Yone ability guide: How League's upcoming skirmisher-assassin hybrid is set to be played

Yone, League’s latest champion, will be hitting the rift in the near future (on the PBE for the 10.16 cycle), looking to slice up the competition with his dual blades and Azkana-infused powers. To see exactly how Yone plans to outshine his brother on the Rift, we’ll dive into his abilities.

Yone Ability Guide

Passive - Way of the Hunter

A cross-between Yasuo and Sett’s passives. It gives doubled crit-strike chance straight out of Yasuo’s passive, but the crits themselves will deal reduced damage. Infinity Edge + Phantom Dancer will make for a good duo of items to abuse this element of the passive, much like Yasuo.

On top of that, every second auto will deal 50% magic damage, courtesy of Yone’s demon infused blade. That means a mixed damage profile for dealing with tanks, and the possibility of rushing a more on-hit/off-tank build path a-la Sett if the numbers are high enough. Think Tri-force into Blade of the Ruined King, then going tank items. 

Q - Mortal Will

Major similarities with Yasuo’s Q, Steel Tempest. Yone strikes with his sword from his mortal days, gaining a stack of Gathering Storm, then at two stacks his Q dashes forward, dealing damage and knocking enemies airborne.

Likely the ability players are going to want to max. Unlike Yasuo, Yone doesn’t have his brother’s insane mobility in a minion wave, but still wants access to backline targets and the ability to escape tricky situations - he is a melee ADC of sorts, after all. Damage, CC and mobility are all high priority and are all in abundance in this ability. As an added bonus, Mortal Will looks like an auto-cancel, which is great news for milking Yone’s passive for all it’s worth.

W - Spirit Cleave

Yone cleaves an area in front of him in a massive arc, dealing max health damage. Any enemies he hits give Yone a temporary shield, scaling on the number of enemies hit.

Max health damage is always at a premium versus tanks, and as his mixed damage profile courtesy of his passive add into that. Spirit Cleave also makes for an excellent teamfight and skirmish tool - time it right and you can invalidate a lot of damage coming your way, a little like Sett’s haymaker, by soaking damage with that scaling shield. It has decent range too, which gives Yone some longer range trading and Poke tools, especially if enemies are trying to back out after Yone’s dived in with his Q.

E - Soul Unbound

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Yone’s most intriguing ability. Yone’s spirit leaves his mortal body behind, remaining tethered to it while wailing on enemies. When he returns to his body, a percentage of the damage dealt is inflicted to opponents. In other-words, a pseudo-cross between Zoe’s Portal and the delayed damage of Zed’s Deathmark.

Much like Zoe’s R, this will make for a fantastic zoning tool, and enabler for tower dives. However, much like Zoe R everyone is going to know exactly where Yone is going to turn up after his spiritual walkabout. Players will have to take care about their positioning when using this ability! As a side note, though it’s currently unconfirmed, Yone’s physical body may well be invulnerable while using this ability, which just makes diving more viable.

An outside chance of a first ability max, depending on numbers.

R - Fate Sealed

And you thought Yasuo was edgy. Yone dashes forward faster than you can say “Omae wa mou shindeiru,” dealing damage in an area, then knocking up enemies and pulling them together.

The wombo combo opportunities are endless: throw an Orianna ball on top of Yone and hit the shockwave after Fate Sealed has gone through, then add an Aphelios Moonlight Vigil and a Malphite Unstoppable Force into the mix and watch the enemy team disappear. And that’s without talking about his blatant synergy with Yasuo: let the older brother knock ‘em all up, and let the younger bring them crashing back down.

Having seen his abilities, the likely play pattern will be trying to harass with E and W (and look to mitigate return damage with the shield), before looking to aggressively all in with the Q and R. The other side of that coin is to do the exact opposite. Go all in with R for the knock-up, stack up the Gathering Storm as fast you can on Yone’s Q, then go for the second knock up with the third cast, before hunting down your fleeing opponent with W and E under tower and let the delayed damage finish them off in style.

(Picture: Riot Games)

As for where he’ll be played, that’s a touch more intriguing. Midlane is the obvious choice, but that off-tank option would make him a solid counterpick choice in toplane - but be advised, Yone’s escape options are fairly inconsistent for a long solo lane (Q dash needs 2-stacks, R has a wind-up, E only buys time).

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​​​​Jungle might be possible, but only if the numbers and cool-downs are good. All that juicy AoE damage on Q-3 and W, alongside rumoured damage immunity on E may offer enough of a clear speed to push him over the edge.

The real secret tech though is support Yone - especially with Yasuo. Gragas/Yasuo can step aside as the premier kill lane, ‘cause the bash (blade?) brothers are in town. Hell, Riot has already dubbed it the “Brothers Bot lane”. Yone is - as far as we’ve seen - manaless, which means he can spam abilities with impunity in lane. Poke out and harass with E and W, then set up for the wombo-combo at level 6 with your nicely softened up opponents.

Yone will be hitting the rift in 10.16, where you can set up your own Yasuo/Yone botlane and look for that coveted combined 0/20 powerspike!