Hello everyone, this is my first guide on this site, as so many others.

I would like to say at this current time im writing this guide, im not rank 30 yet, im just halfway there, im rank 15. But the Runes & masteries you see will be what I wanna go for when I reach max rank.

I got inspired to write this guide from my perspective when I heard that Yorick was so bad and he sucked and had no damage and so on, so I looked up guides on him, tried some out, and tried diffrent items and mixed things up to see what worked against bots, then I tried it out against players, and tbh that worked even better x)

When you first look at this build, I guess you think that it looks a lot like some of the other yorick builds out there, and that's not strange since most of us has found out what works the best.

Some of the stuff you will read will just be theory, but I have tested a lot of it, but keep in mind that everything I have experienced with Yorick is at the 15ish levels and not max, so Things may vary a lot, but I had a lot of fun and will still have in the future with him I hope :)

Btw: The stats that you see up there at the start is not correct, with the item build that I have choosen I had 3,2k HP and much more damage, probably because much of my mana became AD.

Yorick can be built depending on his items like a tank or a dps or a hybrid. It's all up to you! I explain more in the Items section.

I hope you enjoy! :)

The reason I choose Greater mark of strenght & Greater quintessence of strenght instead of magic pen like so many others haave done is because, as far as I got it when playing that only Omen of Pestilence benefits mostly from magic dmg. Omen of War benefits from AD and Omen of Famine benefits from both. At least from what I could see when I bought items. A reason aswell is that when I play yorick I deal a lot of damage with my shovel aswell! which is AD and it comes in to play there aswell!

As you can see I choose Greater seal of replenishment for the extra mana regen early game aswell as many others have. This will also help me when I use my Manamune and will allow me to kite and spam ghouls if I am chased by the whole team. You will pretty much not have any mana problems the entire game except early game.

I choose Greater Glyph of Magic Resist for the extra defence against AP champs, as I find them the most bursty.

I hope this explains it plain and simple :)

The masteries I have taken is pretty much the same as most have when using Yorick. It's the 9/21/0 Build. You can take 21/9/0 aswell, but I feel that I have enough damage with those 9 since im mostly spamming my ghouls and auto attacking.

First I buy a Doran's Shield it will give me that extra piff to stay in the lane longer.
Next up is Manamune or a Tear of the Goddess depending on how many kills/assists I got the first time. This item is so vital to playing yorick I have found out, its gives tons of mana and even more mp5 aswell as some damage, and 2% of ur mana will be converted to AD which is awsome. This will solve your mana problems.
Then I start buying Mercury's Treads or normal Boots depending on what I can afford. You can if the enemy team lacks CC instead buy Berserker's Greaves but I have found the extra magic resist and tenacity worth it. Then I start building a Spirit Visage this item will make your hit & run awsome because your Famine ghoul will heal you for even more which is awsome in every way. It also gives you more HP and Magic resist and the most awsome thing, gives you 10% ability reduction which will allow you to spam more ghouls >:)

Thats the base of your build.

Now you have to start looking on your enemy team and if they have been feeded or not and what kind of champions they are and how good they are. The last game I played as a scenario they had 3 AP champs, 1 tank and 1 AD champ. I soon realised that I didn't need my Madred's Bloodrazor because their tank didn't even have more HP than I had so instead I got myself a Frozen Mallet because the only thing they did 1vs1 was outrun me, and this fixed it. Then I got myself a Atma's Impaler which gave me 18% crit and converted my HP to damage, which was quite a boost. At the very end we had almost won, but I noticed when the two AP champs came at me at once they did some nasty burst dmg, so I sold my Doran's shield and got myself a Banshee's Veil and after some minutess we won.

Summary.
Base: Manamune Mercury's Treads & Spirit Visage
Depending on situation I have lots of diffrent items, like: Phantom Dancer Infinity Edge Madred's Bloodrazor Atma's Impaler Frozen Mallet Last Whisper and if the tanks don't get enough with Madred's Il just get a Black Cleaver
You also have Thornmail if their AD carry have been feeded. Trinity Force if you want the mix of stats. You can take Warmog's Armor if you want the extra damage from Atma's Impaler aswell as the HP from the armor itself.

Remember, all this depends what has happened, how good your team is, how good the enemy team is, have you been feeded, have they been feeded and so on.

I hope I covered it :)

I usually start of with Omen of Famine because of the instant lifesteal and it also gives me the option to go all guns blazing if I have a good teammate with me in the lane which can help me slow after I have with Exhaust This can easily give us first blood if we are quick enough, and I will be able to keep myself up a little bit longer. Probably a little harder against Ranged AD/AP carries tho.

When I start to level I don't max 1 skill first, with Yorick thats not smart I feel since after level 3 you spam all 3 ghouls at them when you attack and you benefit from them all in diffrent ways. It's all up to you if you want extra damage on hit with Omen of War or more slow with Omen of Pestilence or need more lifesteal with Omen of Famine But I try to prioritese my Ultimate when I can upgrade it. I feel that it depends if its tanks, ranged or Melee that's in my lane to what I am going to prioritize to put the most points into.

I hope I made myself clear :)

I use Ignite & Exhaust for the extra dot damage when my ghouls chase the enemy behind the turret, have given me the kill a couple of times ;) and exhaust for the slow when I ambush somebody and didn't hit them with my Omen of Pestilence or it wasn't enough. If you feel you don't need Exhaust, you can take Flash if you like that more, has given me some kills because the enemy I had ambushed was to quick for me or I have needed to get away when more champions have come to help them. You can use whatever you want and that fits your playstyle the most :)

Pros:

- Can spam ghouls
- Slow enemies for support
- Great overall damage
- Can be built for more dps or tankyness.
- Really fun
- Beast late game.
- Turn the tide in teamfights with his Ultimate.

Cons:

- Very hated I have heard since people think he's so up. I think he rules and have no idea where this comes from. ( is this outdated? )
- He lacks damage and survivability early game people say, I don't think so.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and as I figure out by myself and experiment I will try to update it and maybe make it more enjoyable to read. As I am new to this I don't know much about how to make guides, but I hope you learned a thing or two about Yorick that you didn't in the other guides.

Vote up & comment if you have any questions that you would like an answer to :)

Changelog
- Build created 07/08/2011.
- Minor changes made 07/08/2011.
- Swapped Arp Marks & Quintessences for Damage. Benefits from abilities so its better. 07/08/2011.
- Swapped the items in the item build that is shown, aswell as changing a little in the introduction and the other sections 07/08/2011.