My thoughts on Kalista, counterplay and balance

So, before Kalista's reveal I thought that champion balance was becoming seriously stale. I'll explain a bit further on why I'm actually being positive about her being overall healthy for the game, as opposed to what the masses are currently saying.

Up until now, I had noticed that a lot of balancing went into ensuring that certain champions had clear and inherent strengths and weaknesses. At first I thought this was good, healthy balancing mindset. As the patches went on, I became less and less sure of that. Let me use 2 rather notorious examples of this: Vayne and Lee Sin. Vayne because she has very little 'macro' counterplay, and Lee because he's one of those extremely well-rounded champions who, once again, doesn't have a whole lot of macro counterplay.
Let me clear the air on what the terms macro and micro (if you've played RTS games, they'd be quite familiar) mean. Macromanagement (macro) is how the broader parts of the entire game are handled. This includes things such as team compositions, champion builds and map/objective control; more strategic and less mechanical play. Micro, on the other hand, handles the smaller, less noticeable and more mechanical, as opposed to strategic play.

Seeing my point a bit better? That's right - Vayne and Lee Sin are very micro-orientated champions. In even simpler terms, they make plays. Mechanical plays. If you were to ask a bunch of new/unranked/low elo players about Vayne, they'd mostly say that she's completely broken - max health % true damage; can't build health nor can you build armor to counter it, stealth, dashes every 2 seconds and a stun. Same thing goes for Lee - too much damage, low cooldown gapcloser, insane mobility, slows, sustain, utility and an ult that has amazing AoE damage and CC. Both of those champions are totally broken and need removing, right? No.

So what actually makes these champions balanced, what gives them counterplay? After all, building against them is near impossible and they're seemingly doing everything. Those 2 champions are a bit more different than most others. In order to play against them well, you have to actively judge the situation in which you are fighting them. But take a look at the other side of the coin - they also have to judge their situation. This is true for a lot of champions but for those 2 it holds A LOT more weight. Their counterplay is simple but a lot of people miss it - you need to outplay them. They need to make plays in order to win. We've all seen those godlike Vaynes kiting everything and never dying. We've seen the Lee Sins being everywhere, seemingly unstoppable. And you, as the player opposing them, you need to make plays to counter theirs.

Counterplay isn't limited to building. It isn't limited to one specific weakness either. This is where Kalista comes in. You see that mobility on every AA, you see that damage and you see that teamfighting potential. Why did I choose Lee Sin and Vayne as examples? Because they're just like her - playmaker champions. A lot of people are frustrated by them, can't seem to win against them and then go cry on the forums about it. But they make the game fun, because every little play counts, everything is different in the next or previous game. Those champions don't need clear weaknesses that can be exploited in every single situation. And you, as players, don't need them to win either.

How can Kalista be outplayed reliably? Her passive, the most seemingly broken thing about her, is actually a double-edged blade. It says that she HAS to move or else she has to stay still for the duration of her attack animation. This one little thing can help you make amazing plays against her. Her ult? Take her away from the soulbound one or better yet, force them apart. It's much easier to do when you can postion well

Sure, as an ADC main I'm about to be downvoted for saying this, but I welcome Kalista to the League and her being here will only make the game better. TL;DR - I like Kalista, I think her gameplay is healthy and not every champion needs clear weaknesses to be balanced. Ask me if I wasn't clear enough on my arguments, I had a few simultaneous trains of thought running so I might have messed up. Thanks for reading, I'm sorry but I'm too poor to afford a potato for you :/