Tadaa, it’s summertime and that’s why there are many more Yasuo now in League of Legends (LoL) matches. But not just mid Yasuo, jungle Yasuo or top but now there’s even Bot Lane Yasuo and that fact upsets me as a LoL player as I feel worried about my experience with LoL this summer.
I am an AD now, because look, I have much ammunition now
Which is the craziest bot lane duo you have ever seen lately? Yasuo and Nautilus? Mordekaiser and Alistar? Irelia and Gragas support along with a Mid Lane Rakan?
This is really not a troll you would expect to see in Bronze 5 but is serious strategy being used in Master and Challenger rank tiers in Korean server, the most competitive region on the world. Bot lane is now a chaos, as a Marksman in bot lane, you may be put up against Yasuo, Volibear, Gragas and the question here is how long it would take you to take them down, very long indeed.
What is happening?
In Patch 8.11, there are certain changes to Marksman/ADC role. The changes are more impactful comparing to changes made to Jungler and Mid Laner/APC. Initially, Marksman players would try to fit the new items the current builds but the results were not as expected. All Marksman champions got 4 less base AD at Level 1 but now with better AD gain rate per level. With this change, at Level 6 and later on, all Marksman champions are stronger in comparison to Marksman champions being at the same stage in previous patch. But reaching Level 6 is quite a long road.
Towards mid and late game, Marksman would be considerably stronger and some would think this is it, this is the age of ADC, but then … Bot Lane Yasuo comes to overturn everything.
At the moment, solo ranked matches in Korea and other regions are witnessing the uprising of the playstyle in which 2 Skirmishers (Duelist) would stay in Bot to dominate enemy Marksman. Like in North America region, we often see Bjergsen, Doublelift, Wildturtle play Yasuo in bot lane.
So what’s the outcome of all this?
Starting with low AD puts you as Marksman in disadvantage, this we all could imagine. Champions like Yasuo and Irelia, having high damage, can now be really annoying, can harass you easily and they are also geared with abilities to control you effectively. If you happen to be a Marksman with burst damage but low mobility, don’t come to lot lane.
Picking Yasuo to play in bot lane instead of an ADC would likely make your opponent look down on you. This is when they tend to make mistakes and it’s your chance to punish them as a Bot Lane Yasuo. Along with champions that can knock airborne enemy champions, Yasuo could be a nightmare to the ones like Vayne, Jinx, Kog’maw, Twitch, all that with low mobility. Yasuo’s Wind Wall (W) is also something every Marksman should hate, it’s even effective against ultimates of MissFortune, R of Jhin. You’ll need a good companion if you want to play Yasuo in bot lane, names to pick from including Leona, Alistar, Braum, or even Trundle, Nautilus. In terms of item building, you’ll have no difficulty following the updated guides.
The era of Duelists in bot lane is not going to end soon
Patch 8.11 is here to stay for a long time and in 8.12, Duelists are going to be even stronger with the two new items Atma’s Reckoning and Spear of Shojin. So if you’re a Marksman player, consider using Ezreal, Lucian or Kai’Sa instead of champions with low mobility or maybe learn to use Bot Lane Yasuo in ranked matches!
