"If you ain't beyblading, if you ain't airblading, you ain't a real homie." - Zianni 2020

Hey there, I'm Riofacer. I'm a Diamond 2 Marksman player who specializes in Yasuo ADC. I think Yasuo ADC is very fun compared to the traditional mid lane style and is very powerful. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I pick Yasuo because I find the 2v2 playstyle a lot more interesting and dynamic than the mid lane style. I also played Marksman before this so I didn't find picking a new role as appealing but I've managed to make it work the past 2-3 seasons.

I've been theory crafting and testing a lot of Yasuo on the PBE and thought it was a great time to make a guide for Yasuo ADC season 11. Expect this guide to be updated and changed as the season continues :)

Check out my livestream at https://www.twitch.tv/riofacerr !

Yasuo ADC is an optimal pick to make the enemy ADC's life miserable. I pick Yasuo into weak lanes to guarantee my ability to scale while ensuring a strong dueling lane. This makes it extremely easy for my jungler to gank while providing an ADC that won't lose 1v1s should the support choose to roam. (Unless its Samira, then we just die :D)

Yasuo is fantastic for creating highlight plays and getting a dopamine rush. If you enjoy high octane gameplay, you should consider playing Yasuo ADC. The enemy can't avoid you in a 2v2 match up like they can in mid because of it's shorter distance.

Yasuo is extremely versatile making him an ideal carry while also being able to provide a lock down for team fighting with his ultimate on high priority targets. This means regardless of the game, you'll be able to have an impact.

For a video overview of this guide please click here :) https://youtu.be/hrrJIF5Aaic

Conquerer is the ultimate keystone for Yasuo due to it's synergistic effects with the champion, rewarding you for extended trades. It offers ramping damage and additional sustain. This is extremely valuable due to ADC Yasuo's reliance on all inning early. Your Steel Tempest and Sweeping Blade offer reliable forms of stacking making it extremely easy to utilize.

Conqueror

Reward yourself for fighting by getting bonus AD and Lifesteal! A fantastic rune that pushes Yasuo over the edge early game/

While Overheal offers effective HP it doesn't match Yasuo's gameplay of extended combat, whereas Triumph rewards you for winning fights and pushing you to your limits. Since you'll be all inning, a successful kill could be the difference between life or death with the missing % health heal.

Steel Tempest cast time and cooldown is influenced by Attack Speed making Alacrity extremely important to hitting your CD cap. It requires 111% Attack Speed to obtain this cap, opting for Tenacity or Bloodline would delay your power spike by 2-3 levels.

In conjunction with our will to die at extreme odds, we take Last Stand for the 1v9 gameplay. Cut Down is dependent on team compositions to outvalue Last Stand due to it's consistency vs tankier compositions.

We take Eyeball Collection for additional AD to augment our Steel Tempest with more damage and increasing our maximum crit damage.

Ravenous Hunter is best in slot due to it's oppressive omnivamp making Yasuo literally 1v9 after achieving 5 stacks. Since it is a scaling rune, you need to be careful to tone down your 1337 skills before you achieve critical mass. buff is huge!)

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Fleet Footwork is also an amazing rune for Yasuo ADC. It's sustainability and movement speed allow him to survive rough matchups and become more mobile against skill shot based teams. The rune synergizes insanely well with Overheal and built in conjunction with Bloodthirster and Kraken Slayer has shown to be the perfectly balanced built for survivability and damage.

Fleet Footwork

Very good sustaining tool for laning phase and scales pretty well. You will lack extra damage that is gained from Conqueror but gain it in healing and movement speed.

Overheal pairs very well with Fleet Footwork allowing you to make use of the rune throughout the whole game. This rune can be extremely powerful tool as the game goes on giving upwards of 2k shielding in a single use.

Steel Tempest cast time and cooldown is influenced by Attack Speed making Alacrity extremely important to hitting your CD cap. It requires 111% Attack Speed to obtain this cap, opting for Tenacity or Bloodline would delay your power spike by 2-3 levels.

In conjunction with our will to die at extreme odds, we take Last Stand for the 1v9 gameplay. Cut Down is dependent on team compositions to outvalue Last Stand due to it's consistency vs tankier compositions.

We take Taste of Blood for additional sustain to augment our healing/shielding build with more survivability.

Ravenous Hunter is best in slot due to it's oppressive omnivamp making Yasuo literally 1v9 after achieving 5 stacks. Since it is a scaling rune, you need to be careful to tone down your 1337 skills before you achieve critical mass. buff is huge!)

/

Items are always going to be situational and based on the game state. A good player must always be flexible and open to change if they wish to perform consistently.

Yasuo has a lot of build diversity but it's important to respond to what the enemy is threatening you with. With this I would like to say this section will constantly be changing as new builds are discovered with the new item changes but these are my thoughts THUS FAR.

However, since this is a guide, I'll be showing you the most optimal itemization first before delving into situational items or divergences.

I find myself doing all of the builds down below at some point to respond to different situations. I recommend builds 1 & 2 for people learning the role or just for the most consistent results and playstyle. Build 3 includes Galeforce which requires some time with the items to learn and skill on Yasuo. After the 11.2 nerfs it's on a longer CD as well making the first two builds a bit better now as a standard.

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Berserker's Greaves -> Zeal Immortal Shieldbow -> Infinity Edge -> Defensive item or crit. As of patch 10.25 Yasuo's attack speed per level has been buffed so you may now cap out your Steel Tempest cooldown by level 12 with Alacrity. This opens up Infinity Edge as our second item now and with Yasuo's passive allows us to benefit from it's extra damage. Because of this, you may opt into going Zeal, which will allow you to be able to sell your current boots in exchange for Plated Steelcaps into AD teams or Mercury's Treads into AP/ heavy CC teams. The Zeal first item is only to be bought you are even and looking to take an early advantage (at the cost of delayed mythic) or snowballing already. This is a standard build and after your first two items are complete the order is up to you. More often then not I find myself going defensive after my 2nd crit item before buying another situational crit item. This is a great standard build for Yasuo ADC players of all skill levels and the most common I run in my games.

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My other favorite build that has come up recently is Berserker's Greaves -> Kraken Slayer -> Bloodthirster -> into either Sterak's Gage for a defensive healing build or finishing Infinity Edge if snowballing. Sterak's Gage may also be swapped with Spirit Visage if they have lots of magic damage or Thornmail / Randuin's Omen for physical damage teams. This build is also ran with Fleet Footwork. Reasons this build has been working lately I believe has to deal with the amount of damage you can mitigate with Overheal and the Bloodthirster passive. The build also makes use of Kraken Slayer's mythic passive that grants additional attack speed. This allows us to build less attack speed and still cap out our Steel Tempest. The two combine give you over a 1k + shield while keeping crit as a vital stat in your build. This build has less damage then running Conqueror but has been the perfect mix of survivability and damage I could find especially since running Fleet Footwork is safer for laning phase. I highly recommend trying this build out if you struggle with getting poked out early in laning phase as well since it requires you to run Fleet Footwork although Conqueror is still viable here, just not my preference without a healing support or if I'm vs'ing melee supports who can't harras.

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The 3rd build that I have been having tons of fun with includes Galeforce. This build is for more experienced Yasuo players as it doesn't have the innate safety that comes with the first two builds. I know what you're thinking, how the hell could this be good. To be honest, it's been buffed to a point that the passive stats are great and the active does a lot of single target damage in a 1v1. The dash allows you to also catch people off guard with a 3rd stack of Steel Tempest making it a great dueling item. It suffers from survivability but makes up for it with damage and more mobility. The dash can also be used defensively (backwards) which is something Yasuo massively lacks in. It follows the standard Yasuo build after Galeforce + Infinity Edge where preference items come after. Personally I like defensive items third and Sterak's Gage is a great pickup if they have both physical and magic damage threats. This build can work with both Fleet Footwork and Conqueror

I am testing out a build for Blade of the Ruined King rush into Kraken Slayer as an experimental build to crit if they have heavy HP stacking team. I am enjoying the build so far but still testing. I've found going Immortal Shieldbow as a replacement mythic to Kraken Slayer has had very nice benefits of helping stay alive while most of our damage will come from Blade of the Ruined King.

See below for explanations on each item

Berserker's Greaves will always be best in slot for Yasuo due to it's Attack Speed being one of the highest in the game and for it's gold efficiency. This increases the potential of our Steel Tempest and overall DPS.

Zeal is a situational item that can be rushed. After obtaining Berserker's Greaves I will sometimes rush Zeal if I am already snowballing my lane or looking to get an early damage item at the cost of delaying my mythic. The pro's to this lead to early crit and attack speed resulting in more kills from gold. We can also upgrade into a Mortal Reminder or Phantom Dancer without wasting the stats.

Immortal Shieldbow is a fantastic item offering a versatile statpool. It offers a plethora of stats including Crit and Lifesteal for dangerous situations. (As well as some Attack Speed towards your cap) The best thing however is the additional Lifesteal from the Lifeline effect on top of a shield making you deceptively tanky.

Kraken Slayer is also an option for a first item after boots because of its amazing damage potential. I will opt into buying this item if I decide to run Fleet Footwork to sustain through the lane and do not need the shielding and saftey that comes with Immortal Shieldbow. This will usually be when the game does not have an assassin in it

Galeforce is an awesome item that adds extra layer of mobility to Yasuo. It's surisngly good and can catch people off guard if used correctly. Due note this item is meant for play making and also increases the skill ceiling of Yasuo further. I still recommend using Immortal Shieldbow for people who are learning as it takes no conscience effort to use unlike Galeforce

Blade of the Ruined King is an awesome item to rush if you'll be up against a HP stacking team. This item has a HUGE power spike when finished but can be somewhat lack luster during the laning phase while you build its components. You will also be delaying your crit items which doesn't allow you to benefit from the armor pen Last Breath provides for you. I will usually build this if I see 3 or more HP stackers on a team.

Our second item is usually going to be Infinity Edge for obvious reasons. We need one crit modifier item in this build and Infinity Edge starts to gain power at this point in the game. With the recent changes in patch 10.25 Yasuo's per level attack speed has been increased thus allowing us to buy this item 2nd and still cap out our Steel Tempest cooldown by level 12 *if running alacrity*

Third item can be either a defensive item or a crit item depending on the game. Some good choices are Mortal Reminder & Bloodthirster. Sometimes I will also just buy a Cloak of Agility or Zeal to cap out on crit and finish building defensive items. Sterak's Gage is also a fantastic pickup when you need a defensive shield option. I love picking this up when I run Kraken Slayer or Galeforce since I don't have the lifeline passive that comes with Immortal Shieldbow

In terms of defensive options, my go to is Spirit Visage against heavy magic damage. It's a fantastic pick up since it makes lifesteal more effective and affects shielding. Guardian Angel is a strong armor item with AD with a neat add on of preventing death. If you need a more defensive anti heal, Thornmail. If you need anti-crit damage, Randuin's Omen is best in slot due to it's innate crit reduction.

The last item pickup will usually be situational. At this point it is up to you, yes YOU, to figure out what you will need to round out a game. Ideally I will always have 3 crit items at this point and 2 defensive items while keeping my boots. Any combination of these options can work but it is up to you to figure out what you will need in different situations :) You can also stop by my twitch and Youtube channels for more information or to ask me questions personally.


When it comes to fancy builds on Yasuo I have found that the Navori Quickblades build is expensive and lacks attack speed. Picking up Navori Quickblades allows you to compensate for the loss in attack speed with a reduced cooldown on Steel Tempest while also being able to keep Wind Wall on a low cooldown. Phantom Dancer is also a viable option however I do not like the item because of its new passive. As a melee champion, we will never be auto attacking nearly as much as the item provides and it over caps our Steel Tempest requirements. Overall not a fan of this build but figured I would mention it anyway.

To be impactful, you need a strong foundation.

League of Legends is built on the basic building block of last hitting, trading, and positioning. If you're able to master even one of these, you'll find yourself winning more games.

A carry requires resources to show their full potential, which is what makes minions valuable. Every last hit is experience and gold that will make you stronger.

Focusing on the basics will improve your performance and make it easier to snowball.

However, it is important to note that Marksman is a unique role that is dependent on the support to survive laning phase, which makes it inherently more difficult to be consistent than other lanes. You need to consistently consider the positioning of both sides in order to properly trade. This requires you to be familiar with a majority of the match ups unlike other positions.

Distance is an extremely important concept for bot lane. Knowing whether a play is possible or someone can follow up on your initiation will be the difference between success and failure. This is especially important for Yasuo who is a melee champion.

Unlike most ADCs, Yasuo requires you to play for lane as opposed to scaling. There is no alternative win condition. (Besides a 0/10 powerspike) Every play will impact your lane making it extremely important to be flexible with itemization and positioning.

The key to playing Marksman is consistency, being able to have an impact despite your laning phase. It's important to identify your win condition early on, so you know exactly what you're working towards. As a Yasuo ADC, you have three roles you can fulfill. Front line, carry, distractor.

A frontline is responsible for being an off-carry who consistently provides CC to teamfights, while still being a threat. Your role is to disrupt the enemy while protecting your carries with Wind Wall. This means you won't be diving the enemy backline, but you'll have a consistent impact on the team fight.

The carry is responsible for winning the game, you need to utilize positioning and optimal windows to ensure your safety while consistently dishing out damage. You are the only difference between winning and losing a fight, thus your value exceeds any member on your team.

The disrupter, is responsible purely for chaos. Your only goal and mission in life is to make a particular player's life hell. Lock down valuable members with Last Breath and make sure they can't get to the rest of your team, or pull away other members of his team trying to stop you. This results in a lopsided fight that is beneficial to your team. You could liken this approach to the Global Teemo taunt.

It will be painful. You will suffer, but it'll all pay off in the end once you hit level 3. Your only goal is to survive, then your enemy will know vengeance. Due to the range disadvantage, Yasuo has an extremely difficult time farming level 1-2.

This compounded with the fact that our support has no f*cking clue whats happening usually results in lost trades. It's important to avoid unnecessary damage until you're able to contest the enemy. This is because our ability to be aggressive is directly correlated to our health pool. It's very risky to all in with half hp as opposed to 100%.

Since you're conceding the first few waves, wave will be always on your side of the lane making it easy to engage. Find an opportunity to build up Steel Tempest stacks then all in with your Sweeping Blade to burn summoner spells or find a kill.

This is easy to do because most low elo players don't understand the concept of wave manipulation. They will consistently push into your tower giving you an opportunity to dash through minions without a problem. This won't change until around the D2 mark.

If you're able to find an opportunity, your lane will commence to the snowball phase. Every 2v2 will be in your favor due to your massive stat advantage as an ad assassin bruiser mage. If you were unable to find an opportunity due to your support holding you hostage, wait until level six for your next opportunity. (Or jungle gank)

Most junglers have some form of displacement making it easy to follow up ganks with Last Breath, while most tank supports will have easy initiation for you as well. If you're stuck with an enchantress, you must hope to god it's a healing champion.

Once we have an optimal recall timing, we'll have access to Immortal Shieldbow, Kraken Slayer, or Galeforce. This item is our first item spike after Berserker Greaves and is where most of our damage comes from. You should be like a rabid animal at this point, looking for an excuse to fight anything. Every dragon is an opportunity to force fights that you'll benefit from.

Once you've taken bot tower, you can rotate mid for plates or continue to perma split. However, the best option is to honestly hold bot lane hostage and refuse to take tower so you can continue to get double kills. Plates are valuable but a reliable source of kill gold income is better.

Once we've taken tower with the help of our team or our own godly skills, we enter the mid-game phase. The macro phase. Due to our range it is difficult to force towers making it more meaningful to side lane, we'll ditch our support and force him to lane with the mid laner for priority on objectives.

We'll start to acquire solo xp and catch up in levels while winning most 1v1 match ups in the side lane. Generating pressure will cause enemies to respond to our movements while opening up other areas on the map leading to free objectives. This however is a double edged sword as we'll likely be forced into 1v2s. While your support should be with your mid laner, it's important to note that they can still ward for you to protect you.

It is also your responsibility to track the enemy team, keep a constant tab on who is showing so you can predict ganks and avoid disfavorable situations. If you're continuously dying in the side lane for no reason because you're egoing spamming mastery 7, you're not helping at all. If you're staying alive while acquiring resources, you'll have an impact. It's important to understand the concept of

PUSH AND PULL

If you're creating pressure, the enemy is forced to respond causing a push reaction. Once they react to it, you pull away. This creates gaps in the enemy's movements and opportunities to take objectives. You should be consistently pushing and pulling the enemy's movements so that they're never in control of the momentum. Being in control means they'll never be able to initiate something meaningful as a team.

Prioritize being at every objective with your team (Dragon/Baron) before it spawns so you can fight for vision control and take advantage of your solo experience/gold efficiency to win team fights.

If you're playing methodically, this will result in a victory.

Congratulations.