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How do I counter the Yi + Kayle strategy?

YumaS2Astral··38 votes·15,697 views

I admit I just lost to one, thougth it would be easy, but holy shit, I got stomped.

For those who don't know, here is how it works. Jungler goes with Yi, top laner goes with Kayle (with summoner 4 summoner 7 as summoner spells and Windspeaker's Blessing as a keystone). Yi jungles as normal, Kayle farms top until she buys an item 3504. She is free to play passive because this item is very cheap and she doesn't need a lot of farm to buy it. After Yi gets one item, Kayle and Yi proceed to push top and take out all towers. Yi can dive the enemy freely because of Kayle's ult and heal. Kayle proceeds to buy support items like item 3109 and just protects Yi all game. It gets worse if they have another enchanter support like Lulu or Morgana because then it is literally impossible to stop Yi.

I admit I don't know how to counter this. Some say I should need to tell my jungler to camp bot and/or mid and snowball those lanes. The problem is that not everytime my team has the coordination to do that. And I admit I don't know how to stop it on my own. Can someone help me?

173 Comments

Shadòw50 votes

wait until Riot finally realizes that Kayle has been busted af for seasons.

DoktorKaiser7 votes

Wut I think Kayle is absolute trash of a champion. The only way she can work is with this kind of cheese. She was very broken 2 seasons ago doe.

DaNinad27 votes

cough cough 53% win rate cough cough 12 patches now cough cough cough

sorry i have a cough

notice me Sin pi17 votes

the thing is that most of the kayle players have been playing her for very long time and know her inside out; and for those players, riot explicitly had stated that they would expect high win rate from them on the champ.

If kayle had 53% win rate at 20% pick rate, then it's too obvious she's too OP. But champion.gg maybe u use op.gg and it shows 66.6% pick rate; i cant access it for some reason shows her pick rate had been around 1.5%~2.5% (significantly smaller population AND significantly less non-mains).

Even 12 patches arent probably enough to determine whether the high win rate is contributed by [Kayle is Fking Overpowered] effect or merely the sole result of [Kayle Mains/One-tricks] effect.

I am Spongeboob2 votes

Exactly. Go into the Kayle mains discord and subreddit and you'll find most of us are small in numbers but know virtually everything about her. What build paths to take, what matchups are wins, what skin is the best (Aether Wing). She's a rare pick and the main way she seems OP is if she scales into late when her early game is trash compared to so many other laners.

Kàyle3 votes

Howdy. Kayle OTP here, with around 2.7 Million points on her, and peaked around masters norms mmr and diamond 3. This is my "Name" account, with Name / Tag / etc. (Kind of like Shakarez / Kayle bot) (I also happen to be unofficial head mod on the reddit / discord owner)

Kayle is one of the few "problem" champions in this game. Not in the sense that she's "broken," but in her versatility and numbers. Her kit doesn't interact in a way that can actually "outplay" other champions, but functions as a mid game monster with the strengths and weaknesses of both Mages and Marksmen. She's a champion with a lot of weaknesses, and she's balanced around her one tricks. Kayle, Like aurelion sol, has a very wide difference between newer players and experienced players.

Now, when talking about her balance Kayle isn't a champion that riot directly nerfs. Kayle is a champion that exists around Mage / Marksman / and Supportive itemization. When an item under this list is disproportionately too strong, Kayle takes the item and turns it on it's head and amplifies the reach of said item. Basically, in the support role enchanters are extremely strong right now because of their items. If you're going to take this strategy down, It's not Kayle that needs to get hit (because they'll have to buff something on her) but items.

Fairyfleur2 votes

What about the pickrate?

Pierce The Veal4 votes

[{quoted}](name=Command Ethereal,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=A0Noaan2,comment-id=0000000000000002,timestamp=2017-07-01T00:20:41.880+0000)

What about the pickrate?

She has a 2.5% pickrate

PhoenixOfHeaven4 votes

Meh. She IS on the list of champs in need of a rework though. Riot has officially acknowledged they want to do a Morg/Kayle hybrid rework. It's a start...

Pierce The Veal2 votes

{quoted}

wait until Riot finally realizes that Kayle has been busted af for seasons.

Shhhh

Kàyle2 votes

Season 3: Q max busted w/ Lichbane being strong Season 4: Runaan's existence + E interactions Season 5: She got buffed most of it because she was weak Season 6: Fervor + Rageblade + Runaans + Scimitar + rylais (The stars basically aligned for her) Season 7: Several nerfs, but Enchanter Itemization breaks Yi in low elo, so better nerf Kayle?

LyingOnLine24 votes

Fuck Kayle in lane.

Sambers18 votes

You can kill Kayle in lane 40 times and still will make MasterYi a suicide bomber to your ADC

me mandingo2 votes

Can't kill kayle if she takes heal as her summoner spell, she has that + refillable pots + her W.

Supreme Senpai693 votes

Lol. Top lane Kayle, Taric support.

BabyNaix21 votes

Get someone with lots CC or someone with invulnerability at the top lane. Yi can't do anything if he is CC'ed. Kayle can't do anything by her self without damage items. Galio Fizz Lulu Nautilus Sejuani Taric Teemo Vladimir Tryndamere EkkoJax

HalcyonDweller8 votes

Lissandra works too.

Blu3Jay17 votes

Literally Teemo

King of Mongoose3 votes

LOL trying picking teemo, cast q at yi and he alpha strikes it and then 4 shots you

wiggywonka1 votes

[deleted]

King of Mongoose2 votes

teemo has a clear sound for his q that you can alpha strike during

and most teemo will q you when there's still some gap between you since you won't be using alpha strike to gapclose

Bârd10 votes
  1. Invade Yi. He's not exactly an early game god.
  2. Snowball on Kayle. She's specing fully into support, so she can't really fight you. A couple jungle ganks pre-6 can absolutely destroy her. Just be careful of Yi counterganking.
  3. Get all your lanes snowballing while Yi is farming his bloodrazor. So they get top tower. So what? If the games 9-1 in your favor, it straight up doesn't matter.
  4. Teemo.
  5. Lane Swap when Yi comes online. One man can't hold them off. Two people might. The support in particular works great, with their kits generally being great against Yi. Exhaust reduces his damage by a lot even if he's immune to the slow, and ignite cuts through all that healing.
Zeke Maelstorm9 votes

Kayle is rushing item 3504 and has Windspeaker's Blessing so she is absolutely useless without MasterYi. Kill her before he comes top.

The real problem is that people rarely take the time to shut down MasterYi. If he has no damage he can't do anything, invulnerable or not. MasterYi does not snowball, he avalanches, especially when he, melee ADC, has a support. Once he gets going you aren't going to stop him.

The two will also rarely team fight so sending someone with wave clear to hold top can work. Fight the 4 v 3 mid and push. Yi and Kayle might get a tower or two but if you can beat them to the inhibitor you've won.

SIDE NOTE: This strategy is not exclusive to Kayle + MasterYi. Other possible top laners include LuluMorganaZilean while other possible junglers include JaxTryndamereXinZhao.

  • A Kayle main that fights with honor.
chipndip11 votes

Why would KAYLE rush a fucking Censor?

Valeckserai1 votes

That's the point of the entire strategy, for Kayle to be a heal bot for Yi

chipndip11 votes

Unless it's Kayle support, there is NO context where Kayle should be a heal bot for Yi...or ANYONE. Kayle should be a complimentary late game carry along with Yi, with her ult and heal on him or her depending on who needs it more.

Valeckserai1 votes

No, that's the entire point of the strategy. She IS a support. She will buy items like item 3504 item 3109 and other things for the sole purpose of supporting Yi. That is her job when someone is doing this. For her to be a carry, she would have to farm up and be getting kills to get the gold she needs for offensive items, which would lower her capability to support him. That would also make Yi gold starved, since he won't leave top for the strategy to work. If she tries to be a carry, the whole thing falls apart, Yi will be forced back into the jungle and other lanes to get gold, and it will just be a regular game that happens to have a Kayle and a Yi in it.

chipndip12 votes

{quoted}

No, that's the entire point of the strategy.

It's not a strategy. It's a Brofresco quality gimmick.

Kayle's R is the strongest supportive aspect about her and it has no scalings. The only other thing she has is a speed up + heal on W, ranged damage on E, and a damage + slow Q. Q is better with larger ap numbers, E has no supportive function at all, and W can simply be scaled through cdr and large ap numbers rather than buying low budget items like Censor.

Like, you tell me: In a situation where I have a Yi and a Kayle, which one is stronger between a fully built Yi and a fully built Kayle with Kayle's ult on either of two hyper-scaling late game champs, or a Kayle with a Censor and a Knight's Vow for no reason at all? Which HONESTLY makes more sense?

FioraWillCarry8 votes

Who came up with this bullshit ? I'm a Kayle main and I find myself having to tell people that I don't do gimmick shit like that practically every game ever since this became a thing.

Divewing9 votes

Chinese boosting strats

Doozku7 votes

The strat is meant to punish uncoordinated teams. If you are jgler, focus completely on bot once the strat starts. Also invading and trying to stop Yi helps as well. If you are a toplaner, I'd say the best option is to straight up abandon your lane and go bot to push towers once they start diving you, even if you get flamed by your team. Its basically a race to get to the nexus at this point and 5 people are likely to beat 2 people.

warpenguin5555 votes

Malzahar works until yi gets QSS

but if he's stupid as hell you don't need to worry

SpookyNeedle5 votes

I've faced this once, thought they were just camping me because they were duo. I just told my jungler to make plays around the map. The trick is to not die.

Darkdemon6534 votes

The same way you have since before season 1.

Karn Bishop7 votes

the dudes level 9 he hasn't been around for even a single season let alone 7, so not really helpful. and even if he has maybe he never ran into this combo before.

warpenguin5554 votes

Actually i've seen the op around the boards since i think last year. might be an alt account or something.

YumaS2Astral2 votes

indeed

my actual account is on another server, I just use this to post on the NA boards

my actual account is "Yaoi Shota Boy" at the BR server: https://br.op.gg/summoner/userName=yaoishotaboy - it is the Shen game, I got completely stomped

Acheron164 votes

{quoted}

indeed

my actual account is on another server, I just use this to post on the NA boards

my actual account is "Yaoi Shota Boy" at the BR server: https://br.op.gg/summoner/userName=yaoishotaboy - it is the Shen game, I got completely stomped

Interesting name you got, rapaz.

Velgam4 votes

Got this shit too, irelia works great vs that crap, but in reality just heavy cc yi when he goes in.

TheGoomyGamer3 votes

Played Kayle+Yi vs Galio Ivern Braum Jax and stomped

Mister Modesty3 votes

Rammus item 3075 Counters both Kayle and Yi dumb hard. Especially if Kayle is building support. Taunt Yi and watch him melt his face. The Kayle will eventually OOM because she can't keep up with the heals.

Mcsquzzy4 votes

this will be even stronger once gw is added to thornmail

SSShutTheDuckUp3 votes

IIRC the dude who came up with this strategy said that it is countered by camping botlane, not sure how you can outpush Yi however

TwinkiePro4 votes

You can't really outpush a yi, but a fed botlane is scarier with the right combo and can shred the yi.

FioraWillCarry3 votes

Who came up with this bullshit ? I'm a Kayle main and I find myself having to tell people that I don't do gimmick shit like that practically every game ever since this became a thing.

needHymn2 votes

[deleted]

Protokai12 votes

it is however Yi's best teamate and increases his winrate by7% Kayle has a high winrate by herself anyways since not that many people play her

Pigeon Reformed3 votes

{quoted}

Kayle + Yi isn't even her best matchup. She gains only a 3% increase in her win rate for being with a yi.

See here: http://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/counters/kayle

"only" LOL

Divewing2 votes

Pray to god that your jungler knows what's happening and big dicks the rest of the map to the point that yi could be 30/0 it wouldnt matter

Shrek Luigi2 votes

Kill Master Yi in one rotation, then show Kayle your Mastery emote

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