Yena — Patch 1.63 Verdict
[Liquipedia RPL: A | Web: S | Web: S | Web: A | Web: S | Web: S+] Pro play (RPL 2026): 57 picks, 52.6% WR, 21.6% pick/ban rate. Note: pro meta may differ from ranked. Ranked S on zathong.com. Ranked S on metatierlist.com. Ranked A on pillarofgaming.com. Ranked S on commonsensegamer.com. Ranked S+ on richmanshop.com.
Yena — Warrior Guide
Key Insights
- Passive detonates on the 5th mark for 200% AD physical damage plus an 80% slow, no cooldown required.
- Dual-blade mode grants 40+ movement speed, use it to stay in mark range without burning cooldowns.
- Crescent Strike resets within 5 seconds if it connects, letting you proc two marks back-to-back in one trade.
- Retrieving Spinning Sickle mid-fight cuts 5 seconds off its cooldown, giving you W back in the same trade.
- Full Moon adds 60 attack and 50% damage per hit for 5 seconds, only flip the stance when marks are already loaded.
Strengths
Lunar Phase detonates at 200% AD plus 80% slow, zero extra cooldown.
Spinning Sickle retrieval resets cooldown, rewarding disciplined positioning.
Crescent Strike's reset-on-hit opens a second window without needing Flicker.- Dual-state kit has two separate threat timings, so no single answer shuts her down.
Weaknesses
- Pre-five-marks damage is modest; early disengages waste all stacking effort.
- Spinning Sickle's narrow linear throw is easy to dodge for mobile heroes.
- Fused-blade attack speed drop makes her easy to kite in open terrain.
- Predictable mark pattern lets experienced opponents disengage at four marks every time.
Matchups
Abilities
PLunar Phase
When wielding dual blades, Yena gains 40 (+10 per level) movement speed and applies Mark of the Blade to enemies she attacks for 5s. When 5 marks stack, the target takes 200% AD physical damage, becomes rooted, and is slowed 80% for 1s. When Yena merges her blades, her attack speed decreases but attack damage increases 50%. During skill use, Yena blocks all crowd control and takes 50% reduced damage.
1Crescent Strike
Yena lunges forward 2 times in a target direction, dealing 80 (+43% AD) physical damage to all enemies hit. If an enemy is struck, this skill can be cast again within 5s.
2Spinning Sickle
Yena throws her blade in a target direction, dealing 180 (+90% AD) physical damage to all enemies hit. When the blade reaches its end, it spins in place for 3s, dealing 72 (+36% AD) physical damage every 0.5s and slowing enemies 50% for 1s. Cooldown is reduced by 5s if Yena retrieves her blade.
RFull Moon
Yena merges her blades and sweeps around her, dealing 200 (+110% AD) physical damage. Her attack power then increases by 60 for 5s. After casting this skill, all of her abilities change.
Skill Order
Priority: R > Q > W| Skill | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Crescent Strike | 1 | · | 3 | · | 5 | · | 7 | · | 9 | · | · | · | 13 | · | · |
| 2Spinning Sickle | · | 2 | · | 4 | · | · | · | 8 | · | 10 | · | 12 | · | 14 | · |
| RFull Moon | · | · | · | · | · | 6 | · | · | · | · | 11 | · | · | · | 15 |
Loadout
Onslaught
Protect
Dragon's ClawStandard Build
1
2
3
4
5
6Core Combos
Standard Five-Mark Delete
121RThe bread-and-butter kill pattern in the slayer lane. Use the first Q and autos to build marks quickly, drop W on their position to cut off the escape, reset with Q, and trigger R once mark five is imminent to land the 200% AD detonation inside the slow window.
Flicker Engage
211RAgainst ranged or mobile backliners in team fights, throw W to pre-zone their retreat path, Flicker directly onto them to close the gap, then chain the double Q and R for a burst sequence they have no room to escape.
Blade Retrieve Sustain Trade
21P1RIn extended slayer-lane trades, throw W forward to push the opponent back, use Q and autos to stack marks while they dodge the spin zone, walk back to retrieve the blade mid-fight to reset W's cooldown, and finish with R once marks are full. This works best in the level four-to-six window.
Expert Video Guide
Rov : Yena สอนเล่นยีน่า แบบละเอียดฉบับเม็ดส้ม! ระดับเริ่มต้น-ระดับเทพ ดูจบเล่นเป็นทุกคน — Nini T GameR
Gameplan
Yena's first real spike is level 4, when all three actives are online and she can run a full Q-W-Q rotation with mark pressure in the same trade. She gets genuinely dangerous at Spear of Longinus, roughly 12 to 15 minutes in, because the armor penetration turns her five-mark detonation from threatening to lethal against the tanky slayer matchups she commonly faces. Fenrir's Tooth is her hard-carry breakpoint. Once it's built, her fused-blade autos and mark burst can two-shot non-tank supports and squishy carries in one engage window. She is weakest in the first three levels before W is available and before she has boots-level mobility.
Early Game
Levels 1–6- →Play levels one through three in dual blades and prioritise landing two to three marks per trade without overcommitting. You want them burning defensive spells in response to your harassment, not a kill before W is available.
- →At level four, run your first full combo (Q-W-Q-R) as soon as the enemy slaner drops below 70% HP and is positioned away from their outer tower. The mark detonation plus Sickle slow gives you enough time to finish the kill.
- →Retrieve Spinning Sickle every single time it lands, even mid-trade. The five-second cooldown reduction compounds over the first ten minutes into a massive effective-cooldown advantage over opponents who don't know the mechanic.
Mid Game
Post Broken Spear- →Finish Spear of Longinus before rotating. Your mark burst without armor penetration against a tank or bruiser mid-game is noticeably underwhelming, and forcing fights before this item is done is the most common reason Yena players lose mid-game tempo.
- →Use Spinning Sickle to contest dragon and abyssal dragon pit entrances. A sickle thrown across the pit wall creates a slow zone that delays enemy rotations without requiring you to step into a bad position.
- →In five-versus-five skirmishes, target the enemy carry by flanking through side brush. Your dual-blade movement speed bonus lets you close the gap on a mispositioned ADC or mage without burning Flicker.
Late Game
Teamfight phase- →With Fenrir's Tooth completed, look for single picks on isolated backliners via the Flicker-W-Q engage combo. One successful pick before Baron spawns almost always converts directly into an uncontested objective.
- →In full team fights, don't front-line. Let your tank absorb the initial CC, then enter from a side angle in dual-blade mode to stack marks on the enemy damage dealer while they're focused on your frontline.
- →Blade of Eternity in the sixth slot gives you a second-life window. If you die on the first engage attempt, the passive resurrect buys enough time for your marks from before death to potentially tick down the target while your team follows up.
Pro Tips
- →Track the exact mark count on your target using the buff icon above their health bar, not by feel. Experienced Yena players in Thai high-rank know the precise moment to commit to the R stance-switch because they read the count, not because they estimate it.
- →When Spinning Sickle is spinning on the ground in its three-second phase, you can dash through an enemy with Q while the sickle simultaneously slows them. The overlapping slow and the double Q reset often build a full mark stack faster than a pure auto-attack chain.
- →Don't use Flicker offensively as your first action in an engage. Use it as a mid-combo gap-closer after W is already in the air, so your Flicker arrival lands inside the slow zone the sickle just created.
- →Against sustain bruisers or in a slayer-lane mirror, deliberately stop at four marks and bait a recall or defensive ability before landing the fifth. Experienced opponents will pop defensive items or summoner spells at four marks, letting you detonate freely once those are on cooldown.
Yena is the slayer lane's top mark-pressure warrior right now, and she rewards exactly the kind of deliberate, read-the-fight playstyle that separates Diamond players from those below. She suits players who enjoy converting patient harassment into decisive burst windows more than relying on flashy all-in mechanics. The thing to master is the Spinning Sickle retrieval habit. Building the muscle memory to walk back and collect the blade mid-trade compounds into more cooldown availability, more sustained pressure, and ultimately more kills than any other single mechanical improvement you can make on her.
Yena — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Yena good in the current ROV patch?+
Yes. Yena is firmly S tier on the Thai server right now at a 52.6% win rate and a 20% pick rate in Diamond-and-above ranked. That combination reflects both raw strength and broad viability. The current slayer meta favors durable damage dealers who can punish tanks, and her passive burst scaling rewards the Spear of Longinus and Fenrir's Tooth item curve that dominates this patch. If you want a slayer-laner that wins games and isn't heavily banned, she is one of the best investments of practice time right now.
What is the best build for Yena?+
Core build in Thai-server high-rank is Sonic Boots into Spear of Longinus into Shield of the Lost into Fenrir's Tooth into Medallion of Troy into Blade of Eternity, in that order. Spear of Longinus is the non-negotiable first major item because the armor penetration turns her five-mark detonation from a tickle into a kill on the tanky opponents she faces in the slayer lane. Blade of Eternity in the sixth slot is deliberate: her aggressive engage style means dying on the first attempt is common, and the second-life passive keeps her relevant in extended teamfights.
How do you counter Yena?+
The cleanest counter is a hero with reliable disengage who can leave the trade before she reaches five marks. Butterfly's dodge passive, Allain's long poke, and Veres's self-peel all do this. At draft, pairing a mobile slayer with a support who has hard peel (Annette wind-wall, Roxie shield) forces her to burn Flicker or abandon engages repeatedly. In lane, disengage at four marks rather than fighting through the detonation. Forcing her to restart the stack cycle from zero is the most effective attrition counter.
Is Yena hard to play / good for beginners?+
Medium. The core concept of stacking five marks is immediately understandable, and her dual-blade movement speed makes her forgiving enough in lane that new players won't feel lost. But the nuances that separate a good Yena from a great one, tracking mark counts precisely, retrieving the sickle mid-fight, timing the R stance-switch to detonate rather than extend the trade, take real reps. She's an excellent second or third hero for players stepping into the slayer role, but not a true beginner pick. The stance-management layer punishes autopilot.