Expectations of changes made to Kalista
Just a quick thread of me puking thoughts onto a screen before bed.
There's a lot of discussion revolving how annoying Kalista is, but the reason we are unlikely to see many changes to her core gameplay is that she is fulfilling her core fantasy very well. She is very good at the more traditional idea of a skirmisher, someone who does damage while constantly falling back or skirting around the edges of your opponent, never letting them touch you. As such, that will probably not be changed.
Riot is likely to instead look for other aspects of her kit that present a more "hidden" power. Where are these?
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First and foremost and by far most important of things Kalista doesn't need to do to fulfill her fantasy: infinite rend stacking on monsters. There is absolutely no reason for Kalista to do >2k damage to baron and dragon, making it nearly impossible to smite steal against Kalista. This will likely be capped, either by number of stacks or flat max damage (probably the latter)
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Ending "status" abilities. Did you know, if timed right, as Fiddlesticks or Kennen, you can ult and Zhonya's, then Kalista grabs you and throws you, and you still get the full duration of both ult and zhonya's upon arrival? There is actually 0 counterplay to this and I expect to see it removed somehow. (I learned this the hard way in an aram)
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Reduced damage when Q pierces a target, and reduced damage overall. Fairly self explanatory, still rewards players for hitting targets through low health minions for the rend stacks and damage, without being an unnecessarily strong trading tool.
And that's what I expect! While it might not be enough (and I fully expect people to tell me this over and over in the comments) it promotes her strengths while removing extraneous parts of her kit. Her core fantasy and mechanic survives intact, and that will likely be the last part of her kit to be removed.
The damage on her W passive will likely be toned down at some point, and there might be a delay added to her ultimate's first cast (no more instantly saving an ally) but that would be a second round approach in all likelihood.
