Welcome to A Beginner's Guide to Yasuo, the Unforgiven. This guide aims to provide players new to Yasuo with some general tips on how to play Yasuo and some of the build paths you can choose.

An Overview of Yasuo

Yasuo is a high-damage fighter who excels at extended fights. Using low cooldown abilities with no resource cost, Yasuo sweeps across the battlefield swiftly and cuts down everyone in his path.

Yasuo is more difficult to learn than other resourceless champions because of his ability interactions and his weak early game. However, if you put in the time to learn this champion well, Yasuo can be a terrifying force on the Summoner's Rift.

Pros:

100% critical strike chance off of two items!
Resourceless champion with low cooldown abilities
Has one of the most devastatingly powerful ultimate abilities when used with your team
Wind Wall negates any projectile ability in the game

Cons:

Extremely weak early game
Low health and resistances make Yasuo an easy target for a fed assassin
Crowd control hampers his ability to properly fight
Dependent on knock-up crowd control abilities to use his ultimate

Before we talk about items, masteries, and runes, it's best to understand Yasuo's basic abilities.

Passive:

Way of the Wanderer

Intent: Yasuo gains double the critical strike chance from all sources but his basic attacks and Steel Tempest respectively deal 90% and 75% damage when critically striking.

Resolve: Yasuo generates a Flow stack for every 59 / 52 / 46 units he travels by any means. At 100 stacks and upon taking champion or monster damage, Yasuo consumes all Flow to shield himself for 100 - 510 (based on level) for up to 1 second.

Comments:

The first part of Yasuo's passive is pretty self-explanatory. Resolve is the part that matters more on learn playing Yasuo. Overcoming Yasuo's weak laning phase is crucial to learning how to play Yasuo well. Resolve provides you with a brief opportunity to trade with your lane opponent without taking too much retaliation. If you see the enemy jungler somewhere else and your passive is up, you can trade with your opponent safely and even come out ahead.

Q:

Steel Tempest

First Cast: Yasuo thrusts his sword, dealing physical damage to all enemies in the target direction and granting Gathering Storm upon dealing damage.

2nd Cast: For the next 6 seconds, Yasuo can gain another Gathering Storm stack by hitting an enemy with Steel Tempest, empowering it for the same duration.

3rd Cast: Yasuo consumes all stacks to unleash a whirlwind that travels an increased distance in the target direction, dealing the same damage and knocking airborne all enemies hit.

Steel Tempest can critically strike for 75% damage and applies on-hit effects to the first target hit.

Comments:

Yasuo's Q is essentially an auto attack with an extended range. It allows you to farm from outside of melee range and even harass the enemy laner. In general, you should always aim to try and last-hit minions with Yasuo's Q, and threaten the enemy laner with the third cast. However, Yasuo is also extremely vulnerable before and after the third cast of Q. This is because his third cast has a small wind-up animation before the tornado appears, and if he uses the third cast of Q and misses, he cannot use his ultimate ability.

W:

Wind Wall

Yasuo creates a gust of wind that travels in the target direction to form a wall in front of him. The wall slowly drifts forward, blocking all enemy projectiles except turret attacks.

Comments:

Arguably Yasuo's most iconic ability, Wind Wall is a force to be reckoned with when used properly. Throw it in front your team to protect them from enemy ultimate abilities or marksmen. If you manage to position right, Wind Wall can lock the enemy marksmen out of the fight for a few seconds. Just don't forget to use it.

E:

Sweeping Blade

Yasuo dashes a fixed distance in the target enemy's direction, dealing magic damage. Yasuo cannot dash to the same target more than once every few seconds.

Each Sweeping Blade cast increases the next dash's base damage by 25% for 5 seconds (up to 50%).

Casting Steel Tempest after casting Sweeping Blade will cause Yasuo to spin at the end of his dash, affecting enemies in a circle around himself instead.

Comments:

This ability is what makes Yasuo terrifying. If your opponent is running away from you down their own lane, Sweeping Blade will let you ride the enemy minions all the way to them. Moreover, it's low cooldown allows you to use it to dodge enemy abilities or engage on them when they make a blunder. However, if you're going to be aggressive in lane, always be sure you have a target to dash to or you might find yourself in deep trouble.

Ultimate:

Last Breath

Yasuo blinks to a visible airborne enemy champion nearest the cursor, instantly generating 100 Flow stacks but resetting Steel Tempest's stacks.

Upon arrival, he suspends all nearby airborne enemies for 1 second, dealing physical damage.

For the next 15 seconds, Yasuo's critical strikes gain 50% bonus armor penetration.

Comments:

Yasuo's ultimate ability provides him with armor penetration, allowing him to skip out on items like Lord Dominik's Regards or Mortal Reminder. It is also a powerful follow up ability to any kind of airborne based crowd control such as a Malphite, Wukong, or Orianna ultimate. Catching an enemy team with this ultimate can prove to be game changing.

Steel Tempest and Sweeping Blade:

As you may have already realized, learning when to use the regular Steel Tempest and the "spin attack" Steel Tempest can help you come out ahead in lane.

As a rule of thumb, use the regular Steel Tempest to last hit minions and harass laners, and only use the spin attack Steel Tempest if you are pushing a lane or attempting to use the third cast's knock up on an opponent to set up an ultimate. This is because it's generally bad to push up lane as Yasuo, since he has a hard time escaping from a gank.

Sweeping Blade's Timing

Sweeping Blade's dash is fixed, meaning that the closer you're standing to your target the further past it you will go when you dash through it. This will become more important as you learn Yasuo. If you're simply trying to catch up to a target, using Sweeping Blade at maximum range is fine, you'll just end up right at the target. But if you want to avoid a champion ability or escape, it is best to wait until you're right in front of the target, then use Sweeping Blade to dash a considerable distance past the target.

Concealing Your Draw

As I've mentioned before, Yasuo's third Q cast has a wind-up animation. This animation can be skipped if you cast Wind Wall directly before Steel Tempest. It is best to use this to both block an enemy ability and land the tornado, but using Wind Wall also prevents your opponent from guessing the direction of the tornado until it comes out. Use this combination of abilities how you will, but don't be too liberal since Wind Wall is also important for protecting yourself and your team.

Animation Cancelling

Using Sweeping Blade after Steel Tempest will cancel the animation of Steel Tempest. This applies for the third cast as well, so you can use it to prevent yourself from being rooted by the wind-up animation.

Once you feel confident with Yasuo, feel free to look up more advanced tips and tricks from other guides.

Glass Cannon:
Max E, then Q, then W. Put points in your ultimate ability whenever possible. The reason why we max E in this build is because it provides you with chase and outplay potential. E's cooldown at maximum rank is 0.1 seconds, making it so that almost no champion in the game can outrun you.

Classic Yasuo:
Max Q, then E, then W, and level your ultimate ability when possible. Since you're not focused on being ninja-like, you max Q first to increase its damage and allow you to farm more effectively. Once mid/late game hits and you have 3 points in your E, you'll still be fast enough to catch up to targets.

Runes:

With the new season upon us, Runes Reforged has left Yasuo in a slightly weakened state. No Keystone Rune will rival the power of Fervor of Battle, but the Precision Tree provides the best Keystone options.

Take either Press the Attack or Lethal Tempo. In most situations, Press the Attack will be better since it unconditionally increases your damage against an enemy champion for some extra burst damage.

However, Lethal Tempo can be helpful in situations where you want to rely exclusively on auto attacks, such as when you're fighting a tank. Generally speaking, you'll also need to be building into Classic Yasuo for this to work as you will need Blade of the Ruined King to make the most out of this Keystone.

You should adjust the rest of your rune path to suit your own playstyle. My recommendation is Precision Main Branch and Domination Sub Branch to maximum your damage and ability to fight, regardless of which build you're following.

You take Flash because...well, it's Flash. It's the best and most versatile summoner spell in the game. As a personal choice, I take Exhaust because the thing Yasuo is weakest to is an assassin who can burst you down. Even if you aren't fighting an assassin, Exhaust gives you the 1-up you need to overcome more powerful fighters.

I've seen some people take Ignite on Yasuo in my Yasuo mirror matches, and I don't like Ignite. In the time since I first wrote this guide, I have shifted my stance on Ignite slightly. It will give you early kill potential in lanes when it matters, and that extra gold lead might be just what you need to come out ahead. Even so, just remember that you're assassin-like, not a true assassin. You still need to escape from bad situations, and Ignite will do little to help you with that.

Normal Start

- Doran's Blade
- Health Potion

In most situations, you will start this set of items. The health bonus from Doran's Blade is excellent, as is the increase in AD and small amount of life steal. If you take advantage of Yasuo's passive ability to trade and farm safely, the one health potion will be sufficient for keeping you in lane until your first recall.

Defensive Start

- Doran's Shield
- Health Potion

Against a lane that is harder to deal with (e.g. Riven), it can be more prudent to take a defensive approach. Doran's shield gives you a fair chunk of health, and so long as you farm safely and avoid bad trades you will not be too oppressed in lane. You do lose out on the damage of Doran's Blade, which is detrimental to your early game dueling. Once again, the emphasis will be on only taking extended fights where you can build up your stacks of Fervor of Battle.

Sustain Heavy Start

- Boots of Speed or Dagger
- Four Health Potions

This is a start I would only recommend against a lane where you are likely to be heavily oppressed and unable to farm without taking significant damage. Neither boots nor a dagger
will help Yasuo in any way in terms of winning early trades, but four potions will keep you in lane significantly longer than Doran's Shield. If you must take a sustain heavy set of items, your goal is not to win the lane, but simply to not lose it.

Glass Cannon:

This build tries to make Yasuo into an assassin/fighter hybrid. It focuses on killing people as fast as possible and throwing all caution to the wind.

Phantom Dancer: This item allows you to chase down opponents, and gives you damage reduction against an enemy champion you've damaged. Stack this with Exhaust and your opponents will be hard pressed to actually kill you.

Infinity Edge: Yasuo's passive causes you to do less critical damage. Combined with Phantom Dancer, you reach 100% critical strike chance and allows your critical strikes to hurt about the same as a champion without the damage reduction.

Bloodthirster: Yasuo prevails in long, drawn out fights. But to get to that point he needs to stay in the fight. Lifesteal from Bloodthirster is substantial, and will keep you alive in most fights.

Guardian Angel: As Yasuo, you HAVE to go in. Like it or not, if you want to be effective you need to be right in the middle of the enemy team. And that's where you die the easiest. Guardian Angel helps keep you from being dropped instantly, and gives you a chance to keep on killing.

Maw of Malmortius: This helps save you from AP champions who would otherwise delete you. Plus it gives you extra lifesteal when its Lifeline effect is activated. Good all around for keeping you in the fight. If your enemy team doesn't have any AP, you can take Sterak's instead.

As for boots, take whatever is best for the situation. Berserker's Greaves are the default choice, but Ninja Tabi and Mercury Treads are better in certain situations.

Classic Yasuo:

This my original Yasuo build from back when he was first released. This build is safer, but just as dangerous in the right hands. It emphasizes his dueling potential more, and cuts back some of the damage from the Glass Cannon build for utility and survivability.

Stattik Shiv: It will still get you to 100% critical strike chance like Phantom Dancer, but it is more geared towards safely farming and occasionally harassing an enemy laner. You'll be able to shove waves very fast with it, but you do miss out on the damage reduction from Phantom Dancer. One of the other items in this list will compensate for this.

Blade of the Ruined King: Since you don't have Phantom Dancer to speed you up, Blade of the Ruined King is a nice middle ground between Bloodthirster and Phantom Dancer. It's active will allow you to catch up to an enemy champion or run away from a threat. Since Yasuo relies on auto attacks to do damage, Blade's passive also has synergy with him, allowing him to fight bruisers more effectively.

Infinity Edge: Same as above.

Randuin's Omen: This item helps make up for the damage reduction from Phantom Dancer. Gives you a good chunk of health and reduces critical strike damage. It's active slow also helps you escape from bad situations when combined with Sweeping Blade.

Maw of Malmortius: Same as above, but feel free to switch this out for an Adaptive Helm if you're more worried about damage over time champions like Teemo.