@Meddler: With so many ADC's on the rise, Kalista feels really out of place.
Hello I would like to discuss Kalista's place in the roster of ADC's and meta. Before patch 6.6 she ha d a clear identity with somewhat of a variable build path. She was an early game to mid game monster who fell off late game. Building Botrk, Hurricane or BloodThirster were all viable options. Being successful on Kalista was fairly straight forward as well. Have SOME synergy with your support, win trades and then extend that lead into other lanes. This method is no longer reliable and there has been no other recourse or method to produce the same results (or similar ones) since. Due to the nerf to her W passive and the increased need to be next your your support 24/7 she is no longer viable and is very mediocre in competitive play at best. It was clear that Riot felt she needed to be toned down so that she didnt dominate competitive play, but they didnt tone her down, they gutted her and did not shift power anywhere.
She isnt stronger with her support than she was previously she is overall weaker and your impact on the game is much less felt throughout all stages. What do you guys feel could be done to make this champion balanced, without trying to change her martial pose passive. Yes I mention this because many who dislike the champion will point to their dislike of having an adc's known for it's kiting prowess and ability to dodge skillshots in the right hands. Unless Kalista is literately deleted, this is never going to happen, that is the identity of the champion. The W change was something tried but I believe it made her unviable at all in Dynamic queue, unless your team is just vastly superior.
Personally I think she needs more power back in the early game, so that she isnt reliant on the stars aligning to get ahead. Kalista players need a window in which they could look to be strong and make their mark on the game, before they fall off. Right now even going 3 kills ahead in lane and having a cs lead is sort of hard trying to assert your lead/dominance because your scaling isnt that great, your build path isnt too effective against squishes until you have completed boots, Botrk and runnans. Putting more base damage into rend is something worth looking into imo. Also putting power into her ultimate is something worth looking into also. Alot of people underestimate her ultimate when they pair with a Kalista, often neglecting to knock up people either due to misplaying or believing it's more valuable to reposition themselves to the side to land a cc or something. This is often not effective (I honestly don't know why its so often done), when the enemy adc is not knocked up your chances of finishing them off is greatly diminished and a lot of supports do not realize the value of the free knock up.
I think giving it an added effect of doing increased %health damage and an added slow to the knocked up target for an "x" amount of seconds would be something worth doing. Sort of like marking someone with a Fizz ultimate. Kalista needs more tools in her kit to be assertive early game and especially when she has a lead. Champions like Jhin, Caitlyn, Ashe, and Mf do so well now because their kits allow them to snowball heavily. Applying massive amounts of CC or ridiculous front loaded damage. The sustained damage Kalista provides is far too low for a champion that spikes in the mid game and falls off late. She is not a late game hyper carry and yet has one of the worst early games of all AD's. Thoughts?
