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Kalista Synergy

48983507DEL1··4 votes·30,302 views

I'm really excited for this new champion to come out. I really like the whole idea of being able to incorporate so much synergy between two champions since a huge part of LoL is the synergy between players to form a team (whether it be a duo or full set of 5/3). I can already see how some of Kalista's skills could be abused, as well as abuse from her selected teamate, but I feel like it rewards players for picking teamates for playing to eachother's strengths and mindsets in a very positive way.

This thread is all about synergy between champions, as playing with teamates with similar mindsets will lead to picking champions that compliment each other very nicely. With the current state of Kalista's kit, I can already see a lot of strong synergies bewteen her and specific champions in the bot lane as well as other lanes. Here are a few champs that would work exceptionally well with her.

  1. Leona Leona This one was listed in the reveal and it's easy to figure out why. Leona has a super high engage potential with the ability to stick on targets very well and provide bonus potential damage when her teamates focus the same people she prioitizes. This means whoever she chooses for Kalista to attack will not only take the bonus damage from Sunlight, but from Kalista's %max hp passive as well. With Xenith Blade and Kalista's Ultimate, the selected target has almost no chance of survival.

  2. Annie Annie Whether she is played as a bot lane partner or reliant mid laner, Kallista's and Annie's wombo combo synergy is absolutely absurd. Annie has everything you would like in an engage support: and AoE stun nuke, insanely AoE burst, and a resistance steroid, EXCEPT for the fact that she lacks a gap closer or range on her initiate abilites. Kalista's ultimate provides this gap closer while also applying more crowd control to the combo, allowing for a super powerful engage that only shoud exist in nightmares. Her ultimate can also give Annie an escape, another thing Annie lacks that gives her a gigantic weakness. Along with this is the added synergy as a bot lane duo by applying Kalista's %max hp passive with Annie's nearly unmatchable auto attack range on a mage. I will defintely be running this duo with my friend whenever Kalista comes out.

  3. Thresh Thresh Thresh, who is probably a Shadow Isle friend of Kalista, has so much synergy potential in this duo. Thresh already has an insane amount of utility as it is; he can engage, disengage, pick off, peel, and save with his unmatchable kit. He can give Kalista the peel she needs to compensate for her no true escape while she kites the hell out of anyone who decides to engage on them. Both of them have the potential to save each other with Dark Passage and Kalista's ultimate, meaning they have a rediculous amount of repositioning tools to react to anything the team throws at them. One combo I can definitely see being pulled off is the Death Sentance -> Superman Engage-> The Box -> Flay -> Kalista Ult Save -> Kalista Ult Re-Engage combo to leave the enemy team confused and disabled for a very long time.

Other champions could include Yasuo Yasuo, Malphite Malphite, Alistar Alistar, Braum Braum, Galio Galio, Gnar Gnar, and more!

I really hope this champion is good without being overpowered, since I don't want to see her nerfed to oblivion. Can't wait! :D

12 Comments

Astral Dragon2 votes

when is kalista coming out to the market

48983507DEL11 votes

There are a lot more ways that Kalista could synergize with other champs, so if you find an obvious, unusual, or insteresting way that she could synergize with a champ please add it below. :)

COWMANOFCOWS1 votes

How about with invulnerable mid laners? Lissandra goes in, does her dps and ults. When she come out of invul, she does whatever else she can and then kalista makes her invule again until more cooldowns are up when she goez right back in, does dps and then zhonyas. Its like they would never be able to hit her. It could work great with fizz to I bet. It could also probly let cat do more. Someone keep goin with this chain of thought for me...

LordDarkshayde1 votes

Nunu Morgana would be good choices also i think.

48983507DEL11 votes

Nunu Morgana would be good choices also i think.

yea i forgot about nunu it would make his engage a lot cleaner

The Genomancer1 votes

The lock down with Amumu would be unparalleled, if you had a yasuo in your game it could be the scary, and of course you have people like malphite, j4, and swain, they provide a lock down with a bit of aoe damage. I am sure i am missing some but these are just what came to mind.

COWMANOFCOWS1 votes

Lets look at jungle synergy as well since a lane gank with her would been insanely potent if she is tied to the jungler. Amumu obviously. How about skarner? Im thinking junglers with slows would help her get her dmg off just as much as ones with hard cc because of her passive sticking power. Im also now wondering if jax can have counterstrike running while in the kalista ult. The more I think about it, the m8re I think everyone will synergize with her ulty.

Another concept though, if the support can displace them enough for kalista to get between the enemy adc and the enemy turret, then she woukd get thd bonus distance for jumping backwards. This seems like it woukd add even more kill potential to blitz thresh and alistar lanes.

Holy Malevolence1 votes

Kalista synergy Caitlyn Caitlyn can easily attack any target Kalista hits to get consistent use of her W in lane, and together they'd be a harassment nightmare for any opposition.

Vayne If any ranged AD could use a four second zhonyas alongside an instant thresh lantern from her support, it's Vayne. Additional percent based damage is always welcome, and Vayne's the type of girl who would love having a PIC in the back that can pull her out whenever she gets in trouble.

Tristana Kind of a combination of the above. Trist has that ability to make full use of Kalista's W, and will often find herself in harm's way needing a good friend to pull her out. Basically, if you want to prevent stupid Tristana syndrome, play Kalista.

Also, I find it strange that you're advocating dual support lanes.

COWMANOFCOWS1 votes

Just say you think of kalista of a support instead of playing dumb when you know they are thinking of her as the ADC. Thats not supposed to be mean btw, just saying.

That being said, I think she is more usefull as an adc and heres why. She cant make use of her gap close as much if she isnt hitting minions. Her ult is more usefull for melee champs that cant get ontop of an adc on their own, such as braum or alistar. Using her ult defensively isnt only good for saving the adc, it can be just as usefull for saving a mid or jungle and debatably more usefull for engaging, so tethering to the adc isnt often going to be the best move. Lastly, her kit is based around kiting and auto attqcking which will be pretty useless if she builds support items.

Pls let me know why you think shes better as a support, I think her lack of cc outways her ult and w's usefullness in the support role.

Holy Malevolence1 votes

Just say you think of kalista of a support instead of playing dumb when you know they are thinking of her as the ADC. Thats not supposed to be mean btw, just saying.

That being said, I think she is more usefull as an adc and heres why. She cant make use of her gap close as much if she isnt hitting minions. Her ult is more usefull for melee champs that cant get ontop of an adc on their own, such as braum or alistar. Using her ult defensively isnt only good for saving the adc, it can be just as usefull for saving a mid or jungle and debatably more usefull for engaging, so tethering to the adc isnt often going to be the best move. Lastly, her kit is based around kiting and auto attqcking which will be pretty useless if she builds support items.

Pls let me know why you think shes better as a support, I think her lack of cc outways her ult and w's usefullness in the support role.

Why would she not be hitting people? You'll be using your passive plenty when using Runaan's to AOE slow and get off your W passive.

Her W is, however, near worthless with an allied melee champion, and most melee champions are better at gap closing alone than with her ultimate. It can, however, be used for a four second zhonyas on command that targets the single most overpowered member on your team, that rips them out of harm's way if they're being focused, and gives them additional escaping ability or reengaging ability depending on how things go in the fight. Problem with playing her ranged AD is that if you've got a ranged support the ultimate is worthless because there's no point using it on a ranged support, and with a melee support her W's passive is next to worthless because your ability to use it is next to nothing. Wherein with a ranged AD you can abuse the hell out of that W and there's never a time where the ranged AD couldn't use that much more bullshit to keep 'em alive.

And I don't think I said she should just build support items. I'm seeing her getting sorc shoes and Runaan's hurricane. If played well, 'specially around minions, there's potential for a permaslow in her E that lets her kite effectively for a ranged AD who she's also providing a four second zhonyas for. At the end of the day, with how her kit works, there's just no point to her being a ranged AD. Her relevant damage is as good as it gets without offensive scaling, and all the things in her kit are more useful if given to someone broken than if given away by someone broken.

COWMANOFCOWS1 votes

I just realized one really great synergy, orianna's ball delivery system. An amumu ult staight into an orianna ult is a lot of lockdown time as well as a lot of aoe.

Kyouya1 votes

XinZhao

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