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How to play Qiyana, League of Legends’ newest champion
League of Legends’ patch 9.13 is here, bringing with it a brand new assassin champion: Qiyana, the Empress of Elements. Here’s how to play her.
Qiyana, the Empress of Elements brings together a powerful mixture of raw and unadulterated damage, with invisibility, slows and stuns. League of Legends’ newest champion packs a punch, offering a unique perspective to the Rift thanks to her Elemental powers.
Despite the endless hours of queue time, we jumped onto the PBE to try Qiyana out for size ahead of her full launch. We’ll run through her abilities, her playstyle, her build and her ideal rune page.
Qiyana’s abilities
Passive: Royal Privilege
On-target cooldown: 25 seconds
Qiyana’s next basic attack or damaging ability deals 15 - 83 (based on level) (+55 percent bonus Attack Damage) (+30 percent Attack Power) bonus physical damage. The effect cannot be used on the same target more than once until reset. Royal Privilege’s cooldown on all target’s resets when gathering or changing an Element.
Q: Edge of Ixtal
Target range: 650
Cost: 35 mana
Cooldown: 7 seconds
Active - Edge of Ixtal: Qiyana slashes forward, dealing physical damage, reducing to 75 percent damage against subsequent units.
When gathering an Element, Edge of Ixtal is upgraded to Elemental Wrath and its cooldown is reset.
Active - Elemental Wrath: Qiyana consumes her current Element and throws her blade out, detonating in a line upon collision with an enemy, or when reaching maximum range. It deals the same damage to all units hit and applies a bonus effect based on the Element consumed.
River: Roots a target and slows them by 20 percent for one second.
Wall: Enemies below 50 percent health take 60 percent bonus damage.
Brush: The blade creates a grass trail behind Quiyana for 3.5 seconds, granting invisibility and 20 percent bonus movement speed until she attacks or exits.
W: Terrashape
Cost: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 mana
Cooldown: 7 seconds
Passive: While holding an Element, Qiyana gains 20 percent bonus attack speed. Her basic attacks and abilities deal bonus magic damage and she gains bonus move speed out of combat while moving through her current Element.
Active: Qiyana dashes towards a targeted location and consumes an Element of the Wall, River or Brush.
E: Audacity
Target range: 650
Cost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 /60 mana
Cooldown: 12 / 11 /10 / 9 / 8 seconds
Active: Qiyana dashes towards a target unit, dealing physical damage.
Casting Edge of Ixtal during Audacity will automatically aim at the selected target.
R: Supreme Display of Talent
Target range: 650
Cost: 100 mana
Cooldown: 100 seconds
Active: Qiyana sends a windblast in a target’s direction that knocks back enemies. The windblast stops upon hitting a Wall.
The windblast then creates a shockwave across any River or Brush it passes through, including the borders of any terrain it reaches, dealing physical damage and stunning enemies for 0.5 - 1 (based on proximity) seconds.
How to play her
Qiyana is a boss
© Riot Games
1 - 18 (Skill Priority)
Qiyana is an assassin champion, but not in the traditional sense. She’s dynamic in her choice of items, allowing her to soak up damage in a bruiser build, or to take more of a DPS route. Unlike Zed or Leblanc, she has the ability to team fight effectively, rather than relying purely on pick potential. She can dish out considerable burst damage and can most certainly assassinate a vulnerable target, however, she has a good amount of sustain and will perform well in a skirmish. She’s similar to Irelia in a sense, but her kit is a completely different story.
The laning phase
She’s a squishy champion unless you make use of bruiser items, and she’s fairly susceptible to ganks. If you overextend in the laning phase, your enemy jungler will most likely take advantage of you. The same goes for your lane match-up. You have quite a small range, so, if you’re facing someone like Jayce, or Neeko, you’ll have trouble trading. You do have outplay potential, though, and you shouldn’t be afraid to duel. Although, you may have to get up close and personal. The safest path to the mid-game is farming passively and freezing the lane, but the more experienced player will be aggressive, and actively look for the kill. You might have to wait for a well-timed gank, but there’s nothing wrong with taking the initiative, as long as it's calculated.
What makes Qiyana special is her Elements. They allow her to be a flexible carry and chop and change her playstyle to each and every situation. She’s essentially a modern-day Udyr. Elements are fairly self-explanatory. In the case of the laning phase, you’ll mostly be making use of the Wall and the Brush Element. You should use the Wall Element once you chunk down your target. It’s primarily a finisher and it shouldn’t be your priority if your enemy is healthy. The Brush Element, on the other hand, is a good engage and escape tool. Use it to surprise your enemy, catch them out of position, or simply flee from an impending gank.
The mid game
You should also be looking to roam when you have the opportunity. It’s important to make use of your River Element and to take advantage of your 1v1 capabilities. If you can catch out a target in the river, either by yourself or with the aid of your jungler, you should easily be able to shut them down. The River is the perfect place for Qiyana. In a skirmish or an extended fight, each of your Elements will come into play.
When you’re toe to toe with an enemy, you should make sure to use a mixture of the two Elements. Catch them out with the Brush Element, or your River Element, whittle them down with your Edge of Ixtal (Q), auto attack, Audacity (E) combo, switch to the Wall Element and finish them off. If you’re level six or above, Supreme Display of Talent (R) will come into play. It’s very situational, but if you position correctly, then it can be extremely deadly.
The late game
Once you have a few items under your belt you should be an exceptionally strong carry. It’s up to you which build you take, however, a smart player will adapt to the game in hand. If you’re up against a team of squishy targets, or a particularly powerful mid laner or ADC, then an assassin-oriented build would make sense. If you’re facing a tanky team, then a bruiser build may be more effective.
When the game has progressed you could be doing any number of things. You’re a good split pusher that’s difficult to answer, so pushing a lane and causing a distraction is ideal. If you have teleport, you can always get back in the action when necessary. You're strong in a 1v1 situation and if the enemy mid or top laner tries to answer you, you’ll be fit to take them on. If you’re not split pushing and you want to team fight, then try and play around the Baron or the Dragon. You can assassinate targets if they’re out of position, but you shouldn’t force it. It’s more intelligent to play around the objective and allow your Elements to carry you. It should be extremely difficult for any enemy team to secure the Baron if you’re fed.
You can easily deter them with your ultimate and swing a fight. It has insane damage and can completely turn the tides of the game into your favour. Either way, you should be proactive. You’re not always going to be able to fight around an objective, but at least one or two of your Elements will be relevant. Don’t neglect them. They’re an integral part of your kit and they’re there to be used.
What items should I build?
It’s early days and Qiyana’s ideal build is up for debate. As far as we’re aware, a more bruiser build will be your best bet, but it’s entirely up to you.
Items like Duskblade of Draktharr, Youmuu’s Ghostblade and Black Cleaver will be ideal for your core assassin build. They’re each AD damage oriented and will help tear through your opponents.
An item like Ravenous Hydra is situational, but it can help you farm up, and it can easily be added to your combo. It shouldn’t be your item, however. Mortal Reminder is another situational item. It’s effective against a tank focused and should be prioritised in a late-game scenario.
If you want to play safer, though Sterak’s Cage is extremely effective. It plays into your bruiser build and synergises nicely with your kit. If you’re facing a magic damage heavy team, then Maw of Malmortius would also be great.
As for boots, it entirely depends on the game in hand. Normally, you’ll be building into Ninja Tabi, but Mercury's Treads will be strong versus mages and strong crowd control champions.
What runes should I use?
This rune page is a viable option for Qiyana
© Riot Games
Your rune page is fairly flexible at this early stage of release. You should be focusing on damage, so the Domination tree will be a strong starting point.
Electrocute synergizes with your kit. It’s extremely easy for Qiyana to dish out quick attacks and abilities, allowing you to activate the proc.
Next, you’ll be using your dash fairly often, and leaving stealth, with the use of your Brush Element, so naturally, Sudden Impact will be an effective rune. It gives you a nice boost of Lethality and Magic Penetration.
It’s up to what you choose here. You can opt for either Zombie Ward, Ghost Poro or Eyeball Collection. The latter is the most reliable, though. It’s basically free AD, helping you thrive in the late game.
You’ll be dueling fairly often, and ideally assassinating squishy targets. Ultimate Hunter works well here. Your ultimate will get a nice reduction, allowing for even more carry potential.
There’s a couple of possibilities for your secondary tree, however, Sorcery is a wise option.
You could pick Nimbus Cloak to further bolster your dueling. And finally Celerity. It gives you even more movement speed, helping you split push and dance around a team fight.
In conclusion, Qiyana adds an interesting element to the Rift and if you can master her, you'll be way ahead of the competition in no time at all. See you out there!
