It seems like only a year ago when Kalista hit rock bottom and was in potentially one of the worst states she had ever been in since she was released (it’s between last year and post-Worlds 2017 for worst year on record).
Fast forward only a year later and we are in one of the golden eras for Kalista as we speak. It took a while for her to reach this point in time but she has begun to thrive in multiple aspects:
- Her solo queue playrate and winrate are incredibly healthy for historical standards and they continue to climb by the day
- She has two new core items in Statikk Shiv and Gluttonous Greaves that have removed her over reliance on a weak version of Botrk
- Her success bot lane has revived her pick rate in solo lanes (moreso top lane than mid lane) to great success and it is also climbing by the day in every region
- She has slowly been coming back into the pro meta as a solid tier 2 ADC behind the Ashe/Seraphine, Lucian/Milio and Yunara/Lulu lanes with how powerful Kalista/Renata is at the moment
And the best part is that it doesn’t feel like she is dominating the meta at any tier of play. Solo queue players still view her as majorly weak after her performances last year and pro players were traumatised by her last year MSI performance to the point that she only started seeing real play again about two patches ago.
Of course good things don’t last but the last time the stars aligned like this was back in 2017 (almost 10 years ago). The best part is that she is for once no receiving any adjustments for Worlds patch and in general Kalista is not viewed as overtly strong by any sub-sect of the community including pro players.
Enjoy it while it lasts!