About myself: I´m a rather new player on EUW, currently ranked in Gold III who enjoys playing stuff that doesn´t belong into the current meta, which doesn´t mean it wouldn´t work (Like Ahri or Syndra jungle). So at some point I started trying Kalista somewhere else (I consider myself a horrible ADC) and found that you could actually use her as a beyond decent support! But just read on and see how it´s supposed to work:


First of all: Why Kalista support?

Let me rephrase that question for you: Why wouldn´t I want to have a free GA on my lane?
-That´s right, there is no reason not to.


The lengthened answer is still pretty simple: She can be a real badass support that can counter pretty much everything (except incredibly high burst coming out of nowhere) and at the same time boost the damage of your ADC like no other if you know how to utilize her qualities thoroughly.

The key is simply to think of her not as an ADC, but as a utility tool for your ADC that can very well be built like a full tank support, all you need to do in lane is harass, that´s it.

If you feel like a normal support is just a bit too boring or if you are one of the guys who dislike playing support anyway (unlike me actually), you will love what happens when you pick Kalista as a support. The reactions go from people picking supports to support you (you need to clarify that you ARE the support), to some questions on your sanity to a whole team wanting to report you before the game even started.
The outcome however, will be an ADC that carries the whole team to victory and bursts down everything with ease and is almost impossible to catch, if you manage to stay at their side at all times and you both know what to do.


Work in Progress!
I´ll be updating the formating of this guide over the next few days and hopefully finish the bigger part by then, pictures for explaination are supposed to be coming in the future!

Pros

+ Long ranged, mobile vision + INCREDIBLY high poke + Mobile Zhonyas for your ADC! + The (IMO) best Ultimate an ADC could wish for in lategame + Large variety of items + Ranked champion + Heavily Underestimated + Perfect for baiting + High mobility through passive + Perfect support item synergy. + Free Luv!

Kalista is an amazing support, despite never being ment to be one! Your vision is amazing if you have even a slightest bit of map control and you can see invades coming without risking to die. Your ultimate is the perfect lifesaver against any kind of channeled or predictable ultimate and can save at least one butt from getting rekt by a gank or roam and sometimes even turn it into a tripple kill! Once you´ve had your first "I love my support", you´ll get high and won´t want to play another support, trust me!

Pros

+ Tends to heavily fall behind in early game if focused for easy kills + Ultimate needs timing + Sucks against hard CC on herself + Garbage if poorly played + Useless without Oathsworn + Requires understanding + Very low damage on her own

I´ve at least heared about people screwing up their ADCs kills by using their ult too early and actually forcing them out of the fight, I´ve just been lucky I guess. It´s obvious why you suck against hard CC, your Ult might ignore any CC on your Oathsworn, but you can´t use it while you´re stunned yourself. Since all your useful abilities are useless without your oathsworn you have to retreat pretty much as soon as your ADC is dead, if he/she happens to be AFK you can just get a new Blackspear though. She also requires understanding of the mechanics behind the whole Kalista Support thingy to be properly utilized, especially by your ADC who has to act the moment you mark someone.

> > >

As all your damage and lane pressure is coming from your W´s passive, you will want to start with it and max it first. Have everything skilled at lvl 3, whether you skill your Q or E at lvl 2 is up to you and depends on how often your ADC pokes with Autoattacks. You´ll usually want to max your E afterwards to have your small damage peake so you can somewhat help your ADC win and finish off low squishies on your own (enemy supports that is, not ADCs)

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Martial Poise: If right-clicking somewhere on the screen while performing an Autoattack or using Pierce, Kalista will perform a short jump towards your courser.

This is your passive and your best friend at some times as you can easily perform a little catch-up to poke both fleeing bot-laners without risking to lose one of them. You may also use it to escape especially if you´ve built a Frozen Mallet and an attackspeed-item, as your jump range is increased if jumping backwards.
Jump-Range scaled with boot-tier, though I honestly don´t really "feel" any difference there.



Try to use Martial Pose to move in Zic-Zac style to make it harder to hit you with skillshots!

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Pierce: Kalista throws a spear in a straight line towards your courser and allows you to perform Martial Poise even without any target nearby (once, that is) and activates the passive of Sentinel and adds a stack for Rend. Pierce scales with your AD by 100% and adds a small amount of damage to it, it also has a much higher range than your basic attacks have.

As this one usually comes in handy against enemies who hide below their turret after barely fleeing, you may sometimes use a Flash-Q Combo to finish off enemies with it, just keep in mind that you will barely deal any damage if you don´t trigger Sentinel with it. The passive of Sentinel is also why you steal most of your kills with Pierce, because you burn down the last 20% of a marked enemy in a single shot, so be careful with unnecessary killstealing.

• Use Pierce as a skillshot autoattack over walls you can´t see through or to check bushes, a certain sound indicates a hit.
• Combine Pierce with Rend to land a quick slow on a single, running enemy or to apply another slow on an enemy you didn´t mark for Rend yet.
• Pierce is faster than another autoattack if you use it right after attacking at low attackspeed, use this to land another shot that might make a difference.
• Pierce is a penetrating shot every time it kills a target hit, meaning that you may use up all your stacks on your support-item at once if you deal enough damage to the minions hit.

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Sentinel: Passive: Whenever you and your Oathsworn hit the same target with a basic attack (or you with Pierce) within 1,5 seconds, the enemy will take 12-20% (+2% per level) of their maximum health in magic damage. The cooldown per target remains at 6 seconds on each level.

This one is the best you have to offer as a support besides your ultimate and the reason why even ganking junglers can reproach in fear after losing their initial advantage of appearing "out of nowhere". This ability sadly doesn´t scale with anything, but the damage is so insanely high that anything else would be straight OP.

Active: Kalista uses up a charge to summon a Sentinel that moves towards a set point on the map, revealing and granting vision on every champion it finds. Charges can stack up to 2 and refill over a set time depending on skill-level.

This skill is the reason why you won´t suffer too much from not buying a [Sightstone], as you will have enough vision with you once you get to push the enemy back out of your turret.

• Your passive marks last longer than the visible marks, don´t be discouraged by the mark turning invisible, you may still trigger it a short time thereafter!
• The marks on your enemy looks differently depending on who actually market them, make sure you learn which one is yours and which one needs popping by you!
• Sentinel´s passive is the reason why the tanky support-item works so well on you, because the %-Health damage also trigger the sharing effect! just attack missions that are market and low on health, the risk of losing them due to too low damage are slim here.
• The passive´s damage is still YOUR damage, triggering it to kill an enemy will give you the kill, keep that in mind if you don´t necessarily have to take the kill.
• Don´t be afraid to use it for enemything you want, like checking if the enemy blue or red are up, the range allows you to!
• You can also clear your vision on a drake you know is taken, just make it fly into the pit.

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Rend: Passive: Your basic attacks and Pierce will linger on any target hit for a few seconds.

Active: All spears on any target will be torn out and deal a set amount of damage, with the first spear dealing a little more and any more spears dealing a set, lower amount of extra damage. Any target hit by Rend is also being slowed.

• Rend´s cooldown is being reset if you kill any target with it, use it to execute minions.
• All spears on a target will pass on the the next one of it is being killed by Pierce!
• Use the slow of Rend together with Pierce to apply a slow on targets you can´t reach otherwise or you can´t see, Pierce can be activated as long as a nearby target has a spear stacked on it.

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Fate´s Call: Fate´s Call is the ultimate ultimate ability to have on a support! Uppon activating it, your Oathsworn (your ADC) will be pulled into you, regardless of his own condition (as long as he´s not dead).While all kinds of buffs and debuffs remain, they can´t affect your Adc while he´s in Fate's Call, but their duration time will still go on, meaning that you can wait out an ignite! He may then click on a spot within range to shoot himself there to knock the first enemy he colides with up and land at the outer border of his basic attack range of that enemy.

• Fate´s Call can only be blocked by stunning Kalista herself, so you may and must always use it to save your ADC when he´s stunned in a dangerous situation, but don´t be too quick with it as you might get baited yourself!
• Use Fate´s Call to disengage if you see your ADC in a trap or about to die. (Pro tip: Try to bait some ultimates before activating, you risk losing your ADC then though)
• Your ADC has 4 seconds before he has to reactivate the ability and he can dash over walls with it, make use of that.
• Make use of flash or any other movespeed buff to enlarge the gap your partner has towards the enemy.
• Use your time to apply new marks on enemys if you don´t need to entirely disengage, your ADC is immune to any damage anyway!
• Your ADC shouldn´t panic if YOU die while he is still inside of you, he is still granted the full 4 seconds and can freely shoot himself
• You AND your ADC will see the range indicator for the shot, try to use this to your advantage by positioning yourself not too far away from another skppable wall!
• Consider not pulling your ADC out if they have an active GA up, if there´s still a teamfight going on, they might want to keep on fighting and be rescued by you later on!
• Once post 16 you may prettymuch always use it against any hard CC as your Cooldown has by now dropped to 54 seconds even with only 10% CDR, while even prior levels will feel like you had no cooldown at all.

In Lane:

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Pre 6:

Try to be the line between your ADC and the first enemy minions, taking cover behind your first minions. If an enemy champion comes up, poke them with an auto attack, jump back, reposition and hope that your ADC goes for the mark triggering shot. If he doesn´t after several times, inform him to do so, better ask people before the real laning phase starts if they know what to do (politely!). If the enemy comes up and refuses to poke back, you may jump from side to side and just keep poking, upgrading your E on lvl 2 would be a nice idea there.


In general, be the one who doesn´t deal any "real" damage, but still prevents the enemy laners from farming properly, just like any other support your laner will love his free farm!
Also, whenever you go to place a ward, have one eye on your adc to know when you have to come back in immediately! Also be the one who´s always got an eye on the map, if you push, you´ve got to be the one who warns your ADC about incoming danger!


Post 6:

Keep the normal lane positoning, but if your ghosts have caught something and your laner insists on farming and presuring, move behind him and just occasionally poke with your Q while you await the enemy jungler. If you feel like the threat is gone or you´ve got a new Sentinel up, send it towards where the old one died or wherever you need vision, reposition and go on farming/harassing.


On a side note: You´re not a double ADC lane, you are definitely not farming (on purpose)! The only exception is, obviously, to make use of your support item.


Post Laningphase:

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Stick with your ADC, no matter what! He´s your best friend and you´ve got to be the gum on their boots. If your ADC dies or recalls with you left somewhere on the map, just recall or stick to someone else if you don´t need to buy anything, you might be near useless, but just seeing 2 guys can be scary enough to avoid a fight you would lose.

Once you have a real teamfight your job is to jump around and get as many marks on near targets as possible to ensure your ADC doesn´t have to do all the work on his own. Keep an eye out for marks created by your ADC and pop them and also always have one eye right on your ADC! If he dies, you´re useless and the fight might be lost already, so you need to keep waiting for the right time to ult.

As you´re tanky yourself, being in the middle of the fight might not be the biggest deal, but to ensure that you are not stunned when you have to ult you really have to avoid being focused on, so flash way if necessary, your available Fate's Call is what really counts.

While Kalista works with pretty much everything as her ADC, there are some especially effective lanes to play her in.

Tristana

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The yordle gunner really has an amazing synergy, even if she doesn´t have a clue on what you´re doing on botlane with exhaust, she will try to land a few autohits on the enemy to poke them down, just go for them too if you feel like she´s going to bomb them. Her high attack range allows for a lot more mark-triggering from her side, so just poke and retreat, then lay back to see your foes melt away. She can also just brainlessly engage with her Rocket Jump and get a fast kill to get saved by your ultimate, a perfect synergie that can turn her into something like an assassin.


Varus

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The combo with his own W that can melt through tanks like nothing makes him a perfect addition to your own W passive, needless to say that he has an insane poke and the best teamfight ultimate among all ADCs!


Kog'Maw

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He can be one of the strongest ADCs in the hands of a skilled player, but lacks any kind of escape. Well guess what Kalista has in store for him! In addition, Kog'Maw can temporarily increase his attackrange, allowing him to land sure marks on enemys or to trigger the ones on fleeing enemies!

Miss Fortune

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MF has an amazing synergie, we´re currently experimenting with Trinity MF and rule the botlane, thanks to the inhumane burst of the two. As long as she knows what to do, the lane should be more than winable, we already got the first penta after 3 games.


Jinx

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Jinx is amazing! She has her own slow, a root and a global ult to finish off kills. Whenever you get to trap an enemy, you´ve got a free kill. The damage potential is insane thanks to her increased ranged when using her rocketlauncher, allowing her to easily trigger all your marks. You also add something to fill the gap of the somwhat missing disengage, considering that her root has a fuce time and the slow has a nasty cast time (when you´re trying to run away anyway).


Quinn

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This lane is also pretty badass, you won´t have to waste your ultimate for closing up on escaping enemies instead, you can get her back whenever she feels like going for an infamous Quinn-Towerdive. Together with her blind, you have an insane trading potential, just use it to pass some of the time your Sentinel passive needs to cooldown.

For all these reasons I feel like Kalista support should be a more popular, or at least not considered as a trollpick and even my current Duo Queue Partner (Katienen Kestrel) assured me that there is hardly anything just as strong to be used as a support than Kalista.

What I hope for is that this guide will encourage people to just go out there and try it to end up maining her in rankeds just like I do now!
I hope you enjoyed the read and I´m really looking forward to my first mirror lane down there! :)

Also thanks to jhoijhoi's Making a Guide guide for all the coding I really couldn´t have done on my own anymore, it´s been a few years since I last worked with HTML! ^^;


If you wish to see my build in action or want to get supported yourself, feel free to add me (deviant324) on EUW.