Yasuo, an Objective Analyzation.

Prof Gluttony·Dec 14, 2013·6 votes·942 views

Brief: Yasuo has a horrible early game, an okay mid game, and is an outright powerhouse late game. If you want to beat a Yasuo, shut him down early if you can, or stay close to your teammates.

Yasuo, is by far, one of the most frustrating, and most rewarding champions to play. I will say over all of the games and keyboard smashing laning phases I have played today (about 10 as yasuo, top, mid, or jungle), he is a balanced champion. He has an absolute garbage early game who can easily be all-ined and is highly reliable on items. If you are playing Yasuo and gain the upper hand, it is hard to keep, though it helps get out of his early game dread quicker. If you give up a kill as Yasuo, however, it is almost completely devastating, and it is nearly impossible to not give up a kill unless you are only farming under tower. You will be harassed, and you will die or be forced out of lane. He has no real escape in the early game, you can say his 'E' is an escape, but you need an enemy to target, and when you are running away , it is unlikely minions are pushed to your tower, so that is better used as a gap closer.

If you survive the early game with enough farm and gold to start capitalizing on his passive critical chance, you might be able to start dueling others, though if you see two champions heading your way, you might want to see if they have some cuts and bruises before diving in, or else you will die, you have very little armor and magic resist and are therefore, very squishy. This is the part where you should either keep farming if they allow you to, or try to catch other squishy champions out of place. The faster you get to an and a ( if you want over 100% critical chance).

His late game, ooooooooh, his late game, if you make it this far, you are loving this champion, you are dancing around with joy, three shotting enemy carries and (with the proper teammates and a lack of enemy focus) melting their team. You will not find a champion who can be stronger with so little feeding at the beginning of the late game.

There are two ways you can build him other than glass cannon, and I have yet to personally test it due to being a carry, and that is either sustain damage through lifesteal, and/or tanky, which I assume the best way is through health, possibly a or . Due to his AP ratio nerf on his 'E' and the fact the buff for using it multiple times only buffs the base damage, it is too gimmicky for AP to be a thing on Yasuo.

Remember though, no matter how fed you are, THERE IS NO 'I' IN 'TEAM' and you will be smashed to the ground and your wind taken away if you believe otherwise.

All in all, he is fairly balanced, people just need to learn how to play against him if you are being smashed by him instead of running to the forums screaming and shouting "NERF, NERF, NERF, NERF". Step back, check your ego, and learn what the champion who either hasn't even been released yet or WHO JUST GOT RELEASED can do, and where they fall short.

15 Comments

TheLastUzumakiDec 14, 20131 votes

I enjoyed reading this, I agree with everything. So far I gotta say I love him as top the most :)

MrAxøløtlDec 14, 20131 votes

Very well put I agree with everything. His early game is very stressful. Still once late game comes around it is very fun. Have you noticed when he uses his ultimate he is still target-able that adds to the stress. He does not need a "nerf" but a rework on his early game would be great.

Prof GluttonyDec 14, 20131 votes

I feel that he should be untargetable while using his Ultimate just due to the fact he teleports and holds people in the air, I see it as a bit of a flavor issue, but they knew something of his had to be trash if he was to be the late game powerhouse, and sadly that was his early game, and they understood that when creating him.

BowshotDec 14, 20131 votes

I agree bro I own him and I found a sorta good fix to his early game is that u put armor in your runes and masteries also maxing your q first and using it to poke helps a lot with your survivability. he's so dependent on farming tho that it's hard to duel early game until u hit lvl 6 and have enough farm that u have some crit built

BUZZENWELLDec 14, 20131 votes

yasuo is very broken champ whats with the low cds on his skills???

MackleDogeDec 14, 20134 votes

You need to learn what broken means. Yasuo is easily shut down early and mid game and can be bullied out of lane and zoned with incredible ease. He isn't broken, he isn't OP. He's actually one of the most balanced releases I've been around for.

Lord Solar BearDec 17, 20131 votes

Yasuo is not broken. If you lost one or two times to a champion you cannot say that they are over powered because of it. Now realize though that he is an incredibly fun champion- fun champions get mained. When people main a champion, they will outplay people really hard. He's very rewarding and there will be a select, elite few that will be able to master the winds and just dominate with him.

Filth MainDec 15, 20131 votes

[deleted]

Jacen GraffDec 15, 20132 votes

Soooo, in other words, take an already weak early game and make it flat unplayable and remove everything that gives him a decent late game? O.o

NureruDec 15, 20133 votes

Ah, you want him to not be a champion anymore.

Prof GluttonyDec 17, 20135 votes

The problem with what you suggest is that he has no innate sustain for his early game, so his shield is what is supposed to help that, and it does just that. I know how frustrating playing against a yasuo with that shield late game can be. I used my ult as a vi jungle on a yasuo, and his shield blocked all of the damage and more, but was then super weak to just punish.

If you removed intent, he would be unplayable at all stages of the game, because right now, unless he gets fed through awesome plays early game, he can only hope for the late game to actually be fun. He gets bullied so easily by just about everyone early game that he has to constantly all in or play super safe, and each is difficult due to his range.

You also have to realize his wind wall isn't a bug, the way it works is it is place in an area and then moves forward, so when you feel as though it blocked something that already moved past it, the animation was still starting while the effect starts immediately upon cast. I have lost a lot of fights against a Katarina ult because I cast the wall before her and it ended past her, while it deflected a few blades, it still moved.

For the E, if it had the per target cooldown plus a 1-2 second cooldown, it would give him no escape or chasing power. He relies on movement to be a threat, taking away his ability to constantly change his positioning on the field would be devistating.

All in all, he is very difficult to play, and I doubt the way he is, without a BUFF, he will not see competitive play and will only be there to be a fun champion or in team comps destined for the late game.

SaltincDec 15, 20131 votes

This is, by far, best laid out arguement I've seen from this community lol. But I have only been playing for about a year now. I also have to agree with you. As a jungler, I find it rather easy to kill him early game. His only escape is used for gap closing. And I've noticed that most ranged APC's have had barely any trouble with him during the laning phase. BUT his lategame is super scary if played right. Kudos to Riot for this awesome champs!

ThatSignDec 15, 20131 votes

I agree with everything you just said-he isn't broken at all, I played a game were at level 1 riven full q line up killed me at level 1 with ignite

Lord Solar BearDec 17, 20131 votes

Something you should look into is something my buddy does when he plays Yasuo. He actually goes more defensive at first, and then builds his offensive items later. This allows him to survive as a melee champion in order to DO damage. Imagine you're playing Xin Zhao. There are people that go straight damage with him, but they can very easily be focused until they are destroyed instantly. My friend buys a item 3068 on him, which does a good amount of magic damage around him. After that he goes item 3087 , and then follows that with either damage ( item 3031 , item 3074 , item 3035 ) or even more beef if need be ( item 3143 , item 3065 ) For boots he swears that item 3006 are the best on him, but I wonder if going a more defensive boot is better. Pretty much long story short you definitely want some kind of defensive item at first, and then you definitely want a item 3087 .