Hello. I'm Athanbeleaguer on EUW.

Since the start of the pre-season, Yorick has become one of my favourite toplaners (I used to play a lot before as well, just differently).
The addition of new items made Yorick extremely versatile and fun to play, as well retaining his position as a ******* pain in the *** on top.

Having read through the guides on the site, i felt that Mobafire needed a bit more... updated guide, as right now there's only like 2 S3-patch Guides, and both of those are very incomplete in my opinion.

Yorick is a high-sustain, high-poke toplane, and an excellent 1v1 champion (Perhaps one of the best in game, until lategame where champions like Jax or Irelia will probably be able to handle him if not underfed - He is outscaled lategame).
Yorick brings a lot of utility, namely a surprisingly persistent slow and one of the best ultimates in the game for teamfighting.

Read on as i will shed light over the grave secrets of the Undertaker of the League!



Yorick is WEAK at level one. I CANNOT stress this enough.
Due to Yorick's Passive Unholy Covenant, he reaches full power once he attain's all his spells at level 3 (Disregarding the Ultimate here on purpose).
Yorick's strength lies in his ability to constantly poke, make a small skirmish, then go back and heal FASTER than his opponent!
Yorick is one of the best traders in the game as well.
If you are allowed to hit all three ghouls (especially if you are allowed to hit W+E before they do anything) you are guaranteed to win ANY trade.

Oh, that reminds me: There WILL be hard language in the guide. Yes i swear a lot but come on, i learned english from Englishmen :D!
Don't bother commenting on it, because i don't intend to change it.
Also; I don't claim to be the best Yorick, absolutely not, but i definitely know what i am doing.
This is NOT a bible or a "this is the only way to do it", it's my way of doing it. Even if the text in the guide may suggest otherwise - remember this.

I'm not terribly graphic: I believe in conveying information as simple as possible, without too much to distract your eyes and your brain. This is personal preferences. Anyone who feels like commenting should note this; It's NOT something intend to change. Ever.

Important: Read please - Legend list.

Common expression and abbreviations i use.

• UnBlock - Unyielding and Block
• ADC - Attack Damage Carry
• APC - Ability Power Carry
• CS - Creep score
• WIP - Work in progress
• GhoulBlock - Using Yorick's spells to block skillshots

This concludes the introduction! Read on, Summoners!

PS: When you play Yorick put This on!

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 3: Pros and cons
• Chapter 4: Runes
• Chapter 5: Masteries
• Chapter 6: Spells
• Chapter 7: Skill sequence
• Chapter 8: Summoner Spells
• Chapter 9: Items
• Chapter 10: Matchups
• Chapter 11: Wards!
• Chapter 12: Teamfights
• Chapter 13: When to pick Yorick/How does he fit?
• Chapter 14: Synergies
• Chapter 15: Early/Midgame
• Chapter 16: FAQ
• Chapter 17: Changelog

Note - My own little table of contents, because... Well, honestly, i hadn't seen that MOBAfire made one for you, and i'm so proud of it that i don't want to remove it :D!

This guide is LONG as you can see.
I have compiled as much info from my guide as possible, in to a 20-min video on Youtube.
I REALLY tried to keep it short, but there's SO much i want to say :D!

Play Video

Pros + One of the strongest laners + Easy to play + Flexible in builds + Great teamfighter + Can block skillshots + Safe 1st pick + Good scaling into midgame + Great at 1v1

SPACE

SPACE

Cons - Has no initiation tools! - CANNOT initiate - Even if he wanted to. Because... - He can be forced to ult himself if focused. - Easily ganked - Lack of escape tools - A bad ult can make you useless

(Layout shamelessly stolen from JhoiJhoi. All credits to her.)

I suppose i'll just use the suggested layout...

Ah, right, Runes.

Let's talk a bit about what the purpose of runes are...
Runes are supposed to:

• Help out earlygame
• Compensate for weaknesses of your champion
• Be geared towards your LANE! Don't say "I go with full armor runepage because their team is primarily AD" - If your own lane is AP. Runes provide small stat boosts that are useful earlygame.
• Be tailored towards your playstyle. If you like to spam a lot, don't blindly follow my own runepages and don't grab MP5 - Get what you feel you NEED! (You don't need AP, though.)

Note: Long and detailed section. You might find it "too much". In case you want a general reference, follow the cheat-sheet! I have in-depth advice on runes and choice in this section, but they are only for the more "dedicated" players.

In my opinion, there are few viable runes on Yorick. As Yorick relies mainly on poke, there are few legit choices. Yorick has a ****ton of different rune. Damn that quickly become a lot as i started listing it.

• Page One - Vs AD
• Page Two - Vs AP
• Page Three - Experimental Hybrid Penetration
• Page Four - AP Heavy Enemy TEAM
• Page Five - AD Heavy Enemy TEAM
• Page Six - Farmville in LoL
• Page Seven - 2v1 with Style

Oh. Masteries.

Note: As above - This section is not a mandatory read. If you want general guidelines, read the cheat-sheet.
I don't feel any specific reason to write small comments on each mastery i pick... I'm sure we can all make the equation.
Since Yorick isn't such a "special" champion, most runesetups are "usual" for whatever role they serve.


Most of my masteries synergizes with the RUNES i've chosen.

As most of my runes are chosen based on the matchup, so are my masteries.

A ton of masteries

















A little extra: So, one of the most discussed masteries recently have been Block and Unyielding . Well, i used to use Preseverance (No, not Garen's passive!).
I don't anymore. Why?
Basically, it's useless in comparison to Block + Unyielding .

Here's a small protip: Masteries and runes are made for EARLYGAME BOOST. This means you 9.9/10 times want to MAXIMIZE earlygame advantage from runes and masteries.

So, Block + Unyielding (Let's call it UnBlock for simplity's sake) blocks 5 damage.
Now put a Doran's Shield in to the equation.
ELEVEN damage blocked! HOLY ****! I know this doesn't sound as much, but guess what: IT IS!
Let me put it in to context for you.

Lee Sin. Level 6. About 70 AD, maybe 80. He is attack speed based (early game).
EVERY hit you, you block 11 damage. So if he does 75 damage - he now does 64. Have fun, you reduced his damage output from Auto attacks by 15,77% ^^ (And that's BEFORE armor!).
If you got, let's say, 60 armor, he'll do about 55 damage, and you reduce his damage from auto attacks by 20% XD

FOR A MASTERY + 475 GOLD, THAT IS AMAZING! Sry for caps, but damn gurl, that's sick.

Now compare that to regaining, what, 2-3 health every 5 seconds? :D

This section is a little boring, and i'll try to cover it quickly. There really aren't many "tips'n'tricks" to be had with Yorick's kit, but i'll do my best.


Pretty simple ability.
It's your only "escape" ability, but it falls short in that department simply because it doesn't speed you up until you hit something.
NOTE: This spell resets your swing timer!
Use this for epic last hitting or doing more AA harass than your enemy.




Straightforward target slow. The only ghoul that doesn't scale with AD.
I'm an idiot. Omen of Pestilence scales with AP, BUT the GHOUL that it spawns scales with AD just like any other ghoul. I had made a poor choice of words there.

It's your brush-checker, and it's pretty awesome at that :)
If they ARE in there, it also slows them, which makes it one of the best brush-checkers in the game for a melee char.
Omen of Pestilence is the "worst" skill you can harass with because it auto-pushes, but it's only "worst" because Your E is so much better. W is still amazing at what it does.
Maxing it last can be effective if you don't want to push too much.

NOTE: Omen of Pestilence has a small 0.102 hidden cast time. Remember to place it slightly in front of your opponent.
Additionally, if fleeing, use the Ghoul where you know your enemy will be coming. They will either have to spend time killing it, or be slowed. It will automatically seek them out once they come within range.





Bread and butter. As some other guide someone wrote said: This is the skill that will be making your enemy /headdesk during laning.
The amount of lifesteal and damage it provided... <3
Again, there are no real "tips", since the skill... you know... isn't hard to use.
Pair it up with Omen of Pestilence for more Auto-attacks = more sustain.
The amount of health stolen scales with how much damage you do, which means the more damage you attain (AD/ArP) = More lifesteal on Omen of Famine.

NOTE: Omen of Famine only heals half on minions, making it a little redundant to try and use it for sustain on minions if the enemy is within range.
It CAN be used for sustain if you must, but you should try to avoid it.
PS: Small hidden cast time as well (0,25 second). It can really **** up if the enemy has like 10 more MS than you.




Now THIS is a skill i'm going to write a bit more interesting section about.
Normally you'd not want to spamm too much, because you want to spread out your spells for Trinity/Iceborn/Lichbane (Lichbane on Yorick? LEGIT!), but in Yorick's case, spamm away.

THIS is why CDR is GOLDEN on Yorick. THIS is why you can build SO much damage on Yorick while still being SO tanky. THIS is why Yorick is AMAZING 1v1.

When you fight with someone, open up with Omen of Famine(It has the shortest cooldown), then Omen of Pestilence (since it's also ranged), then Omen of War.
15% more damage and 15% less damage taken.
Most enemies will NOT realize this! That's why you can take most people by surprise, and you can 1v1 anyone earlygame. Midgame someone like Olaf becomes a problem, though he is one of the few. Yorick can even take Jax on midgame.
Lategame Yorick is often outscaled, and thus cannot 1v1 most of the strong lategamers, and i wouldn't recommend trying to 1v1 anything but squishies, or people you are CONFIDENT you can beat.

If everyone had full builds, Yorick would be around the top of the MIDDLE of the pack. Several chars are better than Yorick when everyone has full build.

Did i tell you? Yorick's Ult is also a ghoul!
This means 20% damage done with auto-attacks/20% less damage taken from all sources ^^
Yorick's ult also does a lot of damage with simple auto-attacks.

With a lot of CDR, you will constantly have 2-3 ghouls up during midgame, and it will reduce the CD on your ult so your team can teamfight more often.




This is what makes Yorick a beast in teamfights. This can allow your ADC to be REALLY ballsy, or you can make yourself a martyr. It's COMPLETELY instant. No hidden cast time or anything. Click it and it works.
Remember; Someone who has been ressurected by the enemy is ALWAYS a pain in the *** for them!
They will be faced with the decision to either:

• Take poundings from your ADC/APC even after their deaths
• OR Kill the ghost, spending time killing someone... again. While they focus the ghost, your other carry will be putting a metric ****tons of damage on them.

That's why Yorick is a crazy teamfighter.

When to ult?: Just ultimate whomever is carrying. Basically, if ANYONE (Who is not a tank or a support) is about to die, just ultimate them. Well, in general. If they are like underfed and doesn't matter, don't bother with it.

Also remember that Yorick's ult counts as a Ghoul EVEN when it has ressurected someone. Win win.
This means it will provide 5% dmg taken/done as long as the Ghouled person is still on the battlefield.
That's why i recommend using it early... albeit, it can be dangerous as the person might not die... Funny how a person avoiding death can be a bad thing, haha.
A good Yorick is ALL about his ults. Yorick's Ult is what makes or breaks a Yorick.
NEVER ultimate your SUPPORT or your TANK.
IF the enemy are actually focusing those guys, just ultimate your ADC even if they won't die.
The ghoul will still do tons of damage while the (idiots) enemies are pounding on your Rammus.

(PS: You can't use summoners during Yorick ult. So if you plan to use Ignite or Flash, do it before you die... :))
You CAN use items.



Conclusion/TL;DR: Spam your skills. Your ultimate is also a ghoul and counts towards your passive. Don't ult the tank or the support.

• Ghouls movementspeed scales with yours. Therefore an early boot upgrade is necessary.
• Ghouls auto-attacks HURTS and scales with your AD! Keep this is mind when fighting!
  If you spawn all 3 normal ghouls, one auto-attack from each = 1.15xThe Damage of your auto-attack.
• Ghouls can block skillshots! (U mad Blitz***? Amumu***?)
• Ghouls can block champions... Mostly useful for stopping a powerballed Rammus.
• Ghouls are SLOW at begining; If your opponent started boots, don't expect your ghouls to be able to keep up. Even if you started boots.
• Ghouls can tank jungle minions! This is REALLY useful for Big buffs, drake and baron. I'll talk more about this later.
• The ghouls' health is reduced by 20% of their max health every second. This limits their max duration at 5 seconds.
• The ghouls take 50% reduced damage from AoE and are immune to slows.
• They have a base 10 armor and magic resistance plus 2 per level of Yorick.
• Their base attack speed is 0.670 and doesn't increase by level.
• Their movement speed is 350 / 380 / 410 / 433 depending on Yorick's level.
• The Ghouls are classified as allied minions for all intents and purposes. Which means stuff like Banner of Command works on them.
  
  (Some of the list is taken from This "How to counter Yorick" guide by Remox - Albeit no all of it.)
  
  
  
  Ghoul Math - LONG! But if you want to argue with me on items, you have to read this

  
  
  A bit of math on Ghouls and their relevance towards winning 1v1, and the relevance of CDR + skillorder.
  
  All math is based on:

  • Flat AD Quints+Marks - Level 12 - Manamune only AD item so far. ( Manamune is on 500 mana which means your mana pool is 1405. That gives 38 bonus AD from Manamune)
    
  • An enemy with 0 armor or magic resistance - You do true damage, to make calculation easier.
    
  • Rank 1 in Omen of War

  
  You current AD is ~147 (146,5 rounded up).
  
  Your ghouls do 35% of your Attack damage. That means EVERY ghoul auto-attack is ~51 damage (down from 51,45).
  ALL ghouls - including Omen of Death (While in "ghoul" form) - has an attack speed of 0,67.
  This means they do 3 auto-attacks maximum during their active time.

  
  This means that, if your enemy fight you 1v1 and all your basic ghouls are allowed to hit all their 3 auto attacks, you essentially get 3,45 free auto attacks off, or ~507 free damage.
  That's the damage of a rank 2 Dragon's Rage give and take a bit of AD.
  
  (IF you had your ult up for 10 seconds, it will do 6 auto-attacks, which is another 306 damage)
  
  So at level 12, you will have 5 points in Omen of Famine, 3 in Omen of Pestilence, 2 in Omen of Death, and 1 in Omen of War.
  Let's assume your ult is on CD, and so is your opponent's.
  
  Assuming no CDR, your skills have the following cooldown:

  • Omen of Famine: 6 seconds.
  • Omen of Pestilence: 14 seconds.
  • Omen of War: 9 seconds.

  
  That means that the uptime of the respective ghoul is - assuming your ghouls don't get killed, they only expire:

  • Omen of Famine: 80% uptime.
  • Omen of Pestilence: 35% uptime.
  • Omen of War: 55% uptime.

  That means that if a fight lasted 100 seconds (Not unlikely... :D!), the uptime of you ghouls are:

  • Omen of Famine: 80 seconds.
  • Omen of Pestilence: 35 seconds.
  • Omen of War: 55 seconds.

  This is if you use your spells RIGHT as they come off CD.
  
  This works, in theory, like this:
  Omen of Famine has a 5 second uptime per use. The cooldown is 6 seconds.
  That means there is a one-second downtime.
  If the fight lasts 100 seconds, you will be able to use it (100/16 = 16,66~) 16 times.
  Theory says 16,66~times, but since you can't cast .66 Omen of Famine it is rounded down to 16.
  That means that the uptime is equal to (Amount Of Times Cast*Uptime per cast) which is
  (16*5) = 80.
  So the spell has 20 seconds, during 100 seconds, where it is inactive and 80 seconds where it is inactive.
  Omen of Famine has 4 "void" seconds, due to the difference in THEORY and PRACTICE. The 0,66 seconds throws math a bit off, but since the spell has a small cast time (0,25).
  That cast time is NOT stated, but it's THERE!
  (0,25*16 = 4) There are the lost seconds :)
  
  Same math works for the other spells:

  • Omen of Pestilence can be cast 7 times in 100 seconds. Uptime per cast is 5 seconds.
    So it's (7*5) = 35% uptime.
    In theory, it has a 35,714% uptime, and while i don't have any evidence, the only place i see the lost seconds is a potential 0,102 second cast time.
    
  • Omen of War can be cast 11 times. Uptime per cast is 5 seconds.
    So it's (11*5) = 55% uptime.
    Omen of War's math is flawless, since it has no casttime and is 100% instant from when it goes off cooldown.

  Onwards!
  
  Now, with the above uptimes, the ghouls will have done the following damage:

  • Omen of Famine: 53 auto attacks. That's equal to 20 of your own autoattacks (2940 damage).
    
  • Omen of Pestilence: 23 auto attacks. Equal to 8 of your own (1296 damage).
    
  • Omen of War: 36 auto attacks. Equal to 14 of your own (2058) damage).
    
    In total, over 100 seconds you will do 28243 damage.
    
    (This is without the extra AA from Q - It's hard to work with since in theory since it resets your swing time - the difference is nothing but +/- 500-700 damage, and i'm going to need to do ingame tests to find out just HOW much the attack reset actually gives/takes. - Heck, i'm not even sure if it's a DPS increase or decrease)
    
    So right now, you got:
    Manamune, Boots and NOTHING else.
    Let's say you buy a... hmm... Frozen Heart.
    20% CDR - 400 mana (8 AD) - 90 armor - Aura.
    
    Now, the 8 AD is neglible, but the 20% CDR... let me show you some magic.
    The incoming math disregards the 8 AD from the Manamune passive.
    
    These were you ghoul's cooldowns before.
    Now they're:
    • Omen of Famine: 4,8 seconds.
    • Omen of Pestilence: 11,2 seconds.
    • Omen of War: 7,2 seconds.
    
    The new uptimes are:
    • Omen of Famine: 99% uptime.
    • Omen of Pestilence: 44,64& uptime.
    • Omen of War: 69,44% uptime.
    
    Yes. Omen of Famine now has a nearly 100% uptime. Aka sometimes you can have 2 small red ghouls up at once :3 - Albeit only briefly! (Because it's actually 104% uptime - minus cast time, which is a total of 5 seconds over 20 casts)
    
    That means that, theoretically
    • Omen of Famine went from doing 2940 over 100 seconds, to 3417 damage.
      And that's just auto attacks.
      If you factor in the damage of the spell - 322 - The ability to use it 20 times, instead of 16 times, is another 1288 damage.
      So originally, this spell+ghoul would've done 8092 damage over 100 seconds.
      It now does 9857 damage. That's a 21,89% damage increase! Just for 20% cooldown reduction!
      
    • Omen of Pestilence now does 2769, which is the smallest increase.
      It did 2451 beforehand. It's a 12,9% damage increase.
      That's because we are SO near to the breakpoint where we get ANOTHER Omen of Pestilence in within the 100 seconds. IF we had another 1% Cooldown Reduction, we'd be able to throw another
      Omen of Pestilence up during the 100 second window.
      Sorcery would normally provide us with this.
      If we have 1% CDR from Sorcery, the damage would be 3087 - a 25,9% damage increase!
      
    • Omen of War now does 5050 damage in 100 seconds.
      Did 4118 damage. Theoretical 22,63% damage increase.
      
    • Over the 100 seconds you now do 31258. You used to do 28243.
      Congratulations! You have increased your damage output by 10,6% percent, while making yourself tankier, able to fight for longer without running oom, and gimping the enemy ADC attack speed!
      All in one item.
    
    Note: If i had added the 8 AD from the Mana (Which i choose not to for simplicity's sake) the new-found damage would been around 32500 or so, about a 15 damage increase.
    
    Would a Bloodthirster do more damage? Definitely. Much more? Sort of, it would increase your damage output by about 25-30%.
    Would i make you tankier? No. Would it reduce your CDs thus increasing your utility? No.
    Would it help you easy the load of the enemy ADC on your team? Nope.
  
  
  TL;DR: 21% CDR is an important breakpoint for Yorick. CDR is very valuable in general.
  Anything with CDR is a great second item. If you can get mana + CDR you're even better off.
  
  Back to the Table of Content!

Skill Sequence? Nananannanana, Batman!
... uh... Nevermind.

NORMALLY the Skill sequence is pretty straightforward.

What you do is: > > > .
However, you skill like this at first: because of Unholy Covenant
After that you just follow the priorisation above.

There are some matchups where you want to do it differently, but i will get back to that in theMatchups Section.

Summoner spells can actually vary quite a bit on Yorick, ESPECIALLY since the patch.

is now much more viable. This makes Yorick more or less unescapable, however, it can be difficult to get used to not having Flash when you get ganked, although Ghost + Omen of War makes you crazy fast (Especially with Enchantment: Furor).

Good summoner spell on basically everyone, and Yorick is no different.
Sometimes you HAVE to take flash versus certain JUNGLE MATCHUPS. ( Maokai or Lee Sin are good examples)

It's good to have on Yorick (or any other champion), and you need teleport when you're doing 2v1 bottom lane. It's not that reccommenable if you're Top, although it can give you a lot of dragon control, but it can also lose your tower easily.

Never bad for top. I often go for Ignite when i just want to dominate my opponent. Also good for picking up those First-bloods when you get an early-gank from your jungler.


Situationable at best. Exhaust is great on Yorick!
Played a good 15 games with exhaust, and i came to the conclusion that Exhaust is awesome, because it's so GOOD at preventing tower dives!
A lot of people love to towerdive Yorick since he is an easy target... No more!



Everything else is a no-go.
None of it is of any use to you.

ENCHANTMENT! I mean, Items! Enchantment on items!

No wait, i'm getting derailed...

Yorick is extremely flexible, and relies only upon one core item to be effective with ANY item build. Any.

Ladies and Gentlemen, gasp in astonishment as you can embrace the view of:

PRAISE JEEBUS! GOD HAS RETURNED HIS HARBINGER TO EARTH!

Manamune used to be used by bad Yorick's in S2, due to the fact it just sat there and did nothing lategame, being pretty much useless outside of laning phase... well guess what...
Muramana, the god of all that's cute and fluffy. No really.

Muramana makes the hybrid marks on Yorick that much more viable, and makes you extremely hard to defend against.
Since you won't ever see a Yorick going for penetration items like LW or BC, mainly cause there's no room, so the facts that Muramana deals magical damage and not physical damage makes no difference.

Quite frankly Manamune should be in every Yorick build. Without exception.
It gives the necessary regen + mana pool needed to teamfight/harass, and it gives you that extra damage push. And Muramana is so godly you can't even imagine...

Wanna know why...? I bet you do!
Iceborn Gauntlet!
The synergy between Muramana and Gauntlet is... pure sex.
These 2 items + Banshee's Veil makes you both tanky and a threat on the battlefield.

Oh wow, talking about Items is boring as **** :/



Oooookaaaaaayyyyy.... So, as described in the Quickguide/Cheatsheet, there are three ways i start Yorick.








Before we start: Let me introduce you to your new best friends.


I mean, honestly, that passive is kinda "OP". Play it against, well... any champion top, and you'll see the effects, Even versus ap.
I buy one of these EVERY game. Literally.
It's a great item for early tankiness, and honestly, underrated as hell.

6 damage is easily 10% of the amount of damage a, let's say a Lee Sin, does to you with an auto attack. Buy it if you're feeling a tad squishy.
I get it nearly every game though.







There's really only two boots to consider...

Mercury's Treads and Ninja Tabi.
The choice should be rather obvious every match.

What's a little more interesting is the enchantment upgrade...

• Enchantment: Alacrity is never bad, useful... anywhere.
• Enchantment: Furor Good everywhere, and probably better than Alacrity in most cases.
  I'd only suggest Alacrity over Furor if you're getting kited a lot.
• Enchantment: Distortion Useful if you are running Ghost/Flash or Flash/Teleport or Ghost/Teleport.
• Enchantment: Homeguard If you got teleport, then you can: Recall -> Get the homeguard buff
  -> Stay in fountain -> Teleport to bottom lane for SURPRISE GANK WITH TONS OF MOVEMENT SPEED!
  It can abused quite heavily vs enemies that are unprepared for it.
• Enchantment: Captain "Nearby minions gain 20% movementspeed"... That applies to your ghouls too :D! (Not ressurected allies). If your ghouls are having trouble keeping up, here's the key. It's so ******* good. Best thing since sliced bread.

Conclusion: Get Furor/Captain 9 out of 10 times.
Also, i have no pre-made builds for you.
You might as well get used to changing your build every match. Every match calls for different items - ESPECIALLY for someone like Yorick.

I'm going to do this from the top, in alphabetic order.
I'm only taking into to consideration the champions that i see CONSISTENTLY IN TOP IN RANKED!
No Alistar or Hecarim or any of that sort. I am a competitive player, i play for ranked, normals and how they end is of little concern to me.

My Matchups are colorcoded by the way:

• Blue - Easy matchup
• Green - Average matchup
• Orange - "Can be Difficult" matchup
• Red - "Hard/Has counter mechanics" matchups

NOTE: ALL MATCHUPS ASSUME EQUALLY SKILLED PLAYERS ON BOTH SIDES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.
Also: Yorick has no "counters" per se, but some champions can sustain through his harass and then return with a better lategame.
When a matchup has a "NOTE:", then that note is probably for the more advanced Yorick players, and it might be rather hard to understand if you just picked him up.






Akali Is a fairly easy matchup. 5/10, she will have to be exponentially better than you if you have to lose.
EDIT: I've seen in some places that people think Akali counters. I am currently investigating and trying things out. Update soon-ish.






Cho'Gath - 9/10.
This guy is a pain the butt... much like ourself. Yorick and Cho'Gath is a complete stalemate.

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Back to the Matchups Table of Content!

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Corki - 3/10.
Corki is a bro. His relatively short range and skillshot harass makes him really easy to deal with. Also he has no sustain.







NOTE: Darius Apprehend is currently bugged and has longer range than indicated! 7/10 for the time being.

Darius - 5/10.
Darius' hardest counter is easily Yorick. You NEVER need to get in range for Apprehend. Ever.





Elise...

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Back to the Matchups Table of Content!

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Gangplank - 6/10.






Garen - 7/10.

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Back to the Matchups Table of Content!

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Irelia - 6/10.






Jarvan IV - 4/10.

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Back to the Matchups Table of Content!

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Jax - 6/10.





Jayce - 8/10. Orange, but 8/10, because it has a lot to do with how many To The Skies! / Shock Blasts you can manage to dodge.






Kayle 7/10. Can be truly difficult if she gets an early kill.

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Back to the Matchups Table of Content!

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THE MATCHUPS SECTION IS WORK IN PROGRESS ATM, CHECK BACK IN SOME TIME FOR FURTHER UPDATES.
Right now i will update more matchups daily. I want to release the guide, and the only reason the matchups section is not finished yet is because (1) Im lazy and (2) I want more games in the new patch on some champions.

Buy 2 wards EVERY TIME YOU GO BACK!

Go wards when you push. Ward TriBrush and Baron Pit.
You can also ward the brush in your lane; the one closest to the enemy tower, if you are afraid of lane ganks.

Here's a small video of WHEN to go ward: (And lol at the missed CS, i was so focused on getting a good recording :D!) - I place the ward around 25 seconds, but watch the whole video.
Play Video

Teamfighting as Yorick is fairly simple.

As Yorick, you serve the role of defending your ADC - Most of the time!
You got a slow in your Omen of Pestilence, you can do decent damage to whatever bruiser is diving in on your carry, and your Omen of Death... goes without saying.

Using Flash in on the enemy ADC/APC is pretty much useless as Yorick unless it's obvious you'll kill the carry fast or your team is an iniaition team (like Malphite with Unstoppable Force or Amumu with Curse of the Sad Mummy.
Otherwise save your flash for later where you might need it, such as chasing or finishing the enemy ADC/APC off.
Additionally, since you should be building some Aura items, another good reason to stick your ADC/APC.

In case that you ARE the one who is fed and is dealing tons of damage, feel free to go in and end the life of their AD/AP carry. Our dear Gravedigger deals TONS of damage if fed during midgame, but as a general rule of thumb; Don't be the one to dive.
An experienced Yorick player has the needed judgement to know what to do, i cannot really explain it in detail as it is individual for every match.


ALL Yoricks are judged on HOW they use Omen of Death! It is the hardest thing about him; Don't use it too early, so it will wear off before the target dies (If they die, of course), and don't use it too late, so the teamfight will be over and you could've ulted much earlier to win fight.

Aha! Synergies!

So, we all know that Katarina has synergy with Amumu, and that Darius has synergy with Katarina. This kind of synergy, Yorick has very little of.

Let me be brutally honest; Yorick ONLY synergizes with ONE thing: Champions who can make up for his lack of lategame. It's that simple.
All bruisers without a gapcloser ( Dr. Mundo, Cho'Gath, Udyr) "falls off" lategame.
You want a team that can KILL THEIR TEAM, BEFORE THE ENEMY CAN KILL YOU!

Let me give you some of my most beloved mid laners and ADC. All of these are included, but the list is not limited to these. But you get the idea.

For Mid: Cassiopeia, Ryze, Katarina
Low CD - High Dps midlaners that can spam (Katarina because of her passive)

For ADC: Kog'Maw, Ashe, Vayne
High damage lategame carries. Or in Ashe's case, because of her amazing Frost Shot

Let's talk a bit about how to handle Yorick early on.

As i've mentioned before, Yorick draws attention to top.
This is what i call the Yorick-Effect.

So, where am i going with this? Well, the Yorick-Effect means that playing Yorick is NOT for those who are easily annoyed by campers and **** like that.
You WILL be ganked as Yorick. You might as well get used to it.


There is a small trick you can employ if you know you're going to get early ganked.
The first few waves are worth VERY little (Here's a table: Creep Score Table, Credit to Bluebaron201).
If you simply don't cs the first wave or two, your lane will automatically push towards you.

Then you FREEZE the lane. For those of you who do not know what i'm on to, here's a small video on what freezing is. It's a live commentary, so keep turn up your volume and turn down your music :)



Lane-freezing is EXTREMELY powerful on Yorick, as he is often the target of ganks, and there's basically no drawback, as a 200 gold loss is nearly nothing on Yorick.
Yorick has no recovering problems at all.

During the midgame, when the jungler focus is probably much less on top and more on the other lanes, try to roam a bit.
I know Yorick is not great at it, but he can countergank like a boss.
Omen of Death on whomever they are ganking and turn the tides to 1v2 to 3v2 (or 4!).

The trick to "roaming" on Yorick is to skill Omen of Pestilence after Omen of Famine and just push as hard as possible. Keep baron warded.

I'll try answer some random things i didn't initially cover...

Q:Why not Legendary Armor ?

A: It grants 5% armor/mr... off the BONUS armor/mr you got.
That means, if you got:

• - Frozen Heart
• - Randuin's Omen
• - Spirit Visage
• - Maw of Malmortius

Then you will get: 8 armor and 4.3 magic resistance... uh...
And that's only VERY late in the game! It's just not worth 3 points that could be put into something else.



Q: Bloodthirster - Why not?

A: Bloodthirster is a pure damage item, something i am not a fan of on Yorick at all.
Muramana at least gives up mana regen, flat mana and a good reason to build defensive items with mana.
Bloodthirster only gives sustain as long as you are actually hitting something; Since your job is to protect your ADC 9/10 times, there's no point in Bloodthirster as it adds no utility, and if you want to kill tanks Last Whisper does a better job.



Q: Black Cleaver is awesome on Yorick! Why not use it?

A: In my opinion it's too expensive for an item that only gives 250 health. Armor penetration is a little useless since Muramana does magic damage primarily, your ghouls do magic damage, and your CDR is maxed from other, necessary, sources.
If you want ArPen, get Last Whisper, as the only reason to get ArPen on Yorick is to take tanks down.

(European calendar marking: DD-MM-YYYY)
- Forgot GA it seems! Woopsie.
- Changed Cheat-sheet masteries: What i had put in was ******ed. Now optimized. Enjoy!
- Continuing matchups tommorov.

- Added 2 new sections.
- The world still hasn't been destroyed by solar flares. Would you look at that!

- Added a new starting path
- Shined up the "spells" section a little
- Changed my opinion on Exhaust
- Added the FAQ section!
Merry Christmas :)!

A new year approaches!
- Added a lot of "spoiler" tags.
- Math section under skills
- Elaboration on skills
- Changed the cheat-sheet a bit


- I ADDED A VIDEO ON FREEZING THE LANE
- Added more matchups
- Added more build paths in the cheat-sheet.
- Minor textical and grammatical errors.

- Graphical overhaul
- Moar matchups
- Working on videos
- Updated the items section
- Fixed the runes section
- Added a summerization video.