A simple change to Yasuo that might actually help

tl:dr get rid of Yasuo’s mid-fight shields.

Of the many frustrations in Yasuo’s kit, few could be removed easily without damaging his kit for Yasuo players. The dashes, knockups, windwall, double crit and shield - some of the major reasons why Yasuo is both loved and hated - are all fundamental parts of his kit, and I don’t see any of them being altered too significantly in the aim of reducing the frustration of playing against him. However, I think I’ve found one small change to Yasuo that would solve one of the problems his opponents face: what I call the “Bullshit Shield”.

What is the Bullshit Shield? It’s when Yasuo’s flow reaches the max in the middle of a fight, giving him another shield for free; sometimes, it can change the tides of an entire fight, saving Yasuo’s health at just the right moment when neither the Yasuo player or his opponent expects it. It’s not what comes to mind when Yasuo’s shield is mentioned, nor is it the shield’s intended purpose. It’s bullshit.

So, here’s my suggestion: Yasuo should generate flow only out of combat with enemy champions. This preserves every part of Yasuo’s shield: he gains flow by moving around, and uses the shield to mitigate poke damage. But after the shield is used, Yasuo cannot start to build the next one up until the current skirmish is over.

It fits perfectly into Yasuo’s playstyle as a skirmishing fighter: he is supposed to dart quickly in and out of combat, and is not expected to juke out an extended fight on his innate bulk. Effectively, this limits Yasuo to one shield at the start of every fight. It’s a small nerf, but the this change is not intended to impact his winrate numbers. It’s a quality of life update for Yasuo’s opponents.

It even adds an interesting new angle to Yasuo’s shield mechanics: as well as breaking Yasuo’s shield, opponents can keep poking Yasuo to delay his generation of a new shield, and Yasuo players are incentivised to play slightly further back when regenerating the shield to avoid this. Think of it like Garen’s passive - damaging him both breaks his heal and extends its downtime. Essentially, Yasuo players need to work slightly harder to earn their shields, and opposing players are given more agency to deny it.

If this change would reduce in Yasuo not getting enough shields, the rate at which flow is generated could be increased to compensate. If you disagree and think that Yasuo generating a shield midfight is fair - or that taking it away entirely is too much - then maybe a more suitable change would be halving (or thirding) Yasuo’s flow generation and then doubling (or tripling) it out of combat instead. This achieves the same thing as removing in-combat flow generation entirely, but to a proportionally lesser extent. It also means that Yasuo players can enter a trade with a flow bar near to full and not have it stuck at almost-complete.

If you like this change, maybe think about some of my other suggestions:

W duration 4 seconds -> 3/3.25/3.5/3.75/4 (or even 2/2.5/3/3.5/4) seconds, based on rank. Shen’s W works this way, why shouldn’t Yasuo’s?

Shield passive duration 1.5 seconds -> 1/1.5/2 seconds, at levels 1/7/13 leaves more counterplay for in lane, but lets Yasuo get value from it during teamfights where it isn’t as frustrating to play against.