Hym (Day 109)

I just played the new League of Legends champion on the public test server. His name is Yasuo and he is an awesome samurai. I look forward to playing him on live in the future, though I don't imagine I'll get the chance to play him much in the initial few weeks of his release since he will most definitely be in every game.

My initial impressions are quite positive. Although I've not been able to play him against human opponents just yet, I do like the way his kit flows. It feels very smooth and responsive. Frail melee champions have traditionally fared poorly in the metagame, but I think Yasuo might just find a niche as a jungler or midlaner. His damage output in the early game is low, but it ramps up quickly as you buy items.

Like other melee damage dealers, Yasuo scales pretty strongly with attack speed and critical strike chance. His passive ability doubles his crit chance, which is pretty insane considering that his Q ability (Steel Tempest) can critically strike. The ability functions as if it were an auto attack in just about every way. It's affected by lifesteal and even attack speed. The cooldown and cast animation are both reduced by stacking the stat.

Steel Tempest is a pretty basic ability. It is short range and essentially amounts to a simple sword thrust. However, when cast while using his E ability (Sweeping Blade), Steel Tempest is cast in a circular motion around Yasuo. Sweeping Blade is a gap closing attack with a very short cooldown--although there is an internal cooldown when cast on the same target. At later ranks, Sweeping Blade can be used to jump from minion to minion in unpredictable patterns. I can see pro players pulling off some tricky plays with these mechanics.

Steel Tempest is not as simple as that, though. Each time you strike an enemy with the ability (minions or champions), you gain a stack of an effect called Gathering Storm. Upon acquiring two stacks, your next Steel Tempest will summon forth a whirlwind that knocks up everything in its path over a fairly long area. In the early game it can be difficult to acquire enough stacks to cause this effect, but once you have enough attack speed and Steel Tempest has a much lower cooldown, it becomes very simple.

The whirlwind effect is cool enough on its own, but its intended use is to combo with his ultimate ability. Last Breath is only usable when an opponent is knocked into the air. When activated, Yasuo dashes to the opponent and holds them in the air for an additional second and deals damage. When chained optimally, the two abilites amount to an approximate 1.5 seconds of knockup time. Yasuo also gains 50% bonus armor penetration for the following 15 seconds. This secondary effect is much more effective on tanks and bruisers who stack armor and will have no noticeable effect on frailer champions (which he won't have a hard time taking out anyway.)

Even without taking into account the other effect of his passive and his W ability (both of which I haven't discussed yet), it's clear that Yasuo is an astoundingly mobile champion with multiple ways to outplay opponents. However, perhaps the most unique ability in his arsenal is his W, Wind Wall. This ability is unlike anything else in the game right now and is really cool. Although it has a high cooldown and relies on twitch reflexes, Wind Wall can be used to block any projectiles flying Yasuo's way for the span of 3.75 seconds.

This ability is another part of why I'm excited to see pro players pick this champion up. With Wind Wall, Yasuo can block Lux bindings, Nami ultimates, Ashe arrows, and just about any other projectile you can think of. The only things it can't block are champions (Malphite and Nocturne ultimates) and turret shots. It's undoubtedly a very powerful and thematically interesting ability.

Finally, there's his passive. I've already described one part of it and that is that he passively doubles his crit chance. However, there's more to it. As he moves, Yasuo fills his "Flow" bar. Once the bar is filled, a portion of the damage from the next attack will be shielded for the total amount of the Flow bar. The value of this shield scales with Yasuo's level. This is an interesting passive ability for his kit because of just how much the champion moves around not only in the laning phase but in teamfights as well. It also makes Statikk Shiv an incredibly synergistic pick on him.

Yasuo seems like an incredibly fun champion to play with numerous tools to survive an unforgiving laning phase. Does his kit have too much raw power? It's definitely possible, but only time will tell. I wouldn't mind him losing some of his raw power as long as he keeps his insane mobility and play making potential.