How to Counter Yunara in LoL
Yunara is the 171st champion to be released in League of Legends, and she will be hitting Summoners Rift very soon. Whenever a new champion is out, you’ll see a lot of players playing her, and she is usually picked or banned by either team. The problem with this is that unless you’re first pick, you’re probably going to be facing her.
This is where learning how to play against Yunara is essential. If you know how to play against her, especially in Solo Queue, you will severely increase your chances of winning the game and beating her. We recommend that you at least understand the basics, such as what her kit does and how to play her yourself, so you know what to expect when facing her.
In this article, we will break down some key things to be aware of when playing against Yunara. This guide is aimed primarily at bot laners, but it will also be helpful to those who main other lanes. For more advice on playing against Yunara, head to Yunara’s counter page.
1. Beware of Her Strong Level 2
Our first tip is to be wary of her strong level 2 all-in. Yunara’s level 2 can be really strong if she can stack her Q beforehand. As soon as she gets the level up, she will unlock her W, activate her Q, and then go for a trade. It can do a lot of damage at level 2, and if you are on the receiving end of this, you may have to use an early potion, or maybe have to blow some Summoner Spells.
If you are not going to hit level 2 before or at the same time as, which is the first nine minions, it is recommended that you back off slightly so you have distance between you and her. The distance will make it much harder for her to play aggressively, but it will also reduce how much damage over time she can deal, as there will be less room for her to chase you down.
2. Keep an Eye on her Q Stacks
If you look at Yunara’s health bar, you will see an additional bar below it. This is how many stacks on her Q she has. At 8 stacks, she can activate her Q ability, which will increase her damage output.
When looking to trade with her, it is best to avoid doing so when her bar is nearly full. This is because she can get more stacks and then turn the trade around. The best times to fight are when she has no or very few stacks. This is because she will be unable to activate this ability.
On the other hand, we recommend not fighting her and potentially disengaging if she runs at you with her Q activated. However, if you can trade back with her, then you can probably ignore that idea.
3. Fight in the Open
Now let’s move on to some important team fighting information. The reality is that Yunara is a great team fighting champion thanks to her Ultimate and her Q. This can make it difficult for teams to play against her because she is so strong. If she can snowball by getting a few kills early, the late game can be really difficult for her opponents.
This is why it is so important that you avoid grouping too closely and fighting around objectives and in the jungle. If you are split up slightly, it will make it harder for her to deal AOE damage, which ultimately will increase your chances of winning the game.
Instead, try to fight in the open or use some of the other tips in this article to make team fighting a lot easier.
4. Lock her Down
Locking her down with CC is one of the best ways to reduce her damage output in team fights. Yunara is a traditional AD Carry, so she is very squishy and prone to being locked down and interrupted.
In team fights, try to fight as quickly as you can so she’s unable to deal a lot of damage, and focus her with all your CC tools, making it impossible for her to reposition and fire out more damage.
5. Disengage When her R is Active
It is essential to understand her abilities, and we have previously created an article on how to play as Yunara in LoL, which breaks down all of her abilities. However, it is good to note that her Ultimate can be really good as it empowers her W and her E, which makes it slightly harder for you to play against her.
When she activates this ability, the active on her Q switches on, so she deals lots of damage without needing to get all of the stacks beforehand. This ability lasts for over 10 seconds, but it does have a long cooldown. If she activates this ability early (which she should), you could potentially disengage and then re-engage when it is unavailable. This will severely reduce her chances of winning the fight.
6. Recommended Counter Picks
To conclude this guide, we will now discuss some potential counters to Yunara. These may not be statistically the best counters, but they do have things in their kit to make it much harder for her to dominate and take over the game.
We have hinted at things that will help you count to her, such as CC and disengage, so any champion that has things like that could be good against her.
Nautilus
Nautilus seems like a good pick because he is not only tanky, but he also has multiple CC tools. His Ultimate is point and click, so he can lock her down post-six and make it nearly impossible for her to escape any skirmish. He’s also really good in team fights, which will be quite beneficial.
Samira
Another champion who could counter her is Samira, as she has good turnaround potential and can punish her aggressive plays. Samira is also very strong in team fights and has good follow-up damage and strong all-in.
Ziggs
Ziggs can be vulnerable early, but if he’s given time to come online, then he can make it impossible for her to get kills and snowball. All he needs to do is survive the very early game, and then when he gets an item, he can just poke and push from afar. He can keep harassing her and poking her down while remaining relatively safe. He neutralises a lot of her early snowball potential.
Gragas
Gragas can be played in multiple roles, which is really good for any champion in LoL. I believe that he is a good pick because he has multiple tools to displace her in team fights and to reduce her snowball potential. For instance, he can use his body slam to interrupt her all-ins and his ultimate to knock her forward and out of position: making her an easy target for your team in a team fight.
In Conclusion
And that about sums up our article on what you should be doing to counter Yunara, the latest ADC in League of Legends. What do you think of playing against her? Do you find her easy to counter? Or is there anything you recommend we add to our list to help others to play against her? Thanks for reading, and good luck on countering her!
Here at Mobalytics, we have been creating a lot of Yunara content. Head over to the Mobalytics Blog for more articles to help you play as, with and against Yunara in LoL!
