Guide Details x About Me x Common Questions x Final Notes x Changelog Champion x Pros / Cons x Abilities x Runes x Combos

In-Game x Items x Match Ups x Strategy

Hello dear reader, I'm the one and only, BennyTheMemer. I am proudly better than 92% of league of legends players base, also known as an hard stuck platinum player that peaked platinum I this season. I've been playing league since season 2 and I'm very bad at the mechanical aspects of league of legends. I do, however, have a lot of game and champion knowledge and that's what I'll give my best at sharing with you. I'll try to make this guide as understandable to newbies as possible. This guide is co-written with fairy girl, a grandmasters mid laner with a whole lot of experience on Qiyana, make sure you check out her stream and give her some love. Any doubt you might have you can ask me in the comment section or PM me, either here or in-game (EUW server) If this guide helps you I would kindly request that you consider supporting me by liking the guide and donating via paypal some Zombie Wards (they give 1G) or less! Any support is greatly appreaciated. All the money will be used to cover university expenses in a few months, thanks a lot!

PROS + High damage potential + High mobility + Has CC + Game changer ultimate + Low cooldowns and mana costs + Excelent at skirmishing + Hella Thiiiic Qiyana is a mid laner AD assassin with high damage potential, when it comes to damage she is comparable with Akali, high burst damage while also being capable of going for more extended trades given her consistent damage output. The fact that she has mobility, a lot of damage and CC makes her perfect to roam and make sure her side lanes get healthy. Also, given the utility she has on her Supreme Display of Talent, she is more relevant late game than most assassins.

CONS - Terrashape is not reliable - No sustain - No waveclear - Audacity is dodgeable - No good escape mechanism On the other hand Qiyana doesn't have any sustain and her wave clear is not the best. This means she is a weak pick against poke champions and a weak champion when it comes to wave management, you might have to consider building Tiamat in some match ups, which is a sub optimal item on her.

As I write this guide -PATCH 10.10- , Qiyana's win rate is below 50%, standing at ~48%, making her one of the worse mid laners to play with, statistically speaking.

Does this mean she is a bad pick? Well, it kinda does. However, I don't believe she is intrinsically bad, there are players that are still pulling 60+ win rate on her which comes to show that you only need to practice her enough. Comparing Qiyana to her nemesis, Talon, the truth is that Qiyana is just way harder to play and this leads to a lot of players picking Qiyana in ranked and failing while the same might not occur when picking Talon.

If you like Qiyana's roaming, squishy murderer playstyle but don't really have the patience to master this hottie consider picking Talon, he's also a roamer, he has roaming angles that avoid common warding places, allowing you to ignore Umbral Glaive's utility and Zombie Ward, he is more forgiving since he can easily escape after going in, there aren't any combos to learn, etc.

INNATE: Qiyana's basic attacks and damaging abilities deal 15 − 83 (based on level) (+ 55% bonus AD) (+ 30% AP) Attack damage bonus physical damage to all enemies hit. This effect cannot occur on the same target more than once every few seconds. Royal Privilege's cooldown resets on all targets upon gathering or changing an Terrashape Element.

A very relevant detail when it comes to Qiyana's passive is the simple fact that the empowered auto cooldown on target will reset everytime you change the element you pick with Terrashape.

ACTIVE: Qiyana consumes her current Element and Projectile hurls her blade, detonating in a line upon colliding with an enemy or reaching maximum range, and applying a bonus effect based on the consumed Element. Enemies are dealt physical damage, reduced to 75% damage against subsequent units beyond the closest.

BRUSH: The blade raises a grass trail behind for 3.5 seconds, granting Qiyana invisibility and 20% bonus movement speed until she attacks or exits.

RIVER: Roots for 0.5 seconds, then slows by 20% for 1 second.

TERRAIN: Enemies below 50% of maximum health are dealt bonus damage.

This is the skill you have to master, you have to know on top of your head what element you need in every situation, match up and how easily can you get it, remember, RIVER and GRASS aren't properly everywhere like TERRAIN is.

PASSIVE: While holding an Element, Qiyana gains bonus attack speed, 25 bonus range, her basic attacks and basic abilities deal bonus magic damage, and she gains out-of-combat bonus movement speed while moving near the Element currently being held. ACTIVE: Qiyana Dash dashes towards a target location, gathering an Element of the nearest Terrashape Brush BRUSH, Terrashape River RIVER or Terrashape Rock TERRAIN she targeted. A target Element is required to cast this ability.

Terrashape is the responsible for making Qiyana such a good roamer, it allows you to jump over walls and gain movement speed on the river if you're holding RIVER element. Try to have an element ready all the time

ACTIVE: Qiyana Dash dashes a fixed distance towards the target unit, dealing physical damage. Casting Edge of Ixtal Edge of Ixtal during Audacity will aim at the dash target.

This is your in and out tool, you can either engage using Audacity or go out after going all in. You can cast Edge of Ixtal during Audacity.

ACTIVE: Qiyana sends a windblast in the target direction that Airborne icon knocks back enemies. The windblast stops upon hitting terrain. The windblast then creates an erupting shockwave across any RIVER or BRUSH it passes through, as well as around the borders of terrain it reaches, dealing physical damage, with the percentage damage capped against monsters and stunning enemies for 1 − 0.5 (based on proximity) seconds.

This big boy is insanely good. It does a lot of damage while having CC attached and is AOE. It also does a little bit of damage based on maximum health, which makes you relevant against tanks and bruisers. However, not everything is a bed of roses, while Supreme Display of Talent is insanely good in the jungle and river, it is really bad in team's bases.

DOMINATION

When it comes to your primary tree, as Qiyana you are looking for something that increases your natural ability to burst down quishy enemy champions. When looking for burst Domination is the option that comes immediatley to our mind and it's good that it does, in fact this tree is designed to do so and it's keystones make sure you will. Between these 4 keystones Electrocute is the way to go.

Taste of Blood is ok if you're looking for extra sustain during laning phase. Between Cheap Shot and Sudden Impact you want to take Sudden Impact, they will do roughly the same damage but Sudden Impact is just easier to proc.

If you are planning to roam and building Umbral Glaive you should definitly pick Zombie Ward. Otherwise Eyeball Collection is what you are looking for

Ingenious Hunter is not a choice. Between Relentless Hunter and Ravenous Hunter, both have a place in Qiyana's playstyle. Usually you'll go for Relentless Hunter but Ravenous Hunter might be a choice in harder lanes.

This two go very well together and meet a very good requirement: they allow you to be constantly trading and fighting. This is the best secondary tree since it is the safer one, it gives you the sustain you need in harder match ups, while also allowing you go play very agressively on easier ones.

This is another secondary tree that I would consider and would take if I'm against an easy match up. Coup de Grace pairs really well with TERRAIN element and Triumph gives you the juicy hp after a takedown we all love and crave after a tight duel. You can also pick Legend: Tenacity instead of Triumph if they have a lot of cc.


I never feel like using these and I don't see anyone picking them either. However, Bone Plating is excellent against melee champions that try to burst you down, if you all in with Bone Plating off cooldown you will definitly win the trade. It is pretty bad against ranged champions because they can easily proc it before going in.

I don't think there's such thing as "I'll explain Qiyana's combos" when there is an incredibly well produced video on the subject by Fluegerl.

Disclaimer: You might need to slow down the video, the guy is just too clean.


However, there are some combos in the video that I will highlight, they are greatly based on the fact that Terrashape actually resets Edge of Ixtal which means that the majority of Qiyana's combos are based on Edge of Ixtal > Terrashape > Edge of Ixtal sequencing.

> > >

An easy combo to pull of when you're close range and just enough to proc Electrocute. You are supposed to use Terrashape as a gap closer.

> >

Simple way to proc Electrocute and utilize Royal Privilege cooldown reset. This combo itself doesn't come very often but you can incorporate it in another combos. It is on the slow side of comboing but it's a nice way to maximize your damage and make sure you take all the juice from your kit.

> > >

This is pretty much your all in combo pre 6 and works if you are really close to your opponent, just add Audacity before if you're looking to engage from a distance or after if you're looking to leave after dealing some damage.


> > >

In this combo you are meant to use Terrashape as a tool to reduce the distance between you and the enemy. You will deal less damage since you'll only landing one Edge of Ixtal, however it will be very useful against ranged champions and will still proc Electrocute.


> > > > > >

This is one way to all in, it's the one that will deal the most damage since you're auto attacking twice and I consider the easiest one to land, this is pretty much the first combo + Supreme Display of Talent and an auto at the beggining

TIAMAT

Not optimal, isn't an item that you crave for and it's upgrades aren't great either. However, it will help you shove lanes which might come in handy in certain scenarios.

BLACK CLEAVER

It's an ok consideration if they have a few tanks that are being problematic, also a nice consideration if you're ahead: It's an expensive item when compared to lethality options and when you're ahead you'll probably have no trouble killing squishies anyway, betting on %armor shred is wise in that case

TRINITY FORCE

Way too expensive, you need early game impact and Trinity Force' spike comes way too late. Adding to that, Qiyana base ad isn't great which makes Trinity Force even worse. Every stat if offers is ok at best, not worth considering.

STERAK'S GAGE

There's a bruiser-like build for Qiyana where Sterak's Gage is, like in every other bruiser, a core item. However, when it comes to lethality Qiyana Sterak's Gage goes by as an overpriced defensive item. Do not recommend building it

DEATH'S DANCE

Not excelent but you can build it after your lethality option to become a little tankier, it gives armor and magic resist while turning damage you take into bleeding. As Qiyana you don't really have the sustain, apart from Death's Dance itself, to get all the value from the bleeding passive. Consider building it if they have a bursty champion focusing you. Gets better if you have an healer or Taste of Blood + Ravenous Hunter

SPIRIT VISAGE

Good option if you go Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter and you need extra tankiness against magic damage. Pretty bad otherwise.

RANDUIN'S OMEN

If you need armor I recommend you to build Guardian Angel, however, if you don't mind giving up on some ad to get extra tanky or if they have some crit based champion like Yasuo or Tryndamere then Randuin's Omen might be a solid choice for you.

GUARDIAN ANGEL

Very solid item, it's stats are on the weak side, that's true, but it's an balanced item, both offensive and defensive with a passive that allows you to dive into the back line, die and have your team join you a few seconds later. The ability to revive is very good since you don't really have an way to escape once you dive in too deep.

MAW OF MALMORTIUS

Solid option if you are being bursted to death by a magic damage based champion. To get a better graps on Maw of Malmortius check my "sterak's gage vs maw" section.

ADAPTIVE HELM

This is a MUST if your problem is some sort of ability, magic damage based, spammer like Ryze or Cassiopeia. It is also great against poison in general, like Singed and Teemo.

MERCURIAL SCIMITAR

If you're feeling locked down by a specific CC like Malzahar's ultimate, Nether Grasp, mordekaiser's Realm of Death and such go for Mercurial Scimitar, as an assassin you'll die if you get locked down.

DUSKBLADE OF DRAKTHARR

One of Qiyana's core items, the one that will provide the most damage.

UMBRAL GLAIVE

One of Qiyana's core items, one of the cheapest and more gold efficient lethality items that will help you a lot with roaming. Great sinergy with Zombie Ward

EDGE OF NIGHT

Solid option if they have cc ability that might get you out of the fight as soon as it lands, while also giving you lethality and hp.

YOUMUU'S GHOSTBLADE

Gives a bunch of lethality and a lot of mobility. I love to pair it with Umbral Glaive when I feel like my roams are working very nicely.

ahri This match up is all about dodging Charm, if you bait it or dodge it you win the duel. However she can still run away with her ult. Later in the game Ahri will be an headache, if she lands her Charm you are dead. Consider bulding Mercury's Treads and taking Cleanse. If you take Cleanse there's no need to consider Mercury's Treads unless the enemy team is heavy on CC.

akali Avoid getting hit by her passive's empowered auto attack, run away as soon as she uses her shroud and try to have river element online when she hits level 6 in order to avoid getting bursted. Buy Hexdrinker if you find it hard to trade with her.

anivia Really easy match up: She doesn't have any kill pressure while you have a ton and she can't follow your roams.

annie Both of you aim to do the same thing: burst each other down. Before level 6 she can't really accomplish such task and that's where you should get ahead. Also, she can't really follow your roams. After level 6 play carefully since she can OS, don't try to go in if her stun is ready or with 3-2 stacks. If you are having an hard time you can buy Hexdrinker, it is a free ticket to win the lane.

aurelion sol This match up is even to easy. You can easily kill him but his roams are actually better than yours. He shoves way better than you do and that allows him to have more opportunities to roam. Build Tiamat, you really need it otherwise he'll shove you all laning phase and roam freely.

azir Azir is very weak early game but has a lot of range with his soliders and you might have a hard time getting close to him. Abuse his cooldown mainly if he uses Conquering Sands. After 6 you can't realistically kill him, not only can he play at a distance, his ultimate Emperor's Divide will make sure you don't get to him. Buy Tiamat and roam.

cassiopeia Nobody enjoys playing against cassiopeia, one bad all in and she will chase you from one turret to another and kill you while scailing like a boss. You really need to be focused when playing against her, sidesteping her Q is almost a must and it has barely any cooldown. Also, Miasma will ground you so you won't be able to use Terrashape or Audacity. She doesn't have any escape, ask for ganks. Imo, ban worthy. She isn't the hardest laner to play against as Qiyana but she's just too good at all stages of the game. Focus on roaming, if you are having trouble outshoving her buy a Tiamat but you shouldn't need to do so.

Diana Diana doesn't have as much burst as you have so you should look for short trades. However, she has a shield that will screw up most of your trades. She also can just go after you thanks to her Lunar Rush when you try to go out. Abuse her Crescent Strike cooldown, she'll often use it to farm minions or to try to go on you, dodge it and show her who's boss. She doesn't have any escape, ask for ganks. She outshoves you and Tiamat doesn't really make any difference, she also roams pretty well. Imo, ban worthy.

ekko His laning phase is not the best, it should be fairly easy to bully him. Be careful with ganks since he can set up really sneaky stuns with his Parallel Convergence

Fizz You have fairly even trades pre 6 but he has the upper hand, Playful / Trickster is too strong of a tool vs all in champions like qyiana. Poke him lvl 1 and lvl 2, you are way strong than him at those levels. If he used Playful / Trickster make sure you abuse it's cooldown. After 6 he can all in you and kill without any problem whenever he feels like it. Try to roam and build Hexdrinker. Imo, ban worthy.

galio I just can't win against this guy when playing Qiyana, she's tanky, he has a ton of CC and Aftershock denies a lot of damage when you try to go all in. Roaming isn't really an option, he has a fairly good wave clear and he can follow your roams by pressing a button. I barely see any galio players, otherwise it should be ban worthy.

Heimerdinger One of the most boring champions to play against. He'll bully you out of lane and usually ganking isn't really an option. You won't have many chances to roam, at all, but make sure you do whenever you have the chance. Just like galio, I barely see any heimer players, otherwise he would be ban worthy.

kassadin This guy is known to be very weak against ad assassins. He is very squeashy and his passive is 100% useless against you and so is part of his Q. His wave clear is also pretty weak early on and so you should have no trouble at all with roaming. Obviously, he outscales you. Bully him hard while you can and make sure you make your lead turn the game into a 4v5, otherwise you'll lose late game.

Katarina As a Katarina players myself, this match up is pretty easy to Qiyana, you outdamage her hard, you can easily dodge her passive, you can root her delaying her combo, you just beat her really hard on a 1v1. However, she has a better wave clear, her roams (mainly on bot) are more powerful thanks to her resets and AOE, and she is better than you later in the game.

Kayle Insanely easy. She's quishy, she doesn't have wave clear, she can't roam, she doesn't have kill pressure early on, she is not even that good late game given on how bad she is early and mid game. Just make sure you don't waste your full rotation while she is immune to damage.

LeBlanc Even to hard match up. Both of you have a lot of damage and are trying to burst each other down. She's is ranged and can go in and out very easily. Her chain and jump have a fairly long cooldown, abuse it. Her wave clear isn't the best, buy Tiamat and look for roams. Hexdrinker is also a very good option.

Lissandra If she goes Aftershock this match up is terrible. If she tries something fancy like Arcane Comet it should be way easier. Overall a pretty boring lane, it's not like she has a lot of kill pressure but so don't you. She can set up quite good ganks and has a really good wave clear. Buy Tiamat and roam.

Lux You can easily dodge her abilities and then trade. If she takes ignite she should be very easy to kill. If she takes barrier be careful to not get baited. Try to go for quick trades and leave so she doesn't get value from her W's shield.

Malzahar He can shove you easily but you can also shove him easily. He'll often use his E + W to shove, those have consistent damage output over time but they don't really have the burst needed to instantly shove. This means he'll shove if you let him AA the wave freely t okeep his E bouncing or if you don't kill his voidlings. Otherwise you can shove him once you have Tiamat He can't follow your roams. Consider buying Quicksilver Sash or you will be useless late game once he presses ulti on you.

Neeko Ranged, she has a fairly good range on her skills and a root. She can just press W to run away once you try to engage her and her ulti completely denies your burst while dealing a ton of damage. She can't really follow your roams but she will shove easily. But Mercury's Treads and abuse her cooldowns.

Sylas I just can't win against this champion. Seriously, he'll press W and that's it. Winning against him is 100% possible but he's just so much easier to play, it's not even worth the effort. Ask your jungler for ganks since he doesn't have any real escape. He has a really good wave clear and Tiamat doesn't really help. Buy Mercury's Treads and Hexdrinker.

Talon Very even. You lose level 1 and 2 but you win as soon as you have your 3 skills. Make sure you dodge his blades when they are coming back to him, is fairly easy to do so. He's a better roamer and wins all ins after 6. Buy tiamat and mobis to make sure you can follow his roams.

Twisted Fate Squishy and low mobility champion. I prefer to rush lethality but Tiamat is also ok. Be aware that he can use ultimate to follow your roaming.

Xerath He has a lot of range so he can play very passively while poking you. He's very easy to gank and once you get to him he's dead. Be aware that he'll probably have barrier. I prefer to ignore Tiamat, buy lethality kill him and roam. Shoving isn't really an option when he's alive since his wave clear is so good, he can also just stay mid and snipe other lanes from there.

Yasuo Abuse his windwall cooldown and proc his passive before going in. If you do these two things it should be easy to kill him and roam.

Zed He'll often use his shadow and shurikens to harass you, dodge and all in him right after. You both have enough burst to easily kill each other, the lane will be decided by who has a better grasp on cooldowns and ability to dodge skills.

Ziggs Read Xerath notes, they are the same champion

Zoe She is ranged and can easily harass you with her passive. On the other hand, you can easily dodge her Q and E and she can't do much without them. Should be fairly easy to get onto her and kill her, just make sure you do so when she doesn't have her E up or dodge it.

Early game is the phase of the game where everyone is in their respective lane, there aren't weird rotations happening and there aren't turrets destroyed.

Qiyana's early game is where she shines the most, as most assassins do, and you need to make sure you get a lead during this phase and take your lead to your side lanes through roaming.

After a successful roam look for drake or rift herald calls. Try to understand how the minions in the lane you ganked are, are they pushing against you or against the opponent? What does your laner want, to shove and leave? Shove and take some platings? Shove and drake ? To let enemy minions slow push against you? Try to understand what your side laner wants and help them doing so.

During your laning phase you need to be extra careful with opponent team's jungler pathing and ward accordingly. Qiyana is fairly squishy and easy to gank while being an assassin, which means that your opponent should know that once you get behind you are not coming back. Additionally, your level 1 isn't the strongest but once you get to level 2 you should have fairly good trades against the majority of the mid lane champions.

You are essentially looking to shove your lane and roam or kill your opponent and roam, don't roam if one of these condition isn't fulfilled unless you are SURE you will get a kill or more. Roaming is like rolling a dice and there's no way you want to let your opponent crash a wave into your turret while you're wasting time bot.

The combos you should focus the most during your lane are:

Terrashape + Edge of Ixtal + Long Sword
Edge of Ixtal + Terrashape+ Edge of Ixtal + Long Sword + Audacity to leave.
Audacity + Edge of Ixtal (river) + Terrashape + Edge of Ixtal (terrain if below 50%, try to grass otherwise) + Long Sword

Remember, you are a naturally strong early game champ but that doesn't last forever, nothing does, as shakespeare would say: ..

Jk, the point is: make sure your team gets ahead to carry you when the game gets too long.

Mid to late game is when everything gets treaky, everyone starts to group and you are not able to roam anymore, people will also start having some extra armor and lethality will fall of.

However, Qiyana doesn't fall as much as assassins usually do and that's greatly thanks to her ultimate Supreme Display of Talent; it deals a lot of area damage while also knocking and stun, it can turn a whole team fight around.

When the mid/late game starts you should try to either land a good ultimate or flank their team so you can reach the back lane or both. When it comes to flanking and being sneaky, grass element will be your best friend.

Communicate with your team and try to force team fights near river or tight spaces not only to have more room to land a good ultimate but also to have access river element.

If you have troubles getting to their back line and your adc is fed you should try to keep him alive using your Edge of Ixtal with river element and ultimate.

You are really bad at fighting inside team's bases, the only element you can get there is terrain and isn't the best place to use your ultimate.

Hey, in this topic I'll try to explain why lethality is over priced and why I think you should focus on your item's utility and not lethality itself when it comes to building your core items: Duskblade of Draktharr Youmuu's Ghostblade and Umbral Glaive

To simplify things I'll focus on comparing Duskblade of Draktharr with Umbral Glaive.

UMBRAL GLAIVE

VS

DUSKBLADE OF DRAKTHARR

Differences between the two:

The price: Duskblade of Draktharr is 500G more expensive.
The Damage: Duskblade of Draktharr gives more 10 AD
The Lethality: Duskblade of Draktharr gives more 9 lethality
The Passive: Duskblade of Draktharr essentially gives damage sometimes and Umbral Glaive gives you the ability to clear wards sometimes

So, for more 500G you'll get what's an Long Sword with 9 lethality that gives a little bit of damage + slow sometimes. A Long Sword is worth 350G, we have 150G left to make it pay for 9 lethality + the passive.

The first question should be: what the hell is 9 lethality to be precise?

Lethality reduces flat armor on opponents and scales with level, a item with 10 lethality will reduce 10 armor when you reach level 18 and 8 armor at level 9.

This numbers are given by lethality formula: Flat Armor Penetration = LETHALITY × (0.6 + 0.4 × level ÷ 18)

And therefore, there's no real way to answer "what's 9 lethality" but for the sake of the explanation I will assume you're level 9 since that's a level where you're probably having enough gold to buy any of them.

At level 9, 9 lethality is 7.2 flat armor penetration.

The next question should naturally be: How much extra damage will I do if I reduce 7.2 armor?

Well, it depends. Armor scales in a logarithmic way, this means that the first Cloth Armor you buy will make more difference than the 100th Cloth Armor you buy. This means that if you reduce 7.2 armor on a 30 armor champion it will make a lot of difference but it won't make any difference on a 300 armor champion.





Once again, for the sake of explanation, let's say your target is an adc, let's go even further and assume the adc: you are trying to kill a Kalista. If you are level 9 as a solo laner she's probably level 7, this means Kalista will have 21 armor (base) + 4*7 (scalling) + 6 (runes, I assume) = 55 armor.

55 armor would reduce 36% incoming physical damage. 55 - 7.2 (your flat armor pen) = 47.8 armor. 47.8 armor reduces 33% incoming damage.

In this example your extra 9 lethality gives an extra 3% damage on the adc. How good is this? It's not, it's pretty bad. Also, flat armor reduction from lethality scales less than any armor per level from any adc in the game. This means that the more levels you ad there the worse it gets.

But that isn't the question! The question is: Should I pay 150G for extra 3% damage - let's assume - + 86 damage from passive -level 9- ?

Removing the passive from the equation, since there's no real way to evaluate nor compare with Umbral Glaive's passive: is 3% extra damage, that gets worse the less level you have and the more level the adc has, or worse simply because he buys any armor, worth it? I strongly believe that it is not.

And that's why I recommend Umbral Glaive's boost on roaming capacity over the extra damage Duskblade of Draktharr gives on Qiyana.

However, like in real life, if gold isn't a problem you can even buy a ferrari just to let it rust in the garage. If you're ahead, you're having no problem with roaming or not roaming at all, Duskblade of Draktharr is the way to go.

While writing the guide I felt like the reason why Maw of Malmortius is viable while Sterak's Gage isn't might not sound obvious, not even to me. In fact, I always took as granted that Sterak's Gage is overpriced -specifically on non-bruiser champions - while Maw of Malmortius is fine if they are heavy on magic damage, that's what I've always seen people saying and that's what I thought to be true.

So I tried to dive deeper into this question of mine so maybe I could come into some conclusion. In order to do so I took an arbitrary level on Qiyana: 16, since it is the level where you'll have boots + 3 lethality items or boots + 2 lethality items + Black Cleaver and will think about building something more defensive. I'll also ignore passives because Sterak's Gage decaying shield is just too hard to take into account.

Maw of Malmortius will give more ad almost at all stages only being surpr***ed by Sterak's Gage from lvl 16 forward.

Also, Sterak's Gage gives 450 hp while Maw of Malmortius gives 50mr. Although 450 hp sounds better in the vacuum, does it deal a better job than Maw of Malmortius against a magic damage heavy team?

Let's say everytime you die 80% of the damage you take is magic damage, sounds like a fair amount, and let's say you are level 16 as Qiyana with no other magic resist item but Maw of Malmortius and no hp bonus from any item or runes.

This means you'll have:
1892.75 Hp
50.19 + 50 from Maw of Malmortius = 100.19.

If you're taking 80% magic damage this means that you're taking ~1513 of your life as magic damage.

With ~50 magic resist you are reducing ~34% on the incoming magic damage, this means you're actually taking 2364 magic damage before damage reduction. With 100 magic resist (thanks to Maw of Malmortius) this will go up to 50%.

That's an extra 16%, 16% from 2364 is 378hp.

378hp is less than the hp Sterak's Gage provides, and this is in the best case scenario for Maw of Malmortius: if you had any mr from any other item the 50 mr from Maw of Malmortius would make even less difference.


No, no. No yet, there are a few things being overlooked:

First: I assumed the damage you took was exactly enough damage to kill you and only 80% of that damage was magic damage.

While this is a correct assumption in some cases, where the enemy champion is, for example, a Cassiopeia which as a reliable consistent damage output instead of burst and therefore is unlikely that she will overkill you, there really isn't true for most mages out there. (assuming 20% from another source)

Let's take a lvl 16 Lux with 700 ap, if she lands everything on you she'll do exactly, without any damage reduction: 310x2= 620 ( Illumination, I'll assume you proc it at least twice) + 680 ( Light Binding) + 660 ( Lucent Singularity + 1200 ( Final Spark) + 231 ( Arcane Comet) + 170 ( Luden's Tempest). That's 3561 magic damage.

This means that if you are a level 16 Qiyana with Sterak's Gage you have ~2350 hp and 50 mr, you will take ~2350 magic damage after reductions and that's enough to kill you. Oof, close one, thank God we proc'd Lux's passive twice.

But if you are a level 16 Qiyana with Maw of Malmortius you will have 100 magic resist, and 1900hp you will reduce 50% of the incoming magic damage and 16% of that is thanks to Maw of Malmortius. If you took 2350 damage you would die, but thanks to Maw of Malmortius you'll actually reduce 50% of lux's damage, taking 1780 damage and surviving.

Second thing I overlooked:

Healing. If you have an healer on your team or if you're using Ravenous Hunter you have virtually more hp than 1900 and that makes magic resist more worth it.

This is also true if you buy any hp item like Black Cleaver.

Third thing I overlook:

Maw of Malmortius also gives 10% cd, while it is not the most relevant stat in the book, it is something.

Forth thing I overlooked:

What builds into Maw of Malmortius. Hexdrinker is a solid early game option against bursty mages while Sterak's Gage recipe doesn't really offer much on an assassin.

What I conclude is that Sterak's Gage is overpriced and pretty bad on Qiyana and Maw of Malmortius should be considered if what bothers you is burst magic damage or if you built an early Hexdrinker and you're looking to finish it.

Otherwise, both items feel weak.

Someone asked on QiyanaMains, which I strongly recommend you to check out, about Conqueror, is it good..is it bad? Why is Talon using it but Qiyana is not? And so my answer went a little like this:

My first instinct was: "how exactly are Talon's skillset ad scalling vs Qiyana's?" the reason being for this approach is that I don't believe that someone picks Conqueror on a assassin because it will sustain you on extended fights, it either deals more damage than Electrocute and therefore it's better or it doesn't and goes by as a worse option. That said, the only way for the ad Conqueror gives to be better than Electrocute is by having decent ad scalling in the skillset.

Let's take a look at talon:

Talon's passive, Blade's End: 200% bonus ad.
Talon's Q, Noxian Diplomacy: 110% bonus ad
Talon's W, Rake: 40% bonus ad + 70% bonus ad
Talon'r R, Shadow Assault: 100% bonus ad * 2.

To calculate how much damage Conqueror deals I'll take the following combo into account:

Q (stacking conqueror twice) -> Auto from Q (with 2 extra stacks and stacking twice) - > W (with 6 extra stacks and stacking twice again) ->



Pre 6: Q (stacking conqueror twice) -> Auto from Q (with 2 extra stacks and stacking twice) - > W (with 4 extra stacks and stacking twice again) -> W coming back (with 6 stacks and DOESN'T STACK) -> AA (with 6 stacks and stacking twice) -> Passive with 6 stacks

After 6: Q (stacking conqueror twice) -> Auto from Q (with 2 extra stacks and stacking twice) - > W (with 4 extra stacks and stacking twice again) -> ulti (with 6 extra stacks and stacking twice) -> W coming back (with 8 stacks and DOESN'T STACK) -> AA (with 8 stacks and stacking twice) -> Passive with 10 stacks -> ult comes back with 10 stacks.

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 1: 35.760000000000005

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 2: 38.918800000000005

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 3: 42.077600000000004

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 4: 45.2364

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 5: 48.3952

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 6: 92.036

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 7: 97.67519999999999

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 8: 103.3144

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 9: 108.9536

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 10: 114.5928

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 11: 120.232

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 12: 125.87119999999999

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 13: 131.5104

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 14: 137.14960000000002

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 15: 142.7888

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 16: 148.428

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 17: 154.0672

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 18: 159.70639999999997

And how does Electrocute perform?

Well... Electrocute actually performs better than Conqueror from level 12 forward without even needing to take into account the 0.4 ad scale. How much bonus ad would you need for Electrocute to be better than conqueror in the earlier levels? The following:

AD you need at level 1 :14.400000000000016

AD you need at level 2 :0.2370000000000161

AD you need at level 3 :-13.92599999999999

AD you need at level 4 :-28.088999999999984

AD you need at level 5 :-42.25199999999998

AD you need at level 6 :44.78999999999999

AD you need at level 7 :36.82799999999997

AD you need at level 8 :28.866000000000014

AD you need at level 9 :20.90399999999999

AD you need at level 10 :12.942

AD you need at level 11 :4.980000000000011

AD you need at level 12 :-2.982000000000049

AD you need at level 13 :-10.944000000000003

AD you need at level 14 :-18.905999999999956

AD you need at level 15 :-26.867999999999945

AD you need at level 16 :-34.830000000000005

AD you need at level 17 :-42.79199999999996

AD you need at level 18 :-50.75400000000002

Does it mean that Electrocute performes better than Conqueror on talon? Absolutely not:
- Rake and Shadow Assault are great AOE skills (twice) and can easily hit multiple targets on teamfights. This makes conqueror potential damage be even higher.
- It's very rare that a teamfight goes as linearly as starting with 0 stacks, do a full combo and leave.
- If I started the combo with W into Q that numbers would be higher.
- As an assassin, if a rune improves your early game even further, that's where you want to be, IMO.
- You will have stacks, you'll often trade in lane or give an auto just to maintain the stacks and it's very hard to take that into account.

Enough of talon, how does qiyana perform with Conqueror and Electrocute?

Well well well, Qiyana's combos are way more treaky and I can only imagine how much work it is about to give me, let's start with the scaling:

Qiyana's passive, Royal Privilege: 55% bonus ad
Qiyana's Q, Edge of Ixtal: 90% bonus ad + 54% bonus ad if Terrain conditions are met
Qiyana's W, Terrashape: 20% bonus ad on hit if you have an element.
Qiyana's E, Audacity: 70% bonus ad
Qiyana's R, Supreme Display of Talent: 170% bonus ad (oof)

Qiyana's combo pre 6 would look like:

*start by holding river or grass*

E (stacking conqueror twice) > AA with passive (with 2 stacks and stacking twice) > Q (with 4 stacks and stacking twice) > Terrashape terrain + AA procing passive + terrashape bonus (with 6 stacks and stacking twice) > Q Terrain (with 8 stacks)

After 6 (trying to be realistic here, it's not common to use ultimate as last combo piece):

E (stacking conqueror twice) > AA with passive (with 2 stacks and stacking twice) > Q (with 4 stacks and stacking twice) > R (with 6 stacks and stacking twice) > Terrashape terrain + AA procing passive + terrashape bonus (with 8 stacks and stacking twice) > Q Terrain (with 10 stacks)

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 1: 31.704000000000004

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 2: 34.50452

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 3: 37.305040000000005

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 4: 40.105560000000004

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 5: 42.90608

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 6: 73.698

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 7: 78.21360000000001

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 8: 82.7292

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 9: 87.24480000000001

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 10: 91.7604

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 11: 96.276

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 12: 100.7916

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 13: 105.30720000000001

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 14: 109.8228

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 15: 114.33840000000002

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 16: 118.854

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 17: 123.36959999999998

Damage Conqueror will deal on level 18: 127.8852

So, now the same questions applies, how much bonus ad you need on qiyana for electrocute to deal more damage than conqueror?

Ad needed at level1 : 4.260000000010007

Ad needed at level2 : -10.798699999999997

Ad needed at level3 : -25.857399999999878

Ad needed at level4 : -40.916099999998984

Ad needed at level5 : -55.97479999999998

Ad needed at level6 : -1.0550000000000281

Ad needed at level7 : -11.825999999999972

Ad needed at level8 : -22.596999999999987

Ad needed at level9 : -33.36799999999997

Ad needed at level10 : -44.13899999999998

Ad needed at level11 : -54.91

Ad needed at level12 : -65.68100000000001

Ad needed at level13 : -76.45199999999998

Ad needed at level14 : -87.223

Ad needed at level15 : -97.99399999999991

Ad needed at level16 : -108.765

Ad needed at level17 : -119.53600000000009

Ad needed at level18 : -130.307

When compared to Talon the difference is overwhelming:
- Electrocute deals more damage at all levels but 1, where you won't even proc it anyway
-Unlike Talon you don't have as much AOE and the one you have isn't as reliable as Talon's.

I can't really conclude which one is better, between Electrocute and Conqueror, I would say that it really depends on how you play the champion. Will you play defensively and go in only when Electrocute is up? Will you constantly refresh Conqueror stacks maximizing the potential damage it gives when you all in?

But I would say that on Qiyana Electrocute is better overall, mainly if you are getting started on her.

This guide is constantly under update, whether it is because I'm updating match ups, adding chapters, trying to add more depth, making it prettier, improving grammar or simply because the games changes and some content gets out dated.

I need to appreaciate, once again, jhoijhoi (is it even legal to create a guide without crediting her?) great work on guide on how to make a guide, it's truly a masterpiece that surely helped me, and lot of members in this website and I will credit her even when I become a pro at coding.

Also, wanna shoutout Qiyana mains subreddit, I found a bunch of useful information there, if you're looking to step up your Qiyana's gameplay you should definitly go take a look.

If you think this guide was helpful for you or might be helpful for someone please vote!

I'm currently saving up money to pay for my university in the upcoming year, if you want to give me an hand feel free to click the "support" button, any donation is greatly appreaciated. In either case, please consider voting so my guide gets to more and more Qiyana's lovers.

And daaaaaamn did I learn to write Duskblade of Draktharr while writing this guide

Since the creation of this guide, in patch 10.10, there have been these significant changes on Qiyana:


Talon aka "better" Qiyana got nerfed, this might give more room for Qiyana to shine.

Adc's got buffed, they now have more health and more heatl per level, not good news for assassins.

Syndra got her Scatter the Weak cooldown increased, this is nice since that's the only way she has to get you off of her.

The most relevant change this patch is the adc's buffs paired with zeal buffs. They will have more hp and more movement speed - those who build it - which might get harder to get on top of them.

Good news is that your ulti deals max health, woo woo.

I don't expect this patch to make much of a difference on Qiyana's win rate.

I Added an extra section on "common questions" where I answer why Conqueror is used on some assassins like Talon but not on Qiyana

Nothing to relevant, something like the previous patch. Akali got a slight buff and Cassiopeia got her hp and armor nerfed, if you get on top of her is a guaranteed kill.