Why pick Yorick:
Yorick is perhaps the most under-rated top lane pick in the game. In the rock-paper-scissors match up that is competitive top laning, Yorick is a direct counter pick to many powerful top laners suck as 
Kennen, 
Irelia, 
Vladimir, and also does well against any top laner without early sustain such as 
Wukong, 
Talon, and 
Renekton.
Yorick has the benefit of being both a fighter and a mage with half of his damage dealing capability being from long range nukes and half from his formidable melee damage dealing ability.
Yorick boasts the best self sustain of any champion in the early game. That, along with decent harass, a solid slow, a self speed boast, a great team fight utility ultimate, solid damage and inherent tankiness, makes him a top tier selection for the teams fighter.
Yorick is very difficult to stop from being effective with his long range and can apply soft CC to help his team catch their target while also dealing significant amounts of damage. Yorick also can scout bushes for his team with 
Omen of Pestilence allowing the team to navigate unwarded sections of jungle more safely.
Yoricks ultimate 
Omen of Death can change the outcome of a team fight. It can effectively counter a successful gank that otherwise would have won a team fight against you. It also effectively counters the popular burst/aoe ult comps that are often popular.
This build's highlights:
This build offers a powerful and aggressive top lane option for the early game that farms and harasses effectively while self sustaining along the way.
The build effectively and efficiently snowballs Yorick into a huge team fight threat that is difficult to counter and yet deals heavy damage to the desirable targets on the field while protecting your carries from being shut down.
The build primarily focuses on gaining AD, mana regen, and CDR. These three stats are the most effect offensive and defensive stats available to Yorick.
A 
Manamune early will give Yorick a near infinite supply of mana while also providing him with a substantial amount of attack damage that continues to provide more and more benefit through the build.
The completion of an early 
Trinity Force allows Yorick to truly become a force to be reckoned with. The item boosts Yorick's damage output considerably while also allowing him to catch and skirt enemies to be effective. Yorick's base damage is considerable making the procs powerful nukes, especially when used in combination to 
Omen of War.
After completing the trinity force, the guide shifts to becoming a tanky dps and gaining additional benefit out of the existing items in build.
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
Great range
Decent Damage
Decently tanky
Short cooldowns
Decend ratios on abilities
A team fight changing ultimate
Good mobility
Good slow
Blocks skill shots with ghouls
Stops Rammus 
Powerball / shuts him down hard!
Amazing sustain
Good harass
Can burst like a mage
Deals both magic and physical damage (hard to counterbuild)
Cons:
Can be burst down
Mana dependent
No inherent escapes
No hard cc
Ultimate can be lackluster in a duel
Masteries:
For Yorick, I choose 13/2/15
Yorick can play early on as a mage if you build into the offensive tree. Our main stats are AD, and CDR. Penetrations aren't as effective for Yorick as his damage is split between magic and physical, but getting AK for one point is worthwhile.
I grab 2 points of the best defense stat from the defense tree against the champion I'm up against (armor if blind).
I grab 15 points in utility to get mana, mana regen, spell vamp, and gold/5
Summoner Skills:
I've played around quite a bit with masteries on Yorick and have three favorites- 
Flash
Teleport and 
Ignite.
Flash is a good choice for Yorick. It gives you some anti-gank protection in the lane which is very helpful in the early game, especially against a top lane with an aggressive early game such as 
Pantheon or Renekton and a early ganker such 
Alistar or 
Dr. Mundo. The fact that it isn't usable in ghoul form when I'd like to use it most makes it less useful beyond lane phase, however often a flash in to Omen of War will seal a kill.
I aslo enjoy Teleport as it really can put you ahead in the lane phase, can allow you to get to fights that you'd otherwise miss, and can allow you to get farm that otherwise would of been lost to a turret/ save a turret that otherwise would of gone down.
Yorick is especially important to have at a team fight as his ult is often the determining factor of losing just on guy or losing a whole team fight.
Another skill I enjoy is Ignite. Ignite allows Yorick to more heavily burst in the lane phase and can mark a kill target in a team fight. Yorick's inherent speed advantage, range, defensive passive, self sustain, and his ultimate make him an undesirable focus target. This allows no-escape Yorick to be effective.
Ignite with summoner's wrath also passively increases Yorick's offensive capability even while on CD.
It is important to note that summoner skills may not be used as a ghoul during Omen of Death. This makes Flash and 
Ghost less desirable as those two skills would be powerful to position yourself in a no risk situation, but again can't be used while in ghoul form. However, the passive from summoner's wrath still applies.
Other options are 
Exhaust, Ghost, and 
Heal
Runes:
Runes are very important for Yorick as they dictate his power in the early game.
The right runes make Yorick very difficult to lane against as his 
Omen of Famine and Omen of Pestilence are powerful harass and anti-harass tools.
For Yorick, I take flat AD marks and quints
flat armor seals and mana regeneration glyphs.
These runes make omen of famine both spammable and powerful. The flat AD runes also punish any champion that closes to melee by adding power to Omen of War and your basic attacks and also increase the damage of all three ghouls (along with your ghoul during omen of death).
The lack of mr glyphs may seem strange to some as Yorick is a fighter, but we are playing him more like an AD mage early on. And we are optimizing our harassing ability.
We will pick up defensive stats once we have our offensive capabilities setup.
Itemization: General Strategy
Itemizing Yorick is the most important factor in building a successful one.
Yorick can be either a very powerful offensive force, a immovable tank, both or absolutely useless all depending on which items the player chooses to build.
To truly make Yorick shine, we must first understand the meta of a typical game.
Early on, the base damage of skills tend to over power defensive stats. This allows squishy mages with tons of offensive power to squish tanky melee champions without much trouble. Yorick is unique to fighters in that he can actually play as if he were a mage early on. We can kite tanky melee and harass from range only exchanging melee blows when Omen of War is off cd. Meanwhile, if fighting a mage, we can trade harass and be fine but look to close to melee range to finish them quickly. Offensive stats allow Yorick to farm more easily. Easier and faster farming mean more money to turn into more gear and become even more powerful. This gives us all the more reason to build offensively early on.
Later in the game, tanky melee with heavy defensive stats catch up and eventually surpass mages. Luckily, we can also eventually become a tanky dps.
Mid to late build we begin to take items to pump our defensive stats so that we can take hits and make use of our auto attacking ability.
Ending Comments:
Thanks for reading this simple but effective guide to 
Yorick.
Yorick has quickly become one of my favorite champions in the league and this build has been a major part of my enjoyment.
Good luck, have fun, and stop by afterwards and tell me how it goes.
Enjoy making corpses with corpses!
Build Guide
Discussion (6)
Atma's Impaler providing an additional 5 AD from the bonus on Tri force.
Boots of Speed and potions choosing 2 hp potions and 1 mana against a non-sustain aggressive laner, 2 mana and 1 hp against most matchups, or 1 sight ward and 1 mana potion against docile opponents if you are afraid of being ganked.
Tear of the Goddess. Rushing tear is the most important thing to do as gaining early stacks on it will effectively snowball the champion once the 
Glacial Shroud and a 
Spirit Visage which I build first defends on my lane opponent.
Negatron Cloak. Either of these will significantly decrease the damage dealt to Yorick by magic sources.
Banshee's Veil to complete the build.
Ryze early on and on AD carries beyond 30 minutes. However, most of the time saving the first man to fall (especially if they still have their ult) the best choice. I am reluctant to ult the support because they usually aren't combat effective. I will ult a support if they have a fight changing ult or cc that is still available as long as the carries (and myself) are still in good shape.
