How I Would Change Kalista

Salt the Womb··1 votes·502 views

So, some people might not be aware, but Kalista's passive by itself already makes her a newly toxic champion.

Currently, she does 10% less normal auto damage than other ADCs (not to mention her pitiful windup) and yet, if we removed 100% of her auto damage, she would still be problematic in that if she avoids all your damage and stacks Rend fast enough, she can kill you without dying.

So, even if she dealt 0 damage, which would actually make her a LOT weaker, it would still be toxic gameplay, not the easiest to achieve but it is still relevant.

So, her passive hardly has any trade-offs that really effect her so I would start by first removing her current Q.

Wait? What do you mean her Q? Let me finish, remove her Q so we can move her passive to an active Q that makes her autos cost mana to use and won't have an initial cost (depends on what we add to her new Q steroid-wise) and has a decent cooldown. (Duration debatable) This opens a lot of room to her kit. Right now Kalista feels like crap when you're not godmode kiting people and stacking your rends to pop those suckers dead. Problem being that she can almost always do this (see: Vi), which leads to her auto animation being much longer and dealing 10% less. We could probably revert that back to 100% and I think the animation can probably stay but it's not necessary. I think her ult is fine where it is, she brings something unique with her ult / passive alone and it is tuned pretty well. Without her Q her laning will definitely require some love but she now can get power elsewhere, perhaps making her active Q a scaling Runaan's (level) that hits multiple enemies, except it doesn't last forever and costs mana. Not sure what else could go into her kit, maybe a new passive, maybe making oathsworn even more unique and I'm sure we could give her some other added power without pushing her over the edge too.

TL;DR: I think Kalista is pretty cool and has room to feel much better to play than she currently does and against when you're not abusing her passive.

Suggestions, thoughts, ideas all welcome. Thanks! (If you spent time reading)

4 Comments

DeadlyQuestion1 votes

Even with my attack move binded to a closer button and practicing (I'm pretty good at it now!) I can't get anywhere with Kalista's bunny hops. I can juke skill shots... very valuable, sure... and I 100% agree that her initial hop distances when she was released were out of control and needed nerfing.. but as it stands, even at tier 3 boots (item 1301 I cannot catch or disengage without being caught (and this is also while bulding item 3153 and item 3085, +5% attack speed from masteries +15% from Runes, so shes throwing faster+hopping more frequently). The only way I've been able to catch up or get away by hopping, and SOMETIMES it being a close call, is if I take item 1306).

Has anyone else had the same issue? I am not saying buff Kalista, but at least rework her passive or something. Dodging skill shots are great but it's barely 10% of the ways you can succumb to the enemy.

Leeerzeichen1 votes

As a melee jungle/mid main, I have no problem with her passiv. Her passiv is her only mobility, the leap distance is small and it's bound to auto attacks. It's a lot harder to hit a gragas e, fizz ult or a diana q against a lucian or graves than a kalista. Even when I play blitzcrank against kalista I have no problem, because she can't cancel her aa animation or change her dash direction midair. A kalista can't avoid AAs and point and click spells and if she dodges all your skillshots she deserves that kill more than a velkoz, who can't predict movement.

Salt the Womb1 votes

{quoted}

As a melee jungle/mid main, I have no problem with her passiv. Her passiv is her only mobility, the leap distance is small and it's bound to auto attacks. It's a lot harder to hit a gragas e, fizz ult or a diana q against a lucian or graves than a kalista. Even when I play blitzcrank against kalista I have no problem, because she can't cancel her aa animation or change her dash direction midair. A kalista can't avoid AAs and point and click spells and if she dodges all your skillshots she deserves that kill more than a velkoz, who can't predict movement.

See here's my problem with that, her passive by itself, got her attack speed, windup, unable to cancel autos, low base damage, lower overall damage, lackluster Q and W all because her movement is stuck in her passive, which makes her unfun to play against in solo Q, let's not forget how she was banned #1 across all regions and boasted a high win rate on the games she slipped by in competively. She never needed to abuse her passive with her lane partner, which is why it is weaker since It wasn't even necessary but I guarantee that she is still going to be strong regardless.

Basically, her passive is so strong that they either needed to gut it horribly or make her relatively weak everywhere else, which is what they did. We could buff Grave's passive so he gets effective HP when attacking things too but the offset would mean his burst damage would get nerfed. This is not fun.

Salt the Womb1 votes

I'm not convinced that Kalista is being properly utilized this way.

More from Gameplay