Hello, everyone! My name is Razzy, and I'm a 1.7 million mastery point Yuumi player.

Last season, I performed an experiment. I attempted to climb as a support, playing only Yuumi whenever possible, and without a duo. I managed to peak at Gold 1 as a one-trick Yuumi (without a duo). I succeeded in hitting Plat 4 during season 2021.

This guide is being updated on January 2022. This guide is intended to help new players and skilled players with item combinations and counter strategies against specific champions.

Let's begin by describing Yuumi's unique traits that separate her from the rest of the League cast.

First off, Yuumi is a unique enchanter champion who is unlike other champions in League. Her You and Me! skill allows her to "attach" to ally champions. As long as she is attached, she cannot be targeted by an enemy's attacks (but can be targeted by enemy turrets).

No other champion in League can do this. While she's attached, she can still use her other abilities. This allows her to help her allies while generally not worrying about taking damage or getting killed.

The major advantage of playing Yuumi is that she is one of the only enchanters who can help a frontline fighter perform better.

If you like playing champions who can use healing abilities, and if you like playing a champion who helps other champions perform, then Yuumi is a good champion to pick up and learn.

Yuumi is generally a safe champion who can't be targeted by enemies
Yuumi is one of the few enchanters who can help frontline fighters
Yuumi scales (she gets stronger as the game goes on)
Yuumi has long range abilities with her Q and Ult
Yuumi has high mobility when jumping between allies
Yuumi boosts her partner's AP and AD with You and Me! while she is attached, providing bonus stats

Yuumi is heavily reliant on a strong teammate; if all teammates are behind, she will not have a good chance of winning
Yuumi requires her teammates to know her ability ranges
Yuumi is extremely susceptible to CC; getting CC'd usually means instant death for her
Yuumi is extremely frail with low max health and low defenses
Yuumi is extremely reliant on mana regeneration items such as Moonstone Renewer and Redemption
Yuumi's item pool is very limited; maximum mana items such as Archangel's Staff or Luden's Tempest will negatively impact her healing performance
Yuumi's movement is determined by her allies while she is attached, meaning you must generally give up control of your movement to someone else

In Iron:
Yuumi is not the best champ to play in Iron elo. If you got placed in Iron, you're either new to the game, or you need to improve. If you're having trouble getting out of Iron elo, then you'll need to either play a different champion, in a different position (Yuumi is too teammate-reliant, and players in lower elos don't know how to play with her well)... or you need to significantly improve your other mechanics, such as micro skills (battle), macro skills (map awareness and strategies), item builds, or improving your vision score. These are basic skills that have little to nothing to do with Yuumi, but they're important to the game.

In Bronze and Silver:
It's possible to start climbing with Yuumi, but most players in these elos aren't aware of how Yuumi works as a champion, or worse, they may have a terrible attitude about the champion. (I have seen several players throw the game the moment you pick Yuumi as a champion. The problem isn't you. It's them.) Some players subconsciously set themselves up for failure because they think Yuumi is a weak champion, when she is not.

However, other times, these players may simply not know how to work with Yuumi on a more sophisticated level. They may forget to travel close to the walls so Yuumi can hop over, or they may think they're invincible as long as Yuumi is attached (they may try to 2v4 or 2v5 while you're attached)... Or it may just be that their bad sense of macro play causes them to int you into their team.

In bronze and silver, you can "play around" with your kit. You can go either AP or standard support items. You can generally take anything, from Aery to Comet to Dark Harvest. Anything works, as long as you don't try something ridiculous like AD Yuumi. (Been there, done that.)

Gold, Plat, or higher
Plat is when players start to understand how the game works on a more sophisticated level, and Gold players are starting to understand it, but don't understand it totally. Once you get to this elo, it's typically better to build actual support items since the players at these levels generally know what's going on. In the end, choose what you want and what you think is best.

If you want to climb in general, you should be asking yourself some questions. Some of these questions may be unique to Yuumi, and others may be general questions. These self-reflections may help you improve as a player.

--Am I choosing the right ally to attach to? Do I need to attach to the most fed person to get myself a lot of gold, or do I need to hop on one of my weaker teammates to try to help them survive or not give the enemy kills?

--For Prowling Projectile accuracy, am I hitting most of my Qs? Am I wasting too much mana in early lane? Am I mana-regenning fast enough to spam Q? Do they do any damage and is it worth spending the mana?

--Am I using Zoomies too little or too much? Am I wasting the mana or is it worth it?

--Am I using Zoomies too much when my ally's HP is close to full? Am I using it on the ally who needs it the most?

--Am I using Zoomies at the right times to boost my teammates' movement speed?

--Am I proccing Feline Friendship to regain mana and shield myself or my allies? Am I doing it at the right time? Am I doing it at an inappropriate time and getting myself killed because of it?

--Am I getting warding properly? Am I warding the right spots to get information about where the enemies are going? Am I warding where I think the teamfights will occur? Am I warding the Dragon/Herald/Baron pits properly?

--As a support, am I roaming and ganking at the right time? Am I performing it well?

--Am I dying too much in lane because the Mid/Jungler is killing us when we push too hard in lane against the turret?

--Am I auto-attacking the enemy in early lane enough without getting myself killed? Or do I need to stay attached most of the time and try to pressure with Q?

Yuumi's W is called You and Me!, and this ability is the main focus of her kit.

Yuumi always starts with one level in her W. Focusing the mouse on an ally champion and pressing the ability key will allow her to attach to the ally in question.

While Yuumi is attached to an ally champion, the three following things will happen:
1) Yuumi no longer controls her own movement; her movement is controlled by her ally, wherever her ally goes.
2) She will be untargettable by enemy champions (meaning they can no longer target her with attacks), and as a result, she generally will not take damage
3) Yuumi and her attached ally will both have "adaptive force" shared between them, meaning both of them have boosted AP/AD.
4) If she has a barrier from her Feline Friendship passive, the barrier will be transferred to her ally
5) She can use the rest of her abilities while attached to the champion

A lot of newer players don't realize that Yuumi provides her attached ally slightly stronger attacks with the adaptive sharing. This is one of the key details to understanding Yuumi. As long as she's attached to a selected ally, that selected ally will do more damage. At first, this boost is small, but it becomes more significant as the game goes on. Sitting on top of someone in the late game (30+ minutes) can provide them almost 120 AP -- as much as a Rabadon's Deathcap!

There are a few other details to note about her W:
1) Turrets can still target Yuumi while she is attached. Attacking with Q under a turret may cause the turret to target Yuumi.
2) If Yuumi is targeted by a ranged auto attack / ability before she attaches to an ally, she will still generally receive the damage from that attack.
3) If Yuumi receives passive poison-like damage or bleed-like damage she will continue to receive damage from the effect, even after she has attached to an ally (examples: Ignite summoner spell, Teemo's mushrooms or poison auto attacks)
4) Some enemy delayed ability effects that haven't activated will transfer to your ally if you attach to your ally ( Senna's rooting CC effect, Brand's fire-ring, Zilean's time bombs)
5) As Yuumi levels up, her cooldowns for her W get shorter. At level 6, her cooldown on her W gets significantly shorter. At level 11, you can hop on and off of your allies at will without a cooldown, just as long as you don't get CC'd.
6) Something obvious, but easily forgotten, is that Yuumi's W allows her to jump over walls. This requires coordination from teammates, but it is an important detail.

Lastly, if Yuumi is CC'd by anything other than the silence effect (roots, stuns, knockups, et cetera), her W will be put on a 5-second cooldown and you will not be able to attach to an ally until the cooldown is gone. Each time you get hit by CC after that, the CC timer of five seconds will be reset. In other words, you DON'T want to get CC'd.

Yuumi's Feline Friendship generates a shield for herself and restores mana after basic attacking an enemy. As she levels up, the passive's cooldown duration gets shorter, which means she can make them faster. When Yuumi attaches to an ally, if she still has her shield, the shield transfers to her ally. Unlike other barriers in the game, this shield will last until the shield is broken.

The main point of using Bop n' Block is to regain mana. The shield is nice if you manage to keep it for your ally, but the real goal for using her passive is to regain mana so Yuumi can continue to use her abilities: Prowling Projectile, and Zoomies, the latter of which is mana-intensive.

In order to use Feline Friendship effectively in lane and in teamfights, it's necessary to consider positioning against the opposing support player. Read tips in the chapter "Counterstrategies against specific champions."

Prowling Projectile has two forms: unattached, and attached.

When unattached, Yuumi will fire a straight-line missile skillshot to damage an opponent.

When attached, Yuumi's missile can be guided with the mouse around minions, monsters, enemy champions, et cetera, to try to hit her target.

In either form, if the missile flies for one second, the missile becomes "empowered." In its empowered state, the missile will do more damage (some of it will be based on a percentage of the enemy's maximum health), and it will also have a small slow effect.

Generally, when using the Q, it's better to hit with the empowered state, since it will do more damage and slow. It's also more ideal to use this ability while attached to an ally, since you can control the missile's trajectory.

This ability is simple, but it does not pass over monsters or minions, so it must be aimed carefully.

When using this ability with Moonstone Renewer, you can hit with an unempowered Q (in an emergency) to try to heal your ally. This is one of the few times hitting with an unempowered Q is better than hitting an empowered one.

Yuumi's Zoomies is the same, regardless of whether she's unattached or attached to an ally. If she is unattached, she uses the ability on herself, and if she is attached to an ally, she applies the effect to that ally.

Zoomies is an ability that heals the target, increases the target's movement speed, and increases the target's attack speed. It is a very powerful effect, but with a high mana cost.

Zoomies costs a significant amount of her max mana (at least 15%!). Using this too often will use up all of Yuumi's mana, which will force her to wait until she can regain mana with mana regeneration or Feline Friendship.

Because of the high mana cost, this ability should be used with care, and the mana meter should always be kept in mind.

Yuumi's Final Chapter is the same regardless of whether or not she is attached, but she will do slightly more damage if she's attached to an ally. Yuumi will fire off seven several large waves of energy. If three waves of energy hit one target, that target becomes rooted for a short period of time. Each one does a small amount of damage, but the real point of the ability is to root the opponents so that your teammates can land kills. Try to use it when two or more enemies are grouped together, so that you can root as many enemies as possible.

This ability can be used for engage to try to land kills against the enemy team, or it can be used to disengage from a tough opponent and if you're trying to help your ally survive. Sometimes it can even save you from the opponent if you're trying to escape.

The hard part about using Yuumi's ultimate is that, sometimes, the person you're attached to won't move the way that you think they will. Sometimes, you need to detach and move around to make sure that you can root the target on the enemy team.

When combined with Dark Harvest, this ability is very fast and will do severe damage quickly, if Dark Harvest has enough stacks.

For this season's runes, I'd recommend the three following runes:

Summon Aery. This is the basic rune with the best winrate overall. Aery amplifies single-target damage on auto attacks and applies shielding with Zoomies!. This is the best overall rune for mixed damage and healing, and it's also the best rune for sustained fights against bruisers and tanks.

Guardian. Yuumi has the unique benefit of always being on top of an ally champion, so Guardian will always activate whenever the teammate takes damage; there's no risk of accidentally walking away when you're attached.

Dark Harvest. If you choose to go full AP, Dark Harvest is a good damage amplifier. Pair it with a Luden's Tempest or a Night Harvester for good damage.

Presence of Mind. Presence of Mind is an important rune for Yuumi, no matter what the major keystone is. It refills a significant portion of Yuumi's missing mana, which usually allows her an extra E cast. It's very useful when an ally teammate is scoring successive kills.

Presence of Mind is, hands down, one of the best runes to take on Yuumi. Landing Q will regenerate some of her mana, and Yuumi is extremely likely to get an assist when attached to an ally. Using Zoomies or Prowling Projectile right before your ally gets a kill nets you an assist, which will then help restore mana. This can be chained back to back on several kills, netting you several assists in teamfights.

For a Moonstone Renewer build or any other mana regeneration mythic, whether you prefer Summon Aery with Manaflow Band or Nullifying Orb, or whether you prefer Guardian with Revitalize, I strongly recommend taking Presence of Mind in the secondary runes slot.

For an AP Dark Harvest build with Luden's Tempest, I'd recommend Manaflow Band and Gathering Storm instead. Manaflow Band is good for keeping up Q casts when you're low on mana.

Guardian is the ultimate supportive rune. Whereas Summon Aery focuses on a mixed attack and defensive support, Guardian is the pure defensive support.

Guardian allows you to stay attached to your allies and generate shields without having to detach. It's a very good rune if you want to keep distance from your opponents. Moreover, Revitalize is also found in the resolve runes, which boosts Yuumi's healing output, and it isn't as controversial as Manaflow Band on Yuumi.

Guardian + Locket of the Iron Solari + Knight's Vow is also a heavy counter to Grievous Wounds. Most opponents will expect you to build Moonstone with healing runes. This particular build path will allow you to save a teammate, mostly ignoring Grievous wounds; however, it's generally only good for saving one teammate. Smart opponents will counter-build against this with Serpent's Fang.

Sorcery Runes
For newer players, Yuumi's main rune is Summon Aery. Summon Aery is the most "balanced" rune to take on Yuumi. Yuumi can activate Aery in a variety of ways:
--An auto attack (for a minor amount of DPS)
--A Prowling Projectile hit (for DPS)
--Casting Zoomies on an ally will activate Aery's shield effect
--Attaching (or jumping) to an ally with You and Me! will activate Aery's shielding effect
--Aery's shield can activate items like Ardent Censer or Staff of Flowing Water

Summon Aery is, in effect, the one rune that does "everything." This rune requires the least amount of thinking (for the most part) and enhances everything in Yuumi's kit.

In terms of defensive utility, Yuumi is one of the best (and fastest) healers employing Summon Aery. Because Yuumi is attached to her ally, Zoomies will heal your ally and shield them with Aery, and there is no distance that Aery needs to travel to return to Yuumi, meaning she can generally use Aery's shielding effect back to back without much trouble.

Summon Aery does have one notable weakness; attacking an enemy with a long-range Prowling Projectile before healing with Zoomies may cause the shielding effect of Zoomies on your ally to fail if used too quickly in succession. This minor detail can make the difference between saving your teammate's life versus their death. When using Summon Aery, carefully consider when you are casting Zoomies versus Prowling Projectile so that you properly protect your ally.

Aside from this minor weakness, Summon Aery works very well and is generally considered the best all-around enhancing major rune for Yuumi.

Dark Harvest is the high-risk, high-reward rune. Targeting an enemy below half health (with the orange indicator hovering over them) will increase the damage you deal against them. In early lane, it doesn't do much damage, but as the game goes on, this rune will infinitely scale. Landing a takedown resets the rune's cooldown, meaning you can use it against another enemy. The nice thing is that you don't have to be the one who lands the takedown. An ally can land the takedown for you, as long as you manage to damage the enemy below half health before they die.

Taking Dark Harvest means you can also take either Ingenious Hunter or Ultimate Hunter. Ultimate Hunter will allow you to proc Dark Harvest more accurately by using Final Chapter, because Final Chapter is a wide area of effect and it's also very fast. Ingenious Hunter allows you to combine Dark Harvest with items like Hextech Alternator more frequently.

There are a few potential good items that will benefit greatly from Dark Harvest: Night Harvester, Luden's Tempest, Everfrost, and the intermediate item Hextech Alternator. Lich Bane might also benefit from this rune. Rabadon's Deathcap also benefits.

Arcane Comet is a more aggressive option compared to Summon Aery.

In a nutshell, Arcane Comet is an option for a more aggressive AP Yuumi that forgoes Aery's shielding. Choosing Arcane Comet generally means your intention is to forego supportive items and choose more aggressive AP items.

Arcane Comet will not proc off of auto attacks. It instead procs off of abilities only, generally your Prowling Projectile or Final Chapter. It otherwise will not activate. However, despite this, the advantage is that Arcane Comet is a small area-of-effect circle of damage, with the potential of hitting multiple targets for a decent amount of damage.

Between Arcane Comet and Summon Aery, Comet will do more early-lane damage. Because it provides nothing for shielding, its only purpose is pure offense. Choosing this rune means you must be confident in landing your Prowling Projectiles, especially empowered ones.

Arcane Comet is the option that you want to choose when you want to amp up your damage significantly while still maintaining safety from a distance. It's good when paired with high AP items like Rabadon's Deathcap or maybe Luden's Tempest.

Unsealed Spellbook is not ideal for Yuumi, even if it is the only one that includes clarity. It's unfortunately very underwhelming. She can't capitalize on most of the summoner spells available.

Glacial Augment is similarly not ideal for Yuumi this season. Only hard CC champs, like Alistar or Morgana, benefit the most from this rune. Yuumi, on the other hand, can't proc it except with her ultimate (which has a long cooldown) or Everfrost (which is redundant when it already mostly slows and roots...).

Many other runes in the game based on several attacks—— Lethal Tempo, Hail of Blades, Electrocute, Phase Rush, et cetera——simply aren't viable on Yuumi. They're fun in norms, but they're not to be taken seriously. Yuumi usually cannot proc their effects because of low attack speed and because of her cooldowns.

Precision

Presence of Mind is Yuumi's best minor rune in the secondary path. It's game changing and almost too good to leave at home. Hitting with Q helps restore a tiny bit of mana, and assisting during a takedown restores a significant amount of mana.

Coup de Grace or Cut Down are probably the best runes to pair with Presence of Mind. Either one works.

With the change to Presence of Mind, Precision is probably Yuumi's best secondary runeset, unquestionably.

Sorcery
Because Summon Aery is considered one of the best major runes for Yuumi, that means she usually has to take Sorcery runes.

Nullifying Orb is the best replacement option if you don't want to take Manaflow.

Manaflow Band is discussed at length in advanced topics at the bottom of this page. For novice players, you can take it and generally perform just fine, but I recommend skipping it. I would suggest novice players take Nullifying Orb instead. Nullifying Orb isn't good on Yuumi. It just so happens to be the only option in the same sorcery slot that isn't detrimental to her. For advanced players who are seeking a greater understanding of this suggestion, look at advanced topics at the end of this guide.

Transcendence and Gathering Storm are the best options in their respective slots. Transcendence is the best for helping keep Zoomies up frequently, and Gathering Storm helps Yuumi become a lategame hypercarry with tons of AP and healing.

Scorch can help you win early lane, but the burn may cause you to draw turret fire in the event of a tower dive.

Resolve
For the Resolve path, the two most important runes are Font of Life and Revitalize. These both increase healing output, for yourself and for others. Second Wind is what I take as the other option, usually, but Bone Plating may also be viable. It doesn't usually matter which one you take here——if you get caught as Yuumi, you usually die anyway.

Domination
Domination has some really good runes to offer.

My favorite among the domination runes is Ingenious Hunter. Ingenious Hunter works with items like Redemption and Mikael's Blessing, as well as Hextech Alternator. It even works with mythic items like Everfrost, Luden's Tempest, or Night Harvester. It also makes Oracle Lens come up faster over time. The only risk of taking this rune is if you end up needing to build non-active items, in which case it just enhances Oracle Lens or other vision items.

Ultimate Hunter is similarly useful. There's no drawback to the rune. As long as you get takedowns, your ultimate comes up faster, meaning you can use it more often.

Eyeball Collection is an AP booster with kills, and Ghost Poro and Zombie Wards give greater vision. Zombie Ward pairs well with Umbral Glaive, whereas Ghost Poro is just useful in general for extra vision.

Inspiration
For the inspiration path, Cosmic Insight is probably, with out a doubt, the best rune for Yuumi to use. It pairs well with the same items that Ingenious Hunter does.

Future's Market is a very good rune in general, allowing you to buy items earlier to hit power spikes sooner.

Perfect Timing is a good rune for a free stopwatch to either stall out your opponents or to save yourself. Stopwatch can help you perform some outplays and help you bait targets.

Future's Market is an excellent option to help Yuumi's early game and help her acquire items sooner rather than later.

Magical Footwear has niche uses, but Yuumi is better off using the runes listed above.

And now we get to the real part of the guide, which is item building.

Season 11 has brought a ton of changes for item building, and support items have changed so much that there are a lot more items to consider for Yuumi.

With the introduction of mythic items, at some point, your mythic item will eventually slot you into a "role" to fill. So now more than ever, your main item could determine the rest of your build and the role you'll play in the game.

For Yuumi, there are a few rules:
1) Build mana regeneration items (almost all of the time)
2) Building maximum mana is possible, but it should generally only be a Lost Chapter item... Luden's Tempest, Everfrost, Liandry's Torment in particular.
3) Tear of the Goddess items are bad on Yuumi because they make her inefficient. Stay away from them.

To start, generally always build Spellthief's Edge. You can then choose Health Potions or a single Control Ward.

With the current seasons, there are a few viable and simple options. Depending on what you choose,

If you're winning lane or if your first back takes a long time, the best item to start with is Forbidden Idol. Forbidden Idol builds into the four standard healer items ( Redemption, Mikael's Blessing, Ardent Censer, or Staff of Flowing Water).

Starting with Forbidden Idol will allow you to build into a support item without committing too early to a mythic.

The other best option is Bandleglass Mirror, which builds into either Imperial Mandate or Moonstone Renewer, the two best support items for Yuumi. Mirror doesn't provide healing boosts, but it will boost damage, ability haste, and mana regeneration, all of which Yuumi wants.

Either one of the two will work, but note that Bandleglass Mirror will most likely lock you into either a damage role or a healing role very early into the game, which will give your opponents insight into how to counter you.

Redemption seems to be Yuumi's best "core" first item this season that she should always build.

Here are several reasons why.

Advantages
1) Stating the obvious, it provides health, mana regeneration, ability haste, and most importantly, heal boosting, all of which Yuumi wants. It also provides a long-range AoE heal active, which is the main point of the item. And you can even use it when you're dead.
2) Yuumi can use this while attached, providing an extra heal in situations where she needs to provide it. Sometimes, trying to activate Feline Friendship will only get you killed. Redemption is invaluable in those circumstances where you want to heal, but don't want to detach.
3) Redemption is the only way to allow Yuumi to heal more than one ally at once.
4) Yuumi players do not normally build boots. Redemption compensates for her lack of movement by healing an ally from a very long range.
5) Redemption pairs well with her ultimate. Locking enemies down with an ultimate and then using Redemption on allies in a teamfight is a good way to shave health from enemies while helping protect allies.
6) Paired with Ingenious Hunter, this item can be reactivated faster and resets Yuumi's trinkets, usually Oracle Lens.
7) First-picking Redemption instead of Moonstone Renewer has the major advantage of keeping midgame flexibility if you need time to decide on the best mythic option for that game. Redemption can also generally fit into any build.
8) Compared to Mikael's Crucible, as similar item, it has much longer range. Mikael's is good in certain situations as a first item where you want to clear crowd control immediately ( Morgana, Lux, and Sona come to mind), but when crowd control isn't as much of an issue, Redemption is superior.
9) Yuumi always wants to be with a teammate. If her anchor ends up in a fight, Yuumi will need to support them. Redemption is a last ditch effort that Yuumi can use to heal both the anchor and herself.
10) There are times when Redemption and healing from a range is much better than fighting up-close with Moonstone Renewer.
11) Redemption even occasionally has the potential to secure a long-range kill or to force an opponent to Flash, and it deals 10% true damage.
12) Lastly, not having AP on Redemption usually isn't a problem. Because her Q hits for % health each time it levels up, Q will still do respectable damage in early lane even without an AP item. Mana Regeneration is typically more preferable than AP for that reason.

Disadvantages
Like all items, there are disadvantages to Redemption as an item.
1) It is less useful when it's being used to help or save only one ally. It's more optimal to use, of course, to heal as many teammates as possible.
2) Assassins like Zed or Master Yi will kill targets faster than Redemption can activate. Locket of the Iron Solari is better in these circumstances.
3) The active is a skill-based item that requires predicting ally movement. It is almost like an AoE skillshot. Succeeding the skillshot is required for Redemption to be useful.
4) Redemption has a relatively long cooldown.
5) High-movement-speed allies require more prediction, making it more difficult to support them with this item.

Moonstone Renewer is probably going to be the first mythic item to talk about with Yuumi. Landing any damaging attack or ability will trigger Moonstone's passive, which heals an ally for a minor amount of damage. Yuumi can take advantage of this item by landing long-range Prowling Projectiles, and because of Moonstone's mana regeneration bonus, you can quickly restore mana after firing off one Q. This will help you heal your allies in combat. It's important to proc Feline Friendship as well, to make sure that you continually heal and support your allies.

Shurelya's Battlesong can boost your teammate's movement speed. Note that attaching to an ally will boost your ally's movement speed without the need of a shield.

Locket of the Iron Solari can grant large barriers and is much better than before. It passively increases the defenses of your nearby allies, as well. This can help in big teamfights, and this item is also the "counter-counter item" to Grievous Wounds (since Grievous Wounds does not apply to shields). However, there is now an item that does extra damage to shielded units, Serpent's Fang. This item counters Yuumi and shield-heavy teammates, so be careful.

Imperial Mandate is the AP support item. Landing an empowered Prowling Projectile or rooting with Final Chapter will deal a minor amount of damage to the target, and if your allies attack the same target, that target will receive bonus damage. You will have to be precise with your attacks to make sure to mark the opponents, but if you can land the abilities correctly, you'll help your teammates do a lot more damage. This is the best AP item if you want to focus on simultaneously healing and dealing respectable damage, especially because this item gives good mana regeneration. This item pairs well with Rylai's Crystal Scepter, which can make your ult or your unempowered Q land Mandate's mark passive.

Luden's Tempest does extra damage and has a cooldown that reasonably matches Yuumi's Q cooldown later, especially with Ingenious Hunter.

Liandry's Torment gives 600 extra maximum mana, which is detrimental to Zoomies. It is still a decent tank buster, but because Zoomies is based on maximum mana, it will make mana regeneration management more difficult. But if you want to shred tanks, you might try pairing this with Demonic Embrace. That way, your Qs shave off decent amounts of % health when empowered. But both of these items together are very expensive. Depending on your teammate compositions, it may not be necessary to build the item.

Everfrost is the replacement for Hextech GLP, and it is extremely situational, but it has its uses. It's mostly used for protecting allies from dangerous close-range assassins or CCing slow opponents. It only does 100 base damage, but this gives Yuumi another option outside of her Q to damage opponents and help her teammates lock down the enemies. It has a large range and the potential to root, helping Yuumi lock down her own Final Chapter. Pairing this with Ingenious Hunter and Cosmic Insight gives her a much smaller cooldown, allowing her to spam this more frequently. There's also a nifty use to Everfrost outside of just slowing enemy champs: you can use it to help clear an enemy minion wave. Yuumi doesn't have a lot of pushing power, and this item has such a low cooldown that it's reasonable to use it for that purpose to save precious mana. This season, paring Everfrost with Glacial Augment seems extremely redundant. I wouldn't waste the time on the rune, but Everfrost by itself is still fine.

Night Harvester seems less impressive than Luden's in terms of damage, but it's worth noting that, as an AP item, Night Harvester doesn't interfere with the Zoomies mana cost.

Ardent Censer and Staff of Flowing Water
Both of these items effectively do the same thing: they give you AP, mana regeneration, and healing or shielding an ally with one of the items empowers damage or abilities. Ardent Censer is for AD carries, boosting attack speed, meaning an AD carry will do more damage, while Staff of Flowing Water grants ability power and ability haste, meaning an AP-carries will be able to cycle through their abilities faster and with greater damage.

Which one do you pick first? Well, it depends on a few factors:
--Is your team a mix of 2 mages and 2 AD fighters? --> Pick the one for whoever's the most fed on your team, and support that one.
--Is the most fed person on your team an AD fighter? --> Pick Ardent Censer
--Is the most fed person on your team an AP mage? --> Pick Staff of Flowing Water
--Is your entire team 3 or more AD fighters? --> Pick Ardent Censer
--Is your entire team 3 of more AP mages? --> Pick Staff of Flowing Water
--Is your botlaner an AD marksman/fighter? --> Pick Ardent Censer
--Is your botlaner an AP mage? --> Pick Staff of Flowing Water

One particular trick with Yuumi is that, because Feline Friendship never expires, Yuumi can repeatedly detach and reattach to apply either the attack speed effect of Ardent Censer or the movement speed effect of Staff of Flowing Water. Bouncing between several teammates while Feline Friendship will allow Yuumi to repeatedly proc these effects back to back, keeping the effect semi-permanently up as long as the Feline Friendship shield is still up. Summon Aery can also proc these effects.

Usually, even if you start with Ardent Censer or Staff of Flowing Water, you generally want to build the other item anyway. The only exception to this is if the rest of your team is only AD or only AP. If your team is only AD, pick Ardent Censer, and if your team is only AP, pick Staff of Flowing Water, and then rush a different support item, like Redemption, so that you can spread the benefits to your entire team immediately.

Mikael's Blessing
Mikael's retains the 20% heal and shield power, but it has lost the harmony passive that restored health along with mana regen. In exchange, the cleansing command is now a single-target heal. This makes it a much more viable item as a support item for people you're attached to.

Dark Seal into Mejai's Soulstealer is a cheap way to gain stacks when your team is doing well. You can test the waters with Dark Seal to see if you can reach 10 stacks. Doing so will give you the equivalent of a Needlessly Large Rod. It's a risky item, but it can save some gold if you reach top stacks with Mejai's Soulstealer.

Chemtech Putrifier
Chemtech Putrifier now allows you to provide grievous wounds after healing or shielding an ally. In other words, you can force other players to have grievous wounds applied to their items even if they don't build grievous themselves. This item is very strong in general and will help your allies stop the enemy team from healing. A very good 2nd or 3rd item, especially when paired with Moonstone or Redemption.

Umbral Glaive
Yuumi doesn't want AD items; aside from the support item, it is difficult to justify one. However, Umbral Glaive has a use even for Yuumi: vision and trap destruction. This is useful against champions like Teemo, allowing Yuumi to hop off, instantly destroy a mushroom (provided Oracle Lens is active or Control Wards are placed). The point of it is not for extra AD damage late game, but rather just for gaining control over vision and trap removal. You can also help your jungler roam "invisibly" in the jungle with this item.

Hextech Alternator
Hextech Alternator is a good AP option for Yuumi, especially when combined with Dark Harvest and Ingenious Hunter. This item is the spiritual successor to Hextech Revolver, except it now applies to both abilities and auto attacks. When going AP Yuumi, this is the item I would recommend, evolving it into Night Harvester.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Rylai's was once not viable on Yuumi, but Yuumi now has a reason to consider the item. The only time this item should ever be considered is when Yuumi chooses Imperial Mandate. These two items synergize with each other. Normally, Yuumi's Prowling Projectile will only mark a target if she lands the empowered Q, and her Ult will only mark a target if she hits 3 energy waves and successfully roots a target. Rylai's changes this. Yuumi can slow a target with a non-empowered Q, or she can hit with just one wave of her ultimate, and it will trigger the condition for Imperial Mandate. This deals more damage by making the conditions easier, and, in addition, it sets up more marks for your teammates to successfully use to deal more burst damage. Outside of Imperial Mandate, there's not much reason to consider making Rylai's, unless you just want to land roots from your ult more easily.

Sheen has several pathways, but for Yuumi, two of them are noteworthy: Lich Bane and Essence Reaver.

Because Yuumi has to rely on Feline Friendship to regain mana, Lich Bane and Essence Reaver have synergy with her. Both items give zero maximum mana. However, building these items is niche and it's highly dependent on who the enemy team comp includes. You need to carefully consider whether or not the team has a large amount of CC. If the team has a large amount of CC, especially area-of-effect CC, like Wu Kong's ultimate, or just long roots like Morgana's or Lux's Qs, you shouldn't consider taking either of the two items. But if you feel like you can successfully land Feline Friendship to restore mana, these items can help.

If you're going to attack the enemy for a Feline Friendship proc, you'll want to usually do this after casting Zoomies. Lich Bane is the item to build against an armor-heavy team, and Essence Reaver is the item to build against squishy mages that you have a decent chance of hurting. Essence Reaver has the added benefit of restoring your mana on a spellblade hit. Essence Reaver is a good counter option against Morgana, in which case the spellblade goes through her shields.

For this season, there are a lot of support items that provide mana regeneration. Almost all of the mage/healer support items synergize with each other in one form or another.

For Yuumi, all of these items generally synergize with each other (except mythic items, which you cannot by more than one of):

Mythics (Only one; the item effects can trigger legendary passives)
Moonstone (note: this can repeatedly trigger single-target passives)
Locket of the Iron Solari
Shurelya's Battlesong

Legendaries Actives (these can trigger the legendary passives)
Redemption
Mikael's Blessing

Legendary Passives (these are triggered by any of the active items above)
Staff of Flowing Water
Ardent Censer
Chemtech Putrifier

Moonstone Renewer + Staff of Flowing Water + Ardent Censer + Aery/ Guardian
By throwing out a Prowling Projectile from a long distance, Moonstone Renewer's passive should activate, which should activate the effects of Flowing or Ardent to nearby allies. This is probably going to be the most "standard" build for most Yuumi players. Even just auto attacking will provide these effects to your nearby allies, but you should have enough mana regeneration with these items to throw out Qs constantly, so long as your teammates aren't forcing you to heal too much.

Imperial Mandate + Staff of Flowing Water + Ardent Censer
This build is similar to the previous one, except it favors offense over defense. Mark your opponents with empowered Qs or land an Ult, and amp the damage of your teammate. All of the items still provide mana regeneration as well. This build only supports one teammate at a time, though. This will probably be the other "standard" starting build for Yuumi.

Staff of Flowing Water + Ardent Censer + 1/2/3
1. Redemption
2. Mikael's Blessing
3. Locket of the Iron Solari
In this circumstance, Flowing or Ardent will both proc their passive effects on any of the listed three items. Redemption and Locket can proc the effect to multiple allies at once, while Blessing will only proc it to one ally and yourself. Regardless, the AP support items all highly synergize with the other items in general.

Guardian + Ingenious Hunter + Locket of the Iron Solari + Feline Friendship + Redemption + Mikael's Blessing
This combination is excellent. If you take Guardian, you have the option of building Locket of the Iron Solari and providing shield after shield after shield to your teammates. Other support items, like Mikael's Blessing and Redemption, will boost the power of the shields you provide to your teammates. Guardian is the "AFK" option, which allows you to mostly stay attached to your teammate. You'll have to time the active effect of Locket of the Iron Solari correctly, but this build is the counter-build to the Grievous Wounds effect. Because you're providing shielding instead of healing, opponents who bring grievous wounds will not be able to lower the shielding damage that you mitigate. The key to this build is that, instead of Summon Aery, which can only target one ally, both Guardian and Locket of the Iron Solari target multiple allies, so you can shield your entire team for a massive amount. Ingenious Hunter will lower your cooldown of Locket of the Iron Solari, giving you more uses. You could otherwise use Presence of Mind to regain mana if you don't need the active item cooldowns. However, Serpent's Fang will counter this build hard, so you'll need to pay attention to your opponents' items and ping the item to your teammates if you see it.

Imperial Mandate + Rylai's Crystal Scepter + Font of Life
For Yuumi specifically, Rylai's Crystal Scepter will make her Qs slow enemies, regardless of whether she hits an empowered Q or not, and the first waves of her ultimate will also slow enemies, perhaps making it easier to catch enemies with the 3rd rooting wave. This will allow her to easily proc Imperial Mandate marks and Font of Life marks, all of which are beneficial to your teammates. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is expensive, but it will increase the damage output of Imperial Mandate.

Dark Harvest + Ingenious Hunter + Cosmic Insight + 1/2/3
1. Everfrost
2. Night Harvester
3. Luden's Tempest

This rune set trades healing and mana regeneration for power. Everfrost has an item active that gives you another ability to use against your opponent. Luden's Tempest and Night Harvester both amp damage. Luden's is for long-range missiles and poke damage, while Night Harvester amps damage but is still friendly with mana regeneration items.

The primary runes of this set are Ingenious Hunter and Cosmic Insight. These are the things that give you insanely low cooldowns on all of the item actives. After this, you have an option. You can either build more active items, like Redemption or Mikael's Blessing, or you can amp up the damage with Staff of Flowing Water or Ardent Censor.

Hooking Champions
Blitzcrank, Nautilus, Thresh, and Pyke
Keep a line of minions between yourself and these champions at all times. Build mana regeneration and stay attached to your ADC as much as possible. If your ADC gets hooked, prepare to hop off for a Feline Friendship and immediately reattach to heal your ally. Guardian or Summon Aery is useful against them. Flash is a useful dodging spell if you can predict their hooks.

Magical CC Champions
Morgana, Lux, Leona, Neeko, Seraphine, Zoe, Sona's (ult)
Mikael's Blessing is the answer to most of these champions. If your ADC is CC'd, heal and cleanse them as soon as you can with the active of Mikael's Blessing. This will allow your mouse-clicking/button-mashing ADC to get back into action as soon as possible. Hopefully, your ADC will be smart enough to take Cleanse or Barrier to help deal with some of the CC/damage.

Invisible Assassins
Evelynn, Pyke, Teemo, Rengar, Shaco
Against these champions, buy Control Wards and bring Oracle Lens. Place them either in the River Bushes or even directly in the lane (in a spot where you can easily protect the ward; don't place it in the middle of the lane only to give gold to the enemy support or ADC) to prevent them from sneaking up and killing your teammates. Lategame, you can build Vigilant Wardstone to carry more control wards.

Note: Shaco cannot be detected by Control Wards, but Oracle Lens can reveal his location.

Close-range Assassins
Master Yi, Zed, Yasuo, Samira, etc.
I'm not totally sure about this yet. You have one of two options... You can either go full AP to do long-range poke damage to zone them out, or you can build something like Everfrost to CC them at close range. Yasuo and Samira in particular are more dangerous to work against. Try to time your Final Chapter or Everfrost after their windwalls are down. It might help to try to throw out a Q against them to see if you can provoke the windwall to force it to go on cooldown.

Invisible Trap Users
Teemo, Jhin, Nidalee, Shaco
Against these champions, buy Control Wards and bring Oracle Lens to search out and destroy their traps. Note: Shaco himself cannot be detected by Control Wards, but his traps can be revealed by Oracle Lens and Control Wards.

Lifestealers / Life Recovery Champs
Draven, Swain, Warwick, Illaoi
With Oblivion Orb and Chemtech Putrifier now being a thing, it's reasonably possible to counter these enemies and stop their aggressive lifestealing tactics.

Healers
Soraka, Nami, Sona, and enchanters who pick up Moonstone
Now that Oblivion Orb does grievous wounds, you can take this against them in lane, though they can also take it against you. Pay attention to what they come back to lane with.

Caitlyn
Against Caitlyn, take Banshee's Veil for late-game. You can hop off and block Caitlyn's ultimate with the Banshee's Veil for no damage (if you have the veil up). But don't block it late-game if you don't have the veil up. She can probably one-shot you most of the time. You can also use the spellshield to remove one of her traps from the field.

Zoe
Against Zoe, choose the following items:
1) Moonstone Renewer, Luden's Tempest, or Night Harvester
2) Staff of Flowing Water
3) Ardent Censer.
4) AP items like Banshee's Veil, Rabadon's Deathcap, or Mejai's Soulstealer

For Zoe, the point is to deny her any opportunities of using her W ( Spellthief, which gives her the chance to steal enemy summoner spells and use them for herself). Unsealed Spellbook, Ingenious Hunter, Cosmic Insight, and active items in general are useless against her.

Banshee's Veil is your best friend against her. If you're really savvy about predicting Zoe's sleep bubble, you can hop off and block the bubble with Banshee's Veil to protect an ally against one CC. If you don't have Banshee's Veil, you can still hop off to take the CC for an ally and reattach. If you reattach to your ally before the CC activates, you'll be untargettable, meaning Zoe can't hit you for bonus damage with her long-range Q. Doing this means you won't be able to act for one or two seconds, however, so you'll have to judge if the situation is appropriate. If you're low, it's also a question of whether or not you'll survive the damage from the sleepy bubble.

This section of the guide is meant to discuss Teammate Synergies.

There are general item recommendations for most characters, but when working with specific champions, you'll want to build specific items, if possible.

Evelyn
Evelyn is one of Yuumi's best partners. In most circumstances, Evelyn is the carry, and Yuumi is the support. If she's doing well, you'll want to support her with at least Moonstone Renewer or Shurelya's Battlesong and pair it with Staff of Flowing Water. Rabadon's Deathcap or Mejai's Soulstealer will also be good, as Evelyn and Yuumi are especially the best users of Mejai's Soulstealer.

Singed
If a Singed is doing well, you can help him carry harder by building Shurelya's Battlesong and pairing it with Staff of Flowing Water. Singed wants movement speed above all else.

Hecarim, Kayn, Rammus
High-mobility junglers like these three will very much like Shurelya's Battlesong. If one of these champs ends up doing well, you can help them by making them move even faster across the map to clear camps and objectives.

Master Yi, Yasuo, Yone, Talon
These four are AD assassins. If they're doing well, they like having either Moonstone Renewer or Shurelya's Battlesong. Ardent Censer and Mikael's Blessing are good ideas——the former to help them kill, and the latter to help them survive heavy CC. While Yasuo's windwall can counter some CC, in general, all of these champs will greatly appreciate cleanse, especially Master Yi.

Most ADCs: Draven, Twitch, Tristana, Caitlyn, Xayah, Kog'Maw, etc.

Most ADCs prefer a combination of either Ardent Censer or Mikael's Blessing, for the attack speed boost on the former and for the CC clear for the latter. Whether you choose Moonstone Renewer or Shurelya's Battlesong is your choice. Moonstone Renewer is better for continuously applying the passive effects of Ardent Censer, but Ardent Censer's passive can be applied through other items and means.

Ezreal
Ezreal is an unusual case. As much as I hate Ezreal, he's the one AD champion who relies on AD through his "mage"-like poke skills. This particular champion can have either Staff of Flowing Water or Ardent Censer to support him.

Manaflow Band is an extremely controversial rune for Yuumi and it has caused several arguments amongst Yuumi mains.

Here is the basic rule in which I take Manaflow Band:
1) If I am playing supportive Yuumi with Aery, and if my intention is to take Moonstone Renewer and heal allies, I do not take Manaflow Band. I take Nullifying Orb... not because Nullifying Orb is good, but because Manaflow Band is questionable for Yuumi.
2) If I am playing Yuumi with Guardian, Presence of Mind is a superior secondary rune. There would be no point to taking Manaflow Band at all.
3) If I am playing Dark Harvest or Comet AP Yuumi with Luden's Tempest or Liandry's Torment, then Manaflow Band is actually much more helpful than the other options.

--Maximum mana on Yuumi has an inverse relationship between her offense and her defense. Having higher maximum mana gives her more "ammo" for Prowling Projectile and Final Chapter.
--Having more maximum mana, however, is detrimental to Zoomies. Zoomies costs a % of maximum mana... 15%... and increasing maximum mana lengthens the time it takes to regenerate mana.
--In other words, buying a maximum mana item, such as Luden's Tempest, requires much more careful mana management. Buying an item like Luden's Tempest will force you to recall back to base more often to restore your mana.
--When Manaflow Band is fully stacked, it has a positive relationship with Prowling Projectile and Final Chapter when using items like Luden's Tempest, because the value is better when restoring maximum mana. So if you're playing AP Yuumi with Dark Harvest or Comet, it's appropriate to take.
--For a Zoomies, however, Manaflow Band and maximum mana have a negative impact both before and after the rune is fully stacked.
--It takes a minimum of 150 seconds to fully stack the rune (which is 2 minutes and 3 seconds). Combat, in general, does not start until about 2:00 in the game. This means that the absolute soonest that Manaflow Band can be fully stacked is most likely around 4:30, but this is usually not a realistic case because of Yuumi's Q cooldown. Manaflow Band's 1% missing mana restoration doesn't kick in until the rune is fully stacked. Assuming the rune is actually fully stacked at 10:00, Yuumi's healing effectiveness in early lane phase is reduced, and it takes longer to fully regenerate a Zoomies cast.
--Yuumi's mana regeneration in early lane is going to be bad anyway. At level 1, her mana regeneration stat sits around 2 to 3. Around level 5 to 6, she's going to generally have slightly more with a Faerie charm, usually sitting around 5 mana regen. But taking Manaflow Band will extend her maximum mana by 25 per Q hit, which means that it is going to take longer to regenerate a Zoomies cast in lane without proccing passive.
--Manaflow Band gives only 1 extra cast of Q in the laning phase, and that's probably around 6:00 or 7:00 when you return from recalling. The extra Q cast is not worth the trouble of increasing your max mana. Your mana regeneration will not be fast enough to justify one extra Q when it slows down your Zoomies uses. It only makes casting Zoomies take longer with a higher maximum mana until Manaflow Band is fully stacked.
--Many Yuumi players will make the argument: "Well, just proc passive in lane and you'll get mana back." Proccing passive each time it is up is not realistic. Proccing passive requires paying attention to enemy CC cooldowns. The lockout on W will get you killed if you make a mistake.
--At level 18 with 500% mana regeneration (including Shard of True Ice), Yuumi's mana regeneration is around 20.2. But with manaflow band, it takes 1 second longer to fully regenerate a Zoomies cast (with no passive proc) than when compared to not having Manaflow Band at all. That single second matters and it can make the difference between your teammate surviving or not surviving a teamfight if you reach extreme lategame.
--Yuumi is a lategame hypercarry healing support. When played as a healer, her most important stat is mana regeneration, which makes Manaflow Band detrimental. Presence of Mind is much more valuable.
--In this slot, you could take Nullifying Orb instead of Manaflow Band. The point of taking Nullifying Orb is not because it is better than Manaflow Band, the point in taking it is because it is the best option in that slot that doesn't hurt Yuumi's overall performance.
--This entire discussion does not mean Manaflow Band is not viable. It can be viable, especially on AP builds that focus on poking out the enemy with items like Luden's Tempest. In an AP-focused build with Luden's Tempest, you gain 600 mana from Luden's and 250 from Manaflow Band, which results in a total of at least 850 mana, which means approximately 9 extra Q casts, but only if you do not cast Zoomies.

This guide will be updated at a later date. For now, this is the end of the guide.