Master Yi/Strategy

In Lane
In lane, Master Yi requires some quick skill and knowledge of lane match-ups to do well. Most of said match-ups are either even (thus, very dependent on the players' skill) or against him, so he can't often afford to rush in recklessly. However, should he receive the leads he needs, he is able to push lane quite well. But with that said, he can push lane too soon which can lead to him being easily ganked. Much of Yi's gameplay in lane would involve patient farming and lane-freezing, so as to not overextend. Though in comparison to the jungle, Yi can gain more frequent exp and gold over time should he diligently farm.

Jungle
Master Yi is a farming jungler with very little gank capability before he is Level 6 and receives his ability. His sustain from and whatever life steal he has lets him stay for however long he needs. The enchantment is best suited to him as the attack speed synergizes with his kit and lets farming be even more beneficial. Though for those focusing on more early raw damage with other attack speed items, is also well-suited for its armor penetration. When ganking, using lets him get up close and stick to his target to put out his damage. Being a powerful dueler due to the nature of his kit, he can usually kill opponents by himself so long as they aren't going to kill him first or live long enough to be under the (relative) safety of their turrets.

Late Game
Master Yi's team fighting prowess is not his strong suit. In general, he fails easier as the quantity of opponents ready to focus his squishy health reserves become more common. When going in, Yi must take advantage of enemy cooldowns, 's brief invulnerability, and 's damage reduction to stay in the fight. His damage output is high enough to take down even tanks swiftly, so target whatever is nearest and get up as often as possible. You may only be wasting time if you chase a kiting carry, so avoid leaving yourself open and your sword not swinging, because the sooner an opponent dies, the sooner you have your abilities off cooldown.

Skill Usage

 * is a DPS-based champion that relies more on his auto attacks for damage through extra attack speed and only occasional use of his abilities which tend to be more for personal utility. Because of his ease of usage with high damage DPS, he is rather infamous due to being hard to duel against, his being a powerful invincible execute to low health targets, and his  providing resets on his ability cooldowns without him missing a beat as he slays his enemies.
 * In order to unlock full potential, perfect timing/reflexes and having knowledge of your enemies abilities/cooldowns is highly recommended as  more than most other champions because of his low base defense, and weakness against hard CC.  is one of the most squishy melee auto-attack champions in the game, putting him in a lot of danger when he engages (it is for this reason some higher-level players build him as a bruiser).  is simple to learn, hard to master when against more powerful opponents, and easy to counter by CC and itemization, especially if played in higher levels of competitive play, many players would have better knowledge of how to counter him.
 * However, in the end he is extremely rewarding, with the potential to carry games once you master him and thus, mainly tosses most complicated traits involving caster-type champions out the window in place of learning to make solid decisions and make use of proper positioning. Also, one must be wary of the fact he has no team utility such as a form of crowd control, but he must and can still do his job as an assassin regardless.
 * is similar to . It is very useful for dealing extra damage to enemies in lane, by gathering stacks through attacking minions, then attacking the enemy on the fourth strike. Note that delaying too long will cause the buff to disappear.
 * It is possible to cancel the second strike before the animation finishes, so be careful not to unnecessarily prevent its use.
 * Using with  ready and activating  as soon as  reappears can be an excellent harassment technique as it often takes most of the opponent's health in early game.
 * multiple-target component has a deceptively long range. You can target minions near an enemy champion to harass them, as well as farm at a better rate compared to most champions.
 * If  is used on a unit that dies before the ability finishes,  will end up where  was first cast as opposed to near the first unit cast on.
 * can also be used defensively. Since it includes a dash function, you can dodge skillshots. Also, is untargetable during the teleport, so  can be used to dodge AoE nukes such as  if timed properly.
 * can also be used to escape chasing enemies, by placing a ward in the Neutral monster camp and using on the creep, or by targeting nearby minions if fleeing while in a lane (be careful if the minion dies however! Yi will not end up anywhere else if he  a dying target).
 * also causes to lose tower aggro when he uses it, by keeping a few friendly and enemy minions around  can tower dive an enemy champion without fearing the tower's attack after the dive.
 * He can also time it right when if during an even duel, to use it as an invincible execute, in case the enemy has one final attack of some sort either through auto attacks or ability burst as Yi can avoid it while killing them at the same time.
 * By timing properly,  can follow enemy champions over walls when they use a blink or a dash ability like  or.
 * is great for harassing no matter how many minions in a wave there are so that Yi can harass his foe for amazing damage from a distance. It is best for Yi to use Alpha Strike as a gap-closer and to dodge attacks. One must also keep track of other potential targets due to the ability also targeting the closest ones around.
 * has a high mana cost, so be careful not to use it too often or else you'll go OoM.
 * If you're in a lane against ranged players, leveling up can allow you to stay in the lane longer and gain levels faster than the opponents.
 * Use if you are being focused on, as the percentage damage reduction greatly reduces your damage taken.
 * is especially useful when an opponent is trying to turret dive against . He can stand next to the turret and use to hold off damage from the opponent while they are repeatedly being hit by the turret.
 * can help  survive deadly 1v1 skirmishes by briefly activating  right before the opponent throws high burst at you. In most cases this can turn the tide of the fight as your opponent can't finish you off quickly afterwards.  can reduce up to 70% incoming damage at max level, making it essential for any  player to master this trick, and to time it right and being sure they won't die while doing so, because once Yi channels his heal, being a sitting duck can backfire on him.
 * When you are being chased, hiding in a brush and channeling can give you the upper hand against the enemies. However, do not do this if they can still defeat you after the.
 * When playing, remember that reduces all your cooldowns by 70%. Try to cast  to secure kills or grab assists, reducing your cooldowns.
 * can be used as an effective escape tool, especially with used at the same time. it is also incredibly great at chasing enemies because you cannot be slowed and gain a movement speed boost.
 * Triggering and  causes massive spikes in  DPS, allowing for unparalleled dueling and assassinating potential. However, the former if activated too soon will reduce Yi's damage output upon the active wearing off while on cooldown due to short duration, and must be used if about to score a kill or if extra damage must be done on the get go.
 * combined with is very strong for last hitting minions.
 * is one of the best split pushers and can quite easily pull off a backdoor. Not only can he push lane very well with enough attack speed items, activating then attacking a turret or inhibitor can take it down very fast.
 * Though it should be noted that 's active does not work on structures, so hold onto it for the AD bonus instead.
 * Once gets enough major items, he is able to rush into the enemy team, swiftly assassinate key targets like the marksmen or mages, and then  or escape. Watch for cooldowns on disables while doing this, and make sure the enemy team is unwary, otherwise a bad decision can lead to a kill for the enemy team.
 * must pick his targets wisely with proper coverage from either the environment, situation, or via ganking; he can die easily if used recklessly without careful planning, and often needs his abilities to be able to win in most one-on-one fights with raw auto-attacking. And in other words, it's crucial to know when to engage into a fight Yi can win in.
 * Despite lacking in teamfights, it's possible for him to dive into an enemy team cluster and run back out at full speed, due to his high base movement speed and with the combination of certain items and his ultimate making himself the perfect decoy/distraction and enabling his team to find a proper time to initiate.
 * It's wise to be sure that not all enemies are close and packed together, but are still within reach, so that cooldown refreshes from are more effective without landing  in too much danger of getting focused on; an example would be  usage to attack multiple targets to close the gap (depending on which enemy you choose to focus), especially if 's damage is quite high during the time.
 * is over-reliant on at times to make sure he's as mobile as possible while being able to duel with anyone 1v1. Make sure it's often off cooldown before running in to deal damage to any vital enemy champion, and be careful not to waste it too suddenly.

Item Usage

 * is almost always built as a melee AD carry focusing mainly on DPS for easy consistent damage because of his kit's nature. It is possible to build him as a heavy-hitting bruiser or burst carry, but Bruiser Yi is less recommended as it requires more experience and knowledge to succeed with in terms of trial and error from build varieties. However, bruiser builds no doubt, are recommended for anyone who prefers to live longer while still being able to deal damage.
 * It is due to the trial and error portion, Yi actually has very versatile build paths, and has many different items considered to be "core" to his kit. It's difficult to know which item builds provide the best results, but it allows him to stand out and be flexible with specific build paths.
 * The standard AD carry build revolves around a combination of attack damage, attack speed, critical strike chance, and armor penetration for maximum DPS, with survivability through life steal and minimal defensive items. damage directly scales in strength with all of these stats.
 * His AD grows multiplicatively due to, making it an obvious build choice.
 * Due to active providing true damage, armor penetration is somewhat less of a priority for Yi, but it should not be neglected to be purchased regardless.
 * Playing him as a caster-type champion in the original days of Ability Power tends to be risky if not, completely difficult due to proper need for timely for initiation and his squishiness, but full-raw attack damage builds that revolve around maximizing 's damage output for high one-shot burst are possibly just as effective, though armor penetration and cooldown reduction are to be considered, as well as high critical strike chance.
 * Because  is very fragile, burst damage through critical strikes and items providing life steal helps him finish the work quickly and stay alive as long as he's doing damage.
 * Due to , attack speed items like  and  and items that provide bonuses on attacking or subsequent attacking like  are more useful on . Also, higher attack speed dramatically reduces the cooldown for . However, for maximum DPS, and to boost  damage and, it is strongly recommended to not focus on stacking attack speed, otherwise there may be some occasions where Yi won't deal that much damage per hit. Due to this, a balance of actual damage and attack speed usually needs to be considered.
 * Because of the attack speed and movement speed steroid from, it is recommended to neglect these stats in the beginning of the game (other than boots) while itemizing for attack damage and life steal instead. This gives the highest increase in DPS and sustain.
 * It is important to keep in mind that with  attack speed bonus it's not hard to cap out attack speed at 2.5 attacks per second, meaning you may have unused stats during .
 * , as with most champions, helps in laning because of the basic attack damage reduction, health, and health regeneration, and if the player is planning to build him as a bruiser.
 * is a great major item since it provides a little bit of several stats. With the attack speed boost of, and the multiple opponent application from you can easily benefit from the stacking mechanism that penetrates their armor, as well as focusing on its higher raw damage. This item however, is more recommended for any raw damage/bruiser builds over more attack speed-focused builds.
 * The most recent reworked version of this item however, can now easily benefit  due to the armor shred having a greater effect due to his overall DPS, and the cooldown reduction has increased making Yi's abilities easier to spam. The Rage passive also works well in chasing and kiting, and its HP makes it a great bruiser item for Yi more than ever. Not only can it also boost the damage of his and allow that very ability to also apply stacks, but Yi can also build it to help his team by shredding armor for them as well.
 * / is very recommended on all  builds, even tanky ones, since  and  second hit can crit.
 * Used in combination with or, not only is DPS greatly improved, but so his movement capability.
 * It is generally accepted that is superior to  because of its better stats and due to no need to manage any special-and-timely-on-hit tactics. However,  is mainly for those who want to focus on extra AoE and mixed damage burst, especially since  counts as movement for stacking up its passive.
 * and the active effect of  can be used as a popular combo to gain huge amounts of attack speed and movement speed. This can likely catch unwary opponents off guard and allow for a very fast gap-close, as well as a huge boost of DPS for dueling and taking enemy structures. However, both can be used back and forth in case one steroid expires, then the other can be activated as a backup.
 * can act as a minor source of damage, and synergizes well with  and . This can allow you to improve your magic resistance without sacrificing a significant amount of damage potential.
 * is extremely vulnerable to crowd control abilities, especially blind and snare, so players can consider  as a summoner spell to counteract these effects.
 * The  can provide the active effect, and is very useful for countering crowd control. The magic resistance also helps against return damage from, a primary counter to . Building it into the  is highly recommended due to the high Attack Damage bonus and because Yi greatly benefits from the movement speed buff.
 * similarly helps to fizzle initiation abilities (which are often crowd control).
 * Building  will help you survive due to the aversion to focus someone with it, and the passive can allow you to come back to a fight just as the opponents get low on health and clean up with repeated .
 * is a fantastic item when playing, with its multiple stats and passives.
 * The Rage passive enables a fine substitute or compliment for , allowing him to easily stick to most every target with auto-attacks, as well as being able to kite.
 * The Spellblade passive can lead to impressive early-mid game burst in conjunction with  and . However, will not make Spellblade hit twice.
 * The movement speed bonus has a higher effect since Master Yi has the highest base movespeed in the game.
 * The critical chance, attack damage, and attack speed synergize with his kit as a whole, while the small amount of AP slightly improves his 's healing.
 * The HP and mana amount is also solid for extra defense and more spell casts, and if possible can be worked into some bruiser builds.
 * In the Jungle, Master Yi most benefits from with the  enchantment. CC is something Yi severely lacks, and along with the movement speed bonus, it makes chasing much easier.
 * Similarly to Red Buff, items such as  or work well on  as he lacks any form of crowd control. Without said crowd control your movement speed from  may allow you to keep up with a fleeing target, but you can't help your teammate(s) close the gap to your target.  improves upon.
 * ,, and are recommended life steal items for 's damage output combined with survivability.
 * The is a suitable option on other maps.
 * Since Yi is DPS based, can rocket his damage output as he's on the offense, especially with his  activated.
 * is great for having extra burst on Yi's auto attacks, as well as having life steal with added sustain via health regen, with the AoE effects enabling Yi to deal more damage in teamfights and farm more effectively.
 * The active for both and  can be used to gain vision on certain monsters in the jungle past thin walls, so that way  can  to the target for a wall-dash escape, which can be useful since  only hits targeted enemies.
 * has a strong synergy with his kit and build options, especially as a jungler, and allows him use of the active at his discretion for quick gap-closing.
 * 's shield passive and powerful life steal greatly improves his sustain.
 * is also a powerful choice for, since not only does it offer mana recovery - something otherwise unavailable and maybe even in short supply - it also offers cooldown reduction, a notable benefit for many of Yi's abilities.
 * and its upgrades is a recommended item for in order to stand against tanky targets, but as mentioned before, armor penetration is not as vital to Yi due to his  true damage active scaling on raw attack damage, though that combined with items like  and  can instead benefit his auto attacks while  is on cooldown, and most of all, the damage of his.
 * is a potential AP item for Yi that can boost the power of while still benefiting his main role. The cooldown reduction is also a massive benefit to Yi's abilities. However, not only is this not recommended, but it should be the only AP item ever acquired on Yi.
 * For defensive builds in general, are a good source for both magic resist and tenacity if one is planning on buying more offensive attack speed items as opposed to the.
 * For the tanky side of things, it is possible to include a, as the CDR and mainly the healing boost passive can boost 's healing power as well as life steal. Though other defensive HP items should be considered as well.

Countering

 * Hard CC can single-handedly bring down Master Yi. However, his teammates may be able to hold you off before you are able to burst him down, which makes it important to isolate Master Yi or bait him into chasing you with Highlander, before shutting him down.
 * As Master Yi's damage is completely physical, beyond a potentially minute amount from item effects, armor is the go-to counter to survive against him.
 * Attack speed slows do not affect Yi while is active, so  is not as effective against him.
 * is also relatively less effective because of true damage bypassing it entirely.
 * When Yi uses, he will become untargetable and follow his initial target wherever they may go. Use this to lead him into more undesirable locations.
 * When Yi uses, it is better to use a form of crowd control (especially silence or knockup, as these interrupt him) than attempting to deal damage.
 * Using on  will cripple his damage output, even during.
 * Slow is ineffective when uses, this also applies to attack speed reduction as well.
 * excels at split-pushing. Keep this in mind and be particularly aware of your mini-map.
 * You can apply Grievous Wounds, (ex. ) on during  to reduce his healing by half but it will not stop him from channeling the spell (Hard CC is required).
 * Remember that only gives him the bonus when the spell is not on cooldown, making  weaker when  is on cooldown.
 * sword glows a different color when is active.
 * Remember that places Yi at his initial target when it ends - you can "pull" him into a bad position if you are his target. Note that if the initial target dies when Yi is untargetable, he will return to the position he first cast, so a smart Yi can land some interesting harassing blows; beware.
 * can also follow you over walls when timed correctly, remember this if you are trying to escape with or without him.
 * Be very careful if you happen to be on low health with little in the way of fighting back, as Yi can quickly execute you with . This can be dangerous in teamfights, especially with out-of-position teams. By reducing cooldowns thanks to kills and assists, and spamming to damage while being untargetable can cause a fed  to chain kill an entire team (even without ).
 * It is instinctual to split when Yi uses as the targets have been pre-determined at the time of casting and splitting will allow him to focus individual members of the team.
 * Group focus should be able to bring Master Yi down before he can deal his full damage potential.
 * As a carry, is very item-dependent and requires a lot of farm to scale up to late game, so during early game, it's crucial to deny him kills early to prevent him from doing major damage. If left alone however, scaling to late game can be a breeze for him as he can become one of the most dangerous champions in the game when fed.
 * ultimate being immune to slows can backfire greatly on him; champions with fear as a source of CC can easily chase away Yi while is active, forcing him to flee at full speed due to ignoring the slow. Keep this in mind if you need to flee a pursuing Yi.
 * is easily one of the notable melee carries to rely very heavily on his ult. With it on cooldown, his mobility and dueling potential carries a lot more risk. Bait Yi into activating so that he is much easier to focus and catch once the active runs out and is on cooldown.

Champion Spotlight
By David 'Phreak' Turley



Whether you prefer to tear up the jungle or dominate a solo lane, this Master Yi Champion Spotlight is full of tips and tricks to help sharpen your game.

'''s, and   abilities make him the ultimate high-risk, high-reward champion. He excels at fast, brutal ganks as well as diving into fights to assassinate targets before withdrawing with his impressive suite of escape tools. He's also got intimidating cleanup potential thanks to the extended duration on his when he scores a kill or assist.''

Learn how to prove you're a true in this edition of the Champion Spotlight, featuring Master Yi tactics, masteries and more.