The Complete Naafiri Mid Guide

Have you ever been called a dog so much in solo queue that you actually wanted to become one? Well, have no fear, Naafiri is the latest released champion in League of Legends, she is the brand new AD mid lane assassin that’s actually a dog. In this Naafiri Mid Guide, we’ll be focusing on her best runes, best builds, her playstyle, and some of her matchups.

Naafiri Abilities

Naafiri’s passive is We Are More.
Naafiri passively spawns mini-me packmates that mirror her attacks and assist her abilities.
Hitting champions with abilities, or last hitting anything, reduces the cooldown of a packmate spawn.
As Naafiri levels up, her spawn rate and maximum capacity will increase.
Each packmate helps Naafiri last hit occasionally, has its own health, and can act as a shield to skill shots, sometimes.

Naafiri’s Q fires Darkin Daggers which damage and bleed all enemies hit.
Packmates will swarm the first champion hit in a deadly dogpile.
Naafiri can recast this ability within a short window.
If it hits a bleeding enemy, the remaining bleed will be dealt instantly, plus missing health damage.
And if the target is a champion, Naafiri will heal.

With her W, Hounds’ Pursuit Naafiri briefly channels before dashing to an enemy.
Her packmates pounce after her dealing extra damage for each puppy pal.
Naafiri will chase her enemy within in a wide range.
But be careful, other champions can block the impact of her charge.

Naafiri’s E, Eviscerate, lets her dash a short distance, damaging enemies in her path.
When she lands Naafiri explodes in a swirl of steel.
Her packmates are recalled and healed to full, which is useful for leashing them out of trouble.

The Call of the Pack.
Naafiri’s R, spawns bonus packmates to assist her.
Each packmate also gets a health and move speed boost, kind of like my dog when it’s time to eat.
Naafiri gains attack damage, out of combat move speed, a burst of vision, and a shield when she first attacks a champion.
On her first takedown all those effects are refreshed, making her very lethal.

Naafiri Mid Runes

If you are feeling spicy and want to be a pure head on assassin, this electrocute setup will be very good for this champion specially against a pretty squishy team. If the enemy team has more of a tanky team comp, consider going for a more bruisery build with Conqueror, Presence of Mind, Tenacity, Last Stand with Resolve secondary.

You can proc Electrocute with 2 Q’s, since your wolves will jump on the enemy on the first Q. Sudden Impact, because Naafiri has 2 dashes, Eyeball Collection will help you for scaling and Treasure Hunter which is good for gold.

For the secondary tree, you can go for something like Coup de Grace for extra damage and Presence of Mind to help with mana issues.

For the secondary tree you can also go Sorcery, with Transcendence and Manaflowband, which will help with early game mana problems aswell and scaling cdr.

Naafiri Mid Build

Duskblade of Draktharr or Eclipse

Ionian Boots of Lucidity Black Cleaver Serylda's Grudge Edge of Night Deaths Dance

Starting Items: For the most part you’ll be starting a long sword with refillable or a long sword with three health potions, depending on how hard the matchup might be, you can also go doran’s shield if you want to play safer.

First Recall: Ideally you want to recall with around 1050G, so you can buy a Serrated Dirk and Boots which then you will want to upgrade to Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

Mythic Options: You could either go Eclipse or Duskblade. Duskblade is really strong right now so it’s obviously a really good buy, but Eclipse seems to also synergize pretty well with Naafiri, if you hit your Q your dogs jump onto the target which will instantly proc Eclipse from literally one ability.

Second Core Item: You can go for Seryldas or Black Cleaver, you’ll build both of these since they are very strong (you probably see this on every ad assassin build). Black Cleaver gives you armor pen, movement speed, a lot of haste and lot of HP so you become tanky but still do a lot of damage and shred the targets and then obviously Seryldas gives you more armor pen, more ability haste and then a slow. Seryldas will be pretty important to Naafiri because we are very reliant on hitting the Q and if the target is slowed then it’ll be a lot easier to hit your second Q.

Serpents Fang Situational Items: If you are facing like an Ivern or a Lulu you can go for Serpent’s Fang, if they have super healing, go for Chempunk. Death’s Dance if you are facing a full AD team, Maw against AP team and Edge of Night if you need to dodge an important ability.

Naafiri Counters

Irelia: This should be your ban if you plan on playing Naafiri. She can stack her passive on your dogs and she is also very mobile, which will be very hard for you to hit your Q’s.

Vex: To beat Vex, I recommend you buy Boots as early as possible to dodge her abilities. Buy Edge of Night for better all-ins vs her.

Zed: To beat Zed, you will need to use your E to dodge his combos. Play off his cooldowns and try to buy Ionian Boots early.

Naafiri Combos

Mastering Naafiri’s deadly combos is essential to secure those all-important kills in the game. While she may seem like a straightforward champion, here are two key combos you’ll want to learn to make your gameplay more effective.

These Combos and Images were taken from here.