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Kalista Build Guide by Mr. Hello

Kalista - Vayne + Nidalee

Kalista - Vayne + Nidalee

Updated on November 21, 2014
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Mr. Hello Build Guide By Mr. Hello 9,430 Views 0 Comments
9,430 Views 0 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Mr. Hello Kalista Build Guide By Mr. Hello Updated on November 21, 2014
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Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Heal

Heal

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Welcome xD

Hello readers, welcome to my new kalista guide. Kalista is a very versatile and mobile champions and is the combination of Vayne's Q for passive, Nidalee's Q for Q, a free sight ward for W, Twitch's E for E, and a repositioning-an-ally ultimate. Extremely cool.

I hope that you will enjoy this guide.

Happy reading^^
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Lore of Kalista, and order

The sword-wife stood amid the burnt out ruin of her home. Everything and everyone that mattered to her was gone, and she was filled with fathomless grief... and hate. Hate was now all that compelled her.

She saw again the smile on his face as he gave the order. He was meant to be their protector, but heโ€™d spat upon his vows. Hers was not the only family shattered by the oath-breaker.

The desire to go after him was strong. She wanted nothing more than to plant her sword in his chest and watch the life drain from his eyes... but she knew she would never be able to get close enough to him. He was guarded day and night, and she was but one warrior. She would never be able to fight her way through his battalion alone. Such a death would serve no purpose.

She took a shuddering breath, knowing there was no coming back.

A crude effigy of a man, formed of sticks and twine, lay upon a fire-blackened dresser. Its body was wrapped in a scrap of cloth torn from the cloak of the betrayer. She'd pried it from her husband's dead grasp. Alongside it was a hammer and three rusted nails.

She gathered everything up and moved to the threshold. The door itself was gone, smashed to splinters in the attack. Beyond, lit by moonlight, lay the empty, darkened fields.

Reaching up, the sword-wife pressed the stick-effigy to the hardwood lintel.

"I invoke thee, Lady of Vengeance", she said, her voice low, trembling with the depth of her fury. "From beyond the veil, hear my plea. Come forth. Let justice be done".

She readied her hammer and the first of the nails.

"I name my betrayer once", she said, and spoke his name aloud. As she did so, she placed the tip of the first nail to the chest of the stick-figure. With a single strike, she hammered it in deep, pinning it to the hardwood door frame.

The sword-wife shivered. The room had become markedly colder. Or had she imagined it?

"I name him twice", she said, and she did so, hammering the second nail alongside the first.

Her gaze dropped, and she jolted in shock. A dark figure stood out in the moonlit field, a hundred yards in the distance. It was utterly motionless. Breathing quicker, the sword-wife returned her attention to the unfinished task.

"I name him thrice", she said, speaking again the name of the murderer of her husband and children, before hammering home the final nail.

An ancient spirit of vengeance stood before her, filling the doorway, and the sword-wife staggered back, gasping involuntarily.

The otherworldly being was clad in archaic armor, her flesh translucent and glowing with spectral un-light. Black Mist coiled around her like a living shroud.

With a squeal of tortured metal, the spectral figure drew forth the blackened spear protruding from her breastplate โ€” the ancient weapon that had ended her life.

She threw it to the ground before the sword-wife. No words were spoken; there was no need. The sword-wife knew what was being offered to her โ€” vengeance โ€” and knew its terrible cost: her soul.

The spirit watched on, her face impassive and her eyes burning with an unrelenting cold fury, as the sword-wife picked up the treacherous weapon.

"I pledge myself to vengeance", said the sword-wife, her voice quivering. She reversed the spear, aiming the tip inward, towards her heart. โ€œI pledge it with my blood. I pledge it with my soul.โ€

She paused. Her husband would have pleaded for her to turn away from this path. He would have begged her not to condemn her soul with this course of action. A moment of doubt gnawed at her. The undying specter watched on.

The sword-wife's eyes narrowed as she thought of her husband lying dead, cut down by swords and axes. She thought again of her children, sprawled upon the ground, and her resolve hardened like a cold stone in her heart. Her grip tightened upon the spear.

"Help me", she implored, her decision made. "Please, help me kill him".

She rammed the spear into her chest, driving it in deep.

The sword-wife's eyes widened and she dropped to her knees. She tried to speak, but only blood bubbled from her lips.

The ghostly apparition watched her die, her expression impassive.

As the last of the lifeblood ran from her body, the shade of the sword-wife climbed to her feet. She looked down at her insubstantial hands in wonder, then at her own corpse lying dead-eyed in a growing pool of blood upon the floor. The shadeโ€™s expression hardened, and a ghostly sword appeared in her hand.

An ethereal tether, little more than a wisp of light, linked the newly formed shade to the avenging spirit she had summoned. Through their bond, the sword-wife saw her differently, glimpsing the noble warrior she had been in life: tall and proud, her armor gleaming. Her posture was confident, yet without arrogance; a born leader, a born soldier. This was a commander that the sword-wife would have willingly bled for.

Behind the spirit's anger, she sensed her empathy โ€” recognition of their shared pain of betrayal.

"Your cause is our cause", said Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance. Her voice was grave cold. "We walk the path of vengeance as one, now".

The sword-wife nodded.

With that, the avenging spirit and the shade of the sword-wife stepped into the darkness and were gone."
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Why play Kalista?

Many people might think, why should i play kalista? I am already very comfortable playing my XXXXXXX as adc. Why bother playing a new champion?

Well for one, Kalista is EXTREMELY mobile. And I mean it. A repositioning innate can absolutely wreck a Vayne's day. Vayne's Q has cooldown, yet yours is: Normal attack Vayne, jump away. Normal attack again, jump again. Also, a built-in ward from active of W is very good. You can save some money instead of buying wards/ your trinklet is on cooldown. Shorter cooldown that Ashe's E or Quinn's W.

And the passive is insane. Extra % of opponent's MAXIMUM health just for attacking him/her with your oathsworn ally? This is mad.

Kalista's E allows her to quickly eliminate her opponents. Think of it, if Kalista attacked this particular ally 6 times, each auto attack dealing 100 damage, and having an E at max level (5 points), she would deal approximately a total amount of 714 damage. I know this is just an additional of 114 damage, but we have not taken into account the criticals.

Lastly, her ultimate is very good for initiating fights. Just throw your Oathsworn Ally into a strategic location, and the fight should go into your favour.
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Pros and cons of Kalista

Pros:
-High mobility
-Good harassing skill
-Fight-altering ultimate
-Good farming ability
-insane burst

Cons:
-Requires good teamwork with oathsworn ally
-Innate does not allow Kalista to cancel her auto attack
-Some people might reposition themselves onto the wrong places, resulting in their death
-Squishy (runes and masteries help her out though)
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Kalista's skills explanation

Innate: Martial Poise

Kalista cannot cancel her basic attacks and they will miss if she loses sight of her target before they hit.

If Kalista enters a movement command while winding her basic attack or Pierce, she will drive through that direction when she launches her attack, dashing a short distance. Martial Poise distance scales with Enhanced Movement, and is increased by 25% when dashing backwards.

Additionally, Kalista begins the game with a unique item, The Black Spear.

THE BLACK SPEAR - ACTIVE: Kalista offers a pact to an allied champion. Should they agree, the item is consumed and binds them together, turning the target into a Oathsworn ally for the remainder of the game. Kalista requires an Oathsworn ally to utilize Sentinel's Soul-Marked (W) and Fate's Call (R)

Explanation: Well... the passive is Vayne's Q. Not much explanation. Do take note that the distance you dash backwards is more than the distance you dash forward. This allows you to kite while back-tracking.

Q: Pierce

ACTIVE: Kalista hurls a fast and narrow spear, dealing physical damage to the first enemy struck.

If Pierce scores a kill, the spear will continue onward, passing all Rend (E) stacks from the dead victim to the next enemy it hits.

Explanation: This active is just like Nidalee's Q, just that it scales with AD and a slightly shorter range. This skill is good for poking, but be sure to balnace out mana and poking needs.

W: Sentinel

SOUL-MARKED - PASSIVE: If Kalista and her Oathsworn Ally attack the same target within 1.5 seconds of each other, the target will take additional magic damage equal to a percentage of their maximum health. This effect cannot occur on the same target for 8 seconds. Damage is capped against minions and monsters.

ACTIVE: Kalista commands a soul sentinel to the target location within range, gaining sight in a ~450-length cone in front of it. The sentinel's sight is obstructed by terrain and brush. Upon reaching the target location, it will return to a point within ~1400 units of cast location. The sentinel will perform a total of 7 laps, including the first two lengths. The sentinel is vulnerable from behind and will die if attacked twice by an enemy champion or once by a tower. If the sentinel spots an enemy champion it will scream and stalk them for the next 4 seconds - revealing them for the duration.

Kalista stores a charge of Sentinel every few seconds, and can store up to 2 charges.

Explanation: Well.... the ward and the extra damage. Ward is just for needs. However, the extra damage needs some serious explaining. The passive allows you and you Oathsworn Ally to do quick pokes (yet have serious damage) every 8 seconds. Very useful harassing skill. Good in fights where both you and the Oathsworn ally would attack the carry.

E: Rend

PASSIVE: Kalista's basic attacks and Pierce leaves a spear lodged in her target for 4 seconds. There is no cap on the number of spears Kalista can lodge in her target. This passive is unavailable while Rend is on cooldown.

ACTIVE: Kalista rips all spears from nearby enemies, dealing physical damage and slowing them for 2 seconds. Rend's damage is increased by a percentage for every spear beyond the first that Kalista ripped from them.

If Rend scores a kill, the cooldown is refreshed.

Explanation: Normally you would activate Rend when you want to stop this fight already/ you can kill the opponent. Making use of E smartly would significantly increase the fear of you inside the opponent because Rend can deal so much damage.

R: Fate's call

ACTIVE: Kalista draws her Oathsworn Ally next to her, making them untargetable and disabling their spells for 4 seconds. Kalista's Oathsworn ally must be within 1400-range to cast Fate's Call.

During Fate's Call, Kalista's Oathsworn can right-click a target location to dash there, stopping at the first enemy hit, knocking up all surrounding enemies and landing themselves at their maximum attack range from the target.

Explanation: A very strong engaging ultimate. Summom Alistar into the middle of your opponent, they go flying up. Summon Amumu in, and nice ultimate smacked into their face by the sad mummy. What else can you hope for for a better engaging spell?
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Gameplay

Playing Kalista, I always pact with the support because we will be laning with the support and not anyone else.

Buying a doran's blade and a potion is very standard, and we head to lane.

Early game, we should be farming as our first major item is very expensive. However, if you can deal some poke damage, by all means, go ahead. But, do not over extend the lane or push it hard, because Kalista would literally die if ganked early on. When Kalista dies early game, it would diminish our dominating effect for the rest of the game.

A standard poke is auto attack, reposition, auto attack, reposition, Q, E. If the support auto attacks an enemy, by all means hit the same enemy too. it deals quite a nice bit of damage like this.

When you have enough money, quickly head back home for a pickaxe, replenish potions if needed, and rush back to lane. With the pickaxe, your damage has increased by quite a fair bit. It is quite significant because the total damage E puts out is better now. however, do not think that just becase you have a pickaxe you are dominant over the opponing adc. If you do not have any kills, the other adc can as well as have the same amount of gold. Thus until you get a kill or so, do not feel proud of yourself/dominant over others.

Hopefully, you can get a kill or two by 10 min, and have enough money for BF sword. If you dont, and need to go back to base urgently, just return. But instead buy a zeal because Kalista also benefits from attack speed. Furthermore, zeal provides critical strike chances, which can improve out total damage output.

if you have enough money, buy the BF SWORD!!! it will significantly increase your maximum damage output because our skills have high scalings with ad. Now, you can get kills without your jungler's help.

Mid game:

By now, you should have completed the infinity edge. If you don't, here are several reasons:

1) You didnt get enough kills.
2) You didnt get enough cs.
3) Your support took your cs.
4) Your computer restarted or something.
5) You keep being killed by the opponent.

if your reason is number 5, good luck playing the game. You have pretty much lost your dominant effect. Step up your pedal, keep farming, play safe, try to participate in every single kills. Most of all: Avoid teamfights! Teamfighting in mid game with an unfed kalista is a really bad idea.

However, don't lose hope if you are unfed. There is always a lamp of light after every cave. Once you have IE and Statikk Shiv, you should be able to kite the opponent as well as deal considerable damage. The passive from Statikk Shiv adds damage too, do not forget. Also, your critical strike is high now too.

You can now participate in teamfight as long as you have statikk and infinity edge by 27 min. This is the latest timing you can get for this 2 items.

If the enemy team have a lot of tankers, I suggest that you buy Last Whisper first. This would increase your damage you deal to the tankers.

If the enemy laners have little tankers and a few paper champions, buy the bloodthirster, as you need lifesteal now. All adc requires lifesteals, regardless...

If you are a fat Kalista, then this period of time is your shine time. You can absolutely wreck anybody on the enemy ream, unless they opponent is very fat too.But seriously... IE+Statikk+LW+2nd tier boot is insance at mid game. Your total damage output is mad.

Late game:

All i can say is... End fast. kalista's E doesn't scale well into the late game, and from my words, you can gather that she is scaling off now. To counter this, get baron buff or an elixer of fortitude to get that extra edge of damage. Keep pushing. Engage whenever possible. If your team drag too long into the late game, there is a good chance that you will lose, especially when your team have a lot of weak-late-game champions.
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in-depth Champion counter

Ashe:

Her Q is a toggle, which slows the target whenever she normal attacks it. This can be annoying as when you are trying to escape, the slows make you want to throw your mouse away.

her W is her main poking skill. Standing behind a minion will deal the trick. Note though. it is a cone attack, thus sidestepping will not help.

her ultimate, when fired at close range, is almost impossible to dodge unless you have good dodging/predicting skills or flash in time. Other than that, swallow up the arrow like a boss and just hope that you defrost quickly to trade damage with her.

Caitlyn:

She has a very long auto-attacking range, perhaps the highest in the entire game. You should have heard of how Vayne is scared of Caitlyn. The same applies to kalista. kalista's range is roughly about Vayne's, and thus will have a rough time against Caitlyn too. All Caitlyn has to do is stand in front of her minion wave and you would be too scared to go in for cs. Try calling for ganks from the jungler or even the mid laner. Also, crowd control supports wreck her day. Get a leona for support and you should do just fine.

When Caitlyn ultimates, stand behind another ally champion. The ally will block for you.

Fun fact... throw your Oathsworn Ally in front to block for you xP

Corki:

his burst of Q+E+AA can wreck your day up. Despite that, he has an awfully short range. Take advantage of this and try to poke him with your Q and auto attacks. if he uses his Phosphorous Bomb (Q) on you, auto attack him and dash away, you should be able to avoid it. When he on his E, keep sidestepping him. He can only change the direction of his E when he normal attacks you again. Sidestepping is the key to victory yo!

Draven:

His axes can hurt when you engage with him in long battles. Try to keep fighting shot and sweet. No point sidestepping as his main damage comes from normal attacking. BUT! When you are low on hp and recalling, DO NOT OPEN THE SHOP! Keep your eyes on whether draven opens his ultimate. Remember that it is a whole map ultimate. Sidestep when needed to avoid death.

Ezreal:

You should be able to deal with Ezreal so long as your mechanics are good enough. Ezreal's ultimate is also global so same as Draven, do not open the shop when recalling to base. You have higher mobility that Ezreal, and a higher burst than him overall. You should win this matchup with some effort put in.

graves:

Keep poking! His AA range is also qutie short, yet his Q can dish out considerable damage. balance the choice between your current hp and grave's hp. Decide smartly when to go in or when not to go in.

Differing matchup. Compares between skill level and farm.

jinx:

Her attack speed is ridiculous... Sidestep her W at all costs for it deals a nice chunk of damage. Do not step on her chompers too, for this makes her able to land her W with ease / allow her support to follow up damage. Her ultimate is another global skill.. sighs... so once again.. do not recall while checking what the shop has to offer.

Kog Maw:

i have got nothing much to say about this worm other than keep dodging his abilities. Easy-to-win-lane so long as you put some good poking to him and avoi his skills. Oh, and... beware when his W is max level. It is very pain... :( Abuse Kog Maw early and late game you will win him mid-late game too.

Lucian:

Good luck ;P

Sivir:

All there is to say is on the beginning of this guide. Make sure not to use SPELLS at her when she has her blue shield on. Then, you should be able to out-trade her.

Tristana:

his ultimate will knock you back so that he can have an escapade. Thus, make sure you stand at a place where you are near a terrain, so that you will not be knocked away so far that you cant chase him for kills already. And, he has poor poking ability early game. Take advantage of this.

Twitch:

patience matchups. You should know that the more times you normal attack a twitch, the higher your Rend's damage will be. Twitch needs to have 6 stacks only to have a full damage E. And, when he on his ultimate, do not stand in a line with your dutiful support unless you want to give him an easy double kill.

Varus;

his ultimate is the only ability capable of letting him escape from your clutches. Try to bait out his ultimate, and going all-in soon after.

vayne;

Squish him early like flobberworms. His early game ain't really good at all, and Kalista should be able to abuse it fully.
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Ending word

Well readers, I hope that you have enjoyed my guide, and I look forward to writing another guide soon:D

Yours faithfully.
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