It’s been eight years since Kalista joined League of Legends as a new champion, but experienced players are still finding out about unique mechanics that could help during a bottom lane skirmish or a big late-game teamfight.
During a recent stream, popular League content creator and former pro Caedrel explained a hidden Kalista mechanic to former TSM superstar AD carry Doublelift while the two watched a Champions Queue match featuring players like Knight, JackeyLove, 369, and Yagao.
According to the jungler, the Spear of Vengeance can reset her Rend ability while killing a ward, giving her free usage and reset on the ability without killing an actual unit. His example came from a game where a Kalista was chasing down a Swain but was lagging behind him due to a difference in movement speed. She did, however, have some spears left in him, so she pulled off this hidden trick.
Normally, Kalista’s Rend ability resets whenever it kills a unit, be it a minion, champion, or neutral monster. But in this instance, Kalista auto attacked a visible ward two times while hopping toward the Swain, then as her final auto attack was about to kill the ward, she activated her Rend.
The ability not only slowed the Swain but also reset off of the ward dying, giving her a chance to catch up to the Swain and kill him. The two realized that the ability is coded so that if anything dies while Rend is being cast, it will reset its cooldown. For example, if a Kalista times her final auto attack on a tower with her E, she can get an instant reset because the game activates the cooldown reset with the tower being destroyed.