Click to open network menu
Join or Log In
Mobafire logo

Join the leading League of Legends community. Create and share Champion Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

MOBAFire's first Mini Guide Contest of Season 14 is here! Create or update guides for the 30 featured champions and compete for up to $200 in prizes! 🏆
This build has been archived and is for historical display only

This build has been archived by the author. They are no longer supporting nor updating this build and it may have become outdated. As such, voting and commenting have been disabled and it no longer appears in regular search results.

We recommend you take a look at this author's other builds.


x
Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

x
Master Yi Build Guide by Dagwyn

Master Yi, The Death Bringer

Master Yi, The Death Bringer

Updated on March 3, 2012
New Guide
Vote Vote
League of Legends Build Guide Author Dagwyn Build Guide By Dagwyn 6,501 Views 5 Comments
6,501 Views 5 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Dagwyn Master Yi Build Guide By Dagwyn Updated on March 3, 2012
x
Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment. You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment

You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.

I liked this Guide
I didn't like this Guide
Commenting is required to vote!
Would you like to add a comment to your vote?

Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Exhaust

Exhaust

LoL Summoner Spell: Smite

Smite

Introduction


Hello and welcome to my Master Yi build. Master Yi is an Attack Damage(sometimes AP) carry that excels at jungling, pushing, and whacking people in the face. This build will be focusing on Attack Damage and Attack Speed Jungle Yi.

Back to Top

Pros/Cons

Pros

+ Great Pusher
+ Great Ganker
+ Great AD/AS
+ Amazing Chaser
+ Amazing Crits
+ Amazing Escapes
+ Awesome Late-Game

Cons

- Really squishy
- No CC
- Item Dependent
- Focused hard if against good team
Back to Top

Runes


SPACE

Yi is a naturally squishy champion, so we get these runes to help buff him up.

SPACE



Greater Mark Of Desolation SPACE

Armor Penetration. Pretty standard runes for AD champs. These will boost your damage output by a ton.

SPACE Greater Quintessence of desolation



SPACE

A bit of AS will help your jungle and proc the slow from Trinity faster.

SPACE
Back to Top

Summoner Spells

Great Spells



All junglers need this! Whether it be securing buffs or stealing Baron, this spell will serve you well.

Great for getting out of CC.

Amazing Spell, No enemies shall escape you when you pop this on them. Great for 1v1 because it reduces the targets damage.

With this and your ulti you can catch up with anyone, also great for escaping.

Amazing spell for all sorts of reasons, great for escaping, turret-diving and positioning.

Fine Spells


Great for finishing, feel free to take this instead of Exhaust

Meh, AS, some AP. I don't like this spell, but i haven't tried it too much.

You need an offensive spell, this spell is just better serves on other champs.

Bad Spells


You will be jungling, so this will be useless until you need to push.

YOU HAVE MEDITATE!!!!!!!! just no.

Seems like a good choice, right? WRONG, sure Yi is a bit mana starved but other spells will help you much more and when you have blue buff, mana problems disappear.

No. Just No.
Back to Top

Abilities

Great passive for Master Yi, Double damage every seven hits? Yes Please!

Used to close gaps and get a bit more damage.

Fine heal, but once you get Wriggle's creeps will heal you more.

When maxed this passively gives you 35 more damage and when activated 70 more damage.

80% AS increase, Immune to slows and when you get a kill your cooldowns reset. Great for chasing, escaping, and more damage.(of course)
Back to Top

Items

Great item overall. Armor for less squishiness, Damage, Lifesteal plus a passive that's great for jungling/last hitting and a free ward.

AS and Movement speed, Nuff' said.

Attack Speed, Damage, and crits work flawlessly into this build. A (slightly conditional) slow, the extra bit of AP will add tons of damage to Alpha Strike, and Meditate now heals for a noticeable amount. The health, mana, and move speed help as well.(More explained in the Trinity Force section)

Epic amount of life-steal and damage. You will replace Wriggle's with this late game.

Nice amount of AS and AD + armor reduction.

You can't do damage while you're dead. Yi needs at least one defensive item.

This is the icing on the cake. Massive crits and massive damage increase will let you take down anyone fast.
Back to Top

Other Items

What to replace: Banshee's Veil When: Good defensive item against balanced teams and an awesome revive.

What to replace: Banshee's Veil When: You are against one or two super long stuns. Think Malzahar or Warwick.

What to replace: Banshee's Veil When: You're dealing with heavy AA(Auto Attack) teams

Has some nice stats. Overall a good item for Yi, I just don't like it as much as other items.

What to replace: Berserker's Greaves When: You're facing a heavy CC team.

What to replace: Black Cleaver or Banshee's Veil. Good for magic heavy teams. Only get this if you feel you are lacking AS and Magic Resistance.

Only get this if they have sustain damage mages like Cassiopeia. Otherwise Banshee's Veil is better.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

or

SPACE

+

SPACE

I truly considered this in the main build. This is an amazing combo and one of the best to have a lot of durability and not sacrifice too much damage.

The Atmog's and Fatma's combos are a mix of amazing durability and damage that will really help. Atmog's will give you 1270 health (when fully farmed), About 70 AD, 45 armor, and 18% crit chance. Fatma's will give you 700 health, About 78 AD, another more reliable slow, 45 armor, and 18% crit chance. Replace Banshee's Veil and Black Cleaver or Bloodthirster.
Back to Top

Some Example Builds

Some general builds for different enemy team comps.

Against AD Heavy Teams





or






Against AP Heavy Teams





or






Against CC Heavy Teams





or






Against Balanced Teams




Tankier Yi Build


Back to Top

Why Trinity Force?

Why Trinity Force? What else? Frozen Mallet?

Jebus McAzn said:

Quoted:
Consider the many champs that you MAY have been considering Frozen Mallet on. Now take that item out and replace it with Trinity Force . Improvement or no?

Frozen Mallet only costs around 800 gold less than Trinity Force, but doesn't offer MUCH more. It gives 700 health compared to Trinity Force's 250, and 20 AD compared to Trinity Force's 30.

What else are you getting? A permanent slow, okay. But Trinity Force isn't exactly unreliable. You have a 25% chance to inflict a slow, which doesn't sound like much, but after just 2 attacks that's a 44% chance. After three, it's 58%. After four, it's 69%.

The point is, if you can land just a few attacks on a champ, you're more likely than not to inflict the slow on them. And on top of that, Trinity Force gives a TON more stats and a damage proc on top of that for less than 800 gold.

So why would you ever get Frozen Mallet? Who were the champions that may have bought Frozen Mallet a few months ago? Kog'Maw, Teemo, Olaf, Master Yi, Udyr, etc. Now replace those items with a Trinity Force and see what happens.

Trinity Force Kog'Maw is getting very strong lately. He can really abuse the proc because of his ultimate and the movespeed helps immensely in teamfight positioning, and the AP doesn't hurt.

Teemo, not so much. You're a close-range DPS who's really squishy and who also does NOT spam abilities, meaning that Frozen Mallet may just be a better buy.

Olaf actually can do quite well with Trinity Force but sometimes opts for Frozen Mallet because you're building Atma's Impaler later on and you want to be tankier. Still, Trinity Force Olaf is quite possible.

Master Yi? Saintvicious's recent Yi guide incorporates Trinity Force. Alpha Strike+ Trinity Force is super strong and with Highlander, you'll be spamming in teamfights. Trinity Force lets you push towers faster as well.

Trinity Force has been core on Udyr for weeks now.


In short:

Buy Frozen Mallet only under one or more of the following conditions:
-You're super squishy and you want the extra health, but you don't want to build purely defensive like a Banshee's Veil.
-You don't spam abilities very often and you can't abuse Trinity Force very well.
-You WANT to build tanky because you're offtanking or you've bought an Atma's Impaler and Frozen Mallet is more cost-effective.
-Your attack speed is slow and you have a much smaller chance of getting the slow proc off.


Otherwise, do Trinity Force. It's just so much better.


Well, it is your decision which you buy.
Credits to NicknameMy for this chapter!
Back to Top

Gameplay

Early Game



Your Early Game Core


Early Game is basic, jungle, gank, jungle etc.

Mid Game




Your Mid Game Core


Mid Game you should be pushing, getting dragon, and having some team fights.

Late Game




Your Late Game Core


Late Game will be mostly team fights and Baron attemts with a bit of pushing and backdooring.
Back to Top

Warding

But only supports are supposed to ward! Wrong my good sir, everyone should ward. Got ganked? Your fault, shoulda had a ward! Other team got Dragon? Shoulda had a ward.

WARDS WIN GAMES!

Here is a general warding guide.
Orange=General lane protection

Teal=Buff control

Red=Dragon and Baron control, Dragon should always be warded 5 mins+ and Baron 20-30 mins+

Yellow=Places everyone will walk past sooner or later, also works for warding mid lane.

Purple=Jungle wards, either to prevent counter jungling early game, or if you are losing, knowing where the enemies are.

Green=Knowing where the enemy jungler is for easier counter jungling, and also protection if you are pushing past the 1st tower.

Purple and Green will be flipped if you are purple.
Back to Top

Jungling

Master Yi is much better in the jungle then in lane I feel. In the current meta Yi has no place in a lane. In top off-tanks will deny precious, precious farm. In bot ranged carries can just take pot shots at you, and you are a squishy melee mid.

As a jungler your job is to punish the enemies for over-extending, control important buffs(Blue, Red, Dragon, Baron), counter-jungle, and generally instill fear into the hearts of others.

Your loading screen disappears and you hear the refreshing "whoosh" that means you have started the game. Grab a Vampiric Sceptre and head over to wolves. Get your teammates to protect and/or leash you. Activate Wuju Style and focus the Big Wolf first. Finish off the little ones and head over to Blue. Start whacking away at blue and activate Wuju Style when it comes up again. Smite at around 500 Hp. Polish off the small lizards and get a point in Alpha Strike. Now head over to Wraiths, Alpha Strike to the big one then activate Wuju Style and slice them up. Go back to Wolves and kill them any way you like. When you get to red buff Alpha Strike then activate Wuju Style and whack away. When red buff gets to around 600 health smite it. Take Small Golems and either gank or back.

TL;DR



Basic Route:

Wolves>Blue>Wraiths>Wolves>Red>Mini Golems>Back or Gank.

Thanks to Stonewall008 for this video!
Back to Top

Some Numbers

WARNING:THIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!


These are some numbers showing what builds are better, and at what. Scoring is like this: Say build 1 has 1000 health, build 2 has 1200 health, and build 3 has 1300 health. Build 3 would get 3 points because it had the most in that category, build 2 would get 2 because it had second most and so on. If one category has something the others don't, it will be added as a bonus.
Build 1
The Main One

  • 2617 Health
  • 101 Armor
  • 131 Magic Resist
  • 380 Damage
  • 1.66 Attack Speed
  • 30 Ability Power
  • 25 Armor Penetration
  • 10% Armor Penetration
  • 44% Critical Chance
  • 250% Critical Damage
  • 441 Move Speed
  • 25% Lifesteal
  • Total Cost 17400
14
Bonus:30 AP
In Short: Get this build if you want the most damage.
@
Build 2
Tanky Yi

  • 3512 Health
  • 146 Armor
  • 111 Magic Resist
  • 295 Damage
  • 1.728 Attack Speed
  • 30 Ability Power
  • 25 Armor Penetration
  • 10% Armor Penetration
  • 62% Critical Chance
  • 250% Critical Damage
  • 441 Move Speed
  • Total Cost 16325
20
Bonus:30 AP
In Short: Use this build if you want
a mix of durability and damage.
@
Build 3
Top Rated Yi Guide On MobaFire

  • 2744 Health
  • 131 Armor
  • 162 Magic Resist
  • 235 Damage
  • 1.431 Attack Speed
  • 24 Armor Penetration
  • 10% Armor Penetration
  • 59% Critical Chance
  • 250% Critical Damage
  • 451 Move Speed
  • 18% Lifesteal
  • 35 Tenacity
  • CC Shed once a Minute
  • Total Cost 14165
20
Bonus:CC reduction and Shed.
In Short: Grab this build if you hate being CC'd or
just want to use the one that most people like :)
Back to Top

ShoutOuts

This section is dedicated to the people who have helped made this guide better.

Thank you to purpleges for suggesting some much needed defensive runes.



Thanks to NicknameMy who let me use his Why Trinity Force section



Thanks to StoneWall008 for his jungle videos.



Thanks to jhoijhoi for her Guide to making a guide!

Back to Top

Change Log

12/20/11 Totally overhauled guide



8/30/11 Guide Created

Back to Top

Summary

Master Yi, Great Attack Speed, Great Damage, Great Speed and Really fun to play. Suggestions and Constructive Criticism are welcome. I hope this guide works for you too.

~Dagwyn~
Download the Porofessor App for Windows

League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide