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Recommended Items
Runes: Cut them down (Standard)
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10% Tenacity/Slow Resist
Spells:
Flash
Ignite
Items
Threats & Synergies
Malzahar
Start D-Shield or D-Blade. This is a matchup where he will poke you with his E, shove your wave with Q, W, AND E, can't get knocked up because of his shield passive, and can level 6 insta-kill you with his jungler by pressing R. Rush QSS after zeal or statikk. (You don't have to right after zeal if the enemy jungler is weak or can't really gank well.) Take Fleet Footwork.
Malphite
Ah, the classic Malphite+Yasuo wombo combo. This allows Yasuo to get a massive teamwide Last Breath, essentially guaranteeing a won teamfight.
Malphite
Ah, the classic Malphite+Yasuo wombo combo. This allows Yasuo to get a massive teamwide Last Breath, essentially guaranteeing a won teamfight.
Champion Build Guide
Hello everyone! I'm EvilOranges, and this is my Yasuo mid guide. As a obligitory mastery 7 Yasuo main, I would like to take the time to share all my knowledge with you about the drunk ionian swordsman! I hope you enjoy my guide, and would greatly appreciate any feedback you have. Feel free to leave any comments with questions regarding anything! Thank you all for taking the time to read my Yasuo guide! |
+ Insane damage + High mobility + Versitile with builds + Snowballs very easily + Good engage + High CC, utility, and damage Yasuo is a champion that when used to his full potential can 1v9 carry a game. He has high damage, decent tankyness and survivability with lifesteal, insane mobility, good CC, and waveclear. There is a reason why the enemy Yasuo will smash your team, and that is because the champion is designed to be a feast or famine champion. He can do everything when ahead, and not much when behind. That being said, a single teamfight can let a 0-5 Yasuo snowball and become relevant again. |
- Very unforgiving (more puns!) in terms of mistakes - Feast or Famine champion - Vulnerable to CC - Item reliant Yasuo as a champion has almost no flaws. If you can play him perfectly he has damage, CC, utility, mobility, splitpush, teamfight, and skirmish ability, and everything in between. A huge part of playing Yasuo is the player, and that is why I am writing this guide. Knowing how and when to itemize against certain champions, knowing matchups inside out, knowing which CC will kill you and which won't, this all comes with skill. |
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Way of the Wanderer (Passive): Way of the Wanderer is a double passive. The first part is Yasuo gains double crit chance, but deals 10 percent less damage per crit. The second part is when Yasuo moves around, he generates flow (the grey bar). When he takes damage from a champion or monster, he activates his flow to create a shield equal to that amount (100-510) for up to a second. This is really good against poke and the shield is really good lategame against burst combos. |
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Steel Tempest (Q): Steel Tempest is the bread part of Yasuo's bread and butter. He stikes forward in a straight line, dealing damage to enemies hit. The cooldown is not modified by CDR, but by attack speed. Steel Tempest also applies on-hit effects, such as Crits and Lifesteal. Secondly, your 3rd Q within a short duration fires a tornado instead, that also applies on-hit effects and knocks enemies up. It has a much longer range. Lastly, when you cast your Steel Tempest with your E Sweeping Blade it will strike all enemies in a circle rather than a straight line. |
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Wind Wall (W): Wind Wall is one of Yasuo's signiture abilities. Yasuo generates a wall from his current location that slowly drifts in front of him, then stops. This wall blocks ALMOST ALL ranged abilities. From Lux Light Bindings to Katarinas Death Lotus to even Braums Glacial Fissure gets blocked by it. That being said, it is on a high cooldown. Used well it can turn the tide of a fight or even a game. |
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Sweeping Blade (E): Sweeping Blade is the butter to Steel Tempests bread. It allows you to dash a fixed distance through a minion, monster, or champion. That unit cannot be dashed through for 10-6 seconds (based on level). This gives Yasuo a broken amount of mobility, and gives him amazing dueling near minions. Each E stacks the next E's damage by 25 percent each time, giving it up to 150% damage. As stated before, if Q Steel Tempest is cast during E Sweeping Blade it will cast in a circle. |
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Last Breath (R): Last Breath is what rounds out Yasuo's kit and is what allow him to be a 1v9 champion. He blinks to a "nearby" (very far distance) enemy champion that is airborne, suspends them in the air for 1 extra second, and deals a massive amount of damage. It is best used against multiple targets. In addition, Yasuo gains max flow (free shield) and 50% armor penetration on his crits for 15 seconds, which is massive against tanks, and at increasing his tankiness. |
Steel Tempest Straight line AOE skillshot. Your Q should be used often to either kill minions at long range, or cancel your autos. You do this by AA'ing, then as your damage goes through immediately cast Steel Tempest to get the most damage in.
Wind Wall Nothing will hit me. Wind wall can block almost all ranged abilities. If you are up against someone who has a key CC ability that sets up their combo (e.g. Ahri's Charm or Lux's Light Binding), you should wait to windwall those abilities. You can also cancel the Q Steel Tempest animation during the E-Q combo with your W, so it shows essentially that you are just dashing, but when in reality you are E-Q'ing with a Wind Wall on top of it. (More in the combos section).
Sweeping Blade Nothing will hit me numero deux. Sweeping Blade allows you to dash through minions and champions. Stand behind if you want to engage, and stand beside the wave if you want to dodge. Standing behind the wave means you can dash forward through the minions, and standing to the side means you can dash horizontally to avoid skillshots.
Your Sweeping Blade also deals increasing damage, so make sure if you can, to dash through 1-2 minions first, then dash onto the champion. If they are standing in the wave, do not dash onto them. Use Sweeping Blade after they use flash or a mobility ability to gapclose afterwards.
Sweeping Blade is also a fixed distance dash. This means the closer you stand to the minion/champion you will dash through the further you will go behind it. A max range E will leave you on top of the unit, and a close range E will propel you a lot further. When chasing, you want to walk close to a minion, then dash, and repeat. It is faster this way.
Yasuo's E also lets you move through the jungle really easily. You can cross Krugs , Raptors , Wolves , and Gromp easily, which can help with chasing or escapes. This will be covered in a later section, walldashes. (Will be added soon! Stay tuned)
Last Breath Is it the leaf's only purpose to fall? The ultimate gives you a lot of room for outplays. In general, you want to use Last Breath as late as possible so they are CC'd for longer. Before you ult, make sure to auto them before ulting, as it is a free auto. However, ult immediately if you will die from DOT (damage over time) such as Ignite or Teemo poison, as the flow will shield you from the damage.
Last Breath also positions you behind your target from where you ulted. So if you are in front of them, you will blink behind them. If you are behind them, you will blink in front of them.
If you are ulting someone under a turret, Last Breath will try to position you outside of the turret range. This makes diving pretty easy on Yasuo, but don't try and do it if the junglers nearby.
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Starting Items
Core Items
Lifesteal Items
Tanky Items
AP/CC defensive items
Armor pen/Anti tank items
Boot Options
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Ranged matchups, most often are the straightforward matchups. These are the matchups that you can use your Wind Wall the best in. Analyse the matchup to see which abilities you can Windwall. Let's take the Ahri matchup for example. Which of her abilities will you windwall? Which of these abilities would you windwall? |
Melee in midlane mostly includes assassins, and the occasional Irelia or Camille if you are Korean challenger. Because they are somewhat similar, I will just talk about assassins. These matchups are harder because they are a lot more unpredictable and more snowbally. Similar to the ranged matchups, you want to analyze the enemies abilities. Let's say you are against an Akali. What do you want to Wind Wall?Five Point Strike?Shuriken Flip?The answer is Shuriken Flip. This is because this is her only engage ability before level 6. Akali will win a trade set on her own terms, which is why you want to control her trading patterns. With melee champions, you have to identify your powerspikes and the enemies powerspikes. You have to identify first at which levels and which items you spike at, then compare to the enemies level and items. For example, against Zed, you win level 2, but he wins level 3, because he has access to his W-E-Q combo that procs Electrocute. You also lose level 6 because his ultimate is point and click, where yours needs setup time and can be dodged by his W Living Shadow. Compare that with Ekko, where you lose on your traditionally strong level 2 powerspike but win on level 3 powerspike because you can Wind Wall his Timewinder and deny both his passive and his Electrocute proc. More in-depth analysis below. (Coming soon) This is also a good spot to poke with your Q. You win whenever you initiate a trade where they are distracted or locked in their CS animation. This allows you to get a quick Q or E-AA-Q combo onto them and dashing back out. Whenever they go in for a CS, try to poke them with a Q. Do this enough, and they will take a suprising amount of damage. It also gives a stack of Conqueror, so if you poke them and they don't respond, you can go in if their cooldowns are down. |
These are your 2 item powerspikes. Statikk Shiv gives you an insane amount of waveclear, damage, attack speed, and movement speed. Basically, with this item you can easily skirmish or look to dive with Last Breath available. Infinity Edge gives you insane damage when completed, but the build path with Cloak of Agility gives you 90 percent crit chance, so the powerspike is less noticeable than before, when you had to complete the item for 100 percent crit, but it is still really good for damage. HOW TO ABUSE:Abuse Statikk Shiv powerspike by shoving and roaming. Ideally, if you don't die and farm well, you should get this around 11-12 minutes along with Berserker's Greaves, allowing you to constantly E-Q the wave with Statikk Shiv passive, pushing extremely easily. Try and roam as much as you can, but if all your lanes are pushed in and you can't dive in another lane, you can look to dive in mid. Make sure the jungler isn't there, otherwise you burn your Last Breath and possible Ignite or Flash. To dive, shove the wave as hard as you can, then as they are farming the 5-6 minions poke them with your Q. Do this 1-2 times so they are around half hp, then charge up tornado. Launch it at them, then ult and Ignite. Spam Q as you land so it will automatically AA-Q after ult animation is finished. For Infinity Edge powerspike you can duel nearly anybody, and you work wonders in both teamfights and skirmishes. Do things knowing you have the damage, but don't run in because you don't have any tankiness or survivability. |
Your level 2 powerspike with Steel Tempest and Sweeping Blade is one of the strongest level 2s in the game for midlane, behind Talon and maybe Ekko. Therefore, let the wave push, prep 1 stack of Steel Tempest and as soon as you hit level 2 go in, as long as the opponent doesn't have a massive wave advantage, and aren't Talon or Ekko. With Conqueror and Ignite, you should be able to chunk them out of lane, or even kill them. Level 6 powerspike is also really powerful, but be careful who you go in on. Someone like a Zed, Akali or a good LeBlanc can dismantle you if you miss tornado or they dodge it with Living Shadow, Twilight Shroud and Perfect Execution, and Distortion respectively. Make sure to play safe until you know you can all in. Sometimes it is worth ulting but not killing them to chunk them out of lane so you can back for Zeal or even Statikk Shiv, which should happen around that time. HOW TO ABUSE:For level 2, prepare by letting the enemy laner push the wave from level 1, so you can dash through minions to all in. If they don't do this, you can hardshove level 1, so the wave bounces back to you around level 2-3, which is fine vs many mage matchups with 1 CC ability (e.g. Lux, Ahri, Vel'Koz, etc.). For level 6, prep by pushing or letting them push, depending if your jungler is nearby to dive or not. Alternatively, roam to try and get a double Last Breath botlane or help out your toplaner. |
Lane control and wave management is by far the hardest tecnique to grasp on Yasuo. Its a double edged sword, where if you manage the wave well, you can open up all-in opportunities and jungle ganks, but if you fail, you will be camped and lose out on CS and kills. |
Yasuo is a great roam champion. Due to the nature of his kit and how easily he can use E-Q's to take down multiple targets, and a double knockup ultimate is pretty simple to get, roaming bot is a great choice. Roaming top can also happen if Rift Herald is up, and your top laner needs a roam. Generally, you want to roam whenever you have the chance. As soon as you see your laner recall, push your wave into their tower. It helps if it is a slow push, but not so slow that it doesn't crash into the tower. Do this by clearing all the caster minions, and 1-2 melee minions. After, you leave lane and roam. A good roam can get you or your teammates back into the game. A lead is useless if you don't use it. If you get a solokill and barely take any damage back, you can instantly push, then roam bot to blow their summoner spells or get a kill or 2. You also should analyse bot lane and top lane's situation. Are they pushed to their tower? Can you dive them? Do they have flash? What CC do they have? These are all things to keep in mind. Maybe roaming bot into a Thresh Vayne isn't that smart of an idea, because they have great cc and damage to lock you down and kill you. |
Yasuo can take many roles in teamfights. Generally though, you want to fight in skirmishes (2v2, 3v3, etc.) because you don't get focused and blown up instantly.Role 1: Melee ADCThis is the most efficient teamfight role in most scenarios. As long as you are even or ahead, this strategy will work great. You will play like an ADC, only autoattacking and Q'ing enemies that come in range of you, or on overextended targets. Just make sure you don't get cc'd and caught. Minimize use of Sweeping Blade, lest you dash right in the middle of the enemy team and be blown up. Role 2: Secondary EngageThis role is often taken when you have AOE knockups on your team. For example, a Malphite should be the primary engage, then you ult to keep them suspended in mid-air for longer, and allowing your team to close distance and deal their damage. This role is good whenever you have knockups. If not, you should not engage at all. The number 1 mistake I see with Yasuo is they run in 1v5, thinking they can win, but they end up looking stupid and die. Yasuo is too squishy to be the primary engage. Leave the job to your top laner or jungler. As soon as you cast R Last Breath you want to dash and windwall out, because chances are they will focus you and your primary engage. Let your team come in, and take on the role of a melee ADC. Role 3: PeelerThis might sound stupid, but is actually extremely effective. This strategy is used when you are behind. You basically peel for your APC or ADC, whichever one needs peeling. You actually have a lot of utility with your Wind Wall blocking most CC and damage that would kill your carries. You also have a lot of damage, just no survivability. Whenever assassins or anyone tries to kill your ADC from close range, use your damage to scare them off or kill them. By doing this, you are splitting off the teamfight into a temporary 2v1 (your ADC and you) vs an assassin/bruiser. You are strongest when people run right into your damage, and skirmishes, so peeling is perfect. Only use this when behind, otherwise your engage or tank might flame you for being useless. But hey, being useless is better than being stupid and feeding right? Role 4: Primary EngageThe reason I put this last is because this is incredibly risky. This is what Yasuo's do that ticks every good Yasuo main off, and their teammates too. The sight of a 1-12 Yasuo running into a full team with heavy CC is not a good idea. DO NOT do this unless you are extremely fed, you are extremely confident in your Wind Wall and skills in general, and you can count on your team to follow in with you. If you are going to do this (please don't), build tanky items after Statikk Shiv and Infinity Edge, such as Frozen Mallet, Randuin's Omen, and Mercurial Scimitar. If the enemy has any type of good CC (>50 percent slows, stuns, roots, grounds, knockups) you are running into your death. Try to split up the teamfight. Zone maybe the ADC and support into one side, then zone the rest of the team away. You can 1v2 probably, but not 1v5. |
+ You can take objectives quickly + You have good mobility + You can 1v1 or 1v2 (whether or not you are ahead) + You can clear waves (using E-Q and Statikk Shiv passive + The enemy team is strong at 5v5 teamfights + Your team can 4v5 Yasuo can splitpush very well. His kit allows him to 1v1 or 1v2, he has great pushing power, and his attack speed+ Demolish lets him take towers very quickly. The only thing is he can't necessarily run if more people come. He relies on enemy minions to use his E, so don't get caught out. However, if you are ahead you can kill anyone 1v1, 1v2, or even more, and your objective control is crazy high. This will allow your team to at least take 1 objective. |
- You are behind - Your team is behind - You are getting killed while splitpushing - Your team is better at 5v5's - Enemy team can out-duel you Don't splitpush when you are behind, as you will get caught out and killed, setting you even further behind. I choose to ward and farm up rather than risk becoming completely useless. You also don't want to splitpush if you find you are getting killed every time you try. If your team has knockup synergies (e.g. Malphite R, Rhaast Kayn W) you can easily win teamfights. Therefore there isn't a reason to splitpush. If your team is behind, you should stick with them because they will get demolished in a 4v5 fight. Assist what you can and run away if the rest of your team gets wiped. |
August 14th: Spelling, minor formatting.
August 5th: Added and edited lane control section, as well as added powerspike section.
July 25th: Spelling and formatting.
July 24th: Added Laning gameplay section, teamfighting section, and roaming section.
July 21st: Added full Item section and splitpush section.
July 19th: Updated title to 9.14 instead of 9.13.
July 18th: Added Rune page, will recode in a day or 2.
July 5th: Hello world again! Guide created with Intro, Why play?, Pros/cons, abilities, tips and tricks, and summoner spells!
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