So this isn't going to be a traditional guide because I believe that every other person on here can tell you the basics of laning with him better than I can and there's no reason for me to say the same things they say only they say it better.

Rather this guide is going to be on some tips and tricks that I've learned as Yorick that aren't usually things that you'll find in a guide.

So this is something that's "obvious" when you think about it but the thing is you might not think about it.

So maxing Q first is a no brainer since you'll get ghouls faster and deal more damage with it.

But which do you max 2nd?

Most websites and guides say E second which isn't wrong since that's what you'll be taking most of the time; however there are times when maxing W second is more desirable.

When you rank up your W you increase the amount of autos it takes to destroy it: it goes 2/2/3/3/4.

What does this mean? It means that if you're up against a champion without a dash, it may be more helpful to rank up your W first since it traps them in your cage longer. This is not only useful offensively (they can't escape you) but also defensively (they can't get to you).

Naturally increasing your W's HP will be useless against a champion with a dash so against enemy top laners who can't escape your cage, just max E as normally.

There's a lot to talk about here so forgive me if my organization isn't so great.

Overview

An important part of playing Yorick is keeping your ultimate alive. You are basically 2/3 of a champion if Maiden is not up and if you do not have her with you, you should always play super cautiously.

1) Ultimate Range

If you haven't recast it to let it go, your Maiden will stay within a certain range (900 I believe). So say you pushed your enemy laner under tower and you had some ghouls up and you used your E to poke at them under tower and now your Maiden is hitting them under tower. What you should do is back off so that your Maiden will return to you, stop attacking the laner, and not take tower damage. The range is quite high so it can be annoying to half to walk halfway back to your tower then walk back but it's worth it to keep your Maiden alive

1) Tower Aggro on Maiden

One thing that I struggled with as a new Yorick player is when I'm pushing with my Maiden up and the tower just starts targeting Maiden and it dies and I'm crippled for the next 2 minutes.

What I didn't know was that the tower prioritizes cannon minions over Maiden which it prioritizes over other minions. So if you want to push a tower with Maiden but not lose it to tower damage, you need to wait for a cannon minion wave to arrive. If you think that will take too long then you can back if it's early game, which is a good time to do so since you've already pushed in the minion wave, or if it's mid-game you can farm the enemy jungle then return to lane.

3) Soloing Rift Herald.

Many champions can solo Rift Herald but imo Yorick is one of the best at doing so. This is because your Ultimate applies a mark onto whatever enemy it's attacking and when it's marked, Yorick's next auto will apply % hp magic damage. It is important when getting rift that you tank the Rift Herald as again, you want to keep Maiden alive at all costs.

It should be noted that Maiden's mark is in general good for taking objectives and though I like split pushing, it may really come in handy for getting Baron quickly.

4) Recasting your Ultimate

So you know that you have an option to recast your Ultimate and let it run down the lane and perhaps you're wondering what's the best situation for this?

Almost never tbh.

Your Maiden is just too good when it's partnered up with you. If you're just pushing, Maiden lets you spawn ghouls much more efficiently and therefore push faster. If you're looking for 1v1s and 1v2s then it's basically suicide to fight without Maiden. Whether you're playing aggressively and going for kills or if you're just passively splitting and backing, it's always much better to keep Maiden with you.

Earlier I said "almost" never and there is one situation in which I believe it's okay to let Maiden run down a lane. This is if earlier you took an enemy Inhib Turret but not the Inhib itself. You can let Maiden run down the lane with the exposed Inhib while you push down the lane opposite, effectively pushing two lanes at once. This forces them to either send multiple people to deal with you and Maiden or for one person to choose between you and Maiden. Still if they choose to stop Maiden and even if you get a tower, you'd have to wait for Maiden to come back before playing aggressively again and it's usually not worth it IMO

Earlier I listed 3 "controversial items" and what I mean by that is that these items are items that seem good for Yorick on paper but really are noob traps.

1) Titanic Hydra

Titanic Hydra looks nice since it gives stats that Maiden and the ghouls scale off of and adds split pushing power that actually does not conflict with your ghoul spawning since with Maiden and the fact that you get 1 ghoul per 2 cs at later stages of the game, it doesn't matter and you can push incredibly quickly.

But the reason it's not that good is simply that Yorick already has enough damage between Tri-Force and Sterak's Gage and building tank stats rather than more damage is preferable; in addition you can't replace either of the two with Titanic Hydra either since both are simply much better on Yorick. I used to run it and although I must admit the push speed feels nice, it's just not worth the gold.

2) Zz'Rot Portal

Another item that's actually not as good as you'd think. If you're at a tower, you can push it down quickly and if there's no time for that because the enemy is reacting to your push then there's no point using a Zz'Rot since they'll just kill it basically right after you put it down.

3) Spear of Shojin

This isn't controversial or a noob trap so much as it just plain sucks but I'm putting it in here because I've seen a few people talk about it.

Spear of Shojin is bad. The stats it gives you aren't great as you usually want to build tanky after the first 2 items and at least Titanic Hydra gives HP. The passive is useless since if you're a decent Yorick, you'll just constantly have your ult up with you and you'll be keeping it alive. Just overall not a good build choice; at least the first 2 there's some kind of logic as to how they might be good but not this one.

1) You can use your W to effectively build 2 walls in certain tight areas in the jungle. Many champs have one dash to get through one wall but almost none will have 2

2) If you mark your enemy with E, and THEN spawn your ghouls with Q, the spawned ghouls will still attack your enemy but it won't be telegraphed as much

3) if your jungler is ganking but you don't have ghouls or Maiden up, try to let them know that you won't be as useful without them and he should wait a bit or come back later (unless you're about to die)