Shrugs idk mate, I'm not forcing you to do anything.
I'm not here because I'm a Diamond in ranked, or the top Yuumi NA. I'm here because this is my two cents about how to play Yuumi, and I haven't seen any guide that recommends playing Yuumi exactly like I do. So I went out, tested some stuff, and this is the result. If reading this makes you decided "Nah, I'm gonna go look for a guide by someone with credibilty" then go right ahead! I understand. I'm not here to make some trending guide that all the Yuumi players are using. I'm just here cause I love this little cat, and I want to share why I love her, and if even one person sees this and gets it, then this guide has done its job.

So if you've come this far you're in one of three camps, the first camp being you are 100% ready to use Yuumi like the sniper rifle taped to a first aid kit she is! If so, great! You don't even need this section! Just keep on scrolling!

The second camp belongs to people who play Yuumi, and are a bit curious about this. What is a "Murder Yuumi"? If you are part of this group, then keep reading, as I am about to explain!

And the third group, people who showed up here because you think that Murder Yuumi is a stupid idea and its a mixture of wanting to laugh and morbid curiousity. To this group I say, don't knock it until you try it!

Now, lets get on with the why.

Yuumi is honestly a pretty underutilized champion, in my own opinion. She also has arguably one of the most unique kits in the entire game. The fact that you can become untargetable indefinetly in exchange for your freedom of movement is something that no other champion has. While it does allow you to heal and shield more effectively, it also allows you to snipe.

This brings me to my second point, her q. Unlike most projectiles, you can control Yuumi's q in flight, allowing you to perform precise manouvers and pull some really cool trick shot. Let me tell you, there are few things more satisfying than successfully aiming your q through a tiny gap in the wave to hit an enemy champ, especially if you end up killing them.

Another thing that Yuumi has going for her, something not a lot of people think about, is that she periodically heals on hit. She also does a surprisingly large amount of damage. This, combined with the fact that very few people are going to take a lone Yuumi seriously, means that you can play her top with some success, if you can manage to kite properly of course.

Also, you can tilt so many people once you get a few kills. When the enemy team starts seeing Yuumi's face after hearing the whole "triple kill!" sound, they start getting pissed. It's really funny! You can troll AND be useful at the same time.

You only really wanna try Murder Yuumi if you're already comfortable with Yuumi, and have a good feel of the game. If you're here because you only just started playing, and are confused by what "adc" means, or what lanes are, or still struggle to grasp the game, then I'm sorry to say that this is not the guide for you. Murder Yuumi is a high risk high reward path, and is best attempted if you are able to successfully play both adc and support, and play top. This is because Murder Yuumi relies on two things: you being able to hit your skill shots a good percent of the time, and having a good game awareness. You need to know when to hop off and auto enemies, and when to stay on your adc. I will go into this in the next chapter.

Murder Yuumi is best when you feel like you can trust your adc, or at the very least they can get by without having you heal and shield them every 10 seconds. While you will still be doing this, your heals and shields WILL be less effective than a traditional Yuumi build. So if you're looking at your adc, and looking at the matchup, and thinking, man, I've got a Kai'sa here, and they have a Xayah and Nautilus, we're gonna get STOMPED ON, Murder Yuumi may not be the best choice there. If, however, you look at it and say hm. This is going to be hard but I think we can do it, or, even better, MAN this is gonna be a breeze as long as my adc has 2 braincells to rub together, then Murder Yuumi can be a great choice.

As for taking her top lane, as a general rule, if you wouldn't play Quinn against the champ, you probably don't want to play Yuumi against the champ. Of course, there are some champions, such as Riven, who would be easy with a Quinn but could be more challenging with a Yuumi, but like I said, its just a general rule, and there are exceptions. You only really want to play Yuumi top if you're very comfortable with kiting champions. If, for example, you play, lets say... Kennen top a lot and enjoy that, this could be a good idea for you. This also works best if you know and trust your jungler. There is a good chance that at some point you will need some help, and if your jungler is someone who will come get you and not just abandon you, that's a real bonus.

Knowing when to hop of is another big part of any Yuumi's gameplay, wether you're going Murder Yuumi, or opting for a more traditional build with Summon Aery and all support items. It will take some practice to really get it down, and this list is not extensive, but let me explain some of the times when you want to hop off:

1. You're trying to help your adc shove a wave
Remember, you don't need to last hit them unless you have the support item up, you just need to create a dent so your adc can get the farm. In general, this is best done if the enemy laners are either pushed under their tower or not in lane. If the lane is being shoved because the two of you, or at least the adc, desperately need to back because you're low on health, mana, or both, this is NOT a good time to hop off. At this point, your adc needs all the help they can get to survive, so your shield and on hit healing is going to be best.

2. You're trying to save your tower from a wave
Just hop off and farm! The tower is WAY more important than any lost cs your adc may have. Remember to watch out for the enemy laners, as they will often be around to help crash the wave. If possible, try to auto them a few times, or even q, to put the pressure on them and get them to back off. Be careful of your health though, you dying now would not be helpful to anyone.

3. You're in a fight
In my personal opinion, this is the hardest one to master. After a while of some trial and error you start to get a feel for when you need to hop off and auto the enemy, and when you need to stay on. I often only do this if there is only one enemy champion and my adc has low health, and we are fighting at practically melee range. At this point, I will often, after giving my adc a shield, hop off for a bit to auto and q the enemy champion. You just have the weigh benefits of the on hit healing for your adc, versus the benefits of the extra damage that you're doing to the enemy champion. There is no hard and fast rule on this, at least that I have come accross, but with practice I'm sure you will pick this up in no time!

So, you've decided that you don't want to deal with the h***el of having an adc drag you down. You're ready to go where you can do things yourself, top lane.

In general, Yuumi works a lot like a typical kiting champ. Keep your distance, don't be afraid to play under tower, learn how to towerbait, and if needed, do a defensive freeze.

You can also poke them pretty hard level one, as Yuumi has a surprisingly high amount of damage, similar to Kayle in a way. There are plenty of top laners who wont respect you, and let themselves get killed this way.

Starting at level 6, you want to think about getting out of lane and roaming. Yuumi really isn't a great splitpusher, you do best in teamfights, or with a partner. Look to see what lane is having a hard time, and see if you can get there. If it's really far, or you just don't feel like walking, see if your jungler will play taxi for you. Adding a Yuumi to a lane can turn it from losing into winning, if you play it right. When you show up in lane, if you have high enough health and its not someone who is going to burst you down immediately cough cough Veigar cough cough Zoe, it's usually a good idea to stay detached and work as an adc type champ for a bit. Harass the enemy so your laner can farm a bit and get that needed xp and gold. If you start getting nervous, feel free to just w on to your ally and poke from there.

Remember, when you roam, always keep an eye on your lane. If the jungler is ammendable, ganking it with them if your role opponent gets too bold is usually an excellent idea.

Murder Yuumi:

Which ones to take here depends. Zaz'Zak's is a must. You'll wanna try and snag Dark Seal on your first back, though if you're having trouble with your mana, you'll wanna grab Tear of the Goddess.

Imperial Mandate is a personal favorite of mine, as it works really well with your q. Gotta love the extra damage! I build it second, after Shurelya's.

Mejai's Soulstealer is also a pretty core item for your build. We're here with Yuumi to do some murder and sniping, and this is gonna help us do that. The bonus ap is nice, and as Yuumi, we don't get killed often, so we can stack this pretty easily.

Shurelya's is a great choice, the bonus ap and mana regen is really helpful early game when we really need it, and that speed boost is nice! it annoyingly got nerfed, but. I'm still a fan. This is especially good if you're on someone like Jinx or Kai'sa who just really love to go zoom. Additionally, its great for getting the hell outta dodge.

Luden's Companion is one of my new favorites. The extra damage is great, especially since you'll wanna be picking your shots so you can get those charges going every time.

Rabadon's Deathcap is awesome. Bonus AP.

Liandra's Torment is your anti tank. Pretty self explanatory.

Shadowflame is really nice, especially with Dark Harvest, for putting that extra pressure on low health enemies. That critical strike is really nice, plus your DH stacks and you should be taking down champions right and left! Or at the very least, getting them low enough for your adc to take em out.

Voidstaff give you extra magic penetration. If the enemy team has a lot of magic resist, take this.

Horizon Focus is really nice because, for the most part, with your q, you're going to be damaging them at over 700 range. While you might not be able to proc that extra damage from you all the time, the reveal will be really useful to your entire team. If you can't kill em, you can at least make em targets for the rest of your team. Get those assists in!

Echos of Helia is a bit of a rarer item to see, and more of a traditional support item than most of te ones i've recommended, but it has its uses. It allows you to get a bit of extra shielding and healing power, as well as having a little bit of burst damage. Really good item for if you're backed into a corner and losing lane pretty badly, or just need that extra defense to keep your best friend alive!

Seraph's Embrace isn't something that I usually take, only really get it if you are having a lot of trouble with mana consumption. It's fine I guess.

Mikael's Blessing is gonna be your anti cc item. It's good if you're facing, say, a Jhin and a Morgana, with maybe a Warwick jungle, a Lux mid, and a Pantheon top. This comp is just gonna cc you to death. That's when you want this item.

Dawncore is kinda eh, but again. If you need the extra shield power, go for it.

Cryptbloom is fun, and really helps if you're on someone who is gonna be able to get pentas, say, a Warwick or Jinx or Irelia, who just kinda ramps up. That extra bit of healing on the takedown is gonna go really far with them, especially for someone like Jinx who doesn't heal herself unless she gets lifesteal.

Malignance makes your ult hurt more. Enough said.

Riftmaker is something that I'm experimenting with. It's not the best item here, but that extra damage in combat is really nice, so if you and your best friend are going to be permafighting, this is a pretty good item for it.

Morellonomicon is your antiheal. It does exactly what you think it does. Take it if you need antiheal.


ADC Yuumi:
If you're going adc yuumi, for the most part you just want attack speed. You'll want to buy boots first, and then take your pick of the items. BORK has some fun lifesteal, Terminus if you need more defense, Phantom and Runaan's have that extra move speed. Rageblade is a MUST, Kraken is good for tanky things and just good in general, Stormrazor is a blessing for kiting, and Wit's End is your anti magic. Not much to say about these ones. It's just attack speed really

Speed Yuumi:
This is your speed build. All of them give you bonus move speed.
Shurelya's has that nice activated ability.
Boots of Swiftness... they're Boots of Swiftness what do you want me to say? I can say that reason that I do not suggest Boots of Roaming here is because you will probably be kiting a lot with this, so you need the in combat move speed, and the slow reduction is nice.
Cosmic Drive is funny for kiting. You whack em and run.
Lich Bane is also good for kiting, and combined with Cosmic Drive you just get to constantly get the move speed boosts you need to hopefully stay ahead of the enemy team. And remember, you have Phase Rush too! So. SPEED!
Opportunity is nice, it does only proc on takedowns which is a bit annoying but. Its especially rewarding when it does proc. You can swap it for Rabadon's or something else if you really want though.
Stormsurge I would only take last, because to get it to proc you need to do. A lot of damage. So you might not always get it to proc but. The passive movespeed is nice. And if you find that you can't proc it and need another item instead, get Rabadon's for the nice ap boost.

Tank Yuumi:
Merc treads vs plated steelcaps depending on what you need, or take other boots if you'd rather have movespeed or something else instead. Heartsteel is definitely a must, along with Riftmaker and Jak Sho that's pretty much my core tank Yuumi build but. If you want other items go for it. Warmog's is also really invaluable. I usually go Heartsteel - Riftmaker - Jak sho - Warmog's and then whatever situational tank items. Boots are a good buy first or second depending on how much pressure they're putting on you. Spirit Visage is great for that extra healing, Unending Despair is also a GREAT item that I highly recommend. The new Zeke's is pretty fun, Hullbreaker is you wanna splitpush, Deadman's and Force of Nature give you some good movespeed along with Warmog's, Winter's is nice with the mana, especially if you take Rod of Ages with it. Iceborn is fun for that extra cc, Thornmail for antiheal obviously, Sunfire is another one of those doing more damage items which is fun. Kaenic is fun, because if you sit on someone for a bit you can get the shield up on it pretty easily. Randuin's is a bit situational, if there is a lot of crit damage going around, that when I usually take it, Sterak's is also a bit situational but it gives you some more survivability. Hollow Radiance is similar to Unending Despair, good if you wanna double down on that healing and damage. Anathema's if you're having trouble with one champion specifically. Abyssal is a nice team amp, if the enemy has a lot of magic resist and you need the help in teamfights. Frozen Heart is nice if your lane opponent is hitting you fast. And of course Liandra's is your anti tank, you'll want to take it many games if you're facing a bit tank as your role opponent.