Why Yasuo is cancer

Yma S··122 votes·37,350 views

Yasuo is an obnoxious character who dashes around for no cost at a low cooldown and charges up free defenses for doing so

The average bruiser top lane shits on him, no one denies this even in the lowest elo. He frustrates mages mid, especially immobile mages because of his "unique gaem dsogen mobility"

The whole frilly set of movements gives off the flashy LC$bigplays illusion of "high skill cap" character. But in reality it takes zero skill to do so. Wind wall is instant and can be instantly panic mashed to "clutch mlg big plays" cockblock skillshot based abilities that take a disproportionate amount of skill to properly land and aim vs the amount of skill it takes for yasuo to "counterplay" it with his windwall.

This entire concept of being a little bitch and wasting enemy abilities missing you on your high movement low cool down dashes is reminiscent of old Phantom Lancer in dota. Phantom Lancer's unque trait was that he would make illusions of himself that would fool enemies into wasting entire ults onto him, thinking that it would be him. His actual right click carry damage was kind of below average, though it did mana burn. In this way he would carry by making the enemy waste resources. Normally I think this is good game design, a conceptually creative way of carrying but that is a game with BKB, forcestaff, and tons of immunity abilities and items to shit on carries.

Yasuo is a nonstop mobile character in a fighting game where mobility defines everything.

Though I will admit Asymmetrical lane matchups shouldn't especially be a basis on actual balance changes, as well as going yasuo mid always means an AP jungle or top, otherwise your team comp has no magic damage and the enemy team stacks armor and facerolls you. Thus we can conclude that the majority of GD whining about Yasuo is from solo Q where there is zero coordination.

The reason why mages mid complain about Yasuo and not Zed and Talon? Zed and Talon run on resources and don't get free defenses. Their mobility is also on a much higher cooldown and actually costs a certain amount of resources, in which zed's case, makes it easy to telegraph when they will use it.

Yasuo takes too little skill to "mlgoutplay" most mid lane matchups

"I move and get free defenses" isn't gameplay Riot, not when there is a giant area for him to walk around in lane, and unlike in dota where mid lane has highground and harder fog mechanics that make lane harassment an actual timed decision.

217 Comments

Totalis20 votes

do you play Yasuo? have you ever bothered to play Yasuo? If you did there is no way you could say he takes 0 skill. Please. Play him for just 2 games, and tell me there wasn't a learning curve.

[{quoted}](name=Yma S,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=NxBhPxeJ,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-12-03T02:19:53.558+0000) The reason why mages mid complain about Yasuo and not Zed and Talon? Zed and Talon run on resources and don't get free defenses. Their mobility is also on a much higher cooldown and actually costs a certain amount of resources, in which zed's case, makes it easy to telegraph when they will use it.

BITCH WHAT? Have you ever gone on the boards at all? Well, you DID call it GD, so maybe you don't. But people complained about talon IMMENSELY before his silence was taken away. You could't glance over more than 3 threads without seeing 1 about him. Same with Zed. In the height of his popularity, zed was complained about to the point where he was nerfed even though he was not dominating the game on a frequent basis.

With shiv's nerf and warlord's nerf, yasuo is COMPLETELY fine. People will downvote me for that single sentence, but it still doesnt change it's truth. He went down 20 places this patch to a meager 27th place, and his winrate is at 46%. The only thing differentiating 5.23 Yasuo and 5.21 Yasuo is the 100% crit he gets, which makes him stronger not op

MrWasjig5 votes

Still doesn't detract from Yasuo's toxic kit and the fact he is no fun to play against.

Resourcless. Literally zero CD dash. 2 CCs. Something that blocks ALL projectiles. Early game bully if played right (which any half decent Yasuo can). Late game hyper scaling. A shield for simply moving. Free crit (which doesn't even make any sense). He's fun as hell to play as but not to play against.

Yeah I think that covers all the bases.

Knoyle6 votes

I'm not going to tell you that you are wrong in what you said. However, I would like to point out that Warlord's "nerf" is about as effective as using gum to fix a leak. I have had a match where I killed Yasuo three times with not too much worry as he was reckless and rushing to kill me. However with no kills and pure CS alone he was able to reach 100% crit anyway making him nearly late game dangerous relatively due to his ability to now be able and go assassinate champs with an innate healing from just hitting them.

I may be wrong that Yasuo doesn't take much skill, though from what I have seen it matters little after early game, but If a champion can get to their "bread and butter" status with just two items after just hitting level 7, I'm going to call this "easy mode". Now If yasuo was just a "hypercarry" type champ with a kit similar to someone like Xin or Riven, It would be not that big of a deal. My main problem lies with the Wall. With most Fighters and/or Assassins counterplay to ranged seems to involve quickly closing distance and being able to punish ranged who are in majority very squish champs.

Yasuo's wall however allows him to ignore this need entirely. While One would usually get punished for being too reckless in a fight, He can summon this to negate any consequence that a ranged champ would provide while also still having his dash to fall back on for fleeing in a hurry and the free shield makes it even more of a chore if and when you actually do catch him. Also a 2 game learning curve? I'm not trying to be salty but it should take longer than that to actually get good at a champ you aren't familiar with and still longer if you never played him but champs like him.

Helltoken19 votes

Here is how you beat him:

  1. don't fight him in minions... that's just giving him what he wants.
  2. have CC, or use midlaners that make his windwall useless. Malzahar is one example.
  3. pop his shield whenever you can
  4. don't let him get close to you for free, and try to keep your distance.

Literally most people who complain about yasuo tend to eat his Q a lot. as long as you juke the tornado you should be fine. it's a skillshot. once his tornado and shield is down, you can freely trade with him.

Quantum Lotus39 votes

CC can be used to counter anybody... And his knockup is not a skillshot when he dashes into you or flash dashes and knocks everyone up. :/

Late/mid game he doesn't even need to dash around on minnions. Fighting away from minnions doesn't matter because he will literally heal up all the damage done to him in a fight. He is like an Aatrox on steroids when it comes to duel sustain.

Helltoken7 votes

That's why to try to avoid being close to him, stop his mobility, and CC him. CC can indeed be used to counter anybody, and yasuo is no exception. Wanna know the best way to counter him? Jax. His Q procs will not work on jax, as they count as autos. You will negate damage, and deal nice amounts to him. Plus, his windwall doesn't block anything from him.

Ralanr11 votes

Jax: Surprise! I'm back.

MunchCrunchLunch9 votes

as a jax main. its still really hard to beat yasuo with jax late game because of his stupid damage and shield. considering that jax is his TOP COUNTER.

i mean look at other counters. heimerdinger and syndra. teemo and tryndamere. kassadin and lissandra. in these. there is LITERALLY nothing you can do to win. you can't win as heimerdinger vs syndra no matter how good you are. or the rest

but Yasuos main counter is still very hard to beat him. requires good timing.

Naag One3 votes

{quoted}

as a jax main. its still really hard to beat yasuo with jax late game because of his stupid damage and shield. considering that jax is his TOP COUNTER.

late game jax can explode yasuo in like 2 seconds...wtf have u ever been in this match up? or like do u even jax noob

Knoyle2 votes

You apparently havent seen a fully built Jax vs. Fully built Yasuo It's not exactly a one sided fight in Jax's favor if not a struggle to see who drops to 0 just before the other one does.

Fieryfury32 votes

If you don't waste your E you should win, if you do or he out plays you, Jax will probably lose.

Kaeblen5 votes

ever played Malzahar vs Yasuo ? It's not that hard to beat him.

darkmatchwaldo3 votes

Annie Annie Annie

CPU Overload2 votes

I was about to leave this here. Annie or Malz vs Yas = a dead Yas. AA his shield off and have fun poking. Once he wastes his wind wall, go all in.

Redaga4 votes

her W + passive + her E shield is one of the best mage kits to counter yasuo

darkmatchwaldo4 votes

Plays Ahri into Yasuo "OHMYGOD THIS NO SKILL CHAMP IS KICKING MY ASS RITO NERF PLZ"

Meanwhile a Yasuo plays vs Annie and gets stomped into the dust.

geez, it's almost like certain champs have different matchups....who would've thought.

Abyssphere4 votes

{quoted}

Plays Ahri into Yasuo "OHMYGOD THIS NO SKILL CHAMP IS KICKING MY ASS RITO NERF PLZ"

Meanwhile a Yasuo plays vs Annie and gets stomped into the dust.

geez, it's almost like certain champs have different matchups....who would've thought.

Yes, and Yasuo's really extreme matchups is one of the things that causes the most frustration both for his players and those facing him. Nobody enjoys being one of the many people that Yasuo hard counters, nobody enjoys being forced into picking Annie against him and the Yasuo player certainly doesn't enjoy being destroyed by a Malzahar because Windwall, his mobility and his shield just happen to be kinda useless against him.

All champions have matchups, very few have as many auto-lose/auto-win matchups as Yasuo does.

Redaga2 votes

as a poke mage, my biggest problem vs yasuo is his passive shield.

once you get used to him, you know your distance, predict skill shot and many spells pass forward the wind wall, but that passive shield means you have to waste 1 spell just to peel it off

Emperor of Dune3 votes

{quoted}

as a poke mage, my biggest problem vs yasuo is his passive shield.

once you get used to him, you know your distance, predict skill shot and many spells pass forward the wind wall, but that passive shield means you have to waste 1 spell just to peel it off

try auto attacking him

Redaga2 votes

mage AA is little less than 600 units pre season minions get withing 600 unit of yasou with minions suicide is not an option

HayRoss30 votes

"CC can be used to counter anybody"

Gangplank I would like to introduce you to my favorite fruit

macromite11 votes

Olaf and my axe

Papa Slothy6 votes

Irelia and my shield

Mecha MaIphite6 votes

[{quoted}](name=Nephilim Born,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=NxBhPxeJ,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2015-12-03T02:31:28.598+0000)

CC can be used to counter anybody...

Stop. Just stop.

While I don't necessarily believe Yasuo is in any way healthy right now, this is just a terrible argument. Nobody has ever told you to "Just CC Braum" or "Use your CC on Nautilus". CC is infinitely more useful against squishies, because it gives you a window to 100-0 them, whereas tanks will just shrug it off.

thepay35 votes

{quoted}

Here is how you beat him:

  1. don't fight him in minions... that's just giving him what he wants.
  2. have CC, or use midlaners that make his windwall useless. Malzahar is one example.
  3. pop his shield whenever you can
  4. don't let him get close to you for free, and try to keep your distance.

Literally most people who complain about yasuo tend to eat his Q a lot. as long as you juke the tornado you should be fine. it's a skillshot. once his tornado and shield is down, you can freely trade with him.

  1. minions are in lane virtually all the time
  2. if the CC is not point and click, the windwall will block it
  3. yes i do that, however he can still block attacks with the windwall, and the sheild regens fairly quick
  4. agreed
Helltoken2 votes
  1. don't fight him in lane then? bait him to the sides, fight him under your tower, etc?
  2. windwall only blocks skillshots and ranged attacks. Who are you playing in mid?
  3. his shield regenerates the more he walks around. Play around that.
Troll for Trump6 votes

Don't fight him in lane. Yeah I am playing a melee champ, I can just farm from a range so far. You can't engage at all basically. It's almost as bad as pre-rework Darius. Windwall shuts down way too many things. Yeah sure, like Yas won't bait you, or will be an idiot and dive in without his shield.

darkmatchwaldo1 votes

If you can't beat him as a melee champ YOU are doing something wrong..

Troll for Trump3 votes

Well let's see: Juggernauts/Bruisers. Yeah those shrek him, but we are talking about mid. Akali Oh yeah, cuz Q+E does sooo much damage. You do beat him in extended trades post 6, assuming he isn't fed, or can't burst you down cuz he sucks Diana : Very rare to see a Diana mid. I haven't actually seen this matchup before, nor have I played Diana. Saying nothing bout this. Ekko Yas has more sustained dmg, can heal better pre-6,and doesn't have the heavy mana issues ekko has. Later on depends on what build for ekko you have to decided to go with. Fizz : I think it is in fizz's favor. I haven't played fizz since s3, so I can't say anything Katarina : Outpoked, Yas interrupts ult. You can't even get in melee range for those bruiser minions. His shield stops your poke, so unless you can oneshot him at lv 6... Kassadin : He's kass. Better really deep down the lategame, but mid/early? Nah. Mordekaiser : No Talon : A lot of his kit/burst is stopped by Yas's W. But if you can land your W+Q+Thunderlord's Decree, you can set up the lvl 6 kill and snowball. Yas can (and probably will)still come back, even though he's 0/3, because jgling, and you have to roam to help otherlanes while he farms. Zed : Yeah you can farm safely, and energy is kinda unlimited. Be careful and don't underestimate yas. You also outburst with WEQ

vivjan303 votes

{quoted}

  1. minions are in lane virtually all the time
  2. if the CC is not point and click, the windwall will block it
  3. yes i do that, however he can still block attacks with the windwall, and the sheild regens fairly quick
  4. agreed

his tornado is pretty slow moviing tho

Verxint10 votes

First, yasuo does take skill. I know this will trigger half the board, but it's true.

Second, PL didn't have mana burn, he just liked to build diffusal blade.

Thirdly, people using ults on a PL clone is them being stupid. The real problem with PL when he was cancer was how well he laned with KotL and how you could have 4 mjolnirs and he would still generate clones faster than you could kill them.

Bemapon8 votes

old Phantom Lancer in dota.

Ah yes... Cancer Lancer. He got that nickname for a reason...

The Yetii Rider7 votes

"The enemy team builds armor and shits on you".

This would be true if Yas didn't have a free 15 second 50% armor pen steroid. Yas doesn't need magic damage on his team. He eats armor tanks alive.

Kaeblen6 votes

cancer? let me explain something to you: Chemo therapy is 1000% more painful than cancer. Chemo therapy literally puts radioactive poisons into your body in order to kill cancer cells. If done improperly, Chemo will kill you much faster than the cancer would.

Yasuo Is Chemo.

Only Play Darius6 votes

Teemo

Lithium Rosa6 votes

100th complain post about Yasuo and Riot won't give a shit

Stars Shaper1 votes

'Cause they read also the thousands of comments which gives advices and explain counterplay and counterpicks. A thing that whiners don't.

Astorine1 votes

I doubt you are a game balance expert. The fact that there is a small amount of counter-picks and unfun counter-play makes yasuo a problem in a "fun" game. Even if it is not a huge nerf, yasuo needs changes, but riot will just nerf the weak and buff cancer metas like usual.

Stars Shaper1 votes

I might be not a balance expert, I'm surely wise enough to understand what strenghts and weaknesses my enemies have and try to exploit them, also I'm not the only one defending Yasuo and writing extensive posts that explain how a good chunk of characters can actually win against him.

The definition fo unfun is hard to put into objectiveness. I find more fun dealing against Yasuo by playing around Windwall CD and checking his available targets for the dash rather than having to deal against Fizz dash in & get out unhurt because fck you I got invulnerable or Caitlyn dealing massive continous damage from unreachable distance while also taking back full hp if I don't burst her from 100% to 0 inbetween those 0.5 seconds between an attack and the other.

A change that leaves Yasuo power windows as they are (if not a bit more wide if played good) is not an issue for me, I just dispise this circlejerk that there is around a fairly balanced character that happens to crash you when he outplays you over and over but somehow isn't allowed to be strong if you listen to the community.

Also nice necro.

Astorine1 votes

I guess there is a hard discussion when "fun" has to factor in to things yet it changes by player. I just find that he is found unfun by more people than many other champs so he has been marked as inherently "unfun" A small change, even if not a nerf or buff is just recommended to leave people able to more easily counter-play him, as other champs you usually find easier to counter play against as you fight them. The learning curve vs him just wants a lil nudge. Thanks

Stars Shaper1 votes

The thing is that he got caught into this masisve circlejerk that just won't stop even when he is one of the lowest performing champions ever. No1 wants him in their team becuase they know he sucks, no1 gets a tanky guy or a beefy one with a knockup to help him because "FCK YASUO!" but hey, the moment the enemy yasuo kills you ebcause you ignored everything he has, overextended and shot all your projectiles at his already up Windwall then Yasuo becomes this unstoppable ball of doublecrit and such. Plus he is a samurai so any1 who wants to attack animu gets a perfect scapegoat.

I find that Yasuo shows more the issue with the gaming community that with the game.

Edit: want to know how to easily counter him? Dashing (melee) characters, Zed, Talon, Xerath, Swain, Galio, Jarvan, Ekko and many others I surely missed.

Astorine1 votes

This is going in a worse direction, you are trying to say he sucks and you only die when you ignore everything he has? Astonishingly dumb. Not all of those are especially thicc counters to him anyways. I simply want a rework becuase 1: His counterplay is inconsistant 2: His kit is overloaded a bit 3: "No1 wants him in their team because he sucks" (he doesn't suck, that's false), "FCK YASUO". These statements have some truth in the way usually yasuos team hates yasuo. SO someone annoying and inconsistent for both teams needs a little change, the way he is now, he's bad for the game and hasn't a place in it.

Stars Shaper1 votes

Riven just eats him alive for example if you want a hard counter.

I'm up for a rework too, I'm just confident that nomatter what, unless the character even resembles Yasuo in a way he will get the same hate, mindless nerfs requests and all that is happening now no matter his balance/healthiness state.

Astorine2 votes

His healthiness is no doubt not the greatest now, but i see the problem in that people now have an ingrained hate for the man. So he will never really be accepted, a bit sad for a possibly good champ.

Lopunny7775 votes

I dont care how badly people try and justify anal cancer...ITS STILL CANCER. His design it wrong in so many ways shit I lost a mid against him and top against him because his fucking mobility and shield and all this other shit. Stay away from him...so in other words dont farms because he has a stupid fucking gap closer thats free and even under the tower he still won so no this champion is going to get the ban hammer or so help me I will start calling my lawyers. I paid money for this game they had damn well better start taking this balance thing seriously

Photos of Ghosts4 votes

Legit question: how is it easy to play as a melee versus Yasuo? Both theoretically and practically. I always lose as a tank against him, even starting cloth and then rushing Randuin. I don't see how I can win any trade when he can destroy my minions making me tank the wave, get two damaging abilities on me without taking minion aggro (what minions anyway? He killed them), then all in me and still have a shield up.

Sr4nk Cray1 votes

Tryndamere chops hom down even early. Talon rake is an issue. Hes not invincible. Brand slaps yas around. Wanna move dash in close eat this auto e q w r combo . Tryn still my fav tho.

BiggerBurgger4 votes

Yea yas is strong. Ever consider taking the time to learn these guys?:Azir Kayle Zed Swain Riven Jax Fiora All these champs are pretty good against yasuo. Azir just kinda pokes him out of lane. Jax can dodge his q and easily win close combat. If you take the time to learn, you can easily outplay yasuo post lvl 6 as zed. Kayle has poke and an invulnerability. Riven just kinda craps on yas. Fiora can even just riposte yasuos tornadoes! Vladimir Is also a good choice. Or perhaps Irelia ?

Psyturkey1 votes

Not all immobile mages struggle vs Yasuo.

Skill shot mages struggle vs Yasuo.

Malzahar should destroy Yasuo assuming equal skill as an example.

ZenithEin4 votes

Also Annie, pick Annie and post level 3 watch Yasuo feed more than the Red Cross.

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