I'm one of the very few psychopaths that decided to play this cursed champ, and my biggest achievement with her so far would be 70%+ wr master solo (try that yourself, truly pure cancer, especially when the voices get too loud)

ANYWAYS, I might not be the best player out there, but I do believe in my knowledge when it comes to this came. I'm way better at coaching people rather than executing the knowledge myself. And if you don't believe me, you can always join my discord server, where I coach. I even managed to get toplaner to masters, despite not playing this role at all.

I'm also planning to do more youtube content and streaming once I get a proper setup, but for now my duo will stream our games instead

Aphelios

Mainly you have to care for his early range with sustain, and certain weapon combos. Trading with him when he has both green and red weapon is usually a bad idea UNLESS you are setting up a kill (otherwise he will just outsustain you). You can see when he is about to lose his weapon and getting a general idea of his weapon order will help you choose better moments to fight.

Things you have to be scared of-
Purple gun with engage support (slow into root into engage will pretty much kill you UNLESS they are already low hp)
White + Green gun, insane damage output and if they have hard cc you won't even be able to AA E it, otherwise you outrange the turret.
Red + White gun, high sustain combined with increasing damage because of charkam stacks, really strong combo especially since he can use R to either deal insane amount of damage, or heal for half HP
Red + Blue, pretty much just like the other one, but a bit less powerful. Geberally speaking you shouold avoid his blue gun poke when he is farming.

Once you hit 6 you can all in him most of the time, especially after he wastes an ability.

Ashe

Easier matchup than you think, you just have to be smart about it. If you have engage support and they don't have another heavy damage champ on lane, you will most likely win 2v2 lvl1 (as long as you focus ashe of course).

The things you have to keep in mind is that you cannot all in her UNLESS you know she has no way to turn it around (for example support that would help her re-engage on you, or she has ghost up) OR if you know you can kill her 100%. There is no reason to risk a fight because if you overextend you might just end up dying, and if you underextend, she might keep on chasing you because of her passive slow.

After 6 you can engage on her with 6, but you have to rely on your support instantly using your ult to block her R. You can also do it from the fog of war to maximize your chances (but remember she has E so wasting too much time is not always the best).

Caitlyn

Cait is one of those matchups that if the supports allign perfectly (for example you get bard and enemy gets xer), there is nothing you can do apart from praying. If possible you can try getting early lane prio by hard pushing perma, but once you lose that prio you just have to wait for jungler, or until level 6 to engage.

If you actually did get a human support, she isn't an issue, you just have to be patient and keep track of her passive to not eat headshots (you can see her getting empowered attack visually, and there is audio cue, try not missing it).
Before the all in you wanna bait out her E by faking all in with your QE. If she doesn't fall for it you can just jump diagonally to dodge it, and after 6 you don't even have to worry about it.
Also while you can't easily freeze on her because oh her range, Q and E, you can still setup wave on your side to enable jungle ganks.

Draven

Hard matchup, heavily support reliant. It's not even "skilled" either, you just have to look for all the opportunities where you can trade for free. He goes for a minion? attack him. He has no mana? All in. He dropped the axes? go for longer trade. Basically trading 1 attack for 1 is terrible idea so you can't always fight him. Most of the time you wanna cheese him to get that early prio, perma pushing until he completly denies it by pushing the wave back. Then you can just go for cheat recall to not even get ahead, but to simply MATCH him with the dps (yea I know it's just plain cringe). Q max all the way, and just poke him from safe distance until you can all in.
If you did all that and still can't find an opportunity to kill him, just spam ping your jungler/mid, because nobody wants draven to cash in those juicy stakcs.
Oh yea and also do NOT get hit by his E, or else he can just run you down with infinite W and then dive. That's also why giving up CS just to stay healthy is sometimes better option, so you need to be really patient.

Ezreal

Just don't get hit lol
Nah but actually just sit behind the minions and don't get hit by his Q. You can try to trade when its on cooldown. That's also why short trades are generally bad against ezreal, because he will just pop the PTA (or stack up coq) with low cooldown Q. So you either all in him, or stay patient. Also a lot of ez players just mindlessly use E if they hit W on enemy, so that's a good opportunity to go in since he can't escape.

After 6 you can all in with ult if he walks up too close (even if he uses E away, your R will still stun them, kinda like blitz E, and if he uses it too early your support will just get on his face instead).

Ah and once you get guinsoo, even if he has item lead, most of the time you can just faceroll him (if he misses 1 or 2 Qs, he is dead)

Jhin

Annoying matchup just because of his funny 4th shot combined with movement speed. Fortunately it's not that hard to beat him, you just try not to get hit by his Q bounce.

You should fight him only when he has either full ammo (then you either all in if he can't kill you, or back off before he can use his 4th shot), OR you fight him when he is out of ammo (either has only last shot, or he is about to use it to last hit minion, then you just go for shorter trades because he gets **** ton of MS. Though if you have hard engage, then once he is out of ammo he is dead.)

Also past 6 try not to trade when you are getting low on HP, because if you can't kill him, his ult will most likely finish you off. Otherwise he is immobile so you can engage whenevery ou have ult up (yes taking ult hunter into him is pretty good idea).

Jinx

Once of the easier matchups.Yes she does heavily outscale you but that's usually not a problem. Most jinx players will try to get the early lane prio by instantly shoving the wave with rocket, and cheesing her will just straight up deny that. If for some reason you couldn't cheese her, just make sure to match her push to get level 2 before her, and please DO NOT stay near minions, because AoE from rockets will give her free mana (presence of mind), and you lose a bit of HP which does add up over time.

After level 3 you can pretty much go in whenever you want, since you can easily jump around her W and E, though if you DO get hit by her W, you might wanna start backing off because it lets her kite you for free.

After 6 it's pretty much the same, you can even perma freeze on her, and if she gets too greedy and try to push the wave back, even her Q range won't be enough to escape from your R (also even if she uses E, your support will fly through it and still hit her).

Kai'Sa

I honestly have not played this matchup for the past few months, been perma banning it ever since stattik incident. She outscales you at almost every point in the game, you just win all ins pre 6, and if you do get a big lead, well you still have to respect her a bit.
She will try to use her Q to farm, and that's your cue to fight her, or trade attacks (since her low aa range you might even be able to trade for free when she is cs'ing). You also have to care for her W, because if she chunks you down with it before fight you're doomed.
After 6 you have to remember about her ult to not die to random ******** like going solo for enemy support.

Kog'Maw

Basically never trade with him unless he uses W. You can bait it out by fake engaging and instantly backing off. If he has ghost and you go in while he still has everything up you're probably gonna die (unless you can chain CC him).
Q max into him is really good becaues he will never engage on you, and he is pretty squishy, so you can counteract his high range.

Lucian

Can get a bit scuffed because you need to have somewhat decent positioning, to not get hit by every single Q (you have to become aware of lucian position relative to minions to dodge it better).
When it comes to early game you easily win lvl 1 and 2, but lvl 3 it might get a bit trickier since he can chase you down with dash and has a lot more shots (or he can just run away diminishing value from your E).
Honestly playing around his cooldowns and mana is all you need, but there is 1 trick that can help you win the fight pre 6. If he ever walks in a straight line at you, to use Q, you can start walking into him, throw your Q, and dash sideways. It will allow him to get in his Q range, and you will be mid dash by the time it hits you. It also works with senna

Miss Fortune

Boring. Just try not to get poked too much by her E, so keeping distance is important, and don't eat her Q. After 6 you wanna go in really deep when fighting, so that she can't just ult (because you'll be able to just jump around her).
Also if you are low HP, don't disrespect her W movement speed and E slow, because you'll just die.

Samira

One of the worst matchups (apart from draven and nilah). While you do kill her easily pre 6, and can abuse her low aa range to freeze or just poke her when she is farming, once she hits that ult it gets really bad. You have to take smart trades and deny her all in if possible. If your support has no hard CC, you just have to poke samira down, and engage on her once she is low OR when there are no minions around (she can use them to dash towards you easily, and heals from R more).
In late game you wanna avoid her as much as you can because you'll never kill her solo (unless she is REALLY behind, or REALLY bad player0. and you wanna make sure she can't stay in ult too long (don't rely on your teammates, just ult her yourself).

Sivir

Easiest matchup of all time, you just match her push from level 1 and you are fine (cheesing also denies her the push). So yea don't get hit by too many of her Qs, don't let her perma push (I will repeat it once again, try matching her push), and once you all in her, you can wait with using your E to deny her the spell shield.

Also if you feel confident in timing of your ult, you can use your Q to break the spellshield before your ult lands

Tristana

When it comes to trist you really need to be patient, because you can't really go in unless she is in kill range. If she is not then her combo will most likely kill you, or leave you on 1hp if you are lucky. So play it smart, keep max range so she can't just jump on your face, and poke her with Q.

After 6 being patient is even more important because her ult will deny you 2-4 attacks (depending on how far she knocks you away), and your ult, well she can still jump away from it and lose the CC mid jump animation (you basically rely on your support timing it).

Twitch

Very fun matchups because you have to always respect his invis and you can never tell if he went roaming midlane, recalled, or is just waiting for you to walk up too close. At least his early game is terrible, he is not even a champion until he gets bork (which if he gets it before you get any lead, you insta lose the matchup).

There is not much to tell apart from baiting out his W, and forcing his E to farm just by zoning. You'd do that because 99% twitch players run presence of mind, so if they waste W and don't get any proc from it, they are basically ****ed. Abuse their low aa range and low early damage by almost perma fist fighting, and even poking them under tower.

After 6 you have to be more careful because he can space you out if he is good, do not hesitate to just QE him instantly and just run away.

Varus

RIOT PLEASE NERF BEFORE S14 I SWEAR TO GOD I DON'T WANNA LOSE 200% OF MY MAX HP WITH A SINGLE ABILITY...
Anyways, just like lucian, you have to play around his cooldowns, especially Hail of Blades if he has it. If you feel confident in dodging his abilities (or he has them on cd), you can engage on himin most scenarios pre 6 (also remember about his passive attack speed after killing minions).

After 6 it gets really scuffed because he can engage on you if you walk up too close, but if you dodge it he is dead. You can also engage on varus with your ult, and if your support doesn't hesitate, he will end up blocking varus R (you just have to walk around it to not get cc'ed).

Vayne

Quite ironic matchup. Her low range allows you to punish her for cs'ing, but at the same time if she q's forward and attacks you at max range you lose too much hp to even bother. That makes it so if you position yourself correctly she can't creally do that, while allowing you to poke her (but it's heavily support reliant, if you have poke supp, she won't be able to Q towards you aanyways, so you can keep bigger distance).

You win pretty much every all in until lvl6, which is where the pain begins. You have to get decent lead before that point, because she can kill you pretty easily, especially with ghost. But hey, at least riot removed the funny feature where your AA deals no damage if enemy goes invis :clown:
So yea at that point you just wanna abuse your Q range. No matter how strong she is, she can't just go in when she is half hp.
Also remember to position yourself around her E.

Xayah

Cringe champ. You have to have decent positioning to not get poked by her QE, or just not to get hit by her E in general. Moving around to avoide her poke is really good, and when she uses W, you wanna back off (she gets movement speed if she hits you with it on). You should also keep aware of her passive when farming, to not randomly lose health, because fights with her tend to be pretty tight.

After 6 the matchup gets even more fun. Both ults have really high cooldown early on, but kalista has it just a bit sooner (also playing ult hunter against her is pretty good just for that reason).
Basically you have 2 options.
-engage on her with your ult AND force her ult this way. Much safer strat, they might still mess it up and you instantly know where are the feathers. On top of that you can just disengage instantly (you'd mainly do it if your support has some sort of engage, xayah will be forced to play really safe, and is prone to dives)
-start fighting her/engage on her with different source (like supp cc), and use your ult when she uses hers. This will allow you to knock her up, and your support will not take any damage from her RE. It's a bit more scuffed if you don't have any lead, but if you know you can win the fight easily, and your support is pretty low on HP, it can be better option.

Also when she does use her ult, please don't stand still and walk away fro mher E line.

We can divide supports into 4 different categories, and they all work like rock, paper, scissors against eachother and it's worth remembering since it will allow you to make better decisions during laning phase, and enable your supports a lot more. (now remember it's fairly simplified, because each support plays differently. Those categories take very specific elements of each champ to help understand it).

Disengage > Engage > Sustain > Poke > Disengage

DISENGAGE:

When playing against a disengage champ, most of the time you wanna play around their cooldowns (janna Q, morgana E etc.) If they don't have their disengage, obviously they are vulnerable, and that's your window to fight them. Baiting their abilities out reuquires you to skill check them, which takes practice, but it's also a really strong skill to learn.
When playing with them, you also have to be wary of what they have on cooldown, but you can trade a lot easier with them. If enemy decides to engage on you during said trade, your support will completly deny them (as long as your positioning isn't completly unhinged).

ENGAGE:

Both the best, and the worst matchup for kalista. It requires you to constantly skill check your opponents, baiting out the CC, constantly good positioning, and knowing what to do with wave and when. It's the msot satisfying to play both with and against. There is nothing else to say when playing against engage, except for get good at limit testing and dodging hooks and whatnot.
And when playing with them, you wanna manipulate the wave so it's in a "happy spot." Basically it's just outside the tower range, where you can freeze it. It will force enemies to walk up really close to last hit, and it leaves them vulnerable. On top of that, they are far away from their own tower, so if you end u[ going for an extended trade, they will most likely die.

SUSTAIN:

Nothing more annoying than sustain champions, especially soraka. They aren't exactly hard to beat if your support can enable an all in, but if they cannot do that, you honestly can even consider cull start, and just farm till 6.
However if said sustain is on your side, you can try and limit test as much as you can, just to learn the champion better, as you will not get as punished. And when it comes to fights, getting level 6 allows you for much more, so you can start taking heavy trades at level 5, and then all in and kill the moment you hit level 6.

POKE:

The way you play around poke supports is you are looking for an all in, and perma lane prio. The moment you let enemies push the wave into you, you might as well go next. They will abuse their range and heavy damage with long cooldowns, to chunk you down while you are farming. You can't let them have any breathing room, and on top of that your wave will help you block some of the skillshots.
The same way if the poke champ is on your side, you want to perma push to enable him free poke.

Tempo - basically downtime that you get over your opponent. For example, you push the wave first? You can move to help jungler BEFORE enemies can, because they have to choose between moving away from the lane and the CS.

-vision/map control

Kalista strongside allows for heavy lane pressure, and with that, comes the risk of ganks, so whenever you push the waves, you have to make sure to setup vision. Usually, if you prepare the wave, you will have enough time for REALLY deep wards, my favourites being between blue/gromp, and on the crugs, or in the redbuff bush.

On top of that your W allows you to check the jungle pathing from a safe distance. You can use it to check if enemy jungler is around, or you can use it to check the camp timers, which will help a lot with tracking.
Also taking W level 2 to avoid an early gank is insanely underrated.

-abusing enemies

Now that you've established vision, you can proceed to abusing enemies on the lane. One of the biggest power moves you can do, is a heavy trade on a good wave, into dive setup. Since your support can easily tank any tower shots, just because of your R, it's usually not too hard. You can also call the jungler for help with it, if enemies are a bit stronger.


-roaming

If however you cannot get the proper lane prio, whether it's because you suck, or enemy has insane wave clear, you can always opt out for roaming, or even getting camps from enemy jungle. If you feel cocky you can also try catching enemy jungler (but for that you'll need to get used to using W in the first place)

-dragon

The last thing you can try and do is dragon. Since you can easily secure it with your E, if you have a lot of tempo, you can take it with your support. It's especially good when both junglers are top, because no one will even expect it.

Both mid and late game for kalista are rather similar to most ADCs with few key differences.
-you can engage
-you have to play more agressive
-you can force objective more easily
-you have more options (joining team vs sidelaning)


There is honestly not much more to add, if you know how to play any other ADC, you should of course limit test a lot, because kalista can do way more, and way less at the same time compared to other champions. Don't be afraid to use your ult to either engage or disengage, since the late-game cooldown is fairly low anyways (just be wary of the objectives, sometimes it's better to keep it for a baron or dragon fight, because you might end up gettin way more value out of it).

When it comes to side-lane, kalista is pretty good at it. She has good wave clear (you can attack all melee minions once, and QE entire wave), huge duel potential, and she can take towers pretty quickly. So if you feel like your team can't enable you during the teamfights, you can consider crossmapping instead.