THIS IS AN AP BUILD, DON'T VOTE DOWN JUST BECAUSE ITS NOT AD >.<

Blue = Abilitys/summoner spelss
Orange = Items
Yellow = Runes/masteries
Pink = Stats

It wasn't untill recently I started playing Ap Yi but its truly one of the funniest playable char in the game. So if you want to try something different and if u are up for the challenge, Ap Yi is the char for you, and I am here to help! :D This is my first build and I will try to do my best to make it easy to understand and easy to follow.

I usually play Ap Yi solo top when my team have a jungler but every lane works for him. The only thing I would suggest is that you dont lane with the AD carry in your team. He will need his farm and his kills. Since your Alpha strike is excellent for getting last hits its better to lane in a different lane, like top.

(Notice that this is a build in progress, I will add more chapters and much more details)

Lets start of with the pros and cons:

Pros:
+ Exellent sustain
+ Harrasing likeabaws
+ Tanking likeabaws
+ Very good farmer
+ Perfect towerdiver with alpha/flash
+ His ult resets the cooldown on every ablility
+ Massive Aoe damage in teamfights
+ One of the funniest characters to play

Cons:
- CC will be a B I T C H
- Will have to get at least 1 kill in the beginning of a teamfight to be of any use.
- Will be blamed by teammates if anything goes wrong/many complaints in champion select.
- Squishy

When I play Ap Yi I want flat Ap and some Magic Penetration. Ap/lvl on yi seems kinda useless since you will get loads of Ap anyways late game. What you need is a good early damage with Alpha Strike and heal with Meditate.

Therefor I suggest you buy flat Ap on Quints (Greater Quintessence of Potency), Seals (Greater Seal of Potency), Glyphs (Greater Glyph of Potency) and magic penetration on marks.
This will make you have 52 Ap in lvl 1 and you will be able to do some damage and heal yourself pretty nicely.

As this skill has an Ap ratio 1:1 it becomes ridiculously strong with this build. It will be your main skill as Ap yi and you want to max it first. Epic harass ability and combined with Flash it makes the exellent towerdive (not to mention the movement boost from the Highlander).


This is what makes you able to stay in your lane as long as you want. It has an epic Ap ratio on 1:1.65 and with the full Ap runes and a doran's ring it should make the ones you lane against depressed as they watch ur health bar go up after their harass. We are not done yet, this skill also grants a huge amount of armor and magick resist so if the enemy team doesnt save their cc for you you will be able to tank their whole team later on in the build. Its important that you wait untill they have used their cc tho, otherwise you are dead meat


This skill doesn't fit with AP yi at all^^ it gives u a small amount of Ad which you wont be needing/it wont make much of a difference. I have seen Ap builds where people put a point in it early but I honestly doesnt see the point with it. Make sure you put a point in it when you have your Lich Bane tho ;) not that the Ad helps but like all abilitys it activate Lich Banes passivee and you will deal some nice extra damage.


Now when I think about it I think this ability was made for Ap yi. It resets all cooldowns and its amazing in teamfights. Let your Ad carry get 1 person low and you will nuke their whole team. You will one shot the player on low health dealing massive damage to the enemy players around him. This usually makes another enemy low and since Highlander removed the cooldown from Alpha Strike you are free to use it again. And so it continues untill you doesnt get the finnishing blow or the enemy team retreat.

My recommended items:

Starting item:



This is the items you want to start off with. I dont know why you would start with Boots of Speed and pots since you wont need the pots cause of Meditate and you will appreciate the damage boost from Doran's ring.



Core items:



You should usually try to stay in lane long enough to get 1100 gold so you can afford Sorcerer's shoes on your firt back. The Movement Speedboost will make it easier to get away with harassing and the Magic Penetration is wonderfull. Some might call you noob because you dont buy the cooldown reduction boots (Ionian Boots of Lucidity) but they dont know what they are talking about. You will need the Magic Penetration and your ult will take care of the cooldowns :p

This is not the cheapest of items and it will seem like an eternity before you get it. But once you get it... thats when you will start seeing some results xD It gives a great boost to your Ap and its passive is absolutely amazing. Already at this state of the build you will have loads of Ap and your Alpha Strike should be dealing tons of damage (at least to their squishy Ad/Ap carries).


After Rabadon's Deathcap you should try to build a Lich Bane as soon as possible. When you are finnished with it you will have a huge amount of Ap and with the Alpha Strike + Lich Bane damage you should easily be able to take down their carries. And if you are lucky to have another player standing next to the carry... well, you got urself a double kill :)


Next you are going for the Rylai's Crystal Scepter. You get a much appreciated Health and Ap boost and on top of that you get the slow that will make you an even better hunter/makes it easier to escape.



Options for last items:
/ / /

Its not so often you get to this state in the build but here you have a few options. If the enemy team have some powerful Ad carries you take Thornmail
If you feel that their Ap carry is more of a threat to you buy Guardian Angel and perhaps an Abyssal Scepter. If you on the other hand feel like you dominate the game you can continue building up your Ap with items such as Void Staff which also gives you some nice Magick Penetration

Summoners spells is pretty much up to you, but here is how I think:

When I play Ap Yi I use my Alpha Strike as soon as its off cooldown for the best cs and good chances to harass the enemy champions, but this totally rapes my Mana so therefor I use Clarity as on of my summoner spells. If you have an unselfish Shyvana or Lee Sin as junglers who can give you blue you could consider getting another summoners but even if you have that dream jungler its usually the Ap mid who get the blue buff.


Like everyone I consider this one of the best spells cause its amazing both for making a nice escape or help you get close enough for that last Alpha Strike you need to finnish off your target. Also nice to have when your Meditate stops and you have 5 angry enemy players around you xD I strongly suggest that you have this skill no matter what you choose as your second spell.

Optional Summoners:



This skill is a great friend against the many cc you will encounter. If a champion like sion hits you with his stun you are pretty much dead before the stun is over :/. If you want to have this summoner spell I would suggest you remove Clarity and keep Flash.


Many of my teammates complain about that I am not using Ignite and without saying that they are completly right about it they are definitely not wrong. I cant count the times I have Flashed in, used my Alpha Strike and then realizing that they are not dead xD Since your auto attacks wont be enough to finnish them off ignite is perfect.

Early game:

Buy you Doran's ring and set off to a lane. As I mentioned earlier I prefer solo top but there is no lane that Ap Yi is "bad" in. If you go duo laning you should avoid laning with the Ad carry. Except from that you should be fine whatever you choose.

When you reach your lane dont go thinking that you can take them down for a quick first blood, cause you cant xD You should keep your distance and if you go into the bush stay in the far back. When the minions reach your lane the fun begins. Use your Alpha Strike as much as possible and get your cs up. If you go solo top you will notice that even the Ad carry will have hard times competing against your cs. Be carefull when using Alpha Strike tho. NEVER put the Alpha Strike on a champion if you are not absolutly sure they wont attack you. This early your Meditate tanks quite well but one Ignite and you are dead (at least if you are laning against 2 players) Place your Alpha Strike on a minion which is a safe distance from the champions instead.
Just alpha strike over and over untill you;
1. Dont have any Mana left.
2. Have money for Sorcerer's shoes.
When this happens go back to base and get your mana/health up and buy yourself the boots. If you had to recall before you got 1100 gold you should buy another Doran's ring and Boots of Speed if you can afford. Then go back to lane and get enough gold for your boots.

Once you bouth your boots:
Go back to lane and start using your Q ability as normal. Now you will notice that once you succesfully land a alpha strike on the enemy player their health bar is not what it was. Keep on doing your alpha untill you reach level 6

Mid game:

If you havent tried to towerdive a person yet this is a perfect time to try it out. The enemy should be on pretty low health after your earlier alpha strikes. Now you can get a little bit more offensive. Alpha strike their champions directly (they must be on such low health that they will die of 2 alphas) so they realize that you are aiming to kill them, they will decide to recall and you are going to follow them to their tower. Then pretend to abandone the idea and go back to the enemys teams bush. At this time they should have started recalling next to their tower and are probably looking for what they are going to buy in the shop. Pop your ult which make you really fast and just run out of the bush and once you are close enough use your Q to pick up the kill. Be really carefull while doing this. Double check their health and how much your alpha strike really damage. If you dont have ignite you might end up beating your keyboard when you didnt get the kill.
When you get the kill you should be able to make it out alive just by your movement speed but if things get critical use your flash :)

During mid game its extremly important that you farm. If you dont have a jungler try to take some jungle creeps on your way to the lane. Dont go around roaming just yet. Get your cs high and get a kill or 2 in your lane. Already during mid game (lets say you have 1 doran's ring, sorcerer's and a blasting wand) your still have pretty nice ap. If you feel that the players you face not have a elo of 2k you can try to make them towerdive you. Take some harass from them and dont use meditate. Pretend to be a r e t a r d and dont alpha strike their minions. Once their minions are at your tower let them harass you som more and then run to the tower. If they are not experienced with Yi's meditate they will probably try to towerdive you since you are on so low health. Place yourself just behind the turret and once you see that they are going for you start meditating. Most people know that meditate gives a pretty nice heal but what is not as known is the armor/magick resist it provides. They wont deal any damage to you and you health will pretty much go up. This is one of the things I like most about yi. Looking at them desperatly trying to kill you while the turret is shooting at them. Once they realize that they wont be able to get you they will easily be one shooted my your alpha strike.

Late game:

Once you have your rabadon's and is starting to build lich bane you have 2 choices:
1. Keep farming
2. Gank
If it didnt go so well in your lane (got killed or didnt get so much minion kills) I would suggest you keep farming for a bit before you start roaming.
If it went good you should easily be able to pick up a kill in a different lane while giving that lane some help. Stand in a bush near the lane and wait for the opportunity to gank. When you see it pop you ulty and run in behind them.

Late game teamfights:
Here you have to decide your role. If you play yi right in teamfights you can easily nuke down the enemys whole team. BUT, this means you have to "kill steal" your first kill in the teamfight. When you alpha strike the one you are KS:ing you will damage 4/5 people in their team. And since your ulty removes the cooldown on alpha you can do this again. This give great opportunitys for multi kills. Playing like this will get your team really mad at you tho (even if you would have loost the team fight if you didnt)
If you feel like your team can win the teamfight without your nuke and you dont want to kill steal Alpha strike is a great initiate skill. Place alpha strike and watch their health go low enough for your team to easily kill them all. A yi who plays like this usually have a pretty nice amount of assists xD And with your great cs you should be fine without getting all the kills.