Master Yi Gameplay Update - Making him better in high elo, and a little worse in low elo
Summary of changes: New tools, more survivability, less damage.
Wuju Style (E) - Reworked:
Passive: Master Yi's basic attacks deal 15-47 (+30% bonus AD) bonus magic damage. This becomes true damage at rank 5.
Active: Master Yi reveals a target area (800 cast range, 300 radius), granting True Vision of enemies hit and marking them for 1.5 seconds. Master Yi can attack marked targets once from any range. 15s cooldown, costs 40 mana.
Meditate (W) - Reworked (a little):
Active: Unchanged.
Passive (New): Casting Alpha Strike or Meditate shields Master Yi for (30-50% total AD) physical damage. Shields last 2 seconds and cannot be stacked.
Highlander (R) - Nerfs:
-
Highlander now requires 1 second of channeling before activating. During this channel, Master Yi can move freely and cast abilities. Highlander can be cast during Meditate. The channel cannot be interrupted.
-
Attack speed lowered from 30-80% to 25-65%.
Alpha Strike (Q) - Some changes:
-
Master Yi now blinks to the target even if the target dies during the animation.
-
Grace period: If Highlander expires during Alpha Strike's animation but Master Yi gets a kill/assist around the same time, then Highlander is refreshed for another 7 seconds.
-
Bonus damage to monsters lowered from 75-175 damage to 65-105.
-
Blink logic: When Master Yi Alpha Strikes, he blinks to a position between his target and where he blinked from, as opposed to the direction his target is facing (which is how it works now).
Explanations
-
Wuju Style's on-hit damage is now a permanent passive effect. To balance this, it's changed to magic damage until level 9 or 13 or so when the spell is maxed and becomes true damage again. The numbers have also been lowered a bit. This is still a large buff to Master Yi's jungle clearing, so Alpha Strike's damage to monsters is lowered to compensate. (Small thing to note - some monsters have negative magic resist, so magic Wuju Style will do more damage than true dmg Wuju Style.)
-
Wuju Style has a totally new active effect, used for vision and to deal damage from range. It's a soft counter to champions with invisibility, as they can still dodge it (it's a skillshot similar to Swain's W) but if they are hit they're only revealed for 1.5 seconds. Getting vision of targets is also useful for attacking or casting Alpha Strike on enemies that Master Yi otherwise wouldn't be able to see, whether they're in stealth or simply hidden by brush. Also convenient for moving around your jungle, like Alpha Striking from red buff's nest to Krugs.
-
Target's marked by Wuju Style's active can be attacked from any range, once. The spell otherwise deals no damage. The animation would be similar to Aphelios' Scythe Pistol, and would not be a projectile affected by Braum or Yasuo. It crits and applies on-hit effects (and Double Strike) like a normal basic attack. If multiple enemies are marked at once, Master Yi can attack all of them, but he's limited by his attack speed and the short mark duration. Also consider the potential uses with on-hit effects like Statikk Shiv, Red Buff,
-
Meditate's new passive gives Master Yi small shields in combat, protecting him from some physical damage. Taking damage as Master Yi is inevitable as a melee attacker that primarily deals damage with his basic attacks, but because Master Yi is "naked" when he attacks, it's a fast race to the death with anyone he's fighting unless he has tank items or a lot of lifesteal. It's just extremely volatile, especially when killing one enemy champion quickly leads to killing 2 or 3 more, and otherwise you just die in 2 seconds. Anyway, the shields are physical-damage-only so as to limit their power. Alpha Strike and Meditate are already sufficient against mages and other spellcasters since you can dodge their abilities, or tank them with Meditate, and then attack them when their spells are on cooldown.
-
Highlander takes the brunt of nerfs to balance the improvements to Master Yi's basic abilities. It now has a short channel before activating, sort of like Taric's ult, that does not inhibit movement and can't be interrupted but it's an inconvenience nonetheless. Master Yi should be able to play around it by planning his engages better, but you won't be able to use it to instantly break slows or attack an enemy without warning. This shouldn't make much difference in high elo, but in low elo players don't read situations well and don't know when Master Yi is going to attack them so the telegraphing will effectively nerf him. Also, the attack speed was nerfed since Master Yi will be surviving combat longer with his shields and can afford to take a little longer to kill enemies.
-
We have a few different small changes to Alpha Strike here. For those who don't know, Master Yi doesn't blink to the target of Alpha Strike if that enemy dies before Yi reappears. This is situationally useful for poking but more often it's a nuisance when you're trying to go somewhere. Wuju Style will now be your tool for poking. The grace period is fairly self-explanatory I hope, it's sad when you kill an enemy with Alpha Strike only to learn that it was a moment too late and Highlander ran out. Finally, the blink logic: I don't think most people know this, but Alpha Strike does not blink Master Yi directly on top of his target, but he's actually offset in the direction his target is facing. I'm changing it because that's unintuitive, and it makes attack-moving a less important skill when you're always placed in the direction your target is running.
How does this make Master Yi more balanced?
Giving him more utility, range, and survivability makes him a better champion overall. This comes at the cost of some damage, but he'll still be able to do crazy 1v5 plays with his high DPS, skillful use of his abilities, and taking the right opportunities. Enemies will have more time to respond to him but with skillful play he'll manage.