Help me with Vi

Pius Aeneas·8/1/2015, 7:34:14 AM·4 votes·933 views

I am a tank jungle main. I play champs like Zac and Sejuani. I just ranked up to plat 5, and I am using the grace period to learn new junglers in ranked. Ever since the devourer rework assassins have been a strong alternative, and i have figured that Vi might fit my tanky play style. Everybody says that she is really easy, but I've always have had trouble with her in ranked.

I pretty much just go off what the guides say. I run standard AD runes and masteries. I build stalkers with warrior, then trinity if I'm ahead (which I never am), banshees and/or randuins, then the rest is situational.

I feel like if I don't get tanky early then I can't survive any fights, and if I do get tank early, then I can't assassinate a carry. Even with my current build I don't feel like I do much of either. I try to farm up to mid game where I feel like she is strong. Maybe i need to use my early game more effectively? Maybe i just don't know my limits very well.

Any tips to help me find the balance between tank and damage, or any general Vi tips would be helpful. Thank You.

12 Comments

Jester of Quebec8/1/2015, 9:48:32 AM3 votes

http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Jester%20of%20Quebec

I main Vi jungle and I build her this way : Stalker Blade -> Warrior enchantment -> Boots lvl 1 -> Phage -> Black Clever (Extremely usefull, you want that 20% CD asap, the HP for the passive and the armor shredding all fit Vi extremely well) This is her core build for damages, you'll get 50 AD, 10 armor pen, 30% CD reduction, a passive that will give you mov speed in jungle and on ganks, more armor shredding and 400 HP. Vi ult have a pretty long CD and that 30% CD (40% with blue if you have a Zed mid or something that doesnt need mana) will be extremely usefull, her Q base damage is extremely high plus it gives a knockback. You will have less burst than with a Trinity, but your utility plus gank rate will be much higher and you'll be stronger way sooner since Black Clever only cost 2600 gold.

After these your build will have to change depending on what is on the other team, at this point you want to go with only tank items, I recommend Randuin if they are mostly AD, if they are mostly AP, in that case I recommend Banshee Veil. You'll also want to upgrade your boots, same drill if they have magic damages or physical, plus if they have CC, everything is important.

Her power Spike should be from lvl 6 to lvl 12 (From the moment she get her ult until the laning phase is over). She's way stronger when it come to ganks and get pickup kills then in teamfight, still she will stay pretty strong since her denting blow will make her a viable option to shred tanks and she still have the damage to burst down the carries, but at this point it'll be up to your judgment. If your carries are fed I strongly recommend that you peel them, with your Black Clever and Denting Blow you'll be able to take a lot of their armor and your ADC will be able to take them down a lot more easily.

There's 2 way to engage with Vi, Q -> 1 Auto-attack -> E -> R, this will require dfrom you a fully charged Q but you will do a ton of damages, I recommend that you wait for the flash before ulting. Next is an easier engage but also a long range engage. R -> a fast non charged Q -> 1 Auto-attack -> E

This one will do less damage but it's good if they saw you coming, if you got a Yasuo with you or something with lots of damages it will probably be your best options especially if you go bot and do a lane gank.

Vi is a high mobility Bruiser with these 30% CD, this means you should be able to invade the ennemy jungle if you have vision of their jungle. Also Vi is a pretty strong 1 v 1 champion early, with her passive you should be able to take down drag in solo at lvl 5 or even lvl 4 with 2 or 3 hp potions. (recommend that you upgrade denting blow to lvl 2 if you want to get a solo drag, don't max it first though, lvl 2 will be enough)

I also recommend that you upgrade your trinket at lvl 9 for the green upgrade, it's better than a sightstone for only 250 gold, as the Jungler you should always put one ward on Dragon and Baron, with your high mobility this shouldn't be dangerous, plus you can 1 v 1 almost any jungler, of course if you're against a fed Xin Zhao or something like that I recommend you Q over a wall and flee as far as you can.

Edit : You should never go with Cinderhulk, yes her passive stack with HP but it's only 10% and the CD is still pretty high even at high level, so unless your team really need a full tank (Because Ori mid, Yasuo top, Nami support, or a team comp like that) you should never go with Cinderhulk, since Vi base damage is extremely high, you want that Warrior enchant to be able to destroy your ennemy when you gank.

IcyPepper8/1/2015, 7:40:40 AM1 votes

There's a few ways to build/play Vi, depending on your style.

I tend to rush cinderhulk/cleaver on her to be tanky yet powerful. A bruiser that can't quite assassinate, but powerful if I snowball.

For early game, if you want pressure, max Q first. If you can land a fully charged Q on a squishy, it doesn't matter how much damage you built. People are squishy early, so it's easier to snowball.

Save your ult for the best moments, don't waste it carelessly. You can use it to chase someone you know is about to flash (I'm pretty decent at ulting at split-second moments against mobile opponents, it's hilarious to fly across the map when a Corki/Tristana or whatever blinks and then flashes) or a highly mobile champion. You can use it during a teamfight to ruin everyone's positioning (especially great if you have Yasuo, Orianna, or Janna on your team).

Gordo San8/1/2015, 8:13:23 AM1 votes

I feel that you don't really need stalkers cause you can gap close pretty well with Q and R.

And for the same reason above, item 3078 is good but it gives you a lot of stats you might not need (movement speed, ap, crit chance)

Just some ideas:

item 3715 -- which gives you both true dmg and dmg reduction [useful for 1v1]

warrior or cinderhulk are both good choices, i'll leave that up to you (if you want to do more dmg or be more tanky)


item 3071 is also a good choice. Gives you HP (for bigger blast shield) and the armor shred works well with your denting blows

Basically double the HP and damage that trinity force gives minus all the other stats you do not need.

If you get item 3071 (3000 gold) instead of item 3078 (3703 gold) you save a bit more gold, so it is a bit of a safer buy.


Honestly I love theory crafting, if you have more that would be awesome.

TraakSC8/1/2015, 7:35:13 AM1 votes

Just curious on why you go Warrior over Cinderhulk if your goal is tanky?

RoG Vahn8/1/2015, 5:17:48 PM1 votes

Im only silver 4 but i have been playing well with her lately. here is what i do:

get the stalkers blade and a longsword after first jungle clear, or **poachers **if im against a devourer farmer (i cant recommend poachers im still testing this but u can try it.)

next back i try to finish the warrior enchant and if i dont have enough i get boots and second longsword

once i have enough for warrior enchant i usually rush sunfire and either mercs or tabi. u can go randuins or sunfire but i just have a preference for sunfire.

after i get my armor item i get a sheen and then rush a banshees veil.

after banshees veil i get tri or iceborn, depending how tanky i need to be.

last item it situational. if they are heavy ad get more armor heavy ap get more mr. if u r pretty far ahead pick up a maw (rarely).

summary

**jungle item > enchant > boots > armor > damage > mr > damage > armor/mr **

like i said i am only silver 4 but i have played vi really well lately.

also a good tip for jungling in general is to remember to gank when u can and not just farm the jungle constantly. and if u get a kill on their jungle go take a couple of their camps.


this is also a good alternative build that gives u damage while being slightly tankier. also makes u super sticky. item 3709 item 3025 item 3071 item 1319 item 3143 item 3102 (can replace tabi with mercs if needed)

lightandarkness8/2/2015, 8:08:40 PM1 votes

You should try devourer because it realy op on vi w. with 2 attack sated devourer will proc your q. If i snowballed I can build full on assassin vi and destroy the enemy team.

Pius Aeneas8/1/2015, 8:32:45 AM1 votes

Thanks a lot for all the advice. Wondering about her power spikes.