Hello all, this is my first guide here on Mobafire, and I hope you enjoy it and I hope you find it helpful. Now you may have taken one look at my masteries runes and item builds and thought 'lolwut is this guy doing?' Well I find building Yorick in a very tanky manner while getting a few hybrid damage and tank items can really cause some trouble for some enemies. If you feel that I've done something horridly stupid feel free to let me know.

Protential Pros
Makes a very strong tank
Can hit hard with his abilities
A W,Q combo can make chasing or escaping so easy
His Ulti can make a team-fight a 5v5 to a 6v5
Nice pushing power with ghouls
Super tanky passive
Pentakill Skin

Worrisome Cons
Can get manastarved rather quickly if you aren't careful.
His Slow Ghoul scales with AP
Your allies may not know what a Yorick Ulti does and run around after they are rezzed
Really slow at game start.
Your Q isn't worth much until later game where you can actually hit people with it nearly all of the time.

Greater Mark of Attack Damage Because all of Yorick's abilities (save for Pestilence) scale off of damage. The flats give you that nice hard smack to start off early game with.

Greater Seal of Armor Flat armor is good so any pesky AD champions wont be able to nuke you down so quickly. greater seal of vitality Seals would also be a very viable option on Yorick as well.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist I chose to grab Magic Resist Per Level on Yorick because as I build him a tank the trade off from Flat MR to MR per level is about the time when you really start needing that extra Magic Resist. For newer players that don't know how to manage Yorick's mana pool well greater glyph of knowledge would be a viable choice.

Greater Quintessence of Scaling Attack Damage I choose to get Damage per Level Quints as they are a little more cost effective and they are providing a a little more power to your swing every time you go and level up. greater quintessence of vitality Greater Quintessence of Armor Health per Level or Armor Quints would also be a viable choice for Yorick. If you find yourself to slow for your liking (even though late game with one Q you have over 420 movement speed) movement speed Quints are a viable choice as well.

This is my personal build and I find masteries help everyone differently. I get 0/21/9 because it offers a nice tanky cushion as well as the 9 points in utility to help with the mana starvation problem. Also that last point in the longer duration of monster buffs because if you can ask your jungler for a blue buff your laning phase is much much easier. Yorick would also do good with 9/21/0 but it all simply boils down to personal preference.

Early Game
For me, I enjoy starting with a Doran's Shield because it gives you a little more survivability in the lane. I choose mercury treads on the guide because of constant metagame promotes AP nukers so much that I find that its hard to live without them. However if the enemy is lacking in CC and AP Champions go ahead and grab Ninja Tabi for that armor. After my boots I go ahead and start working on my Warmog's Armor. An early Warmog's is a great asset and the sooner you get that minion farm going to unlock its true potential the harder it is to take you down. As soon after you get Warmog's go for a Manamune, Yorick is easily mana starved early game so that extra mana is well worth it and it has a passive like Warmog's so the earlier you get it in the laning phase the sooner you get a bonus to your mana pool.

Mid-Game
You'll now want to go snag yourself a Phage Now you go get that Giant's Belt and buy yourself a Frozen Mallet, the extra health bonus can intimidate enemies and that extra damage and passive slow will be havoc on your enemies.

Late Game
Now the final stages of the map, getting at Atma's Impaler to make an Atmog's. This will boost your Damage to lofty heights while still giving you some armor and some worthless (mostly) Crit Chance. But hey its worth it. Finally you'll round off your build with a Force of Nature, the extra magic resist is well worth it, and that big boost to your health regen is great considering how big your Health Bar is. You may want to trade this off with a Banshee's Veil for that spell shield but this is my personal preference.

Other Possible Choices
I've seen a lot of guides saying to buy a Trinity Force, I have personally not tried one as I find my own set up to be good enough as is, but if you have played Yorick with a Trinity Force go right on ahead. I have tried Hextech Gunblade before, it is a nice item, giving you both AP and AD some very nice life steal and spell vamp as well. It's great for some sustain as well as making your Omen of Pestilence deal a bit more damage, but this build is a tanky Yorick, not a Damage Yorick. Also a few people like to start with a Boots/3 health pots combo and it all boils down to a personal choice of speed and health vs. armor and health.

I prefer to take Flash for the extra gap closer, a good escape tool and as most everyone else chooses it and who wants to be the odd man out? (JK)

I also choose Ignite because at low level fights the most annoying thing is when an enemy walks away with 20 health. With ignite the extra true damage can be such a powerful tool that I don't see why every champion takes it (Save for Smite if your a jungler or Clairvoyance if your planning on counter-jungling)

All in all it depends on you, I prefer ignite and find dealing true damage to an enemy carry, or getting in the final burst of damage before the enemy gets away to be a very valuable summoner spell. But if you think of a better summoner spell, like heal that better fits your play style then go ahead, don't defy your way of play over some random derp whose making a Yorick Guide.

What not to take
Smite Your not jungling
Clairvoyance This is mostly for a support champion, which you are not
Promote I simply do not find this ability useful in any way shape or form
Surge It provides AP and attack speed, while you could argue that these might be good exhaust, heal, ghost, flash or ignite are far better options.
Revive I've read before on someone else's guide and I quote 'If you are frequently using this spell enough to make it useful your playing the game wrong.'
Garrison I'm fairly sure that using this guide on dominion would be very stupid considering that Dominion has a lot more items then a normal 5v5 or 3v3 and the play style is different
Clarity We have a manamune for this
Cleanse Merc Treads are a good solution and if you must go get a Quicksilver Sash

I tend to grab my Omen of Pestilence first as any little early game scrimmages can be easily resolved with a nice AoE Slow to the face, as well as if you want to pop it to blast some minions and have a ghoul go run off to the nearest champion or simply attack the minions if none are nearby. I proceed to quickly max my Omen of Famine as the bonus Life steal is invaluable to lane sustain. I grab my Omen of War at level 3 and keep it idle for now, because not to many smart opponents are going to let a Yorick get withing swinging distance of your Q unless they are baiting you, in which case you don't want to be there. I continue to max my E and proceed to simultaneously up my W and Q as both become really valuable by the time Early Game is done. You could choose one over the other to level but I find them equally powerful after my E is maxed out.

All in all if that didn't make much sense simply R>E>W>Q

Many people including you may not understand your Ultimate Omen of Death. Basically it summons a clone of either YOU or your ALLIES. It does not clone your enemies. If the person you cloned dies while the clone is still up the clone will die and the clone-ee will be resurrected for 10 seconds to fight on. Make sure that your allies know that if they magically come back to life to tower dive/overextend/nuke nuke nuke/etc. because they will only persist for 10 more seconds.

Use this either on yourself if your alone in the early game to turn a 1v1 to a 2v1, to get some extra damage on your tower, or to confuse your enemies by calling up a second shovel smacker. In Team fights use your ultimate on your AD Carry. This will make two AD carries applying massive auto-attack punishment as well as a free resurrection of that Carry if a smart enemy team targets them. It is more effective the longer the clone is active but it still gets to Resurrect said target.

Whenever your farming popping your pestilence ghoul is great because at level 1 its apply 60 damage to everything in it's radius, and it still summons a ghoul smack the minions. If you are low on health throwing your Famine Ghoul can start shooting up your health, because with every summon it has initial life steal as well as more life steal whenever it hits an enemy. In later game if a minion avalanche has started (AKA about 10 ranged minions have piled up somewhere on a lane) As you run in pop your Pestilence and Famine to start nuking the minions down and save your Q for the last minion to quickly kill him and scamper off to wherever your needed without being seen (mostly)

Whenever your Ganking or fighting you always want to run in and throw down a Pestilence Ghoul as close to the target as possible. The Slow will make escape hard unless they pop flash. As you proceed to close the gap throw a famine ghoul down for a quick nuke and a little bit of ghoul auto attack damage. Finally once your in range pop your War Ghoul and proceed to trollface/auto-attack your enemies while you have a massive movement speed buff. If the poor sod has stayed to duke it out with you simply pop your ultimate and pop your ghouls whenever they come off cooldown. Your ultimate is only wise if they stick around, if they don't you look stupid with a clone of yourself running after the enemy who is trying for dear life to get away. Only pop your flash if your sure that the kill is yours, and don't tower-dive unless the same applies. Yorick is rather slow at the start when his War Ghoul has died and so escaping that hard hitting tower might take longer than you accounted for and the enemy team got some tower revenge.

Like most champions your 1v1 and team fighting styles are going to be relatively similar. You are the tank so you have to be the sort of team captain. You make sure that everyone knows what they need to do, who they need to target and to follow you into a team fight. As the tank when your team is ready you will engage in a team fight, you will run in first and begin popping Omen of Pestilence followed by Omen of Famine on your poor enemy carry. As soon as you are in range you'll want to hit them with your Omen of War and simply chase them down with your abilities as often as you can.

In a perfect situation you have a royal rumble going on, but a perfect situation in LoL is only going to happen if the entire game is made up of your friends who are all either stupid or good LoL players. More then likely one side is fleeing while trying to attack at the same time and the other is chasing and killing. Hopefully your team has nuked down your first target and a few things will happen. A - They stayed and your team should target the next carry until they have none left B - They have kept fleeing and you are chasing them trying to snag a second kill C - The game is now 5 v 4 and the enemy team has retreated to play tower-hug D - Your team goes into a blood-thirsty rage and has now fallen into attempting to all focus down separate targets like trolls E - Your team has fed them early game and your time is in the process of dieing or F - You rushed in like a good tank unfortunately your team was asleep and you have died for roughly a whole minute.

In the events of A you'll want to pop Omen of Death on your carry with the most damage/attack speed because the revenant you summon will only auto attack.

Your Omen of War will reset your auto attack timer, so proper timing will enhance your damage ever so slightly.

Omen of Pestilence is a skill-shot which has an AoE slow, you can throw this to be a bullet monkey for an nasty skill shots

Your Omen of Famine is not a skill shot and like all of your ghouls it will run after enemy champions in range, so you can slap it on a minion of need be for a slight poke on enemy champions

I've seen this quite often, you'll throw a ghoul down on your enemy laner, they will proceed to freak out and run for three seconds and turn and attack the quickly dying ghoul you've unleashed upon them at the start of the game. If you notice this happening feel free to last hit some minions while your punk enemy slowly realizes your ghouls are rather weak until you start getting strong.

All in all this isn't going to be the best guide, it's my way of play and I'm not doing half bad for myself as Yorick. Feel free to give constructive criticism, an upvote, a downvote, or just troll me. I'd just like to hear your feedback and see if I've helped you Shovelsmack the Right Way. One last thing, I've said it a hundred times already but this is how I choose to play a tanky Yorick, if this isn't your play-style of Yorick then there are other guides out there that explain Yorick probably a lot better then I do.

Special props to a mobafire guy by the name of Onrion for pointing me in the right direction so I know about the BBC Coding. This makes my guide a little less of a cluster.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, goodbye! =D