Vi’s passive is the “Shock Shield”, which protects her from damage for 3 seconds when she hits an enemy with one of her active abilities. The shield has a cooldown, but this can be reduced if Vi triggers her W. In the vast majority of cases, you will have the shield available at the start of a fight and can trigger it a second time in longer fights. You will therefore often want to gain some distance from your opponents after your initial combo and then go in again as soon as you have your cooldowns and shield available again.

At level 1, you take Vis W “Demoralizing Blows”, as this is the quickest way to clear your first buff. This is another fully passive ability that causes every 3rd autoattack from Vi to deal additional damage based on the target’s max health, reduce the target’s armor by 20%, and grant Vi additional attack speed for 4 seconds. In addition, triggering the W reduces the cooldown of her passives by 3 seconds. Since Vi usually deals her damage via short burst combos rather than her autoattacks, the W is mainly useful for armor reduction and cooldown reduction of the passives. That’s why you only maximize it as the last ability.

At level 2, take Vis E “Powerful Evidence”, as this allows you to clear camps with multiple monsters most efficiently. When activated, Vis E’s next autoattack deals increased damage, pierces the target and also deals damage to enemies behind it. This ability can also have up to 2 charges, so you can use it twice in quick succession within 1 second of each other. The E is also an autoattack reset, allowing you to build up 2 stacks of your W very quickly with AA->E. The second thing you do is maximize E to increase the damage and reduce the cooldown of the two charges.

The last basic skill you take is the most important one at level 3: Vis Q “Wallbreaker”. As long as you hold down the Q, Vi charges her gloves and moves 15% slower. When you let go, she dashes in the selected direction. Enemies hit take physical damage, are thrown back and receive a stack of Vis W. Jungle monsters and minions are also drawn to Vi, so you can then hit them all with an E. If Vis Q’s charge is interrupted, the cooldown is reduced to 3 seconds. Q is your most important ability, as it deals a lot of damage and gives you mobility at the same time. You therefore maximize it first. You can use Q to engage and pursue enemies, to escape or to get over thin walls and get from A to B faster. You can also briefly tap the Q in melee combat to use it as an autoattack reset and pack another W stack on your opponent or trigger the W that is already stacked. This is useful in situations where you don’t have time to charge the Q, but the extra damage from the W can be decisive for the outcome of the fight. You can also tap the Q in melee to trigger your passive when it is ready and you urgently need the shield.

Vi’s ultimate ability “Display Is Out” can be leveled up to levels 6, 11 and 16. When activated, Vi dashes unstoppably towards the selected opponent, knocking aside all other enemies in the way. As soon as she reaches her target, she throws it into the air for 1.3 seconds, jumps after it and then throws it to the ground, causing physical damage. All enemies knocked aside take the same damage and are stunned for 0.75 seconds. With this ult, you have a very strong Engage on a single target over a decent distance. But you don’t necessarily have to use it on the first target or at the start of a fight. If there is an opportunity to use it on the opponent’s backline during a team fight and fly through the frontline so that several opponents take the damage and CC, then this can often decide the fight. For such a combo, you can, for example, engage the frontline with your Q and then lunge one of the carries behind it. If, on the other hand, you want to go straight for the carry, the question often arises as to whether you want to engage with the Q or the ult first. If you hit your opponent first with the Q, you can then hold him in this position for a long time with the ult so that your team can follow up well. On the other hand, engaging with the ult is safer as your Q can be dodged. As a rule of thumb, your Q is the better Engage if you can combine it with Flash or engage outside the opponent’s line of sight, e.g. over a wall. In most other situations, ulten is better first and then you can use Q to push the opponent a little bit towards your team.

Full all-in combo [R->AA->E->Q->AA->E]: this combo deals the maximum possible damage to a single opponent and makes use of the many autoattack resets in Vi’s kit. You start the combo by ultsing the enemy. As soon as you have pulled up to them, you make an autoattack and immediately reset it with the E. You then tap the Q to cancel the animation and CC the opponent again. During the knockup, make another autoattack and reset it with your E as well.

Flash-Engage combo [Q(hold)->F->Q(release)->AA->E->R->AA->E]: in this combo, the order of the Q and Ult are reversed, and the Q is combined with Flash. This is your best engage option against targets that have counterplay against your ult. An example of this would be Xayah, who can simply ult herself when you ult-engage her, avoiding your damage and CC. Then you stand in the middle of the enemy team, she can hold you with her spring and you simply die senselessly. To avoid this scenario, you want to surprise your opponent in such matchups and the best way to do this is with a Flash Q. If this is performed from outside the opponent’s line of sight (e.g. over a wall), you have a good chance of success.