Yone, the Unforgotten. Murdered by his half-brother, Yasuo, he is now forced to wear the demonic mask of a spirit that once hunted him. Yone wanders the lands looking for demons to slay, in an effort to understand what he has become. A Top/Mid-lane melee assassin, boasting incredible burst mobility and extremely high damage.
In the right hands, and with enough knowledge, he can carry League of Legends games with ease and absolutely terrorize the opponent's back line. This guide will provide an overview of Yone's abilities and preferred playstyle as a Top-Laner, as well as recommend summoner spells, rune pages, and item builds.
Yone Ability Overview
Ability |
Description |
Tips |
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Passive: Way Of The Hunter |
Yone deals magic damage with every second attack. In addition, his critical strike chance is increased. |
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Q: Mortal Steel |
Thrusts forward, damaging all enemies in a line. On hit, grants a stack of Gathering Storm for a few seconds. At two stacks, Mortal Steel dashes Yone forward with a gust of wind knocking enemies airborne. Mortal Steel is treated as a basic attack and scales with all the same things. |
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W: Spirit Cleave |
Cleaves forward, damaging all enemies in a cone. Grants a shield to Yone, the value is increased by the number of champions hit by the swipe. Spirit Cleave's cooldown and cast time scale with attack speed. |
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E: Soul Unbound |
Yone's spirit leaves his body behind, gaining move speed. When this skill ends, Yone's spirit is forced back to his body and he repeats a portion of the damage he dealt as a spirit. |
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R: Fate Sealed |
Yone blinks behind the last champion in a line with a slash so powerful it pulls enemies hit towards him. |
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Yone's recommended ability leveling order is:
- Q>W>E>Q>Q>R>Q>E>Q>E>R>E>E>W>W>R>W>W
The reason you'll want to max Q first is that it's going to be your main source of damage, your main method of engaging enemies, and a very good way to kill minions. Once Mortal Steel reaches the highest level, it's time to start on your E: it's your safety net, vital for closing gaps, and offers a large chunk of damage.
For summoner spells, Yone players usually take:
- Flash. Standard escape or engage tool can also be used when using your E ability to further extend its range.
- Ignite. An aggressive spell, Ignite can be extremely useful for finishing off kills or combating champions with a lot of healing in their kit.
- Teleport. A more niche pick, one to be taken if you know you'll be roaming a lot, or if the matchup you're facing is going to be extremely tough.
How To Play Yone
Laning Phase
Yone doesn't have the strongest early laning phase. He can be poked out by a lot of ranged champions, and sometimes find it difficult to CS properly. The key here is to make sure you're positioning correctly to ensure you don't take too much poke damage, and to trade damage back whenever possible.
Try to last hit as many minions as you safely can, and harass the enemy with Mortal Steel whenever they attempt to go for a minion themselves. The beauty of your Q ability is that when poking, or last hitting minions, you're building up the stacks so you'll be able to utilise your dash.
The dash is a vital engage tool, as not only does it carry you a fair distance, but the gust of wind knocks enemies up. Don't be afraid to use this extra mobility to escape, especially with those ranged matchups you're likely to come across.
Once you have a level in all three abilities, it becomes a lot easier to get some damage to your opponent. It's all about quick bursts here rather than extended fights. Build up the stacks with your Q, then use Soul Unbound and your dash towards the opponent. It's very important that you hit the gust of wind on the enemy, as this knocked them into the air and allows you a short window to hit another Q, and your W.
Recall back to your body, and you'll find that a percentage of the damage you just dealt gets repeated. This is the standard poke combination for Yone, if done correctly the opponent has very little outplay potential, other than using their Flash.
When you hit Level 6 and have an item under your belt, you'll find it much easier to engage and disengage from fights. Also, depending on the matchup, you might start getting a lot of priority in lane; your abilities enable you to clear waves extremely quickly, meaning you can push your own wave to the opposing tower and roam the map looking for kills.
Mid/Late Game
Yone's power spike generally comes after two items, as this means he will have 100 percent critical strike chance. You'll be able to output an extremely large amount of damage in a very short space of time. Because Yone's wave clear is quick, you can very safely side-lane. What this means is that you can go to either the top or bottom lanes and kill the waves of enemy minions as they approach your own.
The game plan is to push the side lanes to the enemy turret and then leave, you'll either be able to catch the enemy on their way to the lane you were just at or flank a group of enemies as they engage the rest of your team.
Your role during team fights is to get to the enemy back-line and kill their lowest health champions. You have so much mobility with your dash, ultimate, and Flash. It shouldn't be hard to get behind the enemy tanks and delete their damage threats, just make sure you dodge any incoming CC abilities.
Towards the end of a game, you'll want to be in every team fight as you deal a lot of damage and offer a fair amount of group crowd control. Dashing and ulting will give your team a lot of opportunities to finish off the champions you've softened up.
Because there is no set direction of fights towards the end of a game, always be careful when you use your Soul Unbound ability; you'll always go back to where you started so make sure that's somewhere you want to be - you never know when an enemy will be waiting for you.
Best Yone Runes
Precision |
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Lethal Tempo |
Gain attack speed when attacking an enemy champion, stacking up to six times. At max stacks, gain 50 attack range, and increases your attack speed cap. |
Triumph |
Takedowns restore 10% of your missing health and grant an additional 20 gold. |
Legend: Alacrity |
Takedowns on enemies grant permanent attack speed. |
Last Stand |
Deal more damage to champions while you are low on health. |
Resolve |
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Bone Plating |
After taking damage from an enemy, the next three spells or attacks you receive from them deals decreased damage. |
Revitalize |
Gain 5% heal and shield power. |
As you can see, the runes you take all funnel into either attack speed or sustain. Lethal Tempo is easy to proc when attacking an enemy champion and because your Q ability, Mortal Steel, scales from attack speed, it means that you can very quickly grow in power during a fight even in the early game.
Best Yone Item Build
When starting the game with Yone you're going to want to build towards Berserker Greaves and a Noonquiver as quickly as possible. It's vital to get your attack speed up as soon as you can so you can use your Q ability more often, the move speed offered by fully-built boots is also very helpful in lane. Taking Doran's Shield or Sword (dependent on toughness of matchup) is also a sensible starting item.
This is what a full build looks like with Yone:
Item |
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Immortal Shieldbow |
This is a standard mythic item for Yone, and vital for the way that this build works. It offers attack damage, attack speed, critical strike damage, and some life steal. The unique passive of Shieldbow also means you get a shield if your health gets low, this gives you that much-needed early game sustain to survive an extended trade with your opponent. |
Infinity Edge |
An absolute must for Yone players. This is a huge power spike in the game for you because with this item and Immortal Shieldbow, it means you now have 100% critical strike chance. Everything you do now hits a lot harder than it did before. Getting this item early will enable you to start snowballing the game |
Death's Dance |
Because you now have 100% critical strike chance, the need for further crit isn't required, so you can start getting a bit more creative with the build. Death's Dance has a unique ability that takes any damage you receive and instead deals it gradually over a period of three seconds. It means that the enemy is now going to have a much harder time to burst you down. The best part is that if you manage to secure a kill during this damage mitigation period, it removes the rest of the damage you would have received and heals you. |
Spirit Visage |
Adding to the already building sustainability you have, Spirit Visage offers a lot of magic resistance (great for teams with heavy AP damage) and also increases any shielding and healing received by you by 25%. This makes your W ability a lot more useful in team fights. |
Guardian Angel |
The cherry on top of your already very strong item build. Guardian Angel offers some armor and attack damage, but more importantly, it offers you a second chance. If you take lethal damage, it resurrects you and restores 50% of your base health. It has a long cooldown so make sure not to be too reckless in a team fight. |