Rell Counters: Who Beats Rell

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

Rell counters are supports who poke her from range, push her back out of a fight, or cleanse the crowd control she piles on. She’s a 175 range tank who breaks shields with a stunning line, crashes down from her mount for a knock-up, races in with an ally and finishes with an ultimate that pulls and keeps dragging nearby enemies. The picks that beat her stay out of melee range and undo her engage once she commits.

Five supports are covered below, each argued through abilities you can read on both sides of the matchup, and we kept win-rate data out of the picks completely.

Rell counters: Rell, the Iron Maiden, splash art

Why is Rell hard to counter?

Break the Mold (passive): her attacks and abilities deal extra magic damage and steal Armor and Magic Resist on hit.
Shattering Strike (Q): magic damage in a line that breaks shields and stuns. Cooldown 11/10.5/10/9.5/9.
Ferromancy: Crash Down (W): mounted, she dismounts with a knock-up and a large shield, gaining Armor, Magic Resist, Attack Speed and range but moving slower; dismounted, she re-forms her mount for a burst of speed and knocks up the next enemy she attacks. Cooldown 10.
Full Tilt (E): passive out-of-combat Move Speed; active ramping speed for her and an ally, doubled toward enemies and each other, with an exploding next attack. Cooldown 14/13/12/11/10.
Magnet Storm (R): a burst that pulls nearby enemies in, then keeps dragging them toward her while dealing magic damage over time. Cooldown 120/100/80.

Rell is built to engage and stay engaged. Full Tilt gets her there fast, Crash Down knocks up on arrival, Shattering Strike stuns and deletes any shield your support placed, and Magnet Storm drags everyone back in if they try to leave. Break the Mold even steals your resistances while she does it (rude, frankly). The catch for Rell? She has to be in melee range for almost all of it, and once she dismounts she’s slowed. Supports who punish that approach take the fight away from her.

Which champions are the best Rell counters?

Janna

Monsoon (R) throws nearby enemies back, then heals allies while it lasts. That’s the direct answer to Magnet Storm: Rell pulls your team in, Janna throws her out, and the heal covers the damage. Howling Gale (Q) knocks away enemies along its path, catching Rell on her Full Tilt approach. Zephyr (W) slows (and lets her slip through units). Eye Of The Storm (E) is a shield, so keep it for after Shattering Strike, which breaks shields. Her 550 range lets her poke Rell all lane. Honestly, she’s the toughest support Rell can walk into.

Alistar

Unbreakable Will (R) strips every disable off Alistar on the spot and cuts the damage he takes for a while after. Rell’s stun, knock-ups and drag all count, so she can’t hold him down. Headbutt (W) knocks a target back, and paired with Pulverize (Q), the knock-up around him, it pushes Rell away from your carry right after she lands. Trample (E) turns his next attack into a stun once it’s fully stacked. Triumphant Roar (passive) charges from his own displacements and nearby deaths, then heals him and nearby allies.

Zyra

Zyra plays at 575 range, and her plants fight for her. A Full Tilt charge dies the moment Grasping Roots (E) catches it, since the vines root everything they cross, while Deadly Spines (Q) punishes anyone standing in the wrong spot. Plants grown from Garden of Thorns (passive) seeds keep attacking whether or not Rell is dragging champions. Magnet Storm pulls enemies, not plants. Rampant Growth (W) stores more seeds. Stranglethorns (R) throws enemies airborne as the thicket snaps shut. In practice, Rell has to walk through a garden to reach her.

Vel’Koz

Organic Deconstruction (passive) stacks on every ability hit, and three stacks trigger a burst of true damage. Break the Mold steals Armor and Magic Resist, but true damage ignores both. Plasma Fission (Q) splits to slow from odd angles, Void Rift (W) bursts twice, and Tectonic Disruption (E) knocks up enemies, interrupting a Full Tilt run. Life Form Disintegration Ray (R) is a channelled beam that deals true damage to champions researched by his passive. His 525 range keeps him far from her melee kit.

Senna

Senna has 600 range, the longest of the five, and Absolution (passive) adds even more as she collects souls. Last Embrace (W) stops a mounted Rell mid-charge. Curse of the Black Mist (E) camouflages Senna and nearby allies and makes them unselectable, so Rell has trouble picking a target. Piercing Darkness (Q) heals allies and damages enemies in one beam, and Dawning Shadow (R) shields allies globally. To be fair, Shattering Strike breaks that shield, so time it after her Q.

How do you play the lane against Rell?

Keep shields until after Shattering Strike. It breaks shields and stuns everything in its line.
Back off when she’s mounted with Full Tilt up. The ramping speed doubles toward enemies.
Punish her dismounted form. Crash Down gives her a shield and resistances, but she’s slowed while dismounted.
Spread out against Magnet Storm. It pulls everyone nearby and keeps dragging them for a short while.
Trade quickly. Break the Mold steals Armor and Magic Resist with every hit she lands.

Which items counter Rell?

Her threat is crowd control, so cleanses and Tenacity matter most, plus range from your team. Mercury’s Treads give 30% Tenacity against the stun and the drag. On a support, Mikael’s Blessing can lift the Shattering Strike stun off your carry (Purify skips only Airborne and Suppression), and a carry who keeps getting caught can buy Quicksilver Sash to clear it themselves. Zhonya’s Hourglass gives a mage 2.5 seconds of Stasis inside Magnet Storm. Shields help less than usual, because Shattering Strike breaks them. Prefer outrunning her? Shurelya’s Battlesong speeds up the whole team, and the LoL item database has every other number.

When is Rell at her weakest?

Dismounted. Crash Down gives her a shield and resistances, but she’s slowed until she re-forms her mount, and that’s when a poke support can chip her freely. Most of her trades happen in this window.

The other window is after Magnet Storm. It has a 120 second cooldown at rank 1 (80 at rank 3), and without it she can engage but can’t keep anyone from leaving. Real talk: a Rell who used Magnet Storm on two people in lane won’t have it for the dragon fight.

Unsure what a support does? Our guide to LoL roles explains it. Her skins are on the Rell skins page, all our other champion write-ups sit in the guides section, and the Rell ARAM guide covers her on one lane. Long story short, Rell counters out-range her, push her back out of fights and save shields until her Q is spent.