Orcs Must Die! Unchained – FAQ/Walkthrough

Heroes

Yi-Lin

Overview

My Personal Rating: 8.5/10

Yi-Lin is a melee Hero that initially feels a bit like Midnight; she moves and attacks fast, but she has low HP in comparison to most Heroes. Yi-Lin has her own unique resource, called Energy, that is initially full, but gets depleted as she uses her abilities. Yi-Lin starts out with 40 total Energy, and it regenerates over time (5 per tick, but it's slow, like once every 5-10 seconds).

Abilities:

Imperial Reach (L2) - This ability projects in a straight line in front of Yi-Lin, which gives it slightly more range than her Primary. This attack scales with the minion's HP; it will deal more damage as their HP lowers. This ability has no cooldown.

• Energy cost: 10
• Cooldown: None

White Tiger Claw (Triangle) - Yi-Lin "wounds" the enemy, which places a bleed effect on the enemy. Any enemy affected by this ability takes an increased amount of damage from Yi-Lin's Primary. The range is similar to Blackpaw's Wound The Prey ability, and the duration is fairly similar as well (about 5 seconds).

• Energy cost: 20
• Cooldown: None

Tempest Strike (Square) - Yi-Lin spins around, damaging all minions in a radius around her for a duration of 2.2 seconds. Yi-Lin can move freely while this ability is active.

• Energy cost: 20
• Cooldown: 35 seconds

Jade Sentinel (Hold L3) - While this is active, Yi-Lin receives 50% less damage and moves 30% faster. Yi-Lin cannot attack while this is active, and energy does not regenerate in this form, but it also costs no energy to use.

Passive: Moon's Reflection - Yi-Lin will restore a small amount of HP and Energy when she uses different abilities in succession. This restores 10 Energy on activation, and I think restores 5% HP (it's difficult to tell).

Pros

Yi-Lin, in my opinion, is probably the most interesting Hero to play as (currently), because she is best when she uses an actual rotation in her abilities (I'll discuss what the rotation is in the Synopsis section at the end), rather than simply "use this ability in this situation or when it's available".

She doesn't really do that much damage with any one specific ability; her Primary, Imperial Reach, and White Tiger Claw don't hit very hard, but when they are combined, you see her damage can nearly rival Midnight's (which in turn, makes her probably 3 or 4th in top melee damage of all Heroes).

Yi-Lin is has a decently fast movement speed normally (it's roughly the same as Max), but this can be increased slightly with Jade Sentinel. I personally find this a huge boon, as being able to move fast to traverse the maps is extremely beneficial for getting Par Times.

Tempest Strike is the only ability Yi-Lin has that has a cooldown, and although it's fairly long, it can be upgraded to reduce that cooldown. Tempest Strike, again like her other abilities, isn't a gigantic powerhouse, but it does fantastic group damage due to its large radius, the fact that Yi-Lin can move while using it, and it doesn't seem to have a maximum target limit.

Her Passive ability is also important to note as well, because it gives Yi-Lin some survivability that Midnight doesn't have (due to the HP restoration). This means that she should be able to survive the lower difficulties just fine without the Enjoys Pain Trait, but she will start to struggle more as the difficulty increases.

Finally, again similar to Midnight, she has one of the best sets of battle level upgrades. Her upgrades are almost all greatly beneficial in some way, most of which directly increasing her damage output.

Cons

The first thing you'll probably notice with Yi-Lin is that she doesn't have a huge amount of HP. She's somewhat between Midnight and Blackpaw; her HP is not as low as Midnight, but not quite as high as Blackpaw.

Her biggest problem, in my opinion, is her range (and width for that matter). Her Primary attack has an extremely short range, and her graphical animation doesn't indicate her actual range very well (the animation makes it look much longer). Imperial Reach and White Tiger Claw have better range than her Primary, but this isn't saying much, as they are both still short. This mostly means is that it you may need to get used to how close you need to be to a minion in order to hit it.

However, this also adds into one other problem - Runners. Since they move so fast, you have to be paying attention closely to ensure that Yi-Lin is close enough to attack them. Since you have to get closer to hit them, this increases the risk that they're going to get by you.

This is more of a functional problem, but how Jade Sentinel is mapped to L3, and having to hold it, I find is extremely uncomfortable, particularly when you're moving long distances with it.

I would argue that Yi-Lin is similar to Blackpaw in how she dishes out damage; it's much more focused on single targets, rather than groups. This means you have to be killing smaller numbers really quickly, otherwise she may get a little overwhelmed.

Yi-Lin's overall design may also put you off at first. Since she is designed differently than most Heroes, if you don't understand how she is supposed to be played, you're probably not going to think she's very good.

Upgrades

Upgrades I use:

• Inspiring Moon (Level 2); Healing Moon is an option if you don't have Enjoys Pain
• Element of Renewal (Level 4)
• Aspect of the Lotus (Level 7)
• Blessing of Power (Level 10)

Upgrade Analysis:

• Level 2:
  
  • Generous Moon: This upgrade makes her Passive trigger in a radius around Yi-Lin. Due to this, it seems like it's more of a co-op ability. Remember that the effect will only happen in a radius, which means that the HP restoration will only be given to your allies that are around you (which in turn, more than likely means other melee Heroes, at best). For this reason, I would question taking this ability, even in co-op.
  • Inspiring Moon: I usually choose this upgrade, because restoring more Energy ensures that you're going to be able to continue to use her abilities. This upgrade allows you some forgiveness if you mess up with her rotation, because you'll have more Energy restored from a previous activation of her Passive.
  • Healing Moon: This is a viable option if you find yourself needing healing. However, if you have the Enjoys Pain Trait, this upgrade should not be necessary at all.
• Level 4:
  • Element of Surprise: This upgrade effectively doubles the width and range of Imperial Reach. The width is really not much to note (as it is originally about the size of a normal minion), but the range can be helpful, as it will travel further, giving her some much needed distance in her attacks. However, do realize that her abilities are not designed to be spammed (besides her Primary) so trying to rely on this for that extra distance isn't always a good idea.
  • Element of Speed: Although I do like extra movement speed, Yi-Lin doesn't really need any more. Her normal movement speed, along with the extra speed granted by Jade Sentinel normally, should be more than enough.
  • Element of Renewal: I really like this upgrade, because it helps reduce the cooldown of her only ability that has a cooldown. The cooldown of the reduction is conditional (upon her Passive's activation), however, if you're playing Yi-Lin correctly, the Passive should be activating constantly (or at least, once every 2-3 abilities).
• Level 7:
  • Aspect of the Shadow: I do feel that Jade Sentinel, to be used properly in combat, is more of a "retreat" ability; it's supposed to be used to get out of the combat area if you're taking a lot of damage. This upgrade further supports that ability, but for myself, I think it's mostly useless, although I always run with Enjoys Pain. Without Enjoys Pain, this might be more useful.
  • Aspect of the Lotus: This upgrade is worded a bit strangely (as her ability descriptions don't indicate that White Tiger Claw is a bleed). This means that White Tiger Claw will grant an extra 15% Primary damage, which is really helpful, considering that her rotation ensures that almost every minion hit should be affected by White Tiger Claw. Since the upgrade says "bleeding targets" my assumption is that it will also work if another Hero puts a bleed on a minion, such as Deadeye. This is an assumption though, as I don't play co-op much.
  • Aspect of the Tiger: This upgrade gives a 10% chance to execute (instantly kill) minions that are above 75% HP. Sounds pretty awesome when you first read it huh? It's a bit of a two-edged sword though, mostly because of how conditional it is. In order to see the usefulness of this ability, you have to consider your own Account Level versus what you're fighting. For example, if you're utilizing your rotation properly, this means that most minions (at an appropriate difficulty) are going to pass that 75% HP threshold within the first 2-3 Primary hits, which ultimately gives you maybe 30% chance for this to activate. However, if you're simply spamming your Primary all the time, you get more activation chances, but I would argue this will be more detrimental to your damage output, as Yi-Lin is supposed to be used by rotating her abilities. Then again, consider being at a higher Account Level, and playing on a lower difficulty map. This is probably where the upgrade shines, as Yi-Lin's rotation can potentially hurt her in that occasion (read the Synopsis for more on this), which allows you to safely spam Primary. One thing to note is that this upgrade does work on boss minions, or at least it did when Yi-Lin was first released. I haven't seen it work on Mercenaries though, but I haven't tested it enough to be sure.
• Level 10:
  • Blessing of Skill: This upgrade adds a slow effect to White Tiger Claw, which isn't too bad, even though I don't normally choose this ability. It can be beneficial though, as slowing minions down can help with Yi-Lin's short range, and can be even more helpful for faster boss minions and Mercenaries.
  • Blessing of Power: This is the upgrade I usually choose, because it's a damage increase to Yi-Lin's best multi-minion ability. If you did not take "Element of Renewal" at Level 4 though, this upgrade may not be as attractive.
  • Blessing of Health: I don't think this is a very good upgrade, because like Bionka's "Queen of Heals", it's just a little too conditional. Ideally, you don't ever want to be below 20% HP, and with Enjoys Pain, this probably will not happen the vast majority of the time.

Synopsis

As stated above, Yi-Lin is unique in the sense that you see her shine when you understand her rotation. She's a Hero that really implies "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts", because each ability isn't that great on its own, but when they're all combined, you get a drastically improved effect.

Yi-Lin's design is revolved entirely around the activation of her Passive. Since she uses Energy, and doesn't have much of it, she is continually reliant on the Energy restored by her passive. This means that if you are using any ability in succession (except her Primary), you're going to deplete your Energy almost immediately, making her almost entirely ineffective.

So let's go over what I think her rotation is. I would recommend using her abilities in this order:

1. White Tiger Claw
2. Primary
3. Imperial Reach
4. Primary
5. Repeat

We need to discuss this a little more in-depth though. You don't necessarily need to use Primary as the second in the rotation, as it can be continually used as you use other abilities (in other words, you can just hold R2).

White Tiger Claw should always be prioritized before Imperial Reach though, as it puts a bleed on the target. This allows you to not only for you to do more Primary damage, but also remember that Imperial Reach does more damage as the minion's HP drops. This means that White Tiger Claw's bleed allows you to continually decrease the minions HP, allowing you more damage with Imperial Reach.

There are two reasons why you want to try to mix in the Primary attack after White Tiger Claw and Imperial Reach. First, since her Passive activates with 2 different ability uses, this means you can keep topped off with Energy (since Primary doesn't use Energy). If you use White Tiger Claw immediately followed by Imperial Reach, not only do you not get the increased damage effect from Imperial Reach (as the bleed from White Tiger may have only ticked 1 time), but also keep in mind you're using 2 abilities in a row that cost Energy. Thus, although you will get the Passive activation, you'll end up working on a deficit (in comparison to using Primary). To reiterate, let's say White Tiger Claw and Imperial Reach each cost 10 Energy, and her Passive restores 20 Energy. This means that if you use Claw and Reach back-to-back, you'll break even on Energy. However, if you use Claw, then Primary, you'll have 10 extra Energy instead.

Do keep in mind though, that continually using her Primary does have a slight drawback to it - since the attack speed of her Primary is faster, this disrupts the overall flow of the rotation on occasion, which affects her Passive activation. So instead of seeing a clean Passive activation once every 2 abilities, this means that it can be interrupted, and you may see a Passive activation once every 3 abilities (due to occasionally using the Primary twice in a row).

There are also some drawbacks to note about the rotation itself:

• Each ability has to hit a minion in order for the Passive to activate. This means that it is not enough to simply use a different ability, but it does need to hit something.
• In conjunction with that, keep this in mind if minions are dying quickly. This is important because of Yi-Lin's overall short range in her attacks; if there are only two minions in range, and both die within a single use of her Primary, you'll go to use White Tiger Claw, and hit nothing (thus, you'll spend Energy and get no restoration).

Tempest Strike is meant to be used much like the abilities of most other Heroes - use it when the situation allows (when there are a lot of minions grouped up) and when it is off cooldown. It doesn't do a huge amount each strike, so using it in smaller groups isn't optimal, nor I would ever recommend using it against a boss or Mercenary.

Tempest Strike is also useful for Runners, due to its larger range. The damage it deals is still plenty to wipe out Runners fairly quickly, and it is Yi-Lin's best ability to ensure that she's catching them as they try to sprint past you.

Overall, I really enjoy playing as Yi-Lin, because she feels so unique. She feels like an interesting blend of Blackpaw and Midnight; she is fast and can deal out good damage like Midnight, but her abilities mimic Blackpaw's fairly closely.

The reason why I don't rate her as high as Midnight, is because of the few quirks that she has - her Jade Sentinel is a bit awkward to use (and thus doesn't get utilized much); her range is very short and takes some getting used to; and her rotation, although unique, can be disrupted due to design, which affects her performance.