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ADC Wuju like a guide? Season 9

ADC Wuju like a guide? Season 9

Updated on May 19, 2019
9.5
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Autoswitched Build Guide By Autoswitched 269 20 7,700,992 Views 187 Comments
269 20 7,700,992 Views 187 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Autoswitched Build Guide By Autoswitched Updated on May 19, 2019
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Runes:

1 2
Precision
Lethal Tempo
Triumph
Legend: Alacrity
Coup de Grace

Domination
Ravenous Hunter
Ghost Poro
Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Smite

Smite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction


I have revamped the guide completely!

I am Autoswitched, I am diamond on EUW, and I main Master Yi I play casually and sometimes rank, i do stream sometimes feel free to follow on www.twitch.tv/autoswitched

I started playing the game at the end of season 3 in which I managed to get bronze 2 although during the pre season I hit gold. During season 4 I obtained platinum and from then on managed to hit diamond in season 5, and diamond again on an unranked account in season 6 as well as diamond in season 8. The highest rank I've acheived is Diamond 2 playing Master Yi.

www.twitch.tv/autoswitched

Follow me on twitter for updates - https://twitter.com/Autoswitched

Like my facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/autoswitched

Subscribe to my new youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/autoswitched

I'll usually try and stream at around 6pm gmt + 1 time.

Guides I also made, or in the making of:

Yasuo: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/yasuo-way-of-the-wanderer-5-13-411622

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Introduction



Master Yi is considered a broken, and easy to play champion, however I will show you that this is a common misconception, and in fact he takes a lot of knowledge to play to his fullest potential. Master Yi can be quite overwhelming if played correctly, however you can easily distinguish a good Master Yi from a bad one. Master Yi requires timing, with his Alpha Strike, requires quick fingers, and reactions such as using Meditate to tank abilities, and using it as an attack reset to outduel, or secure a kill at a rapid speed.

Master Yi can be played in almost any lane, and can do very well. In the jungle is where he is considered to be a god due to his insane clear speed, and dangerous ganks. In lane, he is considered sub par to other laners however he can surprise a lot of unexpecting players as he is rarely played in lane, this can surprise unsuspecting people with his damage. I will discuss the differences and why each one has their respective strengths further in the guide. But for now, I will focus on jungle Master Yi

Remember, your team still needs cc so I highly advise unless you're really good with this champion not to pick him at all if you lack cc, if you're good with him, you'll be able to out rotate the enemy meaning you'll be able to capitalise on their positioning on the map, and either take a tower, take a dragon or just generally push a lane, as well as avoid confrontations which you can't win. Overall, you need to think whether your skill alone on Yi can win you the game, or whether picking another champion who will provide the needed utility your team needs.

The main strategy with Master Yi is to try and focus the squishy champions who hide in the back line such as the ADC, or AP mage via either simply using Ghost and Highlander to run straight through the front line of tanks and go right for their back line by using Alpha Strike to dodge any cc they throw at you, or try to flank them from a side you know isn't warded via the use of Oracle Lens If the enemies are ahead, you can try split pushing to pressure lanes however you should be prepared to trade objectives such as dragon, and baron so split push smartly! Master Yi is one of the best champions in the game to tower dive with as he can use Meditate to tank the tower shots and use it as an attack reset, as well as use Alpha Strike to completely dodge the tower shot, once the kill is secured. you can use a reset to deaggro the tower shot by using Alpha Strike onto a nearby enemy minion.

tl;dr Yi is an easy to play champion on paper, but takes more thought and is hard to pressure with if in the wrong hands. Jungling is all about pressuring lanes, so being a good Master Yi and a good jungler are two completely different things, Master Yi may not be too mechanically hard, but he does require a lot more thinking than other champions such as Vi who simply press r on a squishy and cc lock them, and due to her being tanky, she can afford to get hit by cc abilities whereas Yi cannot.
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Pros / Cons


Pro's:
+ High AOE damage with thanks to Alpha Strike
+ Very difficult to catch and chase due to having highest base movement speed in the game, tied with Pantheon, as well as mobility with Highlander
+ One of the few champions who deals true damage consistently
+ Untargetable with Alpha Strike can make difficult to focus down
+ Resets make him dangerous if a person dies in a team fight.
+ Red smite is really strong on him
+ Can be a bit harder to itemize due to his true damage
+ Deceptively tanky thanks to Meditate and can tank high damage abilities whilst taking so little damage due to it.
+ One of the best champions in the game for cleaning up

Cons:
- Weak to targeted crowd control.
- If abilities used incorrectly, can be left vulnerable
- Really difficult to play at high levels.
- Has no built in cc
- Needs something to Alpha Strike if gets caught out to escape
- Naturally Squishy
- Will always be focused down.
- Everybody knows what his abilities do
- You may be flamed by enemy team for playing a "Non skill champion"
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Runes


Season 8 runes have been reforged!

So... Let's begin!

How does it work? We get to select a primary tree which will give you a free passive based on which one we take. Usually, we'll take precision so this will give us 15% attack speed giving us some early clear and dueling power. Master Yi scales with attack speed, more attacks = more damage. This season, Master Yi has received a lot of indirect buffs and direct buffs, so let's see what we're working with!

All champions have gained free stats to compensate the loss in runes, Yi mostly went attack speed so gaining that free 8 AD really helps. Master Yi gains 15% attack speed from selecting the precision tree, going the domination tree will grant Master Yi 11 AD which is decent, and sorcery grants 15 AD. The other tree's aren't as good.

Keystones!
This rune was supposed to be the new "fervor of battle" however this rune realistically has been super nerfed to the ground, you'll only benefit from the rune in an extended team fight as you'll be able to keep it up longer than any other rune. We only really use it for the 10% extra healing, the true damage conversion doesn't really ad much damage. This rune is very helpful in the Rammus matchup and any matchup where the opponent does a lot of sustained damage.
is insane as it grants us 40-110% attack speed scaling with level once we wait 1.5 seconds after damaging an enemy champion, this is insane as it allows us to exceed the attack speed cap so long as we keep attacking champions as this effect lasts 3 seconds, but can be extended to 6 which is just under highlanders initial duration! This rune allows us to kill tanks insanely quickly, and generally fight certain champions with ease. The weakness with this rune is that it takes 1.5 seconds before procing making it lackluster in some situations, and Thornmail kills you quicker. Our main strategy with this rune is to stack it on the front line, and instantly focus their backline as we will melt them in seconds.
Has been nerfed, this used to give us 94 AD at level 1 which is why we used this tree. Aery and the tree itself has been nerfed.

This rune is very good as it allows us to apply 3 stacks on the opponent similar to a Vayne Silver Bolts and do damage, as well as increasing all damage dealt to them by 12% similar to a vladimir ultimate however it can only be used on one person per team fight pretty much. This rune also allows your Double Strike to apply two stacks which is unique meaning a double strike auto attack reset HURTS! I use this a lot vs teams where I need a stronger early game as this rune is very early 1v1 focused. Also this rune is the best to gank with.
is actually very strong once you hit around 40 stacks, but it takes a while to stack and is pretty weak beforehand, Not worth it in my opinion as a similar rune Electrocute does more damage at all stages until you get around 25 stacks of dark harvest to break even.

gives your boots an active portion and is a very useful keystone as it allows us to pretty much get a pick on the map as soon as we see an opportunity as it grants us 45% movement speed for 15 seconds granting huge mobility and an on hit damage proc at the sacrifice of dps and early game keystone usage.

Burst type rune, useful vs squishy targets and preferable keystone in laning, us in mid lane or vs squishy top laners. With the Wuju Style buffs, this rune is the best rune to take in 90% of situations due to having 100 AD at level 2 dealing a ton of damage.
Use this keystone vs any champion that isn't: Maokai Malphite Ornn Gragas

Rune choices - Precision:

Tier 1:

Triumph is basically a weaker version of dangerous game that only restores health as the mana gain from dangerous game granted us a free meditate even if we was out of mana, but this is VERY strong when it comes to diving opponents as we gain 12% of our missing health! Probably going to get a nerf to be fair. Also grants a small gold bonus of 25, that means if we get multiple kills, the gold can add up.

Presence of Mind basically solves all of master Yi's mana issues as getting resets usually leaves him out of mana until later on in the game.

Tier 2:

Legend: Alacrity The reason we choose this is because this mastery works in the jungle and offers us attack speed giving us more clear speed and duelling power.

Legend: Tenacity This grants us obviously tenacity, use this when you're against hard cc that's hard to avoid like a lissandra ultimate, irelia stun, leon q etc.

Legend: Bloodline gives us life steal, not very useful in my opinion as it sacrifices clear speed

Tier 3

Coup de Grace offers us free AD on takedown although stacking only once, and offers extra damage on champions 40% health or lower, and out of all the runes, this one is the easiest to proc in my opinion and is the strongest at 10% extra damage.

All the others are not as good in my eyes.

Secondary tree options?

Domination

Relentless Hunter offers us insane out of combat movement speed allowing us to get to fights quicker, and also gank a little bit easier early game. I like this rune over all the others.

Ingenious Hunter Syncs well with Zombie Ward as it reduces our active cooldowns and allows us to place more wards, as well as that Blade of the Ruined King also gets reduced.

Ravenous Hunter I actually thought this rune sucked not knowing that on hit damage counted as ability damage. This means Guinsoo's Rageblade Wit's End and Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor apply extra healing as well as Conqueror giving us additional healing thanks to the rune which makes it the best rune for 1v1ing due to insane healing.

Sudden Impact Gives us lethality when we use Alpha Strike as it is a blink, pretty self explanatory, I use this when I take this tree as it helps us late, and early game.

Zombie WardThis rune has been nerfed but it still decent, just not as good as it used to be.

Sorcery

Gathering Storm basically free scaling, and free stats. Enough said already, if the game drags out, this can give a lot of AD and I often use this when using a precision keystone such as Press the Attack or Lethal Tempo

Celerity Gives us IN COMBAT movement speed as well as free AD for whatever bonus movement speed we have. This syncs very well with Highlander and boots giving us around 10-15 AD for free.

Nullifying Orb in my opinion situational but very strong indeed, use vs burst mages like Syndra or hard AP laners like Rumble if laning.

Inspiration

Magical Footwear

very good as you often don't buy boots until later, meaning by the time you complete bloodrazor, you'll get a free pair of boots!

Perfect Timing free stopwatch, saves us some gold on guardian angel and reduces the cooldown of the item by 15%, enough said. This item allows for a lot more risky plays and gives you a one time use of stasis although on cooldown for 300 seconds at the start of the game.

Future's Market Very strong as it allows you to buy your items early, although for a small fee of 50 gold per use, can BE VERY oppressing if you're ahead.

Hextech Flashtraption VERY POWERFUL! This spell almost breaks the game as it allows you to do certain ganks that weren't possible before. E.G. Ganking where the blast cone has already been destroyed, or flashing outside a brush for a jump scare. But once again, it can be either a useless rune or a very good one because it forces you to burn flash to use it.

Secondary best option? I've been leaning toward sorcery when using Lethal Tempo and using the precision Triumph and Alacrity when using Electrocute
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Abilities


Yi has some animation cancels such as cancelling his Double Strike animation of the second hit with Meditate allowing him to slip an additional basic attack in it allowing for three quick strikes dealing massive damage, he can cancel his basic attack animations into an Alpha Strike which will allow for overall quicker damage. Master Yi is all about using your abilities correctly, examples being using Wuju Style when you need it, and not using it randomly as it has a long cooldown, meaning you lose the additional 10% bonus AD when on cooldown.

Very strong passive as it gives you an additional basic attack which deals half damage, and Wuju Style applies to it, as well as any other on hit effect along with crits. After using it the first time, you only need to attack 3 more times as the second strike counts towards the passive. This passive is very strong when taking towers!



The backbone of Master Yi. Max first. Use this to carefully avoid abilities, and tower shots, you can avoid almost anything, even a Karthus ultimate if you time it correctly. You become untargetable and do insane damage, this ability can also critically strike dealing more damage. Auto attacks reduce its cooldown, and Double Strike helps reduce it too. It is also possible to avoid targeted abilities such as Lissandra ultimate however this will only be graphical side, and it will not go off cooldown however it can mind boggle them and they may not realize they can cast it again. You have two ways of dodging abilites, due to Alpha Strike having a cast time, it can dodge the cc however still taking the damage if timed correctly, this is useful for abilities that have no projectiles such as Nether Grasp and lissandra ultimate, thus you can buffer the stun duration during alpha strike.



Max third, put early points if you need to survive burst. this ability reduces damage and increases the heal the lower health you have. This can be used as an auto attack reset, and even reduces tower damage, but not as much as champion attacks. This ability can also help tank ignite, so don't forget! Use this ability if getting focused down. A good Master Yi knows why this ability is so under rated! This ability also pauses your Highlander and Wuju Style duration, so a good example to use this is when you're unable to damage the opponent e.g. a Teemo blind, or a Jax Counter Strike not only are you reducing their damage, but you're also pausing the duration of your ultimate and wuju style.
Max second. The passive itself gives Master Yi a huge damage steroid. The active allows yi to do true damage on hit. Remember do not waste the active on towers as it does nothing at all, and while on cooldown, you lose the 10% extra attack damage.


Max whenever you can. Gives Master Yi insane mobility and attack speed, and allows him to become immune to ALL SLOWS! Yes, this includes attack speed reductions from champions like Malphite and Nasus. The passive is also what makes Master Yi a monster, not as broken as he used to be, but still a 70% reduction in cooldowns when he scores a kill or assist. This means score a kill, attack twice, and your Alpha Strike is off cooldown again, yes the ability that just used.
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Summoner spells


Sometimes people run Smite Teleport but these fall off late game as you're down an offensive/defensive summoner spell which could be used to either get a kill, or escape and prevent a death. It is good in certain situations,. Teleport also received a heavy nerf in which its cast time is now longer, and the cooldown no longer gets reduced when used on a tower.

Useful spells to take
Self explanatory. If you're jungling, take smite as jungling without this is pretty difficult. You could take this in lane as it can actually give you lane sustain by smiting the krug/gromp when you're low hp due to smite changes, as well as giving you the chance to buy jungle items like bloodrazor.


Use this if you want to play it safe. Being able to escape bad situations or secure kills. Also enables late gam, Note: good supports WILL Exhaust you as you become targetable as they can still SPAM Exhaust on you


Due to the changes, this spell is now used to be a staple for me as it makes up for the Highlander nerf, and overall gives Master Yi the ganking power he needs due to its extremely low cooldown, also the movement speed buff scales with level as well as allows you to move through units, so this spell is excellent for flanking, early ganks, however not being able to go over walls, dodge spells and generally have an instant gapcloser like Flash sucks.

Useful against high burst assassin type champions such as Kha'Zix Fizz Rengar Riven and a few more. Exhaust will allow you to pressure the map easier with a targeted slow that reduces their resists, attack speed, and damage output making Master Yi impossible to duel at all portions of the game, heck he can even 1v3 if he exhausts the main carry. Combined with red smite Master Yi will be unkillable in 1v1 situations even if enemies bring their own exhaust due to Yi being able to dish out true damage, and being immune to the attack speed slow, and movement speed slow


Use this if you're either in lane or just dislike Flash and you want to play aggresive, this gives you kill pressure and can also secure those much needed resets to ace a team.

Good against match ups where you'll be forced out of lane a lot, or you wish to play it safe. Adds a lot of pressure when you're laning due to the devastating power you have if laners are over extended.


Okay spells

Not really that useful, but good for baiting, or useful for tanking Ignitebut regardless you shouldn't really take Barrier

Same as Barrier, but the movement speed can be useful. Heal isn't as good due to a lot of laners running ignite, and if you're ignited, half the effectiveness of heal along with Barrier able to shield for more damage, and running this along smite is a poor choice.



Completly rubbish, and never use:
All other spells.
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Skill Sequence


Unlock a point in Alpha Strike first and max it first, get your Wuju Style second and max that second. Remember, always activate Wuju Style just before using Double Strike to get the most out of Wuju Style when you're either clearing your jungle, or in long skirmishes. Highlander will be always maxed before any of your skills as with most champions ultimate's. Use Alpha Strike during Double Strike to maximise damage output as you can cancel the second strike into alpha and the damage will still count.

During objectives like dragon, rift herald and baron you should try to save your Wuju Style active until the objective is low enough for you to benefit the full use of it as losing that AD can make killing the objective slower.

Unlocking a second point in Alpha Strike rather than Meditate is more efficient in clearing, but remember that not dying is just as important so during the learning curves of clearing the jungle, you can get away with Meditate first. I am able to clear my jungle indefinitly without using a single meditate.

Meditate under normal circumstances should never be used for sustain in the jungle as you're wasting a lot of time standing still, this ability should only be used if:

You ganked a lane, and are very low on health, however you need some gold to finish your item.
Didn't get a pull, so you're forced to level this third
You got invaded, but low on hp however still high enough to be able to do jungle camps if you use Meditate
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Items


Which jungle item to rush? This is mostly personal preference but if you plan on ganking a lot pre-6 I suggest using Stalker's Blade otherwise stick with Skirmisher's Sabre as it offers a strong DOT true damage effect which deals more damage, and even more if you're hitting them the whole time as the effect refreshes every auto attack and lasts 4 seconds, as well as burns them for 3 seconds. Effectively late game you can deal about 380 true damage which is only 100 less then ignite, on a 50 second cooldown which also reveals them and reduces their damage output by 20%! This makes 1v1ing certain champions much easier such as Vayne, Jax fiora and more.

Master Yi jungle has a lot of different paths but I find the best path is by rushing a Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor into Blade of the Ruined King due to the slow component, however Guinsoo's Rageblade after Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor isn't a bad idea either as it makes 1v1ing you almost impossible, but makes ganking and sticking to targets hard.

This build is very strong because you can kill tanks and squishies very easily. However in terms of hard carrying bad team mates, Guinsoo's Rageblade is the best. Remember the item is expensive so alternatives are Black Cleaver Phantom Dancer and other defensive items.

item choices which are really good:
Randuin's Omen If they have a lot of critical strike damage such as Yasuo
Guardian Angel is a really good late game item due to decent stats + second life.
Guinsoo's Rageblade is an overpowered item WHEN STACKED, however due to difficulty stacking, I don't recommend unless you know exactly what you're doing with the item, and how to stack it properly. This item got a nice buff in which it no longer loses the 25% attack speed when combined making it a very solid item, but once again difficulty stacking makes it hard to use. It is more for an objective base Master Yi game where you're split pushing a lot thus have the item stacked, or doing baron.



"Silence build" sort of

Simply rip due to critical strike changes, crit Yi is no longer viable as on hit does more dps and kills everything including tanks faster. Essentially the true damage conversion isn't worth it on the Infinity Edge The only crit item worth building is Phantom Dancer


Lane Yi items?

Blade of the Ruined King into gunisoo's rageblade will allow for the most damage. Ninja Tabi to tank towers and auto attacks. Once you finish this path, the rest are situational. witz end is a very good item for damage, magic resist and shred, very good vs tanks. Quicksilver Sash is also a valuable item.



Other item opinions

Sterak's Gage Very strong due to free AD, health and a shield. Syncs very well with Dead Man's Plate due to extra health and mobility.

Trinity Force very decent but not as good on Yi as other champions such as Jax as Yi struggles to proc it often thus wasting the sheen component. It used to be a perfectly viable choice when it had critical strike chance, but now it's more of a fun item, or boot replacement item late game which is not recommended

Essence Reaver changes on the item make it interesting but due to lack of survival stats and is essentially just a damage buff and gives lower cd to alpha which shouldn't be used as a damage ability, this item isn't good and doesn't even fit Yi as a situational item.

Titanic Hydra is a fun off meta item however overall, Ravenous Hydra is still better however the auto attack reset component allows you to do a quadruiple strike if you do it correctly and be able to instantly double strike right after the first double strike, but other than that, the item is subpar.

Frozen Mallet In my opinion, this item is a waste of gold as if you need a slow, Blade of the Ruined King Randuin's Omen and Dead Man's Plate will all suffice your needs for slows as by the time the slows run out, you'd have almost killed them.

Death's Dance very good item when combined with Phantom Dancer however difficult to stick in a build unless playing top lane Master Yi This item syncs very well with Ravenous Hunter

7.9 New items!

Gargoyle stoneplate is now a decent item however, at the end of the day, it's only an active and it reduces your damage. if you build Guinsoo's Rageblade it's actually a decent item however, without the active, you're very squishy. This item makes Yi a monster in 5v5s as he'll have around 6k hp for 4 seconds, however your damage will be reduced with the exception of his true damage meaning you might not be able to kill people.
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Nerfs/Buffs/Changes


6.6 So now Master Yi received a nerf in which his Wuju Style now scales with 25% bonus AD which forced us to now build a bit more damage, the base got a bit of a buff, but overall a huge nerf early game as you'll have less AD, and late game it's also a nerf unless you build more AD. Base damage increased 12/19/26/33/40 from 10/15/20/25/30. Active's AD ratio changed to 25% bonus AD from 10/12.5/15/17.5/20% TOTAL AD. This also means that Sterak's Gage no longer gives damage to Wuju Style as it gives "base AD" as Wuju Style now scales with bonus meaning it has no effect making the item less of a buy.

6.8 Highlander cooldown increased from 75 seconds ⇒ 85 seconds. This nerf allows enemies to play around the fact your ultimate is down more. Duration decreased from 10 seconds ⇒ 7 seconds meaning you have to ENSURE YOU GET A KILL within those 7 seconds. EXTENSION ON KILL OR ASSIST 4 seconds ⇒ 7 seconds this equal to around the same duration if you land one kill, and any other kill after is a buff by 3 seconds meaning killing 5 people gives you an additional 12 seconds of Highlander

6.9: Guinsoo's Rageblade being reworked in which it has a higher cost, deals less magic damage, no longer deals aoe magic damage, gives less stats, and requires 6 basics compared to 4 to fully stack, however has the sated devourer on hit when stacked but due to it taking too long to stack, it wasn't worth the buy. Sated devourer removed and replaced with Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor which is a buff early game as the item gives better stats than Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer and doesn't require stacks but overall is a nerf as the old sated Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer was overpowered making Master Yi a complete monster. This nerf makes Master Yi a much weaker jungler thus playing him because he "lacks skill and is easy" is not recommended.

6.10 Wuju Style 12/19/26/33/40 ⇒ 14/23/32/41/50 buffed base damage making it just slightly weaker than the old Wuju Style but regardless still forces us to build some AD. Meditate 0.15 ability power per second ⇒ 0.25 ability power per second makes almost no difference as we build 0 AP.

6.22: Jungle pathing changed, overall almost identical experience and gold income to old jungle spawns, if anything it is a buff as you'll hit 6 quicker than before if you path effectively, and clear effectively whilst giving you a lot of time to gank.

New runes make Yi a bit stronger in some situations, and weaker in others, overall due to Zombie Ward he can now offer more utility via his trinket.

Yi still bugged :(

6.23:

Blade of the Ruined King now deals 8% of current health instead of 6%, does more damage thus an indirect buff to on hit Master Yi

Guinsoo's Rageblade got buffed in which it doesn't lose 25% flat attack speed when you finish the item however it used to be bugged on Yi in which the phantom hit when fully stacked damages and applies on hit effects to yourself! Meaning items such as Frozen Mallet will slow you, Wuju Style will also damage yourself, so this item is DECENT! But until the bugs are fixed, it is unusable unless you like making the game harder for yourself - This has been fixed and now the item is a decent buy in certain situations.

7.2:

Double Strike now hits the nearest enemy within 300 range if the first strike kills a unit similar to lucian's passive so it will make hus jungling more afk since you won't need to pay attention to double strike stacks as much, more of a quality of life change than a buff.

Meditate now as additional features, the first being able to stack Double Strike (1 stack per second) while channeling which allows Yi to do some nice damage after he comes out of it, but it will also pause the Wuju Style timer and Highlander timer, in my opinion this will only be a real buff vs certain situations where you need to stall for time, but other than that, isn't really going to make Yi "broken" This will be nice vs Kindred Kayle Tryndamere Jax and other champions where you need to activate Meditate for extended periods of time. This buff just makes it easier to play against those champions.

7.5:
Blade of the Ruined King has been changed and this is overall a nerf however if you build Guinsoo's Rageblade it shall counter the loss in attack speed, and in fact overall buff the champion once these items are complete as you'll hit capped attack speed with additional stats however first item Blade of the Ruined King king is overall an indirect nerf to Yi until level 11 in which the attack speed nerf is irreverent, however the active still got nerfed hard from 10% of maximum health stolen (Aka you heal it) to only dealing 100 flat magic damage + movement speed steal which it already did.

7.something forgot patch note:

Blade of the Ruined King increased cost by 100 gold, now back to original cost, not really a big deal.

7.11:
Ninja Tabi got nerfed by 2%, doesn't change much due to the early armor being used in dives, so yeah.. Auto attacks.. If you get hit 1.5k damage worth of auto attacks, you'll soak 150 damage with it, pre-nerf you'd soak 180. Overall not much difference. Clutch situations vs auto attackers can cause you to die.

Blade of the Ruined King Nerfed life steal, not a big deal. 12% instead of 15%, in 1v1s can make clutch situations no longer possible.

7.22 he is stronger due to new masteries, and has slightly better clear due to free stats gained from rune compensation buffs + runes giving free attack speed anyway. However he has lost a lot of AD from fervor, so his mid to late is much weaker.

8.3

He has been given a mana cost reduction on his Alpha Strike in which it now only costs 90 at rank 5 compared to 110, this means lane Yi has become MUCH more viable as you'll less likely run out of mana.

Wuju Style has been given a massive EARLY buff, 25% bonus attack damage ⇒ 35% bonus attack damage as well as starting at 18 damage instead of 14, overall, this means you'll be doing much more damage per hit early game, and late game doing around 20-30 damage depending on AD per hit. This is more of an early game buff and has now made Lane Yi VERY strong, his level 2 is one of the best in the game due to this change. With Electrocute you'll have 100 AD hitting 100 physical damage + 28 true damage on hit, along with your Alpha Strike doing 125 damage combined with the electrocute. Previously, you'd be doing 18 true damage with Wuju Style with a Long Sword start. This buff also makes Wuju Style start in jungle very good.

8.something

Guinsoo's Rageblade has got a HUGE buff, They reduced the cost of the item, and gave the on hit damage scaling based on ap and ad with a flat 10 magic damage on hit for 14 damage just buying it. The item now gives % increase on AP, and AD, this means 1st item guinsoo is not so good however due to Yi having a % modifier on his E giving him AD, this actually makes guinsoo first item viabale on Yi! To top this off. Sadly this item got a price increase so it's still cheaper, but at 3300 rather than the broken 3000.

8.13
Alpha Strike
REMOVED: No longer deals 75 bonus damage to minions.
Mana cost reduced to 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 from 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90.

Reduced mana cost is great! Weaker clear is bad! However this got hotfixed however unsure when, since tooltip displays extra damage and I can also see it still deals the damage, however this did get removed a while back.

8.17
Meditate
Cooldown reduced to 28 seconds from 35.
Damage reduction increased to 60 / 62.5 / 65 / 67.5 / 70% from 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70%.
Turret damage reduction increased to 30 / 31.25 / 32.5 / 33.75 / 35% from 25 / 27.5 / 30 / 32.5 / 35%

Essentially making this ability more useful early game. Lower cooldown makes Lane Yi stronger. More damage reduction makes you survive more in 1v1s and tower dives.

Random item change -

Sterak's Gage gives bonus ad now so it's very useful on Yi again.

Guinsoo's Rageblade this item got 100 gold cheaper but lost around 1000 gold in stats as it gave us 4% ad and ap per stack, this means you take towers slower, and do less damage overall. To compensate, they gave us armor and magic penetration on the item which isn't that useful unless playing against a Rammus We still build this item due to it being so good on Master Yi

In patch 9.10 Master Yi's q has received a change in which it now has no cast time which is a nerf and buff, it makes dodging spells easier, but you can no longer disjoint cc e.g. Malzahar's ultimate could be dodged using alpha due to cast time.

The damage on Alpha Strike has been changed to 25% per missing target when alpha strike activates however it now lasts a set amount of time, this is a nerf due to you actually dealing more damage with a shorter alpha due to being able to weave in an auto attack, it also gives the opponent more time to react re-position e.g. when tower diving. This is a slight buff early game
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Farming


Effective farming? What does that means? Basically use Wuju Style on Double Strike attacks to maximise usage, not using Wuju Style when not getting the full effect, and using Alpha Strike to dodge camp attacks to maximise health. Also hitting the camps the correct amount of times e.g. letting red burn kill the little raptors etc. Instead of wasting an attack killing it.

Start with Hunter's Machete and Refillable Potion as you'll only lose 60 gold when you sell the potion and it has unlimited uses. Remember, when you're in base, you can spam the potion and it will automatically refil, and offer you one tick of health regeneration saving around 1-2 seconds depending on health.

Path

New jungle path means that comeback expereince has been nerfed, you no longer profit off starting raptors, so the best thing to do is your standard buff clear. Either choose a full clear e.g. Blue > gromp > wolf > raptors > red > krugs, or choose the ganking path which is buffs and 1 camp which gets you level 3 e.g. blue, wolfs, red, gank top, or red, wolves, blue, gank top etc.

My path is red > krugs > gank lane if it's free > raptors > blue > gromp > wolves. If I feel i'm going to get invaded, I'll do a more healthier clear e.g. start on top side jungle, if it's red, i'll do red > krugs > raptors > recall, and if it's blue, i'll do blue > wolves > red > krugs > gank etc.
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Escape


You can use a ward over most camps and Alpha Strike onto it to escape. Other escapes include using it on minions but be careful when using it on low hp minions as you will not teleport to the minion you used Alpha Strike if it dies mid cast, if this happens, you will stay where you were, whereas if the Alpha Strike killed it, you will teleport to that location. Using it on the scuttle crab can also Juke the enemies, as well as escape them.
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How to dive correctly


Use Highlander auto attack either once or twice depending on attack speed as well as distance (2.00 at least needed if you want to go for 2 basics pointblank at the tower) and Alpha Strike as the tower shot will vanish, and it will lose aggro on you, if target still alive, auto attack, time a perfect Meditate to absorb the tower damage whilst still dealing damage as it is an attack reset. If you're low health and score a kill, hit the tower/minions twice and Alpha Strike onto them and you will survive as this will disengage tower aggro, if there's no minions/allys to re-aggro the tower you will have to try and bait the minion to walk out of the tower and hopefully you'll be able to walk out, if not try to Meditate to tank the final shot but ensure you're out of range of the tower beforehand.
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Lane Yi


Lane Yi in my opinion is very surprising to see in lane, and thus people often under estimate and don't respect your damage which is done via Double Strike Meditate auto attack reset. I will go over lanes and how to play them.

Middle lane



You need to be careful when using Alpha Strike as you can sometimes be under the enemy tower, however try to cheese them at level 1, or level 2 by getting your double strike counter up on minions, and using Alpha Strike to engage on them, careful for the jungler and as usual try not to die. Meditate is very useful for lane sustain as not a lot of mid laners have sustain like Master Yi does. You can buy a Hexdrinker which you'll sell later but it's for lane survival if vs ap into Blade of the Ruined King into Phantom Dancer then based on situation if you're snowballing you'll want to either go Guinsoo's Rageblade or build defense items. If you're struggling, try putting 2 points in meditate for sustain and going corruption potion as it will help you sustain your mana pool and health pool.


Top: Generally the same as mid however you have a lot more room to move around thus can alpha strike freely due to the lane being longer, thus no risk being put in tower range, however it is easier to get ganked. Use Double Strike to harass the enemy laner unless you're vsing a champion who can bully you. Generally in top lane I take Ignite Teleport as I can follow their flash with Alpha Strike and generally if you get ganked, you'll die anyway, so you're better off taking offensive spells to at least try and kill your laner, Teleport makes it so if you do get camped you can at least not fall behind. If the jungler lacks cc I often take Exhaust instead so I can 1v2. Remember, putting 2 points in meditate can help you sustain after bad trades.

Alpha Strike Use it to avoid their high damage abilities, and pay attention in lane i.e. Did Zed use his shadow? Did Fizz just pop his pole? Did Ryze just use his Rune Prison? You can harass with this tool if you use Alpha Strike on 3 minions and they're nearby, they can get hit. Also beware if they have dashes/blinks when you Alpha Strike the champion as if they react to your Alpha Strike they can dash into tower and force you to flash, or even kill you (Note that due to the alpha strike bug in which it doesn't correctly follow dashes, it can fail to follow them under the tower which is funny)

Whether you play mid or top, learning the auto attack reset with Meditate is essential to master the champion.

Usually I'll go Blade of the Ruined King into either Guinsoo's Rageblade or defensive items if i'm behind, all other items are situational e.g. Quicksilver Sash


On hit with lane Yi is currently the best build both in lane and out of lane until critical strike gets buffs.
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How to prevent invades


Well, in this season invading early isn't as productive due to buffs spawning first, so the only strength in invading is counter jungling as camp spawns take longer to spawn, or attempt to steal the enemies opposite buff e.g. if they start red, you steal their blue and vice versa.

Get top/bot to ward your red and problem solved. You always start on blue side so regardless of what the enemy jungler does, you can always react to what he does. Generally you should just let the camp/buff go unless you're stronger than the opposing jungler as in solo queue laners won't help you so generally it's a 1v1.

Remember early to beg your team to place their trinkets down.
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Counter jungling


Generally people will want to counter jungle you to deny you, and I will list a few champions to watch out for and how strong they are against you.

High risk of dying, and impossible to out duel at lower levels without help:

Shaco Rengar Kha'Zix Udyr Lee Sin (Lee sin can be outplayed)

Lee Sin will win if he lands a q on you, if he does, meditate the damage, his dragons rage will deny your Highlander so never activate it unless his kick is down, use Alpha Strike to follow him over walls when he ward jumps. If he's around just under half health, you can Alpha Strike to cancel the animation of his Dragon's Rage thus dodging it, get an auto attack, and Meditate auto attack reset to potentially kill him before he kicks you away.

Shaco He can be annoying as he will usually have Ignite and can cheese you with well placed boxes, you face checking it, and instantly dying. You will be able to solo kill him if you're both the same health but generally he'll be able to 1v1 you due to summoner spells.

Udyr is a nightmare as his damage is insane, he has a strong attack speed steroid as well as high damage DOT with Wilding Claw which alone can take 1/3 of your health giving even more dueling power, as well as a stun to troll your Meditate . He is also a lot more mobile and can match your clear. You cannot duel udyr at all until you have some items, or he's low health, or your're ahead. He suffers in the fact his ganks are very lack luster, and his dive potential sucks due to the fact he lacks a gap closer. He also suffers late game due to lacking an ultimate and any team fight utility.

Kha'Zix Is also impossible to duel due to isolation damage and him being able to spam his Taste Their Fear with a 3 second cooldown as well as his passive adding to his burst as well as slow. You cannot duel this guy until you get either some armor such as a Ninja Tabi or are snowballing, but even then he can still use his ultimate to kill you, best way to counter that is to just activate your Meditate and wait out the first portion of his damage as he cannot cc you, but regardless, even when you're ahead, it can be difficult to kill him, best advice is just force his ultimate, and run away. Putting 2 points in meditate early will allow you to potentially kill him.

Rengar he has insane dueling power due to his low cooldowns and high damage,his w gives him a health back, and if he has full ferocity he can force your summoners with his high damage,you outscale quite early unless he gets fed. If he uses his ultimate on you, chance are is you're dead if you don't have ultimate, even activating Meditate isn't enough as he can just wait it out whilst still having full stacks. You outscale him.

How to deal with all cheeses etc. Ward your jungle with control wards, or even your yellow trinkets, remember that your jungle takes ages to spawn, so knowing if you're getting counter jungled can save you time by simply taking what the enemy has.

People rarely invade due to buffs spawning first, however generally starting blue if you're on the bottom side will give you safety, and starting red when on the top side may cause you to lose a buff (This is rare!) but you won't be too behind compared to the enemy jungler.
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Bugs? Alpha strike fixed?


His alpha strike received a full revamp.

1. He now gets granted assists if his alpha strike bounce targets someone, but they die mid cast #BUFF! Now, if you alpha a target who dies mid alpha, not only do you get an assist, but you also get a reset as this could be game changing if you alpha'd a target, they'd die but you'd have no alpha to kill the next target, or no reset for meditate etc. Please note that it is still a bit buggy in which if you alpha strike a single target who's about to die, if the alpha strike doesn't complete the cast, you will not get the assist.

2. His alpha now looks to have a flat cast time, before his alpha would cast within 0.1-0.2 seconds, now it has a flat cast time of around 0.15 seconds or something from my observations. It also feels less clunky compared to the old one

3. He no longer gets locked out of casting meditate, this is a bug fix but also buff in theory since he can now cast meditate on the exact frame he leaves alpha as he couldn't do this before due to the lockout.



Now, the bugs!

Currently there's a few bugs still with his alpha strike, as of 6.21, they apparently "fixed" his alpha strike but it still appears to have some bugs with it, they are as follows:

1. Still can't dodge abilities, enough said.

2.Alpha strike sometimes bugs out and says it's off cooldown but in reality, it is on cooldown which can brainfart you since you don't know when it's up unless you auto attack something. #fixed now - can't dodge graves abilities and some other aoe spells - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_1e6Tjj_uI

3. Crit Yi even with 100% critical strike can no longer critically strike a monster if he alpha strikes, and then auto attacks, doesn't make much of a difference late game but can be annoying to deal with. #fixed now

4. sometimes gets locked out of attacking after alpha, very rare!

5. can't follow flashes, game changing as it makes Master Yi a lot easier to outplay as well as predicting peoples flashes useless. #fixed now


Hit in alpha during riven ult -

Hit whilst untargetable by blitzcrank e, usually this would be a buffer, however what happened was he clicked me from a slight distance, and due to the new alpha strike not disengaging his attack, his attack still went through anyway. The last clip is where my alpha didn't follow his flash, I've had this happen to me numerous times since 6.21. I'd much prefer old alpha to this new one if they don't fix this bug.

Unable to hit sivir despite being out of alpha -
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Objectives


Master Yi is a monster at taking objectives, leave him top for too long and his Double Strike will destroy the tower in no time, if he has red buff, he is even more dangerous as not only can he take the tower, but he can also potentially dive anybody who tries to stop him.

Dragons which work best on Yi?

ALL OF THEM! Every single dragon including cloud has some purpose on Yi, cloud gives Yi a lot of mobility making him hard to catch after doing a split, making his ganks harder to react to due to higher movement speed, general map rotations.

Infernal dragon is the dragon that makes Yi the best champion in the game to benefit from it due to his Wuju Style passive technically giving a multiplicative loop but obviously that would be unbalanced to have infinite attack, but regardless it stacks really well.

Mountain dragon is overpowered on Yi when taking towers, dragons or baron due to his double strike also applying half the mountain dragon true damage.

Master Yi can solo baron with ease. If he has: Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor Guinsoo's Rageblade, Blade of the Ruined King Ninja Tabi Spirit Visage he can solo baron with ease. If he has double life steal with Mercurial Scimitar and Blade of the Ruined King he can also solo it. Always have your red trinket, but remember soloing baron can be risky as if you're caught, not only do you risk dying, but you also risk giving the baron away.
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Some tips


Alpha Strike only makes you untargetable during the CAST animation, not on the start up hence why you can still get hit during it, so timing is key. Still buggy though XD

Wuju Style does not do extra damage to towers, and using it will just make the passive 10% damage go away.

Maximize damage by using Double Strike, and then Alpha Strike to buffer the auto attack recovery within Alpha Strike itself hence increasing your damage per second and dueling power.

When you have max build, unless going glass cannon, your auto attacks will do more damage than Alpha Strike and thus using it will slow your dps down.

Meditate is very strong to tank towers with, use it to tank towers when diving, and then Alpha Strike to lose aggro, Master Yi is amazing at tower diving as he's one of three champions that can make tower aggo constantly reset, the other being Fizz and Akali however of course Master Yi can tank better.

Yi can also use Alpha Strike to ignore certain abilities such as Death Mark applications, note that you need to alpha JUST BEFORE HE LANDS, you need to Alpha Strike a unit to stop the application of it, and his mark will go on cooldown.

Damage dealt by Thornmail will be applied twice if you have Guinsoo's Rageblade and other on hit abilities like rammus's W will destroy you. If you're vsing rammus who has this item, build Quicksilver Sash and activate meditate if he taunts you, wait until his w runs out and kill him.

ALWAYS HAVE Oracle Lens AT ALL TIMES, it allows you to sweep wards and disable any traps such as teemo shrooms and shaco boxes. With this build you want to catch people out since you can kill them so fast that they won't be able to react if they face check, Yi can easily 1v4 if enemies face check. Flanking is your best friend as if the enemies are in a fight, they're not watching out for you thus hit them when they least expect it.
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Summery


Overall, master Yi is a very high risk, high reward champion and in higher elo, he isn't an easy champion to play. You have to be very knowledgeable about the game, and have good reactions/reads to be able to time Alpha Strike correctly. He may seem easy, but he is actually very hard to use effectively. You also require a team who can hold their own until 6, and hope they don't push too hard without wards as this can lead to their jungle ganking more.

How to deal with counter jungles? Wards. Second back if possible try and get a pink ward to ward either your blue, or top bush red as it will make it impossible to invade your side, and you'll have a nice warning.
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How do you beat Yi?




NOTE: Out dated video so watch at your own risk! However the champion specific counters generally still apply
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Opinion on Yi in season 9

Currently Yi is a pretty decent pick in this meta, however changes to his core items and nerfs to jungle experience overall makes him weaker this season compared to others. Nerfs to farming on a farming champion means you have to play smarter about getting fed.
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Lethality on Yi?

Opinion? Well quite frankly, your early game is SLIGHTLY better as the components are better than critical strike Yi however, you'll find that you fall off compared to critical Yi due to the fact you lack attack speed, critical strike offers you much higher dps, and the armor mitigation doesn't really matter since you can just get a Last Whisper if they buy a lot of armor.

Duskblade of Draktharr on release was legit due to the fact it offered so much early game, but at the moment, I'd say it's a riskier choice compared to other options e.g. Blade of the Ruined King into the staple Phantom Dancer
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