The Only Yasuo guide you will need for Wild Rift
The definitive guide to Yasuo for League of Legends Wild Rift, along with build, runes, spells and abilities. We help breakdown Yasuo into digestible bites for everyone to understand!
Thumbnail artwork by Oreki Genya.
Greetings, fellow champions! We have teamed up with Naga Krauser for this one to provide you the best possible Yasuo guide for Wild Rift. Naga is one of the best Yasuo players in India, with his IGN being literally Yasuo. He has a lot of experience in both Arena of Valor and the PC version of League of Legends.
Why play Yasuo?
Yasuo is a highly mobile assassin warrior with a lot of carry potential. He goes well in the mid or Baron lane. He provides a lot of utility to his team with his kit, allowing him to be used in versatile ways. He can do well in team fights and split pushes if played well. His late game scaling ensures that the longer the match goes, the higher his map presence.
If you to dish out ridiculous amounts of damage while outplaying your enemies, Yasuo is the pick for you!
Pros
- Huge solo carry potential.
- Scales hard into late game.
- Late game scaling ensure that snowballs are hard.
- Rewarding to Master.
- Great at team fights and ganks.
- Decent split pusher.
- Abilities can be spammed, as they have relatively low cooldowns.
Cons
- He is squishy, can be bursted down easily. His passive is sometimes not enough for sustain.
- Learning Yasuo can be a daunting task for beginner players. Even veterens from other mobile mobas will take time to master him. He has a relatively high skill cap.
- Gets countered by crowd control
- Albeit, this one is not a problem with the champion but the reception he gets. Yasuo players can get flamed a lot. It is easy to feed with Yasuo when you are still new at him. Just keep in mind, this should not be a deterrent for you to learn Yasuo. Do your best and keep improving.
Builds, Runes and Spells
What Naga builds on Yasuo
Naga’s Build
1. Phantom dancer
Phantom dancer over Static Shive because of the passive shield you get which abosrbs (240-590) damage. This shield synergies well with your own passive. If played right the shield from your passive and this item provides a lot of sustain in lane and team fights.
2. Infinity Edge
Rushing this item is recommended as Yasuo’s damage comes from his critical chance. So with Phantom dancer and Infinity Edge you get the damage needed for yasuo from his crit. After you use your ultimate for the next 15 sec you gain 30% armor penetration.
3. Boots
Mercury’s Treads: If enemy has Magic Damage threats, this is a good item.
Ninja Tabi: If enemy has Physical Damage threats, this is a good item.
Quicksilver Enchant: Since you will be going in the thick of team fights to reach their adc or carries, you will need a way to escape of avoid hard damage. CC can really mess with your combos and hence, these pair of boots come highly recommended.
Teleport Enchant: Recommended for top lane, as you will be split pushing more often.
4. Bloodthirster:
Bloodthirster is a must on Yasuo. Physical Vamp overheals you, generating a shield that absorbs 40-320 Damage. This shield decays out of combat over 10 seconds. So you will essentially have three shields. If timed right, this gives him a lot of space to dish out damage while being deep into team fights.
5. Defensive item
Randuin’s Omen: Amazing against champions that have a high attack speed, like marksmen and Master Yi. This is because, it’s passive reduces the Attack Speed of enemies by 15% for 1.5 seconds when struck by an attack.
Fronzen Mallet: Fronzen mallet to chase down opponents, since your basic attack will slow them by 40%. Additionally it gives a nice +25 boost to attack damage as well.
Note: We build a defensive item on Yasuo because he has low base HP. Despite being squishy he constantly need to be in the thick of team fights. This means stacking atleast some defensive stats on him is a must. Apart from the enemy composition, if your team is not doing well, you will need to build Randuin’s Omen as it will give you more defensive stats than Frozen Mallet at a lesser price. If you are snowballing, go for Frozen Mallet, because you will easily have gold to buy this item, and slowing enemies down and dealing more damage will lead to sure kills, helping you convert the snowball into a victory. So depending on the enemy team composition and gold difference, counter building in this way is essential.
6. Guardian Angel
Being a squishy late game hyper carry, building this becomes essential. You can easily your dash and windwall to jump to safety after being revived.
Runes
Conqueror: Gain stacks of Adaptive Force when hitting a champion with separate attacks or abilties. Stack up to 5 times. When fully stacked, deal bonus adaptive damage to champions. Per stack: 2 - 6 bonus AD or 4 - 12 AP for 8s. Fully stacked bonus: 10% bonus adaptive damage to champions. Yasuo can proc this easily as his combo takes multiple abilities. Free damage.
Triumph: After you get a kill it restores 10% of missing health and deals 3% more damage to enemes below 35% health. This helps Yasuo a lot to kill and sustain during a team fight and to make clutch plays.
Hunter Titan: Gain 20 max health. Unique champion takedowns grant 20 max health and 4% tenacity. Helps, with his squishiness. Good for snowballing hard.
Hunter Genius: Gain 2.5% cooldown reduction. Unique champion takedowns grant 1.5% cooldown reduction. Yasuo is a champion with already low cooldowns, so as they say, this is playing to your strengths!
Spells
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Flash: Absolutely essential for him and no way around it. Flash is needed in pulling off his combos which we will talk about below. | Ignite: Good for securing kills. Recommended against picks like Twisted fate, Luz, Zed or Fizz | Exhaust: Good against burst damage champions like Fizz, Zed and Akali. Exhaust is recommended into top lane as it makes your split pushing way stronger compared to other spells. Remember, unlike the PC version yu do not have to make the choice between teleport and exhaust, you can build both. This makes Yasuo top lane more viable than it is in PC version. |
Abilities
Way of the Wanderer
Passive
Resolve: Moving builds Flow, which is tracked on Yasuo’s resource bar. At max Flow, damage from a champion or monster grants a shield that absorbs 100 damage and lasts 2 seconds.
Indent: Yasuo’s Critical Strike Chance is doubled, but his Critical Strikes deal 10% less damage.
Keep moving during the laning phase, so that your Flow reaches max when you want to trade. This mechanic allows you to negate random poke. It resets whenever you use Last Breath(ultimate).
Steel Tempest
Q/Skill 1
Thrusts forward, dealing 78 physical damage (20+ 100 attack damage). Grants a stack of Gathering Storm if the thrust damages an enemy. At 2 stacks, Steel Tempest launches a whirlwind that knocks enemies Airborne.
If tapped during sweeping blades dash, Steel tempest will strikes as a circle.
| Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Damage | 20 | 55 | 90 | 125 |
This is a basic skillshot attack, and it’s usually maxed first for damage. The cooldown of the ability reduces with attack speed, so we build attack speed in runes and items. This is a nice mid range poke and safer to use than Sweeping Blade.
Wind Wall
W/Skill 2
Creates a 300 unit wall that blocks all enemy projectiles for 4 seconds.
| Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooldown | 21 | 20 | 19 | 18 |
| Wall Width | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 |
An overpowered wall that blocks a LOT of long range damage. This includes, Jhin ult, Jinx ult, Ashe ult, Braum Q, Blitzcrank hook, you name it! Abilities that count as teleports can pass through it. It only blocks projectiles. Area of Effect abilities however, pass through it like janna ult, Aruleon Sol passive and ult, Lux ult and so on.
Windwall also gives vision just like in the pc version. Place it strategically to gain vision of the enemy team.
Sweeping Blade
E/Skill 3
Dashes through the target enemy, dealing 70 magic damage (70 + 20% bonus attack damage + 60% magic damage). Each cast increases the next dash’s base damage by 25%, up to + 50%.
Cannot be re-cast on the same enemy for 8 seconds.
If Steel Tempest is tapped during this dash, it will strike as a circle.
| Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooldown | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Base Damage | 70 | 80 | 90 | 100 |
This dash has a fixed range, as you will see on the ability indicator. That means, if you are closer to a target, dashing will make you move further away from it. You can use Steel Tempest along with it for some nice AOE burst.
Last Breath
R/Skill4/Ultimate
Blinks to an Airborne enemy champion, dealing 200 physical damage (200 + 150% bonus attack damage) and holding all Airborne enemies in the area in the air for an additional 1.5s. Grants maximum Flow but reset all stacks of Gathering Storm.
For the next 15s Critical Strikes gain 30% Armor Penetration.
| Level | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooldown | 60 | 45 | 30 |
| Base Damage | 200 | 350 | 500 |
Your ultimate refreshes your passive shield, and gives Yasuo 50% bonus armor penetration on all his critical strikes. This is essential as when you will be between many enemies. The shield will help you survive. This makes Yasuo synergize very well with some champions, leading to great team fights. Armor penetration helps you shreds tanks as well, so you can potentially win after you get a few items. Use the ultimate as late as you can. For example, if Malphite ult lasts two seconds, use ur ult just as the 2 seconds are about to expire. This will essentially mean the enemies are CC’ed for three entire seconds. Form an effective CC chain with the right timing.
Naga’s tips
Lanning phase
I generally play along my shield. Dash around to auto and use Q(Steel Tempest) after you know they used their main spells. Against ranged champions, it’s always best to let them push the lane until you hit level 3.
Taking advantage of lane after Q is charge for a tornado. Since, they generally tend to back off cause if you land your tornado you come out huge. But if you go all in, make sure to proc you Conqueror; if not, don’t go.
After one item(Phantom Dancer), his wave clear becomes really easy. E+Q combo can easily clear the wave. So with Yasuo it’s advised to FAST PUSH the wave and to roam so that you have an impact on the map.
For instance, let’s say 4 minions come to your lane. E+Q dash on the first melee minion, after that auto attack or Q. Never E on the champions; use it on the minions to cut the distance and reach the champions. Dash on the champion when you know you are about to proc your rune Conqueror and deal damage. E back into your minion using the minions that were left.
Against tanky champions
Its all about trade. Against a Garen, you need to full commit after he uses his E(Judgment) and Q(Decisive Strike). Never fight when he uses E it’ll end being a bad trade. And while facing Garen you need to always poke him with your Q or Auto because if you don’t he will regain his health with his passive.
Mid Lane yasuo is of course the most recommended. Top lane Yasuo is not advised when they have tanky champions over all but it is fine if they have bruisers.
If Yasuo is matched against a ranged champion like Ezrael, Orianna or Jhin make sure to slow push, and let the minions come towards your turret. Until you are level 3, you pretty much cant do anything against them and if you try you will lose trades. This might force you to burn flash at some point.
Engage with the same pattern as above and keep track of the cooldown of your opponents.
Team Fights
You need to use ultimate in order to proc your 35% armor penetration which dishes a lot of damage. Also if they have CC never E dash into them directly. Best case scenario, you’ll have to burn your Quicksilver enchant. You are an assassin and waiting for the right time should be your strength. Wait for them to burn major CC. Positioning your Windwall effectively and the right time changes the entire scenario of the team fight. You can also avoid long range stuns coming in from their carries using Windwalls, making you all the more effective. So holding onto your windwall is advised, especially when you E dash and reach their ADC. If you Windwall you will negate alot of damage coming your way.
Synergies
Yaasuo works really well with champions that have knock up. Malphite, Blitzcrank, Gargas, Alsitar, Braum, Orianna, Xin. One of the highest synergies he has is with Lee Sin.
Tips for AOV players
From character design he might remind you of Ryoma. But mechanics wise he is very different. Although just like a warrior assassin, he is played both mid and ds. Tere are no direct equivalent abilities to that of Yasuo in AOV so he will come across as a unique champion. But judging from playstyle alone, Airi players might enjoy him. A high skill cap, high mobility, squishy warrior assassin, that likes to burst down adcs from the thick of team fights and safely escape. Just like Airi ult, Yasuo ult has an AOE cc and shield, but the condtions to use both stun and shield is very very different from Airi.
Tips for PC players
He is pretty faithful to the PC version. Even his core items are unchanged, namely Phantom Dancer and Infinity Edge. One of the major differences is not in the champion itself but his spells. Many had to choose between exhaust, ignite and teleport. The Teleport here is not a summoner spell but an enchantment that you can build on your boots. That makes his Baron Lane playstyle better than it is in PC. His split pushes become stronger with exhaust and teleport, giving him global presence especially in the late game.
Conclusion
Yasuo can be daunting to master, but once you learn him, it pays off. Make sure to practice his combos regularly because it is essential to keep your skills honed. Even a single mistake can cost you an entire match, because you are a squishy assassin afterall. His all in combo makes Yasuo a high risk-high reward champion.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Naga for helping with this guide. Go show him some love at his Youtube channel.
Thanks to Oreki Genya for letting us use her amazing artworks on this site. They really help bring a fresh breeze to these guides.