Hey guys,
Yasuo recently came out and I have had a go at him, I personally did not like playing him mid or top since he can get bullied quite a bit so I tried him in the jungle, I'm only in Silver 1 at the moment but ever since playing him in the jungle my LP rose quite a bit so I am happy of where I am at the moment.

This is a personal build that I use myself I will accept any advice/criticism since I want to get better at this champion, since my ranked team is in Silver currently and I play the jungler role mainly just doing Vi and Shyvana and I wish to expand my champion pool.

So please judge as you wish and make comments on this build.

Pros:

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-He is a mobile champion (If used correctly)
-Fantastic Lategame
-Double Critchance
-Windwall (W) Is an amazing utility spell if used right
-Can synergize with most champions with some form of knockup

Cons:

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-Very squishy
-Prone to CC
-Prone to champions that can abuse windwall or bypass it
-No steroid
-Not much CC


Proof that it works in ranked play: (Silver atleast)
Noticeable Improvement:
This is an example from a Yasuo I played against in one game, then showed him my guide, and this is how much he improved, and he did well the game after that.
Changelog:
-21/12/13. More BBCode as requested, more item explanations included, improved matchups.
-22/12/13. More BBCode used, made Skill order chapter, improved items and item builds.
-23/12/13. Fixed a few grammatical error's and added the Key to Viktory chapter.
-26/12/13. Just fixed a few grammatical errors, and changed the Core build so that people don't see Trinket in the Guide directory.
-26/12/13. A few 'Gimic'y things, added Sejuani and Aatrox to knockups, Added Smartcasting to 'Key to Viktoryi' Chapter.
-28/12/13. Added a Disclaimer Chapter, fixed a Names not being in BBcode.

Yasuo is a champion that was made for the Solo Lane scene, although he has a decent clear time with the later ranks of Steel Tempest, he does not have the kit of any of the following: Sustain, Hard CC or Tankiness. What he does have however is amazing Utility and Damage Potential. Do NOT play Yasuo in the jungle unless you meet these conditions:
- You know the basics of Yasuo, jungling, and Yasuo Jungle.
- Your team atleast has 2 other champions with Knockup/Knockback.
- You are not in first picks [Ranked]

Reason why you don't play Yasuo in ranked when you are 1-3 pick, Counters, not only in lane but in the whole game, Leona, Lulu, Rammus and a majority of assassins can be real threats to Yasuo and can counter you easily, If you do get into one of these situations where you know jungle will not work, try to swap with one of the solo laners that has the potential to jungle like Diana, Zac or Lee Sin

Get it.. Viktor and Master Yi

The one thing you need to make Jungle Yasuo any good is... knockup's and I am not just talking about your own, you need to have a plentiful amount of knockup's on your team. Having knockup's on your team allows you to enter fights that you would be late on, and since your not ment to engage in the first place, having someone else go in a do it so you can join in would be the best situation for you.

Champions like: Malphite, Wukong, Janna, Alistar are all good picks for Multiple enemy knockup's and should be used to synergise with Yasuo, other champions with single target knockup's would work aswell for example Fizz, Lee Sin or Vi.

Without this sort of team comp, the effectiveness of Yasuo jungle can be unreliable, as with this team comp I believe he would be one of the best junglers there is, It all depends on your team comp, and how your team contributes to the fight.

Ontop of this, another important thing to note is... Smart Casting, I myself NEVER used smart cast on any champion except for Yasuo Since he is so smooth to play with if you are like myself and do not like to smart cast, Smartcasting Steel Tempest and Wind Wall is non negotiable

To put it simply, this smart cast will save you so much, Wind Wall is a must to smart cast, while Steel Tempest is near essential. Just click on the lighting bolts under the abilities key and click okay.

Best to begin with runes, as I stated before these are runes that I use personally, you may substitute for the runes you use since its according to your playstyle and etc. These runes are what I play and follow my playstyle.

You may ask me why there is no crit chance runes, and to be quite honest I prefer to have guaranteed damage and suitability in the jungle and I don't want to risk the chance of an invade, you get enough crit chance later on through your items anyways. I think that's the only thing that does in explanation on, the rune page is pretty standard, You could substitute in some lifesteal/critchance/movementspeed dependent on your playstyle.

Next up is masteries for Yasuo I just do my basic Masterypage that I run 21/6/3 giving him decent offensive, a bit of defense and the movement speed he was missing from the runes. Movement speed helps flowregen quicker so I just like the fraction of second quicker on the shield, It has saved me quite a few times when I was ignited.

For Yasuo I believe your skillorder means alot, and using your abilities right means life or death, you have to know when to Wind Wall and when to just take the damage,

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Yasuo's passive, This double's his crit chance strike, so if you get 5% crit chance from items, it doubles to 10%, This allows for a higher level of play, the second part of his passive allows him to replenish his Flow bar, for each step he takes, this makes movement speed and tenacity items a good choice on him, a Yasuo needs to take advantage of both of these parts of his passive to get the best result from his playstyle.

This is a tricky skill to get the hang of but easy to use, as a jungler you need to clear your camps fast, position yourself so you can hit every creep in the camp, This is byfar Yasuo's most useful skill as it can knockup your opponents for your ult to work, make use of this and max it as soon as possible.

By far Yasuo's hardest skill to use, you need to know when to use it and when not too, this skill can help you clear Redbuff, Wights and Wraiths but keep in mind its long cooldown, Max this last since it is your Utility skill but get an early point at around Lv.3-4.

#NinjaSkills, this is such a fun skill to use, yet it basically is the skill that will get you killed the most if you are not careful on using it, it deals little damage and should be only used as a gap closer or to grant the AoE Steel Tempest Max this second for the lesser cooldown, damage and #Ninjaskills.

Yasuo's ult is quite a unique one, Unlike Fiora's you are not invulnerable and you can still be damaged mid ult, so keep that inmind when trying to dive for a kill, this skill can be triggered by anyone on your team or the enemy's team, and its range is massive and has a short cooldown this skill is perfect with champions that have an AoE Knockup, Alistar, Orianna, Malphite, Wukong to only name a few. Get this skill at levels 6,11 and 16.

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Certain items and why I think they should be in the build or should be delayed for later game use.

Core Items:

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Berserker's Greaves is a must have on Yasuo it gives him that extra attackspeed, you could infact swap these out for Boots of Swiftness for all the purposes of your flow regen, but I believe greaves will be the best combat wise since your flow regen's pretty quick late game.

Spirit of the Elder Lizard, the ad offensive Jungle Item, since Yasuo is not much of a tank, he will need an offensive gold generating jungle item, why not the Elder lizard since he is ad after all? This is why I purchase this item.

Stakik Shiv is a wonderful item to have on Yasuo, increased movement speed, crit chance and the chain lighting passive are all amazing for him, this is a must have. This helps Yasuo clear much faster, I don't think this should be replaced whatso ever.

Blade of the ruined king gives bonus attackspeed, attack damage and lifesteal, Yasuo need some lifesteal since you just can't relay on raw crit as you will die far to quick in a fight. Blade of the ruined allows you to steal your enemies movement speed upon activation, this can be used as a gap closer or as an escape tool, you can substitute this item with another lifesteal item, but I personally like this one.

Optional Choices:

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Some of you may ask why this is far down the list, well in all honesty it isn't the cheapest item to buy and in lane it may be a good option to buy it, but while in the jungle you need items to suit that role better, Lifesteal, attack speed and gold generating items will far benefit him more than just pure damage and crit.

Yasuo is a squishy guy and will need some sort of health to keep him alive, this item is good for that, it will ensure that Yasuo gets atleast one combo of before he either dies or kills the opponents.

This item is absolutely crazy, the attackspeed and movement speed are just insane, this item at late game can replace you Spirit of the Elder Lizard, it is a great choice in terms of damage and escapeability.

This is one of those situational items when the enemy team is AP heavy or the enemy has a fed midlaner, for example a fed Fizz or Gragas this is the only reason why you should buy this item, as Randuin's Omen is a better choice in terms of health and resistance.

Its the whole team's job to ward, you may want to get a sigtstone early for wards and health. You can replace this at any time possible.

Trinkets:

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This saves time wondering if the brush your standing in is warded, you just clear the ward come back in at minute and gank, after being upgraded it can also give you a oracle buff for a short while, this helps out greatly against Teemo shrooms or unwanted wards.

This trinket only reveals a certain area for a certain period of time, its only good for those long range snipes from a Nidalee or Kha'Zix I would not recommend this item on Yasuo.

This is just a free ward, its a viable option to be more safer against invades and helps the team out with vision, but it doesn't last long until upgraded yet still a viable choice on Yasuo even though I prefer the Sweeping Lens

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Yasuo in the jungle may not have the best ganks, but alot he does have alot of potential, for example your 3rd q is a knockup, makes sure you have it up when you are just about to gank if you came from Wraith / Wight.

First Clear:

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Yasuo can start at either blue or red since he does not rely on mana, I prefer the extra damage from red so I start there, make sure you position yourself so your Q hits all 3 creeps and if you know that you won't get invaded or you don't have a Darius leashing you Smite it early so it comes off cooldown earlier, after you clear your first camp you want to level up as fast as possible, grab your wraiths (Not wolves ) and use your E-Q combo for AoE damage while trying to hit all the creeps with your Q. After you cleared wraiths head straight for your blue/red, this time saving your smite for the finishing blow just incase of an invade. Example:
By then you should of hit level 3, from there you can farm more and gank lanes that do need your help, but the thing with Yasuo jungle is that you need to have a team that has cc and can perform well against a range of opponents, a fantastic example is Malphite top, or Orianna mid, these two work extremely well with Yasuo and is highly recommended to be played with.

Mid Game:

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For your mid game, all you want to do is farm farm farm, and gank mid lane. Mid lane is your most important lane (Unless you have a non cc champion for example.. Nidalee, then focus on toplane) but never neglect your other lanes, for top lane, if you can't find a good time to engage just chase down the enemy top laner so that it pressures him to lose a bit of cs and exp. and for botlane if you can't engage at all just pop your face around and it will do so much for your team its unbelievable. Now for that Vision Ward, and where to place it.. simple.

By you placing one of the wards and your midlaner placing another thats 2 undying wards that the enemy team might not know about for atleast a good 10 minutes and provides FANTASTIC coverage. A good Vision Ward lasts a lifetime.

Late Game:

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Not much to say for late game, Be sure to never engage in a fight and let that job belong to your tank either that be your top/mid or your support. Yasuo should never, ever engage a team fight, that being said Yasuo should never go into a fight until the support has wasted its cc abilities if it had any. Be sure to Smite Baron and Dragon , keep the Vision Ward up and focus on squishy targets. Thats all that can be said.

This matchup section will not just be junglers but any champion that posses a threat to Yasuo in teamfights.

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Difficulty: 9/10 Synergy: 8/10 Reason: Lulu, she is like an anti assassin, not only does she have a shield, she has an INSANE slow, a Knockup/Health grant and if she gets a crucible she can heal and disable even more, she is truly a anti assassin, never go into teamfights until she has wasted her skills or else you will be the main target. -- Though if Lulu is on your team, she can knockup multiple enemies at the same time, giving your ult more use instead of just getting 1 or 2 enemies in your q, this is one of the many reasons why Lulu is an amazing champion to play with and an annoyance to go against

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Difficulty: 8/10 Synergy: 6/10 Reason: Riven, her kit directly counters yours, well maybe not counter but stomps yours, she can deal a real high amount of damage before you can even deal yours since you will be stunned, the only way to deal with her is if her stun missed you used previously other than that she isn't very tanky so you can deal with her, but banning her in ranked play would help you out ALOT. -- Having a Riven on your team means there is two giant powerhouse champions on there team, you won't have any trouble taking down some, but that would leave you without a proper tank unless you have a support like Leona or Taric, which in most cases isn't enough, Riven is good to play with but bear in mind, your team might be a bit too vulnerable to hard burst comps

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Difficulty: 7/10 Synergy: 7/10 Reason: Ganking him is a nightmare, and until you have your endgame kit he will destroy you in a fight, Renekton is one of those champions that can just build tanky, and deal huge amounts of damage, he also has a great set of utility skills, In order to gank him his stun and dashes need to be down, it will be alot easier if your toplaner has a form of hard cc, for example: Jax or Riven else you won't be able to do much to him. -- A Renekton on your team would be fantastic, even though he doesn't provide much in terms of knockups if any at all, he can fill the many roles that a team needs aswell, hard cc, tankiness and damage. He can engage and start fights which is something that a Yasuo player needs to have on there team. He would be a great champion to play with.

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Difficulty: 10/10 Synergy: 4/10 Reason: Rammus is godlike compared to you, if you think you can escape him, you are so very wrong, this champions can dominate you day in and day out, rhere is NOTHING you can do about him, you try anything funny he will just taunt you, You can't out damage him if he has ult up with a Sunfire Aegis and a Thornmail best just to avoid going against a Rammus at all costs -- A Rammus on your team is... unnecessary since you are the jungler and Rammus excels in the jungle, even though he has mobility tankiness and a taunt, its best not to have him on the same team as a Yasuo

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More to come as I experience more games.

This is just a list of champions that do provide a knock up that Yasuo can use, message me if I have missed any at all.

AoE:

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Single Target:

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Single Target that can become AoE:

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Some people are confused on what Trinket to take. So here is a quick explanation on whats the best way to use trinkets:
At level one take Stealth Ward so you get a free ward to save yourself from possible invades. After level nine you should take the Sweeping Lens so you can clear wards when you want to Dragon/Baron or just to gank. Since after level nine Stealth Ward doesn't get much of an improvement, you can also get a Sightstone so that the Stealth Ward is unneeded.

Hope this helps gives some insight for the Trinket matters.