Hello everyone, my name is lRodo (duh), and this will be my first complete guide for Mobafire. I’ve been playing Vi for a couple games now, and I hope the knowledge I’ve got from playing her will be useful for you. I hope you enjoy, any tips or comments are welcome. Please check my three builds, I think you might find them interesting.

I recommend you to watch this to give you an idea on Vi’s roll, but feel free to keep reading, since I’ve included a lot of details on the guide.

Vi is a MELEE FIGHTER (), fighter almost always means bruiser, a kind of champion that can take a high amount of damage while still doing some good damage.
She specializes on light harassment and taking down the most important objectives in teamfights. She has high mobility and soft CC, so it'll be very difficult to get away from her.
As an Offtank, I recommend you to go ALWAYS at the TOP LANE or rush into the JUNGLE.
She shines in my opinion, on every stage of the game, specially because of her sweet armor shattering, which will help getting the tankier objective, increasing the damage dealt for you and your teammates, and this is useful from the beginning where, combined with your runes, you will deal almost the whole damage, to the late game, where you'll be able to shatter a 45% of their armor.

So, here it is, the guide to flipping tables (credit for the video is for the channel owner).

Pros: +Nice burst damage. +Somewhat good diver. +Difficult to get away from. +Great farmer. +Great harasser. +Awesome anti-carries! +Not mana hungry unless spammed. +She looks tough as hell.

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Cons: -Sometimes focused on teamfights. -Need some practice to master. -Barely long cooldowns. -No natural sustain.

I take the traditional defensive/aggressive runes, but I also find somewhat cool getting movement speed or maybe health. Greater mark of armor penetration: The best for late and early game, my personal preference.
Greater mark of Strenght: I’d take this to burst your early game damage, but I rather take the above ones, up to you.

Greater Seal of Armor: These ones are very important around the early-mid game, until you get one of your armor items, these should work just fine.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: I take these ones to protect myself on mid-late game. Since in laning phase you will rarely face someone who’s hard AP, these ones should work better. Consider also taking Greater Glyph of Warding if you know you’ll be facing an AP.

And finally, the big boys.
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: Instead of getting the flat marks, I take these ones to boost a noticeable increase on the early damage.
Greater Quintessence of Armor Penetration: More focused on champions with heavy armor, obviously, but will be more useful at the laning phase against champions like Malphite.

Tier 1: Summoner’s Wrath seems like the obvious option, either if you have Ghost, Exhaust or Ignite. On Exhaust, it’ll give you a useful 10 flat armor penetration, increase +5% your movement speed with Ghost, and a not so exciting 5 damage and ability power to Ignite while on cooldown.
You can either take ¾ and ¾ for Sorcery or distribute the 6 points either way you like. Since you have some awesome farming spells, taking Butcher would be useless.

Tier 2: Take Deadliness for some extra damage through the levels, always useful. You can also take the point on Destruction if you’re feeling like the turret buster.

Tier 3: Take Havoc in order to increase your damage by 2%, most brilliant mid-late game and Weapon Expertise for the sweet 8% armor penetration. Kind of obvious that you won’t take Arcane Knowledge .

Tier 4: I take Brute Force, since it will help you early on those last hits on the minions if you don’t feel like pushing. Why not Lethality ? Well, my item set is not focused on getting critical strikes, you’re not the ADC, and tough you’ll get some critical strikes if you rush for Trinity Force, it won’t be very noticeable.

Tier 5: Take Sunder for some good flat armor penetration, which will be very useful against the weaker targets, and maybe also against a tank. Same as above, Frenzy will grant you a 10% bonus on your attack speed every critical, BUT, you’re not building critical hits.

Tier 6: Executioner , the ideal anti-everything mastery. Really cool.

Tier 1: Put some points on Durability to get 6 extra health at level 1, and granting 108 bonus health at level 18.

Tier 2: You can rush on the combination you want between Hardiness and Resistance. I put 3 points on Hardiness and 1 point on Resistance .

Tier 3: The last point goes obviously on Veteran’s Scars, for one of the best increases on health at early levels.
Tier 1: Summoner's Wrath is the first one you'll take if you took the same summoner spells, followed by Fury for the useful 3% AS.

Tier 2: Take Deadliness to increase your damage output through the levels.

Tier 3: Weapon Expertise seems like the obvious option at this point.

Tier 1: Same, Durability To increase your starting health by 6, which will become 108 at level 18.

Tier 2: Also the same, Resistance and Hardiness , 4 points for them, it's up to you.

Tier 3: Unyielding doesn't seems like the most epic boost ever, but reducing 2 health can make a light difference in the early game. Safeguard is completely different, It will help you dive your enemy with more chance for surviving.
Finally, Veteran's Scars 30 health will be also useful at early levels.

Tier 4: Along with Unyielding , Block will make you reduce 3+2 damage, and tanking 5 damage in the early game can make the difference between your first blood.
Juggernaut will shine more late game, when you get health items.

Tier 5: Lets suppose you're getting early ganked by a troll team 5 vs 1 top, you'll have 5 extra armor, which will make your agony last longer. Just kidding, this will be useful on early teamfights, for example, if they decide to invade your jungle.
Legendary Armor is another one that will shine in the late game, increasing both your armor and magic resist for a light percentage.

Tier 6: The bread and butter of the Defense Tree, always take Honor Guard .

I get Ghost and Exhaust, just to feel myself like a Master Yi. No, I like these ones since you’ll be playing an Anti ADC role around the game, and Exhaust makes me a creepy one. Also, I find Ghost more viable on Vi because she won’t be escaping a fight too often, I mean, there will come the time that a Flash might be useful, but you got Vault Breaker, which can work like one, and I just feel Ghost makes Vi get the job done better than Flash.

I’d substitute the two above mostly with Ignite and Flash. Ignite will help you get those laning phase kills from an escaping opponent, more than Exhaust which will be more useful if the opponent decides to fight (or escape at turbo velocity), and I think you all know how to use Flash, just press the key, and use Vault Breaker and laugh and laugh as they keep chasing you (If they do).

Blast Shield (Passive): Vi charges over time. The shield can be activated by hitting an enemy with an ability. I find this passive just fine, not a huge deal, since early game has a very long cooldown. It will take a 10% of your health for amount. So in almost every fight this will activate just once, or maybe twice. Keep in mind to have the cooldown refreshed before engaging, so it’ll be useful on the skirmish or fight.

Vault Breaker(Q): Vi charges her guantlets and unleashes a vault shattering punch, carrying her forward. A really good multi-purpose spell. You can use this for many things, closing distance in order to use Cease and Desist, make a little harass, stop an enemy from chasing your partner (Which will give you the “OMG OMG TY Vi <3” factor), farming, jumping over most of walls, etc. Not only that, it has a nice damage output, and will stack on Denting Blows. This one has to be casted 2 times, on the first cast you charge your range and damage, and the second one releases the punch. Remember to use its full charge just to engage or close distance, it won’t be useful at all if you’re already in a fight with your enemy. In that scenario, just do a quick cast to knock him a little or preventing him from escaping. Try to cast it while in bush so your enemy won’t expect it. Also remember that it’ll damage all units it passes through, but you will stop when you reach an enemy.

Denting Blows (W): Vi's punches break her opponent's armor, dealing bonus damage and granting her attack speed. This is a really big deal ability. It is passive, meaning that you won’t have to activate it so it can work. This will make you do some really nice harass on early game, as it deals a percentage of your opponent’s maximum health PLUS penetrating a nice 20% of his armor. You have to keep in mind that the third strike will hit under the armor penetration, meaning that it will do the damage BEFORE penetrating the armor, so if you want to keep punching, there is where it will deal the extra damage.

Relentless Force (E): Vi's next attack blasts through her target, dealing damage to enemies behind it. What I call my main harassing tool early game. It makes a big amount of damage which will blast in a cone behind your target. It’s also great for farming, you’ll clear minion waves really fast. Also, it’s good to deny farm, since your opponent won’t want to be close to his own minions, since it has a big AOE. Be aware that it has a long cooldown on early game, BUT you can store 2 of these punches at a time, to use one after the other in a 1 second cooldown. Fortunately, you can lower the cooldown with items and masteries. Also, the damage applies to turrets when active.

Cease and Desist (R): Vi runs down an enemy, knocking aside anyone in the way. When she reaches her target, she knocks it into the air, jumps after it, and slams it back into the ground. Oh boy. This is one of the best fight engangers I’ve ever seen. It will make you immune to Crowd Control effects, but only while she is casting. You’ll have to try to land this on the most important target of the enemy team; most of the time will be the ADC. Also use this to reach an escaping enemy instead of Vault Breaker. Make sure to make your team know when you’re going to use it so they can follow you to the fight, and try to hit some targets on your way while it’s active to do a 75% of its damage to them.

In laning, I take 1 point on Vault Breaker for its multi-purpose benefit. I never know if the jungler will come from behind and I’ll need to get back fast, or if I will have to knock them right in the turret range for a cool double (See combinations and Techniques). So after this, I take a point on Relentless Force for a little harass along the minions, and after learning Denting Blows I start the harassment and bursting a little. Later, I max Relentless Force, followed by Vault Breaker. Some people might find more useful maxing Denting Blows first, but it isn’t. You increase your damage by 1% of the target’s maximum health per level, starting at 6%, and 5% extra attack speed per level, starting with 30%. Meaning that you’ll get a 4% extra damage maxing it first, and a 20% burst of speed. So, why not? Simple, early levels your target will not be that tanky, and with low health, low damage on, besides, you can harass much better with your Relentless Force, and, since you are the one who will be focusing the ADC, you’ll do much better damage with E than W.

I found useful getting Denting Blows first, since the golem has too much health, you can explode that on your favor. However, you’ll still want to Max Relentless Force first, since it’ll help you to clear the camps faster, while still doing a good damage with Denting Blows. So, simply said, just learn Denting Blows before Vault Breaker.

Starting Items

Starting off I take the traditional Boots of Speed and 3 Health Potions. This will help her out with the sustain problems on the first phase, but try to save them if you want to last longer in your lane.

Early Game

On my first call I try to rush for 1 or 2 Doran’s Blade. I recommend this since you’ll benefit from the life 6% life steal, grating a little sustain on the laning phase. I also recommend getting Crystalline Flask if your opponent is a natural harasser, and this thing will refill each time you recall, until you get Vampiric Scepter if you decide to craft one.
After this, I usually get The Brutalizer or Phage since they are your core items and you can turn Phage in either Trinity Force or Frozen Mallet depending on the role you want to play. You can also take Sheen if you’re building AD.
After getting either of those, I highly recommend to upgrade your boots. 90% of the time I get Mercury’s Treads. Vi often has no problem on being focused by CC effects while casting her ultimate, but if an enemy like Ashe decides to use her ultimate on you, this ones will work. However if the enemy’s team APC is not fed or if they don’t have one or much Crowd Control effects, you can choose between Ninja Tabi or maybe Boots of Swiftness, but you might consider getting a Zephyr to compensate your tenacity.

Mid Game

This will be all matter of choices.
If you’re using the AD Item’s, I recommend you to get Sheen and quickly upgrade it into a Trinity Force.
Why Sheen? I like the damage output you get from the extra damage when auto attacking and casting your abilities. Many people will immediately think about Relentless Force stacking on Sheen. You have to know, you won’t double the damage from the spell, and you’ll just do the extra damage equal to your base attack damage. This extra damage will just be applied to the target you hit, meaning that when you use Relentless Force, enemies behind your target will suffer a normal damage.
Either way, if you’re not crafting Trinity Force, upgrade your Phage on a Frozen Mallet for the Tanky Build or The Brutalizer onto Black Cleaver depending on your needs.

If you went for the AD build, I recommend you taking an Vampiric Scepter. Something you have to be aware of is that with Black Cleaver you can achieve penetrating the maximum amount of armor (50%) combined with Denting Blows and Weapon Expertise . By 4 hits, your target will have 45% reduced armor, and both you and your team can take advantage of this.

Late Game - AD

For the AD, when you already have Trinity Force, Black Cleaver, Vampiric Scepter and obviously your boots, get Bloodthirster.
For your final items, you have many options; this will be completely up to you.
For the fourth item, you can take “Ravenous Hydra” which will give you incredible sustain and more AOE damage. However, this one’s very expensive.
You can also take Lord Van Damm’s Pillager (still not available), which will give you more CDR and Flat Armor Penetration, along with some spell vamp and health. Remember that FAP (lol) has no limits, and you can take advantage if the enemy team has a heavy armored tank.
Kitae’s BloodRazor is a new item, not in game yet. I find it attractive since it also makes you deal some magic damage based on the opponent’s maximum health, has some noticeable attack damage and attack speed. Every of these features will totally rock along with your Denting Blows.
Blade of the Ruined King it’s another interesting option. I’ve seen some people call this item a junior Bloodthirster. However, it has an interesting active effect, and its passive will deal 4% of the target’s current health, and will heal you by 2% of it.
And finally, get an Guardian Angel to complete your build. You can also take this one before Bloodthirster depending on your needs.

Late Game - Tanky

Once you have Black Cleaver and Frozen Mallet, it’s time to get even tankier.
Again, you may want to get Sheen. “Wait, why?”. Well, there is this new item Iceborn Guantlet which with I found a pretty cool effect on (see “combinations”). Instead of doubling its damage, it will deal a 125% of your base damage when you activate an ability, PLUS creating a field that will slow enemies who pass through. You’ll have an entire and scary set of Crowd Control.
If you don’t like the idea, but you still want to be a cool anti-ADC, you can rush for a Randuin’s Omen, which you may activate when you reach your target. It’s also a great option which will also give you a cool amount of health.
Before this, you’ll need some more sustain. Unlike the AD guide, you’ll have to get your sustain from health regeneration instead of life steal.
So, much like a full tank, you can get Runic Bulwark, to get a nice aura for your allies, or Warmog’s Armor if you decide to be just that selfish.
Same as AD, your final item must be Guardian Angel, and stop worrying of being focused.

For jungling, there is not a big change on the items I get. By the end of the game, its almost the same result of combining the two above, or you can fully get any of the ones above.
I focus on mobility when I'm jungling, so the biggest change would be that I get Mobility Boots and Hexdrinker, Quicksilver Sash or Zephyr to compensate the magic resist and the tenacity, in order to upgrade the first 2 into Maw of Malmoritus and Mercurial Scimitar for the late game. However, as always, it's going to depend on your needs, either if you are facing a high CC team but not so much AP, or maybe a Warwick in the jungle.
But I still made a item guide for the jungle, so you have the idea on what to buy and its order, in case you're a beginner in the jungle and want to start jungling with Vi.

Starting Items
For the very beginning, I take the now classical for season 3 starting items for the jungle, Hunter's Machete and 5 Health Potions. While this might seem boring and you really don't need a lot the extra damage from the machete, this will help you build bloodrazor earlier, to improve your jungle speed. However, if you get some nice leash, you can start with Boots and 3 Health Potion. Do I recommend this? not at all, because you're going to need your team to clear the blue buff without smite, which can take some of their precious times. But, if you're fast enough clearing red and you achieve to get to level 3, you can give a nice early gank for the first blood.
If you decided for the machete, on your first call get Madred's Razors and if you have enough gold, get Boots.

Early Game
I'm expecting that you have done at least done 1 successful gank, and maybe you have a kill.
Good for you, now craft Wriggle's Lantern and quickly upgrade your Mobility Boots to really start ganking, and if you're tough enough, warding your enemy's jungle. By the time you have some extra gold, recall and get Phage. I take Phage earlier on the jungle to take advantage of the 25% possibility of slow.
And if you're in need of magic resistance, depending on your needs, get Hexdrinker or Quicksilver Sash.
Mid Game
After this point is entirely up to you.
The only core items I suggest is Black Cleaver, always, to boost your armor shattering, and either Maw of Malmoritusor Mercurial Scimitar, in order too boost your magic resistance. Also, if you feel in need of tenacity, take a Zephyr.
What to do with your Phage? just upgrade it into Trinity Force or Frozen Mallet.
Frozen Mallet might be a very option when jungling. If by this point the game is still in laning phase, the slow will be really helpful, though will still be helpful late game.


Late Game
If you feel in need, get a Guardian Angel, but you can also buy it last. In case you still have your Wriggle's Lantern sell it for another item that gives you sustain (AKA Bloodthirster) or health regen, like Warmog's Armor or Runic Bulwark.
Sometimes, keeping the Wriggle's might be better option if for some reason your support is not warding, or no one is warding. So never underestimate the power of this little thing, since it can give you the position of the enemy team (most of time at Baron Nashor), and by scoring an Ace late game, and if a pusher or a Master Yi is still alive, go for the win.

It's extremely easy to farm with Vi.
As always, at the start of the game, focus on last hitting minions, and if you can, harass with Relentless Force.
You can also face the most-front minion from the wave and use 2 Relentless Forces, or, as seen in the champion spotlight, charge Vault Breaker And release it through the minions to align them and deal damage. After that, use Relentless Force on the rearmost minion to clear the wave.

Vi doesn't need a whole lot of skill to memorize and apply her combinations.
Much people however will just spam her abilities. Will this work? maybe, can you get a better result? Totally.Lets start with her basic combo:
It's really simple, the tricky part is to land your charged Vault Breaker, you'll get a free stack on Denting Blows, and BEFORE landing your second attack, add Relentless Force to the package, and again Relentless Force. Simply said, land Vault Breaker and punish your "E" key. The result: Armor shattered, and in pre-six levels, almost half of the health of your opponent, which results ideal, because most of the time they wont call back and you'll have a chance to kill them if you're smart.

To do a light harass you can charge Relentless Force and hit a minion who is in front of your enemy if you're aiming in his direction, and every other enemy in the cone (the cone is BIG). You can also use this to deny farm, by protectiong your melee minions and hitting his.

This one is easy. If you are in a skirmish in 1 vs 1, and your opponent decides to retreat, a not-charged Q can make the difference; you'll stop him from retreating and apply a Denting Blows stack.

The reason I fell in love with this skill on Vi's first day.
I was against Tryndamere fighting in the middle of the top lane, and Master Yi who was jungling came out of the bushes. I immediately went back to my turret but the guys just wanted me dead, so I made an Insta- Vault Breaker which stopped them both. The turret was focusing Tryndamere (God bless that turret) and since his healt was already low, he died almost instantly, and I just used Exhaust on Master Yi, surviving and giving me first blood and double kill.
So yes, the stop it makes is really useful, and since not in every match everyone is going to have the luck I had, you must learn when you can use it.
As I said above (very above), this can give you a saving factor, much as Rammus's Powerball, BUT this one will ignore colllision with minions and will only stop upon a champion. So what I'm trying to say, is that you can stop someone from chasing your partner.

Closing distance, not hard at all. Most of the time you'll want to close distance in order to use Cease and Desist.

Another reason why I fell in love with Vault, its because it PASSES THROUGH WALLS, not as Nidalee's Pounce, I mean it actually passes almost every single wall, as long as it is shorter than Vault Breaker's range. So you can jump over walls as long as the edge of the skill shot reaches the other side.

Remember that this will KNOCK BACK your enemy, so you can shut down Katarina's Death Lotus or Nunu & Willump's Absolute Zero, however, doesn't aply any stun.
Also remember to NOT CHARGE IT when you're in the middle of a fight. You have no idea of how many people I've seen doing this, you will just waste time you could've spent landing basic attacks.


WARNING: This will just work if your team is aware of you going to start the fight, and if they are going to follow you. You can get better results if you have either Iceborn Guantlet or Randuin's Omen.

Lets put this scenario: you're at front of your team and you're facing your enemy team. In the best case, their positioned like this and their squishiest or Carry/Most important target is at the very back of their formation. Thanks to my legendary Paint Skills, I can show you this.

So you use your ultimate on that squishy/carry target.

While knocking your enemies on your way plus making some damage, you reach your target and stand behind it.

After hitting, you will apply spellblade, which with Iceborn Guantlet will come along with a nice slowing field, that'll stand for 3 seconds. and, since you are going to be surely focused after engaging, while distracting your enemies, the slowing field will prevent them from easily reaching you.

And while you already raped killed the carry (5 to 8 punches more or less), or someone helps you to kill him, the rest of your team finish the job and after that you can take a cup of tea with Baron Nashoror do whatever you want.

NOTE: This will only work (almost obvious)) if you and your team are smart while focusing, and if the enemy team is not much stronger than your team.

-Remember, that in the heat of a fight, you must NOT CHARGE Vault Breaker (yes, I had to say this again).

- Cease and Desist knock-up will also apply a stack for Denting Blows, use this on your favor.

-70% of the times I cast Cease and Desist in a match, I aim for their carry.

-There is only 1 way your objective has to free himself if he's already afflicted by Cease and Desist (as far as I have learned), and it's running stealth.
If for example, you casted your ultimate on Ezreal and he starts to back off, not even using Arcane Shift will achieve on freeing himself. Still, be careful if he runs to his teammates.

- Cease and Desist cooldown will just burn if you knock up your target. If he releases himself, the cooldown will not be applied.

-Use Vault Breaker to close distance, to escape, to jump over walls, and why not? engage a fight.

Here are a couple results I've got on using this build. I'd appreciate If some of you submit your very own screen shots so I can add them here! Thanks to Raptoe/GarenVII from Europe for submitting his results!

I hope you found this guide useful on your future matches, and if you took your time to arrive at this point of my guide, I want to thank you and invite you to leave your comments, either positive or constructive.
Special thanks to my friends Overzoul and HazteKawa for their help and support for this guide.

IN DEPTH: JUNGLING

12/22/2012:
-Updated "So... Who's Vi?".
-Added Skill sequence, Items, Combinations, Tecniques and Tips, Scores and Results, Ending Note and Summary, Change Log.


12/22/2012:
-Updated Masteries.
-Added scores and results.