Yasuo Build Guide : [5.10] - Windslash your enemies with Yasuo! (Updates coming!

Introduction

Hello Summoners, my name is LeeSanSoon, I'm a Silver player on the EUW Server and this is my first guide featuring the champion Yasuo!

I would really like your feedback and constructive criticism. For questions or infos you can add me on League of Legends: LeeSanHoon or write a comment on this guide!

Pros / Cons

Pros	+ Amazing Passive Way of the Wanderer + No Mana + High Mobility + Can block abilites with Wind Wall + Low cooldowns + Easy Farming

Yasuo is a great champ because he doesn't need mana and has an advantage in lane, spamming his abilities with no costs, also is really good at teamfighting and can have a lot wombo combos with knock up teammates.

Cons	- Hard to master - Escapes relies on units (minions, etc.) - Abilities doesn't contain any sustain - Poor Scaling of Magic Resist - Extremely Vulnerable without Whirlwind

The weakest point of is his early game, you get the first DMG spike when you get your first item: and you are getting bullied in lane if you are against a ranged champion or heavy bruisers like or . The does block a lot of projectiles, but some abilities like 's or 's can't be blocked and it's cooldown is 20 second long. You can make a lot of awesome plays when you've got a lot of experience and knowledge about .

Runes

Why do you use these runes?

Runes

Domination

Electrocute

Predator

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

(Recommended)
You run 4.6% Crit to bring yourself to 89,2% Crit with IE/Shiv and 's passive, and it's pretty helpful for lane when you get that random crit on them.

(Recommended)
Fill up the rest of your marks with attack damage since it's the most efficient for .

(VS AD)
In the case you're against // or other AD champions, go flat armor yellows.

(General)
If you aren't against AD but AP, go HP/LvL. Some people take one rune out and put one crit rune to hit the 100% with and , but it's your choice.

(Recommended)
You basically run MR blues all the time, except you're against AD, then you can run armor blues or attack speed blues.

(Recommended)
The 14% attack speed scales well with , and .

(Optional)
You can run attack damage quints as well since it's also the most efficient for .

Masteries

Why do you use these masteries?
Why do you take Blade- and Spellweaving?
Blade- and Spellweaving is really important for because a champion needs to use both autoattacks and spells to damage enemies. This is even more efficient fore because 's cooldown of and is really low, so you can abuse your spell damage more often without the 5-second-timer running out. has 0.1 second cooldown late game and scales very well with attack speed and you can basically use it while moving every second.

Offense Tree

Tier 1: With you deal more damage, since you're playing , then you can benefit a lot from it. Here I prefer over , your doesn't need cooldown reduction and only scales with attack speed.

Tier 2: , AD per Level is nice for , is not needed because you don't deal AOE DPS.

Tier 3: gives you a small amount of damage and works like this; Damaginng an enemy champion with a Basic Attack increases Spell Damage by 1%, stacking up to 3 times (max 3% damage increase). This means that if you hit 3 AA's before hitting your Steel Tempest you will deal 3% with your Steel Tempest and of course with your other abilities too.

Tier 4: works like this; Damaging an enemy champion with a spell increases Basic Attack Damage by 1%, stacking up to 3 times (max 3% damage increase). So this works basically just like your Spell Weaving but in the other way, if you for ex. use Sweeping Blade 3 times, your next AA will hit 3% more damage (like the passive). I'm not really a huge fan of , so I only put one point into and put the other point on which can save your life in a lot of situations for example killing an enemy and surviving with 30HP because you ignited him and got the HP from back.

Tier 5: suits very well, because you stack 5% attack speed (maximum 15% attack speed) when you cause on every AA critical strike and this will scale very well with . 's magic penetration is also needed, because and deal magic damage. Not to forget about the armor penetration, mainly deals physical damage!

Tier 6: is a need for , for example you're dealing 500 crit damage, it's going to be 30 bonus DMG, so, it's worth it!

Defense Tree

Tier 1: reduces basic attack damage by 2 and gives you a 2hp regeneration per 5 seconds, sounds like it's not much but it's necessary anyway. Pick if you don't have much armor or magic resistance.

Tier 2: is a better version of since melee champions like can benefit from this mastery! gives you health and is nice for laning, unless you're jungling, then you're picking .

Tier 3: just simply gives you more health what's a great mastery overall!

Skill Sequence

Skill Sequence against Ranged Champions:

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Skill Sequence against Melee Champions:

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Abilities

: 's passive has two parts:
Intent and Resolve.

Intent: 's Critical Strike Chance is doubled, but deals 10% less damage.
Resolve: 's resource bar is called "Flow". If is moving, then the "flow" bar is filling up, if gets hit by an enemy champion or a monster, then the shield activates and absorbes the damage dealt of the enemy by the maximum amount of the shield or flow.

:

FIRST AND SECOND CAST: Yasuo thrusts forward with his sword, dealing 20/40/60/80/100 (+100% AD) physical damage to all enemies in a line. Successfully landing Steel Tempest grants Yasuo Gathering Storm stacks for 10 seconds. At 2 stacks, Steel Tempest fires a whirlwind that knocks Airborne.

THIRD CAST: The third stack of Gathering Storm causes Steel Tempest to send out a whirlwind that travels in a line of 900 range and knocks up enemies in a Airbone.
If Yasuo casts Steel Tempest during Sweeping Blade, the ability strikes all enemies immediately around him, having a radius of 375 instead.

Steel tempest can critical strike and apply on hit effects in a range of 475. Its cooldown and cast time can be reduced by attack speed.

is a really nice ability to harrass and farm in lane. It has a really low cooldown and doesn't cost any health or mana, but the range of is really short, so keep that in mind when playing .

Before Teamfighs you should already stack your and be ready to use on squishy targets because the armor penetration buff after is really important in fights. So use it as fast as possible.

You shouldn't only use in teamfights, you can also stack your in lane. Escpecially when your jungler is coming, that you can CC the enemy hard with your whirlwind and deny the enemy escaping under tower.

Tipp: After casting the third stack of (whirlwind) on an enemy, you should AA immediately the enemy and then use . The reason for AA after the third cast of is, that you reduce the cooldown of so you can cast after again and you will have more DMG input.

:

Passive: Dashing replenishes Yasuo's Flow faster for 4/8/12/16/20% of his maximum flow
Active: Yasuo creates a wall of wind with a width of 300/350/400/450/500, that slowly drifts forward for 3,75 seconds. The wall blocks all enemy projectiles except tower hits.

's is a really op ability, especially in mid lane against AP Casters. In mid lane you will mostly get opponents, who have got skill-shot based abilities which you can block with your .

Warning! You can only block projectiles with your , not abilities like , , etc.

's is not only effective in lane, but also in teamfights for saving your mates from grabs or other champions who try to kill or initiate into your team with their abilities.

:

Yasuo dashes a fixed distance through an enemy, dealing 70/90/110/130/150 (+60% AP magic damage and marking them briefly. If Yasuo uses Sweeping Blade multiple times, the ability deals extra 25% damage with a 50% bonus maximum. When sweeping blade is casted on a target, the target will get marked for 10/9/8/7/6 seconds. Yasuo cannot use Sweeping Blade on an enemy that's already been marked.

If chasing an enemy you can use Sweeping Blade through the minion wave
Each cast increases your next dash's base damage by 25% up to 50%
You cannot dash into the same enemy that has already been dashed, there's a circle around the enemy which indicates how long the timer is. The more points you put into Sweeping Blade, the lower the cooldown is for Yasuo. If Sweeping Blade is leveled to level 5, then the cooldown is just 0.1 second long!

:

teleports to the nearest visible airborne enemy champion, instantly generating maximum Flow. Upon arriving, he suspends all airborne units within a 400-radius of his target in the air for 1 second while dealing 200 / 300 / 400 (+ 150% bonus AD) physical damage to all of them. Once he lands, Yasuo gains 50% armor penetration for 15 seconds.

You can combine Last Breath with abilities such as Malphite's Unstoppable Force or Wukong's Cyclone
If your whirldwind from Steel Tempest isn't ready, you can cast Last Breath on a knock up caused by a teammate like Malphite's Unstoppable Force or Lee Sin's Dragon's Rage
Use Last Breath already before a fight because of the huge armor penetration buff
There's no need to save your Last Breath for a teamfight since Last Breath has a really short cooldown in the late game

Spells

is the most important summoner spell on , because this skill is great for a lot of reasons and uses. You can flash in combination with through a minion for an escape or to champions to knock them up for a . You can flash over a wall, it has so many uses.

is another great spell. You can cast it while using which is pretty awesome. It's not just awesome, but it is also good for getting a kill that almost got away.

is great for playing top lane and farm as a lot as well, but I feel like and are the best summoner spells for playing mid lane.

is a great summoner spell which korean pro players like Pawn/Dade/Faker are using as well for . is really great for dueling in your lane for example against a or even . When is using on you, then you can him to reduce the incoming damage by the after 3 seconds, but you can also fight him as well, because also reduces armor and magic resist and slows the target.

Meh, I never use on , because you already got your passive, so why needed. (Ok, you will get an additional shield to your flow, but it's your choice which spell you're gonna take)

Items

Early

Early boots are nice to help Yasuo to dodge skillshots, escpecially if you're against someone like who's just spamming , then it's completely fine to take instead of .
is really nice due to the gold income and you are going to build a from it. I always get a lifesteal item between build [statikk shiv]] and taking what's nice for the early sustain.

Boots

There are some reasons why you would want to buy . If there are teams with heavy CC, these boots are very important if you don't buy . If there's a heavy AP, then you would also buy .

Now if they have a lot of auto attackers or your lane partner is AD like or , then these boots are great. The passive is pretty awesome and since it reduces a ceratin amount of physical damage of starting armor.

If you aren't worried about the enemy, then these boots would be awesome. can also reduce your Q cooldown a lot.

Core Items

is the first item I buy on . The reason for purchasing as first item is, that can activate the passive of . That passive will help you getting great burst in lane, clearing waves and has got some nice crit chances!

+ will give a 90% crit chance with 's passive and the five . The crit is very important on and that's the reason why is my second item after purchasing as life steal source.

does scale great with the attack speed and the great passive which is important when you're 1v1 a tank like , , etc...

That's the biggest concurrent of ! There are a lot of differences between these two items. Here's the battle between these two items:

Bloodthirster vs Blade of the Ruined King

BT	+ More Damage - 80 + More LifeSteal - 20% + Passive grants a shield which can be refreshed by AA + Gives you higher Crit DMG + Costs 3500 gold + Costs 300 gold more than Blade of the Ruined King + Passive can't slow enemy + No Attack Speed + No-Duel potential against heavy tanks like Garen or Shen

BOTRK

+ You can duel tanks with the passive
+ 40% attack speed
+ Active can slow enemies which can save your life in a lot of situations
+ Maxes your 's cooldown
+ Costs 3200
- Less Damage (55 DMG) than
- 10% less lifesteal
- No Shield like the passive

Conclusion: In my opinion I would prefer over because it's 300 gold cheaper and scales well with the passive and attack speed.
However, it's your choice which item you buy!

Defensive Items

You can buy this after your 2 or 3 damage items if you're against a heavy physical team.

You can buy this after your first 2 or 3 damage items if you're against a heavy magic team.

You can buy if there's an incoming teamfight where you're afraid of dying fast.

I almost never buy , but it's still an optional item. You only buy if you need health and no armor or magic resistance.

Situational Items

This item seems pretty cool because of his movement speed buff, sheen passive and the stats overall, but I still prefer over because you waste the mana of this to nothing, also the AD is 40 lower than and gives you a DMG boost by additional 50%. Generally is a good mid-game item, but it won't pay off as . It's up to you what you want to buy!

This item will be useful sometimes when you've got an heavy AP mid laner who deals tons of DPS like , so this item is not worth it buy because of the passive which grants you a little shield which absorbs a decent amount of magic damage. I usually only buy for surviving through the entire mid-game.

I'm not a fan of since you've got already the armor penetration buff from .

Laning and Matchups of Yasuo

Farming for is really important to get the first two items at early/mid-game, it's really easy as with your and to farm and last hit. Your has a really low cooldown, has almost none cooldown and these abilities doesn't cost anything!
has a good early game and laning phase, it can also depend on your skill, how you dodge the enemy's abiities, how you trade or harrass!
What does really counter ?
More Informations about matchups of you find on top of the website!
I will add down here more detailed informations about some matchups against some mid laners!

Common Matchups for Yasuo:

You can request a certain matchup where you have trouble to lane against! For that you can tell me via PM or on the comments down below!
More Matchups will be added soon! (I will be only adding mid champions)

is very difficult to lane against, because he can easily dodge your third cast of with his . You should start with and five . Put the first point on to harrass him from a certain distance and try to dodge his 's. Keep in mind that his passive will be active when your health bar is under 50%, that means he will deal 6-10% of the target's health as bonus magic damage! After 6, when he is using on you, you should immediately him, dash away with using minions and blocking his with your . This matchup goes generally to 's favor, but you can still win as since you're a badass samurai!

The item Quicksilver Sash can remove Zed's Death Mark, although the spell Cleanse can't remove Death Mark
Exhaust is pretty good for duels especially against Zed
9 x Greater Glyph of Attack Speed
Ninja Tabi reduces the damage dealt by Zed's AA's and gives you also a little amount of armor
Zed can't really dodge the Sweeping Blade+ Steel Tempest+AA+ Last Breath combinations with his Death Mark except he's got fast reactions

is really easy to lane against! I recommend to put your first skill point on ! The reason for putting your first point on is that you will use your first on a minion, the second one also on a minion, the 3rd you will use on and then using another minion to rush back and avoid getting .
Conclusion: It will deal a lot of magic damage, because your DMG will get 25% bonus damage on the 1st stack and 50% bonus damage on the 2nd stack!

Charm can be blocked by Wind Wall
Make sure you've got your whirlwind ready to EQ all-in on her
Harass her early
Punish her always for missing a Charm
9 x Greater Seal of Scaling Health

Easy Matchup! If he tries to use the yellow card of to stun you, you can use your to block it and then kill him with using on minions as gap closer to punish him. Don't 1v1 him if there aren't minions around you, because nearly every player picks as summoner spell since it gives huge mobility.
At teamfights he will mostly try to backdoor your AD Carry using , make sure you use to deny his backdoor on your AD Carry and then focus him since he's alone. Here you can start off with and put the first point on as gap closer at the early laning phase.

Harass him early with Sweeping Blade
Warn the other lanes if he's missing in your lane and then you should use the advantage to push into his tower
EQ whirlwind and Last Breath on him because it's really hard to catch him when he casted Ghost
9 x Greater Seal of Scaling Health

wins. can harrass and keep you low but that drains all of her mana pre6. Without blue buff loses her lane hardly. When gets her blue and catalyst the protector, she can harrass and farm greatly, but once you got your , your Q3-AA-R-Q-E combo can finish her off. Basically she has a small gap of power before blue buff and 's first item. At late-game she has a lot of teamfight and zoning power compared to .

If you used Last Breath, dash immediately because she is going to use Flash Frost to stun you immediately
Harass (level 2): Use Sweeping Blade on a minion, then AA + Q + E and then E back with a minion
You can dash to juke Flash Frost and Wind Wall to block her Frostbite

It's hard for to hit you with an ability because you're just swifting around and dodging his abilites like a badass samurai. You should anyway keep Brand's passive in mind, the most important one to know is the passive on which stuns you for some seconds if your are "ablazed" and that could cost your life! If you and the minions around got "ablazed", then you should be careful about which bounces multiple and does a big amount of damage. To avoid getting by , is to play safe if your is not up!
Start off with and put the first point on your for bullying him already at the early laning phase out.

You can dodge his Pillar of Flame with Sweeping Blade
You should block Sear with your Wind Wall or dodge it with Sweeping Blade
9 x Greater Seal of Scaling Health
Ask your jungler to gank your lane to get an advantage over Brand
Don't all-in him without whirlwind after 6, that's where Brand gets really dangerous and can one-shot you by casting all his abilities.
Don't sleep while playing against a Brand!

mercycutthroat

Meh, that guy does a lot of damage at mid/late-game. You can bully him out at early-game because his doesn't do much damage at early and you can block it with your . His end cutthroat have long cooldowns, his has around 10 seconds and his cutthroat around 15 seconds cooldown. After using you should play safer. You can block with your as well because most players will cutthroat on you, since the blades from will follow and pierce through you. Here I like to start with and five or and putting my first point on since I'm against a melee champion.

Talon is very vulnerable when his cutthroat is on cooldown, try to take advantage when it's on cooldown
Make sure someone on your team carries a Vision Ward for a teamfight to detect him during his ultimate
His early damage 1-3 is really low, try to use this in your advantage, and harass him with Steel Tempest
You can buy Sweeping Lens and upgrade it on level 9, since it reveals Talon's stealth

Laning against is a skill matchup! Before 6 you should be dominating the laning phase, that means you have to deny her farming or ask your jungler to gank your lane. The reason to deny her farm is, that she will be very strong when she gets the ! When she casts on you, avoid getting AA by since the 2nd cast of does more damage than the 1st. Try to get a for 6, when she nearly burns all her energy she will hide in to reposition herself or restore a certain amount of energy to continue putting pressure on you.

Picking a jungler like Lee Sin who can reveal Akali while stealth will make things harder for Akali, since then she wouldn't be able to reposition or restore energy with Twilight Shroud easily
9 x Greater Seal of Scaling Health
Buy and upgrade Sweeping Lens, it will negate the stealth and it will prevent you from having to waste Vision Ward every time you fight her
Akali will win most melee trades, so stay in rage and harrass her with Steel Tempest
Play agressive before she hits 6 and ganks are good to shut her down

is not a hard but also not an easy matchup for . For this matchup I recommend picking if I know I'm against an . I always use on her, after casting on her, because you will deal tons of damage due to the armor penetration buff from which synergizes well with the armor and magic resist reduction from .
Hey Lee, why don't you Exhaust before using Last Breath on her?
Well, the reason for ing her after using is, that most player will shield themself and use on the position where they're standing because they're panicing, when you didn't get the fast reactions to away, then you might lose a few seconds of while getting stunned by that you used before your and for that reason you can't benefit from the armor and magic resist reduction from anymore.
You can engage on her using through minions as a gap closer or with EQ to deny shielding herself, avoid absorbing your damage and then her if she does place her on a wrong place.
does only rely on her ball, so use this to your advantage! Try to not stand next to her ball because she can cast and do damage around it. 's auto attacks and spells do massive damage, she is very fragile so try focus her in teamfights. has limited mobility but very good wave clear, she will most likely push your lane, leaving her vulnerable to ganks, ask your jungler to gank your lane because it's the most effective then! For this matchup you can start for the sustain or to survive at early laning phase.

Buying Mercury's Treads is great to reduce her AA's massive damage and the duration of CC
9 x Greater Seal of Scaling Health
First max Sweeping Blade so you will be mobile enough to make some good trades

Summary

I hope you liked my first guide featuring the Unforgiven Yasuo!

There will be still more content on this guide coming!

Drop a comment down below and I hope I see you on the fields of justice! ;)

Change Log

28.05.2015

Added Brand and Talon to Matchups
Fixed some grammar mistakes!
More Matchups incoming! :)

29.05.2015

Guide updated to Patch 5.10
Added Akali to Matchups

30.05.2015

Added Orianna to Matchups
Fixed some grammar mistakes and added some content!

[5.10] - Windslash your enemies with Yasuo! (Updates coming!

[5.10] - Windslash your enemies with Yasuo! (Updates coming!

Recommended Items

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Items

Ability Order

Way of the Wanderer (PASSIVE)

Steel Tempest (Q)

Wind Wall (W)

Sweeping Blade (E)

Last Breath (R)

Threats & Synergies

Zed

Ahri

Akali

Fizz

Vel'Koz

Cho'Gath

Cassiopeia

Azir

Heimerdinger

Katarina

Lissandra

Kassadin

Anivia

Talon

Riven

Twisted Fate

Xerath

LeBlanc

Brand

Diana

Ezreal

Kayle

Malzahar

Orianna

Annie

Nidalee

Viktor

Ryze

Mordekaiser

Lux

Karthus

Gragas

Lulu

Veigar

Introduction

Pros / Cons

Runes

Runes

Masteries

Offense Tree

Defense Tree

Skill Sequence

Abilities

Spells

Items

Early

Boots

Core Items

Bloodthirster vs Blade of the Ruined King

Defensive Items

Situational Items

Laning and Matchups of Yasuo

Common Matchups for Yasuo:

Summary

Change Log

League of Legends Champions: