About Me

Hello! For those who don't know of me, I am Tempest. I've been a North American Challenger mid laner and Yasuo Main ever since season 6. I was Challenger seasons before that, just not with Yasuo. My all time peak in Season 6 was Rank 4, pretty much one tricking Yasuo. I also peaked Rank 2 in Season 7, mostly playing Yasuo and Zed.

I have been maining Yasuo ever since Heimerdinger was reworked; I have never been bored by him or his playstyle. Since Yone's release, I've mostly played him and Yasuo, but have fallen in love with Yone.Here are all of my active accounts.

Unfortunately, the only screenshot I have of my previous ranks is when I was top 10 in season 7:



Here is my S11 account where I only played Yasuo and Yone to Grandmaster with a 71% W/R:

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Why Yasuo?

Yasuo is one of the most fun and interesting champions to play due to how many things you can pull off and how you can always do something better in a fight with him, kinda similar to Riven. Yasuo has one of, if not the highest skill ceiling in the game, and has so many small tricks and mechanics. You will always find yourself in new scenarios and improving on something.

Yasuo is also a very unique champion because of his resource bar and cooldowns. He is the only champion in the game that has such low cds on his main abilities AND has 0 mana costs. Instead Yasuo has Flow, which is his resource bar that gives him a mini shield for 1.5sec that passively goes up the more you move. If you are all about hitting your buttons fast and having no downtime or waiting for cooldowns, then you will LOVE Yasuo.

If you like looking stylish, nonstop pulling off 2v1s, 3v1s, and love being the center of attention(good and bad), then Yasuo is definitely the champion for you!

Pros & Cons

Pros

+ Very high carry potential, can kill multiple people in a teamfight once he has his core items.
+ Can melt through squishies and tanks due to his mixed damage.
+ Can be played Mid, Top, and ADC.
+ Has one of the best basic abilities in the game Wind Wall.
+ Highlight champion, flashy, and makes you standout.
+ Next to no cooldowns on main abilities and doesn't use mana.

Cons

- Has one of the weaker laning phases in the game.
- A lot weaker if you don't have setup for his ultimate.
- His approach is very linear and very easy to counterplay in higher ranks.
- Feast or Famine champion.

Complete Matchup Spreadsheet with Runes for every matchup

Play Video

Lethal Tempo is the strongest for Yasuo. It excels in early/mid game, but gets overshadowed by the late/scaling power of Conqueror. Yasuo spikes so much faster/sooner with this rework.

Conqueror gives you the best scaling and damage while also giving you some sustain when it's stacked. It's also better than Lethal Tempo when the enemy team has a lot of frontline (tanks).

Triumph can be a clutch rune that saves you in skirmishes and help you tower dive. The extra healing can potentially turn a game-winning fight.

Legend: Alacrity is the only rune you should take in this tree. The attack speed is very crucial to getting your Q cooldown as low as possible and will result in more damage output throughout the game. Legend: Tenacity and Legend: Bloodline aren't really good on Yasuo. You will have no attack speed without Legend: Alacrity.

I take Last Stand almost every game because it gives Yasuo the best dueling and outplay potential. It is better and more useful than Coup de Grace because it does more overall damage.

I take Conditioning in lanes I need to scale. It's generally only taken in easy lanes where Second Wind or Bone Plating don't give much value.

Second Wind is the best rune into a heavy poke lane. Coupled with Doran's Shield, it gives you the best survivability in lane.

Bone Plating is good in lanes such as Fizz and Renekton where they can't easily poke it off. Take it into lanes where you need to negate their heavy all-in early trades.

Overgrowth is a decent choice, and my preferred for most games, when you are scaling and the HP can help you survive a lot of mid-game situations.

Revitalize has a lot of value in the lifesteal and shield that Immortal Shieldbow provides. This rune will help you skirmish and teamfight better once you have Immortal Shieldbow.

Take Unflinching when you are against heavy CC comps. The extra tenacity will help you escape a lot of situations and with Last Stand and Immortal Shieldbow. Your low HP teamfighting will be even stronger and allow you to keep dishing out damage and change the closest fights.

Flash will help you secure kills, escape, pull off combos, and a lot more. Always take Flash every game no matter what.

Ignite will give you extra damage to secure kills in lane. Take Ignite as your standard summoner spell.

Only take Teleport on top lane Yasuo. Why? Top lane is heavily decided by lane/wave management and teleport is key for baron control later on in the game.

Only take Cleanse against Lissandra and Zoe. They both rely heavily on their hard cc. Cleanse gets even more valuable the more enemy champions have hard cc so look out for that when deciding if it's really worth to give up the damage Ignite gives you.

Exhaust is a very underrated anti-burst tool. Always take Exhaust against Zed. You can also take Exhaust into Annie and other assasins like Qiyana and Talon. Exhaust also scales super well and is the best teamfighting summoner in the game due to the damage you can negate with it.

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Way of the Wanderer (Passive)

Passive shield Yasuo gets from being hit at 100% flow. The reason Yasuo has such bad base stats is his passive, which gives him a shield every so often the more he walks around. Taking advantage of the shield is key to taking good trades and making up for his bad base stats. Try to go for trades before it gets poked off. Don't position yourself where they can easily get it off you without retaliation.

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Steel Tempest RANGE: 475 / 900 COOLDOWN: 4 − 1.33 (based on bonus attack speed)

Yasuo thrusts his sword in a targeted direction gaining a stack of Gathering Storm. After casting this ability at two stacks of Gathering Storm, Yasuo sends out a whirlwind, knocking up enemies in the targeted direction. Pay attention to the amount of stacks on Steel Tempest. In a lot of matchups ( Zed Renekton, Etc), Yasuo is very vulnerable to an all-in right after his tornado runs out due to him losing his only way of ulting and CC'ing his opponent. Play safe to avoid an all-in while your tornado is on cooldown.

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Wind Wall RANGE: 400 COOLDOWN: 26 / 24 / 22 / 20 / 18

A wall that can block almost every auto attack and projectile in the game. Make sure to use Wind Wall wisely because of its long cooldown. Don't just use it to block any skillshot that's fired at you. Use Wind Wall to zone adcs in teamfights or vital ultimates.

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Sweeping Blade RANGE: 475 SPEED: 750 (+ 60% movement speed) STATIC COOLDOWN: 0.5 / 0.4 / 0.3 / 0.2 / 0.1 ON-TARGET COOLDOWN: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6

Yasuos mobility ability to kite, gap close, and escape situations. This ability will only do its max damage to an enemy champion if you dash to 2 enemies before dashing to the champion. When going for an all-in in a minion wave, always use the minions first before dashing to the enemy champion for max damage and the best chasing capability.

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Last Breath RANGE: 1400 COOLDOWN: 80 / 55 / 30

Yasuo extends any knockup and does bonus damage when he lands while gaining bonus armor pen on his critical strikes. Yasuos ultimate varies in strength depending on team comp: the more knock-ups you have the more scary Yasuo becomes. The most important thing to keep in mind before you ult is who else is around the knocked up champions. Just because you land a good tornado on a squishy doesn't mean you should always take it; think about who can damage and CC you before ulting in.

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Doran's Blade is the standard starting item on Yasuo. Doran's Blade lets Yasuo sustain most lanes while giving him some extra damage. Take Doran's Blade against melee matchups only.

Doran's Shield is good into poke lanes. Take Second Wind when you take Doran's Shield for even better sustain. You will lose out on some damage early for the trade of better sustain in lane. Take Doran's Shield against ranged matchups only.

Berserker's Greaves are still good with Lethal Tempo. Build Berserker's Greaves if you don't need Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads. If you choose to buy Berserker's Greaves, do NOT buy Zeal early. You will have no damage.

Plated Steelcaps are good into lanes such as Renekton or Pantheon. Also take Plated Steelcaps if they are full AD or have a lot of AA based or AD Champions. Ideally, buy these after you purchase Immortal Shieldbow.

Mercury's Treads are good into lanes such as Lissandra or LeBlanc. Also take Mercury's Treads if they are full AP or have a lot of CC. Ideally, buy these after you purchase Immortal Shieldbow.

Jak'Sho, The Protean Is the best tank item on Yasuo. Can easily make this your only tank item bc it gives you hp armor and mr, should be in all your builds.

Immortal Shieldbow is good anti burst for Yasuo. The shield helps you survive burst and in teamfights.

Infinity Edge is the highest damage item for Yasuo. Should always be slotted into build somehwere very strong for Yasuo

Stridebreaker is now an insane item after buffs, Amazing for Yasuo due to giving movmentspeed and catchup power and gives tankiness, would def reccomend this item in every yasuo build path!

Iceborn Gauntlet is now the best armor item on Yasuo imo, super good item if they are all ad, I would reccomend jak sho if they have a mixed damage team comp tho, this item is amazing if they have very low magic damage to subtitsute jak sho

Death's Dance is good into teams with a lot of AD burst damage. Usually would slot this in as a last item.

Sterak's Gage Is an okay last item on Yasuo or 3rd item if they have a mix of damage and if you really need tenacity.

Guardian Angel is very strong on Yasuo. Late game teamfights can be decided by this item. If you need it, get it 4th item, but Guardian Angel is only good if you have someone else to rely on on your team while you are reviving.

Bloodthirster could be a last item if you want a lot of lifesteal but other items take prioty

Spirit Visage is a good item into AP-Heavy team comps. Its passive gives you increased shielding/healing, which is incredible. Take this if you have an enchanter support such as Lulu, Soraka, or Yuumi.

I really like the reworked Force of Nature. It feels really solid, especially into Heavy-AP teams. It is a monster in teamfights, and it's probaly on par with Spirit Visage. Take this if you don't have an enchanter support on your team.

Mercurial Scimitar isn't as good as Silvermere Dawn imo. The damage is nice, but the tankiness you get from Silvermere Dawn is too good to pass up. Take this item when you need damage + they have a lot of hard cc you want to avoid like Malzahar or Morgana.

Get Randuin's Omen when the enemy team has at least 2 crit based champs like Draven or Kindred.

Yasuo's Early game and Laning Phase can either be really easy or very difficult depending on the matchups. Since this guide is mostly centered around Yasuo mid, what I say in these sections will mostly be about his mid playstyle and will have sections dedicated to ADC and TOP Yasuo later on.

In the early game, Yasuo can be played as a massive lane bully that can always get the shove in the majority of his matchups. The hardest part about his early game is not dying to ganks and falling super behind. The reason why a lot of Yasuo players either go 10/0 or 0/10 is simply bc of his lack of CDs which means he can fight the enemy laner anytime he wants. But, just because you can go on your opponent doesn't mean its the right move. One of the most important things about the early game is drawing pressure to the point where the enemy jungler comes to your lane and not dying to his pressure. When you do this, you relieve pressure off both of your other lanes and get your jungler a level advantage or let him get a successful gank off. This is easier said than done though, and will take many games to learn the perfect balance of aggression and non-aggression.

Another key thing about the early game is raoming to dive the enemy sidelanes, dumpster your lane, kill the enemy raptors, or get turret plating gold. Yasuo isn't really the best roamer compared to most midlaners due to his lack of cc and lack of mobility without minions, so I usually just focus on my own lane and play for turret plating and solo killing my laner. You can usually only dive sidelanes if you play with your jungler and 4 man botlane, or you can dive top easily if he has a knockup.

Besides those things, the main thing about the early game for Yasuo and midlane in general is to just get priority and play for scuttle crab all while getting your jungler ahead of the enemy jungler. Get priority and get good Control Wards down to control scuttle crab and you will have a huge edge in the early game.

Mid game generally starts when the first couple towers go down at about 12-15 minutes. Once Mid game starts, your job as Yasuo is to pick up as much gold as possible and you will most likely want to be in a sidelane since you can duel a lot of mages in long lanes. Since you are not taking Teleport as Yasuo, you should ALWAYS be in the sidelane of the objective you are looking to secure and your toplaner should be in the opposite sidelane because he has the Teleport. So in short, if Rift Herald is up, then be in the toplane sidelane. If you are playing for dragon, then you should be in the botlane sidelane.

Another thing thats super important in the Midgame, is expanding on the lead you've built in the early laning phase. The best way to do this is after you push a wave into enemy tier 2 tower, always take the enemy jungle camps, whether it be Gromp , Rift Scuttler , Krugs , etc. You will build up an extremely huge level lead and is one of the most important things to do to win more games. Not only do you get extra experience from doing this, you also deny experiance from the enemy, so this is a double positive win. This is why you see high elo toplaners and split pushers get such a massive level lead.

So in short: Get in a sidelane and push to the enemy tier 2 tower, get control wards and clear their vision in the enemy jungle, and deny as many jungle camps as you can to build a massive lead and starve the enemy team. If you do these things and have already built a lead in the early game, you will find yourself winning so many more games as Yasuo.

When late game comes around, the main objective is to choke out even deeper vision if you are ahead and force a teamfight to get Baron Nashor to close out the game. At this phase of the game, you should be grouping with your team 90% of the time to secure vision and choke out the enemy vision. It depends if you are ahead or behind at this point, but basically: if you are behind when it gets to this point, you just have to try your best to kill their Control Wards and not let them take Baron Nashor and win the game off a teamfight.

Yasuo has many different jobs when it comes to teamfighting and every scenario is different, so I can't really give a cookie cutter answer on "how to teamfight with Yasuo" but, I will list roles that Yasuo can take in a teamfight.

Main Carry

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If you are the most fed person on your team, you are the Main Carry.

Basically, your job is to be the highest damage dealer in the fight and survive as long as possible, taking as many people down as you can. You should play the fights slow and wait to go in once you see crucial CCs used on the rest of your team, examples being Kennen ult or Annie's tibbers. Use Wind Wall wisely to prevent getting bursted.

Engager

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If you are the only engage, and you have other high damage dealers on your team, then you are the Engager. Yasuo isn't the ideal engage champion; he's more of a follow-up champion, but in some team comps, you are the only one who can start a fight. Your job in these scenarios is to set up an ultimate on a key enemy carry to start the fight so your other high damage threats can get their damage off. Be smart about your engages and only start the engage if your team is in range to follow up.

Peeler

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If your ADC or APC is insanely fed, and you're even or behind, then you are the Peeler.

This job is foreign to a lot of Yasuo players since they always want to be the center of attention even when they are 0/10. But, Yasuo is surprisingly not bad at peeling for his team. Basically, if your teammate is 1v9ing the game, it is okay to take a backseat, just defend him, and let him take over. Your job in these scenarios are to use ur [[Wind Wall] to block major damage from killing your carry and to knock up and ult anyone getting to close to them. Enabling your carry to win you the teamfight is a lot better than dying instantly trying to make a montage play.

Disruptor

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If the enemy team has key ultimates you need to block with Wind Wall, or if you went more of a tanky build, then you are the Disruptor.

This is the last role and it's basically just making sure you save your Wind Wall for key ultimates and/or buy time for your carries. Since you are tankier, you can save Wind Wall and just face tank damage instead. You can save Wind Wall to block really important abilities like Miss Fortune, Seraphine, or Ornn Ultimates. Aside from that, your job is to just be annoying and constantly knock-up important enemy champions while your heavy damage dealers win the fight.

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This is the best I could describe Yasuo's roles in a teamfight. His role in teamfights will vary from game to game.

This section won't be too long since I already talked about the matchups at the top of the guide, but there are some things to say about it since toplane playstyle differs pretty heavily from the midlane and adc Yasuo playstyle.

Top Lane Yasuo needs to freeze the wave just before his turret right from the start of the game. You can do this by pretending to leash your jungler even if you do not leash. If the enemy hasn't pushed when you walk into vision in lane, let him attack you inbetween your minions, this will make the lane push to you. The reason for this is beacuase Yasuo is a champion who can be heavily abused by ganks due to him not having much of an escape except for enemy minions which will not be behind you. Another reason we want to do this is because if the enemy is on our side of the lane, you can potentially go for an all-in at level 3 due to the long lane and Yasuo being one of the strongest champions in the game at level 3.

There are many matchups in toplane where windwall is complelty useless against the enemy champion, so if you do not need your windwall against your opponent, use it to block ranged minions basic attacks and freeze the wave this way. Examples of these matchups are Renekton, Darius, and Tryndamere

Teleport is pretty much a staple for toplane due to having global pressure for Baron Nashor later on and to help your team secure Dragon early game. When I play Yasuo toplane, I just take Ignite and play for lane. You can pick either option, or even exhaust if you prefer it against burst matchups like Renekton, but just know if you die overextended, and you don't have Teleport, you will be punished incredibly hard. You could potentially be out of the game since the enemy toplaner and jungler can choke you out with just one freeze.

Generally, you want to build a bit tankier when playing toplane Yasuo because it's usually the toplaners job to be some sort of frontline for his team. If your team is doing well and already has other high damage dealing champions, then it really wouldn't be bad doing a tankier build with Randuin's Omen or Spirit Visage depending on the enemy champions.

Lastly, I think top Yasuo is pretty bad in all honesty. The only situation I think Yasuo is the best pick toplane is against a Ornn or Gnar. Other toplane champions just do his job better. Riven and Jax outclass Yasuo at basically every phase of the game, which is why I hardly every play Yasuo top, but if you really enjoy it, then play what you want.

I would honestly say Yasuo's best position is ADC just due to how well he does against ADCS. It will almost never make your team all AD, which is a common problem with picking Yasuo Mid.

The early laning phase is played the same way the first 3 levels 99% of the time. You want to let the enemy push and do your best to not get poked down too hard before level 3. It does not matter if you have to give up and be down 15+ cs early on. All that matters is to not get poked down in the early levels or the lane will be very hard to salvage. As soon as you hit level 3, engage on them 2v2 and you should always win. You will either kill them or force them to use summoners as long as your support follows up.

The only downside to Yasuo ADC is you heavily rely on your support. If your support loses the lane for you, it can be really hard to come back into the game as ADC Yasuo is even lower levels because of the duo lane xp share. Also, sieging can become very hard if you don't have any ranged AD champs on your team. Yasuo ADC really ranges in strength depending on what support champ you have. Below I will list, in my opinion, the best to worst supports to have as Yasuo ADC.

S TIER

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These champions have it all: Hard CC, Great follow up, and healing to sustain in the early levels. At level 3 and beyond, if the enemy is extended at all, you will engage on them they will die 99% of the time or at least use summoners to get away. These champions also have little to no room for error due to their combos being basically point and click.

A TIER

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These champions are also very strong, but they usually lack at least something compared to S tier champions. One example is Nami. She has really good sustain and 2 knock-ups, but she is very squishy and easily killed with no escape. The other example would be Leona. She has insane engage and damage, but 0 sustain.

B TIER

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These champions are still fairly good, but some are a little harder than A/S tier supports to play well ( Thresh and Pyke). Another thing is that some of these champions are very weak early game ( Janna and Lulu), which is pretty important for ADC Yasuo. If you lose lane, it can be very hard to get back into the game.

C TIER

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These champions are just okay. There are better engage supports and better enchanting supports in higher tiers. I also don't really like mage supports with Yasuo because they don't help too much out of lane. But since they have high damage, they can be okay. I would much rather have an enchanter support or an engage support. Vel'Koz is different because I find that champs damage and range insane and actually has decent setup for Yasuo due to his E.

D TIER

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These champions should 80% of the time get reported if they pick it with Yasuo. They have terrible synergy and are usually autofilled, but you can still 2v1 the lane if they land a single spell.

Play Video

Truth Dragon Yasuo

I hope you enjoyed reading my Yasuo guide! If you enjoyed it, come check out my Twitch channel where I stream regularly and my YouTube channel where I upload daily.

Massive thank yous to Depths, Ayurun, Chungmaster, AirborneCactus, and Amber for helping me make this guide!

12/16/21 - Complete overhaul. Updated spells, items, abilites, and the guide chapters to reflect preseason changes. Reformatted and proofreaded all of the guide as well. Will update matchups at a later date.
12/18/21 - Fixed some typos in Runes and Conclusion sections.
12/23/21 - Updated items and description for Berserker's Greaves in Items.
1/24/22 - Removed Cull from Items Section
1/25/22 - Updated Matchups Aatrox - Fizz
1/26/22 - Updated all matchups 1-5, added descriptions for Graves, Gwen, Vayne, Vex
2/5/22 - Added my YouTube video describing the pros/cons of Lethal Tempo / Conqueror
2/9/22 - Added Matchups Spreadsheet, Table of Contents