Click to open network menu
Join or Log In
Mobafire logo

Join the leading League of Legends community. Create and share Champion Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

MOBAFire's first Mini Guide Contest of Season 14 is here! Create or update guides for the 30 featured champions and compete for up to $200 in prizes! 🏆
Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

x
Yorick Build Guide by NinetalesOCE

Top Ninetales' Guide to Top Yorick for the end of Season 10

Top Ninetales' Guide to Top Yorick for the end of Season 10

Updated on September 21, 2020
9.8
288
Votes
15
Vote Vote
League of Legends Build Guide Author NinetalesOCE Build Guide By NinetalesOCE 288 15 422,752 Views 16 Comments
288 15 422,752 Views 16 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author NinetalesOCE Yorick Build Guide By NinetalesOCE Updated on September 21, 2020
x
Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment. You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment

You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.

I liked this Guide
I didn't like this Guide
Commenting is required to vote!
Would you like to add a comment to your vote?

Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.

Runes:

1 2
Resolve
Grasp of the Undying
Demolish
Conditioning
Overgrowth

Precision
Overheal
Legend: Bloodline
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2
Safety
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

Champion Build Guide

Ninetales' Guide to Top Yorick for the end of Season 10

By NinetalesOCE
Hello there and welcome to my Guide on Top Lane Yorick. My name is Ninetales and I have been playing League of Legends since season 1, peaking at rank 39 on the Challenger ladder in season 3 and finishing challenger numerous times since. I primarily play on the Oceania server, but I also play on the Korean server from my residence in Perth, Western Australia with 135 ping where I peaked at Diamond 2 with an 82% winrate.

I started playing Yorick in season 7 after they reverted my Jungle Machine Gun Kog'maw and I had recently come back from a long break, and so far i have almost two million mastery points on the champion and know everything about him, so think of me as the Yorick Guru.

I primarily play him as a Jungler because i feel he is stronger in that position, which i also have a written guide for which you can find here. However for this guide, i will be explaining how to play Top Lane Yorick.

I hope you find the guide an interesting read and enjoy playing Yorick to his fullest potential.
I stream over at www.twitch.tv/Ninetales and have a youtube channel at www.youtube.com/NinetalesOCE, which will hopefully have the content you're looking for if you're in need of further help after reading the guide.

Difficulty


DIFFICULTY TO PLAY: 4
DIFFICULTY TO MASTER: 7-8
In terms of difficulty to play, Top Lane Yorick is not very high on the scale. Your opponents will likely at some stage, allow you to push the lane and take objectives, so you will merely have to survive laning to the best of your ability and then take advantage of the situations that you're given.

To master the champion, it involves understanding the AI that governs his pets and the positioning that is important to maintain control of the various parts of his kit. With these in mind, it can be quite complex and can take a long time.

THE GOOD

+ Great Solo Carry Potential.
+ Can snowball very easily.
+ You have pets to accompany you throughout the game.
+ Terrific objective control, with the ability to solo dragon and baron at the earliest times possible.
+ You have the versatility to play Split-push or teamfight.
+ For once, the meta actually suits him.

THE BAD

- Can be difficult to master.
- Easy to get overconfident.
- Can be set behind early due to some very bad match-ups.
- Only as effective as your decision making.
- May force you to play split-push, a strategy many are uncomfortable with.

IT'S UNIQUE

There are not many champions that can play split-push as effectively as Yorick, and there are not many minion-mancer champions in the game in general. He is most definitely one of a kind and rather underplayed.

OBJECTIVE CONTROL

Yorick has one of the best objective controls in the game. He can solo baron nashor, solo dragons, take rift herald extremely quickly, abuses mountain dragons, push lanes ridiculously hard and can be a force to reckon with by himself.[/center]

Shepherd of Souls

Most people don't know what Yorick's passive is. Well it's called Shepherd of Souls, and it simply makes nearby enemy units drop graves every X amount of deaths. You can see the counter in your buff bar just above your abilities at the bottom of your screen, and it ranks up at levels 1, 6 and 13 to every 12th, 6th and 2nd enemy unit death. Enemy champions that die near Yorick will always leave a grave unless the maiden of the mist summons a mist walker from their corpse automatically.

His passive also gives Yorick and the maiden of the mist the ability to have mist walkers under their command. The graves have an expiration range of 2000 and the mist walkers can be summoned from graves within 1200 range of Yorick.

This passive can be noticeably useful in the laning phase, but it comes into strength as the game hits mid-game and it begins to leave graves from nearby corpses every two nearby unit deaths. This means that in pushing on your lonesome or with the team, you're less relied on landing last hits with your Last Rites to get mist walkers.

Last Rites

Whenever you last hit a minion, champion, jungle monster or epic monster with your Last Rites, it will leave a small grave on the floor. Useful as a last hitting tool and auto-attack reset, Last Rites is your primary source of leaving graves on the ground to be used to spawn mist walkers. It has great base damage, a good attack damage ratio and a nice heal alongside it.

If you already have four graves nearby, last hitting a unit will replace the grave furtherest away from Yorick with the new location.

Awakening

While your Last Rites is on cooldown and you are around three or more nearby graves, you are able to re-cast the ability to summon mist walkers from the graves. The mist walkers will immediately attack the nearest target to their summoning location or if there are no targets, will immediately follow Yorick walking 200 range behind him.

Dark Procession

Arguably one of the strongest abilities in the game, Dark Procession has the ability to create a circular wall around an area that is unpassable by enemy units but allows your allied units to walk through it. It has a base health of two hit points which increases to three and four at ranks 1/3/5 of the ability.

The enemy can choose to attack your wall to defeat it early, or it will simply expire after four seconds. Similarly, the wall will always die to one tower hit regardless of it's max hit points.

The wall takes one second to activate, and will serve as a knock-back to channelling abilities if it displaces the enemy champion when it rises. This is usually attainable by casting the spell so that the champion is on the centre of one of the actual wall as opposed to being in the middle of the area. This is particularly useful against Teleport, Stand United, Crowstorm and river scuttler.

If the wall displaces a champion into the centre of the trap, it will attact tower aggro if casted under tower. If it does not displace the champion, or if it displaces them towards the outside, it will not draw tower aggro.

Mourning Mist

One of the only ways you can control the Mist Walkers, Mourning Mist acts as both your movement speed steroid and redirection of the target which your mist walkers are attacking. If you land the spell on a champion, it will cause all nearby mist walkers to gain a ! above their head which causes them to jump to the target and dealing one auto-attack worth of damage in the process. This can be seen as effectively giving your Mourning Mist an attack damage ratio of between 0 and 1.2 total attack damage based on how many mist walkers are nearby (0-4).

The spell itself does 15% of the targets current health in the form of magic damage and slows the affected enemy by 30%, so it is essential you get used to it's janky cast animation and cone-shaped area to land your full combo.

Generally this will be the start to your engage, harass or all-in by performing the following:

Mourning Mist > If it lands on a champion > Last Rites > Awakening > Dark Procession to block the champions movement.

Eulogy of the Isles

The Maiden of the Mist is summoned using the ultimate Eulogy of the Isles. It has a long cooldown, however this is mitigate by the cooldown starting at the time of the Maiden of the Mist's death (and based off the level of the ability and your existing cooldown reduction at the time of her death too). Alongside her summon, she will bring along 2/3/4 mist walkers based on the rank of the spell, and she will follow Yorick's movements until she dies.

After 15 seconds of casting Eulogy of the Isles, you can re-cast the ability to send the maiden of the mist down the nearest lane which effectively removes all control from her and it is unable to be returned to Yorick. I would recommend against ever re-casting the ability, simply because she is stronger by your side than away from you unprotected.

I will cover an entire chapter on the Mist Walkers and Maiden of the Mist so there will be more detail of the specifics there.

Flash

The best all-round choice for most champions. Give the ability to escape ganks, dodge spells and pick up kills that you wouldn't be able to normally since we lack a gapcloser.

Teleport

The fail-safe spell. Lets you recall and recover to your lane without missing any creeps, helps you control the map with the ability to port to any allied minion around the map and can give you win conditions through split pushing or late-team fighting.

Ignite

A great summoner spell for aggressive players and ones who want to gain a lead early to press an advantage over their opponent. Has the downside of lacking recovery options if you fall behind, but gives kill potential in lane when your opponent falls low on health. Also acts as a counter to heavy healing champions such as Swain, Dr. Mundo and Vladimir.

Precision

+

Resolve

Conqueror

Currently Conqueror is quite good to use despite its constant nerfs. Try to make use of the omni-vamping, and the stacking through your pets and see if it fits your playstyle. A lot of the time, the reason Conqueror feels good is because the precision path is OP. So pick the keystone in that path that feels the best for you.

Triumph

Amazing for team fighting and picking up kills in lane to allow you to win that 1v2 fight. Also gives your takedowns an small boost in gold earned which can add up valuably over time.

Legend: Tenacity

This one really comes down to personal preference. Some like the tenacity, others like the buffed version of Legend: Bloodline and some are attack speed favoured so they take Legend: Alacrity. Try them all and pick your favourite.

Last Stand

Constantly shows better results than Coup De Grace, and synergises well with a durability and healing build with items like Deaths Dance.

Conditioning

A very strong rune that has been under the radar for quite some time. Lots of players on Korea are preferring this rune for top lane despite the many other options, purely for the mid-game scaling and effect it has when you purchase extra resistance items. Very gold efficient, worth the consideration.

Overgrowth

Overgrowth is a great rune to help you scale into the game with free bonus health. It's a small amount of extra health, but it all adds up in the end.

Resolve

+

Inspiration

Grasp of the Undying

Grasp of the Undying allows you to play the trading game and constantly gain bonus health while improving your survivability in lane. It also scales very well throughout the game, as the healing and damage dealt is based off your maximum health which we love to invest our gold into. Some players really appreciate the keystone, other's like Conqueror. Generally you'll want to pick Grasp of the Undying into a match-up that will allow you to constantly exchange auto-attacks and avoid it into anything else.

Demolish

Absolutely incredible on Yorick since we build both health, damage and our sole purpose being to push objectives. It is great to trigger the plates on the towers to give ourselves a nice gold boost, and it can punish your opponent heavily if they happen to leave lane and let you trigger it even once. In the odd occasion, it can also be the sole factor you get an inhibitor, base, or lane turret due to the bonus damage.

Second Wind

Your choices will largely be between Second Wind and Bone Plating, so choose your personal preference. Second Wind will be affective throughout the game and scales with your own health whereas Bone Plating can be useful early but lose it's effectiveness later.

Overgrowth

Overgrowth is a great rune to help you scale into the game with free bonus health. It's a small amount of extra health, but it all adds up in the end.

Biscuit Delivery

A terrific pick-up for top lane Yorick. Can help you get through laning phase easily, gives you permanent mana to boost your mana pool and works in conjunction with Time Warp Tonic.

Time Warp Tonic

Works really well with Biscuit Delivery. You get movement speed while your potions are active, and it grants a portion of the healing instantly so you are at a more desirable health quicker throughout your laning.

Domination

+

Resolve

Hail of Blades

In match-ups where Yorick can kill the opponent in a short time when he builds damage, Hail of Blades can be a darn strong keystone to pick-up. Since we have an auto-attack reset, we effectively get four attacks to use the huge boost in attack speed to burst our opponent fast. It pairs well with our base attack damage being high, as well as our investment into items like Trinity Force and Youmuu's Ghostblade to improve the damage we deal through the keystone. Definitely only pick it into match-ups such as Wukong, Riven, Darius and Jayce.

Taste of Blood

Taste of Blood is the only rune in this row that we can use properly. Cheap Shot does not apply on our mist walkers attacks, so you would be relied upon landing your Mourning Mist to activate the rune and it has been repeatedly nerfed to the point where Taste of Blood is simply a better option. It scales better into the game and gives you much needed sustain in lane.

Ghost Poro

An extremely underrated rune for laners to use, primarily because it lets you control the nearby bushes to prevent jungle ganks. If you get yourself in a position where you can freely invade and punish the enemy jungler by taking their buffs and camps, you can pop your Ghost Poro down to give you a nice damage boost and valuable vision for your team.

Ultimate Hunter

Your hunter choice will be completely up to your personal preference. I find Ultimate Hunter to be by far the best choice, with the nearby second best choice being Ravenous Hunter. If the mist walkers and maiden of the mist activated Ravenous Hunter, it would definitely be the go-to choice - however as they don't, i definitely suggest Ultimate Hunter instead.

Conditioning

A very strong rune that has been under the radar for quite some time. Lots of players on Korea are preferring this rune for top lane despite the many other options, purely for the mid-game scaling and effect it has when you purchase extra resistance items. Very gold efficient, worth the consideration.

Overgrowth

Overgrowth is a great rune to help you scale into the game with free bonus health. It's a small amount of extra health, but it all adds up in the end.

STARTING ITEMS

Doran's Shield and Health Potion

I like Doran's Shield more and more whenever I use it. It gives you much needed health to survive laning and ganks, while also letting you stay in lane for extended duration thanks to the regeneration effect and also helping you last hit. Terrific into poking match-ups such as Jayce, Teemo, Swain and Vladimir.

Corrupting Potion

An amazing purchase for your first item, Corrupting Potion gives you efficiency like no other item in the game. It replenishes itself once you enter the middle of the healing fountain at your base and adds bonus magic damage over time to your attacks and spells while the potion is in effect. It comes with three charges which each heal 125 health and 75 mana, compared to the standard Health Potion which provides 150 health and no mana. Just be warned when dealing damage under a turret while the potion is active, the burn damage will often cause the turret to target you when the affected champion takes damage.

Doran's Blade

Underrated item for Yorick, but be sure you limit yourself to one. Don't pick it into rough early-game match-ups where you need the sustain, because it's use is purely to abuse your early trading and extra health early. If you're expecting to get ganked early, you're better safe than sorry with a Doran's Shield. A lot of high elo korean players like Doran's Blade, so i will include it in the suggested list but it's entirely personal preference.

FIRST FOUR ITEMS

Build Test.

Theory

Build 1.

Aggressive Trinity

Build 2.

Risky Aggression

Build 3.

Original and Standard

Build 4.

Tank


ITEMS OF INTEREST

Trinity Force

An amazing item for Yorick, Trinity Force adds the amazing spellblade effect to your abilities which add heavy burst damage to your auto attacks. Alongside this, it gives passive movement speed, attack speed, a small amount of attack damage and health and much needed mana capacity. An all-round great item, but quite expensive. Terrific for snowballing or if you enjoy the feeling of having smooth animations, and it has a good build path by purchasing the components in the order of Phage, Sheen and Stinger

Youmuu's Ghostblade

An insanely strong first item rush which gives Yorick heavy pushing power and damage to champions which is unrivaled by any other first item choice. The lethality affects all physical damage, so your mist walkers will be dealing more damage than before and it synergises well with Yorick's future item purchases. Has the downside of giving zero resistance or survivability outside the movement speed active, so it's a very hit or miss item for the player.

Choice of Boots

Generally you'll want to choose your boots around your expected opponent for the majority of the game. In most cases, it will be the opposing top laner so you'll either invest into Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi, however if your AP-based opponent ends up playing teamfight and they send their ADC to deal with your split-pushing, you may want to sell your existing Mercury's Treads for Ninja Tabi

Death's Dance

An insanely strong item on Yorick after the recent buffs. Now the entire kit benefits from the healing effect, so it is very easy to survive fights and sustain yourself back up with very little attacks or spells being used. The bleed effect is useful for fights and trades, and it comes with the remainder cooldown reduction to round yourself out to the maximum cap of 40%. The big downside is that the build components for the item are not terrific, and it can be quite an expensive purchase, but its more than worth it.

Black Cleaver

Adds durability to the build after the Youmuu's Ghostblade purchase. The movement speed passive lets you zoom around while you let your mist walkers do the damage, and since they deal physical damage, they will be applying Black Cleaver stacks with each attack so it is very easy to hit the max stacks in a very short time frame. Also provides heavy cooldown reduction which is extremely important on Yorick.

Iceborn Gauntlet

Iceborn Gauntlet is an item that some Yorick mains appreciate a lot and refuse to divert from. It doesn't add any attack damage, so your mist walkers will remain somewhat on the weaker side, but it adds the ability to kite and slow your opponent. It puts the emphasis on your spellblade effect with your Last Rites and the percent health damage from your Eulogy of the Isles. With great cooldown reduction and resistance, it's quite a cheap item so it offers a quick powerspike and combines extremely well with Black Cleaver.

Sterak's Gage

While the synergy with Trinity Force is gone, Sterak's Gage still stands as a great item pick-up. The attack damage it provides is great because it scales throughout the game, and the base health that it provides is quite large to give you a bit of durability. Not only this, but the shield and tenacity effect are extremely useful in 1v2 situations.

ITEMS TO COMPLETE YOUR BUILD

Guardian Angel

One of the best items to give you the room for error, Guardian Angel is the item choice when you want to assert your lead and force a play which may be somewhat risky. It gives plenty of damage and tankiness, but the revive passive is important because your mist walkers and maiden of the mist will remain active during the respawn animation. Particularly good for 1v2 situations and teamfighting, I build it at some stage almost every game with no regrets.

Spirit Visage

Some players like to amplify the healing gained from their Last Rites and Death's Dance, so Spirit Visage is a great pick-up against magic damage dealing team compositions. It gives cooldown reduction which may or may not put you over your cap, so consider picking up Sorcery as your secondary runepage and taking Transcendence if you choose to invest into heavy cooldown reduction builds.

Randuins Omen

Great against critical strike itemizing AD Carry champions like Caitlyn, Tryndamere, Yasuo and numerous others. The critical strike rework is about to come into play, so expect to see a lot of the critical strike orientated champions against in replace of the on-hit champions such as Varus, Ezreal and Lucian.

Stopwatch

One of the best spontaneous item pick-ups in the game, Stopwatch can make or break your game. If you're investing into Guardian Angel, you will likely be picking this up at some point - but it still acts as a great item in a standalone situation. If you want to play engage or heavy aggression but are lacking the ability to take all the damage, Stopwatch can be your saving grace. There are times when i will pick up Guardian Angel without activating Stopwatch previously, and then proceed to pick up an additional Stopwatch so i have both a ready Stopwatch and Guardian Angel for survivability purposes.

LANING PHASE


Yorick's laning phase is rather weak until he hits level 6 and has access to his Eulogy of the Isles. The mist walkers do not have high enough base damage to secure constant pressure and kill potential in lane without the use of Ignite, so i would recommend you play passive. Last hit the best you can with your Last Rites to the point where you have at least three but preferably four graves on the floor and then leave them be. The threat of having four graves on the floor is much stronger than having zero, and that is exactly the kind of pressure that will get you through laning phase as Yorick. In order to get yourself to the point of having four graves, it takes four uses of your Last Rites which can take between 28 to 16 seconds without cooldown reduction. This also costs 100 total mana, and each engage will end up costing at least 120-140 mana. For these reasons it is much better that you maintain your mana and farm for your level 6 unless your opponent is constantly wreckless and putting himself at low health values.

If you're anticipating versing an aggressive laner, take a Doran's Shield with a potion and teleport to the lane. If you want to play trading, take a Corrupting Potion and utilize it's burning effect to your advantage.

When trying to deal tower damage, keep in mind that if you have Mist Walkers summoned or the Maiden of the Mist is alive, the enemy champion dealing damage to you will redirect the pet to attack that champion causing tower aggro to shift to Yorick. Therefore, i recommend not going for tower damage unless you have no mist walkers or maiden of the mist out, or there is no champion to defend the turret.

Once you hit level 6, immediately level your ultimate ability and summon the Maiden of the Mist behind you. She will stay at that location unless you walk her forward, and use her as pressure on the opposing jungler to dissaude him from ganking you. With her our and constantly sending Mist Walkers down the lane, it is very hard to kill you and set you behind. If she oversteps forward too much or starts taking damage from the enemy champion, run 900 units outside her range to trigger her to follow you to your tower and recall to base. She will heal at the base fountain and you can walk to lane with you.

Keep in mind that the Maiden will always stand 500 range behind Yorick, exactly 180 degrees behind the way he is facing. So if you are recalling to base, be sure to be facing the enemy base so she is positioned in a safer location (towards your turrets rather than the opponents).

Mist Walkers will always die to a single target spell and champion or turret auto attack.

Despite their maximum health, a single auto attack or targetted spell will deal a lethal blow. However in the case of damage from an area-of-effect spell, the Mist Walker only takes a third of the total damage.

Mist Walkers provide 2 gold and no experience when they die.

Pretty self-explanatory, but they provide the gold to the player who dealt the lethal blow to the Mist Walker.

Mist Walkers and the Maiden of the Mist have Dynamically Updated Stats

Both the Mist Walkers and Maiden of the Mist have their stats updated as Yorick levels up or purchases new items, or in the case of the Maiden of the Mist, levels the ultimate ability to the next rank. The exception to this is the Mist Walkers level which will not update so they do not gain the extra attack speed, but they will still receive attack damage according to Yorick's new attack damage value.

Accompanying Mist Walkers and the Maiden of the Mist will teleport with Yorick

Upon recalling or casting Teleport, both the Maiden of the mist and mist walkers that are accompanying Yorick will recall with him to the base and heal via the fountain.

You can only have four Mist Walkers within 1200 range of each other

You can have multiple Mist Walkers throughout the map, however this is predicated on having them outside 1200 range of a group of four mist walkers. If more than four mist walkers enter the same 1200 range, a number of them will die off until there are four alive and charging. So theoretically, you could have four mist walkers in every lane, as well as four next to the maiden of the mist and four next to Yorick. Also, the maiden of the mist can have four of her own but if yorick is near her, it counts as yorick's 4 mist walkers (IE you can't have 8 by being near the maiden of the mist).

Understanding turret attack priority

The Mist Walkers are prioritised by Turrets above the Maiden of the Mist and lane minions, but below Seige Minions and Dark Procession. This effectively makes the priority order: Champion dealing damage to enemy champion, Dark Procession, Siege Minion, Mist Walkers, Maiden of the Mist, Lane Minions.

The Mist Walkers are coded to perform the same way every game, and rely on triggers to change their targets. When summoned, they will attack the nearest target to their summon location and they will follow behind Yorick at a range of 200 units if there is no nearby target. The rules that you'll need to remember are the following:
1.

Auto-Attacking an Enemy Champion

By doing this, all nearby Mist Walkers and the Maiden of the Mist will change their targets from autonomously attacking whatever is near them to the champion which you auto attacked. This does not override the priority set by landing your Mourning Mist on a champion, and the mist walkers will not change their target until that Mourning Mist expires after four seconds.
2.

Taking an Auto Attack or Single Target Spell from an Enemy Champion

Similar to the previous rule, the mist walkers and the Maiden of the Mist will redirect their focus onto the champion that dealt the auto attack or single target spell.
3. As previously said, Mourning Mist will redirect the Maiden of the Mist and nearby mist walkers focus onto the affected champion for four seconds. This has the highest priority.

THE MAIDEN OF THE MIST

How the Maiden of the Mist follows Yorick

When summoned, the Maiden of the Mist will follow Yorick at a distance of 500 range 180 degrees to his facing location and she will attack-move to that distance at all times. If Yorick moves past 900 range of the Maiden of the Mist's current location, there will be a trigger sent to the Maiden which causes her to walk uninterruptedly towards Yorick until she enters within 900 range of his position at which point she will again attack-move.

The Maiden of the Mist regularly summons Mist Walkers from the corpses of dead enemy units

The Maiden will also summon Mist Walkers from any nearby unit that dies near her, be it jungle monster or lane minion. She can have a total of four mist walkers at her side, but if she is accompanying Yorick, you can only have four total within 1200 range of Yorick. If she is side-splitting while Yorick is in a different lane, she is able to have four of her own mist walkers.

Damage the same target as the Maiden of the Mist causes her to deal large percent health damage

When the Maiden of the Mist attacks a target, she applies a debuff that causes Yorick's next attack to deal a portion of that targets maximum health as bonus magic damage. This number is not capped against monsters or champions, and improves at each rank of the ability. It has an internal cooldown of 2 seconds which is not affected by cooldown reduction of any sort.

The death of the Maiden of the Mist

When the Maiden of the Mist dies, she will provide 50 gold to the champion that killed her and the cooldown of Eulogy of the Isles will begin based off the level of the ultimate and Yorick's current cooldown reduction. If Yorick dies, it will also cause the Maiden of the Mist to die at a rate of 20% of her maximum health worth of damage every 0.5 seconds until she is dead.

Re-casting your Eulogy of the Isles to send the Maiden down the nearest lane

As of patch 9.2, you can re-cast Eulogy of the Isles to send the Maiden of the Mist down the nearest lane. Despite this ability being added, i highly recommend against using it ever simply because the maiden is much more useful being at your side than pushing autonomously on her own. The only situation I have seen this technique utilised is by a Korean top lane Yorick player who usually sends her to the Top Lane after he has recalled to base to temporarily freeze the lane while he farms jungle camps.

While Yorick is not the best team-fighter, he can perform the role rather well in the right circumstances. The most important rule to remember is that Yorick is a great teamfighter when there is a larger threat than him on your team. If the enemies focus is on your ally instead of you, you can annihilate everyone in the teamfight and come out ahead. If you're the centre of attention and taking every CC known to man, you're going to be worthless and you'd be better off split-pushing.

So generally the best thing to do is only teamfight when your team mates are doing well and performing reliably, and play whatever role is best at the time of the fight: Peel or Damage Dealer.

Peel


Quite often, playing peel is the best role because you're not the one being targeted so you are getting free attacks off without taking damage. If you have an AD Carry who is fed out of their brains but they're against a Jungle Rammus who keeps taunting them, your Dark Procession can prove to be an amazing solution to that issue. In fact, your Dark Procession is one of the best peeling spells in the game since you can isolate champions, block off pathways and escape routes or even blow gap-closing abilities.

Damage


I will usually default to damage, but i would only recommend playing the damage role if the enemy fails their engage. In other words, your team mate does not require the peel. By playing the damage role, you put yourself in the dangerous position of allowing the enemy team to collapse on you at any given moment and you'll have to deal with the enemy champions that are playing peel for their damage sources. My general rule comes down to if you can't (or don't) kill them in the first combo, you probably won't kill them in general.

One of the toughest things to learn is split-pushing. It's a skill that is not often practiced because not a lot of champions are capable of performing it adequately compared to their usual teamfighting. Yorick is the exception - he is 90% split-pushing power and 10% teamfighting power. It doesn't mean he can't team fight, but there are so many factors that go into team fighting that will often result in you being a lackluster participant. Most notably, area of effect abilties will often be the source of the killing blow to your pets and maiden of the mist which both dictate your potential to secure kills, deal damage and eliminate threats.

But knowing when to split-push is a tough decision because not every game is the same. It mainly comes down to your position in the game, your match-ups, your team mates and your goal.

You'll definitely want to consider a few factors before you make your decision:

1. Do they have a duelist champion to oppose your split-push?
This is arguably the biggest factor. You should never split-push against a Jax, Fiora or Tryndamere. You will not be able to reliably defeat them in a one vs one and you'll likely just die in the process of attempting it. If you are against one, your best option is to teamfight or look to catch them out as they come to the side lane.

2. Is my team in a position to push?
This is often the biggest mistake new players make. They constantly run up the side lanes and die while their team is not able to do anything with the pressure. It's important to make sure your team is in a position to actually do something with the pressure you're creating, otherwise your sacrifice is for nothing. Wait until they get in position, and then march forward. If they refuse to get into position, then don't split-push.

3. Can i push fast enough?
This will come with experience, but judge based on your own opinion if you can outpush the enemy team. If they have five champions charging to your middle while your four team mates are defending the turret, can you push into their base fast enough that should your team die, you can end? If not, you might want to recall and defend at the base. I'll always recommend pushing anyway because in solo queue people mess up and make mistakes all the times, and five man dives onto four champions under turret never goes smoothly. A push of five champions will often result in two dying, meaning you only have to outpush three.

JUNGLING AS A SOLO LANER


One of the strongest assets of Yorick's kit is that he can quickly take jungle monsters through the use of his mist walkers and maiden of the mist. With the added benefit of full up-time on the maiden of the mist, the potential to push-and-roam is almost essential and too good to pass up. If you want to get good at Yorick and consistently win games, the most important thing to do is to push and invade the enemy jungle or to simply take jungle camps on the way back to lane.

Generally you'll want to wait until you're level 6 so you have the Eulogy of the Isles following you as well as 0-4 mist walkers, but you can do it with only mist walkers pre-level 6. If you push the wave and recall to base with the maiden of the mist and some mist walkers, provided that your jungler is on the other side of the map (or pathing to the other side), look to taking their jungle monsters on the side of which your lane resides. So if you're playing bottom team, look into taking the wolves and the gromp, whereas top team look into taking the raptors and the krugs. Importantly, check for scuttles whenever possible and they give a great amount of gold and mana restoration.

However, there is a rule alongside roaming and that is you should not roam if it means you will miss a cannon minion. Every three waves spawns a cannon minion (siege minion) that grants a large sum of gold as a bounty to the killer, and it is almost a necessity that you secure every single cannon minion. But the two other waves that pass have minimal gold and experience compared to the cannon wave, so you can gain an advantage by taking multiple jungle camps and sacrficing a few melee and ranged minions but making sure you're there in time for the cannon minion.

TAKING THE BARON


Yorick is one of the only champions that can solo the baron nashor . The reason for this is pretty simple but often unknown to the majority of the players. The Baron Nashor has a passive effect that reduces incoming damage dealt by the champion it last auto-attacked by 50%. Usually when a champion attempts to solo the Baron Nashor , they are unable to remove this debuff since there are no other champions or units nearby for the Baron Nashor to attack and it is extremely difficult to solo.

Yorick on the other hand has his pets to redirect the Baron Nashor 's attacks to, and once a pet takes an auto-attack, the debuff is removed from Yorick and placed onto the pet instead.

So when it comes to taking the Baron Nashor , you almost never want to be tanking the damage when you have a team mate available to tank it instead since its very likely your damage to the epic monster will be higher to it than your ally's.

If you're attempting to solo the Baron Nashor , there is a setup you'll have to learn and a routine to practice/follow. Firstly, understand that every five attacks, the Baron Nashor will perform a special ability which takes between 1 to 2.5 seconds to fully cast before it returns to its regular auto-attacks. The trick to soloing the epic monster as Yorick is to ensure that the debuff is on your pet and not Yorick for the duration of the abilities channel.

Therefore, the order is the following:


1. Have four mist walkers out, begin the baron by auto-attacking it and have one of your mist walkers take an attack. Immediately start counting the number of auto-attacks the baron nashor performs in your head. Once it does, cast your Mourning Mist onto the baron nashor so the damage is not reduced. Move Yorick close to the baron nashor so he is the one taking the auto-attacks.
2. Wait until two mist walkers have been killed, and summon the Maiden of the Mist within close proximity to the baron nashor . It is important to summon her close enough to not take aggro but not far enough away so that she is never able to take attacks from the baron nashor . Remember it will attack the nearest unit.
3. Once you count four attacks, move Yorick back so that the 5th attack is dealt to a mist walker and then go to town dealing as much damage through auto-attacks, Mourning Mist and Maiden of the Mist's percent health damage as possible.
4. Once the animation looks to end, reposition Yorick so that he is once again the closest unit to the Baron Nashor and repeat step 3 until the Baron Nashor is defeated. If there are no mist walkers available to take the fifth shot, put it onto the Maiden of the Mist instead or have Yorick tank it if you predict that it will be a successful attempt anyway.

With multiple mountain dragon being defeated throughout the game, the attempt can take between 8 to 30 seconds in total with proper micro-movement - given it takes a lot of finesse to perform it absolutely perfectly.

Match-ups


Extreme

Fiora

The reason Fiora is an issue for Yorick is because she is a duelist who can match your split-push. She can Riposte your damage and deal heavy true damage to you while healing herself in the process. Best advice I can give is to engage her if she misses her Lunge in the laning phase because it has a high cooldown if it doesn't connect with a unit. Make sure she doesn't Riposte your Last Rites or you'll miss out on a substantial amount of damage, and hug a wall if she ever uses her Grand Challenge on you to prevent her from activating at least one of the vital points. Consider healing reduction items in the form of Executioner's Calling and playing more of a teamfight role.
Spells: + or
Runes: +
Items:

Irelia

Irelia can be a nightmare for Yorick because she can one-hit all your Mist Walkers using her Bladesurge. The best way around this is to stack up graves using your Last Rites so that you have at least three out, while also having your Maiden of the Mist out. That way you can constantly summon Mist Walkers from the nearby dying minions, but if the Irelia attempts to engage onto you, you can summon brand new ones using Last Rites to still have their damage output. Unsure about patch 9.3 Irelia, will update after I have opposed it a few times.
Spells: +
Runes: +
Items:

Jax

Jax is the ultimate counter to Yorick, there is absolutely no question about it. He is my go-to ban every game that I plan on playing Yorick because his kit completely negates anything you want to accomplish. His Counter Strike will negate all your auto attacks, Last Rites, and damage from your Mist Walkers and Maiden of the Mist, making him a very frustrating champion to oppose. Once he picks up Spear of Shojin, he can re-cast his Counter Strike very quickly while he focuses down your Maiden of the Mist. If you have to unfortunately face a Jax, farm the best you can early and do your best to survive the laning. Don't try to one on one him or split-push unless you are confident in your damage output, and default to playing teamfight and peel for your other carries.
Spells: +
Runes: +
Items:

Tryndamere

Tryndamere is another champion that annihilates Yorick but it's mainly because he can control the early laning through random critical strikes. With 35% critical strike thanks to his passive, he can go for a Spinning Slash engage into two auto-attacks and win the lane purely off one of them landing a low-chance critical strike. Once he hits level 6, his Undying Rage will prevent him from dying so he can focus your Maiden of the Mist first and Spinning Slash out of any Dark Procession you trap him inside. Don't try to split-push against him, or race him in a push. Let him do his thing and focus on teamfighting after playing a safe laning. If he blows his Flash early, trapping him post- Spinning Slash can be your potential opportunity to kill him but tread carefully.
Spells: + or
Runes: +
Items:

Volibear

Volibear is not a common top lane champion to oppose, but nevertheless, he is one of the absolute worst. His damage output early game is bizarre, he is innately tank and can facilitate ganks well with his jungler. As of patch 9.2, his Stormbringer now has no delay when sending out sparks of thunder to nearby units so your Mist Walkers will die much faster to the massive AOE damage. Don't try to kill him early unless you're running Ignite, if you get behind early you will lose the lane extremely hard. You can potentially split-push against him later, but it's better to play safe and go for teamfighting where he will likely be engaging on someone other than you.
Spells: +
Runes: +
Items:

Hard

Aatrox

Aatrox is quite an oppressive champion in the top lane. His healing has just been gutted, but thanks to his base health regeneration being increased, he's definitely not the terrible pick people think he is. His damage versus your Mist Walkers is largely area of effect, so he will struggle to handle your all-in combo. The danger in versing Aatrox is that his early damage can be quite high, so ensuring you don't get caught by the The Darkin Blade combination is essential to surviving early. Grab some healing reduction against him in the form of Ignite, Executioner's Calling or Thornmail and play safe til level 6. Conqueror or Grasp of the Undying is fine, Grasp of the Undying is probably better if you want to play safe.

Camille

Camille is a nightmare if they know how to abuse their level 1. Be sure you don't get cheesed by her waiting in a bush at level one on your way to lane, her Precision Protocol can give her two forms of auto-attack resets so she will dish out quite a lot of damage quickly. She is extremely vulnerable to a fail engage using her Hookshot, the most important part about dealing with Camille is not using your Dark Procession until she uses her Hookshot. Otherwise she will just escape using it since it's classified as terrain. You have a chance for a level 6 all in with multiple mist walkers and the maiden of the mist, but definitely invest into some health throughout the game - she can burst surprisingly large amounts.

Dr Mundo

Dr. Mundo is a regenerating nightmare. His early laning is not terrible, and he does not have the innate-gap closer to escape your Dark Procession. Watch out for random Infected Bonesaw to the face as the base damage is quite high, and don't underestimate the damage he gains from his Blunt Force Trauma. Luckily for you, his Maximum Dosage can be countered by taking any of the forms of healing reduction: Ignite, Executioner's Calling or Thornmail. I would definitely suggest the Executioner's Calling at least so you can later upgrade into Mortal Reminder to deal with his armor stacking. Consider a Black Cleaver to shred through his resistances, and definitely bring Conqueror to this match-up.

Ekko

Ekko is not often seen at top lane, but it's not uncommon to see a roaming Ekko from the mid-lane coming to deal with you throughout the game. He heals quite a lot using his Chronobreak, but whether it's enough incentive to buy grevious wounds is completely situational. Most of the time, building standard will be perfectly fine to deal with Ekko provided you eventually spend a bit of gold on Spirit Visage, Mercury's Treads or Hexdrinker. Try to time your Dark Procession to encircle yourself for when he attacks you using Phase Dive, otherwise he's just going to dash the Dark Procession every time you try to trap him.

Kled

Kled can be an absolute nightmare. In terms of champions abusing their lead over another, Kled is probably one of the strongest. His pre-level 6 is strong with his Beartrap on a Rope having no mana cost and acting as a crowd control, while his Violent Tendencies gives him enough attack speed to put a hole in your health in early laning. The hardest part about Kled is his passive Skaarl the Cowardly Lizard which essentially gives him temporary immunity to damage and invulnerability time. During which he gains access to Pocket Pistol which he can use to gapclose over your Dark Procession. Try to save your Dark Procession til he jumps onto you, and remember to try run infront of him if you begin winning the fight. Kled is the master of 'almost dying' and then quickly shape shifting back into his main form, so you want to make sure if you commit to a fight, you have enough to drop him through his passive as well. Build resistances and Ninja Tabi early, he relies primarily on auto attacks and warn your team for his roams.

Mordekaiser

Mordekaiser should ordinarily not be too hard of a match-up as he is primarily an area of affect champion early. Unfortunately, his Harvester of Sorrow (W) is coded rather strangely where it doesn't consider champions pets to come under the 'minion' category, and as a result he can fully heal off each mist walker as if they were a champion. If you want to go for lane control, be sure to either take Ignite or invest into Executioner's Calling and time your engages so that he does not have access to his Harvester of Sorrow. It has somewhat long cooldown early, from 12 to 8 seconds based on level, so you have a window of opportunity to punish. Don't be reckless summoning mist walkers in lane unless you're willing to go all out, you'll just be healing him for free. Ask for ganks, if he doesn't have his Flash, he is a lot easier to deal with. Eventually build into some magic resistance otherwise his full combo will hurt a ton.

Nasus

Nasus is a champion that people will have much different opinions on. He doesn't offer any aggression in lane, so the Yorick player should technically be able to farm up and hit your powerspikes reliably. Unfortunately, Nasus scales just as well as Yorick does and has access to innate lifesteal which gives him the durability to deal with a full Yorick combination. You will definitely need to invest into Ignite or Executioner's Calling and i would recommend begging for an early-gank. If his Siphoning Strike gets enough stacks early, he will be extremely hard to deal with later. Consider armor penetration like Mortal Reminder and Black Cleaver, and definitely take Conqueror into this match-up. Don't let him stack his Siphoning Strike off your mist walkers by summoning them recklessly, keep him low health and punish him for leaving the lane. Your jungler will likely decide the outcome of this lane for you, so keep it de-warded and buy pinks on every back to give the most successful chances to have a good gank.

Olaf

Olaf is the king of level 1-3 fights which happens to be the weakest stage of the game for Yorick. Don't, under any means, attempt to fight or kill him early. The lowest health he gets, the stronger his Berserker Rage becomes and he will annihilate you. Bring a Doran's Shield to lane with Second Wind, and play to survive for level 6. Once you hit level 6, you can try to fight him with the maiden of the mist and mist walkers but tread wisely. If he starts regenerating too much health in the fights, get yourself an Executioner's Calling to handle it. Consider Black Cleaver and Death's Dance as options to survive his damage. He's largely upfront auto attacks with the occasional Undertow and Reckless Swing so health and armor stacking should work wonders. If he gets behind early though, he is absolutely free kills so abuse your lead if you get one through ganks or misplays on his behalf.

Renekton

Renekton could arguably go in the extreme category. His entire kit works off rotations, which are usually a Slice and Dice into an auto attack, reset by Ruthless Predator, followed up with a Cull the Meek and then disengaging again with Slice and Dice. These types of trades are Yorick's worst nightmare because we have no hard CC of our own to retaliate before he is too far away. Invest early into armor and healing to survive the lane, and do your best to farm uninteruptedly til level 6. If he misses or uses his Slice and Dice so it doesn't get reset, feel free to all-out engage onto him and trap him inside your Dark Procession. Best to beg assistance from your jungler for this match-up, because it will be either very easy or an absolute nightmare for you. Take either Grasp of the Undying or Conqueror, but it will mainly come down to how well you can stay healthy and alive.

Riven

Riven is personally no trouble for me. I don't find her kit to be overly oppressive against Yorick, but she does have the inbuilt advantage of having multiple forms of gap-closers. Generally Riven players will play overly aggressive, using their Broken Wings as a form of damage. If she uses all three charges, you can retaliate with a Mourning Mist into Dark Procession combo and go to town on her with mist walkers. If she doesn't have the ability to escape your Dark Procession, she will be pretty free kills. The good Rivens will hold onto their third Broken Wings and use it to escape just incase she gets surrounded by Dark Procession. Don't underestimate her full combo at level 6, she gets stupidly strong once she gets a Serrated Dirk and activates her Blade of the Exile. If you see her use her Blade of the Exile, just wait it out and engage onto her when it expires. It has a two minute cooldown at rank one, so there is plenty of time to punish. Don't throw away control of your Maiden of the Mist in this match-up either, you will get punished far too hard for it.

Shen

Shen is in my opinion, the perfect champion outside Jax to counter Yorick. But then why is he so low on the counter list? Pretty much because they all use their Stand United to help their team which gives you the opportunity to push their lane. he has everything in his kit to counter you completely if he actually just stayed top and never left. His Ki Barrier does huge damage early, and his Twilight Assault lets him trade in early levels to get a lane advantage. More importantly, his Spirit's Refuge completely negates any damage that you or your mist walkers will do to him after you engage. So all he really has to do is cast Spirit's Refuge when he's trapped inside the Dark Procession after taking your Mourning Mist to the face, followed by a Shadow Dash out of the Dark Procession to freedom. Even worse, you can't reliably push into his turret without being taunted by his Shadow Dash, so the lane is entirely up to your jungler to either gank him or the Shen to intentionally leave the lane so you can actually push. Biggest advice i can give is while you can interrupt his Stand United with your Dark Procession by displacing him slightly, it's not always the right decision. Sometimes the best possible thing you can do is let him teleport, sacrifice one of your team mates, just so you can get control over the top tower for a potential first blood turret and the ability to farm the enemy krug camp.

Urgot

Urgot is a great counter to Yorick, and he's currently the king of top lane. Great teamfight presence, great solo laning and stupidly useful at all stages of the game. His Purge will one hit KO all your mist walkers, but it will only target the mist walkers if he does not hit Yorick with his Corrosive Charge. So if you intend on engaging onto him, making sure you are the closest possible target to him at all times otherwise he'll start capping your mist walkers instead. You shouldn't have trouble farming in this match-up, but your issues will come when you try to get kills in lane. Save your Dark Procession until he casts his Disdain to ensure he is trapped, and remember his Purge can target Dark Procession for a quick kill too. In reality, if you pick your engages wisely and while he doesn't have access to Purge, it should not be a difficult match-up. If he hits you with his Fear Beyond Death, quickly deduce whether you can kill him or not. If not, back the hell out. Definitely take Conqueror into this match-up, and get some early armor.

Vayne

Vayne cannot Tumble over your Dark Procession, so she is the perfect AD Carry champion to verse. However she is slippery with invisibility during Final Hour and her Condemn can turn your own Dark Procession against you since it acts as a form of terrain. She is still very vulnerable to a Mourning Mist into Dark Procession and simply letting the mist walkers do all the damage. Remember since she has Silver Bolts, she can shred your Maiden of the Mist extremely easily so always make sure you're keeping in mind where she is positioned so you don't accidentally lose her. Ignite could be a potential pick up since she is squishy throughout the game, but the general rule will be if you miss your Mourning Mist, don't commit to the fight. Block her off with your Dark Procession if she pursues you and Flash away if you have to. Only fight the good fights and on your terms, not hers.

Yasuo

Yasuo is a huge pain in the ***. He uses your Mist Walkers as targets for his Sweeping Blade so he can easily escape your Dark Procession and ends up being extremely slippery as a result. His annoying Way of the Wanderer gives him access to a shield that has a surprisingly large uptime, and his constant Steel Tempest offers heavy dps throughout the whole game. He's probably one of the strongest champions to duel Yorick. Luckily for us, there are loopholes in Yasuo's kit, particularly that his gap-closer is predicated on having an enemy minion in the direction towards safety. Therefore the best way to engage Yasuo is to make sure there are none of your allied minions behind his location (usually good to just let him push to your tower and then Mourning Mist into Dark Procession.) If you can pull this off, he will have to Sweeping Blade to a minion that will end up putting him closer towards your tower than his which risks taking turret aggro and an even further distance to safety. Although personally, he is manageable with Conqueror by getting to mid-game and if you're expecting him to push a lane, wait in a nearby bush. If he passes, you have yourself a pretty free kill. If he can't hit his tornado, he's pretty useless. So make sure you bring Flash for the stylish Flash dodge into victory.

Even

Maokai

Maokai

Quinn

Quinn

Rumble

Rumble

Sion

Sion

Minor

Akali

Akali

Cho'Gath

Cho'Gath

Gangplank

Gangplank

Garen

Garen

Illaoi

Illaoi

Malphite

Malphite

Ornn

Ornn

Poppy

Poppy

Rengar

Rengar

Swain

Swain

Easy

Darius

Darius is one of the easiest, if not the easiest match-up for Yorick to manage. Unfortunately, it's not black and white and one-sided. Instead, you will win the lane if you play properly - and a misplay will cost you the lane. To win this lane, you need to survive to level 4 getting as much creep kills as possible but also staying as healthy as possible. Once you hit level 4, you can begin going for a Mourning Mist > Last Rites combo and making sure to trap the Darius inside your Dark Procession. Don't just auto attack him outright once you trap him, be sure to move close to his character model so that his Q does not land on you to heal him. If he blows his auto-attack reset on your wall, consider it a win and don't commit to a trade. Wear him down over time and secure the kill eventually as soon as you hit level 6. The best time to try go for an engage/poke is when he is pushing you to the tower so you can potentially trap him under turret. He should eventually beat you around level 11-13 where his items make him too tanky, but you regain control around level 16. Definitely max Dark Procession second over Mourning Mist so he has to commit to either aiming the Dark Procession OR Yorick.

Gnar

Gnar

Jayce

Jayce

Kennen

Kennen

Lissandra

Lissandra

Singed

Singed

Teemo

Teemo

Wukong

Wukong

Change-Log

07/02/2019 Added Match-ups and a Change Log to the Guide. Also updated the layout so hopefully its more appealing to the eye. Will be updating match-ups over the next few days.

Thanks for Reading!


This guide will have a lot of content so i will be adding to it as time passes, so stay tuned if it seems incomplete.

Feel free to come by my stream if you have any questions or queries over at www.twitch.tv/ninetalesOCE or find me at www.youtube.com/ninetalesOCE.
Download the Porofessor App for Windows

League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide