Upcoming Yasuo Tweaks

Riot is looking to balance Yasuo so that he is not constantly banned. The reason he is banned so often is because too many people do not know how to counter him.

Passive: Way of the Wanderer Yasuo's Critical Strike Chance is double. Additionally, Yasuo builds winds with his abilities. When the winds are fully collected, they can be triggered as shield when damaged or they can be used to empower his steel tempest.

Q: Steel Tempest A skill shot basic attack. Damaging an enemy collects winds. By holding down steel tempest with full winds, Yasuo is slowed while building his winds into a fierce strike for .7 seconds, then release a tempest that can knockup anyone in its path.

An idea I had is to make his movements more predictable and make his playstyle more risk-and-reward. Instead of his knockup being charged after 2 Steel Tempests, his knock up comes from his passive shield (his winds). When the passive is full, he can hold down Q to transfer his shield into a knockup, making him slower (think new Galio taunt), and can release it. Doing this makes his attacks more predictable and sacrifices some of his defense from his passive into an aggressive action, making it easier to punish Yasuo if he makes a mistake. His new Q would serve as a third way to gain his passive shield, inherently also stacking his knockup but in a different way. This would also make it so Yasuo could make more assassin like plays, not having to build up stacks for his ult by poking first, but charging his Q over a wall and getting a nice pick. These changes enable Yasuo to have more of a global presence early by giving him the ability to gank, but adds more counter play for the enemy in lane.