So... The current issues with Kalista
For more than a whole season, Kalista has been one of the worest adcs disregarding elos. Although some other adcs like varus and twitch had their up and downs, Kalista just seem to stay at the bottom of the pit forever.
So... What's the problem?
- Kalista's passive leap distance is linked to her boots tier, which means you want to buy tier two boots on your first back if you are against some hard cc melee supports (Leona, pyke, etc.). Everyone knows boots aren't the most good effecient thing out there, and as kalista (and a few other adcs), your first small power spike is when you buy
, which is better than
because it can slow the enemy and let you stack more. - Kalista's leap's frequency is determined by her attack speed,( it is very hard to shorten Kalista's animation on her leap. It is possible, but most people wouldn't spend hours on pratice tool just to leap 0.05 seconds faster. It is why some kalistas can kite you for days while others just suck...) Usually, as Kalista you only want to have around 1.6 attack speed because any more than that then you aren't putting out max dps because you can't attack that much faster due to the leap animation. So your full build would be
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. This, however,causes you to focus more on just auto attacking rather than stacking your spears for your e. So Kalista's e eventually just become a tool for securing barons, but that 50% damage toward epic monsters nerf on pbe is interesting... - Kalista's leap's frequency is also determined by her movement speed, and by that I mean when she is 50% slowed, her leap takes twice as much time. This is why qss is a must have for her. Without it, a 50% slow means her damage is reduced by 50%. Although techically you can just stand there and attack (ignoring the slow) and still put out the same level of dps, it is stupid to do so, as it is for all adcs (unless you are counting a super fed kog'maw...). A possible fix to this can be when she is 50% slowed, she leaps 50 instead of 100 units (not exact number), but the leap is at the same speed
- Kalista is one of the most support-reliant adc in the game. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it means in solo ques Kalista can't be played to her max potential due to the lack of coordination and communication. This really is a general issue with a lot of supports and adcs (cough, cough enchanters), and there really isn't anything we can do about it beside playing duo with a friend. The support-reliant aspect of Kalista, however, is absolutely iconic and necessary considering her passive, w, and ult all need a "partner" to be useful.
So... What can be done?
- Buff her leaping distance by 10 units or so, then she will be leap over a few walls, but nothing too major that will affect her laning-phase.
- Lower her base stats and raise her stats when she is with her oathsworn, so by forcing the support to stay bot (or roam together) gives the enemies a clearer idea of what they can do to win the lane phase.
- As all the visions get hard-nerffed, Kalista's w will be more valuable then ever. Making it explode when killed and reveal an area or something of the sort might bring Kalista back to meta.
- At least give a tool tip for Kalista's oathsthron explaining her ult. I've experienced countless occasions where my support doesn't know my ult has a knock up.
- A complete VGU, I personally doesn't think Kalista need one, but her auto need some uniqueness rather than just stack, stack, pop. I mean she is a CT champion after all lol.
Well, that's all. What do you guys think?