Weird Picks #109: Grasp Demolish Caitlyn

The latest change in tower plating gold has players all over the world trying out this new somewhat convoluted Caitlyn build in order to capitalize on this. As a renown split-pusher, this version of Caitlyn maximizes her sustain and focuses primarily on taking down enemy turrets using Demolish to speed up the process and press her gold advantage.

Is it actually effective though? Read on below!

Tower Plating Bonus Gold? 

The latest change in tower plating gold has players all over the world trying out this new somewhat convoluted Caitlyn build in order to capitalize on this. As a renown split-pusher, this version of Caitlyn maximizes her sustain and focuses primarily on taking down enemy turrets using Demolish to speed up the process and press her gold advantage.

Is it actually effective though? Read on below!

How to Play

Abilities: Q, W, E then prioritize R > Q > W > E
Summoner Spells: Flash + Heal
Starting Items: Doran's Blade + Health Potion
Core Items: Berserker's Greaves, Stormrazor, Rapid Firecannon, Infinity Edge, Bloodthirster, Guardian Angel

Rune Setup

How It Works

Grasp Replaces Fleet Footwork
Generally speaking, Fleet Footwork is better on nearly every other champion since it procs on minions and allows you to heal in losing lanes. However, Caitlyn can easily abuse her range to maximize her Grasp procs, resulting in nearly the same amount of healing and also more poke raining down on enemy champions.

Maximum Lane Sustain
If you pick up Precision as your main tree, all you're really getting is Overheal and potentially Legend:Bloodline for sustain. Compared to the resolve tree, Second Wind and Overgrowth provide just as much early game sustain and durability.

Higher Durability
Although Overgrowth doesn't scale that hard, early game procs on Grasp of the Undying really stacks up throughout the game and ends up giving her quite a bit of extra survivability.

Insane Early Push

Lastly, the Demolish rune works wonders on destroying plating. If you combine Caitlyn with a high push support like Zyra, they can easily take down the first turret far before plating wears off and move on to another lane's plating o maximize early game gold leads.

Potential Pitfalls

Weaker Late Game

This build's main weakness is of course, the weaker scaling late game. Although it really doesn't give up anything from the precision tree, it does lack the Absolute Focus and Gathering Storm of the Sorcery tree.

Harder Lane Abuse
While Grasp of the Undying ends up being more effective than Fleet Footwork if you're winning your lane hard, the lack of the movement speed boost means that chasing down enemies for extra auto-attacks is more difficult. As a result, while you end up getting more poke damage off, getting kills is a bit more difficult.

Conclusions

Caitlyn is still weaker late game compared to hypercarries no matter what rune set you're building. However, this version of Caitlyn really banks on the early game and tries to maximize her strengths. If you can take down a few towers early, you can still beat out the enemy team through gold advantage.

Just don't let the game drag on too long, and enemy teams will start complaining about how strong Grasp Demolish Caitlyn is.

Suggested Tier: Tier 1

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What do you think about this pick? Fancy trying it out? Comment below!