If you're accustomed to On-Hit Yi then this will be a big change in terms of strategy. It will take a few games to understand how to play, but the burst damage is pretty significant. Early game you can pretty consistently start fights and play normally, but after you start getting Crit items you turn into a nuke machine.

You do not need Boots for this build. Yes, you'll be a little slower. But when everything dies in 3 hits you don't need to follow them, do you? There's no shortage of opportunities to get in fights, so just watch the map and go where you have the best opportunity.

Don't focus tanks, focus squishies. Your burst damage is huge, so announce your approach for your team, ping who you want to nuke, let them dive for some initial damage and you handle the rest. If they engage properly you can easily 100-0 most champions together and get a double on bottom.

Do things that give you bags of money and keep your jungle cleared. This is an expensive build and IE is a difficult item to bear through the build process sometimes, but it pays off.

Keep in mind that with HOB you can apply some serious pressure to the enemy JG and often win invades by camping their camps. This is one reason why clearing your own jungle is important - you need the freedom to do things while guaranteeing that you're not behind on CS.

HOB basically translates to this strategy: 6 AAs and they die.

How does it work?

1. Walk up to the target (R if you/need it, but ally CC and engage timing is king here)
2. Attack 3 times (thanks HOB!)
3. (they're running away now or dashed)
4. Chase with Q
5. Exit in front of their path and AA
6. W > AA
7. Run away because you blew your kit and you're useless now.

They're probably very dead now, but that's it, you basically have no more play to offer and need to just leave. Go do something else. You could stay if there is a viable play at hand, but very likely you're going to get countered if you over-stay and shove the lane.

Play it by ear but the rule is that if you don't have HOB + Q/W/E available for your combo then you are going to very much underperform. However, when it *is* available... People get nuked. So, respect the timing.

The way to *lose* is by not respecting that you are pathetically weak and playing on the razors edge now. You are drastically less powerful if HoB or any of your kit is on CD. Once you hit full build then you have substantial damage and don't need your full kit to chain enemies on engage, but you're only a threat to squishies in that circumstance. Any brawler/tank will outplay you.

So don't make the mistake of ignoring the Pros/Cons of HOB. It's extremely powerful for burst, but you are painfully weak when your kit is on CD until you reach full build. Leverage the burst, know your limits, and scare the enemies. When you reveal that you're a wet noodle early they will take advantage of it but if you play in a way that never puts you in a situation that exposes your weaknesses then you will be a ridiculous source of fear for them.