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Introduction

1.1. About the author

I am PenileStampede: policeman, gentleman, and occasionally the classy drunk discussing how to solve world problems. I have played LoL for about 3 years on various accounts, mostly casual, but took a liking to ranked play as an adc and support mainly for about one year ago. Kalista is my most successful champ next to Morgana support, and I will be sharing some useful playstyle knowledge with you in this guide. This is my first League of Legends guide, (although I have written countless guides for MMORPG games and FPS games in the past) and if you find it useful in any way - give it a thumbs up or leave a comment for me to improve upon my guide writing skills and the general utility of this guide. Feedback is always welcome!

1.2. The purpose of this guide

This guide is meant to teach both experienced players and newfound LoL-lovers alike, how to succeed in playing Kalista - the Spear of Vengeance. Many guides already exist, many of whom are great - this one contains yet another way of playing her.

1.3. About Kalista - The Spear of Vengeance

Kalista is a marksman-type champion with high base damage and a great kit for pushing her lane. She is quite new to the Fields of Justice, so people are yet adapting to her new playstyle and learning to make the best use of her. Kalista is the kind of champion that can rip you apart in many ways: either if she builds high damage and crit to hit like an angry dumptruck, attack speed and damage build to chase you down and poke you full of holes to make Twitch green with envy, or in a slightly more tanky sustain build where she simply annoys you to death by never letting you have that killing blow. Kalista benefits alot from attack speed. Not only does it buff her damage output, but once you have Rend if puts more spears per second in your enemy, allowing you to cause insane amounts of damage within the 4 second mark (your spears only last for 4 seconds while stuck in targets) when you proc Rend. Do not underestimate attack speed on Kalista.

The standard build and the sustained build are the two builds in this guide, and I hope you enjoy using them as much as I do.

1.4. Advantages of choosing these builds

The Standard Kalista build will give you a common yet powerful Kalista game. The Insane Sustain build offers you the ability to stay in lane forever, gain huge gold advantages by out-laning your opponents, and potentially keeping your deaths to a minimum - thus securing you don't feed and allowing you to roam the realms of champions with little difficulty.

Standard build is relatively easy to learn, easy to master, and fun to use.
It is based on Attack speed and Attack damage items, and is the build I recommend for most games - both if you are new to Kalista or if you are a seasoned player. Kalistas dash relies on her attack speed to be effective, which is why this build is set up to be a chase-and-slay kind of build.

Insane Sustain build is based on high lifesteal, mana leech and resistances. Albeit this build is not as effecient as the standard build in regards of both damage output and burst damage - it offers you the option of staying in lane forever. You will have excess capacity to stay and fight even after a long while of clearing minion waves and getting harassed by the enemy. In late game, this build will also help you survive team fights against strong enemy champions, and you recover both health and mana quickly for those final pushes that secure objectives while your team is either dead or in base, and the enemy team is annihilated.

2.1. PROS

+ High burst damage
+ Easy farm
+ High mobility
+ Skillshot-immune with proper use of Martial Poise
+ Incredible poke damage with Pierce
+ Great kiting, chasing and gap-closing kit
+ Very versatile ultimate Fate's Call, able to initiate AND save your soul-bound ally
+ Reset cooldown on Rend when it gives a kill
+ Easy farm and harass at the same time
+ Built-in moving ward Sentinel to keep you safe from ganks

2.2. CONS
- A little bit squishy unless built with defense
- Mana hungry. (Problem solved with Insane Sustain build).
- Mobility advantage relies on auto attack
- Hard to master into pentakill-level
- Outranged by some champs (see vs. champ section)
- Auto Attack can't be cancelled

First put points in Fate's Call whenever available, then max Pierce, then max Rend second and . An early point in Sentinel can give you situational awareness of the jungle nearby, but max Sentinel as your last skill.
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Blue: Skill explanation
White: General info on the skill
Green: Tips and tricks
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Passive: Martial Poise
If Kalista enters a movement command while winding up her basic attack or Pierce, she will drive through in that direction when she launches her attack, lunging toward that point.
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This passive has incredible utility. The dash distance scales with your boot tier. Make it a priority to get Berserker's Greaves as your first or second built item, depending on your gold income. Tier 2 boots will increase your dash distance. Increasing attack speed increases the rate at which you dash, allowing you to dash faster the higher your attack speed is, making items such as Statikk Shiv or Blade of the Ruined King especially useful for Kalista. Dash in various directions to avoid being predictable to skillshot-based enemies like Ezreal. When chasing for a kill: Auto attack, dash, auto attack, dash, auto attack, dash, Rend. Rinse and repeat until success is achieved.

Use your passive to jump over walls when escaping a fight gone wrong. See the bottom section "Tips and tricks" to learn HOW to walljump with Kalista!
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Q: Pierce
Throw a fast moving spear that passes through enemies it kills.
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COOLDOWN: 8 seconds
MANA COST: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 10 / 70 / 130 /190 / 250 (+100% Attack damage)
RANGE: 1450
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Your bread and butter during the laning phase. Use it for strong pokes and proccing Martial Poise to close gaps or get away. Because this ability procs your passive, you can use it to jump over thin walls during an escape. Its high damage enables you to secure kills or even steal a low hp dragon when you have some damage items!
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W: Sentinel
Passive: Soul-Marked: When Kalista and her bound ally attack a minion, monster or enemy champion at the same time, they deal bonus magic damage.
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Active: Kalista commands a sentinel to keep watch over an area. The sentinel patrols back and forth in a line a few times. Vulnerable to attacks from behind, sentinels see in a cone in front of them and scream if they spot an enemy champion, and then follows them for 4 seconds.

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COOLDOWN: 30 seconds
MANA COST: 25
PASSIVE MAGIC BONUS DAMAGE: 12 / 14 / 16 / 18 / 20% of target's max hp
MAXIMUM PASSIVE BONUS DAMAGE VS MONSTERS: 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 / 200
RECHARGE TIME OF BONUS DAMAGE: 90 / 80 / 70 / 60 / 50 sec. (Maximum two charges).
RANGE: 5500
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Passive: Empowers your basic attacks when attacking with your support. (VERY GOOD with Braum or Lulu support!). Enables fast waveclear when cooperating with your oathsworn ally.
Active: Sends a "mobile ward" to patrol a potentially LARGE area from your position to target position. This is very useful for patrolling from botlane to dragon pit, across the river, or from jungle to jungle, granting you vision supremacy of the Fog of War.
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E: Rend
Passive: Kalista's basic attacks and the spear from Pierce lodge in their target for a short time.
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Active: Rend causes Kalista to rip the spears from her enemies, slowing them and dealing increased damage for each spear rent from the target. Rend's cooldown resets if it secures a kill on an enemy unit. The spear stack infinitely, only disappearing if Kalista fails to keep up her assault. (4 Seconds after the last spear).[/color]
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COOLDOWN: 14 / 12.5 / 11 / 9.5 / 8 / instant if a unit is killed by Rend.
MANA COST: 30
PHYSICAL DAMAGE:20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+60%AD)
DAMAGE PER SPEAR AFTER THE FIRST: 5(+15%AD) / 9(+18%AD) / 14(+21%AD) / 20(+24%AD) / 27(+27%AD)
SLOW %: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45%
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Keeping up your assault means constantly beefing the damage from activating Rend on a target. The spears disappear after 4 seconds of not attacking your target, so be sure to activate if it seems like the enemy can get away or you want to secure damage before escaping yourself. Activating this can also finish off dragon or Baron Nashor when they have low health.
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Use Rend to slow down an enemy chasing you while using auto attacks to kite them, and if they turn to flee with low health, activate again to slow and finish them with Pierce. When used properly, Rend is a very deadly ability with high (infinite!) damage potential. Your attack speed increases the rate you throw spears into an enemy, which means that a high attack speed gives you vast damage in short time.
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R: Fate's Call
Kalista repositions her bound ally next to her, making them untargetable and disabling their spells. During Fate's Call, Kalistas soul-bound gains a new ability, which allows the soul-bound to dash in a target direction, knocking up enemies they strike.
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COOLDOWN: 90 / 75 / 60 seconds
MANA COST: 100
RANGE: 1400
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Your utimate ability, Fate's Call has incredible potential based on your possible laning partners. If your support is a tank or a tanky bruiser, (or Morgana) you can safely use this ability for offensive purposes. If your support is a squishy mage, consider using your Black Spear on the jungler for incredible initiates. You can use this ability to save your oathbound ally from death by drwaing them out of a clusterf*** and into safety, denying the enemy team a kill and probably saving you both in the process. See the section "Support synergies" for combo suggestions with this ability.

Core build:

These boots are currently the best for Kalista. At boot tier 2, they increase the distance you dash with your passive Martial Poise, and the increased attack speed means you will both attack and dash faster - giving you both an offensive and a utility boost. Get these first or second, depending on your gold amount.
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First and foremost, this item gives you an incredible increase in attack damage and crits.
Second, the crit chance along with Statikk Shiv means you will be likely to crit every two or three hits, and with a high attack speed you will crit ALOT.
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The attack speed increase will have you spitting spears like a gatling gun on steroids, and you will be dashing across the Fields of Justice like a Yasuo with no cooldowns. Additionally, if your first attack on a group of enemies crit, you will crit everyone. Imagine the potential of it if you also have Infinity Edge and crit the enemy team in a TF. Yeah.. deadly. The movement speed multiplier also brings you some nice chasing and escape abilities.
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Alternatively, you can go for Phantom dancer instead of Statikk Shiv.
Phantom Dancer works great in late game and outscales Statikk Shiv's stats and use, making this an all over stronger item in late game. It has a higher attack speed and higher critical strike chance, making its synergy with Infinity Edge a force to be reckoned with! The unique passive lets you ignore unit collision, which means you can freely jump through minion waves with your Martial Poise. Consider swapping your Statikk Shiv when you have the money to buy Phantom Dancer!
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Pick Two (or all)

For most AD Carries, Last Whisper is a MUST-HAVE to deal with tanks and bruisers.
It mitigates enemy armor by bypassing 35% of armor, meaning your attack damage will deal more damage against armored targets than it would otherwise. Last Whisper also lets you deal with squishier targets alot quicker, which can be the "make or break" of a teamfight where you focus the enemy ADC, APC or hypercarry.

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Bloodthirster grants you some much needed Life steal, letting you self heal for 1/5 of the damage dealt, and once you are at full health it overheals into a shield that grants you an advantage in skirmishes. Once you have this, you don't really have to hide behind minions to clear minion waves. The bonus attack damage from this item gives you some additional. If you decide to get this, you will hit like a raging school bus.
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If you opt for this item, it will grant you EVEN MORE attack speed, making you a rapid-fire ADC to be reckoned with. The attack damage is less than Bloodthirster, but spitting spears faster into the enemy is not a bad thing. Take this is you feel like trading a little less life steal for a little more attack speed.
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Defensive items

I'm not going to go into the depth of each item, merely give a quick explanation.
In general:
If the enemy team has HEAVY AD - build armor items like Randuin's Omen, Frozen Heart or Guardian Angel.
The reason why I choose not to build Thornmail is that you actually need a bit of health to make use of it, and Kalista is a squishy champion.
Therefore, you generally want to build Randuin's Omen for more health, Frozen Heart for armor, CD reduction and increased mana pool, or Guardian Angel to avoid those long respawn timers in late game.
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If the enemy team has HEAVY AP - build magic resist items.
Viable items are Guardian Angel, Wit's End, Banshee's Veil, Maw of Malmortius and Mercurial Scimitar.
If you feel like the added attack damage, take Maw of Malmortius or Mercurial Scimitar. If you need even more attack speed, then Wit's End is your best choice. Otherwise, Banshee's Veil offers great defense against strong AP spells cast your way + some extra health, and Guardian Angel gives a balance of armor+magic resist.

Core build:

These boots are currently the best for Kalista. At boot tier 2, they increase the distance you dash with your passive Martial Poise, and the increased attack speed means you will both attack and dash faster - giving you both an offensive and a utility boost. Get these first or second, depending on your gold amount.
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The attack speed increase will have you spitting spears like a gatling gun on steroids, and you will be dashing across the Fields of Justice like a Yasuo with no cooldowns. Additionally, if your first attack on a group of enemies crit, you will crit everyone. The movement speed multiplier also brings you some nice chasing and escape abilities. Take this item if they don't have many AP champs.
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If you opt for this item, it will grant you EVEN MORE attack speed, making you a rapid-fire ADC to be reckoned with. The attack damage is less than Bloodthirster, but spitting spears faster into the enemy is not a bad thing. The attack speed and life steal, along with your next lifesteal item, will ensure more lane sustain.
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For the sustain build, you want to pick this item if the enemy team has a great deal of AP.
The 25 Magic resist will mitigate some magic damage, while the added 50 attack speed will buff your life steal from either Essence Reaver or Bloodthirster (or both!). If the enemy team does not have an abundance of mages (see their item builds to deduce this) then you don't need this.

More life steal:

I love this item for the Insane Sustain build. The attack damage is equal to that of Bloodthirster, but instead of 20% Life Steal it offers 10% Life steal, 10% CD Reduction and 2-8% Mana Leech on basic attacks. This means you can clear waves by spamming your Rend on minions, you can spam your Pierce to harass the pants off your enemies (or skirts, if female), and still keep your manapool full of that delicious blue stuff. If you have picked Blade of the Ruined King then this is a very viable item to take along with it to gain the same life steal you would get from Bloodthirster, with some great additional stats for your lane sustaining pleasure!
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Bloodthirster grants you some much needed Life steal, letting you self heal for 1/5 of the damage dealt, and once you are at full health it overheals into a shield that grants you an advantage in skirmishes. Take this item if you can afford to trade away your mana leech from Essence Reaver for 10% extra life steal.
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Take these, SURVIVE!:

Pretty much straightforward.
If the enemy team has mostly attack damage, take Randuin's Omen to buff your HP and armor.
The increase in HP, along with the life steal from your offensively built items, will keep you alive for ages.
The armor from Randuin's Omen mitigates enemy Attack Damage, thus letting you have more gain from your life steal stats.
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If the enemy team has mostly ability power, take [Banshee's veil]] to buff your HP and magic resist.
Same as the above, increase of HP with life steal will keep you alive.
The Magic resist and passive shield from Banshee's Veil cancels the first magic damage spell cast on you, and mitigates magic damage when the shield disappears.

3. Successful team builds

Kalista fits well into the standard-meta team composition. You will want a tank or bruiser in the toplane, a versatile mage with burst abilities in midlane, a bruiser or assassin jungler, and preferably a tanky support (or an AP support if you have two other tanky champions in the team).

If you have a bruiser top, mage mid and assassin jungler, you want a tank support. Viable tanky supports follow below in the "Synergies" section.
If you have a tank top, mage or fighter mid, and bruiser or assassin jungler, you generally want to have an AP support with hard CC. See the below section.

4. Tanky supports

ALISTAR: GREAT
Alistar is a champ with great endurance and a kit well suited for aggressive play.
His Triumphant Roar can keep you both alive and kicking for a long time after taking a beating, and he can chase down an opponent with Unbreakable Will while you catch up to finish the kill. The golden eagle in this composition, however, comes from his W Headbutt and your Fate's Call combo. You can throw him into the enemy team with your ult, and he can Headbutt an enemy back to you - thus serving you a kill on a silver platter. The Alistar+ Kalista combo is worth it's weight in gold, and your pockets will be accordingly deep.

BRAUM: GREAT
Braum is a beloved ally when playing Kalista. He can block enemy skillshots and projectiles with his Unbreakable shield (thus eliminating Caitlyn and Twitchs ultimates), he deals a decent amount of damage with his Winter's Bite, and can leap to your side with Stand Behind Me. As an added bonus, his passive Concussive Blows enable you to stun an opponent, making the art of chase-and-kill a walk in the park. Braum's ultimate Glacial Fissure makes for a great way of denying the enemy a way out during ganks, and with your ultimate Fate's Call, you can fling this goat-loving strongman into the heart of battle to ensure a great initiate in teamfights!

LEONA: GOOD
Leona is a viable option for a tank champ by your side. Her Sunlight with the passive effect of your Sentinel makes your auto attacks a deadly force of bonus damage! Leona packs a kit of multiple stuns with Shield of Daybreak and Solar Flare, and her initiate skill Zenith Blade is essentially your ulti without the knock-up. Good ability combinations with her is to have her activate Eclipse, then use your Fate's Call and fling Leona quickly into the enemy team for an AoE initiation, followed up by your passive bonus damage combos and Rend to finish off afflicted enemies. In a dire situation, Leona can even secure you a nice escape with her ult or Q, allowing you to return for revenge after a brief pit-stop at your base.

THRESH: GOOD
Thresh is a commonly picked support with a tanky build and great CC kit.
Your combined power comes from two ability combos that does not rely on ultimates:
The first is a combination of snatch-and-grab tactics, using his Q: Death Sentence to pull a victim to you, Flay backwards to further keep your target in place, and your Rend to slow them down. From there, you can easily nuke-and-dash the poor champion into oblivion with your Martial Poise and auto attacks+ Rend.

The second combo is your ulti combo. You use Fate's Call to throw Thresh towards your enemy, knocking them up while his The Box keeps them in place. Let's face it, nobody wants to break the walls. Shortly after ulting, you poke the target with your Pierce and start your nuke-and-dash routine of auto attacks and hopping after the target. Should the target pop Flash, Thresh can simply follow with his flash and a Death Sentence to keep them in your clasp of unavoidable death.

Make sure your support is familiar with the possibilities of your combined attacks, to have the best possible laning phase.

VOLIBEAR: Decent
Volibear isn't a standard support champion, but because I have seen him picked as a tank support on occasions, here is a brief explanation on benefits. First of all, Voli is very durable, so he will survive most engages even 3v2. His Frenzy grants him high damage to aid you in defeating your enemies, and his Sky Splitter slows down enemies for you to catch and kill. Volibear definitely packs a punch. The great combo between him and Kalista comes from clever use of your Fate's Call and his Thundering Smash followed by a Sky Splitter, first knocking up the enemies, then slowing your target while you nuke your victim to bits and pieces. Volibears passive The Relentless Storm enables him to recover health when critically injured, avoiding feeding and allowing you to make a daring attack when your enemies think you should have been escaping.

BLITZCRANK: Decent
There's no denying it: A good cranky metal golem can be a pain in the ***.
Blitzcrank makes for a viable ally with his Rocket Grab+ Power Fist combo alone.
Add your ulti Fate's Call to the picture and you have a double knock-up that will keep enemies from getting away too easily. Everyone knows this guy, so I won't waste your time with in-depth tactics like the previous tanks.

Try to make the best use of your Pierce and Rend whenever Blitzcrank grabs your enemies and starts powerfisting them. (Pun intended).
Your two ultimates alone can decimate an entire team clustered together, and makes for a fantastic initiation to interrupt the enemy team when they are busy fighting dragon or Baron Nashor.

NUNU: GOOD
Nunu & Willump can help you poke with his Ice Blast to slow down enemies for your Pierce to hit perfectly. Additionally, he offers some nice Movement speed and Attack Speed with his Blood Boil when you need the extra "oompf" in your "chuck". Ultimate combinations with Fate's Call and Nunu's Absolute Zero makes for a fabulous initiation of team fights or interruption of Baron and Drake when the enemy team tries to secure the buffs. Have your Nunu & Willump support build tanky with utility items like Mikael's Blessing or Locket of the Iron Solari to further increase your effeciency in prolonged engagements!

5. AP Supports

MORGANA: GREAT
One of the most banned-out champions of late, Morgana has so much to offer any adc in botlane. She can harass, root, stun, shield +++ for your unlimited pleasure, good sir.
Morgana rewards aggressive play with high amounts of gold and awesomeness. Her passive, Soul Siphon, means that the more she spams her Q+W to harass and deny farm, the more her health replenishes - potentially letting her stay in lane for ages if her mana regen is up for it.

Your primary use of her will be for roots and giggles.
Morgana uses her Q: Dark Binding to root an enemy in place for AGES, while you throw down auto attacks and Pierce to decimate whoever is stuck in place. Use Rend to slow down their escapes or finishing them off entirely, while you giggle like little girls at the futility of playing against the Morgana+ Kalista combo.

Here's a pro-tip for combining your efforts in late game teamfights:
Make sure Morgana has a Zhonya's Hourglass. Communicate with her (Skype, Teamspeak, Curse or Ventrilo recommended). Have her use her Black Shield on herself, then quickly use Fate's Call to let her knock up the entire enemy team. Immediately after she uses your ult, she should pop her Soul Shackles and then use the active ability on Zhonya's Hourglass to survive the following onslaught while rooting ALL enemies caught in the clusterf**k. You start dashing through your foes with your giant ****ing spear to pick off the hypercarries and squishies accordingly. Congrats, PENTAKILL!

Because Morgana is rather squishy, be sure she uses her Black Shield on herself before using Fate's Call to knock up the enemy team. If you don't, she is most likely going to get ripped apart.

LUX: Risky
Lux can be a great asset to your bot laning phase, as well as late game team fights, but not so much as many other AP supports when you're playing Kalista.
Snare an enemy with Light Binding and follow up with auto attacks, Pierce and Rend to secure kills, or Prismatic Barrier to slow down retreating enemies before finishing them off. Her ulti, Final Spark doesn't have much to offer in combination with yours, but is nice to make sure your opponents get properly fried instead of getting away safely.

When playing with Lux, your ulti usage will probably be restricted to saving her from getting killed rather than engaging in skirmishes. If you are playing with a bruiser type jungler, I recommend using your Black Spear on the jungler to help with ganks, as this is more beneficial to your late game team fights than using it on Lux.

LULU: GOOD
Lulu is a bit tricky to pull off great plays with when you are getting into the mid and late game phases. Again I recommend you use Black Spear on the jungler, and here is why: When your Fate's Call has had your jungler dash into the enemy team and knock them into the air, Lulu can use her ulti Wild Growth on the jungler for a second knock up - and a slow on all enemies nearby your jungler.

When laning with Lulu, make the best use of her Whimsy ability to nuke polymorphed enemies. When she casts Help, Pix! on you, your attacks are buffed with Pix attacking your target. This means that if you and Lulu are both attacking the same enemy, the additional damage from Pix makes for some unexpected high burst damage.

Glitterlance + Pierce is a deadly poke combo that, if it hits, WILL force the enemy struck by both to retreat.

JANNA: GOOD
First of all, Jannas passive Tailwind grants you 5% movement speed increase throughout the game - enabling you to get safely away OR successfully chase enemies.

Jannas Howling Gale is a nice initiation tool with the potential of knocking up an entire cluster of enemies, allowing a double knock up if you are oathbound with your jungler. Her Eye Of The Storm can both save you AND buff you at the same time, making it quite useful in short skirmishes and for harassing with your Pierce. The ultimate Monsoon is nice for clearing an area of pesky melee enemies while healing you or your team. However, Janna does not offer as much utility in plays as Morgana or any of the tankier supports, resulting in a more defensive playstyle when laning with her. You will still be able to hold your lane pretty hard, and push whenever the lane is clear of enemies.

NIDALEE: Decent
Laning with Nidalee can either be a dream or a nightmare, depending on the player.
She offers you a vast variety of utility in her kit: healing, poking and trapping enemies in human form, and some incredible damage in cougar form.

Make use of her Bushwack traps to deny enemies the use of bushes. If an enemy is caught in the trap, be quick to poke the trapped foe with your Pierce and her Javelin Toss.
Sharing kills with Nidalee can be necessary, as she is likely to finish off enemies in cougar form. Accept the fact that "kill steal" should be renamed "kill secure", and you will face less difficulty laning with Nidalee.

SONA: GOOD
Sona has a great kit for you to enjoy!
First and foremost for the AD carry is her Hymn of Valor with its temporary bonus damage and her poke on activation. Second is her Aria of Preserverance on its reasonably low cooldown, allowing Sona to heal you after taking damage, ensuring you stay and fight for as long as possible. Third, Sona's Song of Celerity makes for a fantastic tool both when chasing and escaping enemies. Finally, Sona's Crescendo can disable an entire team, interrupting channels such as Vel'Koz' Life Form Disintegration Ray or Katarinas Death Lotus - potentially saving your entire team from disaster!

Bottom line: You will enjoy laning with Sona by your side, although your oathsworn ally should probably be your jungler.

ZYRA: GOOD
Zyra has the potential to destroy your laning opponents and save your hide from the enemy jungler. Her Q: Deadly Bloom gives a neat small AoE damage when direct cast, or procs a Thorn Spitter ranged plant which works much like Heimerdingers H-28G Evolution Turret - attacking enemies with ranged attacks. Zyras W: Rampant Growth is a combined ward and seed for "turret" type plants, and it can grant you control of nearby bushes during the fight. The strength in the Zyra Kalista combination, however, comes from Zyras Grasping Roots and Stranglethorns ability, combined with your Pierce and Rend abilities. Make shrewd use of Pierce and auto attacks on enemies struck by Grasping Roots to burst their health to zero in short time.

As with other mage type supports, have your jungler as your oathbound ally.
When using your ulti Fate's Call to let your jungler rush into the heat, Zyra can follow up with her Stranglethorns for a second knock-up, disabling enemies from attacking or escaping for a prolonged time while you burst them down.

NAMI: GOOD
No idea how come I left Nami of to begin with.
Nami is a fantastic support, with a huge kit. She can out-sustain her enemies, do some heavy poke damage, help peel a team apart entirely, and she has one of the strongest initiates among the AP supports in the game with her ulti Tidal Wave! She brings you healing with Ebb and Flow, an attack buff with Tidecaller's Blessing, and every time one of her spells hit you, you gain movement speed.

Namis weakness lies in her being very squshy, and if you have bound her to you by Black Spear, your ulti can really make a mess of hers. Fate's Call can save her, but used wrong it can be her downfall.

Hitting with your poke

Learn smart-casting. Essentially, when you hold your left shift button, mouseover a target, and hit your Q (for Kalista) or other designated skillshots, you save milliseconds by activating the spell immediately rather than having to spend time clicking on a target. This may take a while to learn, but it is incredibly useful once you master it, and not only on Kalista.

Use your Martial Poise dash after an auto attack to leap out above or below a minion wave, and smack the enemy with your Pierce, then rip it out with Rend as you use your passive proc to dash back into safety behind minions again. This is a neat harass technique that many seasoned Kalista players use to secure their poke hits.

W: Sentinel ability use

Following the tips in the Ability explanation section, here's a simple video showing the use of your W: Sentinel skill. Play Video Video by GameLandVN.

Jumping over walls

Learning to jump over walls is an important part of mastering the entire skillset of Kalista. Using either auto attacks or Pierce to proc her passive Martial Poise, Kalista can jump over some walls to make plays like escapes, kill steals or an initiation followed by her ultimate. Be sure to check out this vid! Play Video Video by Jeremy GamingCurios.

The picture below shows where your wall jumping can be used.Pic snatched from Kinky Kalistas build guide, which is fantastic by the way. You can find his guide here!

PENTAKILL by Doublelift

Play Video

End credits

Well guys, that's about it.
Hope you found this guide helpful - and if you did, give it a thumbs up and a comment on what you found useful. I will keep it updated along with patches and feedback.
So without further ado: Go enjoy this incredible champion with your newfound skills!

PenileStampede out.

Logged changes following feedback and updates:

01.12.2014: Went throuh Emikadon's review in the comments section.

Changes:
- added

Phantom Dancer in the item section
- added Nami in the AP Support section
- changed viable defensive items
- changed build-order of core build in "Standard Kalista"
- swapped Ignite for Heal
- revamped color use in the guide to make it more comfortable and less gypsy to read
- mastery build for "Standard Kalista" updated