HOW TO WIN WITH YORICK
Table of Contents
1. Early Game
2. Mid Game
3. Late Game
4. Ability Use
5. Setups
6. The Freeze Problem
7. How to Play when Behind
8. Understanding Maiden AI
9. Understanding Ghoul AI
10. Manipulating AI
11. Tips & Tricks
EARLY GAME
When considering your early game, you should always be mindful of whether or not you can outscale your opponent and what their win condition is. Playing against a Kayle will be a fundamentally different laning phase than a Renekton. Knowing your matchups will come with time and experience with the champion and the way you play your laning phase will entirely rely on your matchup. If your opponent can out-pressure you lvl 1, you should generally start E and try to last hit the first 3 melee minions while keeping a safe distance. If you out-pressure your oppenent lvl 1, you can take Q and choose two different options:
1. Use Q to harass your opponent and get their health low. This can setup a potential dive or it can get you lvl 2 priority
2. Use Q to farm graves to setup a potential lvl 2-3 all-in or big trade.
Playing out your waves is going to be essential here. Your goal in laning phase is to prepare for your mid-late game. Look to set yourself up in a position where you can reliably win a 1v1 with your opponent in the sidelanes. Whether that is by farming and scaling or putting them in the dirt so they can't outscale you depends on the matchup.
You get a pretty substantial powerspike at lvl 6 with Maiden. Don't be afraid to use it. We will elaborate further in the "Setups" section.
MID GAME
Your mid game is going to be 14-25 minutes (From when plates disappear to when objectives become increasingly important). This is going to mean that your laning phase is essentially decided and generally that either you or your opponent's T1 tower has fallen or is going to fall soon. Rift Herald has spawned and there is less pressure to play in-lane because plates are gone. So what should you do?
In this timeframe, I really like to stay in the sidelanes as much as possible. I rarely join drag fights unless it is the 3rd or 4th dragon, and even then I usually prefer to draw pressure by splitpushing or threatening other objectives. If you are even or ahead of your opponent, you should look to take T1 tower if you haven't already and look to pressure rift herald or bully them out and take their jungler's camps. Look to strengthen your advantage by farming and
NOTnecessarily by getting kills. Yorick takes camps insanely fast and he can remotely farm with Ghouls, you need to be taking advantage of that. If you get your gold from kills, your bounty will skyrocket and you will have a giant target on your back as an immobile splitpusher.
If you are NOT in this situation and you are behind, please see the "How to Play when Behind" section.
LATE GAME
This is where Yorick shines. Minutes 25+. If you've built lethality your ghouls alone are most likely capable of one-shotting the enemy ADC. You shred towers and you can push fast. If you've farmed well you are more than likely getting close to full build. You are going to be looking for opportunities to close out the game at this point. So how do you do that?
Your macro knowledge is going to be crucial here. Knowing when and how to pressure is going to come with time and knowledge. I heavily recommend you check out AloisNL for macro knowledge. He recently did a series on Yorick and there is a lot to learn in this regard. Generally, you should be looking to pressure the enemy sidelane to allow your team to pressure/ take objectives. You do this by playing up and pushing waves, forcing a response.
If they DO respond by sending your opponent to manage the push, you will want to force them out of lane by killing them or forcing a back. This will let you push and it will more than likely force the enemy team to give your team the objective (usually dragon or baron nashor).
If they DONT respond at all you are going to need to PUSH fast. They made an incredible mistake. Take as much as you can and threaten to end the game. If you lose vision of the enemy team they are more than likely coming to stop you so back off.
If they send 2 to the sidelane you need to ping your team to pressure. Ideally you should be pressuring when your team is also capable of pressuring so have them force an objective or a 3v4.
These strategies are part-and-parcel for a splitpusher. Keep in mind objective timers and your teams position and game presence. This is what you should do in an ideal scenario where your team is capable of winning a 4v3, however, that is not always the case. Every game is different and knowing how to play out each specific scenario will absolutely come with time. Don't be afraid to wait for good push timers or you might die without your team gaining anything from it.
Your TP is going to be your game winning tool. Don't waste it. Use it to pressure, take Inhibitor, join crucial teamfights, or end the game with a backdoor.
ABILITY USE
Shepherd of Souls
Your Ghouls are your bread and butter. If you are going lethality they will be your main damage source. Because of this, it is crucial to play around them.
You can have up to 4 graves at once and every new grave past that will replace the farthest one. Keep in mind graves spawn when you last hit with Last Rites or for every 12/6/2 enemy minions that die. Level 13 is a big powerspike because you can get 3 graves from one minion wave without last hitting with Last Rites. If you stay in passive range for the first two waves, you will get a free grave on the last minion of that wave.
A critical part of Shepherd of Souls is knowing when to Awaken your ghouls. Generally speaking, in the laning phase you should almost never Awaken but instead use your Mourning Mist to make the ghouls automatically rise and jump on the target. Your ghouls die to one AA from the enemy, so having them out in the open is dangerous. If they kill all your ghouls and you have no graves, they can most likely turn to you and win.
I only ever Awaken my ghouls when I either need to push the wave, hold a freeze in front of my tower, or if the wave is bouncing back towards them and the graves will be out of range for my Mourning Mist.
More on the ghouls in the "Understanding Ghoul AI" section.
Last Rites
Your Last Rites is your damage tool and grave-maker. It is an AA reset so make sure to use it immediatly after an AA when trading to ignore attack speed. The heal is super good for sustain and the recent changes make it super effective in winning those close 1v1's.
Dark Procession
Your use of Dark Procession is what separates the good Yorick players from the bad ones. You can really easily kill or take a flash with good Dark Procession placement. You can use it to save yourself in a pinch. It is your tool to make up for the fact that you don't have any mobility or CC in your kit.
Remember that you and your team ignore the W but to the enemy team it acts as player-created terrain. Placing the W over yourself when your opponent uses a dash or blink means that you can walk out of it but they need to destroy it to get out.
You generally want to use Dark Procession in tandem with your Mourning Mist slow to guarantee trapping your opponent. Otherwise the cast delay can be pretty easy to walk away from unless you predict really well.
Mourning Mist
Your Mourning Mist is how you control ghouls and Maiden. The slow is nice for chasing and the damage is just enough to use for last-hitting from a distance. The shape of it takes getting used to but you should generally aim to hit with the larger end of it.
Get good at landing your Mourning Mist. It is crucial for your trades and if you have less than 3 graves around you it is the only way to summon your ghouls. Missing Mourning Mist often means backing off and waiting for it to go off cooldown.
The Cursed status effect that Mourning Mist applies is how your ghouls and Maiden choose what to aggro. The damage buff it gives to your ghouls is what makes them so strong.
Eulogy of the Isles
Your wife. Your pressure. Your ghoul-generator. Your power.
Eulogy of the Isles summons Maiden along with 2/3/4 ghouls. Everything that dies within her radius now summons a ghoul (still a max of 4 alive at once). She will automatically attack any enemy within her AA radius until she is pulled away by Yorick. More on this in the "Understanding Maiden AI" section.
Her AA damage is not great on its own, what really makes her strong is the extra damage you get when attacking the same enemy that she is. It is %health magic damage and it is nothing to scoff at. Later in the game she is really useful for automatically summoning ghouls and summoning her can give you ghouls on demand. You will generally summon maiden as soon as you get access to you ult for instant lane presence. If you intend to freeze the wave on your opponent you may want to delay summoning her.
Be wary of certain matchups like Irelia, Trundle, Tryndamere, and Warwick who can easily take Maiden down in one go. You really want to be careful when you throw your Mourning Mist because if Maiden chases but you can't back her up you are not going to have a good time. Her cooldown is super punishing.
10 seconds after you summon Maiden, you have the option to recast and release her. She will push the closest lane until she dies, continuing to summon ghouls while doing so. You should almost never use this. It is so much better to have Maiden with you in almost every scenario. I will only really do it if she is guaranteed to die anyway and I want her to turn around and damage the opponent. The only other time I might recast is if I really need pressure on a pushed up lane and my team needs me as a meatshield and I plan on TPing back to the lane she pushes. Once you release her you cannot get her back and the cooldown only starts once she dies.
Setups
My general rule of thumb for Yorick setups is the following:
Yorick + 0 Ghouls = Glorified Gromp
Yorick + 1 Ghoul = Barely a Champion
Yorick + 2 Ghouls = Weak
Yorick + 3 Ghouls = Strong
Yorick + 4 Ghouls = Dangerously Powerful
Having Maiden out means that you will be constantly generating ghouls as long as there are enemy minions/neutral monstersthat are dying nearby. When looking for trades or all-ins you can think of your active graves as a "power" meter that you can expend for damage.
For example;
You have 3 graves so you are potentially strong. You then choose to hit your opponent with Mourning Mist and the 3 ghouls jump your opponent while you farm. They clear the ghouls and lose some health. You are now significantly weaker as a champion and it will take some time to get graves back.
This is why you should generally (depends on matchup) look for all-ins with 3-4 ghouls. The ghouls will provide damage while forcing your opponent to choose between attacking you or clearing the ghouls first. In most scenarios, having 3-4 ghouls on you and a Yorick slamming a shovel over your head means death.
Use your graves as a threat of potential damage. This can help you gain presence in the lane but be careful when expending your damage because you will be left weaker for a period of time. Make sure it is worth it.
The Freeze Problem
If you play Yorick a couple times you will quickly notice a problem that is pretty much exclusive to him. Your ghouls and Maiden automatically attack enemy minions without your input. Even if just Maiden is out, she will spawn ghouls automatically who will push the wave. This makes slow pushing difficult and freezing on your opponent a near impossibility if Maiden is already out.
This is a problem but it isn't a big issue if you take into account the extra wave damage that you will be doing. However, not being able to freeze is a big downside when it comes to denying your opponent resources.
The way to play with this is to push in waves quickly if you think you have time to crash it before the next wave arrives. If you don't have enough time, then don't contribute any damage to the wave other than last hits. Don't even try to freeze on your opponent, it will likely not work. Leaving the wave in an optimal state if you kill your opponent on their turn is kinda impossible, so you should always push out the wave and crash it when you can.
Obviously this will lead to a state where the enemy is farming under tower when you would prefer forcing them to fight. Your options here are either to poke/harass them under tower to threaten a dive or roam for objectives. Even if Voidgrub haven't spawned yet, there is usually something you can do in the river to gain an advantage over your opponent.
My hierarchy of things to do when the wave is pushed is usually:
VoidGrub > Rift Scuttler > Plant > Ward River / Enemy Jungle
How to Play When Behind
You're going to make mistakes and you're going to get weaksided. It's a reality. Luckily you are playing Yorick and not some assassin who needs kills to be able to do anything. Yorick is actually in a much better position than most other top-laners when it comes to playing behind.
Once you realize you are behind your first priority should be maximizing the amount of gold you get no matter what. Farming under tower is fine but if your opponent really makes your life miserable by holding a freeze then you're gonna need to ask your jungler for help. Alternatively, you can roam mid and use Dark Procession to gank. Your ultimate focus when your behind bad during the laning phase should be to mismatch you and your opponents tempo so that you are in lane farming when they are in base and that you are in base when they are farming. This is another reason TP is so valuable.
A knee-jerk reaction to being unable to 1v1 your opponent would be to go play with your team. Do not do this. You will miss out on gold and XP that you desperately need to scale. You will also free up your opponent to take a 5v5 that you will often lose because you are behind. You should instead focus on keeping your opponent in lane by pushing out waves and pressuring the map.
Understanding Maiden AI
A great way to understand Maiden AI is if you imagine two things while she is summoned:
1. A 1200 Unit elastic rope between Yorick and Maiden
2. A 500 Unit circle around Maiden.
Then, these principles explain how she works:
1. Maiden will always want to watch Yorick's back and stay 500 units away from him.
2. If Maiden is attacking an enemy entity, she will ignore the above principle and will continue attacking enemy entities in her circle.
3.When the elastic rope reaches 1200 units, Maiden will be forced to stop what she is doing and follow Yorick
4. If Yorick Is in Maiden's Circle, she will attack what he attacks.
5. When the elastic rope reaches 1200 units, Maiden will be forced to stop what she is doing and follow Yorick.
6. When Mourning Mist applies Cursed to a target and she is within 1400 units of that target, she will ignore all above principles and enter a frenzy.
7. When in a frenzy, she will continue to follow and attack the Cursed unit until Cursed wears off.
8. When Cursed wears off, she will continue abiding by principles 1-5.
Get it? Got it? Good. Now on to ghouls.
Understanding Ghoul AI
Ghoul AI is a little simpler. They will follow Yorick unless they are within 200 units of an enemy entity. Then, they will continue to attack that entity until they are dead or Mourning Mist's Cursed forces them to change targets.
When an enemy is Cursed and within 1400 units of the ghoul, they will leap to that target once and stay on that target until the target dies. Then they will return to Yorick
If a Ghoul attacks a lane minion, it will continue pushing that lane until it dies or is redirected by Cursed.
Manipulating AI
Once you get a feel for the AI, you can manipulate it to gain an advantage. It is possible to have Maiden tank tower shots while you trade damage under the enemy Tower. You can have Maiden harass the enemy under Tower while staying just outside of Tower range. You can use Maiden to tank minion shots when you are trying to temporarily freeze a wave. Much of this comes with playing Yorick but knowing how the AI works is essential to doing this. I try to abuse all 3 of these tricks every game.
Tips & Tricks
- You can continue making graves while your ghouls are up up to a max of 4. If you use Mourning Mist on an enemy and they kill the ghouls, the graves will rise and you will continue hurling ghouls at them.
- Tower aggro targets cannon minions over ghouls. This means you can have ghouls damage the tower while it targets the cannon for extra damage.
- Tower aggro targets Ghouls > Cannon > Melee > Caster > Maiden > Champion. This can be abused to harass under tower.
- Dark Procession's knockup can be used to cancel channels like Teleport, Stand United, Death Lotus and many others.
- Use ghouls to continue pushing lanes while you take other objectives,
- At any stage of the game, 4 ghouls can always take down Gromp.
- You can easily solo Baron Nashor at almost every stage of the game (especially 20 minutes) provided that you have 4 ghouls and Eulogy of the Isles ready to cast.
- Take multiple camps by having ghouls solo them while you focus on another.
- You take Rift Herald and Voidgrub exceptionally fast due to the fact that you do not suffer from the damage reduction when they aggro a ghoul.
- If you are far enough away from ghouls or Maiden, they will gain increased movespeed to get back to you.
- Ghouls and Maiden have their own vision radius.
- Yorick is the best champion.
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