Vi Build Guide by bluelunged

Introduction

Well guys, this is my first guide. I'm Bluelunged, an average player from the LAS server and my main is Vi. I play almost every jungle champion so I have a lot of experience, but my favourite is Vi, because of her awesome kit and the different playstyles that she has. She can be an assasin as good as zed, but with CC, and she can also tear down tanks in seconds. She is by far the most fun to play champion IMO. I worked hard to make this guide so I would appreciate any feedback that you can give. Without further ado, I present to you, my guide.

Pros/Cons

Pros

+ Fast jungle clearing times + Assault and Battery ignores CC + Amazing focus with Assault and Battery + Devourer sinergizes amazingly with Denting Blows + Can tear down through almost anything +Very fun to play

Vi has everything you need. She has an awesome focus and lockdown with Assault and Battery which ignores any CC that is given to her. Also, her Denting Blows rips off enemy's armor and gives her attack speed, which makes her an excelent 1v1 champion.

Cons

- Your ult can put you in bad situations - Is hard to land Vault Breaker - Takes time to master - Useless if behind

The main problem with Vi is that if you fall behind, is hard to come back up, also your Q is kinda hard to land, and if you fail it, your ganks are nearly useless.

Summoner Spells

Smite
Standard Spell for junglers
It helps you clear camps, epic monsters, and with Stalker's Blade it will help your ganks. Not much more to say

Flash
Again, standard spells for most champions
It will help you escape, chase, jump over walls and much more. Also, it can extend your Vault Breaker giving you the ability to make awesome plays.

Masteries

Good Resistances and DMG

Runes

Marks

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More flat damage, helps clearing jungle at low lvls.
I always take this with AD based champions because I like to gamble. It only takes one slot, but gives you that 1% crit chance which can mean the difference between dying or making first blood.

Seals

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Resistance against jungle creeps

Glyphs

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At low levels you won't need it much, so I prefer scaling MR for lategame resistances.

Quintessences

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More AD, more DMG.

Skill explanation

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Blast Shield: // Vi's passive. It gives a shield that absorbs 10% of your max health every time an ability hits an enemy champion, minion, or monster. It has a cooldown though. Low levels it can help you absorb some damage in the jungle, but since it's 18 second cooldown it won't help much.

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Vault Breaker: // Your Q. When you first press it, Vi starts charging a super punch. When you release it, vi moves forward dealing damage to every enemy on her way until she hits an enemy champion, that is knocked up.

• // You can Flash mid-q to go even further. You can also bait the enemy with this tecnique.
• // Any CC given to you will cancel the channeling and put this on cooldown
• // Always try to hit something with this, as it procs denting blows and has a huge damage if fully charged.
• // If you're facing someone as Pantheon or Shen and they ult, don't hesitate on using your Q on them to cancel it, as it knocks up enemy champions.
• // Works with Yasuo's ult
• // You can cancel CC such as Pantheon's W or Riven's 3d Q if you use it in the right second

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Denting Blows: // Every third attack, Vi does extra physical damage equal to a % of your enemy's health and rips a % of their armor. This is what makes you soo good against tanks, it's like Vayne's W but, it rips armor instead of dealing true damage. If you are facing tankier enemies, or you feel like dueling a lot, max this before E.

• // Always try to proc your 3rd mark so you deal extra dmg
• // Remember that your Vault Breaker procs it too
• // this does not activate your passive

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Excessive Force: // Vi's next autoattack will do extra damage to it's oponent and the enemies behind it. It works with charges and stacks up to 2. This makes her an excellent duelist, synergized with her W because she can proc her marks very fast due to this AA reset.

• // Remember to use this right after an AA so your AA timer resets
• // This activates your passive

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ASSAULT AND BATTERY: // Ahh... Vi's ult, her most known ability. Vi locks down a target and run towards it, knocking back and dealing damage to every champion on her way. When she reaches the target she knocks him up and then slams him to the ground dealing damage. She is inmune to CC during this time.
This is in my opinion her best skill. It gives you the ability so select the enemy carry and focusi him, even if he's at the other side of the teamfight while their teammates can do nothing to stop you, and you will also damage all of them.

You're going to want to max this every time you can, as with all ults in the league

• // Try to hit as many targets as possible with your ult
• // Be careful of when to use it as you can end up in bad situations
• // The knock up to the main target as well as the knock backs work with Yasuo's ult.

You're going to want to max out [Vault Breaker] before [Denting blows] and [Excessive Force] and [Assault and battery] whenever you can.
This is because maxing your Q first will give you the most DMG output, as well as drastically reducing it's cooldown from 18 to 8 seconds, giving you the possibility of using it more than just one time in a fight, or for more escapes.
Then your E, also for the cooldown and the damage. As I said before, max Denting Blows before E if you are facing tankier enemies.

Items

Core items

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Your jungle item. You can choose between Stalker's Blade or Tracker's Knife. For the enchantment I use Enchantment: Devourer for one simply reason. Vi's W. When fully charged, you will proc it each 2nd attack instead of 3rd, which will almost duplicate your DMG output. Remember to change your trinket to Sweeping Lens if you prefer tracker´s knife NOTE: ONLY TAKE DEVOURER IF YOU START AHEAD OR IF YOUR TEAM ALREADY HAS ONE OR TWO TANKY CHAMPS.

Because we take Enchantment: Devourer is a must to also take BotRK, to give us sustain, attack speed to proc your W and Devourer, to be even better at killing tanks, and to give you it's active which will help you a lot chasing, escaping, and surviving fights. In teamfights try to always use it on tanks, to steal the highest amount of hp.

Lots of Damage! I like this item on Vi because if you proc your 3rd mark with your E and Trinity Force, you will deal almost 1000 damage to any enemy. Every other stat that this item gives, will help Vi.

Boots. Speed. Tenacity. Not much more to say. If the enemy isn't heavy CC-based or has a lot of AA-based champions take Ninja Tabi instead.

Replacing Trinity

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If for any reason you don't like trinity force or you feel that it won't work with you, I introduce u "THE ICE BLACK GAUNTLET" Seriously, these two items together replace trinity very well, giving you more health and armor (making you more tanky), AoE slow and shredding even more of the oponent's armor. The only con is that you lose an item slot.

BIG NOTE: Imagine this situation: You started ok, went to gank, gave a kill to the midlaner and took two kills in bot, decided to go devourer. You have it with 20 charges and are halfway-through your BotRK when your team starts getting behind. YOU CANNOT, I REPEAT YOU CANNOT GO INTO TRINITY. You must finish your botrk and inmediately start building something tanky, because you won't stand a fight without enough resistances.

Situational items

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It gives even more AoE damage to Vi. Also, with devourer, every second attack will proc it's passive 2 times, giving you lots of sustain and damage. Keep in mind that you can use this item's active when channeling or just before hitting your Vault Breaker

Take this only if they are focusing you with LOTS of CC. Keep in mind that you already have your ult which if used correctly will negate any CC.

% armor penetration, and it's new passive, which will make you deal even more damage to tanks. Take only if they have a VERY tanky team (AKA Malphite Rammus )

Both are very good Health/Armor Items for their stats. Pick the one you prefer if you feel like you need more armor. Personally I prefer Randuin's Omen for it's active.

Amazinq armor item which also gives you CDR. Take only if they have someone like Tryndamere Master Yi or a heavy AS-based team.

Again, two excelent items for you to choose if you feel like needing some MR. Take Spirit Visage if you have hydra, to gain even more sustain. Any other case take Banshee's Veil.

ANOTHER LIFE! Not very good stats, take only if they are focusing you a lot. Remember to replace it with another defensive item when the passive is on CD. ONLY if you have gold to spare.

Misc

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Seriously, I cannot stress this enough, BUY WARDS. They will save lots of lives.

I prefer this one over Elixir of Wrath because it will give you the tankiness you lack bc of BotRK, Devourer and Trinity, and because of the extra tenacity. Trust me, it's worth it.

Combos

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Standard combo for ganks, trades, etc. Charge your Vault Breaker, hit the enemy, wait that milisecond for the AA and then instantly press Excessive Force. If you do it the right way you will be able to proc yoour 3rd Denting Blows before the knock up from your Q ends. At low lvls this will deal lots of damage, and even more with Trinity Force and Ravenous Hydra. If they continue fighting, make sure to use another E, but always reseting AA timer.

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Standard teamfight combo, for focusing carries. Ult them, and just when you hit the ground, smash them with your Q for even more CC. Don't try to fully charge it as they will simply walk away. Then AA and E for Denting Blows proc. Then, it's up to you.

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Advanced teamfight and trade Combo, only use this if you are sure you can land your Q on their carry. Flash is not necessary if they are close, just pay attention to your capabilities.
So: Vault Breaker on them, AA, E. Their armor will be down. If they are not escaping or throwing CC on you, keep punching them. The moment someone with CC like Thresh, Leona or Nautilus appears, or they escape with something like Quinn's Vault or Ahri's Spirit Rush Ult on them.
There will be no escape for them and no way to stop you. When you land your ult keep hitting them and use any other CC you have like BotRK or Randuin's Omen.

This combo is better than the previous one because You will deal far more damage and they will have almost no escape from you. The cons are that it relies on your Q-landing skill and it can put you very, very far from your team if they don't engage with you.

Playstyle

Due to the feedback I got I thought it was necessary to write this section, so thank you <3

To play Vi with this build you need three things.

1.-

Your team has a tanky support ( Leona, Thresh, etc.) and top Malphite, Vladimir or anyone who can resist damage for your team.
2.- Your team has enough magic damage to balance the high amount of AD you're giving
3.- You get kills. This is important. Everyone knows that the ADC must get kills, and I'm not saying the opposite, but, if you gank bot and you can kill both laners, take the sup and give the adc to your adc. Try to get kills, you need them.
I'm not saying that you should KS your whole team, but starting with 3 kills while giving your team 5 is a good start and it will help you A LOT just because you need to be ahead in order to keep your damage without getting behind in resistances.[/color]

Change log

11/14/2015: Published
01/18/2016: Item section updated. Added Playstyle section

Summary

So, that was my guide for Vi. I will keep updating it as new patches come out. I will also add a "Teamfight" chapter and even maybe a "Jungle routes and ganks".
Feel free to leave any feedback, it will be appreciated. Bye! :D