Welcome to my way of building and playing Yasuo. I am a diamond player and found Yasuo to be one of my favorite champions, even after his "nerfs". I enjoy playing Yasuo as he does indeed require more knowledge to play such as using his abilities correctly, and knowing when to use his ultimate.

What is Yasuo? He is a mobile fighter who deals a huge amount of upfront damage due to the items which sync perfectly with his kit. He can 3 shot an adc with ease with the build above. He can clear minions at exceptional speeds, being able to use his Sweeping Blade combined with Steel Tempest to one shot half a minion wave, basic attack, repeat for the next part to clear it in around 2 seconds. With Statikk Shiv Yasuo can push like a monster due to Sweeping Blade counting as movement for the charges. Yasuo is deceptively tanky thanks to his shield which late game shields for a whopping 510 damage, which gets reproced if he lands his ultimate. Yasuo has one of the best team fight ultimates in the game as it is a knock up, meaning it will always have the same duration regardless of tenacity, Last Breath even allows Yasuo to IGNORE 50% of bonus champions armor.

Yasuo in my eyes is essentially a melee adc with some hard cc, thus he can effectively engage fights, and do huge amounts of damage. He excels in burst and dps so regardless if someones squishy, or tanky, they will die.

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Master Yi - http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/wuju-need-a-guide-indepth-5-22-411808

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Season 8 runes have been reforged!

So... Let's begin!

Yasuo has received a lot of indirect buffs and direct buffs, so let's see what we're working with!


Keystones!

Is probably the best rune on Yasuo so far, it has been recently added in patch 8.6 and allows 20% of his damage to be convered into true damage as well as granting him AD that scales with level. Remember, this is ALL damage including his ultimate, Sweeping Blade and Steel Tempest This allows him to easily deal with tanks much easier, but still kill squishies due to the AD he gains. Yasuo has a huge damage spike with 2 items, he can easily 3 shot squishies without even needing the rune. This rune solves his weakness vs tanks.

is actually very strong once you get enough stacks, but it takes a while to stack and can be risky as you need to damage to opponent who is below 50%, also this rune has been nerfed too many times to be viable in season 9, and you may as well take Electrocute which in itself isn't that good on Yasuo.

is actually very strong when playing against tanks as it allows you to heal off trades and become tankier for free, you'll naturally become stronger as the game goes on, and it allows you to outrade your opponent.

is insane as it grants us 40-110% attack speed scaling with level once we wait 1.5 seconds after damaging an enemy champion, this is insane as it allows us to exceed the attack speed cap so long as we keep attacking champions as this effect lasts 3 seconds, but can be extended to 6 is quite strong. This rune in my opinion isn't good on Yasuo because when you ultimate somebody after knocking them up, you're consuming your keystones timer.

in my opinion, one of the best one on yasuo as it's easy to proc, and grants us bonus damage as well as having a much lower cooldown, but isn't as good as other options, but is very good in short exchanges.

Grants sustain and movement speed, very good vs poke lanes as it can help you survive, received a nerf in which critical strikes no longer do bonus healing thus making this rune much weaker.

gives your boots an active portion and is a very useful keystone as it allows us to pretty much get a pick on the map as soon as we see an opportunity as it grants us 45% movement speed for 15 seconds granting huge mobility and an on hit damage proc at the sacrifice of dps and early game keystone usage.

Free money everytime you q or auto attack? No mana cost abilities so virtually no cost to using this? Gives free elixers, cash, wards and more for free? This let's us hit our spike much sooner and is easy to proc on melee champions. However our dueling becomes much weaker, and some champions it becomes risky trying to proc this rune off.

Rune choices - Precision:

Tier 1:

Triumph is basically a stronger version of Dangerous Game that only restores health, but this grants a small gold bonus of 20, that means if we get multiple kills, the gold can add up.

Overheal is lack luster as it requires you to have a lot of life steal, this can be useful in situations you build a Bloodthirster as the healing could stack, but Triumph is much stronger in fights.

Presence of Mind you don't use mana, so useless.

Tier 2:

Legend: Alacrity The reason we choose this is because this mastery works gives us free attack speed, thus lowering Steel Tempest cooldown

Legend: Tenacity This grants us obviously tenacity, use this when you're against hard cc, pretty simple.

Legend: Bloodline offers small amount of life steal, not very good imo but can be useful in poke matchups, and syncs well with Overheal

Tier 3

Coup de Grace offers us free AD on takedown although stacking only once, and offers extra damage on champions 40% health or lower, and out of all the runes, this one is the easiest to proc in my opinion and is the strongest at 10% extra damage.


Domination

Taste of Blood I like this as it grants us healing when we poke champions with our Steel Tempest whether it is a tornado or not.

Sudden Impact Gives us lethality when we use Sweeping Blade as it is a dash, pretty self explanatory

Zombie Ward offers us a free ward whenever you kill an enemy ward, and whenever your yellow trinket wards die! This gives us the ability to survive ganks in lane and insane utility, it's been toned down but still pretty good.

Relentless Hunter offers us insane out of combat movement speed allowing us to get to fights quicker, but obviously, we're a laner so this isn't too useful.

Ingenious Hunter Syncs well with Zombie Ward as it reduces our active cooldowns and allows us to place more wards, as well as that Blade of the Ruined King also gets reduced.

Ravenous Hunter Basically offers us healing on our abilities. Our q will only heal us only on the second and beyond hit, this includes our tornado. In my opinion quite can help with sustain when you don't buy a life steal item.

Sorcery

Nullifying Orb in my opinion situational but very strong indeed, use vs burst mages like Syndra

Celerity Gives us extra movement speed based on current move speed buffs, sadly yasuo has none, thus is currently useless, used to be better pre-changes.

Absolute Focus is pretty good when you have Fleet Footwork as you can keep your health up to gain free AD.

Gathering Storm basically free scaling, and free stats. Enough said already, if the game drags out, this can give a lot of AD. This rune becomes good at 20 minutes and strong at any point passed 30.

Overall, sorc tree in my eyes domination and resolve will be the best tree to go for.

Resolve

Bone Plating nullifies burst and early game trades by up to 60 damage early, and scaling to 150 late. This helps you out a lot early game, and can potentially save you.

Demolish or Shield Bash Demolish will help you take towers, shield bash sadly isn't that good as yasuo's shield takes a long time to appear, as well as very easy to break.

Second Wind Use vs matchups which involve a lot of poke such as Pantheon Teemo etc. Conditioning is isn't that useful as you don't typically stack armor and magic resistance.

Overgrowth Quite good now as it gives flat hp as well as a % increase when fully stacked, but it can give us around 100-300 health late game which can be useful and syncs with grasp of the undying very well.

Inspiration

Perfect Timing free stopwatch, saves 300 gold on guardian angel and reduces the cooldown of the item by 15%, enough said. This item allows for a lot more risky plays and gives you a one time use of stasis although on cooldown for 300 seconds at the start of the game. Can be good vs certain champions e.g Zed

Biscuit Delivery is the best and safest choice as it grants us free sustain at no cost.

Future's Market Very strong as it allows you to buy your items early, although for a small fee of 50 gold per use, can BE VERY oppressing if you're ahead.

Hextech Flashtraption Mostly used for flashing outside a brush for a jump scare, but as a laner, it has limited uses as it can't be used in combat.

Magical Footwear gives us free boots at 10 minutes saving us 350 gold overall after we upgrade as we get a discounted 50 gold when upgrading, on top of that giving us 10 more movement speed than regular ones. Essentially gives us a kill worth of gold after 10 minutes, but we can't buy boots prior.

Time Warp Tonic Sadly isn't that good, but can potentially be used for baits as it will instantly heal half of the total health potion.

Secondary best option? I find domination and resolve to be the best.

The adaptive stats from runes are usually the same in all matchups and don't really make a large difference, if you're vs a range ap champ, going hp can help as it will make you a bit tankier, you can go magic resist to reduce burst, and armor to reduce basic attack damage.

Useful spells to take

Use this 100% of the time as it's too good. Being able to escape bad situations or secure kills.

Use this if you feel you don't need any other defensive summoners, and you want to play aggresive, this gives you kill pressure and can save your life thanks to Triumph

Good against match ups where you'll be forced out of lane a lot, and can be used to roam even more effectively by Teleport ganking bot for example. Adds a lot of pressure as well as if you get forced out, or even killed, you can teleport back without missing a lot of creeps.

Okay spells

Useful against high burst assassin type champions such as Kha'Zix Fizz Rengar LeBlanc and a few more, generally better than Ignite but can be harder to time, hence is useful based on your skill level.

Not really that useful, but good for baiting under tower, or useful for tanking Ignite

Same as Barrier, but the movement speed can be useful. Heal isn't as good due to a lot of laners running ignite, and if you're ignited, half the effectiveness of heal along with Barrier able to shield for more damage

Bad spells, but not useless.

Rubbish, Flash is better, there's no situation where Ghost would be better then Flash unless long chases, and if you need mobility, your Sweeping Blade is enough]

Completly rubbish, and never use:
All other spells.

Overall Phantom Dancer is still the go to on Yasuo and he's still pretty decent. Frozen Mallet is a very good second option as it makes matchups yasuo struggles with later on much easier for example Fiora Tryndamere Jax as he can kite them, and their only counter play is either build the same item themselves, or have some sort of slow and being able to one shot you.

Rushing defence items after you complete your core isn't a bad idea as you'll be harder to kill but still deal insane damage, Dead Man's Plate Randuin's Omen Sterak's Gage or if you're against an ap heavy team Hexdrinker After Frozen Mallet is complete it will make you impossible to fight, however Frozen Mallet will also make it impossible for them to escape you whilst offering you beefy stats.

Your final item ranges from: Blade of the Ruined King , Quicksilver Sash Sterak's Gage Maw of Malmortius

Sterak's Gage is my favourite defensive item as it gives anti burst properties, and nice AD, however this only applies when building 2 or more hp items due to the changes as it now scales with BONUS hp.

Last Whisper has now two upgrades but it now only ignores bonus armor, your new Infinity Edge is able to help you shred tanks combined with Conqueror

Start item explanation:

Doran's Shield is a cost effective item, and gives you a lot of innate sustain which doesn't require you to hit a minion, you heal 1.2 health every second, and heals you 2 health per second for 10 seconds overall granting you 20 health if the enemy damages or hits you once, very strong vs dot champions as you'll heal a ton. This item is overall weaker in all ins however vs poke it's an excellent choice, it also got cheaper.

Cloth Armor is also a decent start if against champions like Riven Pantheon and Renekton allows you to trade, and heal up thanks to the 4 Health Potion You can also go Refillable Potion but it is a tad more riskier but more cost efficient.

Doran's Blade good start if you want to play aggressive as you'll have plenty of sustain and it gives decent starting AD.

Cull This item actually gives more hp per auto than Doran's Blade however you lose out on the +80hp and also falls off as an item, however will grant you money back when you finished csing.

Boots If you feel confident and they have a lot of skill shots, you can use this to be able to juke a lot of their skills and abilities. Mobility is the most under rated stat, however you suffer with lack of damage and tank stats.

As soon as you hit level 9 upgrade your trinket to the blue one, this trinket gives you so much vision and is such a safe trinket. You do not ward jump thus yellow isn't needed.

Boots to choose from? Situational. If you want to be mobile and they lack cc, Boots of Swiftness is an excellent choice, if you're vsing an AD laner Ninja Tabi is good, there's no wrong choice unless you build Mobility Boots as in my opinion they suck, and are too easy to turn off. Ninja Tabi is going to be your choice of boots when faced against ad auto attackers due to the passive being overpowered.

Frozen Mallet is an excellent item for Yasuo as not only does it provide tanky stats and somewhat decent AD, it makes it impossible to escape him and makes certain match ups almost unberable for the opponent e.g. Singed struggles to run even with rylais slow, Tryndamere can't reach you due to the constant 40% slow so you can infinitly kite him, Fiora can only hit you with q casts, and finally big tanks who have no gap closers can't really do much against you on their own.

Trinity Force is no longer core and other times are much better to build at the moment.


This is a very typical end build for yasuo and is quite solid - Phantom Dancer Frozen Mallet Infinity Edge Blade of the Ruined King Ninja Tabi Dead Man's Plate

Situational items for this build - Sterak's Gage, Mercurial Scimitar Replace Boots Guardian Angel with any situational boot item.

Abilities

His passive which has a double effect. First giving a shield which scales with level. You can gain a shield by moving, using your Sweeping Blade and even recalling counts as movement for it. Also using your ultimate will instantly refill it to full. Second part is intent which gives you double critical strike chance at the cost of 10% of your critical damage. So you will deal 180% extra damage instead of the usual 200%, and 225% if you have an Infinity Edge rather than the 250% AKA 1.8x, 2.25x.

His Q, max first due to Sweeping Blade getting nerfed. This ability scales with attack speed, which means more attack speed results in a lower cooldown capped at 1.33. This can apply on hit effects and will critically strike. If you land two consecutive strikes with it, you will be able to use a projectile like tornado, however beware, it comes out slower and NOW APPLY ON HIT EFFECTS, so life steal will now finally proc, however it can still critically strike. Also finally, this ability has a built in critical strike modifier, which means the more AD you get, the less your critical strikes crit for so eventually, your basics will do the same damage as your Steel Tempest so keep a look out for that, it's around 330 AD when your basics will do more damage.

His W Self explanatory, blocks projectiles, however it can be used to grant vision over walls, say for example the chicken camp which allows you to Sweeping Blade over for either a cool juke, or to farm. This ability will stop almost any projectile no matter how close it is to hitting you, so you need to be on point on your reactions. Either put a point in it third or fourth depending on match ups.

His E. Max second as they nerfed the base damage of this ability by quite a lot., This ability has a very low cooldown but can only be used once placing a mark on the target which goes gradually gets removed, you can tell when you cannot dash to the target when they have a ring around them. This ability can be used to go through walls if spaced correctly, and can even go directly through walls if the target is behind walls. You can go through the following walls: Krug wall, chicken wall, blue buff wall and wolves. You can use your Sweeping Blade to go through more walls if positioned but those are the 100% can go through and not dependent on a champion being present. You can also use your Steel Tempest during the Sweeping Blade animation for an aoe damage ability which can also knockup if you have 2 stacks, use this to land your ultimate as they cannot avoid it unless they walk in the opposite direction, or if they dash/flash. Also another thing is when you use your E when your q is around 0.5 second until it's on cooldown, it will automatically refresh which is a bug, however has been there since release, this bug also is key to maximizing yasuo's damage, this bug is similar to zeds shadow bug in which he could cast his abilities first, then use the shadow giving them less time to react.

His R. High damage, low cooldown aoe knockup. Game changing ability as it is a massive displacement which can only be used on airborn targets, and can even but used on multiple ones. Yasuo requires to be in range, but blinks to the targets so walls do not matter as long as you're in range. Tips I can give is that during the end of it, you can use Steel Tempest and they will be forced to take this unless they flash as soon as they land. Do not ultimate right away if you knock them up, basic them while they're in the air for maximum damage and if you landed a max range tornado, you can actually dash and use the aoe q, before using your ultimate for maximum damage.

should be your first point as it will allow you to farm safely. You can also start with Sweeping Blade if you want to try for an all in, however nerfs will mean you do less damage. Maxed first as it provides a more safer poke source of damage whereas Sweeping Blade is more risky but more damage. Steel Tempest maxing will also increase amount healed due to more damage being dealt.

No longer maxed due to nerfs of his base damage, q overall does more damage. This ability allows you to dash through units, and can even allow you to dash through walls if you angle it properly, generally use to buy time for Steel Tempest stacks when kiting backwards, and just escape/chasing. If you cast Steel Tempest as you use your dash, it will transform it an aoe circle, this is very useful as it means the enemy will find it much harder to dodge, if vsing Ezreal and other champions who have dashes.

put a point in at level 3, even if your laner has no projectiles, reason is you may get ganked and die because you couldn't windwall the junglers ability, or even the support may gank. Also you may be able to actually use it to escape sticky situations due to it granting vision even over walls. This can also be used to animation cancel and buffer the Steel Tempest in the Wind Wall animation allowing him to cast it faster, and hide the animation. To do so simply cast Wind Wall and then activate Steel Tempest this will make it difficult to dodge, and harder to see as well as quicker to cast.

Put a point whenever available which is: 6, 11, 16.

Pro's:
+ High damage output thanks to double critical strikes
+ Very mobile due to his Sweeping Blade having a 0.1 second cooldown at max rank
+ No costs on abilities
+ Has slightly higher auto attack range than most melee champions
+ Can trade well, and can be deceptively tanky with his shield.
+ Most game changing ultimate in the game if used correctly
+ Low cooldown on all abilities, even his ultimate
+ No longer banned as often due to meta shifts
+ Considered weak thus often under estimated due to his high skill cap.
+ His Wind Wall blocks projectiles and can completly deny an enemy team, the only other champion that can do that is Braum but he only completely absorbs the first hit whereas Wind Wall blocks an unlimited amount

Cons:
- Weak to cc
- If abilities used incorrectly, can be left vulnerable
- Requires knowledge of match ups, and must know how to trade.
- Has no proper reliable cc as his only cc's require knockups, or stacks which dissipate quite quickly
- Needs a minion/person to use escape effectively.
- Squishy
- Needs to know how to team fight
- High skill cap

Yasuo can trade very well if done properly due to his shield. His shield will allow you to win most trades, so try to force small trades as these will be in your favor, but try to avoid long trades until you get a few items as Yasuo has very weak extended trades due to his Sweeping Blade having a long cooldown on the target, on top of having low base hp. This changes based on match up knowledge e.g. Renekton is known as an infamous Yasuo counter however if his spells are on cooldown, you win as your q has a lower cooldown.

Trade with a basic attack, fully stacked Sweeping Blade by ensuring you last hit with it without taking damage if possible, Steel Tempest use Sweeping Blade on a minion to get out, and if you had your shield up, you should instantly win the trade by at most taking maybe one ability, and an auto attack. Use Steel Tempest stacks to deny the enemy from farming or getting close.

All in combo: Sweeping Blade Steel Tempest with full stacks, auto attack, Last Breath Steel Tempest basic attack, and use Sweeping Blade if they're still somehow not dead to finish them off. Ignite should be thrown somewhere in there, use common sense when to use it.

You should also note, that if you land a Steel Tempest tornado from the distance, you will have enough time to be able to Sweeping Blade Steel Tempest combo just as they land still Last Breath your target, this ensures maximum damage, but this also requires execution so use this technique at your own discretion

Self explanatory, use Steel Tempest to farm as it is one of the few long range melee abilities which give life steal allowing him to farm at a distance, and use your Sweeping Blade to make it do more damage by last hitting if possible. If under tower, you should be able to cs with ease as you can auto, and use Sweeping Blade to finish of the casters, and if the melee is low enough hp that the tower would kill it, you can auto, Steel Tempest and Sweeping Blade to secure it.

Champions which make Yasuo very scary:

Malphite self explanatory, but yeah, his ultimate is really quick, and if the enemies are all grouped up, you will pretty much ace them.

Vel'Koz probably the most broken combo in the game. His e will knock up all enemies in its path. If Yasuo lands a Last Breath, vel'koz gets a fully channeled Life Form Disintegration Ray dealing around 2-3k damage depending on his ap, with a lot of it being true damage, not to mention whatever damage yasuo did. Early levels landing this will instantly win a team fight. This can be looked overpowered considering the ease of landing it, but it's balanced due to vel'koz being quite squishy and him needing to be in range.

Alistar is very strong for setting knock ups however you need to wait before committing and see who's knocked up or whether he's failed the combo or not as you do have time before using your ultimate.

Lee Sin if you get a gank from this guy, there is almost a 95% chance you will kill your target, just because of the fact Lee Sin Dragon's Rage does a ton of damage, and combine that with your Last Breath and that alone should take 40-70% of the laners health. You should also be aware not to ultimate right away when he hits multiple people, wait a little bit, and then ultimate to ensure all the targets are hit by your ultimate.

Vi not as broken as the other champions but still pretty good as her q and ultimate can be used to knock enemies up, as well as her utlimate being point and click so locking down targets can be easy.

Wukong excellent as he can go invisible and knock up quite a few people whilst dealing huge damage, if you can land a 3/4 man ultimate this can win you a fight.

Blitzcrank You can ultimate on his pull, and his e, quite simple.

Thresh you can ultimate on both his Death Sentence, and his Flay allowing for sweet plays, and if by chance you're not in range, you can get lanterned in, which looks quite cool

Orianna very strong, and devastating due to the huge amount of damage, forget the crowd control introduced because of this. You can even initiate as Yasuo with the ball on you, and one shock wave will just destroy them.

Diana isn't as good as the others due to the risk involved and the fact her e range isn't as big, but very strong combo if successful.

Azir is a very strong combo with Yasuo if he can get the whole enemy team hit by that wall, the damage is almost impossible to survive.

Cho'Gath Rupture is pretty strong but the follow ups can be a bit limited as it is tricky to hit, if Yasuo uses his ultimate it can end up getting him killed due to Rupture having quite a long range and your team not being ready to follow up with as it is a ranged knock up.


For the lulz
Darius yeah, his pull is basically a death sentence if Yasuo uses Last Breath on this.

There's three main type of mechanics that you can work on with Yasuo

q flash, this will extend the range of both your tornado Steel Tempest and the melee one. To perform, press q and instantly flash.

Using e to reduce q cooldown - when your q is around 0.4 seconds till the ability is back up, you can use your e, and you'll be able to cast q, this is useful when kiting in minion waves, or generally dueling, or even getting quick tornado stacks. The exact time is 0.5 but doing it at exactly 0.5 is VERY hard, and half the time you can't even tell if you did it correctly at 0.5, thus 0.4 is safer plus if you mess up, it could end you making you lose a fight.

Airblade - With tornado ready, use e cast q, and just slightly after pressing q, flash in the direction you wish to transfer the knockup, very useful as it's surprising and pretty cool to see.

Video of me doing these in depth -
Play Video

4.18 - His Base hp 462 from 512, movement speed got reduced to 340 from 350

patch 4.21

Base movement speed increased to 345 from 340.
Q cooldown now 4 seconds at all ranks

Patch 5.8

Flow generation reduced to 1 stack per 59 / 52 / 46 units from 1 per 46 at all levels.
Shield strength increased to 100 - 510 (based on level) from 60 - 470 (based on level). Overall buff

Patch 6.18

His ultimate nerfed, now only gives armor ignore debuff on critical strikes

Base attack speed increased to 0.67 from 0.658.
Attack speed growth reduced to 2.5% from 3.2%.

Basically, stronger for first 3 levels, gains less attack speed overall meaning he doesn't hit the 1.33 q cap with just phantom dancer and 13% attack speed anymore. Now needs an additional 20% attack speed.

Patch 7.2

His Sweeping Blade lost a lot of base damage and got a bonus AD ratio to compensate, you'll need 200 AD to gain the damage lost on this ability, also creeping is a bit harder.

Patch 7.5!

Blade of the Ruined King has been changed, overall this shouldn't make much of a difference but in my opinion it's clearly a nerf because the active used to be steal 10% of opponents maximum health, and gain that back as health, whereas the current active is simply do flat 100 damage. Overall I'd say your damage output hasn't changed much, if not slightly more damage due to extra 15 AD which translates to around 50 more damage per hit.

Patch 7.9

Banshee's Veil has been reworked into an ap item thus you should never buy it anymore, tank items overall are weaker, thus itemising damage items that offer hp such as Black Cleaver and Frozen Mallet is actually legit. Guardian Angel builds from a bf sword making it a possible rush item due to the nice stats it offers vs AD champions.

Sterak's Gage has been nerfed for champions that don't build hp but when combined with Frozen Mallet overall isn't changed much, you lose around 100hp or so in exchange for an extra 5-10% BASE ad.

Yasuo now gains magic resist per Level, huge buff in mid lane.

Patch 7.11

Blade of the Ruined King now has less life steal, not a big deal.

Ninja Tabi once again has been reverted to 10% armor, still a good item, overall in long duels, you'll probably take like 100 more damage.

Patch 7.12 -

His Steel Tempest stacks only last for 6 seconds now which is a HUGE nerf, he lost a lot of pressure plus this also includes stacks before gaining the tornado, forcing him to push more if he wants tornado stacks, and also allowing people to play more freely knowing that his tornado will no longer last as long.

Crit item changes affect his damage and spiking as he no longer can do a lot of damage.