LoL Vi Jungle Guide

LoL Vi Jungle Guide by BlasI

Skill Order

1. Level 1 W -> Level 2 E -> Level 3 Q
2. After that, max R -> Q -> W -> E. Q first because that gives the highest damage increase. Next W, again because that gives the next highest damage increase. E is maxed last, its main use is for the auto-reset.

Masteries

• 21/9/0, Vi has extremely strong pre-6 ganks, and even stronger post-6 ganks. 21 points in offense gives the most power increase to your ganks. If you are building full-tank 9/21/0 can work however 21 points in offense gives so much %-damage it’s hard to give up and I don’t recommend it. Double-Edged Sword, Expose Weakness, Executioner, and Havoc together give +6% damage, +11% damage if they are below 50%, that’s a very LARGE increase in damage.

Runes

• Vi’s kit is very interesting. W is an on-hit proc, and it gives AS, %-armor reduction, and has high base damage. Q and R have extremely high AD ratios, and E is an auto-reset. Based on this, you could argue that AD, AS, and armor pen are all good rune choices, and you’d be right. I tend to favor AD since Vi has extremely high burst with her combo, but Vi can also work by building tank, and in that case AS/armor pen are probably better choices for that
• Marks/Quints: flat AD
• Seals: combination of flat health + flat armor
• Glyphs: 9x scaling MR

Jungle Route

1. Krugs are the best start for Vi, due to AS bonus from W. Start W, Smite immeidately, so that your cooldown will be ready by the time you do your 3rd camp.
2. Level 2 take E and do red buff
3. Blue buff
4. From here you can try for a level 3 gank or go back and buy your jungle item. Although in my experience after 3 camps Vi has 50-60% health, so a gank seems risky. I usually go back and buy.

Jungle Item

• Stalkers is supposed to be for champs that need additional CC and/or gap-closing, but a 50% 2-second slow every minute is OP, and so right now everyone is buying it on every jungler regardless of champion/synergy.
• Assuming that stalker gets nerfed (it is nerfed right now on PBE), Ranger’s is probably the best choice on Vi due to mana issues if she wants to clear fast.
• If you are okay with conserving your mana in the jungle, get Skirmisher’s, the true damage is helpful to your burst combo

Jungle Enchantment

• Vi is a high-physical damage burst champ with decent sustained DPS, and synergizes extremely well with AD, armor pen, and CDR. Warrior enchantment is a no-brainer here.
• Juggernaut can work if you are buliding full-tank, but honestly the brutalizer stats are so good on Vi that even when building full-tank I would still recommend Warrior.

Item Build

• Jungle Item -> Jungle Enchantment -> Boots -> 1 damage item -> tank items
• 1 damage item = Brutalizer, hexdrinker, or trinity force
• Tank items: Randuin’s Omen, Banshee’s Veil, Locket of the Iron Solari, Frozen Heart, Warmog’s, Thornmail
• If you get really fed, you can usually get away with building 2 damage items
• Best boot enchantment: homeguard
• Best elixir: wrath

Tips

• General combo: charged Q -> auto -> E reset -> (R ->) auto -> E-reset. Once you build some damage items this combo will 100-0 a carry
• Remember that E deals damage in a cone behind the target. The true Vi snipers will get that last-hit kill by E’ing a minion or champion.
• R is a point-and-click guaranteed knock-up, and Vi follows her target, so they can’t escape by flashing or using abilities. Just be careful that your target doesn’t retreat so far away that you become isolated and killed (can’t tell you how many times I’ve ulted a Ezreal/Leblanc who then immediately dash + flash back into their team).
• Vi excels at picking off lone targets in the jungle during mid-game. Buy extra wards and ward up the map
• Vi is very good at chasing during the mid-game, when Q is on a pretty low-cooldown. Q + ult has 1700-range, 2100-range if you flash as well.
• R puts you behind the target, so R -> Q is a good combo if you need to cc the target as long as possible
• Q goes through walls and minions, the only thing that will stop your Q is another enemy champion
• R deals collateral damage to anyone between you and the target, if you can line up multiple champions you can get some extra teamfight damage.
• E is an auto-reset, ALWAYS use E right after auto-attacking. Not only is this faster auto-damage, it applies stacks of W faster.
• Vi has no escapes when she initiates with Q, keep this in mind during teamfights
• snap-casting Q still gives you a short dash, this can come in handy if you are getting chased and need just a little bit of extra distance to get away safely.
• The key to doing well with Vi is landing full-charge Qs, so practice aiming it as much as possible.