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Is Kalista's E OP with regards to securing dragon/baron?

MightyThordle·1/12/2015, 2:54:23 AM·1 votes·1,284 views

Hey all, I picked up Kalista on launch and have been loving her so far, especially with the extra vision and objective control she brings. However is it balanced?

Kalista's E, given proper time to stack spears, can out smite a jungler. The main purpose of this post is to ask: is this fair? It takes time to stack that many spears, and focusing burst or CC can prevent her from fully utilizing it, as can proper objective control. Obviously you can't balance assuming perfect objective control, but is what her E affords her too much?

The main person I have been debating this with claims that it is virtually impossible to steal from a team with Kalista, however I believe that stealing is not something to balance around. That being said I can understand the frustration of getting outsmited by an adc. Myself being an ADC main who puts up with Yasuos and Fioras outdamaging me, Yi's/tryndamere's out tower pushing me, and, well, everyone having more HP, my initial reaction is "oh no an ADC who can do something better than another role designed to do so." I understand that's not the right mentality, but after all the crazy sources of instant death thrown at me on the rift I can't help it. So I come here, and I'm attempting to start a debate: tell me your opinions!

TL: DR: Is Kalista's E too powerful in securing objectives, or is proper objective control/focusing Kal/CC enough counterplay to allow it? Does E need a cap against epic monsters?

5 Comments

ValyrianBlade1/12/2015, 3:03:22 AM1 votes

I think it's reasonably fair. She needs a lot of time to stack those spears, meaning she needs a lot of time to be at dragon/baron without anyone getting up in her face. If you come to steal, you need to burst down or at least CC Kalista before you go for the steal.

In general, I don't like steals. I mean, I have no problem with them gameplay wise, but just I prefer to see a team try to "defend" rather than "steal". I prefer to see a team let the enemy get Baron to 20% before coming in for a 5v5 teamfight. I don't like seeing 1 team member flash over a wall 1v5 in certain death for a 50% chance of outsmiting the enemy jungler (or Nunu/Cho'gath securing it more easily). I don't have any problems with it happening, but it's just not how I like to see it played (only the certain death scenario).

I guess basically what I'm saying is, how can Kalista be OP in this regard when Nunu and Cho'gath are allowed to exist where they can steal from smite just as effectively but require none of the set up or risk? Kalista has plenty of weaknesses to exploit and this is probably a much-needed strength.

Deep Terror Nami1/12/2015, 3:03:52 AM1 votes

If it's the ally Kalista, no problem because you want that.

If it's the enemy Kalista, maybe you should get her away from the dragon/baron and treat her like she has Smite. It only takes a few seconds for the stacks to drop off so unless you're just letting her do it for free, it's not hard to force her off and reset the stacks.

Sachabot1/12/2015, 3:06:51 AM1 votes

Not compared to Gragas or Cho, no. There is a small number of champions who can do something similar.