Kalista lane is about rope length: trade when your support can keep contact and the wave leaves room to keep chasing, because she gets much more from a fight that stays attached than from one neat poke exchange
Prep a minion for a Rend reset before the real trade, then use E to keep the chase glued together or to lock the monster secure, and look for Q through a dying minion when the enemy hides behind the wave
Kalista is one of the more early-sensitive bot carries, so good games are the ones where that lead gets her to dragon or Baron first, where Rend changes the secure more than it does for almost any other ADC
Use Fate's Call when it changes a bad or neutral sequence into one Kalista can keep attached to. The cleanest solo queue uses are saving your support after a commit that went too deep, denying the enemy’s first engage tool, or briefly resetting the fight so your support can re-enter from a better line. Starting with R is fine when the target is clearly punishable and your support has a reliable follow-up, but if you auto-cast it as the opener every time, you often spend your best fix button before the fight actually becomes messy. Think rescue first, re-throw second, hard engage third.
Enter a movement command while winding up Kalista's basic attack or Pierce to lunge a short distance when she launches her attack.
Throw a fast moving spear that passes through enemies it kills.
Gain bonus damage when Kalista and her Oathsworn strike the same target. Activate to send a soul to scout out the path, revealing the area in front of it.
Attacks impale their targets with spears. Activate to rip the spears out, slowing and dealing escalating damage.
Kalista teleports the Oathsworn ally to herself. They gain the ability to dash toward a position, knocking enemy champions back.