Master Yi: The Update

 

The day is finally here! Earlier on while commenting on the viability of melee ADCs, I hinted at upcoming reworks to the current melee ADCs to improve their viabilities. While I did not expect them to come directly after Aatrox was released, I am pretty happy it did. Looking briefly over the proposed changes, I can hardly keep from giggling like a little girl. Master Yi has been one of my favourite champions since I started playing League of Legends, mainly because of the amount of skill it takes to play him at a higher level. Beyond the right clicking and autoattacking, a good Master Yi player had to time his Alpha Strikes properly, use his Meditate at the appropriate time, and time his DoubleStrike passive with his Wuju Style active in order to survive in the current meta. I never liked AP Yi and found a swordsman becoming a magician somewhat ludicrous. Thankfully, Riot seems to agree with me and is doing away with AP Yi, bringing the AD Yi back to prominence with a number of interesting changes. Lets have a look shall we?

 

Alpha Strike

• Scales off total attack damage. Hitting an enemy reduces its cooldown. Able to proc mini crits like Garen's Judgement. 

WUT?!

A mega boost for Master Yi's iconic skill, the AP ratio and magic damage has been removed, making his Alpha Strike physical damage and therefore affected by penetration items like Brutalizer and Last Whisper. Woots! With 300 AD, you deal about the same damage as an AP Yi with 300 AP, which is just around a Deathcaps damage, so stacking Bloodthirsters will be a viable option if you decide that you miss the AP Yi playstyle. Even if you didnt like autoattacking as AP Yi, the new Alpha Strike will give you more incentive to do so, lowering the cooldown on every attack made on an enemy. Insanely huge boost for AD Yis everywhere. 

Meditate

• Meditating at low health restores more HP. Resistances changed from flat to %. 

To be honest, I'm not sure whether the % change will be like Garen's (reduces all damage by 20%) or increasing a % of Yi's armor and magic resist at the time, so its not as exciting at the moment. However, the fact that you dont need to have AP for it to heal a significant amount is already a welcome boost to Yi's defense spell

Wuju Style

• Now gives an additional % of total attack damage. Active now gives true damage based on % of total attack damage. 

Active now gives true damage based on a % of total attack damage.

True damage based on a % of total attack damage.

True damage

Irelia 2.0 anyone? Master Yi joins the elite club of champions that can deal true damage, and only one of 2 that can deal consistent true damage with attackspeed. Unlike Irelia's, Master Yi's true damage SCALES with total attack damage. He also joins Zed as one of the only two champions with % increase in AD. All in one neat little package. Granted, Yi's early game will be even weaker now, with the removal of flat AD from his E passive, but Yi has never been about early game exchanges anyway. Farm till late game, and wreck entire teams with your millions of items and stats. Pretty much WOW in terms of total impact on Yi's viability. 

Highlander

• Now has an active passive component; the passive refreshing cooldowns on kills/assists, the active boosting movespeed and attackspeed like old Highlander. Does not refresh itself

The creme de la creme of changes. While most will be sad to see the refresh on Highlander removed, it pales in comparison to what the passive entails. You no longer need to recast Highlander to gain the ability to refresh your spells. Thats a MAJOR change for anyone who has ever played Master Yi. Teamfights have always been about managing your mana, timing your ult casts in order to maintain 100% uptime and refresh your spells at the appropriate time. Mismanagement will lead to you running out of mana before the second enemy falls. NO LONGER! Yi can now focus his mana on timing Alpha Strikes and Meditates, using Highlander as a gap closer or a finisher. Insanely huge QoL change for Yi. 

Double Strike (Passive)

• Every 4th attack, Master Yi's next attack will hit twice for 100% the first hit and 50% the second hit. Master Yi must use this passive within a few seconds. 

Honestly, its a very slight nerf, as you get 100% second hits every 7 attacks right now, but now you can time your bursts a lot easier now. Its not a very major change (much like Jax's ult), but it does allow Yi players to time their burst a lot easier now, with Double Strike applying on hit effects (and Wuju Style :D) as well as faster cooldowns on Alpha Strike


Thats all the changes that have been hinted at by Morello from Riot's forums. We may see some adjustments here and there but if these changes are coming in the next few patches, then I doubt they will be changing much before the patch hits. The stats and numbers havent actually been released so I'm still reserving my judgement until they release it, but at the moment, I'm extremely happy with the proposed changes. Bringing back AD YI in a few weeks time. Cant wait! :D


How do you feel about the changes to Master Yi? Love it/hate it? Leave us a comment below! 

Source: LoL Forums