Kalista has kind of gained notoriety within the League community for her poor win rate and play rate, but why? What exactly makes this champion so abysmal, despite the fact that she still sees competitive play?
I really love this champion's concept and I hate to see her retain the status she has now. I hope Riot will give her some much needed attention in the near future. :\
It's because Kalista can't apply damage as easily as most other ADCs. For her to make good trades, she has to be 3 times more mindful than other ADCS. She needs to make heavy usage of minion waves while trading WHILE simultaneously having the least range of any ADC, AAs that only do 90% DMG, the luxury of being hard-countered by slows, AND the ability to miss autoattacks if an enemy leaves vision.
The icing on top of this is that Kalista doesn't just force herself to jump through additional hoops, but her support too. Since half of Kalista's kit is dependent on the support, you're also a bit screwed if the two of you aren't on the same page.
There's an indepth video on Kalista's downfall from her former place as queen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDOYVAX6C3Y
It’s just her numbers. Riot keeps her numbers insanely low because of pro play.
Kalista's passive is game-breaking to an degree that she is never allowed to be truly viable, lest she take over the meta again.
The next video should answer your question...
She's intended to be kept in a bad state.
Her kit is so toxic that she just cannot be buffed.
op ad ratio on spells, but almost no damage from leveling them. its nice if you stack 30 spears in your enemy, but if they do as much as 1 headshot crit from a caitlyn, then that sucks cause even with full attackspeed, 30 aa's take a while.
She was designed in a meta where a fight lasted longer than 2 seconds. Her kit generally takes 3-4 seconds to land enough spears to Rend.
Her kit concept is toxic if she were buffed to accommodate it. In LCS for 2 years after her release, she held a 72% win rate, because her steps basically make predicting and using skill shots impossible to hit without extreme luck.
