Guide · Mid

Yasuo Guide

the Unforgiven

Fighter

Assassin

Tier C Mid

Yasuo, the Unforgiven, is a fighter and assassin champion that is demanding to master. Across our 1863 analysed ranked games, Yasuo is mostly played in Mid (56% of its games), and more rarely in Top (25%) and as ADC (19%), with a 48.9% win rate in that role: tier C among Mid champions (#37 of 42, ranked by win rate). Yasuo's damage is mostly physical (87%): armor is the best defensive answer against this champion. Win rate stays steady whatever the game length (48.1% to 49.6%): a reliable pick in every phase of the game.

Averages measured over 1040 Mid games played with Yasuo, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

Combos and how to play

Yasuo is a melee fighter with constant mobility. His passive gives him increased critical strike chance and a shield that fills as he moves. He stacks Steel Tempest to knock enemies into the air, which enables his ultimate, and Wind Wall blocks enemy projectiles, a decisive tool against marksmen and mages.

The tornado combo

E › Q › Q

When: An enemy is within dash range.

Sweeping Blade dashes you through a target; Steel Tempest cast during the dash delivers a circular strike; two stacks of Gathering Storm then make a tornado that knocks the target up.

The ultimate after a knock-up

Q › Q › R

When: An enemy is knocked into the air.

Last Breath can only target a champion that is already airborne: cast it the moment the tornado connects, and benefit from the armor penetration bonus on your critical strikes.

Protecting against marksmen

W

When: The enemy marksmen are targeting your team.

Wind Wall blocks enemy projectiles for 4 seconds. Place it between your team and their ranged damage sources before they fire.

Laning phase

Use Sweeping Blade on minions to close in on the enemy, and stack Steel Tempest to trigger the tornado. Keep Wind Wall to block an important ability rather than casting it out of habit: its cooldown is long.

Common mistakes

• Using the ultimate without an airborne target: it cannot be cast on its own.
• Wasting Wind Wall outside important fights.
• Dashing onto minions that leave you under a tower or in the enemy's line of fire.

Riot's official tips for playing Yasuo

• Dash through a minion to have Sweeping Blade available to chase your opponent should they flee; Dash directly to your opponent to preserve a minion as your escape route.
• At level 18, Yasuo's Steel Tempest reaches its Attack Speed cap with 55% Attack Speed from items.
• Last Breath can be cast on any target that is knocked Airborne, even by one of your allies.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Infinity Edge, Death's Dance, and Immortal Shieldbow (113 games, 56.6% win rate), usually with Chainlaced Crushers (36.7% over 79 games).

Infinity Edge+Death's Dance+Immortal Shieldbow

113 games · 56.6%

Infinity Edge+Blade of The Ruined King+Immortal Shieldbow

105 games · 59.1%

Infinity Edge+Kraken Slayer+Immortal Shieldbow

54 games · 59.3%

Boots

Chainlaced Crushers36.7% · 79 games

Armored Advance51.9% · 52 games

Swiftmarch45.5% · 33 games

Summoner spells

Flash + Ignite47.0% · 530 games

Exhaust + Flash51.4% · 414 games

Flash + Teleport46.2% · 52 games

Flash + Ghost43.5% · 23 games

Most-played runes

Lethal Tempo + Resolve

49.9% · 790 games

Primary tree · Precision

Absorb Life50%

Legend: Alacrity87%

Last Stand85%

Secondary tree · Resolve

Second Wind54%

Overgrowth52%

Shards

Attack speed100%

Adaptive force96%

Health scaling61%

Fleet Footwork + Resolve

44.6% · 148 games

Primary tree · Precision

Absorb Life72%

Legend: Alacrity92%

Last Stand72%

Secondary tree · Resolve

Second Wind73%

Overgrowth64%

Shards

Attack speed100%

Adaptive force92%

Health scaling66%

Grasp of the Undying + Precision

45.1% · 51 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Shield Bash74%

Second Wind57%

Overgrowth90%

Secondary tree · Precision

Legend: Alacrity94%

Cut Down57%

Shards

Attack speed100%

Adaptive force92%

Health scaling63%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Yasuo's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team52.2% · 278 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Immortal Shieldbow 55.9% ▲

Infinity Edge 58.7% ▲

Blade of The Ruined King 52.9% ▲

Kraken Slayer 52.5% ▲

Death's Dance 67.9% ▲

Stormrazor 52.8%

The item that stands out most is Death's Dance: 67.9% win rate, +10 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team46.8% · 301 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Immortal Shieldbow 51.5%

Infinity Edge 50.7%

Blade of The Ruined King 46.9%

Kraken Slayer 45.2%

Death's Dance 52.2% ▼

Stormrazor 45.3% ▼

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Balanced enemy team48.2% · 461 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Immortal Shieldbow 51.6%

Infinity Edge 49.5%

Blade of The Ruined King 46.0%

Death's Dance 56.2%

Kraken Slayer 45.9%

Stormrazor 53.8%

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Yasuo in Mid

Lux Yasuo: 34.8%23 games

Lux has the edge in 65% of the 23 Mid duels against Yasuo. See the Lux guide.

Yone Yasuo: 36.7%30 games

Yone has the edge in 63% of the 30 Mid duels against Yasuo. See the Yone guide.

Fizz Yasuo: 37.5%16 games

Fizz has the edge in 62% of the 16 Mid duels against Yasuo. See the Fizz guide.

Katarina Yasuo: 38.1%21 games

Katarina has the edge in 62% of the 21 Mid duels against Yasuo. See the Katarina guide.

Ahri Yasuo: 40.0%20 games

Ahri has the edge in 60% of the 20 Mid duels against Yasuo. See the Ahri guide.

Who Yasuo is strong against

Lissandra58.8% · 17 games

Locke57.1% · 28 games

Zed57.1% · 28 games

Malzahar53.3% · 15 games

Viktor50.0% · 24 games

How to play against Yasuo

• Steel Tempest is very narrow. Dodge laterally if possible.
• When Yasuo lands two Steel Tempests in a row, his next will fire a tornado. Watch and listen for the associated sound to prepare to dodge.
• Yasuo is at his weakest just after he has launched a whirlwind. Engage at that point.
• Yasuo's shield from Resolve lasts only 2 seconds. Dealing damage to him will trigger it. Wait it out, then engage.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Yasuo's matchups.

Abilities

PassiveWay of the Wanderer

Yasuo's Critical Strike Chance is increased. Additionally, Yasuo builds toward a shield whenever he is moving. The shield triggers when he takes damage from a champion or monster.

QSteel Tempest

Thrusts forward, damaging all enemies in a line.

On hit, grants a stack of Gathering Storm for a few seconds. At 2 stacks, Steel Tempest fires a whirlwind that knocks Airborne.

Steel Tempest is treated as a basic attack and scales with all the same things.

WWind Wall

Creates a moving wall that blocks all enemy projectiles for 4 seconds.

ESweeping Blade

Dashes through target enemy, dealing magic damage. Each cast increases subsequent dash's damage, up to a max amount.

Cannot be re-cast on the same enemy for a few seconds.

If Steel Tempest is cast while dashing, it will strike as a circle.

RLast Breath

Blinks to an Airborne enemy champion, dealing physical damage and holding all Airborne enemies in the area in the air. Grants maximum Flow but resets all stacks of Gathering Storm.

For a moderate time afterwards, Yasuo's critical strikes gain significant Bonus Armor Penetration.

Frequently asked questions

Full Yasuo page · League of Legends tier list · All champion guides