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Master Yi Build Guide by Prate_k

Jungle The All-In-One Master Yi Guide

Jungle The All-In-One Master Yi Guide

Updated on December 14, 2018
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Prate_k Build Guide By Prate_k 17 2 80,281 Views 14 Comments
17 2 80,281 Views 14 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Prate_k Master Yi Build Guide By Prate_k Updated on December 14, 2018
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Master Yi
    Classic Yi
  • LoL Champion: Master Yi
    Assassin Yi
  • LoL Champion: Master Yi
    Yinspiration (You can hide - but you can't really run)
  • LoL Champion: Master Yi
    Transcended Yi
  • LoL Champion: Master Yi
    TankYi
  • LoL Champion: Master Yi
    Wuju Aid - Support Yi

Runes:

Precision
Fleet Footwork
Presence of Mind
Legend: Alacrity
Coup de Grace

Domination
Sudden Impact
Ravenous Hunter
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Smite

Smite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Champion Build Guide

The All-In-One Master Yi Guide

By Prate_k
Introduction
Hello, LoL-ers ^^, so finally I am going to give some of my time to my most favorite champion - in my most favorite role - The jungle. Firstly, let's talk about the new runes, kudos to riot on that, I was actually disappointed at the amount of customisation that can be done in a game for a champion. I mean every AD carry went with the same runes and masteries buying the same items and ending up doing the same thing every game.

I like the customisability of this new system. So in this guide, I have tried essentially all the rune combinations on Master Yi. I have and will continue to add the rune pages, which are effective and fun, with explanations of the selections, item details and so forth to complete the guide.

IT's TIME TO WUJU
















































Guide colour and abbreviations

  • Physical damage and attack damage (AD)
  • Magic damage and ability power (AP)
  • Healing (health regen) and health (HP)
  • Mana regen and mana
  • True damage and other special stats - Movement speed (MS), Cooldown reduction (CDR)
  • Attack speed (AS)
  • Armour (Ar) and Magic resist (MR)
  • Critical chance and damage
  • Crowd control (CC)
Master YI - The Wuju Bladesman

Master Yi - the ignored jungler =)). With the constant changes to the jungle and items, Master Yi finds it incredibly hard to find his way into picks and successful games. This guy has everything, everything that every other champion has, except crowd control, but you don't need that. Not much to say here other than that since he isn't much suited for top lane anymore, he gets to jungle more. Yi is finding it harder and harder to find his place on the rift, due to other assassin and fighter junglers, having crowd control and stealth, becoming more viable.

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.



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



W
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 50/55/60/65/70% while being chanelled it pauses the duration of Wuju Style and Highlander. When canceled or completed, it provides a Double Strike on the next basic attack.



E
Wuju Style
Passive
+10% of total AD as bonus attack damage, when not on cooldown.



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



R
Highlander
Increased MS by 25/35/45% and AS by 30/55/80% for 7 seconds, while being immune to slows. Kills and assists during Highlander extends the duration by 7 seconds and reduces the cooldown on his other abilities by 70%.




Other basic stats
Unique Skills

Yi certainly has a unique set of tools at his disposal, being harmful to both him and his opponents (more emphasis on the latter). Let's talk about his abilities.


Alpha Strike



This is Yi's prized possession. This can be used to finish off kills that are out of range for basic attacks, can be used to escape a chase or close a gap, can be used to access enemies over walls, without using Flash, and of course deal a huge amount of damage.

Alpha Strike can also be used to dodge skill shots, area of effect (AoE), Ultimates (R) and cancel abilities.

Any Guesses on how? :P



Meditate



This is a really fun trick on Yi that most people forget about its existence. Time and time again you get tower dived on for that last hit to finish you off, but little did they know that Meditate would sneak up on them. Was it luck? I think not. This is Yi's life vest, so use it wisely.

Meditation has its perks too xD


Just some additional info



Wuju Style


Not much to say for this as it simply increases your damage output and allows you to do some true damage. One thing to remember is to activate this after using (or towards the end of the last blink) Alpha Strike. An important point to take note of is that this ability's Passive and Active are sort of in an either or relationship. If Wuju Style is available for use the passive of +10% AD is active. And after you use the ability to deal true damage, when it goes on cooldown the bonus 10% AD passive is lost for 18/17/16/15/14 seconds.


Highlander



This basically let's you do everything faster, grants you target access and gap closing speeds. Usually activated once the team fight has started while trying to flank to the backline to get to the carries of the enemy team.

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

As mentioned in Unique Skills, Yi's Alpha Strike is important and hence is always the first to hit the max on level-ups. Wuju Style and Meditate are situational.

Most of the time you would prefer Wuju Style to be maxed out second as it increases your damage.

Meditate You can always make sure your meditate has at least 2 or 3 levels before you max out your Wuju Style. This can help you sustain in 1 v 1 fights as it increases the damage reduction, based on its level, during its use. For the 4 seconds of use you can have a damage reduction of between 55 and 60% while you heal up, gain Double Strike and maybe gain access to Wuju Style again, if timed correctly.

Highlander 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 dragon, baron and the rift scuttler 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 baron 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 Ignite 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 Flash will become kind of a secondary option to Ignite. (you can practice in normal games without Flash 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.
Build: Classic Yi




Fleet Footwork is necessary for sustain in the jungle especially if you have picked the attack speed stat shard for bonus rune stats. It provides heal and bonus damage while clearing camps. Similarly, Ravenous Hunter also provides some sustain on clearing jungle camps and helps during ganks when using Alpha Strike and Wuju Style.

Presence of Mind is more effective in late game team fights as it almost refreshes your ultimate's cooldown for it to be used again in no time. Which is very helpful in getting objectives once you have won a team fight.

While, Coup de Grace and Sudden Impact allow you to deal more damage to squishier targets and well as dealing increased damage to targets with low health.


Works well with Alpha Strike as the attack speed from Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor, Blade of the Ruined King and Guinsoo's Rageblade (+50% AS, +25% AS, +25% (+40% AS at 6 stacks) AS, respectively) refresh it faster to be recast quickly. While auto-attacks also deal physical damage as well as 4% bonus physical damage based on the target's maximum health (thanks to Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor), 8% bonus physical damage based on the target's current health (thanks to Blade of the Ruined King) and at full stacks - Guinsoo's Rageblade triggers those bonus damages an additional time. While, challenging smnite also deals bonus true damage over 3 seconds (which refreshes with auto-attacks), with increased attack speed and Wuju Style this deals a ton of damage regarless of the target's armor.


Infinity Edge deals 30% of your AD as true damage everytime you critically strike an enemy champion. But since it is reliant on another critical strike chance item, Phantom Dancer is the preferred item, since it provides an additional +45% AS and 12% damage reduction from the most recently attacked enemy champion.
Build: Assassin Yi




Hail of Blades 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. It also effectively enables you to stack Guinsoo's Rageblade stacks faster in a team fight.

Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collection and Gathering Storm increases your damage by providing lethality, +6AD at 20 stacks and scaling bonus AD as the game goes on, respectively.

While Ravenous Hunter provides heal on your ability damage, Transcendence increases your bonus AD based on the cooldown reduction amount. These two go hand-in-hand as you can cast Alpha Strike with basically no cooldown between each cast (due to it's passive) and of course heal as your damage enemies with it.


While Hail of Blades works well in stacking Guinsoo's Rageblade, Essence Reaver should be purchased as the first item as it provides the necessary attack speeds when using Highlander and provides sufficient damage, cooldown reductions and mana restorations. This helps you to stay in extended fights while dealing a lot of damage quickly to the first enemy target. Death's Dance provides healing on the ability damage which have short cooldowns, thanks to essence reaver, it also provides sufficient damage and cooldown reducton, in addition to providing a safety against burst damage by converting it to damage over time.


Trinity Force is favoured if you are ahead as it provides a ton of useful stats. Although in cases where the enemy team has a fed assassin who is doing a lot of burst damage, champions such as (zed and shadow assassin kayn), then Iceborn Gauntlet should be purchased as it provides some resistance, together with Death's Dance and has cooldown reduction and slows with bonus damage from spellblade.


Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor when the enemy team has at least two tanks, otherwise Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior can be purchased as the other items provide enough attack speed to deal damage quickly. If you are planning to get Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior, you can sell it late game and replace it with Duskblade of Draktharr or Youmuu's Ghostblade since they provide lethality together with damage, cooldown reduction and other passives.
Build: Yinspiration




Glacial Augment slows the target starting at 45% over 2 seconds increasing to 55% as more basic attacks are landed, while this slow is active on a target, using an active item, with a slow, will slow them further for 60% for 5 seconds more. Since Master Yi has no form of crowd control in his kit, this can be used to set up ganks so the ally laner can land skill shots and abilities onto the slowed target. Together with Approach Velocity, it can be used to close gap on enemy targets who get bonus movement speed while in combat to escape or kite.

Magical Footwear and Future's Market are the better options of the remaining runes in the Inspiration path. You can also pick Time Warp Tonic instead of Approach Velocity, in cases where you know the enemy team has no advantage in movement speed when in team fights, as Time Warp Tonic increases your survivabilty in the jungle while clearing camps and allowing you to farm and then gank with more health giving you an advantage - if you are focused during a gank.

Legend: Alacrity is selected for some attack speed boost as the game progresses, while Coup de Grace is used to finish off low-health enemy champions with increased damage.


These three items are the basic items for most Master Yi builds as they provide a lot of attack speed which refreshes the Alpha Strike cooldowns to be spammed on the enemy champions. It also deals bonus on-hit damages enough to delete squishies and melt tanks.


These items are viable damage options when you are ahead, but Essence Reaver is usually the most recommended from this list, while Youmuu's Ghostblade can be purchased when dealing with mobile enemy champions and Trinity Force when you are ahead and need to stick to enemy champions that try to kite you, or tanks that try to slow you down. Duskblade of Draktharr is a very handy item as it helps you clear wards and provides additional damage when you try to flank, unseen, onto the enemy back-line.


Wit's End is a good item when the enemy has a lot of magic damage dealing champions and you need attack speed, then this gives a good amount of magic resist together with Mercury's Treads. While Iceborn Gauntlet allows you to survive an all-out burst combo from a heavily fed assassin. If you can survive the initial onslaught by the enemy assassins then you are free to punish them in anyway you like.
Build: Transcended Yi




In addition to Wuju Style, Conqueror deals a fair amount of damage as true damage and is very effective against tanks who stack armour against Master Yi. This should help you do some serious damage later in the game as you build up the damage and attack speed.

Presence of Mind and Transcendence ensure that your ultimate ability, Highlander is available when needed. while Transcendence also increases your bonus damage stats together with Gathering Storm and Coup de Grace.

Legend: Alacrity ensures that you have enough attack speed if you decide to focus your item builds around cooldown reductions to increase your damage provided by Transcendence. (Since most items with cooldown reductions are damage items rather than attack speed items, with a few exceptions.)


Item purchases focused on maximising cooldown reduction stats for Transcendence to work its magic. Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior can be swapped out for Essence Reaver for an initial burst of attack speed when starting fights.


Item purchases focused on maximising cooldown reduction stats for Transcendence to work its magic. Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior can be swapped out for any other damage item with a cooldown reduction passive.


Item purchases focused on increasing true damage to enemy champions, since Infinity Edge deals 10% of damage as true damage on critical strikes, you need to increase your critical strike chances with Statikk Shiv and Phantom Dancer, together with Conqueror, you can deal 32% of your damage as true damage, with a little help from Wuju Style and Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior. While Guinsoo's Rageblade ensures you have a high damage rate, so you can try to fit in as many critical true damages as you can before the enemy targets can react.
Build: TankYi + Support Yi




Grasp of the Undying provides bonus damage and heals you based on your maximum health, while also increasing your maximum health by 5. But for this to be proc'd, you need to be in combat for 4 seconds, which is perfect since building tanky will provide you with enough sustain to do so. This synergises well with Bone Plating and Overgrowth and they increase your resistance to burst damage and increase your maximum health, respectively.

Transcendence and Gathering Storm provide bonus damage as the game progresses and since most "tank" focused items have some amounts of cooldown reductions, stacking them will increase your damage while making you tanky, thanks to Transcendence.

If you are playing support, and against enemy laners that can harrass through constant poke, then Bone Plating and Revitalize are better choices. Whereas in a lane against a melee-tank support, Bone Plating and Overgrowth would be the preferred choices. If you are planning to play tanky Master Yi in the jungle, then Conditioning can be picked instead of Bone Plating since there won't any enemy laners to deal with unless you are ganking, however, Bone Plating is more effective against late game burst damage or kites.


A defensive focused build with elements of damage to survive and deal damage to targets. While Trinity Force and Black Cleaver provide a pretty neat set of all-round stats, Ravenous Hydra and Death's Dance provide the necessary sustain needed to not be shattered like a glass-cannon yi. Dead Man's Plate is recommended because of the bonus movement speed, while Randuin's Omen is preferred when dealing with critical strike focus carries (most Caitlyn, Jinx, Tristana, Ashe, Jhin etc... and Yasuo). Skirmisher's Sabre - Cinderhulk if you are a jungler else you can opt out for Essence Reaver for extra damage and attack speed boost early on in team fights. (in fact you can sell [skirmisher's sabre - cinderhulk]] later on and purchase Essence Reaver instead, or just build Skirmisher's Sabre and focus on other items first).


A defensive focused build with elements of damage to survive and deal damage to targets. While Trinity Force and Black Cleaver provide a pretty neat set of all-round stats, Death's Dance provides the necessary sustain to deal with burst damage. Frozen Heart allows you to survive auto attackers by slowing down their attack speed. Spirit Visage can be purchased if the enemy team is mostly dealing magic damage, while it can be swapped with a damage item such as Essence Reaver or Randuin's Omen for more protection physical damages.
Creeping / Jungling

There is a slight change in the pathing since the experiences have changed.
  • Level 1 > Start on the side your bottom lane duo is, for a faster clear at level 1.
  • Level 2 > Go Straight to the buff on the other side, for some reason people think it is easy to steal buffs from Yi =)). P.s It actually is, if the enemy jungler knows how to deal with an Yi.
  • Level 2 > Raptors on red buff side or Gromp on the blue buff side, if the rift scuttler has already been taken, else take the scuttler first at level 2... once you heal up from the scuttler crab, see if you can gank top or mid if they are pushed in, else go to gromp or raptors.
  • If you are on the blue buff side then get the wolves and rift scuttler if available.
  • If you are on the red buff side, then get the rift scuttler, if available, and if a lane closest to you is getting pushed in, pay it a visit and release some pressure.


At this point, you should have enough health to gank bot if you are closer to them or mid if you are on the baron side. Top laners usually want to farm, unless they are pinging for help or are being pushed in. Remember to press "Tab" frequently to see who you need to help to even out the creep counts for your team.

Try to force a gank even if there is no real chance of getting a kill. Try to push the pressure of the lane. But remember if you gank first, the enemy jungler might try to follow up. So always ward in enemy jungler exit points and stick around in the bushes after your gank in case the enemy jungler decides to follow up with a counter gank after you leave.
The Competition - It's a Jungle out there!

Anyone with a 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 Counter Strike 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 Three Talon Strike. Despite the lack of damage output in the early game, his heal and cc provide sustain, while his Audacious Charge 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. Steel Tempest also provides Yasuo with cc together with Sweeping Blade 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 Thrill of the Hunt. 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 Battle Roar.
Kha'zix
The alien version of a predator, a fed Kha'Zix with Electrocute 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.
Nocturne
As dangerous as an Kha'zix, this nightmarish fiend also has his own cc Unspeakable Horror and gets a movement speed buff from his Duskbringer. Needless to say his global ultimate ability Paranoia will leave you trying to catch up to his map presence every single time.
Evelynn
Dominated by AD, Evelynn 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 Demon Shade and Allure 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 Resolve rune tree will most likely be chosen as your secondary tree, picking Bone Plating and Conditioning to reduce the initial busrt attacks from these enemy assassin junglers.

To 1v1 these champs, you might have to switch up your build path and start with Blade of the Ruined King first (after completing Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor. The problem facing such champions is dealing with the burst damage as a squishy champ. You can try also build Duskblade of Draktharr as a third item as the the item's passive will also enable vision on hidden objects/champions at regular intervals but there will be a huge tradeoff for early-game Yi between attack speed, which Yi depends on, and attack damage, which Yi eventually needs.

For Evelynn, Wit's End can be really effective in the early game (rather than Duskblade of Draktharr) and also if the enemy team is mostly an AP composition.
Shaco
Shacos are usually tricky to deal with because of the early access to Deceive and Jack In The Box, both of these can easily make you disengage and create and opportunity for shaco to engage onto you easily. While all Shaco's usually run Ignite and Smite 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.

To deal with this clown it is recommended that you run Fleet Footwork from Precision as primary rune tree (to stay fairly healthy in the early jungling) and Resolve with Bone Plating and Revitalize as a secondary rune tree picks (to reduce the initial burst and for enhancing the heal from meditate). You can also level up Meditate at level 2 instead of Wuju Style. This allows you to buy Control Ward and 1 x Health Potion with Hunter's Machete (instead of 3 x Health Potion) to avoid being sneaked up on.

Before going to your first buff (blue/red) place the control ward at the other buff, which you should go to straight after the getting the first buff. Once you have the blue and red buff, it will be difficult for Shaco to counter you in the jungle and this gives you an advantage as you can clear the rift scuttler faster.

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
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.
How to train (against) your dragon
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)

How to take a punch
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 gives 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 120% of total AD at skill level 1 to 180% of total AD when it's maxed out.
Don't poke the bear
Items

Items, together with the new runes, enhance your build path due to the adaptability of the runes. So depending on the runes you can mix and match the item guidelines given in this guide for the specific build style.

Each game is and will be different from every other game you have played and will play, even if it is with the same group of people. What this means is sticking to just one build every game will not be an efficient way to optimize the current situation of the game. For instance, if you are behind for any reason (compared to the enemy jungler) and the enemy jungler is stacking lethality, you need to buy Ninja Tabi or even Dead Man's Plate to survive. Similarly, decisions on which items you need to purchase will be specific to one particular moment.

On a happier note, if you are playing Yi and the game happens to run for a long period in which you can go full damage, then it would be an ideal build for Yi to do all the damage he needs to at that point. So let's look at the items by category and which best fits Yi in which specific scenario.

Itemization Menu




Why so Critical?

YI deals a ton of damage and it is measured in damage per second (dps), the higher that is the more auto attacks you can force into a second. With that being said, The critical chance increases the chances of you dealing critical damage (doubling the damage from your auto attacks). With a 100% critical chance, you can deal double the damage at all times.
What makes it so special with YI?

Critical chance synergies with YI, firstly because of dealing a ton of damage quickly and secondly because of the bonus damage that is provided with Alpha Strike. Having a 100% critical chance means each blink to a target deals 25/65/95/130 + 100% AD + 60% AD.


With the new Infinity Edge a 100% critical chance Yi is still a very possible option but is very inefficient, since there is no bonus 50% damage on the critical strike with auto attacks and no bonus 30% damage on alpha strike on a critical strike. If you want to build critical strike items, then Infinity Edge should be purchased as a third item, as it's passive (of doubling critical strike chance) is only utilised once another critical chance item is purchased first (example: Phantom Dancer). The good news is now we only need 3 critical strike chance items, instead of 4, to reach 100% critical strike chance.




Passive
Blade of the ruined king passive


Active
Blade of the ruined king active

Blade of the Ruined King is great on champs that deal damage from auto attacks in quick successions (DPS champs). It works exceptionally well against tanky champions, together with armour penetration items such as Lord Dominik's Regards by allowing you to deal more damage at the start of a fight (as the damage is higher at the beginning of the fight and gradually decreases according to the enemy's health drop). It also passively provides an all-round stats to boost Yi's effectiveness.


Passive
Bloodrazor ENCHANTMENT PASSIVE

Enchantment: Bloodrazor is the goto jungle item for Master Yi since it deals damage depending on the damage per second of Yi, while dealing damage based on the target's maximum health. It synergises well with Guinsoo's Rageblade as the bonus damage is on-hit and with full stacks procs twice with the rageblade. Currently this item can be grouped with Blade of the Ruined King for more dps damage based on health while taking advantage of the full-stacked rageblade to deal it twice. It is usually more effective against tanks and bruisers (the ones that you cannot almost one-shot). Since an attack speed item will be your first buy, it makes sense to pick the 2 adaptive damage stat shards for damage in the early game.


Passive
Warrior ENCHANTMENT PASSIVE

Enchantment: Warrior is an alternative option to Enchantment: Bloodrazor if and only if the enemy team is made of a squishy composition with maybe just one tank champion as the front line. It provides a good damage stat and allows you to build a complete lethality build to delete the enemy squishies in no time. This item can go well with the "Assassin YI" and "Transcended Yi" rune selections.





Skirmisher's Sabre Commonly bought on Master Yi due to the true damage from the item's Challenging Smite while providing a vision on them and reducing their damage by 20% for 4 seconds. A single basic attack deals between 60 - 162 true damage (based on levels) while multiple basic attacks within the 3 seconds deals 140 - 378 true damage (based on levels).
Stalker's Blade is an Occasional item on Master Yi, in situations such as while playing against Yasuo (to remove his shield Way of the Wanderer or shield from Edge of Night). The item provides a Chilling Smite which does a true damage of 28 - 166 (based on level) and also slows down the target. It can also be used to deal the last amount of damage needed to kill an enemy champ as it can be cast over a range. This item works well with Glacial Augment keystone as it increases the slow and helps with closing the gap.




Passive
Guinsoo's rageblade passive

Guinsoo's Rageblade provides a great set of bonus stats for Master Yi. This item is truly useful only when it is fully stacked so it will be a good purchase against a tanky composition with possibly 3 tanks and 2 carries in the enemy team composition as you can stack these fully on the tanks before you delete them. Or you need to stack the rageblade before the fight because you need to kill the squishy targets quickly as opposed to trying to stack it while attacking the squishies. There are better-recommended items which can allow you to kill the carries in a maximum of 2 to 3 basic attacks. This item also goes well with Blade of the Ruined King, Wit's End and Enchantment: Bloodrazor.

Passive
Essence Reaver's passive

Essence Reaver refunds mana on-hit which goes well with Guinsoo's Rageblade at full stacks (refunding mana twice). Master Yi benifits from this item's second passive (Essence flare) as it provides +50% AS and basic attacks reduce the remaining cooldown on your non-ultimate abilities by 20% for the next 6 seconds after activating your ultimate (in this case: Highlander). This cooldown refund on basic abilities synergises well with the passive of Alpha Strike making it available over and over again in very short time spans.

Passive
Trinity force passive

Not a common item on Master Yi as it is pricey for an item that does not provide enough AD, while it does provide other useful stats, there are other dedicated items which provide a focus stat boost. You can purchase this item if you are following an on-hit/on-attack build damage for example: Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor -> Blade of the Ruined King -> Trinity Force -> Guinsoo's Rageblade. The passive spellblade works well when going into a fight just after activating Wuju Style for dealing additional damage. If you are using Transcendence from the Sorcery tree and focusing your build on CDR items, then Trinity Force is a good all-round option for the cause.

Passive
Death's dance passive

The passive of transferring instant burst damage as damage over time allows you to stay alive against most one-shots while in fights. The 15% heal provides sustain against champions that can burst you down and also is not limited to just basic attacks which means that Alpha Strike can also provide heal which can be boosted by Wuju Style. The damage over time can be negated by using Meditate, which has its own benefits such as increasing the healing percentage and can also be negated with the rune Overheal as it absorbs true damage or the over-heal from Bloodthirster. This item is good with the "Assassin Yi" build which focuses on dealing damage in a short time boosting the heal amounts during fights. It would also be a great idea to pair this item up with Bloodthirster for life steal with basic attacks while your abilities are on cooldown. Life steal from basic attacks provides sustain against enemy champions that can poke you down.

Passive
YOumuu's ghostblade passive


Active
YOumuu's ghostblade active

Youmuu's Ghostblade is a great item if you have picked Celerity as one of your runes from the Sorcery tree as the bonus movement speed is made 8% more effective. This also greatly increases Master Yi's movement speed during Highlander making him highly mobile and effectively increasing his chance to access the backline of the enemy team or aid him in successfully running away from near-death.




Passive
Wit's End passive

In my opinion is a good item to get after jungling item Enchantment: Bloodrazor and boots. If you are planning on purchasing Wit's End, you can buy Berserker's Greaves instead of Mercury's Treads, unless the enemy team has a lot of CC abilities. This item is especially good if the enemy team has mage mid-laner, a tanky champion and an AP support with high damage potential. It provides the early game stats that Yi needs (attack speed) while providing magic resist against magic damage and Sunfire Aegis from tank builds.


Passive
Spirit Visage passive

Good item if you are in the mood to try the support or tanky Yi build. Other than that it isn't really as necessary on Master Yi because you want to save your item slots for the more "traditional" items.

Passive
Abyssal Mask passive

Good item if you are in the mood to try the support or tanky Yi build. Other than that it isn't really as necessary on Master Yi because you want to save your item slots for the more "traditional" items. Works well with Wit's End and Sunfire Aegis and Thornmail. (Items that deal magic damage). And since Master Yi is a melee champion it is easy to get amongst the enemy and not die for a while, while doing some magic damage and essentially increasing the magic damage of your team. If the enemy AP damage dealers (mid lane carries and junglers) deal damage over time or if they deal a lot of magic damage with the same ability in quick successions (Example: Katarina's Voracity, Death Lotus or Shyvana's Burnout or Teemo's Toxic Shot, Noxious Trap), then Adaptive Helm is a much more attractive option to deal with this and reduce the damage dealt to you. A full list of examples can be found here and the decision is up to you and the enemy composition. ^^

You can also try use this item so your on-hit magic damage from items such as Wit's End and Guinsoo's Rageblade is 15% more effective.





Passive
Lord Dominik's Regards Passive

This item is usually preferred over it's counter part - Mortal Reminder as Lord Dominik's Regards provides more damage with armour penetration. But the Mortal Reminder could be useful in rare scenarios against Dr. Mundo's healing or similar champions. But as a DPS (auto attack) champ you usually want to increase your damage as much as you can.

Passive
Black Cleaver Passive

Black Cleaver is not a crucial item on Yi as it is more suited for top lane bruisers. However, if you are playing Master Yi in the top lane and are against a tank ,who would normally go for the Sunfire Aegis as the first build against you, you can build Black Cleaver after getting Ravenous Hydra or after Tiamat if the enemy already has a lead. The passive of bonus movement speed from Phage synergises well with Celerity as the bonus movement speeds are 8% more effective.





Passive
Bloodthirster Passive

Bloodthirster has the highest life steal stat in the game and is usually a good item even after buying Blade of the Ruined King as it also provides a shield and stacks on the life steal percentage, while providing a high damage stat enabling you to last longer in extended fights.

Passive
Ravenous Hydra passive



Active
Ravenous hydra active

Ravenous Hydra is more of a top lane option to life steal as it provides incredible wave clear due to both it's passive (cleave) and active (crescent). It is an alternative option to Bloodthirster and stacking life steal would not be efficient because it would reduce the item slots available for more attack speed items which Master Yi thrives on. If you must stack the life steal stats on Master Yi it is suggested that you consider it when the enemy team composition is mostly "protect the ADC" type i.e mostly front-line tanks as it will allow you to stay in the fights longer to get to the ADC.





Passive
Berserker's Greaves passive

Usually used on Master Yi if your team is well ahead and you can safely go in for the kills without being afraid of being shut down by the enemy ADC or APC or assassins. Other than that the following two boots are more of a wise choice to get some protection from being poked down by the enemy ranged champions or being picked out by the enemy assassins.

Passive
Mercury's Treads passive

Great item if the enemy team has at least two AP damage dealers (usually a mid-lane mage and the support). provides tenacity which is crucially important for a squishy champion such as Yi to escape the crowd controls quicker. Can be sold in late game after full-build (with boots), once you have life steal and enough damage.


Passive
Ninja tabi passive

A suitable item if the enemy ADC is ahead and also if the jungler is an assassin or fighter who deals damage through basic attacks. This is very useful for Yi because you take a ton of poke damage while trying to close in on the enemy ADC for a kill and want to survive long enough to actually get to the ADC. It also helps increase your armour slightly protecting you from being one-shotted by assassins (mid-lane and/or jungler) in the early game. Goes well with Conditioning and Bone Plating runes as a secondary tree ( Resolve) when against assassins building full lethality.

It is mostly a safer option to buy the Ninja Tabi and go for the Wit's End to gain that magic resist in the early game or get Mercury's Treads if enemy team has a lot of CC. As the enemy ADC will not have much of a damage build up (not enough items as yet) and magic resist is always a good idea because of Thornmail, Sunfire Aegis and Enchantment: Cinderhulk and of course the mid-lane mages.





Passive
Randuin's Omen passive


Active
Randuin's Omen active

In very rare cases it's a good item if the enemy jungler, ADC, and mid lane are champions that deal physical damage. Works best against ADCs to lower their attack speed and reduce the critical strike damage. Not a normal pick for Yi as a jungler, but a good item if you are trying the tanky Yi build or support Yi build shown. Not necessary if you are going against ADCs who are not stacking critical strike chance items (and are instead going for a lethality build), including Ezreal, on-hit Varus or on-hit Kog'Maw, or Kai'Sa.

Passive
Sunfire cape passive

Sunfire Aegis is a good item on melee champions who want to build tanky as it deals magic damage per second and works really well with magic penetration items such as Abyssal Mask and Wit's End (which is a good items on Yi as it is). This item is similar to Enchantment: Cinderhulk but has a stronger magic damage per second and provides armor. If you are going to build tanky in the jungle, then building the Enchantment: Bloodrazor and then buying Sunfire Aegis is a better approach rather than purchasing Enchantment: Cinderhulk and Sunfire Aegis as they do not stack. Although cinderhulk does provide bonus health, it won't be as effective on Yi as you are going to build a full tank build. If you are building TankYi in a lane then Sunfire Aegis is a great item to stack on more armor after Randuin's Omen, if it is needed.

Passive
Dead Man's plate passive

Dead Man's Plate is a good defensive item for chasing and catching up with stragglers. It's not really a good item on the tanky yi build for just basic armor as Randuin's Omen is a better preferred item. If you are planning to stack armor and to build onto Thornmail then Dead Man's Plate can be an additional item to stack armor. Especially against a high AD composition enemy team.









Passive
frozen mallet's passive

Not your usual master yi item, but it has its days of being picked, especially when you are far ahead of the enemy team or when you are planning to go on a tanky build, which means you have no damage or attack speed to instantly delete the enemy but the slow from the frozen mallet and Black Cleaver or Trinity Force can help you stick to the targetted enemy champion.

Passive
frozen heart's passive

Definitely not a recommended item but I thought I should mention it as being part of the "frozen" group. However if you are going the tanky build and stacking armor against an AD carry who relies on auto attacks for damage, then this item is great after Randuin's Omen, as it slows down the attacker's speed.

Passive
Iceborn gauntlet's passive

If you are looking for some armor, you might want to consider buying Iceborn Gauntlet over Frozen Heart as it provides the same passive that trinity force provides, but with twice as less damage. It also provides a slow to nearby enemies.




N.B: The items and the purchase orders in this guide are merely a recommendation and a preferred item of my choice, which does not have to be followed right down to the dot. But you should rather use the information of when to pick what type of item so you to make your own decisions.
Runes

This is where we are going to be discussing all of the options that riot has laid out for us in terms of the runes. What can be selected for Master Yi, why and why nots too.

Runes Menu






Becoming a Legend



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Dominating the Jungle



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Unleashing Destruction onto the Rift



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Tanking up for the Challenge



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Bringing out the Creativeness



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Guide Changes

(reverse chronological order - latest changes first)






Changes

Reason

  • Guide updated, added build explainations for rune and item choices.
  • Items and runes updated/changed for the most recent patch.
  • Added enemy threats and synergies in the "Classical Yi" build, which is the same for the remaining builds.
  • (Table of contents for quick jumps between sections will be added soon).
  • Patch 8.24+
  • Guide updated.
  • Patch 8.13
  • Utilising Transcendence and items that provide damage and cooldown reduction to provide Yi with enough sustain and damage.

  • Changed guide's name from "Runes in Yi's Wake" to "The All-In-One Master Yi Guide"
  • New rune system has become fairly old now xD. Thought a meaning full change as the guide shows several different build for the different roles.
  • Added 2 new builds "Transcended Yi" and "Rush hour Yi".
  • Making more options available from the runes which synergise well with Master Yi's kit. Especially Transcendence and Celerity. While Transcendence gives you a high amount of bonus AD based on your cooldown reduction (which is halfway down the critical chance build on yi), Celerity makes use of the speed bonus from Highlander to give you that bonus attack damage to make the use of Highlander effectively.
  • Conqueror allows you to deal damage additional damage by staying in the fights much longer (4 seconds or more). Now since you are planning to go a tanky build you will lose out on dps and damage, but this rune will provide additional damage balancing out loss of dps and allowing you to sustain for longer.
  • Items and runes updated.
  • Patch 8.6 changes.
  • Recommended that Precision + Inspiration or the other way around be used rather than the other runes combinations.
  • A little bit of love from Riot leads to a tiny lil bit of "buff" to Master Yi. Increased base damage on Wuju Style's true damage in early game and the active bonus damage increased by 10% (25% -> 30%). While Alpha Strike now uses less mana at later levels.
  • Trying to keep his presence relevant, courtesy of patch 8.3, because of the set backs from all the recent changes. (More changes to come apparently).
  • Glacial augment is really useful in ganks and catching up to the really mobile champs. Using the Precision as a secondary rune for the additional initial attack speed bonus.
  • Precision for that extra attack speed useful on master yi and future market should give you that extra gold boost to get to the items faster.
  • Added Support YI runes and builds in the "Fun builds" section
  • Works well if your adc is alert and helpful (no kill or creep stealing involved).
  • After playing a couple of games, I realised that the gold reward from Kleptomancy aren't as much as I thought it would be.
  • Domination rune allows a lot of burst and follow up damage from Sudden Impact in early game, but is mainly effective against a squishy team.
Some More Guides
Other guides :

Acknowledgements
Thanks to jhoijhoi's Making a Guide guide for those handy little colourful tricks ^^.
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League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide