Yone, in the hands of a seasoned player, is quite frustrating to deal with. There are several champions that give even the best Yone players some headaches, though.
U.GG lists the following counters to Yone top in Emerald+ in patch 14.1 (look at the "Best lane counters" section):
- Irelia
- Renekton
- Akshan
- Warwick
- Gangplank
- Tryndamere
The rest of the list has a less than 300 average gold difference at 15 minutes, indicating they're a less significant counter.
There's a common theme here. Irelia, Renekton, and Warwick all have incredibly good early game trading patterns, the ability to easily get in and get out, and some sustain. They can also very easily build Plated Steelcaps, the boots item that allows the user to ignore 8% of an attack's damage. These boots hurt Yone much more than other attack-based champions because Yone's Q is affected by them, so anyone that can reliably build them has an easy way to drastically reduce Yone's damage. 8% may not sound like a lot, but ask any Yone or Yasuo main what item they hate laning against the most, and it'd be this item.
In order:
- Irelia: At level 3, can Q to a low-health minion, use E to stun, weave in autos and Q-refunds to trade, then Q to a minion to leave. Can also easily build Plated Steelcaps.
- Renekton: At level 3, can use E to dash in, use W to shatter Yone's W shield, use Q to sustain, and dash back out. While his ult is running Renekton can very easily statcheck Yone at almost all stages of the game. Can easily build Plated Steelcaps.
- Warwick: Has one of the strongest 1v1s at level 1 in the game. At level 3 has healing with Q, damage reduction and a fear on E, and sustain through his basic attacks. Easily able to build Plated Steelcaps.
The others require a bit more explanation:
- Akshan: Has extremely good early-game damage, and at range. Can use his E to avoid an aggressive Yone's attempt to even out trading patterns in lane. A good Akshan is a very scary Akshan. The downside to this is that if Akshan makes a mistake, the lane can easily be lost, and that applies to any Akshan game. Akshan needs to be ahead in gold to be effective.
- Gangplank: He pokes with Q and has sustain with W. Yone doesn't really have an answer to that. Not to mention his barrels which Yone needs to play well around. His global ult allows him to provide presence that Yone doesn't. Gangplank, in this matchup, does need to be piloted well, though, similar to Akshan.
- Tryndamere: Tryndamere loses early if the Yone player is extremely aggressive. If Tryndamere breaks even until both players are closer to level 6, Tryndamere can statcheck him similar to Renekton and just ignore Yone's attempts to fight back with his ultimate. His sustain with Q is quite potent. Can build Plated Steelcaps.
You mentioned Malphite, and that he's listed as a potential counter to Yone. I might agree that he's a "soft" counter. Malphite can just build armor with Plated Steelcaps and just ignore Yone's damage. Also, I'd disagree that Yone has 3 ways to dodge his ultimate. Yone's dashes via his 3rd Q and his E are pretty short, and his R has a windup time. If you're playing Malphite against Yone, try to use your ultimate in a difficult-to-predict time, and at closer range, so that Yone can't easily react to it. Be sneaky! Use it early if your jungler's coming to help you rather than later, in an effort to keep Yone in as disadvantageous of a position as possible for as long as possible.
You also mentioned Jax, which has a 55% winrate vs Yone in accordance with the link I posted above. His E just... Ruins Yone. So long as Jax doesn't overextend a trade that he can't win reliably, during which time a fully-lethal-tempo'd Yone can win, Jax just wins the lane without issue. Oh, and he can build Plated Steelcaps for insult to injury.
On the topic of Olaf, which looks like a rough matchup for Yone, Olaf v Yone can be a skill matchup, but in an all-out fight, Olaf can just statcheck Yone with his ult running, similar to Renekton. Bonus attack speed on Olaf's W, passive attack speed and lifesteel, CC-ignoring ult, plus some true damage on his E. Also, again, Plated Steelcaps can be built on him.
