Ying Guide: The Illusions That Heal and Explode
Ying, The Blossom — an elven spellcaster and a master of illusions, who escaped a bandit king’s imprisonment and now fights for Zhin’s New Resistance. She has been in Paladins since Closed Beta: added in April 2016 as a damage champion, pulled from the game and brought back as a support. In a match, she heals through copies of herself — up to three Illusions that each heal an ally for 450 every 1.6 seconds, explode on command with Shatter and double as teleport targets for Dimensional Link.
Her final kit took shape in 2023–2024. Patch 6.6 (October 2023) raised the illusion cap from two to three, with 1500 health each; 7.1 (January 2024) turned Illusory Rift into a cleanse — every debuff off every ally and a second of crowd-control immunity; 7.3 (May 2024) trimmed Life Exchange to 700, the last change to her talents, as the developers settled on “an Ult centric Support”. Since then only two of her cards have changed, and the 7.4 item rework turned Rejuvenate into a boost to her own healing — guides and videos from mid-2024 onward describe the Ying you play today.
And the ranked data repeats what we found for Makoa. In archived PaladinsGuru stats from September 2024 to March 2025, the most-played Ying loadout in every snapshot is the game’s own Life Exchange preset — and it is the lowest-winning of the top five every time, 46–49%. Life Exchange itself is her most-picked talent and her lowest-winning one, while Resonance, picked by roughly a third of Ying players, wins 54–56% in all four snapshots. One of her three Limited skins, Convention 2017 Ying, came in the same pack as Invitational Viktor.
Fire a five-beam burst every half-second — 90 damage per beam, 450 per burst, fully effective to 100 units with falloff beyond. It cannot headshot, its accuracy never blooms, and a burst that lands in full builds 3% ultimate charge. With Focusing Lens, landing all five beams adds 200 damage.
Send every active illusion chasing the nearest visible enemy; after 2 seconds each one explodes for 500 damage, with no falloff inside its blast. Every illusion you shatter is one that stops healing — it trades your healers for burst. Its cooldown dropped from 4 to 3 seconds in patch 5.7.
Place a lifelike copy of yourself up to 70 units away; for 8 seconds it heals the lowest-health ally within 85 units for 450 every 1.6s. Up to three can stand at once — a fourth replaces the oldest — and each has 1500 health. Hold the key to aim the placement. Patch 6.6 (October 2023) raised the cap from two to three and their health from 1000.
Swap places with your farthest illusion — or hold the key and release it on the one you want. With no illusions up, you teleport to where the last one stood. For 4 seconds you can press it again to return to where you started, and the cooldown only begins once that window ends. It is your only escape, and it only goes where an illusion has been.
Shatter your mirror to restore 4800 health to all allies over 8 seconds, cleanse every debuff on them and grant 1 second of crowd-control immunity. While it lasts, Dimensional Link can teleport you to any ally, and the healing keeps running even if you die. Since patch 7.1 (January 2024) the cleanse has replaced the True Healing it carried in late 2023, so anti-heal reduces it again.
Every illusion that dies or expires triggers a Shatter explosion for 550 damage, and shattered illusions move 65% faster with a 5-unit larger blast. Your healers become bombs that go off whether the enemy breaks them or the clock runs out. The best-performing talent in all four archived snapshots — 53.7–55.8% from September 2024 to March 2025 — and its pick rate rose to 36% by the last one.
The game’s own Resonance preset — the second most-played Ying loadout in every snapshot and the only one in the top five built around Shatter: 52.5%, 48.9%, 50.4% and 50.5%, almost 14,000 matches at 50.7% overall. Spring Bloom is the engine: an illusion the enemy kills explodes and comes back 2.5 seconds sooner, so the harder they shoot your copies, the more bombs you get.
- Put illusions where the enemy will shoot them — on the point, beside your tank. Every copy they break explodes for 550, and Spring Bloom brings the next one sooner.
- Do not shatter on reflex. A living illusion keeps healing 450 every 1.6s, and Resonance detonates it for free when it dies or its 8 seconds run out — press Shatter when you need the burst now.
- Keep one illusion back as your exit. Dimensional Link swaps you with the farthest one, so place it behind cover before the fight, not during.
- Illusory Rift cleanses and heals everyone for 8 seconds — spend it when anti-heal or crowd control is about to decide the fight, then link to the ally who needs you.
Shatter no longer explodes your illusions — it instantly heals the ally you aim at for 700, and a miss refunds 2 seconds of its cooldown. The most-picked talent (44–51% of Ying players) and the lowest-winning in every snapshot: 50.4% in September 2024, sliding to 49.2% by March 2025. Patch 7.3 (May 2024) cut the heal from 800 to 700, with the developers saying it gave “a little too much value for such high uptime”.
The Carry On variant of the Life Exchange preset: the same Brittle 5 and Spring Bloom 3 core, with Squadron’s three points moved into illusion duration. It won 53.7%, 50.2%, 52.3% and 53.2% — about 2,700 matches at 52.5%, and the best of the top five in three snapshots out of four. Skip the in-game preset itself: it is the most-played Ying loadout in every snapshot and the lowest-winning of the top five, 46.1–48.8%.
- Aim the heal: Life Exchange has no auto-aim. Put it on whoever is taking focus, and do not fear misses — a miss refunds 2 seconds.
- Your illusions keep healing on their own, and with Carry On 5 each one lasts 13 seconds — place all three, then spend your attention on the 700s.
- You are the team’s healing now, and the enemy knows it: stand behind your tank with one illusion placed back as an exit.
- Use Illusory Rift to break a push: the moment you press it, every debuff is cleansed and your team gets a second of crowd-control immunity, then 8 seconds of healing does the rest.
Land all five beams of an Illusory Mirror burst and the target takes 200 extra damage — 650 from a burst that normally deals 450. It does not work on illusions, pets or deployables. The default talent and the least picked (20–24%), at a steady 51.0–53.4%: Ying as a second damage threat whose illusions heal on their own.
PaladinsGuru does not tie loadouts to talents, and the game’s Focusing Lens preset never reached the top five. The closest fit is the third most-played Ying loadout in every snapshot: 52.0%, 52.1%, 50.6% and 49.5% — about 4,900 matches at 51.4%. Brittle 5 cuts Shatter to half a second, so the only limit on your bombs is how fast you place illusions.
- All five or nothing: the bonus needs every beam of a burst on the same target. Pick targets you can track — tanks and slow damage champions, not dashing flanks.
- Your weapon cannot headshot, so aim for the body — Focusing Lens rewards consistency, not precision.
- Place illusions first, shoot second: they heal your team while you deal damage, and Shatter turns them into 500-damage bombs when a target is low.
- You have 2200 health and one escape. Keep an illusion behind you and link out the moment a flank commits.
Ying’s whole kit runs through her illusions — they heal, they explode and they are her only escape. Kill them first: each has 1500 health, and a Ying with none up heals far less and can only link back to where the last one stood. Count the links — she can swap back within 4 seconds, so commit after the second jump. And keep shooting through Illusory Rift: it cleanses on activation, but every hit after that reapplies anti-heal to the 4800 health it restores. See where Ying sits in our tier list →
// COMMUNITY RESOURCES
Is Ying good in 2026?
A-tier, score 0.63 in our community-consensus tier list — second among supports only to Mal’Damba, and the one our sources agree on most: every list grades her between A and S, a 0.21 spread. She is the 11th most-played champion in our pick-rate proxy and third among supports, behind Seris and Jenos — and a beginner-friendly pick, since her illusions heal without any aim at all.
The talent table splits sharply. Resonance leads in all four archived snapshots at 53.7–55.8%, and its pick rate climbed to 36% by March 2025. Life Exchange — the single-target healer that roughly half of Ying players pick — slid from 50.4% to 49.2% over the same months, and Focusing Lens sits between them at 51.0–53.4%.
How do you counter Ying?
Kill the illusions first. Each one is 1500 health of healing and an escape route: break them and Ying heals far less and can only link back to where the last one stood. That is why Androxus tops her counters by community vote (+194, three voters in four) — a Defiance punch and two revolver shots take an illusion down. Evie (+76) and Grohk (+62) follow: Evie’s 850-damage blasts clear illusions and the allies beside them, and Grohk’s Shock Pulse bounces from an illusion into everyone near it.
Watch the Dimensional Link. Ying swaps with her farthest illusion and can swap back within 4 seconds, so the kill comes after the second jump, not the first. Illusory Rift is the other window to respect: it cleanses every debuff and grants a second of crowd-control immunity the moment she presses it, so hold your stun for a beat — and keep shooting, since every hit reapplies anti-heal to the 4800 health it restores over 8 seconds. Killing Ying does not stop it.
FAQ
What is the best Ying talent?
Resonance — the highest winrate of her three talents in every archived PaladinsGuru snapshot, 53.7–55.8% from September 2024 to March 2025. Every illusion that dies or expires explodes for 550 damage, and shattered illusions move 65% faster with a 5-unit larger blast. Focusing Lens follows at 51.0–53.4%; Life Exchange, the most-picked, trails at 49.2–50.4%.
What is the best Ying loadout?
With Life Exchange: Carry On 5, Brittle 5, Spring Bloom 3, Fracture 1 and Encouragement 1 — about 52.5% across 2,700 matches and the best of the top five in three snapshots out of four. The most-played loadout, the in-game Life Exchange preset, wins only 46–49%. With Resonance, the in-game Resonance preset is the only Shatter build in the top five, at 49–52.5%.
Does anti-healing work on Ying’s ultimate?
Yes, since patch 7.1 (January 2024). Patch 6.6 had made part of Illusory Rift True Healing; 7.1 removed that in exchange for a cleanse — every debuff off every ally and 1 second of crowd-control immunity on activation. The 4800 health it then restores over 8 seconds is reduced by anti-heal like any other healing, and it keeps running even if Ying dies.
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