Yasuo counters (Mid)

Common role: Mid / Top

The best counter to Yasuo in Mid is Vladimir: 54.9% win rate over 3,483 ranked games on patch 26.21.

A mobile melee skirmisher who snowballs off kills and windwalls your key ability.

What makes Yasuo dangerous

Yasuo dashes through minions with his Q-tornado wind-up and E, and his Wind Wall (W) blocks all incoming projectiles. He is weak early but becomes a terror once he has two items and enough crit. His whole gameplan is stacking kills and knocking you up to combo his ultimate.

How to counter Yasuo

• 1Bait his Wind Wall before you commit — don't throw your important skillshot into it. Once W is on cooldown (~25s early), you have a long window to poke and all-in.
• 2Punish him for last-hitting: every time he dashes onto a minion he is out of position. Trade when he uses E to farm, not when his Q is stacked.
• 3Never fight while he has knock-up available (his own Q3 or an ally's CC) — that's the trigger for his ultimate. Space so his tornado can't reach you.
• 4Deny his snowball: he is one of the weakest champions in the game when behind. Play safe early, take CS, and he falls off relative to the enemy team.

What are Yasuo's weaknesses?

• ✓Very weak first few levels and when behind.
• ✓No hard CC of his own — needs a knock-up to combo.
• ✓Windwall has a long cooldown; once it's down he's exposed.
• ✓Squishy — burst or lock him down and he dies fast.

Abilities & how to counter them

What each of Yasuo's abilities does — and how to play around it.

• P
  Way 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.

• Q
  Steel 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.

  Strong: pokes and, at 2 stacks, becomes a knock-up. Weak: short range and telegraphed wind-up — sidestep the tornado and punish when it's not stacked.

• W
  Wind Wall

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

  Strong: Wind Wall blocks every projectile, negating ranged poke and ults. Weak: long cooldown and fixed width — bait it out, then all-in while it's down.

• E
  Sweeping 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.

  Strong: dashes through minions for mobility and resets on new targets. Weak: can't dash to the same unit twice for a few seconds — catch him mid-dash with CC.

• R
  Last 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.

  Strong: teleports to any airborne enemy for burst and armor shred. Weak: needs a knock-up to activate — deny knock-ups and his ult is dead.

Itemization

As an auto-attack/crit carry, armor and attack-speed slows hurt him most: Plated Steelcaps, Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen. Bruisers can build Thornmail. Ranged laners just need to respect his all-in windows.

This guide covers Yasuo's core kit and playstyle — advice that holds up across patches.