PRE-GAMERunes Summoner Spells

MASTER YIAbilities Skill Sequence Items Pros / Cons

GAMEPLAYHow to pLay Jungle Camps Teamfights

PROS + Relatively easy to play + Easy to farm + High Amount of Damage + Can heal quite a bit and surprisingly tanky with Meditate + Strong 1v1 Potential + Quick to take towers and other objectives + Great jungle clear + Possibility to Hypercarry

CONS - Has no CC and is vulnerable to others CC - Squishy - No 'real' escape but can ult to run away - The higher rank you become, the more difficult he is to play - Easy to learn but difficult to master - Often relies on riskier plays (high risk, high reward)

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Conqueror: Basic attacks or spells that deal damage to an enemy champion grant 2 stacks of Conqueror for 6s, gaining 1.7-4.2 Adaptive Force per stack. Stacks up to 12 times. When fully stacked, heal for 15% of the damage you deal to champions. This is a solid choice on Master Yi as apart from the extra damage you will deal you will also heal for a portion of the damage. The other option here is Lethal Tempo should you wish to have increased attack speed. Currently, I recommend Conqueror though.

Triumph: Takedowns restore 12% of your missing health and grant an additional 20 gold. Master Yi is an assassin, so we certainly want to takedown enemies, he is also very squishy which means that the 12% restored health per takedown will really help you with survivability.

LEGEND: ALACRITY: Gain 3% Attack Speed plus an additional 1.5% for every Legend stack (max 10 stacks). Attack Speed works really well on Master Yi. Right now, this is the best rune to take but Legend: Tenacity can be a solid pick if the enemy team have a lot of crowd control.

Coup de Grace: Coup de Grace which will enable you to deal 8% extra damage to champions with less than 40% health. However, considering Master Yi is very squishy throughout a full game Cut Down is another option here which will deal more damage to champions with more maximum health than you.

Sudden Impact: After exiting stealth or using a dash, blink or teleport, dealing any damage to a champion grants you 7 Lethality and 6 Magic Penetration for 5 seconds. This is a solid choice on Master Yi.

Ravenous Hunter: Heal for 1.5% (+ 2.5% per Bounty Hunter stack) of the damage dealt by your abilities. Earn a Bounty Hunter stack the first time you get a takedown on each enemy champion. Any bit of extra healing is welcome. Ravenous Hunter is a solid choice here but Zombie Ward is another good option.

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Flash is a core summoner spell on almost every champion in League of Legends and Master Yi is no exception to this. It will enable you to dodge skillshots, blink over walls and escape from certain death. To be honest, it's a no-brainer without any exceptions.

Smite is mandatory in the Jungle. It will unlock the Jungle only items that are required and it's essential for securing buffs, monsters and neutral objectives, baron / dragon etc.. You must take it as a summoner spell and there is not much else to write here about it. If you build Skirmisher's Sabre you can also cast Smite on an enemy champion.

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Starting Items:

Hunter's Machete is your starting item so take it to begin every game. It's a much better option for Master Yi than taking Hunter's Talisman. It gives you some Lifesteal + Bonus Physical Damage against monsters. Always start with this item.(As of patch 10.8 hunter's machete now heals for 50% more when below 30% maximum health)

Refillable Potion Consume a charge to restore 125 Health over 12 seconds. Holds up to 2 charges and refills upon visiting the shop. A solid option and I take it to start every game.

Stealth Ward Early wards are crucial so take this to begin your game with. If you want, you can swap to Oracle Lens for clearing enemy wards a bit later in the game.

Boots Options:

Ninja Tabi: Standard boots pick, I take them almost every game. You can considor them your go-to boots.

Mercury's Treads: If they have multiple AP Champions, especially if they have lots of hard CC (Stuns, Roots, etc..).

Berserker's Greaves: Can be taken if you are ahead & fed and don't think you require defensive stats (from boots). Generally though, your Highlander will give you all the AS steroid needed.

Mobility Boots: Can be taken if you are looking for ultimate map presence and want to constantly gank lanes. I DO NOT recommend you take these though as the defensive stats from Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads are much more useful on Master Yi. ** Use with caution!!

Standard Items:

Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor grants lifesteal versus monsters and also regenerates your mana while you are in the jungle. I pick this over any other jungle item as it synergizes with Master Yi kit fantastically. The attack speed stats and the fact that it will deal 4% of a targets maximum health per basic attack makes this a must have item. Don't forget to use challenging smite! Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior is another option if you prefer some extra Attack Damage/CDR instead of Attack Speed.

Guinsoo's Rageblade You will want to buy this right after finishing your Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor. It offers great stats that work well with Master Yi kit and will also trigger your on-hit effects an additional time. This is one of you core items.

Blade of the Ruined King is a solid item on Master Yi and I consider it a core item. It will help you to chase down a champion (from its active) and can also offer you the ability to self peel. It will give you Lifesteal and some Attack Speed which can help you to sustain in fights. It's also really useful if the enemy team has multiple tanks as it deals a percentage of the enemies health in damage per hit.

Phantom Dancer is an alternative to Statikk Shiv and it grants slightly less attack speed. For 2 seconds after basic attacking an enemy champion, you gain 7% movement speed and pass through units (minions). It also have a defensive passive which will give you a shield when your health drops below 30%. This shield is a unique passive which means it will not stack with Hexdrinker or Maw of Malmortius. Can be a better option than Statikk Shiv if you are playing from behind in a particular game.

Statikk Shiv will give you quite a bit of extra burst and will help you to take down champions quicker. It will help enormously with lane waveclear and also clearing your jungle camps. It gives you more burst and damage over Phantom Dancer but no defensive stats.

Infinity Edge gives Master Yi a massive power spike. It gives you a hefty +70 Attack Damage, doubles your critical strike chance and 10% of critical strike damage is converted to true damage. If you are snowballing hard and want extra damage, this is the item for you! It doesn't help you at all defensively so choose it wisely.

Mortal Reminder will give you some all important armor penetration. I generally take this over Lord Dominik's Regards because I really like the fact that it applies Grievous Wounds from Executioner's Calling. This helps to take down champions with healing ability Darius, Swain, Vladimir etc.. and considering we are seeing so much lifesteal and Redemption / Ardent Censer in games, Mortal Reminder is a solid choice.

Lord Dominik's Regards is a good item to purchase if the enemy team is composed of multiple tanks, with little to no healing but remember that Mortal Reminder will apply grievous wounds, so choose wisely. I would recommend you take Mortal Reminder instead.

Mercurial Scimitar is a very good item to purchase when playing Master Yi. It will give you some lifesteal, attack damage and some magic resist. It's also composed of the Quicksilver Sash which when activated will remove all crowed control from you. Useful to have in your kit if you're up against a team with multiple hard CC or simply just an Annie, Rammus, Skarner or Malzahar etc... that likes to focus you hard.

Frozen Mallet is a useful item if you need some extra health while increasing your Attack Damage. It also applies a slow to enemy champions from your auto attacks which can help you to stick to them while chasing someone down.

Maw of Malmortius is a very situational item for Twitch. It will basically help you to survive burst from a mage such as Annie, Orianna, Lux, Syndra etc.. You can build the Hexdrinker component of it early and not finish the item until later in the game if need be. Generally though, I would try to take Mercurial Scimitar instead if possible, especially if it's CC that's killing you.

Guardian Angel is basically a free life. It's a solid 'defensive item' to pickup late game though, especially if you are solo carrying and your death would mean the team loses. Realistically, it should be a final item for you - if at all.

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Double Strike: After landing 3 basic attacks, Master Yi's next attack within 4 seconds strikes twice, dealing 50% AD bonus physical damage which applies on-hit effects and can critically strike. If Double Strike’s first hit kills a unit, the second strike now searches for a new target within 300 range (prioritizes killing blows). Double Strike is a very strong passive when taking towers and other objectives!

Alpha Strike: Master Yi becomes untargetable and marks to up to 4 nearby enemies before dealing 25/60/95/130/165 (+1.0 per attack damage) physical damage to them. This ability deals 75/100/125/150/175 bonus damage to monsters. If there are no unmarked enemies in range, Master Yi may strike the same enemies again, dealing 25% of the ability's damage instantly. Alpha Strike can critically strike, dealing 60% of Master Yi's attack damage as bonus physical damage. Basic attacks lower the cooldown of Alpha Strike by 1 second. You will reappear at Alpha Strike cast location if his primary target dies or becomes invulnerable as he completes the blink (you cannot hit stealthed enemies or those hiding in fog of war) Alpha Strike is your bread and butter ability and will apply spell effects as an AOE ability. Spell shields such as Banshee's Veil will block the ability.

Meditate: Master Yi channels, restoring 30/50/70/90/110 (+25% Ability Power) Health per second for 4 seconds. This healing is increased by 1% for every 1% of Master Yi's missing Health. While channeling, Master Yi reduces incoming damage by 60/62.5/65/67.5/70%. This damage reduction is halved against turrets. In addition, Master Yi will gain stacks of Double Strike and pause the remaining duration on Wuju Style and Highlander for each second he channels. Although it doesn't give you a massive increase in defensive stats / health regeneration Meditate is still a very nice piece of Master Yi kit. It is worth noting that Meditate will reset your Auto Attack timer, so pressing it quickly after an AA and then AA again will have no delay. Remember that this ability can be interrupted by Crowd Control.

Passive: Increases Master Yi's bonus attack damage by 10%. Active: Master Yi basic attacks deal 18/26/34/42/50 (+0.35 per bonus attack damage) bonus true damage for 5 seconds. Master Yi loses the passive effect of this skill while it's on cooldown.

Highlander: Passive: Champion kills and assists reduce the cooldowns of Master Yi other abilities by 70%. Active: For 7 seconds, Master Yi gains 35/45/55% Movement Speed and 25/45/65% Attack Speed and becomes immune to any slows. While active, kills and assists extend the duration by 7 seconds. Steroids!!

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Spawn Timers:

It is useful but not necessary to know the spawn timers so that you can remember from muscle memory roughly when the camps are about to respawn.

Wolves, Raptors Spawn At: 1:30 Respawn Time: 2:00 Gromp, Krugs Spawn At: 1:42 Respawn Time: 2:00 Buffs (Blue Sentinel, Red Brambleback) Spawn At: 1:30 Respawn Time: 5:00 Rift Scuttlers (in river) Spawn At: 3:15 Respawn Time: 2:30 Rift Herald (in Baron pit) • Initial Spawn: 8:00 • Respawn: 6:00 • Despawns At: 19:45 (19:55 if in combat)

Dragon (Elementals & Elder) Spawns At: 5:00 Respawn Time: 5:00 Elder Dragon: Spawns 6:00 after one team kills their 4th Elemental Drake Elder Dragon: Respawn 6:00

Baron Nashor Spawns At: 20:00 Respawn Time: 6:00

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Cloud Drake: • 10/20/30/40% ultimate CDR, ignoring the CDR cap Cloud Dragon Soul: • Passively gain 10% increased movement speed. • After casting your ultimate, gain an additional 30% movement speed for 3 seconds (30 second cooldown).

Infernal Drake: • +5/10/15/20% Attack damage and Ability power Infernal Dragon Soul: • Every 3 seconds, your next attack or damaging spell creates a small AoE explosion, dealing adaptive damage that scales with bonus attack damage, ability power, and bonus health.

Mountain Drake: • +8/16/24/32% Armor and Magic resist Mountain Dragon Soul: • After not taking damage for 5 seconds, gain a shield that lasts until destroyed. The shield’s magnitude scales with bonus attack damage, ability power, and bonus health.

Ocean Drake: • Restores 5/10/15/20% missing health regen per 5 seconds Ocean Dragon Soul: • Dealing any damage triggers strong health and resource regeneration for 3 seconds. In addition, Damage to minions provides less regeneration.

Elder Dragon: • Spawns 6:00 after one team kills their fourth Elemental Drake; 6:00 respawn • Buff duration is 180 seconds; • Each champion that has the buff loses it upon on death • Damaging an enemy at less than 20% health causes them to die in an Elder Immolation after 0.5 seconds (no cooldown). However, you cannot execute enemies through invulnerability effects like Zhonya's Hourglass or undying effects like Kindred's R - Lamb's Respite

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Baron Nashor is the most powerful neutral monster on Summoner's Rift. Killing Baron Nashor grants Hand of Baron to all living teammates for 180 seconds. The buff gives each champion on your team up to 48 attack damage and 80 ability power (scales with game time). Empowered Recall (Recall channel time is reduced to 4 seconds (down from 8), and an aura that greatly increases the power of nearby minions. Respawn Time: 6:00

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Rift Herald is a melee attacker that that is resilient to ranged attacks (She takes 35% reduced damage from ranged basic attacks), but is vulnerable to attacks to the eye on it's back from behind, dealing 12% of it's Maximum Health as bonus true damage.

Once the Eye of the Herald is dropped but not picked by the slaying team, it will disappear after 20 seconds. Once picked up, Eye of the Herald will replace the trinket in your trinket slot. The Eye lasts for 4 Minutes after which time, if not used it will be lost. It also grants Empowered Recall and the ability to summon this monster to push a lane. You can break it (activate it) to summon the rift herald. When you are activating it, you will begin to channel for 1 Second and if you are successful (not interrupted) you will summon the Rift Herald to siege enemy turrets. If you are interrupted, the Eye is lost.

The summoned Rift Herald will head to the closest lane and start pushing it.


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REMEMBER: Games are won by destroying enemy Towers/ Inhibitors and eventually the Nexus, they are not won by your KDA.

Master Yi is a great champion for cleanup and you will thrive in situations and skirmishes where the enemies are split and can't focus you. For the early levels 1-6 farm as much as possible but be sure to keep an eye on the map for potential ganks and counter-ganks. A safe start is to clear your own 2 buffs right away. Try not to focus on ganking too much before level 6, unless you see an enemy pushed up and they look like a free kill. After level 6, go for ganks that you think will be successful.

Try to save your Alpha Strike during skirmishes and fights as quite often it's simply better for you to run up to an enemy and get some AA's off on them. If they blow a flash you can Alpha Strike to close the gap again or perhaps you can use it to dodge some abilities such as Ahri charm or Twisted Fate gold card etc...

Teamfighting:
Teamfighting can be very difficult as a Master Yi. You need to resist the temptation to rush up to the front line and engage. You should 'never' be the one to start a teamfight as this is without doubt going to end you you eating up all the CC and engage the enemy team has to offer before you manage to get so much as x2 or x3 auto attacks off. Once the enemies have used up their main forms of CC it is your time to shine.

It's absolutely 'crucial' when you are playing Master Yi that you get your positioning and timing absolutely perfect. You need to find a position where your team can protect you from the enemies, which is usually going to be somewhere at the back and then go in after the bulk of the CC has been used. It's important to keep in mind what cooldowns have been used by both your team and the enemy team. EG: If the enemy Annie has Flash and Summon: Tibbers up for a fight, you will need to use extra caution when positioning yourself.

In an ideal world you would focus the enemy Mid Laner or AD Carry, but quite often in order to do this you might have to over-extend quite a bit. Generally, risky play for high rewards.

ADC / Mid Laner -> Support -> Jungle -> Tank


After a Teamfight:
If your team has won - Assuming you are not dead, now you need to look for objectives to take. How low health are you, do you have life steal? Is it possible to take an enemy tower, inhibitor, dragon, baron, rift herald etc.. ? Are your teammates healthy enough to help on objectives. Perhaps there is nothing to take and you simply need to return to base and reset/buy.

If your team has lost - Assuming you are not dead, back off to safety as quickly as possible and begin to assess what the enemies next move will be. What objectives are they going to look to take, your tower, inhibitor, baron, dragon etc... ? Now you need to either plan a way to try to stop them from taking the objective or recall and reset back to the game at hand.


Taxing a lane:
After a successful gank, generally when your wave is pushing into the enemy tower you can take a minion tax. Generally your teammates will not like when you tax their lane but it's acceptable to tax a little. If you spend the time ganking a lane, this means that you are not farming - therefore you need to tax the lane a little to make up for what you lost. Some people, no matter what ELO they are in will simply not understand your reasoning for taxing their lane, so be careful of the rage kids and be mindful of an allied champion that is looking to freeze their lane. If they are trying to freeze their lane and you tax 2-3 minions ... you can put them in an awkward position.


I'm not talking about taking an entire wave here, just a couple of minions.

If you gank a lane and you get the kill: 1 - 2 Minions (Not the Cannon Minion)
If you gank a lane and your teammate gets the kill: 2 - 3 Minions (Not the Cannon Minion)

Try not to tax a losing lane at all and try not to tax bot lane heavily, especially if you get the kill!

Master Yi is very good at taking objectives quickly so you should take opportunities to split push if they present themselves. Just be sure to ward and keep a very keen eye on the mini map and pings from your team-mates. Split pushing is usually useless if you die when doing it. Sometimes just drawing some presure to another lane can be enough to allow the rest of your team to make some progress. Don't split push if you do not know where the enemy team is.


Tower dive, no problem:
The ability to easily tower dive is a great part of Master Yi mechanics. To do so, pop your ultimate Highlander and begin to attack your chosen enemy. After a couple of attacks you then use your Alpha Strike in order to drop the tower agro (assuming there is someone else or a minion to pick up the agro). If you need to attack the champion again, auto attack them and this time before the tower hits you use your Meditate to absorb some damage. By this point the champion will have hopefully been killed and you should start attacking either the tower or minions in order to get the reset on your Alpha Strike to once again drop the tower agro and make your escape. If you have no allies or minions around to take the tower agro from you, you are going to be in a tight spot and will be lucky to escape!

Escape Potential:
Master Yi has no real escape but this does not mean that we cannot be creative. Apart from the obvious using your Highlander to make a run for it, you can also use your Alpha Strike on minions. If the minion dies from your Alpha Strike, you will come back to where you cast your ability. If the minions stays alive after you Alpha Strike then you will be teleported to the minions location.


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Well, that's the end of the guide and I hope you have found it an interesting read and that it might help you to improve. If not that, at least some food for thought, so to speak.

Master Yi is a fun champion to play and I hope you enjoy playing him as much as I do.

It's not all about winning/losing guys, at least we get to play the game!


Thanks for stopping by,
FalleN3

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