Hello and welcome to my Igor...I mean Yorick build guide. Yorick is unfortunately one of the most misunderstood new champions to come out in recent memory. I see people running around with infinity edges and bloodthirsters all day and then saying Yorick is terribad. In response to this depressing sight ive decided to make a guide that will hopefully shed some light on the correct way to play and build a champion who in reality has a lot of potential.

The work of gravediggers is essential amongst the living, but invaluable in the Shadow Isles. There are many shades of death there, and each is embraced rather than feared or reviled. One can only ascend from one state to the next with the magical aid of a skilled professional. At the end of the first Rune War, Yorick Mori made his living as a gravedigger. His family owned and maintained the Final Rest Memorial, one of the oldest cemeteries in Valoran. The shovel he employed for his work had been passed down for generations. Each gravedigger taught his son that this shovel was imbued with the spirit of every forefather, and that those spirits would protect him during the long lonely nights amongst the tombstones. To his eternal regret, Yorick died without an heir, bringing the proud Mori line to a close. His body was interred with his shovel in the family mausoleum, and the Final Rest Memorial soon fell to ruin. Death, however, was not the end Yorick had expected.

Yorick emerged on the haunted shores of the Shadow Isles - not quite dead, definitely not alive - still clutching his beloved shovel. He soon learned that with it he could act as a ferryman for the Isles' undead denizens, helping them climb death's many-tiered ladder. This proved a curse, as a gravedigger must ''bury his quota'' before he too can ascend, or so the legend goes. No one knows what ''his quota'' is. Yorick dug tirelessly, waiting in vain for the day when he would be freed of his burden. As decades turned to centuries, the shame of his failures came to a head. He returned to Valoran to find his corpse, convinced that salvation might be buried with it. When he arrived, no trace remained of either the mausoleum or the memorial. Hope nearly lost, he discovered the League of Legends, and there saw an opportunity to immortalize the family name he allowed to be forgotten ages ago.

''Die first, then we'll talk.''
-Yorick

Lets start out with some of the pros and cons of Yoick and then move onto some of the ways I try and maximize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses.

Pro:

Great harasser during any point of the game due to his minions
Abilities have low cooldowns
Deals flexible damage (His W and E deal magic damage on impact while his q deals physical)
Pro ultimate
Great staying power in lane due to his E
He wont be nerfed anytime soon (if anything he might be buffed a bit)
Gives you an excuse to talk like Igor while playing on skype

Cons:

Can be difficult to get a good farm without using spells
Mana hungry
Can have a very slow start if dominated by opponents with superior range in lane
Passive is meh unless destroying towers
Still has several bug issues

Marks and quints were probably the hardest to decide on and the most discussed topic about Yorick between myself and my friends. When his minions spawn they do magic damage, when they attack they use your armor pen, and your passive increases your attack speed. I believe i have finally decided on armor pen marks and quints instead of magic, however as a reader you can decide for yourself.

Anyway, as i mentioned before, we start off with armor pen marks and quints, then we move onto mana regen seals, since Yorick is very mana dependent and hungry, and finally magic resist at lvl 18 glyphs because the extra tankyness really helps, especially combined with the defense mastery tree. However, i have begun experimenting with flat CDR glyphs on him. Combined with the mana regen seals and the mana manipulator, he gains the ability to spam his minions almost constantly, thus helping to give you a better farm and more kills, most of the time.

I go 9/21/0 on the masteries because being a melee champion with a melee inciting passive, the added survivability is extremely useful. I take 9 into offensive for the magic pen. Whenever Yorick spawns a minion, its does magic damage to whoever it spawns on, and more magic pen never hurts when youre doing magic damage. Optionally, you could go 9/0/21 for the extra mana regen, speed, and CDR. I find, however, that i have more than enough mana regen on this build already, and that the speed isnt very useful once you get a point in his Q and W. I dont think the CDR alone is enough to focus the entire tree.

Yorick is a very mana dependent champion. With all his skills being on low cooldown and the physical damage that he can do limited by the minions he has on the map, Yorick is almost forced to spam skills constantly. On top of this, his skills arent cheap mana wise either. This is why i chose to use mana regen seals AND start with a mana manipulator. This way, you wont ever have to worry about mana and can spam to your hearts content.

From there i upgrade into a soul shroud. Soul shroud gives a very solid mana regen aura, a 10% CDR aura, and gives the owner a great amount of health. Literally everything about this item is useful on Yorick. The health give yourself and your minions extra tankiness, the CDR helps spam minions, and the mana regen helps you to be able to spam minions in the first place. And not only does it help you spam, it helps your entire team during teamfights.

Next come boots. I build merc treads on Yorick because the extra 25 MR never hurt anyone, and it is my opinion that every melee champion should have some form of tenacity. Without the tenacity Yorick would be easily locked down, and the rest of this guide would be pointless as you would spend the entire teamfight stunned.

6/22/11: Yorick released

6/23/11: Basic build posted
6/24/11: Added intro, Pros/Cons, and runes
6/25/11: Added masteries and worked on items
6/26/11: Added story, and some misc changes (so far :D )

Sorry for my lack of formatting and any typos i might have. As the days go by ill add more and more and keep everyone informed of when i do through the updates section. Stay tuned :)