If you are curious about who I am, my name is Johnny but i go by Visions Of V in the creator sphere. I have been playing since season 4 and been maining Yasuo ever since.
Im a HUGE fan of Devil May Cry (if you wanted to know where my name is from.. its from a book in this game series) and it made me completely obsessed with katana type characters. So far i have peaked at 1025LP GRANDMASTER on the NA server and hit rank 5 on Yasuo but dont let my rank fool you. My mastery on this champion is way beyond normal comprehension due to me playing this game almost EVERY DAY for the past 11 years.
Yasuo is my favorite champion in the game by far and its been LONG OVERDUE for me to finally write a guide. Hopefully this helps you guys and if you have ANY questions feel free to ask me in the comments.

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What made me want to play Yasuo?

Yasuo is easily one of the most fun AND rewarding champions in the game due to his INSANELY HIGH skill ceiling and outplay potential. Not to mention his build diversity and utility is insanely strong into a majority of champions. Yasuo is one of the FEW champions in the game where you can go almost ANY item (within reason.. I see you MAGESUOS) and be strong. Obviously some builds are better than others but the fact you can build what you feel like without it jepordizing your game makes him very fun for me.

What makes Yasuo better than any other champion

Wind Wall
Mobility
Consistent Carry Ablity
Consistent Outplay Potential
NO MANA
Did I mention Wind Wall?

What are some downsides?

For those that actually DIDNT know, Yasuo Ult PASSIVE says he gets bonus ARMOR PENETRATION on critical strikes, however, that is actually NOT true. He just gets bonus damage on crits. Very interesting right?
No real LATE GAME scaling
No HP% damage
INSANELY WEAK if your team refuses to draft around you
Snowball reliant
Playstyle can be easily read the higher you climb

ENSURE YOU ARE READING NOTES FOR THE BEST LEARNING EXPERIENCE


Lethal Tempo is quite literally the STAPLE of Yasuo due to it not only increasing his all around kill pressure but SIGNIFICANTLY reducing his Q CD with the bonus attack speed. Additionally with this NEW version of Lethal Tempo (its not really NEW anymore but still relatively NEW compared to previous interations of the rune) the additional ON HIT damage is REALLY nice for those early all ins.


Conqueror is honestly kind of niche at the current moment due to Lethal Tempo just providing way more value in comparison. Conqueror STILL has its uses in a attack speed build (PHANTOM DANCER BUILD FOR EXAMPLE) becuase the whole premise of Lethal Tempo is to make use of the attack speed. Having TOO much attack speed honestly hurts the VALUE of the rune specifically on Yasuo which is why Conqueror is still a viable option.


Fleet Footwork is for team comps that essentially make it to where you cant play. Some examples of this would be Lissandra, Brand, Anivia, Vex etc. You just wont ever get the value of Lethal Tempo due to not being able to ever ALL in due to the extreme poking or CC lock down therefore we look towards a sustain route with Fleet Footwork/ Grasp of the Undying.


Triumph is another staple that you essentially ALWAYS take due to the value it provides. Health after a take down is really valuable especially in teamfights that are high risk high reward. Numerous times you will find yourself at 1hp only to get a takedown and completely turn the tide of a fight.


Legend: Alacrity is probably one of the most essential and impactful runes due to Yasuo Q scaling off attack speed. There are other options in this area of the tree but this one in paticular makes it to where you dont have to rely on as many attack speed items to get your max Q CD (1.33).

I personally like Cut Down in the ADC role because it allows you to deliver more kill pressure to cocky ADC's. 99% of ADC players will play off their range and try and bully you throughout the game even giving Minions/Gold to do it. Remember, League isnt just a game about PvPing, you are also doing mental warfare. A cocky ADC is less likely to run up and play aggro if they are under 60% HP. When they are at that threshhold they feel squishy and burstable, which is true, but again, psychological warefare down here. Coupe de Grace is really good because of execution damage (doing more damage when they are low) but dealing more damage while they are HEALTHY can make LANING PHASE 10x easier for yourself.

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Grasp of the Undying is essentially the SAME playstyle as Fleet Footwork. Can't play the game? Got counter picked? Play off Grasp of the Undying stacks. It does similar healing to Fleet Footwork BUT it permanately increases your Health at the same time AND does damage scaling off your BONUS HP. Remember what I said about psychological warfare? Getting in your opponents head? If you see an enemy with a Grasp of the Undying proc up, you dont want to walk up and give it to them right? Same arguement applies here. They will see your Grasp of the Undying being up and ready to proc BUT wont want to trade with you in fear of giving you the proc. Its a mind game. HOWEVER I will say that this rune has 1 BILLION more uses mid lane over bot lane due to its overall pressure being weakened with the pressence of an additional player (enemy support).
Conditioningisnt a BAD rune for Yasuo but there are just so many other options to the point this one kind of falls flat. I dont really recommend it personally.

Second Wind is quite literally ESSENTIAL when it comes to bot lane. Reason being is that every single ADC/APC is going to try as hard as humanly possible to poke and punish you out of lane for picking a melee champion bot.

Bone Plating has less value than you would think when it comes to bot lane. The only REAL instance this is better than second wind is if the enemy ADC/APC is more burst based rather than POKE based. An example of Bone Plating being better than Second Wind is if you are laning into a Samira. Samira is not looking to POKE you but rather DASH for an ALL IN.

Overgrowth was a staple for the longest time however as someone who has literally only been playing Yasuo for several years, the value of it falls flat bot lane when compare with Revitalize. The more you play Yasuo the more you learn to play off your passive (your shield that you get for walking around). PLUS Revitalize synergizes perfectly not only with your passive but ALSO Immortal Shieldbow.

Revitalize is one of the few runes in this tree that are just PERFECT for what Yasuo is. Every Yasuo knows how we were all born to limit test this champ to infinity. Revitalize allows us to do this to the extreme with the 5% bonus shielding and healing.

Unflinching most definately has its uses but i PERSONALLY dont take it.

Flash is the MOST important summoner for Yasuo because it allows us to do our blade combos. This will be expanded upon further down the guide.


Exhaust is probably the SECOND MOST important summoner in the game due to its value it provides Yasuo at all stages of the game.


Ignite is very niche and not really worth the pick for us. If anyone needs to bring this, its the support.


Teleport is another niche spell that is out weighed by the combat capabilities of just bringing Exhaust. Teleport can most certainly help you traverse the map, but it wont help you in the final fight at elder dragon or baron


Cleanse is useful into specifically Ashe/ Braum but if you can just have the will power to give cs and play safe, then Exhaust will be a better pick towards mid/late.

Way of the Wanderer is Yasuo passive. It essentially gives a free shield for walking around. It is also one of the most important things about his kit, even if it seems underwelming compared to other champions. Way of the Wanderer also DOUBLES Yasuo crit chance while reducing his bonus crit damage by a substantial margin.


Steel Tempest is the bread and butter of this champ. By pressing our Q button, we can stab foward and apply our ON HIT effects to the FIRST ENEMY hit, and dealing damage to anything else behind it. After hitting a target with our Q, we are able to store a charge for 6 seconds. If we Q an additional time while maintaining the charge, our Q will transform into a whirlwind projectile that we can throw to knock up enemies.


Wind Wall is literally the reason we are able to play this champion bot lane. ANY and ALL projectiles can be blocked allowing you to take ZERO damage from any attackers that are ranged (minus Senna). Also, tip for anyone reading, you can stand in the middle of your Wind Wall and take no damage from ALL sides (granted they are projectiles).

Sweeping Blade is our standard gap closer that does additional damage depending on how many times you have used it. Maximum damage is at 3 stacks, so make sure when you dash on an enemy champion, you are at 3 or above for nuclear slides.


Last Breath allows us to blink to ANY champion that is knocked up in a LARGE area around us and hold them in the air for ADDITIONAL time before SLAMMING them to the ground. Afterwards we gain 60% bonus damage on our crits (its not actually bonus pen believe it or not). Make sure you are CERTAIN before taking your ult into fights BECAUSE once you are in, you can be easily stranded AWAY from your team.

Control Ward are quite literally ONE of if not the MOST important item in the game. In League Of Legends, vision is EVERYTHING. Control Ward will prevent jungle ganks, allow you to know when you have prio, allow you to know when you can confidently fight, allow you to set up for objectives relatively safely, and prevent you from being diddled from a random stealth champ. VERY important item gents. Dont skimp out on them.


Doran's Blade was the GOLDEN STANDARD for the longest time on Yasuo. It gives you AD, OMNIVAMP, and HP to allow you to deal considerable damage early while ALSO being able to sustain any damage recieved to a minimal degree.


Doran's Bow is a new item that gives CONSIDERABLE attack speed at the cost of HP and 1% OMNIVAMP. HOWEVER, the item is 50 gold cheaper. Currently, it is my go to because of how impactful it feels with the early Steel Tempest cooldown on Yasuo.


Doran's Shieldthe item that allows you to be immortal early to any hard pokers. It is a great pick for lanes that dont allow you to farm, but a pretty bad choice for any scaling. The OMNIVAMP from Doran's Blade or Doran's Bow will scale due to you dealing more damage as the game goes on. Doran's Shield will fall off due to the flat HP scaling it provides.


Berserker's Greaves have went down considerably in power over these couple years as not only a rush item for Yasuo. BUT A CORE ITEM as well. In the golden days this item gave 35% attack speed, however now its at 25%. Its almost more beneficial now to just go defensive boots. They are still a staple buy but no where near as useful as the other alternatives.


Plated Steelcaps are insanely strong not only in the bot lane, but into every other game because of the 10% damage reduction from all types of auto attacks. I recommend these in games where the enemy team has 3 AD champs or 3 auto attack based champions such as Kayle, Kindred, Quinn etc.


Mercury's Treads are insanely strong into champions that hard rely on cc such as Leona, Lissandra, Rammus etc. Make sure to buy these if the enemy team comp is CC reliant/heavy.


Kraken Slayer is my favorite item in the game and ALSO the strongest spike Yasuo can get in my opinion from the current items. It provides all the stats we need along with a build in execute passive. 13/10 item.


Blade of the Ruined King is a super strong item into bursty comps and HP STACKING comps. Other than that, the item itself feels very underwelming. The champs that can build this make it seem op. But the ones that can build it OPPTIONALLY dont get enough value from it (LOOKING AT YOU Irelia).


Immortal Shieldbow is a core item for Yasuo due to the insane outplay potential it offers. HOWEVER it is easily countered by Serpent's Fang, so i recommend building an ARMOR item before it, to incentivize enemy assassins to build another item that ISNT Serpent's Fang.


Mortal Reminder is a standard choice for armor pen while also allowing us to apply grievous wounds.


Lord Dominik's Regards is the HP STACKER tank slaying item. Very powerful but not always necessary. Depending on team comp it can easily make or break a game.


Iceborn Gauntlet is a sleaper item that not many people are aware of is actually quite strong on Yasuo. It gives Yasuo not only armor, a sheen proc, but also a SLOW. Its very strong into AD Heavy team compositions.


Death's Dance is essential for any limit testing Yasuo due to the 30% damage reduction working on ALL sources of damage. This item is EXTREMEMLY strong into ALL comps, and is more or less a core item.


Guardian Angel is a somewhat niche item because the value of it is outweighed from Death's Dance HOWEVER it is ALSO good into AD Heavy comps due to it providing ARMOR, AD, and a REVIVE.


Jak'Sho, The Protean is a fairly strong item if you are more TANKY rather than DPS. It increases your BONUS resistences by 30% while in combat so make sure if you DO build this, that you have other tank items since thats what the 30% comes off of.


Infinity Edge is ESSENTIAL for ANY squishy team. There is a reason almost every ADC in the game goes this item.


Bloodthirster is just a HUGE stat stick that gives you sustain. Its a FUN item, but not anything too special since enemy team USUALLY builds greivous wounds (reduces all sources of healing by 40%).


Randuin's Omen is an EXTREMELY strong item if the enemy has 2 crit champions. Usually it will be the enemy ADC and Graves BUT we can also justify building it if the enemy BRUISERS build Sundered Sky.


Mercurial Scimitar the ONLY time you build this item is if the enemy has Lissandra or Malzahar. Thats it.


Wit's End is one of my favorite items to build due to not only giving attack speed. But it ALSO gives tenacity and on hit magic damage. Very fun item that shuts down the majority of AP champions.


Maw of Malmortius is fairly useful when it comes to AP Heavy comps however due to the MR shield and OMNIVAMP once it pops. The shield however scales off of your BONUS AD rather than your LEVEL like Immortal Shieldbow. So keep that in mind when building it. A nice balance of resistences and damage will make this item shine, but building too much tank with it will leave it rather weak.

So playing Yasuo ADC in the early game is complete MISERY until you hit level 3. All we have to do, is play safe, give exp and be PATIENT. I know we are playing a hyper aggro edgelord samurai, but if we just have patience, we are immediately rewarded.


So here is what we do to ensure we can make it to level 3 without losing several of our resources. Before minions spawn, we want to run bot lane and WARD the middle bush to ensure that they dont try and cheese us as we walk to lane with the minions. Afterwards, this is more or less what happens EVERY game. They will try and walk up and auto attack you to prevent you from farming with your Q. All you need to do is be patient. If the enemy walks up even harder to try and ZONE you from the wave and exp, communicate with your support to ward the FIRST bush in the bot lane as well. This makes it to where if they walk up and AUTO you, the minions will IMMEDIATELY stop attacking other minions and priortize autoing them. Which in turn will allow the wave to start shoving to you. Farming under the turret depending on who they pick is also really frusturating but we just need push through it and be patient. Get as many of them as you can (its totally fine to miss cs this early) and start setting up the wave to play off your level 3 spike.


Basically we want the wave stuck right in front of our turret and slow pushing to the enemy BECAUSE this allows us to hit 3 first AND have them close to our side of the map. Once we are 1 minion off of 3, you will immediately dash to the minion killing it and leveling your Wind Wall with ALT+W. Then we will be hitting exhaust on the enemy ADC and ALL INNING them. This will result in either a kill or the enemy blowing their sums. Now we will be shoving the wave and looking for a reset. If you got a kill, we should have recurved bow. If not, we should have cull and a Control Ward. Keep your tribush warded and repeat this process until they eventually die.

Alright so mid game is a fiesta, and as an ADC there is only so many things YOU can do. All you want to do is respond to teamfights while maintaining a lead unless you are FED and COMPETENT. If you are FED you should be able to make any plays in the game revolve around you and make your team respond accordingly. HOWEVER if you DIDNT know, you build/maintain a lead by using an enemies mistake AGAINST them. Such as them taking bad resets costing them plates, or bad trades costing them minions, or even bad fights costing them a obj. There are several different ways the game can be so i will be giving explanations for 3 of the game states and how to deal with them.


The first one, is under the assumption you are ahead and winning lane. If we are winning, we want to communicate and work with our jungle to make sure we can get any dragons bot side to set up a win con for soul point. And depending on how ahead you are you can even help your jungle with voidgrub/ rift herald because it will take a behind adc a LONG time to take those first platings.


The second assumption is that we are EVEN with the enemy bot lane. If this is the case, we will be looking for an angle to ALL in them and no longer make this the case. In order to do this, we need to do 1 of 2 things, and that is either WARD their jungle, or sucessfully TRACK where their jungle/mid is. Yasuo wins ANY and ALL all ins against an ADC with Exhaust and his Wind Wall if played correctly. Once we have set up or have confirmation on where the enemy team is. We can look to all in. We just continue to do what we have been doing, which is just farm, until they are pushed to our turret, where we will then instantly dash on them and hit Exhaust to look for the all in angle. Here its VERY important that we do NOT throw our nado. And this is a VERY crucial thing if you want to get good at Yasuo. We essentially want to bait them into flashing our nado right? So while we are fighting them and they're Exhaust, we want our nado stacked and instead of hitting EQ, we want to just hit E on them to make them THINK we are going to EQ. Once they flash, throw nado and look for a kill with Last Breath. Congrats, you are winning lane now.


The FINAL scenario is that we are LOSING lane. Essentially we CAN look for outplays if we are comfortable on the champion. If not, we will have to wait for someone to bail us out (example being our jungle or mid laner). If no one is willing to bail you out, then its time for us to evolve and figure out how to win. Yasuo can kill ANY ADC in the game even if he's 0/10 if we utilize Wind Wall correctly. Look for the mistakes the enemy is making. Are they prioing minions? Are they ignoring vision? Play off of it. What can we do with what we have to change the outcome. Our Wind Wall is our most important tool here. So utilizing it will be what turns us from a NOOB to a PRO.

Now late game is about taking our thought process of having our team play around us to the next level. Late game we are prioritizing picks and one shotting squishies to take BIG objectives such as baron or elder dragon (if the game is at that point. Communicate to your team via pings on what you want done and have them respond PROACTIVELY and not REACTIVELY. PROACTIVE meaning we want them to stay busy and FIND things to do. Rather than REACTIVELY where they REACT to the enemy making plays. We want vision cleared and set up while everyone is playing their part. Make sure NO ONE is AUTOPILOTING. We can assist them by ALSO placing Control Ward in high trafic areas.

Now we need to understand what our ROLE is in these fights. Obviously we want our team to play around us as the ADC (since we are the carry after all) but sometimes, you just arent the MC (main character) and need to peel your fed mid, top or jungle. Maybe you need to engage to get your team rolling in end game fights. It is YOUR job to figure out what that is. In these fights, every decision is game winning or game losing.

Your Wind Wall can block several VERY important spells, and its ESSENTIAL that we use it correctly. Some examples of GAME WINNING ULTS that we can block are Ornn, Seraphine, Sona, Senna, and Miss Fortune. In late game its VERY hard to fully utilize Yasuo kit because of how easily he can be kited towards late game. Again, coordinate with your team what plays you want made or take it into your hands and do it yourself if the situation presents itself.

Rell is quite literally the BEST champion with Yasuo bot lane PERIOD. She offers 3 different knock ups, 2 of which are AOE. A speed up, an armor break, armor/mr shred, a displacement, and a STUN. She is absolutely insane and a GOD tier pick.


Alistar is another insanely good pick that only SLIGHTLY pales in comparison to Rell. His engage, chain cc, and dive potential makes him Z tier.


Zac is an exotic pick for support but provides some of the best chain cc and engage in the game for a Yasuo. He can make risky plays, all while having an extra life on his passive. Love this champ.


Neeko is a really SLEEPER pick for support and also has some REALLY good synergy with Yasuo due to her high damage and AOE ult.


Nautilus makes the game very easy due to his SIMPLE playstyle and kit. He is outshined by higher skill ceiling champs such as Rell, Alistar, and Zac but provides almost as much utility.


Thresh is another great pick that only falls a bit more flat compared to his competitors due to his high CDS early. A good Thresh will make him seem like he is on URF. A bad one.. lets not think about that.


Nami is the only enchanter in the game that i enjoy having when i play Yasuo due to her heals and reliable knock ups. Its a shame 99% of them dont know how to land their bubbles, but thats a user error.


Pyke is a really high risk high reward playstyle that i thoroughly enjoy, he only starts coming short when it comes to late game due to him being outscaled. Before 25minutes though, hes a monser.

Gragas is another exotic pick you can find bot lane as a support and honestly, its incredibly fun to play with. His early levels are pretty boring up until level 5, but after that, BOMBA.


Leona is 1 of 2 champions that im completely fine with getting on my team despite them not having knockups because of how much utility they provde. Leona has insane CC lock down that synergizes well with Yasuo so we can just look past the knock up part.

Taric is the last champ on this list that i prefer because of how insanely POWERFUL his ult is late game. During laning phase he offers a stun that YOU can control, along with a spammable heal. I find his playstyle very fun and reliable when compared to several other champions.

In order to TRULY be a Yasuo main, you have to learn about the blade combos. Such as the Airblade, Beyblade, and Keyblade. These are ADVANCED combos that make a Yasuo go from level 1 noob to level 100 boss.

AIRBLADE - This is when a Yasuo uses EQ before ulting, to apply the Q damage to the target/s being ulted.

BEYBLADE - This is when we have our Q3 (the knockup). We will EQ an enemy and Flash onto our target to apply the knockup.

KEYBLADE - This is where we put both of the steps above together while also weaving in an auto attack. So first we get our Q3, then we EQ Flash onto our target, auto attack one time, then EQ R.