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What bugs me about the whole Kalista thing

Xenotime Gaze·3/11/2015, 4:22:02 PM·4 votes·936 views

A while ago (Season 3? 4? I forget) Riot nerfed ALL the AS slows in the game. Nasus's Wither. Malphite's Ground slam. Frozen heart. Randuin's Omen. All of them nerfed to some degree in their ability to reduce AS.

Now we have Kalista. A champion whose kiting power is gated by AS, and for whom AS slows are one of her few weaknesses, thanks to her passive. Maybe we could deal with her when AS slows were stronger (aka you can slow her attacks long enough to catch and possibly kill her) but now it feels impossible to deal with her without multiple gap closers combined with high burst/strong CC. All of which is a huge problem for less mobile champions (read: most of the champions that are 'out of meta').

Basically what makes me frustrated by Kalista is that in order to deal with how powerful she is purely due to the combination of her passive, slow, and ult, you need to find solutions that are problematic in one way (boosting the power of AS slows causes problems for the ADC role on the whole) or another (finding champions who have the ability to take her out of the fight solo or as part of a team restricts team composition against her, signifying counterplay problems). As such she seems to be the kind of champion that breaks the game inherently towards remaining as it is now. Point-and-click champions can hit her regardless of how she moves around the battlefield. Extremely mobile champions can chase after her long enough to kill her (oh wait, sorry, extremely mobile champions with multiple gapclosers like her). So if you dont have either of these, the onus is on the Kalista to mess up, else there is not much you can do.

Inasmuch as Riot is directing this game towards a more tactics based game with 'twitch plays' as opposed to a strategic one, Kalista is a champion which requires strategic picks to counter because her high reflex intensive gameplay invalidates most skillshot reliant champions once she gets going. I fear that if they continue to remove targeted abilities, we will get to the point where her only weakness will be AS slows (and even then, those wouldnt affect her as much as, say, Vayne)

7 Comments

Immortal Strife3/11/2015, 4:52:07 PM2 votes

As an ADC main I absoolutly hate AS slows and I'm glad they are not as prevelent as they once were. ADC are suppost to beat bruisers and tanks through sustained damage with AAs, take that away and the ADC becomes trivial.

67chrome3/11/2015, 5:30:55 PM2 votes

Now we have Kalista. A champion whose kiting power is gated by AS, and for whom AS slows are one of her few weaknesses, thanks to her passive.

That's like saying Vayne's only weakness is AS slows.

There's also everything with more than 550 range, 100%-->0% burst damage, and the element of surprise.

(finding champions who have the ability to take her out of the fight solo or as part of a team restricts team composition against her

Not really.

In a team fight the ability to dodge ~125 range when something is within 550 range is almost completely useless. You can't dodge things like a Lux or Ziggs combo, or a Zed or Talon combo, a Malphite or Sejuani initiate when there isn't anything within 550 range to AA to evade that QWER burst in the first place.

And for dueling, pretty much any assassin, fighter/assassin, mage/assassin, or assassin sub-class can reliably kill Kalista in a 1v1.

All her passive really helps her with is dueling fighter/tanks like Nasus, Warwick, Udyr, and Darius that have a clear weakness to kiting. And even then - as long as they can hit Kalista once, they can kill her. Utilize some planning with brush or flanking and that can happen in a 1v1.

Extremely mobile champions can chase after her long enough to kill her (oh wait, sorry, extremely mobile champions with multiple gapclosers like her).

You only need 1 gap-closer in most cases. Any assassin or assassin/fighter (the classes reliant on mobility to work) incapable of killing a squishy in one QWER is and pretty much always has been unviable. And when you go in the AA/sustained heavy direction - you've got champions like Fiora and Riven with 3 and 4 gap-closers, along with Yasou and however many dashes you can get out of him.

Also, again - plenty of champions have more than 550 range and can easily deal with Kalista through having more than 550 range. You don't need point-click CC or mobility to deal with a champion like Kalista (or Vayne or Trist).

So if you dont have either of these, the onus is on the Kalista to mess up, else there is not much you can do.

You can also out-range Kalista.

Inasmuch as Riot is directing this game towards a more tactics based game with 'twitch plays' as opposed to a strategic one, Kalista is a champion which requires strategic picks to counter because her high reflex intensive gameplay invalidates most skillshot reliant champions once she gets going.

Stratagy isn't limited to picks/bans, strategy is just planning. And with planning, Kalista is far from impossible to deal with.

Also - Kalista only jumps when she AA's something within 550 range.

Skillshots have the massive advantage of having twice the range of point-click mechanics. Most skillshots strike within 9001100 range, and a few can hit from 1500+. In a pre-fight siege, there will be no minions for Kalista to dodge with. In a Dragon dance, there will be no minions for Kalista to dodge with.

Nevermind it's not that hard to just wait for Kalista to be to far from a viable target in-lane: pretty much every situation where skillshot-heavy champions really excel leaves little room for Kalista's passive to be used. She's not invalidating skillshot-heavy champions.

Immortal Strife3/11/2015, 5:37:00 PM2 votes

Btw slows do affect Kalista's dash speed, not the frequency but the actual dash speed.