Champion Stats
| Role | Fighter / Assassin |
| Difficulty | |
| Blue Essence | 225 BE |
Why High-Elo Players Smurf with Master Yi
Low elo teams cannot draft properly. They will pick 5 squishy champions with zero point-and-click hard CC, thinking damage is all that matters. This is a free win for Yi. Furthermore, they fundamentally do not understand focus fire. They waste cooldowns on your tank while you Alpha Strike through their entire team untargetable, appearing next to their ADC for the instant deletion. Reset mechanics mean one kill chains into five kills. Your passive double-strike combined with Lethal Tempo attack speed melts anyone who stands still for even a moment.
The Level 1 Cheese
First Blood Strategy
Yi's level 1 cheese exists but is situational. You can invade if you started Hail of Blades—your Q allows you to dodge the enemy jungler's first spell, and your passive double-strike does massive damage for an early skirmish. Meet them at their second buff (usually Gromp or Krugs side) and fight. However, Yi typically prefers to powerfarm six camps into Scuttle, hitting Level 6 around 5:30-6:00, then ganking a lane with R for a guaranteed kill. Patience is rewarded more than cheese on this champion.
The 'Pay-to-Win' Skin Advantage
'Project: Yi' gives you that cyborg samurai feel with incredibly smooth auto-attack animations; it's the go-to for many one-tricks. 'Cosmic Blade' is visually clean with subtle audio cues. 'Inkshadow' is stylish and fresh. 'Assassin Master Yi' is the budget smurf classic—the skin literally says 'I don't care about cosmetics, I just want your LP'. It signals intent to the enemy team.
When They Ban Master Yi
Backup Pick: If Master Yi is banned,
Bel'Veth is the closest analog—reset-based, shreds objectives, and snowballs hard.
Viego offers similar teamfight cleanup potential with his possession resets.
Kindred is a harder alternative but offers the 'unkillable while dealing damage' fantasy.
Rune Setup
Best Runes: Lethal Tempo is the standard choice for consistent DPS and shredding tanks in extended fights. However, Hail of Blades is a valid alternative for instant-bursting squishies with 3 rapid auto attacks (including double-strike procs). For secondary runes, Eyeball Collection stacks snowball stats, and Treasure Hunter accelerates your item spikes significantly—mandatory for aggressive smurfing. Conqueror is technically viable for bruiser Yi builds but is generally suboptimal.
Skill Priority
Order:
Q → E → WQ is your damage, your gap closer, and your survival tool—always max first. E second gives you True Damage on-hit which is essential for cutting through armor. W is genuinely a one-point wonder in most cases; you use it for tanking tower shots, healing up post-fight, or auto-attack resetting (auto-W-auto) for extra DPS. It doesn't need more than one point unless you're building Bruiser Yi.
Mastering Master Yi's Kit
Alpha Strike creates 0.75-1.0 seconds of untargetability. Use it to dodge
Karthus Ult,
Zed Ult mark pop, Tower shots, Ignite ticks... everything. It targets up to 4 units. You can use it on a minion to bounce and end up next to a champion safely. The cooldown reduction on-hit is significant—attack speed directly translates to more Qs in a fight.
Meditate reduces incoming damage by 60-70% AND heals you based on missing HP. Use it to tank a tower shot (channel for exactly one shot's worth), or to bait out burst spells (stand still, W as
Syndra R hits, take 30% damage and heal it back). It's also an auto-attack reset—Auto-W-Auto instantly for extra DPS if you're not being threatened.
Wuju Style grants True Damage on-hit for a duration. Crucially, do NOT activate it while running at them; activate it only when you are actually hitting someone. Wasting the duration while chasing is a common low-elo mistake. The True Damage also means you don't need Lord Dominik's Regards as urgently—your E handles armor.
Highlander makes you IMMUNE TO SLOWS.
Nasus can Wither you,
Ashe can Arrow you (the stun will land but the slow won't), Ghost/Exhaust slow won't work. You can outrun almost anything. Use it to chase, or use it to escape a collapse. The duration extends by 7 seconds on takedowns, so one kill can lead to 20+ seconds of Highlander uptime.
Matchup Tips
Hard Counter. He taunts you, reflects your damage. You literally kill yourself by auto-attacking him. Buy QSS or Dodge the game entirely.
Hard Counter. Counterstrike (E) blocks all your auto attacks for its duration. You do zero damage to him while he beats you to death. Wait out his E before committing to the fight.
Vs Kha'Zix
Skill Matchup. If he catches you isolated, he wins. If you dodge his Q/W with Alpha Strike, you win. Fight near minions/teammates to prevent isolation bonus damage.
The Ego Check
WARNING: Do not engage fights by pressing Q first. If you Q in to start a fight, you appear next to 5 enemies with all of them targeting you, and you die instantly. Walk up first using your R movement speed, auto attack, and SAVE Q to DODGE something critical—a
Malphite R, a
Veigar E, a
Lux Q. Q is a defensive spell used aggressively. Once you waste it for gap-closing, you are a sitting duck with no outplay potential.
When to Queue Dodge
Dodge if the enemy drafts Rammus and Leona together. Rammus literally kills you with his taunt—you auto attack him while taunted and his thornmail passive reflects your damage back onto you. Leona provides infinite point-and-click lockdown. Playing Yi into coordinated hard CC is suffering.
Teamfight Role
Wait. Wait. Wait. This is the hardest lesson for Yi players. Do NOT be the first one into the fight. Let your tank go in. Let the Malphite ult. Let the Lux bind. Let the Leona engage. Wait for every single CC ability to be used on someone else. THEN press R, run at the squishiest target, and Alpha Strike to dodge their last-ditch peel. Kill, reset, repeat. You are the janitor; clean up the mess that your team created. If you engage first, you are giving them a free focus target.
The 'Disrespect' Build
Blade of the Ruined King into Guinsoo's Rageblade is the standard hyper-carry path. However, for maximum disrespect, build 'The Collector' second for funny Alpha Strike executions on low HP targets—seeing them die during your Q bounce is hilarious. An even greedier option is rushing Kraken Slayer for the on-hit nuke, then Rageblade. For meme value, Duskblade Yi (if it existed in current meta) offered Q-resets on kills; replicate the feeling with Axiom Arc for R cooldown reduction.
Power Windows
Your earliest reliable spike is Blade of the Ruined King completion. Before this, you are merely farming and hoping. At BORK + Rageblade, you shred tanks and melt squishies—this is your peak relative to the lobby. Your level 6 gank with R is also extremely potent; people underestimate the movement speed and immune-to-slows component. Use R to run people down who are overextended; you don't need to Q to reach them.
Tilt Factor
Type 'I was in Alpha' every time you die, even if you weren't. It confuses the enemy and makes them doubt themselves. Also, simply existing as a fed Yi forces the enemy team to hold ALL their CC cooldowns for you at all times, reducing their effectiveness against your team. The threat of Yi is almost as powerful as the Yi itself. After a Pentakill, type nothing. Silence is more terrifying.
Recent Patch History
| Patch | Date | Type | Changes |
| V14.12 | Jun 12, 2024 | NERF | Q nerfed, W adjusted |
| V14.11 | May 30, 2024 | BUFF | Base stats buffed |
| V14.9 | May 1, 2024 | NERF | E nerfed |
| V13.21 | Oct 25, 2023 | BUFF | E buffed |
| V12.22 | Nov 16, 2022 | NERF | Base stats nerfed |
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