Hello and welcome everyone to my first guide here on Mobafire featuring Yorick, The Gravedigger.
Yorick is my favorite champion by far since he is really fun to play and was one of my first champions when I started playing in season 1.
Yorick is a pretty versatile champ, you can play him in Top- and Mid lane but he also is a decent Jungler. He gets underestimated a lot since he had been nerfed and most people don't know how good Yorick can be as well as how great he can synergize with certain other champions. So yeah, with this guide i basically want to show you how much fun Yorick can be and you should really give him a try.
Hope everyone of you will have a good read and I would love to get some feedback or critique, what i can do better.

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

Yorick's Strengths

• One of the best top lane sustains
• Amazing harass in lane and good siege abilities
• Good Duelist
• Really strong farming
• Decent pushing
• Great slowing abilities
• Passive can be really strong if used correctly
• Good kiting
• One of the best taunts in the game(Emotes)

Yorick's Weaknesses

• Bad escape abilities so you'll get ganked a lot
• Need to make good use of his Omen of Death
• Mana relying until you got your Tear of the Goddess and all that kinds of stuff

You should most times take these as your quints since they your ghouls scale like crazy on flat ad and the early game damage you can put out with them is insane. Also makes it a lot easier to last hit.


Same reasons as the quints.



This will allow you to trade pretty efficiently in the early game and this is where you want to get ahead so they are pretty good on Yorick.


MR is the best late game scaling stat on runes and you should always take these. If your enemy team is full AD you can basically just pick anything over this.



I wouldn't recommend any other rune setups then this one because there's simply not that many viable options for Yorick.

Fleet of Foot: This mastery gives you 1.5% movement speed which isn't very significant but not all to shabby.
Meditation : This gives you 3 mana regen per 5 seconds which is really good for Yorick's early game and his lack of early mana before he got his tear.
Summoner's Insight : You should only put 2 points into this mastery and its basically just to get deeper into the tree.
Alchemist : Duration of Pots and Elixirs is increased by 10%. This is a really solid mastery since you should always buy some Health Potion and Mana Potion at least in the early parts of the game and this adds up pretty quickly.
Vampirism : This works pretty good Yorick's e and the lifesteal you get from it so it's a pretty solid mastery to pick up.
Culinary Master : Makes your potions to biscuits which are pretty good since they restore mana and health INSTANTLY!(and to be honest who doesn't like biscuits)
Wealth : Pretty sweet since it only takes 1 point for 40 gold now instead of the 3 points last season.
Expanded Mind : This gives you 5% more maximum mana which is pretty decent and you will need that mana on him to keep poking and so on.
Intelligence : Here the 1st part of the mastery is everything we really wanna look at and some cd reduction is always pretty damn good and needed on Yorick.
Wanderer : This gives you 5% movement speed out of combat which is great for getting back to your lane its also pretty good to split push and in general.



Double-Edged Sword : Interesting mastery don't know how good it is yet.
Sorcery: This mastery gives you 5% cd reduction which is always good on Yorick(same with Intelligence in the utility tree)
Brute Force : Gives you 0.55 AD per level which is pretty solid for a 3 point mastery.
Martial Mastery : Gives you 5 flat AD for 1 point what do you want more?





















So this is the Mastery setup I use on Yorick. I think he scales very good with the Utility-trees of season 3 and 4 so I usually put the most part of my points into that when playing top lane Yorick. This also helps Yorick a lot with his sustain in lane. The other part of points I would always put into offense.

Double-Edged Sword : Interesting mastery don't know how good it is yet.
Sorcery: This mastery gives you 5% cd reduction which is always good on Yorick.
Butcher : This can help you to farm a bit better.
Brute Force : Gives you 0.55 AD per level which is pretty solid for a 3 point mastery.
Spell Weaving : When you use this mastery right, you will really benefit from the stacked up spelldamage.
Martial Mastery : Gives you 5 flat AD for 1 point what do you want more?
Executioner : This mastery is really good in my opinion since it makes you able to bully your enemy out of lane even harder.
Blade Weaving : This is basically like Spell Weaving only the other way around since your autoattacks will benefit from casting spells(pretty solid).
Warlord : This mastery increases your attack damage by 3.5% if you put 2 points into this so overall a great investment.
Devastating Strikes : This increases both your armorpen and your magicpen by 6% which is a really great amount and helps you to do even more damage in early and late game.
Havoc : This is the same mastery as last season it gives you 3% increased damage which counts for basicattacks and spells.



Block : This mastery reduces 2 of the incoming damage of champions autoattacks which isn't all too shabby.
Recovery : Gives you +2 health back every 5 seconds. This helps you even more with your sustain in lane.
Unyielding : Reduces the damage of the enemy champions which is pretty good considering its only 1 point you have to put into it.
Veteran Scars : This is almost the same mastery as in the last 2 seasons except that its now a 3 point mastery and gives you 36 health(still pretty worth picking up).
Juggernaut : Gives you 3% more maximum health which i think is pretty amazing and the reason it is viable to go into the defensive tree.



Fleet of Foot: This mastery gives you 1.5% movement speed which isn't very significant but not all to shabby.
Meditation : This gives you 3 mana regen per 5 seconds which is really good for Yorick's early game and his lack of early mana before he got his tear.
Summoner's Insight : When you go 9 points into utility you only want to put 1 point into this mastery since you want to have 2 points to spend 1 each on Alchemist and Culinary Master .
Alchemist : Duration of Pots and Elixirs is increased by 10%. This is a really solid mastery since you should always buy some Health Potion and Mana Potion at least in the early parts of the game and this adds up pretty quickly.
Culinary Master : Makes your potions to biscuits which are pretty good since they restore mana and health INSTANTLY!(and to be honest who doesn't like biscuits)

This is probably the summoner spell I recommend to always pick up playing Yorick since it provides pretty good offensive and defensive/engage and disengage abilities.


This is the second summoner i would always recommend because you can finish of enemy champions, reduce healing drastically for example Volibear's The Relentless Storm, Vladimir's Transfusion and so on. It also provides pretty good early game damage and you can use it to all in and stuff.




This spell is another option you can get with Yorick. You should only take this over Flash even tho Flash is a way better pick most times since you can just slow your enemies with your Iceborn Gauntlet.

This won't scale too good into late game because you got enough slows anyways tho it can be useful when dueling top lane to get ahead and win fights against champions like Riven or Xin Zhao that can crank out much damage in a short amount of time.

I would only pick that up if you want objective control like taking Dragon's and Turret's constantly. So only pick this up in certain teamcomps.



I wouldn't recommend to pick up any other summoner spells beside these that I've listed above.

You should pick this up to get some more sustain and especially for the mana it provides you to use your abilities more frequently and heal yourself up quickly with the Omen of Famine.


This is just for some more vision since you can't keep your lane warded with only your Stealth Ward since it has a 120 sec cooldown and is active for only 60 seconds. Warding in general is pretty important as Yorick(more Information in the "Warding section below).

This just gives you an extra ward for some amount of time not bad considering its for free.



These with the Culinary Master Mastery will make all the Health Potion's into Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation which are really really good I feel like.




I would only start with this if your lane opponent is a heavy skill shot champion and you want to dodge them as good as possible.


These with the Culinary Master Mastery will make all the Health Potion's into Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation which are really really good I feel like.


This just gives you an extra ward for some amount of time not bad considering its for free.




Great item since Meki Pendant was removed so this combined with the other item pick ups will make up for that.


This is just for some more vision since you can't keep your lane warded with only your Stealth Ward since it has a 120 sec cooldown and is active for only 60 seconds. Warding in general is pretty important as Yorick(more Information in the "Warding section below).

These with the Culinary Master Mastery will make all the Health Potion's into Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation which are really really good I feel like.


These are if you still have mana problems but you can just skip them for more Health Potion's since you get mana from the Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation anyways.


This just gives you an extra ward for some amount of time not bad considering its for free.




Great item to get on Yorick for his early and mid game since this gives you mana and build into Manamune which is one of your core items if not the core item.


This is to dodge skill shots and get away from ganks a little better.



Great item for Yorick since you can deal huge amounts of damage with the Sheen procs. It builds into Iceborn Gauntlet and Trinity Force.




Pretty good item on Yorick because it gives you great stats that he really benefits from and the slows and waveclear you get from this item are amazing.


Great item but i think people tend to rush it too early since you can get it after Iceborn Gauntlet and get more benefits from it then as you should almost have enough stacks for Muramana by then and that's when this item gets really efficient.




The Passive of this item is pretty beneficial because it will increase your healing from the Omen of Famine and it gives you extra tankyness.


This gives you some MR and Tenacity which is pretty good in general because your enemies will most likely have Crowd Control.


This makes you more tanky and it's pretty good to be able to peel for your carries.



This item should be self explaining.

Unholy Covenant:For each summon that is active (Ghouls and the Omen of Death Revenant), Yorick takes 5% less damage and his autoattacks deal 5% more damage.
Ghouls summoned by Yorick's basic abilities have health equal to 35% of Yorick's maximum health and attack damage equal to 35% of Yorick's attack damage.

This is his passive which can be really really amazing when used effectively. You can for example splitpush with this using your Omen of Death, Omen of Pestilence on you or just casting it next to the tower and finally your Omen of War and Omen of Famine on minions. You can also deal huge amounts of damage when using all your ghouls at once.




Omen of War: Yorick enhances his next autoattack in the next 10 seconds to deal bonus physical damage. This enhanced attack summons a Spectral Ghoul once it hits. This ability resets the autoattack timer.
The Spectral Ghoul deals more damage and moves faster than the other Ghouls. While this Ghoul is active, Yorick gains the same movement speed increase this also is a great dueling ability.

This is Yorick's Q-Ability which will be your main damage source in the later stages of the game. This ability only summons the ghoul and starts going on cooldown once you performed a autoattack or the 10 seconds run out. The Omen of War ghoul will not be summoned if you autoattack towers or inhibitors. Great ability to deal huge amounts of damage in the late game since it has crazy scalings and you will get into melee range easier than in the laning phase.




Omen of Pestilence: Yorick summons a Decaying Ghoul that arrives with a violent explosion, damaging enemies within 100 range and slowing them for 1.5 seconds. While the Decaying Ghoul remains alive, enemies within 62.5 range continue to be slowed.

This is Yorick's W-Ability which you will mainly use to poke your enemies in lane and later on to chase and slow down your enemies that try to escape or bruiser that try to get onto your carries. This spell is really really good in combination with Iceborn Gauntlet.
Omen of Pestilence can also help you push and check bushes without even stepping into them. You can also use this ability to dodge skillshots.




Omen of Famine: Yorick deals magic damage and heals for 40% of the damage dealt. A Ravenous Ghoul is summoned behind his target for up to 5 seconds, healing Yorick each time it attacks (restores equal to 35% AD). The healing effect is halved against minions.

This is Yorick's E-Ability. You will use it as your main sustain in the lane and max it pretty early on because it will give you health back instantly and then over time. It is really strong when using it to poke against your enemy with a w+e combo since these skills are both ranged.




Omen of Death: Yorick conjures a Revenant in the image of one of his allies that will have a percentage of their max health and attack damage. The Revenant lasts for up to 10 seconds. If his ally dies while their Revenant is alive, the Revenant sacrifices itself to resurrect them temporarily by restoring them to full health and giving them time to enact vengeance. The resurrection will last for up to 10 seconds. During this time, the ally can use all of their abilities.

This is Yorick's Ultimate ability. It can be used pretty versatile, sometimes you will use this to secure kills in lane but most of the time you will use this on your ADC to make the most efficient use out of it since the ADC is the one(in most cases) that has the most autoattack damage. The timing on this is the most important. Not too early and not too late. In the best case you can cast this ability on your ADC at the beginning of the fight to deal huge amounts of extra damage with the Revenant and then the recurrection if hes getting killed in that 10 second period. Another option is to cast this on your APC if hes near dieing. This ability is the most situation dependent ability and as said before you will have to use it just at the right time to make the most out of it.

• First of all you should not be farming with your abilities at the first couple of levels
• You should also consider using your Health Potion's, Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation and Mana Potion's wisely, so only if you really need to
• Another key part is to get your Tear of the Goddess as early as possible(first back)
• If all of this doesn't help you can still replace some of the Health Potion's that you get at the start with Mana Potion's

• Especially in the Early Game you want to focus on using your abilities(w->e or if you get into melee range: q->w->e) to poke and harass your enemy
• You can also use your Omen of Famine on minions but keep in mind that the heal you get is halved
• Also try to trade as much as possible when you can get 2-3 ghouls out at the same time since your autoattacks and tankiness will be pretty damn good due to Unholy Covenant
• Your Omen of Death counts 2 times on Unholy Covenant so it can help you a lot if you activate it when dueling your opponent

• When you harass the enemy and he is low on health you should try to zone him by simply standing behind the minionwave and denying him to farm.
• Don't try to zone if you don't got good ward coverage since the enemy jungler will come and gank you
• Whenever he tries to come up to farm when you are zoning you should poke him even more or if he overextends try to finish him off

• You should always keep your lane warded since you will most times be the number 1 target of the enemy jungler
• If you can force your opponent back whether he has to go and heal, buy items or you killed him you should push the minions into the enemy tower as fast as possible(might even ask your jungler to help you) so that you can make him lose as much experience and gold as possible and get even further ahead
• Don't try to roam as Yorick especially not in the early parts of the game

I just listed this as a difficult Match-up because soo many people say its difficult to deal with him. Yes, his passive Carnivore is kinda strong against you because you will use your ghouls pretty often but the thing about this is that he has to deal the killing blow otherwise he won't get back any Health Points. Just make sure too dodge his Rupture, and Feral Scream and you should be fine. Igniting Cho'Gath before he uses his Feast is pretty important too. Also just walk up to him and slap him a couple times if he tries to get his passive working with your ghouls.



This actually is a difficult Match-up but i managed to win almost every of my laning phases against him till now, because most Trundle's overextend against Yorick and you can use that to your advantage, just Ignite him before he uses all his abilities. Also important to mention is that you just stay out of range for some time and then just poke him down. Even though his passive King's Tribute gives him Health Points everytime a minion dies even without dealing the killing blow, you should be fine against him by following the thing above.