Introduction
Picking out a main champion from a list of 162 (and growing) champions is a difficult task for all League of Legends players, adding to this difficulty is the fact that some champions are almost always present while some are rarely seen.
We’re going to try and answer as many questions about Yasuo as we can, some of these are related to how viable he is in different lanes and why that happens, how to play him and why, and much more.
Is Yasuo a good champion to main
Yasuo is definitely a viable champion, there are many reasons why I’d consider him to be a great champion to main, but there are also a couple of reasons why some people might not do well with him, let’s explore both.
The good
Yasuo is a strong champion in the hands of a skilled player, he has plenty of abilities that let him outplay his opponents in a lot of different ways. Unlike some other more “stable” champions, Yasuo is a mix between a fighter and an assassin, he’s got many characteristics of both which makes him a powerful champion if played well.
Another interesting point is that for a lot of players, playing against Yasuo is straight up “tilting” as they say, his voice lines and his gameplay make him a prime target for player’s frustrations, this is actually beneficial for the Yasuo player making it easier to win versus angry opponents!
The bad
Yasuo is a difficult champion, there is no other way to say it. He might actually be one of the hardest champions in the game to play at a high level. He’s got so much mobility and damage that the way he has been balanced through the years has been to make him really squishy, any mistake will mean you die.
The bounty system in place, makes it risky to have a Yasuo on your team. Even if he did great in the early game, Yasuo is very squishy and he has no great escape tools without minions in sight. Everyone has lost a game because their cocky Yasuo on a rampage fought 1v3 and gave their ADC 700 gold.
Is Yasuo a good Mid
Yes, Yasuo is a good mid lane champion. It’s his main role and the one he was probably designed for. Yasuo excels when playing versus mages and champions that he can outplay from level 1.
Best matchups in mid:
Ryze – The Ryze player will struggle to hit his Q without using empowered root, and he is weak early game when Yasuo can dominate the lane.
Twisted Fate – Yasuo’s Windwall can block every single ability and auto from Twisted Fate. If he blocks gold card he can trade with impunity from level 1-2 all the way to the endgame.
Akshan – You can easily get to Akshan and trade with him, he can’t use his E to escape because your body blocks that ability.
Azir – Similar to Akshan, his range is useless versus your mobility, and he is weak early game.
Worst matchups in mid:
Vex – Vex was basically designed to counter Yasuo. Her passive will always be up thanks to Yasuo’s dashes. If Yasuo goes in, she will fear you and unload all her damage into you while calmly walking away, there is basically no way to trade with her.
Taliyah – Her damage is massive, but she usually struggles with range. Because Yasuo is melee and so squishy she can burst you down quickly.
Pantheon – He is very strong right now, he will jump on you and get instantly 5 conqueror stacks or instantly proc Press The Attack, he can build AD and bruiser and both will win vs you. You will struggle to lane vs him.
Is Yasuo a good Top
Honestly? No, I don’t really think Yasuo is a good top lane champion. There are a couple of reasons why you might want to take Yasuo top but most of the time it’s not a good idea.
In general, Yasuo does great when facing Marksmen, Mages and Enchanters. None of those really go top at all, only rarely will you see a mage going top, so in most games you will be facing a tank or a fighter.
This puts you in a tough spot, tanks can shrug off your damage and will be annoying you the entire early and mid-game.
Worst matchups in top lane:
In general, Yasuo will do pretty bad in top lane when facing fighters and tanks, some of the worst matchups are Jax, Irelia and Darius.
Jax – Bad matchup, this is almost the definition of a hard counter. Unless your jungle helps you out before 6 or you pull of an insane outplay at level, you can expect to suffer the entire game vs Jax.
Irelia – Not as bad as Jax, some people consider it a skill matchup. I think in top Irelia has an advantage thanks to lane mechanics. In mid Yasuo has an easier time dealing with her.
Darius – Complicated matchup, like always there are chances to win if they make mistakes, but if they play it well you will always struggle to trade versus him.
Best matchups in top lane:
On the other hand, Yasuo does well against some of the more annoying top lane champions like Gnar, Teemo and Yorick so he could be useful pocket pick versus those guys.
Gnar – You can chunk him hard when he is in mega form thanks to your great mobility, when he switches into mega Gnar you can just dash away too.
Teemo – You can windwall his dart, if you do he’s a sitting duck early game with not enough damage to fight you head on. And thanks to your dashes you can disable his W bonus speed.
Yorick – You can eat his ghouls for breakfast or use them as springboards to chunk him from level 1 on. If he gets ahead, he can kind of ignore you but other than that it should be an easy matchup most of the time.
Is Yasuo a good ADC
Yes, Yasuo is a pretty good ADC nowadays. As we mentioned before Yasuo is great when facing Mages, Enchanters and Marksmen. Those all go bot lane most of the time so Yasuo has a lot of opportunities to get fed there.
Besides the class matchup factor, when you play together with a support with a knock up the possibilities are endless, some of the better partners for Yasuo ADC are: Alistar, Rakan and Nami.
I’m not really go in depth about matchups here because the entire 2v2 concept of bot lane is difficult to really know who is good Yasuo in general. But some ADCs to watch out for are Samira and Xayah, those are particularly hard.
Is Yasuo a hyper carry
You could classify Yasuo as a Carry but whether or not he is a “hyper” carry depends on how you define that. If that means, is he the strongest champion when he has full build? Then not really. But he is quite strong in the later parts of the game.
Is Yasuo a broken champ
When he was released he was pretty much broken, but after years of balancing, honestly he is pretty balanced.
The entire perception of Yasuo as a broken champ comes from those games where the enemy Yasuo gets fed and runs down your entire team.
It’s also because back when he was released (back in 2013) he was pretty overloaded when we compared him to the entire champion pool of 2013. Nowadays he’s not even banned as much.
Is Yasuo good early or late game
Yasuo is similar to Tristana in many ways, he starts out super strong with potential to all in a lot of champions as early as level 2 and 3, but as the game goes on if he doesn’t succeed he will have to wait a bit until he has his 100% critical chance 2 item power spike (probably around 20-22 minutes in).
So he is actually strong in both early and late game, his weakest point is the middle point between those, especially if he struggled in lane.
Is Yasuo easy to climb with
No, it’s not. His win rate in all lanes increases with rank, which means that his “skill floor” is higher than average. Most people in Bronze and Silver will do much better with simpler champions to climb.
If you want some stats to hammer the point, Yasuo generally has a lower than 50% win rate in most ranks below Diamond. So, if you want to climb easily pick something simpler to really learn macro and teamfighting before delving deep into a complicated champion like Yasuo.
Conclusion
Picking Yasuo as your main is not a terrible choice, in fact if you really enjoy his fantasy, his voice lines and lore, then I don’t really see a reason why wouldn’t want to play this cool champion.
However, if you’re under the impression that Yasuo is a broken champion that takes no skill because you got beaten a couple of times, then think again, Yasuo rewards putting time and effort into getting better so if you just want a meta champion to rise through the ranks quickly then there are much better choices to play in season 13.