Havn't played much on Master Yi lately (got addicted to wukong...), but read some intresting patch notes from the upcoming Season, so waiting to see them and probably rewrite the whole thing (aww ****).

And hopefully he will be harder to counter, maybe he makes his place back at my active rooster. If not this goes archived I guess.

Probably won't update this too often... too many thing to rewrite rather start a new guide for Season 3 Master Yi.

This is my first guide, but i decided to give it a try, please leave your opinions.
I'm playing on EU nordic/east and lately Master Yi got really popular, however most of them fail... Anyway I had pretty much succes with him, both AD and AP, but I just prefer AD. I'm planning to keep this updated if I get any new ideas or something changes (season 3 starts soon afterall).

English is not my native language so sorry for mistakes.

My Master Yi build is about getting out the max damage potential out of Yi while making him less squishy. To make this I used some off-tankish items that benefit Yi, and increasing hid critical chance and damage to the maximum. I tried out many combinations, but simply this was the most effective way, sometimes it might look weird for Yi, or you might think it's rubbish, but please mind testing it before down voting. Thanks!

If not intrested in the more indepth parts and you just want to see the final item builds i came up with click here!

• Yea i know i published it a bit early, but i want to see how it stands. Gonna update and add parts about gameplay and matchings as soon as i can.
• Turned on require comment to vote becouse someone downvoted without any feedback or reason -_-
• Fixed some parts, added gameplay section, started Art of War section
• Added a list of example full builds (got up early and was bored xD)
• Added rune comparison chapter
• Finished jungling chapter
• Some fixes according to IceCreamy's review

So you decided to pick Master Yi becouse you saw someone owning with Yi or you just liked his looks, anyway some basic things you should keep in mind.

Well I think these are pretty obvious for Yi, but you can try a few other things, maybe suggest something in the comments.

For laning:

For jungling:

Preferred runes

Viable runes for Yi

MARKS



SEALS





GLYPHS



QUINTS

Ok so I pointed out some runes, and some might look just weird so basically im going to (or atleast try to) prove my choices. Basically this part will contain some math, pretty easy math so everyone supposed to understand, if somehow you don't please just skip this part and don't down vote becouse of this.

So let's get started. The basic formula I'm going to use is the armor's damage negation, then simple maths to get how much damage increase a specific rune gives in %. I'm going to calculate only with the Marks now to spare space, and making the same calculation with just different values. If still intrested in Quints I'm pretty sure you can do the maths yourself.

Formulas taken from wiki

Effective armor:

Armor's damage negation:

Final damage:

Basic damage without runes:

• Note: I calculate in Wuju Style passive damage into lvl 1 AD becouse you either start with it or get it by lvl 2 which is ~75.
• Note: I will calculate lvl 18 AD with 300 AD becouse with the core build and Wuju Style activated that is the least damage you will have.
• Note: Weapon Expertise and Sunder are calculated in, you can see the effective armor in brackets.

Strength Runes

• Note: 9x Greater Mark of Attack Damage adds 8.55 AD.
• Note: Becuse it's a flat increase in damage it's effectiveness will be constant trough the whole game.

Summary
As you can see flat AD runes scale very bad to late game. They gave a nice damage boost on the start but as you gain AD their effect just goes so small, they barely worth anything.

Desolation Runes

• Note: 9x greater mark of desolation add 14.94 Armor penetration.
• Note: Rounded to 15 for easier calculation, for a total of 21 with Sunder .
• Note: Becouse of the effective armor formula, armor penetration has a much more complex effect on armor's negating %.

Summary
Actually I would be suprised to meet someone with 200+ armor on lvl 1 so you can just ignore everything under the second row on that part. On level 1 Greater Mark of Attack Damage and greater mark of desolation has insignificant difference, but in later phases and as your damage goes higher greater mark of desolation simply out classes Greater Mark of Attack Damage.

Alacrity Runes

• Note: Attack speed increases are calculated from a characters basic attack speed, which doesn't change no matter what you do.
• Note: Leveling up gives you a slight attack speed increase, but it's bonus attack speed too so, attack speed items don't stack with it.

Summary
So these runes just give the same bonus through the whole game no matter what. Maybe their early game bonus is even less then greater mark of desolation by a bit, but if you compare higher levels and higher armor rates, these are pretty awesome. The reason why they are my favorite.

Malice Runes

• Note: 9x Greater Mark of Critical Chance adds a total of 8.37% critical chance.
• Note: I calculate with averages here, but critical chance is still luck dependant, so actual results may differ.
• Note: It's a flat value rune too, so you get the full effect of it right from lvl 1.

Summary
I see a pretty low chance of Master Yi not having Lethality but still, this little rune would make a nice 8% average damage boost without it. With Lethality you get a 9% average damage boost right from the start, and sometimes a random crit can be devastating early game. As soon as you get an Infinity Edge this rune however gets you the most increase in your damage output among the ones i compared. Still becouse of its dependance on luck I don't really like them.

Summoner spells can change the flow of the game a little bit right from the begginning. I will skip some spells, these are pretty much useless for Yi.

Good choices for Yi:

Viable Choices:

Master Yi has an intresting skill set, mainly focus on dealing damage and 1 defensive skill. His skills make him able to go both AD and AP based, I'm making an AD Yi guide so let's ignore that part for now. Some of his skills even have little dirty tricks in it which can be abused, making his skills pretty multifunctional.




As your 1st skill, i recommend putting a point into Alpha Strike it deals 100 dmg to 4 targets and has chance to do extra damage to minions and nautral mobs, its really effective both on lane and in the jungle.
If jungling and you feel more comfortable starting with Wuju Style just start with that, but Alpha Strike actually deal more damage to a camp, and has chance to instantly clear it!
After leveling up put a point on Wuju Style (or Alpha Strike if started with wuju).
From here on the most important is to get atleast 3 point on Alpha Strike, your second priority is to max Wuju Style since Meditate wont benefit AD Yi that much, but you can put a point on it on lvl 4 if you want. Always put a point on your Highlander when it's available!

Master Yi can be built both AD or AP, both are good, but in my opinion, AP Yi mostly relies to his Alpha Strike, and supporting it with a few things like Lich Bane and Deathfire Grasp for example. But making his Wuju Style and Highlander way less effective.
In a team fight if you dont get a kill with 1 burst on AP Yi you just run around on the battlefield waiting for CD. But everyone has admit that Meditate has not much use as AD but as AP Yi it gets noteable.

This is one of the most important parts until now, i suggest reading trough the whole thing.
I'll keep this updated. Ideas welcome!




If you like to start with boots, has better speed, few potions to keep you alive.



Might think it's noobish, but actually this has everything you need, both on lane and in jungle.



Pretty good start when jungling with Yi, with your high AD you can hit enough and steal enough HP with this.




Ok so this one is especially good on lane, it might look weird for Yi, but actually the runes and the boots give you enough attack speed, while the 2 Doran's Blade and Phage has the most dominating lane presence early game. They will be kind of suprised from your dmg-health ratio. Try it and you'll see.



If you decided to go jungling this is probably the optimal way for you. Wriggle's Lantern grants you enough AD and armor for the jungle and ganks, while Phage gives you attack and some sustain. Don't forget the Wriggle's Lantern passive and free ward!


So now we have one of the starting gear, the laning phase has ended, people start roaming and making bigger and smaller team fights. At this point our gear is getting out dated, and anyway our Phage's passive wont be of much use at this speed, so time to build!



This way you get a nice boost of attack speed, a little bit movement speed, and a 10% critical rate. The critical rate is not too noticeable yet but its there and its kicking, this way you rather go for more static damage with that B. F. Sword.



If you choose to rush phantom dancer, you choose the speedy way. This just gives an overwhelming attack speed with 30% critical rate, the movement speed on this one is pretty nice. Its nice to make criticals about every 3rd hit, but it's kind of luck dependent, but it's up to you which way you follow.


Now that you got a bit stronger time to finish your most important items which will lift you to epicness.


So now time to get that overpowering wuju stuff. For that you only have to finish and you most likely have half the things needed. You can see the items you need right below the chapter title. The order i put them there is actually the order you should complete them.

Step 1. Phantom dancer
Step 2. Infinity Edge
Step 3. Frozen Mallet
Agility Potions

It's always been an argument around Yi which to use, well this is my opinion, if you don't like it, play Yi different. People differ I prefer him this way. I'm making a fast comparison why I choose Phantom Dancer over Youmuu's Ghostblade.


So in the end it' 15% less crit chance for a bit more attack and your speed going on cooldown. You think it worth that 142 gold? I still think it's not good on Yi whatever people say.

So now we got everything that's needed to win, but still you have 2 Doran's Blade or that Wriggle's Lantern and an empty slot, so what should we do whit those. Here are some items that are good for Yi for those slots, but it's kind of hard to go wrong from here, except stacking Phantom Dancer or Infinity Edge like a noob. So...

So the items I think are good. It's my opinion and I gladly try other ideas, and im trying some always.

SPACE



SPACE



SPACE

I'm putting here a few example of what can you make of this type of build. These are the ones that were a success when I was trying out lot of item combinations. Might add some if I find any new, or get some nice suggestions in the comments. Each build will have a small description about it's pros and possible cons.












So these are some of the builds I came up with and use more often. Still if you want something different, go mix up something from the items above, maybe even post it in the comments.

When playing Yi always keep in mind that you are kind of squishy, so don't jump in mindlessly into a fight. Early game you should stay a bit defensive and farm a lot. Even in later phases yi can make a big profit from his fast farming capabalities, this doesnt mean you can go chill out at wolves during a teamfight!

When attacking with Yi you can either open with an Alpha Strike to close the gap, or just run to him and save Alpha Strike when he starts running away. Later when you have Highlander the 2nd option is better.
When going into a fight never turn on your Wuju Style before reaching the enemy, a lot if its time will go to waste that way. Keep this in mind with Highlander too.

In teamfights you should always know who to attack with Yi, focusing the right target makes so huge impact on teamfights that a bad focus might just end up the enemy team scroing an ACE!

• Your primary targets will be squishies, with your high speed and crits sometimes you can kill a carry in about 2 second... yea thats right about 4 hit. If lucky and you get a Double Strike maybe even faster. Among the squishies you should always decide to go for the CCing ones or the high DPS. This will make Ashe for exmaple a pretty high priority target, or Annie with her stun and insane burst damage.
• After getting rid of these you should target the less squishier supports and bruisers.
  SPACE
  Bruisers are the melee champions that are either tanky DPS or off-tanks, they deal moderate damage, but have pretty good sustain. Still some of them can be pretty dangerous like the totally fair Darius for example, or Riven with her stun and inhuman mobility.
  
  Supports are mostly casters that heal, shield or supply the team with CC like Soraka, Sona, Janna, Morgana and many more. They usually are less squishier than AP carries or assassins, but they deal less damage, however their other skills make them really useful for their team, and pretty dangerous for yours. So just kill them before they lay eggs!
• And only least priority are the tanks, they don't hit much so they rely on the DPS on the back (and the surviving of the DPS relies on a good tank). Since you killed the DPS and probably the support, and the tank already lost some hp, you can now target him if you have enough HP, with you speed and damage output you should finish the job and he doesnt really have a chance to run, well not suprising with a Frozen Mallet. I even managed to slay Dr. Mundos with this build.

Sometimes in a team fight your HP will drop dangerously low, in these situation you should think through what benefits your team more.

• Running away with your Highlander and recover, while being proud of yourself about how much you helped (or sometimes not...)
• Going kamikaze but dealing out the most damage you can, maybe ending in killing one more enemy, or sometimes even you just end up start thinking: How the f*** did i survive this fight...

When I choose to jungle with Master Yi many start bashing me and start calling me a noob (well they always blame the jungler for everything anyway), but actually this are the typical narrow minded fools who will be feeding like hell and do 30 damages, well really fast but still useless and just KS those low hp luckers that survive a talon burst with 17 HP and call themself pro. With 7 KS/18/21 stat and saying they carried the whole game... why do these people so pro at staying alive ********it...

Anyway to the topic. Master Yi is actually a reall good jungle, the reason is even if he not really high sustain, he can clear camps insanely fast. He has 2 way to start the jungle, and both common jungle routes work for him very well. When using Wuju Style jungling you can start with a Vampiric Scepter which will keep you on pretty fair hp with the damage you can do. When you choose Alpha Strike type jungle you can either start with a Long Sword for higher auto attacks after Alpha Strike thus clearing faster, or with Cloth Armor for extra sustain.

When jungling always take the summoner spell Smite and the mastery Summoner's Resolve , the reason is Smite helps so much in the jungle, that I can't even exrpress it! For Summoner's Resolve the reason is granting 10 gold every time when using Smite, since smite has a relatively low CD this mastery actually gets you pretty much gold in the long term. Even later when you don't spend much time in the jungle, you must have Smite always on CD, just use it on a random enemy minion that derps into your way, 10 extra gold worth overkilling an innocent minion...

Item priority is important too, when jungling having the most HP after each clear is important, but ganking is important too, so on your 1st recall you must always buy Boots!

Basic Jungling

The ways of jungling

Routes

Advanced Jungling

Counter Jungling

Ganking

• Green area: The enemy should be in this area to make the most succesive ganks, too bad you won't see this as often as you want to.
• Orange area: You have to be cautious in this area, but it's still good for a gank, you can easily pick up a kill and scare away the other enemy, or sometimes even kill both of them. Just know when to pull back from this area and you should be fine.
• Red area: Never gank when the enemy is in that area, you are too close to their turret, they can easily attack from the back and it's hard to pull back from there. Helping to hit down a turret is ok, but don't gank, you will most likely just waste your time, or even get killed

"KSer noob" this makes me bite my keyboard, this game is about teamwork, guess what, in a 2v2 you can't score all the kills.So your choice let enemy escape with about 0 HP, or secure and get the last hit instead of that other guy in your team. Securing kills is important, stop crying KS al the time when someone just secures a kill instead of giving even a glimpse of chance for that enemy to escape.

Warding can change the flow of the game, sadly many people totally ignore or forget about warding. If you are a jungler you roam around the map, so you have lots of opportunity to place wards. Placing wards can save allies, give ganking chances, help counter jungling etc.. etc... so lots of useful things.

Still try to make other team members buy wards too, not only supports and junglers can ward. Even if you roam around you just cant ward every little corner of the map.

There are a few points on the map that give really a lot map awareness and utility, these points have higher priority when warding. However this doesn't mean you should only place wards there. If you think your should place one somewhere else jsut do so.

• Blue spots: These ward points are basically to counter enemy team's ganking. It helps your team notice enemies before they jump in, these save lives many times, especially early game.
• Green spots: These are placed in the bushes at the buff camps, really useful when counter jungling, or you can do the same on your side to prevent counter jungling. These are less important then the blue spots, but still useful.
• Red spots: I choose this as red becouse they ward 2 really important neutral camps, at early game Dragon is hell of a money earning creep, warding him can keep you aware of it's state. Also you can see if an enemy is gankable there to get some extra kill with Dragon's help, or simply steal Dragon.
  With Baron the same, knowing if the enemy goes for baron is and keeping an eye on both enemy and Baron's HP is just such a big advantage.

[/indent]

- Coming soon -

Who to lane with when playing Master Yi is pretty simple, a ranged or tank champion with any kind of skill that can slow down or block enemy from running away. For example this makes Ashe, Twisted Fate, Morgana, Nasus, Singed, Blitzcrank etc. very good lane partners granting you easy kills.

Lane and even late game matchups are a bit more complicated, so here is list of easy kills and dangerous enemies for Master Yi. Will update this list as much as possible/needed. Any help completing this section is appreciated.




space

Will go indepth in these.

Alpha Strike immortality frame

Alpha Strike flash chasing

Wuju Style max potential

Surge+ Ghost - Highlander Beta

Credits go to:

• jhoijhoi for the dividers and on her Guide
• To whoever made that Yi art down there... sorry found it on google.
• To IceCreamy for reviewing my guide.