The key to climbing is to understand how to play against the most popular picks. This requires an understanding of not only the OP picks alongside analysis specific match ups. It’s a lot of detailed information that’s not readily provided or even intuitive on face value. Therefore, to help players improve, here is a breakdown of Wild Rift Counter the Meta for patch 2.6a. In order to efficiently communicate the important concepts, a breakdown of some current meta trends will initially be provided. Then, a pick or two will be provided to counter the specific pick.
The information was provided by Kerxx and Vindey of RiftGuides. Special thanks for their help.
Be sure to check out their channel by clicking the link below for a video version of the guide.
Mages in the DUO Lane
Mentioned previously in the tier list for the duo lane was the overwhelming dominance of mages in the duo late. For those who don’t know, mages are the new duo lane carries, displacing many of the conventional marksmen. What happened down there that ADCs just vanished specifically in pro play?
Camera management, positioning and mobility play a huge factor as a carry. The more threats the enemy team has the riskier it gets to stand still and deal damage. It’s not the easiest to readjust the camera in Wild Rift every single second and therefore it appears very easy to die as an ADC. Once players get too close – even for just a brief moment – they’ll get severely punished for their small mistake.
How to tilt ADCs
With some general information out of the way, moving over to HOW to make AD carrys tilt easily. Just pick a mage. Don’t misunderstand- ADC vs ADC is completely fine. But one thing typical AD carries don’t have access to is the ability to clear waves indefinitely.
Whatever they do, they usually need to put themselves into a risky spot to get those minions killed and whenever they’re left alone they can be abused almost instantly.
Having that happen to is a massive tilter – losing the wave and dying at the same time sends almost everyone over the edge.
So what about being able to completely void any strong-side dragon lane in the game? Simply pick a top rated mage. In the early stages of the game, mages are not yet functional in terms of having enough damage to deal with typical AD carries. Consequently, play a bit more reserved until either acquiring access to all basic abilities OR timing reset opportunities for an item.
The moment duo lane mages purchase a lost chapter while being level 3 or higher the game starts to turn into a vivid nightmare for MOST AD carries. Now, why is that? Any idea? Well, here’s the answer: Mages grossly outrange AD carries and are on average easier to play.
One class primarily plays around longer cooldowns and influences an entire area.
Whereas the other class focuses on single target DPS while their main limiter is attack speed.
So how does an ADC kill a mage unless he’s able to force the mage into a close range 1v1 all-in? And more importantly how can ADCs even GET into close range without being heavily poked out?
Wild Rift Counter the Meta: Duo Lane Mages
Time to go into how to counter play mages in the duo lane.
2 Champions immediately come to mind who have similar traits that effectively counter mages:
Corki and Varus.
Both of those can deal pretty well with waves, can survive any matchup and may influence the fights later on from high distance.
They’re also quite versatile in the way they can be played. Corki is a flexible pick for multiple lanes and Varus isn’t locked into just going lethality. Into tanky compositions Varus can just build AP items and literally one shot tanks.
Next up is something that a lot of players will absolutely love to hear about.
Wild Rift Counter the Meta: Zed
This section will go over which champion that is able to deal with zed in the middle lane. Due to Zed’s rise in popularity, players must always have a counter for the champion in mind. Otherwise, they’re in for some very bad experiences because Zed isn’t really a balanced champion. From levels 1 to 4 he might not be the most annoying champion to deal with, however on his level 5 power spike he turns into an absolute monstrocity.
Before that and especially on level 1 and 2 he’s quite weak. Play a champion that can capitalize on that – make sure to abuse that window of opportunity.
Zed vs Diana
On the other hand, Diana is a bit special. She is a champion that provides tankiness, burst and DPS at the same time.
Not only that she’s also able to buy 3 items Zed ABSOLUTELY hates.
Plated Steel Caps.
Stasis
Crystalline Reflector
Now combine ALL of those items with the raw HP rod of age and her second ability’s shield. It should be a little intuitive as to why it’s so annoying for Zed to deal with Diana.
Another thing the Zed has to be very careful of is the fact that he can never just Ult the Diana.
If she times it right she can immediately greet him with a decently charged up ultimate of her own and then he’s tagged by moonlight, briefly ccd and escaping becomes quite annoying.
To compound on the counter, Diana as a champion massively outperforms Zed in teamfight situations as well as a 1v1 sidelane vacuum.
There is a caveat for this counter though. The only problematic part for Diana is that if she gets attacked while sidelaning, it’s not as easy for her to escape. Zed can just walk it off and abuse the power of his shadows and Youmuu’s Ghostblade. Diana usually has to enter a deathmatch and hope that she’s the one winning it.
Wild Rift Counter the Neta: Mid Lane Mages
Next up comes something that a lot of mages in the middle lane struggle with – and no it’s not Zed even though it would be technically true.
To annoy most mages in the middle lane, just pick a bruiser and that features gap closers, waveclear and targeted lockdown. With the bruisers being as durable as they are, mages will find it rather hard to push them out of lane. Especially during the early game when circumstances seem kind of dire as those bruisers are too tanky while being able to clear the wave with their cleaving auto attacks.
Priority in mid-lane matters a lot as most plays can be initiated from that lane. It’s also significantly easier to rotate to other lanes rather than trying to kill the enemy 1v1 in the player’s own lane.
Mid lane just has this weird thing that people always sit around it. The moment a mid laner step forward, 19 people and their families try to jump them. Then once the mid laner dies, it’s practically game over for them. The next issue that comes up with those bruisers is their access to itemization that allows them to gain damage AND tankiness at the same time.
They have high base damage and any point of HP gained adds extra strength to their kit whereas mages usually take a bit longer to scale up.
Given the HP of bruisers it’s just much harder to deal with them than dealing with AD carries. And the worst thing is that they have access to the gargoyle enchant that turns them into unkillable demons.
Wild Rift Counter the Meta: Mid Lane Bruisers
How can players deal with bruisers in the middle lane, and what can they do against them?
Akshan and Lucian.
And here are two mid lane bullies: Akshan and Lucian. Both of those champions feature incredible laning power that almost always guarantees them agency. They also have something that normal mages don’t have: a lot of attack damage – and especially those two have something even better.
A neat passive and spells that are literally designed to crush enemies in a 1v1. Lucian can carefully aim his first ability on the wave and enemy alike whereas Akshan can fish for hits with his first ability. Upon hitting either of those – or having an enemy that walks too close – it’s time for some fun.
They cannot ever walk right up to bruisers unless they have any kind of support with or behind them. Therefore it’s completely up to bruisers to punish them for their squishy-champion choice. Even though Akshan was nerfed recently he’s still an absolutely absurd champion for solo queue. He can win any lane and move to all lanes in stealth – and if that wasn’t enough already what about being able to revive his teammates?
Akshan Tips
For laning, max a specific skill: Akshan’s third ability. This swing is unbalanced and deals way too much damage – people will not see it coming and literally die under turret without any counterplay. Be that as it may there are still things to keep in mind when playing these picks.
Good vision is an absolute necessity in order to play the matchup to its fullest extent.
Slacking with it or placing it suboptimally WILL get them killed and that’s a promise. Create a safe side to play towards and constantly hover there.
The last thing marksmen mid laners want is getting surprised by an enemy jungler. Be aware of what is happening around and the threats that might get them killed. But whatever the case, never be scared – try to be as cold and calculated as possible even if the allied jungler is about to run it down again.
Playing the matchup properly will make things easier. Even if the jungle decides to have some unfortunate encounter with the enemy team, the game is still fixiable.
On Akshan, for example, don’t raise the second ability until absolutely necessary and desired. Putting another point into his third ability on level 3 just grants so much more damage. Both builds have been tested – be it a 1st ability max or a 3rd ability max: maxing the third ability as soon as possible with an extra point in it level 3 allows for so many kills.
Fiora Match Up
Last but not least is another gem – Fiora’s days of terror are numbered. Not only did she receive a massive nerf on her second ability’s cooldown – no – there’s something worse. The release AND buff of Jayce and Graves still being playable in the baron lane. Both of those champions can take care of Fiora.
Since Fiora mains often bully people level 1, it’s quite an easy feat to rob them off their delusion that they can do that to every champion in the game.
Graves has to be a bit mindful of not letting Fiora lunge into him while she’s still behind minions. If that happens he’ll be unable to trade back as his shots can’t pass through units. Level 2 onwards he also has to be careful of not shooting everything he has into the parry. But worry not – after Graves gets his first reset, he hard stomps the Fiora with ease.
Now time to discuss the matchup from Jayce’s perspective. Level 1 position Jayce slightly outside of minions or ideally deny fiora entry to lane. When she tries to lunge at Jayce – use a ranged auto attack and his first ability into her face. Afterwards, swap into the melee form and jump her. She CANNOT outtrade Jayce at this point – it’s NOT possible.
Then it’s up to the player wielding Jayce to keep up the pressure. Be very mindful to not blow cooldowns into Fiora’s parry. Especially when jumping her DON’T use Jayce’s third ability. Instead be patient. If she blocks it with her riposte you’re most likely going to die.
Play it slow – abuse strengths and never give her any room to recover. Keep up the pressure and she’ll never be able to recover unless she’s given a lot of help.
In Conclusion
Hopefully, this Wild Rift Counter the Meta provides information sufficient enough to help players continue climbing the ranked ladder. That concludes this patch’s version of counter the meta. For those looking for similar in depth guide, check out RiftGuides YouTube channel. And until next time, stay safe, and have a wonderful day.
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