Potential Nerf to make Windwall Less Irritating

Limrick··52 votes·2,743 views

So it's no secret that most players really don't like having to fight Yasuo. Even before the OP tank build and weird bug that gave him a 56% winrate, he was regarded as one of the most frustrating champions in the game by many players. A large part of that frustration comes from Yasuo's W, Wind Wall, which according to his champion page, Yasuo "creates a moving wall that blocks all enemy projectiles for 4 seconds". I'm sure most of you know this, but for the sake of clarity, this is the spell I'm referring to.

Now, there are many strange interactions created with Wind Wall, including a bug a while back where it would block TF's gold card, but Yasuo would still be stunned. Some interactions, however, are considered by Riot to be intentional. When Yasuo casts his W, the Wall itself spawns infront of where he is aiming, yet for the first few frames, the hitbox of the spell covers Yasuo's hitbox. This means that when Yasuo casts Wind Wall at just the right moment, he can negate a projectile that comes from any direction, even the exact opposite of the side the Wall is facing. Even though the animation clearly shows the Wall not appearing until around .125 seconds into the animation, its effects take place instantly. That's where the potential nerf comes in.

I propose that Wind Wall's effect be brought in line with the animation. That is, that the spell should be made to not block projectiles that land on Yasuo within .125 seconds of him pressing W. As the actual Wall itself is not yet on the screen. It makes no sense for it to still stop your projectile, and this leads to a lot of very frustrating moments for those facing Yasuo.

I remember one game in particular that I was playing Twisted Fate, when I caught Yasuo at low HP, with his W having already been used. I threw out my gold card, and AS IT IMPACTED WITH HIS BODY, Yasuo's W came off cooldown and he used it, cancelling the card and leading to my death. Both myself and that Yasuo player agreed that he should have died, and simply shrugged the experience off. I hadn't even remembered that until a much more recent game where I played Lux, and a similar thing happened with my Light Binding being blocked within milliseconds of hitting Yasuo's hitbox.

TL;DR: Make Yasuo's Wind Wall's effect of blocking projectiles not take place until the animation of the Wall is actually visible.

73 Comments

Handy Sandy 18 votes

I'd like it to last like 1 or 2 seconds and have a delay before it casts (similar to veigar's E) so you actually have to time it right and it can't block full ults like lucian's or syndra's

Limrick8 votes

That's overnerfing it. I hate Yasuo, but I do realize that he would be pathetically weak if Wind Wall were to be significantly nerfed, as it's what allows him to even survive the mid lane.

NineTailedMystic8 votes

I'd rather him move out of the mid lane permanently.

Limrick4 votes

I main Lux. Trust me, I know.

NightmareAmazoX2 votes

{quoted}

I main Lux. Trust me, I know.

Boom, You main lux, Typical Yasuo hater.

OnanThaMan6 votes

*Boom, you main a champion in LoL, typical Yasuo hater.

For real though the hate he gets is justified, he's not fun to play against, at least champs like Leblanc and Zed fall off late game.

NightmareAmazoX1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Onan the man99,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=2zY853pA,comment-id=000100000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-09-02T12:36:05.810+0000)

*Boom, you main a champion in LoL, typical Yasuo hater.

For real though the hate he gets is justified, he's not fun to play against, at least champs like Leblanc and Zed fall off late game.

Depends on the comp against yasuo my friend. But yeah i can see why yasuo is hated and loved alot. Haha. No hate here please guys. We're all league players. ^^

WinTheWarOnPants1 votes

i always thought that his late game scaling was a tad ridiculous for the kind of champ he is. every other high "outplay" skill cap champ in the game is strong early and weak late. this makes it the player needs to outplay in order for their champ to go off since if they fail to win lane then they will not be a big threat. they are given an advantage at the start, but lose if they can't make use of it. yas gets the best of both(except weak dmg "kinda" early). if he uses his high outplay kit well then he scales into the mid game(and late) and wins early, but if he doesn't win(even if he gets crapped on) if he is able to farm and scales into the late game. champs like vayne on the other hand who also scale into late game, have little outplay early and even if they win early they still need to play smart and scale. i doubt riot would do it but i would like it if they tweaked his scaling to be strong early and fall off late. it just seems very counter productive to have make a high skill cap/floor champ and then let them out scale the need for skill.

GayFluffyUnicorn4 votes

Overnerfing? There is zero reason at all why he has that windwall?

GULAG 4 U3 votes

Well he's in the midlane and his shield isn't enough to protect him from mages. As a squishy melee carry he needs some defensive mechanic in order to be viable and the windwall allows him to trade with mages that fire their entire combo at the wall. It's arguable wether he needs it or not but it's how his kit works rn.

Strawberrycocoa1 votes

There isn't any reason for Wind Wall to block an infinite number of projectiles for as long as it does, imo. I'd rather see it gain a limit to how many non-minion projectiles it can defend against.

GULAG 4 U8 votes

{quoted}

I'd like it to last like 1 or 2 seconds and have a delay before it casts (similar to veigar's E) so you actually have to time it right and it can't block full ults like lucian's or syndra's

why would you fire your ults at him when his windwall is up? It's like you're playing malzahar and you ult gankplank when he didn't use his oranges for the past 20 seconds...

PokladnicaZla13 votes

So,we can use our Rs when his W is down,but how do we make him use his W? Baiting only works if the Yas-player doesn't have much experience or good enough reflexes. Even you use a few spells/rotation to make him use his W,you're left wide open on CD for him to attack you.

Amasa Delano1 votes

Alternative: one of your teammates stuns or otherwise locks down the bugger, then throw out your ult.

PokladnicaZla1 votes

So he again has to be bad not block the stun and it has to have a long enough duration for me to come close and unleash all my delayed/cast time damage.

And why would Yasuo even be alone and close 1vs2?

Any champion can be defeated if gang-banged on. We are asking for more counter-play against Yasuo.

Amasa Delano1 votes

There are plenty of stuns Yasuo can't block w/his windwall.

Stuns are just something mentioned in a recent Pocket Pick video as something that really messes Yasuo up. I've also found it to be true in my own experience playing against him.

PokladnicaZla1 votes

Stuns are something that beats 95% of the champion pool.

Amasa Delano1 votes

Eh, Alistar Braum Leona Taric etc don't care so much. If you are getting stunned, that means your carry is free to dish out damage in retaliation.

Pocket Pick video is here, with Darshan's how to play against Yasuo bit:

https://youtu.be/wvhX5yEnaFU?t=2m55s

IPromiseTomorrow1 votes

Jesus.

GULAG 4 U6 votes

It's not a bad idea but....

You don't nerf a champion over the fact they're frustrating to play against. Balance is about nerfing things that are too good and buffing things that are bad, not making irritating but balanced effects trash. I'm not saying WW is balanced, but I'm saying you don't nerf something over frustration to play against.

Limrick2 votes

Then perfect timing, because Yasuo is actually OP. And to be fair, most players wouldn't even notice this nerf at all. It's really more of a QoL change for everyone that isn't Yasuo.

AceBlack1 votes

{quoted}

Then perfect timing, because Yasuo is actually OP. And to be fair, most players wouldn't even notice this nerf at all. It's really more of a QoL change for everyone that isn't Yasuo.

What, because of the tank build that's getting nerfed next patch, or because of the bug (that's also im all likelihood to get removed next patch).

Because before those things, Yas wasn't exactly a pick/ban lcs conested champ. Even now he really isn't.

Flaherty14 votes

Things are frustrating because they're either too strong or don't have enough counterplay.

GULAG 4 U5 votes

Annoying=/=no counterplay really.

Also yasuo's windwall...

please don't fire your ult at yasuo when he has it... i mean that's like zed jumping on a target with hourglass and the target didn't use the active for the past 3 minutes...

NineTailedMystic9 votes

So never aggress on him?

GayFluffyUnicorn1 votes

Zeds gutting has been made because "he is frustrating to play against"

GULAG 4 U2 votes

It's because he was actually op... that's also why they're nerfing tanksuo atm

Sona x Rubick4 votes

as long as he's balanced idgaf about him being frustrating. And yasuo is balanced if he doesn't build tank.

Earl Eulrich3 votes

they should just take the spell from him entirly, as an ultimate for a support it has great potential - as a random spelll for a goddamn carry it´s just ridiculous.

Weathered3 votes

This isn't a nerf, its a necessity. The fact that a wall in front of you blocks behind you is just a big fuck up in game design.

Heliabot2 votes

I totally agree with this change, since it makes yasuo's skill floor on windwall a bit higher. He'll actually need to have good reflexes to block projectiles, and not just cast it while the projectile is already hitting him. I saw a Yasuo panick windwall a Ashe arrow by casting the windwall in the OPPOSITE direction and it still blocked the arrow. It is nonsence.

This change is just perfect.

Carpe Victoria2 votes

Windwall should just go away after 1 skillshot hits it. And/or possibly give yasuo only one shield. He either gets windwall or his self shield. For such an aggressive champ with damage he has too many shields too often.

Leetri1 votes

Then they'd have to cut the CD of the windwall in half or something like that, because otherwise it's just a worse spell-shield. Lots of champions have spammable ranged attacks that would instantly delete the windwall.

Carpe Victoria1 votes

Maybe. I just want it to be used for plays not just stupid stuff like 'windwall behind turret during a seige so my whole team is totally safe from every ranged aa, skill shot, & ult' and 'windwall spam in front of minions so this mage cant cs'. Half the time you can't even try to walk around the side since windwall has a huge chance of eating the attack from a lot more angles than the front.

Leetri1 votes

It's a 26 second cooldown, that's hardly spammable.

Limrick1 votes

I think his Flow shield should be removed, there's no skill involved in a passive shield. His ult shield though, should be larger, that way it rewards Yasuo for making risky plays. Make it a larger shield by like 20% per champion hit by it.

Stars Shaper2 votes

So it's no secret that most players really don't like having to fight Yasuo.

I don't like having to face Kennen, do you see me spamming about him being nerfed?

Limrick3 votes

Read the post before making dumb comments.

MunchCrunchLunch1 votes

actually the windwall isnt a line its a box. so if yasuo stands in that zone all the projectiles from any direction is blocked. its about the width of a teemo. even after the initial cast

Limrick6 votes

After it's out. The problem is that it blocks the instant he presses W, while the Wall itself is not visible yet. If there is no visible Wall, there should be no projectile blocking.

KoalaWala1 votes

And please let it be consistent, it doesn't block a vel koz ult but does block others

Stars Shaper1 votes

Is Vel'koz ultimate a projectile? Nope.

What it blocks are projectiles and this is what consistency means.

Golden Tager X1 votes

Is Vel'koz W a projectile, no, ITS A FUCKING DIMENTIONAL RIFT, and it still gets blocked.

Fix things like that, I'm pretty sure that Braum ult, which is literally the ground cracking, gets blocked too.

Stars Shaper1 votes

Vel'koz uses a "knife" to cut it, a bolt of some sort and this is what gets blocked.

Braum produces a shockwave that smashes the ground, this is what gets blocked.

Icestar11862 votes

The laser has no travel time.

Chess11 votes

i dislike the fact that he can negate an adc for a whole fight and can just put w in front of his adc or mid

Strawberrycocoa1 votes

If we're pushing for spell effects that match the animation, I want to talk about Blitzcrank's hand clearly touching players but not actually grabbing them.

Rendath1 votes

An alternative potential nerf idea: every projectile blocked reduces the remaining windwall duration by 0.5 seconds.

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