Welcome to Fechinator's guide to being Yorick. Everytime I play Yorick I follow these guidelines and dominate.

Yorick is one of my personal favorite champions mainly because he plays differently with all his abilities being summons. The day Riot Games announced him I immediately wanted to play him. It's all a matter of laning partners, laning opponents, the such. Follow these guidelines and you will be ready for almost every situation. Except maybe being on purple side. Screw purple. My build takes you down the path of being a part tank/DPS character. Also, this is the first build I've done, so be gentle with the comments please.

I start with a Meki's Pendant and a health potions. Keep in mind that the health potion is only in case something goes wrong, normally I don't even use it since his E is a great sustain.

On your trip back, get the tear of the goddess. If you are absolutely dominating your lane, you will also probably be able to get boots of speed. If you're playing in a 3v3 and you can afford the Manamune, get that instead since there isn't as much ground to cover. Never substitute the boots for the longsword building the Manamune, however. It's not worth it.
The Manamune is a great item since it gives you extra mana every time you use an ability, which you will. Plus, 2% of your mana becomes extra attack.

Next I rush for the giant's belt (once you have the Manamune and boots, of course). After this I go for some upgraded boots to fit my needs. If some nuker with CC is ticking you off, go for the Mercury's Treads. If you're dominating you're dominating you're lane and not too worried about the other enemy champs, get the Ionian Boots of Lucidity. If you're in a 5v5, the Boots of Swiftness wouldn't be too bad of an idea either. It's all about what the situation calls for.

If by mid game, you're building you're Atma's Impaler, you are doing great. After the belt and boots, go for Atma's. This allows Yorick to be built tanky and still have a good amount of attack with 2% of your health being extra attack damage. It may not seem like much, but if you have 2000 health, you have 20 extra attack. Then you can keep stacking health and dominate.

After Atma's I use the Giant's Belt and build it into Warmog's Armor. This item is just a scary tank item, so having it is a must when partnered with Atma's.

After Warmog's, it all depends on your enemies. If there is some heavy AP jerk on the other team, get the Spirit Visage. Not only does this give you more health and magic resist, but it also gives you cool down to spam more. If you find yourself no being able to cast fast enough, this would also be a good idea.

Now, it's really up to you. I normally win by this point, but those games that really take forever....I'd recommend the Frozen Mallet. I'm not sure if the slow on it also contributes to the gouls, comment if you find out. Other items could be Randuin's Omen, Frozen Heart, Trinity Force, Banshee's Veil, Guardian Angel...use the last item slot to contest with whatever is killing you from the other team. Or you could just be a jerk and get an Infinity Edge. You know, whatever works.

The Passive
Yorick's passive, Unholy Covenant, is mostly not taken to too high of a regard. This is what makes Yorick so hard to kill, and is very important. For every ghoul active, Yorick takes 5% less damage from everything, even his ultimate. So you have the ability to take up to 20% less damage. This really comes in handy. Most of the time when you get attacked by someone they think they can kill you, and you get frightened and you run. If you're levels and item quality is about the same, you can probably win. I don't know how many times I turned around an beat the living s*** out of someone. Also, the ghouls have 35% of Yorick's attack and health, so getting good stacks of both is important if you want to use Yorick to his full potential.

The E Ability
Yorick's ghouls are color coded, so I will refer to them as such. The one I always get first is his E, red. The Omen of Famine. This one appears at an enemies location and deals damage. After this, he runs around attacking things. His special talent is a percentage of his attacks count as life steal for Yorick. I take this guy at level 1, except in certain conditions which I will explain later. I also upgrade him again at level 4, and whenever I can until he is maxed thereafter. This is Yorick's sustain and is crucial to laning.

The W Ability
Next, I get his W, green. The Omen of Pestilence. He can be summoned at any position, and erupts with an AOE. I use him for checking bushes. His special talent is when he attacks an enemy, they get slowed. This is great for ambushes. Even if they flash away, they will still be slowed, allowing you to catch up. However, this is the only ghoul Yorick has that has damage based on ability power. He is good early game, but with the build I use, he becomes less affective the later the game is. I take him at level 2 and max him last. Since he is not a major source of damage, you don't really need to waste your skill points on him.

The Q Ablility
The last ghoul is Q, blue. The Omen of War. This one is different from the other because you can't use him as a harass. Instead, you have to run up and smack people in the face with your trusty shovel. Doing this causes serious damage to the target, and is Yorick's strongest ability. His special talent is that, when he is active Yorick's movement speed is dramatically increased. This ghoul also moves faster than the others.One way I use it is if the enemy is trying to escape from their lane, I hit a minion to activate it and get that speed boost. Then I catch up, use green to slow him down,red for some extra damage, and hopefully that kills him, or he hasn't already reached his turret. In that case, continue the chase and kill that sucker. I take blue at level 3 since I don't expect I will find the opportunity to smack someone right in the beginning of the game,and upgrade him whenever I can't upgrade red. However, if you find yourself not using blue all that much, you may want to consider upgrading green.

And yes, I realize I didn't list them in the order of the keys. Just to recap, Q is blue, W is green, and E is red.

The special instance I don't take red first is when I don't take middle and my laning partner doesn't have a bush checking ability. At that time, I take green.

The Ultimate
Yorick's ultimate can either be used amazingly well, or completely wasted. This ability, The Omen of Death, summons a ghost version of an allied champion. The ghost has 35% of the target's health and damage, and can be used in several instances. The main instance I use it is when I get attacked, and the enemy shows no sign of retreat. At that time I use my ultimate on myself. Make sure, if you're going to use it, the enemy isn't getting away. Then you just wasted your ult. If you die and they get away, go back and farm as much as you can before it runs out. Another instance is in team fights. Normally, if someone on my team is really carrying, I make a ghost of them. 1. It will have that much more damage output, 2. If the other team targets him and he dies, he will come back for a short time. You can also use this to help take down a turret. Push the minions, use green next to the turret, ult on yourself, and use red and blue to help keep the other minions back. I generally don't do this unless my team got an ace, it's pretty risky. Yorick's ultimate is one that I really like. Normally I when the enemy "laners" swarm and kill my, instead of trying to run and dying, I fight and use the ult to pick up to kills before I run out. Worth it. Also, make sure you're allies know that if they come back when you use you're ult on them, they don't think they are still alive and run away, leaving you feeling half-stupid for trusting them. Like I've always told newcomers, learn the champs. It's half the battle.

Marks- Greater Marks of Strength. This ups early game harass and farm opportunities. (+0.95 attack damage)

Seals- Greater Seals of Resilience. This allows me to run in and harass without taking too much punishment. (+1.41 armor)

Glyphs- Greater Glyphs of Shielding. Same as the seals, but for the other half of attack. These are the "per level" ones since early game ability power generally isn't that strong. (+0.15 magic resist per level)

Quintessences- Greater Quintessence of Might. Same reason as the marks, but gives this "per level" boost instead. (+0.25 attack damage per level)

The choice of "per level" and flat runes on the marks and quints can be swapped if you so choose.

On the attack section, the attack damage helps with your farm and harass even further early game. The CD reduction is for that time when the sudden gank comes and you could've won if you could just spam more often. You have no idea how many times this has happened to me. The upgraded summoner spells mainly focuses on that slight boost you get with that 5 extra attack damage and ability power. A little more can go a long way.

The utility section has the most...stuff...mainly for the mana regen. If you get attacked in lane with no mana, your dead or your running. Of course, I take the summoner spell improvement for my flash. With Yorick, it is direly important to have either flash or ghost, since he has no escape. Otherwise your best bet is to use your W. I also take the increased gold intake because most of Yorick's items will be very expensive. There is also extraexperience gain so you can dominate even faster. Plus, extra cooldown reduction. More abilities spammed, the better.

You'll want ignite mainly for the extra damage and reduced healing. It just gives you that much more damage output. Plus, getting the upgraded ignite mastery, like I mintioned before, gets you that much more damage output.

Like I mentioned before, flash is what I generally use. It's a great summoner spell for all kinds of things, but since Yorick has no escape, deja vu.

Other possible Spells could be exhaust and ghost. If you feel that the green ghoul still isn't able to keep your enemies from running away, you may want to consider exhaust. Or, if you feel that ghost would just be better, hey, it's your choice to follow this thing or nor. I'm not saying it's a bad choice, but I just prefer flash any day.

Yorick is one of the slower champions, so if you are called to solo top, you may want to consider teleport, it can come in handy. If not to get back to the turret quickly, you can place a ward in a bush and teleport to it to get the jump on your enemy. They see you run away and think they're safe. Surprise. Bushes OP. Just a random thought I had, I've never tried it myself.

When you're laning as Yorick, remember these simple guidelines. Remember to poke. Weakening your enemies, or making them to afraid to leave their turret is always good. Make sure to watch out for early game ganks, as Yorick isn't too powerful then. When you poke at guys, and you're able to get fairly close, I always open the attack with green so they are immediately slowed, and also land red. Doing this repeatedly will eventually either make them return to their base or get killed. The ghouls are a great harass, and since you have both masteries and the Meki's Pendant, you don't have to worry too much about running out of mana. Also, spamming your distance ghouls (red and green) will most of the time cause the enemy champs to run back to their turret in fear, keeping them from getting any farm.

Many people don't mind too much attention to Yorick, but with the right strategy and the right items, he becomes a fearful sight. Normally when my team goes for Baron, I'm initiating. If there is anything that one of you readers didn't like, please bring it up in the comments so I can see if need to make some changes. This is my first guide and would love some feedback.