+: High mobility

+: Efficient and fast farming with Alpha Strike and Double Strike

+: High Sustained and AOE Damage

+: Untargetable during Alpha Strike animation

+: 1v1 Master - With the intelligent itemisation, Yi can fight any champion in the game and come out on top

+: Tank Killer

+: Excellent at cleaning up team-fights with ability resets

+: Versatile build paths


-: Weak ganks pre-6 without exhaust

-: Squishy unless building Off-Tank

-: Highly vulnerable to hard CC, if he fails to time Alpha strike correctly, or if he is hit with targeted hard CC

Hi. I am Kiryu Of Dojima. Gold 3 Master Yi main since level 3.

I almost always take Attack Speed Quints and Marks because Yi scales really well with attack speed and it synergises amazingly with the Golem buff for healthier early jungle clears.

I take Scaling Armor Seals and Scaling Magic Resist Glyphs for a little bit of late game tankiness since this build is quite squishy. Scaling over flat, because at level 6, scaling = flats, making scaling resistances superior to flat ones from level 7 and above. I'd rather invest in the latter 11 levels than in the first 5.

Both Fervor of Battle and Warrior's Bloodlust are effective on Yi. However I find that Fervor is just plain better. I haven't done the numbers, but judging from how both keystones felt in games, Fervor is just nicer. A matter of preference perhaps.

• Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor: 50% Attack Speed. Basic Attacks deal 4% of target's maximum health as bonus physical damage. Excellent for killing tanks, and not bad for killing squishies either. Also synergises really well with Yi's passive, Double Strike.
  
• Blade of the Ruined King: 25 AD. 40% Attack Speed. 10% Lifesteal. Basic attacks deal 6% of target's current health as bonus physical damage. Again, excellent for killing tanks. Also synergises really well with Yi's passive, Double Strike.
  The active of this item is excellent for gap closing or escaping.
  
• The Black Cleaver: 50 AD. 20% CDR. 300 Health. All descent stats, but it's the two passives that makes this item amazing on Yi.
  
  First, it has scaling armor shred, where dealing physical to a target shreds their armor by 5% for 6 seconds, and stacks up to 6 times for a total of 30% armor reduction. Since both Bloodrazor and Blade of the Ruined King deal physical, this passive makes your attacks, and the attacks of your AD teammates, hurt considerably more. Not to mention that with Yi's attack speed, this passive gets stacked very quickly.
  
  Second, you gain a movement speed buff every time you deal physical damage. This allows you to catch up to and stick to or run away from enemy champions by attacking minions and champions in your path when your ult is down. Otherwise, it helps you stick to your target better which means you will be able to fire off more auto attacks on fleeing or backpeddling enemy champions.
  
• The Bloodthirster: 75 AD. 20% Lifesteal. Lifesteal can overheal you, granting you with a shield that blocks 50-350 damage. Adds a great deal of damage and sustain to Master Yi. If you get low and you have this item on top of Blade of the Ruined King, you can simply auto attack a minion wave and regain pretty much all your health.
  
  
• Maw of Malmortius: 10 Armor Pen. 55 AD. 40 Magic Resist. Since Yi primarily deals Physical Damage, Armor Pen is strong on him. The AD isn't bad, and neither is the magic resist. But what makes this item so amazing is the shield from it's lifeline passive, and the temporary boost in lifesteal from it's lifegrip passive.
  
  
• Guardian Angel: 60 Armor. 45 MR. Lame stats. However this item has a passive that allows you to return from beyond the grave with 30% health and mana, if you were to die. The fact that you have to be killed twice can often deter enemy teams from focusing you.

You want to max Alpha Strike(Q) first as it lowers the cooldown of the ability with each rank, as well as increases the aoe damage. A lower cooldown = more alpha strikes = More chances to evade dangerous spells and CC.

You want to max Wuju Style(E) second as it gives you a nice passive AD steroid, and an even better active true damage steroid that lets you shred through resistances.

You want to max Meditate(W) last, simply because Wuju Style(E) is slightly better in most matchups. However, in some cases, you may want to max W second for the damage reduction if you find yourself getting bursted down too hard. Note that this ability can also be used an auto attack reset by auto attacking, pressing w and auto attacking straight away.

Lastly, you want to take a point in Highlander(R) at levels 6, 11 and 18. The movement speed and attack speed steroid, as well as the slow immunity make this the perfect ultimate for dueling and split pushing. The slow immunity applies to attack speed slows as well. Note that this ability passively lowers the cooldowns of your other abilities by 70% every time you participate in a kill.

Smite is necessary in the jungle. As for the other spell, it's a matter of preference.

Exhaust makes you a 1v1 King throughout the whole game. Any fight you get into against any champion, taking this spell makes you out-trade them, even if they are supposed to counter you. It also makes your pre-level 6 ganks effective, as you can use exhaust to gap close onto enemy champions, slow them with red buff empowered auto attacks, and follow their flash or dash with alpha strike to not only burn their flash/dash but to also still kill them. In team-fights, you can exhaust priority targets to hinder their escape and to lower their damage, or exhaust anyone who's going after your adc or apc.


Teleport is another option.

Early Game;it allows you to farm up quicker than your opposing jungler by making your first clear, backing, and then tping back to farming. It saves about 20-30 secs, and since your first clear isn't particularly fast, your camps will have respawned by the time you base.

Early-Mid Game; TP is excellent for counter ganking and securing objectives.

Late Game; You can secure objectives, split push and tp back to your team when they need you with them. Or better yet, you can force 2-3 champions to back to stop you from pushing, and then tp to your team to create a 5v3 or 5v2 in your team's favour.


Ghost is great for sticking to targets as well as escaping, and has an extremely low cooldown. I generally take ghost when I'm building off tank, or when the enemy team is mobile.


Flash is also a good option. It allows you to reposition yourself for an escape, a kill, block skill shots that might kill a teammate, or avoid one that might kill you. I personally don't like flash because of the long cooldown and the fact that Alpha strike allows you to follow targets who are flashing or dashing over walls, if you time it right. Definitely a viable summoner, but one that I personally find unnecessary and too limited by the long cooldown.


Ignite is also an option. It can help you snowball the game, and is excellent against champions who heal or regen a lot. However, in most matchups, I find that exhaust is still superior as it offers both offensive and defensive utilities and still gives you a good chance to snowball.


Heal is really unnecessary. You can heal yourself with Meditate(W), and while the movement speed buff is nice, almost every other spell is superior. I've only ever taken heal when playing Yi adc.


Cleanse is good against CC heavy teams, where dodging one CC with Alpha Strike means you will get hit with another the instant you come out of it.


Barrier, I have never tried.

The most efficient and generally safest jungle clear route I found is to start at Golems. If you can get a leash great, if not, you don't need one at all. Auto attack the smaller golem once, alpha strike to dodge the initial attack from the golems, then attack the smaller golem twice. Then turn to the big golem and smite it as you auto attack it with double strike, stunning it in the process. Immediately turn back to the smaller golem and finish it off with 1 auto attack. Then finish the big Golem. Do this even if you get a leash. You won't share experience so don't worry. You will now have level 2. Take a point in Wuju Style(E).

Next run over to the raptor birds. Auto attack one of the smaller raptors, alpha strike, then finish off the remaining smaller raptors with 1 auto attack each, then turn to the big raptor with double strike followed by another 2 auto attacks. Now activate Wuju Style as you hit the raptors with another double strike and finish it off.

Put a ward in your red buff, then immediately run over to the scuttler on the other side of the map. Kill it while you still have the Golem buff. Then go over to your Gromp and kill it. You will now be level 3. Put a 2nd point in Alpha Strike(Q) And then run over to your wolves and kill them, finishing the large wolf last with smite, so you can have vision over your blue buff. Now go to base and buy a Skirmisher's Sabre. You will have enough gold.

Now run over to the Golems, Kill them the same way you did in the first clear, smiting the big golem when you have double strike ready. You will now have level 4. Put a point into Meditate(W). After you've killed the golems, using Wuju Style(E) to finish the large Golem, take the raptors. However this time, you don't auto attack the smaller raptors. You simply take them all out with 1 Alpha Strike(Q), and then finish off the larger raptor with your auto attacks and activate Wuju Style(E) when your Double Strike is up. Ward your red buff again.

Now go straight over to the Gromp and kill it. Then take the wolves, followed by blue buff. Don't smite any of the camps. Back and buy a pink ward and 2 daggers.

Head over to to the Golems again, and kill them the same way you did the first time, without using Wuju style. After the golems, you go over to your red buff, auto attack the large lizard, Alpha Strike(Q), auto attack twice, then activate Wuju Style(E) to finish it off. You will now be level 6 at around 6-7 min mark. Put a point in Highlander(R) and head over to the raptors. Alpha strike them and smite the big raptor to finish it off.

You are now level 6 with double buffs and raptor buff so you can spot wards as you go to gank lanes. The enemy will not expect you to be level 6 so early, nor will they expect you to have double buffs at this point in the game.

Note: If you did not take Savagery in your masteries your first clear will suffer, and by extension, your level 6 will be delayed. You will also not be able to clear the while maintaining a descent level of health, unless you put a point into Meditate(W) at level 3 or 2, which would delay your level 6 even more. You can risk it by not taking Meditate until level 4, but you will be vulnerable if you come across the enemy jungler at any point in your route and you have low health.