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Xayah Counters: Who Beats Xayah

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

Xayah counters are champions that block or dodge her thrown daggers, shrug off the Bladecaller root, or simply outrange her 525 attack range. She’s a marksman, and her damage is basic attacks pumped up by Deadly Plumage plus the Feathers she yanks back for a root. Spell shields, projectile blockers and plain old range all mess with that.

The five picks below are ours, chosen purely on how each kit lines up against hers in patch 26.21. There’s no win-rate data behind it, so treat it as the why of each matchup, not a tier list.

Xayah counters: Xayah, the Rebel, splash art

Why is Xayah hard to counter?

  • Clean Cuts (passive): after using an ability, her next basic attacks hit all targets along their path and leave a Feather behind.
  • Double Daggers (Q): two damaging daggers that also drop Feathers she can recall. Cooldown 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds.
  • Deadly Plumage (W): a storm of blades that raises her Attack Speed and damage, and gives her Move Speed if she attacks a champion.
  • Bladecaller (E): calls back every dropped Feather, dealing damage and rooting enemies caught by them. Cooldown 12/11/10/9/8 seconds.
  • Featherstorm (R): she leaps into the air, becomes untargetable, and throws a fan of daggers that drop still more Feathers. Cooldown 140/120/100 seconds.

Thing is, every part of that kit feeds the same loop. Abilities drop Feathers, Clean Cuts drops more through the minion wave, and Bladecaller calls every Feather back for damage and a root. If you’re standing between her and a pile of Feathers, you’re about to get rooted. Then there’s Featherstorm. Untargetable means your skillshot, your point-and-click stun, all of it, simply whiffs for the duration (and the daggers it throws set up yet another root). So what actually beats that?

Which champions are the best Xayah counters?

Sivir

Spell Shield (E) creates a barrier that blocks a single enemy ability cast on Sivir, and if it blocks something she gets health back plus a burst of Move Speed. Bladecaller is one cast. A well-timed shield eats the root and pays her for it. Fleet of Foot gives her Move Speed when she attacks a champion, which helps her step out of the Feather lines, even though her 500 range is a touch shorter than Xayah’s.

Yasuo

For 4 seconds after he casts Wind Wall (W), every enemy projectile that reaches the wall is stopped cold (and the wall moves, too). Double Daggers (Q) throws two daggers, and Featherstorm (R) throws a fan of them, so a wall placed between you and her stops both from landing. He fights at 175 range, which sounds grim against a marksman, but Sweeping Blade (E) dashes him through a target enemy, and Way of the Wanderer builds a shield whenever he’s moving.

Samira

Blade Whirl (W) slashes around her and destroys enemy missiles, and the daggers from Double Daggers are exactly that. Wild Rush (E) dashes her through an enemy and grants Attack Speed, which closes the gap to melee range where Daredevil Impulse adds magic damage to her attacks. Honestly, the whole point of picking Samira here is that Xayah wants to kite from 525 range and Samira refuses to let her.

Nilah

Jubilant Veil (W) wraps Nilah in mist that increases her Move Speed and lets her dodge all incoming attacks, and allies she touches gain the same effect. Clean Cuts and Deadly Plumage both run on Xayah’s basic attacks, so while the mist is up the bulk of her damage just doesn’t connect. Put simply, she whiffs. Slipstream (E) dashes to a target, and Apotheosis (R) pulls enemies toward her (yes, a 225 range champion into a marksman, and it works because of the W).

Caitlyn

Caitlyn attacks from 650 range against Xayah’s 525. Yordle Snap Trap (W) immobilizes a champion who springs it for 1.5 seconds and doubles her Headshot range on that target, so Xayah can’t walk through a trapped lane to set up Feathers. 90 Caliber Net (E) slows the target and knocks Caitlyn back, a built-in exit from the Bladecaller line, and Ace in the Hole (R) finishes a low Xayah from a huge range once she lands from Featherstorm.

How do you counter Xayah in lane?

In practice, you fight the Feathers, not the bird. The root needs Feathers sitting between the two of you, and the passive doesn’t do anything until she’s cast something, so you get a tell on both.

  • Watch the ground, not her. Feathers on the ground are the root. Step sideways out of the line between you and the Feathers instead of walking back through them.
  • Her passive only triggers after she uses an ability, so a Double Daggers cast is your cue that the next attacks will pierce through the minion wave to you.
  • Trade when Bladecaller is down. With a 12 to 8 second cooldown by rank, she has a clear window after each cast where she has no root at all.
  • Deadly Plumage has an 18 to 14 second cooldown. When you see the storm of blades, back off; once it’s gone, that’s your trade.
  • Hold your stun during Featherstorm. She’s untargetable in the air. Save it for the landing.

Which items counter Xayah?

Clean Cuts and Deadly Plumage both work through her basic attacks, so attack-side defenses matter, and the root has a direct item answer too. For what it’s worth, Grievous Wounds items don’t help here, since nothing in her kit heals her.

Item Cost What it does against Xayah
Plated Steelcaps 1200 Reduces incoming damage from Attacks by 10%.
Frozen Heart 2500 Reduces the Attack Speed of nearby champions by 20%, which cuts into Deadly Plumage.
Thornmail / Bramble Vest 2450 / 800 Deals magic damage back to her every time an Attack hits you.
Quicksilver Sash / Mercurial Scimitar 1300 / 3200 Active removes all crowd control debuffs (excluding Airborne), so the Bladecaller root is gone instantly.
Edge of Night / Banshee’s Veil 3000 / 3000 Spell Shield that blocks the next enemy Ability, the same answer Sivir gets for free.
Randuin’s Omen 2700 Active slows nearby enemies by 70% for 2 seconds, which works against the Move Speed Deadly Plumage gives her.
Mikael’s Blessing 2300 Supports remove the root from an ally champion and restore 100 to 250 Health.

Full stat lines and prices for everything above are in our items database. If you’re an ADC who keeps eating the root, Quicksilver Sash at 1300 gold is the cheapest root answer in the table.

Do Xayah counters change once she has Featherstorm?

A bit, yes. Before she has Featherstorm it’s all Bladecaller root and Feather lines, and the spell shield picks deal with that fine. Once she has it, she’s got a 140/120/100 second cooldown escape that makes her untargetable, and that shuffles the list. Caitlyn’s net and trap still work on the landing, and Yasuo’s Wind Wall stops the fan of daggers it throws, so those two lose nothing. Sivir’s Spell Shield, to be fair, blocks one ability, and now Xayah has two she’d like to use on you.

Does that mean the melee picks fall off? Not really. Samira’s Wild Rush and Nilah’s Slipstream both dash to a target, so when Xayah lands they’re already next to her, and Double Daggers has a 10 to 8 second cooldown by rank. The one thing that genuinely gets worse is panic-stunning while she’s in the air. Count to the landing instead.

All the best Xayah counters do one of two things. They don’t get rooted, or they don’t get hit. If you’re newer to bot lane, our guide to LoL roles explains how the ADC and support split the lane. Xayah’s cosmetics are on the Xayah skins page, and the Howling Abyss version of this matchup lives in our Xayah ARAM guide.

FAQ

Who counters Xayah the most?

Champions with a spell shield or projectile block, such as Sivir, Yasuo and Samira, plus Nilah, whose Jubilant Veil dodges all attacks, and Caitlyn, who attacks from 650 range against Xayah’s 525.

Does a spell shield block Xayah’s root?

Yes. Bladecaller is a single ability cast, so Sivir’s Spell Shield, Edge of Night and Banshee’s Veil all block it. Quicksilver Sash removes the root after it lands.

Can you hit Xayah during Featherstorm?

No. She leaps into the air and becomes untargetable while throwing out a fan of daggers. Wait for her to land, then use your crowd control.

Are Xayah counters the same in ARAM?

Wind Wall still blocks her daggers, Jubilant Veil still dodges her attacks and a spell shield still blocks Bladecaller. Our Xayah ARAM guide covers the Howling Abyss specifics.

Is this list based on win rates?

No. We picked these Xayah counters by hand, judging each one on how its abilities interact with hers in patch 26.21. We don’t use win-rate data.