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Beyond level 3 or even 2, this monster becomes and unkitable mess. Also his combo drops you to no HP, hence zero opportunities for Yasuo to respond to Renektons onslaught. Accept Renektons lane priority and grab CS when you can.
Not worth your BAN ultimately due to low pick rate (which is subject to change) and Yasuo easily outscaling the crocodile after 1 or 2 Items.
Pantheon
Works in many ways like Renekton. Although you never freely outscale him, you need to beat him early.
Beyond Pantheon E, unlike Renekton, he is always quite squishy.
Play real safe even from level 1 and grab risk free cs. Purchase cloth and boots, and some sort of healing potion and try your best to beat him. Once from there you will snowball on him, but be cautious of his assassin properties throughout the game. If that problem escalates. You need to purchase more armor, ultimately having both death's dance and guardian angel.
Darius
Hug caster minions or stay at tower level one to avoid level 1 cheese.
He will punish you hard unless you approach with caution. This match up is in Darius control and it requires baiting out key spells, ghost and E. Flash & Ghost is recommended for Yasuo to respond to corresponding use of Darius.
Garen
One of the few champions which at a certain point, you no longer can tether. Once Garen obtains strikebreaker and boots, he has full control. Combine that with dead man's plate and your agency is deleted. Now Garen fully decides when the plays are made.
Unless you heavily outstat him, and can survive his Q+E+R (ignite) combo you have no chance.
As of patch 14.4 Yasuo is attributed more survivability as items like Dead Man's Plate is suggested. Mimic Garen's sticking power with similar items. Usually a Stormrazor, a zeal and boots is enough. Rush Stormrazor into Garen.
Riven
This is slightly riven favored, therefore bringing a deliberate combat summoner is highly advised (ghost/exhaust), ghost would probably be redundant as a zeal is highly recommended against her. If you feed her, that said zeal will prevent her from reaching you unless you choose to get too close. If you win lane, good job, because a fed Yasuo punishes Riven harder than a fed Riven punishes you!
Techniques:
Tracking Riven's cooldowns is all that matters. Sometimes she uses it to setup an engage on you, or clear wave faster. You can easily fish for her to use abilities. Sometimes when you step up bit too far where you are unable to walk back, you can dash through her last Q. Generally in lane she can only win if she lands all abilities on you, her enhanced autos does not make the cut!
Enjoy!
Illaoi
As of patch 14.4, you can no longer stat check her when she misses her E, due to Lethal Tempo nerfs. This matchup becomes dodging simulator, tentacles become increasingly hard to dodge during the 8 seconds of her ultimate, as they slam twice as fast. You never really win due to this as you should focus on dodging nearly all of them and god forbid you don't get hit by her E, at least you can wind wall it. Later on with your high damage you can stat check her in her ultimate if she casts it away from her preexisting tentacles, which she otherwise convert into empowered tentacles. That is why its important for her to chase you as this leads her away from them and results in fewer tentacles in the ultimate. You can also try to clear the area of her tentacles, but this it not subtle and signals to her possibly your intention, making her commit early and putting you in an awkward spot.
Sion
Kill him and threaten him until he starts proxying. If you actually mess up in the lane he will snowball on you hard.
I really recommend the "Tank as concern" build for this match up.
Gangplank
No general strategy - plain skill matchup.
Early on you out stat him heavily.
If both hold same gold or a minor lead (600g) from either side, the only real difference is if Gangplank hits kegs on you or not.
Make sure to match his kegs placements, if you find yourself quicker than GP - contest the final barrel health. This becomes easier using wind wall if Gangplank tries to contest barrel health from a distance.
If gangplank has acquired a lead on you, he will no longer trigger barrels from range, and instead walk up and do it up close. Try to match a knock up on him as the barrel health ticks down. Then remove the barrel as he tries to get out of the knock up with his W. This allows you to beat him from slightly behind.
You can avoid early harass by using your wind wall while recharging your passive shield - alternating between the two defenses.
Irelia
Only really skilled Irelia's can play around your utility to block her win conditions. As Yasuo play smart around her stacks. She can W caster minions to get quick 4 stacks - keep in mind. Otherwise you should easily hold lane prio and win the duels.
Consider your strength and condition before submitting to her when she gets 4 stacks: Does she have 0 lethal tempo stacks, and you have full? Do you have full health, she has half?
Irelia having four stacks only gives her an advantage, not a free win.
Beyond lane, it gets harder, but the strategies are the same. You beat her regularly unless she hits you with her R, which she easily can do if she also hit her E.
Gwen
Pathetic laning, has less tools than Irelia to duel you. Like Irelia you can dance around her and beat her up. Only caveat is that she scales well, but never to the point of being unbeatable, which you think she would deserve after that sorry excuse of a lane.
Make sure to fish out her poke, which is her stacked Q obtained from auto attacking your wave. It is her main trade tool and it is effective. A strategy which Tryndamere also employs, like him, beat her up - Beat them up!
Smart Gwen's will utilize their W to stand at the edge, making it incredibly awkward for you to kite her, as she becomes invulnerable unless you get inside, but this is often highly unadvised as this makes it quite easy for her to land her abilities - play cautiously, but always put pressure on her!
Kayle
No stage of the game she simply out duel you. Main concern late game is her ultimate as the AoE damage can shred big part of your HP. Her ultimate actually sets up time for Yasuo to stack tornado to immediately knock her up once it expires. She can only outplay you with flash. Outside of side lane, she is definitely most effective in teamfights.
Yorick
What a ****ty champion. The only defenses and means of poke don't work on you. Dash through his wall, dash on his minions, they get one shot. Pressure him heavily, he is squishy early. Kill his maiden when opportunity arise, he struggles to defend it. Only Lethality Yorick pose a threat to you, which is the way to build him nowadays, 14.4. Good Yorick won't have trouble landing his E, so be vigilant and anticipate it with yours (E). Early game you should have dominance. If you haven't finished the game early, or created a substantial lead on the map (team wise) he becomes much like other strong side laners: Trundle, Sion, Nasus, Fiora, a real problem.
Gnar
Unless you utilize your waves properly Mini Gnar can safely survive you.
At a certain point, Gnar outscales you in the neutral, so you need to shut him down early on.
Before that Mini Gnar has no capability of fighting with you and he will probably disengage on your every advance.
Dr. Mundo
Like yorick, he is pathetic.
Try to outplay him and do not keep the wave neutral as he can cs from range with his Q.
Force his wave to push into you which makes your minions die faster than his Q comes back on cooldown.
Real reason Mundo remains a threat is that he scales really good and extremely good as a tank. For longer games you really need to begin itemizing for him (BoTRK, Mortal Reminder), especially if you are responsible for matching his side. Fortunately for you, Mundo prefers to teamfight.
Volibear
If he is unable to land Q on you, he will have real difficulties landing E as well. Make short trades as the second cast of his W restores health to him, which makes any trade unfavorable.
Tahm Kench
This guy does not have a defined identity and keeps escalating in strenth or dipping down in relevancy. Sometimes high damage, high formidable tank and sometimes just like the rest. When he is most formidable, laning against him becomes tragic. His sustain (Q and Gray Health) makes trades ineffective. On first back he will also be highly dangerous, so no plan is sound. In metas he is weaker, he is a simple tank with telegraphed abilities and is so easily punishable.
K'Sante
This guy is hard to approach with is extended chain of cc. Due to this and Yasuo's squishy nature makes him "undivable".
It does not help that he brings some cc to his All Out, which makes his offensive form excruciating to duel.
Tryndamere
This champion is a ticking time bomb. Once he has enough damage and beyond level 6 he threatens to execute successful dives on you even if you hold full health and ready summoners.
You need to gain substantial lead and even then be careful. Late game you can build against him actually, with Randuin and Death's Dance plus regular buys e.g. Infinity Edge, he will likely never be able to 1v1 you again.
Mordekaiser
Ticking time bomb. Once this champion acquires level 6, his kill pressure sky rockets. As Yasuo you must never be hit by Mordekaiser's E as this allows him to place the R right on top of you, along with ready passive.
At certain point Mordekaiser also becomes tanky. Opting for armor as his base damage can carry him far. Making him a nightmare to duel late game.
Once Mordekaiser shields, it is best for you to disengage as you lose more from taking his autos than trying to break the shield. You must let it expire.
Outside of his ultimate, he is generally easy to deal with or even pitifully weak.
Fiora
Few champions can consistently duel you late and she is one of them. Her four vital is simply that formidable. Prevent forced duels with her at that stage of the game. Early game keep the pressure up and try to create a lead.
Nasus
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: SCARCE.
List of runes: Overheal, Alacrity, Cutdown, Demolish, Unflinching.
Items: Bortk, Mortal Reminder.
I have not found a reliable way to keep Nasus under control. For lane, you let him get prio and push. He is too weak to maintain prio even with larger minion wave. Create a freeze near your tower. At this point you can hold the freeze indefinitely and also generate very high kill pressure on him if he decides to stay. Controlling the freeze is highest priority even when you are fighting him.
NOOB MISTAKE, taking lane prio yourself and go for kills can be inconsistent, despite grabbing first blood for yourself does not yield a win for you lane - if he then simply proceeds to be allowed to catch the wave freely under tower (this is what he wants).
NASUS remains a problem beyond lane. Be smart and use your lead to keep him behind or push tempo on other parts of the map. It is important to close game. THE REAL REASON Nasus becomes a problem later on is mostly due to Wither handicapping Yasuo way too hard. Not only due to the attack speed and slow, but also its long duration. Wither is balanced around disabling adc, but Yasuo is melee so he gets exposed much easier. Yasuo should buy Swifties in winning and losing scenarios.
NASUS will always catch up relatively well with his stacks. Reason why it's important to shut him down early is that he falls behind in XP and levels. Maintaining his "squishiness". Yasuo also get demolished in the neutral, you need a solid lead.
Malphite
Awkward to trade with, awkward to duel after first back. Threatening in team fights.
Sett
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: SCARCE.
Kled
Fish his Q's. Sometimes wind wall if you feel more exposed.
You can out duel him in both forms if he misses his Q.
BE CAREFUL, read his movement if he approaches you and intends to dash on top of you, you are likely already dead, as he can mask his Q in between, making it impossible to dodge. God bless him if he misses his skillshot.
Akali
You must carry Malmortius at later parts of the game. It gives you incredible value to outlive her full damage rotation. In the extended brawl Yasuo will always win.
In lane try to track her last position in shroud and Q her for equal trade if she attacks back. Fish her Q's early on as they cost a lot of energy.
Yone
Only Yone's abilities outscale Yasuo's (W and E) - except for the ultimates debatably..
Yasuo is contributed higher stats off the bat, except for HP and HP regen.
Yasuo's stats also scale better: Attack speed Bonus, Attack speed Ratio, AD per level.
Ultimately if you minimize the use of Yone's abilities on you, foremost W and E. You can usually buy time with your passive shield and a minion wave. Feel free to trade back, main concern is Yone's easier applied burst in his full rotation and his arguably bigger shield from W, depending on enemies stuck.
In lane you can roll over him.
Jayce
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: SCARCE.
One of the few match ups that is not a ticking time bomb. Yasuo can relatively always have kill pressure on Jayce with a full AD build path. Jayce is burst oriented and if Yasuo is able to deny components of his rotation - Yasuo is free to out DPS. Yasuo can dodge out of Jayce Melee Q hitbox during cast animation also wind wall Jayce Gun Q (as well as enhanced Q). Jayce is a lethality user and is countered highly by large amounts of armor, picking up chain vests every so often is highly valuable.
Gragas
Ultimate pacifier, none will approach. Running Phase Rush and using E every time you are close, makes it impossible for you to engage on him. Focus on poking him, and not get too poked yourself. Even if his demeanor signals that he wants no confrontation, and pacifism to rule all, he will look for opportunities to kill you if he is allowed to.
Camille
Keep pressure on her high, you have a lot of freedom to move in and out, which is usually Camille's strength against her other match ups. You are given the opportunity to stat check are at all stages, granted you don't get kited or fall behind.
She has potent escape, but remain on the squishier side, which makes most kills available through tower diving her at low health.
Aatrox
Aatrox suffers greatly from your early damage, and you have a kit to effectively dodge every single spell he has. On paper this match up should be free, but Aatrox hold a lot of damage a few levels in and Yasuo gets melted much quicker than Yasuo melts him. This is due to Yasuo having low defensive stats. Compare to a similar top laner, e.g. Irelia, he has quite lower hp and armor a few levels in. Never get hit by the enhanced auto from him, wait until he last hit minions with it, then trade. Always keep dodging and baiting his W.
Wukong
Never straight forward, but you need to meet his means of attack with something yourself. Attempt to Q and attack him while he jumps you. With him in your wave, the trade should be equal or even in your favor. Take GRASP and focus on trade and no all ins. His 6 is more potent than yours, but when played correctly, you are often able to build a lead.
Warwick
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: SCARCE.
He can only cheese you in lane. Keep poking him and never feel forced to finish him off, if he carries barrier and a ready E, sometimes R he can turn battles from no HP.
Try to kill him without fully committing.
He scales really poorly and serves mostly as a HP sponge and cc bot.
Rengar
Play for early power, Lethal Tempo and try to beat him up early. This will scare him from jumping on you at all or even jump on the wave to get stacks, as you will punish him each time.
Like rage champions, Irelia or Gwen, they rely on attacking the wave to then use stored power against you. Most of them are easily punishable, except for Renekton, but that cookie is a different story.
Don't fight near bushes as this gives him options to jump away, towards the wave again, or simply spam jump on you. Trade with him in similar pattern like Singed, persistent harass, but always making sure to stay out of poison for most of it, in this case the bushes.
Be careful of fully stacked and when he has items. If he becomes dangerous, invest in armor.
Ornn
Yasuo's Ornn Priorities: 1. Save your E on Ornn until precisely as Ornn casts his W.
2. Pressure him early as you should against any Tank.
3. Anticipate his Q and stay clear. Use his Q as bait for him to charge in if you are able to escape it and possible develop this opportunity into a strong all in.
4. Wind wall his R entirely.
Jax
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: SCARCE. One of very few non early game match ups, that can be difficult to duel right away. He can easily respond to Yasuo's regular trading pattern with a "counterstrike walk up". To prepare for this you can utilize minions to get distance away from the stun. Yasuo still win with counterstrike on cooldown.
It is CRUCIAL to keep a strong economy going, unless you can punish/kill Jax during his E down time at later stages, you will get rolled over. At a certain point once you feel he has gotten ahead, you need to play around the wave at all times. Having a wave allows you to prepare tornados which interrupts his leap or delayed counterstrike. It allows you to disengage or reengage as well. Sometimes the wave allows you to stall, and wait out his ultimate. Rush Stormrazor into Jax to space his counterstrike.
Olaf
Very problematic design for you. Your main survival tool against stat checkers are face tornado and leave. This becomes impossible at level 6. At this point you are on thin ice and need to try to create space by dashing around the wave and block axes with tornados. Ragnarok last up to 2.5 seconds, as of patch 14.4, and then viability of the defensive tecnique "face tornados" returns to you. Although this gives you zero contribution for the offense, to kill olaf you need to get a lot of free damage on top of him like many other top lane champions, by poking and kiting. This needs to take precedent after Ragnarok wears off and even more so pre level 6. When it comes down to face tanking, Olaf wins with margin, due to shields, life steal and generally more damaging abilities.
Trundle
Trundle is essentially the stronger Olaf that also scales better. Although he lack many of the tools attributed to Olaf to eliminate few of Yasuo's important techniques, e.g. c.c. immunity. Yasuo's goal in lane to generate as much free damage as possible before Trundle finds an opening to all in. At equal gold Trundle will beat you with more than half of his HP remaining, so the pre damage required before the fight needs to be accounted for. Unfortunately at level 6 Trundle can kill Yasuo with even less HP. Like Warwick, never fully commit onto this champion, as many cases its premature, and instead keep wearing him down. Trundle like Fiora is few of the champions that can duel you late game.
The real concern is he gets ahead of you, then he can fully ignore you while one shotting your towers.
She has stuns and knock ups which makes tenacity awkward, you better off respecting her threat radius. Her cooldowns are longer than Leona, but her full rotation lasts very long. Try to minimize what you get hit by as everything is technically avoidable, but due to size and urge for Yasuo to get up close makes this extremely difficult. Rell has more notable weaknesses and that is her effectiveness after an engage, when she gets dismounted, but this can't be heavily punished when playing a melee champ like Yasuo. You kind of need to trade into her and focus her as trying to pass her and chase ad carry is impossible, therefore Lethal Tempo is highly advised to increase your damage against her, she is notably squishier than Leona due to Leona's W. Run Cleanse and maybe QSS later on.
Braum
Wardens are the type of support Yasuo struggles most with.
Not only does his stacking stun effectively blesses the enemy adc of having capability to stun, but for the simple fact Braum can block/delete Yasuo's tornados.
Leona
Much like Rell, but stuns can be itemized against and since season 14 more items have been attributed with tenacity. Although her cooldowns are crazy low and leaves no room for outplay. Run Cleanse and maybe buy QSS late on.
Pantheon
Height of danger. His combo, together with his ADC, brings your hp low, or finishes you off at reasonably high health. More passive approach is necessary, be lucky to have a good support!
Karma
She is an anti-carry, built to bully you. Very safe due to her empowered abilities - her ultimate makes he trading patterns obnoxious, as of patch 14.6 she got nerfed which could possible lower her threat down to 3 in the future.
Zyra
Not a threat, but a disabler. She prevents you from playing on the offensive, making it rarely worth doing so.
Sivir
ADCs with defenses are the ones Yasuo struggles hardest with. High movement speed and spell shield makes her one of the hardest to grab.
Xayah
Less safe Sivir, but has area denial, which ignored can pose high burst and a ROOT!
Samira
In a vacuum, a low threat, attributed that the support is arbitrary. As soon as she is accompanied by strong CC, like Rell support, Samira becomes the scariest ADC.
Thresh
Wardens are the type of support Yasuo struggles most with.
Rakan
Fish for Rakan to use W and step back, sometimes you can even E away. Then it is real easy to commit. Both Rakan and adc are squishes which helps when focusing one of them.
Poppy
Have patience. Her dash interruption is a 2.0, so hold out... you can stall your use of E and escape being stunned. Good build incorporates extra movement speed, Yasuo never only relies on his E. These could be: Fleet, Zeal, Swifties, or Kraken.
Lulu
Shields are annoying. The main concern is predicting her polymorph. This comes down to luck, but often by enemy body language of both you can foresee the intention. Using this you can try few times to bait it by dashing in and dashing out. At more vulnerable times, even toss out wind wall. It all come down to mind games.
Thereafter you are free to play really aggressive, able to focus either her or adc down as merely shields will not be enough....... unlike Swain ADC/APC whose biggest weakness is the shields of Enchanters.
Senna
Putting a threat level on this champion is nearly impossible due to the rapid changes to her, depending on meta. Her kit is quite vulnerable to you as she is also low mobility and can't reliably outplay your aggression. Although her attacks are allowed to pass your Wind Wall and her range becomes ludicrous later on. This match up is ever-changing.
Caitlyn
From the few times played against her, not only is her range infuriating, but also her strong early with headshots (traps and stacking shots).
Danger can easily be avoided when counting her headshots stacks, give her a wide berth when she attempts to place the final shot on you!
Her E can be very out-playable with a stacked tornado, similarly to Aurelion Sol. Which is E+Q at a similar time she does, this makes Yasuo follow her and interrupt her mid flight. If she flashes fine.. Real deal to pay notice to her trap placement animations as good Caitlyn players try to mask them.
Vayne
Like Yasuo, Vayne prefers to wait until first back or for how long she needs. Neither loves to go hard early on, at best simple poke/trade. This allows Yasuo to go for more aggressive plays early, but seldomly. Vayne is more battle oriented ADC which gives are tools to fight melee, which can make her really dangerous, but a lot of telegraphed. You can block her damage and condemn. You can wait to EQ until she get out of invisibility, then she is easily one shot. It's key to read the enemy support, you can't allow being interrupted, not that it's any different from any other time.
Kalista
Oh no melee being kited, like against Ashe, once you are miss positioned, it's over. Kalista's jump is a certainly a step up from Ashe's slow and only one ultimate from one of them is blockable with wind wall. Consider Stridebreaker, and once you are on her, you win!
Nilah
Yasuo's ability to combo her with knock ups effectively gives you the opportunity to one shot her without a retaliation. Her W remains incredibly effective against you, so do not get careless. She also out ranges you, and cooperates/synergies better with her support, quite likely... and your Wind Wall has no use..
Lucian
If Lucian wants lane priority, you should give it to him. Especially when he is accompanied by Nami. He is never easy to catch, but his short range makes it difficult for him to punish you without placing himself in danger.
Draven
Draven is attributed early game priority with his increased strength of Q. Give up the lane to him if he wants it. Stay healthy and never get caught. On reset, when Yasuo's burst is increased, you can utilize wind wall to all in him steadily.
Lux
Highly dangerous if you ever do get caught. Scales well and consistent hard to dodge poke, but is helpless once you engage. Very telegraphed ability casts, guarantee a moderately easy wind wall, and you win!
Seraphine
Scales good, lanes relatively safely, pokes easily, great teamfight capabilities and has a formidable ult. Although without support, she will be helpless when you get on top of her.
Ashe
Another low mobility ADC, with a movement speed of 325 as of14.5. If you allowed her yourself to miss position, you are done for. Consider slow resistance, found in rune shards, Dead Man's Plate and Boots of Swiftness.
Aphelios
Real reason you are strong against Aphelios is his low mobility which allows you to catch him easier, this goes for all low mobility ADCs. Aphelios is not a straight battle oriented ADC, but he has tools that emulate the effect to a certain degree, mainly Severum. Severum is allowed to attack past the wind wall and due to this he can apply his secondary gun's effects to yield good results. Exemplified by Severum with Gravitum.
Jhin
After a few items his movement speed makes him quite untouchable, but for as long as you dodge his W or at the very least block it. You are entirely safe. I'd save Wind Wall for his ultimate as he will always use it on his opponents once they are half health, it is his main strategy to create a lead.
Kai'Sa
Lower range ADC, more battle oriented, which gives them more tools to fight melee characters: Instant dash, big shield and quick and high damage. Problem she never exceed you in any of these categories.
Pyke
Squishy catcher, easily dodged abilities, especially his E. Every time Pyke fails to grab you, you are often able to bring his hp down to half quite easily. What is enemy ADC supposed to do? It's the support's job to defend the ADC, not the versa. Free reign for Yasuo!
Kog'Maw
Like Aphelios, difficulties to defend against you due to low mobility. Although Kog'Maw is always combined with a protective pocket support due to his game strategy. The typical pocket supports Yasuo struggles against.
Jinx
Weakest non mobile ad carry. Without her passive running, she has no tools to defend against your aggression, her traps can be circumvented and the movement speed is a crazy low, 325 as of patch 14.5 - typical for backline / long range / hyper carries.
Miss Fortune
Not an easy match up per se as she can play rather safe, but rather you counter her big time with your wind wall as you can nullify her threat in team fights and skirmishes by blocking her ultimate, something Yasuo should prioritize.
Tristana
Won't be wise for Tristana to jump on you as that's her only mobility spell, and her ult can be block by windwall, making her a free kill as melee range. Not that Tristana has to jump on top of you, it is still nullifies her otherwise main strategy to create leads.
This was an item guide for 13.20. As 14.4, builds are still being put to the test. Threats chapter has not been fully updated, but find pleasure reading.
Rune, summenor and skill order is up to date, and are expected to remain same over time.
I hold 400% more experience in TOP than MID, my preference being ~70% top, ~20% bot and remaining in mid "hopefully". I am old and my reactions are unlike what they once were, but relying on experience goes a long way, and should be valued more than mechanics. I consider myself a very casual player, that find beauty in details.
Any of these minor advices won't matter if you are not well experienced with Yasuo already.
Very niche items are not showcased in the item section, e.g. Boots of Swiftness, and will instead be mentioned in the sections of guide chapters, threats, synergies, match ups and so on.
Top Lane Matchups - Bruiser
Bruiser
Extremely common top lane matchup. They collect a lot of AD and health. Yasuo is quite vulnerable to these and often need to play by their rules.
Common tricks include opting for Cut Down and Blade of the Ruined King.
Cheesers:
These bruisers look for an early all in to set you behind early on, this tactic is often hard to respond to and need to be answered proactively, most often referred to as cheese.
-Darius, daddy D.
There are two essential components to this lane and both of these are under Darius control.
Firstly is his Ghost, once he uses the three minute long cooldown spell, it screams his intention to go for the kill. You should make a choice yourself to use a summenor spell too. If he grabbed you, you need to flash his Q, if he is far and chasing you could insted ghost.
Secondly is his grab, E Apprehend, this skill is too valuble as it provides around three free stacks of his passive. Landing this skill on you should spell your demise. Sometimes flash isn't enough as the slow is very powerful thereafter. Yasuo must prioritize baiting this ability out. One of Yasuo's greatest tricks can be used to bait it out and that is approaching him with charged Q. Casting tornado simuntaneously as he grabs you denies him free stacks and you can retreat or fight, is your choice.
Like any bruiser or tank it is preferable to deal as much free damage as possible on Darius before fully commiting. Beware Sterak's Gage, this shield is known to expire before being broken. This provides seconds enough to grant Darius the stacks needed.
The setup I'd run with is laning strength: Hail of Blades, Sudden Impact, Legend: Alacrity, Cut Down, non scaling health shard, and Flash, Ignite. If you run the defualt Teleport, you are most likely to be forced to sit under turret for the whole laning phase, giving up all priority, even risking to be "frozen" upon.
-Olaf.
Olaf is dangerous straight away due to his continuous axe throw Undertow that he then picks up. Consider unlocking Wind Wall as early as level 2 to delete the axe and putting it to the full cooldown of 9 seconds, as of patch 14.4, this lowers a part of Olaf's dps and more importantly allows you to move. Trades with Olaf without his axe can work, but remain very deadly.
Your main technique against all in:ing bruisers is the face tornado, you approach Olaf with stacked Q Steel Tempest, attack him a few times and when you're done you toss the tornado. If you need to play more defensively, don't do this far into the lane and preferably near your tower, this match up is one of them and these types of champion uses Ghost.
Ragnarok is infamously annoying for many champions that rely on crowd control in their rotations, Yasuo in top is definitely one of them. You need to create space against Olaf once he unleashes his rage and ghost. You can go Ghost yourself to make it easier, but Ignite is preferable due to the inbuilt healing in the champion's design. Mainly though to create space you need to dash into the wave, even if it puts you on the wrong side of the lane. Deleting his axe becomes crucial as it would allow him to close the distance. As of patch 14.4, Ragnarok has a 3 second duration and can be extended continuously up to 2.5 seconds, after main duration has lapsed, if he is allowed to strike a champion.
With slight gold lead, this champion is not very hard to kill. Althouh him killing you is just as likely if you are sloppy.
Stabilizers:
Stabilizers uphold the strategy to keep the lane neutral to lead into their eventual powerspike, may it be first back or first completed item. Before that they have the intention and sometimes also many tools to neutralize your aggression and keep the lane stable, most commonly a disengage of sorts.
+Camille.
In lane Yasuo needs to attempt to deal as much free damage as possible without taking any yourself. HP becomes the true resource of the lane since both parties healing are miniscule. The better poker will take lane priority or easily even all in the other. Try to create lead early as Yasuo is tributed the tools to do so here.
Main trading tools Camille uses is her passive Adaptive Defenses, try to output your cards before it triggers and once it does, you simply create space or even disengage entirely.
This champion never outscales you if you maintain good economy.
-Nasus, the DOG. Wither will be used as disengage tool, and later when fully maxed as a disabler at every stage of the game, nullifying your presence and impact. This monster doesn't neccessary outscale you, but his kit counters you heavily post a certain stage, as said before wither nullifies you as a threat, if you failed to shut him down, do you best to play around him, either by avoiding him and not match him in the side lane or buy items that creates space between you, most prominently Boots of Swiftness, Iceborn Gauntlet, and Dead Man's Plate or a combination of a few. Still in the end, without any way to inflict damage to pressure Nasus holding him in the side is futile as the towers will not hold against him.
Dance Partners:
Dance Partner should keep a balanced lane where both participants should have similar agency. They look to fight back, and also wait for their own item powerspike, doing parts of multiple categories. Essentially the remaining skill match ups that couldn't find their own category.
+Aatrox, chosen Aatrix.
Like Riven, you should track his cooldown, but instead this is not to avoid losing a trade or lane, but for Yasuo to find opportunity to Win trades. It is important to win trades early on as Aatrox gain strength quickly with each level.
Never get struck by Aatrox enhanced auto attack, and wait for him to last hit with it. It is truly the only guaranteed damage Aatrox can inflict.
Push slowly into him, which fishes out Aatrox to last hit with his abilities.
Outside of this you should use precognition and to still dodge his abilities as the CC and damage potence of Aatrox outmatches yours.
Running Ignite into him is both helpful in lane, and incredibly valuable later on before buying Mortal Reminder. Having the option to forgo this item, due to having ignite, is a benefit. This only happens if Aatrox is not doing well, if he is then mortal reminder is usually always a requirement, as the uptime of grevious wounds is unmatched.
Late game his survivability is problematic, so Mortal Reminder is highly advised. You might be able to 1v1 him safely, but keeping him alive for too long will hurt your teamfights. Still he is not to be underestimated as he technically can fight you even late game, even if it is Yasuo favored.
Tank
Common top match up. They are fragile in lane, but are not hurt by sacrificing priority. There is a higher need for you to shut them down if the opportunity presents itself. Some tanks are less vulnerable to your aggression, historically Tahm Kench, Malphite.
Overview of Runes
Precision
Precision tree is an essential tree for Yasuo and Lethal Tempo is the core component to enhance Yasuo's strength in the early game. As of patch 14.4, this has been nerfed, but still proves to be the best strategy.
++Best, most value at the right time
Using Yasuo's early strength to the fullest, enables consistent snowballing - highly important for Yasuo. The rune gets guaranteed value, in contrast to its counterparts Last Stand and Cut Down. This rune loses usefulness beyond early effectiveness as the numbers cannot compete with said counterparts..
++Most Value
Cut Down easily contributes the highest numbers when enemies draft 1 or 2 high health targets. In top a lot of high health champions are found. Yasuo's early source of health should only be Overgrowth and HP scaling rune. As of Season 14 Yasuo, not only in top lane, benefits more from the incorporation of survivalabity from one or up to two tank items than marksman items alone composing the build for Yasuo.
In the event you opt for zero tank items this rune should be considered against both bruisers and tanks. From tests Last Stand remains between 100-800 extra damage for a 35 minute game. While Cut Down contributes between 5000 to 7000 of damage in both games, whether Yasuo lost lane or not. Games tested was against enemy Sion top (35minutes). This ends up equating to ~10% of final damage dealt each game. Of course the gap difference will lower if the circumstance changes, for example when against an opponent that can pressure Yasuo harder that can get Yasuo low on HP to trigger Last Stand for longer time.
+Default
This rune outperforms Coup de Grace at all stages, but it cannot be applied unless you are low. Being able to apply value right away is the real of strength of Yasuo, which Last Stand is unable to do. When Yasuo is hard winning or losing, Yasuo won't have any use of this rune. This rune remains a good default rune as both counterparts Coup de Grace and Cut Down need to be used in a specific ways. Last Stand start to show its strength in the all commit fights with Irelia, Yone. Although with finesse Coup de Grace is better.
DOMINATION
Domination, a typical secondary page. It aid snowball and contribute strength in the early lane.
+Ease in Trade Taste of Blood compensates for aggressive playstyle - basically mend the damage taken from minions when trading aggressively. Helps in top, but more useful in Bot- and Mid lane as Bone Plating makes this obsolete in top lane.
+Profit Nudger Treasure Hunter is a strong filler to get great powerspikes, for instance Berserker's Greaves. It's truly only great with a coordinated premade support when playing bot lane with catch and dive champions like Thresh, and Alistar respectively. Remember in Bot lane a double kill yield 120 gold, whereas 50 gold in the solo lane!
RESOLVE
Resolve, a typical secondary page. It aids beginners more than domination, or more importantly reduces the efficiency of hard matchups.
++Break between Trades
When Bone Plating is up, like for anyone else. It is time to head bash! Bone plating is preferably taken against dangerous burst oriented melee match ups to save you from Pantheon, Renekton! Bone plating can also be chosen to hard win trades early on against Riven, Fiora. Bone plating prevents no damage initially and required a sequence of attacks on to you to have an effect. Although as of 14.6, this rune won't trigger until your shield is gone, making the use of this rune much, much better, might not have worked in the past, but certainly now.
-Prime Filler Rune
Not as necessary as Bone Plating becomes in many melee match ups, but always solid filler that typically scales better, not always. Take it if you put no thought into your strategy. That's okay, but then you generally conform to a more passive playstyle.
-Mitigate Harass Second Wind is a solid defensive rune against low damage, DoT's and especially ranged. Basically opponents that can trigger it frequently without outtrading the positive return from the exchange. It works similarly to Doran's Shield, which is why it makes for a good combination. Although Yasuo with high confidence can usually utilize bushes and Steel Tempest to attain lane priority against any match up level 1, or against weak champions ( Kayle, Cassiopeia) E start and dash on top of them
+For Synergies
On it's own, it's not really great, it can enhance your shield from flow Way of the Wanderer, and from purchases like Immortal Shieldbow. It truly shines with an enchanter on the team. Then it will scale real well, playing bot even better as the benefits are attributed right away, e.g. Ivern.
+Prime Source of Tenacity Unflinching is a highly attractive rune since it is the most relevant source of tenacity. Although it should be unecessary if the enemy CC comprises of avoidable or blockable spells.
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