Hi! I'm kingkang2, a top lane main in high Platinum (hoping to hit Diamond this season), and I'm going to teach you all about Yorick. Yorick was immensely strong early this season with the buff to his Maiden, but some nerfs over the past couple of patches have put him in a reasonable, yet still strong, spot. When played properly, Yorick can solo carry a game with insane pressure and dueling power. I created this guide because I enjoy playing Yorick so much, and the guide was developed based on what I've learned from playing this champion so much. I hope this guide can be a starting point for new Yorick players to build upon. Enjoy!

The new Meowrick skin isn't the only reason to pick up Yorick. This champion is extremely fun to play if you enjoy the idea of the "Goon Squad". Yorick has the ability to summon ghouls from slain enemies and summon the Maiden of the Mist upon hitting level 6. A lot of Yorick's dueling power, wave clear, and tower destroying ability comes from this "Goon Squad". It's so much fun to gang up on the poor enemy who's trapped in your rape cage and wail on them. The enemy will be confused by your insane damage as they stand in the walls and accept their death.

Pros:

- Amazing dueling power post 6
- Destroys towers quickly
- Can clear waves quickly
- Can solo Rift Herald
- Splitpushing monster
- 1v1, 2v1, 3v1 Ability
- Scales well into the mid-late game
- Relatively easy to play

Cons:

- Early levels can be tough in certain matchups
- Lots of CC can really hold down Yorick
- Team needs to know how to play the splitpush game
- Fairly immobile
- No hard CC (besides the wall, but that can be dashed out of)
- Quite difficult to master and control the Maiden's movements (gotta keep her out of danger)

Early Game:

As Yorick, you need to play the early game differently depending on the matchup. Yorick has some really awful matchups out there, and good players will punish Yoricks inability to properly trade without level 3. In tough matchups, play like a Nasus would and focus on ghoul stacks with D-Shovel. Yorick's level 3 powerspike is pretty good, so trade when you have to and keep focusing on farm for that Triforce.

Post 6:

Yorick's true powerspike is after hitting level 6. Yorick can summon the Maiden and pretty much 1v1 any champion with ease and wave clearing becomes so easy. What's great about Yorick, is that he has so many options post 6.

What I do most games is I push the Wave into tower constantly and look to invade the enemy jungle. Steal away their camps, kill them if they want to fight. Yorick with Maiden can decimate jungle camps, and killing the monsters with Maiden will spawn more ghoulings, allowing you to kill camps even faster. Just make sure you have proper vision around you, and beware of the top laner and mid laner closing in on you while you steal camps. Focus mostly on taking scuttle or camps close to top lane, so you can quickly rotate back to lane to catch the minions. Doing this basically starves their jungler, forces the enemies to respond to you thereby increasing the pressure you are exerting on the map, and gives your lane opponent an non-interactive lane in which they have to choose to either respond to you or focus on farming under turret.

If it's post 10 minutes, I have my Maiden up, and I either have my jungler near top or I see the enemy jungler near bot, I look to do a quick rift herald. Yorick's auto attacks do percent health damage to rift herald, so soloing it is a breeze. Take it, send it top, find a way to force them to back, and get some free plate money or even first tower.

Midgame:

By this point in the game, you should AT LEAST have your completed Triforce, upgraded boots, and some pieces for your next item. Your goal as Yorick is to Pressure the map. The general rule of thumb is to pressure the side of the map opposite to the objective that you want. Mountain Drakes synergize really well with Yorick's tower taking ability, so lets say you want that Mountain Drake. Splitpush toplane and draw the attention of the enemy. Pull them towards you so that your team can easily take that dragon. If you think you can 2v1, go ahead. 3v1s are pretty tough, so just trap them in your wall and run away if they send that many to you. If they only send one to you, that is a sign of disrespect. Start chipping away on that tower when you can without dying.

Once Baron's up post 20 minutes, that will most likely be the objective of contention. Split bottom lane and draw the enemy towards you. For example, lets say both teams are eyeing Baron. Go bottom lane and start pushing hard with the Goon Squad. Keep some wards in the jungle, and if no one comes for you, Great! Keep getting towers. If they come for you, Great! Your team has a much better chance at getting Baron. Use Yorick and the Goon Squad's amazing dueling potential to fight off whoever comes to stop your agenda.

Keep putting on the pressure, be smart about the fights you pick while splitting, don't die stupidly. The art of splitpushing is fairly complex and difficult to master since it is very situational. I recommend watching NEACE's videos on splitpushing in order to gain a better understanding of splitpushing. As a top laner, it's definitely something you should have under your belt.