Yan — Patch 1.63 Verdict
[Liquipedia RPL: C | Web: S+ | Web: S+ | Web: A | Web: S+] Pro play (RPL 2026): 6 picks, 33.3% WR, 2.1% pick/ban rate. Note: pro meta may differ from ranked. Ranked S+ on zathong.com. Ranked S+ on metatierlist.com. Ranked A on commonsensegamer.com. Ranked S+ on richmanshop.com.
Yan — Warrior Guide
Key Insights
- Flash of Inspiration charges on Q or W hits; two stacks empowers your next auto for bonus attack speed, HP restore, and ability-specific effects.
- Miss the empowered auto (out of range, target dashes) and you burn both stacks for nothing, that is the single most costly mistake in lane.
- Q and W are separate cooldown slots feeding the same passive, so you can stack twice in one trade rotation without waiting on a single skill reset.
- Coiling Dragon's dash makes you untargetable mid-travel, use it to eat incoming CC (Veres spear, Diao Chan bind) rather than purely as a gap-close.
- Crushing Mountain tiers up to LV3: LV2 extends empowered-auto buff duration on any hit including minions, LV3 grants passive energy per empowered auto, so surviving into a sustained fight is a straight damage multiplier.
Strengths
Flash of Inspiration sustain wins long trades without a lifesteal item.
Coiling Dragon's untargetable window dodges targeted CC mid-combo.
Crushing Mountain stacks armor pen in ways most warriors can't match.- 0% ban rate makes Yan a first-pick-safe pocket pick every game.
Weaknesses
- Missing the Flash of Inspiration empowered auto loses the full trade cycle.
- Coiling Dragon's arc goes counter-intuitive under pressure; easy to dash past targets.
- No reliable hard CC outside the
Splash Ink airborne; needs ally setup for mobile enemies. - Leviathan into Longinus build is slow; early tower pressure stunts his mid-game spikes.
Matchups
Abilities
PFlash of Inspiration
Each time Yan uses Skill 1 or 2, he gains 1 stack of energy. When 2 stacks are accumulated, his next auto attack is enhanced and triggers additional effects based on the previously used skill. If the enhanced attack hits an enemy, Yan's attack speed increases and he recovers HP.
1Splash Ink
Deals damage and slows enemies. Auto attack buff: Yan jumps and charges forward, slamming the ground ahead to deal damage and knock enemies airborne.
2Splash Ink
Deals damage and slows enemies. Auto attack buff: Yan jumps and charges forward, slamming the ground ahead to deal damage and knock enemies airborne.
RCoiling Dragon
Yan dashes forward in a curved path (cannot be targeted during this). Deals damage to enemies he passes through. Auto attack buff: Yan charges at enemies, dealing bonus damage and triggering Skill 2.
1Coiling Dragon
Yan dashes forward in a curved path (cannot be targeted during this). Deals damage to enemies he passes through. Auto attack buff: Yan charges at enemies, dealing bonus damage and triggering Skill 2.
1Crushing Mountain
Yan unleashes power (immune to crowd control during cast) and unlocks Skill 3 Stage 2, entering enhanced state. LV 1: Increases armor penetration and enhances Skill 1 and 2 damage. LV 2: Enhanced auto attacks hitting enemies extend buff duration and allow multiple uses of Skill 3 Stage 2. LV 3: Enhanced auto attacks grant 1 stack of energy.
1Crushing Mountain
Yan unleashes power (immune to crowd control during cast) and unlocks Skill 3 Stage 2, entering enhanced state. LV 1: Increases armor penetration and enhances Skill 1 and 2 damage. LV 2: Enhanced auto attacks hitting enemies extend buff duration and allow multiple uses of Skill 3 Stage 2. LV 3: Enhanced auto attacks grant 1 stack of energy.
Skill Order
Priority: R > Q > W| Skill | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Splash Ink | 1 | · | 3 | · | 5 | · | 7 | · | 9 | · | · | · | · | · | · |
| 2Splash Ink | · | 2 | · | 4 | · | · | · | 8 | · | 10 | · | 12 | · | · | · |
| RCoiling Dragon | · | · | · | · | · | 6 | · | · | · | · | 11 | · | · | · | 15 |
Loadout
Awake
Spirit
Dragon's ClawStandard Build
1
2
3
4
5
6Core Combos
Standard Lane Trade
12POpen with Q to apply the slow and bank the first energy charge, weave an auto, then immediately W for the second charge, triggering the empowered Flash of Inspiration auto. Use this whenever the enemy laner steps up to last-hit.
All-In Burst
R12PRDash through your target with Coiling Dragon phase one to proc mid-air damage and reposition, immediately chain Q and W to hit two stacks, land the empowered auto to trigger the airborne, then land the buffed Crushing Mountain follow-up before they touch the ground.
Flicker Kill Confirm
R12PPop Coiling Dragon to go untargetable, Flicker mid-dash to redirect toward a fleeing target, then immediately lock into the Q-W-empowered-auto chain before they can create distance. This works specifically on enemies who flash the moment they see your ultimate animation begin.
Crushing Mountain Extended Fight
R1P2PRPOnce Crushing Mountain hits LV2 and empowered autos extend the buff duration, loop Q and W alternately to keep generating passive stacks and re-proc Coiling Dragon phase two repeatedly. This is your sustained skirmish win condition against tanky frontliners.
Expert Video Guide
ROV : สอนเล่น "หยาน" แพทช์ล่าสุด สูตรการเลือกระหว่างขวานหรือดาบ เทียร์ล่าสุด — บอมคนป่า
Gameplan
Yan is weakest before level 4, when Coiling Dragon is unavailable and his energy-stack loop can't be completed at combat speed. His first genuine spike is level 4 with Leviathan partially stacked, where he can reliably complete Q into W into empowered auto chains in lane. The real breakpoint is Leviathan plus Spear of Longinus: the penetration on Longinus feeds directly into Crushing Mountain's LV1 armor-pen bonus, creating a damage window in the mid-game that most opponents have no answer for. Force 1v1 fights aggressively between the 10 and 18-minute marks. Once the enemy assembles a full frontline that can soak your combos, fall back to objective-trading rather than dueling.
Early Game
Levels 1–6- →Levels 1-3: Play conservatively and focus on CS. Your damage without a full Q-W-passive chain is not threatening, and burning skills carelessly means you enter trades with no energy stacks.
- →At level 4, start short trades using the standard Q into auto into W into empowered-auto pattern to poke the enemy laner down and establish lane dominance before Coiling Dragon is leveled further.
- →Ward the river brush on your side immediately after your first base so the enemy jungler cannot set up a dive while you are stacking Leviathan.
Mid Game
Post Broken Spear- →Rotate to the first Dragon contest after you complete Leviathan. Your passive sustain and untargetable dash make you one of the better 1v1 fighters at this objective and your team should use you as the smite-fighter.
- →Split-push toward the top or bottom inhibitor tower while your team applies vision pressure. Coiling Dragon lets you disengage from a collapse faster than most warriors, making split pressure lower risk than it looks.
- →The moment Spear of Longinus completes, look for a 1v1 on the enemy carry or off-laner. This is your peak window and you should be spending tempo on picks rather than safe farming.
Late Game
Teamfight phase- →In full team fights, engage with Coiling Dragon's dash aimed through the enemy backline, not the frontline. Reaching their marksman or mage in the first second of a fight is worth more than frontline chip damage.
- →Prioritize stacking Crushing Mountain to LV2 as fast as possible in each fight. LV2's auto-extension is the difference between a two-second burst window and a sustained fight you win.
- →If the game goes to a defensive base-siege scenario, use your Frost Cape proc and Medallion of Troy's tankiness to absorb turret hits while holding the empowered-auto charge for whoever walks up to contest. You are unkillable under tower with full build.
Pro Tips
- →During Coiling Dragon's dash, you are untargetable. Use it deliberately to eat incoming skillshots (Veres spear, Diao Chan bind, Natalya meteor) rather than always aiming it at a target.
- →At Crushing Mountain LV2, landing an empowered auto on ANY enemy, including minions, resets the buff timer. In a losing team fight you can tag a nearby minion to extend your empowered state and stay dangerous longer.
- →The Frost Cape item synergizes specifically with Yan's empowered auto: the Cape's slow proc and the Splash Ink slow stack in application timing, effectively making the empowered hit a double-slow that gives you a third of a second more to land your follow-up ability.
- →Most opponents at Diamond rank will try to Flash the moment they see Coiling Dragon's animation start. Pair your Coiling Dragon cast with Flicker immediately after to redirect mid-arc and punish the instinct-flash with your landing position already updated.
Yan is a specialist's reward, an S+ tier warrior hiding behind a 33.3% win rate that filters out everyone who picks him on a whim. The thing to master is Flash of Inspiration timing, specifically the habit of holding the empowered auto for a half-beat to guarantee it lands rather than firing it into air. Players who do that consistently while handling Coiling Dragon's arc direction under pressure find one of the most oppressive 1v1 carries in the slayer lane. He is best for Diamond-plus players who have already mastered a simpler warrior, are willing to lose games while the muscle memory builds, and want a pocket pick opponents will never ban or prepare for.
Yan — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Yan good in the current ROV patch?+
Yan is rated S+ tier on the Thai server this patch, one of the strongest slayer-lane warriors in the game right now. His 33.3% win rate looks low at first glance but is misleading: with only 2.1% pick rate and 0% ban rate, he is almost exclusively played by specialists farming unprepared opponents, not a general-population sample. Invest the time to learn his energy-stack loop and you are sitting on one of the most underrated carry picks in Diamond-plus ranked.
What is the best build for Yan?+
Core path on the Thai server is Leviathan into Gilded Greaves into Spear of Longinus into Frost Cape into Medallion of Troy into Rock Shield. Leviathan gives the early tankiness to survive laning while stacking passively, Longinus's armor penetration feeds directly into Crushing Mountain's LV1 bonus, and Frost Cape's on-hit slow layers with Splash Ink's slow to extend the empowered-auto window. Don't deviate from this path in ranked until you are comfortable with the fundamentals.
How do you counter Yan?+
The most reliable counter is a hero with innate evasion or extended poke range who can stop him from completing the Q-W-empowered-auto cycle. Butterfly's passive dodge and Veres's ranged harassment are the primary answers on the current roster. In lane, force fights immediately after Yan burns both Splash Ink charges without connecting the empowered auto, since that is his weakest window. Hard-CC chains from heroes like Baldum or Grakk that he can't dodge with Coiling Dragon also shut him down.
Is Yan hard to play / good for beginners?+
Hard, and not recommended for beginners. His entire damage and sustain output is gated behind correctly sequencing Q and W to build Flash of Inspiration stacks and then landing the empowered auto on a moving target, a chain that needs real muscle memory under pressure. New players find him frustrating and weak until those habits set in. If you are comfortable with the slayer role and want a high-ceiling specialist opponents never prepare for, he is absolutely worth the investment.