Best Nilah counters in LoL

Nilah can be a tough LoL champion to deal with: here are the five best counters you should definitely play against her this season.

5 Best Nilah Counters

Nilah was a refreshing addition to the LoL roster. Even though she is categorized as a marksman, her playstyle is much similar to that of a bruiser thanks to her kit which favors close-combat action. Another important and unique interaction that Nilah is her passive ability to gain additional experience when she farms minions close to another ally.

This gives her the ability to stay ahead of the enemy bot lane when it comes to experience and even if she loses out on some experience due to her short-range nature, Nilah can quickly catch up on the deficit. It’s a great advantage that allows her to scale faster than most traditional ADCs.

That being said, Nilah’s super short auto attack range is also one of its core weaknesses that can be heavily abused during the laning phase. If you don’t know which ADC you should play when facing Nilah, below are the best counters in the current meta. You will find all the needed info and tips on how to properly play the matchups and make the most out of the counter pick.

Karthus – The cheesy but most effective pick

Even though he’s not a popular pick, Karthus is one of the best at abusing during the laning phase. His Qs and overall pushing power always puts Nilah in a defensive position and doesn’t give her chances to trade or find engage opportunities.
As Karthus, your goal is to hit as many Qs as possible to quickly chunk Nilah’s health bar. Even if she has some sustain, she won’t be able to survive for much longer without recalling or giving up farm or experience.
Moreover, Nilah can only reduce a percentage of Karthus’ damage since her W doesn’t allow her to dodge magic damage. Regardless of whether she has W, Karthus will have enough damage to burst her down with Requiem. Ideally, you want Nilah to use the ability first, so try to bait it somehow.
Nilah will always look to dash in and throw her combo to take you down. Watch your positioning at all times and make sure you don’t get caught at the start of a fight.

Read more: Best Jinx counters in LoL

Xayah – You want to kill me? Try if you can…

While Karthus is the best counter overall, Xayah is probably the best Nilah counter among all ADCs in the game. There have been some debates about Xayah’s effectiveness against Nilah but if both players are mechanically proficient at their champion, Xayah has definitely an advantage.
This is because Xayah has too many tools to prevent Nilah from dashing in and finding a good engage to use the combos. Unless the Xayah player has slow reaction times, there is little to no opportunity to win for Nilah.
Xayah has better poke and trading ability, as well as the ability to root Nilah if she happens to use her dash and enter in melee range, dealing absurd damage with the recalling of the feathers. Nilah can dodge Xayah’s auto attacks with her W, but Xayah’s E will still apply a root if multiple feathers hit the Joy Unbound.
And even if Nilah somehow manages to find an engage, Xayah can always ult the displacement (the pull) of the ultimate and reposition herself while negating the majority of Nilah’s damage. If Nilah is being played, Xayah should be the no. 1 choice in most scenarios.

Varus – Poking you to the abyss

We mentioned how having a high auto attack range is an overwhelming advantage to beat Nilah so Varus comes up as a natural counter thanks to his range and poking ability.
He can harass her consistently during the laning phase, and also has the added bonus of applying Grevious Wounds with his E, further lowering Nilah’s sustain during the laning phase or skirmishes.
That being said, Varus can struggle if Nilah somehow manages to get an all-in. When playing Varus, always use the minion waves to your advantage: if you know Nilah can jump on you, stay in between your minions so she is bound to tank their damage as well. It’s a particularly effective strategy especially early on.

Read also: Best supports with Varus in LoL

Miss Fortune – It’s all about harassing

Miss Fortune is yet another bully ADC that can use her abilities to bully Nilah over and over again during the laning phase. Thanks to her Q and E, MF can get free poke damage on Nilah from a safe distance.
An important thing to remember is that you want to focus on poking and harassing only. You don’t want to trade autos with them. As soon as they drop low HP-wise, that’s when you can start to look for some extra auto attacks and lure her in to trade with you.
A great thing is that Nilah cannot reduce the damage taken from MF’s Bullet Time (ultimate) since it deals with physical damage. The only way for her to get out is by dashing away from the ult’s damage range, or jumping onto Miss Fortune and interrupting her with Nilah’s own ultimate. With that in mind, you want to position yourself as far away as possible from Nilah so she cannot get the chance to walk in your face.

Caitlyn – Longest vs shortest auto attack range

What happens when the ADC with the highest attack range meets the one with the lowest one? The gaming experience becomes a nightmare for the latter since she won’t be able to do anything.
Caitlyn is typically known as a primary choice marksman when you want to exert a lot of lane pressure and use the poke to negate farm while retaining constant lane priority for neutral objectives or faster roaming. When facing Nilah, Caitlyn brings that pressure to unparalleled peaks. For Nilah, it will be always a game for survival during the laning phase.
If the Caitlyn player has strong laning foundations, she can easily gap Nilah in farm and deny a lot of minions. While Nilah can stay even in experience thanks to her passive, she will never have enough gold to match Caitlyn’s stronger itemization.
That being said, Caitlyn is not considered the best counter because she can suffer Nilah’s all-in later in the game. With little to no tools of escaping, Nilah can burst her down with a combo. Be careful with the positioning.

Read also: Best supports with Caitlyn in LoL