Master Yi is a champion of many possibilities. He can be played either AD or AP. When played AD, he can be glass canon, tanky damage dealer or offtank. I think its best to build him as tanky damage dealer. You still have absolutely amazing damage, while having decent health with good MR and Armor..

Keeper of the ancient art of Wuju, Master Yi is a mystical warrior from the isle of Ionia. He descended from one of the few tribes dedicated to the preservation of Wuju, a martial art founded with the principles of absolute spiritual awareness of one's self and one's enemy. When the armies of Noxus invaded Ionia, Master Yi joined in the Ionian defense to fight the craven enemy, bringing his village honor through his unparalleled mastery of the blade. The ensuing battles ravaged the land, but no conflict inflicted as much horror as the day the armies of Noxus closed in on Yi's village. Left undefended, the village became the unfortunate test subject of the latest invention by an up-and-coming chemist, now known as Singed. The remains of the village that Master Yi returned to were so horrific that it remains a festering scar on Ionian history. To this day, no Ionian will ever publicly speak of what occurred.

After the Noxian invasion was contained, Master Yi fell into a deep isolation. For years, he trained morning to night, speaking to no one and refusing offers of consolation by fellow Ionians. The only thing stopping him from madly charging into Noxus battle lines headfirst was his pledge to keep the Wuju style alive. Even though he seethed with impatience, his rage became a tool for sharpening his practice of Wuju, developing stronger and deadlier skills for his eventual vengeance. The only thing that roused him was news of the League's formation, and Noxus's subsequent enrollment in the League. Master Yi now brings his mastery of the blade to the League of Legends with unflinching purpose: to avenge his kinfolk and end the predations of the Noxus once and for all.

"The art of Wuju lives on in Master Yi, and is plunged through the hearts of his foes."

You should not initiate first. Master Yi is already squishy and if you go first, you won't do anything for your team except feed enemies. Enter the battle after your main tank and try to focus squishy champions like AD carries and AP carries first. If they have more than few squishy champions, try to focus one that have huge CC availability like Malzahar. For more in deapth instructions about team fights read gameplay section.



Master Yi's vulnerability to CC is one of his biggest flaws. To be realistic, this flaw is very hard to be fixed via items, runes, spells and masteries. I try to counter this flaw by taking Quicksilver Sash and situational defensive items like Banshee's Veil.



Master Yi has pretty low HP base when it comes to Melee AD carries. At level 18, his basic HP is just under 2000. The best item IMO to counter this con is Frozen Mallet. Its good for you on defensive and offensive side, by granting you both massive health and AD + slow.

One of best spells IMO. Its useful both in offensive and defensive tactics. You have been hopelessly ganked? Flash away. Enemies chasing you? Flash over the wall. Enemies got away with 50Hp? Flash to them and deal 1 more attack. I love this spell, even after the nerf in November 2011.



This is obviously a must pick for junglers. Not only it helps you jungle faster than you could with any other spell, it also grants you amazing buff controls. I can't stress how important smite is, I personally have stolen Baron more than 10 times with Smite.



This is another great spell for Master Yi. It deals a lot of damage and is great to finish off champions with this extra damage. Ignite is also useful because of 50% Healing reduction. With Ignite you can shut down enemies like Swain(**** on their healing capabilities) easily.



This is great spell and like Flash and Ignite, works miracles both in offensive and defensive tactics. When chasing, this spell reduces enemies Movement Speed by 40% for 2.5 seconds, which makes it a great offensive tool. When using it defensively, this tool protects you by nerfing attacker's basic attack damage by 70% and item/ability damage by 35% for 2.5 seconds.



While I rarely use it, it can be still viable on Master Yi. This champion is extremely vulnerable to CC disables and if you do not intend on buying Quicksilver Sash, this spell is kind of must take. Since November 2011 it also removes Ignite, which is great.



This spell is viable if your team has no pushers and they rely on you for pushing. When enemies are attacking your tower in group, just teleport to pushed lane and destroy towers quick. Hidden pushing is something Yi excels at.

In masteries I take 21/9/0. Master Yi benefits from 21 points in offense so much, that going any other way is just absurd. You get all that extra damage and survivability, you can't deny that. I use 21 in Offense both for laning and jungling.

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Tier 3( Deadliness // Weapon Expertise ) Weapon Expertise is an absolute must take in offense tree. 10% Armor Penetration is amazing through whole game and can help you take heavy armor tanks down quicker. Deadliness is a very good to invest in aswell, since your build is based on critical strikes. This makes your chances of Critical Striker higher and you can advance in 4th tier. Tier 4( Lethality // Vampirism ) These two masteries are only two viable in fourth tier for AD champions. Lethality is great combination with Infinity Edge. With high critical strike chance and you crits dealing 260% damage, there is not much more to say. Vampirism isn't so noticable early game because of lower damage, but stacks great late game with Lifesteal item. Tier 5( Sunder ) This is an amazing mastery. Combined with runes you have amazing Armor Penetration, which makes your damage more like real damage when ganking low armor enemies. Also great for extra damage in jungle.

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Tier 1( Summoner's Resolve // Resistance // Hardiness // Tough Skin ) I take Summoner's Resolve for extra gold when using Smite. Resistance is for better survivability against magic damage and Hardiness is for easier jungling and extra survivability against attack damage. Tough Skin is great on junglers because it reduces their damage by 2 and it upgrades your tier 3 jungling resource. Tier 3( Bladed Armor ) This is an amazing mastery for junglers. It helps you clean Wraiths and wolves faster, since it returns their damage. It deals 6 damage to every monster that attacks you.

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Tier 1 Resistance // Hardiness ) I take Resistance for some extra Magic Resistance. I take 3 points in Hardiness because this item build provides you with less armor and so I try to produce it as much as I can from masteries. Tier 2( Durability ) Its a good mastery, especially because Master Yi is overall squishy. Gives 108 health at level 18 which is respectable. I mainly take this mastery so I can progress in Veteran's Scars Tier 3( Veteran's Scars ) I take this mastery because I like to start with boots. Because of that, you don't get extra health like you do with Doran's items. I try to replace that via masteries and runes. 30 Health at start is pretty good for a tier 3 mastery.

When it comes to marks penetration runes are pretty much first tier. Armor penetration is extremely useful early game. It helps you take down jungle faster and makes your ganks easier. Combined with Armor Penetration Quints, your attacks ignore almost 20 armor, while basic AD carries start with about 15.


These are for early game survivability, both in jungle and lane. You start with very low amount of armor and if you go gank against ad carry which can crit you, you'll die before you even touch them. 13 Armor and start will greatly benefit your ganks and your jungling, since monsters do physical damage.


These are also your defense resource. Many people prefer flat magic resistance Glyphs, which are also viable, but I take these because early game bursts aren't your threat. MR/level scales better in late game and helps you survive strong bursts from AP carries.


Like Armor Penetration Marks these are extremely useful early game. They stack nice with Marks and combined provide you 20 ArP, which means you deal almost true damage to squishies in early game when you gank.


Many people prefer 3x ArP Quints but I take a pair of these two because that extra 50 health early game is priceless. When you complete your jungle route you have more health which means you could go gank, while you would usually go back. I simply need to take flat health stats at start, otherwise it doesn't feel right.


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My basic runes setup is very similar to jungle ones. The only change here is that I take 3x Flat Health Quints instead of Armor Pen Quints. I decided to build that way for extra survivability early game.



When it comes to marks penetration runes are pretty much first tier. Armor penetration is extremely useful early game. It helps you take down jungle faster and makes your ganks easier. Combined with Armor Penetration Quints, your attacks ignore almost 20 armor, while basic AD carries start with about 15.


These are for early game survivability, both in jungle and lane. You start with very low amount of armor and if you go gank against ad carry which can crit you, you'll die before you even touch them. 13 Armor and start will greatly benefit your ganks and your jungling, since monsters do physical damage.


These are also your defense resource. Many people prefer flat magic resistance Glyphs, which are also viable, but I take these because early game bursts aren't your threat. MR/level scales better in late game and helps you survive strong bursts from AP carries.


Unlike jungle, when I'm playing lane I take three flat health quints. That makes me more early game tough and helps me be more offensive by dealing damage, yet surviving. I think that 26 health is way more advantage early game that 3 Armor Pen if you're laning.

• Many take Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion instead of this, but you can read jungling section to learn why I take this over that combo.

• Wriggle's Lantern is your core jungling item. This item provides you with everything that you need for jungling. 30 Armor for extra survivability, 23 AD for more damage, 15% lifesteal for lesser need of potions and ofcourse, 20% chance to deal 500 extra damage to monsters/minions which allows you to take buffs and dragons down in matter of seconds.
  
  
• Mercury's Treads are your boots. I take these because Master Yi is very vulnerable to Crowd Control effects like Stun, Snare, Suppress,..These give you 35% enemy CC effect duration reduction and 25 magic resist to counter early game AP champions. Like all boots except 2, these give you Enchanted Movement 2, which is priority for ganking.
  
  
• Ninja Tabi are also viable boots for Master Yi. Take these boots if enemies have no real AP threat or if enemy AD dealers are getting fed.
  
  
• You should take sight ward so you can predict enemy jungler movement and protect yourself from counter-jungling and ganks. Plant it near strategic points like Dragon, Blue and Red buff.
  
  
• Vision Ward is also a viable choice. If you think that enemies have warded your jungle, you can take this item to detect enemy wards. It's a little more expensive, but it may pay off with protecting yourself in jungle.

• Boots and Potions is my #1 start. You can escape ganks and you can catch enemies. Because of these you are more vulnerable early game and because of that, I take pretty defensive runes and put points in defense mastery, so you still have same health as you would have started with Doran's item.
  
  
• Doran's Blade and Doran's Shield are viable aswell. Take Doran's Blade if you want more health and damage early game, and you don't need moving speed. Take Doran's Shield if you are zoned and you need Health regen, health and Armor.

• Phantom Dancer provides massive attack speed for your attacks. Also provides critical strike chance which is a good combo with Infinity Edge and 15% movement speed for more mobility.
  
  
• Infinity Edge provides most AD Damage boost in game. Also has 25% critical strike chance, but what makes this item special, is its passive, which makes your critical strike deal more damage.
  
  
• Bloodthirster is your lifesteal item if you are laning. Gives amazing Attack Damage and Lifesteal, but then you need to be careful not to die, because then stacks reset.
  
  
• Atma's Impaler is a viable item if you intend to build on HP. Gives 2% worth of HP in damage, which about 55 if you have 2700 HP. Also gives critical strike chance, which is good if you're taking Infinity Edge.
  
  
• Take Zeke's Harbinger if you have many team buddies that also need Attack Speed, Lifesteal and Health Regen. Pointless to take if you have no other AD dealer.
  
  
• Last Whisper is kind of desperate item. Not effective if enemy is based on squishies, but its a must if there are champions like Rammus in the battle that have 200 armor.

There has been an epic debate about Youmuu's Ghostblade on Master Yi for a long time. In my build I choose Phantom Dancer over this item. And now lets look at Pros / Cons of taking PD over YG.

Pros Massive attack speed boost 15% Movement speed Massive Critical Strike Chance boost

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Cons No Armor Penetration No Cooldown Reduction No AD boost

So what do we gain and what do we lose if we buy Phantom Dancer over Youmuu's Ghostblade:

• +15% Movement Speed
• +15% Critical Strike Chance
• +55% Attack Speed
• -20 Armor Penetration
• -15% Cooldown Reduction
• -30 Attack Damage

So why is Phantom Dancer better than Youmuu's Ghostblade in this build:

• Phantom Dancer is source of Attack Speed in this build, which Youmuu's Ghostblade doesn't provide
• This build is Critical Strike based, so Phantom Dancer is better since it gives double the amount of critical chance than Youmuu's Ghostblade.
• You already get enough AD with this build, you have low cooldowns combined with your ultimate and runes(possible choice) and you already have some Armor Penetration with runes
• If you go with Youmuu's Ghostblade you are depend on Active part of this item, while all gains of Phantom Dancer are for good

Master Yi spawns with 475 Gold. Buy Vampiric Scepter as your first item.


Master Yi goes in jungle. You are level 1, upgrade Wuju Style.


Master Yi faces Big Gollems.

When at gollems, activate Wuju Style just before your first hit and start hitting bigger gollem(the one that grants your health. Use smite on him imidiatly, so you don't waste your damage. When bigger gollem is dead, auto-attack the other until he dies too.


Master Yi faces Wraiths.

Go straight to biggest Wraiths(the one that grants you health) and kill him with auto attacks. Just before you start hitting, activate Wuju Style. Auto-attack rest until they die.


Master Yi is now level 2. Upgrade Alpha Strike.


Master Yi faces Wolves.

Use Alpha Strike on main wolf. If the camp is still alive, use your Wuju Style to finish them off. First kill big wolf, then finish off other two.


Master Yi faces Blue buff.

Use Alpha Strike on Blue Gollem. Then activate Wuju Style and start beating him. Use smite when it's available. Finish off two other mini creeps.


Master Yi is now level 3. Upgrade Wuju Style.


Master Yi faces Wraiths.

Alpha Strike on main Wraith and then finish off others like before.


Master Yi faces Big Gollems.

Destroy them using Alpha Strike and Wuju Style. Should be no problem.


Master Yi faces Red buff.

Start with alpha striking on red buff Golem. Activate Wuju Style and Smite. Finish off other two little creeps.


Master Yi is now level 4. Upgrade your Alpha Strike.


Master Yi faces Wraiths and destroys them.


Master Yi faces Wolves and destroys them.


The timer is now 4:30(with up to 10s difference, depending on your luck with critical strikes and Alpha Strike. You are level 4, 3/4 health and both buffs. For 30 seconds no camp will respawn on your map. You have two chances. Either gank mid or top if enemies are overextending. With red buff, Alpha Strike and Exhaust that shouldn't be a problem with overextending enemies. If their lanes are playing safe, go back. You have enough cash to buy Boots, Long Sword and sight ward. Continue jungling and gank when possible.

• Full jungle clear at 4:30 with some camps cleaned multiple times
• End at 4:30 with both buffs and full health, ready to gank
• Accurate gold income to buy Boots, Long Sword and sight ward for better ganks and faster jungling.
• Because of Vampiric Scepter start, no money wasted on Health Potions.

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Many Master Yi start with Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potions instead of Vampiric Scepter, which is better since new jungle. Here are reasons why:

• You don't waste your money on potions. Because of that you have 175 gold more. That is a decent amount in early game and you'll get your Wriggle's Lantern way faster by buying Vampiric Scepter.
  
  
• You don't need to time your potions. You don't have potions and don't have to rely on them to jungle. You just auto-attack and you have health income, especially with Wuju Style active.
  
  
• Higher health at end of clearing. On this route with Vampiric Scepter you end with 3/4 health, ready to gank. If you choose Armor+Potions combo, you have to go back after completing, which means later ganks and buff waiste.

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Counter-jungling is an important part of jungle gameplay.




You can hurt both enemy jungler and his team by successfully counter-jungling, while boosting your team's morale and making their early game easier. For example: You steal Blue buff from Fiddlesticks. He is now Mana Potion reliable due to his lack of mana and mana regen. Because of that, his jungling will be slower, so he will be behind in levels. That creates a chain reaction which means less ganks. Because of that your team's early game is easier because of easier laning. With all that, if you successfully steal their red/blue buff, you can give your buffs to your team. Giving your red buff to your AD carry or blue buff to your AP carry might give him that extra advantage that he needs to win early game and potentially win you the game. Also its not all about buffs. If you catch enemy jungler at low health, you can take him down and get fed barely by counter-jungling.

• Wards, wards and wards. If you want to counter-jungle, you need to buy wards, so you can predict enemy moves. You will fail at counter-jungling if you don't know where their players are.
  
  
• Respawn timing. You need to clear his camps as soon as they respawn. That's the most likely for your to succed. For example: Enemy Warwick is jungling and his blue respawns. He is at Gollems and instead of directly going to blue buff, he will first clear Wraiths and Wolves. In that time, you can steal his blue buff, purely by good timing.
  

You can hurt yourself and your team a lot by failing at counter-jungling, so this strategy is two way road. By failing you give your enemies cash and while your death timet is active, he has free chance to counter-jungle.

Until level 6, Master Yi has no escape strategy, if you don't take Flash. Because of that, counter-jungling with enemies that are quicker than you( Nocturne) or have CC( fiddlesticks, [[udyr) is very dangerous and must be played right.


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While some might think that jungling is basicly about killing neutral monsters and gaining exp and gold, it's much more than that. That is only the basic thing, but there are a lot of other things you must do:

• Cover your ally's lane
  If there's a need, so he can go back, restore health & mana and buy few items. You have to be careful when doing that, because you can unintentonaly push his lane and screw his early game farming.
  
  
• Time your ganks
  You need to time your ganks. There is no point in ganking, when your bot/top/mid lane has pushed enemies to their tower. Ganks when enemies are overextending. That is the time they are most vulnerable and with good laning buddies they might be even tricked into towerdiving right before you gank.
  
  
• Ward your jungle
  In early game, your support won't be warding your jungle, so it's up to you. Ward in strategic points in your jungle which cover most of your camps. Counter-jungling is nothing rare in higher level games and you mind find yourself without red buff because of that. If you ward, you can see your enemy counter-junling. Gank him, and instead of gone buff you have extra kill. After getting Wriggle's Lantern that shouldn't even be a problem.
  
  
• Tell your team to protect you and your jungle at start
  Many strategies involve something like stealing wraiths at start so you can screw enemy jungler. Well there is a simple solution for that. For example in you're staring at gollems, tell your top to protect you from bush, mid to watch over wraiths, while bot covers your blue. After enemy lanes have shown up, they don't have to protect anymore.
  
  
• Share buffs
  You need to share your buffs. Your mid carry that has huge mana requirement and needs lower cooldowns will benefit much more from it than you. Sharing buffs can contribute to your team wining the game. Red buff needs to be shared in some occasions too. If you have Frozen Mallet and you're AD carry doesn't have slow, leave it for him, he'll benefit more.
  
  
• Dragon and Baron
  These two are most important neutral monsters in game. You have to fight to gain control of them. If somebody has to die for it, it may be worth it. For example let's say you're doing dragon. Your ally goes and defends you. He is killed. You should take that in advantage and finish dragon quick. With that kill they got 300g, while you got 5x190G with dragon, which equals 950G. That is tree kills worth. Baron is important because of buff, which can decide who wins.

This is a picture of proper use of Alpha Strike. Explanation:

Red lines represent ticks of your Alpha Strike. You start on outer minion, hit Nasus and then hit 2 more minions.

Green lines represent return point. In scenario A the minion doesn't die and you return on your starting point aka. next to minion. In scenario B you return to your casting start, because the minion received enough damage to be killed and therefore you can't be spawned next to him. In both cases you dealt an amount on damage to Nasus, successfully farmed and returned to safe location, avoiding enemy tower hits.




This is an example of bad use of Alpha Strike. In this case, you decide to start directly on Nasus. After hitting four targets, you will spawn next to Nasus, since the target is not dead. By doing this, you are exposed to enemy tower(black line). You failed using Q and got Nasus a nice kill.

Master Yi is very weak on department of teamfights. Due to his vulnerability to CC he can be crushed in matter of seconds if you don't initiate at right moment or don't position good. With Master Yi you should wait behind while your tank/tanks initiate and take the damage. When major CCs and damage have been used, you should engage. Focus high end damage dealers, AD or AP like Vayne, Caitlyn,... or Annie, Malzahar,..

Play Video

This video is a perfect example of Master Yi teamfight. In this case, Master Yi player waits for Sion to initiate, receiving major damage. Then Twisted Fate stuns Amumu and denies him the upportunity to use his ultimate. After that, Shen jumps in and taunts major damage dealers. When those 2 things were done, its time for Master Yi. Master Yi jumps in with Alpha Strike and with help of Highlander and Wuju Style first takes down Fiddlesticks, which is in this case major damage dealer due to his ultimate. Since he got a kill, his CDs resets and he can use all skills in next moment. While killing Fiddlesticks, Master Yi receives a good chunk of damage. The best move in this situation is Meditate. In that moment Yi gained 300 Mr & Armor and healing 700 health over 5 seconds, which made him untouchable. When Meditation cast is over, he focuses next major damage dealer(also lowest hp champion around), Vladimir. When Vladimir hits about 150 HP, he flashes away, leaving enemy Twisted Fate alone. TF died instantly and with help of reset CDs, Yi casts Alpha Strike again, making him impossible to target. After that they finish the last enemy champion in teamfight, while Master Yi leaves with 60Hp like a boss.

Updates

I have updated this guide for more than 100 times for sure. So I stopped posting updates. These are the only 2 important dates of this build:

• 23.4.2011 Build created
• 27.11.2011 Changed guide from laning Master yi to jungle Master Yi
• 20.12.2011 Due to angry feedback, added back Lane Yi, so it now has 2 guides.
  
  
  Patch v1.0.0.129 (15th November 2011)
  
  Master Yi
  • Alpha Strike mana cost reduced to 60/70/80/90/100 from 80/90/100/110/120.
  • Highlander mana cost reduced to 100 from 120
    
    This has actually huge impact on Master Yi, because it allows you to spam Alpha Strike more often and with reduced Highlander cost you're more viable in team fights considering there will be less mana lacks.Mana regeneration runes are now less viable on him and it pays of more if you take flat armor.

I want to express my gratitude to everyone that reviewed my guide and gave constructive feedback. Here is the list of all the people, that helped me evolve my guide by giving good feedback.


jhoijhoi

• For suggestions on Runes and Masteries section
• For tips on how to make my build prettier
• For pointing out flaws in my build

Other players

• Nightrazer
• Thedap24
• KuShBoqu
• Nicirn
• SirSpankAlot
• Kusoku

Also in conclusion I hope this build helped you on your path of becoming a good Master Yi player. Judging on comments I think I inspired both starters and veterans for Master Yi and helped them to a point at which they know how to play Master Yi. I saw a few pictures from players that used this build, and in some cases my build really helped them. Let me tell you that there is nothing better than hearing that your build worked for most of those people that used it. I had a feedback section with comments/pictures, but eventually there was too many thanks or pictures to post so I deleted that chapter.If anybody is waiting for Domition section, I doubt I'll be taking that subject. I dislike Dominiom gamemode and so, I don't play it.