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Yasuo Build Guide by

★ Jakitsa's Yasuo ★

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Yasuo Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (98) More Yasuo Guides

Spells:

Flash

Teleport

Items

start

early

core (in this order)

lifesteal 4th item

defensive

full build

Ability Order

Yasuo Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Akali

Extreme

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

Hello Summoners, my name is Jakitsa, or some people may know me as "Yasuo Senpai". (Jakitsa lolking)
(Yasuo Senpai lolking)

I would really like your feedback and constructive criticism. PM for questions or your own info.
All the thanks go to jhoijhoi and her wonderful guide

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Easy farming
+ Manaless
+ Extremely low cooldowns
+ Block with
+ High mobility
+ High skill cap
+ Amazing passive
+ Best fedora tipping

Manaless champions always have an advantage in lane, spamming your abilities with no costs against MANA champions is just unfair, also is really good at teamfighting and doing amazing wombos with your knock up teammates. (love all of you players)

Cons

- Useless without items
- No built-in sustain
- Escaping relies on units
- Hard to master
- Magic Resistance doesn't scale

The weakest side of is his early game, you get the first DMG spike when you finish your first item; and you are going to get bullied in lane if you are against a ranged champion or someone like Sure blocks projectiles but its cooldown is around 20 seconds. High skill cap allows you to make amazing plays and when you get a hold of this champion, the laning starts to feel easy and pretty simple

Masteries

This mastery page is heavily offensive, if you are literally playing this champion for the first time, I recommend you taking your basic 9/21 setup for ex. , that way you wont get get harassed out of the lane and you have more time to practice your mechanics and basic stuff how this champion works, and not avoiding enemy artillery.

Why do you take Blade- and Spellweaving?
"To use both Spell and Blade weaving well, a champion needs to use both autoattacks and spells to damage enemies. This is even more enhanced with champions utilizing low cooldowns to abuse the higher spell damage more often without the 5-second-timer running out." These couple sentences are just screaming , these two masteries are absolutely mandatory. has 0.1 second cooldown late game and scales with attack speed and you can basically use it while moving every second.

OFFENSE TREE

Tier 1: is simple, you deal more damage, but you take more damage. It has more benefits for melee champions so you definitely want to pick this up. is much more useful than , your doesn't need cooldown and your only scales with your attack speed

Tier 2: - AD is nice, is not worth it because you don't deal AOE DPS

Tier 3: gives you a small chunk of damage and works like this; Damaging 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 you will deal 3% with your 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 but in the other way, if you for ex. use 3 times, your next AA will hit 3% more damage. Both of these masteries are IMO mandatory. Then gives you just a little bit more AD, my current mastery page doesn't really use this mastery, but instead I highly suggest taking even though it gives mana, it's still the most life saving mastery.

Tier 5: really suits . You will have close to 100% crit chance anyway so you're going to get 15% bonus attack speed at every fight. This will scale with your 's cooldown. 's magic penetration is not going to waste, don't forget that your and deal magic damage! Armor penetration is of course good, you still mainly deal physical damage.

Tier 6: A lot of people say that is bad and the bonus damage you get is so insignificant that it's not worth it. If you crit 1000 DMG, it's going to be bonus 30 DMG to that, WURFF!! ...

DEFENSE TREE

Tier 1: reduces basic attack damage by 2 and gives 2hp per 5 seconds, sounds like nothing but it's there :D. Pick these over because the build doesn't include much armor nor magic resistance.

Tier 2: is just a better version from , also melee champions have more benefit from this mastery (2>1). is your only option, unless you are jungling and want from this tier.

Tier 3: : +3% Maximum health, some people take either or because they think it's better, I haven't done the math but taking feels better, also it's more popular.

Runes

Greater Mark of Attack Damage: There's nothing really special about this one, Yasuo needs AD, thats obvious right?. Yes, can take 5x Greater Mark of Critical Chance and 1 Greater Seal of Critical Chance to get 100% critical chance with only Statikk Shiv and Infinity Edge. This is a great idea to get some early crit poke. With just 9x Greater Mark of Attack Damage your critical chance is 90% when you get your core items
Greater Seal of Armor: Really good against AD enemies and AP's are going to AA from time to time anyway, Greater Seal of Health's are really popular nowadays too, the best possible way to use those is to go 4x Greater Seal of Armor and the rest are Greater Seal of Health, except for one Greater Seal of Critical Chance to get 100% critical chance.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: I mostly go with these or 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist. Yasuo doesnt need cooldown so don't even think about getting Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction. Also Yasuo's magic resistance doesn't scale per level so getting it from runes is mandatory
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: Yasuo has a really awkward early game, Greater Quintessence of Life Steals are nerfed and are weak IMO but against some match-ups I take them. Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage's another replacement can be what I use in the TOP lane (check 3rd build). Basically because in the TOP lane there are more melee champions, the attack speed is for constant dueling... In the MID lane there are ranged squishies; so the bigger burst/poke from Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage is better.

Spells

: The most used summoner spell in the game and the best playmaker, you can't argue with that. Combine with your already over-mobile kit allows you to pull of some pretty sick plays and escapes with and .

: Really prefer this over every other summoner spell, but can be changed with or such to play safer in the lane. Chasing has never been easier due to it making the target visible and on top of that dealing nice amount of true damage.

: Other than TOP lane, I wouldn't pick this spell, MID lane is so short anyway and the timing has to be perfect when ganking or the entire spell will go to waste. If you want to play safe and help other lanes, then consider.

: Sometimes I use this just to **** with the enemy, wouldn't take it against a bursty champion, but someone who deals DPS with basic attacks can really be screwed when baiting with this spell.

: I feel like this spell is overlooked, you can make it work in some situations and win 1v1s more easily. You sacrifice some killing potential if switched with . It's its alternative if you feel like is too aggressive.

: Jungling? No? THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? Oh, you are jungling, well that's nice. Just pick up your and FarmVille until it starts flaming (), then you want to look for a gank. Look for knock up teammates such as that in the top lane.

Skill Set

> > >

Way of The Wanderer: 's passive has two parts: Intent and Resolve.

Intent: Critical strike chance is being doubled, but in the exhange they deal 10% reduced damage.
Resolve: Yasuo's resource bar is "Flow", if Yasuo get's hit by a champion or a monster the shield activates and consumes all the flow and shields Yasuo for the amount of Flow.

Steel Tempest: strikes 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 Gathering Storm stacks for 10 seconds.
You are going to want to max this ability first, since it's 's main damage source and it's really good for farming and poking. Low cooldown, scales of attack speed and costs nothing, but the range of is really short and without practice you can miss it really easily

Tips & Tricks

Steel Tempest has its attack speed cap at 66%
Yasuo's weakest state is when he has used his 3rd Steel Tempest
Try to Steel Tempest right after AA. This is not an AA reset but you will get the most damage out faster
Steel Tempest's knock up can really screw up the enemy jungler who is trying to gank
The circle you get around you when you have two stacks of Gathering Storm is the range of your whirlwind and the range you'd want to be to use your Last Breath

Wind Wall: 's has two parts: Passive and Active

Active:Yasuo creates a wall of wind blocking all enemy projectiles with the exception of tower hits for 3.75 seconds

Tips & Tricks

Using Wind Wall in the jungle's narrow paths can mess up a lot of thrown abilities
When going 1v1 against a marksman, use the Wind Wall between him and you, and when the enemy marksman moves himself through the Wind Wall to get some hits on you, use Sweeping Blade through him to rotate yourself to the other side again. Will make the enemy QQ I Garentee
If a fight is happening near minions, try to Sweeping Blade trough enemies and those minions as much as possible to generate more flow and to juke more skillshots
Wind Wall can't block abilities such as Lux's Final Spark or Xerath's Arcanopulse (abilities that are not "thrown"]

ABILITIES THAT CAN BE BLOCKED

Sweeping Blade: dashes in the direction of the target enemy, dealing 70 / 90 / 110 / 130 / 150 (+ 60% AP) magic damage. The speed of the scales with 's bonus movement speed.

Tips & Tricks

Each cast increases the next Sweeping Blade's damage by 25% up to 50%
You cannot dash into an enemy that has already been dashed, the circle around the enemy indicates how long the timer is. The more points you put into this ability, the lower the cooldown is for you to dash to the same target.
Use Sweeping Blade to catch up to an enemy if a chase is going on
Use an AA and Sweeping Blade right after it to maximize the trading potential

Last Breath: This is 's ultimate. blinks to the nearest visible airborne enemy champion to the cursor, 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.

Tips & Tricks

Use it at the start of a fight to maximize your bonus armor penetration
Combo your Last Breath with abilities such as Malphite's Unstoppable Force or Wukong's Cyclone
No need to save your Last Breath for the "big fight". The cooldown will drop down to around 20 seconds in the late game.
When the enemy is knocked up, he is going to stay there for a while... No need to rush and spam your 'R' Last Breath to get the suppress as soon as possible, try to wait the whole airborne time and use your ultimate at the last possible millisecond.
If you are really comfortable about your positioning and the possibility that you can hit your whirlwind. Use it after Malphite's Unstoppable Force and basically get the knock up suppress three times!

Items

START

This is really match up dependant BUT let's just say TOP Lane: and MID Lane: . is mostly used for tanks only, but I really prefer this over to help in the laning phase. The health regeneration is helpful to recover from those annoying ranged champions, and if that enemy triple shots you with , the damage will be reduced 3 x 8 = 24, due to this items UNIQUE Passive! Also, health potions are nice... There's nothing better to buy really. And I prefer over any other trinket, extra free ward for the dat bush.

EARLY

Early boots are nice to help to dodge those early game skillshots, and if you are against someone like who just can't stop spamming , then it's completely fine to take instead of .
is a really nice rush due to it's gold income and you are going to build a from it anyway. Also, I get at least one life steal item on so taking after is really convenient because it's used in every life steal item and early sustain is always nice.

CORE

I have played a lot of , and seen many people build differently. Builds where you build , and builds that don't even include and instead replace it with . This is a really controversial topic but I think that this core fits the best.
These are the most bought items on . is built ~97% of the time on (according to lolking) and combine that with and you'll have 90% critical chance to smack your enemies with.
Also, The bonus armor penetration from using functions differently from the armor penetration from in that it only effects bonus armor. It also is applied before other percentage penetrations, meaning that the formula when using and would be to remove 50% of their bonus armor, and THEN subtract 35% of their remaining total armor.

LIFESTEAL

Choose one, but which one? I personally prefer over
over , it's also the most viable route to go. I barely even touch but it's good, you can argue which on is better, or . I simply like for its wave clear and AOE damage. But I still prefer over everything; you can't be kited thanks to its amazing activate, works with its passive and the life steal is really nice.

Overall.

Blade of the Ruined King: 1v1 / Overall Great
Ravenous Hydra: Farming
Bloodthirster: Bursting

DEFENSIVE

just if you need more life steal than your life steal item, also it's a nice pick against AP champions due to its 55 magic resistance. is a nice pick against heavy AD teams. If they are trying to jump on you, or if you are trying to jump on them it's both ways a nice pickup. Try to use it on escaping enemies or when you are dropping the big dunk with your . is great against heavy CC teams who are trying to lock you down and those ****ing s. My standard pick is , it makes you feel less stressed in middle of the enemy team when you know that you will be back soon if you get focused. Also the mix of magic and armor resistance is nice overall.

2nd item: IE vs BoRK

BORK

+ Safer option
+ Life steal earlier
+ Kite / Chase
+ Maxes your 's cooldown
+ Passive works with
- Damage

You are going to buy them both, but the question is which one to go first!

Grants lifesteal while you're building it in laning phase, a ranged haste/slow, and maxes out 's cooldown. Allows you to spam and possibly tornadoes. In teamfights, it's not particularly great, but it makes it easier to land your tornado on a target, if you're right next to him.
In picks, is possibly better, by allowing you to slow down your target, which can allow teammates to follow up on your slow + whirlwind + ult.
, costing 3200g, is a bit cheaper and easier to build initially, and ' slow is easy to utilize when you get there..

+ HUGE powerspike
+ 100% crit (if crit runes)
+ So much better for team fights (can delete squishies)
- No Life steal
- Hard to build

Grants massive powerspike and 100% crit. Allows to destroy squishies in the mid game, but the only way for him to survive is to either leave the battle smoothly, or kill all of his enemies. He WILL have trouble no matter what he does, in a straight 5v5. There will either be bruisers or ranged carries hitting him, or if the team fight goes nicely they are dead...

In conclusion,
= safe picks
= huge damage in team fights 100-0 slaughtering (more experienced)
However, what happens in the LCS isn't necessarily the best for soloQ. You really need to carry yourself out of the elohell and "safe picking" isn't the way to go, you have to carry.
I personally go , the powerspike is just too damn high.

Laning / Fighting

Farming is important for , it's really easy with your and . Your already has a really low cooldown and your basically has none. And on top of all that they cost NOTHING. You could say that has a good early game and laning phase, it can come down to the skill, how do you dodge abilities, when you trade or harass. But mostly it comes down to the enemy. What counters ? I'll try to keep this simple and tell you the three champions I hate the most;

JAX Grandmaster at arms

AKALI The Fist of shadow

Soraka the banana

You can request a certain match up or tell me your info via PM or comments.
More matchups will be added soon™ (ill add only the meta top/mid champs in ABC order)

Aatrox is a champion who almost never loses a 1v1 duel, heals every 3rd auto attack and will heal 3 times as much if below 50% hp, has no sustain so this is a problem. Also hits like a truck if he tries to cheese you level 2. The match-up is most likely a stomp counter, but 's is extremely hard to hit; you can use your through to make him miss it completely. I would also recommend you getting really early to dodge . Play the lane really safely, freeze the lane and hope he pushes. There was a bug once when could use into because was "Airborne", that time was considered 's counter.

You can block his Blades of Torment
Sweeping Blade through him OR walk towards him to dodge his Dark Flight and then use Sweeping Blade through him again
You can't win trades, just harass him when you can so that he has to push, freeze, then farm

Easy as FUU*****K, it's is one of those champions who can fart everything into your , especially an because most likely she will be throwing everything at once if she goes in, but a smart player will rotate herself through the wall before casting ; right now it is really risky to use on to get yourself safe behind your , you will most likely get charmed while you're doing it. Use minions and buy first back, this lane isn't going to be difficult.

Harass her level 1-3
Wind Wall her Charm
At least after level 6 make sure if going all-in use your EQ whirlwind

If she uses ; dash away with minions. 's projectile speed is REALLY slow, so dodge it by just sidestepping, or with a . Basic laning goes like this; abuse her every time he misses and going all in requires you to hit your whirlwind from far away, then ulting her, after that you should use through her and facing her (because she will of course use EQ right where you landed). Really easy for you, awful for the bird.

Dash Flash Frost and Wind Wall her Frostbite
Harass; Sweeping Blade to a minion -> AA + Q + E -> then dash back with a minion (level 2 this takes half of her HP)
If you use Last Breath; dash away immediately because she is going to use Flash Frost where you landed

It's not easy, it's not hard. This guy hits like a mofo, can be pretty easily dodged with and has to get ed or else you will get oneshotinstabursted. The lane mostly tends to go FarmVille because he knows that you can dodge everything and crit the **** out of him. Difficulty 50-50

Level 2; If she hits and has leveled you will get zoned out right away. You would think that you can block but you can't. Just don't 1v1 her. Hope that she pushes and farm what you can. Try to roam a lot because laning is going to be a struggle, get early tier 2 boots.

It's always been a really controversial lane, I personally enjoy it because YOU CAN BULLY HER. Start and level 1 spam the **** out of it, with one or two critical strikes she is going to cry... Try to stay in the middle of your minion wave, she wont go all in level 1 (Dem minions hurt and you will hit hard with AA + Q) and probably not even level 2 if she is low. However take level 2 and when she uses her first you have to dash away, wait until it goes CD and harass her again, pretty simple but still beware... A very skilled can catch you out of guard and out trade you if you are misplaced. Level up your at level 7/8, you can block her with it or simply by juking with .
deals only physical damage so take 9x because you don't need MR (This will help with trading.. A LOT)
... Some people will disagree with this match up, you need to learn it and try for yourself.
Remember to be careful.

Build 2 Doran's Blades
Ninja Tabi is your best choice
Dangerous Game is mandatory
9x Greater Glyph of Attack Speed
Beware level 6 because you don't have Wind Wall. Extremely carefully hug your turret
Keep track of her cooldowns
ALWAYS use EQ whirlwind combo, you can't hit the normal one
Pray for the 10% critical strike level 1

MercyCutthroat

A very underestimated champion who has sick burst damage and nice AOE, very overlooked and not so popular but can still be very devastating in the right hands. Early levels he doesn't deal that much damage and you have to take advantage of that, you can win trades easily.
Using your at the right time saves you from the 's 2nd damage or the entire damage. Keep track of his cooldowns; is 10 seconds and cutthroat is around 15.
You can block 's entire ultimate if even one of the blades hits the , use it right when you know he is coming for you, then juke yourself around the with your .