I'm just gonna come out and start by saying I'm a dirty yas main and I'm def in enemy territory but read me out. Yasuo is not and never was at the same power level as akali or irelia at their peak.
Akali's lane sustain before the Q nerfs literally made her capable of staying in lane till she hit 6 in all and I mean all matchups as long as the akali was competent and had the right runes/dshield, also the fact that she had 4 dashes and a 10 second invisibility aoe spell and she could assassinate any carry in one rotation provided she went at least even in lane is what made her unbearable.
Irelia is a slightly different case, her trading was waaaay too safe when her W gave her 60% dmg reduction and dmg on top of it, her passive was also overloaded which I feel like everyone can agree with.
Now to our favourite swordsman, Yasuo doesn't have the sustain or the safe trading, the only pseudo-sustain he has is that flowshield, every single melee fighter champ has to have some form of sustain to be playable in lane and flowshield is one of the easier ones to play arond. I know everyone in "lower elo" complains about his windwall but as a selfloathing yas otp I can tell u I'd take irelia or akalis pre nerf Ws over windwall any day, first of all its a 22~ second cd so it can be easily played around and once it's down Yasuo is extremely vulnerable to ranged chanps and to ganks, countless times I've wasted my W to block ahris Q only for her to all in me 10 seconds later and hit a guaranteed charm. Also when people complain about his mobility they need to understand that it's such a situational attribute. Akali or rivens mobility isn't dependant on anything which makes them difficult to gank. Yasuo's is very situational and i think we can all agree that he's much easier to gank or to catch out after a good trade than those other 2.
Tldr Yasuo is nowhere near as safe or reliable when ahead or especially when behind as Akali or Irelia were, his dmg is in line with other fighters of his class, Yi, Trynd, etc. His shield is literally the only form of sustain he has in lane as a melee champ. His windwall is a strong ability with a cooldown to match its power, and his mobility is much much more situational than Akali's or even Irelias (her q dash range is like 5 times longer than yas E).
Tldr is tldr Yas isn't broken you bronzies stop complaining, try playing vs a high elo otp of each of those champs and I promise you will see the light.
