What is with the hate for Yasuo???

Okay, I will be completely transparent. I love Yasuo and would main him if I were good enough and played consistently enough to even have a main. Even when I didn't like him, I was completely boggled at how everyone hates him and I never understood why when there are plenty of champions who are legitimately imbalanced **cough cough and old ** received very little attention in the hate aspect. Please add your opinions in the comments but please be respectful!

Now just to make things clear and hopefully dissuade people from going in the comments: > Oh, but MorningEspeon! Yasuo's windwall shuts down every non-melee character in the game for four whole seconds!

I will talk about each of Yasuo's abilities and how I, as someone who faces Yasuo a lot as well as very much enjoys playing him, deals with each one and what it does.

Passive: Intent Yasuo's critical strike chance is doubled, though his damage is multiplicatively reduced by 10% (25% for his Q), meaning that instead of doing 200% damage on crit, Yasuo instead does 180% or 225% with Infinity Edge on his auto attacks. I will admit, the reduction is not quite significant enough for the early power spike it gives. I'm not really good with numbers, but I would either reduce the crit damage slightly more, or have the damage ramp up to the same 180% base with level, much like his other passive which I will now cover. Resolve As Yasuo moves, he gains his resource, Flow. At 100% Flow, the next instance of champion or monster damage will proc the shield (~500 damage at level 18) which lasts one second and consumes all of his Flow. Honestly, this is not at all as strong as people think it is. Yes, it gives him a bit of unexpected effective HP, but it only lasts for one second and is incredibly easy to poke off before trading. I should also mention that Yasuo must move the equivalent length from the center of his fountain to not completely sure but his mid Inner Turret to get his shield, which is quite a long walk. The maximum shield strength is not really that significant either, especially with only a 1 second time frame. 500 damage is an auto attack or two from most AD champions or one single ability from a midlaner, who can easily break through that shield with the same spell. All in all, his double crit chance is a small bit much for the penalty he receives for it, but making it scale with level would immediately remedy the situation.

Q: Steel Tempest. This ability is essentially giving Yasuo the auto-attack capabilities of Azir's Sand Soldiers once. At the lowest, the cooldown of this ability is 1.33 seconds, scaling with Attack Speed. The damage is a flat 20-100 plus his AD and it can critically strike. Every hit stacks the ability for 10 seconds. With two stacks, his next Q will be a thin tornado that knocks up anything struck with the projectile for about 1 second and can be cast during his E for a small AoE circle. The ability isn't much to talk about, really. It's essentially a slightly longer ranged auto attack but when the tornado is cast, it is a very obvious animation and a fairly slow projectile. If you are paying attention and have the space to move, it is very hard for Yasuo to land this knockup. There is a more guaranteed way of using the knockup, but I'll cover that in a little bit.

W: Windwall. This is the one that a lot of people seem to hate. It is a non-colliding wall that goes from behind Yasuo to around Steel Tempest's normal range in front of him. At max rank, the width is the same as Anivia's rank 2 wall on an 18 second cooldown (~10 with 45% CDR). The wall can be walked through by anything, but it block enemy projectiles that attempt to pass through it with some exceptions for 3.75 seconds before it disappears. There are two incredibly easy ways to counter this ability. Firstly, you can simply walk around it, as the wall is very thin and immobile. Secondly, you can bait the ability out, making Yasuo very unsafe; if he does not use it to save it for some ability, then punish him for it by continuing to poke him. It is really that simple to deal with.

E: Sweeping Blade. Yasuo dashes a set distance in the direction of the targeted enemy, dealing magic damage and marking them for at minimum 6 seconds statically. The damage increases up to 50% when multiple dashes are executed in sucession. The spell has next to no cooldown, but cannot be used on the same target while they are still marked. Yasuo can cast his Q mid-dash to perform a circular AoE of damage, knocking up if his Q is stacked. This ability only works on enemy champions and minions, as well as jungle monsters. If you have no minions around, keep a bit of distance and he cannot touch you at all. Period. If he does dash on to you with the intent of using his knockup on you, it is possible to dash or flash away from him, as his dash with only go a set distance.

R: Last Breath. Yasuo blinks to the targeted airborne emeny champion and suspends them and any other nearby airborne champions for 1 second before landing, dealing damage. Yasuo generates maximum Flow and loses all Q stacks as soon as it's cast. Once he lands, Yasuo gains 50% bonus armor penetration for 15 seconds. Basically, this is a context-sensitive AoE stun. The bonus buff only really affects tanks, so unless you built armor, he doesn't get any kind of effective damage buff. The suspension can be cleansed out of, but the damage will be dealt immediately and Yasuo will drop to the ground. As for annoying, the only really bad thing about his Ult is that it gives him a free shield. The armor penetration is something to look out for, but otherwise it is essentially just a glorified stun.

In General The best way to counter a Yasuo is to constantly push and poke off his shield whenever you can before going in to trade. Then, simply bait out his Windwall and CC him. His is incredibly squishy, with or without his shield, so landing one good stun or snare or hook easily takes him out of the fight. Thresh and Blitzcrank both hard counter him as their pulls and chain CC will wreck him nad leave him helpless to the whims of the enemy team. Even with his Windwall, he struggles heavily against all ranged champions simply because of how squishy he is. Even with his dashes, staying away from your minion wave or in the center of it stop him from engaging usually. If you are away from your minions, he cannot get on you. If you are in the center of them, he cannot go on you without taking aggro. Simple hard push against him and back up a bit. He will have to focus on CSing or lose the minions to the turret while he runs at you without minions to jump to. Yes, Warlord's Bloodlust in early preseason was completely broken on him, but now the 15% heal every two seconds on champions isn't worth getting at all, even when accounting for the bonus attack speed. Simply buying a Randuin's Omen either in your tank build or as a defensive item in general is a great counter to Yasuo as it gives armor, AS slow, an active slow, and reduces crit damage.

I hope I have done a sufficient job of explaining how Yasuo works and how to counter his kit. Feel free to respectively comment your thoughts and opinions but do not suggest removing his Windwall please.