Qiyana Counters: Who Beats Qiyana

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

Qiyana counters are mid laners who punish her dashes, survive her opening burst, or lock her down the moment she arrives. She’s a 150 range assassin with two dashes, a weapon she enchants with elements, bonus damage on the first hit against each enemy, and an ultimate that stuns everyone near the elements it detonates. The picks that beat her stop the dash, block the burst, or make the first hit cost her.

Five matchups below, each argued from abilities on both sides. Stat sites had nothing to do with it.

Why is Qiyana hard to counter?

• Royal Privilege (passive): her first basic attack or ability against each enemy deals bonus damage.
• Elemental Wrath / Edge of Ixtal (Q): a weapon swing whose bonus effect depends on her current element. Cooldown 7 seconds.
• Terrashape (W): a dash to a location that enchants her weapon with an element, adding bonus damage to attacks and abilities. Cooldown 7.
• Audacity (E): a dash to an enemy that damages them. Cooldown 11/10/9/8/7.
• Supreme Display of Talent (R): a shockwave that detonates the elements it hits, stunning and damaging nearby enemies. Cooldown 120.

She’s fast and she’s sudden. Terrashape and Audacity give her two dashes on short cooldowns, Royal Privilege rewards her for hitting someone new, and Supreme Display of Talent can stun an entire team that happens to stand near the right element. Put simply, most of her damage comes in one rush. So what if the rush doesn’t land? Then she’s a 150 range melee champion standing in the middle of your team with both dashes on cooldown.

Which champions are the best Qiyana counters?

Vex

Every so often Doom ‘n Gloom (passive) charges Vex’s next basic spell with a fear that also cancels dashes. Qiyana’s whole engage is dashes. Better still, whenever a nearby enemy dashes, Vex marks them for bonus damage and shortens the cooldown of her empowered state, so every Terrashape and Audacity feeds the next fear. Personal Space (W) shields Vex and damages nearby enemies, which answers the moment Qiyana lands on her. Looming Darkness (E) slows, Mistral Bolt (Q) accelerates mid-flight, and Shadow Surge (R) marks a champion so Vex can dash in for the kill. Honestly, this is the cleanest counter on the list.

Lissandra

Frozen Tomb (R) cast on herself encases Lissandra in dark ice, healing her while untargetable and invulnerable, and the ice then damages and slows nearby enemies. Qiyana commits to the dive, and her target vanishes into a block of ice. Cast on an enemy, it’s a stun instead. Ring of Frost (W) roots everyone near her, catching a Qiyana who just dashed in, and Ice Shard (Q) slows and passes through to hit enemies behind the first. To be fair, Glacial Path (E) moves Lissandra to her claw, which is a way out if Qiyana arrives early.

Annie

Annie plays at 625 range, and Pyromania (passive) stuns with her next offensive spell after four casts (she starts the game and respawns with it ready). Molten Shield (E) shields her or an ally, adds Move Speed and damages enemies who hit her, which punishes Qiyana’s first-strike bonus. Disintegrate (Q) refunds its Mana if it kills, and Incinerate (W) covers a cone. Summon: Tibbers (R) damages an area, and with Pyromania stacked it’s an area stun right where Qiyana lands. In practice, she has to dash in through a stun she can see coming.

Galio

Shield of Durand (W) charges a defensive stance and then taunts nearby enemies, so a Qiyana who dives onto Galio ends up attacking him instead of her target. Justice Punch (E) sends Galio forward until he hits an enemy champion, who goes airborne. Hero’s Entrance (R) designates an ally as the landing spot, shields all allies in the area with a magic shield and knocks up nearby enemies on arrival, which is a direct answer to Qiyana diving your carry. Colossal Smash (passive) adds area damage now and then (handy against a melee diver), and Winds of War (Q) leaves a tornado.

Anivia

Rebirth (passive) turns Anivia into an egg on fatal damage and brings her back at full Health. Kill her once? Do it again. Flash Frost (Q) stuns everyone in the explosion radius, Frostbite (E) deals double damage to targets recently hit by Flash Frost or a fully formed Glacial Storm, and Crystallize (W) builds an impassable wall of ice. Glacial Storm (R) slows and damages an area, and her 600 range keeps her poking from a long way back. The catch: Rebirth has a long cooldown, so the egg trick works once in a while, not every fight.

How do you play the lane against Qiyana?

• Count her dashes. Terrashape and Audacity are her only movement, and once both are spent, she can’t escape.
• Keep a fresh target in mind. Royal Privilege adds bonus damage to her first hit on each enemy, not every hit.
• Spread out near terrain. Supreme Display of Talent stuns enemies near the elements it detonates.
• Hold your crowd control for the dash landing; that’s when she’s committed.
• Track her ultimate’s 120 second cooldown. Without it, her teamfight threat is one target at a time.

Which items counter Qiyana?

Her damage comes in one burst, so anti-burst items beat general resistances. For mages, Zhonya’s Hourglass means 2.5 seconds of untouchable Stasis at the exact moment she arrives. A fresh Spell Shield from Banshee’s Veil (or Edge of Night on AD builds) can eat her opening Audacity outright. Plated Steelcaps knock 10% off her attack damage, and Guardian Angel’s Rebirth gives a second life after 4 seconds in Stasis. Her ultimate’s stun runs shorter through the 30% Tenacity on Mercury’s Treads. Full item numbers sit in our LoL item database.

When is Qiyana at her weakest?

With her dashes down. Terrashape is a 7 second cooldown and Audacity 11 at rank 1, and in that gap she has no way in or out. If she used both to engage, she’s stuck.

The second window is before level 6 and after her ultimate. Supreme Display of Talent is 120 seconds and her only area stun, so a Qiyana who spent it on a single target has nothing for the next teamfight. Look, a mid laner who waits for that cooldown before grouping usually wins the next fight.

New to mid? Our guide to LoL roles walks through what mid laners do. Cosmetics? The Qiyana skins page has them, the guide library covers the rest of the roster, and her one-lane game gets its own write-up in the Qiyana ARAM guide. Long story short, Qiyana counters stop or punish her dashes, survive the burst and wait out her ultimate.

FAQ

Who counters Qiyana the most?

Vex, whose passive interrupts dashes; Lissandra, who can make herself untargetable; Annie and Galio, who stun or taunt her on arrival; and Anivia, who survives her combo with Rebirth.

Does Vex stop Qiyana’s dashes?

Yes. Doom ‘n Gloom periodically empowers Vex’s next basic ability to fear and interrupt dashes, and nearby enemy dashes refresh it faster.

What does Royal Privilege do?

It adds bonus damage to Qiyana’s first basic attack or ability against each enemy.

How long is Supreme Display of Talent’s cooldown?

120 seconds. It stuns and damages enemies near the elements its shockwave detonates.

How were these Qiyana counters picked?

Qiyana’s patch 26.21 kit was held up against each mid laner’s abilities until five clear answers stood out. No win-rate data was used.