Vi Jungle Carry
This guide is meant to help you understand Vi a bit better as a champion and will give you tips and advises on how to jungle with her and point out some of her main strengths and weaknesses. Vi can and will absolutely be able to carry games in season 12 and I strongly think she is one of the best Junglers in general in the game.
-Why this champion? Well I am a big fan of Vi in general and I have been playing her since forever. So this is why I decided to make this guide because I think she has been under rated a lot in past seasons and seeing her being buffed at the end of 2021 makes me think she can be one of the most relevant junglers in season 12.
One of her most important traits is her ability to 1 vs 1 as well as her early gank potential. Vi can absolutely dominate the enemy jungler and has pretty good camp clear with hew Q and especially E.
Runes (Loadout)
Bought for the Immortal Shieldbow and Divine Sunderer builds you will want to go the runes bellow. Hail of Blades helps you life steal a lot more and proc your W.
> Sudden Impact is great with your Q and if I am not mistaken with your R. On the Divine build it is a lot more useful at early to mid game, were in the Immortal build it is a bit less impactful.
> Eyeball Collection gives you a bit of nice extra damage especially in the early to mid game were you will want to gank as much as you can.
> Relentless Hunter will let you gank and roam much more and will cement you as a threat on the Rift. Enemies will have to ward and follow your movement to avoid your ganks. The extra movement speed from the rune combined with your Vault Breaker ( Q ) will make for ganks much more efficient and to add to that you will be able to move from Jungle Camp to J. Camp much faster ultimately making your Clears faster as well.
As secondary Triumph will help you survive teamfights and will let you go back as soon as possible to farming after a roam or gank.
> Legend: Alacrity is a extra nice way to proc your W more as well as do a bit more damage and finish off an enemy.
- Immortal Build
- Classic Divine
Summoner Spells (Loadout)
Flash is a must have because you can combo it very well with your Q so you can reach enemies a lot more easily and it helps with your ULT as well. Having Flash up in some situations is very important so ty and use it more as an offensive tool than a defensive. It will allow you to take care of the backline in a team fight or chase down a enemy in the early to mid game.
Pro tip: You can do lots of cool and sometimes useful tricks with Vi Q and Flash. Flash can be also used with items and your other abilities.
For more tricks you can check this video witch I found some time ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkeqYRzjMWQ
As a Jungler Smite is basically a no-brainer :D . Still it is very important to use your smite in key moments so you can take objectives like early Dragons and Rift. Vi can take Dragon as soon as level 4- 5 and in some situations even level 3. Emberknife into Challenging Smite will help you a bit in the duels and ganks and will give you just a bit more survivability.
- Summs (Role 1)
Skill Path
When building Immortal you will want to max out on your attack speed as quick as possible so you can proc W and lifesteal that much more often, that is why you will be maxing out your W first. After that go for your Q because it had some great buffs in the last few patches. When going the Immortal Shieldbow build you rely mostly on basic attacks and basic attack resets, that is why maxing your Q and E is not as important.
- Immortal Skill path
- Divine Skill Path
Vi
Vi
When going for the Divine build you will definitely want to go for Q max and than E because you rely much more on your spells instead of your auto attacks as in the Immortal build.
Item Builds
Going for Immortal Shieldbow allows you to utilize your passive from W much more often and do lots of damage and heal up most of the damage you take. Your attack speed goes up to around 1.8 in mid game in fights and you can keep it for a very long time which makes every 1vs1 easy. You have overall pretty good survivability and you can absolutely destroy most Tanks and other Bruisers. Your Items combined with Hail of Blades pretty much let you max out your attack speed in mid and late game in teamfights and in one to one combat. Going this build makes you more of a duelist than a tank so you will need to pick your fights carefully and try and engage a maximum of 2 enemies at a time. In teamfights your main objective is to focus the ADC or the APC. You need to use your ULT and take out the back line. Repositioning and waiting for your passive shield is very important as well. The high attack speed lets you take out carries fast and easy especially when you proc your W. Death's Dance will give you a bit more survivability against AD champions and you will be able to heal up pretty fast in and out of fights because of the life steal ( form Immortal ). If the enemy team is mostly AD ( 4 AD champs for example ) you can swap Mercury Treads for Steelcaps. Late game the ability haste from Death's Dance and Black Cleaver will help you a lot because you will be able to spam your Q and E and utilize the damage from your spells as well as proc your passive shield a lot more.
The most important thing to know is that you want to focus on 1 vs 1 more or on ganks in the early game. You will not be able to tank too much damage before you get your defensive items like Death's Dance and Spirit Visage. Versus heavy AP teams going Mercuries, Spirit ( instead of Titanic ) and Wit's End will help you a lot.
In some situations you can buy Mortal Reminder or Chempunk Chainsword so you can counter life steal builds. If the enemy team has champions like Irelia, Yone, Mundo and many others it is definitely good to get anti heal.
Immortal Build
- Immortal Item sett
Divine Build
The Divine Sunderer Build gives you a bit more survivability and makes you a lot more of a Tank. You still do a good amount of damage but you can take just a bit more punishment.
Starting Items
Mythic & Core Items
Fourth Item Options
Fifth Item Options
Sixth Item Options
You dont need to rush Mercury's Treads because you have great mobility from your Q anyways, but still you will need to buy at least Boots so you can gank more efficient. This is especially important in the Immortal Shieldbow build because your Q is not that low on cooldown. If you go for Devine build Boots are less important but still you may need them depending on the mobility on the enemies.
Playstyle
No matter if you go the Immortal or Divine Build you will be able to be an absolute team carry in many ways. You can destroy back lines ( ADC, APC and Assassins ) as well as Tank for your team and make fast and clean ganks on all lanes. Vi is strongest in early to mid game so try and help your team mates as much as possible. Except ganks, Vi is good for taking team objectives as Dragons and Rift. Going for a successful gank on bot after you hit level 3 or 4 can lead to a fast Dragon so look to help your Bot Lane and give them priority in the early game so you can take safe Dragons. Deep wards in the enemy jungle will also be very useful because this will help you with counter ganks. Don't be afraid to engage the enemy jungler. You have a very strong level 3 and 4 so try and fight for the Scuttle Crab, if possible take even bought because this will give you a nice gold and XP advantage.
> Immortal Shieldbow Build - it will give you a lot more attack speed and will make you a bit of an assassin but you will lose on some of your Tankines and some Health. When going Immortal Build you will need to be a bit more cautious when picking your fights especially in the early to mid game because your a lot more squishy at first. You will want to gank as much as possible and try and help at lest one of your lanes to power spike. Use your high mobility form Q to roam as often as you can and gank frequently. Giving an early advantage to your team mates is very important with Vi because she falls behind a bit in her late game.
>Divine Sunderer Build - You lose a lot of attack speed and the life steal but instead you are a bit more of a Tank. Your Survivability in the early game comes from Sterak's Gage so try and use its cooldown well because it may be the difference between life and death. With the Divine Build you will have a bit of a easier time because you don't get punished for your mistakes as much as when going for the Immortal Build. Your 1 versus 1 potential is still very high and you can go toe to toe against champions like Jax, Olaf, Nunu, ext. Again your more of an early to mid game champion but the Divine build will let you survive more teamfights in late game as well. When playing the Divine build you will focus on your Q and your cooldown. Divine, Death's Dance and Black Cleaver will give you lost of Ability Haste which means you will always have your Q and E up. Having lots of Ability Haste means that you will have your ULT most of the time as well allowing you to lock enemies in place and make great ganks.
Bought for the Immortal and Divine builds you want to look for early ganks. Making a 5 camp clear or even a 4 Camp clear is great for Vi ( usually you will skip Krug's camp because they can be a bit harder to clear early on ). After that go for a gank on bot or top. You have a great Level 3 power spike so gank as soon as you get it. If you have no gank opportunity you can go for a double Scuttle Crab. Dont be afraid to fight for it, in most scenarios you will win. When clearing, especially early game, you need to play around your passive shield ( Blast Shield ). Your W ( Denting Blow ) helps you reset Blast Shield so stacking your passive W on jungle creeps is important. Vi's passive shield will help you avoid lots of early creep damage and will allow you to go from camp to camp with all most full HP. You can avoid huge amounts of damage with it so try when farming to use your Q and E to proc as much of your Blast Shield as possible. Don't just spam your E, try and use it only when the Blast Shield is up. The passive shield can be procked only when you use an active ability ( like Q or E ), so be mindful about when and how you use your skills when farming. This applies in fights versus champions as well. Going Immortal build with the added attack speed you will proc your shield a bit more often. The Divine build is more orientated around using your Q to its full damage potential.
Its important to know that E gives you a slight increase in range when you have it activated so you can use that to chase down enemies. Also try and use her splash damage from E when you farm and when your fighting enemy champions.
Charging your Q before releasing/ using it is a good idea in most cases because the longer you charge it, the more damage you do with it ( it also give you a bit more range, which can help when going through terrain ) .
Ganking and Roaming
You want to focus on your early game as much as possible. Vi has great kill potential on level 3 and ofcourse on level 6. Use the level 3 till 6 advantage and help your teammates as much as possible. You should not forget about farming as well and objectives like Dragon and Rift are important as well. You can escape enemy vision by using your Q. You have great flanking potential with this ability. Your ULT ( R- Cease and Desist ) will help you lock your opponents for an easy kill in most cases. Most of these things applie for bought builds. A small difference is that when you go for the Immortal Build you want to use your Q a bit more wisely. Try instead of starting the fight with Q to use your ULT first and than push the enemy back ( away from his tower, teammates ext. ) or towards your teammates with your Q. When going Divine build you will have a bit more Ability Haste and will be able to kind of spam your Q so in that case don't worry which skill you use first. In general your ULT should be used in most cases as a way to secure kills from ganks and later on in the game as a way to start team fights or/ and disrupt the enemies or focusing and locking down essential targets.
MIX and MATCH
If your not in the Immortal Shieldbow Skill order you can absolutely switch from Maxing W to Maxing Q. Combining The Skill order from the Divine Build and the items from the Immortal Build is an option and it works pretty good as well. Doing so you will have a bit less attacks speed but late game this does not matter because you will still be able to max out on your attacks speed with the Hail of Blades proc at the start of the teamfight, you just wont be able to keep it maxed out for the hole duration of some fights.
Strengths and Weaknesses
>Strengths
- Great early gank potential and damage
- Strong level 3 power spike as well as level 6
- Doesn't have too much counters and can destroy back lines and carries. She is a great safe pick.
- Has a pretty easy learning curve
- Has good team fight starting potential
> Weaknesses
- Falls behind a bit in late game
- She can be dependable on team mates because in some situations she can't finish a team fight alone
Vi has more pros and cons but I think I have kind of listed the major once in the above text.
Matchups and Synergies
Vi pretty much synergizes well with all most every team composition. Her ULT can be combined with Yasuo's ULT. Q counts as a knock up effect as well. Vi does good against most enemy champions this makes her a bit of a safe pick if your not sure what to go or when your First pick.
- Weak against
- New Group
Add New Item
Add New Item
Vi can handle most enemies but this is connected to your ability to play her and use her spells to their full potential. Sadly she kind of losses steam when enemies get around the 4th item mark. Use her for her strengths in the early game and help your team get their advantage.
Remember: you're the expert, not us. Add the content you want, whether it's combos or custom assets. Happy writing!
Jungle and ADC main :D. Vi is my favourite champion in the game.