Attention this guide is still under construction, don't hesitate to post your opinion! Only Jungle Vi so far, i will ad Top Vi soon!

First things first: Vi is pronounced [why] not [vee]! Why? Because she is Vi. (just kidding but she says that in game so i guess she can pronounce her own name.)

I am a regular LoL Player and for the first time i am really stuck at a champion. I played jungle and support ever since but there wasn't a champ that blew me away until i got Vi. She does amazing damage and still sustain a lot more than an ADC. Because she is designed as a Bruiser she is not really focused and therefore can deal a lot of damage if build correct.

Pro:

• high damage output
• amazing gap closer
• good sustain
• armor shred
• does percentage max health damage

Cons:

• isn't really tanky
• can be easily kited when abilities on CD
• Ulti is cool but can drag you deep behind enemy lines (where you just die)
• no CC except from Ulti
• her gap closer can be aborted by stun and gets on CD then

Because of your Denting Blows you want to attack as fast as possible so use 9x Greater Mark of Attack Speed. I get to the effects of your spells in another section but what i can say here is that Denting Blows (your w) is a passive and it procs after every 3rd punch, so it is obvious that you want it to proc as often as possible.

Greater Seal of Armor and Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist need no real explanation as you want as much sustain as possible as a jungler. You don't want the creeps to beat your ***.

The Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage fasten your jungle speed a lot. It is considerable to use Quintessence of Attack Speed and/or use Mark of Attack Damage or all mixed together. I feel like my suggestion is a solid one and you maybe can find your own mixture of AD and AS Runes.

Well, this section should be talked about a little bit more detailed.

Vi is designed as an attack bruiser so it is the best way to build her 21-9 or just aggressive. I don't really want to go through every Mastery but it's clear that you don't want AP but AD in Offense-tree. In Defense-tree you want Veteran's Scar and AD reduction.

As we will see in the item build the standard approach is to build some early armor pen because tankieness is not needed until mid/late game.

However there is a 9-21 approach to play Vi more defense, but i feel like this hurts her a bit because all her spells aim at destroying your target real hard. There is only her passive that has a defense kind. So it's obvious that Vi gets better with AD items first because her abilities become stronger then.

If you want to play her more passive and defense then use 9-21 common jungle defensive build and go for Warmog's Armor or Sunfire Aegis first.

The choice of the first ability is worth discussing.

You can either choose Denting Blows (w) or Excessive Force (e). However because we chose AS Runes it is better to start of with your W then build one in E and then its R > E > Q > W.

Passive: Blast Shield

When Vi activates her Q, E or R she will get a Shield blocking damage equal to 10 percent of her maximum health lasting for 3 seconds. This ability has cool-down of 18/13/8 seconds. It does NOT benefit from cool-down reduction items or blue buff.

Comment: It's a good and useful passive for jungling however you can't really time it to plop so just use your abilities and have in mind that every now and then you receive a shield.

Q: Vault Breaker

First cast: Reducing your movement speed by 15% you charge the ability for 1.25 seconds.
Second cast: You engage towards the chosen direction dealing AD and applying your W (Denting Blows) to everything you hit. If you hit an enemy champion you knock him back and stop there. CS get 75% of that damage.

Usage

• Use it to engage ganks
• While charging you can also use Flash to expand the range of your Q
• Use it to get forward very quickly (chasing enemies)
• Use it to flee (tactical return)
• Use it to jump through walls (yes its a mighty flash-like ability

I have to mention that this ability can be interrupted by stuns etc. In that case since patch
3.03 half of the mana costs are refunded and a 3 second cool-down starts. If you just don't use the charge because you didn't left-click or recast to initiate the ability is wasted and the full cool-down is applied.

Facts

• 18 / 15.5 / 13 / 10.5 / 8 cool-down
• costs 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 mana
• 50-100/80-160/110-220/140-280/170-340 Damage (depends on charging level)
• Range: 250-725

W: Denting Blows

Every 3rd attack on the same target deals additional physical damage equal to a percentage of the target's maximum health, reduces the target's armor by 20%, and grants Vi bonus attack speed for 4 seconds. Denting Blows deals a maximum of 300 damage against minions and monsters.

Usage

Just punch your enemy hard. Because we took AS Runes this procs even more. Because it scales with your enemies maximum health it always does much damage.

Facts

• 4 / 5.5 / 7 / 8.5 / 10% of target's max health (+1% per 35 bonus AD) For that reason you want to build AD in the first place to clear jungle fast and get much more damage on team fights
• 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% attack speed bonus

E: Excessive Force]

Causes Vi's next basic attack to deal bonus physical damage to the target and enemies behind it. Vi periodically charges a new punch and can hold up 2 charges at once.

Usage

Make sure that you stand in front of a creep wave or in front of the first enemy champion so the cone of damage which this ability creates hits the most. This Ability can also apply burning effects like red-buff even you did not directly hit your enemy (but indirectly with the cone damage).

Facts

• 5 / 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 (+115% AD) (+70%AP) total physical damage. Another reason to build Vi as an AD Bruiser because this Ability also scales with AD.
• 14 / 12.5 / 11 / 9.5 / 8 seconds reload time

R:

Vi targets an enemy champion and chases it down, knocking it up for 1.25 seconds, dealing physical damage.
While charging , Vi is immune to crowd control and will knock aside enemies in her way, dealing 75% damage to them.

Usage

This is very funny. You get immune to every CC. It is not a skill-shot so if you managed to get your target clicked on you are done. Even if your target flashes or moves forward quickly you will get the target. In fact this can be negative in some ways e.g. when your targeted ADC runs into base you find yourself surrounded by enemies and towers. Ouch.

Use it as initialization-tool in team fights or as chasing-tool for ganks. However don't start ganks with it. Make the enemy use their escape abilities or even Flash. Then use your Q or/and Flash to get in range and start your Ulti then.

Because you are a AD Bruiser you want to target the enemy ADC or APC. After you got behind enemy lines destroy the carry. Your team will meanwhile destroy the ADC/APC left and everything will be fine.

This is one of the reasons why i would not suggest to build Vi too tanky. Let's assume you got onto the ADC with your ult but you do not have enough damage to destroy him, then the carry just runs away or destroys your carries. Also stacking armor or life won't improve any of Vi's Abilities except her passive a little bit. Don't waste her damage potential and build her AD. If you feel like you need a more tanky jungler then don't choose Vi.

Facts

• 200 / 325 / 450 (+140% bonus AD) physical damage
• 150 / 262.5 / 375 (+105% bonus AD) physical damage to secondary targets (pushed aside)

The usual approach is to use Smite and Flash as you need Smite to clear jungle faster and secure Dragon and baron later on.

However there is the possibility to ignore Flash because with your Q ( Vault Breaker) you got a gap closer which range is even wider than flash. Downside is that vault breaker has a large cool-down of 18s at level 1.
The good side of that approach is that you can slow your gank-target with Exhaust and chances that they get away are minimized.

However i feel like i need Flash so i stick with it. Also worth mentioning that Vault Breaker (your Q) can be interrupted and with patch 3.03 it goes on a longer cooldown.

As i mentioned above 3 of her 4 abilities scale with Attack Damage so it would be a waste not to build attack damage.
If you feel like you need more Sustain build Frozen Mallet first otherwise choose Black Cleaver. Always make sure to buy Boots as fast as possible. Normally you want your Spirit Stone or even the Spirit of the Elder Lizard before your Black Cleaver / Frozen Mallet.

In advanced midgame / lategame i suggest to add Warmog's Armor or Sunfire Aegis or even both. But if you feel like you have enough tanks in your team don't hesitate to buy another AD items such as Bloodthirster

For the last time: Don't play Vi 9-21 and fully Defensive. It is a great waste of her (damage) potential and you would be probably luckier with a more defensive jungler.

Jungle Route

Summary:

Route 1: Wraiths ==> Red Smiteless ==> Blue with Smite
Route 2: Wolves ==> Blue Smiteless ==> Red with Smite

Detailed:

You have to make some decision before you choose your jungle route. If you feel like you have to help top a lot then start with wraith (playing blue team) or wolves (playing red team). Then head to blue red-buff smite-less (playing blue team) / blue-buff smite-less (playing red team). Then head straight to the buff left and use your smite.


With this strategy you can start your first ganks very soon with double buff. Make sure that you get help from your two neighbored lanes otherwise smite-less first buff will be dangerous.

After your first ganks you have to look where help is needed and stay in the jungle that is closest. Don't run everywhere and make sure you inform yourself what area is warded because you don't want your gank victims know you are about to destroy them.

Also consider lane-ganks top and bot. Lane-ganks can only be applied when your lane is pushed a bit so the enemy can't see you entering the lane bush. If a gank fails don't camp there too long, take some monsters in the close jungle and come back or gank some other lane.

It's very important to don't fall behind enemy jungler too much. If you managed to kill much people or you got many assists of course the CS gap to enemy jungler can be a little bit bigger.

Example route:

(screenshots are from bot game so my healh is a bit too low because no one helped wolves / blue )


Start with wolves (or wraith)

head to first buff (smite-less)


then head to other buff (smite)

Counter Jungling

If you see that the enemy jungler ganks a lane far away and you know that you can't reach that lane anytime soon, consider a counter gank. Also keep an eye on monster. For instance if you know enemy red is about to respawn and enemy jungler is far away consider to counter jungle and steal buff.

It is very simple for Vi to do that because of her Vault Breaker. She can easily jump over dragon / baron pit to reach buffs unseen. Another good thing about this is you can easily gank lanes that are pushed because you come from behind.

Good spots to enter enemy jungle unseen: ( of course the lanes could tell the jungler you entered the pit and are about to steal but if the enemy jungler is really far away the can't do anything about it OR they have to leave their lanes which would be great because your team can push that lane good then. )

Dragon Buff

From level 8 on you should be able to solo dragon with smite easily. This can be very helpful e.g. your team can push bot after a successful gank and you can do dragon solo so you got two achievements at the same time

Ganking

Ganks with Vi can be easy and hard at the same time. It all depends whether you can land your Vault Breaker properly. Following pictures were taking from bot game but still reflect the reality. Stay in bush charging your Vault Breaker when you are sure to start the gank. Walk towards the enemy and land your Q on him. Apply your Relentless Force as often you can and thanks to your AD early build you probably destroy the enemy!