Yi needs a little bit more counter play

Jefftiffy·Oct 17, 2014·4 votes·1,376 views

He isn't really that bad but he is really oppressive if you don't counter pick him.

I think either we should make his damage reduction stay at 50% at all ranks (70% for 4s is a lot considering that's Ali's ult amount).

Another option is to instead of removing the reduction make it give him double armor and MR while he uses it. He's really oppressive and 70% damage reduction is a bit much considering that he can choose when to stop it.

I would also like to mention that you guys act like I am gutting his kit. I am simply inserting room for some kind of counter play other than champs and summoner spells. Items don't do much to Yi even Thornmail has very little effect on him and it is usually built on the people he really shouldn't be focusing first.

15 Comments

NovemberrRoseOct 17, 20145 votes

what are you talking about lol. yi has TONS of counterplay. cc him during his w, problem solved with w.

JefftiffyOct 17, 20143 votes

Tons? He can dodge most abilities with his Q (95+% of them) and it can also crit on up to 5 targets.

His W is scaling healing combined with a huge damage reduction. His E is free damage and true damage when activated (because he needs to kill tanks for some reason).

His ult gives him 75% resets on all skills when he kills someone as well as extends his ult longer.

His kit is really old and full of the things that make him and champs like Poppy so toxic. The only reason they aren't "broken" is they do what they were meant to do back then. But now most kits are weaker meaning that his kit gives a lot more than if he were made now.

He also shares the highest base MS in the game with Pantheon (why he needs such high MS with an ult with huge speed boost and builds a Ghostblade as a static i have no clue).

He needs a hit somewhere and this seems like the best place without ruining him as a champion. Yi would still be extremely strong in 1v1s but it would allow for him to be a little bit less of a global presence late game. I mean he has a better early game than Jax but his late game is pretty on par with him although he can't be as reckless because he is much squishier.

Don't even talk about his rework. It toned him down but it didn't fix the issue of lack of counter play.

NoMonkuOct 17, 20145 votes

Considering you seem to want to fight Yi 1v1, of course you aren't going to win against him. Yi has plenty of counterplay if you work together with your team. Considering atm his only real viable place to go is jungle, all you have to do is either invade him and/or gank lanes, as he usually afk farms for 20 minutes or until FF. Also, if your team isn't bringing any CC besides slow, then you really are just allowing yourself to be rofl stomped by ANY champion who has reset potential. If you're building your team in a way that someone like Yi can just walk all over you, then I don't think your team comp is very good at all.

Hyrum GraffOct 17, 20144 votes

When I see the enemy pick yi, I like to pick Veigar .

DFG-r-q, 4v5 OP.

JefftiffyOct 17, 20141 votes

Then you die because you picked one of the easiest to harass out of lane champs in the game and the enemy yi will prob camp your lane for kills as once your stun is down you are dead.

Hyrum GraffOct 17, 20144 votes

Teleport + spellvamp quints, yo.

windwolf777Oct 17, 20143 votes

Again, you never focus on the weaknesses and you focus on the strengths instead. For example, he is squishy as heck unless he builds more tank. All he does is build damage. (Well, attack speed + crit/on hit but that's beside the point). Not only that, but his W is channeled, meaning that ANY form of CC, (sans slows), will disrupt it, taunts, stun, silences (no matter how rare they're becoming), knock-ups, etc etc. On top of that, if you see yi, what you could do is pick summoner 14 to counter the heal. Even though his ulti counters slows, fears destroy him because he ignores the slow meaning he runs away at max speed. Plus a small item called item 3075 destroys him since he doesn't really like to build MR instead of aforementioned dmg/AS/crit.

Also, how you mention that "Oh you can't use CC on him because he'll dodge it with Q", that argument just shows skills on the part of the Master Yi player. If you lack the CC that would allow you to control a Yi, then that is the fault of your draft.

EDIT: Yes, I am a Master Yi main, so take it from me. I know the weaknesses of him, and know how to abuse his strengths. MasterYi

EDIT 2: Forgot there were item and summoner icons

JefftiffyOct 19, 20141 votes

True damage counters thornmail. And his E gives him this. It is ignored in the damage calculations returned.

Point is you need to use at least 2 hard ccs on Yi to kill him after he has killed someone or procced a GA/Zhonya's. That is way too small of a window for anybody.

And invulnerability frames being abused are actually extremely strong and honestly the most toxic part in his kit.

You can fear him? There are very few reliable fears that you can use on him.

You can't focus on weaknesses that are general to all champs. What weakness does he have the any other hyper carry shares? He even has a better than average early game that is only limited by his mana. His kit is old and has too many strengths and scales way too well for the early game he has (once he hits 6 his snowballing is immense). Plus if you try to shut him down by counter jungling a good enemy team will just kill you when you go into his jungle.

windwolf777Oct 20, 20143 votes

Or, or, or, did you ever think of using wards/vision, or invading his jungle (if going that way), or just preventing the snowball?

FrostbuttOct 20, 20142 votes

Someone is a little butthurt by yi

FarRockBFOct 20, 20142 votes

Haha. I posted the challenger stats on the old forum about this. ONLY ONE Challenger player in NA uses Yi even semi often. ONE.

But he must be OP, right?

NerdchopOct 19, 20141 votes

Yi is OP. No one in plat knows what to do against him except feed him.

DrukyulOct 20, 20141 votes

Lower the range on his Q so you actually have the ability to stop him before he untargetables into your team.

JefftiffyOct 21, 20141 votes

A champ that is so oppressive that it require your whole team to focus them is very bad for the health of the game assuming he has the early game he has. (his early game really isn't that weak, he just needs 6 to snowball hard).

He needs some kind of flaw in his game. He has tank shred, he has damage soaking, he has healing. He has burst. He has a complete untargetability with very little indicator of the original start that crits. He has a passive ability that stacks on itself with the active for more true damage. He has 2 cd resets in one kit, one of which resets all 4 abilities. He has passive that gives him free double hits that syncs with his ult.

The only counter play to Yi is stunning him but how does that make it different to any other champion in counter play. Stuns are not the solution to every problem esp when Yi can dodge them of his own free will and if you get cc'd at all by the enemy team you die because you have lost that tiny little window of counter play.

He gets closer to 2.5 AS at max level with a double hit added in once every 4 hits making it roughly a 3 AS in reality. Combine that with his Q and his average build damage (around 400 AD) and in about 1s Yi has done: 800-250-800-800-1413 assuming all crits. Now add in a little bit of armor (he builds pen and has true damage plus static shiv). Lets say that drops his damage by approx 30%. 2.8k dmg in approx 1s. Now if he doesn't use the true damage its about 2.5k damage. You exhaust him and drop him down to 1.5k damage without his E up.

I'm sorry but as strong as Yi is late game he needs a weak point he has way too much in a single kit. He has really high burst followed up with huge sustained damage and really high MS with the inability to slow him. On top of this what does thornmail do to approx 1.3k damage (Q and static both don't proc it): 390 damage but thats assuming no healing.

I am not raging about a Yi. I have beaten plenty of Yi's easily but mostly through champion picks. There is very little counter play to him other than pick x champion and win. If you want a champ to be as strong as he is late game he needs a bigger window to bully him early like Jax received.

SneaselSawashiroAug 28, 20151 votes

I personally thing that his E should be changed to a self-buff for one auto attack, so that way not only cause it make his E have more risk when off cooldown, but it can also give him a better bonus with item 3078 and item 3087 for those who really know how to time the procs.

That, and it also at least would provide more room for another auto-attack animation. I think his stab from pre-Season 3 looked cool (I started playing in Season 3)