Changelog
28 July 2011 : Guide created , still a WIP.

Hello and welcome to my first mobafire guide for Yorick , the Gravedigger.

Yorick is a tanky melee dps that summons ghouls to help him wreck his ennemies.
His ghouls deals magical damages on summon (except the spectral ghoul) and his Omen of pesilence scales with AP at a ratio of 1:1.

That makes him very interesting to build a gunblade on him as well as increasing your AP to do hefty zone damages as well as having great auto attack damages.

Pros :
Beefy with his passive
Put out TONS OF DAMAGE
Easy to play
Can get a revenge with his ultimate for him or an ally
Cons :
Quite vulnerable to heavy CC
Can't really think of others

The skill Sequence really depends on what champion you're facing and how you're doing.
Getting pressured a lot and taking damage ? Put points in Omen of famine.
Owning your lane up and detroying them ? Put points in omen of pestilence.
Doing meh ? Mix them up.

Recommanded :

Flash + ignite

Good offensive combo while having a GTFO button in case things go wrong

Very good choices :
Exhaust
This can be used to lock a target in place until you have your frozen mallet or reduce the damage output of a carry.
Teleport
Good choice if you're solotop , go back to lane faster , don't miss EXP and don't let the ennemy hit your tower.
Good choice :
Cleanse
If you're facing heavy CC team that will help.

Bad choices :
All the other spells :)

For runes , I decided to beef his resistances by taking flat armor seals and magic resistance per level glyphs.
Then , for the marks and the quintessences , I beef his DPS by taking armor penetration.

The choice is really up to you , but I find that beefing his resistances by runes is the best choice to increase his surviviability.

For masteries , I choose 9/0/21. Since I boost Yorick's defense by runes , I don't really need the defense masteries.

With this setup , I get 9 % cooldown reduction , some nice magic penetration that will boost your ghouls spawning damage, a nice increase on your movement speed and a shorter CD on your summoners.

You could always go 0/9/21 if you want more tankiness or 21/9/0 | 21/0/9 if you want maximum damage.

For the starting items , I always take a Meki pendant + 2 health potions.
Depending of my farming and the harras the ennemy put me through , I either back to take the manamune directly or the Tear + boots. Don't forget to take some wards especially if you're solotop !

After that , I usually take the Ionian boots to spam my ghouls more. Take the mercury's treads if you're facing heavy CC.

After that , I usually start to build my gunblade since it will provide a heavy boost to yorick DPS and sustainability and is quite costy to make. Then I build the Rod of ages since it takes 10min for it to have its full effects. I find that item very cool on Yorick since it will boost his surviviability but also give him quite a good boost to his DPS.
Mana will give him AD by manamune and it includes a good ammount of AP.

The two last items are really up to you. I like the frozen mallet + atma combo to keep my target locked in place and have a very good damage output while having quite a lot of health end game.

If you have a jungler , go solotop. It will let you farm freely and can usually net you easy kills if you have a cooperative jungler.

Always bring a ward or two when you back so you don't get ganked and keep harrassing with Omen of Pestilence and Omen of Famine.

If your health get low ,try to stay back and regen with Omen of Famine. If the ennemy harrass you too much when doing so, ask your jungler to cover your lane and back up.

Remember you can tower dive by using the ulti clone and sending it before you.

When you don't see the ennemy anymore , announce it then proceed to push heavely , use your ult to damage the tower and maybe take it down.

Buffs :

Both buffs are incredibly usefull for Yorick so if no one needs them deeply (no Anivia for the blue for exemple) take them !

Once you've detroyed the first turret go to help the others lanes. With the advantage you have from being solo you should wreck the bottom champions with ease and help your mid lane quite good.

Once the tank has engaged the team fight , ulti your AD carry and nuke down either they AP or AD carry. Use all your ghouls when available , try to aim your Omen of pestilence to do damage and use your omen of pestilence on a target that has no magic resist to have better heals or if health is not a problem do it on the focus.

Try to have all your ghouls up as often as possible to maximise the effect of your passive.

If you life get low during the fight , just stand back and spam your Omen of Pestilence + Omen of famine. You'll do some damages and heal back up a bit. Once you've regained enough life you can go back in and clean up what's remaining.

In a nutshell , Yorick is still very srong even after his "nerf" , you just need to build him differently.
This build is still a WIP but gives a good idea on how you build yorick now.

Remember :
-Harass with Omen of pestilence and Omen of Famine
-Ulti your AD carry in teamfights
-Take both buffs if possible
-Don't forget the active from your gunblade , it does a good ammount of damage and further slows the ennemy

Please leave your suggestions and ideas to improve this build :)
I'll polish the presentation later on.