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So uh...How do you play against Xayah?

Elohaven··5 votes·9,050 views

Note: As per usual, I have to make a clarity note for people who can't figure out the point of this thread. This isn't satire. I genuinely can't play against Xayah. Where am I saying she's absolutely broken tier? Stop assuming and read texts please rather than antagonizing others.

I have never been able to formulate how to beat her as Vayne or Twitch. Don't say counterpick against Xayah. League should never be about just counterpicking.

Dodge the feathers? Nice concept if it weren't for the fact she can spray and pray. By the way, her attack speed is so high that she can literally just place over 10 of those things in a little less than five seconds then burst everyone in a team. Endless, torturous CC for the frontline too.

How about beating her in the laning phase? She zones you out with feathers and outranges a lot of ADCs with her abilities. Plus, Rakan is quite strong with her. Especially with the common Rakan + Flash + Ignite combo.

How about CC'ing her? Her ult disengages. Her range keeps her relatively safe. And her ultimate instantly allows for instant burst. You forget Xayah has a team. And let's not forget QSS?

Build lifesteal and 1v1 her? Lifesteal doesn't stop burst. It stops sustained auto-attack damage. Sadly, Xayah autos and bursts with her skills for no apparent reason.

So how do you stop her? I really don't know.

23 Comments

NinjaGuy698 votes

League should never be about counterpicking.

I stopped reading there. Regardless of whether you like it or not, a considerable part of League is about picks and counterpicks. The two ways to beat any player are:

  1. Have better mechanics (i.e. dodging skill shots, landing your skillshots) and game knowledge (i.e. knowledge of cooldown timers and keeping track of used summoner spells) than the opponent.
  2. Have comparable mechanics and game knowledge to your opponent, but gain an advantage by counterpicking their champion.

In my personal opinion though, Xayah is a bit too strong at the moment and her E needs a slight nerf. Other than that, just learn to play against the champion through more practice.

Elohaven3 votes

A considerable amount of League is not about picks and counterpicks though? We have mechanics and game knowledge.

Just because I counterpicked you doesn't mean you're going to win. It's simply an advantage. League never was about just counterpicks so my point still stands.

Avienal3 votes

{quoted}

A considerable amount of League is not about picks and counterpicks though? We have mechanics and game knowledge.

Just because I counterpicked you doesn't mean you're going to win. It's simply an advantage. League never was about just counterpicks so my point still stands.

Sadly not every match up is very fair because of a meta pick being way too strong or even particular 'old meta' champions still being way too strong (Draven this EZ dmg arsehole already and throw in some counterplay to his EZ WEQAutoAutoAuto spam combo), another good reason for Riot to get to work on the Runes and Masteries they were talking about on 'redesigning them' to have flexible choices and not let them just EZ default to one build for maximum damage. If the masteries aren't balanced out properly, most people default to damage bonus based ones for any mid/jungler/top/ADC and tankie/healer ones for support with some harass level junglers/tops 'MIGHT' grab CC based keystone masteries instead if they can abuse it.

Mechanics and game knowledge, only goes so far especially when a good deal of 'strong' champions don't really have measures to properly counter besides let them easily get away with full control of the lane and get fed on CS, but then just results in them damage harassing you till their jungler or support decides to take the turret shots and then he kills you before the turret directs towards him, the ADC. If a champion actually had a clear weakness that could be taken advantage of and the player of that champion actually pays attention to it to avoid letting it being take advantage of by playing 'passively', then it keeps them better in check less they want to get massacred without a proper plan.

Of course once again, since Riot transitioned pre-15 minute games to have EZ 'methods' to get kills, rip apart towers and just snowball, then allow people to play the passive game, it once again does not work out, because it only takes one time to be 'forced' to recall back to base to let the enemies rip apart the turret then they could back and let the wave force you to push it back up and then they are already back to repeat the process with likely a bunch of more items then you thanks to snowballing and 'EZ CS' and then they might as well be able to one shot you at that point in a sense or get you mostly dead in 2 seconds of a trade.

[slayer-jinx-unamused]

No matter how many times Riot 'balances' 3 champions, usually 6 more end up showing up, especially 'new ones' they release that just become living cancer level pub stompers (Ekko Yorick), whether thru a reworked kit or just having a kit that let them get away several times with ridiculously stronger off-meta builds then what they are suppose to be using and then Riot it a bit slow on patching the overpowered ness on that end.

Psyrix4 votes

Pay attention to where her feathers are positioned as well as how many feathers she has available. Do not stay in one spot for an extended period of time, try to be moving and keeping the feathers either clustered in an area away from you, or spread out so that she cant root you. Do not engage her when she has a ton of feathers out, wait until she uses her e to pull them back in. Additionally if you have to fight within her feathers try to stay as far away from her so that the feathers are not able to condense and root you. When dueling her try to keep her on the side, strafe and be sure to move with her then she wont be able to effectively root you, if you are good enough she wont even be able to hit you with her e. Mid to late game keep those tips in mind and treat her like any other adc. When she ults move around the inner circumference of the feathers (diagonally) so that there's less chance of her drawing them back and 3+ hitting you, effectively rooting u lol. The main idea is to be constantly moving away from feathers, thats really her only damage threat that separates her from other adc's. When people say dodge the feathers they meainly mean the ones that are already on the ground, start moving left/right the moment she q's, U may still get hit, but there's a less likely chance of all three feathers being able to be pulled back on u.

Elohaven1 votes

Thanks!

Miraweave4 votes

Don't stop moving. I keep seeing people try to fight a Xayah by standing in place and autoattacking and then being surprised when her E does a ton of damage to them.

warpenguin5554 votes

Probably your choice of champion is the problem. IDK though I don't play marksmen

Elohaven1 votes

Yeah, Vayne and Twitch aren't the greatest matchups against Xayah.

Asayake 5150glow3 votes

Her E does a bit too much damage IMO, it already snares you which fucks over a lot of bruisers and lets her get free autos, I mean in comparison look at Varus R, more reliable single target, less reliable for multiple, so that balances out... but Varus R hurts a lot less as well.

DarkRitual3 votes

You don't need to dodge the feathers all the time. You just need to try not to let three of them be behind you for the root. Positioning positioning positioning.

Xayah also has pretty destinct ability sounds. Learn them and react to them.

Ben Sharpio2 votes

yeah shes just such a fucked up champion tbh. I legitimately don't know how to deal with a competent xayah as of right now. i've done the whole camp her early game thing, but come mid game she denies any followup to engaging on her.

Avienal5 votes

[{quoted}](name=Corsair Sion,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=rTfmfQcG,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2017-05-26T22:24:35.060+0000)

yeah shes just such a fucked up champion tbh. I legitimately don't know how to deal with a competent xayah as of right now. i've done the whole camp her early game thing, but come mid game she denies any followup to engaging on her.

Xayah is literally the most balanced on release date' kind of champion i've ran into, i'd say based on my experiences, one of the things that do let her thrive is not only does she have no scaling mana costs they aren't super costly and are not overloaded with 'too many things' to make them high cost to screw her over with rush X ability strategies that some champions unexpectedly get screwed over using and then just op for a item 3086 so they don't have the damage to back the damage payout they SHOULD be pulling out against other champions who just go freakin crazy with it. But again she is literally a pure straight up marksman that does not rely on op gimmicks(Before you say her passive and E, those require proper setups[Like actually 'aiming' where the passive 'feather cleave shot will hit and landing it in good spots for her E to actually work] where unlike 'other' particular champions can snap shot them instantly whenever they want) like how Jhin could hyper poke you from long distances, MissFortune could Q bounce harass you or use W to EZ run and E slow fields to just middle finger you over and over not to mention Draven is just a glorified auto nuker who can repeatedly do it with no cost long as he catches his axes and since he can 'control' where they 'will' land, this lets him get EZ dmg with no real downsides.

She has a very 'flow-some kit' she does not have any super cheesie ways to 'escape' punishments and go hard on damage(She can poke but a smart enemy laner will keep moving to not let her E ya, she fits more of a counter step marksman after an opponent plays their own card to all in you), As a ADC i feel like she punishes aggressive ADCs thanks to her Q and E combos and then follow into her W to rush them down while they run away, instead of a EZ long range R snipe that many of the COMMON ADC PICKS currently have, her R is defensive instead off offensive even if she throws a spray of 'feathers' out, so against champions who are about that opening burst combo and then slows it down in pace after, Xayah can deny the damage with a timed R, root them and then punish them for being cocky.

The proper way to really handle Xayah is not to think about counter picking her but instead to out play her by either using passive measures(Aka FOCUS on CS then trying to KILL her) to force her to waste her own abilities and then punish 'her' instead of her punishing you. If she wastes her E and her R to try and dunk you then she loses alot of her damage spike and then she is forced to W rush you with damage which can also be easily force her to waste it with CC measures or staying out of her range soon as she uses it.

I've enjoyed playing as her enough and melted Xayah's plenty of times in bronze'land to know the strategy works, its just usually the support getting a EZ time with CC or 'hooking' measures that tend to let like any other ADC, Xayah to get fed and damage burst you without even needing to use E.

AmazoX2 votes

{quoted}

Xayah is literally the most balanced on release date' kind of champion i've ran into.

Kled was also perfectly balanced on release.

Laxfan522 votes

You cant lose to xayah if you ban her

AmazoX2 votes

You can't lose to any character if you ban them but you still can't get out of bronze. Kappa.

Shirvallah2 votes

Try Sivir. Her spellshield helps. Additionally, ask your support to pick someone more forgiving like Lulu or Janna (but Lulu especially — polymorph saves lives).

OtterlyLost2 votes

Literally just kite backwards. Use your attack moving as you should be and kite back when she or her support are trying to engage. She works in the opposite way to vayne, tbh. She wants you to chase her so she can stack up feathers behind you and burst you. Vayne wants you to run so she can chase you down with her passive MS. I'm not surprised you have problems as vayne against her as shes specifically designed to kite backwards away from vayne and likes people chasing her. She is, no matter whether you like it or not, a counter pick.

AmazoX2 votes

Really tired with the ''Uh..how do you play against X champion..'' threads, It's like these people won't even know how to play against Garen.

Elohaven1 votes

I'm tired of "really tired" comments like yours too. It's like these people can't even read.

I'm not antagonizing Riot or players or a champion. I genuinely don't know how to play against Xayah and seeked advice. In addition, those threads you talk about hardly exist in the context you speak of.

Please post a repeated pattern of "Uh..how do you play against X champion" rather than just posting false statistics to seem cool.

AmazoX1 votes

{quoted}

I'm not antagonizing Riot or players or a champion. I genuinely don't know how to play against Xayah and seeked advice. In addition, those threads you talk about hardly exist in the context you speak of.

Every week you'll see one of these threads pop where a certain person talks about X champion and makes it sound like there is no counter-play while acting as if they need ''advice'' although you genuinely seem to seek advice, And besides, The only way you would be tired of comments like mine is if there were threads like these in the first place, So yes, Threads like these pop up from time to time.

Elohaven1 votes

Yeah, I know. But the fact you took the exact title of my post to comment is what annoys me the most.

AmazoX1 votes

<3

Aljonau1 votes

The basics work on Xayah and while she obviously is in a strong spot, after all tank meta is where she shines there are still ways to make her cry.

Do you remember the old triangle of Poke/burst/sustain? It works against Xayah quite nicely. Xayah is bascally a burst champ, so poke would be her counter. Avoid getting in range and poke her down.

In lane it means Cait/Karma for example. Push them waves to her turret then poke as she farms.

As a team you can then build a poke comp with high early pressure around that botlane with Jayce toplane, Xerath midlane and Lee or Nidalee in the jungle. Lee as the more utility-focused jungler or nidalee as an additional source of poke.

Just as an example. Nobody will ever get in range for her feathers. Obviously the current meta does not favor poke comps but it would be an option to counter Xayah.

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