This is my Yasuo guide - Yasuo is a melee champion with some very interesting mechanics. He is an assassin/fighter and his skillset can be quite devastating against ranged/casters. Yasuo is quite suited to the Mid Lane but can be played Top Lane and Jungle, although Mid Lane is where he really shines.

Overall, Yasuo is a very high skill cap champ, with lots of tricks and things to keep an eye on. His damage is insane when you are able to play him correctly but he can be very frustrating when mess up. Hang in there, practise hard and trust in your blade!

Hopefully this ULTIMATE guide will help you get the most him :-)

Official Lore

Yasuo is a man of resolve, an agile swordsman who wields the wind itself to cut down his foes. But this once proud warrior has been disgraced by a false accusation and forced into a desperate fight for survival. With the world turned against him, he will do everything in his power to bring the guilty to justice and restore his honor.

Once a brilliant pupil at a renowned Ionian sword school, Yasuo was the only student in a generation to master the legendary wind technique. Many believed he was destined to become a great hero. However, his fate was changed forever when Noxus invaded. Yasuo was charged with guarding an Ionian Elder, but, foolishly believing his blade alone could make the difference, left his post to join the fray. By the time he returned, the Elder had been slain.

Disgraced, Yasuo willingly turned himself in, prepared to pay for his failure with his life. He was shocked, however, to find himself accused not just of dereliction, but of the murder itself. Though confused and racked with guilt, he knew the assassin would go unpunished if he did not act. Yasuo raised his sword against the school and fought his way free, knowing his treason would turn all of Ionia against him. Now truly alone for the first time in his life, he set out to find the Elder's real killer.

Yasuo spent the next several years wandering the land, seeking any clue that might lead him to the murderer. All the while, he was relentlessly hunted by his former allies, continually forced to fight or die. His mission drove him ever forward, until he was tracked down by the one foe he dreaded most – his own brother, Yone.

Bound by a common code of honor, the two warriors bowed and drew their swords. Silently they circled one another under the moonlight. When they finally charged forward, Yone was no match for Yasuo; with a single flash of steel he cut his brother down. Yasuo dropped his weapon and rushed to Yone's side.

Overcome with emotion, he demanded to know how his own kin could think him guilty. Yone spoke: “The Elder was killed by a wind technique. Who else could it be?” Understanding swept over Yasuo as he suddenly realized why he had been accused. He professed his innocence once more and begged his brother's forgiveness. Tears streamed down Yasuo's face as his brother passed in his arms.

Yasuo Yasuo buried Yone under the rising sun, but could take no time to mourn. Others would be after him before long. His brother's revelation had given Yasuo newfound purpose; he now had the clue that would lead to the true killer. Swearing an oath, he gathered his belongings and, with one last look at Yone's grave, set out with the wind at his back.

The story of a sword is inked in blood.
― Yasuo

Champion Spotlight

Play Video

Pros

Cons

Max Steel Tempest first, Sweeping Blade second Wind Wall last as its more of a utility spell.

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Yasuo's passive Way of the Wanderer has two components, Resolve and Intent. His resource bar is Flow and is used to fuel his Resolve.

Resolve

At maximum Flow, the next time Yasuo would take damage from a champion or monster he first converts his Flow into a shield that absorbs damage. After 2 seconds, if not already depleted, Yasuo's loses all his Flow.

Yasuo can have up to 60 / 70 / 80 / 92 / 105 / 120 / 140 / 160 / 185 / 215 / 245 / 280 / 325 / 375 / 430 / 490 / 565 / 650 Flow. Flow does not decay or generate idly. Yasuo generates 1% of his maximum Flow with every ~40 units he travels, requiring a total of 4000 units-traveled to obtain maximum Flow. As Flow generation is based on distance traveled it is also accumulated while dashing, teleporting or when displaced by crowd control effects.

Once the Flow bar is full, upon taking damage from a champion or neutral monster, resolve first produces a shield that reduces the incoming damage by an amount up to the current maximum amount of Flow for up to 2 seconds.
Damage that is negated by Resolve's shield appears as a blue indicator. For example, -60.

Intent

Yasuo's critical strike chance is doubled, but the damage dealt by his critical strikes is reduced by 10%.

The damage reduction applies to the total damage dealt (before damage mitigation). A standard critical strike's 200% damage is reduced to 180%, and a critical strike with Infinity Edge deals 225% damage instead of 250%. The reduction is not a subtraction to his critical strike damage statistic.



RANGE: See below
STATIC COOLDOWN: 5 / 4.75 / 4.5 / 4.25 / 4
PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 (+ 100% AD)

This is Yasuo's main damage ability, it is quite tricky to get used to but learning this skill is crucial, both in landing it and knowing your stack count, consecutive successful casts of Steel Tempest within 10 seconds form a chain. The cooldown and cast time of Steel Tempest is reduced based on Yasuo's bonus attack speed and unaffected by cooldown reduction.

FIRST ACTIVE: Yasuo thrusts his sword forward, damaging all enemies in a 475-unit line. If cast while dashing, the area of effect is changed to a ~375-radius circle.

SECOND ACTIVE: Same as the first active.

THIRD ACTIVE: Yasuo brandishes his sword causing a whirlwind to tear forward, damaging and knocking airborne all enemies in a ~900-unit line. If cast while dashing, the area of effect is changed to an ~375-radius circle. This active resets the chain. Base damage is reduced to 10 / 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 instead.



RANGE: 400
COOLDOWN: 26 / 24 / 22 / 20 / 18
WALL WIDTH: 300 / 350 / 400 / 450 / 500

PASSIVE: Yasuo generates 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20% of his maximum Flow whenever he uses Sweeping Blade or Last Breath, in addition to the amount that is generated for the distance moved.

ACTIVE: Yasuo creates a wall of wind that slowly drifts forward over the next 3.75 seconds. The wall blocks all enemy projectiles, except tower hits.


This is one of Yasuo's signature moves and is capable of blocking all projectiles (including projectile ults). If you can time this correctly you can block massive damage and easily 'zone' out ranged damage dealers - plus it looks damn cool!


Here is a video by Kimimoto going over what Wind Wall can block.

Play Video

Click the spoiler below to see a full list abilities can be blocked by Wind Wall.

All credits go to http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com.





RANGE: 475
COOLDOWN: 0.5 / 0.4 / 0.3 / 0.2 / 0.1
MARK DURATION: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6
MAGIC DAMAGE: 70 / 90 / 110 / 130 / 150 (+ 60% AP)

ACTIVE: Yasuo dashes 475 units in the direction of the target enemy, dealing magic damage and marking them briefly. The speed of the dash scales with Yasuo's bonus movement speed.

Each cast increases the next dash's base damage by 25% for 5 seconds, up to 100% bonus damage. Yasuo cannot use Sweeping Blade on an enemy that's already been marked.
MAXIMUM DAMAGE: 140 / 180 / 220 / 260 / 300 (+ 60% AP)

This is Yasuo's mobility skill, you can use it to dash around, using enemy minions or jungle monsters. The low cooldown means you can be very mobile and dance around people, making it difficult to land skill shots on you.


RANGE: 1300
COOLDOWN: 80 / 55 / 30
PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 200 / 300 / 400 (+ 150% bonus AD)

ACTIVE: Yasuo blinks to the nearest visible airborne enemy champion to the cursor. Upon arriving, he suspends all airborne units within a 400-radius of his target in the air for 1 second while dealing physical damage to all of them. Once he lands, Yasuo gains 50% penetration to bonus armor for 15 seconds.

Yasuo's Ult has a huge range and very low cooldown but is hard to line up. You need to be good with your skill shot whirlwind and have time to stack up 2 Steel Tempests, which can be quite difficult to do in a quick fight. However, it can be used when ally champions use their own 'airborne' abilities.

The following abilities have Crowd Control effects classified as airborne and thus, interact with Last Breath:

All credits go to http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com.

o Way of the Wanderer: Intent doubles your total Critical Strike chance, giving Yasuo an advantage during the late game.

o Way of the Wanderer: Resolve shields Yasuo from incoming attacks for a short time, but only when his Flow bar is filled. Use this to your advantage when trading during the early game as most (if not all) of the damage you take will be nullified.

o Since Steel Tempest has no cost, it s a great tool for harassing and last hitting in lane.

o Using Steel Tempest during a Sweeping Blade dash will then it into an AOE ability, which can be used for clearing minion waves quickly. Click here for video example

o If you have your Steel Tempest Whirlwind ready, you can dash with [sweeping blade]] and Steel Tempest to AOE knock up everyone. You can use this to knock up a group of enemy champs and Last Breath them. Click here for video example

o Sweeping Blade is best used when there are nearby minions, it can be used to dodge, chase or escape and it can quickly charge Resolve.

<<Dodge, Chase and Escape video coming soon>>>


o Sweeping Blade will add 6.78% to Resolve with it's base movement. Requiring 15 dashes fill it without Wind Wall or other movement.
10 dashes with Wind Wall at level 1.
7 dashes at level 2.
6 dashes at level 3.
5 dashes at level 4.
4 dashes at level 5.
Combining the above, a good combo could be to walk towards a ranged target, let resolve take the first hit, then dash though the minions to build damage, close the gap, and rebuild your Flow.

o Sweeping Blade does more damage after each cast, so build up a few stacks before engaging for maximum damage.


o Wind Wall can not block tower shots but can still help you take down towers, place a Wind Wall behind the tower to block ranged damage whilst you attack the tower.

<<Vid coming soon>>


o Smart enemies will learn to walk through your Wind Wall before cast ranged attacks. You can counter this by using Sweeping Blade to pass through the enemy Champion and put the Wind Wall between you again.

<<Vid coming soon>>

o You do not need to specifically target an enemy champ to use Last Breath. When a enemy champ is air born, you will see a dashed line indicating that your Last Breath can be used. Pressing R will take you to the target. If there are multiple airborne targets, you will Last Breath the target closest to your mouse cursor.

o Having allies that can knock enemies airborne greatly improves Yasuo's capability to use Last Breath. Click here for video example

o Yasuo has great reengage potential, you can retreat and quickly get back into the fight with a well timed Steel Tempest whirlwind and Last Breath, or even using Sweeping Blade through minions. Click here for video example

Lane Harass Combo

1 - Use Sweeping Blade to close distance to the enemy champ
2 - Hit them with an auto attack and a Steel Tempest
3 - Use Sweeping Blade to get out before they can attack back
4 - Use your Steel Tempest whirlwind to harass further from range

o Having your Flow fully charged will help negate more damage
o Using Sweeping Blade 2 or 3 times prior to engaging will help deal more damage as [[sweeping blade]'s damage is increased with each consecutive cast. Click here for video example

Kill Combo

1 - Knock a champion airborne with either your whirlwind or an ally champ ability (remember that when allies gank for you).
2 - Use Last Breath on your poor enemy
3 - Deliver damage with auto attacks and Steel Tempest
4 - Use your Sweeping Blade to keep up and use Wind Wall to block counter attack
5 - Have a drink

<<Vid coming soon>>

Wave Clear Combo

A lot of people forget that Yasuo's Steel Tempest becomes AOE if used during Sweeping Blade. You can clear waves quickly, especially at higher levels due to low cooldown on both Steel Tempest and Wind Wall.

Statikk Shiv greatly improves wave clearing power.

Core Items

Yasuo scales of crit and attack speed. Every item that provides crit becomes more gold efficient in his hands than any other item in the game.

has major synergies with Steel Tempest (Q) by providing crit chance, attack speed and the lightning passive. The crit chance is doubled to 40% by Way of the Wanderer and Q can crit. The attack speed reduces the Q's cooldown. The Shiv charges itself as an on-hit effect and the Q applies those to the first target hit. When the Shiv is fully charged, the lightning is also an on-hit effect, so the Q can proc the bolt.

is vital on Yasuo. The crit chance is doubled to 50% by Way of the Wanderer's Intent and together with Statikk Shiv you will have 90% crit, pretty much making every auto attack and every Steel Tempest crit with bonus damage

Yasuo has no sustain and his will help him stay in lane longer - a must buy.

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Defensive Items

Yasuo's absolutely needs defensive items, he needs time to deliver his damage and must survive fights to be able to do so. Thus I highly recommend building him with a some defensive gear to allow him to survive a skirmish and if necessary live long enough to deliver 3 Steel Tempests to proc the whirlwind and use Last Breath.

or or Normally I take Mercury's Treads, but the others are viable, depends on who is getting fed or if I want to roam.

Why no ? At level 18, you only need 55% attack speed to reduce your Steel Tempest to the minimum cooldown. You get 40% from Statikk Shiv, 5% from Fury and up to 15% from Frenzy . Frenzy is easy to proc with 90% crit rate, 1 Steel Tempest + 1 auto attack will get you to 55% easy.

can greatly reduce Yasuo vulnerability to being bursted down by AP and allow Yasuo time to engage.

Provides some health and armour to help survive against AD champs. The active can really help lock down targets. I usually pick this up as AD damage is more common and I try to make sure I do not let the AP mid lander get fed.

If both AD and AP are a threat or if the team has true damage nukes, then this is a decent pick up.

Kill me? You can try Being quite squishy and a target that gets focused a lot, its good to have this. Yasuo has no real escapes and once you are in a team fight there is only death. Makes enemy teams think twice about focusing you down. I normally pick these up if I am ahead and doing well.

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Other items

or or Since Yasuo does alot of auto-attack damage (including his [steel tempest]), life steal from Blood Thirster, Ravenous Hydra, or Blade of the Ruined King, would be very good to have.

will deal the most damage, making it the choice for for single targets.

will deal slightly less damage, but allow for very quick wave clearing. Note that the splash damage does not crit.

will do the least damage out of the 3 (unless you have 4000+ HP targets), but has a good active ability that can be useful for chasing or escaping.

or Great choices vs a high armoured team.

can also be very valuable, especially against a heavy magic team. The increase and damage and the active should not be ignored, you can clear pretty much any CC/debuff, even ultimates abilities like Zed's Death Mark or Warwick's Infinite Duress. I do not generally get this but it is an option.

Gives you damage and a shield to counter AP burst. I do not generally get this but it is an option.

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Cooldown Reduction is generally less valuable stat on Yasuo, since Steel Tempest is reduced by attack speed and Sweeping Blade mark cannot be reduced. However, it can still be useful since Wind Wall and Last Breath have no cost. Reducing the cooldown of Last Breath can be quite powerful if your teammates can regularly launch people.

Yasuo's early game is reasonably weak. He has no real long range trade potential or sustain and can get bullied a bit. However, you can still be a threat and harass your opponents when the opportunity presents itself.

When you have your Ultimate ability Last Breath you can really bring the pain.

Let your opponent push up your lane a bit and then deliver your kill combo, remember that you can fire off a Steel Tempest Whirlwind from 900 range - If it lands, Last Breath them. You will be behind your opponent and from here you can use your other skills to dance around whilst hacking and slashing.

By this point you should already have your core items of Statikk Shiv, Infinity Edge and Vampiric Scepter and have plenty of killing power. You will need to think about getting some defence too or you might get blown up during a team fight.

Never go in first as Yasuo, let your tanks initiate and follow up. Some tanks like Malphite are brilliant was Yasuo as they have an AOE knockup ability. If you can follow up with a Last Breath then you can Sweeping Blade around to get close to the enemy carries. Cut them down with a flurry of critical Steel Tempest's and auto attacks.

Do not forget to use Wind Wall to block enemy abilities (like Miss Fortune's Bullet Time), and use it to help shield your team whilst you take down towers.

In the late game, you really start to shine, as long as you can position yourself well and land your abilities.....not easily done in the heat of battle.

Check out this video - Here we see Yasuo chain his Last Breath off of Maokai and then demolish the enemy team. The Way of the Wanderer shield and Sweeping Blade allow him to survive the fight.


Play Video

Colbycheese gives us his first impressions of Yasuo, I think they are quite accurate. Play Video


Here are a couple of commentary videos of Yasuo, worth watching if you are new to Yasuo.

Sykkuno's commentary
Play Video



Anklespankin's commentary Play Video

Jungle Yasuo does work but is no great. His lack CC do not make him a good ganker, furthermore his Last Breath is almost impossible to pull off unless your ally can knock the enemy airborne.

Below is a video from Foxdrop describing Yasuo Jungle
Play Video

Coming soon. Take a look at the Wind Wall section and understand what abilities you can block, this will help you defeat them.

I really hope you liked the guide, I wanted to give Yasuo players all the information they could want in one package. Please do leave a comment if you can, always good to know how I can improve things for you, the players.

Yasuo is an amazing champ with a cool skill set, plus who does not want to be Jubei Kibagami

I plan to add more content and refine what is already here in time, so check back often!

Thank you,

Terrorpist

Credits to Mobafire.com, leagueoflegends.wikia.com, hidan159 and others linked in the guide.

Coming soon, feel free to ask questions in the comments and I will post them here.

Coming soon.

Version 1 - Need to add a few vid's and refine
Version 1.1 - Moved Wind Wall and Last Breath ability list to spoilers, added in credits to LoL Wiki, fixed most of the coding errors, a naughty few left

Yasuo is voiced by Liam O'Brien. - This guy did the voice of Illidan Stormrage, enough said!

Yasuo means honest or peaceful one in Japanese.

Yasuo is not his birth name. He was given a new name when he joined the sword school in an effort to steady his wild nature.

Yasuo's appearance is most likely a reference to Musashi Miyamoto, a historical Japanese Swordsman and wandering samurai. The facial appearance and Ponytail in particular are very similar to popular artistic portrayals of Musashi, and his combat style is similar to Miyamoto's prior to his creation of his famous twin-sword style.

Yasuo's techniques and animations bear resemblance to Haoumaru, a sake-loving warrior from the game series Samurai Spirits/Samurai Shodown, who in turn is also based on Musashi Miyamoto.
This is further supported by Yasuo's taunt and joke animations; one of them involve spitting his drink on his blade, which Haoumaru also does to "bless it" before battle.

Yasuo may also be a reference to Youmu Konpaku from via her playable Touhou 12.3 appearance. They have similar animations, and Yasuo shares a similar skillset. A long ranged stab, a projectile wall, a short spammable dash, and a ultimate/super which knocks up an enemy then slashes them repeatedly in the air.

According to RiotRansom, Yasuo uses Pantene to keep his hair beautiful.
The main inspiration for Yasuo was the classic Samurai movies where "people are killing each other, not because they want to, because they are obligated to".

None of Yasuo's prototype kit, despite expectations of the making of a samurai champion, made it into his final design.

During the creation process of Yasuo's animations, the team had to throw away anything that looked close to a Master Yi pose.

Wind Wall is the single biggest QA challenge the team has faced from an ability perspective, on par with Omen of Death.

There are countless drafts of his story going all the way back to August 2012 - Riot considered a version where Yasuo didn’t kill Yone, a version where Yone knew Yasuo was innocent the whole time, even a version with no hints of Riven.

Yasuo speaks a dialect of ancient Ionian. It’s related to the dialect that Karma speaks, but is not the same dialect.
Quotes Edit
- Yasuo quote "Ninjas... I hate those guys" is similar to Ezreal's quote "Noxians... I hate those guys".
-Yasuo's special taunt when near Master Yi "Wuju? No, I wouldn't" is a reference to the
latter's joke "Wuju, hand me that potion?".

In addition, the "Nice... sword... boots?" line is a reference to the pro as heck guide to Master Yi video.

- Yasuo quote "No one is promised tomorrow!" is a reference to Clint Eastwood's "Tomorrow is promised to no one!".

His quote "A wanderer isn't always lost" is a reference to J. R. R. Tolkien's "Not all who wander are lost" line from the poem "All that is gold does not glitter".

The quote "just looking for a road home" may reference the show Samurai Champloo, which has this as a central motiff. Additionally, Yasuo has some tonal similarities and similar quotes to the character Jin from the show.

High Noon Yasuo skin is inspired by "The classic spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone". These films were in turn inspired by the very same classic Japanese samurai films upon which Yasuo's core concept is based.

Yasuo shares his High Noon skin with Twisted Fate. High Noon Yasuo wields a gunblade.

Yasuo is searching for the true murderer of the Elder he is believed to have killed, someone who has mastered the wind technique as he has.

The community has jokingly accused Janna of the murder, just because she has wind powers.
Riot's champion page for Riven shows a link for Yasuo added to her rivals section and a quote "Which weighs more, Riven? Your blade, or your past?" indicating that she may have been the killer. This is also referenced in his quote "Wait, that technique... huh.", indicating that she is also trained to use the wind as a weapon. This is reflected in the name of her second ultimate, Wind Slash.

Yasuo has been branded a traitor and is hunted by the other warriors of Ionia. As such his enemies may include Irelia and Master Yi.