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Yorick Build Guide by

Lasoor's Guide to Yorick Shepherd of Souls - Season 9

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Yorick Build Guide By Updated on

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Runes:

Resolve

Grasp of the Undying

Demolish

Conditioning

Overgrowth

Inspiration

Magical Footwear

Approach Velocity

Spells:

Teleport

Flash

Items

Start

Split Push Yorick - Main Build

Fighter Yorick - Damage Burst

Tank Yorick - Team Fight

Defensive Items

Offensive Items

Boots

Ability Order

Yorick Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Darius

Extreme

[Top] Yorick and Darius are very closely matched. Yorick is considered a counter to Darius, however that doesn't make the match up easy. It is actually one of the hardest match ups Yorick gets in top lane, despite his advantage, because of how Darius players build and how a Darius main plays. Once Darius gets a grip on you all you can hope to do is run before you are killed. You can't out trade him at melee range, you will lose especially if Darius has his ultimate. The way to counter Darius is to kite him and push him out of lane with your mist, maiden, and ghouls. Once he is low enough you can look for opportunities to trap him and finish him off. Always go in-and-out with your Q to burst him down, never sit there auto attackin him. You win if he can't build enough stacks on you. Keep in mind rushing high health items in ideal for this match up as Darius does a lot of true damage.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Table of Contents

Introduction	Runes	Items
Pros and Cons		Gameplay
Summoner Spells	Abilities	Conclusion

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.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-Lasoor-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Yorick is a underrated champion that in the right hands will be at his enemy's nexus before his enemy even remembers he exists. No, but in all seriousness this champion is one of the strongest split pushers especially if you build off of my split push build. The movement speed focus of my build allows you to easily escape multiple enemies or even outplay them to kill them while you are solo pushing a lane. Yorick's kit is focused on commanding minions who kill everything in sight for their master. He can have his Maiden of the Mist act as a general and push a lane for him without him even being there.

Yorick is strong all throughout the game both as a duelist and a team fighter. Thanks to his ultimate most people underestimate his strength. About 50% of Yorick's kit is focused around his minions, however the majority of players look at just Yorick when thinking about his damage potential while forgetting that his minions do the damage for him. While playing Yorick you will often see enemies run right past your maiden and focus you while the maiden damages them over time and gives you a damage buff on them. This results in you killing multiple enemies while often times at very low health.

This guide should give you the information on how to build and play Yorick needed for you to carry your games with him consistently.

Please let me know in the comments below if you in any way found my guide useful. Also let me know if you disagree on anything I said or if you noticed an error somewhere in my guide whether a factual or grammatical error so that I may fix it.

Here is the official League of Legends spot light video below. Watching it will give you a basic idea on how he works and how to utilize him in a game.

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Pros

+ Very strong split pusher
+ Very strong team fighter
+ High tanking ability
+ High damaging ability
+ Capable of winning most 1v3 fights with ease
+ High farming speed
+ Can 1v1 any monster including Baron
+ Strong in face of kite

Cons

- Can't 1v5 unless fed :(
- His insane power makes you get carried away and die stupidly
- CC slows down his rampage
- Without his ultimate or ghouls he is weaker than many other fighter champions because that is about half his kit
- Weak against high damage fighters if they somehow manage to stick on him

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is a standard choice for most champions. Great on for either escaping or doing a + combo to finish off enemies. You will almost always choose this and should always choose this if you're new to . It also helps you early game tower dive without dying.

isn't recommended on unless you are very skilled with him already. It will allow you to easily chase down enemies and hit them like a truck. They will be amazed at how fast you are if you build the split push build. No one will out run you or catch up to you. However, this isn't really needed. It is more of a luxury ability. Your kit and the items I say to build already make you fast and allow you to easily chase down targets.

You never get on . You don't need it because you can easily get kills without it. Your goal as is to split push and to do that effectively you need to take so you can quickly meet up with your teammates if they need you. also allows you to teleport to your minion waves and quickly take out enemy towers.

You always get this on . It is his core spell. He is primarily played a split pusher due to his extremely strong split pushing ability and because of this he needs to quickly move around the map. He is also a strong team fighter which means he may need to to his teammates and help them out.

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Gives you stronger lane sustain, more poke damage, and helps you build up your max HP.
Very strong on and there isn't really any replacement to it worth taking.

Lets you burst down towers, what's not to love about it? Alternative to this is which will help your team a lot in team fights.

Anything that lets you scale into late game stronger is ideal on Yorick. This gives you more than the other choices.

More health for mass farming/split pushing is exactly what Yorick wants in life.

Helps you poke down your enemy's health so you can eventually all-in them.

Gives you much more laning sustain allowing you to spam your abilities constantly. The alternative to this is which doesn't do nearly as much for you as other Yorick players seem to think. Every time you use your ultimate it reduces the ultimate's cooldown until max stacks. Only problem with that is on a champion like Yorick that makes no sense because Yorick's ultimate tends to survive a long time before going on cooldown in the first place, meaning you use his ultimate less on Yorick than with other champions. This thing is better on champions like and .

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Shepherd of Souls

This is what makes who he is with help of . Basically it places a grave on ground every time an enemy champion dies and every time a certain amount of enemy units die near him. It also allows both and his Maiden of the Mist to have 4 ghouls with them. If your ghouls stray too far they die. Basically with this you can spawn Maiden of the Mist in a lane and have her push it with a ghoul army while you are helping your team with your own ghoul army.

Last Rites

This is 's sustain ability that doubles as his army conscription tool. Every time he last hits an enemy with this ability it places a grave. Once he has 3-4 graves he can activate this ability during its cooldown to call upon ghouls. gets 1 ghoul per grave. also resets your auto attacks which gives you an extra hit on turrets and helps you quickly harm enemies. Every time you hit an enemy you are healed and if you are below half health the healing received is doubled.

Dark Procession

This is how traps enemies or escapes from them. He creates a circular wall that allies can pass through which allows him to trap enemies to kill them, block paths, and protect himself from enemies. It can be destroyed if enemies hit it. This is what makes ganking very difficult along with .

Mourning Mist

Hitting an enemy with this will slow the enemy, increase the movement speed of you and your minions when running toward the enemy, and it will make all your minions target the marked enemy. Your ghouls will jump on them when they attack. This is how you command your army and it will allow you to kill enemies with ease if you land it.

Eulogy of the Isles

This is your strongest ability by far. It creates the Maiden of the Mist who will push lanes for you, target enemies who attack you or are marked by , and it allows you to deal more damage to its targets. The Maiden of the Mist also spawns ghouls every time an enemy champion, minion, or monster dies near it. With this ability you can solo 3 enemies and win with just a if they aren't smart enough to kill the Maiden quickly.

How Maiden Works

1) If Yorick is harmed and Maiden is nearby she will join Yorick in combat.

2) Maiden and all ghouls will target any enemy champion and large monsters you throw your E on.

3) Maiden summons ghouls every time an enemy minion dies, so killing minions quickly helps refill your ghouls in a battle or while taking a turret.

4) Maiden's target slowly takes damage and Yorick does 5 / 7.5 / 10% of target's max health in bonus magic damage consuming this function on first hit. This damage buff is reapplied every two seconds, so in combat you can generally burst people down easily without consistently hitting them(therefore, staying out of the line of fire). Which is why going on-hit Yorick is useless.

5) Maiden's attacks apply life steal for Yorick(heals Yorick), but do not apply on-hit effects or spell effects. (Somehow works with Death's Dance too)

6) Maiden's health scales off of Yorick's max health

7) Maiden's damage scales off of Yorick's AD

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This item will help you get more gold out of farming which is very good for . It gives you similar offensive stats as just without the health. This item will provide some extra sustain in lane, but the primary purpose of it is to farm. You get this in any match up where you feel you can farm very efficiently because as your goal is to farm and push lanes. If you can get 100 CS within 12 - 15 minutes then you should get this item. Once at 100 CS you get 350 gold and you can also sell this item for some of its gold value back. You also get 1 additional gold for each minion you kill which means in total you get the cost of the item back + the gold you get for selling it. Doesn't sound like much, but it helps a lot and when you don't need the extra stats of Reason to get: Are able to farm to 100 CS within 12 - 15 minutes easily

This gives you some added damage, health, and life steal. It's a great item for sustaining in your lane early game. I'd only recommend it on if you are up against an enemy you feel you can kill easily. In which case you'd take this to help kill them fast without dying. Reason to get: Want to abuse a weak enemy for kills

This item is for if you are up against an opponent who easily out sustains you and even may out poke you. This item will give you the added sustain needed to remain in your lane as long as possible to get EXP and CS. This item can also help you do riskier plays. Reason to get: Need added boost to your laning sustain

This item is for if you think you will lose lane against champions that can kite you or out damage you easily. The purpose of this is so you can farm under turret without worrying too much about the abilities or attacks they throw at you. It will block damage for you and restore your health over time. Reason to get: Up against someone who can kite you, harass you, and basically prevent you from doing anything. Farm under turret with it

You only get this if you are split pushing. Helps you move quickly with your other items to chase down enemies and rush lanes to the enemy towers. This item doesn't do much for you in team fighting and that is why you only take it if you are focused on split pushing. Reason to get: You are split pushing

This item is only for if you need to get 40% CDR in your build and the items you chose don't meet that requirement. This item should only be taken if you have 30%
or less CDR in your other items combined. Reason to get: Need more CDR to reach 40%.

This item will help you against enemy CC. It will also help against AP, but the reason for this item is either if you are team fighting and enemy has a lot of CC or if you are split pushing and they are using CC to kill you. Reason to get: Enemy as a lot of crowd control

This is your core item and you always get this on . It gives you a massive power spike and a little of everything you need. You will get AD, AS, CDR, Health, Mana, and lots of movement speed thanks to its passive. You also get massive burst damage after using an ability on your next basic attack. This item is required on . Reason to get: You are playing

This item you get when you are split pushing as . It gives you a lot of defensive stats, but most importantly it gives you movement speed while near turrets or Void Gates, and allows you to place Void Gates which produce Voidspawn to help you push lanes or freeze lanes. Very useful item. Reason to get: You are split pushing

This item gives you a lot of movement speed in form of stacked momentum. At max stacks your next auto attack discharges all stacks to deal bonus damage to enemy and slow them. All around this is a strong defensive item for Yorick that goes great with our "need for speed" strategy. Reason to get: Want the added speed, defensive stats, and slow ability

This gives you added CDR, health, health regeneration, and magic resist. The main reason to get this is for its passive which increases all your healing effects. This makes the healing on your stronger. You shouldn't get this item if the enemy doesn't use a lot of magic damage. Reason to get: Enemy uses magic damage and you want to increase the healing on

This gives you a lot of armor, CDR, and mana. The main reason you get this is for if your enemy is reliant on basic attacking. It will slow their basic attacks so they have lower DPS. This also will protect you from most of the damage. The CDR makes this great for spamming abilities and the mana makes it so you don't have to worry about mana in the process. Reason to get: Need a strong defensive item against basic attack champions

Gives you added damage, AoE damage, health, and health regeneration. The purpose of this item is to increase your damage output in team fights while still adding to your defensive value. In a team fight you are primarily a tank who can deal massive damage. Reason to get: Planning on team fighting a lot and need a damage item that also provides defensive value. This will give you AoE damage.

Helps keep you alive longer in a fight and works perfectly with Yorick's scaling. Considered a "must have" item on Yorick by Yorick mains right now. Gives you damage, health, and a lifeline. When paired with Maw you don't get both lifeline passives, just 1, but procing either passive procs both of the other passives on those items. Reason to get: Need extra tank ability and some more damage.

You get this item to deal more damage, get more CDR, and most importantly to handle enemy AP burst mages or assassins. This will keep you alive and increase your fighting capability in the instance that you are bursted down by enemy AP. This is primarily a team fighting item so you can soak up damage for your team without worrying about dying. Reason to get: You are focused on team fighting and/or need a strong counter to AP burst

This item is great on as a last item pick because it helps you get to 40% CDR, gives you massive health, and allows you to heal rapidly while out of combat. Meaning with this item you can both aggressively split push and aggressively team fight and whenever you are low health you just back out and heal back to full health. Reason to get: Need a last item and have built a lot of health items. This item will allow you to rapidly heal while out of combat.

is only for if you are split pushing. Gives you defensive stats to keep you alive if attacked and most importantly it gives you constant AoE that helps you kill minions quickly. Reason to get: You are split pushing and need a defensive item.

With this item you heal a lot more and are a lot harder to kill. This gives you CDR, damage, and makes 30% of damage on you get taken as bleed damage for 5 seconds instead. Which means it makes bursting you down a lot more difficult. You should normally only get this item if you need a lot more damage and sustain. Reason to get: Need more sustain and damage.

This item used to be a lot better on when its active gave you attack speed. With it you could destroy turrets rapidly, but now it is useful only for its movement speed. It gives you AD, CDR, and Lethality which is all good on , but the movement speed is the reason we take it. If you need a like ability then you can take this item. This also allows you to ignore movement collision. I'd only get this item when ahead though because when you are tied or behind you need defensive items. Reason to get: Need a movement speed buff ability

This is an item you get while ahead. It gives you a lot of extra sustain, damage, and a shield for over healing with life steal. You normally get this item with . Your focus with this item will be killing your enemies. Reason to get: Are ahead and want to quickly kill your enemies and also want to gain a shield for over healing.

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Early Game

Your goal early game is to farm as much as possible in your lane. If you push to the middle of the lane or past that then you should constantly have vision near the river so the enemy can't gank you. If you chose then your goal will be killing the enemy quickly and multiple times so you can take down his tower. If you chose then your goal is to farm as much as you can and rush 100 CS so you can get your gold boost.

You need to be rushing before anything else. You start with for the burst damage, CDR, and mana. This is the most optimal part to get early game. After you will normally get so you can stick on to your enemy and kill him. This also gives you a huge buff to your health.

Once you have you can kill almost any champion in the game 1v1 easily. Your strategy will be basic attacking then using right after. Once you do that you back off if the enemy is stronger than you. If the enemy is weaker you can keep basic attacking him. The way you kill stronger enemies is you use as a poking tool. You go in to hit them with massive damage, back out, and repeat. You can use and to keep the enemy off you or in one area. If you feel you can finish the enemy off then use after landing a and rush the enemy for the kill.

Only time you should leave your lane is to either gank Mid lane or get Rift Herald. And ganking Mid lane should only be done if you're ahead and the enemy is playing safe. Usually you'll be able to kill the enemy Top laner quickly and take out their turret just with your Maiden of the Mist. Even once you get the first turret down you stay top lane to keep consistent pressure and prevent the enemy Top laner from roaming to get stronger. You must keep vision in the jungle near you so you see when the enemy comes to stop you. If his teammates try to cover his lane you must kill them to discourage them from messing with you again. You always want to punish your opponent for leaving lane the best you can. Kill turrets fast, kill anyone who covers lane, and in some cases if they group up to kill you just fight it and win. Normally I'm able to 1v3 by time I have my and . So if the enemy tries to kill me I just kill them. Even if you die in process it shows them that trying to stop you isn't possible. It scares them away from you and often times they stop going top entirely giving you a free lane and free access to their inhibitors.

If you can't 1v3 and the enemy tries to kill you then you can easily get away using , , and . If they keep chasing you while your Maiden of the Mist hits them you should consistently go back in to use on the person being targeted by the maiden so you can eventually kill him. Repeat this until all enemies are dead, you are low health, the enemies stopped chasing, or the enemies got smart and killed your maiden. This is how you 1v3 even if you shouldn't be able to. It's similar to how can kill multiple enemies except is a lot stronger.

If you are building to team fight then after you take your first tower you start grouping with your team to help them. Then you only go top to keep it from being pushed to your turret.

Mid Game

Mid Game is when you start roaming more even when split pushing. Early Game you focus top lane, but Mid Game is when you focus all lanes. Every time you see a lane that lacks both enemies and allies you push it and try to take a turret. A great strategy is to bounce from top to bottom while your allies and enemies are fighting mid. The reason for this is it keeps your enemies constantly moving around the map to chase after you while you push lanes and waste their time. In the mean time your teammates should be pushing mid, taking dragon, taking baron, or doing something else considered useful.

If you chose to be a team fighter instead of a split pusher then your goal should be staying by your team and killing as many enemies as possible so you can rush down their lane and kill every tower. Normally the main issue with being a team fighter is you'll be the enemy's target and you're also facing a lot more than 3 enemies. 2 extra enemies means way more CC and damage coming your way. You also can't use your same strategies for fighting 1v3 when team fighting. When you team fight you have to keep your allies alive too, not just yourself. When you're solo pushing and enemy tries to stop you then you can just run away while dealing damage with your Maiden of the Mist and until the enemies die. You can't do that in a team fight. If your enemy doesn't focus on you then take advantage of that to rush their back line and kill their carries quickly with your ghouls and .

You should also be securing objectives like Baron and Dragon to make sure your team is able to stay ahead.

Late Game

In the Late Game you slowly stop being as relevant in team fights. Your focus at this point is getting Baron and pushing lanes with it or split pushing. You need to make sure you defend any towers with your team and it is best to stay around your team so they don't mess up and all die. If you made it to the late game then chances are you either failed at split pushing or chose to be a team fighter and your team as a whole failed at pushing lanes.

At this point you need to focus on trying to kill all the enemies or most of them so you can get free turrets. Using objectives like Baron and Elder Dragon as bait can sometimes get you your much needed Ace. If your team is somehow losing team fights even with a then your only hope is to split push so your team can fight 4v3 or 4v2 instead of 5v5.

If you are losing in the Late Game then your priority should be defending objectives. is great at defending towers because he can throw his ghouls and Maiden of the Mist on to the enemy to deal lots of damage. He can also separate enemies with to help his team kill strong fighters or carries.

Team Fighting

If you built for split pushing then your goal in team fights is to be highly aggressive. You will rush in with your team following up with you and focus down all the enemy high damage squishy champions such as mages, adcs, and assassins. You'll use to easily trap enemies and to chase enemies and target your ghouls on enemies. If your team properly follows up with you then you should win almost every team fight due to your massive damage, zoning, and speed. You can catch up to enemies insanely fast to kill them. The only hope your enemy has with dealing with you is bursting you down, which won't be easy to do if you built defensive items. is a bruiser, he can take a lot of damage. It is best to back out while low health, especially if you have your Maiden of the Mist. Reason is you are more use to your team alive and with your Maiden of the Mist you can stay in the fight on the back lines and peel for your carries while low health until you get your health back up.

If you built to team fight then your focus should be peeling for your carries and killing the enemy front line which is normally tanks and fighters. You can deal massive damage to them and are a great asset to your team for keeping enemies off your carries by using and .

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That's it for my Shepherd of Souls guide. I hope you found it educational and I also hope you find success playing .

If you liked anything about my guide or even had any questions about it please leave a comment. Feedback is always appreciated. If you liked this guide you might also like my other guides which have similar layouts. You can find those guides by clicking here