Our Sona seemed obstinate and was just building as a mage; when I asked her "Where's your Sightstone?", she just said "Where's yours?"; so I ended up getting it, even though it's not something I should have to have been getting as anyone other than a support or Lee Sin. That's my explanation for having it in the first place.
Don't think of the Sightstone that way; especially as a Jungler. Wards are always invaluable and having a second champion contributing towards them will always, always, be useful for the team as a whole. Really, the only champions who shouldn't itemize Sightstone are full carries, like the mid laner or bot ADC, because they need to worry about maximizing slot efficiency above all else due to how gold+finite item limit works. Otherwise, from utility tanks to Supports to Fighters like Vi, the Sightstone is fair game.
So pretty much the lanes got far behind faster than I could have been in a position to help them. When I go to help one lane, the lane on the other side would be losing or the laner I was heading towards would all in and get creamed. Was I wrong this game or were they?
I feel like there is a lot of context missing, but I'm going to simply state that: The lanes messed up on their own, but if you made any mistakes as a result of their actions, that's entirely on you.
Additionally, the only suggestion I got (from the other team) when I asked for help in post chat was to be tankier and not to rush Trinity Force between finishing my jungler enchant (Warrior on Stalker's Blade) and then building defense for the rest of my slots (what I usually do; it's listed as an "essential item" and I've always gotten good results from it).
It's...well it depends really.
Vi is rather heavy on CC and utility, meaning that full tank Vi will always, at the very least, be useful. Raid Boss Vi however (Trinity Force+Usually a Blade of the Ruined King) is how you can carry between a combination of knowing how to carry and being snowballed in the first place.
My personal opinion when it comes to any Raid Boss type champion in the Jungle is to rush your Smite Upgrade (duh), rush Phage, then evaluate the situation. If I'm actively being called into lanes to gank, especially if I tend to be on the receiving end of a lot of damage, I would probably try to build Tankiness/CDR from that point onwards until I am sure I require Tenacity (then that's the time to consider enchanting the jungle item (Juggernaut)) or I feel that I am safe enough to go back to building my damage items. If I'm ganking on my own terms and/or I'm allowed to power farm, I'd finish my damage items first to maximize clear time and burst potential.
In this situation, it sounds like you were spreading yourself very thin through ganking and supporting lanes. In other words, unless you are some ganking god and got kills every time you walked into lane (I'm guessing you didn't), you will not have the gold to finish Trinity Force in a timely manner. If that was really the case, CDR Tank itemization is how you round Vi off and guarantee your own safety, while still leaving the option to return to being a Raid Boss later in the game (This is why I specify CDR Tank. CDR is how you get a Raid Boss to go insane).
For point of reference: I start golems on blue side, Gromp on red side and clear towards top in the first clear. I take W at 1, E at 2, Q at 3, then max R>Q>E>W. I clear everything but the razorbeaks in the first run before going back, then try playing as the map demands: I try to gank when I can or as it's needed depending on my location, and farm when I can.
Personally, I think I only do well as a jungler when the lanes are at least playing safe and not giving more kills to the enemy team while being in need of a gank. So what I'm trying to ask is:
What should I be doing as Vi in general? Am I building/playing her right in the first place? Or beyond the typical fighter setup, is there even a single "right" way at all?
As a raid boss player, and a witness of the terror that is a fed Raid Boss Vi, I think you should at least learn that itemization route.
Raid Boss can be categorized with 3 things:
Trinity Force+BotRK for dueling potential
40% CDR to maximize on their skills (Raid Bosses tend to have impactful skills and built in steroids, but the skills themselves lack scaling, thus CDR is how you maximize their effectiveness)
Being tanky as hell
As a Jungle player, BotRK can be swapped out for the Warrior Enchantment if you are focusing on high impact, low downtime fights instead of dueling.
Generally, actually building goes like this:
- If you are allowed to power farm all you want, rush your damage items, rush CDR, then build tankiness.
- If you are required to gank a lot, CDR and Tankiness are your priorities, depending on how the ganks in question are going. Lots of risky ganks with a lot of fighting back? Tankiness. Safer ganks that revolve around good opportunities? CDR. It's really a case sensitive thing though.
The important thing to remember - and this applies to virtually all champions by the way - is that item builds should never be static. Yes, you should have rush items, and yes, it's good to have a clear idea of what you want by the end game, but these are guidelines, not set rules or laws. Be sure to build for as the situation calls or to take advantage of said situation, don't hamstring yourself by being stuck doing the same thing over and over again.
As an aside, Sightstone actually isn't supposed to be run in true Raid Boss sets, but Vi is on the very borderline of being a full Raid Boss in the first place, so ehh...
What do I do if I'm Vi, and more than one of the lanes is losing hard?
How badly?
Vi is amazing at turning around lanes if you play right, but only if the lane is worth saving. If Jax is just one kill behind Gnar and is keeping up in CS, yeah, that's a really safe lane to gank and try to turn around. If Fiora is 5 deaths to Garen and has no farm at all, ignore it, get back to farming/ganking winning lanes, and just be sure to keep an eye on Garen if he leaves.
Or when the enemy laners are getting fed off of kills before I even have anything built?
This is why you build tanky early if necessary.
Or when I'm on one side of the map trying to help someone and either the other side decides to go ham and feeds (hopefully unintentionally) or the lane I'm headed towards suddenly gets more reinforcements? In the latter case I just walk the other way; maybe the allied laner(s) needed me, but they died before I got there and I am not going to try attempting a 1v2+ against fed enemies.
Return to point made about how badly things are going.
Again, Vi is good at turning things around, you just need to recognize if something's capable of being turned around or is flat out hopeless.
