Hello all, Theblindfish here with my first Mobafire guide on the new ADC, Kalista. Kalista snagged my attention because I never play alone. I got into LoL because I had friends who played, and needed an ADC. So I mained Jinx. When Kalista came out (A champion based entirely around working with someone) I fell in love. Enough to write a Srategy guide around her. So, as to not waste any time, I present Theblindfish's Kalista build.

Pros

+Powerful Kite with passive
+Strong last hit capability
+Synergism with Support
+Massive Team Fight potential with ult


Cons

-Relies heavily on support
-Martial Poise is really hard to master
-VERY Skill based
-Nigh Unusable in Soloq

Runes

Quintessences

Greater Quintessence of Life Steal - The life steal quints grant much needed lane sustain for the early game. This allows you to stay in lane for long periods and prevent a pushy early game opponent from scaling over you.
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage - Helps through all stages of the game. Aids with last hitting in the early game, and gives you slightly more umph per hit through the late game. Could take attack speed instead, because Kalista loves both.

Marks

So, as previously stated, Kalista builds off of two things: Damage and Speed. Damage increases how hard she hits while speed increases how many spears she sticks (important for her E). So I split the marks as both Greater Mark of Attack Damage and Greater Mark of Attack Speed to represent this.

Seals

Greater Seal of Armor is a great seal. The armor bonus given keeps you alive early game against the opponents' ADC. Not having these means they'll win trades almost every time.

Glyphs

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist is the same idea as the seals. Without this, a pesky Teemo will kill you every time. Take these to balance the early game trades.

Masteries

Flash and Heal are by far the two most useful for Kalista. They both give escape capability and help null mistakes to ensure survival. Additionally, by taking heal that leaves your support open for taking spells like Exhaust.

Alternative options to Heal would be Teleport. Teleport allows you to grant board control to your team in the mid to late game. However, do note that through all stages of the game Kalista is severely nerfed without her soul-bound at her side. So in short, only take it if your support takes it. And if your support takes it, you're losing exhaust as well.

The Core Items

Berserker's Greaves will give you a much needed early game speed boost. As you progress, the Enchantment: Furor synergizes well with Martial Poise

Bloodthirster is amazing due to High Damage output, massive lifesteal, and a shield to help null the glassyness of ADCs. Should be your first buy after boots. Alternate choice if dealing with tank problems is Blade of the Ruined King

Runaan's Hurricane Gives massive attack speed for lots of spear sticks on multiple targets. No ADC benefits more from this than Kalista.

Defense (Take one)

This is, hands down, the best magic protection Kalista can get ahold of. The Magic resist is nice, and it increases the heal from Bloodthirster/ Blade of the Ruined King. The synergy with those two items in tangent with it being less counterable than Banshee's Veil makes it a must have versus AP opponents.
Frozen Heart is wonderful because it grants high armor, Cooldown Reduction for your Pierce, and reduces enemy movement speed to help give chase. Definite buy against AD opponents.
While this doesn't synergize as well as the other two, it certainly has some perks. Foremost, standing back up is crucial in a teamfight. The ADC is typically jumped first, so this allows you to return to the teamfight and actually do something. Additionally, Guardian Angel grants both armor and Magic Resist in one item, so as not to clog up your slots with defense.

Skill Sequence

This is a...unique sequence structure. Pierce is a must in the beginning for farming and poking. However, it won't be your first max. Your First max will be Rend to dominate trades. Rend is an un-dodgeable last hit for potentially massive damage. While you will want to pick up Sentinel at lvl 3, it'll be your last max because the vision doesn't get too much better and it leans too heavily on support aid for damage.

Abilities

Martial Poise is a difficult to master but very beneficial technique. The kite potential is great, but expect it to take a while to get proficient. Some notes to speed it up: Turn off auto-attacks, don't get target happy when choosing who to attack, and learn to time your jumps so as not to waste them.



Pierce is a strong farming technique that goes through targets it kills. It's range also makes it a good poke. Furthermore, it activates Martial Poise so it can be used to break. Throw it at the enemy, and jump away.



Sentinel gives you vision, and helps reduce the workload on your support. In addition, it increases damage if you and your soul bound target the same target. Make sure to mark your targets to benefit from this. And don't worry about KS's. The points go to you if the bonus damage gets the kill.



Rend Is where the damage is done. Smacks your enemy for damage based on the number of spears you've stuck in them. Use this as an unavoidable last hit as the try to flee. If it doesn't get them, it slows them so try to catch up.



MAKE SURE TO COMMUNICATE WITH THIS ABILITY. Throwing your typically squishy support at the bad guys is innately a poor choice unless they're prepared. However, it is a solid starter to team fights. More on that in tactica.

General pointers for Kalista:

Early game (1-5)
Poke heavily. Your Martial Poise give stout kiting ability, use it to stay out of range of your opponents. Use Pierce as a last hitter because it will also apply to targets behind the ones you kill. Kalista picks up around lvl 3 when she has all three of her non-ult abilities. Keep out of a team fight before this, and don't start a team fight unless you and your support are ready.

Mid Game (6-10)
This is your time to shine. Push hard, kite harder. Once again, a mastery of Martial Poise is critical to help outmaneuver your target. Use it to chase down runners, and damage as you fall back. Do it right and almost no melee champ should threaten you. Do it wrong and you'll be awkwardly standing there as the enemy team proceeds to rip you apart. During this phase, plan to leave your lane to help push elsewhere, but stick with your soul-bound.

Late Game (11-18)
Pray you've done well through mid game or you will fall behind here. Once again stick with your soul-bound or you're useless.

Fate's Call Tactica

Fate's call has a lot of versitile potential. On the surface, it's a fight starter knockup akin to Unstoppable Force but with your support. However, pair it with another support's cc ult and the REAL fun begins

1. Kalista/ Braum
Braum is a solid choice to be tossed into the center of the enemy team because (unlike most supports) he can survive. For more fun, have Braum build a Ravenous Hydra for massive team stuns. A double lock-down like this will severely tilt the teamfight in your favor.

2. Kalista/ Orianna
Orianna's ult Command: Shockwave is another massive cc ult that has similar effects to a Ravenous Hydra Braum but faster. Problem with this? Orianna won't be on the mid lane.

3. Kalista/ Janna
Janna's Monsoon will devistate the enemy team after Fate's Call. However, Janna is the textbook definition of squishy. Don't expect her to make it out.

Any cool tips or tricks? Comment on them and I'll put them here.

Kalista is a seriously nasty ADC (so long as you're in the same room as your support) That aside, I see her as a serious game changer.

Questions? Comments? Did I spell something wrong? Feel free to comment so I can fix it.

Upvote if you liked, Downvote if you didn't. But if you pick the latter, tell me why so i can alter.

Happy Hunting
-Theblindfish