How to Play Kalista in League of Legends

Want to know how you can play Kalista in League of Legends?

League of Legends is one of the best MOBA games ever developed for PC. It draws inspiration from Defense of the Ancients, and Epic Games brings a more animated touch to the game.

Currently, League of Legends has over 100 million monthly users, with hundreds of tournaments hosted every month. Being a huge title, we’ve seen League of Legends as a regular player in the Esports scene with an annual World Championship.

With over 150 champions, it can be difficult for newcomers to decide which champions they should play.

One champion that you should consider is Kalista. While Kalista hasn’t received any major buffs in the recent seasons, which slowed down her rise, small changes in her kit allowed her to stay relevant and break back into the meta.

In the game’s current season, Kalista is one of the most played champions with a 1.89% pick rate and 51.45% win rate.

Today, we’ve decided to make a guide on how to play Kalista in League of Legends.

Let’s get started!

Abilities

Kalista is a great skirmisher, thanks to how her passive and Rend (E) work together. She can easily run down an enemy champion while kiting them with ease. If you manage to avoid CC from enemy tanks and supports, you’ll have a good time during clashes.

Martial Poise (Passive)

INNATE – Whenever Kalista inputs a movement command during her basic attack windup or the cast time of Pierce, she’ll dash in the target direction. This dash can be knocked down by any immobilizing or polymorphing crowd control from enemy champions, excluding sleep effects.

The range and speed of Martial Poise are changed based on the tier of Kalista’s boots. The base range of dashes from a basic attack is 250 / 265 / 280 units. This distance is reduced when dashing towards the direction of her attack to a minimum of 150 / 165 / 180 units depending on the tier of her boots.

On the other hand, the base range when dashing from Pierce’s cast is increased by 50 units. If dashing away from the point of cast, the dash range is reduced to a minimum of 165 / 180 / 195 units based on her boots.

Pierce (Q)

ACTIVE – Kalista throws a spear in the target direction and deals physical damage to the first enemy hit. If Pierce kills a target, the spear continues onward to transfer all of the target’s Rend stacks to the next enemy it hits.

This can repeat indefinitely until the spear reaches its maximum range.

Sentinel (W)

PASSIVE – While Kalista and her Oathsworn are tethered, their basic attacks and Pierce apply a soul-mark to enemy targets.

If both Soul-Marks are applied to the same unit within 4 seconds, they will take bonus magic damage, capped against non-champions, and cannot be Soul-Marked again for a short duration.

Soul-Mark also deals a minimum of 75 damage to minions and executes them if they’re below 125 Health.

Kalista applies the damage on-attack while the Oathsworn deals on-hit damage.

PASSIVE – Kalista randomly stocks a Sentinel charge, up to a maximum of 2.

ACTIVE – Kalista calls upon a Sentinel that moves forward in the target direction, granting sight of the area along its path.

Rend (E)

PASSIVE – Kalista’s basic attacks on-hit and Pierce lodge a spear into their target, which applies a Rend stack for 4 seconds. This stacks up to 254 times, and the duration refreshes on subsequent attacks and hits of Pierce.

ACTIVE – Kalista rips all lodged spears from valid enemies, consuming their stacks and dealing them physical damage, and slowing them for 2 seconds. Each additional spear on the target deals reduced damage.

Rend also deals 50% reduced damage against epic monsters.

This ability can be used during the dash of Martial Poise and the cast time of Pierce. In-flight spears and Pierce in-cast will be empowered to apply Rend’s effects to their targets.

Empowered spears can also trigger Rend’s refund.

Fate’s Call (R)

ACTIVE – Kalista invokes her tether to retrieve her Oathsworn and hold them for 4 seconds, pulling them to her for over 1 second and cleansing them from all crowd control effects. This also renders them invulnerable and untargetable for the duration.

Upon their arrival, the Oathsworn can dash with displacement immunity to a target location and will automatically do so at maximum range from Kalista’s facing direction, which ends Fate’s Call’s effects.

The Oathsworn stops upon colliding with an enemy champion, knocking up all nearby enemies upon impact for a few seconds, then landing to their basic attack range relative to the target they collided with.

Kalista Gameplay

During the early game, it’s wise for you to play safe for the first few levels. Your main goal during this stage is to come online and should avoid fighting unless you have a clear early advantage, like having an engage support.

Once you’ve hit a few levels, you can start playing aggressively on the lane. Kalista benefits from extended trades, so try to go for your enemies as much as you can.

After destroying the first bottom turret, you can head towards mid and try to take another tower.

This should open up the map for you and your team, which will eventually give you a huge team gold lead.

As the game matures, continue playing with your support. Remember that Kalista can be picked off easily when playing alone on the lane.

During the entire mid-game, make sure to be with at least one ally and stay with your team at all times. Refrain from split pushing or farming alone unless you have a good reason to be away from your team.

When engaging in a team fight, stand towards the back end of your team or near your support. Avoid walking far away from anyone in the late game or getting caught in the river or jungle, which will result in an easy kill.

This will force your team to fight a 4v5 battle and could potentially cost you the entire game.

Runes

Precision

Domination

Item Build

That sums up our guide on how to play Kalista in League of Legends. If you have questions, drop a comment below, and we’ll be here to help.

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How to Play Kalista in League of Legends