Yone, the Unforgotten, is League of Legends’ newest champion.
Similar to his brother Yasuo, the Unforgiven, Yone aims to cut through any frontline champions and punish squishy backline targets. Players looking to try out another mobile duelist can look to add Yone to their repertoire.
Here’s everything you need to know to best play Yone.
Runes and abilities
Conqueror is the most optimal keystone that synergizes with Yone the best. In most matchups where you have prolonged skirmishes against your opponent, the amount of extra damage that Conqueror can offer alongside its percentage healing can help keep you even or ahead. Depending on the matchup and your playstyle, however, there are a few other options you can consider taking to make the matchup more favorable.
Fleet Footwork is another Precision-based keystone rune that you can take if you feel you’re going to get out-poked by most ranged champions in lane. Fleet Footwork grants you extra sustain every so often and a burst of movement speed to give you a chance to trade back against your long-range opponents.
If you know you’re going to go up against a bulky opponent where you can’t stay in prolonged trades, Grasp of the Undying is a fair alternative to Conqueror. When you’re in lane with Grasp, you can prime the rune off an auto attack on a minion. Then, once it’s ready, you can dash up to the opponent with your third Q and hit them for the life drain and bonus max health.
Here are all of Yone’s abilities:
Passive: Way of the Hunter
Similar to Yasuo, Yone gains twice as much critical strike chance from every other source. But his damage dealt from critical strikes is slightly reduced compared to other champions.
Q: Mortal Steel
Much like his brother, Yone’s Q sees him stab his sword forward, dealing pure physical damage and triggering on-hit effects. It has a ramping-up component over three stages. Every time Yone hits his Q on any enemy, he gains a stack of Gathering Storm. Once Yone reaches three stacks, instead of thrusting his sword, Yone dashes forward with a gust of wind, hitting everyone in the area and knocking up anyone affected.
W: Spirit Cleave
Using his Azakana Sword, Yone slashes in a cone shape, dealing equal parts magic and physical damage like his passive and ultimate. Spirit Cleave also has an extra component of damage that scales off of enemy maximum health, meaning it deals more damage to higher health targets.
E: Soul Unbound
Yone leaves his original body behind for five seconds and temporarily dashes forward with his soul. Any damage that Yone’s soul clone deals will be stored until he returns to his body. Once Yone returns to his body, he detonates a portion of the stored damage that will be repeated as true damage.
R: Fate Sealed
After taking a moment to cast, Yone blinks in a targeted direction. Any enemies that are hit are dragged with Yone to the maximum distance, stunned, and knocked up at the end of the blink. As a long-range blink, you can use this to either start a fight from far away or save it as a finisher after your opponent uses their escape tools.
Item path options
While Yone’s kit incentivizes rushing critical strike items, there’s also a hidden importance to attack speed. If you’re ahead, an early Berserker’s Greaves purchase has a ton of value. They give you more movement speed to kite and catch up to enemies and lower the cooldown on your Q and W since their cooldown is lowered by attack speed and not cooldown reduction.
