Boards›Gameplay

Does Yasuo Actually Have Counterplay?

zeskgames··7 votes·3,772 views

This isn't even me trying to be salty, this is an honest question. I have read all the advice, listen to every video, tried every strategy, and it seems like all the key ways that people hold up on a pedestal of how to "beat the cheat" don't work.

Bait out the windwall! It's hard to when he can cast it whenever he wants and has a hitbox wonky enough to protect him from all angles anyway.

Buy Armor 50% armor penetration on his ult (I think this tip was created by Yasuo players to get people to buy more armor for them to break)

Just Avoid Him Turing Yasuo into a MAP HAZARD isn't a solution.

Don't Fight Him If You're Ranged I guess just have the entire team go melee then?

Beat him mid game! He'll just roam get a kill, and come back with more items!

Just Counter Pick Him! Though I wish this were true, not every team comp is designed just to flatten Yasuo. But it feels like you NEED to do that if you want to beat him to win. But if you design the team just to beat Yasuo you forget about everyone else, then the win because they're team is better. And if you don't design to beat him, they win because they have a Yasuo.

Git Gud Oh, oh man, I didn't know it was that simple. With those two words and no further instruction I know have the secret to beating Yasuo and enlightenment! (Seriously screw those people. If anyone tells you the secret to beating a champ is to Git Gud, they have no idea themselves.)

Ban Him Yeah, well, I mean that works, I guess.

Please, I'd really like some GOOD advice on how to beat this guy.

30 Comments

koshkyra3 votes

his counterplay is the ban phase

Shuriman Curator3 votes

Bro, all you need to do is...use CC!

Weathered2 votes

Probably not the most effective advice, but here:

  • ward one side of the lane and stay close to it, if you stay away from minions it's harder for him to weave in and out to poke or engage
  • let him push into your tower and ask for an early gank, he is very easy to gank if he does not have a wave behind him
  • the tornadoes are not that hard to dodge from a large range, if you practice enough it is very easy to predict the person's skillshot patters and then preemptively strafe
  • yes he can roam, but with any roaming mid laner putting a control ward in river and pinging both mia on your lane and danger on the lane they are going to effectively kills the roam because the lane backs up to turret where you can counter any dive they try by following the roam (or at least in my ELO)
  • baiting the windwall seems like a silly piece of advice because that isn't as easy as it sounds (except for like Twisted Fate where you can show card and make him windwall then walk through it), so instead try to punish hard if he uses it

Again, I don't play Yasuo and personally hate playing against him but I hope some of this helps.

Hexs Fortune1 votes

{quoted}

Probably not the most effective advice, but here:

  • ward one side of the lane and stay close to it, if you stay away from minions it's harder for him to weave in and out to poke or engage
  • let him push into your tower and ask for an early gank, he is very easy to gank if he does not have a wave behind him
  • the tornadoes are not that hard to dodge from a large range, if you practice enough it is very easy to predict the person's skillshot patters and then preemptively strafe
  • yes he can roam, but with any roaming mid laner putting a control ward in river and pinging both mia on your lane and danger on the lane they are going to effectively kills the roam because the lane backs up to turret where you can counter any dive they try by following the roam (or at least in my ELO)
  • baiting the windwall seems like a silly piece of advice because that isn't as easy as it sounds (except for like Twisted Fate where you can show card and make him windwall then walk through it), so instead try to punish hard if he uses it

Again, I don't play Yasuo and personally hate playing against him but I hope some of this helps.

You could do all that work, or you could just ban him #10bans

Dope Solo2 votes

Yas is garbage. The only thing worse is Riots inability to fix it.

xDogMeatx2 votes

why is everyone necroing this post? its 2 yrs ago

3TWarrior1 votes

apparently someone must have pulled it up either to be informative...or to troll. I didn't even notice and made a large post

meowwow71 votes

you can always cheese him with naut since he can't wind wall your ult

koshkyra1 votes

Yet poppys ult which is literally the EXACT SAME THING (an underground-traveling AoE knockup) is blocked

k rito

WorryWolfy1 votes

Just sidestep his Q or build armor or damage items. He isvery squishy and most champions outtrade him effortlessly. Don't miss your skillshots or waste big chunks of your damage on his shield. Don't let him free farm and don't die to jungle ganks. Its easy. Yasuo relies on being more than 10x as good as you are just to break even. If you are losing to a yasuo, you probably are just playing vs an alpha male. Normal.

fuffychan1 votes

Just got 1v5d by a Yasuo in URF. Basically default Yasuo + infinite walls.

LOSINGISMYPRIDE1 votes

There is lot of champion who shit on yasuo . Swain Olaf Pantheon They all got insane damage or spammable ability to stay in lane and bully him . Windwall will almost do nothing .

SwiftKitten881 votes

in lane vs him.. use auto to proc his shied at range. then wait it out before you trade.

if he throws tonadoes out... they are stupid easy to dodge in lane

if he uses the knockup on his dash... idk, sorry, i can't help you... i have no way to beat that..

RonMcManchester1 votes

there are mastery 7 yasuo mains in bronze. so yes there is counter play aka git gud.

Uwhtazn1 votes

I used to play Yasuo a lot last season until I started jungling. But if you really want to know more on counter-playing Yasuo, that depends which Yasuo are you talking about. Are you talking about Top Lane Yasuo or **Mid Lane ** Yasuo? He is a annoying champion in general, but if you know which lane Yasuo is going, you can counter him

**Top Lane Yasuo ** Top lane Yasuo players like to split push more because of their 1v1 ability and the mobility to escape the full enemy team or 1v2 you and the person helping you. Yasuo needs item 3046 item 3022 + lifesteal and either goes full damage item 3031 item 3035 (to whichever) or bruiser item 3053 +Armor &MR item. By the time he gets 2 or 3 of his items, he becomes a threat to your team if he picks off anyone, especially your fed adc or mid laner. And the reason for that is that he outscales the fed tank and can dive your adc. By outscale I mean, he is strong mid to late to game rather than early.

You can play a champion who can match Yasuo's damage, mobility and split pushing powers.

Fiora item 3071 item 3074 item 3812 item 3047 item 3033 item 3026 (example build vs Yasuo) - Fiora is skill-matchup vs Yasuo. Good Fiora players will learn to take short trades, proc her passive and use her W to block Yasuo's knockup. And she just needs lots of lifesteal and she can outtrade and sustain vs Yasuo's 100% crit build. Even if Yasuo goes a brusier build item 3046 item 3031 item 3022 item 3153 or item 3072 item 3143 item 3026 item 3047, Fiora can never die to Yasuo. She matches Yasuo's late game and she push hard like Yasuo.

Next is Tryndamere item 3087/item 3046 (depend what Tryn players like most)item 3031 item 3153 item 3026 item 3006/item 3047 and any damage item. Like Yasuo, Tryn is not effective until he's 6 and gets his first item. Basically, Tryn just needs to catch Yasuo off guard and just auto. If Trynd is endanger of losing but can still kill Yasuo, he just needs to hit R. No matter how many times Yasuo will try to kill Tryn, as long Tryn has ult,Tryndamere cannot lose 1v1.

Camille item 3078 item 3074 item 3143 item 3065 item 3047 and a damage item or tank item. A fed Camille can be a nightmare to Yasuo players. She not only has true damage to get throught Yasuo's armor he builds, but she has the mobility with her E and an Ult to prevent Yasuo from running. If you like playing bruisers and not risk playing any full ad damage top laners, Camille is good choice. However, she takes lots of practice because, her E is hard to point and click when theres lots of minons around and her Q second cast is hard to figure out when you really are panicking to kill him.

**MId lane Yasuo ** Never play a mid laner that has to rely on skillshots and I'll throw in some examples why. Because if you want to max damage you have to land your abilites, but all it takes is 1 wind wall to block the combo and you're screw. However if you're challenger or someone is challenger and knows how to shit on a bronze/silver Yasuo, they have a chance to win lane. However, when it comes to teamfights, it will be hard for them to land their CC if Yasuo has the map awareness to throw the windwall to block the skillshot. Ahri - All of her abilites are skillshots, but if you want to do full damage, you need to land everything, wait for the windwall or get around it and then kill him. TwistedFate Ziggs really hates Yasuo because they has only 2 damage abilites where they can do max damage, but mostly skillshots. Plus TF and ziggs, haveno moblity so if they try to farm up close, they will get dove. Lux Lux's ult cannot be windwall, but her slow and stun can be block, good Lux players will try to poke Yasuo's shield and then try to land their abilites. But again, it takes 1 wind wall to block any damage.

Yasuo's goal in the mid lane: Basically he's just there to win lane. He may want to look for kills bot, but may preferably wants to get first tower gold. He may still split push top if he wants to, but less likely. To counter Mid Lane Yasuo, you're going to have to play the highskill cap, outplay champions: Leblanc Fizz Zed Katarina . Because these champions can burst Yasuo when he has no shield. Most of their abilites aren't skillshots and they have the mobility to outmaneuver Yasuo's mobility. But if you're calm and smart enough to learn and play right, you shut down and carried your team. Plus if Yasuo likes to play passive, look for roams bot and try to get free kills, but keep your lane push so that Yasuo doesn't go for your tower and make sure you're keeping up at farm so that you are not behind if you can't get kills bot.

Even though I'm silver my last 3 seasons playing league(I'll be hitting the gold mark for Rank Solo, but got gold for rank flex), I know a lot of how Yasuo work. He's my favorite champion for mid, but I find it hard to play him top. But I prefer to jungle, because I'm more a winner ganking lanes than winning my own lane. Hope this helps or anything I'm missing?

HeresyHorus1 votes

Yasuo counterplay for mages is either ban or taunt his players so he fuks up.

Ahristocats1 votes

{quoted}

Bait out the windwall! It's hard to when he can cast it whenever he wants and has a hitbox wonky enough to protect him from all angles anyway.

whenever windwall is used, he doesn't have it for 26 sec as long as you manage to either: -back off -chase him behind the wall

you're the winner at the end UNLESS you mindlessly use all your spells

{quoted}

Buy Armor 50% armor penetration on his ult (I think this tip was created by Yasuo players to get people to buy more armor for them to break)

nobody forces you to get hit by his Q yeah, you know his ult requieres a knock up, it's not "lolol i just use ult and get armor pen"

yes, he can get knock ups by his allies, but unless it's a poorly designed spell like vi ult you can also not be knocked up

{quoted}

Just Avoid Him Turing Yasuo into a MAP HAZARD isn't a solution.

what the fuck does "just avoid him" means? that just does not make any sense one of the counterplay to yasuo is to not fight him in lane where he can endlessly chase you/kite you

{quoted}

Don't Fight Him If You're Ranged I guess just have the entire team go melee then?

one of the counter to yasuo is to have a heavy melee team but that's not just it, if you have a ranged champion in your team that is negated by windwall, as a melee champion you can back behind the wall to force yasuo to get out of it if he wants to deal damage in teamfight

{quoted}

Beat him mid game! He'll just roam get a kill, and come back with more items!

that also doesn't make sense, why would midgame be a weakness of yasuo? "he'll just roam and get a kill" that also doesn't make sense because that means you can counter him by playing safe and not get killed

the true weakness of yasuo is early game, after lvl 2 where you can get cheesed by him, his early game is dogshit

{quoted}

Just Counter Pick Him! Though I wish this were true, not every team comp is designed just to flatten Yasuo.

not every team comp is also designed to be destroyed by yasuo

{quoted}

Git Gud Oh, oh man, I didn't know it was that simple. With those two words and no further instruction I know have the secret to beating Yasuo and enlightenment! (Seriously screw those people. If anyone tells you the secret to beating a champ is to Git Gud, they have no idea themselves.)

by getting gud, those people want to tell you that it's not the champion's fault if you got destroyed by yasuo, but because you got outplayed you had all the tools to deal with him, dodge the tornado, force yasuo out of the wall, not be in between minions, abuse his early game

and you still lost

{quoted}

Ban Him Yeah, well, I mean that works, I guess.

indeed

Spicy Rice1 votes

Just gonna point out, mid game tends to be yasuo's weakest point, as if he isn't ahead, he basically is just pure damage with 0 defensive stats

Emperor Emhyr1 votes

I like that the counter plays for those op champs are just ''stay in your tower and play around your jg''...like wtf that is not a specific countering vs yas..couse he doesen t have counterplay anyway

Tailypo1 votes

Lots of ppl say there are several champs that counter him, but the only one I've played that has made Yasuo feel actually straight easy would be Teemo. Just stand away from the wave and dont Q into his windwall. Poke often. He's gonna have a bad time with your mushrooms if you place them well.

Take this with a grain of salt as I'm not experienced with most champs. For instance, he shit on my Swain who I am ass with.

Lost R1 votes

Stuns, preferably melee stuns. Taric's stun is a ray, so it doesn't get blocked by Wind Wall.

Proper tanks like Taric and Malphite can eat him alive.

Slows make it easier for people to hit/stun him.

Lulu can hit him with Pix and then shoot him with Glitterdust behind his Wind Wall.

Yasuo ulting puts him in a single, predictable spot for two seconds, with a very specific circumstance that must be fulfilled first.

Now if you're looking to deal with him solo... fuck off. He's an assassin; solo fighting is their thing.

Modl Ryden l1 votes

Pantheon, Annie, Fiora, Poppy, Riven, Jax, Darius, Malzahar, Master Yi, Olaf

Modl Ryden l1 votes

On another note, what good is giving you 'good' advice when your first impression was to ignore advice given to you previously?

Comes off as quite ignorant unfortunately. You've already listed ways of dealing with Yasuo and demonstrated how, for you, it's way too hard and complicated for you to handle and could only narrow down any advice to 'get better'. Not as an insult, mind you, but to actually practice and make those other pieces of advice work. Keyword being practice.

3TWarrior1 votes

I'll list the counterplay options at the end

counterplay, sure, but he's an annoying champion for 2 reasons minimum: one, he has an answer for every situation except being caught alone and helpless (he has point and click crowd control (twice actually) , a near constant shield, double crit percentage, high mobility, able to out-range all melee champs and almost meet the ranged minimums, a wind wall that can negate ANY projectile, his ultimate lets him pierce bonus armor by 50%,

reason number 2: he forces his opponents to play his way, or lose. If you are not a counterpick, or do not play the way you have to against him, you lose. There are few other champions in the game that actually FORCE gameplay

counterplay options:

  • use an auto attack or otherwise free poke to break his shield before you actually engage. It is an immense portion of his defense. His shield is not triggered by tower shots.

  • try to keep an approximate knowledge of your range from him and your minions. he can engage from his E added to his Q range, especially if you are near minions

  • crowd control: it's universal but it is an option

  • jungler assistance: yasuo may be a lane bully in counter matchups, but he is still frail. If you have any crowd control to offer and can bait him, he dies quickly during the laning phase

  • item 3047 Ninja Tabi: while this may cut into your build somewhat, if you can afford it, Yasuo's damage primarily comes from his auto attacks and his Q is treated as an auto attack

  • play safe and focus on farm. Yasuo may scale into a hyper-carry, but he is still melee and it is difficult for yasuo to engage in later fights without flash

#now, where all this goes wrong is with what I listed above for reasons that he is annoying...He has an answer for everything and scales ridiculously quickly with his passive 2x crit

Shahamut1 votes

Hardest counter to Yasuo is probably Renekton.

Note: You are not stronger than he is levels o 1 and 2, but once you are level 3 you can easily destroy Yasuo.

In lane, freeze on your side and stand in wave. Deny him farm and combo him if he steps too close. Ganks are super easy but not required.

If he roams, you are friggin renekton, shove hard for plates, forcing him to come back or miss tons of cs/xp and ping him out.

As long as you get SoS, Yasuo will never truly upscale you in a 1v1 as long as your ult is available.

Tailypo1 votes

{quoted}

Hardest counter to Yasuo is probably Renekton.

Note: You are not stronger than he is levels o 1 and 2, but once you are level 3 you can easily destroy Yasuo.

In lane, freeze on your side and stand in wave. Deny him farm and combo him if he steps too close. Ganks are super easy but not required.

If he roams, you are friggin renekton, shove hard for plates, forcing him to come back or miss tons of cs/xp and ping him out.

As long as you get SoS, Yasuo will never truly upscale you in a 1v1 as long as your ult is available.

what actually counters renekton these days?

Shahamut1 votes

{quoted}

what actually counters renekton these days?

Shen does surprisingly well into him early game. If you get an early lead you will be too tank for him.

Shahamut1 votes

The other suggestion that I PERSONALLY always give is learn to play Yasuo. Hes not as OP as he appears, and you can see what other people do to beat him and learn that way as well.

Inkling Commando1 votes

coming from a non-meta player, i found i had decent to good success vs yasuo as miss fortune. when he throws up a wind wall use E to pop hit passive and run around the wind wall to poke him with Q. follow up the attack with W. use nearby minions to have Q bounce. if you get knocked up immediately use a Barrier to shield most of his ult.

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by zeskgames

Relationship Goals
Memes & Games43 comments
221
votes
The Meta right now
Memes & Games63 comments
111
votes
When getting hit by Zoe E be like
Memes & Games21 comments
108
votes
Meanwhile at Riot HQ
Memes & Games28 comments
97
votes
Un-pre-dictable
Memes & Games7 comments
83
votes
When you vote honestly in the pick-a-skin poll
Memes & Games30 comments
81
votes