Everything you need to know on Yorick

Yorick, the last in line of the Mori Gravediggers, has come back from the grave and became even stronger in the new Preseason. Iceborn Gauntlet replacing Frozen Heart, Manamune morphing into Muramana, and Spirit Visage's base MR being buffed along with its passive. If you thought Black Cleaver changed the game, start looking at Mr. Mori, every item change and addition has done nothing but improve Yorick in every way. He now hobbles forward with a clone to secure towers, rescue team mates and giving your team something all teams would love, a copy of your AD Carry.

A while back I picked up Yorick and fell in love with his "You Can't Kill Me" Build. His Top Lane experience was so much fun and micro-managing his Ultimate to fool enemies was hilarious. Right now I barely, if ever, see a Yorick being played and am disappointed. Why can't anyone appreciate his Top Lane superiority over high "Poke" champions? Well now I can't wait to see him in the Jungle, can anyone say "Go my Ghouls, Tank the Blue buffed Golem."

Early Game Top Lane

1. Yorick can easily Tank in the late game and turn 5v5s into 5v6 by cloning your own ADC for a short time, but his early game is alot squishier than most and usually ends up with either you playing defensive or extremely aggressive. Yorick's early game damage with Q and E are formidable to say the least and rarely does he need the aid of Health pots. Since his E ability is made for getting his health back he invests a greater amount into his Mana potions so that he can continuously poke and irritate his opponents.

My early game build usually goes into an early Tear of the Goddess followed by basic boots and Mana potions. Since Yorick's Q gives him extra movement speed and is on a pretty short cooldown he won't need upgraded boots until much later than other Top laning champions. I prefer to level his Q and E up the most focusing on E so that it's cooldown shortens and to do more damage. His Q will scale better with AD than it will with a base level but it is still apart of his main damage output even though it is his only melee ability.

The W is a slow that does scale but it's damage scales off of AP and it would be better used as a utility level 1 ability while leveling up everything else. Each one of his abilities Summons a ghoul which increases the damage from his basic attacks and decreases the damage he takes by 5% for each one active. The ghouls do additional damage and will apply special affects. The Q ghoul adds movement speed to Yorick while it moves faster and does extra damage while the W ghoul will continuously apply a slow each time it hits the opponent and the E ghoul gives you additional health each time it hits the opponent. The Ghouls Attack damage scales off of Yorick's attack damage so that when you build damage, everything about Yorick gets stronger. 

2. Yorick's main goal is to poke repeatily and try to get an early game advantage with ganks or the Q then E combo which will allow you to win damage trades pretty easily. Your Q gives Yorick a nice boost while backing off and using E to gain back the health lost. Yorick usually pokes more than anything else though given that his abilities play more defensive until he gets to level 6 allowing for a 2 man gank while only being one champion. His Ultimate makes a duplicate of another champion or yourself that is slightly weaker but with 2 people fighting 1 you will almost certainly win. His Ultimate is also used to prevent tower dives and block would be assailants from trying to get an early lead. Yorick's farm is dependent on all his abilities because of his abysmal attack speed and base damage from level 1 to level 8.

Once you start hitting the medial levels Yorick's farm takes off more and makes pushing a lane very viable. By this point it would be beneficial to have Boots of Lucidity, Mercury Treads, or Ninja Tabi while sporting an early game Manamune. Yorick's Cooldowns for his W and Ultimate make him very susceptible to not being able to do as much as he can for the team and by grabbing an early cooldown reduction item he can start making other lanes as well as his own fear him when he comes to lane. Yorick isn't all about the kills though, if he gets a few good for him, but when he shines is his ability to tank and allow his Carries to clean up and catch the ones who are trying to get away.

Early Game Jungle

1. Yorick starts off with his Q or E, Q for slightly faster jungle, and E for a better sustain in early jungle. Since Yorick is very dependent on Blue buff given his mana is minimal to say the least it is best to start there. Now if you haven't noticed Top Laners now leash and aid given the Mid's range no longer pulls the buff out of its zone and makes them pretty useless in terms of helping with Jungle creeps. Sure they can still provide some damage but given Top Laning champions usually have a better Armor rating in the early game and usually all around, them losing maybe 100 hp is better than the Jungler going down to half and having to play it safe or completely passive when running into the enemy Jungler.

Yorick can Gank at level 2 but it is best to wait until level 4 unless Mid or Top lane's enemy is aggressive and has already pushed them to tower. Red buff isn't really needed beyond level 6 because it's slow and damage over time isn't as good as Yorick's in general and it is rare to see Yorick with it when the ADC and even Top use it more proficiently.

2. The rest of the Jungling period with involve the usual farming, ganking, and giving of buffs. It is Important to note that Yorick will need the Blue buff until he obtains a Tear of the goddess and plays conservatively until a fight occurs. He works best with a Tanky DPS Top, a Low mana usage or no mana usage champ in Mid, and a Heavy CC Bot Lane combo. This allows him to come in, get kills, and then leave without much worry along with getting the Blue buff for his own.

Counter Jungling is risky for Yorick unless there is Ward coverage first, since his normal movement speed it a little lower than the majority of champions slows can make your life short as Mid and the other Jungler plow you into a grave. I personally play him defensively in the Jungle until Manamune and Spirit Visage are bought given his E then does alot more damage and spamming his spells to get away won't be too much of a problem.

Mid Game

1. By levels 8-12 Yorick will have either killed a tower or aided his team in kill pickups enough for a Roaming period. Yorick can roam alone without much fear because of his Ultimate allowing for ganks to either fail miserably or end in an even trade. Though I do not recommend a Teleport summoner skill for Yorick it can help for escapes and for assisting in Champion kills.

The Items Boots of Lucidity, and Frozen Heart (Which can be replaced for Iceborn Gauntlets for more damage if an ally has already picked up said item) will provide enough Cooldown reduction to have a 60 second cooldown on your ultimate and cause your Q, W, and E to be spammed constantly as long as you have mana. Muramana makes Yorick slam enemies like a truck and will literally allow him to win any 1v1 provided none of the enemies are fed beyond belief. 

2. This is a sort of "Going through the motions" kind of period of the game because Yorick's only goals are Split Push, Tank in team fights, and Farm. Other than these 3 things it is not that possible to do anything of more importance because it's not recommended to push and become greedy even though you're a tank and have a more than decent damage output. Yorick shines best when his team is around, alone he is grand but his position in team is sort of boring without it going fast or the enemy team coming around.

Late Game

1 and the only 1. Yorick will poke, copy, and E through his enemies at the end of the game and will basically make his ADC's clone run through enemy team while providing a decoy of their main target. Winning when in the Late game is almost certain given his CLG-like appeal for being a great late game champion. If you don't know what I mean, go to YouTube or Twitch and find the hour long CLG.NA and CLG.EU games, they take forever and then some.

 

Counters

Time for a list

Counters are as follows - Xin Zhao, Wukong, Cho'Gath, Rengar, and Kha'Zix. Xin Zhao's heavy poke, knock up, and other CC aspects makes it difficult Yorick to escape and live from 1 on 1 confrontations throughout the early game. Yorick will get tankier and will be able to take him on in a later period but being aggressive will get you killed. Wukong's Armor Reduction and Armor Penetration will cause already squishy Yorick to become a punching bag made of thin plastic and mashed potatoes. Sure the analogy is strange but have you seen a Yorick beat a Wukong right out of the gate? Didn't think so.

Cho'Gath becomes Tanky, has an Ultimate that deals true damage scaling off of AP, and his passive allows him to stay at full health since your ghouls will constantly die around him and give him back his health. Cho'Gath is easily the worst match up a Yorick can go up against because of his heavy CC, Crippling Ultimate, and the fact that all your abilities basically heal him for all the damage you do to him. If someone counter picks you just go straight defensive, there is almost no chance of you winning against him unless he feeds you and doesn't get any stacks of feast up.

Rengar and Kha'Zix have heavy damage early game and can either go Tanky DPS or a Glass Cannon build which Melts you before you can say "What just happened?". Thankfully Kha'Zix's passive isn't too useful with all your ghouls up, but Rengar's allows for retarded juking mechanics and a harsh chase potential. Certainly Rengar is the harder matchup because of his better lane sustain and damage, but either pick will cause you to play defensively regardless.

Pick Yorick Against - Irelia, Jayce, and Darius. These 3 big match-ups may look like they are one sided when it comes to Yorick but they all have trouble with a poke heavy competition. Sure you have to play defensively but Darius has no range and will just get bullied out of lane, Irelia's rush can end her from tower dives, and Jayce's poke is a skillshot that can be avoided because once Acceleration Gate goes down you can quite accurately determine where he is gonna fire it. A Crystalline Flask with pots and a later on Tear of the Goddess will make your sustain much higher and cause them to leave much more than you allowing for your farm to increase faster. All three of these champs live off of kills and Snowball very easily but without mana they have less than desirable damage and can be picked off quite easily.

 

Personal Review

Like I've said before, I do Champion reviews and what better time than the beginning of Season 3? The scale is the usual 1 out of 10 with possible decimals to distinguish between them. Remember that a lower score doesn't make them better so much as whether they are balanced and viable for tournament play. Balanced doesn't mean middle of the road (not bad, not good, okay). It means that the abilities and play style of said champion are seamless, fun, and not overpowered.

 

Now let's get on with the review:

Viability

1. Best in Team fights.
2. Can turn disadvantages such as 2v3 into an even match or a 3v3.
3. Almost never dies.
4. Can gank very effectively.
5. Is the Definition of Tanky DPS Support.

Balanced

Is Balanced

1. Unholy Covenant (Passive) - Makes Yorick hit 5% harder from basic attacks and defend 5% better as well for each Ghoul/Ability Active. This also gives his ghouls 35% of his health and 35% of his damage. Yorick is one of the few champions who can have a defense rating of 96% reduction though his damage may not be as well off. Him becoming an amazing tank is viable but given his ghouls only last a few seconds that amazing defense and damage boost will not last long. Because of this his Passive won't overpower others because of its extreme duration so much as it will aid you more for jumping into a fight and preventing an early death.
2. Omen of Famine (E) - Yorick sends out a ghoul behind his target which replenishes life for 40% of the damage dealt by the ghoul and the initial casting damage to himself. To add to this minions and monsters give half of the 40% of life because of his insane lane sustain and pushing potential if otherwise. This skill does base damage plus 100% of his bonus AD, most times this would be considered OP but given his Tankier nature the 100% is more than reasonable and allows him to build for greater sustain while still doing an adequate amount of damage.
3. Base Stats - Yorick's speed and Mana may be lacking but given his Armor and Magic resist scales better than most I see no problem. The Only complaint that can be made is he is dependent on mana but looking at all the other Mana using champions, who wouldn't be needing some more of their Blue bar?

Isn't Balanced

1. Omen of War (Q) - Omen of war isn't so much a case of whether it is overpowered or that it's movement speed boost isn't sufficient but being that in the early game it only costs 40 mana and stays that way. The sheer amount of how many times you can use it late game is insane and while it does 120% of all of your AD makes you able to spam this skill to the point that other champions' health will not be enough to take that kind of hit early game. That being said late game this skill isn't as strong and at this stage you would have built tankier so the damage isn't ridiculous. If the mana cost is increased to at least 60 or 70 for all levels then that would be an easy fix to the balancing problems of the Q.
2. Omen of Pestilence (W) - Yorick has a pretty good damage for most of the game but his W is lacking in both damage and overall usability. Don't get me wrong, his W's slow is decent and needed for ganking and for picking up kills. That being said the Initial slow doesn't last for long and the scaling of the ongoing slow from his ghoul is pretty abysmal. Adding to that it scales off of AP instead of AD and from that doesn't get enough damage output to be good enough for additional early points or much at all for late game. To be honest I would balance it's slow to be more dominant, as if less damage from the AP ratio and a better duration on the slow itself. Going from 1.5 seconds to a better 2.5. Additionally you could change the AP ratio to AD though that would make Iceborn Gauntlet more of a liability and less helpful for the champion itself.
3. Omen of Death (R/Ultimate) - Yorick can make a copy of target champion and if the one who is copied dies then they gain control of the puppet without being able to use summoner spells. To be honest this ability is mostly balanced though the biggest problem is that the health of the puppet at level 3 is 100% but it's damage is only 75%. If I were to balance it then I would have made it flipped, 75% health and 100% damage. Yorick's damage output isn't that great but his health is and given the copy is on a time limit it would be better to give the enemy the chance to kill you before 10 seconds are up or for you to kill them before your ghoul disappears. Downsizing the clone's damage makes it more like a decoy or a meatshield compared to a more optimal damage output spell, also given that you clone yourself or an ally unless they are controlling the puppet than no skills or abilities can be used at all already nerfing the damage output. By flipping the skill's traits they can be killed faster, but the 10 seconds are not wasted as they deal more damage.

Advantages

1. Yorick can be very defensive while still denying farm and poking his opponent.
2. He works well with a high CC team composition.
3. Doesn't rely on kills and instead is better suited to give them out.
4. High Defense and Utility compared to high Damage Top Laners.
5. Can make a temporary copy of one of the team's Carries.

Disadvantages

1. Low early game Health and Mana.
2. Easily kited.
3. Bad Initiator.
4. Cannot stray from a High Mana build.
5.  High Damage builds make Yorick a Glass Cannon without any kind of protection.

Overall Score

Yorick is one of my favorite Top Laners and for good reason. He is the Definition of a Tanky DPS Support which is one of my favorite combinations to play as. Adding to that the Season 3 changes have made him alot stronger and more favorable compared to his Season 2 aptitude. And now he can jungle because now his Ghouls will tank the buffed and other Monsters while leaving him unscathed and ready to gank. His play style is alot different given he is a very defensive champion and for good reason. Though if you ever run into one, pick Cho'Gath and watch him die repeatedly.

My Score: Yorick (Digs) gets 8.75 (Graves) out of 10.

Summary

Yorick's Clones, Ghouls, Slows, Damage, and Tankyness will make sure he doesn't die. Meaning in the game of League of Legends, he will be digging his opponent's graves. (Happy new year and I hope to see more Yoricks as I play on the NA server.)