Hey, welcome to my Kalista guide. I have spent days and days of endless effort trying to create this guide as there is a lot to learn about Kalista. I started playing Kalista as soon as she got released onto the public servers so I have a lot of experience with her. She was the champion that got me to transition from a jungle main to and AD carry main. With all the months of practicing and trying different builds, I hope to bring all my knowledge of Kalista into this one guide so you as a player can improve and carry all those mid or feeds on your team.

My name is Marco but I'm mostly known as "Epic Fail Guy" and my in-game name "RNX Lauta". I live in a small town located in the south of England. I have Bulgarian origins and I know how to speak it but I've lived in England all my life, I only go to Bulgaria in the summer on holiday to meet my grandparents and cousins. I started playing League of Legends in early season 4 when one of my friends introduced me to the game. At first, I found league very boring and I was a massive Starcraft II fan, I was obsessed with Starcraft as I was climbing very fast in the ranked ladder. After I installed League I only played around 5 games before I pretty much quit it. But then one day, around two months later, when I was on holiday I found out that one of my friends I met played League as well. At the time I was level 10 and a real newbie so I decided to play some more to level up my account. Before I knew it I was hooked, I don't know how but I just loved the game all of a sudden. I couldn't play with the friend that I met on holiday because I'm on the EUW server while he was on EUNE but I still had my other friend back in England to play with. Through the long months of levels 1-30, I finally managed to get level 30 and unlock ranked! When I did my placements it was season 5 preseason and I won a whole one game. No, seriously I won 1 and lost 9 and got placed into Bronze 2. And of course being the LCS player I was I managed to get myself down to bronze 4. Now during all this, I was a jungle main and a pretty bad one. As soon as season 5 hit, I did my qualifiers again and got bronze 4, then, one staggering day, I changed to main ADC. All of a sudden I started winning and went on an 11 game ranked win spree with my premade partner, me playing Kalista and him playing Blitzcrank. I managed to get myself up to silver and then I just carried on with a normal league life, getting Silver 2 at the end of season 5, Platinum 5 at the end of season 6 and currently Platinum 2 in season 7.

✓ Great Kiting

❌ Skill Dependent

✓ Can Wall Hop

❌ Bad Against CC

✓ Can Save Support

❌ Bad Late Game

✓ Strong Early/Mid

❌ No Burst

✓ Free Vision

❌ Relies On Support

✓ Good Chasing

❌ Requires High Communication

In my opinion, Kalista's pros overcome her cons. I still regard her as one of the strongest, but hardest AD carries in the game. With experience, you'll come to realize that these cons don't mean anything. One thing I should say is that you should look to have some communication with your support as to proc Sentinel's passive you both need to auto attack within a short amount of time. Also, you need to tell your support when you're going to ult so they know when to get ready




Kalista very skills independent, first of all, she is very short ranged. You need to know what you can go aggressively into and what not to as one wrong move could cost you your life and in the late game, potentially the game. Another reason is that Martial Poise is very hard to master. It's hard to get used to it, but once you get the hang of it, it's very easy. Just keep in mind that you should always be using Martial Poise, enemies can always throw abilities at you so just keep dashing around just in case.





Kalista is very weak to CC and especially slows, this is because of her Martial Poise. Slowing and using CC on her heavily decreases the rate at which you jump with Martial Poise. If you do get CC'ed I recommend either buying a Quicksilver Sash or just not using Martial Poise. Just stand there and attack them like a usual AD carry but obviously this very dangerous as you are vulnerable to skill shots.



Kalista has a weak late game for many reasons. For one, in the late game it's much harder to execute a killing Rend. This is because in team fights, normally the person you're focusing is being focused on by at least one more player. Obviously, if there are more people focusing someone they are going to die faster and the faster they die the fewer spears you'll be able to land.

This means your Rend is doing less damage and is harder to time so that it kills the enemy. This is also because whenever in a team fight, when allies see a low enemy they will instantly change focus to them, especially in low elo (pretty much only in low elo). So you've got to deal with trying to kill someone while not having many spears in them and having the risk of them being burst down. If you do end up missing the Rend it can damage your overall damage in the team fight by a lot. Obviously, you can just not use Rend but you'll again, loose a lot of potential damage.

Furthermore, another reason why you're bad in the late, is just because of your scaling and item power spikes. Your main items, Blade of the Ruined King and Runaan's Hurricane are very mid-game oriented items and they fall off in the late



Synergy is key, when I play Kalista, my support always needs to be on alert. Now I mostly play with a premade support but when I don't, most times when I ult my support delays the engage as they didn't expect me to ult as being a Kalista main with over 600 games I know when to engage is the small window of opportunity. In most cases, common supports won't spot this at first but as you play with them more, they will begin to realize.

Here's another reason why - With the recent addition to her W ( Sentinel), it now states that while she is near her Oathsworn, Kalista gains 10 - 27% (based on level) bonus attack speed. This is a huge part of Kalista's kit. If your support dies your overall damage output is cut massively. Having a good support means they will die less and stay near you so you can deliver the necessary damage to win the team fight





This is the best maxing option, R > E > Q > W. Rend is your main source of damage so you should max that, Pierce is the second most useful as it has decent damage, can be used to clear waves faster and build more rend stacks

Kalista has a unique skill set, she brings a new auto attack feature with her passive, Martial Poise. Her W, Sentinel, is the first mobile ward that can be targeted to move along a far distance. Her E, Rend is a new stacking mechanic, making Kalista need to auto attack her target multiple times to increase Rend damage. Finally, her Ult Fate's Call is a great initiation that can knock up enemies for quite some time. Also, it can be used to save your support when they get low enough in a fight.

Martial Poise RANGE: 250 / 300 / 350

Ability Explination Kalista cannot cancel her basic attack wind-up. Additionally, her basic attacks only deal 90% AD physical damage. If Kalista enters a movement command while winding her basic attack or Pierce, she dashes a short distance in the target direction, scaling with her boot tier. Additionally, Kalista begins the game with a unique item, Black Spear. When used Kalista hurls The Black Spear at the target allied champion, beginning a short ritual. Upon finishing the ritual, the target becomes Oathsworn to her for the remainder of the game.

We all know the passive, oh god the kite is insane. This is the key in Kalista. If used correctly she can juke every skill shot with ease. Always try to martial poise when fighting because the enemies can throw their abilities at you any second.


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Pierce DAMAGE: 10 / 70 / 130 / 190 / 250

Ability Explination Kalista hurls a fast and narrow spear, dealing physical damage to the first enemy hit. If Pierce kills its target, the spear continues onward, passing all Rend stacks from the dead victim to the next enemy it hits. This can repeat indefinitely until the spear reaches its maximum distance.

Her Q is useful but doesn't do much damage in my opinion. It's useful for landing an extra spear in someone to rend and to proc Sentinel's passive. BUT, the main tool in this kit is if Pierce kills its target, the spear continues onward, passing all Rend stacks from the dead victim to the next enemy it hits. This can repeat indefinitely until the spear reaches its maximum distance. This, my friend, is massive damage if executed correctly. Instead of building stacks of rend, 1 Pierce and they have stacks in them. This passive is VERY hard to execute but if done is INSANE.

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Sentinel DAMAGE : 5 / 7.5 / 10 / 12.5 / 15%

Ability Explanation If Kalista and her The Oathsworn ally land a basic attack against the same target within 2 seconds of each other, the target takes bonus magic damage. While near her Oathsworn, Kalista gains 10 - 27% (based on level) bonus attack speed. MAXIMUM NON-CHAMPION DAMAGE: 75 / 125 / 150 / 175 / 200 Damage is capped against minions and monsters and executes minions at 125 health or less. This effect cannot occur on the same target more than once every 10 seconds. ACTIVE: Kalista commands a soul to move to the target location, which then returns to a point near the cast location and repeats its route, up to a total of 3 laps. The Sentinel provides Sight icon sight in a cone in front of it and if it spots an enemy champion, screams and stalks them for the next 4 seconds

This is great poke if used. The damage is very high in the early, always check when it's available and make sure to use it when possible. This works best with a pre-made support that you have voice communication with so you both know when to go for the auto attack.

As for the active, it is a useful ability that is best sent either into the enemy jungle or patrolling the river. A little trick with the sentinel is that if you command it to go to dragon pit it can actually get stuck there meaning it'll last until it gets killed. A nice trick for a free ward


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Rend DAMAGE: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60

Ability Explanation Kalista's basic attacks and Pierce each leave a spear in her target for up to 4 seconds, stacking infinitely. ACTIVE : Kalista rips all spears from nearby enemies, dealing physical damage and Slow icon slowing them for 2 seconds. Spears beyond the first deal reduced damage. DAMAGE PER ADDITIONAL SPEAR: 10 / 14 / 19 / 25 / 32 (+ 20 / 22.5 / 25 / 27.5 / 30% AD) SLOW: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45% If Rend kills at least one target, its cooldown is reset. If Rend kills one or more targets, it refunds 30 mana.

This ability is Kalista's main damage source. Make sure you have enough stacks to kill the target before using rend. You learn how much damage you'll do with Rend the more you play Kalista. In my opinion, you shouldn't use the slow unless you're chasing someone with your team. Using it for the damage is way more worth and less risky. Even though you can still build up spears in enemies while Rend in on cooldown, in a team fight, your most likely going to need to use your Rend before it comes off cooldown, so be careful to not miss it


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Fate's Calll KNOCKUP DURATION: 1.5 / 1.75 / 2

Ability Explanation Kalista draws her Oathsworn ally next to her, placing them in Stasis stasis for 4 seconds. During Fate's Call, Kalista's Oathsworn can click on the target location to dash there, stopping at the first enemy hit. Knocking up all surrounding enemies and landing themselves at their attack range from the target.

This ability is great if you have a tank support because you can engage with the ult. This still works with squishy supports if your support knows what they're doing because the enemies can easily turn on the support. When in a team fight, use this ult not much as an engage but more as a follow-up. When your team engages, let your support use their abilities then ult them so they can CC the enemies.


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Blade of the Ruined King Build

This is the build I go for most of the time. The attack speed and dueling potential from Blade of the Ruined King is great in the early and perfect for picks in team fights. Also, it can help you either catch up to an enemy or kite away because of the active slow. Furthermore, the Runaan's Hurricane second is a massive power spike as you can now rend multiple enemies and with the 20% crit chance your spears can now crit multiple targets which will increase your overall damage in a team fight


Bloodthirster First Build

This build I rarely build but it can work. The early life steal means you can stay in lane for a lot longer and farm up to become a big threat in the mid game. An item that works well with this build is a Cull because with the increased life steal you can stay in lane to farm up. Also, when going for this build, I suggest you build your Berserker's Greaves around the time you get you B. F. Sword because you lack the attack speed in the early.

Blade of The Ruined King - This is a very nice item on Kalista. It gives her a resonable amount of attack speed, a very respectable amount of life steal. The slow on the active is also a good way to make your enemy less mobile. This item greatly boosts Kalistas dueling potential, something that she really lack. This is why I reccomend that you build this fist

Runaan's Hurricane - Runaan's is a must buy for Kalista. The attack speed is amazing and the area of effect spears make rending do even more damage to multiple targets. Also, the 20% critical strike chance is very nice especially if you build an Infinity Edge later on

The Bloodthirster - A really nice item to go for in my opinion, the life steal is very neat especially when your kiting and regaining all your health back. Also, the extra attack damage comes in handy so your auto attacks with Runaan's Hurricane do extra damage to the enemies

Infinity Edge - I'm not the biggest fan of this item but if you're ahead this item is insanely strong. You usually build this item after you finish your Runaan's Hurricane so you get 50% critical strike chance firing from multiple spears at once. If you are to take this item make sure you can stay alive in team fights as you're replacing Bloodthirster for extra damage and less sustain

Lord Dominik's Regards - Awesome item to tear open those big tanks. I would recommend taking this item nearer the end of your build as there are better items to be building during the mid game. Obviously if you feel that the enemy team is very tanky you can build a Last Whisper or just buy a straight out Lord Dominik's Regards

Mortal Reminder - This item is like Lord Dominik's Regards but you build this to inflict Grievous Wounds upon the enemy. This is best for when their team have champs like Vladimir Soraka and Warwick.

Phantom Dancer -This item is currently very strong in season 7. Due to the new buffs so assassins your going to be finding yourself in many 1vs1 situations and the passive of Phantom Dancer will come in much handy. Also, if your not 1vs1ing, it still works when as assassin dives onto you, if you just auto attack him once, he will be doing less damage which will obviously come in handy

My runes for Kalista, and pretty much all AD carries is this. Everything about it is usual but maybe apart from the 4 Greater Glyph of Attack Speed. Personally, I love these glyphs because you don't need much MR in the lane as the main damage dealer is the AD carry. The extra attack speed definitely gives you an advantage over your laning opponent.




Another rune page I would recommend is going for flat Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist. This rune page is for fighting a support which isn't building AP and the enemies don't have many AP champions. This means in the late game you will have more MR to fight off the AP top/jungle/mid and if they don't have any AP you can still protect yourself against any magic damage abilities they have.



In summary, Kalista is a very powerful champion if built and played correctly and hopefully after reading all of my guide you have learned to become a better player. You can play Kalista in any ELO as she will work in all. I hope you've enjoyed my guide as I spent A LOT of time making it :) And as you've read the entire guide please could you just leave a like and comment something nice :) Thank you for your time and have a great day! :D