Welcome!

I have been playing Yorick since the beginning of season 5 (When I started playing the game) and after his rework I fell in love with the champ and played him exclusively; taking me to Gold in Season 6, Plat in Season 7 & 9, and Diamond in Season 8. I play here and there casually now as well with anyone who wants to play! I wanted to make a guide for anyone out there new to the champ or simply wanting to get better, as there is a very limited amount of Yorick guides around as his play rate is quite low and a lot of people do not understand him. This guide is a work in progress as I am in-between graduate school and working full time so I'll to work on it as much as I can for you guys and keep it updated!

Why Yorick?

Yorick is a very fun champion to play and learn. He is still very underrated at the moment and many don't respect his damage output or split-push potential. If your team is very behind, games can still be won simply through his split-pushing ability alone. His kit is focused around controlling your ghouls and Maiden to push your lane and do serious damage to anyone (or anything) standing in your way.

Yorick is a strong champion throughout all lengths of games as he is able to become very tanky while still dealing massive amounts of damage to champions and objectives. With his ultimate up, many people often underestimate it's damage and at many points in the game; the Maiden and Yorick can take dragons, rift herald, or even baron with ease.

While playing Yorick you will often see enemy players disregard the maiden and focus on attacking you while the maiden damages them over time and gives you a percentage max health damage buff on them. This results in you killing multiple enemies while often times at very low health due to your Q healing more at low health and your sheer damage output.

Pros

+ Very Strong Laner
+ Very effective Split Pusher
+ High Damage Output
+ Showballs very hard
+ Capable of winning most 1v3 fights with ease
+ High clear speed
+ Can 1v1 any monster or objective including Baron
+ Has ability to chase down most anyone with his e
+ Has a very easy last hit with his Q (Builds up graves also)
+ Can now take first tower consistently with Demolish
+ Super easy Rift Herald kill

Cons

- Cannot Peel very well
- Doesn't have the best CC to add when team-fighting
- When he is CC'd your only damage for the time being is your ghouls or maiden
- Massive power spike at level 6, must be careful until then.
- Ranged top laners are no fun

Demolish works fantastic on Yorick with his split pushing ability.

I believe Conqueror is now the best main rune on Yorick, and the remaining choices in this path are personal preference. If the enemy team has a lot of CC I feel he benefits much more with permanent Tenacity from Legend: Tenacity, as it is easier to track down and secure kills. However, if not stick to Legend: Alacrity. Triumph is also great for fights if the enemy player has ignite or has a way to kill you after death. You should take Last Stand as the final rune as well.

I believe that taking Demolish and Bone Plating as you two secondary runes is the way to go. If you would prefer health over resistance in the later side of the same, exchange Bone Plating for Overgrowth. Revitalize isn't bad, but Overgrowth is usually what I would go with if I knew I'd be top lane pushing all game.

Triforce -



Sterak's Gage -


Dead Man's Plate -

So I know what you're thinking; How can I carry with Yorick?
Winning with Yorick is actually quite simple and can be done in a few ways.

Split-pushing Strategy

The split-pushing strategy is highly effective as a motto I play by is objectives win games. Your goal is to essentially take as many objectives as possible while constantly applying pressure in whatever lanes you can. With your ultimate cooldown recently decreased and it being up more often don't be so hesitant on when to use it anymore. I recommend you get Demolish now in every game you play as your ability to take towers with it is absurd. I will not lie with the split-pushing strategy you will most likely die a bit but it will allow the rest of your team to catch up or take needed objectives like dragons or baron or even towers from lost lanes. Do not tilt! Tilting is the number one cause of losing, just keep cool and if you find you can't do much, just keep pressuring the lane someone will have to stop you.
The split-push build path I traditionally take is Trinity Force, followed up by Ninja Tabi then, Sterak's Gage, then the last two items are really up to you. If you need some more damage grab a Titanic Hydra or Death's Dance (this item is great because you heal from your ghoul and maiden damage) then if needed a Spirit Visage to heal a bit more when pushing. If you seem to keep dying or they have a lot of fed ADs, just pick up a Bramble Vest or Thornmail to stop their carnage.

A very optimal way to utilize Yorick's pushing power is to use your ultimate in one lane, then teleport or walk to another lane and push it out. Your maiden will spawn more Ghouls in her lane and will force the enemy team to send someone to take care of it.

Also a very strong tip when pushing or taking objectives that makes it go even faster is to alternate between using your abilities every 1.5 seconds (since they're on such short cooldowns anyways) while damaging the objective to get off your Sheen proc. This actually deals a very high amount of damage especially when you have a Sterak's Gage or other AD items in your arsenal as well. Remember your Q resets your auto attack and now applies to towers! Try it in your next game if you didn't know about this it'll save you a lot of time! :)



Fighter Strategy

The fighter strategy is highly effective and can even be used with split-pushing as well as you will be dealing more damage and be able to fight 1v3 with your ultimate at almost any part of the game. I recommend you take this route if you are ahead in lane and your team isn't too far behind. Your goal with this build is to help any lane you can by roaming or just walking into their lane and taking objectives with or for them while destroying their laner(s). For this build I traditionally go Trinity Force, Mercury's Treads followed up with a Death's Dance and Sterak's Gage then for resistances and extra hp to make the hydra even stonger I grab a Dead Man's Plate and finish the build with a Spirit Visage. Your Maiden and Ghouls scale off your AD and HP so they'll both be very strong as well.


So what works best for me?

In all honesty, Yorick is a very diverse champion and due to his scaling and abilities, most items are very strong on him and he can be played very differently depending on the person or situation. Traditionally speaking whenever I play, I change my build up almost every game to have some fun and keep it refreshing. The only thing I must remind you is that you need to have Trinity Force every game, if you think you can play without it, I've seen some people go Black Cleaver into Iceborn Gauntlet, however I personally do not like it. I'd only really recommend it if they have multiple tanks and lack Magic damage.

If you're in Bronze, Silver, or Gold picking Yorick is an excellent option top lane almsot every time as a vast majority of players do not even own the champion, let alone know what he does. Why this is good is because you really don't even have to be that strong of a player as many are extremely unfamiliar with the match-up and lower elo players tend to struggle dealing with split-pushing champions.

Lastly if you still find you self struggling and can't seem to lane well, you can solo rift herald with your ultimate and that alone can save a broken lane or dominate an already successful one.

TL;DR

Yorick is a great pick in most elos as many people are unfamiliar with his abilities and power.

Yorick can easily carry games and can be built in a vast majority of ways. If you wanna try a different mastery or different items play around with it and see how you do! :)