Samira Counters: Who Beats Samira

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

Samira counters are bot laners who out-range her, knock her away mid-combo, or trap the path of her dash. She’s a 500 range marksman-assassin who builds a style combo by mixing attacks and abilities, dashes through enemies with Wild Rush, destroys incoming missiles with Blade Whirl and unloads Inferno Trigger on everyone around her. The picks that beat her keep her from getting close long enough to finish the combo.

Five bot laners are listed with the abilities that matter. We didn’t rely on win rates.

Samira counters: Samira, the Desert Rose, splash art

Why is Samira hard to counter?

Daredevil Impulse (passive): she builds a combo by landing attacks or abilities different from her last hit. Melee-range attacks deal extra magic damage, and attacking an immobilized enemy dashes her into attack range (keeping knocked-up targets in the air a moment longer).
Flair (Q): a shot or a sword swing; cast during Wild Rush, it hits every enemy in her path. Cooldown 6/5/4/3/2.
Blade Whirl (W): she slashes around herself, damaging enemies and destroying enemy missiles. Cooldown 30/28/26/24/22.
Wild Rush (E): a dash through an enemy that slashes everything on the way and grants Attack Speed; a champion kill refreshes it. Cooldown 20/18/16/14/12.
Inferno Trigger (R): a torrent of shots at every enemy around her.

Samira wants one thing: a big engage from her support. Once an enemy is knocked up or rooted, Daredevil Impulse dashes her in, Wild Rush and Flair build the combo fast, and Inferno Trigger shreds everyone nearby. Blade Whirl erases the projectiles you’d use to stop her. Resets on Wild Rush let her chain kills (that’s where the highlight reels come from). Here’s the weakness: her range is 500, she needs to be close to finish, and Blade Whirl has a long cooldown.

Which champions are the best Samira counters?

Caitlyn

Caitlyn’s 650 range dwarfs Samira’s. Free hits, all lane. Yordle Snap Trap (W) immobilizes a champion for 1.5 seconds and empowers Caitlyn’s next Headshot (passive) from double range. Traps on Samira’s dash paths make Wild Rush a risk. When Samira finally commits, 90 Caliber Net (E) slows her and fires Caitlyn backward out of reach (the recoil is the whole point). Ace in the Hole (R) is a single long-range shot that can finish her as she runs. In practice, Caitlyn wins the lane on range alone.

Jhin

Captive Audience (E) places invisible lotus traps that slow and then explode when walked over. A Samira who dashes through a field of them lands slowed and damaged. Deadly Flourish (W) is a very long-range shot that roots the first champion hit if Jhin or his allies recently damaged them. Curtain Call (R) fires four super shots at extreme range, crippling and executing, with the fourth guaranteed to crit. Dancing Grenade (Q) bounces between up to four targets. Whisper (passive) crits on the fourth shot, adding Move Speed. Can Blade Whirl stop Curtain Call? Once, maybe. Its cooldown is long, and Jhin has four shots.

Tristana

Buster Shot (R) deals magic damage and knocks the target back. When Samira dashes in to start Inferno Trigger, one Buster Shot pushes her out of range of everyone she wanted to hit. Rocket Jump (W) propels Tristana to a distant location and slows enemies where she lands, which is her own escape from Wild Rush. Her attack range keeps growing with levels through Draw a Bead (passive), so the lane gap widens over time. A bomb from Explosive Charge (E) bursts after a short fuse, and Rapid Fire (Q) speeds up her shots for quick trades. Honestly, the knockback is the whole point (and it’s on a single button).

Draven

Draven’s damage in lane is brutal, and Samira has to get close to trade. Stand Aside (E) throws his axes, dealing physical damage, knocking targets aside and slowing them, which interrupts her approach. Spinning Axe (Q) adds bonus damage to his next attack, Blood Rush (W) adds Move Speed and Attack Speed, and catching axes refreshes it. Whirling Death (R) hurls two axes that execute targets below his Adoration stacks. League of Draven (passive) rewards kills with bonus gold. To be fair, he needs to win early; a Samira who survives lane can catch up.

Sivir

Sivir’s Spell Shield (E) eats one enemy ability aimed at her, paying her back with Health and a burst of speed when it does. Samira’s Wild Rush dash and her combo depend on abilities landing. On The Hunt (R) gives Sivir and her allies a surge of Move Speed, which is the counter to a team that wants to stand still in an engage. Boomerang Blade (Q) hits on the way out and back, Ricochet (W) bounces attacks to nearby targets, and Fleet of Foot (passive) adds Move Speed when she attacks a champion. Sivir’s team simply runs away from Inferno Trigger.

How do you play the lane against Samira?

Bait Blade Whirl before using skillshots. It destroys enemy missiles, but its cooldown is long.
Avoid getting immobilized near her. Daredevil Impulse dashes her to any immobilized enemy.
Don’t feed Wild Rush resets. A champion kill refreshes its cooldown, letting her chain fights.
Spread out when her combo is building. Inferno Trigger hits everyone around her.
Knock her away or slow her as she arrives. She has to stay close to finish.

Which items counter Samira?

She deals mostly physical damage up close, so Armor and anti-burst items help. Plated Steelcaps knock 10% off her attacks. Randuin’s Omen cuts critical strike damage by 30% and its Humility active slows nearby enemies by 70%, which pins her during Inferno Trigger. Tanks can add Frozen Heart, whose aura takes 20% off the Attack Speed of champions around them. Guardian Angel gives a second life after her combo, and Zhonya’s Hourglass offers Stasis for mages. The LoL item database has every number, and marksmen facing her can lean on Infinity Edge to win the shootout from range.

When is Samira at her weakest?

When Blade Whirl is down. It’s 30 seconds at rank 1 and 22 at rank 5, and without it every skillshot you throw at her lands. That’s when to fire your crowd control, because every root, slow and knockback you throw in that window lands on a champion who has no way left to erase it.

The other window is when her support’s engage is on cooldown. Samira’s combo starts from immobilized targets, and without that setup she has to walk in at 500 range against marksmen who hit further. Look, a Samira with no engage support is a short-range marksman with a dash. Punish her then.

New to bot lane? Our guide to LoL roles lays out the marksman’s job. Cosmetics? See the Samira skins page. The rest of the roster lives in our guides library, and her random-champion game gets its own write-up in the Samira ARAM guide. Long story short, Samira counters out-range her, knock her away and save their skillshots for after Blade Whirl.

FAQ

Who counters Samira the most?

Caitlyn and Jhin, who out-range and trap her; Tristana and Draven, who knock her away; and Sivir, who blocks an ability and speeds her team out of Inferno Trigger.