Here's a guide to mastering Mobile Legends' latest hero, Kalea the Surging Wave.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) recently released its latest hero, Kalea the Surging Wave, in Season 36: Breaking Waves, and she instantly became a hit with players because of her playstyle. Kalea is a fighter/support hero with a ton of crowd control abilities while also being able to heal herself and her allies.
Kalea is the descendant of the legendary Great Serpent, who once had trouble accepting her human-like body. However, after discovering who she was, she learned to fight with her fists and powerful serpent tail with the power of the Great Serpent surging inside her. She is the proud protector of the Vonetis Sea, aspiring to one day carry the full power of her heritage.
Here’s a breakdown of Kalea's skills, her best equipment and arcana, and tips on how to play her effectively as a roamer:
Skills breakdown
Passive: Surge of Life
After casting a skill, Kalea creates a Water Zone on the ground. When Kalea casts a skill within this zone, she will absorb it to enhance her next three Basic Attacks with different effects:
- First Basic Attack: Kalea dashes to the target, dealing (100% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage.
- Second Basic Attack: Kalea unleashes a flurry of attacks, dealing 300 (+100% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage and recovering 110 (+10% Total HP) (+60% Total Magic Power) HP for herself and nearby lowest health allies.
- Third Basic Attack: Kalea uses her tail to strike the area around her target, dealing 100 (+100% Total Physical Attack) Physica+l Damage and creating a new Water Zone.
Enhanced Basic Attacks are not affected by Attack Speed.
Skill 1: Wavebreaker
Kalea slams her fist into the ground, creating a wave that deals 250 to 400 (+5% Total HP) Physical Damage to nearby enemies and slows them by 40 per cent for 1.5 seconds.
Skill 2: Tidal Strike
Kalea charges forward and body slams the first enemy hero she encounters, knocking them airborne for 0.6s while dealing 150 to 275 (+60% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage.
If she collides with an obstacle or touches the edge of a Water Zone during her charge, Kalea will leap into the air. Cast the skill again to slam down at a target location, dealing 150 to 275 (+60% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage and knocking enemies airborne for 0.6s.
Ultimate: Tsunami Slam
Kalea grabs an enemy hero with her tail and slams them down in the Joystick's direction (drags the Joystick to change the landing spot). She gains Crowd Control Immunity during this process. Upon landing, deals 300 to 600 (+80% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage to the target and nearby enemies.
Kalea's best emblems and talents
This build uses the Support Emblem for Kalea alongside Inspire, Wilderness Blessing, and Brave Smite. This combination pushes her roaming and ganking potential to the limit. Brave Smite will enable her to trade well with the enemy while Inspire makes sure she can roam without worrying about her mana. Wilderness Blessing is also necessary for every roamer who focuses on early ganks.
Equipment
1. Tough Boots - Favor
+40 Movement Speed
+18 Magic Defense
Blessed: Passive - Favor
Equipment Blessing - Passive: Every 10 seconds, the next healing or shield skill recovers an extra 240-600 HP (scales with Gold from Thriving) for the allied hero with the lowest HP (including self) within five units. Skills that only take effect on self cannot trigger this effect.
Unique Passive - Devotion: In the first eight minutes, forfeit the EXP and gold rewards gained from minions and creeps in order to negate reductions for nearby allies.
Unique Passive - Thriving: Gain an extra 45% EXP and Gold from assists during the first eight minutes. Unique in Team: Give 8 Gold or 20 EXP to the ally with the lowest Gold or EXP every 5 seconds. Grant 25% more if you have the lowest Gold or EXP.
Unique Passive - Blessing: Once the total amount of Gold gained from Thriving reaches 600, the blessing is unlocked. Gold can continue to be gained from Thriving to enhance this skill.
Unique Passive - Fortitude: CC and Slow Duration reduced by 30%
Tough Boots is one of the best movement equipment in the game right now due to how much value it gives for how little it costs. Tough Boots can help Kalea survive an engagement against crowd control-heavy opposition. Meanwhile, Favor is currently the best roaming blessing for Kalea, given how much healing it provides. Combined with her passive, Favor can easily heal more than 1,000 Health to a hero or herself.
2. Thunder Belt
+800 HP
+15 Physical Defense
+15 Magic Defense
+20 Movement Speed
Unique Passive - Thunderbolt: Every 4 seconds, the next Basic Attack deals 50 (+100% Extra Physical Defense) (+100% Extra Magic Defense) extra True Damage to the target and enemies around them, and briefly slows them by 99%. Hybrid Defense permanently increases by 1 each time the attack hits an enemy hero. (Effect reduced to 50% for Marksmen and Mages.)
Thunder Belt enables a poke-focused playstyle for Kalea, combined with her engage and passive. Kalea can stack Thunder Belt fast every time she trades with the opposing roamer or when ganking, making her very tanky in the late game. Its movement speed and defense bonuses can also help Kalea became a dangerous engage monster.
3. Flask of the Oasis
+60 Magic Power
+300 HP
+10% Cooldown Reduction
Unique Attribute: +12% Healing Effect
Unique Passive - Blessing: When casting a healing or shield skill, if the target's HP is below 35% or falls below 35% within three seconds, they will get a (100*Hero Level) shield that lasts for three seconds. When this effect triggers, it also reduces the cooldown of the caster's skills by two seconds. (This effect can only trigger once every 60 seconds on the same target and will not trigger on self-only healing and shield skills.)
The bread-and-butter item for a healer hero like Kalea. Flask of the Oasis further improves her abilities to save her teammates and boosts her healing to the roof.
4. Oracle
+850 HP
+20 Physical Defense
+20 Magic Defense
+10% Cooldown Reduction
Unique Passive - Bless: Received Shield and HP Regen effects are increased by 30%.
Oracle is more of a self-sustain equipment instead of a roam-focused one. It can boost her healing to herself by 30%. Furthermore, it also boosts her abilities to tank the enemy and safely get out when Flask of the Oasis activates because of the amount of shield it provides.
5. Dominance Ice
+500 mana
+55 Physical Defense
+5% Movement Speed
Unique Passive - Arctic Cold: Taking damage will reduce the Attack Speed of the attacker to 80% of normal for one second.
Unique Pasive - Lifebane: Taking damage will reduce the Shield and HP Regen effects of the attacker to 50% of normal for one second.
Dominance Ice is a must-have equipment to negate the effectiveness of enemy marksmen, especially if they focused on building attack speed. Dominance Ice also mitigates the enemy's sustain effects down to 50% of its normal value.
6. Immortality
+800 HP
+15 Physical Defense
Unique Passive - Immortal: Resurrect 2.5 seconds upon death and get 16% HP and a shield that can absorb 150(+70*Hero Level) damage. The shield lasts three seconds. This effect has a 210-second cooldown.
Immortality gives a second life to Kalea so she can freely engage opponents and create openings for her teammate. It also makes her stay in the fight longer because of the second life it gives.
Spare Equipment: Winter Crown, Athena Shield
Winter Crown can be used to bait the opponent into thinking Kalea is in a tight spot, while Athena Shield further improves her survivability against Magic Damage-heavy opposition.
How to play Kalea
Early on, focuses on maximising Kalea's Tidal Strike so she can engage more frequently. Tidal Strike is also a great gap-closer, so she can easily surprise the opponent's backline. Take care not to play her too aggressively, however. Wait for the opponent to step out of line and crowd-control the enemy to death.
In the mid game, Kalea can easily stack her Thunder Belt using Tidal Strike, Wavebreaker, and passive combo. Try to position her in the middle of the enemy team to maximise her passive and Wavebreaker. Her Tsunami Slam can help her position herself in a teamfight and disrupt the enemies.
In a teamfight, Kalea's role is to engage together with her jungler while topping up her team's health. She can control the enemy's main damage dealer and help peel for her backline if necessary. While her role is at the frontline, against a very aggressive lineup it's better to stay close to the team to counter-engage the enemy.
