I love yorick.

This build is used to play Yorick primarily as an Off-tank/support-tank/whatever you want to call it. It can be altered to go towards more damage or more tankiness; this will all depends on your team comp, how the game is going, and the enemy comp.

Reds - aPen? duh

Blues - extra MR? more duh

Yellows - more armor? ...

Quints - your pick, aPen or flat health (helps on lane considering his low base health).

1-8-21

Improved exhaust? Chea. From what I've found, exhaust is one of the most powerful summoner abilities because you can follow up the slow from you W with exhaust. It is a great way to get your carry First Blood; it is also a great way to shut down an enemy carry.

extra armor, mana, health regen. LANING. the bonuses here, stacked with your runes, should give you a great laning phase.

Move speed, mana regen, imp ghost, extra gold, extra xp, CDR, Summoner Spell CDR (MORE EXHAUST!!)....geez what more could you ask for.

Alternate option would be to go 21 (or just deeper) in Defensive tree...but that's your call.

Core: Manamune, Merc Treads, Warmogs, Atma's

extra mana and first part of tear <- Prime

Some boots? yeah. Yorick is slow, so get boots 1 after tier. if you get killed early or have to B and you think boots will benefit you more, grab em and some extra pots/ward.

Finish manamune? hellllls yeah. This will, for the most part, solve your mana issues and start stackin some AD for you.

Finish boots. I recommend Merc Treads simply because they are so good with Yoricks role. Extra MR and CC reduc <- Effin perfect

From here on you can either go with the build posted above, or you can grab some other items that are baller for Yorick. I like taking Tri force or Frozen Mallet. Tri Force all around feels better because of the balanced upgrades he gets, but if you go frozen mallet you will have a little more health to work with and, of course, it is less expensive If you dont like that, switch it out or just grab phage or sheen and turn it into a Tri force later. Also, skipping to Warmogs is definitely viable...you just wont do as much damage

After Wmogs, I think atma's is awesome to get back into the dps game. If they have a lot of physical damage then it is also prime. This can be switched to a more tanky item like Force of nature if your team has enough damage or if you are doing far more tanking than damaging.

After that, it's up to you. Picking up a G.A. or some straight AD items (inifinity, bloodthirster, etc..) are both viable options, but just do whatever the game needs. If their ad carries are tossing you, get a thornmail. If the same thing happens but with strong AP, get a Force of Nature. Totally situational though. you can also choose to be a ward ***** at this point. Your call.

I have been thoroughly debating on how to skill this guy, and so far what I've seen is that E is good for some lane harass/last hitting...and that's about it. W is fantastic to start with because of the fact that it's AOE and you will have exhaust, and that mean's with a good lane partner you can pick up FB quite easily. If you skill W->E, then you will have some decent ranged spam.

Q is great, but it's hard to get in melee range early on with Yorick. I still say put in a point at 3 or 4 because if you can creep up the brush and run out with a good W, or if you laner partner baits hardcore, you will put it to GOOD use.

basically, as I said, E kinda feel gimp right now, the AOE + slow from W is awesome, and Q can get you some sweet damage early on, so I find prioritizing Q and E (R is always the BIGGEST priority of course) to be the best way to go.

Ghost and Exhaust are my favorites.

Ghost can be switched out with Flash if you prefer that, it would certainly not be a bad decision

If you don't like Yorick's lack of escape abilities, pick up cleanse

Ignite is viable, but personally I haven't taken it with him as I see a movement + exhaust mastery setup to be way too good with him.

Basically that's it. I am not going to make this an overly comprehensible guide right now, but if people actually like the build then I will add a lot more. Really I'm just kind of putting this together after a night of Yoricks play.