My name is Hotch and I have been playing League for almost a decade. I mostly played at low elo until a few months ago when I discovered the power of Yorick and used him to climb from low Plat to Diamond. I am currently sitting at a 59% win rate with Yorick this season. Although I haven't been playing Yorick crazy long and I am not particularly super high elo, I believe I have some insight on the champion worth sharing.

Before anything, you should absolutely check out Slogdog and his Yorick guide. He is likely the best Yorick player and much of my early knowledge of the champion came from watching his gameplay on Youtube. Many of the tips and strategies you will see in this guide are my attempt to put into words the things that I do to win which I learned from watching his content.

Pros + Insane Pressure + Great Splitpusher + Rewarding to Learn + Objective Taking + HIGH Damage + Annoying to Play Against

Cons - Hardcoded Counters - Buggy AI - Immobile - Awkward Teamfight - Needs Setup to Engage - Weak Early Game

An Introduction to Yorick

Yorick is one of the most unique champions in the game. His reliance on PETs, ability to take multiple objectives at once, and theoretical ability to push all 3 lanes at the same time make him an oddity amongst the roster. His identity as a low-elo stomper is reinforced by his S+ ranking in Gold and below, however, past Gold his low winrate has consistently put him in the B and C tier. Whether you play Yorick at a high or low elo, this guide will hopefully help you improve your strategies and gameplay.



Why does Yorick Stomp Low Elo?

In my opinion, Yorick's unique kit and ability to take objectives make him a powerful low elo pick. His ghoul + Maiden damage come out of nowhere and lower elo players have difficulties understanding when to fight Yorick. If you are Gold or below, you can absolutely abuse this misunderstanding to take advantageous fights in situations where you would normally lose. We will go over this principle in the "Setups" Section of this guide (below).



Why does Yorick Underperform in High Elo?

I believe there are two reasons for this:

1. Higher elo players better understand when to fight Yorick and abuse his weakpoints.
2. Yorick players who climb from low elo to high elo fail to adjust their strategy.

In my experience, playing Yorick at a low elo is very different from playing him at a high elo. Your opponents become increasingly aware of his flaws and how to properly punish his weaknesses and strategies. I personally experienced a rank plateau in Emerald because I was failing to adapt to this change. BUT if you DO adapt to this you will see your rank improving at the same rate as if you were in low elo. Higher elo players generally switch out of Yorick after losing more often because the same strategy they used to climb simply doesn't work anymore. This is why I believe his winrate declines as you go up in rank. But it does NOT mean that Yorick is simply "bad" in high elo.

CONQUEROR Conqueror is Yorick's strongest keystone. Straight up. The increased damage combined with the heal is his only saving grace for the early game and it scales pretty well in the late game. If you decide to run First Strike, you may get some additional gold and you may have slightly better burst in the late game, but you will absolutely SUFFER in the early game and if your opponent has a brain they will punish hard. Hail of Blades has some potential but I don't believe it has the ability to outperform Conqueror. I am confident in saying there is no better rune, situational or not, for Yorick than Conqueror. Just. Go. Conqueror. TRIUMPH Triumph is the best in slot for Yorick. It helps you survive those close early game fights and the extra gold is nice. Presence of Mind can be taken but Yorick doesn't really suffer from mana problems that bad if you are playing him correctly. Still, it can be taken if you find yourself running out of mana often. ALACRITY Alacrity is the best of the three here, the lifesteal provided by Legend: Bloodline is okay but the attack speed from Legend: Alacrity synergizes with the extra Maiden damage on autos. It also helps you take down towers quicker. LAST STAND Last Stand is in a tossup with Coup de Grace. Both are good options but I feel that Last Stand helps out in the early game with the max damage being higher (although it comes in later). Coup de Grace is better late game when you sick 4 ghoulies on someone and the damage helps finish them off. Up to personal preference but I prefer Last Stand. DEMOLISH This is the reason you go into the Resolve tree. It is absolutely essential on Yorick and helps you get plates early to snowball and absolutely SHREDS towers late game. The other options in this tree don't even compare. BONE PLATING Bone Plating is the other rune in the Resolve tree and is in a tossup with Second Wind. You'll be taking Bone Plating most of the time since your opponent will most likely be a typical melee-bruiser. Take Second Wind if they are poke-heavy.

This is an ability rundown provided by the League Wiki.Further details on the abilities will be provided in the "Ability Use"
section.

PASSIVE: Shepherd of Souls INNATE - FINAL SERVICE: Yorick raises a grave for every enemy he kills with Last Rites, as well as for every enemy Champion and large Monster that dies near him. Additionally, Yorick raises a grave for every 12th / 6th / 2nd (based on level) enemy that dies otherwise near him. Up to 4 graves can exist at once, with the furthest ones being replaced by the newest. Yorick can use Awakening and Mourning Mist's mark to raise a Ghoul from each grave. INNATE - THE CURSED HORDE: Up to 4 Ghouls can be active at once, with the closest ones being replaced by the newest. Q: Last Rites ACTIVE: Yorick empowers his next basic attack within 5 seconds to have an uncancellable windup, gain 50 bonus range, deal bonus physical damage, and Heal him. The heal is reduced by 50% against non-champions. While there are at least 3 graves nearby and Last Rites is active or on Cooldown, Yorick can cast Awakening. Awakening: ACTIVE: Yorick exhumes a Ghoul under his command from each nearby grave. W: Dark Procession ACTIVE: Yorick summons a ring of spirits around the target location that arises after a 0.75-second delay, knocking aside enemies hit over 0.25 seconds, though not through terrain. Within 210-units, they are pulled inside; otherwise they are pushed away. The ring remains for 4 seconds as impassible terrain against enemies, granting sight inside the ring. Dark Procession can only be targeted by enemy champion basic attacks and turrets. The wall takes 1 damage per attack from champions and is destroyed instantly from turret attacks. E: Mourning Mist ACTIVE: Yorick hurls a globule of Black Mist that splashes across an area at the target location, dealing magic damage to enemies hit equal to 15% of the target's current health, down to a minimum threshold. Enemy champions and monsters hit are slowed by 30% for 2 seconds, and marked as Cursed for 4 seconds. Cursed champions are also revealed. CURSED: The target takes 20% bonus damage from 8 attacks by Ghouls and continually raises a Ghoul from each nearby grave, up to a maximum of 4. Yorick, Ghouls and Maiden gain 20% bonus movement speed while facing nearby Cursed enemies. Ghouls will Dash leap to nearby Cursed enemy champions and large monsters, dealing 100% of their AD upon arrival. R: Eulogy of the Isles ACTIVE: Yorick summons Maiden of the Mist surrounded by a number of Ghouls at the target location, which remain on the battlefield until she or Yorick dies. Eulogy of the Isles can be recast once while the Maiden is alive after 10 seconds of the activation. RECAST: Yorick sets the Maiden free, allowing her to push the nearest lane until she or Yorick dies.

boots. Deciding what boots to go is pretty simple, Plated Steelcaps against heavy AD or into AA heavy matchups like Yone, Tryndamere, or Trundle. Mercury's Treads into heavy AP or CC comps. Boots of Swiftness when you want to be aggressive and dodge abilities. I personally go swifties most of the time.

Profane Hydra is the core lethality Yorick item. It gives him insane damage, great CDR, even better waveclear, and surprising burst. It is a huge powerspike for Yorick to complete this and should be rushed almost every game.

Serylda's Grudge is another core Yorick item. It was nerfed in patch 14 to only apply the slow after the enemy is below half health, but in return they gave it lethality and armor penetration that scales with lethality. The slow lets ghouls run down targets so they can spend less time running and more time HITTING.

Opportunity has a great build path, is relatively cheap, gives burst damage and movespeed. Great snowballing item.

Eclipse Is an insanely good item on Yorick. The damage and skirmishing power it gives you is a big spike upon completion. You can proc it with Ghouls alone. Highly recommend building it in most games.

Edge of Night as of patch 14 has been my go-to item after Profane and Serylda's/Opportunity.The stats are great and gives a little bit of survivability that can go a long way.

The Collector Used to be my go-to snowballing item. It's still a pretty great item, but Opportunity has replaced it as of recent due to consistency. Only go collector if you are certain that you can snowball hard.

Hubris is another heavy snowball item but personally it feels underwhelming. I prefer Opportunity or Collector over it.

Umbral Glaive Is a good choice against Teemo or any time you want to clear vision without going Oracle Lens. Otherwise, I wouldn't really bother.

Youmuu's Ghostblade Is a great choice against enemies who have dangerous spell rotations that you need to dodge or enemies who you can't keep up with. If you want to swap out your boots late game this is a good item to do it with.

Serpent's Fang is good against Karma or other shield-heavy champions/comps otherwise I wouldn't bother.

Axiom Arc is not worth it since Maiden's cooldown doesn't begin until after she dies.

Voltaic Cyclosword needs more testing but I don't see this as being great on Yorick anytime soon, since he has no dashes, blinks, or stealth to synergize with it.

Black Cleaver Is a Yorick classic. The health and armor shred make it insanely effective agaist true tanks like Sion and Rammus but otherwise is just barely outclassed by lethality items. I would recommend this in a bruiser build that needs a bit more damage.

Hullbreaker. Long are the days where this was an essential Yorick item. It's modern iteration has left no place for Yorick to build it anymore. The tower damage and stats it provides just isn't worth.

Sterak's Gage Is a great bruiser Yorick item. The shield can save you in a pinch and the tenacity + health is great when your team needs a bit more frontline.

Titanic Hydra Is a good bruiser Yorick item. The reset on it can be used in combination with your auto + Q for a quick 3-shot burst of damage (along with an extra Maiden proc). Good waveclear too.

Sundered Sky Is a bit underwhelming on Yorick. The effect gives you BIG heals but the 45 AD for the 3100 gold price tag makes it difficult to justify. Still, not super bad. Just worse than you would think.

Maw of Malmortius Is an item I really don't like for Yorick. If you really need the MR you should probably just go Kaenic Rookern. The damage is underwhelming and the MR doesn't really help that much when your opponent is ahead. You are better off playing safe and scaling with your normal build.

Spear of Shojin Is a great item on Yorick. The additional ability damage does apply to ghouls to it has some pretty good value. The ability haste it gives you is also pretty insane.

Trinity Force Used to be core on Yorick. In the current patch, it is fairly mediocre and is only good in certain matchups like Irelia or Jax where you can't really rely on Ghoul damage.

Guardian Angel Is a good finisher item. Can win games in certain scenarios and is always an option when there is backdoor potential.

Stridebreaker Is the blacksheep of Tiamat items. I've been experimenting with it alot recently and have found it very fun and surprisingly effective. Combining it with swifties makes you really fast.

EARLY GAME

When considering your early game, you should always be mindful of whether or not you can outscale your opponent and what their win condition is. Playing against a Kayle will be a fundamentally different laning phase than a Renekton. Knowing your matchups will come with time and experience with the champion and the way you play your laning phase will entirely rely on your matchup. If your opponent can out-pressure you lvl 1, you should generally start E and try to last hit the first 3 melee minions while keeping a safe distance. If you out-pressure your oppenent lvl 1, you can take Q and choose two different options:

1. Use Q to harass your opponent and get their health low. This can setup a potential dive or it can get you lvl 2 priority

2. Use Q to farm graves to setup a potential lvl 2-3 all-in or big trade.

Playing out your waves is going to be essential here. Your goal in laning phase is to prepare for your mid-late game. Look to set yourself up in a position where you can reliably win a 1v1 with your opponent in the sidelanes. Whether that is by farming and scaling or putting them in the dirt so they can't outscale you depends on the matchup.

You get a pretty substantial powerspike at lvl 6 with Maiden. Don't be afraid to use it. We will elaborate further in the "Setups" section.

MID GAME

Your mid game is going to be 14-25 minutes (From when plates disappear to when objectives become increasingly important). This is going to mean that your laning phase is essentially decided and generally that either you or your opponent's T1 tower has fallen or is going to fall soon. Rift Herald has spawned and there is less pressure to play in-lane because plates are gone. So what should you do?

In this timeframe, I really like to stay in the sidelanes as much as possible. I rarely join drag fights unless it is the 3rd or 4th dragon , and even then I usually prefer to draw pressure by splitpushing or threatening other objectives. If you are even or ahead of your opponent, you should look to take T1 tower if you haven't already and look to pressure rift herald or bully them out and take their jungler's camps. Look to strengthen your advantage by farming and NOT necessarily by getting kills. Yorick takes camps insanely fast and he can remotely farm with Ghouls, you need to be taking advantage of that. If you get your gold from kills, your bounty will skyrocket and you will have a giant target on your back as an immobile splitpusher.

If you are NOT in this situation and you are behind, please see the "How to Play when Behind" section.

LATE GAME

This is where Yorick shines. Minutes 25+. If you've built lethality your ghouls alone are most likely capable of one-shotting the enemy ADC. You shred towers and you can push fast. If you've farmed well you are more than likely getting close to full build. You are going to be looking for opportunities to close out the game at this point. So how do you do that?

Your macro knowledge is going to be crucial here. Knowing when and how to pressure is going to come with time and knowledge. I heavily recommend you check out AloisNL for macro knowledge. He recently did a series on Yorick and there is a lot to learn in this regard. Generally, you should be looking to pressure the enemy sidelane to allow your team to pressure/ take objectives. You do this by playing up and pushing waves, forcing a response.

If they DO respond by sending your opponent to manage the push, you will want to force them out of lane by killing them or forcing a back. This will let you push and it will more than likely force the enemy team to give your team the objective (usually dragon or baron nashor ).

If they DONT respond at all you are going to need to PUSH fast. They made an incredible mistake. Take as much as you can and threaten to end the game. If you lose vision of the enemy team they are more than likely coming to stop you so back off.

If they send 2 to the sidelane you need to ping your team to pressure. Ideally you should be pressuring when your team is also capable of pressuring so have them force an objective or a 3v4.

These strategies are part-and-parcel for a splitpusher. Keep in mind objective timers and your teams position and game presence. This is what you should do in an ideal scenario where your team is capable of winning a 4v3, however, that is not always the case. Every game is different and knowing how to play out each specific scenario will absolutely come with time. Don't be afraid to wait for good push timers or you might die without your team gaining anything from it.

Your TP is going to be your game winning tool. Don't waste it. Use it to pressure, take Inhibitor , join crucial teamfights, or end the game with a backdoor.



ABILITY USE

















Setups

My general rule of thumb for Yorick setups is the following:

Yorick + 0 Ghouls = Glorified Gromp
Yorick + 1 Ghoul = Barely a Champion
Yorick + 2 Ghouls = Weak
Yorick + 3 Ghouls = Strong
Yorick + 4 Ghouls = Dangerously Powerful

Having Maiden out means that you will be constantly generating ghouls as long as there are enemy minions/neutral monstersthat are dying nearby. When looking for trades or all-ins you can think of your active graves as a "power" meter that you can expend for damage.

For example;
You have 3 graves so you are potentially strong. You then choose to hit your opponent with Mourning Mist and the 3 ghouls jump your opponent while you farm. They clear the ghouls and lose some health. You are now significantly weaker as a champion and it will take some time to get graves back.

This is why you should generally (depends on matchup) look for all-ins with 3-4 ghouls. The ghouls will provide damage while forcing your opponent to choose between attacking you or clearing the ghouls first. In most scenarios, having 3-4 ghouls on you and a Yorick slamming a shovel over your head means death.

Use your graves as a threat of potential damage. This can help you gain presence in the lane but be careful when expending your damage because you will be left weaker for a period of time. Make sure it is worth it.


The Freeze Problem

If you play Yorick a couple times you will quickly notice a problem that is pretty much exclusive to him. Your ghouls and Maiden automatically attack enemy minions without your input. Even if just Maiden is out, she will spawn ghouls automatically who will push the wave. This makes slow pushing difficult and freezing on your opponent a near impossibility if Maiden is already out.

This is a problem but it isn't a big issue if you take into account the extra wave damage that you will be doing. However, not being able to freeze is a big downside when it comes to denying your opponent resources.

The way to play with this is to push in waves quickly if you think you have time to crash it before the next wave arrives. If you don't have enough time, then don't contribute any damage to the wave other than last hits. Don't even try to freeze on your opponent, it will likely not work. Leaving the wave in an optimal state if you kill your opponent on their turn is kinda impossible, so you should always push out the wave and crash it when you can.

Obviously this will lead to a state where the enemy is farming under tower when you would prefer forcing them to fight. Your options here are either to poke/harass them under tower to threaten a dive or roam for objectives. Even if Voidgrub haven't spawned yet, there is usually something you can do in the river to gain an advantage over your opponent.

My hierarchy of things to do when the wave is pushed is usually:

VoidGrub > Rift Scuttler > Plant > Ward River / Enemy Jungle


How to Play When Behind

You're going to make mistakes and you're going to get weaksided. It's a reality. Luckily you are playing Yorick and not some assassin who needs kills to be able to do anything. Yorick is actually in a much better position than most other top-laners when it comes to playing behind.

Once you realize you are behind your first priority should be maximizing the amount of gold you get no matter what. Farming under tower is fine but if your opponent really makes your life miserable by holding a freeze then you're gonna need to ask your jungler for help. Alternatively, you can roam mid and use Dark Procession to gank. Your ultimate focus when your behind bad during the laning phase should be to mismatch you and your opponents tempo so that you are in lane farming when they are in base and that you are in base when they are farming. This is another reason TP is so valuable.

A knee-jerk reaction to being unable to 1v1 your opponent would be to go play with your team. Do not do this. You will miss out on gold and XP that you desperately need to scale. You will also free up your opponent to take a 5v5 that you will often lose because you are behind. You should instead focus on keeping your opponent in lane by pushing out waves and pressuring the map.


Understanding Maiden AI

A great way to understand Maiden AI is if you imagine two things while she is summoned:

1. A 1200 Unit elastic rope between Yorick and Maiden

2. A 500 Unit circle around Maiden.

Then, these principles explain how she works:

1. Maiden will always want to watch Yorick's back and stay 500 units away from him.

2. If Maiden is attacking an enemy entity, she will ignore the above principle and will continue attacking enemy entities in her circle.

3.When the elastic rope reaches 1200 units, Maiden will be forced to stop what she is doing and follow Yorick

4. If Yorick Is in Maiden's Circle, she will attack what he attacks.

5. When the elastic rope reaches 1200 units, Maiden will be forced to stop what she is doing and follow Yorick.

6. When Mourning Mist applies Cursed to a target and she is within 1400 units of that target, she will ignore all above principles and enter a frenzy.

7. When in a frenzy, she will continue to follow and attack the Cursed unit until Cursed wears off.

8. When Cursed wears off, she will continue abiding by principles 1-5.

Get it? Got it? Good. Now on to ghouls.


Understanding Ghoul AI

Ghoul AI is a little simpler. They will follow Yorick unless they are within 200 units of an enemy entity. Then, they will continue to attack that entity until they are dead or Mourning Mist's Cursed forces them to change targets.

When an enemy is Cursed and within 1400 units of the ghoul, they will leap to that target once and stay on that target until the target dies. Then they will return to Yorick

If a Ghoul attacks a lane minion, it will continue pushing that lane until it dies or is redirected by Cursed.


Manipulating AI

Once you get a feel for the AI, you can manipulate it to gain an advantage. It is possible to have Maiden tank tower shots while you trade damage under the enemy Tower . You can have Maiden harass the enemy under Tower while staying just outside of Tower range. You can use Maiden to tank minion shots when you are trying to temporarily freeze a wave. Much of this comes with playing Yorick but knowing how the AI works is essential to doing this. I try to abuse all 3 of these tricks every game.

Tips & Tricks

- You can continue making graves while your ghouls are up up to a max of 4. If you use Mourning Mist on an enemy and they kill the ghouls, the graves will rise and you will continue hurling ghouls at them.

- Tower aggro targets cannon minions over ghouls. This means you can have ghouls damage the tower while it targets the cannon for extra damage.

- Tower aggro targets Ghouls > Cannon > Melee > Caster > Maiden > Champion. This can be abused to harass under tower.

- Dark Procession's knockup can be used to cancel channels like Teleport, Stand United, Death Lotus and many others.

- Use ghouls to continue pushing lanes while you take other objectives,

- At any stage of the game, 4 ghouls can always take down Gromp .

- You can easily solo Baron Nashor at almost every stage of the game (especially 20 minutes) provided that you have 4 ghouls and Eulogy of the Isles ready to cast.

- Take multiple camps by having ghouls solo them while you focus on another.

- You take Rift Herald and Voidgrub exceptionally fast due to the fact that you do not suffer from the damage reduction when they aggro a ghoul.

- If you are far enough away from ghouls or Maiden, they will gain increased movespeed to get back to you.

- Ghouls and Maiden have their own vision radius.

- Yorick is the best champion.

I had alotta fun writing this guide and will try to continue updating it with better visuals/code and more information when I can. Feel free to comment anything I've missed. If you liked the guide, feedback is always appreciated. Time to go play some Yorick.