Hi, i'm Nik7857. I've bee playing League of Legends since season 5 both for fun and for ranked, and have managed to hit Platinum 3 in season 9. I'm making this guide for Kalista, because recently got back into playing her as I really enjoy her kit and aggressive early style, despite her current state in the meta.

Kalista is an adc with high mobility and high damage in extended fights. She wins early game easily and has a decent mid game, due to her amazing team fighting ultimate.

Kalista works well with communication, as her ultimate can be difficult to use with random supports, who probably don't even know what Kalista does. Due to this, it's probably best if you find a duo partner whom you can communicate with.

I think Kalista has potential to be a strong adc this season, due to the emphasis on the elemental drakes. Winning botlane is key to securing dragons and winning botlane is what Kalista does best.

Starting Items

The best start for Kalista for almost every situation.

Only take this into matchups where you are going to be poked down (double poke) Eg. Caitlyn and Zyra/ Morgana or Draven and Brand.


First Items (CORE)

This is the best item to rush. It gives you attack speed to help stack rend, and it increases your movespeed as well as your jump distance.

This is core on Kalista it gives: Lifesteal, attack speed, damage, hp% damage, and an active that helps with kiting and chasing.



Third Item (Pick One)

This gives you attack speed, wave clear, and most importantly a way to stack Rend on multiple enemy champions. Average damage on multiple targets

This is a good item when ahead and you brought PTA as you rune(Makes up for the loss attack speed from not taking LT). It gives you a lot of attack speed, on hit damage, and a way to stack more spears on a single target. HIGH SINGLE TARGET DAMAGE



Other Options
WIP

Last hitting can be tricky but with Kalista due to her low damage auto attacks and her somewhat slow windup animation. Of course you will learn those things over time and it will no longer be a problem. You can also use your E, Rend, and your Q Pierce, to help you cs. This works best if you are ever in situation in which you would lose a minion because you had to auto another. You can setup the minions with spears and the Rend multiple to secure all of them at once. Csing under tower is very easy with Kalista as you can use an auto then Rend to secure casters that take a turret shot.

Learn your damage and csing will be a breeze

This is my favourite part of Kalista. Kalista trades are really fun to execute but can be difficult to pull off. If you brought PTA your trades just got even better. The simplest trade is get three stacks of spears onto the enemy then use Rend. You can do this by autoing three times or using your Q Pierce once along with two autos. This will leave then enemy at about half hp and if played properly, you would have taken minimal damage.

Another important mechanic on Kalista is Rend resetting. You do this by killing a unit with Rend. Your E will be back up at you can continue to be a threat to the enemy. In trading this can be useful if you there is a minion around half hp and can be used to Rend reset in a trade.

To execute this you would auto the minion leaving at enough hp to die to Rend, then start a trade with an enemy and then pop Rend when they start to run. The enemy is now slowed and have taken damage and now you can hop your way to them and murder them :D.

The last thing to talk about is what makes Kalista, Kalista. Her passive Martial Poise. Her passive makes her unable to cancel her auto attacks, but lets her hop a certain distance in any direction. This pretty much makes her a kiting machine.

You can use this mechanic to dodge enemy abilities as well as position your self in the best position possible, to deal as much damage and be as safe as possible.

This is where Kalista shines. Kalista is at her strongest in the early game due to the amount of damage she has because of Rend. With that said, it's best to have aggressive support who have hard cc in there kit but can still peel ( Thresh).

As soon as you get to lane, immediately auto the minions and try to get to level 2 ASAP. Do note don't push to hard or you might end up with the wave just in front of their tower and they will freeze leaving you vulnerable to ganks and you unable to engage on them.

Be aggressive when your rend is up stack it on minions and then auto once (or how ever many times possible for a winnable trade) the enemy adc and then immediately use Rend and hop backwards.

Make sure your communicating with your support and tell ping, target on enemy or OMW to let them know you want to make a play. When 2v2ing you always want to focus one target down because the more stacks you have in a target the quicker it is they will die. NOTE: Always remember to save rend until after they have used heal. If your support lands cc on the enemy support and you start focusing them and they flash, switch targets if their adc is still fighting you. Remember that those stacks in the support are still there and you can still use rend on both targets if their adc starts to back off (maximizing you damage).

Once you've created a lead start pinging the dragon and tell your jungeler to make a play bot and secure Dragon. Once the enemy botlane tower is gone your job there is done. Ask if one of the solo laners (preferably mid) wants to switch. Your next job is to take mid tower and secure dragons.

(WIP)

This is my first MOBAFIRE Guide and I will be adding more to it later on. I hope it was somewhat useful, whether you needed it to see the current best build or you are new to Kalista.