+20 Q damage +200 range ulti +buffed MR

Giggling Granny·Dec 8, 2017·212 votes·21,700 views

Oh what could go wrong?

So this game is a mess and it need to be balanced and Riot decide to put 3 huge buffs on the most toxic champion kit ever created...

Yeah be ready again for the 100% yasuo ban...

Riot nerf the ulti range so you will need to actually be close to team fight in order to ulti now they give +200 range

They nerf his MR because he have a freel shield now they buff his MR back...

They nerf his Q base damage because of how easy is to abuse melee champions through minions now they buff it back...

So they nerf this champion for a reason and now Riot is like "Yeah well i guess now we need something to be broken so the players to not tell us to nerf ADC any more"

No Riot Yasuo being broken and 100% ban ratio may shift the boards from the "NERF ADC" which is justified but it would just create 2 problems...because you refuse to fix one and you try to cover one mistake with some other broken champion..

Because its obvious..we all k now that yasuo would be broken in the next patch and the boards/reddit would shift to "nerf yasuo" and i know that you know that this would take 4-6 patches of "talking of how to nerf yasuo" and people would forget the ADC..

STOP THIS BS RIOT god damn why this game become so bad? wtf happen....

270 Comments

RiotRiot MapleNectarDec 8, 2017113 votes

Yasuo lost a fair bit of his power as we headed into the pre-season, and then got brought down further with Press The Attack nerfs last patch. Leaving him at 44-45% winrate feels quite awful for a champion that has one of the most dedicated playerbases, Not to mention the fact that he's a champion who drops off steeply in effectiveness the farther you climb. giving him even just some power back doesn't feel inappropriate. Referencing all of the things we nerfed on him in the past is somewhat misleading, since you're talking about a time before runes reforged, and he was sporting a winrate over 50% of his games.

ImTheSideKickDec 8, 201775 votes

only few people play him and he is bad in high rank play

by this logic you need to massively buff a good 30% of your champions

D357R0Y3RDec 8, 20176 votes

ok... can we know why you're trying to change what the man has said?!!

he didn't say that few people play him he said that yasuo has a huge playerbase (which is right)

his playrate dropped to below what it is normally in addition to yasuo having 44% win rate.....

Some champions will never have a playrate like yasuo simply because they do not appeal to a majority of players champions like urgot had 5% pick rate when they were so overpowered lol!!!

moral of the story: low playrate champions are not weak (some of them are of course), they are just not appealing enough for people to play them the best example i think of is karthus before he lost DFT he had a low playrate but was still decent and didn't need buffs

LOSINGISMYPRIDEDec 9, 20173 votes

why yasuo has appeal ? Because at his release he was the most broken champion , like jinx and kha zix to their release .

D357R0Y3RDec 9, 20176 votes

please use your cranial nerves!!!

we're not at yasuo release additionally a lot of champions have been broken on release and yet are not as popular as yasuo!

AurelionSol ....

RiotRiot MapleNectarDec 8, 201782 votes

The statement of "only a few people play him" is actually quite incorrect. He's one of the more popular champions, who also happens to dedicate the most time to mastering him. We did a really cool (in my opinion) blog on appeal vs stickiness (breadth vs depth) of champions which might be of interest to you! You can check it out here! The charts halfway down would likely be of interest in particular!

He's a champion that stands the test of time in regards to popularity even when he's weak. Meaning that the number of people playing Yasuo before/after preseason is probably actually roughly equal, only the version they're playing after is far weaker. This translates to more games with a Yasuo in them likely translating to a stomp for the team with a Yasuo on them, because even when they've mastered the champion over hundreds of games, they're "reward" is still losing over half their games, which bucks the trend of what you would expect from a mastery curve.

OP Garen SupportDec 8, 201781 votes

So over half the roster can be trash tier but God forbid Yasuo be anything but cancerous? Because he is popular? We are arriving at the point we cant have fun in this game unless spamming the most broken champions. I want to play mages. If you guys keep forcing the meta instead of letting it develop by the players. Many of us will leave the game. Its not fun playing only what you guys think is good. I hate the AD meta, more and more of my friends started to leave the game because of it. Hell even i play 1/10 what I used to.

You guys killing your own game. Pro play > 99% playersbase. Or its ok to loose veteran players, because you think the game is popular enough to fill the void with new players?

SpârkyDec 8, 20178 votes

Bro they are not forcing anything. The way players find a meta is by what is strong and that happens when riot buffs stuff. So essentially riot ALWAYS force a meta based on what they nerf/buff. I hate yasuo with a passion but you have to respect the people that do play him and not all of them are toxic and feed. (before you call me a yasuo main i dont even own the champ yet he is one of my last 6 that i need)

Tik115Dec 9, 201732 votes

You clearly don't know Riots bottom line

If the champion is flashy focus on making sure its always relevant and strong, if a none flashy champ can beat the flashy champ then nerf the none flashy or buff the flashy.

This is why like 80% of the entire champion roster is trash right now

RiotRiot MapleNectarDec 9, 201762 votes

I'm going to go ahead and just shut this right the heck down. I made the call for us not to ship a changelist that looked VERY similar to this before Worlds when we were doing our World's patches. At that point Yasuo was already winning >50% of his games, and while the changes were targeted more at making him viable in pro play, it was also undeniably a buff to him and did not feel responsible given he was already doing well on Live. Would it have been better if we saw Yasuo in more games at Worlds for "our bottom line", probably, but we explicitly made the call NOT to take the risk for the live game, and even if we'd shipped it, the reason would have been having a high skill expression champion at our largest event at the year, not to "generate sales".

D357R0Y3RDec 9, 201741 votes

i'm going to be serious and stop sarcastic talk

you're really giving too much attention to people that do not want to listen to you a single second i already admire your patience for trying to communicate that much with people like this

Yasuo is undoubtly weak, and Justice by definition is to apply the same sentence to similar cases and the sentence to weak champions is simple

buffs

Tik115Dec 9, 201710 votes

And I'll give you props for that, in all seriousness its great we didn't have another S3 Trinity style patch for worlds, course we still had the Ardent problem but that was more of a growing problem that due to ill timing became a major problem after the worlds patch is locked in.

BUT

I will still stand by my statement that you are absurdly lenient to strong flashy champions and put a majority of your focus on them patch after patch while ether ignoring less flashy ones or knee capping them the second they start to one up the flash ones (Cinderhulk Sej in which you knee capped her and cinder 1 patch after saying "She had her time to shine" meanwhile Kalista was able to "Shine" for 7 months before you finally dealt with her) which regardless on if it is your bottom line or not does not paint a pretty picture when it comes, even if you have genuinely improved on sorting that.

A Majority of the roster is STILL in a terrible way, Do you see Nunu? Garen? Mordes? Mundo? Heimer? I could list a great many of the champions and yes you would respond with "The meta doesn't suit them" well for some of them the meta hasn't suited them for years and no attempts have been made to try and fix that, or at least none with alot of visability.

I know I'm coming off as an asshole with sarcasm and snark but honestly while I still love playing this game I'm tried of the same 10-20 champions being picked because of how superior they are to the other 110, I just want the champion pick diversity of the past.

EROTIC RAID BOSSDec 9, 20173 votes

Those champions just aren't popular so you aren't going to see them unless they are in meta.

I could also point out a lot of easy champions that have been meta for solo q or pro play for basically forever, like janna or malzahar or maokai on and off.

I think you're just really biased frankly. There's no special treatment for flashy champs

Seviel VoroseDec 9, 201713 votes

Dear Rioter. I apologise than you often have to defend yourself against people who tend to express themselves with "passion". However, you must understand that many other champions have been hit hard by preseason. Syndra and Viktor are two examples. Now that the Sorcery tree is being looked at for nerfs, the situation is gonna get worse for them. What bothers us is how you treat a certain champion's player pool better than another just because that champion is more popular. Can we expect a fair treatment for other champions that are struggling too, at least?

EROTIC RAID BOSSDec 9, 20175 votes

Really this is kind of ironic considering Syndra has enjoyed meta status for like 2 years

Seviel VoroseDec 9, 20176 votes

You are quite incorrect. She has enjoyed a meta status towards the end of season 4, towards the end of season 6 and for half of season 7.

As for me, i haven't enjoyed that at all. Her three-spheres grab mechanic was clearly unhealthy and i opposed to it while on the pbe.

A true main of a champion never enjoys a huge meta status of their champion.

Glory to GodDec 9, 20174 votes

I'm a massive Yasuo hater but I agree that he's in an awkwardly weak spot right now.

However, if you do intend to buff him, can we PLEASE ditch the "feature" which allows him to be positioned out of the tower's range when he's ulting? That has to be the most toxic, unfair, bad-looking and clarity-lacking thing in his kit. It's straight up bullshit, nothing more, nothing less. If he has to commit, then commit goddamnit. When I'm ulting as under their tower I'm not positioned out of its range just so I don't break a nail.

Blu 1Dec 9, 20176 votes

Out of curiosity, if he was >50% winrate why were there buffs on the table at all? That sounds like a situation that calls for nerfs instead.

If it truly was about just making a champ viable in pro play, why not Karthus Skarner Aatrox Garen Heimerdinger Kayle Kindred Malphite MasterYi Mordekaiser Quinn Rammus Shaco Udyr Urgot Veigar Volibear MonkeyKing XinZhao Yorick etc. What's the process behind deciding who gets to be pro-viable?

CarnicoreDec 9, 20175 votes

Yasuo's also underpowered. That's not even debatable, he needs buffs just as much as Volibear does. Almost everybody stopped playing him in Diamond because he's so awful right now.

DeadUnbornDec 8, 201712 votes

Honest question. I'm not trying to be confrontational or anything, just have a sincere conversation. What am I suppoed to do as a ziggs/Lux/ Veigar player against a Yasuo every other match?

I feel like a lot of people don't want Yasuo to be viable because of how frustrating it is to play against him during laning phase as certain champions, rather than his actual win rate. Thing is, if I happen to go mid as a majority of the mage roster, I can't fight back.

Say I am playing Ziggs. Here in Mexico the best ping you can get in my area is 63. With that delay all the pressure is on me to land all my skillshots because otherwise I will go Oom and be pushed out of lane. If I misposition Yasuo is also going to kill me, and he can hold my entire kit hostage by not using W until critical moments, using his autos and E to dodge and have lane pressure on me. Then I have to rush a mana item while he either rushes hexdrinker or PD.

Now I am not arguing whether Yasuo is weak or strong at the moment, but I am trying to give you insight into why people hate playing against him. You just feel helpless. Alternatively, people that love play him probably in a large part do so because they feel so skillful and powerful during lanign phase,e compared to their opponents. They feel they are being better players simply because their opponents can't react appropriately to what they are doing.

Sure, once you get to higher elos and your junglers camps Yasuo 24/7 every time he tries getting fancy he doesn't get to snowball early. However for the majority of players, Yasuo either feeds his butt off or is an unkillable machine, which always ends on players having a negative experience, unless you are the one playing him.

Illâoi Evê SiônDec 9, 20173 votes

Could you at least make him less frustrating to play against? Like reduce how far away from towers his ult can place him outside of tower range (so if he ults someone right next to the tower he still gets hit but if its at the edge he doesn't) and maybe give his E a charge based system so he doesn't get 7 free dashes every minion wave. If he got a charge every time he hit a Q on a champion it would at least give us some counterplay options.

If he were more fun to play against nobody would mind a 45% win rate champion getting buffs. And on that note, is Fiddlesticks on your radar? He seems to lose if he uses any Keystone other than Predator.

IronwallJacksonDec 9, 20173 votes

No champion is fun to play against, and Yasuo have greater agency than most over how a matchup turns out doesn't make him especially egregious when compared to any other champion in the roster.

Illâoi Evê SiônDec 9, 201710 votes

The fact that Yasuo has consistently been one of the top 10 banned champions since his release and still is while he sits at barely 45% win rate shows that the majority of players just doesn't like seeing him in their games.

But going away from that, because arguing subjectivity rarely leads to good results, I ask this: Considering the above, why would you possibly be against making Yasuo less unfun to play against? It would improve the game.

SalsonDec 8, 20175 votes

You're not wrong about him being weak, but 3 buffs at once feels really damn risky.

Wouldn't it be better to add them thought multiple patches while monitoring his performance?

DoktorKaiserDec 8, 201727 votes

I hate how this "dedicated playerbase" is the main reason to buff him. So fuck champions who are in the gutter like Voli, Skarner or Morde because they don't have a "dedicated playerbase" aka they aren't spammed in every single goddamn game if they are even semi-viable. You do understand why he is so popular right? Its the same reason most popular champs are popular. HE IS OVERLOADED. HE IS TOXIC. Playing him feels like you are superior because, guess what, THE CHAMPION IS OVERLOADED WITH EVERYTHING. It feels like you are playing with an AK-47 vs someone with a slingshot. For fucks sake, I am tired of this, it began with Riven and Lee, 6 years later and here we are with at least 25 champs with the exact same problem. I am kind of tired guys...

Who is TaliyahDec 8, 20176 votes

Wondering:

Why did you buff the MR from 0.5 to 1.25 instead of 1.0, the ult range +200 instead of +100 and q damage +20 instead of +10?

Try it smaller bits before overbuffing like you so often do.

XdeathitselfXDec 9, 20171 votes

do you know who is yassuo? do you know his rank?

RiotRiot MapleNectarDec 9, 201731 votes

Yep! He's master tier Yasuo player, and probably one of the best in NA. Last season he sported a 55% winrate with over 800 games played. This pre-season....39% over 75. Not that I'm using him as the example for why we chose to buff him, but using his rank which was defined by his play on Yasuo before Runes Reforged is a bit misleading when we're talking about Yasuo is doing in the game now.

Fisher No ChainsDec 9, 201713 votes

Can I at least ask you why are you buffing so many things at once?

I mean, for most champions you usually buff either base stats or a single ability (except for dogshit champions like Aatrox), so why are you giving him so much power in a single patch instead of shipping only one or two changes (for example, the Q and ult range buff) and wait to see how he does for a couple weeks?

And, can we have some context about what you hope to achieve with those changes? You want Yasuo to perform better vs mages? To survive laning easily?

CarnicoreDec 9, 20173 votes

Fiora, Riven, and now Yasuo are getting buffs because they're too weak without Fervor. I'm fine with that, they needed buffs.

Can we get Master Yi buffs too? He got hit just as hard by the preseason. Tryndamere too. It's a little annoying to see you guys playing favorites.

Flawless FetusDec 9, 20175 votes

Why did this guy get down votes for saying a 45% wr champ that is only good at low elo deserves a buff..?

abca98Dec 8, 201786 votes

It's all part of their master plan: First they will make Yasuo permabanned so they have a good reason to nerf him, but instead of touching him directly, they will remove power from his core items, which tend to be the same as for adc's. That way they will solve the top-posted topic on the boards and the Yasuo new problem at the same time. Why create a problem to solve two, you might ask? Well you see, the paths of the balance team are inscrutable and mere mortals are unable to understand them.

Giggling GrannyDec 8, 201715 votes

{quoted}

It's all part of their master plan: First they will make Yasuo permabanned so they have a good reason to nerf him, but instead of touching him directly, they will remove power from his core items, which tend to be the same as for adc's. That way they will solve the top-posted topic on the boards and the Yasuo new problem at the same time. Why create a problem to solve two, you might ask? Well you see, the paths of the balance team are inscrutable and mere mortals are unable to understand them.

well i hope they will nerf the ADC items..but they will not...they will find a way to nerf tanks/bruisers/mages before they nerf ADC they will nerf what ever items or RUNES because this is "what make yasuo strong" and it would destroy every other class except ADCs...

Dont worry riot never nerf ADC..look twitch 8 months still going..

The Space CowboyDec 8, 201715 votes

0.1% of yasuo's picked item 3742 item 3065 and item 3083 so we are nerfing those to fix him.

5000000000000000Dec 9, 20173 votes

We're also lowering the slow from Glacial Augment for melees.

Whip it goodDec 9, 20178 votes

*Buffing it for ranged champs

It Hertz When IPDec 9, 20175 votes

https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/250x250/52633046/why-not-both.jpg

JavelinJoeDec 8, 20173 votes

Likely because ADC items are used by many other champions (like crit and sustain items). So if they directly nerf the items, other champions suffer too. But ADCs also struggle to build tanky, like some other champions, but way more. This limits greatly as to what builds they can effectively use. Boots are sometimes the most defense an ADC can afford to buy or else they may suffer from lacking sufficient damage. So hitting items too much could destroy an entire class and force others to build tank builds.

Some assassins and melee fighters both tend to use some common ADC items ( item 3031 item 3072 and item 3153 are good examples) and ADCs tend to sometimes use common Assassin and melee fighter items (such as item 3071 item 3147 and item 3812 ). As the meta shifts around, everyone changes builds to what the "best build" becomes. Currently it is a "Poke" meta. AP burst is also big too with the removal of decent MR from runes. So it is either live through the poke/burst or kill them before they kill you. Most if not all ADCs cannot live though the burst/poke effectively enough to really justify building any more defensive based items than the occasional 1 and boots. So they go for raw damage (i.e. glass cannon). This is why nerfing ADCs is tricky. Nerf them too hard or incorrectly, and you have an entire role suffering because they all tend to follow similar build paths with only a few deviations here and there.

~ tl;dr ~ Maybe they plan on nerfing/changing some AD/crit items or making some AD/crit based changes which would effect both Yasuo and ADCs since they build similarly. So in order to not indirectly shit on Yasuo, they buffed him to compensate a bit. But who knows.

SasogwaDec 8, 201722 votes

HASAGI

I don't think he'll be overpowered tbh. But for sure everyone will react super hard and he'll be permabanned. I think.

Sona PingDec 8, 201716 votes

To be fair: Remember what happened the last time Riot just added 20 damage level 1 on a low cooldown to a champion?

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/d/d7/Summon_Aery_rune.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/64?cb=20171126182228

So I think it is fair for him to be worried.

Also, we can look up that red post about how significant the "3 AD" change was to performance.

SalronDec 8, 20178 votes

It's 0 damage on his rank 1 Q Steel Tempest (Q) damage increased from 20/40/60/80/100 to 20/45/70/95/120

AzadetheDec 8, 20178 votes

{quoted}

HASAGI

I don't think he'll be overpowered tbh. But for sure everyone will react super hard and he'll be permabanned. I think.

Yasuo is the comeback kid even if poorly played. He can 0/15 in the first 20 minutes but as long as a team buys him 5 more minutes, he'll end that game 10/15 or better.

I generally play Yasuo counters, and there is a very noticeable change in how fast he kills/kits once he reaches about 4 items. You can stomp him into the ground before that. After, he raids your HP in 2-3 hits, even if you're 20/0. A buff means a feeder will come online even sooner.

You used to be able to tank Yasuo down with mages like Karma or Morg, because they had a tank tree to rely on. Now, if you build resolve in on Karma or Morg, you're just going to die, because the armor bonuses on Resolve aren't built for them (hard cc vs being able to heal/damage as a keystone, and Karma and Morg's hard cc is too conditional to really make Aftershock worth it). He's just stomping melee counters atm, with his barrier procs protecting him while he kites around and takes a cc here or there.

That's kind of why people don't like the idea of a buff. He already comes back from complete shutdown/feeds. And he's about the only champ who can do it in the magnitude he does.

Lil Homie bustaDec 8, 201722 votes

44% ~ 48% Winrate across every elo and region (https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/pt/champions/stats/yasuo/all) (http://na.op.gg/champion/yasuo/statistics/top)

"pls rito don't buff this troll pick champion, cuz i rage on my screen when i play against him"

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/7a/7a2add73451638e1c8eb8a617f7a58228bfaa041017bf0c13b50871c27f54f92.jpg

AbibyamaDec 8, 201718 votes

As soon as I saw those Yasou buffs I immediately switched to the boards for the lolz

Ahh you don’t disappoint gameplay

http://rs254.pbsrc.com/albums/hh100/pandabuluk/Meme/MS6wX11_zpsac7658a1.gif?w=480&h=480&fit=clip

Sun Wu RyuumokuDec 8, 20176 votes

[slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

PennsDec 8, 201713 votes

yasuo is an AD champ tho, Riot thinks he is perfectly healthy :)

Scary DoorDec 8, 201711 votes

That moment you realize that Yasuo isn't viable in the highest level of play because players that are more skilled actually know how to deal with him.

Yasuo at worlds? Nope.

Yasuo in the LCS last season? Once.

Yasuo ever viable competitively? Nope.

Yasuo is just like Master Yi, a champion that punishes players that have no idea how to play against them, but is borderline useless in organized play. This is a "get good" issue more than it is an issue with Yasuo being "overpowered".

HarrowRDec 8, 201714 votes

Oh shut up with that stupid old "he's not played in the LCS,people need to know how to play against him" argument I've been playing this game since Season 1,and i've played VS more yasuo than Ark fucking Data has played Yasuo,and yes,he can get wrecked,hell,he gets wrecked fairly often,im not even complaining about that small % of Yasuo players that can 1v10 on him,im just baffled that they put so much shit into one champions kit,you cant have Double Crit,No mana,Free shield,unlimited dashes,and a fking basic ability that blocks every ranged skill/attack/ultimate(except lux and vel) in the game,just one or two of those things would be okay.

Its not even a matter of knowing how to play against him,its a matter of me and my team mates using our ults just so he could block it with a 15 second CD ability,its a matter of him going 3/10 and still being able to 1v1 anyone thats fed and not a tank,its a matter of him getting that lucky Q knockup and instantly bursting you down,its a matter of how irritating it is to play versus this champion,i swear to god when i see him have his knockup Q ready i get anxiety,when he blocks that one last auto or ability with his shield or just erase all abilities flying towards him with his windwall i get depressed,i swear to god i've stopped playing champions that arent mobile enough to escape or kite him,and the fact that every 2 days theres a hate post regarding yasuo that gets upvoted to hell is a good indicator that somethings wrong with his kit.