Welcome to my blog that consists of a bunch of long, opinionated forum post-like articles compiled into something visually palatable for your reading pleasure. Note that many of these articles are old and may not represent my present day views, but remain available to read for the sake of posterity.
There's no denying the gaming market has many games. They can range from terrible to amazing and each employs a specific set of practices to help ensure success. After gathering information on the gaming industry all of my life, but especially over the last half decade, I've compiled a few simple steps that are foolproof for improving any game. For the sake of posterity, since I suspect this will be relevant for at least a year or so, I will keep the tone of this article as neutral as possible and directed at nobody in particular. So for devs, players, and everyone else, here's 3 ways to improve a game - guaranteed.
1. Manipulate Emotions
Manipulation of emotions is important for keeping a player engaged. As an artistic medium, the job of a game is to typically make the player feel something so that they continue playing and become immersed. That way, even when they're not playing, they'll tend to think of the game and talk about it with their peers. They may even come back for more!
One way to evoke emotion is to add a lot of randomness to the game. After all, while it feels good to win, it only feels good to win intermittently since constantly winning devalues the feeling until there is nothing left. Randomness accomplishes this well since it creates those rare times of something going a player's way, causing them to feel good about it.
In addition, a game should be incredibly difficult to evoke frustration. This strong negative emotion has a high chance of making the experience more memorable. It may even motivate a player to try harder, because they absolutely should be doing that. If confronted on social media by a frustrated player, it is highly recommended that fellow players and developers alike tell them to "git gud."
Finally, it is important to bring a player out of the experience too by putting up roadblocks that stop them from playing entirely. It would be highly irresponsible of the developers to not stop their players every once in awhile. Such a practice also helps to create a feeling of anticipation in the player to the point gaming activities are scheduled intensively. The exception to employing this practice is if the player has money like a responsible person would. If this is the case, it's considered acceptable to charge a few dollars to let them keep playing... at least for a while.
2. Reward Loyalty
Veteran players are always the most important customers since they've spent a lot of money and/or time on the game. The sunk cost fallacy is an important trait of such players since it allows practices such as increasing the cost of various things related to the game. Because the players are so immersed in the game, they won't notice or care about the change and typically attempt to justify it in some way. Furthermore, incredibly stalwart fans of the game will defend such practices against harsh, pesky criticism.
In addition, veteran players should feel like they are powerful and in control so it's important to put more effort into those players' experiences. This is typically done by selling them a form of power or developing content exclusively for them. It may even be lucrative to abandon concepts like new player experience since it wastes valuable developer time and in multiplayer games, new players are basically just fodder meant to sate the needs of superior players anyway. Besides, these new players might not even spend much money if any at all, so they're better off moving on to another game quickly.
3. The devs are always right
When all else fails, remember that the developers of a game can see everything regarding its inner workings. They are basically wizards and there's simply no way a consumer can understand their ways without undergoing the extensive education and ordeals they went through to join their ranks.
Thus, suggestions from some random person on the forums or the like mean nothing since until it's actually added into the game, it's just a bunch of words that can easily be edited or deleted. To put it another way, the final call lies with the developer and it's fine to protect the artistic vision, design philosophy, or whatnot of a game. The process typically involves ignoring criticism and doing whatever they wanted to do anyways, explaining the reasoning for their decision afterwards.
Conclusion
And there you have it. These are tips that will ensure any game is successful. Please for the love of gaming don't actually do any of this.
In games, there are often strategies to play optimally, mostly to get through a rough patch. Many games, such as RPGs and shooters, use enemies, particularly bosses to represent these hardships that a player must deal with to progress. World of Warcraft's enemies follow this formula and for each boss in the game, there are many resources that guide a player through the encounter. These encounters themselves also have a specified formula in the form of common mechanics that the developers use in some form. These mechanics are typically familiar in nature but can take many forms, not to mention that their interactions with other mechanics, including new ones innovated over time, ensure that short of intentional design, no two encounters are completely alike, thus allowing for continuous progression.
During my prior rant regarding being "bad at games" and delving into my personal thoughts on elitist behavior and the like, I briefly mentioned "rushing through dungeons", which I partially attributed to the implementation of Dungeon Finder in WoW, and how it was detrimental. While I wasn't completely clear, I felt I was on to something and as a result, I made a thread regarding the topic to see what other people thought.
The result was the most controversial thread that I've made so far on Reddit. It was obvious my statements lacked clarity since there are valid reasons to quickly finish instances, if only because efficiency in itself can be beneficial. I also left the topic very open-ended and didn't offer sufficient criticism in the original post to improve beyond what I consider reckless rushing through instances in an attempt to be efficient. It is only fair that I rectify this error by providing some tips for running through an instance quickly without endangering the welfare of the group, which should fit within the interests of the majority of players and was the main intention of what the thread was trying to convey.
The healer's mana is a valuable commodity. If the healer has no mana, the group will likely not stay alive for long, resulting in a dead group members or a wipe. The time spent running back or resurrecting players exceeds the amount of time it takes for the healer to have an opportunity to take a drink, which they should be sufficiently stocked on.
To fully optimize between running through an instance quickly and accounting for the healer's mana pool, wait until the group is out of combat before pulling once the healer's mana starts to get low, even if it's for a brief moment. That way the healer can (and should) quickly take a drink and continue to mana up in combat while the rest of the group roughs out the incoming damage since it's unlikely the group will die within about 10 seconds. The healer can also liberally use his/her mana and cooldowns to catch up on healing, allowing for a cycle of aggressive healing into drinking up between pulls.
Based on a practice adopted in Cataclysm Heroic dungeons, it helps to bring along your own food and eat to heal up between pulls if you end up low so the healer doesn't have to top you off, reducing the amount of mana the healer has to spend. This also applies if you have access to other sources of healing.
Pull what you can handle. One cause of wipes is when a player, in their desire to run through an instance quickly, pulls a huge amount of enemies and dies very quickly. This is understandable since AoEing down many enemies at once is an incredibly efficient way to deal with them, thus saving time.
In the case of the tank, be prepared to not receive a sufficient amount of heals because of the aforementioned tip or because the sheer amount of incoming damage from the enemies pulled is too high. Use defensive cooldowns liberally and utilize tactics such as kiting to ensure your survival while your group kills what you pulled.
In the case of anyone else, pulling ahead of the tank is generally considered poor courtesy and while some groups may help out, others might just leave you to die. This is worth keeping in mind when trying to pull extra groups to speed up a run.
Don't leave others behind. While some players may not be able to keep up with the group, leaving them behind will more often than not result in lost DPS or healing. This is particularly an issue during boss fights that lock out players, since without the full group the boss will often take dramatically longer, especially in 5-man groups, if not cause an outright wipe.
If you're a tank or otherwise control the pacing of the run, try to do a litmus test early on the determine how well the group can keep up and adjust to it. This results in what would probably be the maximum possible efficiency since just rushing ahead without your group has a good chance of wasting a lot of time due mostly to death.
Do not kick players watching cinematics. They're not that long and a player may be going through the instance for the first time.
On the flip side, try not to run around at a snail's pace either. If it's your first time through a place or you're generally inexperienced, try to at least stay near the group so you don't get locked out of boss attempts or otherwise get left behind.
Be careful when taking shortcuts. Not everyone know about shortcuts or is able to play to the specified amount of precision required to take them (Everbloom shortcut comes to mind). In addition, players can make mistakes and accidentally pull the trash your group is trying to skip or otherwise screw up massively. If taking a shortcut is starting to take more time than it's intended to save, it may be better to not take the shortcut.
Communicate with the group. Socializing with the group is probably the last thing on a player's mind, but it helps to learn about how experienced other players in the group are and helps speed up a run by telling others about shortcuts and other helpful information. By providing this information, it's less likely other players will make mistakes (such as pulling some trash mobs that the group is trying to skip on accident).
Communicating through markers is helpful as well. Use world markers to show a path or mark dangerous areas. Marking crowd controlled enemies was something more rooted in the past and while it may take a bit of time, marking a kill target with a Skull will be of some help. Bind markers to convenient keys to allow for quicker marking. This is also a good alternative if one is not interested in chatting with the group.
Hopefully this will make runs that intended to be efficient safe as well. On another note, have a happy (and safe, but hopefully not brief) holiday season!
When browsing the forums and watching chats for questions, I often try to look for a pattern of common questions that get asked. These questions are typically treated as "stupid questions" because of how often they are asked to the point other people get tired of them and the people who they think should've looked up the answer to previous inquirers to begin with.
While I personally gave my views on the idea of handling stupid questions in an enormous rant, I don't think prosecuting the people who disrespect people for asking such questions is necessarily the way to go. By providing informative resources like the LFR guide and, to a point, the various analysis articles I have written, and keeping them open for commenting, I hope to create an environment where people can freely ask their questions and have them answered.
This particular article is a direct response to this post, since it makes sense to create a resource that answers a frequently asked question. However, the topic this article covers is not the question of whether a player should come back to World of Warcraft. Instead, this article will cover the following question, which I believe to be one of the most frequently asked:
What class should I choose?
This question can be presented in many forms. Sometimes it's a general question that asks which of the 11 classes is most suitable for leveling up and playing. Other times it's a choice between a few classes that the player may already have or express an interest in playing.
While I previously made a guide in an attempt to answer this question when writing a guide series for newer players, it was far less detailed than I would've liked. Thus, in an attempt to answer all forms of the question above in a detailed manner without telling people to flip coins or roll dice, I have ranked each class choice based on their roles, leveling efficiency, and other factors such as provided utility and class abilities. The ranking will also assume that a player is creating their first character and will not account for boosting, though since boosting does affect the rankings a little I will mention when the level 90 boost affects rankings. An explanation will follow each ranking to explain the reasons for my ranking choice.
This list will not account for game balance such that classes that perform well on a damage meter automatically rank higher. I will attempt to account for factors such as personal preference by concluding each section with recommendations and statements not directly related to my reason for ranking a class choice. These rankings are opinion-based, though I will try my best to make the rankings as objective and factually-rich as possible.
With that said, the rankings are as follows:
This chart serves as a quick point of reference to determine which class is the best to level. See below for a more detailed explanation.
Note: (To reiterate) If this helped you out and you see someone else asking about what class to choose or boost, please consider sharing this article!
Mists of Pandaria, much like Vanilla WoW, was said to have no "main villain" such as Illidan for the Burning Crusade and the like. However, (to likely tease players), Garrosh was announced as the final boss of the Mists of Pandaria expansion. While there is some tying together of story threads when it comes to Pandaria's lore and the rise and eventual dethroning of Garrosh, Garrosh showed up briefly after the first tier of raids and then proceeded to initiate a number of plans, but otherwise worked behind the scenes as players worked their way through Lei Shen'sdomain. With the Thunder King bested, the Alliance and Horde both decided to focus their efforts to laying siege to Orgrimmar, which is where the 16th tier of raiding comes in.
The Siege of Orgrimmar is a massive raid that begins in Pandaria shortly after the events of the patch 5.4 trailer, showing players the destruction Garrosh had wrought on the Vale of Eternal Blossoms for the sake of harnessing a dark power. Players would then delve into the heart of Orgrimmar where they would venture into a huge underground stronghold built within Ragefire Chasm, encounter numerous monstrosities and entities that chose to ally with Garrosh. After defeating the preceding thirteen bosses, players would finally have the opportunity to beat Garrosh to a pulp.
This part of the guide will cover the LFR versions of Tier 16: Siege of Orgrimmar. Go back to the tier 14 guide by clicking here or to tier 15 by clicking here. This guide will contain some additional tips for Normal (previous Flexible) mode when relevant, since it is highly desirable to run Normal mode to finish the legendary quest faster, not to mention players may want to get their guaranteed heirloom from Garrosh. If there are no additional tips for Normal mode, that means the fights are similar enough between LFR and Normal that the same tips should work.
I hope you all enjoyed this set of guides. See you all in Warlords of Draenor when I'll try to get more going.
While leveling up in Pandaria, players were introduced to enemies such as the Mogu, Mantid, and Sha, all of which became major foes that had a significant influence on tier 14 content. Leveling in Kun'lai Summit also gave a glimpse into tier 15's content as well, pitting players against the Zandalari and indicating that the Thunder King had been awakened. Patch 5.2 brought the Isle of Thunder, where players of both factions had to sabotage the Thunder King's forces, further advancing into the fortress until Nalak was awakened. In addition, players could strike deep into the Thunder King's domain by entering the Throne of Thunder raid and encountering 12 bosses plus an additional Heroic-only boss.
This part of the guide will cover the LFR versions of Tier 15: The Throne of Thunder. Go back to the tier 14 guide by clicking here or advance to the tier 16 guide by clicking here.
A couple of years ago when the Looking for Raid, or LFR system was in its stages of infancy, I wrote a guide detailing strategies and potential tricks to beat the eight bosses of the only LFR at the time: Dragon Soul. With Mists of Pandaria coming to an end and players gearing up or trying to get their legendary cloak quests finished, I thought I would share some strategies and not-so-well-known tricks to beating the LFR bosses. I've thought about writing this for a long time but for one reason or another (such as waning interest in WoW, resulting in a lack of motivation to write such an article) I delayed this series of articles and have only now started gathering the resources to write this series of articles. While there are likely far better guides out there, such as the encounter journal, the details that may help set these guides apart are the aforementioned tricks and personalized bite-sized strategies, if either are relevant for a given boss.
Since LFR has been implemented for each major raid tier of the Mists of Pandaria expansion, it would be an enormous mouthful to write all the strategies and tricks for all 42 bosses in a single article so I will split them by tier and add links to other LFR tier guides below:
Welcome to my (revised) Dunkmaster Yi guide. Before proceeding, be warned that this build is mostly intended for pubstomping and normal queue. While it is a more optimal method to running the usual troll build. I will also give both logical and troll (in the method similar to the original guide) explanations to my choices. It greatly helps to have a strong understanding of game mechanics and excellent map awareness as (revised) Dunkmaster Yi. You should also practice or have jungling experience before using this in normal matches.
Note: This guide is being updated for Season 3. Check back for updates.
Champion Overview (Description, Pros, and Cons)
Master Yi is a melee assassin, carry, and potentially caster depending on his item build. Given his sheer lack of any crowd controls, including impairing effects such as slows, he isn't too useful when it comes to contributing to a team fight short of doing massive damage. However, his kit gives him surprisingly high mobility and makes him difficult to kite, which is why I tend to categorize him more in the former description than the latter two. Because of this and the aforementioned troll build, I follow the ideal of moving fast and kill fast since it works best with Master Yi's kit (despite how squishy it makes him)
Pros
Scales well off Attack Speed and Crit due to his kit.
Because of this, Master Yi can spam items like the Doubleswords.
Alpha Strike is a strong gap closer, escape, and juking tool. It also does a good bit of damage early, potentially clearing the jungle at record speeds.
Effective immunity to slows after level 6 due to Highlander. This includes slows that have attack speed slows tied to the same debuff (like Nunu's Ice Ball).
Fantastic at split pushing/backdooring.
Amazing at farming. His creep score will shoot through the roof as the game goes on.
When played properly, is a very slippery champion that makes a strong counter-jungler (also good at burning people's ultimates).
Works best if your team coordinates well.
Excellent for pubstomping.
Cons
No CC, including slows.
Highly reliant on red buff (and Highlander) for ganks.
Mana hungry at all stages of the game - may need to rely on blue buff.
Easy to shut down with proper coordination.
Not possible to carry every game (team has to at least know what to do to a point).
Also relies on having some enemy players who aren't that skilled.
Jungling is slightly luck-based (fortunately less so with the new Alpha Strike change).
If shut down early, his usefulness will be minimal unless he manages to bounce back.
Susceptible to CC.
Easily countered by certain champions and items.
Skill Overview
Click here or here to see brief descriptions of Master Yi's abilities. Otherwise, see below for my additional notes on the abilities:
Passive: Double Strike - Double strike is at least a decent passive, if a simple one. It effectively makes attack speed more valuable by approximately 14.2%. However, keep in mind the bonus strike can apply on-hit effects but cannot crit.
Q: Alpha Strike - Alpha Strike is a good ability for clearing out the jungle and dealing high amounts of magic damage early game. Even as the game approaches later stages the ability deals a surprising amount of damage (without Ability Power), potentially netting killsteals.
While Alpha Strike is going, Master Yi is effectively invulnerable and cannot be targeted. He also drops turret and minion aggro (which could potentially "reset" jungle creeps if you're not careful, causing them to heal slightly). However, there is a slight moment where Master Yi is susceptible to damage when Alpha Strike begins. In addition, targeted effects (not skill shots) will still hit Master Yi if they fire off before Alpha Strike begins.
W: Meditate - Meditate is a good ability for getting some quick sustain. However, you probably shouldn't be using this in the jungle because the channel is long and you'll eventually build life steal anyways. The additional Armor and Magic Resist, however, make it handy for tanking enemies, especially turrets, in a pinch. This ability has been buffed recently and will now heal you for a LOT more without building AP.
E: Wuju Style - This simple-looking ability packs a surprising punch. While you will probably activate it when you know that there will be downtime when you don't need the passive benefit early on, you have to be careful about using it liberally because if the cooldown is reset through Highlander while the active effect of this ability is still up, Master Yi will actually benefit from both effects, granting a net bonus of 105 Attack Damage at the maximum rank. This ability gives so much raw AD that it makes other offensive stats a lot better to build early on (you do eventually have to get some damage though, since other offensive stats eventually diminish in effect due to hard caps).
R: Highlander - This is the bread and butter skill of Master Yi. You will end up using this before ganking, entering team-fights, chasing down enemies, and running away from them. However, proper usage of this ability is key as you may end up wasting the cooldown. This requires you to evaluate situations and think whether it's a good idea to use your ultimate or not.
Skill Order
Level
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Season 3
The skill order is unchanged. Proceed as normal.
Season 2
You can choose to skip Meditate at level 4 in favor of more ranks in Wuju Style, though the sustain and increased defensive stats might help (for instance with tower dives). This skill order, while reliant on RNG tends to give better clear times in the jungle. In addition, the base damage on Alpha Strike is pretty high, helping deal some easy damage to both jungle monsters and enemies you gank. Unless an encounter is prolonged, maxing out Alpha Strike first tends to yield better results. Wuju Style is the next best ability to rank afterwards for increased damage on basic attacks.
If Wuju Style's cooldown is reset through Highlander, do not use it until your current Wuju Style active buff wears off (you gain 105 total attack damage).
Friends and Foes
While it is possible for Master Yi to dunk just about anyone, some enemy champions are an absolute joke while others are a nightmare to fight. Reversing that logic, Master Yi works pretty well with anyone too, but works better with certain champions. In this section I will go over notable champions that fall under these categories:
(Hard) Foes
Rammus can be a total nightmare for you. He has hard CC, an inherently large amount of armor, and built-in Thornmail. On top of that, he can put a damper on your dunking by moving really fast himself. This is probably your hardest counter, though building items like Last Whisper may help you combat him. Mordekaiser can ruin your day if he manages to ult you and you die shortly after. This causes him to acquire a ghost that dunks your own team. Also Mordekaisers have a tendency to build Thornmail for anti-carrying purposes (especially against champions like Master Yi). Be very careful because it becomes extremely difficult to 1v1 Mordekaiser if this happens. Be glad he doesn't have any form of hard CC.
Singed is one of your hard counters in top lane. Despite the fact you'll be jungling this doesn't stop him from ruining your existence. While his slow won't do much to you, he's incredibly durable and can withstand your damage while poisoning you. Even if you play smart and avoid his Poison Trail, it's unlikely you'll be able to kill him at all after he gets a couple items. Singed has a high tendency to build Thornmail and other armor items. He can also Fling you if you happen to get too close, which will break your Meditate and make you an easy target for the enemies.
Leona has three hard CCs and naturally high durability. She makes it very hard to pull successful ganks on the bottom lane as a result and, if she protects the carry, will continue to do so throughout the game. Fortunately, despite this she's easier to deal with than the previous three foes.
Thresh is the definition of anti-fun with two hard CCs. While his ultimate doesn't do anything to you while yours is active, he can hook you, stopping you from doing anything including moving really fast and knocking you around. He also has a shield and inherently massive armor due to his passive if he gets enough souls. Fortunately, he's pretty squishy early on no matter where he goes so try to pick him off early.
Blitzcrank has three CCs and is durable, like Leona. Furthermore, he can catch you hard before you do anything with his grab making it so you die in a horrible CC chain before you can really do anything due to your glass cannon build. The reason this guy is so low on the list is because he's usually banned in Draft Pick, but if he shows up, try to handle him early and do your best to dodge his grabs later on.
Alistar has two hard CCs (one is a really annoying knockback) and is super tanky to boot. He is one of the ultimate carry protectors, especially against melee champions like Master Yi. While he can't really kill you by himself if you see him paired with a carry, don't approach them alone.
(Easy) Foes
Runes
While runes are for "wimps" and aren't exactly mandatory (they help a lot for jungling though), it's helpful for getting an even more unfair advantage.
Season 3
The rune page below is now obsolete due to the latest changes. The glyph choice, which can be anything ranging from (flat) Attack Damage to (flat) Ability Power, can probably get more effectiveness than Armor glyphs.
Ignore this part. Buffs to Master Yi make this rune page revision unnecessary.Switch out your Magic Resist glyphs for Armor glyphs (using the second rune page setup from Season 2). This will help you survive in the jungle since you are running non-conventional masteries (as opposed to something like the mastery setups shown here). Your rune page will now look like this:
Season 2
This first set of runes are the runes I originally used to run. They are the same as the ones I ran in the video. While it increases damage done by basic attacks, it isn't too helpful for clearing the jungle. Armor and magic resist runes are there to slightly increase durability against enemy attacks. Magic resist per level runes may be better if you want to scale against casters better in the late game.
This set of runes is what I favor running now. The increased attack speed increases the proc rate on items like Wriggle's Lantern and increases the rate your passive stacks. The movement speed quintessences help catch up to or run away from enemies while also playing into the theme of moving really fast.
Masteries
Season 3
While the masteries got moved around a bit, the allocation of mastery points hasn't changed too much.
As usual, go 21 points into Offense, taking masteries that are beneficial for AD champions. Keep in mind you no longer gain some benefits, such as Life Steal, from doing this.
Out of all of these, the first three masteries are probably the most "mandatory" because of the improved mobility and summoner usage (Smite goes off cooldown faster, Ghost and Flash are up more often when you need it). It is debatable as to whether to continue picking up Summoner's Resolve (now gives 1.59 gold per 10 seconds with Mastermind), but the increase in ambient gold and jungle gold may make it unnecessary. Also, the mastery isn't exactly great and Runic Affinity allows for more potent ganks due to increased Lizard buff duration.
Season 2
These are also not particularly mandatory, but it helps to have every advantage you can get.
Master Yi can go 21 into Offense (which encompasses a rather generic AD carry mastery setup) without worrying too much about dying to jungle mobs with his start. It also helps him do a lot of damage. If you do not run Ghost, drop Summoner's Wrath for one point in Butcher.
The 8 points into Utility emphasize his ability to move around. The reduced death time is a better talent choice because Master Yi, while reliant on Mana, doesn't really need extra maximum mana. If you plan on running the Flash summoner, pick up Summoner's Insight (in place of either Good Hands or Improved Recall).
Finally, put one point into Summoner's Resolve to get a bit of extra gold for using Smite. While you probably won't get the best case scenario of about 1.43 gold per 10 seconds for using Smite on cooldown, the extra money can help buy new items. Alternatively, you can pick up Runic Affinity.
Summoners
Nothing in this section has changed for Season 3.
Smite is mandatory, as you'll usually be jungling. Please see below for an example route.
Ghost is the summoner I typically run. Even though there are some penalties for having too much bonus movement speed, it helps chase down enemies early on and escape throughout the game.
Flash would be my other summoner choice. This helps get away from sticky situations that can't be escaped by using additional movement speed. For example, you can Flash over walls to escape from enemies.
Teleport is a "troll" choice that emphasizes split pushing and surprising enemies with Teleport ganks. This is better if you play with a good team that can coordinate ganks.
Item Build
Season 3
Start:
Early Items:
Goal By 15 Minutes:
Build These To Dominate Mid-Game:
If You Get This By 30 Minutes, They Might As Well Surrender: OR if you plan on making
Upgrade or sell one of your Doubleswords into the following:
Farm Lots of Money and get These:
Now That Your Core is Finished, Sell Wiggle's Lantern and Buy One of These: (It gives the Life Steal and Damage you need) (Build Infinite Edge last if you go for this. You can build even earlier if desired.) (Extremely powerful alternative to BT - Generally what I build) (Vs. High Armor - Don't Build Against Thornmail) (Another strong anti-armor item that also destroys squishies.) (If You Need Durability, tend to die a lot, and the enemy has healing reduction effects)
Example Final Builds:
Best build, in my opinion. Replace with Blade of the Ruined King with Bloodthirster if you want more damage.
For split pushing.
Example tenacity build
Season 2 (Final item build still works, but is weaker)
Start:
Early Items:
Goal By 15 Minutes:
Build These To Dominate Mid-Game (Yes you want a total of three Doubleswords)
If You Get This By 30 Minutes, They Might As Well Surrender:
Farm Lots of Money and get These:
Now That Your Core is Finished, Sell Wiggle's Lantern and Buy One of These: (General Final Item Choice - It Gives the Life Steal and Damage You Need) (Vs. High Armor - Don't Build Against Thornmail) (If You Need Durability, tend to die a lot, and the enemy has healing reduction effects)
Explanation of Item Choices
Season 3
With the new Season 3 items, you should now start with a Evil-Slaying Sword and 5 Red Sodas. You will be able to kill faster with this and the clear time is important for keeping up with laners. You may end up using all your Red Sodas, however, because you're a little squishy, though you'll usually have one left.
The first clear of the evil forest will easily net you the X-Men Claws because it's a lot cheaper to build now, letting you kill them faster. Get this before your Boots because you already move so fast due to the movement speed/boots changes. You should then work on your Wiggle's Lantern - it will take longer to build because Rad Scythe is more expensive now.
After finishing Wiggle's Lantern, upgrade your boots (remember these can upgrade twice now) and start making Doubleswords. You should make three of them before making your Hammer of RNG Slows followed by a Triplesword. While the Triplesword and Doubleswords are a little weaker than their Season 2 counterparts, they're slightly cheaper and still provide decent stats that allow you to become a midgame menace (actually don't bother with Triplesword, it's crap now for Yi and you might as well build a Purple Sword of Move and Kill Fast).
One final thing worth pointing out is there's another build that involves making the Dragon Axe and Sword of Money Making early instead of Doubleswords. This is decent (though I feel it doesn't take advantage of the stats Master Yi needs the most) and especially good for farming money. The end build is also pretty similar.
For more information, refer to the Season 2 section since a lot of the information is still relevant. Just don't follow the build order (even though it's similar)
Season 2
Clothing and 5 Red Sodas helps sustain through the evil forest early on. From my experience you'll usually have one or two Red Sodas left.
After clearing the evil forest, potentially picking up a gank, and getting more camps afterwards, you should have enough money for the next group of items (if not, pick up the Boots first to speed up travel time from camp to camp and make it easier to chase down opponents). X-Men Claws make it easier to clear the evil forest, which is why it's built before the Rad Scythe.
Upon acquiring Wiggle's Lantern (helpful for clear speed - including killing the Dragon and Baron, life steal,and seeing more due to the wards you can lay down), and upgraded Boots, work on your Doubleswords.
Get up to three of them. This will help scale through the mid-game because Master Yi inherently has a large amount of Attack Damage, making Attack Speed and Critical Strike desirable stats. Movement speed improves Master Yi's ability to close gaps and escape as well. In short, it makes you move really fast and kill really fast.
While Triplesword may not seem the best on Master Yi, it's decent because Master Yi benefits from almost the attributes on it. The offensive stats (Attack Damage, Attack Speed, Crit) are pretty self explanatory. Ability Power helps make Alpha Strike a little more potent and increases the healing done by Meditate. Movement Speed helps Master Yi go even faster. Health and Mana aren't particularly helpful for Master Yi in this build, though it may allow for some additional ability uses or riskier dives.
On top of this, the slowing effect is handy on Master Yi because he doesn't have any other way to crowd control enemies. Lizard buff helps supplement this, but you may need to eventually give this to the AD Carry. The attack damage bonus proc isn't all that helpful on Master Yi unless you reset cooldowns. If you do, then you'll probably snowball through the fight.
Overall, the main reason I build this item is because it gives a solid chunk of stats, including 15% crit, which is key. You can choose instead to use Youmuu's Ghostblade as a cheaper alternative.
Now that you finished Triplesword, build two Red Doubleswords and a Spikey Sword. This will allow you to move really fast. With all these items in hand you also have exactly 100% critical strike chance, which makes the Spikey Sword even better than it already is (considering it gives a lot of attack damage). This is what I consider the end-game core item build.
You can now sell your Wiggle's Lantern to build a sixth item, which I have given recommendations for above. I would build Bleeding Sword a majority of the time because it gives immense attack damage, which Master Yi will now scale hardest off of since you're close to the attack speed cap (with your ultimate active) and have 100% crit. The lifesteal is also beneficial because selling Wiggle's Lantern will also remove your source of lifesteal.
Jungle Route
This remains unchanged in Season 3.
You can really start anywhere, but I typically use the following route:
Wolves (with help from team) => Golem Buff (with help from team) => Wraiths => Wolves => Lizard Buff => Wraiths (or Golems if you have more health left) => Gank Top/Mid (Purple Side), Gank Mid/Bot (Blue Side).
Additional Tips (Added For Season 3)
You can greatly enhance your Dunkmaster experience by following these tips. You may find them useful when playing other champions/roles. Use them wisely:
Always play as if you are expecting to get counter-jungled if enemy players are not visible. This means you should keep your health as high as possible.
Have a strong sense of map awareness. Always keep an eye on the minimap and see where enemy players are. This is especially essential if you want to counter-jungle them. This will take a lot of practice.
For example, if you see their jungler at the bottom lane, you can steal the enemy's red buff (if you are blue side) or blue buff (if you are purple side) if it is up.
Always try to leave one of the smaller minions at the camps if possible (except buff camps if you want to keep stealing it).
Wards are very important. You should always lay them out at key spots like your team's/the enemy team's buffs, the dragon, or the Baron. For more information, look here.
Learn when to time your Smite. This takes a lot of practice but it can allow you to secure the key objectives mentioned in the previous tip.
If you are covering a lane and it's obvious the enemy laner isn't going to return, push the lane for your laner (unless it's pushed too far back). Otherwise, just go for last hits so that they don't go to waste.
During team fights, try to kill enemy carries and/or anyone who is squishy as this will refresh your cooldowns, allowing you to snowball through the enemy team. In addition, analyze who is the most fed by looking at the enemy players' kills, assists, and creep score and prioritize based on that.
Also analyze the items enemy players are building. You don't want to kill yourself on an enemy with Thornmail, for instance. (Keep in mind that the enemy champion also has to be tanky to really benefit from the item).
Know what the enemy champions and allied champions are capable of doing. While I listed most of your worst enemies and best partners at the top and you can find more on sites like www.championselect.net/, they don't even scratch the surface on what could be a danger or boon to you.
On top of that, know that certain champions together can be very threatening for you.
If you're too weak for the jungle (lack the runes or summoner level to do the jungle), you can still take Smite and go to a lane, such as mid. If you do this, take the Wraiths as often as possible (even at 1:40), using Smite to kill the big one extremely fast. Once you reach around level 5, you can transition into the jungle and will be able to take it on regardless of runes or masteries.
I will continue to add tips here as I think of them. Feel free to suggest some as well.
Video(s)
On the off chance you managed to navigate directly to this page, here are videos explaining the guidelines shown in this guide:
Final Words
Now that you have all the information you need, you are ready to dunk scrubs and call people nooblord. Feel free to post questions and comments. Experiment with the item build, runes, and masteries and see what works best for you. When Season Three comes, I will update this guide with the season three revisions at the beginning of each section. I am not responsible for any ELO loss as a result of using this guide.
