How To Play Against Rell
Rell was the last champion to find their way on to Summoners Rift in 2020. While she is still really new, we’ve learnt tons of strategies and tips to make dealing with The Iron Maiden that little bit easier.
In this guide, we will share our wares and discuss a variety of tips and tricks to help you deal with Rell in the bottom lane. This guide is going to be aimed at Supports, but the advice is going to be useful for ADC’s too.
If you want to learn how to play as Rell, check out our how to play Rell guide. Alternatively, check out our Rell champion page which has tips on how to play as and against Rell Support!
How to play against Rell
- Use range to your advantage
- Save knock-ups or interrupts for her W
- Avoid standing on top of one another in lane
- Ping when she goes missing
- Avoid fighting in the jungle
- Respect her cheese strategies
1. Use range to your advantage
Rell is a melee champion with low range. This is a good thing for those who are ranged as she will be unable to auto-attack you from afar.
When playing as Janna, Nami, Lulu, Zyra, or anyone who is a ranged champion, try to harass Rell whenever she is in your auto-attack range.
At level 1 in particular, you should look to abuse her as much as possible. Getting her low in the very early stages of the laning phase will make it difficult for her to engage later on.
She will also have to burn through her health potions which will be beneficial to you as the game goes along.
You can also look to bully her down when she moves forward to last hit minions. Many players focus so much on getting the last hit in that they ignore any incoming damage and end up worse off from it. You should look to harass her whenever she tries to kill minions for her warding quest.
Another good time to harass her is whenever she is dismounted from her horsey as she is incredibly immobile and is of little threat to anyone. Use this time to bully and poke her down as much as possible.
She has literally nothing she can do apart from retreat if you decide to abuse her when she is dismounted. Take note that you shouldn’t be harassing her for too long when she is dismounted as her W may come off cooldown and she could then look to use it aggressively.
While you do need to auto-attack her as often as you can, be careful when attempting to do so. In particular, if her W is up as she can use it to engage and turn the exchange around.
If you’re playing a squishy champion like Zyra, you could easily die if she jumps on you and follows it up with her E.
When harassing her, try to stand as far back as possible to make it harder for her to turn the fight around.
2. Save knock-ups or interrupts for her W
Rell’s W can be deadly and you’ll get knocked up if you’re hit by it. Some champions in the bottom lane can interrupt her jump with their CC tools. For example, Janna can use her Q and Alistar can use his Q.
If you’re playing as a utility or mage Support who just needs to poke and harass during the laning phase, save any spells that can interrupt her engage for exactly that. You shouldn’t be using these spells unless you have a reason too.
For tanks, it’s slightly different. You should look for those all-in opportunities whenever possible, but you could also her engage as a way of counter engaging and taking her down.
For example, holding on to your CC for when she engages to interrupt her knock-up and then kill her while she is dismounted and overextended.
As a bonus tip, if Rell is playing towards the bot side bushes (which makes it harder for you to react with your CC), you should position towards the top side of the lane so she is unable to jump on to you easily.
If you want to learn what champions are good and bad against Rell, check out Rell’s champion page.
3. Avoid standing on top of one another in lane
All Supports should be in line or around their ADC in lane. It’s important that you’re around this area at all times so you have some form of threat in lane.
Standing too far back will make your ADC feel that they’re in a 1v2 lane.
As Rell has a knockup with her W, avoid standing close to your ADC (basically on top of one another) so she is unable to land her knockup on both of you.
In an ideal scenario, she will never be able to land her W on you, but realistically, that’s never gonna happen! Let’s be honest though, it’s better for her to hit one of you rather than both of you.
So, instead of standing quite close to your ADC, stand far apart but in line with them. This will prevent her from hitting both of you while also giving you enough pressure in lane to poke and harass.
Similarly, especially if you have champions that use shields, take similar steps to avoid her Q.
Post 6, make sure you’re not next to each other at all. If she hits both of you with her Ultimate, you’re not going to be able to counter her Ultimate or trade with her.
The CC that keeps you both preoccupied briefly will provide her ADC time to harass you for free. It is also possible that enough time could be provided for her Jungler to follow up and gank you.
4. Ping when she goes missing
Rell is a good roaming champion, especially once she’s got some levels behind her and she’s unlocked her Ultimate. Whenever Rell goes missing, ping your allies that she has left lane.
This should provide your team with enough time to back away just in case she roams around the map.
If you are playing a strong laner, you could look to play aggressive on the enemy ADC while the Support is gone.
Alternatively, if you’re a strong roamer, you could look to follow Rell and try to match her roam.
Remember that strong roaming champions such as Rell will often roam from base, so make sure you ping if she has recalled as well.
Obviously, you should be doing this anyway, but it’s a very important technique against strong roaming champions.
5. Avoid fighting in the jungle
Rell is a good team fighter and if the enemy is grouped closely together, she is even better. Try your hardest to avoid fighting in the jungle as your team will usually be grouped closely together which allows her to get a multi-person Ultimate off.
If you do have to fight Rell in the jungle, try to stand far apart so she is unable to CC your whole team with her Ultimate.
However, you also need to be on the lookout for her W which can cover the path that greets you throughout the jungle. You should also keep an eye out for her E so she doesn’t CC you.
It’s better for your team to fight in areas of the map that are in the open which naturally allows your team to split up slightly. This reduces the effectiveness of her Ultimate, her W, and even her E. If you can, always fight in open parts of the map like in a lane or in the middle of the river.
6. Respect her cheese strategies
We all know about cheese champions in the bottom lane. Shaco Support, Twitch Support, Pantheon Support, Sett Support, Syndra ADC, Veigar ADC, Yasuo ADC, and Irelia ADC – all these champions were cheese picks at one point and some of them are now heavily integrated into bot lane culture.
For example, Pantheon and Sett were both early game aggressors while Shaco was picked as a counter to hard engage. Each of these champions was at one point or another, pick or ban.
They were incredibly frustrating to play against when picked which often made them even stronger in certain matchups.
Rell is similar to this when she is paired with ADC’s who can get onto the enemy quickly (they often have dashes like Tristana, Yasuo, Samira, or Yone).
Rell has many cheese strategies that work wonders in the bottom lane. For example, when playing with Tristana, Tristana can jump on you and Rell can use her E to follow up.
There are plenty of good Rell duos in the bottom lane, so you need to play respectfully and understand that she may look for an aggressive early play.
Of course, Rell needs to be given respect and you need to play respectfully when you’re in these cheese matchups that can constantly run you down. It’s better to play for even rather than falling behind and going 0-5 on someone who needs to scale.
To make dealing with these frustrating matchups easier, you should do the following:
- Understand that they are going to cheese and play around it. Stop overextending and falling into their trap.
- Ensure you hit level 2 at the same time or before the enemy. This is the first minion wave followed by 3 melee champions on the second minion wave.
- Stop pushing the minion wave constantly. If you keep pushing, you’re putting yourself in a position where the enemy can jump on you. By keeping the wave closer to your tower, they will be unable to jump on to you.
Conclusion
Learning how to play against Rell is key to beating her. While she may seem unkillable on the outside, she is far weaker once you peel away her layers.
Take these tips with you on to Summoner’s Rift to increase your chances of beating the lady with the horse.
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