Yorick Build Guide by blastantir

Introduction

Welcome to my guide.

Yorick is a nice solotop champion cause his harass ability and his survivability.
In laning phase he is quite annoying for all enemies because of his ranged abilities and his high sustain.

Anyway he is less stronger against high gap closer champions like Irelia or Riven, in this case you should just try to farm like hell and wait for your jungler. In other cases you can really dominate your lane.

Other champions can counter him quite well, but when i say "counter" i'm not saying that they will kill you a lot, i'm just saying killing him will be very hard:
Trundle: his Decompose will heal him each time you cast a spell, cause your gouls' death will grant health to him. So you cannot kill him easily, but is the same for him.
Cho'Gath: quite the same story, he can kill your gouls and heal himself with Carnivore, with the addition that he will grant mana too.

Sadly is being quite popular to ban Yorick in ranked games, but if not, enjoy it ;)

Pros / Cons

Runes

Greater Mark of Attack Damage: give you early damage.

greater quintessence of desolation greater quintessence of desolation: in my opinion a must have.

Greater Seal of Armor: early armor.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: some MR mid and late game.. i think these runes are very nice.




greater seal of defense greater seal of defense: mid/late game armor.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: some MR early.. i think these runes are very nice.

Masteries

This "non-standard" build gives you all you need:
- With ArpRunes + Weapon Expertise you will ignore a lot of armor early game increasing your damage a lot.
- Resistance / Hardiness + Veteran's Scars grant you the survivability you need early game.
- Tough Skin + Indomitable are amazing for a solotop because with them you can hit your enemy in the middle of a minion wave receaving ridicoluos damage from them. Since i discover them i cannot live without ;)

Anyway Yorick is really a versatile champion and a lot of combination works greatly with him.. Standard 9/21/0, 9/0/21, 0/9/21 and 0/21/9 are all good for him.

Summoner Spells

Flash is a great spell cause can help you to survive to a good gank ( junping behind a wall or simply away from them ) or reaching an enemy that used Flash before of you.

Ignite is usefull for attack an enemy cause it will low his healregen ability/life steal, while doing a nice true damage. In my opinion it can help you a lot




Teleport is great for solo top in my opinion. It allow you to go back ( or die ) and return to your tower in a very short time and give you map control for the rest of the game.

Exhaust is your main alternative to Ignite. It is very good because it will reduce the damage output of your enemy, his resistence and his mobility. Ignite and Exhaust are both a good choice.

Skills

(Innate): Yorick takes 5% less damage and his basic attacks deal 5% more damage for each summon that is active.

This is a good innate cause it will make you harder and will make you hit harde. with 4 summons active you will take 20% less damage ( O_o ) and your AA will do 20% more damage. I love this damage reduction



(Active): Yorick enhances his next standard attack in the next 10 seconds to deal bonus physical damage. This enhanced attack summons a Spectral Ghoul once it hits.
The Spectral Ghoul deals more damage and moves faster than the rest of the ghouls. While the ghoul is active, Yorick moves faster as well.

This skill will be your main damage mid/late game, because it scales hard with AD and with Sheen you will hit really hard. His movement speed buff is usefull for the entire game, but especially at the beginning cause it helps you to kill a running enemy or to excape to a gank.



(Active): Yorick summons a Decaying Ghoul at a target location, dealing magic damage and slowing enemies on the area for 1.5 seconds. While the Decaying Ghoul remains alive enemies near it are slowed.

This is a good skill too thanks to his AOE damage and slow. Combined with Omen of War you will be a really good chaser and a really good runner too ;).
Another great thing is use this skill to avoid skillshots like Blitzcrank grab, Nidalee spear, Ezreal Q, Morgana Q and so on...



(Active): Yorick deals magic damage to a single target and heals for 40% of the damage dealt. A Ravenous Ghoul is summoned behind the target and it will heal Yorick for the damage it deals.

finally your main skill. This skill will damage your target healing you and summoning a goul that heals you again. This skill allows you to harass your enemy a lot and to stay longer in lane. Just love it.



(Active): 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 its revenant is alive, the revenant sacrifices itself to reanimate them temporarily by restoring them to full health and give them time to enact vengeance. The reanimation will last for up to 10 seconds. During this time, the ally can use all of his abilities.

A great Ulti becaus of his great team utility. Its main uses are:
- Cast on yourself for destroy a turret.
- Cast on yourself if you are alone to face an enemy and do more damage/ revenge yourself
- Cast on your AD carry at the beginning of a TF to add a lot of damage to your team

Items

Manamune is a great item for you and your main AD source at the beginning of the game. Anyway is not a good idea to rush it before you have lev2 boots. So rush Tear of the Goddess, upgrade your boots and that take it. With this item you will cover your namareg and Ad lack.

Glacial Shroud will give you a lot of armor, mana + AD thanks to Manamune and CDR, great for you.

Spirit Visage another great item for you because it grants other usefull CDR, life and will burst your heal ability.





This choice depends on the enemy that you are facing and his team. If you are facing an AP enemy or enemy team has a lot of CC, so take Mercury's Treads. Otherwise take Ninja Tabi and your AD enemy will cry hard.





Meki Pendant + 2x Health Potion is my favourite start cause allows you to stay in lane for a lot of time thanks the ManaReg. In this way you can harass your enemy hard and heal yourself a lot.

Boots of Speed + 2x Health Potion + Mana Potion is a good alternative. Consider this choice if your enemy have skill shots or is an high mibility champion.





Trinity Force will gives you a lot of usefull things like an other slow, mana, speed, attack speed and a GREAT burst to your Omen of War. This item is the direct upgrade of the Sheen i recommend to take mid game, because it will raise your damage a lot.

Warmog's Armor grants tons of health and HR. You are an offtank and you need to absorb a lot of damage. This item is what you need.

Frozen Heart is the upgrade of your early Glacial Shroud. It gives you tons of armor and a great CDR. With Manamune it will rais your damage a little too. great.





Frozen Mallet can replace your Warmog's Armor. If you select this item so you should avoid to take Trinity Force cause theire slow does not stack and you should take a Phage instead of Sheen.

Maw of Malmortius this is a great item if your enemy team has a lot of AP damage. In my opinion you can replace Trinity Force and take an early hex drinker insted of Sheen.

Force of Nature is always a great item if you need more MR. This item can replace Spirit Visage late game if you want. But you will rarelly reach the point there you have finished your build and you can buy another major item.




Balanced:
MR:
Fratma:
this are just some example for builds, anyway as usual ITEM BUILD DEPENDS ON THE MATCH AND ARE NOT STATIC

Wards

If i cannot avoid to push lane ( please try to not push ) you should buy sight ward because top is usually the most gankable lane in the match ;) Do not feed theire jungler please.
If you are playing on the right side buying a sight ward and ward the tribrush could be a nice idea too.
If your enemy has warded the river you can conseder to buy a Vision Ward, but this is not so necessary

Changelog

8/9/2012: Some changes thanks to haedrix advices

7/9/2012: Mastery tree changed thanks to throatslasher

Thanks

Thanks to jhoijhoi for the line dividers/separators