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I want to learn Yi

FantasySniper··1 votes·1,317 views

I usually play Fiora, and although I know that I'm not the best with her, I'm definitely good enough to survive the rare top-lane game with her and have even started to take her jungling. Unfortunately, the nerf to her ultimate ruined her team fighting, I can handle most 1v2s and clean-ups, but any larger than that and I can't survive the fight or I have to drop out early and just resort to map-pressure by split-pushing and taking dragons. Especially so when we don't have a front-line tank to sponge their CC before I go in.

Now I've got MasterYi , and he seems to be a good replacement for (my beloved) Fiora. Looking at that Cowsep video had me inspired, because I never saw the mechanics behind what makes Yi such a monster before, and I want to learn Yi now. I'm not saying I'm trying to be like Cowsep (I doubt I'll ever be able to perform at that level, let alone with consistency), but I at least want to want to be capable with Yi.

So, got tips? Matchups, build routes, how to enter teamfights, what to do when behind, all of that situational jazz, pls.

I particularly want specifics on [Q] Alpha Strike. When and where to use it in a fight, how I interact with things when I go untargetable, stuff like that. Fiora's isn't easily translatable, and the only other untargetable champ I've used is Maokai.

7 Comments

TehNACHO3 votes

Hello, I play mid lane Yi, I think I can give decent advice.

Passive - This plus E is your bread and butter for laning and/or breaking standoffs. Auto attack minions until your Double Strike is charged, Q to the enemy, hit E upon landing, and immediately get two strikes of Wuju Style's true damage. It's a small trick honestly, but especially when you're ahead in any way, this is how you abuse Yi's burst damage.

Q - Don't look at Alpha Strike like a damage based ability. Instead, see this ability for two parts: A strong instantaneous gap closer, and short term invincibility.

  • During the early game, both parts is what makes laning Yi even close to viable. Assuming the enemy minions aren't going to beat you up, the moment the opponent fires an ability at you, Alpha Strike to them. What this does is that almost all aimed abilities will miss and targeted abilities will fizzle, so if you time it correctly, you just initiated on an opponent who literally just blew a cool down thanks to you negating it, and can't possibly fight back at full strength. Similar cases include: Abusing the opponent using their abilities to farm, dodging abilities by Alpha Striking a minion, and resetting minion aggro. Early game, the utility granted by invincibility is really something you can not afford not to use thanks to just how amazing it is for rounding out Master Yi's most notable weaknesses. This rule also extends past the early game into the mid and late game during 1v1 situations, especially if the enemy team's cool downs are worth respecting. Slightly different guidelines apply for team fighting though:
  • Mid lane Yi tends to hit this awkward period where, while he's fantastic for dueling if you know how to use him, he kinda falls off in team fight damage. DO NOT try to go Cowsep and initiate a team fight around this point. Instead, focus on the gap closing potential of his Q. Wait for the enemy teams to blow their cool downs, then jump onto the best target you find. Technically speaking, you should always be focusing the enemy team's carries, but Master Yi's E does have the potential to melt tanks, so if you really can't reach the enemy back lines, don't be afraid to shut down their frontline.
  • Late game Yi is, in my opinion, at least 4 damage items+BG. At that point, you should be so fast from Rank 3 Highlander+BG+Youmuu's+Phantom Dancer (or two) that the enemy back line should always be an option so long as you can flank them or do whatever you need to do to bypass the enemy frontline. THIS is the time where you can afford to pull off those fancy Master Yi mechanics in that video you just showed...usually. Alpha+AA+E can easily nuke a squishy person down and get Master Yi's reset going, meaning after your initial assault, you should have a second Alpha Strike. My tip, just Auto Attack the nearest person to you. Not even kidding, fighter, squishy, hyper tank, just start attacking whoever is closest. This will reset Alpha Strike faster, and your E (and maybe a BotRK) generally makes Master Yi not have to give a crap about how tanky his target is. The point is, especially if you initiate fights with Alpha Strike, you want it back as fast as possible. Don't waste time trying to go for the enemy team's second carry if they are farther away from you than the tank that's literally in your face, just Auto Attack and get Alpha Strike active as fast as possible. Done correctly, Alpha Strike will be back off cool down so quickly that buy the time the enemy team tries to lock you down with CC, you can immediately Alpha Strike again and negate their CC. This should generally be your mindset: AA the closest thing to you->Alpha Strike the person who's most likely going to die the fastest the moment you see the enemy throw CC at you->AA to death->Repeat (AA the closest thing to you) Learn to recognize enemy CC, drill the mindset I just explained above, and especially learn how to pick the person fastest to die. Yi can melt tanks easily, but sometimes you need to respect tanks. It all depends on the scenario and learning this takes time and experience. Also, I told you not to look at Alpha Strike like a damage based ability, at least for fighting other champions, because honestly, its kinda lackluster if you are looking at it specifically for the damage it does. Master Yi has much greater DPS Auto Attacking alone instead of Alpha Striking as much as possible in between Auto Attacks, to put things into perspective. Focus on the gap closing and CC negating utility this ability has over all else.

W - If Alpha Strike is how you negate CC, Meditate is how you negate burst damage. Most of the time, you don't need to worry about DPS based damage - Master Yi's surplus of steroids makes him the superior DPSer anyway. Honestly, this next part is extremely obvious: If you see the enemy drop a spell rotation on you without CC, and you can't/don't want to Alpha Strike to dodge it, Meditate through it to negate the damage. CC will negate Meditate, so at that point, you really want to figure out how to dodge it instead of trying to Meditate through it, but Meditate's 50-70% damage reduction is incredibly unreal for negating the opponent's damage for any situation where you can't or don't want to Alpha Strike. Interestingly, Meditate resets Master Yi's Auto Attack timer. That means that, especially against DPS based champions, if you want to get this tiny little edge on enemy champions, use this combo: AA->W->AA. After the first Auto Attack's damage registers, hit W and then immediately Auto Attack once more. Done correctly, you can essentially double strike the opponent and get a small burst onto the opponent. This is more for guaranteeing damage onto the opponent in a 1v1 tool and is kinda unreliable so I don't recommend relying on this if you aren't familiar with it, but once you get this combo down and develop a good eye for when to use it, the combo is irreplaceable for getting just a bit of burst out. Also, and as a laning Yi I can not emphasize this enough, do not underestimate maxing this ability second. Wuju style scales terribly on levels; if you really want to make it scale, buy items. This in mind, early levels in Meditate results in an unbelievable amount of healing during the early game and makes Master Yi incredibly tanky.

E - Well, I already explained everything that makes Wuju style anywhere near interesting, what with the whole Double Strike trick, and how it makes Master Yi a deceptively good tank buster. A reiteration from earlier though; don't be afraid to attack tanks if you need to.

R - Because of how much this ability makes you faster than everybody else, I really can't emphasize how much you need to get used to being in Highlander. Literally everything in the game looks different when your mind wraps around the concept that "I am fast enough" or "I hit faster than everyone else". Once again, another concept that comes with experience, but my personal tip for you is simply trying to keep your mind calm while using this ability. It's too easy to get excited the moment you hit R, and your moves become sloppy because of this. Instead, focus on your basics: dodging CC with Alpha Strike and negating burst damage with Meditate.

TehNACHO2 votes

Oh, also, there are like a thousand micromanaging tips for individual match ups, some that even defy the general advice from the brick wall of text above (sorry by the way, I just wanted to share as much as I know).

Jax for example is a DPS champion you need to meditate against, even though I told you earlier that you generally don't need to worry about DPS for Meditate. This is because Counter Strike makes Auto Attacking him useless, but he's still Auto Attacking back. Might as well negate the damage during that time. Although it gets harder to do against certain Jax players (especially the ones who know that they can reactivate Counter Strike to stun people early), you generally want to ->Initiate fight/he initiates on you->Meditate the moment he uses Counter Strike->Alpha Strike the moment he tries to stun you.

If you have any matchup specific questions, or if you have any questions about my tips from above, don't be afraid to ask.

FantasySniper1 votes

Thank you so much. I'll keep this page up just for studying it :)

How much should I restrain myself when it comes to using [Q] for a chase?

Anything you can give when it comes to build routes and the synergy of certain items?

TehNACHO2 votes

It really depends. This is why I tell you to get used to Highlander's speed, everything becomes different when you get used to the fact that Yi (along with items) is capable of simply running so fast. With that in mind, most cases you should be able to have enough time to simply charge at the person and simply AA away, but if there's really no reason not to use your Alpha Strike (They burned all their CC/Abilities, they are low and will immediately die anyway, they are all alone, etc.), then there isn't anything really wrong with using it as a chasing tool. After all, I did tell you to look at it like a gap closer.

item 3031 Infinity Edge Rush shoves Yi into his mid game "Power Spike", and makes him a supreme duelist. item 3142 Is a good item against enemies who don't stack any armor against you(#), and is great for helping you when you roam, as it makes your ganks that much deadlier and more consistent. item 3153/item 3072 is your sustain item, and you're generally going to want at least a Vampiric Scepter before Teamfights start breaking out anyway. Personally, I like dueling/tank shredding more so I almost always run Ghostblade, though a friend of mine told me BT is the much more noob friendly item (in terms of learning Yi's mechanics anyway). Building both harms Yi's potential damage imo though, so stick with one. item 3046 Is either your finishing item or your Teamfighting item. Either way, I recommend you have at least a few other items under your belt before you start building into this. item 3035/item 3071 These are your tank busting items if you think you need them, but you only really need one of these because of all of Yi's true damage. Basically put, buy Last Whisper against people who stack waaaaaaaaaay too much armor, and the Black Cleaver if you still want to prioritize squishies but need some way to deal with enemy armor.

(#) Flat penetration, interestingly, is stronger against enemies with lower armor. This is also why the Black Cleaver is the tank busting item you use if you still want to prioritize squishies.

More situational items include: item 3172 Too much CC to dodge with any single Alpha Strike at a time item 2140 When you think you can snowball, this item right here will almost nearly guarantee that you do. item 3710item 3718item 3722item 3726 Jungle derp. Generally, this will automatically replace your tank busting item. item 3078 I've seen some people recommend this as a situational item, never tried it though. I suppose it would be great for its burst potential+sticking power. item 3041 So I was drunk this one time...

FantasySniper1 votes

item 3041 So I was drunk this one time...

That sounds like an interesting story. Wasn't Yi a scary AP builder once upon a time?

Do you think it's worth it to build item 3074 item 3022 item 3156 item 3139 or item 3087 ?

I'm specifically interested in Hydra and Shiv, because they give him AoE and burst where he usually depends on single-target DPS.

TehNACHO2 votes

:P

Basically put, I was indestructible every time I meditated. I was so fed that game though XD.

Ravenous' passive is near useless because Master Yi's forte is single target damage anyway. Could help burst based Assassin Yi but man I hate it when he falls off, and speaking as a late game Yi player, you will definitely feel it when Yi isn't doing as much DPS as he normally would.

There is literally no reason to buy the Frozen Mallet. Trust me.

Theoretically speaking, Q+W should be more than enough to handle any form of burst an enemy mage chucks at you. I can see this working however if you're still learning how to go full Cowsep as Master Yi.

I'd really only buy Scimitar against Suppression. Not many other forms of CC in the game that you would need this item for.

Once again, like Ravenous Hydra, it's really if you want to emphasize on a burst based Yi, but trade a bit of his hyper scaling in return. I don't like it, personally.

Leti the Yeti1 votes

98.9% of yi players have the skills of a bronze producing the results of diamonds and are nothing like cowsep so I would say as long as you hav a q button and right click, u can carry just fine

I wouldnt call it yi mechanics its just high frame rate/ low ping/high reflexes and tons of prediction which all comes from experience, cuz anyone can tell ya... "use alpha strike right before you get cced" and "use mediate right before you take damage" cuz thats really all cowseps doing

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