The trend of Kalista – Taric originated from the match between Gen.G and KT Rolster in the LCK this year. In this match, Ruler and Kellim of Gen.G defeated the duo considered the meta at that time, Miss Fortune – Alistar, even completely dominating them. After this match, Kalista – Taric quickly spread across all major tournaments with an 80% win rate, even the European giant G2 Esports had to concede to a mid-tier team, MAD Lions, when they brought this combo out.
The first reason this duo is so powerful lies in the fact that Kalista has been continuously buffed recently. Even without Taric, Kalista remains strong; starting from patch 9.22 of the previous season, the increase in damage of her W – Marked Soul at level 1 doubled her internal damage, signaling her return. By patch 10.1, when two essential stats, health and armor, were increased, this champion became significantly stronger.
Additionally, the nerfs to popular ADCs like Aphelios, Miss Fortune, and Senna have provided Kalista with the opportunity to return. However, that is just a necessary condition; the sufficient condition lies with Taric, whose Guardian’s Shield is an incredibly strong defensive champion, perfectly complementing Kalista’s aggressive nature.
Furthermore, the skill sets of these two champions synergize perfectly. Taric’s passive allows him to hit enemies very quickly, activating Kalista’s W passive rapidly. Taric’s E – Dazzle skill enables Kalista to choose the best angle to stun enemies, allowing her to land as many spears as possible.
One of Taric’s weaknesses is his low mobility and vulnerability when isolated; Kalista completely resolves this issue with her ultimate, Fate’s Call. With this duo, your team is nearly unbeatable in the bot lane, ensuring great power in the mid and late game while providing additional crowd control and healing. At that point, opponents will feel utterly helpless in trying to take down your team composition.
In terms of champion builds, both champions do not have many innovative changes; Kalista still utilizes the Lethal Tempo as the primary rune, with the only new thing being the secondary tree with 2 points in Nimbus Cloak and Gathering Storm, following the trend of Korean ranks. It is recommended to use the Triumph rune instead of Legend: Bloodline as it synergizes well with Kalista’s two core items, Blade of the Ruined King and Bloodthirster.
Taric is similar, with the Guardian rune still being the best choice for protecting allies, while the secondary tree is slightly different with the point of Presence of Mind to increase energy, which Taric desperately needs, and Legend: Tenacity.
In summary, Kalista and Taric are currently the unbeatable Spear – Shield duo with comprehensive offensive and defensive capabilities. Even the top teams in Korea and Europe cannot withstand them, which tells you just how powerful this duo is.
The only issue with implementing this playstyle is that Kalista players must truly be skilled and understand this champion. Even in the VCS tournament, the teams’ adaptation to new playstyles worldwide is still quite slow, so seeing Kalista – Taric this weekend is quite unlikely. The team most likely to use this duo is Team Flash, as Slayder has shown that he plays Kalista exceptionally well.
