I've revamped this guide to do much more damage. The last versions required too much tanking items when you weren't even a main tank, and you didn't do any damage. Now you do.

Edit: Damage can come faster and seems to work better. Put B.F. Sword in the middle of buying Warmog's Armor.


WHEN YOU TRY OUT THIS GUIDE, PLEASE RATE SO PEOPLE KNOW!!!





Over the past week when Yorick came out, people have been QQing all over the place. Yorick is a great champion and those people just need the right build.

Yorick has some problems. He has little health and dies easily. He has a terrible mana pool and uses it quickly. He is a melee dps and does not do enough melee damage to risk dying. He has slow movement speed and this makes everything bad about him even worse. So this makes Yorick a bad champion, right? Wrong. With correct itemization, he can actually be an off-tank with a satisfying amount of damage output.

Playing this champion over and over again, I have figured out what doesn't work, and what does work. This is what works.

Armor Pen. This is not a tank build, it is an off-tank build and you will need these AD runes.

Replenishment. Yorick has a mana problem, so let's fix it.

Warding. You can put whatever here. I like the huge help early game.

Swiftness. Yorick needs positioning, he dies fast early game, this makes positioning faster. It also makes it easier to harass. You can gank, chase, and even run away. Travel speed helps on xp and gold in the beginning. Get tanking or armor pen Quints if you want. I'm getting these.

This build gets its tanking from items. I am still considering not even going in the tanking tree and going for utility. At my level, I just got 21 in damage. So I don't know about the rest. Flame me for doing this for all I care.

There's not much to explain here then. Take off the first AP masteries if you go exhaust or something. I don't use exhaust, so I just put what I needed to continue in the AP.

I didn't get +3 damage because frankly it's +3 damage. The only time this MIGHT be useful in any way would be early game. Early game you aren't using your shovel so I'm not wasting three talent points in that ****.

You need to fix Yorick's mana problem asap. So you need to get something like Tear of the Goddess or Chalice of Harmony. I tried Tear of the Goddess first, played many games with it, and it works. But, recently I tried out Chalice of Harmony instead. You run out of mana sommetimes, but you get it right back. With the magic resist, it Chalice turns out to be the better choice. It is also 105 gold cheaper.

Every champion needs boots, and since you are going to rush Warmog's, get the level 1 boots now.

Yorick has a huge health problem. Warmog's Armor is the perfect solution, especially since this is an off-tank build. Buy a B.F. Sword before you buy Giant's Belt.

Finish off your boots with Mercury Treads. This ends your tanking items, and now you need the damage.

If you need more armor, grab the 700 gold Chain Vest before going for The Black Cleaver. Getting The Black Cleaver is a no-brainer choice.

Next get Atma's Impaler. This does +75 damage more or less, increasing with each kill because of Warmog's Armor, and has some armor itself.

Your sixth item slot should be taken up with what you need most. The Bloodthirster is the recommended choice. You already attack fairly fast and you do tons of damage. The lifesteal on it will make you off-tank even better. The damage output at endgame is amazing for being bulky. If not The Bloodthirster, you can get anything. I'd recommend Guardian Angel, Thornmail, or Force of Nature if you don't want the damage and lifesteal.

Q does the most damage, W is your slow and more damaging than your E, and your E is your heal.

I recommend getting W first. The slowing goes well with a teammate, it is ranged, and does more damage than your other ranged spell.

Get your E next. You are bound to take some damage, and along with the life back comes with damage output.

Get your Q last because it is the hardest to use without getting punished. But because it is your most damaging spell, you will want this to do lots of damage with your lane partner.

If you are soloing, skip Q entirely and alternate between your W and E until you finish your Warmog's Armor.

How to harass:
Slow with W, get them with E. Do this relentlessly. With your mana item, you won't have to go back to your base until you have plenty of gold. Yorick has the ability to harass the other team to the bone early game. Do it so it's impossible for them to get last hits. But don't miss out on your last hits either.

Flash is my favorite. Amazing positioning spell. Oh, the possibilities!

Teleport gives you map control. Save towers, save your teammates, and of course set up ganks.

You can pick whatever you like though. Exhaust and Ignite are other recommendations.

Always harass. Use E constantly on heroes, and use W if you can get close enough without getting supressed and killed. Before team fights, harass. Keep harassing. A team fight when you and your team is full health and they are not is better than an equal fight. Every bit helps. Harass harass harass.

Okay someone on Skype says "GO!" Here's what you do:

1) Press W to slow everyone if you can, or just the first focus target. Target is most important of course.

2) Run in.

3) Use your ult as your running to the target. Hopefully whoever you are using it on has full health or close to it. Else it won't be much help.
-Using it on the AD carry is the best choice usually.
-If no auto-attack intensive guy is available, use it on whoever is getting attacked first.
-If someone like Annie is about to get f*cked up, and has no chance of starting any type of nuke. Use it on her. She'll come back with lots of revenge.
-Use it on the tank. One hard to kill guy is hard enough, two is even harder.
-When in doubt, use it on yourself. Hell, you are an AD, and you are a tank. Why not?

4) Press E and click on your team's agreed upon target.

5) By now, you should be close to melee range. Here's where you use Q. How do you use your Q? Q instantly attacks, but it also resets your auto-attack delay. So if you are a World of Warcraft player, you know that if you want to max out your DPS, you need to time everything right including your melee attack spells. Q is not an auto-attack, but it resets your auto-attack. So as long as your target is not running away, auto attack first, then Q immediately after.

6) Spam everything you got, and pay attention on Skype.

Last hit by auto-attacking. If you can't afford running up to hit, then I guess you'll have to use your E. You still get to harass because it spawns a ghoul that goes for the heroes, but it's less harass.

After you finish Warmog's Armor and B.F. Sword, you'll find killing creeps in the jungle is easy and speedy. Do it while traveling.

COMING SOON: earliest you can tank dragon and earliest you can solo dragon

COMING SOON: earliest you can tank baron

Both Red and Blue buffs are useful for Yorick.

There you have it. A guide that works. Yorick is an annoying harasser throughout the whole game. With your damage and tanking items, you are a strong endgame champion who will definitely be a threat. Good luck and have fun.