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Choose Champion Build:
Spells:
Exhaust
Flash
Ability Order
Double Strike (PASSIVE)
Master Yi Passive Ability
Season 3
SEASON 3
Havn't played much on

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



Welcome to my
Master Yi guide!
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

English is not my native language so sorry for mistakes.
My

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


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SPACE |
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Preferred runes
Viable runes for Yi
MARKS
SPACE | Well as most AD characters, speed benefits them a lot, since Yi is auto attack based, these can really increase his DPS. These ones are especially useful right on the beginning where you dont have your ulti or anything that gets you attack speed. |
Strength
SPACE | An early damage boost with flat AD runes, altogether they give you 8.55 AD right from the start. Might help you get an easier early kill. When jungling, jungle mobs have nearly no armor, it's barely noticable. so these grant you faster camp clears on the start. |
Desolation
greater mark of desolation
|
SPACE |
In early game it doesnt make too much difference, together with
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Malice
SPACE | Since we generally have a high speed and high crit chance build, these runes are actually very effective. You can reach higher critical chance with these which might save you an item slot, opening up more option for builds. Still a bit luck dependent compared to flat attack, armor penetration and attack speed, but the higher chance the less randomness. |
SEALS
SPACE | I think these are the best, no other seal gives this much early game sustain. And as a melee DPS you will need armor for sure. And its cheap... |
GLYPHS
SPACE | They give a little early boost and scale relatively well with AP users. With these you will have 24 extra magic resist on lvl 18. |
Warding
SPACE | Well less late game magic resist, but more early game resist. Helps you gank those AP users if early game. But overall I think shielding glyphs are better. |
QUINTS
SPACE | Same as marks, they give you pretty nice damage increase as you will hit faster. Each of these add a pretty nice speed so you can even mix and match if you would like. |
Strength
SPACE | Just like the marks they give an early game damage boost, but still they get nearly totally negated by armor later on. I'm just not fan of these flat AD runes, but they are still viable. |
Desolation
greater quintessence of desolation
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SPACE | Same as desolation marks, they can give you a nice boost through the game, but with a bit less, then marks. I recommend only using this together with greater mark of desolation. |
Malice
SPACE | Same as the marks. High speed and critical rate from items make them not so luck dependent, and they end up being pretty nice. |
Swiftness
SPACE |
I know Yi runs fast, but for early ganks and a little faster jungle clear they are not bad. Helps a bit chasing people when not using ![]() |
Vampirism
SPACE |
Okay most people say these are useless, but actually when you deal heavy damage with auto attacks, and by heavy I mean you even roadkill a freight train. In the end that 6% that these give wil end up healing you a lot, and anyway it heals just as much as a half ![]() |

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:

Ok so let's assume we have 20 flat armor penetration, 10% armor penetration from

So when hitting this enemy you are basically hitting against only 117 armor.
Armor's damage negation:
Let's calculate with the values we used last time and the effective armor we got.
So basically every physical attack you do against that target is reduced by ~54%.
Final damage:
So every auto attack we make hits for 108 on the target.
Now basics are clear, let's get to the comparison.

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.
Target armor SPACE 50 (39.6) 100 (84.6) 150 (129.6) 200 (174.6) |
SPACE |
lvl 1 AD (75) SPACE 53.7 40.6 32.6 27.3 |
SPACE |
lvl 18 AD (300) SPACE 214.9 162.5 130.6 109.2 |
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.
Target armor SPACE 50 (39.6) 100 (84.6) 150 (129.6) 200 (174.6) |
SPACE |
lvl 1 AD (83.55) SPACE 59.8 45.2 36.3 SPACE 30.4 SPACE |
SPACE |
Increase in damage (%) SPACE SPACE SPACE 11.3% SPACE SPACE SPACE |
SPACE |
lvl 18 AD (308.55) SPACE 221 167.1 134.4 SPACE 112.3 SPACE |
SPACE |
Increase in damage (%) SPACE SPACE SPACE 2.8% SPACE SPACE SPACE |
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 %.
Target armor SPACE 50 (26.1) 100 (71.1) 150 (116.1) 200 (161.1) |
SPACE |
lvl 1 AD (75) SPACE 59.4 43.8 34.7 28.7 |
SPACE |
Increase in damage (%) SPACE 10.6% 7.8% 6.4% 5.1% |
SPACE |
lvl 18 AD (300) SPACE 237.9 175.3 138.8 114.8 |
SPACE |
Increase in damage (%) SPACE 10.7% 7.8% 6.2% 5.1% |
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


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.


So just 0.679*0.15 and you get the bonus attack speed in the value you can see on the interface.
Basic Attack Speed SPACE 0.679 |
SPACE |
Attack Speed Bonus (%) SPACE 15.3% |
SPACE |
Attack Speed Bonus (#) SPACE 0.101 |
SPACE |
Increase in damage (%) SPACE 10.1% |
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.
Let's assume we have 50% critical chance (as you see on the cheat sheet you will have atleast 55% with the build), and check the damage multiplier with 2x critical damage (basic], 2.1x critical damage (



What will matter here is the difference between the 2 tables.
50% chance Multiplier SPACE SPACE 2.0x 2.1x 2.6x |
SPACE |
SPACE Increase in damage (%) SPACE 50% 55% 80% |
58.37% chance Multiplier SPACE SPACE 2.0x 2.1x 2.6x |
SPACE |
SPACE Increase in damage (%) SPACE 58% 64% 93% |
SPACE |
SPACE Difference SPACE SPACE +8% +9% +13% |
Summary
I see a pretty low chance of





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:
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SPACE |
Well it deals true damage based on champion level. Helps secure kills with continual damage and reducing heal effects. Good for the early kills and can be used to prevent healing late game. And with
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Flash
Ghost
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SPACE | Good for escapes and chasing both. Can be good for ganking too but less effective than flash. Still its a really good spell, thanks to Yi being fast by default. Can be used to backdoor. |
Smite
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SPACE |
This spell is a must if you're jungling with any champion. Speeds up the whole jungling by a lot. Has other uses like stealing Baron or Dragon. Has pretty short CD so you can use it as often as possible,
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Viable Choices:
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SPACE |
Well it's a good spell, but Yi just doesn't have problems with chasing, so it's kinda of a waste. Might help at ganks at early game, if you have
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Cleanse
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SPACE |
Can save you from a CC. Good to cancel stuns, but since Yi cant be slowed, and knock ups and supressions cant be cleansed it's not really effective. Silence is just ignored on Yi, who the hell silences him anyway? What about taunts, well in Yi's case it's 100% that you will outrun them and start hitting, which pretty much hurts even ![]() |
Teleport
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SPACE | Only use this spell if you are backdooring and know how to do it *khm*, and only if you are comfortible with it. |
Surge
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SPACE |
I guess you think why did i put this here, the reason is, its pretty nice on Yi. With
![]() ![]() |

Double Strike
Alpha Strike
Meditate
Wuju style
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SPACE |
Another crazy skill to increase damage. It gives AD passively, when activated the original effect falls off until it's on CD but you gain a new one with twice as much AD, which means if you kill while ![]() ![]() |
Highlander
As your 1st skill, i recommend putting a point into

If jungling and you feel more comfortable starting with


After leveling up put a point on


From here on the most important is to get atleast 3 point on











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


I'll keep this updated. Ideas welcome!
Starting items




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.

Early game




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





If you decided to go jungling this is probably the optimal way for you.




If the laning ends
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



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


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.

Master Yi - The Retribution of Ionia
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
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SPACE |
Okay so this item is your bread and butter, it gives you insane speed combined with insane 30% critical rate. This item should make your attack speed 1.5+ without ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Step 2. Infinity Edge
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SPACE |
Infinity Edge was probably designed for Yi, its a big yellowish blade with that freakign high damage potential... where did I see something similar. So this item gives you +80 AD which is a lot already, but thats not enough it gives us 25% critical chance, making it now a total of 55%. Still not the end of the story, it increases critical damage by 50%, making the total critical damage 260% with
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Step 3. Frozen Mallet
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SPACE |
So why adding this, becouse without it Yi would be too easy to kill. This item grants him both AD and HP. 700 HP is not bad, makes Yi way less squishy, you end up around 2800 HP. Since you got ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Agility Potions
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SPACE |
These little potions are just 250 gold. Yet they give you a nice boost on attack speed and critical chance for 4 minutes. With this you can cap attack speed when ![]() |



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.





AD crit% life steal hp armor/magic resist |
SPACE |
AD always helps Yi If 70% total its about always crit High damage = lot of hp stolen Well staying alive is important Same as above |
SPACE
Offensive
Executioner's Calling
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SPACE |
This little item is very underrated. It gives you 15% crit chance, just enough to get that 70% and meanwhile it gives you 18% lifesteal, nearly as much as a fully stacked ![]() ![]() |
Last Whisper
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SPACE |
Well you should basically only buy this if the enemy stacked so much armor that even your crits dont help. That won't happen too often... Still ignoring half the armor +40 AD sure can smash some heads. Still I suggest using this only if enemy stacks 2 ![]() |
Sword of the Occult
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SPACE |
This item mostly only for fun, but if you can stack it you can go over 400 AD. If fully stacked it even gives you a lot of movement speed, actually that much that combined with ![]() |
Maw of Malmortius
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SPACE |
This item is really good if enemy team has faceroller AP users like ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Atma's Impaler
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SPACE |
This is another great combined item, gives you a nice amount of armor, and becouse of the ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
SPACE
Defensive
Randuin's Omen
Banshee's Veil
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SPACE |
Similar things as ![]() |
Quicksilver Sash
SPACE
Utility
Zeke's Herald
zeke's herald | SPACE |
Not a bad item either. Gives you a little HP too which might save you a lot of times. Sadly the CDR goes to waste on Yi but the attack speed and lifesteal is still pretty good. Similar to ![]() |
Wriggle's Lantern

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 attacking with Yi you can either open with an



When going into a fight never turn on your


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.
SPACEBruisers 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 fairDarius for example, or
Riven with her stun and inhuman mobility.
Supports are mostly casters that heal, shield or supply the team with CC likeSoraka,
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...


Anyway to the topic.







When jungling always take the summoner spell






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

Basic Jungling
The ways of jungling



Why I think this way of jungling is more efficient? It's pretty obvious, starting on a camp with hitting 4 targets with 100 damage... except small golem every camp has atleast 3 neutral mobs, so thats a 300 total damage to the camp before they even start attacking, oh and don't forget the 20% chance for extra damage on each mob!. This skill has the potential to instantly clear wraiths and wolves right on the very start. As you level

Think of it as a high damage aoe attack with an improved chance of





But the problem is jungle mobs have a little armor, while they don't have magic resist, so some of that bonus gets negated. And this makes only about 4 hits with activated


When playing Wuju Jungle you need to use


To counter this i recommend turning it on during the attack animation. At first it might be a bit tricky but if you get used to it you can just turn it on during the animation before the attack lands. Another trick to have good manage on your

Routes


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SPACE |
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I guess everything is so obvious I shouldn't really write more about this route, route here, item priority already explained (not like it's so trivial), itemization explained, how to jungle with the way you choose, so just nothing else I can think of.
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SPACE |
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When choosing this route, you start at smaller camps and shouldn't take as much damage as you would with buff camps. Also enemy team sometimes raid your blue buff, which might result in your death, this way you won't be raided. Same goes for counter jungling, becouse of its difference from the common route it's a bit harder to counter.

Advanced Jungling
Counter Jungling
For example you go into enemy jungle and steal their Blue buff golem and leave the 2 small lizards next to it, while your AP mid laner takes the blue buff on your side. This way both you and your AP mid laner got blue, and the enemy team has no blue buff to get. And the respawn timer won't start until they kill the small lizards.
When counter jungling always assume they see you, the enemy team migt placed a ward somewhere, so always be really cautious and if you notice someone coming your way, just run, it doesnt worth it to give them a free kill. Even if they lack teamwork, just don't gamble that they might not come for you.
Counter jungling is a hell of a thing and one could write a book about it, I don't really want to lengthen the guide too much with in-depth counter jungling. If intrested you can check out Mikuroo's jungling guide for example, but there are many more around on mobafire.
Ganking
Anyway solo top should defend not make a rampage in the 1st few minutes. Another reason why I say that solo top is not your priority becouse it's either 1v1 tanky wrestling where you don't really give a big impact, or its a 2v1 which would end as a 2v2 on a gank, fair fights are not our thing here.
Mid and Bot lanes are way easier to gank, becouse going there will result as a 2v1 or 3v2 for your team, granting easier kills, and thus helping a lane a lot. Also Dragon is between these lanes so you can keep an eye on it early game, aswell as staying close to it.
When you go for a gank you should always check first if it's even possible.
For example don't gank bot if enemy is nearly under his turret, even if they ask for it... trust me there are some noobs who do that... Timing and enemy's position is really important, otherwise you are just wasting time, only scaring the enemy back to his turret. If ganking you should make atleast 1 kill, doesn't matter who kills, just score it.

- 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.

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.







Lane and even late game matchups are a bit more complicated, so here is list of easy kills and dangerous enemies for

Easy opponents
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SPACE |
Bascally she's a easy opponents becouse she walk way slower then you, is way squishier, and you are immune to her slowing arrows when ![]() |
Caitlyn
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SPACE |
Same as ![]() |
Ahri
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SPACE |
Why is ![]() ![]() |
Fizz
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SPACE |
I consider Fizz kind of easy match-up. You can outrun him, you outdamage him, especially since Fizz is not a typical high-sustain champ. Also ![]() ![]() |
space
Hard opponents
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SPACE |
So you wonder why did i place this insignificant to be roadkilled rat here? It's becouse of his ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Annie
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SPACE |
Those damn stuns... can stun pretty easy and ![]() ![]() |
Blitzcrank
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SPACE |
Blitzcrank is a tanky champion, so you can't take him down in just 2 second. What makes him a hard opponent is his skill kit. The ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Darius
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SPACE | Umm well... do I really have to write why? High damage spammable skills, true damage, damage over time, tanky, can reach 80% armor penetration, simply OP, leave him to the ranged teammates... |
Wukong
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SPACE |
Wukong is basically an off-tank (well good player atleast know) so he's not one of those you kill in less than 3 second. He can do pretty nice damage burst with that ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Evelynn
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SPACE |
Stealthy runner, this pretty much tells all. Her magic damage can really hurt early game too. With ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Riven
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SPACE |
Again another off-tank, pretty high HP pool and nice defenses, while she can use ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |







- 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.

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