Counter Guide

How to Beat Vi

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Vi picks one champion on your team, punches straight through everyone standing in the way, and lands on them.

Her ultimate is what makes her feel unfair. Once she's chosen you, your frontline can't body-block her (they just get knocked aside), and you're in the air for over a second while her team catches up. Her punches strip your armor on top of that. That lock-on's also her weakness. It's one targeted spell on a long cooldown, and it can be blocked or dodged by going untargetable (or you can simply survive it). If you're deciding whether she's worth a ban, check where she sits on our solo queue tier list this patch.

Matchup Snapshot Vi, the Piltover Enforcer

Where You Meet HerJungle

Damage TypePhysical

Why She Is FrustratingAn ultimate you can't peel

MobilityA charged dash and a lock-on

Biggest ThreatCease and Desist [R]

Hardest CounterWukong

What a Counter Needs

A spell shield or an untargetable window for when her ultimate comes
A root or silence to stop her Q while she's charging it

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Vi on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Vi

Wukong2,440 games54.5%
Briar2,139 games53.4%
Warwick2,015 games52.8%
Nocturne2,992 games52.2%
Shyvana2,107 games52.1%

Picks Vi Beats

Nunu & Willump803 games46.0%
Nidalee966 games47.1%
Diana956 games47.2%
Jax1,074 games47.5%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the jungle against Vi. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 71,438 Vi games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Vi Overview

Strengths: What Makes Her Dangerous

Cease and Desist [R] can't be peeled. She's immune to displacement for the whole run, knocks aside and stuns anyone in her path, then knocks her target up for 1.3 seconds.
Her punches break armor. Every third hit from Denting Blows [W] deals bonus damage and takes 20% off your armor for four seconds.
Vault Breaker [Q] starts fights from range. She charges it up, then dashes and knocks back the first champion she hits (the longer the charge, the further she goes).
She shields herself. Blast Shield [Passive] gives her a shield worth 10% of her max health when her next ability connects.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

Her ultimate can be blocked. A spell shield stops Cease and Desist [R], and a target who turns untargetable during the run cuts it short.
Vault Breaker [Q] has a wind-up. The charge is visible and slow, and a root, silence or grounding cancels it.
The ultimate is her engage, and it's slow to come back. At rank one it's down for over two minutes (140 seconds).
She's committed once she lands. The grab leaves her on the far side of her target, and that's usually deep in your team.

Countering Vi

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

Block the ultimate. Spell shields and untargetable spells both beat Cease and Desist [R].
Interrupt the charge. Hit her with a root or silence while Vault Breaker [Q] is winding up.
Punish the landing. Once her ultimate's spent, she's standing in the middle of your team with no way out.

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

Playing Into Vi Without a Counter

Track her ultimate. It's over two minutes at rank one, and without it she has to walk up and charge a punch you can see coming (and she can't hold the charge forever, since a punch she never releases is wasted).

Don't stand in a tight line with your carry behind you. Her ultimate knocks aside and stuns everyone she runs through, so a crowd in front of the target just means more stunned people.

When she does land, turn on her. She ends up on the far side of the champion she grabbed, and that's usually closer to your team than hers.

Best Vi Counters

Three junglers who take the lock-on apart in their own way.

Wukong Out-Trades Her Up Close

Vi's damage is physical, and Stone Skin [Passive] stacks armor and regeneration for as long as Wukong is hitting champions. The longer the fight goes, the tougher he gets (Denting Blows [W] chips at that armor, but it keeps coming back).

His ultimate suits this matchup too. Vi's immunity to displacement only lasts until the grab ends, and she lands right next to whoever she grabbed. Cyclone [R] knocks up everything around Wukong, and he can cast it a second time within eight seconds, so a Vi who ults into his team gets thrown in the air twice.

Nocturne Blocks the Ultimate

Cease and Desist [R] can be stopped by a spell shield, and Shroud of Darkness [W] is one. Time it for when she arrives and the grab fails, and then Nocturne gets double attack speed for blocking it. The same shield stops a Vault Breaker [Q] too.

Paranoia [R] gives him the first move as well (it's global, so he can start it from anywhere). Six seconds of shrunken sight radius, no shared vision for her team, and a dash to any champion in range. She can't lock on to someone she can't see coming.

Warwick Out-Lasts the Burst

Warwick doesn't need to dodge her combo. He'd rather eat it. Primal Howl [E] cuts the damage he takes for a couple of seconds, then fears everyone nearby for a second (with a 90% slow on top). Infinite Duress [R] suppresses for 1.5 seconds and heals him for all the damage it deals, and below half health his attacks start healing him as well.

Itemizing Against Vi

Plated Steelcaps take 10% off her attacks. Frozen Heart cuts the attack speed of every champion near you by 20%, which slows how fast her Denting Blows [W] stacks come around. Zhonya's Hourglass is the mage's answer to her ultimate, since going into stasis makes you untargetable and a Vi still running at you stops short. Guardian Angel gives an AD carry a second life if she gets there anyway.