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Kalista Build Guide by

[7.20] Kalista ADC In-Depth - Death To All Betrayers

Updated on

8.6

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86 Comments

58 7

2,512,215 Views

86 Comments

Kalista Build Guide By Updated on

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I appreciate the obvious effort that you put into this guide, but you definitely should have mentioned how to utilize Rend properly. The main reason why Kalista is so inaccessible to the common player is because they aren't aware of how her E works while dashing and while auto attacks are still flying. PSA: Always use rend while dashing, and if you rend while an auto is on the way, even if the rend does not secure the kill, if the auto does the cooldown is reset.

(10) |

Hey,

Thanks for your feedback, however, I don't really get where you're coming from. I have mentioned how to utilize properly in my abilities section and I agree that alongside with are the hardest mechanics for , and therefore the hardest for a beginner to understand. But I don't get how a player isn't going to understand how as an ability works.

I don't really understand your point of how "they aren't aware of how her E works while dashing". I don't see how a player is not meant to know how works with ?. They are two completely separate abilities and don't have any unique interactions, so I don't see how a player is going to think that using is going to interfere with , surely if they just read or watch the videos of her abilities they will understand how to use the ability?

Also, you mention "and while auto attacks are still flying". I do agree that I should mention this and I will add it, however, this is not beginner advice, a beginner has much bigger things to worry about than timing their rend with their autos which is more of an experienced mechanic that you will learn as you play more and more

(4) |

It's a great guide to get into the champion, my Bulgarian brother!
The champion is a bit difficult, but I was just thinking of buying her and was searching for guides to get that basic knowledge before I jump in blind. Looking forward on posting the results of my endeavors and adventures with Kalista in near future. Thanks for the good guide, keep up the good work!

(10) |

No worries, good luck with the games :)

(4) |

After playing her, Kalista is heavily dependent on the support to peel her and to use the ultimate, especially if they use the ultimate in most ******ed fashion. I had few games with her and she is a very powerful champion, but I would not recommend her unless your support is premade.

(8) |

Get Me To Platinum!

(10) |

Get me to diamond! :D

(2) |

So the reason you can poke them, if because they need to focus on farming, and using their auto attacks on killing minion instead of damaging you, so if you have killed the wave and you have nothing else to AA, then if you AA the enemy laner they either have to take the damage and carry on farming, or AA you back but loose CS. Btw, watch out for ganks and roams when pushing as you will obviously be very screwed if you get ganked and you're at the enemy tower.

(10) |

Yea that is obviously the only bad thing against hard pushing, you need to watch the enemy jungler to make sure that you don't die to a gank

(2) |

yep

(1) |

Good guide i will try it!

(10) |

Thank you, hopefully you carry your boosted team and get challenjour :)

Funnily enough kalista plays similarly to tracer in heroes of the storm. Both have a short auto attack range, and both really like to dodge skillshots as much as possible

(10) |

No i-****ing-dea who tracer is :)

I love this build but I have one thing I would add to it. Instead of getting a defensive item you can also get a rageblade which boosts bother her damage with bork and her e which is insane when stacked up. If there isn't anything like a malzahar gettin you down I would totally reccomend this item if there isn't any large threats that you can't dodge or something like that.
Edit: saw someone else discussing this item too but I have to say a ga is not always the most uesful item, frozen mallet can be redundant with how you kite faster than they walk sometimes, and you really don't always need a maw. I understand your view but with someone like taric who has insane peel even when not totally right next to you you can get away with items like this.

(10) |

Hey,

A defensive item isn't necessary, I don't think I've ever said it is. 95% of the time a defensive item is needed but there are games which it isn't and you can replace that with another offensive item, however if you do choose to go for no defensive item I don't think is the best option, as you've probably read.

The reason I think that is because a is a better alternative. You obviously can't build both and (otherwise your way over the attack speed limit with ), and from my experience is better, here's why;

1. A lot of 's attack speed is wasted. When you martial poise there is a limit to how much you can do it, so for example you can't get 2.5 attack speed and like lunatic because there is a cap, so even though gives more attack speed than a lot of it is wasted while using . (I'm pretty sure that does surpass the attack speed limit, so you definitely don't need more attack speed]]

2. does more damage. Although gives you +18 attack damage, that is nowhere near how much you can get from 's crit, because if you add the 's crit with 's crit, you get 50%, which is better than 's +18 AD, and you also don't have to auto 6 times for it :)

3. It costs 1000 more gold, I mean that's enough said

I could name more points but I don't want to make you read an entire essay so this is it for now if you have any more questions ask them and I'll answer :)

Hopefully, this helped :)

(11) |

nice guide dude!! keep up the good work

(10) |

thank you mate

Hey thank you for this guide, i found kalista amonth or so ago and i never was a adcplayer at all(mid lane) but i gotta a champ shard for her and i fell in her cold hands lol. so shes now my fav adc and u helped with builds and ideas so thanks mate. currently need 2 more mr rank 7 tokens until shes got the blue ribbon :D

(10) |

Thanks man, I'm glad I could help :)

How come you don't build IE but have two crit items? Thanks

(10) |

I don't build because of two reasons, the first is that 's autos only use 0.9% of her total AD, so building AD isn't very useful and secondly, the two crit items aren't built for the crit rather for the attack speed, the crit is just there for the bants :)

I tried it and for my Opinion it deals to less dmg

(10) |

Hey, could you send me a match where you feel like you don't do enough damage, because with at the moment, there is only really one build and it is this one so I don't see why you feel like you aren't doing any damage

I recommand changing the Phantom and the Lord in the first build and but in like a Death Dance
or BT

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(10) |

But that would lower your damage, is the most aggressive third item you can get thought, if you read on at the bottom of the guide I do say how is an alternative 3rd item, and as for , it's a situational item and is needed for most sitatuions against tanky teams

I mad 2 Kalista games today
In the first I started with your build:
It was very good in Early --> Mid game
But lategame was horrible my aa only dealt like 200 dmg
although enemy had less Armour
So I sold items and bought a BT
(talking about the first itembuild)
In the Second :
I was very Strong again
But Dealt way more dmg in mid game and late game
And it just felt good to deal so much dmg with aa and E

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(10) |

As mentioned in a previous comment, the is an example item, if you read on into the guide I mention how you can choose your items depending on how well you are doing, normally if you come out of the laning phase massively ahead, I recommend as it will give you a lot more damage in the mid and since your already ahead you will be even more unstoppable. for every other situation

Hello , i really like your guide , concerning the ultimate , during mid/late game is it better to switch it on another champion like the jungler/toplaner ?? , 1st for the w passive since the support will propably not be able to hit after 2sec and also a way to save an important champion ( like jungler for example) or to engage with , sorry for my poor english :/

(10) |

I've never actually tried it and now you mention it, it could work. The main reason that it might not work is that the passive attack speed may be lost as you most likely won't be with anyone else but your support.

Also, it wouldn't work that well with an assassin as they won't want to be engaging a fight as they will most likely be looking for picks or flanks, and with tanks, it might not work as they normally won't need the defensive side of the ult

This is why it is so good with supports, as they shouldn't be in the heart of a fight like a tank, or playing defensive/not engaging like an assassin/mage. Perfect for your ult pretty much :)

(625) |

You can't switch it once you've bound it to someone though. :P You can rebuy the item but it's useless. Maybe you can switch it within the first few minutes in case of a misclick, but it doesn't allow you to just rebind it to anyone else after laning phase.

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That really sucks when your support's internet goes out lol. Why did they do something like that?

(57) |

It's at 3 mins you can no longer re-bind

(10) |

Not gonna lie, never knew that, learn something new everyday xD. Cheers for letting me know guys

Hi!

I just want to ask you what do think of the 6.24 PBE changes that Kalista is likely going to recieve. As you know, Kalista isn't in the best spot right now and the Fervor changes made her even weaker IMO. The new changes allow her to get Rend stacks even when Rend is on CD now.

Here is another part changed in her E
Minimum units killed for mana cost refund and cooldown reset trigger decreased to 1 from 2.

How impactful will these changes be and will Kalista be back in the meta again?

PS I do like your guide, It is the best Kalista guide i've seen so far!

(10) |

Hey,

Thanks mate! :)

As for the Kalista changes, I like that she's getting buffed but in my opinion, these buffs aren't going to change Kalista much, and if they are, it's going to make Kalista easier to play which I don't like.

In my opinion, I actually think Kalista is broken at this moment. I don't know why, but every time I play her I seem to get fed and carry games. I don't know if it's because anybody really knows how to play against her or if it's something else.

I do like that her Rend will now refund mana on 1 unit kill. It'll make it much more useful in lane now. But for the buff that she'll still get spears when her rend is on cool down is very nice but if you were a good Kalista, you would never miss your rend anyway. Also, in team fights if you mess up rend at the start, I still think that the cooldown is too long for it to be used for another kill.

But it's still buffs and I like her current state so I'm not complaining :)

(625) |

wrote:

but if you were a good Kalista, you would never miss your rend anyway.

Not really, since even if you kept track of the exact amount of spears and exactly how much damage you do with X amount of spears, the damage you do still differs depending on how much armor your target has, which is constantly changing, and you often can't tell an enemy's HP just by looking at their HP bar either, so when to with isn't something you can consistently know every time, and you can hardly alt tab to check your spreadsheet in the middle of a fight either.

The only way to never "mess up" is to be really conservative with it and making sure you only ever use it as overkill, which is a waste of time and damage and so is an inefficient use of , even if it guarantees it'll never go on cooldown.

Currently the way works punishes you very hard for mistiming by using it early, but punishes you very little for mistiming by using it as overkill, even though both are mistakes of the user. This buff just makes the punishment of using it early slightly more equal to that of using it late, meaning it's not a disaster if you 1 auto-attack too early like it currently is.

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(10) |

Good point, but in the lane, I don't think it's that bad if you hold on to your rend to make sure you get a kill. In a 2vs2, if you're winning the fight and if you have a lot of rend stacks in the ADC, they'll normally just try and run away, so saving your rend until the last moment isn't that much of a worry as most of the time the support isn't likely to kill you (unless they have a zyra, brand, ext)

Furthermore, it's much easier to predict the rend damage in the early, fewer defenses means fewer spears to kill the enemies so if you are an experienced Kalista player it shouldn't be "too much" of an issue

However in the late game I do agree with you, its very hard to predict spear damage so, as you said, I normally just rend when I know they're 100% going to die from it. In team fights it seems to be the best option as without rend, in my opinion, it feels like you do literally no damage. The only time I really mess it up is when my team gets a pick and I get greedy and I don't get the killing blow.

But about the buff, I think it will make her stronger but still, if you miss rend, at max rank the CDR is 8 seconds (not counting CDR items), and in 8 seconds a lot will happen in a team fight and you will, most of the time, be missing a lot of potential damage

But anyhow, I can't predict the future, I'll have to play the buffs to really see what I should be doing so I can't say I'm correct yet :)

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