I'm a brazilian Master Yi jungle main at platinum I elo. My goal whit this guide is to teach people how to play, build and carry as Master Yi.

Pros
- Great Damage output
- Alpha Strike is one of the best skills in the game
- Meditate makes you hard to kill
- True Damage thanks to Wuju Style
- Huge Mid/Late game scaling
- Can Snowball very hard
- Ultimate that gives Movespeed, great AS steroid, and make you immune to slows

Cons
- No natural CC (Relys on Red Buff to gank)
- Extremely relyant on Alpha Strike and Highlander (if these are on cooldown, you can't do much)
- Can't initiate team fights by himself (Relys on teammates)
- Not the best early game
- Bad when behind
- Squishy if builded as an assassin

Double Strike
Double Strike is your passive. After landing 3 auto attacks, the next one will strike twice, but the second one will deal only 50% of the damage. It procs every on-hit effect, such as Blade of the Ruined king, so keep that in mind.

Alpha Strike
Alpha Strike is your Q, and also your main ability. It's an AoE damage skill that makes Yi blink into the first enemy it hits. This skill makes you invulnerable during it's animation, so you can use it to avoid damage and incoming spells. It can also critically strike.

Meditate
Meditate is your W. When activated, you heal yourself for a certain amount for 4 seconds, and you take 60% less damage while meditating. It's cooldown is long, and it can be interrupted by CC, such as stuns and knock ups, so take care.

Wuju Style
Wuju Style is your E. Passively it gives you 10% bonus AD, and when activated, your auto attacks will deal bonus true damage for the next 5 seconds. Note that the true damage don't work on turrets, and while in cooldown, you lost the bonus AD from the passive. So if you're going to take a tower, do not activate Wuju Style for that.

Highlander
Highlander is your ultimate. It's passive reduces the cooldown of the rest of your abilities by 70% every time you get a kill. When activated, it gives you bonus movement speed, bonus attack speed, and makes you immune to slows. The Active duration increase by 7 seconds every time you get a kill.

This is probably the most important part of how to play Master Yi: How to use Alpha Strike and Meditate.

Alpha Strike

Alpha Strike is a Skill that makes you invulnerable for 1 second, So you can use this skill to dodge everything.

You can use it to dodge spells or follow enemies during their mobility spells, such as Flash and Relentless Pursuit. Alpha Strike is the reason why i don't think Flash is important on Master Yi.

This ability can hit up to 4 people, so if see someone with really low HP standing close to another one, use your Q on this guy, and you can hit the Low HP player and get a kill.

Every Auto-Attack you make reduces alpha strike's cooldown by 1 second, and when combined with Highlander's passive, that reduces the cooldown of all your abilities by 70% every time you kill someone, it can literally reset Alpha Strike's cooldown, so keep that in mind.


Meditate
Meditate makes you take 60% less damage while activated, so you can use it to dodge high damage spells, or even just to wait until your Alpha Strike gets out of cooldown.

This ability is also an auto attack reset, so you can increase your damage output if you time it correctly.

Meditate is the second skill that's not an ultimate with longest cooldown in the game, so you should know when to use it properly.

Blade of the Ruined King
This is you core item, gives you AS, AD, Health based damage, life steal and a amazing active. Always get this as your first item (not including jungle enchantment).

Black Cleaver
This is a great item to build on Master Yi; helps you shredding tanks, makes you harder to kill, gives you a MS boost, 20% CDR and some nice AD; a very good and gold efficient item overall.

Frozen Mallet
Used to me pretty bad on Yi, but after some changes and Titanic Hydra nerfs, this is my new go to item after BotRK and Cleaver. It makes you really tanky in combination with Black Cleaver, gives you AD and it's passive is nice if your Ranged AD Carry steals your Red Buff.

Phantom Dancer
Some crit and AS are always good on Yi. Get this item against strong front line duelists (Ex: Jax, Tryndamere, Trundle).

Death's Dance
Since Sterak's Gage don't synergies very well with Yi anymore, this is my go to item against heavy burst damage assassins or fed ranged carries; it also gives you great stats, so it's very nice to have this item.

Maw of Malmortius
Good defensive option against heavy AP burst. If you're planning on building this item, buying Hexdrinker during mid game is a good choice.

The Bloodthirster
If you're not sure what to pick between Phantom Dancer and Death's Dance, you should be probably getting Bloodthirster; it has the same function of DD, but works the same way as PD, so it can be very good to have in some situations.

Mercurial Scimitar
More of a situational item than the above. If you're getting this, it's obviously because you need Quicksilver Sash; It's nice to have this against Really heavy and hard to avoid/unavoidable CC, such as Curse of the Sad Mummy, Infinite Duress and Shield of Daybreak.

Yoummu's Ghostblade
Buy it when you're going for full AD and you need no assassinate a very mobile target (EX: Lucian, Ezreal). If you're planing on building it, remember to pick Ghost as your main Summoner Spell, since both have a great synergy.

Trinity Force
It's actually viable, but also very risky and replaces Black Cleaver in the full build. Also, only go for it if you're ahead.

Infinity Edge
Very straight forward item. Only build it when going full AD of if you're very ahead.

Ravenous Hydra
It just works. Bloodthirster is a better option in almost every situation, but you can still build this for heavy pushing.

Statikk Shiv
It's good if you're going for full AD. Phantom Dancer is straight up better IMO, so it's up to you which one to chose.

Guinsoo's Rageblade
Since it's changes, i don't think it's worth building it on Yi anymore; it's way too high of a investment on a item that gives you 50 AP. It replaces BotRK in the build if you're willing to go for it, but it's not worth IMO.

Tankyi
Tankyi is a build that makes you really hard to kill, while dealing some some nice damage. You'll not deal as much damage, but you'll be even harder to kill, since your defensive stats will be considerably higher. I go for this build when enemy team have 3 tanks or more (Ex: Support Alistar, jungle Sejuani and top lane Sion), and/or way too much CC and only HP will not be enough to hold all of it.

Full AD
If you go for this build patch, you need to focus on split push, since Team Fighting will be really hard and mistakes will be heavily punished. You can run Teleport and use it as an "surprising factor", so you can enter fights without getting immediately focused down, and kill targets faster.

Assassin Yi is really fun to play, and can carry really hard if played perfectly.

Smite
You need this for jungling.

Ghost
I like running Ghost since it's been buffed, it has a great synergy with Highlander. After more tests i found out that this is the best opition for Master Yi, the mobility this gives you on a low CD is just too good.

Exhaust
Exhaust i good for better dueling power and ganking potential. It end up being the best opition in tight situations.

Flash
Master Yi don't need flash, if you use your Alpha Strike the right way, you're good to go. You can take it if you're going for full ad and is not confident enough.

Teleport
You can go for Teleport if you want to play as full AD backdoor split pusher, even though it's more dangerous, since you'll be really squishy and a single bad timed Alpha Strike can cost your life. Also, TP has been nerfed, so it's not that good anymore.

Ignite
You can take this if you want more raw damage or if no one in your team is taking ignite and the enemy team has one of the following champions: Dr. Mundo, Swain, Volibear, Vladimir.
Exhaust is usually a better option, so i don't use it that often.

First Clear
Start Ancient Krug -> Red buff -> clear the rest of the jungle (go back to base at level 4 or 5, if you manage to grab a kill).

You can also Start Gromp -> Blue Buff if you think you can get invaded at level 2 (Ex: Evelynn, Shaco).

Early Jungling tip: Only use Wuju Style's active after your second auto attack. This way, you can proc Double Strike twice with true damage.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

After that, you should focus on buying Enchantment: Bloodrazor and finish Blade of the Ruined King ASAP; Rift Herald is also a great boost for you, so get it if you have the chance (you can 1v1 him if you have your BotRK, if not, ask for your top laner to help you).
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Master Yi's ganks are really powerful with red buff and Exhaust, so don't be afraid of ganking early if enemies push too far or overxtend. Things get even better after 6, if someone's overextending and you get to his lane with red buff and Highlander, it's almost a certain kill!
______________________________________________________________________________________

Blade of the Ruined King is a huge powerspike, so keep in mind that after you get this item, you can 1v1 most champions in the game, so don't be afraid of picking 1v1 fights against top laners, and even mid laners, since you'll probaly beat then with Red smite and Exhaust.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Mid game
At this stage of the game, you'll probably be strong enough to 1v1 anyone on the enemy team, even if you're behind, so the best thing you can do is push top or bottom, outlevel everyone in the game, and look for 1v1 (or even 1v2) battles as much as possible.
______________________________________________________________________________________

Late game
Even though this is the strongest stage of Master Yi in the game, it's also the more dangerous one. As the jungler, you have the job to smite both Baron Nashor and Elder Dragon, and since you're not the most Tank jungler around, getting caught sometimes means certain death, so play patiently and carefully and wait for the right opportunities to go in.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Dragons
Dragon was always an important objective, now with some changes, it's even more important to secure it. The most important Dragons for Master Yi are Mountain Drake and Infernal Drake, so if you see one of them, keep in mind that securing them is really important for you. Cloud Drake and Ocean Drake are important too, but it's not worth sacrificing for them in most situations.

Thank you for reading my guide. Hope you learned how to play Yi and have a nice day. Play Video