Overview
Master Yi, sometimes called “Yisets,” is a champion who can snowball his way through a team fight with resets and is an AD melee champion with hyper carry potential. He’s even seen limelight in pro play as in some weird metas like with Yuumi duo jungling with him (though that may be more of a Yuumi thing). A friendly champion to pick up for beginner players who just want to kill things, he’s a solid jungle pick to learn the game on. Click here for the latest data on his best builds, including Runes, Items, Summoner Spells, and more.
Keys to Remember About Master Yi
Yi's biggest counters are going to be teams that bring many forms of CC and Exhaust to the table -- this means you should be wary of picking him early in the draft as he'll find most success when the enemy team has multiple squishy targets and are low on CC. If you insist on picking him no matter what, consider split pushing more if the enemy team can lock you down in team fights.
Alpha Strike [Q] can be used to dodge abilities, which means you want to do your best to save it for abilities that can CC you in any manner -- this will be most important for 1v1 situations where dodging even one ability can be the difference between winning or losing.
Strengths
He can be a one man army in the right circumstances -- the most notable being if enemies are lacking in CC or if he’s able to wait for them to blow their abilities on someone else first. Thanks to Highlander [R] making it easy for him to get resets with Alpha Strike [Q], all it takes is for one champion to fall before the rest go down as well, especially because Alpha Strike [Q] can be used to dodge enemy abilities. This means he’s a champion that will scale extremely well as the game progresses and will act as a sort of ticking time bomb for opponents. All it takes is one misstep for him to suddenly kill your whole team.
Weaknesses
He can be kited back and focused if the enemy team is ready for him -- as soon as he Alpha Strikes [Q] in, he’ll be vulnerable in the immediate aftermath, and if CC or Exhaust is saved for him, then he’ll just be a squishy melee carry that can be easily burst down. This is the main reason he doesn’t see much play at higher elo -- people know how to deal with him. This is coupled with him having a weak early game where he’s reliant on his laners to set him up during ganks instead of being the kind of jungler that can actively win lanes for his teammates.
Game Plan
Early Game: Look to farm as much as possible -- you won’t have kill pressure on enemies that are playing safely, but you can look to gank for your lanes that have CC and can help set you up to deal damage.
Mid Game: You’ll still want to farm and clear your jungle as much as possible, but you can find value in team fights if you are patient and if you have set up from your allies.
Late Game: Your job is to clean up fights -- this means you should look for flanks and be patient with when you decide to commit to a fight. Keep track of enemy CC for the most success!
