Hello and Welcome

Thank you for taking the time to read my guide to the Piltover Enforcer Vi

I'm currently in Gold V and Vi is my main jungler. I primarily play her as a beefy fighter (though she can go full tank and still wreck face). So here I'll describe well... everything you can see above.

Enjoy and, if you have something to add, then please do so below. I always welcome constructive criticisms.

Pros:

- Excellent Duelist
- Massive Damage Output
- Great Engages
- Good Health/Defensive Stats

Cons:

- Very mana-hungry
- High cooldowns
- Susceptible to all forms of CC.

What Runes and Why

Greater Mark of Armor Penetration x 9

Vi is an excellent 1 v 1 duelist and a lot of her damage is physical. Armour Penetration runes allows you to smash through their defences (especially when combined with Denting Blows)

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist x 9

Magic Resist that scales with your level... Can't really go wrong with that. Coupled with Blast Shield you'll become a nightmare to any heavy burst reliant AP casters such as LeBlanc

Greater Seal of Armor x 9

Due to Vi's beefiness and excellent engage potentials these are a must. You're going to be jumping right into the fray using Cease and Desist, right onto their AD Carry (in most cases) and you'll want to kill them or force them to back off with as little damage to yourself as possible. That's where these Seals shine.

Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed x 3

Okay, probably a contentious choice. Coupled with the speed and damage bonus from Denting Blows you can and will be a force to be reckoned with, right from the get go. You'll have nearly 1.00 Attack Speed at level 3, after Denting Blows, letting you dish out a LOT of damage very quickly, be it clearing a camp, counter-jungling or just regular bog-standard ganking.

Other Choices

Greater Mark of Health - If you feel like you need the additional health. Greater Quintessence of Health would work also.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed - These can also work nicely on Vi. Because Vault Breaker slows you down these can mitigate that slightly, giving you a better opportunity to land your ability. Also being able to move quicker lets you get around faster.... obviously.

Greater Mark of Cooldown Reduction - You'll want these if you gank very frequently as Vi's cooldowns are on the higher side.

What Masteries and Why

Smite and...?

Smite is a MUST on ANY jungler. If you don't take it... I don't know what you're even doing looking at this.

Flash is almost always used as well. Vi has her Q for escape but it requires a charge up and it's not practical, especially when surrounded by enemies.


Other than that...

Ghost is the only other viable spell and only for the speed boost. Everything else on a jungle Vi is just not worth using but if you feel like you can, I'm not going to stop you.

Skill Orders

I like to maximise Q = Vault Breaker first. It has good damage and you can charge it up when you're hidden in a brush, allowing you to smash any unsuspecting enemy champions for a LOT of damage.

Next comes maximising W = Denting Blows. The Max % of Health damage is nice, especially if your enemies are building health against you. The bonus attack speed is nice.

Last maximisation is E = Relentless Force. The charge time reduction is of minimal importance and the vast majority of your damage will come from Auto-Attacks and the passive damage of Denting Blows.

And of course you take the tiers of Cease and Desist when you hit 6, 11, and 16.

Itemisations

I'll start with the basics.

Hunter's Machete + Health Potion + Stealth Ward

This is the only real logical choice for a jungler at the start of the game. Use your trinket in conjunction with your team, ward up their jungle entrances so you can see if they're preparing for an invade.

Stalker's Blade - Warrior + Greater Stealth Totem

These will want to be your first items. The Chilling Smite bonus will mitigate the lack of speed from passing over on the boots and the Greater Stealth Totem will allow you to place more than one ward at a time, which comes in very handy.

Naturally you won't be able to buy this straight off the bat. You'll likely have to get the Recipe items Stalker's Blade and The Brutalizer.

Ninja Tabi/Mercury's Treads, Captain Enchantment

Ninja Tabi gives you more armour, Mercury's Treads gives you more Magic Resist so they are highly situational. Heavy AD team? go for Ninja Tabi. Likewise if they have an AP based team you'll want Mercury's Treads.
Enchantment: Captain works very nicely with Vi. You WILL be relied on to engage. Enchantment: Captain lets your team members catch up with you faster. Also it speeds up your minion waves, letting Vi push waves faster. After Stalker's Blade - Warrior and Greater Stealth Totem you'll want to get boots ASAP.

Trinity Force

This will take a little while to build but it's definitely worth it.
Phage gives you both damage and health, always nice, and a nifty little speed boost on hit.
Sheen helps with Vi's mana issues and works extremely nicely if you use Relentless Force to set up your next basic attack to trigger Denting Blows effect.
Zeal attack speed lets you trigger Denting Blows quicker and gives you a small movement speed boost.

All in all, you can't go wrong with Trinity Force on Vi. It covers just about everything she could possibly want and is well worth the time to build.

Black Cleaver

More Damage. More Armour Penetration. More Health. Stacking armour debuff, coupled with Denting Blows and heavy tank champions won't know what hit them.

Banshee's Veil and Randuins Omen

Now you're all damaged up survivability comes next. Banshee's Veil gives you health, magic resist and a nice little spell shield that will block abilities such as everything Thresh does. ( Thresh is a pain when you play Vi). Randuin's Omen is preferred over Sunfire Aegis mainly down to the active ability. You don't absolutely need it but I like it, it comes in handy if you can get if off before someone like Lucian uses Relentless Pursuit to get away from you.

Greater Stealth Totem should be traded for Oracle's Lens as the game progresses into the mid-game.


Now you can chop and change the items depending on your preferences. It's quite easy to get ahead of the enemy jungler as Vi and, unless you have poorly performing lanes, you can optimise damage over health. Never-the-less if you're under the weather, optimise building health and defences as Vi as she can deal enough damage to remain relevant even with minimal damage items.

DONT FORGET TO BUY YOUR POTS! Not only Health Pots but Mana Pots as well, especially if you hand over Blue Buff to your mid-laner.

Jungle Order

This should be your jungle order, irrespective of team.

Gromp (smite) --> Blue Buff --> Wolves (use one health pot) --> Red Buff (smite)

AT THIS POINT you can gank lanes or clear your other jungle camps (Raptors (use pot) --> Krugs), it's entirely your decision based on the way your lanes are going and if the enemy jungler has shown himself.

Regardless don't recall until you have Level 4.

TIP

Much like Pantheon before the changes to the Dragon, Vi can solo the drake at level 4 (After recall).

You'll need Stalker's Blade, Long Sword and at least one Health Potion as well as Smite. ALWAYS USE YOUR ABILITIES WHEN YOUR PASSIVE IS READY TO ACTIVATE.

You can try this at your own risk (though I find drake is very rarely heavily warded around 8-9 minutes which is usually the time you'll try this). It's best you try it if you can see the enemy jungler near top-lane and if your bot lane is sufficiently pushed. If you DO manage to slay the Drake at level 4, congratulations. You'll have given your lanes a big boost.

Working with your team

Ganking is a fairly straight forward affair for Vi but it does rely heavily on you landing your Vault Breaker before you hit Level 6. Then it becomes simply a matter of point and activate your Cease and Desist.

When it comes to team fights in the late game Vi has one job which is pounce on the enemy AD/AP Carry and annihilate them. It's best to engage using Cease and Desist.

Vault Breaker has a small knockback effect, which is invaluable, so follow up after using Cease and Desist even if it means you have to sacrifice dealing damage to just walk through the enemy front line to use your ultimate on the Carries..

Being quite tanky Vi should be standing more or less on the front line where she can soak up any poke. Even when damaged Vi has her passive ability, meaning she can still engage on the enemy team. She is a very scary champion and she draws a lot of heat so communicate with your team, tell them you're going to engage, and have them follow you in. You may be jumped by multiple champions because it's difficult to deal with Vi alone but all that does is free up your team-mates to dish out their own damage.

Remember: Dying is not always a bad thing! Especially since you'll likely take someone with you.

Anyway thanks for reading.

Eventually I might make this guide look all nice and pretty but not right now. I just want to nail the content first.

If you have anything you feel I've missed or if you have any questions, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

So just have fun with it and good luck in your future battles using Vi