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Master Yi Build Guide by

Master Yi guide | 9.15

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Master Yi Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (2) More Master Yi Guides

Runes: Hail of blades

1 2

Domination

Hail of Blades

Sudden Impact

Eyeball Collection

Ravenous Hunter

Precision

Triumph

Legend: Alacrity

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+65 Base Health

Spells:

Every game

Flash

Smite

Items

All items

Starting items

Mid game items

Full build

Situational items

Ability Order Q>E>W

Master Yi Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Jax

Extreme

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

More Master Yi Counters

Champion Build Guide

introduction to Master Yi

is a high damage assassin jungler. His early game is weak but his mid game is good and his late game is one of the strongest in the game. There's few champions who can beat Master Yi in a 1 on 1 late in the game. A good Master Yi can dodge CC with his Q and dodge things like turret shots or shillshots with his W . Master Yi is notoriously easy champ to play but being good at him takes a lot of time and practice. In this guide i'll show you the pros and cons of Master Yi, what his abilities are, what to max first and why, what to build and why you should build it, core runes and why to take them. the matchups, and then a conclusion.

Pros and cons

PROS

+ Very strong late game
+ Easy kit to learn
+ Snowballs easily
+ Can 1v9 a game
+ Can dodge CC with Q
+ Very good teamfight with ultimate
+ Can solo Barron once he has a few lifesteal items

CONS

- Very weak early game
- Can't gank pre level 6
- useless if behind
- Very squishy
- Easily kited without ult up
- Thornmail counters him easily
- Very poor invades and ganks

abilities

s kit is pretty simple. Its easy to get the hang of but utilizing it properly takes some skill and practice. In this section of the guide I will show you what his abilities do, what to max first, and how to use your Q and W correctly.

P: DOUBLE STRIKE

Double strike is Yi's passive and it helps him a ton throughout the game. Its main purpose is to enhance your Q . When you have lots of attack speed you'll be using double strike every millisecond it seems like. When clearing your jungle camps make sure to keep track of when your gonna douuble strike because if you kill an enemy with it it'll hit a different enemy.

Q: ALPHA STRIKE

This is Master Yi's main ability. He can use it to wavee clear, block turret shots, or block CC. The reason you build attack speed on Yi instead of cooldown reduction is because the cooldown of this ability scales with attack speed. The more attack speed you have the more you can spam Alpha strike. As I said earlier in this section of my guide you can use Alpha strike to dodge many things. You can dodge turret shots and CC mainly. Right before the turret shot hits you your gonna Q to an enemy target thus dodging the shot. This is one of the reasons Yi is very good at tower diving. Dodging CC is the exact same. If its a skillshot like a Q then you can Q to an enemy dodging the CC while doing so. His Alpha strike can also dodge the Dragons knock back as well as the Rift heralds.

W: MEDITATE

This is Yi's main source of sustain in the jungle until you can clear without getting low. This is similar to his Q in that it can dodge CC. Well it can for the most part. You see his Q makes him untargatable while this just makes him where he takes 70% less damage (halfed from turrets). So if you want to dodge CC Q is your best bet. If you are not able to find a target for your Q then you will use this instead. This can also be used to solo dragons and rift heralds pretty easily.

E: WUJU STYLE

This is Yi's second offensive ability. He gains bonus autoattack damage and the active deals true damage for 5 seconds. This ability makes your clear faster and the true damage helps you shred tanks such as ,, and . This ability synergises well with Yi's kit since he is auttoattack based.

R: HIGHLANDER

Highlander is Yi's third offensive ability. The active makes him where he can't be slowed and he gains attack speed. If you kill an enemy champion during the active of his ult you get to stay in it for 7 more seconds. The passive makes it where when you kill an enemy champion your ability's cooldowns are reduced my 70%. This abality is very good during teamfights because of the reset on it when you get a kill. This is also why Yi is notorious for getting pentakills (I got my first penta on him and my second). You can cast your ultimate right before or during a slow to gap close and chase down enemy's.

What to max first and why

Master Yi's main skill order is Start Q then E and W after that. After this you want to max your Q , Followed by your E , then your W last. Obviously you want to max your ultimate at levels 6,11, and 16. You want to max your Q first because its the bread and butter of your whole kit. Its your waveclear and your main damage output. Maxing your W or E just isin't worth it compared to maxing your Q first. You max your E second because you don't rely on your W to much and the bonus true damage is also nice. Max your W last. the reason is, is because Yi likes to play very offensively and maxing your W first or second takes away from that level of aggression.

Items

Starting items

This item is your only starting item. Don't start because Yi is better at single target camps early on. Make sure to take as your health regeneration item. You take this to stay healthy for early ganks but after your first or second clear you proabaly won't need it.

Early items

This is Yi's core item. it givees him the extra smite, helps him clear the jungler quicker, and gives him attack speed which is necessary for him to have. Make sure to rush this item then get a to pick up your .

This item builds directly into and so many other core items like and . It also helps enhance your passive because it scales off of attack speed. This is a must pick up early on.

These are Yi's main choice of boots. It gives him movement speed and attack speed. I usually pick them up after i've finished my . Although if the enemy team is full AD or full AP make sure to get or instead to deal with the AD or AP.

Core items

This is Yi's core item. it helps him clear the jungle faster, gives him access to the red smite, and gives him lots of attack speed. When you get this item you've officially hit your first powerspike. The red smite gives you a better dueling potential and helps you burst enemy's faster.

This item is very good on Yi. It gives him attack damage, atttack speed, lifesteal, and a gap closer. I reccomend purchasing this as your first item right after item after your. Once you get this item you should be able to 1v1 almost anyone on the enemy team and it's a staple to Master Yi's item pool.

This is an extremly good item on Yi. It gives him an on hit passive, attack speed, attack damage, and abality power (W scales w/ that). I'd recomend getting this item right after your . You can swap this out though for something like a , or even a if your fed or the enemy team has lots of physical damage.

This item is one of Yi's best items. I don't recommend getting it first item but getting it as one of your last ones. The attack damage and lifesteal helps a lot. The passive really helps you survive from burst damage as well. The shield is very handy throughout the game. If your behind skip this item since it is 3500 gold and that's just to much if your struggling.

Since yi is an autoattack based champion getting Infinity edge would make sense. It enhances his autoattacks and gives him critical strike chance which is good. It also gives him attack damage which is also good.

This item is so good for going from almost no health back to full health in a second. The passive helps you survive in teamfights. The magic resist is also great since later game your prone to getting bursted by an AP enemy. If you are behind and the enemy team has some AP I recommend getting this item since its cheap and gives magic resist.

Situational items

You buy this item when the enemy team has an assassin like or . The lifeline passive is the main reason why you buy this though. It stops you from going from 100 to 0 by a fed assassin. The waltz passive is really nice and it lets you stick to your targets easier. I like to get this instead of if the enemy team has one or more assassins.

This item is good when the enemy team has lots of healing. it can be an adc with lots of lifesteal like or even a healing support such as a . This item is also good against tanks since they tend to build health regeneration. You can also just get the and skip out on fiishing the full item if you don't have enough gold or your behind.

Get this item when your either super fed and someone on the enemy team has the potential to kill you, the enemy team is full AD, or when they have a fed . Im specefic about darius since his ultimate will NOT reset if he executes you with his ultimate .

This item is essensial to get against high AP burst mages or AP assassins like ,, or . The lifeline will give you a shield and the lifegrip passive synergenes with Yi really well since it gives lifesteal and attack damage.

This item is good against CC heavy team comps. Say they have a , , or even . The stats it gives are good but you wan't this item mainly for its active. The active removes all negative CC debuffs on you and grants 50% movement speed for 1 second.

This is the item to go when the enemy team is nearly full AD or they have a fed assassin or someone who does physical damage like , , or even someone like or .

This is the same as . If their team is nearly full AP build this and if they have a fed AP threat build this as well.

Runes

Master Yi can take many different runes such as , , or even . The main runepage most Yi manes are taking now is the Hail of blades. It helps you proc your passive faster and lets you exceed the attack speed limit for a short duration.

Keystone runes

is currently Master Yi's best main rune choice. It gives him +110% attack speed for the first 3 attacks made against an enemy champion and lets him exceed the attack speed limit shortly after. It works really well with his passive since double strike procs on Yi's third autoattack. This is also Yi's best early game and late game scaling rune page.

is also a very good keystone for Yi. It gives him true damage and the abality to shred through tanks with the true damage. It will also heal you and can save you in early game skirmishes. You can also get up to 5 stacks quickly once you have an attack speed item like or . The reason why is better is because it gives flat attack speed and lets you exceed the attack speed limit. You will also do true damage with your E and heal because you build items like and . This just doesn't compare to hail of blades later game.

early game | mid game | late game

Early game

Early game is your weakest point. You wan't to farm primarily and gank overextended enemy's. At this stage you don't have any of your core items and are prone to invades. If you get invaded by a early game jungler like or call your team for help if they have lane priority. In this stage of the game invading is not a good idea at all. Yi's invades are extremely poor rely on and I would not recommend trying to commit to one.

Mid game

Mid game is where you start to pick up traction. You should have at least your and boots. If you are ahead fell free to skip boots for an item and move onto core items such as . At this point your invades are alright. You can take raptors very quickly tanks to your Q and if you get in a skirmish in the river you can probably win that if the enemy jungle is not to ahead.

late game/teamfighting

Late game is where you really start to shine. You should have by then your ,,, and . Teamfights are very common in the late game and here's how you should play them as Master Yi. First go into and Q in to the enemy's. If you go in by yourself though you'll get bursted immediately and die. If you have a strong engage like or wait for them to go in then you can alpha strike and pick up a few kills. You also should be able to win almost any 1v1 due to your lifesteal and constant spam of Q. You also should have absurd amounts of attack speed and melt any adc like butter with it.

Matchup chapters

Jax is a pain in the side all throughout the game. He has better ganks than you, better scaling, and a better 1v1. Early game just try to farm and gank the lanes you can while also trying to counter jungle the Jax. Mid game is when both of you proabaly have your jungle items and some components of your core items. If he gets a get some grevous wounds. This stops most of the heaing and will help out a ton. If he tries to split push late game fight a 5v4 teamfight and take an objective after that like Baron, dragon, or towers.

is one of the most tanky champions in the game. He usually builds items suck as which is a direct counter to Yi since he's autoattack based. If he taunts you with his E and has thornmail your most likely dead. His passive also does magic damage scaling with his armor so you might want to pick up a . When hes in his Q and he rolls up to you, you can use your Q to dodge the collision.

has a very dominate and strong early game but is weaker later in the game. If he invades ping for your teammates help and punish him for that. I would recommend not trying to contest an early skuttle crab if possible since he wins fights early on. Later in the game he shouldn't be a big deal since you outscale him pretty hard. if he goes full AP then get a but it's uncommon for Udyr to go AP since the only thing that scales with it is his R .