Not Updated For Current Season
This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page
x
Master Yi - A Carry from the Jungle
x

Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment.
You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment
I liked this Guide

I didn't like this Guide




Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
Introduction
.....This is a guide for playing


.....Playing this build can be very stressful - there will be times where you need to have the courage and know-how to dive-in on 3 enemies mid/late game in order to push mid. However, there will be times when you will need to run from a single enemy two levels lower than you! Knowing your match-ups and knowing exactly how much damage you can dish-out is essential.
.....
.....Lastly, please note that I just resumed playing ranked this season after a busy summer (and a small bit of elo decay)! So even though I'm still low elo, take solice in my Youtube and Twitch channels as I will be grinding my way back up through the ranks during the remainder of season 4.
.....
Most Recent Ranked Pentakill
.....
.....This season is considerably more conducive to Master Yi's playstyle than last season. If the opposing team doesn't have a plethora of hard CC and/or baiting potential, you will likely stomp all over them. On your own team you will be seeking out some tanky engagers, team sustain, and perhaps a roaming assassin in the mid lane. Please note that the list of champions below is by no means an absolute roster of "good" and "bad" champions for Master Yi. The meta changes so quickly that it is hard to maintain a list like this, so use your own judgement!
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
Mid Lane
.....
.....For the mid lane, you want to pair with someone who has crowd control so that you can crowd control + Alpha Strike combo the enemy. My personal favorite mid to play with is Ahri, since her charm, mobility, and insane burst mean you can roam the map together and take-out nearly anyone. Be wary picking Master Yi against an enemy mid lane with good disengage, especially if your mid lane has little-to-no crowd control.
..........
Top Lane
.....
.....There are a lot of counters in top lane to Master Yi. Jax is one of the worst, due to his ability to block auto-attacks. Essentially you want to avoid playing against champions who will be able to survive your initial burst and then send you running with their superior sustain. On your team you must have a tanky top lane to help compensate for your squishiness in team fights later on. A top lane with good sustain and some hard crowd control (such as Sion) will mean easier ganks early on and better teamfights later on.
..........
Bot Lane ADC
.....
.....Friendly/enemy ADC choice is perhaps the role you are most flexible with. Essentially you generally will want an ADC with some sort of engage/disengage to help solidify ganks. Similarly, the less disengage the enemy ADC has, the better.
..........
Bot Lane Support
.....
.....Honestly what matters more than the support's champion selection is their skill level and level of vision control. More vision control means easier ganks. When it comes to champion selection, however, you generally want friendly supports who have an engage or stun, but can still offer some sustain to their lane. For enemy supports, you generally just want to avoid playing against enemies who can disable you easily. Zyra is an amazing support right now and she has pretty decent synergy with Master Yi. Fiddlesticks may seem like an intimidating support to play against, but just let your ADC and support dive in first and eat the fear, then use Highlander and Alpha Strike to destroy them since Fiddlesticks will have no escape.
..........
....................
....................
....................
....................
.....Movement speed quints will strengthen your ganking presence, especially early game and when used in combination with one of your movement speed actives (
Ghost,
Highlander, and
Youmuu's Ghostblade). In addition to being more easily able to stick to your enemies, movement speed helps you escape, split-push, take objectives, flank, and generally just waste less of your most precious resource as a jungler: time. In the scope of this build, these quints help compensate for lack of boots. Note that
Greater Quintessence of Life Steal would be reasonable as well.
.....
.....
.....Having armor penetration on your rune page somewhere is highly recommended for most attack damage oriented carries. You will generally want to try to avoid purchasing
Last Whisper as part of your standard build (if possible), thus these marks are of utmost importance. Combined with
Youmuu's Ghostblade, your armor penetration will be 31.5 fairly early into the game. If the enemy team decides to build
Thornmails you may need to pick up
Last Whisper mid or late game.
.....
.....
.....Reasonable seals for this build include
Greater Seal of Armor,
Greater Seal of Attack Damage, or
Greater Seal of Attack Speed. I prefer attack speed due to the synergy it has with
Alpha Strike. More attack speed means more auto-attack damage, more frequent life steal, and more frequent damage & invulnerability via Alpha Strikes. An alternate, identical rune page but with
Greater Seal of Armor could be a decent choice if you are facing tanky attack damage threats on the opposing team, i.e. Tryndamere, Rengar, etc.
.....
.....
.....Not much to be said here. Attack speed provides damage, indirect life steal, more passive procs, and more frequent cooldown reduction for
Alpha Strike. Go big or go home.
.....
....................
....................
.....Movement speed quints will strengthen your ganking presence, especially early game and when used in combination with one of your movement speed actives (




.....
.....
Greater Mark of Armor Penetration.....Marks: Armor Penetration
.....Having armor penetration on your rune page somewhere is highly recommended for most attack damage oriented carries. You will generally want to try to avoid purchasing




.....
.....
.....Reasonable seals for this build include





.....
.....
.....Not much to be said here. Attack speed provides damage, indirect life steal, more passive procs, and more frequent cooldown reduction for

.....
.....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
..... .....
.....
Offensive Masteries (23)
..... .....
We want to take Double-Edged Sword because a 2% damage increase is significant, and we will be relying on
Alpha Strike,
Meditate, and base movement speed to avoid damage.
.....


..... .....
We need the attack speed from this mastery for more frequent auto-attacks and
Alpha Strikes. I haven't done the math, but I wouldn't be surprised if stacking attack speed results in more frequent
Alpha Strikes than stacking cooldown reduction.
.....


..... .....
This mastery is rather lackluster, but will be a little bit helpful with your level 3 - 6 ganks where every little bit of damage counts.
.....
..... .....
We already spent the 3 points to unlock this mastery and it holds a higher return (Attack Damage per point spent) than 2 out of the 3 points spent in Brute Force, so let's take it!
.....
..... .....
Due to the very fast attack speeds that we will be achieving, you will quickly stack-up to the 3% damage increase for
Alpha Strike while auto-attacking an enemy. In addition, we unlock the "child" of this mastery.
.....

..... .....
During your me-vs-the-world dives on the enemy team, enabling
Highlander will cause you to quickly stack up to 3% increased basic attack damage via subsequent
Alpha Strikes.
.....


..... .....
This is an amazing mastery for Master Yi. It turns an enemy team full of low health champions into a free buffet of gold and elo. This mastery is the cherry on top of your absurd runes/masteries/items combo that will leave your opponents wondering how you just deleted them from the face of the map.
.....
..... .....
Master Yi need mana and health. Master Yi kill champions and receive reset. Master Yi need more mana and more health. Note that this may not be good for the environment.
.....
..... .....
You won't really be stacking attack damage, but 5% is too good of a bonus to pass up.
.....
..... .....
You will have a fair amount of critical strike and a fast-enough attack speed that you will be proccing this mastery fairly often.
.....
..... .....
You will be stacking a fair amount of flat armor penetration, and this mastery will allow you to usually avoid having to buy
Last Whisper in the mid-game, if at all.
.....

..... .....
A free 3% damage increase with no drawbacks? Yes please!
.....
Defensive Masteries (4)
..... .....
This mastery will prevent a fair amount of monster damage early game as you farm, allowing you to approach a lane gank with more health or perhaps save a health pot.
.....
..... .....
Of the first tier non-monster-related Defensive masteries, I think this mastery is perhaps the most valuable for an early Master Yi jungler. It helps (albeit slightly) with your sustain problem and will allow you to do accomplish more things before backing to base, especially when you do not have blue buff.
.....
Utility Masteries (3)
..... .....
Since we are opting not to buy boots, this mastery is a must-have. Our base movement speed should be well into the 370 range at level 1.
.....
.....
....................
.....
.................... |
...............
![]() Smite is a staple spell for junglers, primarily for its use as superb objective control. Generally speaking, mid game you should be saving your smite for Dragon, and late game save your smite for Baron. Master Yi can also ![]() ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... ............... |
...............
![]() Some Master Yi's may say they prefer ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Aggressive Ability Sequence
.....
.....This is your standard ability sequence - the sequence you want to follow if you feel you are going to be safe in your own jungle. You want to take a point in




.....
.....
Defensive Ability Sequence
.....
.....This is the ability sequence you should use if you are expecting an early invade, if an early invade already happened, or sometimes if you invaded/plan on invading. This sequence is nearly identical to the "Aggressive" sequence, except you place a point into





.....
.....
.....Max Alpha Strike first because it is your only damage dealing ability (

.....
.....
.....I prefer to max




.....
.....
.....You essentially just want to place a point into

.....
.....
.....






....................
....................
....................
....................
.....In season 4 this is an absolute must-rush for a lot of carry junglers. The magic damage health restoration are quite good for this Master Yi build, since you will have an insane amount of attack speed. The magic damage will assist you in melting through heavily armored targets. Don't forget - the earlier you get this item, the more significant impact it has on the entirety of the game.
.....
.....
.....This item was an iconic staple for season 3 carrys, and for good reason. The attack speed equates to more frequent
Alpha Strikes, the life steal will help sustain you during duels and while taking objectives, the unique passive helps you melt through tanky opponents quicker, and the unique active provides you with a valuable ganking/kiting tool.
.....
.....
.....This item has amazing synergy with Master Yi. This item provides some much needed armor penetration, cooldown reduction to help bring us closer to 40%, critical strike chance for our
Alpha Strikes and auto-attacks, a small bit of attack damage, and an absolutely amazing active ability for Yi.
.....Ever since the nerf to
Highlander which changed the ability to reduce cooldowns by 70% (as opposed to a flat amount), an important part of playing Master Yi is finding ways to bridge your
Alpha Strikes. When engaging enemies, you will generally pop Highlander followed by an Alpha Strike, after which you will be the most vulnerable. That's when you pop
Youmuu's Ghostblade. The active will provide you with a super-steriod which will feed you Alpha Strikes like no tomorrow while indirectly increasing your life steal and further enhancing your ability to stick-on your victim. Youmuu's Ghostblade can also be used as an escape tool or as a way to quickly take down objectives such as towers,
Dragon, or
Baron.
.....
.....
.....The unique passive,(unknown embed type)/league-of-legends/summoner-spell/ghost-2.....Master Yi can also make use of the plethora of stats on Trinity Force. The attack speed, critical strike chance, and unique passive, Spellblade, mean that Yi's
Alpha Strikes will hit harder and more frequently, as will the auto-attacks that come immediately afterwards.
.....
.....
.....If you had built the items in the order I have listed thus far, you will have obtained all of the utility, abilities, and secondary stats you will need for the rest of the game - the only thing left to obtain is "bigger numbers" (i.e. more damage and more survivability). This item gives just that.
.....You will likely be able to farm up maximum stacks for this item in a matter of minutes. Regardless of whether or not you have this item fully stacked, possessing it will ensure that very few champions will possess the burst and hard CC necessary to kill you.
.....
.....
.....This last item slot is reserved for a "situational" item. Note that just because I listed this item last does not mean you will actually purchase it last. In the case that you are facing a heavily armored, tanky team, you might consider picking up
Last Whisper as your fourth item, prior to finishing
Trinity Force.
.....In the case that you are facing an assassin or wombo-combo team with hard cc, you will likely want to purchase a
Guardian Angel. In these match-ups I typically wait till I have 4 or 5 items completed before I pick-up my
Guardian Angel.
.....
....................
....................
.....In season 4 this is an absolute must-rush for a lot of carry junglers. The magic damage health restoration are quite good for this Master Yi build, since you will have an insane amount of attack speed. The magic damage will assist you in melting through heavily armored targets. Don't forget - the earlier you get this item, the more significant impact it has on the entirety of the game.
.....
.....
.....This item was an iconic staple for season 3 carrys, and for good reason. The attack speed equates to more frequent

.....
.....
.....This item has amazing synergy with Master Yi. This item provides some much needed armor penetration, cooldown reduction to help bring us closer to 40%, critical strike chance for our

.....Ever since the nerf to





.....
.....
.....The unique passive,(unknown embed type)/league-of-legends/summoner-spell/ghost-2.....Master Yi can also make use of the plethora of stats on Trinity Force. The attack speed, critical strike chance, and unique passive, Spellblade, mean that Yi's

.....
.....
.....If you had built the items in the order I have listed thus far, you will have obtained all of the utility, abilities, and secondary stats you will need for the rest of the game - the only thing left to obtain is "bigger numbers" (i.e. more damage and more survivability). This item gives just that.
.....You will likely be able to farm up maximum stacks for this item in a matter of minutes. Regardless of whether or not you have this item fully stacked, possessing it will ensure that very few champions will possess the burst and hard CC necessary to kill you.
.....
.....
.....This last item slot is reserved for a "situational" item. Note that just because I listed this item last does not mean you will actually purchase it last. In the case that you are facing a heavily armored, tanky team, you might consider picking up


.....In the case that you are facing an assassin or wombo-combo team with hard cc, you will likely want to purchase a


.....
Initial Rotation
.........................Master Yi is pretty flexible about what buff he starts at. I almost always start at Red Buff, since it will allow you to clear the jungle camps a bit faster - an early game Red Buff will allow you to walk away from small jungle creeps that have a miniscule amount of health remaining - this shaves precious seconds off of your clear time. Also, I have found that many junglers will attempt to steal my Red Buff after taking their first Blue Buff - but very few junglers will start with Red Buff and then attempt to come and steal my first blue buff. In addition, taking Blue Buff second ensures that Master Yi will ultimately have Blue buff at a slightly later time in the game (when he needs it more). Some important considerations here are 1) who is the enemy jungler and 2) which lane do I want to gank first. I will cover ganking in a later section.
....................
....................
The Level 3 Gank
.........................Once you clear your first round of buffs and achieve level 3 (via wolves or wraiths) you should immediately go for a level 3 gank - usually on top or mid. You want to target whichever enemy champion is most pushed-in, taking into consideration what escapes they have available to them and the amount of health your friendly laner has. There are many top laners who, if low health and pushed back to their tower, can help you secure a bait-n-gank.
....................
.....Ganking an enemy mid-laner will generally be a bit harder, as it is somewhat dependent upon having a intelligent friendly mid-laner. If you can force the enemy mid-laner to flash and/or go back to base, you will usually be able to kill them when they return to lane.
....................
.....Regardless of who you choose to gank first,







....................
....................
Early/Mid Game & Feral Flare
.........................You want to make your first recall when you are level 5+ and you have 1475+ gold. By this time you should have applied pressure to at least two lanes, so-as to buy you some additional farming time in the jungle. Purchasing


.....
1....Ghost and/or Highlander becomes available
2....Teammate is pushed back to a friendly tower
3....Enemy champion is dangerously low on health
4....Enemy bottom lane has zero wards
5....Enemy mid-laner has no flash (especially if they are a non-mobile champ)
.....2....Teammate is pushed back to a friendly tower
3....Enemy champion is dangerously low on health
4....Enemy bottom lane has zero wards
5....Enemy mid-laner has no flash (especially if they are a non-mobile champ)
.....Clearing monster camps in the jungle is a pretty straightforward and easy concept. Never jungle with your camera locked to your champion and try to adhere to the following suggestions:
.....
1....Always kill the big monster first
2....Try to save
Smite for a killing blow on an objective, but don't go extended periods of time without using
Smite since it has a very short cooldown
3....While you're auto-attacking monsters, click on the minimap and constantly observe / check-up on your lanes - your health and experience to help notify you when you have killed a creep
4....If you're being counter-jungled, ward entrances from your jungle into the river
5....If you're 1 monster kill away from your next experience level, try to achieve that next level before heading into a gank
6....Enemy blue buff will become available at about 7:10 and will usually not be warded - be sure to avoid the obvious approach from the river since it will usually be warded
7....You will generally be able to solo Dragon at about the time when you have
Blade of the Ruined King and
Youmuu's Ghostblade - use
Highlander and
Youmuu's Ghostblade to ensure frequent
Alpha Strikes and adequate life steal on Dragon
....................2....Try to save


3....While you're auto-attacking monsters, click on the minimap and constantly observe / check-up on your lanes - your health and experience to help notify you when you have killed a creep
4....If you're being counter-jungled, ward entrances from your jungle into the river
5....If you're 1 monster kill away from your next experience level, try to achieve that next level before heading into a gank
6....Enemy blue buff will become available at about 7:10 and will usually not be warded - be sure to avoid the obvious approach from the river since it will usually be warded
7....You will generally be able to solo Dragon at about the time when you have





.....When you decide to recall-and-buy a second time is largely dependent on the match dynamics at that point in the game. If you are already doing well, a 1400+ gold recall is ideal as it will allow you to pick up a



....................
....................
Post-Laning Phase
.........................Sure, Master Yi can be a decent ganker and he can do well during the laning phase - but it's the mid/late game roam that will determine whether or not you win the game. Once you have a couple of items and laning phase has ended, I almost always favor minion waves over non-buff monster camps, since Master Yi can easily push a lane to a tower and run away before the enemy team can type "Master Yi OP". You will be racking-up enough cs to rival your laners while providing map pressure anywhere and everywhere.
....................
You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.