League of Legends Gameplay Thoughts: Yasuo

Everyone's least favorite tornado-chucking, perma-dashing, and wind-walling Samurai is about to take another arrow in the knee. According to Meddler's weekly gameplay thoughts, Yasuo is now a problem that Riot has their eyes upon.

"Mid-season was kind to Yasuo, leaving him noticeably stronger,"Meddler said. "We're taking some power out in 7.11 as a result, reducing the duration he can hold his Q buff after hitting a target (both the initial buildup buff and the knockup buff). Some of that's reducing the duration Yasuo can threaten with the Q3. It's also intended to make Yasuo more dependent on allied knockups, making him a more or less attractive pick based on team comps. That's likely a direction we'll continue to investigate in future as well."

Then numbers back up his assertions. While Yasuo spent all of the first half of Season 7 in a weak state due to repeated nerfs to his more bruiser-oriented builds, the last few weeks have seen the champion make a massive resurgance. While none of his core items were directly buffed during the Mid-Season Update outside of the Infinity Edge, Yasuo benefited from the new rebalancing on defensive items which made it more difficult for most top laners to properly itemize against him in short order. Additionally, the new Guardian Angel has proven to be a massive boon for Yasuo, who cared more for the ressurection ability than he did the stats on the item to begin with.

It is possible, however, that the current nerf planned for 7.11 might prove too much for Yasuo to handle. The changes, while currently being advertised as somewhat power neutral, have many Yasuo players up in arms, as they believe them to be anything but. The time which Yasuo can hold onto his third stack on Steel Tempest was harshly reduced, which has made him an even weaker mid laner than he is at the moment. Whether anyone except from Yasuo mains are sad about that is another question entirely.

Want to hear more about the latest gameplay thoughts from the Riot Live team? Check out these other articles on the topic: Gameplay Thoughts: LeBlanc, Gameplay Thoughts: Zac, Gameplay Thoughts: Guardian Angel, and Gameplay Thoughts: Early Surrender. Keep tuned to WWG for all the most up to date gameplay information!