About a year ago, during TFT Season 9, the Shadow Isles composition featuring Kalista as the main carry was considered a formidable “force.” With a high attack speed and a skill that allows her to execute targets, Kalista was seen as a “hard counter” to tanky champions. In TFT Season 12, Kalista has been brought back to the “auto chess” genre by Riot Games, sporting a new look and significantly upgraded power.
Kalista’s Upgrade in Season 12
In TFT Season 12, Kalista will be a 4-cost champion with a new passive much stronger than before. Accordingly, Kalista will now throw a spear at a target next to the main target after every 3 attacks. This allows Kalista to deal damage to multiple targets and quickly “blow away” the opponent’s tanky champions.
Furthermore, Kalista in Season 12 will possess the Spirit trait with an effect that provides a Crown enhancing her damage by up to 25% at just 2 champion threshold. This item makes Kalista’s damage output even more powerful in the mid and late game stages. Additionally, Rakan from the Spirit trait also has good tankiness, protecting allies, and providing Kalista with plenty of space to deal damage.
Building the Kalista – Spirit Composition
In the early game, players should aim for the 2 Spirit threshold early to acquire the Crown item to increase damage. Tristana will be an extremely suitable unit to hold the item at this stage to ensure damage output for the composition. Furthermore, affordable yet high-quality Guardian units like Poppy and Nunu are also options at this stage.
In the mid-game, players can aim for the 4 Spirit threshold if they acquire Kalista or Rakan early. If not, players should just stick to the 2 champion threshold and focus on building the strongest composition possible. An example is utilizing the 4 Sniper threshold and playing around Tristana to maintain health effectively.
After reaching level 8, players will use their gold and aim for Kalista as the main carry as soon as possible. At this point, if players choose a safe option, they will aim for the 6 Spirit threshold at level 8. In case they want to compete for the top position, players will save gold and level up to 9 to include strong 5-cost units like Camille, Diana…
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Kalista – Spirit Composition
The strengths of the Spirit composition lie in their inherent tankiness due to the increased health effect. Therefore, just combining with 2 Guardian or 2 Protector thresholds makes this composition extremely resilient. However, Kalista still has the downside of being heavily reliant on the Guinsoo’s Rageblade item. Thus, if players do not have enough Wooden Bows from the rounds with monsters, they will face considerable difficulties when using Kalista.