Kalista; a Gameplay Update

Stacona··2 votes·789 views

This post will make very light changes, it is mainly to deal with the reason of why Kalista is not good to go against and try to fix those issues. She will be still very mobile, Rend focused damage, and a team focused marksman (even more team focused with my changes). Nothing will change in terms of how they work, just try to open a lot more counter play against Kalista, in the future this can lead to better balancing and potential buffs to Kalista IF she is ever weak; her current state she cannot get any buffs to her.


Basic Attack Range: 500 units Movement: 330 units per second Attack Damage: 57 - 100~ [based around level 1-18]


Martial Poise (Passive): Range: 300/350/400 units (Base/Tier1/Tier2 [tier of boots]) Kalista can hop in the target direction with a movement command whenever she winds up for a basic attack or Pierce if she has at least one charge of Martial Poise.

Kalista's basic attacks cannot be canceled and if she loses vision of her target her attack will miss.

Kalista gains a charge of Martial Poise every 3rd basic attack and every Pierce, up to a maximum of 6 charges stored up at a time.

Kalista's basic attacks and Pierce can critically strike, but instead of increasing in damage the spear size is enlarged.

Pierce (Q): Cooldown: 8 seconds; Cost: 60 Mana; Range: 1150 units Kalista throws a spear in the target direction to deal 10/60/110/160/210(+100%AD) physical damage to every enemy struck.

If Pierce kills an enemy it takes all the spears from Rend on the target to the next enemy including the spear that Pierce would have applied to it and restore 10 Mana for every enemy executed by Pierce up to a maximum of 40 Mana restored.

Sentinel (W): Cooldown: 2 seconds; Cost: 1 Sentinel Charge; Range: 3000/3500/4000/4500/5000 units Passive: Kalista's or an ally champion's basic attacks mark enemies for 2 seconds. If Kalista marks an enemy then a nearby ally champion can proc the mark, if an ally champion marks an enemy then Kalista can proc the mark with a basic attack. If the mark procs it deals 10/12.5/15/17.5/20%(+1% per 100AP) of the target's maximum health as bonus magic damage, the same enemy can only take this damage once every 14/13/12/11/10 seconds (max 300/350/400/450/500 damage against monsters).

If a marked enemy dies then Kalista gets the kill credit.

Active: Kalista commands a soul to the target location to lap back and forth for the next 30 seconds, if it detects an enemy champion then it follows it for 4 seconds and applies vision on it before dying out.

Kalista stores up a Sentinel charge every 90/80/70/60/50 seconds, up to a maximum of 2 charges at one time.

Rend (E): Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 seconds; Cost: 25/30/35/40/45 Mana; Range: 1400 units Passive: Kalista's basic attacks and Pierce apply a spear in her targets for 4 seconds when Rend is off cooldown allowing Rend to be used, there is no limit to the amount of spears that an enemy can have in them at a time.

Active: Kalista deals 40/55/70/85/100(+40%AD) physical damage and slow by 25/30/35/40/45% for 2 seconds to enemies afflicted with a spear in them.

Every spear beyond the first increases the total damage by 10% and 20% for every enlarged spear in the target.

Fate's Call (R): Cooldown: 120/100/80 seconds; Cost: 100 Mana; Range: 1400 units Kalista may call in a target ally champion only, placing them in stasis for up to 6 seconds.

The called in champion can then throw themselves to the target location, if they hit an enemy champion they knock up the struck enemy champions for 1.5/1.75/2 seconds and the ally champion is then placed at their maximum basic attack range.

Kalista cannot use Fate's Call on an ally champion that is currently taking champion or tower damage in the last 0.5 second.


8 Comments

Flyer Beast1 votes

WTF. Are you suggesting Kalista needs a nerf? She got gutted in this preseason and I will show you how. Changes to her kit, first of all. Her passive scales off of attack speed now. item 3110 anywhere nearby makes her an easy target. Her attacks only do 90% of her total AD (A while ago but to an ADC this is a big nerf) Her ulti's cooldown got increased. (A while ago but still pretty big)

Most of all, items. item 3153 Got nerfed. Deals 2% less current health damage, and costs 200 more gold. item 3085 Got changed to a crit item. Kali doesn't scale well off of crit, and cant buy this item anymore. item 3072 Deals Less Damage and Costs More. item 3035 item 3033 Costs more than former last whisper and grievous wounds is better against lifesteal adcs than crit adcs.

As a kalista main who bought the blood moon skin the day before the 90% AA Damage nerf, I can tell you that she is ridiculously weak right now and if you are ignorant enough to say that she is weak and needs to have more counterplay you are an idiot. [zombie-brand-facepalm] [zombie-brand-mindblown]

Stacona1 votes

Kalista did not get gutted whatsoever.

Blade they will revert the nerf and make it stronger than what it originally was at some point, it happens every single time they nerf Liandry's Torment and Blade of the Ruined King; whenever they get nerfed they come out stronger than what they were before the nerf

Bloodthirster is not nerfed, gold got inflated, it has the same strength this season as last season, also Fervor of Battle favours Kalista more than the other champions


This gameplay focuses more on Kalista's team gameplay kit and Rend stacking, including having Rend spears critically strike in a way to increase the damage with both attack speed and crit over only attack speed.


Kalista would build Death's Dance since her damage is more focused around abilities over basic attacks making the physical damage life steal better than normal life steal and she uses cooldown reduction very well, still gets Hurricane, and she can follow up with Statikk Shiv and Rapidfire Cannon. And you always would get the damage amp last whisper, never grievous wounds cause the stat got gutted so it sucks now, the damage amp last whisper is better even against mundo over the grievous wounds one.

Regardless of build, this is about making Kalista better to play against, and you are a delusional and ignorant "main" thinking she does not have gameplay issues; and if you think Kalista is weak right now you are Bronze.

Flyer Beast1 votes

item 3153 how do you know that? It was like one of the most common items before, I don't think they will buff it again. item 3072 is totally nerfed, it costs more gold and it has 5 less attack damage. I do think fervor of battle is a great keystone for Kalista, one of the few things she has going for her. Kalista 's Current gameplay focuses on oathswearing and rendstacking.

item 3812 is a good item on Kalista if you are taking damage and not jumping around it. "Still gets hurricane, and can follow with stattik shiv and rapid firecannon" Did you get hit in the head?????? Kalista ** Does Not Scale Well Off Of Critical Strike!!!!!!!! Everyone Competent at thinking straight doesn't build critical strike on her. **

item 3036 yeah this one is better than item 3033 now, true. Does that make her remotely strong? No.

Kalista is already really dam nice to play against if ur butthurt about getting kited that's her strength don't advocate that shes OP. Shes got no gameplay issues. If you think shes oppressive and needs negative changes you are level 10, and a pretty idiotic one at that. [zombie-brand-facepalm] [zombie-brand-mindblown]

Stacona1 votes

Because they have nerfed blade before, and they always make it stronger than before the nerf

The high tier AD is 65 from 80 now - so BT got buffed by 10 AD and gold got inflated so it never got nerfed

Don't buy Death's Dance for the passive - only buy it if you can use the physical damage life steal well and better for BT - Kalista uses Death's Dance better than BT

Kalista has the highest base attack damage for a range champion, even with "10% less damage" she still scales with crit better than other ADs, but you dont focus it because you want AS/AD for Rend stacks; but you still basic attack and crit still matter


You are severely retarded; and my changes are anything but nerfs, they buff her core gameplay element; I just toned back her bull shit, no good player will ever think Kalista is trash unlike you because you are Bronze 6 because you logic is so bad and you cannot possibly comprehend when a champion is and is not good and healthy for the game

IAMS4T4N1 votes

kalista is fine imo very very very very very annoying but fine

Stacona1 votes

You contradict yourself - and Riot is working a rework for Kalista, so might as well voice thoughts and opinions

Kalista is anything is fine, she gets perma banned or picked in higher skill play because she is broken - infinite hops and can save an ally no matter for retarded they end up playing, these are the core aspects that she needs fixing

ForgotToShoot1 votes

Meh. Not a fan of the Fate's call changes. And if you're going to remove crit from a champion, it has to be just as useful in another situation, and a 10% bonus to Rend's base damage is just not enough to make up for the 90% AD lost.

Stacona1 votes

I removed the decreased basic attack damage and gave her normal base AD; so instead of her basic attacks critting her Rend crits; i made it so the damage multiplies on each other; so it increases the damage of the previous value by that amount and crit spears help it out significantly in the stacking process emphasizing Rend spear stacking rather than having her front loaded burst

Removed her Black Spear item so she can interact with ally champions, overall her gameplay will not be significantly changed, just more team focused

Fate's Call that greatest problem to it is that you can save an ally making them invincible no matter how dumb they play, so forcing it to me more aggressive and help tone back the passive save an ally from any bull shit should make Kalista less frustrating to go against


All my ideas have long term thought processes to them, meaning in the future if she is too weak or too strong we can do simple number tweaking to put her in a good spot balance wise; by having an on damage delay to her ult can be adjusted, having her hops stored up at a time can be adjusted, Rend damage can be adjusted, etc this is thought process that is good and clearly something the creators of Kalista did not think of at all which is why Riot is giving Kalista a gameplay update in the future because she had such a short term kit when she got released in terms of balancing

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