[1] Introduction	[4] Early Game
	[2] Statistics	[5] Late Game
	[3] Objectives	[6] Build/Abilities

Have you ever wanted to get a pentakill? Are you tired of having to land skill shots or be good at the game to win? Well I have the answer to your problems! Play Master Yi, the pentakill god! The one and only Yisus! The 1-click AD hyper carry Penta-hoarding god of the rift! Follow this guide and you too will wield the power that is the right mouse button!

Okay that's enough joking for now. In all seriousness this guide will show you how to not just dominate the top lane, but how to snowball into a pentakill monster. A lot of people believe Master Yi is a no-brain champion that requires no skill to play. They are dead wrong, literally every champion requires skill to play. I consider Master Yi to be a beginner level champion, however only in the jungle where he can choose his fights a lot more easily. In top lane things are a lot different. The champions you face in top lane are high sustain, high damage bruisers and tanks for the most part and will crush you if you're not prepared. You're nothing but an annoying pest to them until you get your items. So why do I play him top lane? Here's the way I look at it: it is my opinion that Master Yi is one of the worst junglers in the game. My reason for believing this is simple, I am a jungle main and literally every jungle champion I play as can easily just invade Yi for kills left and right. Master Yi can't do anything to fight back and can't secure objectives. All he can do is gank and farm. This I believe is the reason he falls off in higher elo, because higher elo junglers counter-jungle a lot more. (His recent buff is helping him a bit in higher elo now) Not to mention he is a gold hungry, selfish champion. He needs a lot of gold as quickly as possible to get strong and do what every Master Yi's goal is, get a pentakill. So hoards the kills.

When playing Master Yi top lane you are keeping the jungling slot open for a proper jungler who can give the kills to teammates while still giving your team the late-game hyper carry god that is Master Yi. Once you get skilled at Master Yi you'll be able to dominate most match ups, but this takes time and practice. This guide will make sure you practice the right way.

If you have any questions, concerns, or disagreements please let me know in the comments section and I will respond as swiftly as I can. If you at all found this guide helpful please give it a thumbs up, it would be very appreciated.


Warning!: Side effects may include: Over-confidence, Feeling that you are in fact Yisus, Need to run around yelling "WUJU", Pentakill craze, and Loss of appetite.







I have organized a testing group of 10 people to have them test out my build as well as Top Lane Master Yi guides made by other users to look at the win rates out of 30 games per guide. 2 of these testers were Platinum ranking, 2 of these testers were Gold ranking, 2 of these testers were Silver ranking, and 4 of these testers were Bronze ranking. Here are the results:




Disclaimer: The testing data shown is not at all conclusive to the qualities of the builds. This data simply shows the results of a small control group's successes with these builds so that readers can be more sure that this guide will give them the best results. My build has been improved a lot during the testing process to give you the final product you see now which is the reason for the higher success rate, more research went into it. The shown percentages have been rounded to the nearest divisible of 5.


Notice: I am looking for screenshots of match history showing 20 games using this build so that I can add it to my data and make sure my build works for more than just the people I tested it with. So please send me them if you can. Only level 30 players please. Also tell me your League rank.







This section will explain the importance and benefits of specific objectives in relation to Master Yi. The objectives are in the following order: Most Important Monster Objectives - Least Important Monster Objectives - Most Important Tower Objectives - Least Important Tower Objectives

Rift Herald is the most important objective for Master Yi to secure since it is by his domain(top lane). Rift Herald will help the team push down well-defended towers. Recommended that you take it with your jungler so you have help if the enemy attacks you. Hitting the eye helps do massive damage to it, so always be hitting the eye by hitting its back.

Baron Nashor grants a buff to all teammates that allows them to do true damage. Which is really good for Master Yi. It also buffs nearby minions which will help you push. You want to take this objective either when you need the boost in strength just to fight the enemy team or when you are preparing to end the game or massively destroy enemy base. This isn't specifically good for Master Yi, but it is crucial for your team to get it as it often determines which side wins the game.

Elder Drake increases the buffs gained from other dragons by 50%. So if your team has a lot of dragon buffs then this is a very important objective. By time it spawns you can normally solo it so just get it whenever you can. It isn't really much of an importance to you unless you have Infernal Drakes, in which case make it a priority.

Infernal Drake increases your damage. Try to get all of them. You have Teleport so you should be able to use it to teleport down to bot lane at a good time, kill enemy bot laners, and then take dragon. So be watching bot lane often when an Infernal Drake is up. However, try not to risk your lane for it early game. Push out your lane first and maybe have your mid laner cover your lane if possible. If you're losing lane then it is up to your jungler to secure it.

Mountain Drake is very useful for pushing down towers which is what you'll be doing a lot of. So make sure your team gets this, but don't risk your lane for it. If you're losing lane then it is up to your jungler to secure it.

Ocean Drake is nice to have but doesn't really matter to you so don't go out of your way to get it.

Cloud Drake makes you faster, good but not at all important. Don't go out of your way to get it.

This section will be a compilation of detailed information, tips, and tricks.

In the Early Game as Top Lane Master Yi you should be constantly harassing the enemy. How do you do that? Well it's very simple unless the enemy is ranged. Every time your opponent goes up to hit a minion you hit him. If your opponent gets mad and starts trying to attack you like a monkey then you proceed to orbwalk away. What I mean by that is you hit your enemy the entire time but every time your auto attack is on cooldown you walk toward your turret. There are two goals in doing this. The main goal is having your enemy chase you past your minion wave so that your caster minions begin attacking him. Doing this will often get you an easy early kill if the enemy doesn't back off quickly enough. The second goal in doing this is now your enemy is farther from his turret and closer to yours. So if he tries to run away he now has to cover a greater distance to get to safety. If you do decide to chase for the kill be cautious of his minion wave as well as a potential gank. Save your Alpha Strike while chasing for either dodging CC, finishing him off, avoiding turret shots, getting in auto attack range, or following up with your opponent's gap closer. Also if you feel like you'll get the kill but need a little speed you can always activate Ghost. If you took Flash instead then only use that to finish off the kill and beware of enemy's Flash.


If you kill your enemy push out the wave quickly and then recall back to base and get items. Rush Vampiric Scepter for the lifesteal. MAKE SURE YOUR LANE IS WARDED WHILE PUSHING! If the enemy jungler is around the area after you killed his top laner he might come up to avenge. You'd only fight it if you have enough health and mana, but regardless you need to see it coming to properly react. See Objectives section for proper ward placement so you know where the enemy jungler is.

When getting back to lane you only use Teleport if the enemy minions are at your turret so you don't lose all that gold or if your enemy opponent is ahead in exp while minion wave is frozen in middle of lane. Otherwise just walk back. Teleport can be used to quickly get to bot lane and help your team rack up 2 kills and then get dragon. It can also be used to help your jungler if he gets caught in enemy jungle. So it is important to have it when an opportunity arises.

When using Alpha Strike to farm or harass there are important things to know about how it works. When you use it on any enemy you follow that enemy when it's finished. Meaning if you used it on your opponent and he flashed then you end up in his new location after it's done. Another important thing to know is that if the enemy you used it on dies before it finishes then you are put back in your original location. Knowing these two things you must think carefully about how to use it in lane. For example if your enemy is beating you then you might need it just to get CS. But then the enemy might time an ability to hit you and try to kill you. How do you avoid this? It's simple, you watch for a minion that is low health AND being targeted by one of your caster minions. Once you see that it is about to die in 1 more hit you use Alpha Strike on it. You'll end up in your original position when it's over and your opponent might have wasted an ability while trying to predict where you'd end up. If your opponent is near 3 minions then you can use it to hit him. Combine the two strategies and you'll be able to hit ranged opponents like Teemo without taking damage.

Use Meditate to stay in lane as long as possible, tank enemy hits if tower dived and then follow up with Alpha Strike, and to auto attack cancel in a fight. You can also use this to tank a turret shot if you're tower diving. Obviously make sure you hit the enemy at least once if he tower dives you so that if he dies you get the kill.

Once you hit level 6 get Highlander and try to let enemy push to your tower. Once he does you can try to kill him and he will have a lot more ground to cover to get away.

Pay attention to Rift Herald. As soon as it spawns begin keeping sight on it with wards and Rift Scuttler so the enemy doesn't take it. Try to get it as soon as you can, the herald is very essential to your team.

If there's an Infernal Drake try to secure it. Use Teleport to quickly do it if you have to. The damage it gives you helps you a lot and even more later in game if you get Elder Drake.

When fighting Teemo you should try and kill him at level 1. Reason for this is simple, almost every Teemo player gets passive poison on autos at level 1 so he won't have blind. Which means you can kill him extremely easily, but once he hits level 2 he will make your life miserable until you get your ultimate. It takes a lot of outplay to beat a Teemo later in game so level 1 is your best option to get ahead of him. If you know you're facing a Teemo you can make choice to take Ignite or Cleanse to either kill him quickly or get rid of his Blind effect. But I prefer Teleport. While he blinds you just Meditate for the duration of it then Alpha Strike him and try to finish him off.








In the late game as Master Yi you have two main jobs. To push out all the lanes constantly and to clean up team fights. You should be consistently farming either jungle monsters or lane minions because you need a lot of gold for your items and you need a lot of items to stay strong. By 30 minutes you should try to have at least around 250 CS if possible, obviously if you're killing a lot that might not happen or even be needed, but generally that should be your goal.

When team fighting it is important to know that Master Yi is only Yisus when he isn't locked down by CC. The enemy will likely focus their CC on you which means you can't start the fight when against more than 2 opponents. Which is why many people say your job is to clean up the enemies. Basically what you should do is stay around your team and wait for the fight to start, once it starts and you see abilities flying around it is time for you to make a choice of who to target. You should target the enemy's high damage champions. Those are normally Mages, Fighters, and Marksman. Kill them quickly and use Alpha Strike to conceal both your existence and your location so that they can't stop you. If you ever get locked down ping Assistance on top of yourself so your team hopefully comes to your aid and if possible use Meditate to heal up then Alpha Strike to escape. And that is how you team fight.

Master Yi is a great split pusher because how you build him. You're building high damage, high attack speed, and high life steal. So naturally that combined with Alpha Strike lets you push lanes quickly. It also makes you an amazing duelist capable of sometimes 1v3ing under enemy turrets which forces the enemy to send everyone to try and stop you. If they do that then your team can take free turrets or objectives. When split pushing you should take it gradually so you don't get caught out and killed. There's a stereotype that Master Yi players don't ward when split pushing, reason for that is likely because they are too full of themselves thinking they can actually 1v5. Reality of it is you aren't normally able to 1v5, your team is helping. You just do enough damage to kill the enemies, but without help from your team you die to CC quickly. So ward along the way when split pushing and occasionally walk out of the lane to farm jungle creatures. If an enemy comes and you know he has no allies around then kill him quickly and hide. If you know he has allies around then wait it out or ask allies for help killing them. Once the enemy is gone continue pushing. Use Ghost and sometimes Highlander for escaping if necessary.

Along with those two jobs you should also be focused on making sure your team gets baron. That should be everyone's job but a lot of times your team won't prioritize it.

Press the Attack gives you a lot of damage output throughout the game due to a combination of three things. Your ultimate, your passive, and the fact you hoard attack speed items. After 3 hits on an enemy you deal a burst of damage and then continually hitting the enemy after take does more damage. On a champion that needs 3-6 hits to kill most enemies by late game, this is insanely strong on Master Yi. The alternative to this is Lethal Tempo which gives you attack speed for hitting an enemy, but I don't value it as much. Early game you have your ultimate for attack speed and later in the game you have so much attack speed that Lethal Tempo just seems like a pointless luxury pick you take for fun.

Triumph heals you every time you get a kill or assist which often saves you from death. Never go without this.

Legend: Tenacity gives you tenacity, so of course we're taking it. More tenacity you have the less time you spend standing around twiddling your thumbs. Which on Master Yi means more time spent killing your enemies swiftly and brutally.

Coup de Grace means no one gets away from you. You are god of life and death, no one but you decides fate.

Revitalize gives you added healing to your meditate. So yes, you bet we're taking this.

YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THERE'S ANOTHER RUNE THAT GIVES TENACITY!? Hell yeah we're taking Unflinching. This makes you not flinch in a fight, which is essential to being Master Yisus. Master Yisus never flinches. Using summoner spells gives you tenacity. Flash for a kill? We got tenacity. Teleport? We got tenacity. Summoners on cooldown? We got tenacity.

Doran's Blade is by far the most optimal and potentially only choice for your starting item as Master Yi top lane. I used to do Corrupting Potion when I was first starting out, but that was because I had no confidence at the time in my ability to survive lane. I quickly figured out how to properly harass my opponent while farming and because of that I no longer needed to play like a monkey. Doran's Blade gives you enough damage to kill your enemy quickly and enough sustain to stay in lane. So go with the blade, don't be a monkey.

Vampiric Scepter will give you enough life steal to safely stay in lane even once your enemy gets ultimate. Without this item you lack both the damage and sustain early game to keep your lead or create a lead. It is essential that you build this item first. This item builds into your Bloodthirster after you get Phantom Dancer

Dagger gives you attack speed. It's as simple as that. You want to get some more attack speed before you grab your boots, so if you have the choice between this and boots then grab this, assuming you don't already have one. This item builds into your Phantom Dancer.

Boots helps you chase down your escaping opponents. Master Yi loves his 'speed'. Grab this early on so you don't hate yourself for being too slow.

Phantom Dancer gives you movement speed, ability to pass through minions while near enemies, attack speed, and crit. It is very important that you get this item quickly, because once you have it your attack speed is covered and you can now focus on damage, crit, and life steal.

Bloodthirster gives you massive damage, life steal, and a shield. It is very important that you get this as your second big item. Once you have this you'll start being able to clean up the enemies in team fights fairly easily.

Berserker's Greaves will give you some more attack speed so you can deal out damage faster and heal faster in a fight. Alternatively you can get Ninja Tabi but the attack speed will likely help you a lot more.

Infinity Edge increases your critical strike chance to 50% assuming you have Phantom Dancer. It will also make your critical strikes deal more damage. This item is core to this build. Without it you don't do nearly enough damage to be a threat and the only reason it isn't built earlier is because your ability to sustain in a fight is more important than your ability to kill everyone in a fight.

Death's Dance helps you survive burst, gives you more life stealing including life steal on your abilities, gives 75 AD, and CDR. It's an all around great item, but sometimes you might find that you need Ravenous Hydra before it for the AoE.

Ravenous Hydra gives you wave clear, more sustain, and more damage. This item is great if you are split pushing a lot or are behind and need to farm faster for gold. Normally you end with this item because it isn't core to the build, but you can grab Tiamat earlier if you really need it and sometimes I build this item instead of Bloodthirster.

Guardian Angel gives you defensive abilities and a revive. There are many times to get this item. If you are carrying your team you will likely get this so you don't lose fights just because you died. If you haven't died much and are doing really well you'll get this just so you don't die, we need to get S somehow right? But the main reason I get this item is when you can easily tell that the enemy is saving everything just for you in a fight, that's when this item comes in handy. You take the fall for your team then you get right back up and finish the enemies off.

Frozen Mallet isn't an item you need very often. Only time I build this is when I am dealing with very hard to kill kiting champions like Vayne, Ezreal, and Kalista. However normally your ultimate + ghost will be enough to catch them and kill them. This item gives you health to survive the harass until you get up to them and then it slows them down to keep them from getting away. Again, this item isn't often needed but occasionally it finds use. I almost always take this item last when I do use it. Another type of champion it is good for is champions with a lot of gap closing who constantly get away such as Shaco and Lee Sin.

Essence Reaver gives you damage, CDR, and crit. It is a really strong item on Master Yi and I almost always end with it. However it is also considered a luxury item while the other choices actually give you another function, this one simply makes your current functions stronger. Still, it is usually a great ending item that you will often want to take especially while ahead.

Double Strike allows Master Yi to passively build stacks on auto attacks until he has hit 3 enemies, monsters, or minions. After this his next basic attack will hit twice with 50% bonus AD physical damage and if the first strike kills his target then the next strike will hit a nearby enemy. The primary use of this ability early game is for both farming quickly and harassing your enemy. Keep track when this is active so you can use it on your enemy for quick damage.

Alpha Strike allows Master Yi to jump across multiple enemies dealing damage to each while being untargetable. Whichever enemy you use this on you'll follow, so if they flash, dash, etc you'll follow them. If your enemy dies before it finishes then you'll return to your original location. Auto attacking lowers the cool down of this ability by 1 second, so auto attack often in a fight so you can keep spamming it. Always max this first.

Meditate allows you to take reduced damage while it is active, heals you over time while active, pauses the duration of Wuju Style and Highlander, and it allows you to auto attack resist if you time it right. Most people use this when losing a fight or when they are low health so that they can heal up. People who only use it that way don't realize its other great uses and I don't just mean tanking a turret shot. You can use this to auto attack reset in a fight as well as take reduced damage from an incoming enemy ability. Often times, early game especially, I'll use meditate to take less damage from either an enemy auto attack or enemy damaging ability and then quickly cancel it to auto attack. If you time it right you'll manage an animation cancel and damage reduction on enemy's attack. This will often win you an otherwise lost fight without having to sit around for 4 seconds waiting for more enemies to show up. You normally max this third but is can be useful to max second.

Wuju Style is simple. While active you gain bonus true damage on auto attacks and its passive ability gives you 10% increased AD. Doesn't proc on turrets and doesn't cost mana to use. So use it often in laning phase to hurt your opponent.

This ability turns you into Yisus. Its passive reduces the cooldowns of other abilities when you kill or assist and its active gives you a speed boost, immunity to slows, attack speed, and its duration increases each time you kill or assist. This is your Pentakill button late game. Once you have Infinity Edge you can rack up many kills using this.

That's it for the guide. Please let me know in the comments section what you think and if you found it helpful give it a thumbs up. Master Yi Jungle guide coming soon.