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Vi Counters: Who Beats Vi

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

Vi counters are champions who can stop her Vault Breaker dash, make her punches whiff, or simply not care about the knock-up from Cease and Desist. Vi is a jungle fighter: one charging dash, punches that break Armor, and a point-and-click ultimate. Nothing fancy, which is why good Vi counters do one of two things: they stop her getting in, or they make her regret it once she’s there.

The five picks below are honestly my calls, not a win-rate scrape. I read how each kit lines up against Vi’s abilities in patch 26.21, so every entry tells you what actually happens in the fight instead of handing you a percentage.

Vi counters: Vi, the Piltover Enforcer, splash art

Why is Vi hard to counter?

  • Blast Shield (passive): a shield that charges over time and activates when she hits an enemy with an ability.
  • Vault Breaker (Q): she charges her gauntlets and punches forward, and the punch carries her with it. Enemies hit are knocked back and get a stack of Denting Blows. Cooldown 12/10.5/9/7.5/6 seconds.
  • Denting Blows (W): her punches break the target’s Armor, deal bonus damage and give her Attack Speed. No cooldown.
  • Relentless Force (E): her next attack blasts through the target and damages enemies behind it. One second cooldown.
  • Cease and Desist (R): she runs down one enemy, knocks aside anyone in the way, knocks the target into the air, jumps after it and slams it into the ground. Cooldown 140/115/90 seconds.

Put simply, Vi picks a target and gets there. That’s the whole champion. The ultimate runs through anyone in between, the Q covers the gap before she has her ultimate, and once she’s on you the W strips Armor while the E hits whoever stands behind you. Almost all of it is auto-attacks plus one dash, though, and anyone who can dodge attacks or stop a dash makes her look very silly. That’s who’s on this list.

Which champions are the best Vi counters?

Poppy

Steadfast Presence (W) stops enemy dashes around Poppy, and a stopped enemy is slowed and grounded. Vault Breaker carries Vi forward, so a well-timed W leaves her short of her target with the punch already spent. The same W passively gives Armor and Magic Resist, growing when Poppy is low (handy against a champion whose entire W is about breaking Armor). Heroic Charge (E) then pushes Vi back, and stuns her if she hits a wall.

Jax

Counter Strike (E) dodges all incoming attacks for a short time, then stuns everyone around him. Denting Blows works through punches and Relentless Force is “her next attack”, so a Vi who swings into a Jax with E up loses both and eats a stun. Grandmaster-at-Arms (R) adds Armor and Magic Resist when activated, which blunts the Armor break even more.

Nocturne

Shroud of Darkness (W) creates a barrier that blocks a single enemy ability, and doubles his passive Attack Speed if it does. Cease and Desist is one ability aimed at one target. Block it and Vi has burned a 140-second cooldown (at rank one) for nothing. Funny enough, the shroud works just as well on Vault Breaker if she opens with the Q instead.

Udyr

Blazing Stampede (E) gives Udyr Move Speed and a stun on his first attack against each target. Recast it and he gains immunity to immobilizing effects for a couple of seconds. Vi’s Q knocks back and her R knocks the target into the air, and Udyr’s recast grants immunity to immobilizing effects for a couple of seconds, so timing it against her engage lets him stun her on his first attack while Iron Mantle (W) shields and heals him.

Rammus

Defensive Ball Curl (W) vastly increases his Armor and Magic Resist and returns damage to enemies who attack him. Vi’s damage arrives through punches, so every Denting Blows hit costs her health. Frenzying Taunt (E) forces her into a reckless assault against him (exactly where he wants her), and his passive, Spiked Shell, turns that stacked Armor into bonus Attack Damage. Her W strips some of that Armor, sure, but Ball Curl gives her a lot to chew through.

How do you play lane against a Vi gank?

Vi’s a jungler, so you’re not laning against her, you’re laning against her ganks. How does she actually reach you? She has two ways: Vault Breaker, or Cease and Desist once she has her ultimate.

  • Keep distance from the river. Vault Breaker carries Vi forward and knocks back the enemies it hits, so if she has to cover half the lane to reach you, you’ll see the charge coming.
  • Bodyblocking her ultimate does nothing. Cease and Desist knocks aside anyone in the way, so the counterplay is a ward and a cooldown count: 140 seconds at rank one.
  • Keep trades short. Denting Blows breaks Armor and feeds her Attack Speed with every punch, so every second she’s on you she hits harder and faster. Get out early.
  • A missed Q is your window. Blast Shield only activates when an ability hits an enemy, and without the Q she has nothing to activate it with until she’s already in punching range for Relentless Force.

Which items counter Vi?

Armor first, then something for the ultimate. Why Armor? Her W exists to break Armor, which tells you what she needs to get through, and both her W and E work through attacks, so items that punish attackers count as Vi counters too. Numbers below are from patch 26.21.

Item Cost Why it works against Vi
Plated Steelcaps 1200 Gives 25 Armor and 45 Move Speed. Reduces incoming damage from Attacks by 10%.
Bramble Vest 800 30 Armor. When hit by an Attack, deals magic damage to the attacker and applies 40% Wounds for 3 seconds.
Thornmail 2450 150 Health, 75 Armor. Same Thorns passive as Bramble Vest.
Frozen Heart 2500 75 Armor, 400 Mana, 20 Ability Haste. Nearby champions lose 20% Attack Speed, so the bonus she gets from Denting Blows shrinks.
Randuin’s Omen 2700 350 Health, 75 Armor. Its active puts a 70% slow on every enemy around you for 2 seconds.
Banshee’s Veil 3000 Brings 105 Ability Power together with 40 Magic Resist. Spell Shield blocks the next enemy Ability, including Cease and Desist.
Zhonya’s Hourglass 3250 Pairs 50 Armor with 105 Ability Power. Stasis for 2.5 seconds.

Quicksilver Sash and Mercurial Scimitar remove crowd control but exclude Airborne, which makes them a poor answer to a champion whose Q knocks back and whose R knocks you into the air. Don’t buy Quicksilver for Vi. What you want is a spell shield, which stops the ultimate before it ever connects. Edge of Night carries the same Annul passive if you’re an AD champion, and full stats for everything above live in the LoL items database.

When is Vi at her weakest?

Before she has Cease and Desist, with Vault Breaker on cooldown. That’s 12 seconds at rank one, and without the Q she has no way to close distance and no easy way to turn on Blast Shield, since the shield needs an ability to hit an enemy. Relentless Force is an attack modifier on a 1-second cooldown, so she can still trigger it, but only if she’s already in range.

The other weak moment is right after Cease and Desist. Rank one is 140 seconds, and even rank three is 90 (still a long wait). In practice a Vi with no ultimate still hurts, the Q and W see to that, but at that point she’s a fighter with 125 attack range and a single dash. Nothing like the champion who runs through your whole team to reach the carry. Mostly nothing like her, anyway, since the Armor break never goes on cooldown.

If you’d rather play her than fight her, the Vi ARAM guide covers that mode, and her cosmetics sit on the Vi skins page. Still deciding where you want to play? Our guide to LoL roles covers why the jungle is her home. The rest of our champion matchup pages break down counters the same way, ability by ability.

FAQ

Who counters Vi the most?

Champions who stop her dash, dodge her punches or block her ultimate. Poppy’s W stops Vault Breaker and grounds her, Jax’s E dodges all attacks and stuns, and Nocturne’s W blocks one ability, which can be Cease and Desist.

Can you dodge Vi’s ultimate?

Cease and Desist runs down a chosen enemy and knocks aside anyone in the way, so bodyblocking does not stop it. A spell shield from Banshee’s Veil or Edge of Night blocks it, and Nocturne’s Shroud of Darkness does the same.

Does Quicksilver Sash work against Vi?

Poorly. Quicksilver Sash and Mercurial Scimitar remove crowd control but exclude Airborne. Vault Breaker knocks back and Cease and Desist knocks the target into the air.

What does Vi’s W do?

Denting Blows makes her punches break the target’s Armor, deal bonus damage and grant her Attack Speed. It has no cooldown, which is why Armor items and Frozen Heart’s 20% Attack Speed reduction matter against her.

Is this list based on win rates?

No. We picked these Vi counters by reading how the kits interact in patch 26.21. No win-rate data went into it.