Qiyana mid guide







Best Overall Runes

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Spells

Skill Priority

Q

W

E

Best Overall Build

Intro

Hello! I am SecretLime, I am a diamond mmr mid/adc player, and one of my comfort champions/mains in the mid lane is Qiyana. I personally love this champion and her uniqueness, depth, so I wanted to share the beauty and intricacies of this champion with all of you too.

To start off, why should you play Qiyana? Well as a player since her release, I have a more or less decent understanding of her and what she excels at, so I'm gonna list some pros and cons here:

Pros:

1. She is a very strong solo carry, able to win a teamfight/skirmish solo, be it with a good ultimate or a good flank on the enemy carries.
2. Her W allows her to be prepared for almost all situations, her bush infusion is extremely good and useful in many situations, making this champion hard to catch.
3. Also due to her w, she has very good roaming potential, her kit allows you to either invade (since everything in the jungle is an amazing place for an ult), or roam, and because of the movement speed you get when infused with water in river, you can pretty much outroam 90% of midlaners.
4. Easily snowballs, after getting a few kills and most importantly an early serrated dirk, she can shove waves fast, roam and extend her lead, or just dive the enemy under tower with level 6.
5. At level 6 she can easily dive most of the champions, or go roam bot lane and get 2 free kills under tower, also due to her ult, she can win any early objective fight.
6. Cute and thick.

Cons:

1. Extremely hard to get back in to the game after falling behind.
2. When behind she becomes an ult bot, with nothing much she can do, considering her also getting nerfed quite a bit in recent times, falling behind can hurt your win chance by quite a lot.
3. Very easy to punish in lane before level 3, especially if going into a ranked matchup

So to nicely sum up, Qiyana is a strong 1 v 9 assassin with a high skill ceiling, strong roams, able to turn/win fights with good ultimates or flanks, but as a trade off she becomes way weaker than other assassins when behind.

Runes

Qiyana, like other assassins, takes electrocute as its main path, but when it comes to secondary runes, she is quite versatile, being able to take a lot of different paths depending on if she wants to be more agressive or defensive, when it comes to the rune shards, 2 adaptive force are taken always and mr/armor depends on your matchup/enemy team composition. (Ap dominant/matchup = mr, Ad dominant/matchup = armor)

• Standard rune path
• Corrupting pot start

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Summoner spells

When it comes to summ spells not much is different from any other assassins.

Skill Path

Qiyana's main strength comes from her q, which is why it's obviously maxed first, after her q, we put 2 points into w before maxing e (upgrading r when possible).

Her level 1 and 2 upgrades depend, at the start of the lane it is better to leave it not upgraded. Level 1 q, when: You see the melee minions are all at a kill zone, you take q to take them safely from range without trading much hp or not trading any at all. Level 1 w, when: The enemy is a skillshot/ranged champion, you use w to dodge early skillshots to avoid losing health before level 3. You can also take this when invading since the infused element gives bonus attack speed or when going into a melee matchup which is also weaker at level 1 to trade or possibly kill.

• Level 1 Q
• Level 1 W

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Item Builds

Qiyana's first 2 items are most of the time the same (Prowler's -> Youmuu's), although the mythic can also be eclipse if going into tankier matchups. As for the third item, I find going serylda's grudge the best personally, but depending on their teamcomp you can also take Edge Of Night/Maw/Death's Dance. If you are laning vs a very ap bursty champ you can rush hexdrinker early to help you survive trades. Other options are very enemy dependant, for ex. You can take Black Cleaver into very tanky teams (Buying eclipse and serylda's before). You can take Serpent's Fang into shield heavy compositions (Lulu, shieldbow abusers, any other shielding enchanter) You can take chempunk chainsword into healing heavy team compositions, if your opponent heals a lot you can rush executioner's before buying anything at all. GA is also an option, if you are 1 v 9'ing games, so a death doesn't mean you instantly lost, it is also a good armor option, since it's buildpath includes a chain vest and most importantly a stopwatch (so you can make the zed mains feel even more salty). For boots, Ionian Boots are almost always the pick, but into heavy ad comps you can take Plated Steelcaps, and into heavy ap/cc comps you can take Mercury Treads.

Matchups and Synergies

Into any matchup, Qiyana becomes a champion able to trade and play the game at level 3 once her base combo's are unlocked. She struggles vs ranged matchups, I will include the hardest matchups for her below, and other's are either roaming or trading at level 3 and going for an all in.



• Hardest matchups

Anivia

Champion

Very hard to deal with, because she has a lot of damage output, when trading always have bush element ready, so that when you are chilled she can't E you for ~50% of your health bar. Try to roam or wait for jungler to gank so you can break the egg and kill her.

Annie

Champion

You can mostly only fight her before she hits level 6 or when her ult is down, a cool trick to use is to e while she is chasing u to stun, since the e travel time will nearly negate her stun duration, after which you can easily trade, since her stun is her biggest strength.

Azir

Champion

Try your best to not take damage before level 3, since that is when you can start trading (using your bush q), he scales very good, but you can be equally/more useful in late game fights than him.

Cassiopeia

Champion

Cass runs out of mana pretty quickly early game, if she is spamming her e, although better cass players will opt to deal more damage to you through auto attacks. I recommend taking corrupting potion vs her and waiting for your jungler to gank you and kill her, since she has no mobility, a good gank is almost a guaranteed kill.

Cho'Gath

Champion

He outsustains you in lane due to his passive, making it nearly impossible to kill him. Instead try to match his farm or roam with your jungler to get fed that way.

Fizz

Champion

Skill matchup, since both of you have very strong level 3 trades, it comes down to who can outplay who, sometimes before trading you can try to bluff and engage or try to bait his e through q poke. Although it isn't important to win your lane, if you see it's hard to win, just try to go even, since you are WAY more useful in teamfights.

Galio

Champion

Trade after he uses his abilities, you win them as long as you stick to him, since his cooldowns are quite long.

Gangplank

Champion

This is one of the hardest matchups for Qiyana. He outrades you every time, especially considering he is most likely taking bone plating/grasp, he counters your stealth with his barrels, only hope of winning is to take teleport, try to tp back into lane with an extra long sword to kill him. After he gets sheen it's impossible to win trades/lane is over.

Gragas

Champion

Due to his passive sustain, he is mostly unkillable at any point in the game, due to his big box he can hit u in stealth 90% of the time, so instead try to sit at the edge of your bush q to avoid getting, if he uses abilities to take waves, its your chance to trade with him.

Kassadin

Champion

Not as weak into ad assassins as you may think, with electrocute he can chunk a lot of your hp if you are not careful, if he goes w level 1, you should give him prio since he outtrades you. Don't let him w you for since it gives him mana and does a lot of damage, try to chunk him with e + q (grass) trades and then go for a kill.

Lee Sin

Champion

Also one of the hardest matchups for Qiyana. His q and e reveals vision, he outsustains you and wins any trade you try and go for. Just roam to try and get fed.

Lucian

Champion

Absolute menace before level 6, he win any trade before you get serrated + long, so before that try and just farm, after your serrated powerspike you have enough damage to kill him.

Malzahar

Champion

Ugly champ. Permapushes till humanity ends, take down his shield before all ining with e q (grass) and try to use your r to humiliate him by framing him into the wall. Your teamfight is way better than his, so if u can't kill him just farm and win that way.

Neeko

Champion

Annoying poke, you are gonna have to use your w or e to dodge her q or e most of the time, if it's a good neeko she is gonna save her e and q after you jump on her, after level 6 her ultimate is a very big threat, since its nearly impossible to escape after you commit, so just play for objective fights and teamfights where you win.

Orianna

Champion

A good orianna realistically won't die to you, so e a minion to poke her with q w q , or e through a minion to get close to her and then try to kill. Play for teamfights, since your r is easier to land, especially if you are fighting in a choke point/ for an objective.

Pantheon

Champion

I wouldn't expect to kill him, but you can try by waiting out his q and then doing a e q (grass) trade and w q to back out instead of commiting. You can only do this pre level 7, because after that his q has quite a short cooldown.

Rumble

Champion

To start off - Do not underestimate his damage. He has very good trade patterns with his shield, when it's down and you go to trade, his overload + q + ignite is gonna be enough to one shot you. Instead farm up and try to kill him with serrated + 2 long.

Sylas

Champion

Trade with him until he hits level 5, since then his w will pretty much outheal your trades, after level 7 and an item he kills you for free until mid/late game.

Talon

Champion

Outrades and outroams you. Dodge his second w or wait for him to use it on the wave before trading. You can try to kill him before level 6.

Vex

Champion

Avoid fighting her, always have your grass q to poke her from range, take ice if your jungler is coming to gank.

Vladimir

Champion

You can realistically only kill him at level 3-6, after one trade he is ~50% hp, after he uses w, use that window to all in and kill him. After level 7 just roam, cause most likely you wont be able to kill him.

Combo's

Qiyana, imo, is a champion that has framework comboes which can be improvised and built upon, I will name the basic building combo's which can be added upon based on your playstyle. The most important thing to remember and realise is that in all combo's you have to change the elemental infusion. Ice -> Rock. Grass -> Rock. Rock -> Rock could also work only if after the first rock q the opponent is below 50% hp.

Trading combo's:

1. E + Q + W + Q - this is a combo, which should kill most squishies if you are ahead/have Prowler's.
2. Q + W + Q - you can use this combo to poke for a distance or after using your e through a minion to close the distance between the enemy.
3. Q + W + E + Q - is a very niche combo you can use when you are assassinating someone from an unwarded bush, since this combo gives the enemy less time to react + if you are using bush q they wont see you and can't do any point and click cc things, and if they try to run away your e lets you catch up to them and auto aim.

All - In combo's:

1. E + R + Q + W + Q - use your r while you are dashing to target, since this gives less time to react and then while the target is stunned you quickly cycle Q + W + Q.
2. R + Prowler's + Q + E + Q - this combo is very good if you have prowler's, since you can activate it while you r, this also makes the remaining entirety of your combo do 15% more damage.



Credits:

Thanks for taking the time to read my Qiyana mid guide! I would like to give credit to the Qiyana Mains discord, for providing me more information regarding matchups. Good luck and maybe this will inspire you to become the next Beifeng.