League of Legends: How to counter Bel'Veth the Void Empress

It's been more than a month since Bel'Veth arrived in League of Legends (LoL).

The Void Empress quickly became one of the most sinister forces on the Summoner's Rift, getting nerfed multiple times in patches 12.12 and 12.12b due to how strong she was right out of the gate.

Even then, Bel'veth's win rate has still been hovering at 49.90+% to 50+%, and most champions find much difficulty countering her due to her infinite speed stacks and her ultimate, Endless Banquet.

With a 47.8% ban rate in ranked games, you might not encounter the Void Empress as often as older champions.

But what if you do? It's probably bad news for your entire team, not just the jungler.

It seems nearly impossible to get away from or chase Bel'Veth. She has too much utility in her kit, can be a turret buster, and is nigh unstoppable in the late game.

Or is she? If you're hard stuck on Ranked or just want to outmanoeuvre the Void Empress, we've got you covered.

Here are some tips and tricks you'll need to counter the unstoppable Empress of the Void:

Hound her in the Early Game

If you don't know it yet, Bel'Veth is at her weakest in the early game, when her E has a longer cooldown and she has little to no stacks on her passive.

This is your team's window to keep her from becoming too fast and too strong.

The Void Empress gains stacking permanent bonus attack speed for every large monster she finishes off. So it's best if you can steal her jungle monsters or execute early ganks to deny her from farming and scaling sooner rather than later.

Don't get cocky, though.

While she may be at her weakest early on, it doesn't mean that she's weak at all.

So, this may sound like horror movie advice, but whatever you do, don't try to come at her alone. Try to take her down with your teammates instead.

Don't give her the Rift Herald and Baron

One of your team's priorities should be to deny the Rift Herald and Baron from Bel'Veth. The more objectives she takes off the map, the stronger she becomes.

She gets a bonus for slaying monsters from the Void, which allows her to transform slain allied minions into 'Void Remora', her own purple minions that can help push lanes.

Not great news if you want any map control. And that's going to pressure your jungler never to miss a Smite.

However, as an entire team, try to zone Bel'Veth and her team out of Baron pit and protect your jungler so it would be easier for them to secure the objective.

After all, you're a team, and it's not only your jungler's job to try and take the Baron or Rift Herald.

Save the Crowd Control for her E (Royal Maelstrom)

Bel'veth's E is one of the most broken abilities in her kit.

With her Royal Maelstrom, the Empress of the Void produces this sphere-like field (which slashes opponents) and gets reduced damage and increased life steal. The ability also auto-attacks the lowest health target nearby.

So it will be difficult to kill her when she comes at you with her E.

Use your crowd control skills to disengage or dash away and use long-range poke. If you're out of luck and you don't have crowd control, pop a Stopwatch if you have one.

Don't Chase Her

Bel'Veth is very fast, and she has a lot of tools to escape. And as the game goes on, she's even faster and can use her Q (Void Surge) more often, so she will be very slippery.

Therefore, it's a waste of time trying to chase her around the map to secure a kill.

You can use the time instead to get other map objectives, take down turrets, and do other things to force the Bel'Veth player out of their comfort zone.

Build the right items

Not all items work on all champions, and anyway, you probably have a build in mind for the champion you've picked.

Nonetheless, picking up a few of these items might make sense overall if you're facing Bel'Veth, depending on your fighting style, your team composition, and what the enemy team's draft is like.

We already mentioned the Stopwatch before, which puts the champion that owns it in stasis when popped.

This item builds into Zhonya's Hourglass, a mage item that puts the owning champion on stasis, too, useful for stalling for time. Additionally, the Armour stat can help build more defence into your champion.

Thornmail/Bramble Vest is also important since Bel'Veth auto-attacks a lot.

These items can reflect auto-attacks on the attacker. It also counters healing, which is excellent if the Bel'Veth player placed the Conqueror rune on her.

Or perhaps you can pick up Plated Steelcaps to reduce 12% of the damage from auto attacks.

Finally, Randuin's Omen/Frozen Heart is beneficial to lowering Bel'veth's attack speed.

Pick Champions that Counter Her

Bel'Veth's attack speed may be her strength, but it can also be used against her.

As she is primarily an AD fighter, you'd want to pick champions with high armour and invulnerability or ones who can block her attacks.

Don't pick champions like Karthus, Zed, Nidalee or Viego against Bel'Veth, as their win rates are significantly low against her.

According to current stats, Qiyana is Bel'veth's biggest counter, with a win rate ranging from 54-62% (currently 54.7% according to u.gg).

Qiyana can outmanoeuvre Bel'veth, proving to be the jungle queen with her Elemental Wrath and movement speed.

Another notorious counter is Rammus (53.05% win rate), who reflects her auto-attacks and increases his armour when needed.

His Powerball and his Taunt can also hold her down so she doesn't get to eat the Void Corals dropped by slain champions, which can unlock her true form. Amumu is a similar pick to Rammus in this regard.

Fiddlesticks (53.77%), the newest big baddie in the Star Guardians Universe, is also shaping up to be Bel'veth's nemesis especially after he received some love in 12.13.

Fiddlesticks has a lot of crowd control and can use his Q Fear to stop Bel'veth in her tracks and silence her with his E.

Other counters from other lanes (or the jungle) may include Jax and Shen, who can ignore Bel'Veth's auto-attacks; Xin Zhao, who can shut her down in the early game; Kindred, who can give invulnerability to his team; Taliyah, who can interrupt her with Unravel; and Poppy, who has Steadfast Presence to lock her down and even block her Q.

Build your team around a healthy mix of high armour, anti-mobility and anti-heal.

So, is the Void Empress not so scary anymore?

We hope this guide was helpful. Otherwise, you can just continue to perma-ban her.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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