use Piltover Peacemaker while 90 Caliber Net. Press E > Q while aiming at an enemy for Caitlyn's base combo.

The full combo is W > E > Q. Place a Yordle Snap Trap near your opponents feet, predicting their movement, cast 90 Caliber Net and then Piltover Peacemaker on them, the finish with the two enabled Headshots. This combo does enough damage to kill a foe if they're not tanky enough.

Partial Combo W > E, should leave you more time to react and anyways you can have another opportunity to land your Piltover Peacemaker.

Flash + Full Combo is exactly what it sounds like, but i want to note that it is something that should be practiced beforehand, otherwise you're risking failing the entire thing or misscalculte your abilities range.

Some of these combos are not easy to execute and sometimes hard to land properly, they're also extremely aggressive, especially if you used 90 Caliber Net, so dont force them into situations that dont require you to do so, particularly in the early game.

Now, as i teased in the ability description, there is a way to (almost) perma CC an enemy with multiple Yordle Snap Traps. When an enemy steps on a Yordle Snap Trap they gain a brief inmunity to other Yordle Snap Traps. I you time your second trap correctly (when the cc indication bar is halfway out) it will root the target right after the first one. It is a very weird interaction (maybe a bug) and so far I only tried it against practice targets.

In the next image i made some example of trap placement around chocke points in dragon and baron as well as inner and outer turrets, which alongside wards can easily secure an objective for your team. Traps are set in a blue team perspective, but if you're on the red team you can pretty much flip the image (THIS MAP IS OUTDATED).

On the final notes i want to add more information on how Caitlyn support perfoms on different matchups depending in both the enemy team and your lane partner, as well as some tricks you can use to survive or take advantage of your oponents.

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Synergies

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Caitlyn support, as many other harassing supports, works better with champions who can also damage the opponents from afar and do not require you to make a strong CC chain to combo them to death. It is also useful if your carry provides extra CC in abilities like Flame Chompers! or Deadly Flourish.

You'll also often find yourself in a situation when a low health enemy just walks away to their turret, in those cases is good to have a carry with an extended range ability like Trueshot Barrage.

Playing with an AP character as your carry could also be theoreticaly good since you would be still having both physical and magical damage, but that depends if there are good AP champions that can play in the botlane in the meta. Still bear in mind that most AP champions are not DPS, and even when you end up winning lane your team has to compensate for that DPS somehow.

Avoid playing alongside characters who are short ranged and/or rely on dashing to the enemy team to make their plays like Vayne, you'll have no means to follow their game or enable it, and you'll also have no means to pull them back to safety.

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Threats

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Against similar supports like Brand i would say both of you should be even in chances. In those scenarios you can focus on either the enemy support or carry, keeping always your safety as a priority. This matches are but a battle of who pokes better. I wouldn't doubt buying boots and a pair of potions on the firsts backs.

Against passive enchanters like Nami you should have an easy task, poke the enemy duo out of their lane. You will have a hard time trying to score a kill though, and maybe youll receive extra visits from their jungler. In those matchups i would always buy Tear of the Goddess as fast as i can.

All-ins could be a real problem for you even if you're good at dodging skillshots, one Rocket Grab and there is no Flash that could save you. In this matches keep distance from your enemies and always be ready for your enemies intentions.

Patch 13.15:
-Updated
-Edited the recommended items and the Items Chapter
-Added some Treats and Synergies
-Rephrased some parts of the guide
-Added Changelog

Patch 13.16:
-Added Arcane comet as keyrune
-Manamune no longer featured
-Serylda's Grudge moved to Utility Section
-Updated some parts of the guide accordingly

Patch 14.9:
-Updated for season 14
-Core items changed
-Rune Trees modified
-Added Gameplan guide
-Updated some parts of the guide accordingly