Random Thought: What if Kalista's Autos/Qs did bonus damage when she leaped forward

TehNACHO·Feb 23, 2015·36 votes·1,999 views

BUT, deals less damage if she were to leap backwards?

Think of it. There's now a lot of incentive to leap forward, but if done improperly, it immediately puts her within arms reach of most champions and puts her in immediate danger (which is huge for her usually glass cannon build). There's now much more gravity in Kalista's short term vs long term strategic thinking: Do I do more damage now, capitalizing on short term advantage (more damage in this attack) but putting extreme risk on my long term advantage (way easier to get caught and die)?

If combined with a way to diminish her power (in this case, doing less damage when jumping backwards) so it isn't just a straight buff to her in many situations, I think it would add a whole lot more strategic depth towards how Kalista fights and how to fight Kalista.

26 Comments

DreadlocksFeb 23, 201512 votes

Kalista needs a new passive all together, they need to move her passive to one of her abilities and give it a cooldown. Such as for the next X amount of auto attacks (or seconds) kalista will leap.

Edit: and put a cap on her E

LankPantsFeb 23, 20151 votes

Just put her passive into her Q. If it's too weak you can just drop the CD and damage on Q a little, but I doubt it would be too weak.

KeevalroyFeb 24, 20152 votes

Why move the hop passive? Removing it from the champion kit altogether is a much better idea.

DreadlocksFeb 24, 20151 votes

removing it would diminish her identity of a champion. The idea is actually pretty cool, but on a passive its too much. If you give it a cool down and a cap, it keeps the champions uniqueness there and still making it useful. Right now balancing Kalista is going to be damn near impossible given her current passive. If her passive was moved to an active ability It would open her up to more fine tuning.

KeevalroyFeb 24, 20152 votes

Just because I hate that hop probably more than I hate Yasuo, I don't want it to exist period. That said, if it DOES get moved to an active ability, I'd like to see some serious cost with a low duration and high cooldown.

Big Bang BobFeb 23, 201510 votes

I would scream everytime I had to run from her.

Other than that, sounds interesting.

SwtosFeb 23, 20155 votes

It would be a nice idea, but first they need to make kalista actually pay actually something for that passive.

Marinaras TrenchFeb 23, 20152 votes

does she do more damage then Vayne Jinx KogMaw Draven no does she have more burst then Graves Lucian no does she have more range then Caitlyn Ezreal no yes, she does pay for her mobility, enough? probably not, but she does pay

jimmylismFeb 24, 20151 votes

does she have insane level 2 power spike than Lucian no

TehNACHOFeb 23, 20153 votes

10 bucks people will down vote this thread just because of the title. They don't even bother to actually read the first line of the thread, they just see "What if Kalista's Autos/Qs did bonus damage" and immediately down vote.

LankPantsFeb 23, 20151 votes

Probably should have went with less damage when jumping backwards :)

MrBuffingtonFeb 23, 20151 votes

I am waiting for ~~your check~~ mystery gifts ;)

GuiltyGeckoFeb 23, 20153 votes

They could just take away the bonus distance she gets from leaping backwards and/or have it NOT scale with enhanced movement.

straight4freeFeb 23, 20152 votes

They had this in development but it was removed for some reason, I assume their reason made sense.

XtremeyFeb 23, 20152 votes

mana drain on autos?

EDIT: to clarify, I think there should be a scaling mana cost for DASHING with her passive. it doesnt have to be big, but there should at least be something to pay for her unrivaled mobility. For instance if she is out of mana, she wont dash anywhere.

JunkοFeb 23, 20151 votes

This wouldn't work since her mana pool is fairly small and at even a fairly small bought AS it becomes hard to not dash.

DrCyanideFeb 23, 20151 votes

Kalista would kite backwards, rend you and kite ever so slightly forward (mostly to the side) while you were slowed. She'd then kite backwards again.

This would change the frustration, but I'm not sure it would lessen it.

TehNACHOFeb 23, 20152 votes

This thread wasn't about lessening the 'frustration' around Kalista. Contrary to...everyone...on the boards, I actually like Kalista.

This idea just came to me upon reading a Red Post. I thought it was a cool concept, and it deserved to be fleshed out or at least noted.

vIbvdOwbkoFeb 23, 20151 votes

That can also create the problem of making her even more oppressive when ahead/chasing.

Would moving in a direction very slightly forward but mostly to the side give the bonus damage?

DreamReaper123Feb 23, 20151 votes

I think they should hit her leaping backwards really hard. Like 30% range when leaping backwards, and then buff her "teamwork" abilities (w, r). She's thematically a chasing adc like lucian and vayne, but her greatest strength is running away.

SpagootGGFeb 23, 20151 votes

Ya guys lets buff the most mobile champ in the game with a buff that rewards the very thing people hate

TussFeb 23, 20151 votes

Only thing is: What counts as "forward"? I'm sure many a Kalista would figure out a way to dash sideways around their target while still moving towards them ever so slightly for the bonus damage to count but not giving up their position.

TehNACHOFeb 23, 20151 votes

Ehh, Riot's already tackled this actually. Kalista already has unique effects on her dash depending on the angle (if you leap away from a target, you leap a bit of extra distance). You can kite side to side and gain no bonus effects - even if you are ever so slightly aimed backwards, you will not trigger the extra distance of her backwards leap. You need to very explicitly aim away from your opponent to only a certain degree of variance to trigger the extra distance on her leap.

Modifying around the angles used to trigger Kalista's bonus distance on her leap can easily lead to acceptable definitions of leaping "forward" and "backward". It's really not the nuanced problem you are trying to point out - The groundwork is already there.

Tentacle LoveFeb 23, 20151 votes

Wouldn't it be the other way around? If you throw a spear hard enough to launch you backwards, it should be flying faster... maybe I'm overthinking it. Of course, then she'd be stepping on Nidalee's toes. Or maybe it could become a spear thing.

TehNACHOFeb 23, 20151 votes

Erm, no. Physics do not work that way. Either that, or Kalista must have terrible ass form/teaching to use the spear.