Yone Guide: How to Play Yone and Dominate in Season 11
Yone is one of the most enjoyable champions to play because of the many tricks you can pull out of a hat with him. The fact that you can always have that comeback potential with the perfect team fight is always in the back of the mind of all Yone mains. However, executing all of this while you are playing the game is a lot more complicated than it sounds, and that's why we are bringing you the most comprehensive and detailed Yone guide. This guide will help you climb the Solo Queue ladder and make plays like Faker or Rookie on the Rift, so stick with us until the end!
Pros to Picking Yone
- If you are playing Yone, you can take down multiple opposing champions after completing your core items. Scaling so much after 1-2 items not only gives you extreme outplay potential but also allows you to start skirmishes around the map anytime you want!
- Good against various team compositions as Yone deals a lot of mixed damage to both squishy champions and tanks. If the tanks are building many armor items, you will still deal a lot of magic damage to them. Yone’s mixed damage makes him very difficult to itemize against and will cause your opponents many problems.
- Yone can be played either in the mid lane or top lane. The top lane provides a safer laning phase, but if you can get going in the middle lane, then Yone might become the biggest problem for the opponent team if skirmishes break out.
- You don’t have to worry about using your mana effectively! His cooldowns are relatively low, and you can spam your abilities without wasting your time calculating if you can land your combos.
Cons to Picking Yone
- Yone has a really weak laning phase which his opponent can exploit. Ranged champions always punish a melee champion like Yone in the mid-lane, so Yone not having any escape tools early in the game might be challenging to play around.
- His animations feel stiff and slow if you aren’t used to them. They primarily designed Yone as an assassin, but his movement and attack animations are really different, making him a skirmisher rather than an assassin.
- Yone’s ultimate is heavily reliant on perfect positioning. There aren’t any guarantees that your Solo Queue teammates will play around you, so be aware of that. No matter how well you learn how to play Yone, you will still need to rely on your teammates to help you maximize your Ult's potential.
Yone’s Abilities Explained
Our Yone Guide wouldn’t be complete without a detailed breakdown of his abilities and how to use Yone effectively.
Yone’s Passive Skill: Way of the Hunter
His passive provides him a large bonus to critical strike chance (2.5x more than normal). Yet, each critical hit damage is reduced initially. It scales with critical strike chance and ends up being very powerful by the late game. Because he will likely end up with over 100% critical strike chance, the excess is converted into AD.
His passive ability also provides Yone with alternating physical and magical damage. This alternating damage makes it challenging to counter Yone using tanks.
Q: Mortal Steel
Yone’s Q ability causes him to thrust forward and gain a stack of Gathering Storm. Once you accumulate two stacks, his next use of Mortal Steel wil cause him to dash forward and knock up enemies a short distance away.
You will need to pay attention to how many stacks of Gathering Storm you have accumulated when you learn how to play Yone. This ability is an excellent way to dive on top of unsuspecting or unprepared champions trying to keep their distance with you. You may also need to use this dash to escape instead of engage; it is very versatile.
W: Spirit Cleave
Your Spirit Cleave ability allows you to slash at all enemies in front of you with a decent range bonus added. You also gain a temporary shield whose strength depends on the number of champions hit by your ability.
This is Yone's other ability that benefits from building attack speed. This skill produces solid damage and shield to help you trade against your opponents. That is why it is a very viable option in lane to focus on building first. You will still be fragile in the early game. Yet, when you learn how to play Yone around it in lane, it can help you survive and access more minion last hits.
E: Soul Unbound
When you activate your E ability (Soul Unbound), Yone will transform and dash forward into the Spirit Realm. For 5 seconds, he gains extra attack speed and can stack bonus damage triggered when he returns to his body.
Being able to separate from your starting position provides a lot of excellent escape potential. Still, the 5-second requirement can be frustrating if you don’t manage to kill your opponent in time. One of the best uses of the ability is to dive safely out for hard CC or other challenging situations.
R (Ultimate): Fate Sealed
Yone sweeps forward almost instantly when you use your Ultimate ability. Along the way, he pulls any enemy champions caught to his destination and inflicts some hard CC (knockdown and stun followed by a knock-up).
This is a very powerful team fight Ultimate, as it can help you dive their backline and deal massive AoE damage to multiple enemies simultaneously. Paired with other AoE Ultimates, your team may be unstoppable.
The downside to this ability is that it can usually be anticipated at higher skill levels. Enemies have a brief chance to flash or dodge out of the way. One way to minimize your opponent’s chances of getting away is to use it immediately after you knock them up with your Q or as a follow-up to other hard CC abilities from your allies.
The Best Runes for Yone
There are many options when you select your runes for Yone, and it all comes down to your playstyle and what your lane opponent has picked. We will look at some of the most frequently chosen sets of runes on Yone and provide you with the reasoning behind these choices in our Yone guide.
Primary Keystone
Yone synergies very well with the “Precision” tree runes as they offer him both attack speed and attack damage, which complement his ability kit. Primary rune trees like “Domination” or “Resolve” are nowhere near as good as “Precision” as they don’t offer Yone that sustain and damage in any part of the game. You can select two runes from the Precision tree as your primary keystone, and we will look at both of them.
Yone synergies very well with the “Precision” tree runes as they offer him both attack speed and attack damage, which complement his ability kit. Primary rune trees like “Domination” or “Resolve” are nowhere near as good as “Precision” as they don’t offer Yone that sustain and damage in any part of the game. You can select two runes from the Precision tree as your primary keystone, and we will look at both of them.
1. Fleet Footwork
If you are up against champions like Irelia, Lucian, or Tristana in your lane, then this should be the choice for your primary keystone. The explanation should be obvious to anyone reading this Yone guide, as these champions can drain your health if you get anywhere near them. The extra healing provided by the rune gives you some level of safety. The best starting item with the rune is “Doran’s Shield,” as it offers more sustainability in short trades with these champions.
2. Conqueror
If you know how to play Yone and feel confident that you will survive the weak laning phase, this should be your primary keystone. As we previously discussed, Conqueror offers Yone the most damage and sustain in extended fights rather than short trades. Yone’s abilities allow you to maximize Conqueror stacks very quickly, and you can shred through your opponents after that.
The Holy Trinity of Yone Precision Runes
While we have already discussed how you have two choices for your primary keystone and will need to change your playstyle according to your opponents, you can safely memorize these three runes for every game regardless of who and what you are up against.
1. Triumph
As a melee champion, Yone needs to dive in quickly, which puts him in a lot of danger. However, if you can secure that first takedown, then Triumph will provide you with the extra health that you might need to take care of the rest of the remaining enemy champions.
2. Legend: Alacrity
When you are playing Yone, your ability cast times are also reliant on your attack speed. The more attack speed Yone has, the more times you can use your abilities in skirmishes. Alacrity offers you the additional attack speed you need and allows Yone to be a monster after you have achieved the possible ten stacks.
3. Coup de Grace
As you learn how to play Yone, you will realize his job is to eliminate enemies as fast as possible. Fortunately, killing quickly is what Coup de Grace helps you do. Whenever an enemy is below 40% of their max health, which is the case in most skirmishes that break around the map, they take additional damage.
The Secondary Runes Tree
Your secondary rune tree choice depends on what you have previously picked as your primary keystone. If you have gone with Fleet Footwork, you will be better off going “Resolve” for that extra sustenance. However, if you have opted for Conqueror, you need to go “Domination” with it to ramp up your damage potential further!
Domination:
1. Taste of Blood
This rune provides some level of sustain to you if you have opted to play aggressively from the get-go by opting for the Conqueror rune.
This rune provides some level of sustain to you if you have opted to play aggressively from the get-go by opting for the Conqueror rune.
2. Ravenous Hunter
The more takedowns you get on enemy champions, the more health you will get by attacking them later. This rune makes Yone a late-game nightmare for your opponents. A well-fed Yone will make your opponents flee! We really recommend it in our Yone guide, as it's our favorite rune to build on him.
Resolve:
1. Second Wind
When you opted for Fleet Footwork, you realized that you needed more sustain to survive that laning phase and that Second Wind synergizes really well. The Second Wind rune on Yone will offer a lot of protection, especially against ranged champions that can poke you from afar.
2. Revitalize
Picking Revitalize rune will offer you additional healing on top of what you are already getting. This rune will make your gameplay a lot easier in the laning phase, despite Yone not being particularly strong in that part of the game.
Best Yone Items
The constantly evolving meta of Leauge of Legends makes it difficult to recommend just one set of items in our Yone guide, so we refer you to our Yone Build, which is kept up-to-date with the best items and runes to beat a number of different enemy team compositions. We also provide builds by skill tier in addition to by enemy team comp. That being said, Yone should always be built in a way that helps him maximize the damage that he can do quickly before flashing back and out of harms way. Lethality in League of Legends is one of the best stats to focus on because it helps him quickly dispatch glass cannons and other squishy champs.
How to play Yone in the Early Game?
The early game is the time when all Yone players hate the game 😋. Yone doesn’t provide you any range to play with, as he is a melee champion. If he is up against champions that can hit him with no threat of retaliation, then you will start falling behind with probably no way back unless you play to your win conditions perfectly. This Yone guide will discuss what you can do and should do while playing Yone in the early game.
The plan is to play for creep score. You don’t need to worry about ever going in and solo killing your opponent because that brings with it a lot of risks. Early engages with Yone are often in his opponent’s favor. Don’t risk it without ganking help or a significant skill gap in your favor.
Furthermore, if you play aggressively, you will get poked down because of Yone’s poor trading abilities. The opponent will take over the lane and the surrounding area, which would cause you to lose a lot of minions.
You should last hit whatever minions you can freely take without really being in any danger of an opponent sending you back to the fountain. However, you can change things up when you have finished your “Berserker’s Greaves.”
The third level is a big power spike for Yone, as it provides you a brief opportunity to hit your opponent for all the damage they did to you earlier. You can look to stack your “Mortal Steel” ability two times as the third cast results in you making the opponent “Airborne” and can combine this with your “Soul Unbound,” which will grant you additional movement speed and damage to make your opponents sweat a bit.
We haven't covered wave management much yet in this Yone guide. You should always look to freeze the wave near your tower as that would expose your lane opponent to the most danger from your jungler’s ganks. If you have good communication with your jungler, you will deny the opponent any potential roam opportunities. Additionally, you will also make them think twice about every minion they look to secure. Coordinate with your jungler if you can!
How to play Yone in the Mid-Game?
If you have reached this point of the game and completed your Immortal Shieldbow without feeding the opponent team, then it’s time to take a deep breath and begin really enjoying the game. You are becoming a menace running wild on the rift, and every enemy champion will have to think twice about fighting you alone. The plan is to split push while looking for squishy targets that you can one-shot, which will allow you and your team to secure important objectives like dragons and Baron Nashor.
If you have reached this point of the game and completed your Immortal Shieldbow without feeding the opponent team, then it’s time to take a deep breath and begin really enjoying the game. You are becoming a menace running wild on the rift, and every enemy champion will have to think twice about fighting you alone. The plan is to split push while looking for squishy targets that you can one-shot, which will allow you and your team to secure important objectives like dragons and Baron Nashor.
A key thing to remember is that as Yone, you would hardly ever choose Teleport instead of Ignite, so always play in the closest lane to the next objective. If you think the next fight will break around the dragon, then split push in the bottom lane, but if you feel the opponent will threaten Baron/Rift Herald, try to stay in the top lane. Don’t forget to buy a pair of control wards and oracle lenses before doing this, as you don’t want the opponent team crashing onto you and eliminating you before the fight around the objective even starts.
How to play Yone in the Late Game?
Yone in the late game is perhaps one of the most terrifying champions in the game. You can eliminate both tanks and squishy carries with no difficulty if you are the one who is starting the fight. You should always be mindful of what your support and jungler are trying to do. Good map awareness in LoL is key, especially when playing Yone. It might be a good idea to accompany them for twenty to thirty seconds every two or three minutes as you are bound to find someone from the opponent team, which won’t be any problem for you to deal with thanks to your teammates’ crowd control abilities.
Flanking with Yone is also a great idea, but be careful not to get caught out, as respawn timers at this stage of the game are big enough for your opponent to end the game or secure key objectives while you are down.
Yone Guide: Using His Abilities Effectively
Yone isn’t the most complicated champion Riot Games has ever released, but there are a few things that we would like to share with you that few players are aware of.
1. Azakana Sword Deals Magic Damage
If you haven't read Yone’s passive yet, you will be glad to know that we did well before writing this Yone guide 😝. They stated that Yone has two swords, and every other auto attack is with the other sword. The first time you attack anyone, it will be from Yone’s Steel Sword, which deals physical damage, while the next will be from Azakana Sword, which deals magic damage.
If you are looking to get into early skirmishes, then make sure you get at least two auto attacks on the enemy champion, as they are bound to have little to no magic resistance at that stage of the game. You can chunk out a big part of their health and make them question their decision-making.
2. Maximum Shield!
Yone’s “Spirit Cleave” grants him a shield, which depends on the number of enemy champions he hits with it. His shield boost can go all the way up to 200% of its base if you strike all five enemy champions with it, which is an effective tool to stay in the team fight a lot longer than anyone would expect you to!
3. You Can Deny a Lot of Crowd Control
In the game’s current state, where many champions have crowd control abilities built into their kit, Yone offers you a free get-out-of-jail card. While Yone is casting his ultimate ability, “Fate Sealed,” he is practically invulnerable, and nothing can strike him during this. Suppose you see a Leona or Nautilus heading towards you to help their teammate. In that case, you can effectively use your ultimate as an escape tool rather than your “Soul Unbound,” which they can punish because you will return to the point you cast the ability from after five seconds.
The Most Effective Yone Combos!
1. The Basic Combo
If you feel up for it and want to chunk your opponent’s health down, this combo is for you. Before starting this combo, you will need to make sure that you already have two stacks on your “Mortal Steel” (Q).
If you feel up for it and want to chunk your opponent’s health down, this combo is for you. Before starting this combo, you will need to make sure that you already have two stacks on your “Mortal Steel” (Q).
After you have secured the two stacks, you can use your “Soul Unbound.” It allows you to dash a small distance. You can use this to close the gap between you and your opponent.
After that, follow up with the “Spirit Cleave,” as this will grant you a shield. Next, proceed to auto-attack them, followed by a Mortal Steel twice before returning to your original location.
When you return to the spot you cast your “Soul Unbound” from, you will be able to engage once again as you got two stacks on your “Mortal Steel” already and can look to finish up the opponent or force a summoner spell away from them.
Summary: E > W > Q > AA > Q > AA and then go back in with your Q followed up by AAs.
2. The Advanced Combo
This Yone combo is pretty much the same as your basic combo, but you will have the power of your ultimate ability to help finish them off. The difference this time is that you can engage from a longer distance as, after using your “Soul Unbound,” you can dash towards your enemy with “Fate Sealed.” After that, you can follow the same combo as we discussed earlier in this Yone guide.
Summary: E > R > Q > W > Q > AA > Q > AA.
3. The All-In Combo
This all-in combo is the best Yone combo to use if you have already closed the gap to your opponent and want to eliminate them in this exchange, then. You will need to stack “Mortal Steel” again, like always, so make sure you have that before initiating. You will actually engage on top of your opponent with the help of your Ultimate this time and then use “Soul Unbound '' after that. This combo will allow you to deal bonus damage and ensure you don’t have only five seconds to dish out all of the damage you want.
This all-in combo is the best Yone combo to use if you have already closed the gap to your opponent and want to eliminate them in this exchange, then. You will need to stack “Mortal Steel” again, like always, so make sure you have that before initiating. You will actually engage on top of your opponent with the help of your Ultimate this time and then use “Soul Unbound '' after that. This combo will allow you to deal bonus damage and ensure you don’t have only five seconds to dish out all of the damage you want.
Summary: R > E > Q > W > Q > AA > Q > AA > Q
Final Thoughts for Our Yone Guide
We hope we answered your question about How to play Yone in this Yone guide! If you have any additional thoughts on great strategies or tactics that you think would improve our Yone guide, please let us know using the comments section below. We hope to see you on the Rift dominating with your new favorite champion!!
Images Courtesy of Riot Games.