Hello everyone! My name is Samu and this is my Yone Top guide! I have been playing the game since S11, I started out paying support and mid, and transitioned to Toplane a couple months after the start of S12.
While I might not be the highest ranked I have put in a lot of time into learning to play Yone in the toplane and I believe I have a decent amount on knowledge on how to play him now. In this guide I am going to try and explain everything I have learned this far. I will try and keep the guide updated as new patches roll out and as I gain a deeper understanding of the champ, the matchups etc...

Yone is fun to play while at the same time having an incredibly high skill ceiling.

A lot of different high elo Yone top players and even the occasional appearence of Yone top in proplay show how he can be a solid pick even at the highest levels of play.

Arguably Yone has some very bad matchups top, but I believe with enough experience and learning a lot of bad matchups can be won or mitigated.

Playing Yone means learning something new every game, there are so many ways to play fights and matchups, you will always learn something.

PROS + Can carry games + Manaless champion with low cooldowns + Strong abilities like Soul Unbound and Fate Sealed + Mixed damage + High skill ceiling + Scales well + Very mobile Yone is a high damage champion, your mixed damage makes it hard to itemize against you, especially earlygame. You have no mana and you Q is very spammable, having virtually no cooldown lategame. You have one of the stronges trading abilities in the game Soul Unbound and you ultimate Fate Sealed can have incredible impact in teamfights. Yone scales very well and spikes hard with his core items.

CONS - Squishy af - Get fed or feed - Can be countered easly both with champions and playstyle. - Feels bad when behind - Weak earlygame - Very item reliant - Needs setup to be effective in teamfights When playing Yone, you are basically playing a melee adc, this means your earlygame can be lackluster. You are very item dependent, until boots and Shieldbow you are weak. If you fall behind you are next to useless. You need setup and some level of coordination to be effective in teamfights, especially with your Fate Sealed usage.

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Flash Flash is a must on Yone since you dont have on-demand dashes on your basic abilities like other champs that can go flashless like Camille or Tryndamere. You want to run Flash plus another of the following three spells.

Teleport Teleport is the best spell for Yone top in most situations, it is incredibly versatile. It allows you to f*** up your earlygame and not be completely out of the game, later on it allows you to join fights and stay longer in sidelanes. You want to take tp most of your games, the next two spells are very situational.

Exhaust Exhaust is a very situational summoner spell and can be taken is matchups like Tryndamere which will look to all in you and/or dive you.

Ignite Ignite can be taken if you are feeling spicy. After the tp changes it has risen in viability, you can take Ignite for more kill pressure in lane or to mitigate healing in matchups like Aatrox. My advice is still to take tp in most cases, as tp is very versatile and has incredible value as a toplaner.

Lethal Tempo

Lethal Tempo is the best Keystone on Yone at the moment. The ramping attack speed is extremely good on Yone, because your Q and W cooldowns scale based on attack speed. Lethal Tempo also gives you a lot more agency in the early game than Conqueror

Triumph

Triumphis the best rune from the first row of Precision, the healing on takedowns is incredibly valuable and has the pontential to let you survive dives, turn fights in your favor or let you survive ignite in lane. You'd be surprised how many times this will save ur ***.

Legend: Alacrity

Legend: Alacrity is a bunch of free attack speed, which is the most valuable stat on Yone. Take this in most matchups, especially melee ones and comps with little cc.

Legend: Tenacity

Legend: Tenacity is good into heavy cc teamcomps, especially if you take Unflinching as well. Your attack speed is going to be noticeably slower, you can consider going for an attack speed item like Mortal Reminder, Blade of the Ruined King or Wit's End.

Legend: Bloodline

Legend: Bloodline can be good in ranged matchups where you are more likely to play passive and not trade much. The lifesteal feels nice in lanes you get poked a lot like Kennen or Teemo. The extra 100 health once you get full stacks is also nice.

Last Stand

Last Stand is the best rune on Yone top from the third row of Precision. It is the most reliable of the three bottom runes and the one that gives you more damage, especially in a duel scenario like toplane.

Bone Plating

Bone Plating is good into matchups that have a lot of burst but no poke like Riven or Sett. If you take this rune, ideally look to trade only when you have it up.

Second Wind

Second Wind is your standard rune into ranged matchups, it offers a lot of sustain, especially when paired with Doran's Shield. If you take this, dont look for extended trades unless you are sure you can win.

Conditioning

Conditioning is a great scaling rune, the extra MR and Armor are very good mid game and even more once you get your tanky items like Death's Dance and Spirit Visage. After 12.10 this rune feels very good and is a good choice into easier matchups.

Overgrowth

Overgrowth is very good on Yone, the extra health will help you survive a lot of fights. This rune also scales infinitly, for those 40 minute games this will be very good. I like the extra health, especially since I build Spirit Visage most games I get even more value out of it and still get the increased healing/shielding. After 12.10 and I would take this over Revitalize.

Revitalize

Revitalize has a lot of synergy with your Spirit Cleave and Immortal Shieldbow shield and lifesteal. it can help you during fights after you aquire Immortal Shieldbow. After the durability patch I dont like taking this rune anymore, Overgrowth is the better choice.

Unflinching

Unflinching is good into heavy cc comps when paired with Legend: Tenacity. Unflinching is also good into champions with slows like Nasus and Sion.

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Way of the Hunter (Passive)

Yone's crit chance is increased by 2.5 times but his crit strikes deal 10% less damage. Yone's auto attacks alternate between a normal one and a 50% physical and 50% magic damage one. For every 1% crit strike chance over 100% Yone gains 0.4 AD. Yone's passive is incredibly srong and allows you to have 100% crit change at 2 items, paired with Infinity Edge passive, your DPS can be very high. Your mixed damage on your autoattacks will help you against tanks, as it makes it harder to stack armor against you. Keep in mind that buying extra crit for the crit to AD conversion is never as good as buying raw AD, in addition, after your core items Immortal Shieldbow and Infinity Edge Yone benefits more from bruiser items which give him more survivability. An exception is Mortal Reminder which is very cheap and gold efficient even tho it gives Crit chance.

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Mortal Steel (Q) RANGE: 475/950 COOLDOWN: 4 - 1.33 (based on bonus attack speed) CAST TIME: .4 - 0.133 (based on bonus attack speed)

Yone thrusts his sword forward dealing physical damage and gaining a stack of Gathering storm for 6 seconds if he hits an enemy. At 2 stacks of Gathering Storm, the next use of this ability causes Yone to consume all stacks, dash forward and knock up anemies hit for .75 seconds. This is you main damage tool, it becomes very spammable lategame, it is crucial that you use it efficiently, right as it comes off cooldown when trading. It is a skillshot, hitting it isn't very hard but make sure to practice being able to reliably hit your Qs when trading, while moving and on moving targets, otherwise you will miss out on a lot of damage. While your Q is on coodlown it is very important that you "sneak" autattacks on your target to maximize damage. Practice lasthitting with your Q at max range (with the tip of it), this is incredibly important during laning phase, as it makes it way harder for your lane opponent to engage or poke you. Your Q3 is your main engage and disengage tool, you want to have it up as much a possible to have an escape and to pressure your opponent, always prefer to lasthit with Q over autoattacks. Learn to reliably combo with your Q3, Soul Unbound and Fate Sealed.

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Spirit Cleave (W) RANGE: 600 COOLDOWN: 15 - 6 (based on bonus attack speed)

Yone cleaves his sword in a cone shape, dealing percent health magic and physical damage, Yone also shields himslef if he hits one or more enemies. This ability is often seen as the weakest of Yone's abilities, but it is still a crucial piece of his kit. It is a very important trading tool, with effective usage it allows to mitigate a lot of damage. In lane you want use this right before you get hit by poke or right before a burst of damage when you trade. Later in the game, this ability will help you fight tanky opponents, thanks to it's percent health damage. When engaging you want to use this ability after you hit the enemy with Q3 and autoattack them once. Your engage sequence might look something like this E > Q3 > AA > W > ...

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Soul Unbound (E) RANGE: 300 (initial dash) MARK DAMAGE: 25/27.5/30/32.5/35% of damage dealt COOLDOWN: 22/19/16/13/10

Yone dashes,leaving behind hs body, Yone gains 10-30% ramping movement speed and is ghosted, for 5 seconds or until the ability is recasted Yone's attacks and abilities mark the target hit by them, at the moment the ability ends or is recasted, Yone returns to his bod and the mark is consumed, dealing an extra percentage of the damage dealt as true damage. Yone's E is his strongest ability, and his main trading tool. You E+Q3 combo is your main engage tool. The extra true damage allows you to trade with more ease and to execute enemies. The movement speed you gain allows you to kite enemies. You can use the initial dash to dodge abilities like Camille's Hookshot and plenty others. You E recast can cancel CC, this is an important skill to master, good E recast timing during trading or teamfighting often makes the difference between winning it, losing it or even dying. Your E allows for esier tower dives, with it's recast getting you out of danger. Keep in mind that your E is not an escape tool and if used incorretly, you will get chain cc'd once you return to your body.

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Fate Sealed (R) RANGE: 1000 CAST TIME: .075 COOLDOWN: 120/90/60

Yone prepares a strike for .75 seconds, dashes forward knocking down and stunning all enemies in a line in front of him, Yone blinks behind the last enemy hit, if no enemies are hit, he blinks to max range. After .3 seconds all enemies hit get pulled towards Yone, get knocked up for .75 seconds and take physical and magic damage. Yone's ultimate can singlehandedly win fights if used right. It is very easy to dodge or flash out of if it is used as an engage tool. As Yone, during teamfights you want to look to followup on some hard cc that allows you to hit you ult, being the main engage tool is very bad, not only will people dodge your ult but you are quite squishy and you will get oneshot.

I go into detail on every viable item on Yone in the "Items" tab right at the start of the guide, this is just a summary of the main items you are going to build.

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Starting items

Doran's Blade is your standard starting item into most melee matchups. It gives you some sustain and AD for trades.
Doran's Shield is your standard starting item into most ranged matchups. You want to pair Doran's Shield with Second Wind for the best sustain in lane.
You will take a Health Potion in addition to Doran's Shield or Doran's Blade.
There are some matchups were both Doran's Blade and Doran's Shield are viable depending on how you plan to play the lane. Some examples are Fiora and Dr. Mundo. If you plan to play aggressive you can go Doran's Blade, otherwise you can go Doran's Shield.

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Boots

Berserker's Greaves are your go-to boots, in most cases you want to rush them. In optimal situations, you will buy them on your first base.
Plated Steelcaps Are good into auto attack based champions like Wukong and lanes like Renekton where you need to play defensively. You can also buy these boots into full AD comps and comps with multiple auto attackers.

Mercury's Treads Can be good into teamcomps with a lot of cc, like Nautilus, Leona, Lux, Amumu.

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Core Items

Immortal Shieldbow is the only viable mythic item on Yone, the shield is extremely valuable as it gives Yone a lot of survivability. Immortal Shieldbow also gives crit so you can reach your 100% crit spike on your second item with Infinity Edge. The health and AD on the mythic passive are also good on Yone.

Infinity Edge is your go-to second item, you will build this as your second item in most of your games and as your third item in some cases. Infinity Edge allows you to spike extremely hard, almost always you want to build this second, but you can go Mortal Reminder second when the enemy team has a lot of healing.

Blade of the Ruined King is very good into tanky opponents, hence why it is very good on 12.10. The current best build will have you rush it after Berserker's Greaves. By rushing Blade of the Ruined King you still get a buildpath with Vampiric Scepter and you spike very hard once you complete it. BORk feels quite bad into armor stacking so I would avoid building this item into a lot of armor.

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Standard Items

Death's Dance is very good on Yone as a third or fourth item, the healing on takedowns and damage mititgation make it very valuable in teamfights. Build this third if the enemy team has a lot of physical damage output or a lot of burst. Build it fourth, after Spirit Visage if they have mostly magic damage.

As you might have noticed I am a big Spirit Visage fan. I believe that this item is busted on Yone. The passive synergises extremely well with your kit and build, giving you extra shielding on Spirit Cleave and Immortal Shieldbow, as well as more healing from Immortal Shieldbow's lifesteal and Death's Dance passive. The extra health is also very nice on Yone, as you are quite squishy. Build this third if the enemy team has a lot of magic damage or if you have an enchanter support. Build this fourth if the enemy team has a lot of burst or physiscal damage.

Guardian Angel is good on Yone if you are facing an asassin and in late game scenarios where you are on long death timers. I would suggest buying this as your last item, since once used it's on a very long cooldown and basically useless.

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Situational Items

Mortal Reminder is your go to antiheal item, altough antiheal items are quite bad atm Mortal Reminder can still be built as your second item if the enemy comp has multiple healing champs.


Silvermere Dawn is your go to Quicksilver Sash item, build this into champs with cc you want to avoid like Malzahar or Morgana, you can build it into Mordekaiser to cleanse his ult as well. Build Quicksilver Sash after Immortal Shieldbow and sit on it until you have built your core items.

I only like Bloodthirster into some Blade of the Ruined King and Sunfire Aegis builds and in games where fights last longer than usual. Overall I am not a big fan of the item, if you go for a Blade of the Ruined King and Immortal Shieldbow build you will have enough sustain and a lot more damage.

There are some things to keep in mind before the game even starts.

Blindpicking Yone can be very bad, especially in higher elos, people will punish you quite hard with picks like Rengar or Akshan. I suggest you have a reliable pick you can blind.

Not every draft fits a Yone top, your team might need and AP toplaner, keep that in mind. Other that that, picking Yone into a team with no cc is also not ideal, you really want someone with hard cc like Diana, Nautilus to enable you, especially in teamfights.

During draft, try and analyze your composition and the enemy composition, think of how you are going to play your laning phase, your mid game and lategame. Try and find what your role is going to be, are you going to be weakside? are you going to be the only AD champion? Can you outscale your opponent? Pose yourself all these questions and more and try to find a gameplan.

I suggest you do your runes manually every game, analyze your matchup and their top-jungle duo and adjust your runes. By **** this you will build a good knowledge on your runes and your preferences, feel free to exeperiment with different runes within reason.

In the early game and laning phase, your job as Yone is to not die on repeat.
Altough since the Lethal Tempo rework, Yone's laning phase has gotten stronger, he still is one of the weakest laners in the game. Standard bruisers will **** on you with their sustain, burst and engage. It is very important that you dont fall behind during laning phase. Matchup and champion knowledge is crucial on Yone.

Your gameplan will vary from matchup to matchup, in some cases you can play more aggressive and in others you will have to be defensive. Overall, ranged champions and bruisers will beat you early. You should be able to beat most tanks fairly easily.

Against bruisers, you can usually contest farm level 1, be extremely careful of their level 2, as you dont want to get chunked and be divable at level 3 or have to take a bad reset. Play safe until level 3, you dont want them crashing the wave if possible.
It is almost always good to look for a freeze, at higer elos people will stop mindlessly pushing every wave into you, and will contest freezes, especially if the know they are stronger, so you might have a harder time.

From level 3 onwards you can start looking for trades with Soul Unbound, matchup knowledge is impotant, as you need to be able to identify their cooldowns correctly and decide how and when you are going to trade with your opponent.

Against ranged matchups, you can't really walk up to the wave level 1 or you will get chunked, try and sneak farm with max range Mortal Steel and soak xp. From level 2 you will have an easier time farming thanks to your Spirit Cleave shield. From level 3 onwards you can look for trades, in most ranged matchups, if you manage to get on top of them, you have a good chance to win the trade.

Dont look for roams to often, prefer farm and freezing over roams, you will basically never have prio for scuttle.

Setting up ganks is pretty easy, look to have your Q3 up when your jungler approaches, so you can Q3 your opponent and ult him. Dont always use your Soul Unbound first, sometimes it is best to keep it, especially against mobile champions or if your jungler lacks cc, to chase someone if the dont immediatly die.

Midgame starts when tower plating falls and the first tier 1 towers are taken, so somewhere around 15 minutes.

Midgame is also where your macro skills start to matter, make sure you rotate corretly, track the enemy team's position, track vision control and summoner spells.

It is your job to sit in the sidelane opposing the next objective if your tp is up, if it isnt up make sure to rotate in time.
You are not afraid to 1v1 in sidelanes, you can duel most champs if you aren't behind, just make sure not to get collapsed on.
If you have a lead, push lanes, take jungle camps and get vision. Take tier 2 tower if it's safe to do so. Always look to tp for objectives or fights and snowball your lead. Yone is a very resource hungy champion, funnel as much gold as possible into yourslef, so you can hit your spikes.

If you are behind you will have a harder time playing Yone, you need to look for proactive plays to get you back into the game, look for skirmishes with someone on your team that is ahead. Look for picks on weak meambers of the enemy team, like the adc or support. If your whole team is behind, look to flip objectives.

Lategame you are very strong, you can win almost every 1v1 and you are a monster in teamfights, look to force objectives like Baron Nashor and close out the game.

When tamfighting in the lategame, patience is key, a lot of players just E+R someone at the start of the fight, which is exactly what you dont want to do. Wait for the enemy team to use some important cooldowns and wait for your team to get a good engage and then strike with your Fate Sealed.

Depending on your comp you may want to either play front to back or look for a flank. In the lategame it is very important that your decision making is on point, as one bad teamfight might lose you the game. Always adress the situation and try to find the best play.

After the game ends, regardelss if it was a win or not, try and think about what you did well and what you did wrong, find something you can improve on.

Critical thinking and self criticism are very important if you are looking to improve.

Try to not blame your teammates, only focus on what is in your control. Keep a good mental,and dont rage queue.

Here are some useful resources that may help you improve further.

Yone page on LoL Wiki for in depth stats:
https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Yone/LoL

Yone subreddit, good to ask questions:
https://www.reddit.com/r/YoneMains/

Some high elo Yone players, watching their streams and vods can be extremely useful:
Dzukill: https://www.twitch.tv/dzukill
Tempest: https://www.twitch.tv/tempest