Counter Guide

How to Beat Qiyana

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Qiyana vanishes into the brush, and the next thing you see is a shockwave running along the wall you were standing next to.

She's the kind of jungler who decides fights before you know she's there. She picks up an element from the map (brush, river or a wall), each one gives her next strike a different trick, and her ultimate turns the scenery itself into a stun. Being careful doesn't feel like enough, because the thing that kills you is the terrain around you. Her weak spot is that she needs that terrain. Out in the open her ultimate's only a push, and once her burst is spent she's got to live through the fight like anyone else. If you're deciding whether she's worth a ban, check where she sits on our solo queue tier list this patch.

Matchup Snapshot Qiyana, Empress of the Elements

Where You Meet HerJungle

Damage TypePhysical

Why She Is FrustratingInvisible, then a wall stuns you

MobilityTwo dashes

Biggest ThreatSupreme Display of Talent [R]

Hardest CounterNocturne

What a Counter Needs

A way to find her while she's hidden in the brush
Enough toughness to survive her opening burst and fight back

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Qiyana on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Qiyana

Nocturne1,999 games56.5%
Bel'Veth634 games56.5%
Briar1,333 games56.3%
Diana747 games55.8%
Warwick1,100 games55.5%

Picks Qiyana Beats

Zac625 games48.0%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the jungle against Qiyana. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 52,262 Qiyana games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Qiyana Overview

Strengths: What Makes Her Dangerous

The map is her weapon. Terrashape [W] dashes her to a patch of brush, river or wall and enchants her blade with it, and it resets her Q on the way.
Each element does something different. River roots you briefly, a wall adds damage against anyone under half health, and brush turns her invisible for up to three seconds.
Her ultimate stuns along the scenery. Supreme Display of Talent [R] knocks you back, then sends a shockwave along every wall, river and brush it touches, stunning anyone caught in it.
Her first hit on you always hurts. Royal Privilege [Passive] adds bonus damage to her first attack or ability against each enemy.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

No terrain, no stun. Away from walls, river and brush, her ultimate is only a knockback.
Her burst is front-loaded. The bonus from Royal Privilege [Passive] only lands once per target every few seconds, so the second half of a fight is much gentler.
She has to pick up an element first. Terrashape [W] needs a target element nearby, so you can guess where she's coming from.
Invisibility ends when she acts. The brush field breaks the moment she attacks or casts anything other than Terrashape [W].

Countering Qiyana

Any of these will do. You don't need all of them:

Take fights in the open. Stand away from walls and brush and her ultimate can't stun you.
Reveal her. Anything that exposes stealth, or pulls her out of hiding, takes away her opener.
Outlast the first burst. A shield, a heal or damage reduction at the start of the fight leaves her with little to follow up with.

Stuck in the matchup without one? It's still playable.

Playing Into Qiyana Without a Counter

Keep your team spread away from walls when her ultimate's up. Supreme Display of Talent [R] stuns along terrain, so five people hugging the same wall in the jungle is exactly the fight she wants.

If she disappears in the brush, she's got at most three seconds before the field runs out (and it ends early the moment she attacks). Back off rather than walking in to look for her.

Ward the river entrances. She usually grabs an element on the way in, and a ward tells you which one it was (river means the root is coming).

Best Qiyana Counters

Here are three junglers that shut her down, and none of them does it the same way.

Nocturne Tracks Her in the Dark

Hit Qiyana with Duskbringer [Q] and she leaves a Dusk Trail behind her as she moves. The trail shows her path even through stealth, so the brush invisibility she was counting on stops hiding her (and Nocturne gets speed and damage while he's standing on it).

Paranoia [R] reverses the whole ambush. For six seconds, every enemy's sight radius shrinks and their shared vision disappears, and he can launch himself at her from a long way off. Now she's the one who can't see what's coming. Shroud of Darkness [W] blocks one enemy ability too, and Audacity [E] is blockable.

Briar Uses the Walls Too

Qiyana isn't the only jungler who likes walls. When Briar charges Chilling Scream [E] fully, it knocks enemies back, and anyone who hits terrain is knocked up and stunned for 1.5 seconds. The jungle's full of walls, so Qiyana's favorite battlefield works against her here.

The charge helps Briar survive the burst as well. While she's winding it up she takes 35% less damage and heals, and crowd control can't interrupt it (Qiyana's river root included). Certain Death [R] cleanses her once it hits a target, so a stun from the scenery won't keep her down for long.

Diana Pulls Her Out

Moonfall [R] pulls every nearby enemy toward Diana and reveals them while it does. An invisible Qiyana sitting in the brush beside her gets dragged into the open. Pale Cascade [W] gives Diana a shield (a bigger one if all three orbs detonate) that soaks the opening burst, and her damage is magic, which suits a fight against an AD assassin.

Itemizing Against Qiyana

Her damage is physical, so armor does the work. Plated Steelcaps add armor and take 10% off her attacks. On a mage, Zhonya's Hourglass puts you in stasis for 2.5 seconds, long enough for her burst to go by. Guardian Angel brings an AD carry back after a lethal hit, and Edge of Night's spell shield blocks the next enemy ability (ideally Audacity [E], which is how she gets to you).