This is a guide i made in mobafire, and the txt is a guide from sinerias but from 2023, everything on my guide is updated but i think we can merge both to have a better guide right?

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Welcome! Welcome to the definitive Master Yi guide. I am a Diamond-tier Master Yi player, and I have condensed the exact strategies, pathing, and mental models used by the highest-ranking Master Yi players in the world into this guide. How to use this guide: Don't just copy the runes and build. Read the Advanced Tips and Matchups chapters. The difference between a Gold Yi and a Diamond Yi isn't mechanics—it's discipline. Use the macro rules here to stop "autopiloting" and start playing with intention.

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The Golden Rule of Yi
Whether you are in Iron, Bronze, Silver, or Gold, the key to climbing with Yi is playing a hyper-consistent style: low deaths and high average CS. 

Your goal should be to min-max this champion and aim for 8 CS/min. Let's jump right into how to execute this and start carrying your games.

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The Core Decision
The biggest question out of them all is choosing between Hail of Blades and Lethal Tempo. Here is a breakdown of exactly when and why you should take each one.

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When to take Hail of Blades (Early Game / Squishies) The Setup: Hail of Blades, Sudden Impact, Sixth Sense, Relentless Hunter with Precision secondary: Legend: Alacrity and Triumph. Why take it: Take this against squishy teams (like Janna or Viktor) where fights are short. You aren't going to get 10-20 auto attacks off on a Viktor. You want to get four quick autos in and burst them. Matchups: Excellent against disengage and stealth champions like Vayne, Tristana, Kha'Zix, or Ahri. They will kite, jump, or stealth away, so you need to front-load your damage in the small window you can hit them. Playstyle: HoB equals early game dominance. It allows for level 1 invades against champions like Kha'Zix or Qiyana so you can snowball early. You also have a massive spike at level 3 (Red > Krugs > Raptors into enemy Blue buff invade).

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When to take Lethal Tempo (Scaling / Tanks) The Setup: Lethal Tempo, Triumph, Legend: Alacrity, Coup de Grace (or Last Stand). Secondary Inspiration: Cash Back and Triple Tonic. Do not take Magical Footwear, we need to buy boots early! Why take it: Take this when fights are going to drag out and enemies are tanky (like Dr. Mundo, Sejuani, K'Sante, or Cho'Gath). They can't disengage easily, meaning you can stack LT freely and slice them up like cake. Playstyle: LT outscales HoB. It is also mandatory if your team has no frontline or poke and you are forced to be the primary engage. If you have to fight front-to-back, LT provides the sustained DPS needed to melt through the frontline and keep your Highlander resets going.

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The On-Hit Core (Always Reliable)

1. Kraken Slayer This is the highest DPS first item possible. It procs on your Alpha Strike and your Double Strike resets with Rageblade. There is no discussion—it is significantly better than rushing Blade of the Ruined King.

2. Gluttonous Greaves (The Omnivamp Meta) These are currently the undisputed best boots for Yi. They grant Move Speed and Omnivamp that stacks up to 6 times on takedowns. Because Yi deals so much true damage, the Omnivamp scales ridiculously well, allowing you to survive massive burst and heal to full HP mid-fight. Buy T1 Boots early, but finish these immediately after Kraken. (Only buy Mercury's Treads if the enemy has 4+ AP or heavy CC).

3. Guinsoo's Rageblade After boots, speedrun Rageblade. Do not skip anything for this. Kraken Slayer + Rageblade + Gluttonous Greaves is the absolute Master Yi core power spike.

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4. Situational Items (Third item and beyond)

* Wit's End: The go-to 3rd item against AP. Insane damage for a cheap price. (Sinerias Note: Avoid building it 1st or 2nd because its on-hit damage values do not become highly efficient until level 11+).
* Experimental Hexplate: Buy if you need survivability and foresee heavy teamfighting.
* Blade of the Ruined King: Highly viable as a 3rd item if you want to completely one-shot the enemy team and rely on your boots for healing.
* Death's Dance: One of the best items possible for Yi against physical burst, granting heavy survivability and clean health returns on champion takedowns.
* Guardian Angel & Randuin's Omen: Excellent 4th/5th item choices.

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The Critical Strike Build
I personally believe On-Hit is mathematically and practically better because Crit leaves you very squishy. However, if you back with 1300 gold on your first base and want to snowball, Crit is a monster.

Runes: Must run Hail of Blades. First item: B. F. Sword into Yun Tal Wildarrows.  Full Build: Yun Tal Wildarrows > Infinity Edge > Lord Dominik's Regards > Immortal Shieldbow. WARNING: NEVER GO CRIT FROM BEHIND Critical Strike Master Yi is a pure snowball build. If you get invaded, die early, or fall significantly behind in the first 10 minutes, abandon the Crit build immediately and revert to the On-Hit build. Trying to build Crit from behind leaves you too squishy and poor to have any impact.

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The Meditate Auto-Attack Reset

Maximizing DPS and Blocking Burst Your Meditate (W) is not just for healing; it is your most important combat tool. You can use it as an auto-attack reset to drastically increase your burst damage.  The Combo: Auto Attack -> instantly tap W -> immediately Auto Attack again.  Pro Tip: Use this exact same Meditate reset against Jungle Camps! It speeds up your clear and keeps your health topped off. In teamfights, time this W tap perfectly to absorb high-burst abilities (like a Kha'Zix Q) while simultaneously resetting your auto animation to burst them back. Challenger Multi-Shot Mitigation (Tower Diving): When performing a tower dive, execute this technique right when the second tower shot hits you. Tapping and instantly canceling your W triggers a baseline mechanic providing 80% damage reduction for 0.25 seconds, shielding you completely from the blast while squeezing an extra basic attack into the execution window.

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Advanced Alpha Strike Mechanics

The "Minion Taxi" (Gap Closing) Do not always use Alpha Strike directly on the enemy champion. If they are slightly out of range, use a frontline minion or a neutral plant as a "taxi". Target the minion with your Q—because your Q bounces, you will instantly close the gap and pop out right next to the enemy champion. Attack-Move Click in Chaos Never engage a fight with Q unless forced. Run at them with Highlander and save Q to dodge CC or follow their Flash. When you do exit Alpha Strike in the middle of a chaotic fight, use Attack-Move Click before you even move your camera. This ensures you instantly start attacking the closest target instead of accidentally misclicking the ground and walking into danger. The Alpha-Wuju Clear Optimization To maximize clearing optimization, get into the absolute habit of casting Wuju Style (E) simultaneously as you begin casting Alpha Strike (Q). Because Q strikes multiple targets across an extended animation frame, activating E during the launch ensures your true damage steroid is up without wasting a fraction of a second walking up to your targets afterward.

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Objective Secure & Smiting

The Auto-Smite Combo You should never get out-smited as Master Yi. To guarantee objective secures (Scuttle Crab, Dragon, Baron), you must combine your basic attack with Smite on the exact same frame. If your auto attack deals 100 damage and your Smite deals 600, clicking them together creates an instant 700-damage execution threshold. Sync your Smite key press exactly as your sword connects with the monster!

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Jungle Pathing & Objectives

1. Always Start Red Buff (The XP Optimization Rule) No matter the matchup, you almost always want to start Red Buff. The red buff burn helps you clear multi-target camps faster because your Alpha Strike applies the burn to all targets. It also puts your Krugs and Raptors on an earlier respawn cycle, which is mathematically the most efficient way to maximize your XP. The Second Rotation Math Loop: If you clear top side and no lanes are open to gank, do not panic. Recall immediately with roughly 900 gold and run directly straight back to your Krugs. Because Krugs offer substantially higher Gold and XP valuations compared to Gromp, clearing Red-to-Blue ensures that your high-value Krug camps are the first ones waiting on your second respawn window, out-pacing cross-map full clears.

2. The "Cake" Analogy (Counter-Jungling) Think of the map's jungle camps as one giant cake. If the enemy jungler invades and eats pieces of your cake, they are under pressure because their own cake is still sitting there waiting. If you do nothing, they will eventually go back and eat their cake in peace. If you get invaded, immediately cross the map to steal their camps or force a high-value gank to punish them.

3. Delay the Scuttle Crab If you are taking the Scuttle Crab right before a Dragon spawns, do not kill it instantly. Whittle it down, then delay the final hit until about 10 seconds before the Dragon spawns. This maximizes the duration of the un-clearable river vision right when the enemy team wants to contest.

4. Mid Control Before Objectives Never walk directly into the river to start Dragon or Baron. First, get "Mid Lane Priority" (push the minion wave into the enemy tower). This builds a "wall" of pressure that forces the enemy mid laner to defend, preventing them from flanking you in the river.

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Game-Winning Strategies

5. The Strong Side Rule (Ignoring Feeders) If your bot lane is 0/5 and getting completely crushed, **do not go there**. Trying to save a losing lane usually results in giving the fed enemy a triple kill. Completely abandon the weak side of the map and camp your winning lane. Snowball your winning top laner so hard that it cancels out your feeding bot lane.

6. The Golden Ganking Checklist & The 60% Rule Before you gank, ignore everything else and check exactly two things: 1. Enemy % HP (Are they low enough to burst?) and 2. Your Cooldowns (Do you have Highlander and Flash up?). If you don't have R or Flash and the enemy is perfectly healthy, it is a terrible gank. Don't waste your time trying to "save" a losing lane; keep power-farming until your ultimate is ready. Why 60% Chance Ganks are Traps: A 60% gank window means that in 4 out of 10 games, you fail. When you fail a gank, you give up critical map coordinates to the entire enemy roster, handing enemy laners total freedom to turn up their lane aggression and deep-ward your jungle borders while your clearing efficiency nose-dives. If a gank doesn't possess an 80%+ success threshold, power-farming your resources is mathematically superior.

7. The Level 1 Invade Because Master Yi is stereotyped as a weak early-game champion, enemies almost never expect him to invade. With Hail of Blades or Lethal Tempo and your Wuju Style (E) start, you actually have massive Level 1 dueling power. Sneaking into the enemy jungle at Level 1 to steal a camp or ambush the enemy completely shatters their early pathing.

8. The Art of the Lane Gank Lane ganks (sneaking through the lane bushes) are incredibly potent. Pro Tip: Jump over walls in the jungle to bypass incoming minion waves so they don't spot you walking into the ambush bush.

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The Ultimate Counter: Vi

Why She Counters You Vi is arguably the hardest counter to Master Yi in the game. Her entire kit is a straight point-and-click chain CC combo. She will press Cease and Desist (R) directly into Vault Breaker (Q) for an un-dodgeable stun chain.  The Sacrifice Play Even if you are 10/0 and she is 0/5, she can permanently sacrifice herself to lock you down in teamfights. Because her ultimate is point-and-click, there is a 0% chance you can dodge it with your Alpha Strike. You cannot outplay her mechanically; you have to calculate her ultimate range perfectly and wait for her to burn it on someone else before you ever engage.

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The High-ELO Execution Blockers

Elise — The Mechanical Stop-Sign Elise presents an immense threat because her entire kit stops you from doing the one thing you need to survive: triggering Highlander resets. Her spider-form Rappel allows her to completely drop targeting mid-combat, forcing your ultimate clock to bleed out.  The Psychological Stun Game: Her human-form Cocoon acts as an un-missable stun if you jump directly onto her frame. The mere threat of this capability completely shifts the dynamic of an engagement. NEVER Alpha Strike into an Elise first. Approach via raw movement speed, run alongside her to bait the Cocoon throw, and use your Q solely to cross over the projectile mid-flight.

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The Chain-CC Meat Walls

Surviving Braum, Leona, and Nautilus Heavy CC tanks are your second biggest nightmare. If you engage first, they will stun you for 3+ seconds and you will pop like a balloon before you can even press Meditate.       The Solution: Buy Wit's End and take the Green Jungle Pet (Mosstomper) for Tenacity, and NEVER engage first. Let your frontline absorb their CC cooldowns before you run in to clean up.

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Challenger Macro & Mental

Deafen

1. Control Your Hands If you die early or your laner spam-pings you—do not type. Blaming teammates is an emotional weakness that guarantees a loss. Look at your hands and realize you are the only one controlling them. The moment you type, you lose focus. Treat silence as a mental discipline exercise.

2. Ganking Just for Summs You do not always need a kill for a successful gank. If you force the enemy to use Flash, you have created immense value. They can no longer play aggressive for 5 minutes, allowing your laner to breathe. Don't force a tower dive and die; take the Summoner Spells and walk away.

3. Unbreakable Mentality You will have bad games. You will have feeders. The difference between a Diamond player and a Gold player is not skill—it is the ability to suffer through a bad game with peace. Do not look for excuses. Focus on your pathing, focus on your efficiency, and focus on the next play. You are not a victim of your team; you are the captain of your climb.

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