Any updates on the Yasuo rework Riot?

Unnamed Feeder·3/3/2018, 4:57:33 PM·6 votes·2,929 views

Before reading, keep in mind that I absolutely abhor Yasuo, and he is TO ME by far the worst addition to league; I'll try my best to stay objective, but my viewpoints may be biased.

Today I just want to bring attention to something that hasn't been discussed in a long time - the Yasuo rework that was mentioned in last year. It was talked about in Ask Riot: Yasuo gets banned, where they acknowledged that Yasuo IS very frustrating to play against and that a numbers nerf/buff isn't sufficient to make him playable while not be OP. While it was a hotly debated topic for about 2 weeks or so, it was overshadowed by other parts of the game like ardent censer.

Yasuo is still a very controversial topic and BY FAR the most hated champion in the game. This is talking about the entire playerbase, not just boards/reddit/inven. His ban rate is always in the top 5 for almost all regions (37% on NAOPGG at the time this is written), and is among the top 10 banned across all elos (not just low).

Yasuo has a very forgiving kit with a lot of hand holding mechanics which makes him overloaded, where his kit is able to mitigate too many of his intended weaknesses, which is what people mean when they say he's unfun and toxic.

Let's start with his wind wall, probably the most hated ability out of his 5. The most frustrating thing is that it can block infinite ultimate projectiles. And for how strong the ability can be, particularly in teamfights, it is only gated by a pretty short cooldown. What's worse, it starts from BEHIND Yasuo's character model, which means he can block any projectile instantly and there is literally nothing the enemy can do about it for 3.75 seconds. Having an ability forces the enemy to never fight Yasuo in the jungle, as he can mitigate an adc's damage in an entire teamfight. MAYBE he needs a way to protect himself in teamfights ( healthier instances being Fiora's w or Saijax's counterstrike), but the wind wall does so much more than this, providing immense utility and protection for the entire team. This is not even mentioning how frustrating it is for artillery champions like Ziggs or Jhin, where carefully aimed skillshots can be erased with uninteractive press of the yasuo w. This ability is really frustrating to see in teamfights, even worse when you're playing a ranged champion against him in lane.

Next is his passive - manaless, doubled crit chance, and the flow shield. The manaless passive makes him frustrating to lane against - it makes his Q both spammable and forgiving. Not a lot of characters can really punish Yasuo for missing his tornado because the cooldown on the ability is so short. If you include the windwall and the flow shield, Yasuo has so many defensive mechanics that forgive him for spamming Q endlessly. It's not even like energy champions, whom need time to recharge after using their abilities. More importantly though, does Yasuo REALLY need all three of these passives to function? Does he need to have a defensive shield, all while having no cost to any ability AND having a huge stat check passive? Maybe in teamfights, where he isn't the best, he needs them. But in lane, having to play against all three of these passives while he still has his windwall and infinite dashes is just infuriating - there seems to be no window for me to capitalize on (fair champions like Zed, Kayn, or Viktor gives much clearer windows of when you can trade aggressively), as he has too many abilities to protect him in trades.

Other frustrating parts include his infinite dashes in minion waves, giving him too many ways to dodge skillshots; the e-q combo which makes the knockup unavoidable; and his ultimate placing him outside of turret range (honestly, if he is choosing to towerdive by using it, he is putting himself in danger for the chance of a solo kill, so why should he get the added in safety of avoiding turret range?)

So this is just my personal reasoning for why I think Yasuo in his current state is quite toxic and needs a rework. I am not really asking for a nerf, because numbers nerfs won't solve the frustration of playing against him. After seeing him in pro play, albeit as a niche pick, I started to think that Riot had forgotten about the rework.

So I just want to ask Riot: Is the yasuo update coming anytime soon? Has it been delayed because of other more urgent matters? Has it been cancelled altogether? I am not making a statement of 'you must rework him hurr durr', I just want to know what Riot is planning to do with the rework and if cancelled, what Riot's plans for balancing him is.

Thanks!

tl;dr I just want to ask Riot on the status of the Yasuo rework mentioned in 2017. I believe he needs one because of his forgiving kit with too many hand-holding mechanics, but it is Riot's decision to make.

6 Comments

Shahamut3/5/2018, 4:52:49 PM3 votes

And yet for all the "defensive tools" he has, he manages to die more than most any other champion in the game. This statistic is also across all levels of play.

To be fair, I can perfectly understand why someone might find his kit frustrating to play against. I respect that perspective. What I don't understand is why he is considered more frustrating than other champions like Heimmer or Riven.

Heimmer is way more frustrating and requires literally no skill to drop a trio of turrets. Riven's mobility is not dependent on targets, has a point blank aoe stun, a knock up, a shield that is up way more often than Yasuo's and can actually instant kill you if just a little bit ahead.

Yasuo is only truly frustrating in my opinion if the player is really good on him. It's pretty easy to screw up on Yasuo. Unlike Riven, Yasuo needs to be significantly more ahead to Insta kill anything.

Like I said, I respect the fact that Yasuo CAN be annoying. I personally never seem to struggle against him though, and don't understand why other people aren't complained about more than him.

DarwinTheory3/4/2018, 9:10:35 AM2 votes

We can only pray. His toxic busted kit sucks the very soul of fun from LOL.

TheHobbits3/4/2018, 9:12:46 AM1 votes

I absolutely abhor Yasuo, and he is TO ME by far the worst addition to league

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Here was my idea for Wind Wall rework.