[13.1b] Beginners' Guide to Playing and Playing with Yuumi (2024)

🐟 Leashing
Before minions spawn, you should be watching jungle entrances with an escape plan should an enemy team come to invade. This can be making sure a teammate can come help you to safety or being ready to run to tower for less chance of the enemy team scoring a free first blood. If there is imminent threat, you can also place a ward near your jungle entrance to see if the enemy invades or waits to ambush you. Given the chance, auto attack an enemy to proc Feline Friendship's shield and to gain a charge on Spellthief's Edge.

If your jungler starts bot side buff, they will likely want you to leash. Whether your jungler actually needs a leash depends on what champion they are playing, but generally you will follow your ADC. When leashing, auto attack until the buff (or other camp) is about half health, then attach to your jungler if you are taking Summon Aery to activate her shield. You can then W again to jump to your bot lane partner. Do not use any abilities to assist your jungler as you will need that mana in lane.

🐟 Poke and Aggression
Unless you are very confident in yourself and your ADC, you are most likely going to play passively for the first few levels. Yuumi has decent poke should you land it, but her healing is fairly weak at a very high mana cost. If you are over-aggressive or too greedy without well-thought out follow-up, you will get killed. Avoid healing and impossible Qs as much as possible so that you do not end up without mana when you really need it.

Hit Prowling Projectiles and auto attacks when possible. It's especially important to auto when Feline Friendship is up so that you can get the shielding and mana recuperation. Damaging enemies will also proc Presence of Mind should you take it for additional mana regeneration. The ideal state of the lane for Yuumi is enemies that don't stand in their own minion wave for Q poke, your wave not being too far up, and enemies being unable to properly punish you and your ADC for CSing or poking. Hitting attacks should gradually wear down an enemy enough for your team to have a kill threat. If the enemy is close range, you can spiral your Q around so it gains flight time which in turn does the extra damage and slow. The buffs to Prowling Projectile encourages using it more often, so don't be passive! It offers a lot of damage even if it's not empowered, and it will make it easier for your team to get kills and gain advantages the more you use it.

If there are abilities that would be non-lethal to you, especially if they would hurt your teammate a lot, you should detach and block them. Specific examples are Sear, which can stun a target if used after another Brand ability, and Ace in the Hole. Yuumi can body block such abilities and prevent teammates from dying.

It is important to match your ADCs play style for maximum effect however. If they are playing more passively than you are used to, you may have to deal with that unless a teammate compensates. If they are more aggressive than you are comfortable with, try your best to support them, but don't be afraid to detach and leave if they are going for a doomed play. Especially if another teammate is nearby to help and your ADC is surely going to get you killed, it's better to help the teammate in a better position than to hand over a double kill. ADCs would also benefit from practicing how to play with a Yuumi, as she takes some adjustment from other supports.

vs Enchanters
Many can heal allies and/or themselves with abilities, especially if they buy Moonstone Renewer, so it may work better if your team is able to quickly burst them down. You may also want to buy a Chemtech Putrifier.
Enchanters will have varying types and quantities of CC, so make sure you know what they are before the game starts.
When hard CC, like Aqua Prison or Howling Gale, is on cooldown, there is a safe window to detach and auto attack, place wards, switch anchors, etc.
Enchanters are very mana-dependent, and players that heal or use abilities needlessly will run out of mana very quickly. Pay attention to their mana bar to find opportunities when they can't cast abilities.
While they aren't slouches in damage as they can easily poke or burst you down, enchanters are often easy to bully since they are usually low health and defense.

vs Tanks
You may consider taking Cut Down versus a tank.
They often have multiple hard CCs, like Shield of Daybreak or Staggering Blow.
Tanks also tend to have gap closers, like Zenith Blade or Headbutt. It's best to wait for these to go on cooldown before detaching.
They may block abilities and attacks meant for their ADCs. If they do this, don't always aim for the ADC.
Since tanks are close-range attackers, it becomes more dangerous for them to engage while low health. Poking them down may reduce the chance they commit to an engage.

vs Mages
All of the mages you are likely to encounter in bot lane have hard CC on their own. Wait for cooldowns.
Mages are usually more than capable of bursting you down if not killing you outright along with their ADC by level 3. Don't get caught out.
Common keystone runes are Arcane Comet, Dark Harvest, or Electrocute, so keep aware of when they proc.
Like enchanters, mages are mana-dependent, but they will probably use their CC before any other ability, so watch how much mana they have available and how much mana dangerous abilities consume.
If you are having trouble, play safe, even if that forces you under tower.

Once Yuumi hits level 6, she gets Final Chapter, which is useful for both engaging and disengaging. It can lock down fleeing enemies or stop them from chasing you. Yuumi bot lanes can very commonly get double kills upon her reaching 6, but do not get greedy or force it. You can also ult on diving enemies to root them under tower, possibly preventing a kill on your teammate, scoring a kill of your own, or at least doing a lot of damage. It may be useful to take Final Chapter off quick cast if you have it on or to use an indicator so you can better aim it.

🐟 Wave Management
Help your ADC manage the wave, whatever they may want to do with it. Yuumi's waveclear is nonexistent, so it will be hard for you to manipulate the wave very much on your own. Even if they don't tell you explicitly, you should be able to get an idea based on how they are handling the minions.

If they are not hitting minions, do not hit minions.
If they are hitting only some minions, do not hit minions.
If they are killing minions as fast as possible, hit the minions and let the ADC last hit for the gold.

If your side just got a kill (or more) and there is no enemy in lane, hit the minions to shove in the wave as fast as possible and reset or go to ward. Remember to give your ADC or other teammate the last hits if possible.

If you are forced under tower before your ADC has any damage items or you are playing with a non-AD champion, you will likely have to help them farm. For support purposes, you will want to auto attack caster minions once to prime them for your bot lane partner. Keep in mind also how much HP minions have while being attacked by your own minions. Try to make your best judgement about whether you need to help your partner CS or not.

🐟 Ganks
When your jungler is ganking, your primary goal is to keep your teammates healthy should there be a fight. If the enemy is low enough health, this shouldn't be much of a problem, but teammates may also force a fight. If this is the case, switch anchors to whomever is most likely to take damage so you can heal them. If the frontliner is far away, it is also ok to remain attached to another teammate to provide extra poke with Prowling Projectile and bonus adaptive force. If possible, you can detach, quickly proc Feline Friendship, then reattach.

If the enemy suddenly pulls back towards their tower and/or gets abnormally aggressive, you may be getting ganked. Take care not to fall for the bait. Help your teammate(s) as much as possible through healing, shielding, and providing additional damage. Remember that Yuumi will take tower aggro if she damages an enemy under tower even while attached, including with Ignite. She can probably take 2-3 tower shots early before dying, and it will count as an enemy kill if she dies to tower when her anchor engages the enemy. Use Prowling Projectile out of turret range to give more kill threat or even finish off an enemy. Beware that Scorch will cause Yuumi to take tower aggro if the burn is still active.

🐟 Warding
This is a very basic overview of warding that is a bit more specific to Yuumi's capabilities. I recommend you do more research into general warding for more information.

You will want to upgrade your support item as fast as possible. Once upgraded, it is important to remember to change your trinket to Oracle Lens for maximum utility. If you choose, you can buy a Watchful Wardstone, which stores up to 3 control wards. Upon finishing your support quest and being level 13, it will upgrade into Vigilant Wardstone, which allows you to place an extra control ward and an extra stealth ward at once. It also gives you extra ability haste and a 12% stat bonus. Always keep control wards on hand.

Depending on the enemy jungler, you will want to place a ward in the river between 2-3 minutes in game. Be mindful of junglers that may level 2 gank. Over the course of laning phase, you will probably be placing wards in the river bush, underneath or in front of dragon pit, farther up river, at your tri-bushes, or near buffs. For some enemies that can cross terrain, like Kayn, Zac, or Talon, you can ward their angles of approach (even on your side). Other good areas to ward are at thoroughfares where enemies are likely to walk through. Paying attention to how the enemy team moves gives you a better idea of how to ward for that game. Junctions that cross more paths have the greatest benefit if you don't know where you should be warding.

Control Wards can be placed in strategic locations, like jungle entrances, objectives, and any area your team is currently invading. Control wards and Oracle Lens are useful against enemies with invisibility or stealth, as it reveals them. For this reason, you may want to place a control ward close to you or even in lane to prevent ganks or ambushes.

You can send a Prowling Projectile through bushes to see if enemies are there rather than facechecking. They may just dodge and be in a bush anyway, but doing this gives a little more security. When warding far from lane, it's better to ask one of your teammates to go with you in case an enemy is there. Likewise, when clearing enemy wards, don't stay if you aren't reasonably sure you can be safe. Do not die for a ward.

Pay attention to the map for your wards to be useful! Vision means nothing if you ignore it.

🐟 Roaming
While Yuumi may be a bit more limited in roaming than other supports due to her lack of boots, she can still do so. Good times to roam include:

when your ADC is backing and you don't need to back. You can roam to gank mid or ward.
when you need to help your jungler or other teammates in river or jungle.
when your teammate may need help taking an objective (e.g. dragon).
when there is an opportunity to secure a kill.
when you are coming from Base and your ADC will not be in lane at the same time as you (because you died, the ADC backed after you, etc.)

The farther you walk lowers the benefits of being out of lane should you fail to gain anything from a roam. When roaming, you lose experience and leave your ADC vulnerable if they are still in lane, so choose your roams carefully. Do not stay with your jungler longer than necessary.