Yi Sun-shin — Assassin / Marksman

Source: In-client Hero Info (Attribute + Skill tabs), screenshotted 2026-04-22 by user. Client build: 2.1.61.1173.1 Specialty: Finisher / Chase Lore chapter: 3 Accuracy: Primary-source verified. Do not flag as *[verify]*.

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Base Attributes (Lv.1)

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Passive — Heavenly Vow (Buff)

Yi Sun-shin attacks with his longbow or glaive based on distance from target.

Weapon Mastery: After each weapon swap, his next 2 Basic Attacks gain extra Attack Speed and deal 70% and 55% Crit Damage respectively. He also gains 15% Movement Speed for 1s.

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Skill 1 — Traceless (Mobility · AOE)

Cooldown: 12.0s base · Mana Cost: 50

Yi Sun-shin dashes forward and slashes with his glaive, dealing 150 (+40% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage and gaining Control Immunity for 0.4s.

Each Weapon Mastery triggered reduces the cooldown of Traceless by 1s.

Mechanic notes: Blink — movement ability can pass through obstacles. Control Immunity grants immunity to enemy Control and Slow effects (excluding Suppression).

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Skill 2 — Blood Floods (AOE)

Cooldown: 11.0s base · Mana Cost: 60

Tap: Yi Sun-shin slashes swiftly with his glaive, dealing 240 (+80% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage.

Hold: Yi Sun-shin shoots a powerful arrow forward, dealing 240 (+80% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage to the target. Damage scales with hold time, up to 200%.

Casting this skill immediately triggers Weapon Mastery.

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Ultimate — Mountain Shocker (Burst · CC)

Cooldown: 60.0s base · Mana Cost: 150

Yi Sun-shin summons a turtle ship and reveals the whole map for 2s. The turtle ship lasts up to 10s, during which he gains 70% burst Movement Speed (decays to 20% over 2s).

Use Again: Yi Sun-shin commands the turtle ship to ram the target area, dealing 160 (+50% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage to enemies in the center and stunning them for 0.8s. Meanwhile, he commands the naval fleet to launch 3 waves of cannon attacks over a larger area. Each wave deals 160 (+50% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage and slows enemies by 30%.

Casting this skill immediately triggers Weapon Mastery.

⚠ Major patch confirmation (2026-04-22): Turtle Ship duration is 10s in-client. This confirms the 15s → 10s nerf (previously attributed to Advance Server 2.1.62) HAS SHIPPED to live. All docs updated — see audit_log.md 2026-04-22 YSS verification.

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Current Meta Placement (as of 2026-04-22)

• Jungle: S-tier (down from S+ — 10s ult duration now live)
• Pro Play: #2 most-picked at M7 (68 picks, 52.9% WR), though ult nerf now shipping means pro cadence will likely drift down. Liquipedia hero page confirms "up to 10 seconds" current duration.

See heroes.md → Full Tier List / Fallen Heroes + lore/yi-sun-shin.md for in-client backstory.

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Player Guide — Desz (1000+ stars, ex-Global #1 Lancelot, played all roles)

Source: YouTube vaSmBPygQF8 (Desz, "Yi Sun-shin Jungle — Settings, Build, Solo Rank Walkthrough"), ingested 2026-04-29. Author note: 1000+ games on YSS over multiple seasons. Considered "probably the best jungler in the game right now" per Desz post-rebound.

Build & Emblem

• Spell: Retribution.
• Emblem: Assassin —
  • Talent 1: Thrill (mandatory).
  • Talent 2: Bounty Hunter (transcript "Season Hunter" — Bounty Hunter, the standard jungle tier-2).
  • Talent 3: Killing Spree (current preference) OR Quantum Charge (more outplay potential, was popular at launch).
  • Trait color: Red Tree (more damage, enemies do less) OR Blue Tree (more MS, slow enemies). Pure preference.

Boots — situational, not always Swift

"Most of the time go Swift. Sometimes Tough Boots if they have a lot of damage. A lot of people just go Cooldown Boots now so you can spam abilities."

• Swift Boots: standard.
• Cooldown Boots: spam-build preference.
• Tough Boots: vs heavy-burst enemy comps.
• Magic-resist Boots: vs Fanny / heavy true damage; pair with War Axe.

Item path

1. Hunter Strike — early-game power spike (Fury Hammer component is huge).
2. War Axe OR Endless Battle (MPL preference: Blade of Despair second for raw damage; standard: War Axe → Endless Battle).
3. Endless Battle — true damage proc per skill, lifesteal, synergy with passive's repeated BA cycle.
4. Blade of Despair — true damage scaling + low-HP burst boost.
5. Last slot situational: Malefic Roar (vs def stacking), Sea Halberd (vs sustain/heal), Winter Truncheon (vs lockdown).
6. Optional swap: sell Hunter Strike late-game for Immortality or Rose Gold Meteor.

Settings (YSS-specific)

• Basic Attack Smart Targeting: ON — load-bearing for YSS because his passive triggers on weapon swap; you need to focus-fire specific targets reliably.
• Lock Mode: CLOSEST TARGET (YSS-specific exception) — most heroes use Lowest HP, but YSS's passive damage is so dependent on the bow/glaive auto-swap rhythm that closest-target is the better default. Try it; it works.
• Skill Joystick: Fixed position (muscle memory).

Passive — the bow-glaive cadence

YSS passive: bow at long range, glaive at melee. Each weapon swap → next 2 BAs gain extra AS + crit (70% / 55% damage boost respectively).

"The trick to keeping this is walking forward, hitting it, going back. You do that repetitively because the first attack always does 70%."

The "stutter step" — walk forward into glaive range → BA → walk back → bow BA → walk forward again. Each swap re-procs the passive.

S1 — cooldown reduction by passive

Each Weapon Mastery proc reduces S1 cooldown by 1s. S1 has effectively no cooldown if you're stacking BAs. Use S1 freely as engage AND disengage — control immunity for 0.4s lets you immune-dash through stuns.

S2 — passive reset

Either tap or hold version of S2 resets the Weapon Mastery passive. After 2 BAs (passive expended), tap S2 → next 2 BAs are enhanced again.

Ult — turtle ship is a stun + dash + reset

The Mountain Shocker reveal + 70% MS is huge. Two unintuitive details:

• You can dash while the turtle ship is active — your full mobility kit stays online.
• Releasing the ult resets your passive (just casting it doesn't reset; only the release does).

Early-game macro

L1: always start red buff turtle-side — by the time the buff dies, turtle is up and your opposite-side buff is unrevealable to invaders.

"Save Retribution for Lethal now. People used to retri the first buff, but invasion is so common that retaining Retribution for Lethal is better."

Avoid early team fights — you scale

"YSS is a scaling hero. You don't do that much in the early game. Don't waste time poking — keep farming. The quicker you scale, the better."

Default L1–L4: full-clear jungle, take both greens, take Lethal with Retribution, head to turtle. Avoid early skirmishes unless you have a free pick on an isolated target with no flicker.

Wait-for-flicker rule

"Always wait for the enemy's flicker before you ult. If you know you can chase them down, ult AFTER they flicker."

Concrete: vision a low-HP target, dash in, do NOT ult — let them burn flicker first. Then ult to stun on landing. Otherwise they flicker out of your ult and live.

Lord-stage flank

In late-game Lord fights, scout from the opposite-side bushes of where the enemy is grouped. The enemy team has "vision tunnel" on the lord pit; flanking from a non-obvious bush angle gives you free backline access.

"You have a vision camp on your screen — like, you know what your normal vision arc is. The enemy does too. Bushes outside their normal vision arc let you waltz right onto their carry."

When to pick YSS

• Vs Alucard (early game tough, post-Lifesteal-build YSS wins late).
• Vs immobile comps (Layla, Lesley, Hanabi marksmen) — easy backline access.
• Don't pick when enemy has Kadita + Petrify + multiple gap-closers (Lapu, Bell). Kadita ult chains your dashes.

Counter notes

• Kadita ult punishes dash commitments.
• Lapu-Lapu flicker-engage vs YSS interrupts the bow-glaive cadence.
• Angela ult save targets you thought you could finish — bait it before committing.