With the new rework of Master Yi, many are curious about the optimal items to get. Different items have different benefit, and fits different playstyle and everyone has their own preferences, and it is not my intention to point my finger at just 1 build. However, I thought it would be fun to compare the damage between few different builds so here it is.

Few supplemental information about the data presented

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com is the source I used for specific things such as how crit damage modifier affect the crit damage of Alpha Strike

This is assuming your ultimate is on

Damage on Alpha Strike that has Crit chance is averaged. Basically if you hit for 1 and crit for 1.6 damage and have 50% chance to crit the damamge that I will show is 1.3

For builds that does not have 6 items, remaining item is supposed to be defensive item of your choice such as Guardian angel, which is not included because it adds 0 offensive stat and different games call for different ones

Damage Calculation is done using standard offensive mastery (4% attack speed, 0.67 damage per level, 3 damage, 10% crit damage) and runes (11 damage, 4 % life steal rune)

You are assumed to be level 18 (if you check the excel file you can see damage from level 1~18 but for length sake I did not include it here)

Average auto attack damage per second assumes that you proc the passive. So I am multiplying the attack damage by 7/6 (your passive procs every 3 hit, after first time which require 4 hit because the double attack counts as 2 auto for your passive. Also 7/6 because second hit does 50% damage) and on hit effect damage by 4/3.

For Builds with Blade of the Ruined King I am going to assume 2.5% of 2500 hp for on hit damage, which is 62.5 physical damage on hit. 2500 hp is assumed because it is in between squish and tank. 2.5% is used because that is the average damage you do if you do 5% current hp on hit (of course it is little lower because people usually get bursted before you auto attack)

Actives damage that add burst damage is not included but mentioned in side. (BotRK, Ravenous Hydra)

If you were wondering how Flat armour pen and percent armour pen affect your damage here is a graph to help you

This is how much more damage you would do in percent with 20 flat armor penetration (Youmu’s Ghost Blade) against enemy with various armor value. (I should have added axis title , but independent variable is the armor, and dependent variable is how much more damage you do in %) basically if enemy had 20 armor you would do 20% more damage with 20 armor penetration.

This is how much more damage you would do in percent with 20 flat armor penetration (Youmu’s Ghost Blade) against enemy with various armor value. (I should have added axis title , but independent variable is the armor, and dependent variable is how much more damage you do in %) basically if enemy had 20 armor you would do 20% more damage with 20 armor penetration. This is the one for 35% armor pen (Last Whisper)

This is the one for 35% armor pen (Last Whisper) Special thanks to Siosilvar for pointing out mistake (letting me know that the passive damage portion of wuju style is active while active portion is active)

Special thanks to deathdevilize for making me add damage for while SotD is on cooldown

Excel file for people who wants to use their own items for damage calculation or wants to see the damage at various champion level.

—>yi damage calculation excel<—-

Skill order used in Excel is: Q,E,Q,E,Q,R,Q,E,Q,E,R,E,W,W,W,R,W,W

So without further delay let us get this started.

Hall of Troll Fame (2 Highest Alpha Strike damage build)

(Active On) Alpha Strike Damage:1168 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:3735, True:441

(Active off) Alpha Strike Damage:800 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1699, True:359

(While on Cooldown) Alpha Strike Damage:800 Auto Damage per sec:1443, True:305

Utility: 35% armour pen, 36% life steal Total Cost: 15550

The whole reasoning behind this troll build is that grants 100% crit chance while it’s active is on for 3 sec, meaning your alpha strike will always crit for 3 sec if you do not use the active up with auto. This means this build will net you around 5500 damage on your first target in about 2 second (alpha including alpha strike casting time). Thus I have included legit Sword of the Divine build later on in the post 🙂 ALPHA STRIKE RESET FTW!

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Alpha Strike Damage:1191 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:2741, True:310

Untility: 35% armour pen Total Cost:18400

100% crit Gangplank’s wet dream build. Alpha strike will do as much damage as old AP Yi alpha strike damage if not more (in physical damage of course with no added benefit of all the utility stats ap items give and lot worse meditate heal rate), and your auto will also wreck people. Good luck farming this build though, and 0 utility.

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Now that I got those out of the way here are the common builds for boring games

Critical Builds

(Active On) Alpha Strike Damage:643 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1688, True:300

(Active off) Alpha Strike Damage:643 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1486, True:264

Utility: 35% armour pen, 10% cdr, 20 flat armour pen, 15% life steal, BotRK active, Youmu active Total Cost: 12900

(Active On) Alpha Strike Damage:722 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1539, True:294

(Active off) Alpha Strike Damage:722 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1329, True:254

Utility: 35% armour pen, 10% cdr, 20 flat armour pen, 12% life steal, Cleave, Hydra active, Youmu active Total Cost: 13000

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Alpha Strike Damage:640 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1787, True:287

Utility: 35% armour pen, 15% life steal, 5% movement speed, ignore unit collision, BotRK active Total Cost: 13000

Alpha Strike Damage:728 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1688, True:285

Utility: 35% armour pen, 12% life steal, Cleave, 5% move speed, Ignore unit collision, Hydra active Total Cost: 13100

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Alpha Strike Damage:610 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1604, True:279

Utility: 35% armour pen, 15% life steal, 6% movement speed, Static Shiv proc damage (160 magic), BotRK active Total Cost: 12700

Alpha Strike Damage:692 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1476, True:276

Utility: 35% armour pen, 12% life steal, 6% movement speed, Static Shiv proc damage (160 magic), Cleave, Hydra active Total Cost: 12800

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Life Steal Build

Alpha Strike Damage:596 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1172, True:310

Utility: 35% armour pen, 45% life steal, Cleave, Botrk active, Hydra active

Total Cost: 12900

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Alpha Strike Damage:657 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1467, True:291

Utility: 35% armour pen, 27% life steal, Cleave, BotRK active, Hydra active

Total Cost: 13500

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Sword of the Divine build

(Active On) Alpha Strike Damage:774 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:2564, True:307

(Active off) Alpha Strike Damage:550 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1361, True:283

(While on Cooldown) Alpha Strike Damage:550 Auto Damage per sec:1180, True:245

Utility: 35% armour pen, 15% life steal, BotRK active, SotD active

Total Cost: 12350

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(Active On) Alpha Strike Damage:887 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:2686, True:332

(Active off) Alpha Strike Damage:622 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1222, True:281

(While on Cooldown) Alpha Strike Damage:622 Auto Damage per sec:1038, True:239

Utility: 35% armour pen, 12% life steal, Cleave, Hydra active, SotD active

Total Cost: 12450

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Tank Builds

I am including few builds with minimal amount of damage items for people who wants to know how much damage they would do going tanky items with minimal number of damage items or for people who fell behind and do not have many items. (personally I would just play Jax if I was gonna go minimal number of damage items, and yes I know they are different champ :))

Alpha Strike Damage:349 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:596 True:178

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Alpha Strike Damage:493 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:1030 True:221

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Alpha Strike Damage:395 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:703 True:203

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Alpha Strike Damage:435 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:797 True:224

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(Active On) Alpha Strike Damage:405 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:864 True:223

(Active Off) Alpha Strike Damage:405 Auto Damage per sec: Phys:760 True:196

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Few Conclusions I drew from doing this.

On full builds BotRK does more auto damage per sec than Ravenous Hydra or Bloodthirster on max charge. This holds true for builds that includes critical strike, unless you go for high crit build such as 55% (Phantom Dancer, Infinity Edge). There are active differences, as well as the fact that your Alpha strike will deal slightly less damage. On this note however, Bloodthirster is highly unfavorable, because not only is the damage difference minor, but you have to charge it up and it does not have great active or Cleave, while being same price as BotRK and only 100 cheaper than Hydra.

If you Disregard the utility aspect and price, then IE get you the most damage on auto attack and Alpha Strike.

Sword of the Divine is not a bad choice at all, because It will make your first Alpha Strike 100% crit, and make killing your first target extremely fast for your skill reset. With the kill hogging nature of Master Yi it also lowers Sword of the Divine cooldown by a lot in proper fight. Sword of the Divine is made for Master Yi, and if it does not work on Master Yi then this item needs some serious buff lol.

With the ultimate active you do more damage on single target in a second with your auto attack than with Alpha Strike. You should still Alpha Strike when you can because you are invulnerable during Alpha Strike.

On personal note I am definitely going to try Sword of the Divine on Yi next time I play 🙂

Hopefully I did not miss too many common item builds that people use.

I will still respond to reddit comments btw for anyone who wanna discuss.