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Hey everyone! I am Lionel, I've been a Challenger ADC main since season 5 and have peaked rank 1 1364LP. I previously played profesionally in the OPL and LCO from 2020-2022. I have watched 1000s of hours of pro play (including POV VODs) since season 2 and am interested in sharing my knowledge with you all. Kalista is my all time favourite champion in the game because I find her extremely satisfying to play and she has a lot of skill expression.

I've started making videos on Youtube and you might remember me from my streaming days on Twitch!
Season 11 Rank 1

Pros:
- Strong Lane phase
- Extremely fun to play
- Very mobile
- Stacks neutral objectives easily
- Always room for more skill expression


Cons:
- Low range without Lethal Tempo stacked
- Vulnerable to slows
- Less scaling that crit ADCs
- Requires teamwork to execute some plays
- Difficult to pilot
- Riot nerfed her base AD from 69 to 66 on 12.15 😭

Passive: Kalista has what I consider the coolest passive in the game.
Basically she can hop on every auto attack and it scales with the tier of her boots. This can be very useful for dodging and weaving in fights. This passive makes her standout from all other ADC champions and leaves plenty of room for skill expression. It can be both very rewarding if used to kite well but also frustrating if you jump into melee range of the opponent by accident.


Q: Kalista throws a spear and if it kills the target, the rend stacks are transferred to the enemy it hits. This ability also lets her hop and can be used to dodge abilities and jump over walls. Q is very useful for switching targets, poking and resetting Rend.




W: This ability has two parts, a passive and an active. The most useful part of this ability is the soul mark passive. When Kalista and her support basic attack or she uses Q on the same enemy champion, that champion takes bonus magic damage. The active sentinel part of this ability is not particularly useful but can sometimes be used to scout bushes to avoid facechecking.



E : This is Kalista's signature ability. Her basic attacks and Q apply stacks of Rend that can be ripped from enemies dealing damage depending on the amount of spears and slowing for 2 seconds. If it kills an enemy, the rend cooldown is refreshed. There are a lot of creative ways to rend and reset the cooldown off minons, jungle monsters and even champions. Usually you want to max E first but in some scenarios, putting points in Q can be useful for poking.


R: Kalista usually uses the Black Spear to tether her support at lvl 1. When she hits level 6, she can use this ability to pull her ally towards her and redirect them. When her ally hits an enemy champion they are knocked up. This ability is very useful for saving teammates, tower dives, engages, baiting and absorbing important cooldowns.

Lethal Tempo: The durability patch made Lethal Tempo the premier Rune choice for Kalista. This is because it is more difficult to one shot opponents so Hail of Blades is not as potent. Lethal Tempo is stronger in long drawn out fights when it can be fully stacked. Also, it gives bonus attack speed per stack and can increase attack range at max stacks, which creates a lot of creative play patterns for Kalista. She usually suffers from range issues so the range this rune gives her counteracts a lot of her weaknesses.

Triumph: This rune is very useful for snowballing. Kalista games in SoloQ should have a lot of fighting and this rune can swing skirmishes in your favour with the 10% missing heal. Overheal is not a bad option either but Triumph fits her playstyle much better in SoloQ environments. The gold for this rune is useful for snowballing and reaching early item power spikes.


Legend: Alacrity: Kalista builds a lot of lifesteal in her build path naturally so she does not need the bloodline rune. Alacrity is great on Kalista because she loves attackspeed for higher DPS.




Last Stand: This rune increases damage dealt depending on how low your health is. It synergises well with Immortal Shieldbow and can often swing skirmishes that go down to the wire. The other runes in this tier arent particularly appealing either so Last Stand stands out as the best option for Kalista.



Taste of Blood: Generally a strong rune and very useful in lane to sustain. Sudden Impact is not a horrible choice either but I prefer this rune because it fits Kalista's theme better.




Treasure Hunter: This rune helps Kalista snowball and reach her item spikes faster. Ultimate Hunter is not a bad choice either depending on who you have binded. However, I prefer this rune because it helps you reach your early item spikes faster and is more useful in SoloQ.



Secondary Runes: Attack speed is an obvious choice for any ADC. Armor and MR are interchangeable depending on if you're laning against an AD or AP threat. Health is decent as a scaling option if you feel that you have an easy lane where the opponents will not fight back and you don't need the armor and magic resistance.

Overgrowth and Conditioning: These runes can be used if you want to play more for scaling and be tankier in the mid to late game. Kalista usually finds herself in close quarters in teamfights so having tanky stats can be useful. This is a playstyle preference and can be taken if you are against a lot of melee/assassin type champions and value the tankiness.

Unflinching and Bone Plating: This rune provides slow resist and Tenacity . Kalista struggles against slows because they slow her hop and lower her DPS. This makes Unflinching good in some cases.
Bone Plating: Pro players like EDG Viper used to take this rune in this in some specific matchups like against Lucian Nami. It was useful to stop the initial burst from the Electrocute combo from that duo. If you are against bot duos that rely on a specific burst combo you could consider this rune. However, I don't particularly like it myself.

This spell is a must have because it teleports your champion towards your cursor. It can be used for dodging abilities, finishing off kills, repositioning and is very versatile for outplaying your opponents.
Flash is essential for most champions in the game, especially ADCs.



Cleanse is the best secondary summoner in my opinion. One of Kalista's biggest weaknesses is slows and CC. Exhaust is strong against Kalista because it slows her jump speed and her dps. Taking Cleanse allows you to find kills in all ins and cleanse any crowd control and Exhaust. Cleanse is strong if the enemy team has hard CC in other lanes too.


Heal is another good option because it is a strong 2v2 summoner. The movespeed it gives to your support can be very useful in all in trades. If you take heal, it is important to play around the enemy's Exhaust and hold your rend until after it wears out. I would recommend using this summoner if you're not comfortable using Cleanse yet.


Taking Exhaust can be strong in some matchups. It can help in the Draven and Samira matchup because those champions have strong all in potential. It is also useful if your team needs an Exhaust for champions like Gwen or Kennen in other lanes.

Starting Items


These are the most standard starting items for Kalista. Doran's Blade is very strong against melee supports and the Omnivamp and Health are very useful stats on Kalista. You can usually start these items in most matchups.



These starting items can be a better option vs poke lanes like Ezreal Karma. One advantage to starting Long Sword is that it helps you reach your Noonquiver spike sooner. However, since the nerf to Health Potions on patch 12.14, I prefer the Doran's Blade when possible.

Early Game

Boots have a unique interaction with Kalista's passive. Martial Poise hop distance scales with the tier of her boots. It can be quite good to rush tier 2 boots in some lanes to increase your hop range and run your opponents down. Since bot lane is a long lane, tier 2 boots are very effective at closing the distance and with Lethal Tempo, you can easily chase kills down. The attack speed is also very useful for rend stacks.

These boots are extremely situational and very useful vs double AD lanes like Samira and Pyke. If the enemy bot lane is stacking Lethality , these boots can help you dominate the early game.




This is the premium early game ADC item. It gives Kalista everything she wants; AD and attack speed. Depending on the lane, it can be better to rush noonquiver over boots for the pure damage. It is important to use your discretion and decide whether boots or Noonquiver are better to rush. If the enemy bot is immobile and your support has hard CC, the pure damage can often be better than boots.


This item can be useful to sustain against some poke lanes. However, I prefer rushing the Damage items and boots first for greater all in threat.

Mid-Late Game Items

This is the best mythic on Kalista because it give sher lifesteal and the shield is very useful for clutching out teamfights and skirmishes. The mythic passive also benefits Kalista because she is low range and uses the bonus AD and health better than most high range ADCs would.



This is usually the best second item . The unique passive helps Kalista stack spears very quickly and makes neutral objectives very quick. The build path also has a lot of attack speed. You can't go wrong building Guinsoo's as a second core item.



This item should be built when the opponent stacks armor and health. The unique passive deals bonus damage depending on health difference, so you probably don't want to build this if you take Overgrowth in runes. LDR can be a strong 3rd item but depends on the opponent's itemisation.



This item feels great because it allows you to stack spears into multiple targets at once. It can be optimal to build when the enemy team has a lot of melee champions and they are not stacking armor so you can skip LDR. This item is also useful for farming jungle camp's and can help you accelerate your CS/min as the game gets later.


Wit's End is very powerful against double AP threats on the enemy team. Not only does it give you magic resist, it also gives you "Basic attacks deal 15 − 80 (based on level) bonus magic damage on-hit and grant you 20 bonus movement speed for 2 seconds." The magic damage and movespeed are very useful, particularly if the enemy team starts stacking armor.

Situational Items

It can be optimal to itemise defensive items on Kalista in some cases. Due to her low range, she often finds herself in close combat with enemy champions. If you are playing against a full AD team or multiple AD threats, Warden's Mail or even a complete Randuin's Omen can be very useful for keeping yourself alive. With Immortal Shieldbow and Guinsoo's Rageblade, Kalista can stack an large number of spears so having survivability can be invaluable in some scenarios in SoloQ. It is great against heavy AD compositions and champions like Tryndamere.

Useful if you do not have cleanse and the enemy team has a lot of crowd control. It can be built as a 3rd or 4th item and can be upgraded into Mercurial Scimitar later in the game.




Useful if you want a revive and allows Kalista to play with high risk and try trade her own life for an opponents life. It is also useful to buy Stopwatch before big teamfights. After using Stopwatch, you can later upgrade it into Guardian Angel for the late game. While this is a situational item, you can usually buy it most games and it can be high value.



Useful against poke compositions and in games where there are extended teamfights. I usually find other items to be more practical in most games so I only buy this item occasionally.




I very rarely want to build this item but it can be build against compositions with a lot of healing. If you do build it, it is quite useful with Runaan's Hurricane. The downside is, you probably won't be doing much damage.




In a lot of games, the enemy team often has one very strong, fed member. You should put your chains on them and it will also give you Ability Haste and reduce their tenacity. [Anathema's Chains is an underrated defensive option for ADCs because it gives tankiness and is very good for late game situations.

In most lanes, it is very important to take control of the lane bushes at level 1 as Kalista. If either you or your support take Sweeping Lens, you can control the bushes and zone the enemy off minions early game. You should skill Rend and should be willing to trade and take fights at level 1, while stacking your Lethal Tempo. Paired with a strong level 1 duo like Renata Glasc or Nautilus, it is good to look for trades and reset your Rend on minions where possible. Skill Pierce at level 2 and constantly be looking to trade with the opponent. Often in Soloq, you can find kills on the opponent in the first couple of levels. Use Rend to contest the push and thin the wave out early but make sure not to push too fast once you have control of the minion wave.

If you can't find kills in the early levels, try chunk the opponent out to setup for a dive with your jungler or mid. If you can't find kills 2v2 or dives, use your priority to track the enemy jungler with your Trinket Item. Be wary of early gank junglers like Jarvan IV and Xin Zhao as they will try gank you if you trade too aggresively. After pushing in the wave, you have many options. You can take the 3:15 Scuttle Crab with your support, hide in lane bushes to cheese kills or even recall if you are chunked out or have a good power spike. The best power spikes on Kalista are Berserker's Greaves (1100 gold) and Noonquiver (1300 gold), so try look for those recalls in the early game. Triumph and Treasure Hunter should help you reach these spikes and start snowballing the game.

Once you reach level 6 and have some of your early game items, you can find more engage angles with Fate's Call. This ability is unique because you can engage from long range, reset aggro on tower dives and save your support if they are caught out. This spell can create a lot of creative kill angles that the opponent won't expect. You should also be looking to take the first dragon with your lane priority and begin stacking towards the dragon soul. Kalista can actually do quite well with Enchanter picks like Soraka or Lulu. Her ultimate provides them with both a disengage and engage tool and you can use it to save your support and turn the fight. Rogue used Kalista with Soraka in the finals of LEC this year and did exactly that.

Kalista is a very strong mid-game champion because she spikes at 1 and 2 items. Your main goal should be to maximise your resources and take as many neutral objectives like Dragon and Rift Herald for your team. The buff to rift herald local gold on 12.14 and individual dragon buffs further incentivises this playstyle. When dragon soul was first introduced, pro teams would pick jungle Olaf in competitive games as a means of securing dragons because of how he easily took dragons and won early skirmishes. With the durability of dragons increased on 12.14, I believe Kalista serves a similar purpose, but as an ADC. It is incredibly difficult for junglers to solo neutral objectives on this patch so having a self-sufficient ADC that excels at securing neutrals is extremely valuable.

Kalista spikes earlier compared to most crit ADCs like Caitlyn that spike at 2 or 3 items. This makes her playstyle a lot different to most crit ADCs because she is looking for any excuse to fight in the midgame. Use neutral objectives as a means of baiting the enemy team in and dominate fights with your Immortal Shieldbow power spike. If you're behind, the midgame is a good opportunity to use your 1 item power spike to attend fights and pick up kills to catchup.

It is important to stack dragons to pressure the enemy team to fight at Dragon Soul. If you can accelerate your lead and claim a soul or spawn Elder Dragon before the enemy team reaches their spikes, you can reliably snowball most SoloQ games to victories. You can waveclear quickly with your Rend so it is possible to stay at around 8-11cspm if you keep farming well. You want to be linking up with your support and using Fate's Call in fights whenever possible. If there are no easy neutral objectives or towers to take, try invade enemy buffs or camps and take them for yourself. Kalista clears camps very quickly and you can find the enemy jungler on their camps and tilt them out of the game.

Kalista excels against a lot of melee champions and diving champs which you will usually encounter in SoloQ. She can apply her rend stacks to multiple melee champions with Runaan's Hurricane in teamfights. She can kill tanks with Lord Dominik's Regards and Guinsoo's Rageblade and has good survivability build paths with Randuin's Omen, Wit's End and Guardian Angel. Although she does not scale as well as traditional crit ADCs or hypercarries in terms of DPS, she brings a lot of value to teamfights with her ulility with Fate's Call.

It is important to use neutral objectives to bait opponents in for fights. Her Rend is very good for securing Baron Nashor and Elder Dragon and you have the option of finishing the objective or turning to fight with Fate's Call. If you're strong in the game and the enemy has a lot of diving threats, it can be good to focus on self-peeling and kiting the nearest enemy to stay alive. However, if you're weaker and the enemy team has a strong scaling threat like a Corki or a Jinx, it is important to change your playstyle. In this case, it could be optimal to use your Fate's Call to dive the enemy carries with your support.

Although Kalista does not scale as well as traditional ADCs in terms of DPS or range, her kit provides a lot of versalitity. It is important to use your discretion to problem solve in teamfights and eliminate the greatest threats. Guardian Angel is a very useful item in the late game as it can keep you alive vs diving champions but can also let you dive the backline and trade 1 for 1 and revive. Be creative and work with your team and support to find angles to take neutral objectives and win teamfights.

Thanks for reading my Kalista guide and I hope you learnt something! I used to find Kalista very hard to play when I first started playing League competitively. Don't be too frustrated if you can't pick her up instantly, she can take a little time. The payoff is worth it because once you start to master her, she is extremely satisfying to play. I hope you can enjoy playing her as much as I do!

I've started making videos on Youtube and I will be uploading similar content in the future.

If you're interesting in coaching, message Lionel#3328 and feel free to join my Discord.