What to build on K'Sante, and what each item is for
An item path for K'Sante with live gold costs, chosen from what the champion's damage actually scales on.
What your damage scales on
Riot rates K'Sante at 8 for attack and 7 for magic. That single comparison decides most of the build before any matchup does.
K'Sante wants to start the fight on your terms and be the most costly thing to ignore, and items are how you buy more of that rather than a little of everything.
What to build, and what each piece is for
K'Sante buys survivability first — the job is to be in the fight, and damage items do not help with that.
Trinity Force
3333 goldTons of Damage
Overlord's Bloodmail
3300 goldHealth, Damage
Titanic Hydra
3300 goldDeals area of effect damage based on owner's health
Death's Dance
3300 goldArmor, Damage, AbilityHaste
Stridebreaker
3300 goldHealth, Damage, AttackSpeed, Slow
Gold costs are live from the current patch. Order depends on the game — buy resistances when you are being punished, damage when you are not.
Skill order, and how to reason about it
Take All Out at levels 6, 11 and 16 — the ultimate is always worth the point it costs.
For the basic abilities, Path Maker (W) gains the most from being ranked: its cooldown falls by 4 seconds between rank 1 and max, which is the largest improvement in the kit. That is the usual argument for maxing it first.
This is reasoning from the cooldown data, not a win-rate ranking — a matchup that punishes you can invert it.
- Q · Ntofo Strikes — cooldown 3.5s
- W · Path Maker — cooldown 14/13/12/11/10s, improving by 4s across its ranks
- E · Footwork — cooldown 10/9.5/9/8.5/8s, improving by 2s across its ranks
What you already have before you buy anything
| Stat | Level 1 | Level 18 |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 625 | 2665 |
| Attack damage | 64 | 64 |
| Armour | 36 | 124.4 |
| Magic resist | 30 | 65.7 |
Movement speed 330 and attack range 150 do not grow with levels — they are the two numbers that stay true all game.
Buy order is a reaction, not a plan
The list above is what the champion scales on. The order you buy it in is decided by the game — resistances when you are being punished, damage when you are not.
Riot's own notes on playing K'Sante
These are the designers' words, not ours — the tips shipped in the client for K'Sante.
- Use Sonic Wave before Dragon's Rage so you can chase the target with Resonating Strike.
- Take advantage of Flurry by weaving in basic attacks between spell casts - this maximizes damage output and minimizes Energy loss.
- Self-casting Safeguard and using Iron Will are powerful tools for killing neutral monsters (in the jungle).