ACTUAL Potential Yasuo Changes

Welcome haters and lovers of Yasuo alike. Unlike many of the posts regarding this champion, I do not hate nor love him. This will not be targeted to gut Yasuo, but it is to propose potential solutions to the problem of Yasuo, who I believe is a very cool champion that is faced with a tragic problem.

I do not believe Yasuo is OP, however I believe that (in most cases) he is overly frustrating to play against. Not because you are incapable of beating him, but because it feels like so much of a chore to beat him. These changes are on the Shyv/Aatrox level of simply making Yasuo less frustrating to play against, but rewarding him slightly for correctly playing. After all, Yasuo is and is intended to be a mechanical champion, and there is no use trying to change that.

I very much enjoy theory-crafting new champions, reworks, etc. and I hope that these can perhaps offer some reasonable discussion on how to improve Yasuo’s image in the community.

THE CHANGES:

Q: Steel Tempest

Duration of Tornado reduced by 50%. NEW EFFECT- Tornados deals 20% bonus damage to champions (Note: This is NOT a Critical Strike, just bonus damage).

Quick, simple shift of power from the threat of holding the Tornado to actually using the Tornado. One of the problems, especially in top lane vs melees, is the denial Yasuo’s tornado can offer. While it makes sense to predict and pay attention to him throwing it, it’s rather frustrating for him to hold onto it in the time you can miss 3-5 CS. This change simply forces Yasuo to make quicker decisions about using his Tornado, but rewards him/punishes his opponent for aiming and using the tornado correctly/not paying attention respectively.

E: Sweeping Blade

Cooldown increased to .9/.8/.7/.6/.5 from .5/.4/.3/.2/.1 seconds. NEW EFFECT- Striking an enemy champion with Steel Tempest reduces the cooldown of Steel Tempest to .1 second.

Probably the most pronounced form of frustration is when Yasuo has free reign to dodge skill shots/get out out of attack range effortlessly in a minion wave. While the cooldown should be low, there should be a clear point where Yasuo must juke with movement to dodge something. In return however, landing Steel Tempest on a champion will essentially refresh the cooldown of Sweeping Blade as to either continue the chase or disengage. It makes using Sweeping Blade to trade far more effective early game, being a much lower cooldown early own if successfully refreshed. Late game is essentially unaffected as Mallet/TriForce make it almost brainlessly easy to land a Q on an enemy champion.

R: Last Breath

No longer places Yasuo outside of tower range if possible and grants only 50% of maximum Flow. NEW EFFECT- Yasuo gains 50/60/70% damage reduction during Last Breath (Note: Only while he’s in the air, not the duration of the Armor Pen).

When tower diving, I can even say that it is ridiculous to be placed outside of tower range while the victim of the ult is clearly within range. However, it was implemented so that Yasuo would not take ~2 free turret shots while being unable to move. This change will prevent Yasuo from being placed outside turret range, so he will now take the turret shots and be required to escape its range, but during the actual ultimate, he will be much safer in dives or in team fights. He will already have two turret shots stacked on him (remember consecutive shots increase damage), but during teamfights he won’t lose half of his health bar.

Overall these changes are meant to lower some of the biggest frustrations when playing against Yasuo, but reward him for for playing correctly. Many of them were targeted toward early game, when Yasuo should be at his weakest, but still allow him to be slightly better off if he plays his cards correctly. I know that one of his most hated spells is his Wind Wall, but I frankly don’t think it’s as bad as most people make it out to be. Regardless, these are small changes and I am no balance designer, but this is my take on a more level-headed approach to fixing Yasuo’s problems.