Yasuo Build Guide by EmptyJarFTK

Introduction

Yasuo is a manaless, hypermobile melee assassin with a balanced mix of both defensive and offensive attributes. Because of his unique ability set and fighting style, learning to fully utilize him can prove to be rather difficult. However, once mastered, Yasuo can easily become a weapon of mass destruction that rapidly snowballs out of control. But before you're able to make him so deadly, you're gonna need some help and lot of practice.

__________________________________________________________________________

Whenever one of Yasuo's abilities is mentioned (including his passives), that text will appear in green.

A non-ability mechanic (such as Flow and Gathering Storm) will be displayed in orange.

Everything else important will be displayed in red.

Runes

This is the rune page from above. I use this page every game. Because Yasuo's base AD is actually fairly low (only 5 more than Ezreal at level 1), I take AD marks. Some people take crit chance marks, but I really don't like them. From items alone, Yasuo gets 80% and really doesn't need more to be effective. If it's a concern, you can always get something like a Trinity Force or Youmuu's Ghostblade instead to reach 100%.

The rest of the page is pretty simple

Masteries

There really isn't much room to deviate when it comes to masteries on Yasuo. Don't put points into the utility tree. If sustain is a concern, take Butcher and Feast. Other than that, it's pretty much perfect the way it is.

Skill Sequence

Now for the great debate. Why do I max Sweeping Blade first instead of Steel Tempest? Well, Steel Tempest doesn't get a reduced cooldown from putting points into it, only 20 extra physical damage. Sweeping Blade also gets 20 additional damage, but has its cooldown reduced by 0.1 seconds per level, all the way to a mere 1/10th of a second at level 5. The duration of the mark left by the dash is also reduced, meaning you can dash more frequently sooner than if you go for a Steel Tempest max at level 9.

Additionally, Sweeping Blade is spell that deals magic damage. Even without any AP at all, this ability can deal up to 200 damage if it's charged. Maxing it first means you've got your damage split pretty evenly between AD and AP, at least while laning.

Abilities

Way of the Wanderer (Passive)

Yasuo's passive, Way of the Wanderer, has two halves: Intent and Resolve.

__________________________________________________________________________

Intent doubles Yasuo's critical strike chance at the cost of reduced damage on crit (which is basically always). Critical auto attacks deal 90% damage while Steel Tempest deals 75% damage. These reductions stack multiplicatively with other modifiers like Infinity Edge.

__________________________________________________________________________

Resolve grants Yasuo flow (his only resource aside from health) whenever he's moving regardless as to how. This means that dashing with Sweeping Blade, using the Flash and Teleport Summoner Spells, and even being displaced by an enemy can all generate flow.

Upon taking damage from an enemy champion or neutral monster, Yasuo's flow is discharged into a shield that lasts until either 1 second has passed, or until he has taken damage equal to the amount of flow spent.

This shield is not triggered by minion or tower damage, but can absorb damage from those sources. In other words, his shield can only protect him from minions and turrets if it was already active.

__________________________________________________________________________

Steel Tempest (Q)

Steel Tempest is a cross between a spell and an auto attack. It has 100% AD scaling, applies on-hit effects to the first enemy struck, can critically strike, and gets a reduced cooldown from attack speed.

Every time Steel Tempest hits a target, Yasuo is given a stack of Gathering Storm for 10 seconds. Once 2 stacks have been acquired, Steel Tempest can be cast a third time to launch a whirlwind that knocks up enemies in a 900-unit-long line.

If cast while dashing, Steel Tempest is cast as an area of effect ability with a radius of 375 units. The knock up is still applied on the third cast as a part of the AOE damage.

Steel Tempest can be cast while blinded, but not while silenced.

Items

As long as Yasuo gets an Infinity Edge at some point, he can basically build whatever AD item he wants, although there are some items you'll get almost every game. Below is an analysis on each item you can build.

Statikk Shiv - Mid lane, this is your standard rush every single game. It gives you magic damage, wave clear, attack speed, crit chance, and move speed. No reason to delay or avoid buying this item.

Infinity Edge - This item is the only reason Yasuo has any relevance at all. It's even more important than Statikk Shiv. Why? It makes his critical strikes actually do damage. Because they're reduced by his passive, this is an absolute must for every build.