So, for Yorick I like to go top (duh). Yorick can be played as a tank or a straight up AD. I tend to prefer the tankier side to Yorick. What good is 100-150 damage per hit of a ghoul if you only get one hit then it gets destroyed? Wouldn't you prefer 3 hits of 60-65? Yorick can be tough to play, although I think he's super fun. Yorick is a major harasser, with major mana problems. I'll get to how to fix that in my items section. I first played Yorick at a low level (5-10) when he was free. I dominated with him. So the first champion I bought was Wukong. I don't know why. I honestly don't. I was disappointed with Wukong, so I bought with real money Yorick and started playing him. To this day I still love Yorick. Yorick is the epitome of my play style. Harass and survive. Dive when you feel you have a sufficient health difference. In this guide I'll teach you how I do this with Yorick.

Side notes:

1) Vladimir is extremely good at the survive part, but not as good at harassing. Vlad is my second favorite champion.

2) Manamune passive ability damage is not included in the damage above, and it gives you another 20-40AD (depending on how much of the 1000 mana of the other passive you have).

3) There are a ton of ways to play a champion, this is mine for Yorick. I have read other guides and tried multiple ways, but this (so far) is my favorite. I am definitely open to ideas and suggestions, but I would appreciate if you explained why you prefer that item.

4) Sorry I don't know how to make this fancy and have lots of pictures and tags and links and stuff. It covers everything and explains my way of playing Yorick. Maybe once I'm newer with this site I will come back and fancy this whole thing up :) I'll try to keep it up to date with how I play Yorick too.

5) This is my first guide! Don't go easy on me, critique everything you possibly can. I do not want "This guide sucks", I want "This guide wasn't my favorite because WHEN I TRIED IT I couldn't get any kills, and I didn't do very good. I prefer more AD and less health so your ghouls do more damage." Thanks guys! Please also tell me typo's, I ran through it twice after I was done but I still may have missed some typo's, and I don't want them so I would appreciate a heads up :)

Pro's:

-Fantastic harass
-Good sustain
-Two chase (whichever end) abilities
-Not hard to use
-Can be played multiple ways
-Not item dependent past the first item
-Doesn't always have to go into the action
-Ghouls can earn you last hits
-Ghouls add buffs to you or debuffs to the enemy AND do damage
-You can, without much effort, never die in a game (yeah 5v1 might not happen... You're not invincible)

Con's:

-Low CDR
-Mana hungry all game
-Has one ability dependent on AP

Yorick needs AD, health, and CDR. AD and CDR are the most lacking in my item build and you have almost 4200 health, so I go for some CDR and AD.

Quintessences:

I buy scaling AD.

Marks:

I buy scaling AD.

Seals:

I buy flat CDR.

Glyphs:

I buy flat CDR.

I buy scaling because they still help early game, and they help a lot late game since I don't build a ton of AD. 40 + the extra 60-110 AD from manamune to be exact. So That gives me an extra 35.37 AD by level 18. The CDR is needed right away, and I guess you could get the seal of fortitude for health instead (4.5% is an extra 170 (I think) health with 4200 or so health, so it is better than the flat health), but I prefer the CDR. Glyphs have the best CDR so I obviously get the CDR for glyphs. Seals are really the only one that I think could be exchanged.

I've never been able to decide which mastery tree was the best for Yorick (not utility though). So I have three! One is a 21-9-0 standard AD tree with all of the important AD masteries + penetrations, the next is 9-21-0 and is your standard tank masteries, and the last (which is actually my current favorite) is a straight up 30-0-0 mastery build. I get all the AD masteries, the CDR, he penetration, the damage in general increase, but I kinda skip AP and crit things (I get nothing that would make him deal crits as it doesn't increase that chance of his ghouls dealing crits and is therefore worthless to me). So basically you can do what you want with your masteries but I obviously favor AD and damage masteries. That is my preference for most champions.

Yorick has my favorite slow in the game, which brings me to the point of why I prefer health to AD on him. You want your ghouls out as long as possible, because you get effects from them while they are alive. If you have purely AD, sure they do lots of damage but I like Yorick as an amazing harasser, and if you play him right your enemies will hate you for it. Sure he could burst with AD, cast all your ghouls and see if can kill them before they get away! But that (in my humble opinion) is not the purpose of, or the best way to play, Yorick. Yorick's passive is just the icing on the cake for more health than AD. For every ghoul you have out, he gets 5% damage output increased and 5% decreased damage intake. That's 20% if you have all four ghouls out! So you want to keep them out as long as possible right?

Ok back on topic. This section is going to double as an explanation of each ability as well. Ready?

Well first I must mention that ALL of your ghouls prioritize an enemy champion. So don't be afraid to cast it on a minion near an enemy champion if they are out of range.

Passive:

Unholy Covenant

Yorick takes 5% less damage and his autoattacks deal 5% more damage for each summon that is active. Meanwhile, Yorick's ghouls have 35% of Yorick's Attack Damage and Health.

So this means you are going to want to increase health and AD to make your ghouls better. It also means you are going to want to have lots of ghouls out to get the 5% per each ghoul. 20% damage reduction and increased damage!!! Gorgeous.

Yorick's Q:

Omen of War

COOLDOWN: 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5
COST: 40 mana

ACTIVE: Yorick enhances his next autoattack, in the next 10 seconds, to deal bonus physical damage. This enhanced attack summons a Spectral Ghoul once it hits. This ability resets the autoattack timer.
The Spectral Ghoul deals more damage and moves faster than the rest of the ghouls. While the ghoul is active, Yorick moves faster as well.

TOTAL PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 (+ 120% AD)
GHOUL EXTRA ATTACK DAMAGE: 8 / 16 / 24 / 32 / 40
BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED: 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% / 35%


This is your main damage dealing ghoul. It only activates if you hit something. Coupled with a lovely little movement speed increase. You are going to want to use this to last-hit minions. This is also good in a chase, if you run by an enemy minion cast this and hit them so you get bonus movement speed, you can probably get in range of your W. This is as ogreat for intiating fights. "Woah! Yorick hits that much? WTF this ghoul won't die or leave me alone!"

Yorick's W:

Omen of Pestilence

RANGE: 600
COOLDOWN: 12
COST: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 mana

ACTIVE: Yorick summons a Decaying Ghoul that arrives with a violent explosion, dealing magic damage and slowing nearby enemies for 1.5 seconds. While the Decaying Ghoul remains alive, nearby enemies continue to be slowed.

MAGIC DAMAGE: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+ 100% AP)
INITIAL SLOW: 20% / 25% / 30% / 35% / 40%
GHOUL ONGOING SLOW: 10% / 12.5% / 15% / 17.5% / 20%
DIAMETER OF AOE: 200
DIAMETER OF ONGOING SLOW: 125


This is dependent on AP unfortunately. But it still does a nice little 200 damage! The point of this is your glorious slow. It also casts another ghoul! That slows enemy champions within its radius! Damage + a slow, along with a persistent damaging + slowing ghoul? Yummmmm. Long range too, so you can cast this from behind your minions to harass the hell out of them. Yummmmmmm. This and your E are your harassers, and these are the point of Yorick. Once you get your manamune, don't be afraid to spam these. Just make sure you don't go below 300 mana in case they decide to charge you. Which will happen, this ghouls piss people off to no end. It's so funnyyyyy.

Yorick's E:

Omen of Famine

RANGE: 550
COOLDOWN: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6
COST: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 mana

ACTIVE: Yorick deals magic damage and heals for 40% of the damage dealt. A Ravenous Ghoul is summoned behind his target for up to 5 seconds, healing Yorick for the damage it deals. The healing effect is halved against minions.

MAGIC DAMAGE: 55 / 85 / 115 / 145 / 175 (+ 100% Bonus AD)


So this is Yorick's purpose to life. Stealing the enemies. You want to level this as quickly as possible. This is how you survive before Warmogs, and how you dominate after Warmogs. Generally best to save this one for enemy champs though as it heals you double per hit on a champion. This also does a ton of damage, but not quite as much as your Q. Just a beautifully designed skill. MMM!

ULTIMATE, R:

Omen of Death

RANGE: 900
COOLDOWN: 120 / 105 / 90
COST: 100 mana

ACTIVE: Yorick conjures a revenant in the image of one of his allies that will have a percentage of their max health and attack damage. The revenant lasts for up to 10 seconds. If his ally dies while their revenant is alive, the revenant sacrifices itself to reanimate them temporarily by restoring them to full health and giving them time to enact vengeance. The reanimation will last for up to 10 seconds. During this time, the ally can use all of their abilities.

HEALTH PERCENTAGE: 50% / 75% / 100%
DAMAGE PERCENTAGE: 45% / 60% / 75%

I'm sorry, but this ability is hard for me to explain. I am so in awe of it. 75% of whosever its cast on damage. Say you have 250 damage. 187 per hit, for 10 seconds, say you get 10 hits. 1870 damage. And if the champion its cast on dies, it gets revived for 10 seconds. Full damage + ability usage. 10 seconds can be a massive amount of damage. I so love this ability. Make sure whoever you cast it on knows that they aren't actually revived, and only have 10 seconds. It's so frustrating to save your ADC then see them run >.>

Skill Sequence! (finally):

So first I grab his 'E' as the lifesteal is super important. I also max E very quickly at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8. After his E I get his W, as it is great for harassing, and is also ranged. The slow is amazingly helpful, and as his ghouls target the nearest champ even if not cast directly on him, you can cast this behind you and the "ghoul being alive still" effect will still work, and you can escape and do damage. So I grab that at level 2 and then forget about it for a while. At level 4 I get the Q, just because I like to have all abilities, and it is helpful for last hitting. At 6, 11, and 16 I always get the ultimate as well, it's the ultimate. You also want to have as many ghouls out as possible in big fights, so if its a 2v2 and you guys are losing just spam all of your ghouls at once. So you have to have them all! At level 9 and on, excluding ultimate leveling levels, I just switch off between W and Q, starting with W as I find it more important because of the slow. Q should be the last ability leveled, although if you really like to you can go more into Q then W at level 9 onward, it's just not my preference.

The build is situational, this is just a conventional build with AD, health, regen, armor, resist, and CDR. You can get more or less of any you want really, I tend to focus on health and secondarily AD with this, but that's not what I always build. It's situational! I almost always get thornmail against a Yi or a Varus.

So I buy:

Core:

Manamune

- Massive damage (20 + 60-110) plus quite a bit of mana and mana regen. Your mana problems are over with this item, and the damage is just beautiful on top of it.

Lucidity

- The CDR is sooo needed, although merc treads are also acceptable

Warmogs

- Best health. Plus a ton of regen.

If you have time:

Spirit Visage

- CDR, awesome. Health, awesome. Magic Resist? Icing on the cake.

Sunfire Cape

- the damage per second for being in the area is fun to watch people rage about, and the armor + health is the real point of this.

Mallet

- Tiny bit of damage is helpful, the 700 health is really helpful, and the slow is wonderful. You have an increased speed, flash, and a slow already but sometimes this is just what you need for a chase.

You can also get items with armor/resist or AD:

Thornmail
Atma's
Wrigglers
Randuin's Omen
Madred's
Trinity Force
Guardian Angel
Bloodthirster



I really don't think crit's maximize Yorick's potential as it doesn't affect his ghouls, and you are going to want to enhance his ghouls as much as possible, they define Yorick.


You get about 300 damage with a full manamune actually, not just the 190 that they mention above.

Please don't grab promote. At low levels it is quite helpful to push really hard, and coupled with teleport makes it really easy to carry a game. But now that people know what they're doing, it is not helpful. Gets focused by enemy champs and doesn't provide you with a lot of benefit. Continuing on:

Best Two:

Flash + Ignite seems super common these days. Ya know why? It WORKS. There are other spells that are definitely very helpful as well, but these are great spells and I almost always take these two.

Other options:

Teleport is always a viable option, same with exhaust. Ghost is also viable for your movement speed needs. These are all good summoner spells as well and I could get behind someone using them. I guess if you really want you could also grab garrison for dominion, and Yorick is amazing at dominion but I'd still just stick with flash (or ghost) and ignite (or exhaust).

Please don't choose:

Promote! - Explained above. I hate when people use it.
Smite - You are not jungling
Heal - Yorick has a lifesteal ability and you should buy health pots
Clarity - Just manage your mana! You don't need an ability for it
Clairvoyance - You're not going to support
Cleanse - Other spells are more helpful
Revive - Don't plan on dying, you have lifesteal, two escapes, flash, and a ton of health
Surge - Not as helpful as ignite damage wise

Farm as much as possible, just work on getting your items. Don't worry about who seems to be winning the lane. Harass as much as you can, but save your mana as it is precious at this point in the game. Don't lose your turret, don't die, and farm. Those are your goals here.

Get the turrets! Harass as much as possible, then dive them for the kill or to push them to have to recall. While their gone cast al your ghouls (even the ultimate!) and get those turrets. With your four ghouls those turrets drop in a flash. This is when you are going to want to place your sight wards and watch for ganks, as your goal here is to push your lane. Hard.

Once you have your lane far, don't be afraid to go gank. To gank with Yorick:

Make sure to come from far behind as you need it. Start with your W to keep them in place. Run straight up to them and hit them with your Q. Cast your E if they start to run as it does good damage. I doubt your W be ready again. If it ends up turning into a teamfight, well I explained that below ;) Also! if you are in range of your E/W and it will get the kill but it hasn't cooled down yet, don't be afraid to tower dive and follow until you can use it. You have massive health.

You are probably going to lead charges with your massive HP. This is most likely teamfights so that's what I'm going to talk about in this section:

Start with your three ghouls right away, and whenever you feel it necessary cast your ultimate on either: someone who seems like they are going to die, or whoever has the most AD (sometimes you haha). Cast your lifesteal as often as possible, use your Q's whenever you think it'll make the difference on an enemy champ, and besides the start only cast your W when any of them are running. If you need to back out, cast your lifesteal and hit someone with your Q. Now is when you book it away. If someone is chasing you, cast your W as far back behind you as you can as if an enemy champion is even just near that ghoul they are slowed. Beautiful isn't it? That's the basis of how to teamfight with Yorick. If you need a kill send your ghoul, don't go yourself as you are needed in the middle of the fight because of your massive HP.

So have we learned here today?
Yorick is an amazing harasser with great tanking abilities to boot.