Win, Pick and Ban Rates
Change vs 2026-09-25
- Tier
- unchanged
- Win Rate
- −0.4pt
Statistics from the official in-game HoK Camp (as of 2026-10-09).
Base Stats
- Max HP
- 3304
- Energy
- 3
- Physical Attack
- 163
- Magic Attack
- 0
- Physical Armor
- 150|20%
- Magic Defense
- 75|11.1%
- Movement Speed
- 380
- Attack Range
- Melee
- HP Regen / s
- 49
- Energy Regen / 5s
- 0
Transcribed from the in-game hero status screen. Arcana bonuses are excluded.
Recommended Builds
When you want to keep clearing camps and ganking on a short cycle
Rapacious Bite comes first, adding 3 physical attack and 0.2% cooldown reduction per monster killed, up to 25 stacks. Boots of Tranquility at 700G follow, putting cooldown reduction at 22.5% before any stacks are counted. With all six items, gear and arcana add up to +455 physical attack, 37.5% cooldown reduction and 100 physical penetration. Next to build 2's Boots of Resistance, this one trades defensive stats for a faster cycle.
When the enemy draft leans on magic damage and crowd control
Only the second buy changes. Boots of Resistance at 700G bring 50 physical defense, 100 magic defense and 25% added tenacity, so Yao can stay in a brawl from early on. The other five items and their order are identical, so +455 physical attack and 100 physical penetration carry over unchanged. What gives way is cooldown reduction, down from 37.5% to 22.5%.
This is what the Popular tab of the in-game Recommended Loadout screen showed on 2026-08-28. The number on each arcana is how many of the 30 slots it fills; each colour adds up to 10. The game also shows a rank and a win rate, but those shift from day to day, so they are not reproduced here.
Strategy Guide
A swordsman who heals on skill hits and unleashes empowered versions at full star power. His signature is the rewind — returning to where he stood two seconds ago, letting him dive deep and walk out untouched.
Best for: players who treat the way home as part of the technique — Skill 3 only returns you to where you stood two seconds ago, so the dive has to be planned before it starts.
The enhanced Skill 2 sends Yao to the right while Star Power repeats the cast from the left. Only a unit caught by both is launched for 0.75s, so set it up against a wall or inside a corridor where sidestepping is impossible. Using an enhanced skill turns the next Basic Attack into a charge, which flows directly into Skill 1's spin.
40% of damage taken is converted into Star Reduction and subtracted from Health over the following 2s. Walk over safe ground two seconds before committing, and Skill 3 both returns you there and wipes that stored damage. The return caps at 600 units, so dive any deeper and you will not make it home.
These combos are not official data. They are this site's own write-up, built only from the skill data transcribed from the in-game display; nothing that the skill text does not state is included.
- Healing on every skill hit wins the war of repeated short trades
- Max Star Power spikes hard with empowered skills and the charging basic attack
- The Ultimate delays 40% of damage taken and can erase it entirely
- Skill 2's mobility gives you the initiative on both chase and escape
- Individual skills hit softly, so full combo execution is the price of damage
- The Ultimate returns you to a fixed spot from 2 seconds ago — unplanned casts get you killed
- Hard crowd control stops the loop and stacked Star Split damage deletes you
In the jungle, Yao lives on repeated short engagements powered by the Passive, which heals you every time a skill connects. Touch with Skill 2's arcing dash, land Skill 1's full-circle slash, and back off immediately — repeat this loop and your HP bar drains slower than your opponent's. Star Power management is the key detail: your skills are only empowered for 3 seconds at max stacks, so never commit while the buff is down. Unlocking the Ultimate at level 4 lets you delay 40% of incoming damage and snap back to where you stood 2 seconds ago, erasing it — which is when shallow tower dives start to work.
The mid game is about shoving side waves and winning skirmishes with your in-and-out mobility. From around 6 to 8 minutes, once your first physical core item is finished, combos built around the empowered Skill 2 knock-up start killing squishy targets outright. The single biggest habit on this hero: always track where you stood 2 seconds ago, and step through a safe spot before you commit. As long as your return point is secured, even getting collapsed on by the enemy jungler and support isn't fatal — the Ultimate wipes the delayed damage and carries you out.
Late-game Yao is a second-wave diver whose job is touching the enemy backline. Don't burn skills at the start of a teamfight; watch the enemy's targeted crowd control get used on someone else, then enter with Skill 2. Going in at max Star Power lets you pile on pressure with empowered skills and the charging empowered basic attack. Even when you soak heavy damage, returning 2 seconds back with the Ultimate cancels it — but returning into the middle of the enemy team is worthless, so design your entry path as your route home from the start.
The ideal teamfight is a cycle: dart in, heal off skill hits, dart out, and do it again. Leave the first engage to your tank, sweep in from a flank with Skill 2 into Skill 1, layer empowered skills, and disengage. One piece of hard crowd control is your death sentence — the delayed Star Split damage collapses on you all at once — so never stop respecting the enemy support's stun. And if you spend the Ultimate aggressively, you lose the safety net for the next burst you eat, so take a breath before every cast.
Counters & Synergies
Countered-by and synergy picks are this site's own reading, based on each hero's kit. What the official app publishes is how often heroes are picked together (see "Frequently Paired With" below); it does not publish any rating of how well they match up.
Frequently Paired With
The figures are the "match rate" published by the official in-game HoK Camp: how often these heroes ended up on the same team (fetched 2026-08-14). It is not a win rate, so a higher number does not mean a stronger pairing.
First Skill to Level Up
Source: the official in-game HoK Camp (fetched 2026-08-14). What to level after this depends on the matchup.
Skills
Gift of the Stars
| Details | Lvl 1 | Lvl 15 |
|---|---|---|
| Base Recovery | ||
| Base Recovery | 70 | 140 |
| Base Damage | ||
| Base Damage | 100 | 200 |
Starlight Slice
| Details | Lvl 1 | Lvl 2 | Lvl 3 | Lvl 4 | Lvl 5 | Lvl 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooldown | ||||||
| Cooldown | 6 | 5.8 | 5.6 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 5 |
| Base Damage | ||||||
| Base Damage | 425 | 510 | 595 | 680 | 765 | 850 |
Star Rush
| Details | Lvl 1 | Lvl 2 | Lvl 3 | Lvl 4 | Lvl 5 | Lvl 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooldown | ||||||
| Cooldown | 7 | 6.7 | 6.4 | 6.1 | 5.8 | 5.5 |
| Base Damage | ||||||
| Base Damage | 180 | 216 | 252 | 288 | 324 | 360 |
| Slow Duration | ||||||
| Slow Duration | 1 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 2 |
| Slow | ||||||
| Slow | 25% | 30% | 35% | 40% | 45% | 50% |
Return to Dust
Passive: 40% of damage taken is converted into Star Reduction, only taking effect after 2s.
| Details | Lvl 1 | Lvl 2 | Lvl 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooldown | |||
| Cooldown | 15 | 12 | 9 |
| Base Damage | |||
| Base Damage | 420 | 630 | 840 |
Patch History
Other Jungle Heroes
Stats: official HoK Camp, as of
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