How to play Samira and dominate the bot lane in LoL

Samira is a unique, short-range marksman who excels at high-octane carry moments. Here’s how to play Samira in League of Legends and steamroll the competition.

From being able to extend the duration of crowd control to the ability to make entire ultimates disappear, Samira is one of League of Legends’ most unique champions. She’s a fast, mobile skirmisher who is rewarded for performing combos before diving head-first into the enemy team to unleash disgusting amounts of damage. Here’s how to play Samira and get the most out of her abilities.

What are Samira’s abilities?

Samira is a unique marksman, and her kit gives her tools that few other auto-attack focused carries have access to.

Samira’s passive is Daredevil Impulse. Damaging enemies builds a Style rank, a letter grade that ranks up with each hit. Samira gains significant bonus movement speed based on her Style stacks.

At the same time, Samira’s passive makes her strike enemies within 200 units with her blade instead of her pistol. These attacks deal bonus damage and include an execute that increases its damage with the enemy’s missing health.

The final part of Samira’s passive allows her to dash towards immobilized champions and knock them up for half a second. All of these tools on her passive alone are clearly meant for Samira to hang on the edge of a fight before flying forwards for one very impactful moment.

Flair is Samira’s Q, which sends out a bullet at short range that deals physical damage. If a target is close to Samira, she slashes in front of her with her blade instead. Using this at this same time as her E, Wild Rush, will damage enemies hit by the dash. This ability can critically strike and also applies lifesteal.

Blade Whirl is Samira’s W, and perhaps her most important ability. Upon casting, Samira will spin her blades twice, destroying all non-turret enemy projectiles in her immediate vicinity. This functions like a miniature Yasuo Wind Wall, and can be even better in some scenarios. Samira’s ultimate can be cast early to end it. This is Samira’s key defensive tool alongside Wild Rush and can even neutralize abilities like Tristana’s bomb.

Samira’s E is Wild Rush, a dash that goes through an enemy and gains bonus attack speed. Getting takedowns on enemy champions will reset Wild Rush’s cooldown, allowing Samira to get in and out of fights as long as she can find the execution.

Finally comes Inferno Trigger, Samira’s flashy ultimate. Inferno Trigger can only be cast when Samira has an S-rank passive. Samira unloads a hail of bullets around herself, firing at every nearby enemy. These shots can critically strike and apply lifesteal. This ultimate is Samira’s payoff and the team-melting damage that makes her a feared carry.

Samira’s kit is meant to reward her for calculated risks. Samira is most powerful when dashing into entire enemy teams to unleash waves of bullets, and her high-skill kit gives her the tools to create some true highlight moments.

The best Samira builds

Samira is one of the few AD carries who can still make great advantage of the Conqueror keystone rune, where many ranged champions opt for other rune choices.

Most Samira players build Precision as their primary rune tree and Domination as the second. After Conqueror, the best Samira players take Triumph, Legend: Bloodline, and Last Stand. For Domination, the easy picks are Sudden Impact for a burst of lethality, and Eyeball collection for more bonus attack damage.

This rune setup is meant to reward Samira for finding choice moments to shine, allowing her to stack up attack damage from Conqueror as she looks to gain Style ranks before dashing in to channel an ultimate with all the extra attack damage she’s received.

As a result of this risky style, most high-level Samira players opt for Immortal Shieldbow in order to reliably survive the moments when she wants to dive into the enemy team. At the same time, many eschew the need for the Heal summoner spell and instead opt for Cleanse, enabling her to break free from crowd control and ultimate should the enemy team lock her down.

From there, many Samira players focus on getting The Collector, Infinity Edge, and Plated Steelcaps for boots once Shieldbow is purchased. These items enable her ultimate, which is the ability that most players focus on. Samira’s ultimate can end fights solo, so securing kills after diving in is of paramount importance.

Samira is a carry who spends most of the fight skirmishing at the edge of her range before diving forward to unleash big damage with her ultimate. With the ability to extend crowd control, Samira can reach out and convert a pick into a multi-kill.

If you enjoyed our guide on how to play Samira, check our Senna guide for tips on another unique AD carry.