So you want to nerf Yasuo?
BEFORE DOWNVOTING: Instead of downvoting just put in the poll at the bottom that you hate Yasuo and at least read my section on recommended nerfs before you downvote, if you disagree with one of my misconceptions then i ask if you have looked at both the good AND the bads of the abilities as most people fail to do when judging balance. I ALSO CHALLENGE YOU to actually upvote this, as i would like to see more opinions in the bottom, if you hate Yasuo, don't downvote this. I would actually like to see opinions down there instead of getting to -25 immediatly and not having any votes in the poll if you just hate Yasuo
This is gonna be long as explaining an entire champion will be.
As anyone who has seen me post before you know i like talking about the lesser opinion on the boards, sometimes these are meant with success from the silent majority who sometimes look on the boards, but most are downvoted into oblivion.
Another point i like to make as this post is about Yasuo, as of right now i think he is very balanced now that his build is no longer tanky bruiser bs Yasuo. (Champion.gg lists his winrate [for all roles] as an 50.11%
But as Riot has made clear they are listening to the complaints about Yasuo on the boards as they are VERY LOUD and frankly annoying.
Before Riot does anything to him i want to remind you they are LOOKING at Yasuo, they didn't specify whether or they are going to change or even nerf him.
As someone who plays a fair amount of Yasuo when I can, I feel I can help with ideas on nerfing him and what is ACTUALLY the problem.
And finally before I begin PLEASE while a lot of these can be taken as opinion if i got something wrong (like build path or exact numbers) let me know in the comments as I didn't have time to look up the numbers as the whole thing took me around 1 and a half hours to write (oh god i looked at the time)
[Misconceptions]: 1.His Shield is way too strong AND resets on his ult: Yasuo's built in shield is basically a built in banshees for any ability, while later on in the game the shield can grow to a decent size you have to realize that it only lasts for ~1 second before disappearing, if you want to get rid of it in laning phase just auto him once and wait for it to disappear, mages have autos too. Also if an ability does say 500 Damage, and his shield is only 200 at that point in the game, 300 damage will still be done to Yasuo, so he isn't unpokable.
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His windwall is too OP: Yasuos windwall is simply a tool to avoid ADCs and dangerous CC from an enemy. or to protect his team for a small amount of time. What people dont say is that it is a 30-20 second cooldown. This means that if you are half decent you can bait it with your CC move, then wait for it to be back up as there are very few non ultimate abilities in the game you cant use multiple times before its back up.
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HE HAS INFINITE MOBILITY WHAT IS THIS: A lot of outplay champions have a mobility theme (Vayne, Riven, Lee Sin) but out of all of those Yasuo may have the least mobility out of all outplay based champions. His is dependant on minions and while does have a low cooldown between resets remember what its used for: Last hitting, engaging, and dodging. But if you use it for one you cant use it on the same minion again for a while. You also have to be in the right side of the minion to dash that distance. The way to beat this is simply by leading skill shots. For instance it has around a 0.2 second cooldown, meaning that if you shoot at where he is going to land itll hit him or he has to dash away to avoid getting hit, this means that with 1 ability you have removed 2 dashes from his kit, early game this actually causes a lot of issues.
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Shaco Syndrome: People can't seem to tell whether or not Yasuo is easy or not, or if hes too broken in the hands of a good player. Yasuo is surprisingly feast or famine and CAN be shut down an entire game unless he really gets to cowering and farming. The main issue is when no one who doesnt play yasuo actually knows whether or not hes easy or hard or always too strong. What i can say is backed up by Champion.gg statistics at least in the middle lane is that you need 50+ games to get a positive winrate out of him. so the answer is Yes Yasuo is hard, so why is his winrate so close to 50%, well this is because the people who play yasuo a lot of the time are dedicated mains or at least players of yasuo. So to put simply he is a hard champion with many players that play A LOT of him. He most likely has the biggest following in the game
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Yasuo mains are Toxic: This just isnt true, While outplay based champs usually tend to have toxicity in them as they DO require more skill than others to use well, it is an unfair statement to generalize people. There are also many toxic Malphite mains but when they are toxic its the player, but when Yasuo is Toxic its the champion's fanbase. Dont generalize kids.
[Basic Facts of Yasuo]: Why is his play rate so high if many people have to play a lot of games to get a positive winrate? His play rate is high simply because outplay based champions (while can be infuriating to fight if good) ARE FUN, league of legends is a game after all. Yasuo and other outplay based kits are meant to really put your skill to avoid and capitalize on situations to the test, and if they are too strong this gets easier.
Why is his ban rate so high if hes a difficult champion: People don't like outplay champions, Their goal is to be as flashy and possible while still wining a fight. People are fine with say Brand vs Xerath as it is 2 champions whose goal is to poke their enemy with abilities until they can combo them and kill them. While Yasuo vs Xerath (while usually called Yasuo trying to not lose and Xerath cowering hoping to not die) Is more of Yasuo finding an opportunity when Xeraths abilites are down to capitalize and damage him. Its different and invokes a different playstyle where it is usually considered that Yasuo is always on the offensive and his opponent on the defensive instead of an even amount as in the Brand vs Xerath example. This is just a false understanding of how Yasuo fights and how Offense and Defense work.
[Yasuo's Favorite Items]:
I hear people worrying about say CDR on yasuo as that would break his W and R but don't worry Yasuo DOES NOT build almost ANY CDR items
and 
or 
are a must, Yasuo enjoys Lifesteal so will often build 
For Boots 
(for q cooldown[Yasuos q cooldown scales on attack speed] and attack speed is always nice) or 
(if you want that tenacity) If you want some health or utility yasuo goes 
or 
or 
Or if you REALLY want to kill them dead get / (whichever you didnt get earlier) and 
/
So personally i usually build It may not be the best but its OK
[HOW TO COUNTER YASUO]:
Heavy CC champs like 
or most support tanks. The tank Item 
While Yasuo gets armor pen the crit reduction REALLY helps. SHUT HIM DOWN, unlike popular beleif Yasuo can get shut out of a game fairly easily if you kill him enough, even with Ie Statik if he doesnt have his survival items when everyone else already has 3 items he will die VERY easily. During a fight (since bruiser Yas is nerfed) JUST FOCUS HIM, while other targets can be important to kill if you are worrying at all about Yasuo, just throw your easy CC at him and instaburst him, he doesnt get too tanky anymore. Fighting in the jungle is always a benefit as the only way he can dash is if he lands in the middle of your team when (if semi competent) can kill him. And lastly DONT AUTO CHASE, landing knockups comes REALLY easy if your entire team is mad clicking on him as he walks away and all of your champs auto path into a nice single file line.
[And finally HOW I WOULD NERF YASUO]: So if you read ALL OF THAT and still wish he was gutted well then hello. DON'T DO ALL OF THESE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
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NERF HIS ITEMS, A lot of Yasuos strength actually comes from his items, (double crit does nothing if you have no crit anyway, Armor pen does little if you have 0 damage) and people hate adcs and think they are strong right? Well with the nerf of armor pen, crit is back, and in full force knock out 2 birds with one stone by nerfing one or both of
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i would making generating flow at later levels harder as it gets fairly easy at high levels, however generating flow at early levels isn't as fast as you think.
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Switch the crit reduction on his Q and AA, WARNING: this would mean he could do more damage to multiple champions if they lined up for his q but make it so he couldn't auto you for as much damage (which is easier)
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If you really REALLY hate his Windwall instead of it being from 30/28/26/24/22 (or whatever it actually is im not sure) change it to 28/27/26/25/24 as early game his windwall will always only really be for blocking 1 ability until its back up and it would (slightly) shorten the time he can use it again late game in teamfights to protect his whole team.
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Maybe MAYBE a slight CDR increase at later ranks, this is because Yasuos ult cooldown only really becomes a problem at its last rank as a conditionary ult with armor pen (really early isnt the important part of his ult) and low damage (and first 2 ranks) since yasuo builds little ad for the first 20 or so minutes of the game the 1.0 AD scaling isnt an issue so id recommend from 80/55/30 to 80/60/40 or the ratio from 1.0 to 0.9 (I was thinking 0.8 but and 0.2 difference is a surprisingly large amount looking at the math)
[As for popular ways i've seen]:
Nerf windwall cooldown: this is a bad idea as it already is VERY long at all ranks
Make it so that he can't ult of his team mates knock ups or make the cooldown only that short if its his own knockup: The second part of this (while an okay idea) punishes team play and team composition, and while you may hate it a Yasuo Duoing with a Malphite WILL and SHOULD give Yasuo an advantage
His E mobility is fine and any change to cooldown anywhere on this ability would have VERY crippling effects (as with any very short CD ability
Just Rework him: nonono Yasuos kit is designed for outplay and while that is upsetting it is a very VERY well synced kit, it flows well together.
TLDR: I went over in obviously labed sections, noticable by the []s so that it is easy to look through if you are looking for one part, why i think Yasuo doesnt need nerfs as well as his item path (as some people are confused I guess) and how to counter him before i told you how I would nerf Yasuo
