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How Riot play Yasuo, League of Legends’ newest champion

Yasuo

We’ve already reviewed LoL’s latest lamb to its eternal slaughter – a mana-less, highly mobile twitch specialist named Yasuo – and doled out some basic advice: always be moving. But it can’t hurt to hear from the team who made him. Riot’s live design beard-in-command, Patrick ‘Scarizard’ Scarborough, took to the official forums at the weekend to detail his rune and item recommendations for playing as the Unforgiven.

Scarborough suggested four key rune types for Yasuo:

  • Attack Speed Reds (Alt. Attack Damage Reds)
  • Armor Yellows (Alt. Health Regen/LvL)
  • Magic Resist/lvl Blues (Alt. Flat MR)
  • Lifesteal/Movement Speed Quints (Interchangeable)

“Steel Tempest is not affected by Cooldown Reduction, but instead both its Cooldown and Cast Time are modified by Attack Speed,” he reasoned. “Thus, I choose this as my Runes to get a head start.”

Scarborough said Yasuo makes a good subject for rune testing, and encouraged players to do the same – but warned against runes that offered either critical chance or critical damage.

“Yasuo’s passive is there to nearly eliminate RNG with the purchase of 1-2 items,” he noted, “and with how Gold Dependent he is as a character, sometimes giving up these early-game focused stats will keep you from reaching that point consistently.”

Where item builds are concerned, Scarborough recommended Statikk Shiv and Infinity Edge as Yasuo’s core setup. From there, players are advised to build an effective defence strategy with items like Randuin’s Omen and Guardian Angel. A third, offensive item is most effective in the majority scenarios – though Last Whisper’s boosts to attack and armour penetration reportedly come in very handy in “intense Armor Stacking situations”.

“Youmuu’s Ghostblade is also a very strong alternative to Statikk Shiv, if it’s not your cup,” Scarborough finished.

Have you tried your hand at Yasuo yet? If early accounts are to be believed, you might find your motor skills aren’t up to the task.

Thanks, Reign of Gaming.