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Naafiri Counters: Who Beats Naafiri

Updated for patch 26.21. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch.

Naafiri counters are champions who can eat her burst, lock her down once she’s in, or just make her regret dashing at all. She’s a melee AD assassin with a pack of hounds, two gap closers, and an Untargetable window on The Call of the Pack (W). What shuts her down is point-and-click CC, anti-dash tools, and grounding.

These are our picks based on how each champion’s kit lines up against Naafiri’s abilities. We don’t use win-rate data, this is about why a matchup works, not what a stats site tells you.

Naafiri counters: Naafiri, the Hound of a Hundred Bites, splash art

Why is Naafiri hard to counter?

  • We Are More (passive): Naafiri spawns packmates that attack the targets of her attacks and abilities.
  • Darkin Daggers (Q): she hurls up to two daggers that inflict bleed, or bonus damage if the target is already bleeding. Packmates leap to the first champion or monster hit.
  • The Call of the Pack (W): Naafiri becomes Untargetable and empowers her pack, spawning additional packmates while gaining Move Speed and Attack Damage.
  • Eviscerate (E): a dash that damages enemies in an area, recalls her packmates and fully heals them.
  • Hounds’ Pursuit (R): Naafiri and her packmates dash at a champion, dealing damage. A takedown reveals nearby enemies and lets her recast for a shield.

Naafiri has two gap closers. She brings an entire pack that adds damage to everything she does, and killing the packmates just means she presses Eviscerate to heal them right back (yes, fully healed, every single cast). Ignore them and they pile damage on you with every Q. Thing is, her pattern is linear: she picks someone, runs at them, and commits. That’s what you exploit.

Which champions are the best Naafiri counters?

Vex

Doom ‘n Gloom (passive) periodically empowers Vex’s next basic ability to fear enemies and interrupt dashes. In practice, both Eviscerate (E) and Hounds’ Pursuit (R) count as dashes, so every time Naafiri engages, the dash mark gives Vex bonus damage and reduces the cooldown of her empowered state. If Vex’s passive is empowered when Naafiri dashes, the fear and dash interrupt stop the engage outright.

Lissandra

Frozen Tomb (R) is the reason. Lissandra can self-cast it to become untargetable and invulnerable when Naafiri goes in, or cast it on Naafiri to stun her. Either way the assassination fails. Ring of Frost (W) roots everyone nearby, so even if Naafiri somehow survives the counterburst and the stun, she isn’t walking out before Lissandra’s team arrives. Two forms of hard CC and a self-save against an assassin who must come into melee? At 125 attack range, she can’t exactly fake the engage.

Malzahar

Void Shift (passive) gives Malzahar massive damage reduction and crowd control immunity as long as he hasn’t recently taken damage or been crowd controlled, so Naafiri’s opening burst is heavily reduced even if she lands everything. Then Nether Grasp (R) suppresses her over a damage zone. Quicksilver Sash and Mercurial Scimitar remove all crowd control debuffs except Airborne, so they can clear the suppression, while Mikael’s Blessing cannot. Without a cleanse, Naafiri is stuck for the channel.

Ahri

Charm (E) charms an enemy and, per its ability text, instantly stops movement abilities. Hounds’ Pursuit is a movement ability. Land Charm mid-dash and Naafiri stops before reaching you. Spirit Rush (R) gives Ahri up to three dashes to kite away, and once Naafiri has blown her full engage, she has nothing left to chase with.

Cassiopeia

Miasma (W) creates a zone that slows, grounds, and damages enemies. Grounded enemies cannot use movement abilities. Drop it in Naafiri’s path and she can’t cast Eviscerate or Hounds’ Pursuit while standing in it (grounding blocks both). What can she do with both gap closers gone? Petrifying Gaze (R) stuns enemies in front of Cassiopeia who are facing her and slows those with their back turned, so a Naafiri dashing toward her is exposed to the stun.

How do you counter Naafiri in lane?

Her all-in hits hard, but the cooldowns she burns getting to you leave her exposed if she doesn’t score the kill. Put simply, survive the burst, then trade back while everything is down.

  • Kill the packmates when you can. They spawn from her passive and leap to the first champion hit by Q. Area damage hits them alongside Naafiri.
  • Dodge the second dagger. Darkin Daggers deals bonus damage to targets already bleeding, so getting hit by both is worse than it looks.
  • Hold CC for after she arrives. Hounds’ Pursuit locks on. She’s coming to you. Save your root or stun for when she lands.
  • Track her W cooldown. The Call of the Pack starts at 26 seconds rank 1. If she just used it, she’s missing extra packmates, AD, and Move Speed for the next fight.

Which items counter Naafiri?

Armor first. Plated Steelcaps (1,200 gold, 25 Armor) reduce incoming damage from Attacks by 10%. For mages, Zhonya’s Hourglass lets you enter Stasis for 2.5 seconds the moment she commits, which wastes her full combo while your team collapses on a Naafiri with no cooldowns left. You can dig into the numbers in our LoL items database.

A Spell Shield that eats the next enemy ability comes with either Banshee’s Veil or Edge of Night. If that blocks Darkin Daggers, her packmates don’t leap and her bleed never starts. To be fair, a good Naafiri can pop the shield with a lesser ability first, but it still forces her to burn a cooldown and delay her combo. AD fighters should build Death’s Dance: its Ignore Pain passive spreads a percentage of damage taken over 3 seconds, so instead of getting deleted you end up in a sustained trade Naafiri doesn’t want.

Does Naafiri fall off in teamfights?

Honestly, her job gets harder, not easier. Hounds’ Pursuit is single-target, so in a grouped fight she has to dash through the front line to reach a carry, and any CC along the way ends the play. How often does she actually get through clean? Her packmates take AoE damage from spells aimed at the team (Eviscerate heals them, but good luck casting it safely in a 5v5). She wants isolated targets. Don’t be one.

If your team has no peel, that’s a draft problem. The best Naafiri counters bring reliable CC and self-peel, so if your comp is missing both, our guide to LoL roles can help. If you play ARAM, we have a separate Naafiri ARAM guide, and her skins are on the Naafiri champion page.

FAQ

Who counters Naafiri the most?

Vex. Her passive (Doom ‘n Gloom) periodically empowers her next basic ability to fear enemies and interrupt dashes, and Naafiri relies on two dashes to engage. Every dash triggers Vex’s mark for bonus damage and faster fear cooldown.

Can you stop Naafiri’s ultimate with CC?

Yes. Hounds’ Pursuit is a movement ability. Abilities that interrupt dashes or stop movement abilities cancel it. Ahri’s Charm explicitly stops movement abilities, and Vex’s empowered passive interrupts dashes.

How do you deal with Naafiri’s packmates?

Area damage hits them alongside Naafiri. They are fully healed when Naafiri casts Eviscerate (E), so focus them right after she uses E, not before.

What type of damage does Naafiri deal?

Her W grants increased Attack Damage, and armor items such as Plated Steelcaps, Zhonya’s Hourglass, and Death’s Dance are effective against her.

Is this list based on win rates?

No. For what it’s worth, win-rate data played no part here. The only thing behind each pick is the way these kits interact with Naafiri’s abilities as of patch 26.21.