New League of Legends Champion Qiyana Enters League of Legends Patch 9.13

New League of Legends champion Qiyana goes live Wednesday when League of Legends Patch 9.13 hits live servers.

Qiyana hails from Ixtal — the same location as Neeko and Nidalee — and she fits right in with the other denizens of her jungle homeland. Whether you're looking to pick up and play this new melee assassin or you're preparing to face off against her on the Summoner's Rift, we've got you covered.

Qiyana Abilities

Qiyana's passive, Royal Privilege, is one of the two big keys to master in order to maximize your damage output. The first time Qiyana hits a target with a basic attack or ability, it deals bonus damage scaling off of your damage and AP. This effect has a 25-second cooldown, but that cooldown instantly resets when you take a new element using Terrashape.

Qiyana's Q is a two-parter: Elemental Wrath/Edge of Ixtal. The ability always functions as a skillshot nuke, but if you have an element when you activate the ability, that element will be consumed and the nuke will apply either a root, extra damage to low health enemies, or it will grand you stealth and movement speed. Her Q's cooldown is also reset when you use Terrashape.

Qiyana's W, Terrashape, is easy to overlook, but it's the lynchpin of her toolset. Qiyana targets a river, wall, or bush, leaping towards it and gaining attack speed and damage as well as movement speed near her selected terrain type. This ability resets the cooldown on Royal Privilege and beefs up her Q and R.

Qiyana's E, Audacity, is a fixed-distance targeted dash that deals damage when passing through enemies.

Qiyana's ultimate, Supreme Display of Talent, is a skillshot nuke that explodes and stuns enemies when it passes over terrain of your associated element and when it hits a wall. It can hit ridiculously hard, since it has good base values, scales at 170% base AD, and deals a guaranteed 10% of an affected enemy's maximum HP.

Laning and Combos:

Qiyana can be played as a pure AD assassin or bruiser. She can manage well in the top lane, where she has a good amount of cover and easy access to all of the elements, or she can be run effectively in the middle lane to have ready access to the river for easy ganks. Be sure that you always start a fight with an element selected — there's never a reason not to have one if you can help it.

Her basic combos are:
Q-W-Q for easy damage and passive procs
E-Q-Attack-W-Attack-Q for initiation and sustained damage output when ganking
E-R-Attack-Q-W-Attack-Q for post level 6 ganks and extended teamfights; ult early for the stun and try to get an enemy low enough that they can receive extra damage from your Q with the wall element

Cover Image Courtesy of Riot Games