Champion selection is a crucial factor in ranked games, either solo/duo queue or premade 5v5. It not only provides a chance to synergize your team's champions and counterpick the opposing team, but allows you to begin with psychological pressure from the start. For the second installment, we'll cover Vayne, a late-game ranged carry with high mobility and single-target damage.
Basic Introduction
Vayne is generally used in a bottom lane pairing with a support, preferably an aggressive support like Alistar or Taric. Occasionally, she can be sent top to deal with a particularly kite-prone melee champion (e.g. Garen). Her early game is not as strong as other carries like Graves or Caitlyn, so it would be surprising to see Vayne mid against a mage. A lack of readily-available walls for stunning and early-game trading power makes her most likely to be in bottom lane or rarely in top. Vayne's strengths are her tremendous lategame scaling and incredible single-target damage.
As a Counterpick
Vayne is not a champion usually picked to counter other ranged-AD carries in bottom lane. If there is any ranged AD that Vayne enjoys fighting against in bottom lane, it is Ashe. While both champions have a mediocre early game, Vayne's lategame is far superior in terms of damage, and her Tumble can help dodge Enchanted Crystal Arrow.
Vayne is picked for her lategame damage-per-second (DPS) and mobility. Her relatively short range and lack of an effective poking skill mean that she is not well-suited for poking wars. Vayne is a
duelist. One-on-one lategame against any other ranged carry with equivalent items and level, Vayne tends to win due to her mobility and steroids (with the possible exception of Tristana). If a lane is even against Vayne in terms of farming, experience, and kills, Vayne wins the lane.
If she is being used to counter top-lane, Vayne can make bush-hugging a deadly tactic with her Condemn stun assuming she can get vision inside the bush. Her ability to stay away from melee champions without a guaranteed gap-closer/ranged CC move and the fact that she outscales most other champions in the game means that having Vayne stalemate top against, say, Garen or Cho'Gath will result in a win for Vayne's team as a farmed Vayne is a terrifying thing in the hands of skilled player.
In teamfights, Vayne has a natural advantage against many bruisers because of her stealth and low-cooldown mobility move. Champions that lack the means to stay on a skilled Vayne player will find themselves kited and destroyed. A classic example of this is Cho'Gath. Prudent use of Tumble will allow Vayne to dodge Rupture and/or Feral Scream. Proper kiting will allow her to avoid Vorpal Spikes or Feast unless Cho'Gath is willing to burn Flash. Vayne's %health true damage on Silver Bolts helps her take down beefy targets and her ability to chase is very helpful.
Udyr encounters similar problems when fighting Vayne, particularly if Vayne has red buff and/or a Phantom Dancer. Vayne is good at kiting, using her mobility rather than, say, Ashe's permaslow or Tristana's range, to kite. If she's given red buff or has a Frozen Mallet, she becomes even more potent at this role.
Other bruisers who have problems against Vayne due to lack of dash moves or good ranged CC besides Cho'Gath and Udyr include Garen, Dr. Mundo, Olaf, AD Nidalee, and Volibear. All of these champions also tend to get Atmog, which Vayne cuts through rather easily. A skilled Vayne will likely never be caught by these champions without help from their team or unless caught by surprise. Jarvan IV, Skarner, Lee Sin, and Xin Zhao also have difficulty to a lesser extent. Vayne's mobility makes it hard for Jarvan to land his flag-spear combination for a knockup and Vayne can either Tumble out of Cataclysm or use Condemn to push Jarvan out. Xin Zhao will likely have Vayne either Tumble away or Condemn him before he can get off his Three Talon Strike knockup after using Audacious Charge, while Skarner must get in range to use Impale if he hopes to catch Vayne and Lee Sin must land Sonic Wave against a mobile target in order to get in range to use his Tempest/Cripple in order to keep Vayne revealed during Final Hour's stealth Tumble.
Note how the opposing team is split, allowing Vayne to pick them off one by one. Vayne is particularly punishing against
teams who lack a good method of initiation. Any team that is forced to walk into melee range to force an engagement can expect to be kited and shot to pieces by a team that knows how to protect their Vayne.
As a Synergistic Pick
As might be expected for a champion with strong lategame single-target damage and mobility, Vayne fits best into a
protect-the-carry team composition and a
split teamfight philosophy. A highly synergistic team composition for Vayne might include something like Maokai top, Zilean mid, Jarvan IV jungle, and Alistar/Vayne on bottom lane. This team has lots of CC and buffs for Vayne as well as at least some poke to make up for Vayne's relative lack of it. It also excels at splitting enemy teams with Jarvan IV and Maokai. Any lategame damage fall off from Maokai and Zilean is compensated for by Vayne's tremendous scaling.
Bruisers
Since she lacks an attack speed steroid of her own, Vayne enjoys working with champions who give out attack speed. These include Warwick, Jarvan IV, Nidalee, and Nunu. Note that the latter two champions can also be used in a support role, or jungle/solo top. Warwick and Jarvan also favor the split philosophy and so synergize particularly well with Vayne.
Champions with strong low-cooldown slows can also help Vayne maintain that sweet spot that lets her stay in range firing her crossbow while out of hostile range. These champions include Rumble, Skarner, Nunu, Nasus, and Tryndamere.
Supports
Vayne rewards aggressive play with her wall-stun and passive speed boost while chasing. Since she lacks the early-game nukes of Graves and Caitlyn, she needs a support that can both shield/heal and CC to allow her to right-click to inflict damage. Otherwise, trading blows early-game with any other carry bar Ashe is not usually in Vayne's favor. Her best synergy is probably with Alistar, who can Pulverize/Headbutt enemies into position for a Condemn stun proc. Taric's playstyle is similar so he can work as well, but his stun isn't quite as useful as the double-CC of Alistar even with his multiple buff/debuffs.
Alistar has used Pulverize and Headbutt in combination with Exhaust and Condemn from Vayne for an easy first bloodAlternately, Vayne can also work well with Soraka, who can help Vayne weather her rough laning phase with multiple heals, an incredible armor buff, and a mana recharge. Laning Vayne with Soraka emphasizes more passive play centered around harassment and trading blows than killing. Soraka is unlikely to zone or threaten the opposing lane, but she provides significant sustain.
While Sona is always a strong support, Sona favors the
grouped teamfight philosophy and lacks the low-cooldown hard CC that lets Vayne truly punish an out-of-position enemy. Simply put, Sona can't hold people in place for Vayne to right-click as well as Alistar can in a prolonged teamfight.
The current metagame dictates that supports will generally not have much gold for items, but if someone has a Stark's Fervor, it helps Vayne appreciably, giving her lifesteal, attack speed, and armor reduction, all things that Vayne likes.
Other classes
Having an AP Zilean mid forces the enemy to choose between targeting Zilean first to remove the threat of his ultimate, or targeting Vayne first only to have her resurrect. While Zilean's damage does drop off lategame (total offensive AP ratio of 1.8 per spell rotation), Vayne is more than capable of providing extra damage provided she can be kept alive. Alternately, Morgana's shield can give Vayne more durability from assassins, while the threat of Morgana's Soul Shackles can make enemy teams scatter or flee, letting Vayne pick off targets one at a time as one of the best chasers in the game.
Non-Synergistic Picks
Vayne does not synergize well with AoE burst compositions, which tend to peak midgame and seek to fight clumped up enemies in order to destroy them with AoE burst. This is the antithesis of Vayne's sustained single-target damage which peaks lategame. Once champions like Amumu, Sona, and Morgana have blown their relatively long cooldowns, their ability to support Vayne is limited.
When to pick Vayne
Since her release, Vayne has tended to be one of the top picks for ranged AD carries, so in draft mode, picking her early is a priority. Picking a strong support should also be prioritized, as Vayne needs a strong support to do well against a competent ranged AD/support lane on bottom. Vayne's primary counters are assassins and strong early-game carries, which having a strong support like Alistar can help protect her from even into lategame.
Summary
- Vayne is primarily a lategame carry with strong single-target sustained damage
- Don't pick Vayne to counter any other AD carry except Ashe
- She is best duo-bot with an aggressive support in a Carry and Support lane but can also go solo top against bruisers without good gap-closers/ranged CC.
- Vayne's favored teamfight philosophy is split, not grouped.
- Vayne is a duelist who can 1v1 most non-assassin champions once properly itemized.
- Vayne prefers team compositions that are geared around protecting and supporting the carry.
Look out for future installments in the
Counterpicking series!
