Kalista is now permaban in pro play; what to do about it?
I'm not exactly certain what Kalista's pick/ban percentage is at the point, but what I have watched tells me that it's very high. When a champion becomes near-100% pick/ban in pro play, the nerfs are inevitable, so I wanted to start a discussion about what those nerfs should look like. One thing to consider here is that the problem with Kalista is mostly her power in the hands of very good Kalista players, as her winrate is sub-50% below Diamond (leagueofgraphs.com shows that ADC Kalista's winrate is 47.6% in Gold and up, as compared to 51.0% in Diamond and up). So, I think that the inevitable nerfs should focus on decreasing Kalista's power in the hands of skillful players and well-coordinated teams, ideally with a smaller impact at lower levels. With that in mind, here are two thoughts I had for nerfs:
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Almost certainly, the main reason for Kalista's dominance is her insane kiting potential due to her passive, Martial Poise. The power of this passive is directly tied to her attack speed, so I would suggest that her Attack Speed growth percentage is a good target for nerfs (possibly base Attack Speed as well). Currently, her values are basically in line with those for other ADC's (nearly identical to Ashe's, for example). Due to the unique power the Kalista derives from attack speed, it seems reasonable to me that those values ought to be a bit lower for her. Such a nerf would presumably also not hurt lesser players quite as much since they are less able to abuse the power of Kalista's passive.
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Cap Rend Damage against monsters. I honestly do not understand why this nerf hasn't already been implemented. Against Dragon and especially Baron, Kalista frequently offers a better execute than the junglers' Smite. This advantage becomes particularly powerful in the context of a well-coordinated pro team who can play around the increased objective control. Conversely, I think that this nerf wouldn't hurt solo queue players quite as much.
Side mini-rant: The last nerf, where Kalista's auto-attacks were made to deal only 90% damage, is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen (until the Mordekaiser rework I guess...). I honestly wouldn't mind seeing that reverted just because of how weird it is, although of course that would require heavier nerfs in other areas.
Anyway, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about these ideas and any others you might have.