THE INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone! I am going to preface this guide with a disclaimer: I am not the best Kalista player in the world, in fact I am betting that there are many of you who are better than me, but that isn't the point. The point of this guide is to share my knowledge of the champion and maybe show you a build that I have done really well with.

THE PROS & CONS TO KALISTA

The Pros and Cons of Kalista are fairly simple.

PROS:
-She can Kite tanks for centuries
-She can move around the Rift with unparalleled speed compared to other AD's
-She has one of the highest dueling potentials in the game
-She has great engage/disengage tools ( Fate's Call), something most AD Carries lack

CONS:
-Very squishy
-Highly susceptible to getting CC'd (mainly because of her dependence on mobility)
-Can throw teamfights with a single bad ultimate

In my opinion, her Pros outweigh her Cons. Her Cons are mainly issues with her skill ceiling which is one of the highest in the game. Once you master Kalista, nobody stands a chance against you.

THE SUMMONER SPELLS TO USE

For this Chapter, I am going to talk about your Summoner Spells and what you should put each one to use for.

Now first off, we talk about Heal, your basic summoner spell on AD Carries. Heal is a utility spell that restores a flat amount of heals upon activation. This spell's main counter is Ignite which reduces the amount of health restored to the player. Heal is the standard choice for most AD Carries.

Secondly, we have Flash, which is a must-have on most champions in the game without naming a specific few(*cough* Singed*cough*). Flash is another utility spell which can be used defensively or offensively depending on your situation. The main use for Flash should be to save yourself from a skillshot that is guaranteed to kill you such as Ezreal's Q or Jhin's ult. Another use could be repositioning yourself in a teamfight.

OTHER VIABLE SUMMONER SPELLS INCLUDE:
Barrier for a temporary shield in a fight
Cleanse against CC (I tend to pick this when the opposing team has a Thresh or Morgana)
Ignite for the added kill potential (I never bring this spell just because of the fact that Kalista's E serves as a great execute tool in a duel)

YOUR SKILLS

For skills, we have the Passive ability first:

Martial Poise: This is your only source of mobility so use it to your advantage. It also has the drawback of missing the AA if your target leaves your vision range, so a Frozen Mallet is fairly useful in some matchups

Second, we have your Q:

Pierce: You don't use this ability very often. The damage on it is not really worth the mana cost so your only use for it is the mobility it grants. You can use this ability in conjunction with your passive, Martial Poise, to grant you a short lunge in the direction of your choosing.

Then we have your W:

Sentinel: This ability is what makes Kalista good with ranged supports like Nami or Lulu. It does max health damage when proc'd which makes it great poke. The passive attack speed that it grants near your marked ally is extremely useful because you don't build very much AS outside of Blade of the Ruined King and Runaan's Hurricane.

Your bread and butter ability, your E:

Rend: As said above, this is your bread and butter ability. After the buff earlier in Season 7, you can reliably farm with this ability which makes it the first ability you max.

And then finally, your ultimate:

Fate's Call: This is why you bring Kalista to your team. It enables solid engage and allows for setting up powerful ambushes and teamfights for well-communicated teams.

ITEMIZATION

Itemization on Kalista is EXTREMELY important! Buying a single wrong item on her can throw a game due to her high risk, high reward nature. Every game, the beginning will feel exactly the same, farm up, buy a Cull and Zeal for our first back, then proceed to buy Runaan's Hurricane and Blade of the Ruined King.

After those are done you must start predicting what your enemies are going to build for this game. If someone starts stacking armor, you should probably get a Last Whisper instead of a B. F. Sword. If someone starts building a lot of AD, start on a Guardian Angel. Prediction is the key to success right behind teamwork.

THE NEW RUNES

PRECISION

Within the Precision tree, we grab the Keystone Rune of Press the Attack which gives us increased dueling and teamfighting potency.

For the Major Rune, we take Overheal which gives us the second part of the Bloodthirster passive (excess healing from lifesteal generates a shield).

For the Legend Rune, we pick up Legend: Alacrity which gives us permanent attack speed upon killing or assisting in a kill on an enemy champion.

And finally, for the Minor Rune, we take Cut Down which lets us do more damage to Tanks and Bruisers.

SORCERY

As a secondary path, we go into Sorcery, which gives us 18% bonus Attack Speed, which is a much needed stat because of the loss of base stats from Old Runes.

For the Major Rune in our secondary Path, we take Gathering Storm which gives us extra scaling into the late game.

For the Minor Rune in our secondary Path, we pick up Nullifying Orb which essentially gives us a Hexdrinker passive.

WARNING: TEAMWORK REQUIRED

Teamwork on Kalista is the key to success. On Kalista, you have to coordinate with your support to pop your W passive (which does Max Health damage). You have to coordinate your Fate's Call to make sure your support doesn't throw themselves into the wrong place by mistake. Teamwork is the one thing that you always have to make sure you have before the start of the game.

THE FARMING AND TRADING (LANING PHASE)

Farming as Kalista is a fairly straight forward process. Make sure to jump around while farming to make it harder for your enemy laner to hit line skillshots.

Trading on Kalista is the fun part of her games. Her trades are fun to try to execute because they're risky to pull off. First you want to land a Q, then you auto-attack twice then hit your E. You've chunked the enemy for a decent amount of their HP, but be careful because in that time frame, they may be chunking you for more.

KALISTA'S UNIQUE SKILLS

Kalista's main skill that you'll be required to use ALL of the time when you're playing her is her Passive called " Martial Poise". Martial Poise enables you to jump around in between auto-attacks but you lose the ability to cancel your autos. This skill requires some patience and knowledge of your enemies and surroundings because this skill CAN GET YOU KILLED in the early levels. One downside to this skill is that her autos do only 90% of her total AD, which is why Blade of the Ruined King is so good on her.

TIPS FOR RANKED PLAY

In Ranked play, you'll most likely always want to have a friend queue as your support with you to maximize your efficiency in lane and in the match. Most of the time you're going to want to have a tank support but a ranged poke support can sometimes work as well.

If you cannot duo with a friend or if you have no friends like myself, just make sure that your support knows how your Fate's Call works.

Also make sure to communicate to your team with PINGS, NOT CHAT (SAY AGAIN: PINGS! NOT! CHAT!) where you're planning your plays and ultimates.

At the start of the game, (in champ select, for example) ask your support if they can pick a support that you're comfortable laning with.

KALI'S SUPPORT SYNERGIES

Kalista synergizes with the following support champions:
Tahm Kench- A great defensive/farm lane. Can be aggressive at times and allows you to play super aggressive and survive because he can eat you and run to tower. 10/10 lane!
Bard- Great poke and sustain support who enables aggressive setups for the jungler and yourself. 10/10 lane!
Nautilus- A great defensive/kill lane. Naut has good CC while you have good damage output. 10/10 lane!
Sion- Sion is a great tank support. Can allow you to get good picks with his Q. 10/10 lane!
Nami- A Sustain/Poke lane. Can easily get W passive! 10/10 lane!
Sona- Similar to Nami, but with more damage and less healing. Also more aggressive than Nami. 9/10 lane!
Maokai- He has a point and click CC ability. Nuff said.. (But all jokes aside, this is a really good lane!) 9/10 lane!
Alistar- A kill lane at its core. Alistar has built in sustain for him and you. He has THREE CC abilities which all have different situational uses. Have your duo pick Alistar if you want an aggressive lane phase. 9/10 lane!
Thresh- He packs a lot of CC. The OG kill lane. 9/10 lane!
Zilean- This guy is a great utility support able to help you keep kiting your enemies and also help chase. Zilean has the damage of a poke support with the utility you need to keep up in lane! All around great synergy! 9/10 lane!
Blitzcrank- Similar to Thresh. 9/10 lane!
Leona- She is a very aggressive kill lane, similar to Thresh or Blitzcrank. 8/10 lane!
Morgana- She has an ability to block CC, one of your main weaknesses. Have your friend pick Morg if the enemies have a lot of CC and if you don't want to take Cleanse. 7/10 lane!
Lux- So much poke. 6/10 lane.
Karma- Similar to Lux. 6/10 lane.
Singed- He used to be a good synergy with Kalista, but that combo has fallen off recently due to various meta changes. 5/10 lane.
Kayle- She's going to steal kills, she's a carry who claims to be a "support" 0/10 lane.
Soraka- So you're telling me that you want to throw your greatest ally into the entire enemy team like a hunter trying to lure a pack of wolves? Ever hear about what happened to the hunter??? 0/10 lane...

THE SUMMARY

In this guide, I talked about how to play Kalista efficiently and effectively! If this guide helped you out in ANY way, shape or form, please leave a comment telling me how it did! And please leave your constructive criticisms as they really do help! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this guide, I really appreciate it! Have a wonderful day!