Yorick Build Guide by Delecto

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my 3rd guide here on MOBAFire. This one will be about Yorick, the Gravedigger. This guide will focus around getting the maximum out of Manamune, while still being very tanky. Though the skill cap on him is very high, it's definately worth learning him because well played, he's one beast of a champ. But let's stop the talking and start with the guide, aight?

Who is Yorick and what is his purpose?

Yorick is an excellent solo top champion, who is underplayed for all the wrong reasons. Many players think that he is weak because his ghouls don't do that much damage once they are summoned. But you have to count in the fact, that those ghouls make the superb solo top laner that he is. He can harras his enemies with ease while staying healthy due to Omen of Famine. He can deny nearly every melee solo top champion's farm by simply harrasing them with his ghouls. And do I need to mention, that his ultimate can turn a 5v5 into a 6v5? Cool, eh?

Your role should be the one of the offtank. Being in teamfights, soaking much of the damage while still dealing much damage and being able to survive a good load of burst that is slammed right into your face. He is undeprlayed for all the wrong reason, but is member of the "Secret OP Club". But we will go deeper into his meaning while this guide goes on.

Pros / Cons

Pros:

• Strong early game harass.
• High survivability.
• Nearly unlimited sustain which is only limited by his mana in early game.
• Huge damage dealer while being very tanky.
• Farming isn't the hardest thing to do for him.
• He has a Pentakill Skin.
• A good joker since he is barely played.

Cons:

• Rather squishy early game.
• Likes to eat all of his mana at once early.
• Hard focus in early teamfights.
• Does like to push the lane by harassing too much.
• Not the best damage dealer before getting .

Skill Explanation and Skill Sequence

This is a decent passive. Plain and simple: The more ghouls you spam, the more damage your melee attacks will do. Also, the damage dealt to you will be decreased. This is a nice passive for little 1v1's which helps you come out on the top often.

This is more of a utility spell early game. But lategame it's a nice nuke combined with Trinity Force procs. Next to empowering your next melee attack and summoning a ghoul, this ghould gives you increased movement speed until it dies. Doesn't sound usefull? Well, imagine: You overextended your lane and get ganked by the enemy Nocturne. So you run back, hit q, attack an enemy minion and get a little movement speed buff. This results in profit for you and sadness for the enemy jungler.

This aswell is a utility spell, which still deals a nice amount of damage. But the most use you will get out of it is its slow. You're getting chased? Pop Omen of Pestilence behind you and watch them getting slowed, while you can laugh and run to safety. This does work vice versa aswell. A very nice addition to Yorick's skillset.

This is Yorick's bread and butter skill. This is what makes him the great solo top laner he is. This spell grants you nearly unlimited sustain. The ghould summoned by this spell prioritizes the nearest enemy champion, damages him and returns 40% of the damage dealt back to you as health. A heal that passively kills your enemies? Can't get any better.

Hats off. This is one of the best ultimates in the game in my opinion. This ultimate can help you get an early advantage over the enemy's Wukong. But that's its minor use. Imagine: A teamfight starts, your Vayne is fed like crazy. What do you do? Pop ulti on her and see people being torn apart by your clone. It lasts for 10 seconds which is really strong. But the best part is, that, when the cloned player dies, the timer refreshes and he gets to continue to play for another 10 seconds before finally dying. A very useful ult which can change entire matches.

Runes

Those are the runes I usually grab for every non AP champion. I like these runes alot since thy provide me with a bit of early game damage,while giving me the early armor which is needed in most cases to survive solo top. Also, this setup combined with Mercury's Treads give me enough magic resistance so that we won't crash as easy as a card house when being under fire of the enemy AP carry. But feel free to use the runes you feel the safest with. When it comes to utility overall during every stage of the game, I feel best with these.

Masteries

When it comes down to masteries,I like to grab 8/21/1 masteries for Yorick. The reason is that you absolutely want the extra cooldown reduction from the Sorcery mastery. Since you are an offtank you want to be as tanky as possible, so we take 21 points in the defense tree. And since there's one point left, and since we use Flash and Teleport, we will spend this point into Summoner's Insight . But like always, these are just my recommendation. You still can grab whatever you like.

Summoner Spells

My favourites:


Flash should be obvious. It's a nice engage/disengage tool. It has its share of uses and will forever be one of the top summoner spells out there.
Teleport is the summoner spell with the highest trolling potential. But my main use for it is to come back to my lane very fast when I needed to go back in order to shop my items. But you can also teleport to wards and Teemo's mushrooms. So with these opportunities, you can do a lot of stuff. Steal map objectives, secure towers, pushing towers. Yes, it has its variety of uses and that's why I always grab it when playing solo top.

Other good choices:

If you don't like Flash, this is the next best thing.
This is really useful if you want to shut down the enemy AD carry in teamfights or 1v1 skirmirshes.
If you really should get low on HP in a fight pop Heal and continue gravedigging.
I only recommend this if you are new to Yorick and don't know exactly how to manage his mana. But lategame it's very useless.
I don't really like it but it should be ok for your early game. But always take it if you're against Dr. Mundo or Warwick.
It's a good summoner cast but you need to know when to use it. Otherwise just get a Quicksilver Sash.

Don't take these:

Why does this even exist?
Only senseful on Zombie Karthus.
You don't benefit from any of these stats, but it's pretty good on champions like Jax and Kayle.
It's the support's job the increase map awareness.
It is possible to jungle with Yorick but I don't feel like he belongs into the jungle.

Core Items and Situational Purchases

Your core items consist of these 4:
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Those 4 items give you everything you need. They deliver you a big mana pool, a nice boost in AD, a larger healthpool, a big boost in armor and 35% tenacity if you choose the Mercury's Treads.
From there on we need to decide. First we need to ask ourselfs, if our team has enough CC. If that is the case, buy yourself a Warmog's Armor. But if your team is lacking CC, grab a Frozen Mallet instead.
After that, you want to build more damage, and this next item is the biggest buy in this build, welcome to Trinity Force. This item provides you with everything you need. But the main reason we buy it is because of it's passive. It procs every 2 seconds which means, that you'll be able to get it out a lot. And the damage dealt by this is just insane. You'll be manhandling every single enemy while still standing there with almost full HP and no scratch.
We start off with buying Sheen. Our next item for the TriForce will be Phage. From there on rush your TriForce because I don't see the reason why Yorick should ever have a Zeal in his inventory other than the bonus movement speed.
If you have come this far, this probably means that you're either fed hard, or the match progresses since a very long time. The last item is very situational. But here are some viable choices.


Banshee's Veil. I recommend this item if they have a fed burst caster like Veigar or Kassadin. Not only the spellshield is great, but with this build, Yorick profits off of every single stat.
Force of Nature. I recommend this item only in the case if you went with Warmog's Armor since your passive HP Regeneration will be over the top then. This item also provides you with tons of magic resistance which helps you staying alive longer against AP carries.
Frozen Heart. Oh boy.. You want to be the ultimate troll for their fed AD carries? Then definately pick up Frozen Heart. Its aura shuts down most of the AD carries, the 99 armor will make them wish they had 100% armor pen. Without investing into a Last Whisper they won't be able to kill you anymore. Oh, and by the way.. 500 mana results into 10 bonus AD. You may not forget about those 10 extra AD. I usually always pick this up as my last item since it provides me with many stats that are worth investing into while playing as Yorick.
Quicksilver Sash. Magic resistance with built-in Cleanse on a 90 second cooldown? A great item for its price. Really worth recommending if they have a Mordekaiser who wants to use his Children of the Grave + Ignite combo on you. Its active erases both.
Thornmail. It's only recommended to buy this item if the enemy team has 4 or more AD champions. This will completely counter them and win you the game.



Those are the items I can recommend from the top off my head right now, but I will add more as soon as I think about it.

Lane Match Ups

This chapter will describe my personal experiences facing common solo top champions. Since this is my view, opinions may differ from player to player.



Oh god.. Renekton is my least favourite solo top opponent. His early game strength is insane and his mobility makes him nearly ungankable when he's not overextending. Against him, i recommend you to play safe early. Around level 7 you should be as strong as him, so from then on, the lane won't be a problem anymore.

Our beloved pirate is an OK match up for Yorick. Both champions have very good harass, but Yorick has the advantage of sustain. You should win this lane except GP decides to start off with 10%+ critical strike chance. Then things could get a bit difficult if your opponent is lucky with crits.

This is a rather easy lane until level 6 when Tryndamere should become way more agressive. But you should win this lane with ease since you can deny his farm with Omen of Pestilence and Omen of Famine, which he despirately needs in order to stay in the game. An easy lane overall but be careful when his ultimate is up.

Ahh... Rumble, the cuddly little yordle. Basically this lane consists of two champions harassing each other. But he has the advantage of having no costs on his spells combined with very low cooldowns. Also his damage is huge with just a couple of ability power. This lane can go both ways to be honest. It depends on the players. Just try to avoid his Flamespitter, get your farm and you should be good to go.

This is a rather annoying lane since he just won't die thanks to his passive. His harass isn't as good as your since his mana costs are huge. Cho'Gath will spend most of the time farming minions. From level 6 on he will try to get you low in order to Feast on you. But beware of his strong CC which will make it easy for their jungler to gank you. Just try to pay attention to Cho's animations and the dust which comes up before Rupture hit. Overall an OK lane for Yorick.

His early game is just over the top. He will try to poke you with his Reckless Swing. You will lose any early 1v1's against him due to his passive AS buff and his W. Just try to not let him get near you and harass him with W and E. If you play rather safe you should be able to farm and finally win the lane.

Her early game is one of the strongest in my opinion. She will harass you with Burnout combined with basic attacks from level 1 on. Her damage is way too high for level 1 in my opinion. But she is easier to handle later. Just harass and farm and everything will be ok.

Morde just facerolls anything... HUEHUEHUE.

You will encounter him at top very often since his recent buff. For Yorick he is a rather easy matchup in my opinion. You can harass him more than he can harass you early game. And if he overextends you should be able to kill him. But don't try to kill him despirately because he can heal on you with his Vorpal Blade. But overall an easy match up.

He will just eat any beating as long as he can farm his Siphoning Strike. Just harass him like crazy, annoy him while farming and poke him out of the lane and he should be shut down for now. But don't let him free farm after the lane is won/lost because free farm for Nasus = GG.

He may be blind but a hard match up. You need to use your only advantage - ranged harass. This will annoy him a bit but won't force him to leave the lane since Iron Will gives him some sustain. Overall a hard lane.

Solo top Udyr will probably go for Tiger Stance which means he deals alot of damage. Also his sustain thanks to Turtle Stance and fruequent stun make him a very hard opponent in general. You may lose the lane if you get caught by his stun some times and always eat his Tiger burst. Just don't overextend.

NEVER. FACECHECK. A. BRUSH. AGAINST. GAREN. Other than that harass him like hell to stop his passive.

This is a pretty balanced match up in my opinion. Can definately go both ways depending on the players.

His early is really weak and he will often mana starve. Use these 2 facts as your advantage and try to shut him down as early as possible.

Pantheon's early is very strong. Try to harass him, because he will harass you a lot. His block also makes him a pain to play against. This is a rather hard match up.

Just play like the enemy Singed does. Try to stay passive against him. Don't harass him too much or else he will call for a gank. And ganks consisting pur chemic are not nice.

You need to win this match up. You have way more sustain and harass than him. I'm aware of his Rake but it is easily dodged/avoided in general. Easy lane in my opinion.

HITEN STYLE GG. No seriously, I hate playing against Irelia and lose most of the time against her. She's just broken in my opinion.

Captain Teemo on duty. His duty seems to be annoying you since that's what he mainly does. This annoyment grows even larger from level 6 on when he deploys his mushrooms everywhere making him ungankable. But as an opponent rather easy.

A good Voli will win nearly any lane up. But your advantages are ranged poke and sustain. He lacks of both. Other than his passive, Chosen of the Storm, he doesn't have any built-in sustain. Try to get his passive out as early as possible in order to ensure a kill after. In my opinion this is a mediocre lane up. Win if you don't overextend too much.

This is a winable match up. Always poke HIM, not his Decoy. Pay attention to his movements all the time since this will make it more easier to determine wether the real monkey or the fake one is standing in front of you. Otherwise you will just heal away his damage.

Well.. This is awkward...

Conclusion

This concludes my 3rd guide here on MOBAFire about Yorick, the Gravedigger. I really enjoyed writing this guide for you guys this night and I will try to update it frequently. I will also try to upload some gameplay with him. This itembuild is 100% viable for blind pick, draft pick and ranked matchmacking. Feel free to test it yourself and rate it. But please be honest with your rating. Have fun digging others graves with this Yorick guide. Delecto.~

Big shoutout to JHOIJHOI and his/her guide about making a guide which you can check out HERE. Also thank you, Jhoijhoi, for the awesome coloured lines you gave us. Keep up the good work. :)

Changelog

03/07/12: Guide created and published on MOBAFire.
03/09/12: Added section "Lane Match Ups" and encountered some bug with the lines, will try to fix it.
03/11/12 Added Quicksilver Sash and Thornmail to the "Core Items and Situational Purchases" section.