Looking for a top laner who can carry you all the way to the top? You came to the right place! In this guide, we’ll show you everything you need to know to get you started playing Camille, the Steel Shadow

Camille is one of the hardest champions to use in League of Legends. She has a lot of combos you need to learn and little nuances in her overall playstyle that you need to master before you can win with this champion. But once you do get the hang of using Camille, you’ll be rewarded with one of the best carry champions in the game that can effectively 1v9 in most situations. She has great crowd control, flashy combos, and tons of outplay potential. She’s also  very beefy and durable making her feel like a tank despite not building straight up tank items. So what exactly makes her a good pick?

Champion Abilities

Camille’s strength lies in her kit and the way she was designed. She mostly does single target damage but that doesn’t mean she can’t have a very good presence in team fights. Her kit is geared towards eliminating high priority targets on the enemy team and getting out quickly in sticky situations.

Passive – Adaptive Defenses

Basic Attacks on champions grant a shield equal to [+20% Camille’s maximum Health] against their damage type (Physical or Magic) for 2 seconds. 

Camille’s passive ranks among the best in the game and matches her playstyle very well. Not all champions have a passive shield that can be procced by their basic attack. Overall this passive allows Camille to play aggressive and gives her a lot of room to all in or dive enemies when the opportunity comes up.

Q –  Precision Protocol

Camille’s next basic attack deals bonus physical damage and increases her Movement Speed by 1 second. This ability can be recast in the next 3.5 seconds at no cost. If the second Precision Protocol attack hits at least 1.5 seconds after the first, the bonus damage is doubled and a percentage of the attack is converted into true damage. Precision Protocol cannot critically strike.

This is Camille’s bread and butter ability. This makes her a difficult champion to trade with since it empowers her basic attack and works as an auto attack reset. It’s because of this ability that Camille can deal tons of damage in a very short amount of time. It’s her most important ability when fighting so remember to use it wisely when trading.

W- Tactical Sweep

Camille winds up and then slices in a direction, dealing physical damage to enemies hit. Enemies hit by the outer half are slowed by 80%, decaying over 2 seconds. They take extra physical damage, and Camille heals for 100% of the bonus damage dealt to champions. Tactical Sweep does 50% less damage to non-epic monsters.

This is a great ability because it gives everything Camille needs to succeed as a top laner. Sustain? Check. Tactical Sweep heals Camille for a percentage of the damage health. Crowd Control? Check. Tactical Sweep also slows enemies by 80%. Wave clear? Check. Tactical Sweep has a decent area of effect that allows it to efficiently clear minion waves. 

E – Hookshot

First Cast: Fire a hookshot that attaches to terrain, pulling Camille to it and allowing Hookshot to be recast for 1 second.

Second Cast: Camille leaps from the wall, colliding with the first enemy champion hit. Upon landing, she deals physical damage and a 0.75 second stun to enemy champions. Dashes towards enemy champions travel twice as far and grants Attack Speed for 5 seconds if she hits an enemy champion.

There are three reasons why Hookshot is an amazing ability. First, it makes Camille incredibly mobile. Second, it gives her hard crowd control in the form of a 0.75 second stun that can lead to a lot of outplays. And third, it makes her look like she’s using the 3D maneuver gear from Attack on Titan. 

R – The Hextech Ultimatum

Camille briefly becomes untargetable and leaps onto an enemy champion, locking them into an area they cannot escape by any means. Other nearby enemies are knocked away. Her basic attacks against the trapped enemy deal bonus magic damage.

The Hextech Ultimatum ends if Camille leaves the area or 1 second after Camille dies.

This is without a doubt the most important ability on Camille. Camille’s Ultimate allows her to lockdown on a target essentially forcing them to 1v1 her. It has a lot of utility and makes it easier for Camille to do what she does best, forcing enemies to fight her.

Runes and Item Builds

Your primary focus when it comes to items on Camille would be to buy items that increase her damage and survivability. Most items that give both health or resistances as well as damage would work great on her and will synergize with her kit.

Starting Items

Camille starts the game mostly like every other top laner. Her two best starting options would be Corrupting Potion or Doran’s Blade plus a Health Potion. If you feel like being aggressive early on, you can go for Doran’s Blade but if you’re against a champion that can outsustain you or can deal more damage than you early on, go for Corrupting Potion instead. Since she is fairly weak early on, we prefer starting with Corrupting Potion over Doran’s Blade.

Mythic Items

For your Mythic Item, you have two choices. Since Camille works well with items with the Spellblade passive, the two best Mythic items for her are Divine Sunderer or Trinity Force. Choosing which one to build depends mostly on your matchup. If you’re against a tanky champion or a bruiser, you should go for Divine Sunderer since it can easily shred tanks thanks to its percent health damage. If you’re mostly against squishy champions, feel free to take Trinity Force for better overall damage.

Full Build

After purchasing your Mythic, you should work on finishing your tier 2 Boots. The best boots in this case would be Plated Steelcaps. Next, go for a Ravenous Hydra. This will increase your sustain, damage, wave clear, and overall survivability. Sterak’s Gage comes next as this will drastically make you tankier and allow you to survive dives and all ins. Death’s Dance is another core item that makes you more durable while also increasing your damage. Finish off your build with a Guardian’s Angel mostly for it’s resurrect passive.

Other Viable Items

There are plenty of other viable items on Camille. A basic rule of thumb to remember is if it increases health or resistances while increasing damage, it’s a good item on Camille. Black Cleaver is a great item to swap out for some of the items on Camille’s core build. If you’re against mostly tank champions who can’t outdamage you, you should consider going for this item. Chempunk Chainsword is another good item that’s worth picking up if you’re against enemy champions with a lot of healing. Titanic Hydra can be swapped with Ravenous Hydra depending on your needs or preference. Maw of Malmortius is great especially when against a magic heavy team comp. We encourage you to try some of these items out to see what works best for you and your playstyle.

Runes

For runes, you should go with the Resolve tree and have Grasp of the Undying as your keystone. This increases your damage, health, and overall survivability in the early game while also helping you scale in the late game. Next, take Shield Bash since it synergizes well with your passive, Bone Plating to reduce damage from enemy abilities, and Overgrowth to make you even tankier. For secondaries, take Magical Footwear for free boots, and Biscuit Delivery for more sustain in the early game. For rune shards, take Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, and Armor.

Useful Tips

1. Camille is incredibly mobile thanks to Hookshot. This ability can also go through walls so it can be useful for escaping or catching opponents off guard for an easy pick.
2. Camille rewards players for playing aggressive and committing to all ins. Make sure you take advantage of Camille’s strengths while also being aware of her weaknesses so that you can make timely decisions.
3. For summoner spells, take Flash and Teleport. If you’re comfortable enough with Camille and are confident with your mastery over her, you can run with a Teleport + Ignite setup. It will leave you vulnerable when Hookshot is on cooldown though but it will help you snowball easily once you get even a small lead.

So there you have it! That’s all you need to know about playing Camille in League of Legends. Be sure to check back with us again for more awesome guides on your favorite games. Have fun and we’ll see you on the Rift!