New Kalista changes could bring the LoL champion back into the solo queue spotlight

Riot Games is continuing to shake up the ADC role in League of Legends even after massive changes to multiple marksman-centric items last week, this time focusing on a champion who has struggled to make a mark at any point this season.

Kalista is the target of a handful of changes currently available for testing on League’s PBE, which include both buffs and nerfs to various aspects of her kit. Compared to changes that the champion has received in previous patches, these appear to address a handful of issues that have impacted both Kalista’s pick rate and win rate and may be enough for players to consider using her once more in solo queue.

While Kalista’s base damage is being nerfed slightly, she is being compensated with buffs to the AD damage ratios connected to her passive, Q, and E, allowing her to deal considerably more damage at all points of the game. Additionally, her passive is being tweaked so that her basic attacks no longer miss opponents who step out of vision. Her ultimate and tethering aspect of her passive, however, remain untouched for the time being.

For a number of years, while Kalista hasn’t been a weak champion by any means, she has been nearly completely avoided by players in solo queue due to how imperative it is that she works alongside her team—particularly through the use of her ultimate, which can be used for both offensive and defensive purposes. But due to the teamwork nature of professional play, Kalista occasionally appears on stage when other meta ADC options are banned.

Related: Here are the early LoL Patch 13.11 notes

Kalista currently boasts a 45 percent win rate and one percent pick rate, according to OP.GG, despite all of the changes to marksman items that have completely shaken up the bot lane meta. Interestingly, Kalista was one of the few champions to receive a handful of AP ratios to her abilities alongside Patch 13.10, but those have seemingly done very little to impact her presence on the Rift.

Yesterday’s patch preview for Patch 13.11 did not include Kalista changes, so it’s likely that they will remain in testing on the PBE for a number of weeks with an expected launch alongside Patch 13.12 on June 14. As with all changes on the PBE, it’s likely that these buffs and nerfs to Kalista will be altered before they reach the live servers.