For the longest time already, pretty much ever since he was released.. Yorick has been one of those "I will win this game" champions for me, to cut down a losing streak or when I just feel like winning a game.. Especially if the team is lacking some tanky DPS and Yorick can also work really well as a tank / initiator for the team in late game..

I'm still working on this guide so it's not 100% done yet, but most of the parts are already there. Will try to improve the layout if possible soon too. Anyways, like always.. I suggest people try out this build before they form any deeper opinions about it. But overall any comments / feedback is always more than welcome.

Pros

- Really durable during end game
- Good damage output
- Good farming ability
- Can solo dragon and buffs really early
- Good tower diver already quite early in game
- Really good harasher / Pusher
- Super Easy last hitting with Q
- Fun to play :)
- Can solo Baron ;)

Cons

- Squishy for first few levels
- Mainly melee champion so too much CC can be a nuisance
- One of the hardest ulti's in game to use for it's full potential

For marks it's possible to go also with health or AD runes too but I personally just prefer the armor penetration because it's by far one of the best damage boosting runes for any AD champion through the whole game. And Yorick doesn't really have much trouble in last hitting neither..

For seals there's few possibilities, I personally prefer mana regen per level runes, since occasionally even with tear and manamune I end up going oom, and when that happens.. Usually Yorick is in deep trouble. But it is however possible to pick also dodge or armor runes too for that extra survival, since this is after all a tanky DPS build. However for my Yorick build, I don't take Nimbleness so I'd say if you pick tanky runes, go for the armor instead.

For glyphs I personally prefer the flat cooldown reduction runes since already starting from level 1 Yorick will base his damage to the ghouls and getting that extra Q at level 1 can sometimes secure that early kill. But just like for seals, it's also possible to get the more tanky runes if you feel like you are being too squishy early game..

For quintessences there's lot of possibilities.. But I personally prefer movement quints since Yorick is based alot for movement and getting that initial Q in for the bonus movement speed.. However, if your team has plenty of CC already, I can also see Armor penetration runes working really well too.. But quints often are based on the players preferences and there's plenty of good quints to choose from.

Now most of the talents are quite self explaining but there's couple tricks in my masteries that I wanted to point out.. The most important one being Strength of Spirit , now this mastery works SUPER well with rushing early Tear of Goddess and Manamune, together with your Omen of Famine (E skill) and quite good health regen already early game, you can stay on your lane almost infinite time and you are really hard to harash out of lane. Also by rushing Manamune you can start picking jungle mobs really early without having to worry about mana problems or health going low.

And the reason why I pick Archaic Knowledge for Yorick is that two of your spells actually deal magic damage, that scales with your AD so getting that talent will boost both your W and E damage quite well and that way also increases the healing received from E.

Rest of the masteries are just pretty typical AD carry masteries, together with some extra armor and magic resist from defensive tree.

Manamune, I just absolutely love this item for Yorick. It gives you ability to spam your ghouls like no tomorrow, while also boosting your early game AD really nicely. Not to mention that together with Strength of Spirit it also gives you fairly good health regen too. And getting the mana bonus up is really easy for yorick, since all your spells are very spammable.

Frozen Mallet, now this item is one of the key elements for my build since it makes it really easy to kill people with Yorick, but it also adds plenty of HP for that extra tankyness..

Force of Nature, since Yorick is very much about mobility this item is really good pick for him, also together with Frozen Mallet and Warmog's Armor the passive health regen makes you really tanky and able to stay in fights for really long. Not to mention the good magic resist from it.

Warmog's Armor, I can guarantee that Already with Frozen Mallet and Manamune alone, Yorick is able to kill enemies very well thanks to his spammable army of ghouls and occasional good damage dealing team member for ulti. So why not to make his health through the roof. Also remember that your ghouls scale with health aswell, making them harder to kill with AoE spells during team fights.

Atma's Impaler, Frozen Mallet and Warmog's Armor... Do I even need to say more? Also bit of extra armor added for that late game tankyness.. However, it's very rare for games to last long enough for me to get this item, but overall it's that last nail for the coffin. Literally in Yoricks case. ;)

Boots:

I personally nearly always prefer Mercury's Treads, for that extra magic resist and tenacity, since Yoricks worst enemy usually is heavy CC. But if enemy team has really high mobility, then Boots of Swiftness is really good pick too. And in those rare cases if enemies happen to have something like 3 or more AD carrys Ninja Tabi is one possibility too.

Unholy Covenant (Passive), Very strong passive for someone who's able to spam the ghouls like no tomorrow. Gives Yorick good damage reduction and good bit of extra damage aswell. Also this is the main reason why you want your ghouls to stay alive as long as possible and take plenty of health for your build. Sadly tho, this also only allows the poor ghouls last for only 5 seconds. But both Q and E ghouls have cooldowns close to 5 seconds anyways at max level.

Omen of War [Q], by far the heavies nuke skill from Yorick. Extra 150 AD for your next attack at level 9? That's extra AD worth of almost 2 Infinity Edges.. And 3 extra Long Swords at level 1... Not to mention that after you hit target with it, you gain very high speed boost for quite long time (5 seconds). And it's very spammable.

Omen of Pestilence [W], Great initiator / harashment skill that slows enemies down and gives you a good chance to hit that Q. Also works really well as a "mini ward" or as a escape ability. Great spell for multiple uses. (Also targets the turrets if there's no creeps or enemies near)

Omen of Famine [E], Superior harashment skill in early game, (since it always goes after the target you use it on) and also works really well together with your W. Not to mention that the heal you get from this ghoul helps you to stay on lane for extremely long time.

Omen of Death [R], One of the hardest ulties in game to use properly in my opinion. But once you get a good pet with it, it can easily outshine Mordekaisers ulti since you can always pick your target with it. ALWAYS Pick ranged AD carry if possible during team fights. Especially champions like late game Kog'Maw are nasty with this skill. Also if your target dies while the ghost is still active, it gives them ability to come alive for while, and what's even better.. They don't have to worry about dying again, so they can just go all out against enemies once they are already "dead". Great tool for multiple kills at once, just requires quite bit of training.

Suggested:

Exhaust, Very good spell for Yorick, helps your ghouls to hit your target more often, gives you extra escape mechanism and also helps you get that oh so important initial Q for your target. Not to mention the extra armor / magic penetration boost it gives when you get the mastery for it.

Flash, Extremely good spell for Yorick, together with your Q this becomes a real killer ability. Not to mention that Yorick overall doesn't have that much escape abilities so it works really well for him overall.

Optional:

Ghost, Quite good spell for Yorick, not quite as good as Flash because you can't really surprise your enemies with it most of the times.. But it does work well together with your Q, but I personally only would have this for Dominion, since on Summoner's Rift flash just has so much more uses.

Ignite, Possible pick instead of Exhaust for extra bit of damage and also the anti healing debuff is really good. But I'd say that if you play Draft Picks and you see enemies getting really many champions with healing abilities, that would be the only time you'd want to take this instead of exhaust.

Teleport, Possible pick IF your team has really good ward coverage or champions like Teemo, Shaco or Heimerdinger.. Since Yorick is a great ganker, but for solo queues.. I wouldn't suggest this spell.

Cleanse, If you see in draft pick that enemies get really heavy CC team, this spell is a possible pick instead of Exhaust.. Since heavy CC is one of the worst enemies for Yorick.

Yorick is really powerful level 1 fighter, but also very squishy at same time. So try not to overextend too much in the first fights, but it's more than possible for Yorick to get that level 1 kill with your Q and Exhaust. However, always save your flash for escape in the early game unless you are 110% sure you can get a kill and still get away with it.

Overall I personally prefer some minor harashment early game and only going for the kills after you got your all 3 ghouls ready.

Lane pick

I personally prefer playing Yorick at bottom lane, since Yorick is really good at killing dragon, stealing enemy blue buff and if your team doesn't have jungler, Yorick can take care of bottom side jungle minions very easily.

Shopping

First time I usually go back, if possible is when I got around 945g, So I get my Tear of the Goddess and basic Boots. Also if your lane partner is doing alright when you go back, I suggest you kill mini golems on your way, unless your jungler needs them at the given time. Also I'd suggest you wait until 1020g and get that very important sight ward, to avoid getting ganked.

Second time I usually go back shopping is to finish up Manamune (1115g), since it really boosts up your damage. Also with manamune it's really easy to take your red buff (if your jungler doesn't need it) or enemy blue. If possible, I'd suggest you also get 2 sight wards at this point. (1265g)

If you are doing really well on your lane already with Boots and Tear alone, it's very possible for yorick to stay on lane until 2115g, which allows you to get both, Manamune and Mercury's Treads at once, and 2 sight wards aswell.

After that you'll want to go back when you can afford Phage for extra survivability and after that try to finish frozen mallet asap. But getting the Giant's Belt can be a good idea too sometimes for the extra survivability.

Full stats with all 3 potions together with full Manamune and Warmog's

Full stats and also baron, blue and red buff added.

As a background info, we were actually losing this game pretty badly at start.. The stats for first were something like 3-10 for them.. And my lane with Kennen didn't go too well, even if we got couple kills.. Actually all 3 of those kills were done at our bottom lane. However, at level 8 with Manamune, blue and red buff and basic boots.. I sneaked to solo a dragon and after that the game completely turned around.. And in the end, I was able to 1vs1 Mordekaiser while gaining more health than losing it, solo baron and during the team fights enemies used 2 exhaust on me, ignite and focused me stupidly hard considering that I was our tank as you can clearly see from the stats.. But still I stayed alive.. People just tend to focus down the guy who charges in their face with huge damage and starts the fights 1vs3 (that's what I often do with in the late game with this build) and after that my team charges in to finish them off..

-adding soon-

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