How to win lane as Graves against Yasuo · 43.66% win rate over 71 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Yasuo | You have one E charge, short shell range, and no burst yet -- Yasuo pokes with Q and dashes the wave freely on his low-cooldown E. |
| Level 2 | Yasuo | He out-trades your early kit with Q poke and Windwall blocking your shells, and his E mobility refuses your point-blank range. |
| Level 3 | Graves | Fully online at 3: your second E charge to close, the point-blank shell spread, and W to blind his crit-autos win this short window if Windwall is down. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | Your True Grit resists and two E charges hold the trade, but his crit shred out-stats that armor -- genuinely even and read-dependent. |
| Level 6 | Yasuo | Last Breath off a third-Q tornado knocks you up and chains his crit combo, and Windwall has already eaten your Q or R. |
| First item | Graves | Your Eclipse/Youmuu's first-item spike beats his -- force every all-in here on a down Windwall before he reaches two items. |
| Two+ items | Yasuo | Crit shred plus Windwall denies your projectile shells and Q entirely, and his R is a pick button -- he hard-outscales you. |
Yasuo's Windwall (W) is the whole problem: your shell autoattacks, your Q powder trail, and your R are all projectiles, so a well-timed wall eats your entire burst and leaves you reloading for nothing. At 1-2 he pokes with Q and dashes through the minion wave on E (Sweeping Blade) -- which has only a short per-target cooldown -- so you can't pin him down. Your one real opening is level 3, when your second E charge and the point-blank 4-shell spread come online: E-in, blind his crit-autos with your W smoke, and burst him before his third-Q tornado is up.
The full Graves vs Yasuo report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Yasuo vs Graves guide →
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