I've seen a lot of people talking about how Yoru isn't a real duelist like the others, how his buffs didn't do enough to actually make him much better, and how he's just not the stealth agent Riot promised at all. Although I can understand and somewhat agree with some of these statements, I think that a lot of the community needs to see Yoru from a different perspective.

I also want to discuss Yoru's buffs in 2.06, since they tie in with the other discussion points I want to make in this post. Let's start with the flash buffs.

Obviously these flash buffs are huge for Yoru, especially since flashes are so good to have right now. Yoru's pop flashes can be even more unreactable, and they are actually quite punishing now (1.5s full flash duration). His flashes have been the most duelist-like ability for him, so a better flash opens up a lot more duelist potential for him. An avenue of this potential is the classic flash+TP combo, which works well in low ELO. But no one is disputing that.

What I’ve seen people ARE disputing is the usefulness of his Gatecrash buff. 10 more seconds + the 35 second CD are incredibly useful, especially on defense. Before the update, Yoru’s TP was a huge commitment, especially for being an ability that was already risky to throw out into enemy territory. You had only 20 seconds to make a play with the TP, and if that play was too unsafe to commit to, there goes your signature ability until you get 2 kills. If you DO get 2 kills to recharge it, more likely than not you would be in a position where a TP would not be as beneficial as just playing it out. If you are holding a site, you can send a TP to the other site and have 30 seconds for your team to determine which site the enemy is playing for. If the TP runs out, you get another to send out. The change makes it so Yoru is not forced to use his abilities in situations where they are not optimal (i.e. you would have to make an offensive play with the TP in order to get kills to recharge it). 30 seconds is a good length of time for Yoru, and the Gatecrash change allows for more flexibility in his kit. While having the Gatecrash become quieter is a buff I would love to see, I don’t think it’s super necessary right now with how Yoru can be played optimally (flash+TP or anchor TP vs sending a TP into enemy spawn), though it would definitely help with Yoru’s original design that he has not completely fulfilled.

Just a little tangent I have to say on the topic of Gatecrash, I think it’s better utilized as an anchor point to return to if you overcommit rather than a tool to push (though it definitely can be used for either, it depends on the situation entirely). The obvious difference between the TP and Jett dash/Dismiss is that it’s slower. Going in and using Gatecrash like that is not how it should be used, which should be obvious since Riot intended for Yoru to play differently from them. The payoff of it being slower is that it gives you the potential to fully reset and play with a different approach after causing a disruption in the enemy backlines. Yoru’s TP doesn’t let him run in guns ablazing and get out free like other duelists, but that doesn’t mean it has no use. It just has a different use that many players overlook.

This is where Yoru’s ult has big potential. The main goal to achieve with Yoru’s ult is to gather info and, based on that info, either fall back to safety and rotate or use your position and your flashes to your advantage during a team push and clear out one or two people sitting back while the rest of your team rushes in from the front. The anchor TP works great for plays like these (which is what makes the 2k refresh -> 35s CD even better, since you can anchor TP and get it back for later site executions if you are rotating).

Staying on topic, the ult point drop is big for Yoru. His offensive ult plays can win rounds if played around properly. Being able to utilize it more is a big buff for him. The ability to TP whilst still in the ult also grants useful opportunities (for example, grabbing spike from an enemy guarding it and TPing directly onto site while having some time to clear the site during the ult, or sending a TP to use immediately after ulting to gain distance), and the shadow buff that lets him pull out his gun quicker is great if you manage to get around a corner against someone who is chasing you and shoot them before they expect it. (I think this will end up catching a whole lot of people offguard; it's honestly an insane buff.)

Finally, I want to talk about the discussion of "Yoru can't be a stealth agent because his abilities are too loud". Honestly... I can agree with this. Yoru's abilities don't perform well in what people would consider stealth. You can't get behind someone just with his abilities alone without them knowing and then getting sneaky kills. Instead, you can get behind them with them knowing you're there and overwhelm them with your flashes and ability to reposition quickly. If it was almost any other agent, committing yourself to a position behind an enemy would be quite risky, but since Yoru has his Gatecrash, you don’t have to stay there, which is what lets him safely capitalize off of getting in with his ult and getting kills. Even though Yoru was intended to be able to get past enemy sightlines and flank, his current kit clearly shows that he is not supposed to be stealthy about it. In fact, his buffed flashes allow him to make some loud plays and get impact kills. Maybe he isn’t the silent lurker everyone wanted him to be, but he is definitely a duelist, especially with the buffs that enhance his positioning and dueling potential.

Yoru is probably still the worst duelist in the game with what all of the other duelists can offer to a team and the fact that his footsteps are basically half of an ability, but he can still offer something incredibly unique and still useful. He’s my favorite agent to play in the game (sorry Cypher) and I really enjoy his inclusion. These are all just my opinions and thoughts on Yoru right now, so I could just be completely wrong about everything, but I'd like to think I have an idea of what I'm talking about. I want to shout out Red (the Yoru god on YouTube); he definitely opened my eyes to Yoru’s potential when I too thought he was barely a duelist. Go check out his YT (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFJ1pr8iwWPeQjmeHnPhqvA) and his other socials.

Anyways, patiently waiting to have functional decoys :)