Milio is the newest support inLeague of Legends, and while this warmhearted enchanter might not appear to be a threat, he is causing enemies a lot of misery on the Rift. To understand how to counter Milio, players must understand his strengths and weakness. In terms of strengths, Milio excels at sitting in the backline uninterrupted, buffing up his allies. His ultimate, a large AOE heal and cleanse, naturally makes him a great answer to hard CC engages. However, he cannot cleanse knockups, making them a counter to Milio.
Milio is also fairly weak in the laning phase, with limited trading tools and no real way to get a fight started on his own. To take advantage of this,players can punish him in the bot lanewith either engage or heavy poke. Alternatively, they can pick a champion with superior scaling, knowing they are unlikely to be interrupted on their way to the late game. As Milio has a large effect on teamfights inLeague of Legends, it is not just bot laners and supports that can look to counter Milio, but the whole team.
5Blitzcrank
If players are able to land their hooks, then Blitzcrank is almost always a great counter to immobile enchanters like Milio. By either hitting Milio or the ADC, one Blitzcrank Q is often enough to secure a kill and start snowballing the lane. Even just the fear of his hook can generate unlimited pressure, zoning off the enemy from farming. In fact, it is this fear that makes Blitzcrank one ofthe most hated champions inLeague of Legends.
RELATED:League Of Legends: Beginner Tips For Support
Unlike other engage supports,Blitzcrank can’t be stopped by Milio’s Q,which pushes back targets, as he himself does not go in. As Blitzcrank’s two main forms of CC are displacement, a pull on his Q, and a knockup on his E, Milio’s cleanse will be useless versus these powerful tools. Ideally, Blitzcrank would be picked alongside a lane-dominant ADC with plenty of burst to follow up on successful grabs.
4Soraka
Countering a champion inLeague of Legendsdoes not always have to be about killing them on repeat. Sometimes, a certain champion opens up other win conditions for the enemy team. This is the case with Milio, as his lack of aggressive tools can allow champions with superior scaling to breeze through the laning phase.
Soraka, for example, isone of the best scaling supports in the game, due to the sheer amount of healing she can output in late-game teamfights. While she normally can be punished by deep dive and hard engage, this is not something Milio can do.
3Sona
Similarly to Soraka, Sona has incredible scaling with the ability to shield, speed up, and heal all of her allies in the late game. To balance out this late-game power, Sona is notoriously weak in the early stages of the game and should not be blind picked, lest she gets countered herself.
However, when the enemy locks in Milio, especially with a weaker ADC, Sona can be a great option if players simply want to outscale the Gentle Flame. Of course, threats can come from other lanes too,particularly junglersor any assassins. But in the bot lane, Sona should have an easy time stacking up her support item in simple trades versus Milio. If players go even on Sona, and get their levels and items, they should find success in the teamfights, where their utility will outperform Milio.
2Zyra
While Milio has the tools to deal with a little bit of poke in lane, his long cooldowns make extensive poke hard to deal with. This is one of the reasons why Zyra does well countering Milio, with her plants as a constant source of damage. As Milio only has his Q to help with waveclear, and that also has a long cooldown, he and his ADC will also find themselves pushed under tower.
RELATED:League Of Legends: Advanced Laning Tips
Another way in which Zyra counters Milio is with herultimate, which knocks up targets in a large area, dealing damage, and enraging her plants to attack faster. Milio’s ult cannot cleanse this knockup, and while it will heal his allies, Zyra’s plants will be left unharmed and carry on attacking.
1Malphite And Other Champions With Big Knockups
Situationally, Milio has one ofthe strongest defensive abilities in the entire gamewith his ultimate Breath of Life. As his ult can cleanse most hard CC and gives those affected bonus tenacity for 3 seconds, it is great into large lockdown abilities like the ults of Amumu and Renata Glasc. Knockups, however, cannot be cleansed, nor are they affected by tenacity, which makes them great at countering Milio.
Whereas Milio and his fellow backliners would normally consider themselves safe from engage, champions such as Malphiterocking down from top lanecan quickly ruin their day. Malphite in particular is also unstoppable while ulting, meaning that Milio can’t interrupt him with Q, something that champions like Rakan and Alistar would have to look out for. Long-range knockups like Ornn’s ultimate are also great options.
League of Legendsis available on PC and Mac.
