Talk:Kalista/@comment-25223119-20151006155748

I'm maining Kalista for a patch or two until the Caitlyn AA bugs gets fixed but I cannot cope with her painfully sluggish early game. Please help me. I played her back in 5.13 or 5.15 and I knew then that she wasn't nerfed as badly as she is currently. I recall that her passive was nerfed a lot and so was her W % damage component, but I refuse to believe that her nerfs had led her to become the weakling that she is in lane now. I'd like to think its because I'm not adjusting to her passive or mechanics adequately.

Early game is always the problem of not being able to cs adequately because of how painstakingly slow her wind up animation for AA is. For someone whose supposed to have a late game better than someone like Caitlyn or MF, Kalista's early game is so horrible compared to hypercarries like Vayne, Kog Maw or Tristana. I mean, even the latter last hit much more efficiently compared to her. And when enemy waves are shoved up to my turret, I can't farm for shits. Out of 6 minions, I'd probably only get 2 minions with AA and at best 4-5 minions if I manage my E and Q wisely. Turret farming with Kalista is horrendous.

And then there's the problem of how you can't hunt someone like Ezreal down even though you worked hard to kill him, all that effort spent on kiting, dueling and the moment someone flashes, its all over. Not even the slows from E will secure you the kill you want so badly.

Next up is her itemization. I honestly have no idea how to itemize her, it's not as straightforward as itemizing adcs like Caitlyn or MF, where your first item is usually Infinity Edge. But with Kalista, even micro-itemization is important. I'm constantly finding myself wondering, should I get a Dagger and a Sword? Or get Cutlass or Recurve Bow. Sometimes you have sufficient gold for one item yet you find yourself needing both to be good. I imagine rushing Recurve Bow as your first item would help in farming and trading, but she needs that sustain so badly that Cutlass is so necessary. I'm extremely frustrated with how one handles her. Heck, I get BotRK and Runaan's first, then Berserker's Greaves, she's the only ADC that I prioritize boots as the third item, and I'm not sure if that's whats hindering my game a lot. But imo, I feel like she needs Runaan's up ASAP.

Now, I no longer rush IE, it seems like Kalista runs a heavy kite/sustain build, BotRK, BT, Greaves, Runaan, Last Whisper, IE last. I figured in every game, you're gonna need at least one crit so I always settle my 5th or 6th item as IE. I just realize that Kalista is the only ADC I'm having such a hard time playing with. From last hitting to itemizing. My end game scores are usually a tie between my kill counts and death counts. Or that my game results are within the range of B to S-.

Honestly speaking, early game is the only problem I face throughout a game with Kalista. Come mid game with BoTRK, Greaves and Runaan, things start getting better. But I don't want to rely on mid game to carry my ass out, sometimes you don't get a second chance if you screw up your early game. Hence the post to ask for help. I'm just not sure what I'm doing wrong, I do well with Caitlyn, MF, Tristana and Ashe, but with Kalista, it's so .. headdesk worthy. I honestly just wish that I was better at early game so I can potentially snowball.