Vi Gameplay Guide – Mastering the Piltover Enforcer in League of Legends

Vi is a powerful jungle champion in League of Legends, known for her strong engage, high single-target damage, and game-changing crowd control. With her iconic punch-heavy kit, she excels at locking down priority carries, disrupting backlines, and creating fights on her terms. If you’re looking for a straightforward jungler with the ability to carry games through ganks and teamfight initiation, this Vi jungle guide will help you maximize her potential.

Understanding Vi’s Abilities

Passive: Blast Shield

Whenever Vi uses an ability on an enemy, she gains a shield based on her max health. This shield makes her surprisingly durable during trades and skirmishes, especially early in the game. Timing abilities to refresh this shield mid-fight is key to surviving extended duels.

Q: Vault Breaker

Vi charges up a powerful punch that knocks back and damages enemies. The longer it’s charged, the farther it travels. This is her main engage and gank tool, allowing her to close distance quickly and start fights. Mastering Q angles is essential, as missing it often wastes a gank opportunity.

W: Denting Blows

Every third consecutive attack on the same target deals bonus damage, shreds their armor, and increases Vi’s attack speed. This ability gives her strong dueling power and helps her shred tanks and objectives like Dragon and Baron.

E: Relentless Force

Vi empowers her next basic attack to deal splash damage in a cone behind the target. She can store up to two charges, allowing her to weave them into trades and clear jungle camps more efficiently. It’s also useful for wave manipulation when holding lanes after ganks.

R: Cease and Desist

Vi’s ultimate makes her one of the best initiation tools in the game. She dashes to a target enemy champion, knocking aside anyone in her path, then suppresses and damages her target. This ability guarantees crowd control on high-priority carries, making her a reliable engage option for any team comp.

Early Game – Jungle Pathing and Gank Pressure

Vi’s early game revolves around efficient jungle clears and threatening ganks with Vault Breaker. Her kit allows her to clear camps relatively quickly, especially with proper weaving of E and W procs. Start at your buff with leash, then path toward level 3 to unlock Q, W, and E. Once you have Q, you can begin threatening lanes.

When ganking, charge Q from fog of war or behind walls to surprise enemies. Combining Q with your passive shield makes your engages safe and difficult to counter. Aim to snowball lanes that can follow up on your engage, such as mid laners with CC or bot lane duos with strong burst.

Invading can work against weaker early junglers, but Vi isn’t the strongest level 2 duelist. It’s safer to focus on farming until you’re level 3 or 4 unless your lanes have priority. Tracking the enemy jungler is important—Vi thrives on counter-ganking, punishing over-aggressive opponents with her lockdown tools.

Mid Game – Creating Picks and Securing Objectives

Once you unlock Cease and Desist, your gank threat spikes dramatically. Few champions can escape Vi’s ultimate, making it a guaranteed way to secure kills on immobile carries. Use this window to pressure mid lane heavily, as killing the enemy mid laner opens up vision control and easier access to Dragons.

Vi also becomes a strong objective taker in the mid game. With Denting Blows and Relentless Force, she melts through Dragon and Rift Herald. Always look to convert successful ganks into objectives—this accelerates your team’s gold lead and puts pressure on the enemy to respond.

In skirmishes, don’t rush your ultimate immediately. Sometimes holding R until after enemy dashes or key cooldowns are burned is more effective. If the enemy ADC uses Flash early, Vi’s R guarantees their death with no escape options left.

Late Game – Teamfight Initiation and Carry Removal

In late game teamfights, Vi’s job is to neutralize enemy carries. Your ultimate ensures that even slippery champions cannot escape your reach. Position in fog of war or flank angles to dive onto the backline without being peeled off too early. Coordination with your team is essential—if you dive in alone with no follow-up, you’ll get deleted.

Vi also provides frontline disruption. Even if she can’t kill the backline instantly, she can soak cooldowns with her shield passive and force enemies to retreat. Her durability scales decently with defensive items, allowing her to function as a bruiser who both engages and survives.

Peel is another option in some games. Against champions like Irelia, Yasuo, or assassins diving your carries, you can use your ultimate defensively to lock them down and protect your ADC. Flexibility in your role separates great Vi players from average ones.

Combos and Mechanics

• Standard Gank Combo: Q → Auto → E → Auto → R → Auto. Weave W procs between autos.
• All-In Combo: R → Auto → Q → E → Auto. Using R first ensures you land every ability.
• Flash + Q: Charge Q, then Flash mid-charge to extend your engage range and surprise enemies.
• Wall Q: Practice charging Q from walls or bushes to maximize surprise factor in ganks.

Runes for Vi

Primary Tree – Precision: Conqueror is the most consistent keystone, providing damage and sustain in extended fights. Triumph and Legend: Tenacity enhance survivability, while Last Stand boosts damage when low.

Secondary Tree – Inspiration or Resolve: Inspiration offers utility with Magical Footwear and Cosmic Insight. Resolve grants durability with Conditioning and Revitalize, especially if you plan to build tankier.

Best Vi Item Builds

Mythics: Divine Sunderer suits her bruiser style, shredding tanks while healing. Eclipse or Goredrinker are also viable for more sustain. For heavy engage, items like Radiant Virtue provide durability for teamfights.

Core Items: Black Cleaver synergizes perfectly with her kit, shredding armor and boosting team damage. Sterak’s Gage adds survivability, while Guardian Angel gives a second life for risky dives.

Defensive Items: Randuin’s Omen reduces crit damage from ADCs, while Spirit Visage enhances healing from items and runes. Thornmail applies Grievous Wounds to counter sustain-heavy comps.

Situational Items: Maw of Malmortius against heavy AP, or Frozen Heart against attack speed champions. Adapt your build based on enemy threats.

Team Composition Synergies

Vi excels alongside champions who can follow up on her engages. Mid laners like Orianna, Syndra, or Ahri provide burst damage to capitalize on her lockdown. ADCs with strong DPS, such as Jinx or Kai’Sa, thrive when Vi creates space for them.

Her synergy with engage supports like Leona, Nautilus, or Rell is particularly strong. Together, they create unstoppable initiation chains that leave enemies no room to breathe.

Matchup Tips

Against Farming Junglers: Champions like Master Yi or Shyvana struggle against Vi’s early gank pressure. Invade them, secure vision, and snowball before they scale.

Against Duelists: Champions like Lee Sin or Xin Zhao can outduel Vi early. Avoid isolated fights before level 6 and rely on your team’s CC to win skirmishes.

Against Tank Junglers: Vi’s armor shred from W allows her to deal with tanks effectively. Just ensure your team can follow up on your engages, as tanks may stall fights if you dive alone.

Tips for Climbing with Vi

• Track enemy summoner spells. Once Flash is down, Vi’s ultimate almost guarantees a kill.
• Use fog of war to set up surprise engages with Q.
• Convert ganks into objectives—dragons and towers are how Vi snowballs games.
• Adapt itemization depending on whether your role is engage tank, bruiser, or anti-carry diver.
• Communicate with your team—Vi is at her best when she coordinates engages with allies.

Closing Thoughts

Vi is a reliable, versatile jungler who brings guaranteed engage, strong dueling, and objective control to any team composition. She punishes immobile carries, creates picks with her ultimate, and dominates skirmishes when played well. By mastering her combos, jungle pathing, and itemization, you can use this Vi guide to carry games and enforce order on the Rift, just like the Piltover Enforcer herself.