Vi Build Guide : Smartest2's Diamond Guide to Carrying Solo Queue With Vi

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I have been using this guide for a while now (been through multiple revisions of it and other guides as well) and it inspired me to try and bring my own touch to it. I've had pretty consistent results with it and to be honest, I rarely even try to stray from the base 'recommended' items list. From my experience, as long as I keep up or get ahead of the enemy team, I will have no problem in engaging in any kind of fight (obviously, excepting the match-ups in which Vi is clearly weaker and cannot keep up). What I struggle the most is to catch up when I get a little bit further behind. It's most of the times quite sided (I either manage to roll over the enemy team or I get completely stomped). However, thanks a lot for the in-depth info, tips and tricks offered. They certainly help and the guide is comprehensible! There are some small things that seem slightly out of touch with the current state of the game, I believe, but overall, the main part and the one that's going to be usually checked by most players is nicely put together (just in the 'core items' notes maybe some small changes to justify the collector and essence reaver picks could be done). Also it's pretty funny how for the boots you wrote that lucidity is the best and only pick you'll recommend, yet for the 'second back' you mention how rushing mobility boots could be good.

Thanks a lot for posting this, definitely amplified my Vi game by a lot!

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This is a couple of years late, I apologize, but I really appreciate the response to this guide. Reading through this may have inspired me to make an updated version!

Stay tuned for season 14 Vi guide!

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Hey man! Haha, luckily @ Hades4u pinged me that there was a new reply here so I came to check it out! Happy to see that you're still around, have an amazing Holiday season. I've recently came back to the game and I'm still rolling with Vi! Basically she's the only champion I play, currently back and forth in Emerald 1, trying to get to Diamond this week still using most of the stuff from your build because most of it is still viable from my point of view. Certain items have been nerfed or changed, but the lethality Vi is still my number one pick, unless the enemy team seems to be tankier, then I'll go with Sunderer and the anti-tankish build.

Anyway, cannot wait to see the next build you'll come up with for Season 14! Good luck!

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Best build ever. There is no need for anything else, this is literally freelo.

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Ayyy glad you had fun with it! Super cool that you grabbed a couple clips of it! I made sure to drop a like.

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There are some parts out of date in the "wall of text" that could use a touch up. Your effort otherwise is much appreciated.

Picking up Vi for the first time because I landed on her in an ARAM and had so much fun. Also I need to expand my jungle pool a bit from Trundle and Mundo. Seem to be getting banned out a lot(who bans the troll anyway?)

Thanks a ton for the guide!

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Vi is a lot of fun! Yeah I do my best to maintain my guides, but when very large changes come in, certain things get missed and I have to rely on you guys to help find areas that need to be touched up :)

Hope you enjoy her! At the time of this writing, her crit build is really nuts.

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That lane build is out of date. Might want to get that checked.

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I accidentally had banshee's veil in there! Thanks for noticing. I've updated the lane build.

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very helpful

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I'm glad it helped!

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~It Works.

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Glad to hear the build worked for you!

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Can you explain why the second back consists of 2 trinity force items. yet you say in your notes to build black cleaver before trinity force? this is a very confusing guide

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Ah good catch! This was a note from the previous season when you still had a jungle item to build. This just managed to slip by with item changes. The guide has been updated to reflect this.

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I was reading all of your guide and now i have a question... the reason you say to us to buy Guardian Angel is because of the MR,Armor and revive... today it doesnt give us the MR but more damage output instead. Is it worth to buy Gargoyle Plate in any situtations despite it doesnt have the revive?

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Hey @ AzashBR, thanks for noticing that I will get around to updating the item information. I would recommend building GA still instead of gargoyle since gargoyle makes you lose a lot of damage output with the active. Even though you don’t get magic resist anymore, if you pair with something like Spirit Visage you should still be good to go! For something a bit more “carry”, you can also try GA + Steraks!

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Would it be good to try like domination and then resolve instead for shiled bash and revitalize it works with my pta shen jg style

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I personally find that not taking alacrity really slows down your clear time, you can really feel the difference in game.

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I really want to do this build but you know what they say about 2 phages right?
Is TF and BC really worth doing?
Draktar in BC's place does not get any better?

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Hey beautylove, it is definitely a little less gold efficient to get both phage items, since the movement speed passives don't stack. However, the reason you get BC is to burn through larger amounts of armor, and the reason you get triforce is for the amount of damage it gives you. If you'd rather build a different damage item, I'd swap the trinity not the black cleaver. Black Cleaver just stacks too well with vi's w, you blow up any tank. The big con of trinity is that it's expensive, but it will give you the biggest damage spike out of all items from the 200%AD sheen proc alone. I'd recommend sterak's over both yomuus/duskblade, the offensive stats you gain from it with the massive shield and flat hp just make it too good of an item for bruisers right now. You don't really need the lethality on Vi. Think about why Irelia/Jax are so scary late game, vs a squishy ezreal with triforce. Beefy + damage scales really really well.

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Really cool build, does tons of damage. Just 1 question. Is it worth it to swap your Stalkers Blade - Warrior for Youmuu's Ghostblade in the lategame? (If you are full build ofcourse.)

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Hey Mojin sorry for the late reply! You definitely can, it's really a case by case scenario. Sometimes the slow can be useful, and sometimes yommuuus is nicer. They both give good stats. You may even consider a frozen mallet or LW instead. Just try and gauge what would help you win! you may even pick up another tank item!

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What are your thoughts on strength of ages for a mastery? I know that obviously tlords gives more burst, but SoA gives you some bonus health while you are building damage items. Just curious what your thoughts are, thank you

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Hey TooFallFor69 sorry for the late reply! Vi is in a place right now where she can be very tanky and dish out lots of damage. But there are primarily 2 ways to play her. Either you go burst off-tank, or you just gank 24/7 and go primarily tank. You need at least 6 points in the cunning tree for Runic Affinity. Due to the way masteries are currently set up, it's better to just put 12 in one tree and 18 in other, so you end up putting at least 12 into cunning and take dangerous game. Now the main reason I take Thunderlord's Decree is that I like to gain the extra attack speed from Fury, and I like the 8% damage increase you end up with due to Double Edged Sword + Bounty Hunter. Keep in mind that I also have a very offence based playstyle. If you take 18 points into Resolve and pick up SoA, you only really gain some extra armor and magic resist, and a bit of extra health (~+350 total after stacks). This will reduce both your early game clear time, as well as reduce your overall damage output. However if you plan on going full tank Vi, that would be a good mastery tree line to go. I hope that answers your question somewhat. Feel free to ask about anything else!

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That doesn't "somewhat" answer my question. It fully answers it and I really appreciate you not only getting back to me quickly, but also writing a detailed response. Also, even though this guide does contain a giant body of text, it's 100% worth reading through. I've learned SO much from this guide. It has not only immensely improved my jungling(especially early game and clear) but it has helped me improve my overall game/map awareness as well. And since Vi has been one of my most played champions for about two seasons, so I'm a little judgmental about Vi builds. I have had "my build" for a long time, which typically consisted of an early hexdrinker(subbed for a later game steraks if no ap), then triforce and full tank, and I learned that squishies were cake but tanks were not and I COULD carry, but it was incredibly difficult at times. But with this build tanks are practically squishies, carries still go splat, and you have huge carry "potential"(but really you're gonna HAVE to carry those scrubs.) Anyway, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate you and this guide, and thank you so much for making me a better player.

I apologize for rambling so much, I'll get into the important stuff now.

What are your thoughts on after the guardian angel passive is used? Do you keep or sell? And if sell, then what should you pick up? Also, I'm curious if zz'rot would be a viable item once the GA passive is gone, since it gives same-ish stats and a nice active

Do you think selling your boots in the super late game is a good idea?

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Hey thanks for the compliments! I also appreciate you taking the time to read through it haha, I'm glad it helped you out! As far as GA goes, it's pretty situational. If you can afford to sell GA and instantly buy another tank item then that's usually better. zz'rot wouldn't be a bad choice if know how to use it. The best way to use it is to send it top/bot and group as a team in the opposite end of the map. Personally though, if you've reached a point in the game where you can afford to sell GA and instantly buy another item it usually means that the game has gone on for a decent length of time. At that point death timers can be like 70 seconds long. In my opinion zz'rot no longer matters at that stage of the game because whoever wins a teamfight can probably end the game. My personal recommendation would probably be a banshee's veil to block an ability. If they are all AD, I'd probably recommend picking up a dead man's plate or thornmail. However like i previously stated, it really is situational. One offers you map pressure while others offer you a passive/active which helps you in teamfights. If you feel like what you need some some more map pressure (like maybe stacking up a zz'rot with a lane spawining supers) zz'rot could totally work, even though I haven't personally done that before. But if you feel like the teamfight is really what's important in the given game, pick up the item you feel like will help keep you alive. Personally I sometimes find myself picking up a qss if they have some hard CC (only buy it if you can remember to use it) and damage is always nice (with some additional sustain). You could even pick up a warmogs if you wanted, once you initiate the fight and get low, just dip out and wait like 20 seconds for your health to be full again (balanced). As far as the boots go, I would probably not recommend selling those unless the game is at a point where you are just sitting in a lane 5v5 consistently. selling boots also means that you can get kited pretty easily (unless you maybe sell them for something like a frozen mallet, but even then). Being able to move around the map quickly is really good for setting things up, it also lets you back more frequently since you can get back to your team fairly quickly.

Side note: I didn't actually finish explaining why I take thunderlord's decree in my previous comment. I take it because we are burst based, and neither Warlord's Bloodlust or Fervor of Battle really contribute to that. The percentage armor pen is nice though since it helps us more. If you wanted to take fervor it wouldn't really be a bad choice, I just think Thunderlord's is a bit better for the purpose of this playstyle.

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You're welcome for the complements, I feel like I've gotta give credit when it's due. Anywho, I played a game with fervor just to test it out and its not bad, it just doesn't quite give me the FEELS that tlords does. As far as warlord's bloodlust goes, it feels kinda underpowered compared to other masteries to me. I agree with BV though, the spellshield can save your booty sometimes. And I'll definitely try out QSS. Thank you again for the help, and I've got a little more for you.

As far as elixirs do you think Iron or the AD(fury or whatever) elixir are better for this build?

Also, do you think rushing Warriors-BC-Trinity is usually the best idea? Because sometimes(always) there's a problem champion(usually mid) that's starting to emerge by the time I've starting Trinity(or three minutes in), and I'm curious if pausing and picking up a giants belt or something would be better idea given the scenario

Also, this may be a difficult question to answer given that you've already written quite a bit about it, but here it goes. What's one thing that comes to your mind that junglers in higher elos(or just you) do consistently that us lower elos do not

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Also you can disregard the elixir question, apparently I don't know how to look at the top of the page haha

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Yeah I think that warriors - black cleaver - trinity force is the best build path. If the mid lane champion is a problem, sometimes sacrificing 720 for a negatron can help. It's pretty situational but Trinity usually is better. However if that extra 40 mr is going to make wll the difference, definitely invest in that negatron. Just be weary that this will delay your damage spike. As for the jungling tips part, I'll add some more stuff to the guide but the biggest thing really is to not force a gank. I played top for a LONG time (and just recently went back actually) and I cannot tell you the number of times junglers will try and force a top gank and give me a double kill. Second part would be to remember that your role is to mainly mow down objectives. Jungling is a game knowledge intensive role. In order to become a much better jungler, you need to know what to get when and also plan ahead. Plan to gank bot, take the tower, then rotate and take dragon. Obviously things don't always work out the way you want them to, but objectives win games. The third part would be to remember to constantly keep getting gold. Ganking is great and all, but do your best to clear some camps in between ganks. It's important to keep gaining that gold or else the enemy jungler will outscale you at some point. The fourth tip would be warding against the enemy jungler. The more you can provide vision for your teammates, the less chance there is of them dying to a gank.

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Also if you want, you can record a game and upload it. If you do send me the link and I can give you some tips on how to improve.

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I sincerely apologize for the super late reply, real life caught up for a bit. Anywho, thank you again for the consistent help and the patience with ganks tip has really helped me. I waste much less time and I think I actually have a greater number of successful ganks per game. Not to mention that I'm raking in the gold elsewhere instead of standing around and touching myself waiting for the "perfect" opportunity. I am also getting much better at making smart objective calls. The only downfall is my teammates aren't exactly following up on them. I mean at dragon I really don't give a **** because I can get a successful gank bot or mid(or jg kill)or just sweep it and take it ezpz and dip, but the riftie and baron are kinda a different story. Sadly, you can't force your teammates, who are having a bad game(trash),to help you on a free baron. I know it isn't really "fixable", it just really grinds my gears to go from an easy win down to a brutally fought victory or even loss. Anyway, I really do appreciate the offer to watch one of my games. I'll have to get the means to do so and wait until I get a nice close game(might be a minute), so you can be extra critical. Also, I am low elo so please roast me and don't hold back, I'm an adult and I love criticism and I hope it'll make me good (less trash) eventually.

I cant really think of any more questions at the moment, but I'm really looking forward to this guide being expanded further and again I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate the assistance. Also, if you ever do make any sort of toplane guide, I would love to read it(I casually play top) so you should link it or something.

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I have an Illaoi guide I'm working on. You can view it here:
https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/8-18-smartest2s-guide-to-carrying-solo-queue-with-illaoi-503124