Kalista

The Arising Kickstarter is currently underway and on Tuesday Kalista was voted to receive a brand new limited edition sculpt!

With this new sculpt Kalista is certain to see the tabletop a lot more! So who is Kalista and what can she do on the tabletop with her vast array of supportive abilities?

Kalista’s card (added after the Kickstarter finished).

‘Dagger’ and Melee

Kalista has a set of very familiar stats for a human, so generally pretty good all around. A good number of wounds with the majority of energy skewed to the left will help her survive and stay energised so that she can keep supporting her troupe for as long as possible. In melee Kalista brings an average melee stat of 3 and a 1" range. Naturally, 3 melee is very unlikely to cause massive damage with critical hits, but it is enough for Kalista to reliably draw her signature with an attack or with a 'Go for it'. If this isn't an option though she can use her 'Dagger' to increase the damage of her thrust and rising attacks, although this will often come at the cost of her own health due to a 1" melee range and no armour. Her best option in melee then is often to either avoid it or use her signature to generate huge amounts of movement.

‘Leshavit’s Caress’

Her final stats are her average evade of 0 and an amazing arcane of 5. She only has one arcane ability, albeit a very good one, so you won't have to agonise over how to use the arcane stat. 'Leshavit's Caress' costs all her energy but is possibly one of the best heals in the game. When compared with the more common 'Healing' ability it costs an additional energy but also applies protection to the target. Protection is great as it can be easily used in both aggressive and defensive methods. 

For example, slapping protection on a model you know is going to draw lots of attention can really slow an opponent down. It can potentially waste energy as your opponent tries to remove protection before restarting their attack or can prevent huge amounts of damage if your opponent gets a large crit. When used in a slightly more aggressive fashion, protection can be given to incredibly flimsy characters who can pack a massive punch. This can allow models like the Wendigo and Stryga Anya to run into combat and go for a massive hit without having to worry about retaliation. 

But there's more! Because this is a Leshavult model, the catastrophe can also be actively planned around and used! In this case, Kalista pulses out 1 wd to everyone within 6". Whilst this is unlikely to kill anyone it can be used near the end of the turn to knock a blue wound off several of the opponents models if the situation arises.

‘Conductor’ and ‘Joy of Entropy’

“I am a conduit for our Lord Leshavit.”

For passive abilities, Kalista has a 'Dagger', 'Conductor' and 'Joy of Entropy', we've already had a look at 'Dagger' so let's move straight onto 'Conductor'! 'Conductor' gives cultists and spirits an extra arcane. This can incentivise bringing additional cultists and spirits when using Kalista. If you're looking for reliability this can certainly be a big boon, increasing most spirits and cultists in the game to 5 and even 6 arcane!

'Joy of Entropy' rounds out her passives and can give Kalista a nice boost in energy on a particularly deadly turn. On a turn where three models are slain this can be used to cast 'Leshavit's Caress' an extra time. This can make her great against models which summon additional models such as Boris the Bunny Summoner. With three bunnies in play your troupe has three easy kills to generate Kalista an easy three energy. Additionally 'Joy of Entropy' triggers off any death, not just an opponent's model's death, so using Boris yourself can also be a great idea! If Kalista doesn't quite generate six energy with this she still has plenty of options such as using her non-weakling energy to harvest or using her supercharged active ability... 

‘Paroxysm’

'Paroxysm' costs one more energy than Kalista's base energy and so she will need help from another model, or the death of another model, to use this spectacular ability. It combines a substantial push effect along with some reasonable magic damage giving Kalista a nice damaging ability against low wound models like Murder Bunnies. As this is not an arcane ability no cards are drawn and this will go off automatically without targeting anything, which makes it perfect against faeries! With faeries unfavourable energy distribution and their low wound count this is also likely to hit loads of blue wound pips and so cost them lots of energy in their next turn. Therefore, the later this is used, when your opponent's healers have already activated, the better.

Conclusion

In summary, Kalista is a very well-rounded support model with abilities for pretty much every situation. Against large numbers of thralls or models with bad energy distributions, Kalista's damage pulses can cause a nightmare. For troupes who deal huge amounts of damage, her heal and protection arcane ability can blunt their attacks and keep your troupe alive and healthy! Finally, her 'Conductor' can keep the rest of your cultists and spirits performing at their very best and succeeding in their arcane skills in almost every instance!