Master Yi is one of those champions that, if he really gets fed early, he will simply run down every lane and slaughter everyone on your team. If not, he can focus on power farming. You won’t see him gank any lane, but when he completes his core items, the same thing will happen he will simply end the game by always killing everyone on your team. Master Yi is a champion that has really high physical damage output, but he is not invincible. Despite having incredible damage, Master Yi lacks CC to stop his enemies. His only sustainability is his W which can be easily stopped with a stun or taunt or even silence.
Master Yi relies on his basic attacks and always needs to get near a champion to damage them. He has one gap closer, which is his alpha strike which is his main damage source. Master Yi can be daunting on lower ranks. Still, in higher elo, he really doesn’t get played that often because people know how to easily counter him. Now that we’ve seen how e fairs in games, let’s study his skills so you can counter him even further.
Master Yi’s Abilities
- Passive – Double Strike – Each time master Yi strikes an opponent, he gains one stack of Double strikes. At 3 stacks, he strikes twice, the second strike being 50% weaker than the first one. This ability can critically strike a tower on the 2nd hit.
- Q – Alpha Strike – Master Yi vanishes and goes on alpha strike to damage 4 nearby enemies. He cannot be targeted; after a certain period, he reemerges and inflicts physical damage to enemies. Master Yi can use this ability to render certain skillshots useless or dodge a tower strike or any other damage when cast at the right time. This skill can also serve as a blink ability as Master Yi reemerges in front of his target.
- W – Meditate – Master Yi stops all of his actions to meditate. While meditating, he regenerates his health with a strength depending on how much health he is missing. He also gains damage reduction while meditating, and he can generate a stack of double strikes each second.
- E – Wuju Style – Master Yi can activate this skill to enhance his basic attacks making him deal true damage for each basic attack.
- R – Highlander – This ability gives Master Yi tremendous amounts of attack and movement speed when used. He also gains immunity to slows and cripples; if ever he is under the influence of slows, he can cast this skill to cleanse himself of all slows. This ability also provides a passive skill. Whenever Master Yi performs a takedown, he reduces all non-ultimate ability’s cooldown by 70%. This Is his initiating ability which also gives him Ghosting. This passive allows him to pass by units without obstruction.
Now you have the basic knowledge of how Master Yi works. Let’s look at the champions that counter him or team compositions that can shut him down completely.
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Best Champions to Counter Master Yi in Season 12
1. Tryndamere
Tryndamere is a champion that functions almost the same as Master Yi; he relies on basic attacks to take down enemies, a gap closer ability that also has damage, and a heal to sustain himself. They are pretty much the same, but the counter comes from his Ultimate skill. Tryndamere can trade hits with Master YI; as they both reach critical levels of HP, he gains the upper hand because his damage gets higher the lower his health is. He can cast his ultimate, which makes him immune to death for a few seconds. He also can out damage Master Yi because of his W ability which reduces the enemy’s physical damage output.
2. Jax
With Jax, countering Master Yi is pretty simple. Let Master Yi cast his Alpha Strike on you. When he reemerges, cast your counter strike to render all his basic attacks useless; you can recast this ability to stun him. If ever Master Yi tries to get away from your E stun, you have a Q gap closer and chase him. It is also easy to beat Master Yi’s damage with Jax, a very strong late-game champion. Jax can also be used as a jungle champion that can easily counter jungle Master Yi and harass him in his own jungle camps.
3. Fiddlesticks
You can counter Master Yi with this champion as a jungler or even as a support. Master Yi’s weakness is when he can’t get near the enemy ADC or mages, which Fiddle can abuse. He has a fear ability that sends champions running away from Fiddle. Thanks to this ability, ADC’s and Mages can do their job to burst down Master Yi and basically win the entire game. Suppose you have the ability to peel Master Yi away from your enemies. In that case, he basically becomes useless throughout the game.
The Best Items For Countering Master Yi
Everfrost – this item can lock him down in one location, and mage champions can then burst him down or cast more crowd control abilities because CC’s are the main counter for Master Yi.
Frozen Heart – This item is very important to tank champions when facing against a Yi because of its passive that greatly reduces physical damage from enemy champions. With Master Yi being a champion that greatly relies on basic attacks, tanks can mitigate Yi’s great damage output.
Zhonya’s Hourglass – With this item, a champion can go into stasis which makes them invulnerable. This is great as it stalls Master Yi from bursting you down, and if he can’t perform, a takedown he won’t be able to reset his cooldowns. This item also provides the user a flat amount of armor which is always great against champions that deal physical damage.
Also read: How To Counter Vex?
How To Play Against Master Yi? The Best Tips:
Master Yi can be really easy to counter, just pick champions that have stuns or roots, and you’re good to go. But one CC ability is not enough to stop him from snowballing or killing your entire team in teamfights. A stun is Master Yi’s greatest weakness because he is a squishy champion. This glass cannon constantly needs peeling from his tanks or supports. Be careful in teamfights; you need to spot where Master Yi is because he comes into the fight after everyone has used their stuns, so reserve your CC abilities for him just in case he comes in late.
You can also harass him early game so that he doesn’t get to build his core items early and doesn’t snowball out of control. Assassins also work great against Master Yi like Shaco. With all this in mind, now you know that all it takes to defeat Master Yi is to lock him down with stuns or roots or basically kill him fast so that he doesn’t get the chance to kill you. Picking tank champions against him is not a robust counter because of his true damage ability that comes from his E ability, Wuju Style.
Now you know how to counter Master Yi, especially he has a high pick rate in lower elos. Go out there and win more games, GLHF summoner; see you on the rift.
