Counter Guide

How to Beat Kled

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

You win the fight against Kled, his lizard runs away, and then Kled keeps coming at you on foot.

Kled gets two health bars. Everything you throw at him hits Skaarl first, and when Skaarl gives up, Kled is still standing there with a gun, working his way back to a remount. So you've usually spent your cooldowns by the time the second half of the fight starts. He's hard to shake off, too, since the bear trap drags you back if you don't break it in time. The top laners who beat him are the ones who come out of a long brawl healthier than they went in. For how he's doing overall this patch, see our solo queue tier list.

Matchup Snapshot Kled, the Cantankerous Cavalier

Where You Meet HimTop lane

Damage TypePhysical

Why He Is FrustratingTwo health bars

MobilityA double dash and a long charge

Biggest ThreatBear Trap on a Rope [Q]

Hardest CounterIllaoi

What a Counter Needs

Healing or shielding that keeps going through a long fight
A way to shut down his engage before the second dash

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Kled on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Kled

Illaoi443 games51.9%
Garen910 games51.4%
Sett746 games51.3%

Picks Kled Beats

Olaf459 games44.0%
Jax626 games45.9%
Jayce484 games46.7%
Aatrox592 games48.5%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the top lane against Kled. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 19,981 Kled games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Kled Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

Skaarl soaks the first half of the fight. While Kled's mounted, Skaarl takes all of the damage, and whatever's left over when Skaarl drops is ignored.
Bear Trap on a Rope [Q] pulls you back in. It tethers you from 800 units, and if you don't break the tether in time, you're yanked toward him and slowed.
Jousting [E] dashes twice. The first dash goes through you and marks you, and the recast brings him back through you again (even over walls).
Violent Tendencies [W] turns four attacks into a burst, with bonus attack speed and a big hit on the fourth one.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

Dismounted Kled is weak. He has lower base health and slower movement, his attacks deal reduced damage to champions until level 16, and he can't use Jousting [E] or his ultimate until he's back on Skaarl.
He remounts by fighting you. Courage comes mostly from his attacks on champions, so walking out of range delays Skaarl's return.
The tether can be broken. Walk away from Bear Trap on a Rope [Q] before it finishes and there's no yank.
His ultimate is on a long timer (140 seconds at rank one).

Countering Kled

You don't need every one of these:

Win the long fight. Sustain or shielding matters more than burst, since burst gets spent on Skaarl.
Stop him mid-engage. A silence or a stun after the first Jousting [E] dash leaves him standing next to you without his follow-up.
Punish the dismount. Kled on foot is the weakest version of him, so push the fight while Courage refills.

If you're already locked into a champion without any of those, it's still a lane you can play.

Playing Into Kled Without a Counter

When the bear trap hooks you, move away from him right away. The tether shrinks as it goes, so the earlier you walk, the more likely it snaps before the yank.

Don't burn your stun just as Skaarl is about to drop (dismounting cleanses Kled of crowd control). Save it for the Kled who's already on foot.

And keep an eye on his ultimate. With it down he has to walk to every fight.

Best Kled Counters

Three picks, three ways to come out on top.

Illaoi Out-Heals the Brawl

Kled's whole plan is an extended fight, and that's exactly the fight Illaoi wants. Every Tentacle that hits a champion heals her for 5% of her missing health (Prophet of an Elder God [Passive] spawns them on nearby walls), so the longer he stays, the further ahead she gets.

Test of Spirit [E] makes it worse for him. It pulls his spirit out in front of her, and damage to that spirit echoes back to him (her Tentacles go for it too). If he runs out of range to escape it, he's slowed by 80% for a moment and a Tentacle starts spawning near him. When he does commit, Leap of Faith [R] summons one Tentacle for every champion it hits.

Garen Silences the Charge

Decisive Strike [Q] clears every slow on Garen and speeds him up, which helps him outrun the bear trap's tether. The attack that follows silences for 1.5 seconds. Land it after the first Jousting [E] and Kled can't recast the dash or throw another trap.

Courage [W] handles the burst. It cuts incoming damage for four seconds (with a shield and 60% tenacity for the first 0.75), which blunts his Violent Tendencies [W] flurry. Between trades Perseverance [Passive] regenerates Garen's health, while Kled has to fight to earn his mount back.

Sett Turns His Burst Into Grit

Every point of damage Kled deals is stored as Grit (up to half of Sett's maximum health), and Haymaker [W] turns it into a shield before punching back with true damage down the middle. Kled's all-in fills the bar for him. Facebreaker [E] pulls in enemies on both sides of him, and if it catches one on each side (a minion on the far side works), Kled is stunned.

Itemizing Against Kled

His damage is physical and most of it comes from attacks, so Plated Steelcaps (10% off every attack) are the boots. Frozen Heart takes 20% off the attack speed of champions near you, and attack speed is what Violent Tendencies [W] is built on. Jak'Sho gets tougher once you've been fighting champions for five seconds (his fights always last that long). On a fighter, Death's Dance spreads part of his burst out over three seconds.