The current state of Master Yi (patch 9.12)

Hi everyone,

I recently started playing league again, after a few months of break, because i just didn't have a lot of fun while playing. But yi being my main character, by far (probably half of my playtime was spent on this character), i wanted to try again the game with the recent changes he received, and wanted to give my input, because i like what i experienced, and i might be able to help riot games making good (in my opinion) changes such as this one.

First of all, i have to say that i generally whine about changes, not on boards, but with friends, im not usually happy with them, but with the recent yi changes i feel totally differently. The removing of the casting times on the Q and W abilities is awesome, either for the yi player or for the enemies. Indeed, what can be more frustrating than hitting your CC like a lux cage on master yi, and still seeing him teleport to you and kill you, eventhough he was snared ? And what can be more frustrating than targeting an enemy, seeing the animation of the alpha strike, but the ability not going off because the target left yi's vision ? Or dying because of a spell you couldn't dodge in time with the untargetability of the Q spell ? Honestly, this change should have happened a long time ago, but it is still great to finally have it in the game, and i won't complain about it !

Then, about the 2 other changes, being the removal of the passive AD bonus of the E and the slight change of the alpha strike. Well, to be honest, those aren't that big of a deal, and don't change much in terms of performance. Losing a few points of AD (maybe 40 in late game with a full AD build) and having more damage against isolated targets, making yi a slightly better duelist, while reducing his overall damage slightly isn't that big of a deal. I also extremely appreciate the fact that the alpha duration is stable now, and doesn't fluctuate depending on the number of targets. It's easier to dodge spells, and more easily understood by opponents, and easier to play around, and time the end of the spell.

But it is not all good, there is definitely still room for improvement, an that is why i wanted to make this post. Riot made yi better, and the champion is pretty close from being "perfect" in my opinion. First of all, removing the goddam bug resulting in yi being hit by abilities during the alpha strike. This bug has been in the game for so long, i'm starting to believe that riot is just unable to fix it. I don't know much (or nothing at all even) in programming, so i have no idea if this is something hard to fix or not, but i would love to see this issue be adressed. I also hate the passive bug, that cancels the auto attack if the passive (double strike) fades during the auto-attack animation. I lost kills and possibly even games because an auto got canceled. Just make it so that the double strike happens even if the ability fades during the animation, or change the passive for something more like the old one (more auto attacks needed to trigger the passive, but you keep the double strike indefinitely). I really liked the old system, because you could charge your double strike on camps, not unlike a rengar gathering stacks before ganking, but reduces the overall DPS. This would make yi less dangerous in fights, but more dangerous on ganks, if the player paid attention to his stacks. I don't mind the new system that much, it's not bad, but this bug, cancelling your autos is annoying, and i would like to see this issue adressed, alongside the spells that hit master yi during his Q animation.

Another (and final) change i would make to yi, is on his first ability. With the new Q spell dealing 3 tics of damage before dealing the full burst of the ability, it happens that master yi kills the target BEFORE the final burst of the ability procs. If that happens, master yi doesn't teleport to the dead enemy's location, and that has always been the case. If the target dies before the alpha strike's animation is complete, yi wouldn't teleport and would instead reappear to his original location. I didn't mind this feature before, because it meant your team had to play around master yi, and if they made the mistake of killing master yi's target, he would lose his gap closer without closing any gap. In other words, if you make the mistake of killing master yi's target, you get punished (since he will be out of the fight for some time, because he will have to walk to gap close after his Q spell got denied). Another fact that made this mechanic interesting, is that it could give some amount of waveclear, without having to go in mele range of creeps. That could be useful when used in laning phase (eventhough yi is more of a jungler, i enjoyed him a lot in lanes, mid top or even ADC). With this mechanic, when pressured either by a jungler, or a number of enemies sieging your tower, you could alpha strike a low health minion that is about to die, the ability would bounce on other minions, damaging 3 of them and possibly killing them depending on the circumstances of the game (levels, AD value, nashor buff...) and if the targeted minion does die before the animation is complete, yi would reappear on his original location, staying safe and away from his enemies. Anyway, an interesting mechanic. But now that yi can kill the target on his own before the alpha strike's animation is complete, there are a lot of cases in which i found myself chasing several enemies, and not being able to catch up to more than one because i killed the first target with one of the first tics of the monotarget akpha strike. I lose my gapcloser, without advancing towards my enemies. So my suggestion for this is, if the enemy dies of one of the initial tics (or any damage which has master yi as its source, like a DH proc, red buff, ignite or red smite...) yi WOULD still teleport to the target, but if the target dies by something exterior to yi (like say a teammate, a turret hit...) then yi WOULDN'T teleport. That way, yi keeps his chasing ability which is paramount to his kit in my opinion, but can still lose his gap closer if the team doesn't play around master yi or if master yi Q'd a dying target, meaning getting punished for making a mistake.

I hope i didn't make too many tipees in here, or mistakes, english not being my first language. Thank you for reading, looking forward to comments (constructive ones especially ^^). I know yi brings a lot of hate, that has always been the case with this character, but i still hope there can be some interesting comments and suggestions.(and in all honesty, he is easily countered by CC or itemisation). And for the people who believe he is not that good especially because he is easily countered, i would say he can be very good if your team plays around you. I also hope riot will take notice of this post and of my ideas, i'm just a drop in the ocean that are the NA boards, but it could happen ^^