Hello there, Summoners! This is my first guide on one of my top 3 favorite champions, Yasuo. I just simply wanted to give back to the League of Legends community and specifically the MOBAFire community for what it's done for me, so I've decided to make a guide.


Yasuo is one of my favorite champions for the following reasons: He has a very high snowball potential, his ultimate leads to some pretty amazing plays when combined with those of your teammates, and the fact that he has multiple layers of depth to his kit, making him a strong but difficult champion despite his reputation for stomping and snowballing in Solo-Queue. To me, Yasuo is a lot like snow skiing. He is relatively easy to learn and do okay with, but difficult to truly get to the point where you are considered great at playing Yasuo or even to have mastered him. So sit down, grab your popcorn, and I will try to give my knowledge of this Wanderer to you.

Pros:

• He has a very high snowball potential
• He is relatively strong in the early game
• He has a very strong late game
• His passive makes up for some of his squishiness
• He can move faster than Usain Bolt on steroids if there is a minion wave using Sweeping Blade
• All of his abilities have relatively low cooldowns, save his windwall
• He has a large AA range for a melee champion

Cons;

• He is very "feast or famine," so you can't catch up easily if you fall behind
• He is very item reliant
• CC counters him severely
• His mobility is reliant on if there is a creep or other enemy
• You need to know how to trade as him

• Fury : I choose this mastery since it gives bonus attack speed, which should help in the laning phase.
• Double Edged Sword : 3% bonus damage. Nuf said.
• Vampirism : It gives 2% lifesteal and spellvamp, which is nice for sustaining in lane.
• Bounty Hunter : You should be killing just about every enemy on the other team at least once, so that's 5% bonus damage right there.
• Battering Blows : Does anything more need to be said than, "7% armor penetration?"
• Warlord's Bloodlust : This keystone works great with the other parts of the page and build, for if you are low enough, that will equate to over 30% lifesteal against champions at level one. But otherwise, it's great sustain in lane.
• Recovery : It is better than Unyielding since you don't even build any/many defensive items.
• Tough Skin : It gives some nice flat AA damage reduction which is convenient in the early game, even if it does become useles mid-to-late game.
• Runic Armor : If you want to, you can take Veteran's Scars , but Runic Armor gives some nice bonus to your lifesteal and the shields from Bloodthirster and your passive.
• Insight : This is simply a solid 45 seconds off of your Flash and also provides cooldown on whatever other spell you take, but it is especially nice on Flash.

Alternate Masteries:

• Fury : I choose this mastery since it gives bonus attack speed, which should help in the laning phase.
• Double Edged Sword : 3% bonus damage. Nuf said.
• Vampirism : It gives 2% lifesteal and spellvamp, which is nice for sustaining in lane.
• Bounty Hunter : You should be killing just about every enemy on the other team at least once, so that's 5% bonus damage right there.
• Wanderer : This mastery provides some nice movement speed when out of combat, at somewhere between 10-13 depending on if you have completed boots or not. It can help you get back to lane or to roam.
• Assassin : It makes you deal 2% bonus damage when no allies are nearby, so it basically just makes you deal more damage in laning phase.
• Merciless : This allows you to finish off enemies faster basically, so they are less likely to escape with 15 health or something along the lines of that.
• Precision: This gives 9 armor penetration and magic penetration at level 18, so basically more damage.
• Stormraider's Surge : Finally to Stormraider's. I prefer this on Yasuo over Thunderlord's Decree since the added move speed after bursting people down is very handy to have. It allows things like tower dives to be easier since you can get out faster as well as making sticking to champs easier. Those are just two examples of why I use it, and if you want to use Thunderlord's Decree despite my preferences, then you play that way. This just suits my play style better.

greater mark of armor penetration
Now to talk about runes. I will now be explaining why I take each rune and comparing it to other runes that they are... well... comparable to in strength.

greater mark of armor penetration So, the armor pen marks. I prefer to use these since the effect late game is far better than AD marks since 8 or 9 AD doesn't do much late game, but 12 armor pen does. random shtuffs

Here, you could use something like flat armor, but that simply just doesn't have the effect on the mid game and late game that these do and he has enough harass deny with his passive shield.

With glyphs, there isn't much of an option based on AD champs, based on how the things that give AD stats are TERRIBLE with glyphs, we go with scaling MR since Yasuo doesn't have any MR scaling.

random shtuffs

Finally, the Lifesteal Quints. I use these since all in all, they give me 4.5% lifesteal, which is handy to heal up from some poke in lane or to help me survive in a teamfight since unlike flat AD, this is helpful throughout all phases of the game.

random shtuffs

Viable Alternatives:

• Greater Mark of Attack Damage: Although I don't personally prefer this rune, it can be used if you want to try something like an all in at level 6. Again though, it's power falls off into late game.
• Greater Seal of Armor: This is a viable option, but as previously listed, it doesn't do much more than block out harass, and your passive already does that when mixed with your lifesteal. I actually did the math, and if you start with a Doran's Blade, 3 lifesteal Quints, Vampirism , and Runic Armor , you start the game with 10.26% lifesteal.
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: This run can be used to help with the early game, but the thing is, most magic damage comes into effect in mid to late game, and scaling MR will already give more MR by level 8 or 9 and only proceed to extend its lead.
• Greater Quintessence of Critical Damage: This is a very overlooked rune and mostly forgotten, but it gives 4-5% damage on crits, which more than makes up for the reduction due to your passive, so don't forget about these when choosing your Quints.
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: There isn't much to say about this one, but it is nice since Yasuo is a mobility based champion and it helps him stick to the target. They are pretty decent, but I normally prefer lifesteal.

Recommended:
This is and has been the best Summoner Spell for a while now. I would elaborate, but you should probably understand why. I personally run this with Teleport or Exhaust.

Ignite is a very strong Summoner Spell on Yasuo since it gives extra kill pressure, making it easier to get fed early on.

If you are going top as Yasuo, are in a tough matchup, or simply desire greater map pressure, I would recommend this and run it with Distortion boots.

This can be used as a replacement for Ignite since it has both offensive and defensive capabilities. I personally like running this over Ignite.

All other Summoners are either pretty so-so, meh, or bad so I would recommend using the four listed above most of the time unless you personally love Ghost on Yasuo or something along the lines of that.

Now I know what you are probably thinking, and yes, you put 3 points in your E, Sweeping Blade before maxing your Q, Steel Tempest. Before you ignore this entire section, give me a chance to explain. You need to put 3 points in Sweeping Blade or even max it first early on to give you the needed mobility as Yasuo in the laning phase to dodge spells and get in and out for harass easily. At level one, Sweeping Blade has a cooldown of 0.5 seconds and people are marked for 10 seconds until you can use Sweeping Blade, but with it at level 3, it has a cooldown of 0.3 seconds and they are marked for 8 seconds, allowing you to use your Sweeping Blade on enemies more often to harass more and again, it gives you more mobility being able to use your Sweeping Blade on different minions more often by giving it a lower cooldown.


Now, the reason I max Steel Tempest first is simply that when trying to burst down a person/people, the cooldown to your Sweeping Blade is the equivalent of whatever the mark time is, just specific to specific enemies since the cooldown is practically nothing itself. You can get 3-4 Qs off on a target once your CDR from Attack Speed is maxed in the time that you could get 2 Sweeping Blades off.


On to Sweeping Blade, your E. It can be maxed first if you are up against something like an Ezreal or any other skillshot based champion since your W, Wind Wall, will not always be up to block projectiles. When you can simply use your E to dodge skillshots no matter the number of them coming at you, it is very handy. It is also convenient if you are up against something such as a Katarina and your Wind Wall is down, it is helpful to escape her ultimate, Death Lotus's range. These are of course just examples of when to max Sweeping Blade. It is normally used to give extra mobility near creeps, jungle monsters, or enemy champions.


Moving right along the chain, the next thing to talk about is Wind Wall. Your Wind Wall is entirely reliant on your skills of anticipation or reaction of oncoming projectile abilities. One example of how to use your anticipation skills is to get ready to press W as soon as you see Twisted Fate select gold card, then react as soon as you see the animation start. This is one of the most obvious ones though, since when Twisted Fate has his gold card selected, you know he is about to engage. You can do the same sort of thing when you are lets say running from a Zed and you see the animation for his Q, Razor Shuriken begin, Wind Wall right in front of you. It is very useful in stopping any and many other projectile attacks, even ones that don't seem like projectiles, such as Poppy's ultimate, Keeper's Verdict. These are just examples after all since there are way too many abilities to list off that are projectiles. Maxing it isn't too important since either way, you get your wall and it doesn't give offensive stats, and come on people, Yasuo is an assassin who needs damage.


The final ability to talk about is Yasuo's ultimate, Last Breath. Like almost every ultimate ability in the game, a point should be put in it at any opportunity. It deals huge damage at a solid 400 base damage at level 3 as well as scaling with 150% of your bonus AD. It extends knock ups and can chunk an enemy out with ease. It provides a huge 50% bonus armor penetration, so if a champ is stacking armor, they now have their main tool now taken away and if they have no armor, this is dealing a detrimental amount of damage. Use this in combination with his third Q (obviously) or even better, with an ally who has an AOE knock up such as Alistar's Pulverize.

Statikk Shiv is extremely important on Yasuo, being that when paired with IE it gives 100% crit chance, it gives some nice attack speed, so at level 18 with this item alone, Steel Tempest will have maxed CDR on it. The wave clear and speed also compliment Yasuo's kit perfectly.

Mercury's Treads are great on Yasuo since he is extremely vulnerable to CC, but you can trade them out for Ninja Tabi if you aren't up against hardly any CC. They are all around just great boots, though.

Bloodthirster is a relatively standard item on him since it gives some good lifesteal, the 75 AD it gives nicely works with your 100% crit chance, and the overheal can make up for some of your squishiness. It can be traded out for a BORK if the enemy team is full of tanks, though.

Infinity Edge is all around a great item on any crit champ, especially Yasuo, since as listed before, it gives 100% crit chance with Shiv, it makes up for your decreased crit damage from you passive, and who doesn't want more AD?

Lord Dominik's Regards is a great item if the enemy has any sort of tanks since it cuts through their armor and also punishes them for stacking health. Don't build it if they have several glass cannons, but it is a great item all around.

Guardian Angel is a great item on Yasuo since it provides some great resistances mainly, but the passive allows you to make some mistakes and just barely escape with your life.

There are a few other things worth mentioning, so I will do that right here.

• I recommend building Shiv into Cloak of Agility into Bloodthirster, then buying IE.
• Sterak's Gage should normally be used if you are behind or if you are against a pick composition. It is only decent however, based on how Trinity Force isn't built in this guide unless you are building Duelist Yasuo. I do recommend it on Duelist Yasuo.
• Remember to build based on the matchup. Although this seems obvious, a lot of people, especially in lower ELO, use the same build for all games.
• If something doesn't suit your playstyle perfectly, don't be afraid to mix things up a little!

Combos:

• Your standard combo for harass in lane is to get two Steel Tempests off on the enemy minions so you have your knockup ready, then Sweeping Blade and Steel Tempest the enemy champion. These abilities will combine to give you an AOE knockup at the position of you, the champion. Next, get one or two auto attacks off on them before using Sweeping Blade on an enemy minion to get away.
  
• The standard all in combo for Yasuo is to get your knockup off on an enemy chapion with the third Q, then run up and E them. If you have high attack speed and movement speed, then auto attack and use your ultimate, but if you don't just hit Last Breath. Get another Q off and just simply stick and do what damage you can with more Steel Tempests and auto attacks after your ultimate is finished.. Ignite can be thrown in at the end or Exhaust can be used after your ultimate is finished.

Misc. Tips:

• You can kill caster minions under tower with an AA then a Steel Tempest.
• Yasuo's mobility is as important as the blade he carries. Get gold carded, and you are as good as dead. This is why Mercury's Treads are important. But next time, instead of blocking a high damage spell with your Wind Wall, consider blocking out a long CC. One example is that you should block a maxed AP Twisted Fate's gold card, not his Wild Cards (sorry about another Twisted Fate example) during a fight.
• An effective way of ganking from mid lane is to come out from the jungle when you tell your team to let the enemy push. Sweeping Blade to one of the enemy's caster minions and collapse in on the enemy from both sides. They will be pressed up against your team's tower, so they will have a ways to run.

In conclusion, I would like to thank each and every one of you for reading my guide. I hope this helps you when playing this ridiculously fun and complex champion and that you learned something from this. May the speed Usain Bolt on steroids be with you all on the Rift. Goodbye, Summoners.

I would like to give a special thanks to both jhoijhoi with Making a Guide, the guide on, well, making a guide, and to Laggermeister with the Ten Commandments of Writing a Guide.

FAQ

• Nothing at the moment!

• 2/8/16 - Added Sterak's Gage as an optional final item.