02/06/12 - Guide Started.
03/14/12 - Guide Published

These are two guides to jungling Master Yi.

The first guide is my own glass-cannon master yi guide, a version derived from my second build. It is great for slaughter entire teams with no little to no cc, or just plain noobs in normal or draft.

The second guide is a more skilled build, requiring better knowledge in usage or master yi. It is a popular build from Chaox and other higher elo players. I personally dislike the second build because it is less fun, but extremely more efficient in higher elos.

THIS GUIDE IS NOT A BEGINNER'S GUIDE. THIS GUIDE EXPECTS PLAYERS OF LEVELS 22-30 IN DRAFT OR RANKED GAME SITUATIONS WITH FULL TEAM COMPOSITIONS. I SUGGEST PLAYING A BIT MORE LEAGUE OR READING OTHER GUIDES FIRST FOR NEWER PLAYERS.

Burst Yi:


Pros:

high burst
heavy onslaught of AD
OP BACKDOOR
cripples enemy teams when not focused
literally backdoors the whole base late game
PENTAKILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cons:

can dish it out but can't take it (squishy)
cc'ed and screwed
needs a good early game
bad ganks early game
gets face-raped and countered by more experience players

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Offtank Yi:


Pros:

great survivability
good damage dealer for the team
still quite decent for backdooring and damage
great overall champ for high elo
not as susceptible to cc

Cons:

harder to use
might still get focused
needs a decent mid game
low damage mid game
need a good ad carry late game

I will go over the importance of each skill. For more information on each skill, visit:
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Master_Yi

double strike(innate): This is master yi's passive, pretty decent for extra damage and burst. If you want to be "pro", have this up before ganks.

alpha strike(q): This is your distance/gap closer skill. Has a chance to inflict extra damage on non-champs. Use this skill for chasing/jungling/initiating. This skill can be timed to dodge certain champion skills, INCLUDING Karthus's Requiem. This is also great for distracting enemies during team fights thus making Master Yi hard to target. Use wisely due to long cooldown.

meditate(w): Healing spell that also grants armor and magic resist while channeling. Use this to give a health boost while jungling. NOT a Zhonya's Hourglass and do not hope that this will save you everytime. Maxing this early on will lower your damage on ganks and jungle speeds. Use this to save yourself from Karthus's Requiem and Caitlin's Ace in the Hole. Don't pop this in team fights unless you are offtank yi or ap yi to actually do something. Not very useful overall for this guide.

wuju style(e): Extra damage skill for even greater burst and great backdooring.

highlander(ult): Skill grants a huge burst of attack speed and movement speed. Great for bursting/backdooring/chasing. Everytime you kill someone with Highlander up, your skills instantly comes off cooldown. This allows you for unlimited bursting attack speed, or to quickly finish your opponent, and then use highlander again to back off. The low cooldown on this skill makes it a great ultimate.

Smite: Very important spell for jungling. It greatly speeds up jungle speeds and is crucial for counter-jungling and dragon/baron stealing. Not bringing smite for jungling just means that you are a noob, or a noob that thinks he's a bad *** for not bringing smite. Have you seen any junglers in high elo games or championships without smite? Just bring it. -_-

Exhaust: Since Master Yi has literally no cc and relies on his speed, this spell makes early ganks easier and shuts down carries during late game. It is certainly a great skill that is not seen as much due to the major flash bandwagon. The downside is that you get no escape tool besides your super-speed from highlander and juking.

Flash: Great versatile tool for all purposes. I would not recommend this over exhaust because exhaust allows exceptional ganks.

I do not need to specify over runes. I use basic jungling/survival runes. Switch any runes around as you wish but I recommend you keep armor pen quints and flat armor seals.

I max out Wuju Style first due to the extra damage. It really helps for jungling/ganks/pushing lanes/taking down towers.

Alpha Strike is maxed out second because it makes jungling faster and extra damage on ganks.

Meditate is much more important on ap yi. Although it is not useless, I rather have adequate life steal to heal up instead of using this. This skill will not save ad yi if you initiate and immediately Meditate. Not useful for ganks.

Highlander like other ultimates should be leveled up whenever possible.

Start at wolves, hit wolves first and allow your mid to assist if needed. Have your mid leash blue. Use smite on blue. Go steal your enemy jungler's wraiths. You should be able to steal at least the big blue one because you should definately have alpha strike by now. Go down to take your own wraiths. Save smite for red. You may gank after red or you can continue jungling: double golems>wraiths>wolves.

Master Yi is not a hardcore snowballer like Lee Sin but does benefit from early kills as it gets him his first damage item, the Youmuu's Ghostblade.

Notify your teammates to let them push and provede with alpha strike before exhausting opponents to allow an easy kill. Try to aim for a Wriggle's Lantern and Boots by level 6.

Continue jungling for farm and experience. Gank occasionally, like seriously, gank every chance you get. Tell your laners to counter-ward with Vision Ward to provide easier ganks if necessary. Get dragon at level 8-9 with help from bot. Ward well if you are getting dragon.

At mid-late game, team fights should erupt. Master Yi is a dangerous and harsh ad burst. let your tanks or offtanks initiate. Alpha strike towards a squishy target, preferably the ad carry before the ap carry. Use exhaust to ensure that they do not get away. The entire combo of Master Yi is Alpha Strike> Exhaust> Highlander> Youmuu's Ghostblade> Wuju Style>right-click to win. Use all your skills in quick sucession so that you immediately burst the carry in 0.5-2 seconds.

To use Youmuu's Ghostblade active, put it in your first item slot and click 1 you damn noobs...

Don't forget, after you immediately burst down the first carry, all your skills go off cooldowns unless you got ksed... Simply autoattack the next carry or run away if needed. If you are being focused, use alpha strike whenever possible to create confusion and take off focus.

Your job now is to ward baron with Wriggle's Lantern and tell your team when to get baron since you are the jungler.

Continue team fights like you normally would. Stay in the back more and go in team fights later than you should if you are being focused first. Guardian angel really helps take off focus and prevent your death. Buy many Elixir of Agility as it gives crit chance and attack speed. This goes extremely well with offtank yi since he lacks damage output.

If the game gets pushed really late game, sell Wriggle's Lantern for Bloodthirster and your boots along with Youmuu's Ghostblade for Guardian Angel and another Phantom Dancer. Always have a Last Whisper unless the other team have literally no armour; then go for a Black Cleaver.

Situational items include Thornmail and Banshee's Veil.

Try backdooring and pushing turrets if the game is not in your favor. Your team score can be 20-65 and you guys would still win cause late-game yi op. Simply base-rushing will ensure a win if you are fully built.

Key concepts to remember:

If you get a kill and die, it's not worth it. 1 for 1's are never worth it. Unless you take out the most bad-*** carry on the other team, while the rest of the team is ****.
If you get a turret but end up dying, it's not worth it.

Here are the main things to it for using a successful Master Yi:

use alpha strike often if you are not saving it for a chase
don't be reluctant to use Highlander to run away from a sticky situation
keep using Highlander after it comes off cooldown from kills, this allows "unlimited" burst
target the right people
Guardian Angel is god
don't overestimate yourself and play stupid


If you get counter-jungled, simply keep track of respawn times and stay calm.
Counter-jungle safely if you can.
Do not 1v1 certain junglers if you catch them in your jungle, request help.
These junglers include Lee Sin, Nocturne, Udyr, and such.
Have someone kill teemo. And fast.

Coming soon:

pictures
jungle route photos and warding sites
ganking sites
videos

Thank you for reading my guide! I will have plenty more "professional" guides coming out soon. These do take a while to make and I thank you for reading my guide. If you do not agree with my guide, please comment below why.

I do not take criticism harshly, feel free to comment and rate.

Thank you!!!