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Master Yi: Not Just AD [AD/AP/Hybrid]






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Choose Champion Build:
Spells:
Exhaust
Flash
Ability Order
Double Strike (PASSIVE)
Master Yi Passive Ability
Opening Statements







Alternatives:





greater glyph of knowledge These will solve most of your mana problems early on (Later you should only really be using mana on your ult, and always try to have blue buff, but remember: your team has higher blue buff priority than you).
greater quintessence of desolation Hey, whaddaya know, more armor penetration!
Alternatives:









+ Fairly good damage via Alpha strike
+ Really hard to kill due to Meditate
+ Meditate will heal for 1k+
+ Not as Squishy as the other two builds thanks to

Cons
- After using Alpha Strike, damage output has a huge drop-off
- Slow early game
- Auto-attacks are almost useless
- Team dependaent







Alternatives:









greater glyph of knowledge The mana is very nice because you are going to be relying on your abilities.

Alternatives:


greater seal of knowledge Kinda overkill on the mana, but if you really want it...
+ Auto-attacks are still useful
+ Abilities are more effective than if you were straight AD
+ Item choices are easy because there aren't many hybrid items
Cons
- Still has relatively low 1v1 power
- Because you focus on AD and AP, neither of those two will be high
- Can't shred like an AD Master Yi can
- Can't AOE nuke like an AP Master Yi can
- Rather team dependent
It looks like the cons outweigh the pros, but it balances out in the end.







Alternatives:
I honestly can't think of any other items off the top of my head, but really grab any item that offer more AP or AD, depending on what you want more of.
Skill Usage:
- If you're in a lane against ranged players, leveling up Meditate can allow you to stay in the lane longer and gain levels faster than they will.
- Wuju Style combined with Alpha Strike are very strong for last hitting minions.
- Alpha Strike's AoE component has a deceptively long range. Target minions near an enemy champion to harass them.
- Triggering Wuju Style and Highlander when combined with various melee increases makes Master Yi a high damage dealer, if for short periods. It's especially effective in destroying towers.
- Although you cannot be slowed during Highlander, a good disable or blind will stop most of your damage, so be careful of enemies with disables.
- Highlander can be used as an effective escape tool, especially with Ghost used at the same time.
- Use Meditate, when in mid-clash and you are being focused upon. Enemies overly committed in killing you will find you surprisingly difficult to kill since Meditate grants 300 armor and magic resistance at max rank.
- Meditate is especially useful when an opponent is trying to Turret Dive against Master Yi.
- Master Yi can stand next to the turret and use Meditate to hold off damage from the opponent while they are repeatedly being hit by the turret.
- Meditate can also be chosen early in the game to maximize Master Yi's time in lane. However, choosing Meditate over his other abilities will sacrifice DPS and early game kills.
- When you are being chased, hiding in a brush and channeling Meditate can give you the upper hand against the enemies. However, do not do this if they can still defeat you after the Meditate.
- When playing Ability Power Master Yi, remember that Highlander refreshes all your cooldowns on a kill. Try to cast Alpha Strike so it will result in a kill. This may seem like kill stealing but it will greatly increase the damage the other team will take.
Build Usage:
- Since Master Yi is an effective DPS/Pusher, it is best to build him with damage and attack speed runes. Life Steal can also be useful with increased damage and attack speed but not necessary.
- Consider that while his abilities are good, they work with relatively high cooldowns, meaning that Cooldown Reduction items are great to increase his overall use of abilities.
- Master Yi is extremely vulnerable to Crowd Control abilities, especially Blind and Snare, so players are recommended Cleanse as a Summoner Spell to counteract these effects.
- A Quicksilver Sash can provide essential good results in surviving; the Magic Resistance and the "Cleanse"-Effect is very useful.
- Using Highlander and the active effect of Youmuu's Ghostblade at the same time is very effective in many situations since both of these have great attack speed and movement speed bonus.
- Generally, items that provide bonuses on attacking or subsequent attacking are more useful on Master Yi than on other heroes due to his passive and high attack speed.
- A hybrid Ability Power based Master Yi can yield good results, with items such as Lich Bane or Trinity Force, especially if your enemies are packed with armor.
- A full Ability Power based Master Yi can pull off fairly good results. His Alpha Strike becomes a fairly strong AoE nuke, and is refreshed instantly if a kill is scored while Highlander is active. Your Meditate also heals and protects for a lot more than it did before.
- Pairing Master Yi with items like Phantom Dancer, Berserker's Greaves and Stark's Fervor can greatly increase his dps.
- Starting Youmuu's Ghostblade at level 1 by purchasing a Long Sword and choosing Wuju Style allows for a very effective last hitting and a high damage output. That gives you 25 bonus damage and when Wuju Style is active you will have 40 bonus damage.
- Sword of the Occult works exceptionally well with Master Yi, as after level 6, and even before he is able to rip through most casters with ease, creating a powerful snowball effect.
- Due to his high damage output, and 'Right-click-to-win' play style, along with being very easy to use and only 450 IP makes him great for low level games. However, against competent players, he is arguably the most difficult champion to use in the game, because of his extreme fragility and vulnerability to Crowd Control effects.
Trivia:
- "Wuju" is a reference to two of the developers at Riot Games. Namely, Andy Woo and Jeff Jew.
- "Wuju", or "Wuji", is the grey field a taijitu (the yin-yang symbol) is traditionally shown on, symbolizing nothingness.
- It bears similarity to "Wushu", the collective name of Chinese martial arts, mostly known as Kung-fu in western countries.
- The goggles Master Yi wears (known as the Seven Lenses of Insight) seem to be an over-exaggeration of trifocal Night Vision goggles, and according to his background, provide a similar effect, allowing him to "see across a wider range of the spectrum".
- Master Yi's Meditate ability highly resembles a similar ability used by Yoshimitsu from the Tekken & Soul Calibur series, using both a similar stance and a similar effect (healing).
- Master Yi was one of the champions chosen for the Ionian pool available during the 2010 Ionian Versus Noxus Grudge Match. However, he was not one of the selected champions.
- Master Yi's Highlander ability is a reference to the Highlander movie series, In which the main characters fight with swords and are immortal otherwise, the main characters, Connor MacLeod uses a katana, and in the last movie two characters use super speed.
- His quote "My blade is yours" is a direct reference to the Dota hero Yurnero, or more generally the Warcraft III hero Blademaster, who frequently uses it upon selection. His abilities are also similar to Yurnero
- Master Yi's Alpha Strike ability could be inspired by Yurnero's Omnislash.
- The term "Omnislash" originated as Cloud Strife's ultimate limit break in Final Fantasy VII.
- The term "Alpha Strike" was first coined by the US Navy to describe a large air attack during the Vietnam War.
- The Chosen skin is a direct reference to the Jedi Knights of the Star Wars franchise.
- This skin's lightsaber changes colors based upon Wuju Style's current state: blue (normal), green (passive), red (active). This is similar to the Jedi Knight games which had blue, yellow, and red lightsaber stances each altered the speed and power of attacks.
- Master Yi's Ionia skin may be a reference to the "red period" of Hero, as both the art in background as well as the color scheme matches.
*Very special thanks to the hard workers over at the League of Legends Wiki for providing this great information.*
Began work on guide
2//7/11
Finished guide
Fixed grammar mistakes
2/8/11
Some more writing mistakes fixed
Very slight re-working to the item sequence for AD Master Yi build (Switched


Did a very slight re-working to the runes of the Hybrid build (The difference is very small, I switched out the marks to magic penetration, and the quints to armor penetration)
2/14/11
Added the "Bonus Tips and Trivia" section of the guide
2/18/11
More grammer fixed
Added Morello's Evil Tome to the Alternatives list of the AP build.
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