Optimization for Yasuo Build Path: Infinity Edge or Trinity Force
A in-depth look at the two most popular item builds for Yasuo and the pros and cons for each build path.
Yasuo over the years has developed into a staple pick when it comes to the mid lane. During the North American Summer LCS in 2014, Yasuo had a 60.71% Pick & Ban rate and had a win rate of 61 %. Throughout the early stages of Season 5 however, due to the tank meta arising as well as the popularity of caster mid laners, (i.e. Azir, Viktor etc.) Yasuo quickly fell away from popularity. As showcased most recently in the Finals for the 2015 North American LCS, Yasuo came back to haunt TSM as ZionSpartan, the top laner for CLG, when he played Yasuo into Gnar, causing problems for his lane opponent Dyrus and the rest of the TSM team. On top of bringing back a champion that had not been seen much in Season 5, he also used a Trinity Force centered build as opposed to the standard bread and butter Infinity Edge build. This article will be focusing on the pros and cons of each build, and why the Tri-Force is becoming the more popular option for many Yasuo players.
Standard Infinity Edge Build:
The classic item path for Yasuo went as follows:
- Statikk Shiv
- Boots(Generally Berserker’s Greaves)
- Infinity Edge (IE)
- Blade of the Ruined King/Bloodthirster (BotRK/BT)
- Last Whisper (LW)
- Guardian Angel (GA)
This item path was designed to allow Yasuo to take advantage in the early stages of the game during lane phase, and then snowball the lead from that point. Once you got the Avarice Blade it was very easy to farm into the Statikk. The Yasuo passive allows grants him 2x critical strike chance, combining nice with the Statikk, giving you 40% critical strike chance very early on into the game. After this, you would build into the Infinity Edge, thus giving you 100% critical chance very early on until the game. However, recently the Infinity Edge got nerfed now giving you 10% less critical strike chance. This provided a problem for many Yasuo players because in order to make up that 10%, you would need to add 10% into your rune page. Most players sacrificed the attack damage or attack speed reds they were running and added in critical strike chance reds to get the 10%. From this point, you could either go with the BotRK or BT for sustain and survivability, finish the LW for the armor pen, and round of the item build with the defensive GA. This build is a solid build path that allows for very high damage output at early stages of the game, giving the player the opportunity to snowball. This item path gives you all the tools needed in order snowball the game and single handily carry the game.
Trinity Force Yasuo Build:
The item build that has been becoming more popular for Yasuo today goes as follows:
- Statikk Shiv
- Boots(Berserker’s Greaves)
- Trinity Force
- Infinity Edge
- Last Whisper
- Guardian Angel
This is a build that in recent history has become steadily more popular than the old build for a few main reasons. This build path allows you to once again gain the 100% critical strike chance from purely items alone, meaning that you don’t need to sacrifice any stats in your rune page to gain 100% critical strike chance. Sheen, a component of Trinity Force also has a passive that deals bonus physical damage equal to 100% base attack damage on hit. This synergizes with Yasuo through his “Q” ability and the auto following. Phage, another item that builds into Trinity Force, also provides 20 movement speed for 2 seconds after a basic attack. This allows Yasuo to move around faster in lane and synergizes well with his “E” ability.
Comparing the Two Item Builds:
Both item builds are viable, and yet despite this fact, it has caused copious amounts of controversy among league players and coaching staff at all levels of competition and play. For those who side with the Infinity Edge build, they argue that the raw damage output from the Trinity Force build is not as high. In addition, building the Trinity Force not only delays you getting the Infinity Edge, a long considered staple core item, it is more expensive and is less gold efficient by providing +200 mana, a statistic that Yasuo does not use.
For those who argue in favor of the Trinity Force, players believe that the utility that is provided by the Sheen and Phage more than compensates overall, providing more sustain with +250 health and +8% movement speed. Although you do loose overall damage output, many consider this to be a worthwhile trade off because you will be safer and have more health in the long run, allowing you to gain some extra survivability in team fights.
Conclusion:
Personally, I truly believe that at the end of the day, it becomes more focused on how you as a player wish to play the champion and the way that you will fit into your team composition. Each build has shown that it is a viable and can be a solid way to itemize the champion, showing consistent wins at high level play for both builds. The more aggressive Yasuo players will tend to side toward the classic build path due to its higher damage output and stronger snowball potential. I foresee myself going with the Trinity Force build path, allowing me to play a little safer in lane, and be able to come in strong during the mid and late game team fights.
I am extremely curious to hear your thoughts on this build topic for Yasuo! If you wish to continue this conversation, you can find me @DignitasZyrxa or post in the comments below this article. Be sure to check out the rest of the articles in the Blog section of the website for some other great League of Legends content, and as always, thank you once again for the continued support!
Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!
