Champion:


Yasuo is a close range assassin/AD caster style of champion. His gameplay involves a good amount of maintenance work to be pulled off. I feel like he will be one of those "Yasuo main" kinda champions where the people that play him well, are the ones who play him alot. His kit involves alot of mobility as well as ability management. If played well though he offers an INSANELY fun gameplay experience with a strong kit.

Skills(Most of these are current numbers from the RoG patch notes):




Way of the Wanderer (passive) Resolve: Moving grants Yasuo Flow, which is tracked on his resource bar -- moving faster grants more Flow. At maximum Flow, damage from a champion or monster grants him a shield for 2 seconds. Intent: Yasuo's Critical Strike chance is doubled.

This passive has 2 parts. The first part is a shield that he gets after he has charged his flow gauge to 100% which he can do by moving around. The values of the shield are typically around 20% of your max health without big hp items(~400). This shield rewards Yasuo players who know how to play on the move and never stop his mobility game. Players who are stagnant and just attack and farm will not receive as much of a benefit. The second passive doubles his crit chance. This leads many people to believe he is a melee carry before they realize his Q (Main damage skill) crits. This passive allows Yasuo to get double the gold worth of crit chance out of the items he builds.




Steel Tempest-Thrusts forward, dealing 10/30/50/70/90 (+1*AD) physical damage. On hit, Steel Tempest grants a stack of Gathering Storm for 10 seconds. At 2 stacks, Steel Tempest fires a whirlwind that knocks Airborne. Steel Tempest is treated as a basic attack: It can critically strike, applies on-hit effects, and its cooldown and cast time are reduced by attack speed. If cast while dashing, Steel Tempest will strike as a circle. Range: 475 Cooldown: 6/5.5/5/4.5/4

Yasuo's first skill and a very key and important part to his kit. This spell is a small linear skillshot that is slightly longer than his AA range (Think J4 Q but less range). This move gives you a charge of "Gathering Storm" whenever you hit an enemy with this skill. Once you have 2 "Gathering Storm charges your next Q will fire an extra long range skillshot that knocks up enemies it hits (A normal J4 like Q + a Janna tornado with a smaller knockup shooting out of it). Managing this knockup is a very important part of Yasuo's kit as it is your form of long range harass and your combo initiation for bursting. This move has the ability to crit, apply on-hits, AND it lowers CD with you AS meaning you do not need to build CDR. The CD on this move caps at 1.3 seconds. This move should be used in rotation with your AAs for a good amount of dueling power. In lane this move can outrage most melee range champions trade range allowing you to get free poke on them. This move has a different type of targeting when used with your 3rd skill (Explained in the 3rd skill section).



Wind Wall-Passive: Dashing builds an extra 4/8/12/16/20% of your resource bar. Active: Creates a moving wall that blocks all enemy projectiles for 4 seconds. Range: 400. Cooldown: 26/24/22/20/18.

This move was honestly the most hyped part of his kit and it lives up to its expectations. This move is capable of blocking any ranged move that has "air time" that is time where it is connected to nothing flying through the air. It does not matter if it is a skillshot, targeted skill, or even a ranged champs AA. The primary use of this skill is to block high impact skillshots in a teamfight or to indirectly zone the enemy ADC in a teamfight by forcibly making them reposition to do damage or have their AA damage nullified. This move is instant and has no cast time or cost meaning its all up to player reaction times on when to use it allowing for some pretty sick and cool looking blocks. The passive mechanic of this skill makes your dash (next kill) build up more flow for your shield.



Sweeping Blade-Dashes through target enemy, dealing 70/90/110/130/150 (+1*AP) magic damage. Each cast increases your next dash's damage by 25%, up to 100%. Cannot be re-cast on the same enemy for 10/9/8/7/6 seconds. If cast while dashing, Steel Tempest will strike as a circle. Range: 475 Cooldown: 0.5/0.4/0.3/0.2/0.1.

This ability is INSANELY FUN and gives Yasuo the title of a mobility titan. This move allows Yasuo to dash to enemy enemy unit (Even creeps!) dealing magic damage. This dash must go the full 475 range and does not stop if you ult on top of an enemy champion (Like a fizz Q). This move has a .5 second CD or less which is where the mobility aspect comes in. This low CD however is only if you choose a new target you have not dashed to within the last ~10 seconds. A circular countdown will appear around units telling how long you have until you can dash to them. This move allows you to dance around creep waves or teamfights harassing and dealing damage while you build up Q stacks for a strong blow. As a small bonus to this already really strong skill every time you dash your next dash deals 25% bonus damage up to 4 times. Maintaining 4 stacks on the creeps in your lane so that you can use the bonus damage to harass your opponent is another important aspect to his overall damage output. This dash can also be comboed with your Q. If you Q while you are dashing through an enemy you ill perform a spin in the area instead of aiming your Q as a linear skillshot. On your tornado shot (3rd stack Q) this spin will knock up enemies hit. This gives you 2 different ways you could use your Q's utility, for safer long range poke style damage or a more engaged kind of damage.




Last Breath (Ultimate)- Dashes to an Airborne enemy champion, deals 200/300/400 (+1.5*AD) physical damage and holds all Airborne enemies in the area in the air for an additional 1 second. Resets all stacks of Gathering Storm. For 15 seconds, Yasuo gains 50/50/50% Bonus Armor Penetration -- this reduces armor from items, buffs, runes and masteries. Range: ~700 Cooldown: 80/55/30.

Yasuo's ultimate is Last Breath. This skill can only be used on a target who is in the air from a knockup. This skill causes you to dash to an enemy in the air extend the knockup duration for them and any nearby knocked up enemy by 1 second and do a powerful strike to the enemy. The only skill you have to perform a knockup needed is your 3rd Q strike, meaning you will need to make sure you can have quick access to a 3rd Q shot encase you ever need to use your ult. This also means you synergize really well with champions who have a knockup built in to their kit. The range on this skill is fairly big, meaning if an ally gets a knockup for you when you are within camera range of the enemy you can usually follow it up with your ultimate. The CD on this skill at later ranks is really low meaning if you have a champion with a knockup as a normal skill you can catch enemies by surprise bursting them with it after only ~20 seconds and get the response "Wtf is that cd...."

Itemization:


Yasuo itemizes with items that give AD,AS, Lifesteal, and on-hits. The items I see potential in are:
Blade of the Ruined King- Nuke active, AS, Lifesteal, On-hit, and some AD. Can utilize well.
Frozen Mallet-Sticking power and HP. 2 things Yasuo normally lacks.
Guardian Angel- Lategame carry item.
Infinity Edge- Enhances all your damage by alot since crits come as part of your main damage skill.
Last Whisper- Main pen item
Maw of Malmortius- Good source of MR while still giving a decent amount of AD.
Mercurial Scimitar- Good lategame item for if they are using CC to focus you down.
Ravenous Hydra- Sustain, damage active, and AD.
Statikk Shiv-Crit chance, AS, and On-hit. The on-hit charges up with the passive you should be charging anyway.
Bloodthirster-Alot of LS and AD.
Zephyr-AS, CDR, MS, AND tenacity.

While it may not be an ideal build, a fun build to run on Yasuo is an AP build. His E dash is a 1 AP ratio and can be pretty much spammed on the enemy team with no mana cost. The damage doubles if he has used it at least 4 times meaning it has a 2 AP ratio. Your Q applies on hit effects (AKA LICHBANE) meaning an Ap/AP AS build is actually fun and does damage on him. The AD build still will be able to output alot more though, but this is a "fun" alternative build style.

Early Game:


Yasuo is not the biggest early game juggernaught needing some items before he can really get up and get going. The laning phase for Yasuo mainly consists of managing everything(Which is):
-Staying mobile for passive
-Using Q whenever possible to harass down the foe and keep as close to a 3 charge as possible.
-Be ready to react to enemy attacks with your W ability.
-Using your E to keep up stacks as well as keep a mobility game going
-Deciding when to Q spam and when to E-Q combo.

Yasuo is a squishy champs so decision making and management are VERY important factors on him. I would not say his early game is bad by any means considering what it scales to be and what it can still do early game. He also possesses a fairly strong lvl 1 and 2 with his low CD Q and E.

Late Game:


Yasuo becomes an absolute monster lategame. If an enemy is caught in the air they are pretty much dead GG no RE. Yasuo has low CDs and is capable of AA fighting with pretty much any enemy he needs to. The main thing to remember late game as Yasuo is that your main strength lies in dashing around a battle disrupting enemy lines and killing/zoning off enemy carries.

Conclusion:


Yasuo is a fun to play melee champion. As both a character and a fighter he is an enjoying experience. His power at all stages of the game does not seem weak enough that he should not be seen, and he actually scales and works well with certain types of champions and comps. I am looking forward to his release on the live servers. If anyone has any kit questions leave in comments and I will answer them. As always summoners have fun and good luck on the fields of justice!