A Yasuo Discussion

So season 7 is coming to an end, ardent censor has been gutted, and the new runes will probably find a way to break some champions ( kappa). ADC items have been criticized as being pretty cheap, which mostly comes zeal items being cheap and not so much the entire build being so. The item I really want to rant about is , specifically on Yasuo.

Cost: Phantom Dancer is an item that costs 2600 gold, and offers Yasuo just about every stat he could ask for. Without the item passives, the item is about 97% efficient, (made more efficient by Yasuo's own passive) and gives him 60% crit. With , he hits 100%, something that everyone knows and isn't something that probably surprises anyone. I think the issue here is that it makes him much too versatile in his builds. It's hard to shut him down so hard that he can't get the 3400 gold to hit his 100% crit at around 15-20 minutes consistently. What's more, once he gets to that point, he can go into IE if he's ahead, Frozen Mallet if he's behind, and really be able to do strong damage either way.

Bruiser: Bruiser Yasuo isn't as bad as tank Ekko was, Ekko's team fight potential is much stronger, and he's much safer with consistent damage. But I think bruiser Yasuo ( ) is just as toxic, and arguably even more frustrating to play against. There's no conditions to his damage. If he can attack you, and he has one and 1/3 items, he will always hit for 180% of his attack damage with autos and 150% with Qs. Frozen Mallet, an item that doesn't offer much damage and is used for utility goes from 700hp and 30 dmg to 700hp and effectively 54 damage (without IE, 67.5 with). Frozen mallet is 120% effective, 135% with IE, and provides him with HP to make his PD and Ninja Tabs more effective.

Stats: Base stats wise, Yasuo is incredibly low. He's among the lowest base physical damage of melee champions (Diana is the lowest) and his growth stat isn't too amazing when we take it into account on its own. Additionally, his AS growth is around average (if not a bit below). He has low health and health per level (although his flow shield makes up for this fairly well although its situational, more on this). His Health regen is a bit above average and of course he has no mana. Armor and armor growth is about average, and he has ranged tier MR per level. Finally, Yasuo's crits only do 180% damage instead of 200%, in exchange for double crit chance.

Kit: Despite his stats and numbers being fairly average/below average, Yasuo is still very much a common complaint among players, and has received virtually nothing but nerfs, with the exception of an addition of MR per level, and a change to his E that made it scale with AD at the cost of base damage. The crit chance is certainly a big issue, since it boosts the effectiveness of items without any real interaction from players. The other issue is that Yasuo doesn't scale enough with AD, and scales too much with AS. Steel tempest casts faster with more attack speed, can crit, and does 100% damage. It does full damage to all minions minions hit and can be spammed constantly without much worry of resources or CDs on Yasuo's end. Because it does full damage to all targets struck, it acts as a great CS ability and decent poke ability against melee champions. His passive shield is also fairly annoying for melee, because although the purpose was to help him survive poke from mages, it is especially effective at preventing trades from his opponent when they're melee. Since a lot of top laners have one or none ranged abilities, he tends to have an easy time windwalling things that would break his shield.

Weakness: Gankability is the most notable weakness that Yasuo suffers from, and its definitely made worse in the top lane due to his one dimensional dashes (through enemy minions). Admittedly, camping Yasuo is a viable way to shut him down, but the problem is that bot laners are taking turrets faster than ever, and since top towers inherently die slower, a top lane camp can often mean giving up early tower gold as well as giving up arguably the most important lane in the game. The other Yasuo weakness is CC, and I'd say this would be an extreme weakness (as it is for Yi, Kat, and Garen for example) but the problem is riot is making more and more CC projectile based, a move I enjoy for the skill, but becomes infuriating when Yasuo can windwall all of it. From a tidal wave, to a bull, to a fireball, and there's no risk to Yasuo (Braum still takes CC from subsequent hits, and doesn't block most of a lane.) There are even times where players have trouble figuring out what even gets blocked by the wall. Every Yasuo post addresses the windwall though, so I won't spend too much on it.

Valves: Here is my biggest question, What are Yasuo's valves? What are the things built into his kit that can be tuned to balance him. His base stats have been hit several times, his passive has been nerfed, and yet he is still a widely disliked champion to play against. His crit chance can't be changed without a rework, his windwall is the same way, and he doesn't have mana. His cooldowns are so low that in Urf, he doesn't get much stronger, so all than can be tweaked are his damage values, his shield, and maybe durations on his windwall.

I don't think he is currently Overpowered, (not on the same level as Galio or Janna after their changes) but I do think he is a champion that is inherently flawed and has elements that very much justify his reputation as one of the more hated champions. Elements of his kit are really cool, his Q is fun to use with his E, and getting a 5 man ult feels great and rewards teams, but I think those elements are really held back by the things that were added to make him compete with ADCs. The windwall and double crit make him unfun and frustrating. Pushing Yasuo into a similiar role as would probably be a way to make a majority of people happy, although I doubt I can speak for the majority and there are definitely ways to change him I wouldn't be able to think of.