Yasuo, Tryndamere v2.0?
Tryndamere is, and has been, a very difficult champion to lane against since the release of lifesteal Quints. I believe the reason for this is because of his built in Crit steroid, and the synergy between critical strikes and lifesteal. A critical strike deals twice the damage of a normal strike, and thus grants you twice as much health as a normal strike would heal. This makes lifesteal very powerful when combined with crit.
Suppose you are running lifesteal quints and have a purchased a 
, then you have 16% lifesteal. If you are able to deal a 100 damage attack(after armor midigation), then you would heal yourself for 16 health. Now, if that same attack crit, it would deal 200 damage(after armor midigation), and you would heal yourself for 32 health. This, combined with Tryndamere's base armor, flat armor seals, Mocking Shout, and Spinning Slash, make it very difficult for many champions to trade with Tryndamere effectively.
An ideal trade for Tryndamere would be to activate Mocking Shout(to reduce nearby enemy's AD by 20 at lvl 1), auto attack for the duration of Mocking Shout(benefitting from lifesteal, and possibly critically striking during this period), and using Spinning Slash to simultaneously damage the enemy champion and to disengage when convenient. Tryndamere's trading power is very strong.
Tryndamere is also known as one of the best(if not the very best) split-pushers in the game. His Spinning Slash makes him very mobile, and deals AoE(area of effect) damage that does not diminish when hitting multiple enemies. Once Tryndamere purchases a 
, he is able to destroy a whole minion wave very quickly by spinning through it and using statikk shiv's chain lightning. Statikk Shiv's lightning deals magic damage, and will critically hit if the basic attack Tryndamere used to activate it was a critical hit.
Tryndamere's high damage, self-healing, maneuverability, and pushing power, make it difficult for only 1 enemy to stop him. It will usually take 2-3 enemy champions to stop Tryndamere from pushing. This leaves the enemy team with a tough choice. Does the enemy team send 2-3 champions up top to stop Tryndamere from pushing down towers? If so, then they will be outnumbered at whatever objective the rest of Tryndamere's team is trying to take. However, if they send only 1 champion to defend against Tryndamere, there is a high possibility that Tryndamere will slay that champion and keep pushing.
Tryndamere's only real weakness is when there is a champion on the enemy's team that can defend against Tryndamere by themselves, under a tower. Some champions such as 
are able to nullify Tryndamere's ability to push down a tower, and force him to group with his team for a teamfight. This is not an ideal situation for Tryndamere, as his kit does not lend well to teamfights. He has only 1 form of cc, which is an AD debuff, and possible slow(depending on the direction the enemies are facing). Tryndamere is very susceptible to kiting, hard cc, and cannot initiate a fight. He has a gap-closer, but if used to initiate, he will have no way to escape, and usually he will either die or deal very little damage.
This is what brings my attention to Yasuo. He appears to be very similar to Tryndamere in that he is a melee fighter, has a critical strike steroid(his passive), is highly mobile(his E), has no resource bar, and appears to be very good at trading with other champions(crits, lifesteal, knock-up, passive shield, and low cooldown dash).
Yasuo seems similar to Tryndamere in some ways, but vastly superior in other ways, mainly in teamfights. If Yasuo is faced with a problem while split-pushing, he can very easily and effectively teamfight with his team. Yasuo's ultimate(last breath) brings him from a completely safe location, right into the middle of the enemy team, damages and CCs any airborne targets for an additional 1 second, and grants Yasuo 50% penetration to all enemies' bonus armor for 15 seconds. Yasuo also has an AoE knock-up, low cooldown dash, low cooldown AoE ability, and a shield that absorbs 650 damage at lvl 18.
Yasuo's Wind Wall protects him(and the other bruisers in your team) from being kited by ranged champions. It also helps him in lane, by stopping certain ranged attackers from harassing him while CSing(
) Wind Wall also seems extremely useful in teamfights, as you can essentially force an ADC to choose to reposition immediately, or deal 0 damage for the next 3.75 seconds. 3.75 seconds is a lot of time in a teamfight, where Yasuo bypasses 50% of the enemy bruiser's and tank's armor.
I can not currently playtest Yasuo, as I am on vacation in Hawaii. :P But he seems to be very similar to Tryndamere, except that he appears to perform well against champions that would give Tryndamere a bit of trouble, he performs very well in teamfights, and he has hard cc. Once Yasuo reaches level 6, and if the jungler on his team has a knock-up(
a kill is almost insured).
I would probably use a rune page like this:
This would grant Yasuo 22% critical strike chance before buying any items. Starting with 
x3 and rushing a and 
would put him at 16% lifesteal and 38% crit chance, giving him plenty of sustain and trading power, for only spending your starting gold and 840 additional gold.
What do you guys think? Is Yasuo just a better version of Tryndamere? Will there be any reason to play Tryndamere after Yasuo is released? This post isn't meant to be a "YASUO TOOO OP, MUST NERF NAOOO!". I'm just curious as to what you all think about Yasuo, and if Tryndamere will ever be a better pick than Yasuo.
Discuss!
