He gets a lot of free poke at a good range with it. I think this is the main reason he's pick/ban. He can safely poke melee champs with his Q and he is protected from ranged poke with his E. If you are going to double his crit chance and give him 50% armor pen on his ult, he probably shouldn't have so much free poke.
If you reduce this 50-100 it should put him into a healthy range.
Stevev452 votesIf your goal was to balance Yasuo by taking all the fun away from playing him, this seems like the right approach.
I would go after the crit doubling, shield refresh speed, and make people hit something with q's to build toward whirlwinds.
Not necessarily all that, those are the knobs I would turn.
Linna Excel1 votesAs someone who hasn't played him, I can't speak for fun. As someone who's played against him, free poke needs to be balanced and he's got way too much in his kit as it is.
Melee champs have to be in range to trade. His Q has a very good range. Champs with mana may need to burn mana to trade. He doesn't. This is especially a problem in the early game.
If the free poke stays, that's fine but a lot of the other things his has to be brought down. That's why I'd start with his Q range, it's one thing that would make his early game more counter-playable.