I peaked D4 in Season 2024, to give you an idea of my elo.

This guide assumes you know some terminology basics such as full clearing, diving, peeling, common acronyms, etc. This is NOT a general guide to jungling, which is probably better found on YouTube. Instead, my goal is to offer Vi-specific tips that can help existing junglers add her to their champion pool (or hopefully decide to main her).

Also, Arcane is really, really good and you should watch it regardless of how you feel about Riot and their game.

Vi's full clear is pretty mediocre. I will use a comparison to Fiddlesticks, a champion who ALWAYS full clears, to make my point.

A Fiddlesticks full clear, done perfectly, is around 3:02 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ySQyVqFz8). In my own games as Fiddlesticks, I usually hover around 3:15-3:20 because I'm bad.

In contrast, the best Vi full clear I've seen is 3:21 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpQajMePuX0&list=PLPUygacvheSPXYxygRXwsYySuf06UBX0S&index=5), but many Vi's even at high elo will struggle to even make the 3:30 mark when scuttle spawns (3:30 is usually around my full clear time as well).

So clearly, any champion with a full clear as good as Fiddlesticks (which I'm sure there's several) will always have the advantage over Vi if she does the same full clear strategy.

That is why you should look for an opportunity to use your level 3 powerspike (when you get your Q) to try to gank somewhere on the map. Watch your teammates closely as you do your first set of camps. Which lane has an overextending enemy? Can you get a good angle to engage? Who is low and/or has burnt Flash? You may even consider skipping camps in your jungle path to make this possible. A successful gank will put you ahead of that full clear Fiddlesticks.

However, always keep in mind the OPPORTUNITY COST of ganking: each gank is time not spent taking camps. That is valuable exp and farm gold that the afk farmer will have over you. Thus, if all enemy laners are playing safe, it's probably a good idea to full clear instead of forcing a bad gank.

In other words: if there isn't at least a 90% chance you can score a kill with a gank, then just do the full clear and accept that Fiddlesticks will be faster than you.

Do not just walk between camps: use your Q whenever possible to cut distances and go over walls.

For example, when the tiny krugs spawn (after killing big krugs), try to Q as many of them as possible as you go over the wall into the red buff. This saves time autoing them individually or even using E.

Movement speed is the most overpowered stat for junglers. Their presence in the game is defined by how fast they can traverse the map, and is why fast champions like Kayn, Shyvanna, Udyr, and Lillia will always be relevant. It is also why Cloud Drakes are the best drakes (even better than Infernal, imo). Any amount of Q's you can use to catch up to them will be valuable as Vi.

You know you're doing this well if you're oom by the time you need to reset.

For a beginner Vi, these are the only combos you need to "memorize" (Disclaimer: the videos are not mine):

AA-Reset (0:13 on the video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEt6TmIIs8s

Extended Q (0:58) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEt6TmIIs8s

Q + Flash (0:11) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqSwh94wXYM

AA-Reset is your bread-and-butter combo for dealing damage. Works great after landing a Q.

Extended Q as the name implies is a way to extend the range of your Q with Flash. It is executed by Charging Q >> Flash >> Release Q. This combo is most effective when you Flash >> Release Q very quickly to surprise the enemy.

Q + Flash is a variation on the Extended Q that is undodgeable but harder to pull off mechanically - practice tool is a must. It is executed by Flashing mid-dash directly onto the target after releasing your Q. Just don't flash too soon during your dash - you will be left standing still and looking foolish. Note that the range is slightly shorter than Extended Q because whatever leftover distance you had in your dash when you Flashed will be subtracted.

Extended Q and Q + Flash combos are a big reason why you should take the spell cdr rune, since you will have access to Flash more often.

It is very tempting to start every gank/fight by ulting because you can't miss it (actually you can - Elise can negate Vi ult by doing the disappearing spider trick). However, it lowers the potential of your gank overall.

For example, let's just say you were ganking an enemy who has flash up. If you ult engage, they will simply flash away after, necessitating that you catch them again with Q. Even if you manage to land the Q after, you will knock them back away from you and your teammate.

Compare this to a Q engage, where you will knock them perpendicularly (presumably) to your teammate, minimizing the "distance" you create between all of you. Even if the enemy flashes afterwards, your ult will put you in a favorable position in which the enemy is sandwiched between you and your teammate. To quote Vi's wiki page: "Vi will land to the opposite side of the target after a delay of grabbing them".

Another potential advantage with Q engage is that if you charge long enough, sometimes enemies chicken out and pre-emptively flash before you even release the button to dash. This obviously makes the gank much easier.

The only time it is worth engaging with ult is if you want to take advantage of the 0.75 sec stun to guarantee a full R >> Q >> auto >> E >> auto combo finisher. This is useful if the enemy is already low or if you have a nearby ally that can chain cc.

However, if you are ganking from a good angle (for example, an overextending enemy hitting your turret), simply walking up to them to auto and saving your Q and ult for later is also a valid option.

Vi is generally considered a "Diver" whose main goal is to get to the backline and punch the ADC or mid to death. This is fine when you're ahead and have the damage, but what if you're falling behind and you know for a fact you can't kill the enemy ADC even if you tried?

Your best bet then is to peel for your own ADC and pray to get carried. Vi is actually really good for this purpose, Q and ult cc together is really long and more than enough to dispatch of any enemy assassins/divers late game.

Obviously, hyper carries with low mobility but high damage (think Jinx or Twitch, not Ezreal) are best aided by your help when you're in the "peel" mentality as opposed to the "dive" mentality.

While I cannot find a clip of this and am too lazy to make my own, you can finish off low hp enemies that are just barely out of reach by hitting a nearby minion that's between the two of you. These kind of kills are the most satisfying ones on Vi imo, since they rarely happen but make you feel like a god.

While useful for ganks, this is also useful in jungling when you pull the blue buff golem at low health to gromp, Q the gromp, and E the gromp to hit it and the blue golem behind it.

Also, keep in mind that E actually does extend your auto range by 50 - a small amount, but sometimes that is what makes the difference.

Save your abilities to proc your passive shields. This is an obvious given for clearing camps, but is much harder to pull off during the stress and pressure of teamfights and duels (we are human after all).

My advice is to watch the cooldown on your passive as much as the action on the screen and save an E charge to proc whenever available. Because the Q knockback is so impactful, you should avoid delaying to use it even for a passive proc unless you ran out of E charges. Using R to proc your shield is a last resort, but I came in clutch a couple times with that.

If you use your passive effectively, I guarantee you will turn tables and unexpectedly win more fights than you should. However, it is very difficult to do consistently, even harder than the Q + Flash combo since you can't practice it in the practice tool: it's just something you get with experience.

During Vi's ult, you are Unstoppable and immune to all cc.
The most obvious application is to dodge linear cc like Lux Q or bypass static cc like Jinx E, but can be applied in more interesting ways by dodging Jax E stun or making an escape by ulting somebody next to a wall then flashing or Q'ing over that wall.

Enemies that you dash through with your ult are knocked aside and dealt the same damage. Therefore, when picking your ult target, don't just always go for the nearest one or the lowest health: think about the "line" in which you can hit the most people.

For example, imagine during a gank that you're chasing a low hp Jinx and a half hp Leona in the middle of the lane. Jinx is closer but both are in range and in a line. Who do you ult? - The answer is Leona. Jinx is low and sufficiently able to be finished off with the knock aside by your teammates instead of the full ult cc. Ulting the Leona guarantees not only the Jinx kill but also the Leona kill.

In some cases, you can even flash while ulting if altering your trajectory mid-flight connects you with more people (try this out in the practice tool).

Of course, there are times when you want to pick the suboptimal line to hit less people but dive a higher priority target in the backline. The correct decision to make in each situation comes with experience.

Thank you for reading. I will make changes according to feedback whenever I can.

glhf