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Kalista Build Guide by ColdStuff

Kalista Season 8 - The Spear of Vengeance Strikes!

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Kalista Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (16) More Kalista Guides

Runes:

Precision

Press the Attack

Triumph

Legend: Bloodline

Coup de Grace

Domination

Taste of Blood

Ravenous Hunter

Spells:

Flash

Heal

Recommended Items

Ranked #20 in
ADC Role

Win 47%

Get More Stats

Ranked #20 in
ADC Role

Win 47%

More Kalista Runes

Items

Start

Early Base

Ideal Core Build

Alternative Build Path

Defensive Itemization

Life Steal Options

Ability Order

Kalista Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Caitlyn

Extreme

In typical Caitlyn fashion, Kalista gets hard bullied by Kalista in a consistent 1v1 situation. Her immense range as well as fast disengage with (E) 90-Caliber Net, as well as the immense damage available from (P) Headshot. However, Caitlyn is really squishy and her base attack damage is somewhat poor. Spec into the Resolve tree as your secondary tree.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

Hello, my name is Kasarana and this guide is about Kalista ADC. You'll learn the fundamental skills of , what items to buy to best increase your chance of success, and how to play the game to help you climb out of low elo and carry games.

The Champion

Kalista is a highly mobile Attack Damage Carry with high engage potential and excellent utility. She brings a good early game, an excellent mid-game spike, and late game utility with her kit. Her unique cooperative strengths make her the most unique attack damage carry in the game.

In combat, she fulfills a niche that and simultaneously occupy. Highly mobile, and high utility. While Kalista doesn't have the amount of CC on demand does, or the burstiness of , she brings unparalleled mobility that can only be matched by a select few high mobile champs, such as or .

Kalista requires knowledge of mechanical nuances, cooperative ability, and the ability to make split-second decisions and high calibre focus on the area between you, your team, and the enemy.

Fundamentals of an ADC

~Coming Soon~

Items

Building Kalista (like any other champion) is not an unidirectional thing. Think of it more as a tree with sprawling branches that emphasize different traits and leaves at the ends. Your trunk (foundation) is usually your standard and . These items give you the offensive stats and passives you need to build the rest of your build path on.

There are a couple of important guidelines though.

Target AS value is around 1.7 - 1.8. This will give you the best trade-off between raw Attack Damage and decent Attack Speed for kiting, while reducing diminishing returns on Martial Poise. Any more, and you're likely over investing in Attack Speed.

Your analysis of what you really ought to buy should be based off of what you're against on a game-to-game basis. Sometimes, buying Berserker's Greaves will be unnecessary, or you might need to change your starting items. It's all about, what you want and what you need.

Boots
REMEMBER:

Your jump range scales with your boots tier! [Tiers are: No boots -> Normal boots ( ) -> Full Boots ( )]
[*] The speed of your jump animation scales with your movement speed and attack speed. If either one is reduced, you will jump slowly ('s ) or wish you were stunned instead (' )
[*] The jump frequency scales with your attack speed! The more you auto attack, the more you will jump
The jumprange values are close to:
[*] No boots - 250 units
[*] Boots - 300 units
[*] Berserker's Greaves or other Tier 2 boots - 350 units
That being said, here are the important options for Kalista
- nice boots, very good for beginners to prioritize. Gives you a good chunk of attack speed. These are Kalista's quintessential boots for most games.

- Good at negating physical threats whether by auto attacking or casting abilities, good pick up against or

- When there is simply so much CC flying around that it's very hard to dodge.

When you're against or . Gives you nice rotating power too.

Potential Candidates for Additional Items:
-> This item is heavily prioritized in almost every game. The stats are nifty against all magic damage and crowd control threats that sit in the midlane and the jungle, and enhance your ability to cleanse negative status effects, such as stuns or slows. This item is a must have if you're against a champion such as or . The component is the most important part of the item.

-> A very nice item indeed, it amplifies your survivability by giving you a shield that is utilized as a hybrid offensive and defensive staple for many ADCs.

-> This item is very common to take on Kalista, especially in the Far East and Europe. It amplifies your dueling power and gives you additional attack speed and critical strike chance. I would take it against the likes of , and .

-> This item greatly amplifies your survivability against heavy magic damage burst. The CDR is very nice and the shield is just the icing on the cake, extra combat stats greatly increase the value of this item for Kalista. Take it against your favorite (or least favorite) magic damage nuker, such as , , and .

-> Is making you go poof? Is bming /all chat because you died instantly? Yes? Well buy this, and you'll have a 27% higher chance of killing them instead! Guaranteed!

-> Still instapopping? Death's Dance has you covered, not only is it super effective against AD threats like and , it also gives you the time you might need to survive an AP mage's burst, Timberlake style!

-> a fun item, it's good for end game builds and enables you to stack Rend very quickly and deal a touch of magic damage.

Armor Penetration Itemization
-> Very useful against teams that are instakillng you, but you still need armor shred.

-> Very useful against the likes of supertanks, such as , , or

-> Very useful against drain-tanks,healing supports, and lifesteal gods such as , , , or

Runes

and are up to personal preference on Kalista, is best used by experienced Kalista players who know the nuances of her dashing, and can quickly and independently auto attack and move between the fluidly, whereas is good for those who are looking to pick up the champion, but still need a little help with specific nuances of the champion. Both are excellent choices in whatever game you may play.

From then on, it becomes stylistic and contextual, Keystones determine your overall playstyle, but secondary runes dictate your preferences. is my personal preference, but is still a viable option. Overheal is probably better against more heavy poke threats like or bursty champions like or . Whereas Triumph is a solid choice for transitioning from a fight to a fight. is unimportant on most champions, so we won't consider that.

On the Legend side, you can pick between , , and . All three are really nice choices, but most will spec into , you can model your rune choices by the proplayer examples given below.

The final slot is reserved for the Combat Tree of Precision. In general, Coup de Grace is generally the way to go, but there are fringe cases where Cut Down would be better

From then on, it becomes a little more contextual I like because it synergizes amazingly well with Kalista's excellent early game, and because it grants healing on your abilities like and . Try some other runes down the Sorcery, Resolve or Inspiration if you're looking to experiment with playstyles.

If you're looking to copy the best pro runes, here is what a collection of them run.

LCK

KZ PrAY:Arguably Best ADC of All Time
Precision + Sorcery: , , ,
,

SKT Bang: SKT ADC
Precision + Inspiration: , , ,
,

SKT Faker: Best Midlaner in the World (?) - has not played Kalista recently
Precision + Domination: , , ,
,

KSV Ruler: 2017 World Champion! (?) - has not played Kalista recently
Precision + Domination: , , ,
,

Precision + Resolve: Press the Attatck, , ,
, (Iron skin has been removed! Consider a different resolve rune!)

KT Deft: Alpaca Boy (?) - has not played Kalista recently
Precision + Inspiration: , , ,
,

Afreeca Kramer:
Precision + Sorcery: , , ,
,

bbq Ghost:
Precision + Inspiration:, , , / ,

Abilities

Kalista hurls a fast and narrow spear, dealing physical damage to the first enemy hit. If Pierce kills its target, the spear continues onward, transferring all of the dead victim's Rend.png Rend stacks to the next enemy it hits. This can repeat indefinitely until the spear reaches its maximum distance. It both applies and triggers , and applies a stack of

Use to poke from long distances, CS far away while your support is roaming or in base, etc. etc.

Neat Trick! This is pretty rare occurrence, and but you can stack on a neutral monster, such as or and continuously reset the camp over with help from if an enemy champion approaches, get the monster low, kill the camp with and pass all stacks of onto the enemy target. You'll instantly apply a huge amount of stacks and are able to an immense amount of burst.

Another Neat Trick!
enhances Kalista's mobility outside of combat, as it can trigger Martial Poise when there are no nearby enemies. Use it to hop over narrow walls, such as Dragon or Baron Pit, the wall behind Krugs or blue buff, etc.

PASSIVE: While Kalista and her Oathsworn are near each other, she gains 5/10/15/20/25 attack damage. Additionally, Kalista and her Oathsworn's auto attacks apply Soul-Mark

If both apply Soul-Mark within 2 seconds of each other, the target takes bonus magic damage, capped against non-champions, and cannot be Soul-Marked for 10 seconds. Soul-Mark executes minions below 125 health.
ACTIVE: Kalista summons a Sentinel by her side to scout the target area.

Neat Trick! Use Sentinel to scout Baron and Drake Pit, it's one of the freest forms of vision in the game. (except maybe , or )

Kalista's basic attacks and each lodge a spear in her target for up to 4 seconds, stacking up to 254 times. (let's be real, you're not getting to 254 stacks in a teamfight)

If Rend kills a target, the cooldown is refunded, and Kalista gains back 10/15/20/25/30 mana.

composes the vast majority of Kalista's burst, so keep an eye on how many rend stacks you have in the targets you want to DPS and chop up.

Neat Trick! Rend's range is not fixed, it can be extended by attaching a Rend stack on another enemy in the general direction of your primary rend target.

Kalista draws her Oathsworn ally next to her, placing them in 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, Airborne icon knocking up all surrounding enemies and landing themselves at their basic attack range relative to the target hit.

Most of 's power is concentrated into the level that your support is on with you. Communcation will be key into the timing and usage of good Fate's Call

Skills

Stellar positioning is something that Kalista can easily achieve with highly characteristic dashing and good mechanics. Here are some tips to help you deal with your team tabbing up that Vaynespotting points on you

1. Be wary of threats to you.
Where's ? Where's ? Where's ? Good ward coverage can help, but it won't really help much if they just ignore all wards because they're snowballing. Stay with your Soulbound or team, coordinate well and be careful. You're the squishiest ADC in League barring or .

2. Please don't dive the back line.
I can't stress it to you enough, you need to kite tanks so that way you can shred through them and hopefully avoid their immense host of CC, which will often defeat the purpose of diving backline, and get you killed which results in an approximate effective damage of 0!

3. Use Martial Poise well
It's more of a mechanical issue than a raw gamesense idea, time your clicks so you get an excellent feeling of what to do what, when and where.

4. Know the individual match-up, and adapt
Often times, you'll be facing a champion that is either weaker , or stronger than you in the early game. So while you might want to normally go really aggro on normally, or passively against , individual skill will probably matter a lot. Is the Vayne somehow way better than you in lane? Play a little back and wait for your jungler to come. Is the Draven dropping axes like hell? Play aggro against him. Don't let your ego get to you and be RATIONAL and LOGICAL.

In addition, botlane is a 2v2 lane, don't ever underestimate the power that the support brings within that lane, even if it is a relatively weaker early game support like . Supports can make or break a bot lane, so respect their own damage output.

Combinations down Bottom Lane

RANGED SUPPORTS
In general, ranged supports are inferior to melee ones for Kalista, primarily because of the fact that they can't engage as hard with due to their frailty, however, they have an easier time to proc than melee ones.

support is fairly uncommon nowadays botlane, but she is an effective engage tool with - or .

support brings a bursty, unusual form of botlane in which in most games, Brand will probably out damage you. Use in a 2v2 to protect Brand from an ultimate or CC, or elongate the CC chain he does when he a target afflicted with . You'll need to primarily play around what does in these situations?

support is quite good with Kalista, in both it's offensive and defensive applications and help significantly with Kalista's lacklustre late game. Engaging with and can quickly both engage and disengage fights.

support is fair with Kalista, and can make for some really nutty plays. It's up to Janna to make tactical decisions with

support is rather bad with poor Kalista. You may establish the dominance in lane with Karma's poke from and , but her kill pressure is super low compared to how much damage she deals with Q and RQ, and the MS buff on and isn't very useful because Kalista doesn't benefit as much from Movement speed as she does with Attack Speed

support offers situationally good engage power if he happens to land Double and a very broken ultimate in at the expense of lower utility compared to most supports. Still, if he manages to pull a dime-in a dozen double bomb, a quick can quickly send the enemy team into grey screens.

MELEE SUPPORTS

support is on paper quite good, you have the extra range on his auto attack so he can apply and trigger with relative ease. The problem is his lack of innate tankiness that is supplemented by his passive which is based on time, and his inconsistency in the echelons of solo Q.

is in the same power point as Thresh, with more raw pick potential as opposed to lower utility and AoE cc. Still in combination with can quickly pull a backline carry into the direct middle of your team. Offering no possible chance of escape.

is an excellent partner with Kalista, Braum brings decent kill pressure in lane with and , given how easily Kalista can stick to her target, in tandem of Braum’s tankiness with and the additional engage power with gives high amounts of playmaking potential. Excellent support.

is an absolute nightmare with Kalista, the immense engage with and the accessibility of in tandem of practically guarantees a Charm + Knock-Up combo that guarantees havoc on both the frontline and backline of any team. provides sustain in lane. also Excellent support.

makes excellent plays in tandem with Kalista. and creates a super-hard engage that is both disorienting and effective to set up for time to stack and . gives good sustain in lane. Their 2v2 all-in is amazing.

is a good play-maker and pairs well with Kalista due to his long range engage potential with his hook and her ability to cover him when he's in danger.

COMPOSITIONS TO AVOID and PICK

is naturally a team-oriented Attack Damage Carry pick, as a result, she may be more situational that most ADCs. If you're looking to pick Kalista up as a more situational pick as part of your ADC repertoire, there are some key guidelines to use when playing with Kalista

Avoid picking with:

Low DPS/ Burst compositions:
utility midlaners such as , most tanks toplane or in the jungle, non-scaling jungle bruisers such as or .
REASONING: Kalista already has mediocre late game DPS as it stands due to her lack of steroids and 90% AA scaling.

INSTEAD PICK: , ,

Split pushing compositions:
,,

REASONING: Kalista likes to force 5v5 with her powerful engage with Fate's Call, splitpushers force her team to play back and waveclear. In the case of midlane assassins, if they group up with their team, then it maybe acceptable with Kalista, but more often then not, it's not going to happen in higher elo, and you're also not playing to a champion's strength.

PICK INSTEAD: ,

Avoid picking against:

Heavy Slow Compositions:
I.E. , , ,,, ,

PICK INSTEAD: , , , ,

EDIT HISTORY

9th of September, 2017 - added a couple more supports to match with, adding midlane threats as well.
31st of October, 2017 - Spooky edits
7th of November, 2017- Preseason is go.
20th of November, 2017- TLC
6th of December, 2017[/b}- a bit of readability
6th of July, 2018- midseason update