Thank Bard, the Yasuo nerfs are finally here

Yasuo is usually a terror to play against — high-damage champions who can dart around quickly, avoid your skill-shots and kill you usually are. But that’s supposed to be the experience against good Yasuo players, not all Yasuo players.

Recently, it’s been more of the latter. His win rate has been above 50 percent for quite a few patches now, and skyrocketed in 6.16 from 51.48 in the top lane to 55.14 (highest of any champion in the game) and from 49.4 to 52.95 in the mid lane, per Champion.GG’s high elo ranked stats. This is while holding the No. 3 play rate at most positions.

No champion with this high of a skill cap should have the game’s top win rate. Ever.

This was partly because of a bug on his ultimate, which had been brought to light in the past few weeks by players but was not enough to get him disabled. During his ultimate, Last Breath, Yasuo was able to get one extra auto attack off, giving him an additional 100 or so damage (depending on how far along the game was) in his already deadly combo.

That bug has been fixed with the release of Patch 6.18, which thankfully included a few Yasuo nerfs.

The other major issue with Yasuo in the last few patches was the increasingly common Tank Yasuo build. Riot frequently does not have a problem with unconventional champion builds, but Tank Yasuo is an example of adding one thing (tankiness) without sacrificing another (damage).

As addressed in the patch notes:

While lacking the explosive offense of a crit build, Tank Yasuo's damage and mobility remain above average due to his kit, while his items grant him the durability he normally lacks. We’re looking to break up the trifecta and force Yasuo to commit to just a few strengths (instead of all of them). Defensive builds will retain their stickiness, but see a sharp drop in damage. We’re happy when players adapt their styles to the needs of the game, but when Yasuo (like Ekko and Fizz before him) can cover his weaknesses without making tradeoffs, it’s not a fair experience for anyone.

Here are the changes to Yasuo’s kit, in addition to the bug fix. Notice his base attack speed is up, while the growth of it is down. Additionally, a player-suggested armor penetration change to his ultimate made it live!

General

BASE ATTACK SPEED.658 ⇒ .670

ATTACK SPEED GROWTH STAT3.2% ⇒ 2.5%

R - Last Breath

DEEP BREATHING: Bonus Armor Penetration now only applies to Yasuo’s critical strikes