How to counter Fanny in Mobile Legends; Best Items and Hero Picks

Fanny is a very interesting hero in Mobile Legends, and possibly one of the most difficult characters to play in the game.

Not only is Fanny a very difficult hero to play, it gets more challenging to play her at higher levels of the game.

That being said, Fanny can be an extremely deadly and disruptive hero in the game when played well, and could even change the tide of a losing game even at the most competitive stages.

In this guide, we will be covering different ways on how players can counter Fanny’s presence in the game.

About Fanny and her abilities

Fanny is an assassin-class hero with an extremely mobile style of playing — making her one of the hardest heroes to “catch” in the game.

She is akin to “Spider-Man”, where she is able to shoot “steel cables” to walls to lunge herself (flying mid-air) towards a specific direction.

While mid-air, she is able to attack and deal high amounts of damage to enemy heroes before quickly escaping (lunging herself off somewhere else again).

Players who are able to master the art of flying Fanny will not only be capable of picking off lone heroes very quickly, they are nearly impossible to target.

Fanny’s abilities are mainly centered around 3 main areas:

• Skill 1 (Tornado Strike): A high burst damage attack to enemies surrounding her.
• Skill 2 (Steel Cable): Fanny shoots a cable/hook to a nearby wall that lunges her (flying) in that direction. She can shoot multiple hooks to change the angle/direction of her flying.
• Ultimate: Another very high burst damage attack to a single target.
• Passive: Fanny does more damage while she is flying. The damage increases depending on how fast she flies.

How Fanny is Played

Fanny can be a very annoying hero to play against.

Similar to many other assassin heroes like Natalia, Karina, and Aamon, Fanny will focus on targeting enemies that are weaker to physical damage such as marksmen, mages, and other assassins.

It is usually very difficult to anticipate when Fanny will come, as she is capable of travelling very quickly across the map.

Here is how Fanny is typically played:

1. Players first identify areas on the map that Fanny can bring a significant combat advantage (ie: team engagements or heroes that are wounded / alone / escaping)
2. Fanny will head towards the hero and subsequently lunge herself in the direction towards the hero using her Steel Cable ability.
3. While flying, Fanny will use skill 1 (Tornado Strike) when the enemy hero is next to Fanny.
4. Players will repeat 2. and 3., flying around the enemy until they are weak enough to unleash her Ultimate skill. If the hero is still alive, Fanny will gradually pick them off with normal attacks, or fly towards them again if they manage to escape further.
5. In the event enemy teammates start to arrive, Fanny will escape by flying away.

Most Fanny players generally roam around the map looking to pick off weak heroes and jump into winning team fights, while spending most of their time farming in the jungle areas.

Most players also typically go for retribution (jungling) as their battle spell, giving Fanny a level (and financial) advantage during the early game (she will most likely be level 4 when everyone else is still level 2/3).

How to Counter Fanny

Fanny’s high burst damage coupled with her flying ability make her extremely hard to catch and anticipate when coming.

That being said, Fanny has many weaknesses:

• She has low HP, making her very easy to take down.
• Her abilities consume energy, which only recharges over time OR when she is able to hit an enemy. Her energy charges very slowly on its on.
• To increase her base energy from 100 to 120, Fanny needs to kill the purple jungle monsters consistently to maintain the increased energy buff. She is particularly exposed (and probably weaker) during this time.
• Fanny’s Steel Cable (skill 2) ability MUST attach itself to a nearby wall in order for her to fly. If she misses the wall OR the wall is too far away, she will not go anywhere (and this will consume her energy).
• Her base movement speed is fairly slow, and some players don’t buy boots due to their redundancy.

So the key to countering Fanny is simple:

• Disable her quickly with stuns.
• Stay in open areas where there are fewer surrounding walls for her to use her second skill on.
• Don’t stick too close to each other in groups as her Tornado Strike (skill 1) has an AOE damage effect (it will hit multiple targets).
• Ensure that your health is not too low (preferably above 70%) while in the battlefield.
• Stick close to the tower if she attempts to attack, and “kite” her around the tower when she gets close.

Hero Picks to Counter Fanny

Similar to other assassin heroes, Fanny is a melee combat hero — requiring her to get close to an opponent in order to effectively cast her skills.

So the key to countering Fanny is to stun / kill her the moment she gets close, and to ensure you have sufficient HP / defensive items while going into the battlefield — pretty much the same playbook to counter nearly every Assassin hero:

• Stunning / disabling her before she gets close (heroes like Saber, Zilong, Ruby, Lolita, etc.)
• Staying in open areas (not too close to areas with many surrounding walls)
• Using ranged heroes with the ability to easily escape easily (Brody, Miya, Granger, etc.)
• Using burst damage magic heroes (Eudora, Cyclops, Aurora, etc.)
• Buying more physical defensive gear

Fanny Item Counters

Considering Fanny deals only physical damage, items to counter her would generally be anything that could:

• Reduce physical damage (higher armor) items
• Increase HP significantly
• Higher movement speed (to kite her while she’s flying)
• Outlast her on a head-to-head combat
• Prevent her from dealing any damage to you (Winter Truncheon’s active spell)

In Conclusion

Fanny is a hero that requires tremendous skill and specialization, and most players will have a hard time playing her.

Despite her high damage output, her effectiveness starts to decline towards the later stages of the game as opponent heroes become stronger with more HP.

She is also fairly easy to “kite” (escape while running zigzag), and her flying can be mitigated by staying in very open areas.

The key is to stay in open areas, pick heroes with “disabling” spells, increase your physical defence, and get good at kiting her.