Yorick is a new, yet much maligned, Champion on the Fields of Justice. Many player, I should say *most* players, are very critical of Yorick; he is under powered, he is difficult, he cannot be built right, or he does not fit into teams well are his primary complaints. Many of them are overstated due to frustration, both in this Champions difficulty as well as his cost of 6300 IP. And yet, Yorick can still be a very fun Champion to play and a real wild card, at least until he is figured out.

Firstly, this guide is not to make him some awesome ranked Champion. At this point in time, he will, unfortunately, need some work before he fits into a tier 2, least of all tier 1, roster pick for ranked a championship play. The one complaint that does ring true is that there is nothing Yorick can do that cannot be done better by another champion.

In any case, this guide is for finding FUN in Yorick, having a few laughs and hopefully being successful along the way.

All Champs have ups and downs. Yorick is a little more extreme than others.

Pros:
+Very fun and unique playstyle
+Buildable for different purposes, both as a Tanky DPS as well as Jungler/Roamer
+Low cost spells, spammable with the right equipment
+Wrecks havoc with enemy Minion and Tower AI, targeting ghouls instead of you!
+Excellent team based Ulti
+Area of Effect snare/Speed Boost

Cons:
-Very low base mana, both at start and late game
-Requires strict control of resources until mid- to late-game
-Has trouble farming minions until mid- to late-game
-A little on the slow side for a brawler
-Expensive at 6300 IP
-Only 1 CC skill, and a weak one until leveled!

Many players are having a hard time finding a niche for Yorick to fill. As far as Tanky Melee DPS Champs, there are many to pick from; Lee Sin, Jarvan IV, Rumble etc. Many of these are also better choices for ranked play as their synergy with other Champions is proven and time tested.

Yorick, however, fills a similar role as these other Champions, but with more grace and precision. He requires both better timing and tighter positioning to work as well, which is why he is somewhat maligned at this point; why take Yorick if you can have Rumble? In any case, this guide is not about min/max-ing your team strength, this is about having a postmortem giggle with the Gravedigger! Bring on the party and zombie strippers! Woot!

Strategy
Strategy is the larger picture. Which lanes do you manage? How do you manage creeps and ganks? How do you synergize with your teammates from across the map? These are all questions of Strategy.

Early Game: lvls 1-6
Begin the game with a Meki Pendant and Health Potions. Take Omen of Famine as your first skill. While Omen of Pestilence will work better for ganks, the slow is really small at level 1, whereas the Omen of Famine will provide in lane harassment and longevity.

Question: Why take Meki Pendant over a Sapphire Crystal?
Well, let's assume your abilities average to around 50 mana for the beginning portion of the game. A Sapphire Crystal will provide 4 additional spell casts. Assuming you do not ever top off at full mana, the Meki Pendent will provide this much additional mana via regen at around 2 minutes 20 seconds. Are you staying in lane longer than that? Chances are, yes, in which case the Pendant's regen will exceed the amount of casts you get from the Crystal for the longer term. They both are components of Tear of the Goddess, so if you prefer the Crystal, have at it.

Take solo top in a 5s. You can jungle with Yorick, however I have not had time to explore his builds and usage in this way. This guide is for laning in 5s. Between levels 1 through 6, you will have Mana issues. Do not spam your abilities. Use them as a last resort to grab an extra last hit or to harass you opponent. If it is clear you are the tougher adversary, you can lightly zone your enemy by placing yourself between him and his minion line. Last hit enemies while using your Omen of Famine and Omen of Pestilence to keep him away. These two skills are primary for success as Yorick.

Question: Why are you not taking Omen of Famine?
Omen of Famine is a good ability, a nice nuke and harass skill, but by and large, your other Omens are better for most the game. One rank is taken early, primarily to harass enemies and to regen a little bit of health, however Omen of War and Omen of Pestilence both deal more damage and their Ghouls are more useful. A different build I have been experimenting with is build near solid AD and leveling Omen of Pestilence and Omen of Famine without War and playing as a stand-offish Nuke/Mage. It actually is not bad. See "Becoming the Omen: Builds & Tactics" for more info.

Mid Game: lvl 7-12
When you have around 965+ gold, recall when safe and purchase your Tear of the Goddess and some Boots. The Tear is a very core item for Yorick and, in essence, solves all of his mana problems when charged. Try and charge it to at least 500 mana before turning it into a Manamune because the two passives DO stack.

When you get a Tear of the Goddess each time you cast a spell you gain 4 additional mana. This caps at +1000 mana. Now, when you turn it into a Manamune, the +1000 you got from the Tear does not go away! From here, you can now build the passive from the Manamune simply by attacking and it will stack with the previous Tear. A fully charged Manamune will give you +2350 Mana, +67 AD, and +7 Mana Regen. This is paramount for Yorick!

Continue pushing your lane through the Mid game, hopefully taking your tower solo or with help. Be vigilant always for ganks from the jungle and do your part and drop a ward! From here, you need to figure which item to build next. If you are struggling with too much damage in your lane, build a Hearthstone and build it into a Spirit Visage. This will also increase your Health Regen AND the health gained via sucking life with Omen of Famine. If you are feeling confident and untouchable, finish building your Manamune. If faced with alot of CC in your lane, grab your Mercury's Treads.

End Game: lvl 13-18
The main items for Yorick are the Manamune and the Spirit Visage. These are Yorick's core items. By that, I mean these items are both necessary for success with this play style as well as being affordable such that you should be able to get them every game!

Remember to switch boots based on your enemies; Mercury's Treads for mages, Ninja Tabi for AD ownage, or Berserker's Greaves if you feel like a badass.

Being an AD Champ, but also being a bruiser, means that you can finish in a few ways;
-You can build into AD Carry if you have both the balls and the team support(being fed alot early can make you quite scary). Pick up Black Cleaver or Infinity Edge followed by whatever other hurty PEWPEW items you want and lay on the pain! Really requires great team support, preferably by a healer such as Sona or Soraka. Phantom Dancer's work well.
-You can build into a bruiser, keeping decent damage and harass with team support, but getting some more Armor and Magic Resist to make you tougher. Consider another offensive item, such as a Frozen Mallet or Trinity Force, but get some defense as well such as Thornmail against AD or Banshee's Veil/ Force of Nature against mages.
-Finally, you can go into full off-tank mode, grabbing 3 more defensive items. Again, base them off of your enemy but generally Force of Nature, Thornmail, Banshee's Veil, Warmog's Armor, or Guardian Angel are your choices. Fill in as needed.

Tactics
Tactics refer to the micro scale of the battle. How do you engage? How do you retreat? What is your spell casting order? How is your ultimate used properly? These are all questions of Tactics.

Engaging Solo
When engaging solo, your ultimate is truly a piece of work. In essence you increase your melee damage by 50% for 10 seconds. When you cast Omen of Death on yourself, it summons a Revenant. This pet is controllable, use alt+click to tell it what to engage. If you are killed while the Revenant lives, the Revenant will die and you will reanimate for 10 seconds, or death, whichever comes first. During this time you may move and attack at will.

Unless facing an extremely scary enemy, chances are high you will win or, at the least, tie with a mutual kill. Start by surprising your enemy if possible, jumping out of the bushes. Make sure you yell "HIYAA!" as loud as possible, preferably in chat. Open with Omen of Pestilence on your victim, followed by Omen of Death on yourself. Make sure you order your Revenant to attack the victim! This will ensure he does not get sidetracked. Follow by spamming your other skills, using Omen of War if you have it to keep your speed up and Omen of Famine when the little blighter gets out of range. If you have Sheen or Trinity Force, make sure you hit them in between spell casts to maximize damage.

Engaging in Team Fights
Team fights are similar in spell rotation, however you should use your Omen of Death on your ranged AD Carry! This will ensure that a) he will be able to stay in range and destroy stuff, and b) if your real AD Carry dies, he gets 10 seconds to rape the enemy to death for it. Using the Omen of Death earlier in a fight than later can turn a 5v5 into a 6v5, or an unfortunate 4v5 into a fair 5v5.

Try and target squishys on the enemy team. Focus on their Ranged AD Carry or their AP Carry, both will go down fast. Again, use alt+click to make your Revenant attack whichever target you want! Your Omen of Famine and Omen of War will both attack whichever Champ you used them on, but Omen of Pestilence is a BOSS and attacks whatever he feels like.

Care and Feeding of your pet Revenant
Remember to practice with controlling pets. Alt+Right Click will order your Revenant to either move to this location, if it is on the ground or friendly unit, or attack the target, if it is an enemy or neutral creep. Be sure to encourage and praise your Revenant when he does well!

Tanking with your Revenant
Revenants can also be used as disposable tanks. If you have decent health/armor, so will your Revenant. Use this and summon a Revenant, ordering it to attack an unguarded Turret. While the Turret attacks the Revenant, attack away yourself or better yet with teammates. This will net you some decent damage on the Turret. Remember, if your Revenant attacks an enemy champion in Turret range, YOU will be targeted, not the Revenant!

Juking with your Revenant
Revenants look just like you to the enemy. If you can manage it, use this to your advantage by making your Revenant move and attack like you would! Run into some bushes with an enemy following. Use Omen of Death on yourself and order your Revenant to stay in the bushed while you run out the other side. The moment of confusion when the enemy finds an apparent you waiting in the bushes will be enough time to escape proper!

There are a few effective ways to build Yorick. Take note, however, that both of these builds incorporate Omen of Pestilence as a primary or secondary skill.

Yorick as a Brawler
When building as a brawler, you need to focus on building Omen of War first. You can get it to Rank 5 at Level 9, so do so. Always put a point in it if you can. This Omen is a standard for brawling; low CD, consistently low mana(stays at 40), and deals decent damage.

Using Omen of War
When using this Omen, be sure to attack first. Like Trundle's Bite, this resets your auto-attack. So, you will do a quick one-two with an attack and then Omen of War. The Ghoul it summons deals decent damage as well, especially it your target remains skill and just gets hit.

In order to play Yorick as a brawler, you'll need survivability as well as damage. I suggest the following end-game build;


This is a great blend of defense and offense! The order you build in is very important as well. Grab your defense items in the order that you face enemies, I suggest buying your Frozen Mallet as soon as possible to protect your team and give you survivability.

Yorick as a "Mage"
Say WHAAAAAAT?!? Yorick is not a mage! Well, his gameplay can be like this if build right, using your Omens and Ghouls to inflict damage, but staying back yourself to avoid damage and only committing to fights when you know you can win. The key here is building Omen of Pestilence and Omen of Famine as quickly as possible, negating War until later levels. Both deal high ranged damage and work well.

Also, note that his ranged Omen are magic damage, so MagPen is needed!

Here is a suggested build for "Mage"-like gameplay. Note the emphasis on damage over survivability;


I know, unrealistic, but you get the idea; damage > survivability!

Yorick as a Jungler
Just throwing this in. Note, I find Yorick difficult as a Jungler/Roamer from level 1, but he gets very good later. The reason is you absolutely have to have a Meki Pendant to be able to use skills, but to Jungle you really need a Vampiric Scepter.

Take Omen of Famine and rank it as fast as possible.

Build for Roaming, at least for the first half the game. Build into a more standard AD damage/brawler build past the laning phase;


You can trade in the lantern for better damage items later in the game. Also, don't forget to upgrade tear into Manamune!

There are a few alternative build options for Yorick, the most common of which surrounds Trinity Force. In this section, I will post additional effective builds I have seen while playing against other Yoricks or builds I am experimenting with.

Melee AD Carry
This build will revolve solely on maxing Omen of War and getting tons of damage and strait health. I believe this can be effective with the right team, however it either wins lots or fails lots, so make sure you can tip the game in your favor!

Masteries
Instead of the 9/0/21 I recommend, give a 21/0/9 instead. This will maximize your damage output.

Item Build
Start with a Sapphire Crystal and build into a Sheen. Follow up with Berserker's Greaves, Phage, and Zeal for turning into a Trinity Force. From here, build an Atma's Impaler and load up on health! Getting a Phantom Dancer is highly recommended to enhance your abysmal attack speed.

My Thoughts
It can work, really, but in most games you will not be fed enough to do so. Plus, your mana supply is tiny, so you cannot focus on spamming skills at all. However, I have seen a few good players rock this build, ending up quite decent on the scoreboard. Again, this build is completely based off of your team! They must carry you, feed you, and nourish your ego and big balls until you can return the favor in end-game!

I have yet to have an exceptional game with Yorick, but I will archive my wins or better losses here. He is a tough champ to learn and play, but his sophistication and difficulty are fun for me. In any case, here are a few SSs of notable games. I will even throw some losses here if they were ok.

06/24 - 06/25
The 1/2/4 was a very short game and the enemy surrendered before we could completely roll them. Just like the 3/2/1 which, unfortunately, we lost, however it was an excellent game. Only 4 kills and 7 deaths the whole game! The 6/3/11 was a very good one, myself supporting a Katarina and we were an awesome combo on bot lane in 3v3.

Yes, these are not high scoring, but they are shorter games and 3v3s. Will post up some 5v5 wins when my team gets back into town off of vacation(lazy bastards)!

06/27
Another good game, with myself supporting an Ashe. Quite a few of these assists are due to my grabbing them with Omen of Pestilence so Ashe could apply a slow. I also ended up with Frozen Mallet ABSOLUTELY indispensable!

Please, hit me up with some other builds to try or some tips! I am still learning the Champ, probably won't get any ZOMG games will I can rock with my premade 3s and 5s teams.

Feel free to leave some comments, suggestions, or flames. Hey, we all need to vent amirite?

Cheers!