"I will save you from yourself!"

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Welcome to my fourth Champion guide! I'm Omega Zero/AlDarkin, and we'll be covering Yone, the Unforgotten. Having played some Yasuo before (read: Got to m7 and regretfully have over a hundred thousand points with him) and being into Champions and their lore, I was excited not just for Yone being released, but also due to him being a cool-looking (edgy) Assassin that came to have pretty unique abilities and high mobility (even if you get sent back to where you came from anyway). I was already excited for his release, and after getting my hands on him, Yone quickly became part of my Champion Pool. With that, take the path with me as we learn more about Yasuo's brother.

"Azakana lurk everywhere. I will end their depredations."

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Yone is a positioning-reliant assassin/carry working best in the mid lane with mostly physical damage, good disruption and great gap closers . Boasting absurd repositioning tools and a good amount of AoE skills, Yone is sure to be a strong addition to any team composition, being somewhat safe in the lane and scaling extremely well as the game goes on.

Yone can pick off targets out of position alone, do more aggressive plays with severely reduced risk and add a lot of chaos in team-fights as he dives towards the enemy's backline and waste almost no time with proper management of his spirit form. Gaining a large boost in power once he acquires two crit items, whether if left alone or snowballing, Yone is bound to attract the enemy team's attention.

Despite what some people say, Yone is NOT meant to be a freely interchangeable/replacement of Yasuo (which was already pointed out in his Dev Blog though it was the original intent), both have their own respective strengths and weaknesses, having different synergies with various team comps.

"I'm not here to save their souls."

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STRENGTHS

Great waveclear
Great scaling potential
Great Disruption
Resourceless
High mobility
Safer than most champions to do risky choices (deep wards, scouting, etc.)
Strong enough to draw enemy attention
Fits in almost all team comps, flexible
Strong roams and respo
High kill potential
High outplay potential
Rewards both micro and decision making really well
Absurd flank positions
Kit ensures he'll always do damage to any target

WEAKNESSES

Easily bullied early game
Very vulnerable to ganks
Can be punished extremely hard in lane
Wrong decisions and timing on E will get you killed
Very item-reliant
Very, very squishy
Taking the wrong actions is more punishing than a fair amount of other champions
Long wind-up on ulti, can realistically only guarantee landing it after hitting Q3.
Not a single point-and-click, can mess up
Takes some getting used to, easy to be overconfident with

"Azakana abound."

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"One to cut, one to seal."

Play Video

Passive - Way of the Hunter

Every other attack with no timer in-between, Yone swings with his Azakana sword, converting 50% of the basic attack's pre-mitigation damage into magical damage as he alternates between it and his Steel sword. Behaves and interacts exactly as a regular basic attack otherwise. Additionally, Yone gains double critical chance in exchange for less damage on crits.

This passive is simple, but effective. Essentially, this means that targets who stack just armor will still take a fair amount of damage from Yone if their magic resist is too low. Note the passive only affects the attack's damage, meaning while affected by Sheen and Demolish, on-hit effects such as Wit's End and Blade of the Ruined King will not be affected.
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"Piercing winds!"

Play Video

Q - Mortal Steel

Behaving very similarly to Yasuo's Steel Tempest, Yone thrusts forward in a target direction with his Steel sword, dealing physical damage to enemies struck and gaining a stack of Gathering Storm if a target is struck, with the closest enemy struck receiving on-hit effects. Upon acquiring two stacks of Gathering Storm, Yone will gain a wind aura around him.
Casting Mortal Steel during this time will consume the stacks and cause Yone to dash a fixed distance while simultaneously sending out a gust of wind, damaging and knocking up enemies. Yone himself stops dashing sooner than the Gust does, meaning the indicator is the Gust's range.
This ability's cast time and cooldown scales with Yone's total attack speed, capping at 1.33s. It can also crit and be dodged/blocked, behaving exactly like his brother's unstacked Q.
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"Cut through lies!"

Play Video

W - Spirit Cleave

Yone slashes horizontally in a cone with his Azakana blade, doing both physical and magical damage to enemies struck based on a percentage of their maximum health plus a tiny amount of base damage.
If at least one enemy is struck, Yone gains a small shield that scales with his bonus attack damage which increases for every enemy champion hit, scaling between a 100-200% bonus increase.
This ability, while not noted in the tooltip also scales with attack speed, capping at 6.00s. Though this does not apply on-hit effects.
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"Nowhere to hide!"

Play Video

E - Soul Unbound

Yone leaves his body and sends out his spirit form, pushing his body slightly behind while his spirit dashes forward. While in his spirit form Yone's body becomes untargetable and invulnerable as you control the spirit, gaining ramping movement speed for the duration over the course of five seconds.
Any damage you deal via basic attacks or abilities while in this form to enemy champions leaves a mark on enemies. Once Soul Unbound ends, Yone will detonate the mark before dashing straight back to his body, dealing true damage to all enemies marked based on a percentage of the damage they received from Yone.
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"Nothing personal."

Play Video

Ultimate (R) - Fate Sealed

Yone pauses and winds up for .75 seconds, marking the area in front of him. Once the cast time ends, Yone blinks forward behind the last enemy champion struck or the maximum distance.
Enemies who were in the area will be stunned briefly, then take both physical and magical damage before being dragged and knocked up towards Yone's location.
If Yone is killed before the cast time, the ability will NOT go on cooldown.

"I do what must be done."

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Yone's greatest strength is how strong he can be mid-late game. In return, one of his weaknesses is his rather noticeable vulnerability during laning phase. As a result, Yone's runes should ensure his safety during laning phase, as Yone really does not rely on runes to output damage.
Fleet Footwork does wonders for Yone, letting him sustain during laning phase and have a better chance of getting out during a gank. The sub-runes help Yone take advantage of his assassin playstyle, with Triumph restoring health and granting gold on takedown, Legend: Alacrity making it so that Yone has smoother attacks and more attack speed to work with and shorter cooldowns and Coup de Grace to help finishing off enemies to ensure his E is fatal. Conqueror, while definitely not bad in its own right, doesn't offer enough to warrant trading Footwork for Yone, especially as he'll most likely not be able to use Conqueror at full stacks until later on. Conqueror will still obviously outscale Footwork, and if you're confident the laning phase will go well then grab it instead.

Yone's Secondary tree should always help in Yone's sustain, whether it's Domination with Ravenous Hunter or Resolve with Second Wind/ Bone Plating. Inspiration's secondaries are not optimal on Yone and neither is Sorcery's. As Yone already does a high amount of damage mid-late game, getting runes such as Absolute Focus or Gathering Storm are redundant. Cooldown reduction is also not essential on Yone, making Cosmic Insight and Transcendence both inefficient.

"What does one do with an abundance of masks?"

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With the help of Yone's passive, Yone can opt to build defensively and still do a good amount of damage. However, since Yone's generally safer and is more of an assassin, you will be mostly finding your survivability in lifesteal with minimum purely defensive item builds.

Starting Items/Consumables
Doran's Blade - The best starting item for Yone, providing Health, Attack Damage and Lifesteal. You increase your trading power, can take some hits and overall have better lane pressure.
Doran's Shield - I'd only really advise this against the worst of the matchups, especially if you didn't go Resolve. With Footwork, this is normally overkill and you end up sacrificing too much offensive power.
Refillable Potion - When you're in a very hard match up where you know you'll be getting poked and chugging potions left and right, take this instead on of a regular Health Potion on first back. You'll save a lot of gold in the process.
Stealth Ward - Self-explanatory. Ward to gain vision of their jungler, helping you and your team stay safe and have optimal rotations. Especially helpful for Yone in particular as Yone can easily bully the enemy jungler later on, moreso with a lead.

Core Items
Berserker's Greaves - Despite being just boots, this item gives one of the higher attack speed stats in the game and being an assassin, Yone makes better use from more offensive stats than he does defensive stats.
Phantom Dancer - The safer alternative versus it's sister, this will give Yone survivability and better chasing power instead.
Statikk Shiv - The more aggressive between the two, this will instead provide stronger burst and wave clear. Has good synergy with Footwork.
Infinity Edge - The most important item to take on Yone, as not doing so makes your damage extremely underwhelming. This will max out your crit at 100% immediately, letting you build other items instead.
Death's Dance - Defensive stats to reduce damage you take? Check. Damage? Check. Sustain through a strong DoT passive and healing from all sorts of damage? Check. Honestly playing a game without this item as Yone feels harder to work with.

Jungle?
Enchantment: Bloodrazor - Allows Yone to opt for different boots, synergizes with Yone's W (both doing max HP damage) and gives reliable DPS/Objective power.
Enchantment: Warrior - Provides more raw damage and some CDR to work with your E and R.
Stalker's Blade - Allows Yone to stick onto targets easily and add some extra burst, otherwise doesn't have much use due to not being affected by Soul Unbound.
Skirmisher's Sabre - Lets Yone have an easier time in early-mid fights especially before items, again is not affected by Soul Unbound.


Situational Items are exactly what they sound like. At that point it's a matter of experience and adapting to the match. Some pointers to note: Taking Wit's End lets Yone change boots and still keep capped Q/W CD, Bloodthirster and other various lifesteal items only apply to the closest target hit and will not proc Ravenous Hunter, but other targets will work the opposite way. Basically, first target is considered to have been auto'd while the rest are considered to have been hit by a spell.

"Your fight is with yourself!"

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Yone's Skill Order isn't really that diverse generally speaking. You always put points into your ultimate when possible due to the high damage boost and CDR per rank, afterwards max Q due to it being your bread and butter. Afterwards, max E due to the huge CDR and damage echo boost per rank, with W being last due to the shield scaling with your champion level and the boost in damage is miniscule in comparison.

"Carve away doubt!"

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Laning Phase

Yone's weakest point in the game, as he is super vulnerable to ganks and does not have the necessary attack speed to dish out damage and pressure just yet. Go for good trades as much as possible when Q3 is up while keeping your health high enough as Yone can trade well with E>Q3>AA>W leaving little to no time for the enemy to retaliate, otherwise try to freeze the wave near your turret using your W to mitigate damage even if it hits just minions. Yone is capable of shoving the waves quickly, so whenever you have lane priority consider roaming to one of the side lanes or even the enemy's jungle. With your E, you can get in deep wards with little risk as long as you aren't careless with it.
Once you acquire ult, you can get kills easily, which is why it is important to keep your health up while wearing down your enemy laner as much as possible. If you can roam, your ultimate will be a strong threat especially in bot lane as it can turn fights around. You can even use your ult to your advantage and gank from an unexpected angle not unlike Fiddlesticks' Crowstorm.

Middle Game

Around this point, while keeping your farm up, look for picks as Yone can close the distance between him and his targets extremely quick while also having your Phantom Dancer and added points in E. Team-fights also work due to Yone's kit having a good amount of AoE, however it is crucial that you land your Q3 and Ult. Sometimes it is better to hold onto your Q3 if it means knocking up multiple targets than whiffing or focusing the wrong people. Make use of your E and get in the most vision possible, especially with a Control Ward in order to prepare for objectives, picks and create an even wider lead as you excel in punishing mistakes.

Late Game

By this point, everyone should be on equal items, but you'll still be leading with an advantage due to the insane amount of mixed damage that Yone can dish out, leaving very few champions being able to deal with you at this stage in the game as you'll be durable enough on top of your sustain from Death's Dance. Though observe caution as high-armored tanks with Thornmail and/or Randuin's Omen can still sPlaying similarly to Mid-Game but with even greater risks, landing your abilities become critical in your effectiveness, more so against the high priority targets that are most likely sitting in the backline. Good calls, picks and control will win your fights as Yone is strong at tight spots.

Jungling

With an abundance of AoE and good sustain, Yone can only easily set a gank post-6. However, Yone makes up for this with good pressure and control due to his potential vision control and good dueling power with an item or two. Take Enchantment: Bloodrazor against high HP teams (or teams that will need you to get defensive boots) and Enchantment: Warrior for raw damage and CDR.

"Such bravado! But you're fooling no one."

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General/Way of the Hunter

- All of Yone's abilities can be buffered during another of his abilities, such as using E > R > Q3 > W with the next input being applied during the animation of the previous command.
- Yone's Azakana blade will still be fully affected by lifesteal, and the magic proportion is affected by magic penetration.
- Way of the Hunter only applies to the damage of the attack itself, so though Trinity Force may be affected, on-hit items like Blade of the Ruined King or Guinsoo's Rageblade will not benefit from it.
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Mortal Steel

- Mortal Steel is not affected by Way of the Hunter.
- It will only treat the first/closest target hit with the basic attack rule. Due to this, Dodge and Block will only be pierced through if they're the second+ target hit. Blind will always be pierced, however.
- Using Flash during the wind-up will re-direct the thrust, while Q3 will only reposition Yone. Additionally, delaying the Flash to when Yone starts dashing allows Yone to knockup targets in 2 positions similar to Yasuo's E-Q and Jarvan's E-Q Flash, using Yone himself and the whirlwind he creates which both damage and knockup.
- Despite this, Yone's Q can only affect enemies once.
- Yone's Q3 will allow him to dash over some walls, but even if Yone fails to cross the terrain the projectile will still continue on.
- Yone stops dashing after slightly more than half the indicator, the projectile being the one to travel the full distance.
- With Yone's Q3, he can buffer/cancel out some crowd control done to him similar to a Tristana jump if timed correctly. Yone can also interrupt other abilities too with Q3.
- Q3 will charge up Energized as Yone dashes, meaning Yone can pre-emptively dash and benefit from an Energized attack should he hit a target once it's charged up.
- When dealing with Braum or Yasuo, only the gust of wind is interceptable, making contact with either of the two will knock them up.
- Due to Q3 being a dash, being Grounded will not allow Yone to use Mortal Steel until either the Grounded expires or his stacks disappear.
- While Q3 can cross terrain, some terrain are too thick for Yone to pass through. However the whirlwind will still go through as it does not stick to Yone.
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Spirit Cleave

- Using Flash will redirect Spirit Cleave towards the new direction, be wary when doing so.
- Spirit Cleave will always provide the shield as long as a single enemy is hit, hitting an enemy champion will simply increase the shield, meaning during laning phase using W to mitigate poke is a viable option.
- Spirit Cleave has a minimum damage threshold against minions, while having a maximum threshold against monsters.
- While not noted in the tooltip, Spirit Cleave scales with your attack speed.
- When jungling, using Spirit Cleave on the tiny krugs with Hunter's Talisman will not kill them, meaning you can clear Krugs as fast as possible then simply use W on the remaining Krugs to regain an absurd amount of HP.
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Soul Unbound

- The spirit can cross over certain walls, however the body cannot. The walls that the spirit can dash are quite thin however, and will require a good amount of practice and experience.
- Yone will always return to his body no matter where he came from, even ignoring walls when doing so. While doing so, he is considered unstoppable, meaning Yone can proc GA while returning.
- CC and channels will prevent Yone from returning to his body, meaning roots, grounded and winding up your Q3/Ult will keep you in spirit form until the disable/channel ends. As a result, doing damage while in the 'extended' duration to Champions will still mark the echo, allowing Yone to get off a larger 'pop' damage.
- When popping the mark and returning back, you cleanse yourself of most debuffs. Some of these interactions are bugs however.
- When using E in an effort to escape from ganks, such as when dodging skillshots, dodge the opposite way of where you normally would, as not doing so will bring your body closer to the enemy.
- Your initial dash can be interrupted by Poppy's Steadfast Presence, and you're unable to recast Soul Unbound while Grounded, the returning dash as mentioned earlier is unstoppable, thus keeping you safe from these.
- When taking a camp, if you need to head back to lane quickly and you have enough damage, use Soul Unbound to save time heading towards the camp and returning from it. Be careful not to miscalculate!
- When jungling, use Q1 from the wall before using using Soul Unbound. While clearing the camp, charge up your Q3. Once it expires, you can simply dash over the wall, saving you some time.
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Fate Sealed

- It is sometimes important to use Fate Sealed to simply close the gap between you and someone, as Yone still does a good amount of damage without landing his ult against even slightly more durable targets.
- Due to it being a blink, Yone can blink through Veigar/Thresh walls unharmed. This also means Yone can 'extend' the range of his ult through extra large walls (such as the walls connected to the tri-bush at Gromp and the river bush leading to a side lane. Note that the 'harm' area will not change, however where Yone emerges will be 'extended'.
- Enemies can still be affected even if they get out of the way if they used a buffered spell to escape such as Arcane Shift due to the pull being delayed.
- If the wall is thin enough, though very situational, Yone's ult can be used to go through a wall even if there is a Champion blocking it. The target has to be hugging the wall however.
- Yone's ult affects ALL units in the AoE, even if he'll only reposition behind a target Champion. This means that even if you use Fate Sealed point-blank, enemies behind the champions will be affected. This can make for situational moments where you need to damage an enemy pet or objective without getting too close being possible with just ult.

"Out of my way!"

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Red = E
Blue = Q3
Pink = Ultimate

Circle = Works back and forth
Arrows = One way trip, X being where you go back

Attached image shows (most) wall dash locations, the unmarked ones really just being a matter of you getting used to the respective spells and testing it yourself. Despite the circles making it seem like the dashes are generous, some of them are oddly specific that it isn't uncommon for people to fail the dashes. I suggest taking the time to practice them in, well, practice tool. Only way to truly improve is through experience, after all.

"Let's end this!"

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Yone is a positioning reliant assassin/carry hybrid who is weakest at early game being extremely vulnerable to ganks and poke, but makes up for it with strong mid-late game potential in both teamfights and solo picks. He can get in deep vision with his E and should be using it to apply pressure to the enemy jungler when possible and also scouting/hunting.
Runes should focus on giving him sustain (Footwork), getting a Zeal Item, IE and DD is usually the main focus along with Greaves. Q3 E and R can all cross terrain, and should be taking advantage of all of these to make the most efficiency of his Spirit Form. Yone is NOT a Yasuo 2.0 also.

"Long before blades and sorcery are needed, words... can save a soul."

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Well stranger, we're at the end of the path. I appreciate you taking the time to read this stuff, and I hoped it help. Remember, guides can only help you learn a Champion, but to truly master them then you'll have to dedicate time to them. I'll be staying here, updating the guide whenever possible. Though I should probably mention that, while I do have a Yasuo guide here, it's extremely outdated, so if you're interested in that, wait for a bit as I'll be having to redo almost everything there. You can also check out my other stuff which are updated.

https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/quick-guide-to-master-yi-473034

https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/kayn-you-click-this-guide-536486

Special Thanks to the Yone Mains Discord members for their friendliness and extremely helpful insights about this champion, being open to discussion and ideas while being one of the most welcoming Mains servers I've ever been in. They also helped me improve information and the structure of this guide, without them I wouldn't have been able to make a guide that I truly felt comfortable and confident enough in soon enough. Additional thanks to one of my closest friends, xSenpi (sen-π on YouTube) for creating the chapter headers and the video demonstrations. This guide will be continuously updated, with support from them and others.
Good luck and have fun in the Rift, and take care outside of it.

Oh, and be like Yone. Wear a mask.

Changelogs

August 17, 2020: Released this guide!
August 18, 2020: Added video demonstrations for the abilities.
August 20, 2020: Adjusted information on Gameplay, improved clarity on Summoner Spell Notes and Wall Dashes image, added additional Threats and Synergies!