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Scallywag's Master Yi S14 - Staying relevant early-mid game

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Master Yi Build Guide by

A ScallYiwag's guide to Master Yi - Rage against rageblade

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Master Yi Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion More Master Yi Guides

Runes: Balanced for Attack speed + Damage

1 2

Precision

Lethal Tempo

Presence of Mind

Legend: Alacrity

Coup de Grace

Sorcery

Nullifying Orb

Transcendence

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2

vs DPS/Assassin enemy junglers

Challenging Smite

Flash

Items

Wishful final build

Core Items

Essential Items

Jungle Items

vs DPS/Assassin enemy junglers

vs Bruiser/Tanky enemy jungler

vs 2+ hard tank enemy team comp

Survival Item options (situational)

vs 2+ marksmen/ranged AD champions

vs AD Assassins (2+ in enemy team)

vs Mages (burst/high damage)

Damage Options (mid to late game - 3rd/4th item)

Preferred mid to late game Items

v enemy team with a lot of AD Melee Damage champs

vs enemy team with a lot of (4+) squishy champs

vs enemy with armor stacking champs

Ability Order General SkillUp (see notes)

Master Yi Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Master Yi

Extreme

Other master yis with the rageblade builds are an extreme threat to this build because of the high dps and on-hit effect outputs of the attack speed build. Something to look out for in blind-pick solo queues or non-draft game types.

Yuumi

Ideal

Yummi is basically a steroid boost for master yi's entire kit. From increasing his attack and movement speed to helping him dive into the enemy team and allowing yi to land final chapter on the target. Yummi's ability effects on the ally she is attached to synergises well with all of master yi's abilities.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Yuumi

Ideal

Champion Build Guide

Intro - YI&Me

Hello, again LoL-ers ^^.

Yi and I have been running on the rift for a long time. And again recently with a ton of changes, I thought I should make a guide. Something with a little bit of different. I like to experiment with my builds and sure they don't always go in my favour. But I play to have fun with Yi and make others frown (sometimes my team included xD).

Ever get tired of seeing/using -- combo every single time? Just to get that win on the board? There are options out there and this is one of many.

So you might not have fancy high-tech wuju glasses

... but just keep looking

Or just read this one instead =))

Note below:

Guide Key

Crash course on Master Yi

This is just a refresh on Master Yi's current stats.

(If you are familiar with this- you can go right ahead onto the next section - skill sequence )

Let's look at some numbers here, (taken from league of legends fandom page - Master Yi and League of legends champion info - Master Yi.)

Passive

Double strike

Sneaking in a little extra damage every 4th attack dealing an additional +50% of total AD as physical damage, applying on-hit effects as well as being able to critically strike.

Alpha strike

25/60/95/130/165 +100% of total AD (+ 60% of total AD, if it is a critical strike).

How can this be used?

Meditate

Healing by 120/200/280/360/440 +100% AP over 4 seconds (30/50/70/90/110 + 25% AP per second) and can be cancelled. It also provides damage reduction of 60/62.5/65/70% while being chanelled it pauses the duration of and . When canceled or completed, it provides a on the next basic attack.

How will this help?

Wuju Style

Active

deals true damage of 18/26/34/42/50 +35% of bonus AD for 5 seconds.

Just some info

Highlander

Increased MS by 35/45/55% and AS by 25/45/65% for 7 seconds, while being immune to slows. Kills and assists during extends the duration by 7 seconds and reduces the cooldown on his other abilities by 70%.

Just some info

Other basic stats

Skill Sequence

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Yi's is important and hence is always the first to hit the max on level-ups. Whereas and are situational.

If against a lot of ranged champions or assassins (that could potentially one-shot you), then max before . Otherwise, max before but always make sure your meditate has at least 2 or 3 levels before you max out your . This can help you sustain in 1 v 1 fights as it increases the damage reduction during its use.

is a priority skill, just as in most champions, when the ultimate is available for a level-up, use it for the ultimate.

Summoner spells

A pretty standard pick for any jungler in any format of the game on summoner's rift (possible exceptions to AURF). Smite is a very important tool which can allow you to secure objectives such as , and the on a regular basis. Securing might also involve a bit of stealing them away from the enemy team. Just as with everything else for Yi the timing on smite is also very important.

Another standard pick for most champions in league of legends in any role. It indeed makes a difference in that little distance you can cover at the right amount of time, which can make or break the game. You can use flash to avoid getting focused in a team fight, escape skill shots from crowd controlling abilities, as a gap closer to get your kill safely, steal an objective such as or the Elder dragon.

If you want to learn your timings and successfully secure the kills during ganks or by tower diving into a low-health enemy champion, then is your tool to abuse. Perfecting your timings and escapes with Yi takes a while to master, but if you think you are ready then will become kind of a secondary option to . (you can practice in normal games without and avoid using it in ranked games until you are sure you don't need it and are fine with dying (tilt-proof) because things get really ugly really fast, especially for a squishy Yi.

Runes

and fills in the gap for the lack of attack speed in the build path. While provides bonus attack speed 40-110% when in combat for a duration of 6 seconds, which should be enough time to delete the enemy damage dealers.

provides attack speed based on the number of stacks collected. It ensures that you have enough attack speed Since this guide focuses your item builds around cooldown reductions to increase your damage provided by . (Since most items with cooldown reductions are damage items rather than attack speed items, with a few exceptions.)

also provides additional damage to finish off champions with lower health much quicker. And provides mana and health for extended fights that go in your team's favour.

ensures that your abilities are available when needed which is enforced by the items recommended in this guide. It fills in the gap for the lack of attack speed to increase the availability of . It also provides bonus damage stats which is needed. As with the current matchups, attack speed alone in the early game is not enough to make an impact.

provides additional resistance to burst magic damage and scales fairly with bonus attack damage which is focused in the build paths.

provides an attack speed boost for the first three basic attacks, this means in early game fights you can deal more damage without having access to any attack speed items as yet. As the game progresses, ensures that you can quickly deal and kill most of your first targets with the help of critical strikes from and .

, and increases your damage by providing stats (mostly damage and cooldown reduction).

and go hand-in-hand with the passive from to reduce its cooldown and having it readily available when needed. provides a good deal of cooldown reduction to which roughly brings it to just above ~45 seconds.

is generally a good idea that could save you from dying at key moments, however it can be replaced with if the enemy team composition allows for the game to drag out or mostly if they have 2 or fewer mages.

Items - The Essentials

- using Challenging Smite on enemy champions:

The damage reduction helps Yi out in a 1 v 1 situation or diving into the backline.
The true damage from multiple basic attacks is proc'd most of the time due to the attack speed stats.
One problem with this smite is that it gives the enemy a brief window in which to mitigate the true damage over time, but the same goes for Yi if and when used against him, remember to watch the tick and press Meditate.

- using Chilling Smite on enemy champions:

Deals instant true damage which is helpful while tower diving enemy champions to secure the kill.
The movement boost on Yi and slowing of enemy champions smited, serves as a gap closer to help finish off the kills, this is mostly helpful when against tanks or bruisers who usually have the tools to escape. In some instances it can be used to stop enemy champions, that try to chase you, by slowing them down.
Although, the instant kill secure is available, this item is only favourable in certain situations such as - enemy team composition is mostly, bruisers/tanks or mostly ranged champions which makes it difficult for yi to autoattack but can smite them as well.
it can also be used to remove spell shields, as it negates the movement speed changes, on enemy champions before attacking them so you can land all your damage onto the target.

TDLR?
In the early game, the enemy champions do not have a lot of health, so the damage provided by is very minimal when compared to the raw stats provided by the . Since most games in the current game "meta" end early, the is recommended. However, can be recommended when the enemy champions are dominantly bruisers and tanks.

is a good item upgrade option to consider, when the enemy composition is mostly full of damage dealers and ranged champions. This item is recommended if you want to have an early game impact with raw damage stats, which are able to match the much superior assassin junglers that will be found roaming around on the rift. This game will eventually not have any impact on the late game, besides providing the cooldown reduction. The +10% CDR synergises well with as it potentially provides +12 bonus AD.

is the goto jungle item for since it deals damage depending on the damage per second of Yi, while dealing damage based on the target's maximum health. This item has great synergy with and and . More bonus damage based on health (both maximum and current) of the target while taking advantage of the fully-stacked rageblade to deal it twice. Hence this item being popular on Yi, despite the fact that it takes a while to have an impact on the game.

are probably the boots you will upgrade to the most, as it helps reduce the crowd control time and allow you to continue doing [Yi things. It offers a fair amount of magic resist and together with and it is enough to make it through a couple of focused magic burst damages.

would be a good upgrade option if you are ahead of the enemy team and could do with a little bit of attack speed that the build lacks to keep the lead. You can also get these boots if you plan on buying other magic resist items which are more effective against an enemy team composition that is filled with magic damage dealers. If you pick and as your rune choice the attack speed this item provides is very essential unless you absolutely need that MR and tenacity from

aren't really a normal buy for yi, because you can get into the backline before you get dealt a lot of dps from the enemy champions. This item's effectiveness also falls off as the game progresses. (blocking 12% of roughly 400 which is about 48 damage and is not much). While it is effective in early game against AD carries, its not viable to switch boots later on unless you really have enough gold to spare.

is a great item on Yi especially this build which lacks the attack speed, this item can provide that as well as some life steal which gets more effective as the game progresses due to the nature of the proposed items in this guide. The on-hit passive for 12% of the current target's health is more effective at the start of the fight - but works especially well against tanky champions. This item synergises well with and but this build path takes too long to come online and lacks the early game impact. Games tend to snowball and end very quickly due to the assassin focused team compositions, while a good CC on Yi can stop you from taking advantage of the build - which is recommended if the enemy team composition consists of at least 3 tanks. Otherwise, just will be enough to support the other items mentioned in this guide.

Items - The Choices

in its infinite wisdom, gives you a nice package of stats, especially if you have low cooldown abilities and auto-attacking nature. This item is recommended when you are ahead and especially if the enemy team composition is made up of 3 or more non-tanky champions. While other items are more effective against a team with a tanky composition, this item would be a great addition in terms of the attack speed and the damage it provides. It also gives more movement speed on basic attacks, which allows you to stick to your enemy targets while they cower away for their lives.

is a handy item in situations such as when the enemy team composition consists of a high amount of burst damage dealers, especially AD assassins (lately, it's been a need against and matchups). Since this would be around the 3rd/4th item buy, it's only ever needed if the assassins are really fed and well ahead. The armour plus 's damage reduction can allow you to survive through most burst damages.

Both items provide the spellblade passive which is great for Yi (and any other bruiser types with a low cooldown on their abilities) as it can be proc'd on and just after which can have a high proc rate due to the CDR this build/guide focuses on. and of course the +20% bonus CDR passive which provides additional damage from . The item is general can be bought and then later decided on which path to follow depending on the game state.

If you have made it this far into the game then would be the next recommended buy for an item at this stage, it provides a CDR passive stat which is focused into damage (thanks to ). It also has crit-chance and attack damage passive stats, which come in handy when you have ready in between a few auto-attacks.

is a fairly all-rounded item to purchase for an additional Magic resist (with ) and a few points in armour which could come in handy in the early to mid-game. Other than the bonus attack damage and cooldown reduction, this item has 2 great passives, which can benefit Yi in most cases.

The healing passive that heals you for all damage dealt means you get healed for the damage done by and . The second passive of denial of death from burst damage can save you a lot of respawning trouble. Since Yi has you can survive the ticking of the damage wounds as it knocks on you slowly. This passive helps with the buff executing powers as well, allowing you enough time to heal up with meditate (might also require assistance from other life steal items or allies). If it can stop a dragon's fiery blow, then what chance do puny assassins have xD.

Even though the pointers, seems a little bleak for the . It would still be a recommended buy instead of the . Consider buying when you need to survive the number of burst damages that may be laid upon you, especially the point-click ones. provides a higher CDR and attack damage stat, which is necessary to make sure that you get resets as soon as possible and do high amounts of damage with much fewer Q spams.

In some scenarios, you can entirely skip the or and buy both the and , while lacking damage and high life-steal amounts directly from the item passives, you can get both items which provide satisfying all-round stats for the build and damage output.

is a great item for some magic resist and burst damage shield. This item is especially useful most commonly against aa fed or (and possibly sometimes if the enemy team has enough CC to lock you down for it). is also a good item to consider against the likes of , while provide additional MR together with , the shield from its passive and stack and provide a bonus layer of protection against burst magic damages. Usually, the boots are sufficient but the cases mentioned above are worth considering.

When you need slightly beefier magic resisting clothing, is the way to go. Although this item is hardly recommended and needed, it is good to keep in mind when the enemy team is stacked with magic damage dealers with enough CC to make you wish that your keyboard might as well have been unplugged. The reality is you can only dodge so many CCs with ... Most of the item, life-steal items make up for the lack in MR, so usually, and and is usually enough. But occasionally you find yourself in a situation where you cannot get to the magic damage dealers then life-steal is no good.. and you need something that might help you survive just long enough to allow you to get to them eventually. This item can be replaced with the likes of or depending on the threat you want to survive.

Both items provide a cooldown reduction component and a magic resist component. If you ever feel the need to buy more magic resist, other than then you should opt for the instead of any other magic resist items. As much as you want or need MR, you will always be better off with damage on

The usual goto item would be the which amplifies the crit-chances as well as increasing the crit damage you deal by 25% (total damage x 2.25). Since and can critically strike, increasing their chances enables you to deal more damage, especially onto squishy champions. also deals bonus damage if it critically strikes, which is important since you won't be sticking around to deal true damage with auto-attacks with an attack-speed lacking build.

is a hard situational item and should probably consider purchasing it if the enemy team has a get in your face high-damage melee champion (. etc...). Could also come in handy when you are against who naturally stacks effects.

To sum it up, you might need when the enemy might out-damage you instantly or overtime, while most of it can be delayed by - can give you a higher chance of staying alive. All other times will suffice...

is a rare buy item in most scenarios, but if the enemy team is congested with armour stacking champions then this item would be highly effective. Especially against champions such as and the tanky . If the enemy team is not stacking/purchasing more than 2 armour items then the armour penetration on this item loses its effectiveness.

is very situation-dependent item. Usually, only its subpath item - is purchased in most scenarios to negate the healing effects on the enemy team which can stop you from securing kills. It should only be considered to be upgraded when the enemy team has high healing potential during fights as well as armour stacking champions which you need to shred through.

Depending on the situation, both items have their own effective stats which are needed. when enemy teams have multiple high-tank (armour stacking) champions. Where as is usually considered when the enemy team has champions with self-heal/lifesteal abilities, who can potential stack some amount of armour. some examples would be , , .

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Handling the Competition

Anyone with similar damage output and with crowd control is a threat to Yi. But there are several ways around them. Let's look at a few obvious rivals of Yi, on the Rift.

The damage dealers

Jax

Yi has a higher damage output than Jax on account for his damage scaling on Total AD instead of bonus AD. Jax's covers this gap and provides Jax with that edge in 1 v 1 situations.

Counter the counter

Xin

Xin is similar to Yi, where his damage output scales on AS, to get to the sweet third strike. At three strikes Xin deals bonus AD, heals himself and dishes out a knock-up using . Despite the lack of damage output in the early game, his heal and cc provide sustain, while his makes him stick onto you if he's in a winning match-up.

3rd time's not always a charm

Yasuo

Yasuo's passive allows him to reach 100% critical chance with 2 items, whereas Yi needs 4 items. also provides Yasuo with cc together with to close gaps or escape easily. Yasuo's shield will ignore your first strike on him.

Your Crits are Inferior

The Predators

Rengar

A natural-born predator of the rift, with one drawback... his gank is most effective at level 6 due to his . He is able to overpower Yi in a 1v1 situation, especially around bushes. Usually ganks on lanes where your teammates are on low health and easy to kill. Rengar can easily counter your gank due to his invisibility, movement speed and debuffing crowd control with the help of . Look out for those lethality stacked crit builds which can one-shot you. is an item to consider in this match up.

Kha'zix

The alien version of a predator, a fed with can easily kill you in 3 shots building lethality. Sometimes you have no chance in even reacting to this. Surprise attacks provide Kha'zix, and similar assassins, with a very high advantage together with damage and movement speed. If Kha'zix has a huge advantage by being fed early on, is a great item to survive the once-off quick burst.

Nocturne

As dangerous as a Kha'zix, this nightmarish fiend also has his own cc and gets a movement speed buff from his . Needless to say, his global ultimate ability will leave you trying to catch up to his map presence every single time. Best way to survive against this nightmare is to invest in life-steal and some additional attack speed items.

Evelynn

Dominated by AD, sneakily brings the AP burst to the table. Fortunately for Yi, her recent update has brought down the constant threats to ganks, by making sure she now has to wait until level 6 to get off an effective gank. Nonetheless, the threats of her camouflage through and can be a deadly combo for easy ganks onto solo lanes.

Your charms won't work on me

The Hunter becomes the hunted

To survive an all-in burst from the assassins, the rune tree will most likely be chosen as your secondary tree, picking and to reduce the initial burst attacks from these enemy assassin junglers.

One way to deal with these burst damage dealers is to out-damage them early on, by opt-ing to buy and going for . Depending on if they are fed before you can get to that same point: consider items such as , or to counter the lead. Sometimes offence is the best defence, so try not to invest in items which do not provide stats to increase your damage.

Shaco

s are usually tricky to deal with because of the early access to and , both of these can easily make you disengage and create an opportunity for Shaco to engage onto you easily. While all 's usually run and it makes him even more dangerous to 1 v 1 at early levels. Shaco players love to counter after their first camp clear as it is easy to sneak up on you with low health or mana. Having against this matchup can be effective so you can land as many autos before he disappears, and ensure that he is the one looking for you and restrain from chasing him early on in the game.

The Brutal Offtanks

Warwick You will, more often than not, come across an off-tank Warwick rather than a squishy damage wolfy. The more dangerous one is the off-tank build which is built for sustain so naturally, in a fight, the aim of the Warwick would be to last longer than you with the self-healing kit (thanks to Eternal Hunger Jaws of the Beast and Infinite Duress) and do some damage with Titanic Hydra and Skirmisher's Sabre - Cinderhulk. And to add to the sustain the healing is usually boosted by Spirit Visage. Taming the Wolf In the early game, before Warwick picks up the Tiamat, you can easily threaten to steal his jungle camps by warding carefully. Most will rush Tiamat before the jungle item which makes it impossible to duel him 1 on 1, which is equally true in the late game unless you are far ahead of him in the game. To put a leash on the wolfie you can dodge his Infinite Duress and avoid being suppressed. To be able to kill a Warwick successfully, you will need life steal and attack speed with damage. It is also a good idea to get magic resist as the melee range combat allows him to deal additional damage from Bami's Cinder. In the early game -try to purchase Bilgewater Cutlass before finishing off the jungle item. Which can level out the Tiamat Warwick goes for.	Shyvana The dragon lady of league brings a lot of tankyness and burst damage to the table, all at the same time! It's very difficult to 1 v 1 her after she's got the lead, which is easy to achieve while you are using a squishy jungler yourself. Her ganks are also more effective and can easily counter jungle to clear your camps before you do. The usual builds are with items such as Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor and Titanic Hydra which alone make her impossible to deal with as a squishy. Or the newer AP-focused builds, which will delete you with one touch from her Flame Breath. How to train (against) your dragon Usually rushing Blade of the Ruined King before Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior to get sustain and damage early before you get demolished by the fire hazard! Other than that don't poke the fire and avoid her as much as possible in a 1 v 1 situation until you have the needed items. Always remember to ward the dragon pit, as Shyvana can solo kill the drake due to the advantage from Fury of the Dragonborn. You can also engage, once you have enough damage and life steal, just after Shyvana transforms out of the dragon form. Consider purchasing Maw of Malmortius and running with Nullifying Orb for that shield from the burst of Flame Breath	Vi Dealing with the bish with the iron fist is very tricky due to her ability to sustain due to her passive Blast Shield and knock-up cc from her Vault Breaker. Apart from that she also has a targeted gap closing ultimate ability which also provides a knock-up. Which mean it will be difficult to use Meditate while in a fight or while escaping. Denting Blows increases Vi's attack speed and provides her with armour penetration for 4 seconds. More about Vi (because I ramble) The damage from the fists comes from the use of the armour reduction and her abilities, Relentless Force and Denting Blows, which have high AD scaling. Running with mostly the Domination rune with Electrocute to do additional damage after using Denting Blows (3stacks), and sudden impact providing more lethality to add to the armour reduction for 4 seconds and an additional second of 10 lethality increasing the damage output. The usual core items for Vi is Stalker's Blade - Warrior, Trinity Force and Dead Man's Plate. How to take a punch With 2 knock-ups at her disposal, it is a stressful task to escape or heal up while in a fight. If the Vi uses her ultimate Cease and Desist and Vault Breaker, using Meditate for damage reduction during the use of Relentless Force can negate the armour reduction and reduce the damage. Vi deals a lot of damage and her knock-up gives her the advantage in 1v1 scenarios. But you can stay alive with life steal and attack speed items. The aim in this matchup would be to deal more damage to her before she can punch you to the next world.
Udyr One jungler that you do not want to see or deal with is Udyr, because of his low cooldown on his abilities and hence the easily accessible stun from Blazing Stampede is annoying to deal with and renders your auto attacks useless making you unable to 1 v 1 this champ at any stage of the game. After the Blazing Stampede is applied, the Wilding Claw is activated - dealing a huge amount of damage from the initial activation and the consecutive autos, really give him an advantage on a 1 v 1 against any melee champ. Udyr also has one of the highest damage scaling on his Wilding Claw starting at 110% of total AD at skill level 1 to 185% of total AD when it's maxed out. Don't poke the bear The only way to counter the Udyr is to counter jungle him early on with your mid-laner or your support to keep him behind in the game. The other option would be to ban him in champ select xd. (P.s if you know other ways to counter this pick with master yi - let me know).