Yorick Build Guide by moderatepro

Introduction

Hello your good buddy Moderate here with a guide on my FAVORITE champ Yorick!! In this guide i will give you an in depth look into the dramatically underplayed and underestimated champion. Going over play style, builds, team role, and genral tips and tricks. He is a great tanky dps melee caster using minions to drag his targets into submission. I am not a high ranked player but i do see my self as a great Yorick player i found him at about level 10 and never stopped playing him from 30 and beyond, and i know him inside and out. With this guide i can guarantee you will not be disappointed.
So lets get down to work on Yorick, The Grave Digger.

Please Leave me any constructive comments as this is my first guide :D

Pros & Cons

As with all champs Yorick has his strengths and he weaknesses.

Pros

-Fantastic harassment
-Powerful sustain
-Great 1v1 duelist
-Easy farmer with ghouls
-Ult has many uses and can change team fights
-Passive really makes him beefy
-Ghouls block skill shots
-Bad *** weapon!!

Cons

-Very mana hungry
-No hard gap closer
-W scales off AP so becomes only useful as a slow late game
-Q(run speed) only applys after you hit someone
-No real escape tool (other than W slow)

Runes & why

Greater Mark of Attack Damage

I take these for two reasons, it makes last hitting a lot easier, and more importantly your ghouls scale off of AD. So these really help give him good harassment power.

Greater Seal of Armor

This allows you to really take some good early game punishment, letting you get in the enemy's face and walk out with not much return.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

AP always scales better in to late game, so i take MR/perlvl. Making you more tanky is always a good thing.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed

Now here is the most important set for me. Due to the fact Yorick has no real gap closer and you have to hit someone for you speed boost. I Find these to be a must so many times i have been able to get more and more damage off on a running champion that should be out running me. I love these!

Masteires & why

I have found the most success with 9/15/6, i focus mainly on shooting for CDR to fill in the gear gap. This set up also provides some good early game damage, resilience, and mana regeneration. Ill cover the main ghouls ...er ... i mean goals in each tree. All this yorick talk has me to excited!

Offensive Tree

Sorcery More ghouls = more victory this helps fill in the 10% gap from Frozen Heart and Spirit Visage
Arcane Knowledge Lets your W/E ghoul spam do more damage, and its only one point totally worth it.

Defensive Tree

Veteran's Scars The extra HP has saved me time and time again from close calls a great early game talent.
Enlightenment once again more CDR is always good and this tops of the gap from Frozen Heart and Spirit Visage give you the full 40% CDR.

Utility Tree

Meditation this is really helpful for your lane phase giving you a little extra mana regen for those ghouls!


You should always master your summoner spells! Just a little tip.

Summoner Spells

Flash

This is by far the most versatile spell in LOL it can be you used to close the gap, hop over walls, dodge spells, and any other time its useful to be over there instead over here ;D I take this spell because i find yorick to be a great duelist, i use to to most of the time dodge important spells (ie. Ahri's Charm./ Kennen's Thundering Shuriken )

Ignite

Early game i use this to finish my kills due to yorick's gap closing problems. Late game as you push on to carries that need killing this is really important to keep there life steal down and support heals from be effective.

Some other options

Teleport

I love this on yorick when soloing top. I love it because it lets me farm endlessly. I use it to help gank lanes or protect people from ganks, or the drop me in a team fight quickly. Its fantastic, its so hard to choose ignite over this D:

Ghost

This is not really that great with this build because you will be hitting the 500 movement speed soft cap with the build and your speed ghoul. But fast is always better.

Exhaust

This is not a bad choice helps you stick to a target and shut down those last game carries, it jut personal that i take ignite

Skills

Unholy Covenant

This passive is really very good, but tends to go unnoticed. Its key to his dueling & team fighting. with he is in the fray spamming his ghouls this really cuts down his damage taken and ups his damage output, up to 20% if using your ult Omen of Death.

Omen of War

This is a great skill if used properly but you have to know how to use it. First things first it is a on next hit effect spell meaning it does reset your attack timer so always make sure to get a melee swing off THEN cast the omen, it will provide a high amount of burst damage. It also grants a good movement speed increase allowing you to stick to a opponent.

Omen of Pestilence

Say hello to the RAGE FACE!!! of yoricks ghouls. It acts as a AOE slowing nuke, this is key to your damage not because of the damage its does alone but the slow allows you other ghouls to sit on their target doing close to max dps. This is also a great bush checking skill, just toss it over a wall and in some brush and good to go.

Omen of Famine

This is the key omen to yoricks laning and dueling, its a ranged nuke that heals yorick for a percent of the damage. It also summons a ghoul that heals yorick for the damage it does. This is all the life steal you will really ever need you can stay in lane days, using this to damage your enemy and heal you at the same time.

All of yoricks simple ghouls (not the ult) will target the enemy they are cast on, if the target dies they will attack the nearest enemy champion. Using ghouls to last hit creeps in this way will cause your ghouls to chase down the enemy after the creep dies to the cast. This creates a very powerful farm harass combo.

Ultimate

Yorick Ultimate is

Omen of Death

. This is one of those ultimates that is hard to use well, but game changing if used well. I will cover some of the most common uses for his ult in this section.

The first and probably most common use of yorick's ult is in a duel setting, casting it for extra damage and life insurance so to speak. If you die you get the chance to come back to finish the job.

Second is casting it on an ally for the same purpose, life insurance and extra damage. This ult scales with the targets AD so casting it on AP champ should only be for a life saving act. Cast it on a ranged AD carry turns team fights into 6v5!

Third For taking towers it is fantastic send the clone in using alt click to move it, and take the tower with the extra damage and meat shield at your command.

Fourth tanking dragon and baron, its basically the same idea with the tower send the clone in to be the best meat shield ever and do work.

Now There are some other less regular things you can do with this ult, using it to block other ult is extremely usefully and difficult. If Caitlyn ults a friendly champ and you cant get in range to block it ult them and move the copy in the way. Or if you see Skarner going in for the pull ult the most vulnerable target on your team has he goes in, time and time again i have had him pull copies and see 4 ults get used on it. You can also send it out from a champion thats in a bush the enemy thinks its the real one and waste plenty of CDs on a pointless copy.

Items

ALWAYSbase you build and build order off what you are fighting dealing with in a game. If DAT shaco is getting fed you might want to rush some early armor, just as a example.

Starting Items:
Meki Pendant+ Health Potion or Sight Ward
This is a must on yorick due to how mana hungry he is, its need to maintain your harass.

Next
Tear of the Goddess or Chalice of Harmony + Boots of Speed
Getting tear early will give you all the mana you will need and allow to get those stack rolling or MM. Chalice is great for if your going more tanky or dealing with a heavy AP lane both great items. boots always a good choice.

Next
Spirit Visage or Glacial Shroud
Build one of your CDR items next depending on what you are dealing with in the fight.

Next
Mercury's Treads
I think tenacity is a must on all melee fighters, plus the MR is great.

Next
Manamune
One of yorick's key items scales great in to all game, give him ad and MP5 all the way to the end. Works extremely well with Frozen Heart, Banshee's Veil, and Sheen.

THE BIG ONE
Trinity Force
after you have built your CDR Start moving into this item, you will notice how incredibly hard you start hitting, and the with the zeal and other movement buffs you will find yourself zipping across the map terrorizing the enemy.

THE BIG ONE
Warmog's Armor+ Atma's Impaleror Banshee's Veil
If you find yourself going full tank for your team the is the route i would take instead of T-Force.

Feeling unstoppable?
The Bloodthirster
Great item when you have the team in your back pack, tons of ad and the life steal always helps out.

Gameplay video

This is just a quick video to show you what yorick can do. This is also my first video so any constructive comments would be great

Wrapping up

I hope this has giving you a good look into this very powerful and fun champion, i appreciate anything that will help me improve this guide and my playing so let me know, and i hope to see more yoricks on the loading screens! I ask that you try my build and see how it work before you cut it down.