What if we nerf Yasuo by giving him more wave clear?

So if you've watched any Skill-Capped videos, there's this concept that they constantly hammer video after video when it comes to laning; that you should approach the lane based on difference in waveclear, difference in range, and difference in trading power. If you have more waveclear than the opponent, you can choose to freeze the lane, or bounce the wave under their turret first before freezing the lane. If you have less, you let the enemy shove while you thin your wave as efficiently as you can and wait for an opportunity somewhere else, like trading. Another important distinction is how much easier it is for a Ranged Champion to harass and bully a Melee Champion. Ranged Top Laners abuse this the most but it's not that hard for Mid Laners to shut down Assassin lanes via significant poke before the Assassin's powerspikes.

Now I can't really approach Yasuo's trading power since it varies wildly based on his opponent, but it is pretty notable that he's a melee champion with absolutely fantastic waveclear. The idea then here then is to let Yasuo push in, and use the range discrepency as an opportunity to poke him, or Yasuo's low stats as an opportunity to cheese him as with most melee matchups. Well, what if we double down on this concept? We can strip power from a lot of elements of Yasuo's kit, replacing it with far more waveclear, which would then pose a lot of macro weaknesses to Yasuo. I suggest this idea in particular because it doesn't seem like the community cares if Yasuo's numbers are weak or what have you. But if there could be a gameplay weakness implemented into the very nature of his kit, perhaps at least the more aware players of this game will be able to capitalize on these newfound weaknesses and relieve some of the hate for his kit.

There are 3 parts to Yasuo's kit that I think can be directly addressed. Flow Generation, his Tornado, and Movement and Roaming.

Flow Generation

There were two mechanics to Yasuo's kit that have been either removed or literally nerfed in half, that being his W Passive and his E's stacking mechanic. I believe if you put both of these mechanics together, you reveal a really interesting interaction that screams kinda genius. Yasuo's W used to grant a % of his maximum flow every time he used his E, where as his E ramped up in damage the more he used it. Now, let me rephrase this; he has an active incentive to push the lane and use up his own mobility. While he does gain his shield, prepping him on the micro and short term level of giving him an advantage in his next fight, he also kinda bones himself by using up his finite mobility right away and leaving himself vulnerable to poke and ganks. There is a short/micro term vs long/macro term game he's playing here.

WIth that in mind, one change I think can be implemented is to give Yasuo his old W Passive back, let Sweeping Blade continue to stack on minions (but still be capped at 2 stacks vs Champions), and then largely nerf Yasuo's shield generation from walking. More than anything, I want to reintroduce Yasuo's incentive to shove lane with his E. I've already explained how the interaction between Yasuo's W Passive and his E does this, and by nerfing Yasuo's base shield generation, it could help on doubling down on this interaction and its implications. Unfortunately, it does lead to an inelegant side effect: the question of Yasuo's E damage on champions and the cheese he's capable of.

Now, I am not sure why Riot chose to remove Yasuo's W Passive instead of nerfing his generation on movement, leading to the infamous Boards claim that "He GeTs A sHiElD fRoM wAlKiNg!!!", but I do realize that his E mechanic did lead to that episode where Yasuo could go for a Lv1 all in cheese simply by ramping his E and also making E maxing meta for a short time. I also realize that the balance team sees %amps vs specifically minions and/or specifically monsters as an inelegant means of balancing. Given that, I'm really not sure how to square this inelegance with the W-E interaction I'm proposing. The short answer I'd give is that Yasuo's E only hits champions for up to 2 stacks, or alternatively he gets a significantly smaller bonus for hitting champions for the same amount of stacks as hitting minions. Inelegant maybe, but for now I think it's the most straightforward way of implementing this change without reimplementing E Yasuo cheese.

Just to clarify, I need to specify that Yasuo needs an incentive to push the lane. Giving him a lot of waveclear with no incentives just means that freezing becomes his most viable option, keeping him safe while his kit is more than capable of holding a wave.

Yasuo's Tornado

What if Yasuo's Tornado was closer in functionality to Morgana's Q, or even Janna's Q? This works both in giving Yasuo even more waveclear, as well as giving agency back to his opponents. What I mean is to make his Tornado much slower, but at the same time, much wider.

One common complaint against highly complex champions like Yasuo is that, as his opponent, you tend to lack agency in actually outplaying him and are just waiting for him to outplay himself. I think this change is an easy way to kill two birds with one stone. There's an older way of thinking in regards to skillshots by comparing Ezreal's Q to Morgana's Q. In the case of a skinny high speed Q like Ezreal, the skill is on him to weave his shots and have great aim on his targets. In the case of Morgana's Q, the skill is on the opponent to position well and dodge the slow projectile when they see it coming. Yasuo's Q3 is kinda squarely in the middle of this spectrum. It's slow enough that it's easy to dodge at max range, but fast and fat enough that it's far more difficult any closer than that. Not to mention the janky hitbox, just saying. If Yasuo's Q was much slower and wider, it would cause way more collateral damage on the minion wave most of the time, while also making it far easier for enemies to dodge his knock up.

That is unless he commits to a full E-Q combo. I'm really hesitant on nerfing this, especially since all my other nerfs combined could basically make Yasuo a worse Ziggs. It also already has a skill based answer to right now, stay away from the minion wave. That or walk forward.

Movement and Roaming

Okay so one problem with giving Yasuo superior waveclear and an incentive to shove, it basically makes him Talon with a knock up.

I know that's an exaggeration but should the general idea of these changes (even if not these changes specifically) ever be implemented, Yasuo's Base Movement speed is going to need to be nerfed and replaced with something. Otherwise, Yasuo won't need to face his newly implemented laning weaknesses because he can just shove the wave and not be in lane half the time. I thought of a Phage Passive for his Q, continuing to double down even more on the idea of tying incentives to Yasuo's Waveclear. I also thought of nerfing the range on his Rank 1 Ultimate down to 1000 units, given that still would outrange his Q3. I also want to use this as a means of opening a door to discussion. I think there could be smart and elegant (and inelegant) solutions to Yasuo's power without outright dumpstering him. However, this topic needs to be handled carefully, or else it opens up opportunities for unexpected strengths to pop up, like roaming with waveclear.