Yasuo’s buff on the PBE is a little much

There is an absolutely massive Yasuo buff coming in Patch 8.16, according to the latest PBE update.

The buff is sure to stir the pot a bit, because Yasuo is one of the most polarizing champions in League of Legends.

Either you’re one of the people that insta-lock him in solo queue and say things like “You’re all silver trash, just don’t feed and I’ll carry xD,” unironically before feeding uncontrollably, or you’re one of the players that hates every fiber of Yasuo’s being because of those first people.

The players that feel this way about Yasuo are going to be very, very angry that he’s getting buffed in such a big way. It means there will be more people on their team trying (and failing) to play him, and it means the enemy will lock him in more, too.

The buff boosts the bonus AD scaling on his ultimate all the way up to 250 percent. That’s a whopping 100 percent higher than it is in the live game, and it’s just as bad as it sounds. With a full-ish build of an Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer, Bloodthirster, Greaves, and Guardian Angel, his ultimate alone now deals over 850 damage.

That’s scary, especially considering his ultimate isn’t the main part of his all-in combo. Paired together with a basic attack woven in between each Q, one more before and after the ult lands, and one dash, and you’re looking at a combo that deals a total of about 4,700 damage. Yikes.

That’s certainly going to help him out, but did he actually need it? We don’t really think so. His solo queue success rate is pretty bad, we’ll admit, but he’s also seen more time in pro play than we ever expected so far this split. His low success in solo queue isn’t exactly surprising, either, considering so many people still play him. And yes, as you’d expect, more people play him at Silver and Bronze than anywhere else. We checked.

We wouldn’t be opposed to a Yasuo buff, considering his solo queue performance is subpar at best. But this is still overkill, and it doesn’t help him where he’s actually hurting right now. A buff to his Wind Wall, either in duration or cooldown, would help him deal with the mage bot lanes and mid laners in-meta right now. That’s where we think he’s struggling, not in the damage department.

This buff is scheduled to go live with Patch 8.16 next week.

Update August 8 2:30pm CT: This buff has been pulled from the PBE in the latest update. It may return for testing in the future.