Kalista is one of the most mechanically demanding League of Legends champions. The high skill ceiling is significantly pulling her win rate down, and the low win rate makes this champion somewhat unappealing for a lot of players. However, things are not so grim when it comes to this champion.
Learning some fundamental patterns coupled with a good build should be enough to set anyone on the right path. Today, we can start with a great build, and move from there!
Best Kalista Items
Blade of the Ruined King
The absolute greatest and most satisfying first item to build on Kalista is the Blade of the Ruined King. The item is a powerhouse that grants many much needed stats such as attack speed, life steal and damage. Additionally, the item has a percentage of HP damage buff on autos, which is extremely powerful on Kalista.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade
The second strongest item that will synergize amazingly with the Blade of the Ruined King is the Guinsoo’s Rageblade. The item will significantly increase our attack speed, allowing us to get much more value out of the BOTRK’s percentage of HP damage passive. For those unfamiliar, it’s important to note that Guinsoo’s attack-speed increases the longer we are in combat.
Terminus
The most popular and the highest win rate 3rd choice item option for Kalista is the Terminus. The item has a passive which enhances our attack with alternating passives. The passive will switch between Light and Dark mode, where Light mode will give us armor and magic resist, and Dark mode will give us magic and armor penetration. The switching resistances are perfect for making us more versatile and adaptable.
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster is a heavily under-rated Kalista item. Despite boasting the highest win rate, many people do not seem to have picked up on its strength. Bloodthirster will significantly increase our sustain by giving us incredible life steal ratios.
Jak’Sho the Protean
Finally, Jak’Sho will be the last legendary item in our build. This hybrid item will give us sufficient ratios of both magic resist and armor. Additionally, it will increase these stats the longer we are in combat. Having great resistances coupled with HP will also enable us to get more out of our healing items, and make us a much harder target to take down.
Boots
The best boots choice for Kalista are the Berserker Greaves. These are perfect for getting additional attack speed, which will synergize extremely well with our build.
Runes for Kalista
- Lethal Tempo
- Triumph
- Legend: Alacrity
- Last Stand
- Sudden Impact
- Treasure Hunter
The greatest keystone for Kalista is the Lethal Tempo. It will give us stacking attack speed, and we can unlock its full potential pretty fast. The added attack speed will also synergize very well with our BOTRK purchase.
The next two runes we will want to take are the Triumph and Legend: Alacrity. Triumph is great to give us bonus healing after a takedown, while Legend: Alacrity will be yet another source of attack speed.
Next up, we will want to take up Sudden Impact to periodically increase our damage following dashes. Finally, we will want to take Treasure Hunter, which will help us generate early gold for scoring unique takedowns.
Final Thoughts
Kalista is a very challenging champion to play, however, the reward for mastering her justifies the effort. To make the journey easier, it is best to start with the outlined build. The build will work in pretty much every game. Occasionally, you might want to swap out an item or two, but it is not something you need to be too concerned about.