This is how Yorick is introduced to us:

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

Source: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Yorick_The_Gravedigger/Background

Definitely sounds interestin', at last we are gettin' Necrostyle Champ...now for impo things!Here's our agenda:

Masteries
Runes
Items
Skills
Playstyle
Pros/Cons
In the end...

Ok so I went 0-9-21 here, and now few words of explanation...I went 0 in offence coz of Yorick mechanics, he is minion depended champ, and the most impo thing concernin' that fact is this:

Yorick's attacks deal 5% more damage for each summon that is active. Meanwhile, Yorick's ghouls deal 30% of Yorick’s attack damage and have 30% of his total health.

This is our passive and according to this info we know two things - ATTACK DAMAGE and HEALTH should be our focus on this champ, I'll never agree that AS or CR comes beforehand and that's my justification on 0 in offence. We need health coz we want our minions stay alive bit longer (unfortunately max is 5 sec which is UP in my opinion, 8 sec d be nice:]). We need AD since all our abilities scales with it but, we won't get it from masteries, we'll get it from proper item set and marks. Despite those two things we'll find Yorick in need in one more etc. MANA...Yorick is very, very mana thirsty champ and that justifies most of those 21 points in utility (Preseverence, Expanded Mind, Meditation all maxed). Those 9 points in Defence ll give us a bit of hardiness. And finally, all the rest spent in Utility ll definitely come handy.

Greater Mark of Desolation = 14,96 armor penetration

So we hurt our enemies more

Greater Seal of Vitality = 174,96 health at lv 18

So we and our little friends stay live longer

Greater Glyph of Clarity = 8,91 mp per 5 sec at lv 18

So our minions spammed as often as possible

Greater Quintessance of Swiftness = 4,5% more MS

So we move our *** faster

The most impo fact in here is - Yorick is very item dependent - means here u can mess him up and then complain he's UP or, on the other hand, build on his strenghts and have fun later on...I won't say Yorick is best Champ ever or the strongest one, in fact HE IS NOT, but what I can say after couple of games on him, he is fun, interestin and nice to play...as for the items, the sequence is set as showed on pics, I start with Saph Cryst, and 2 Health Pots (could be 2 Mana Pots as well) and I rush for Tear (coz of early Mana issues - Yorick unable to summon minions = ****), then we work on mobility and best tanky boots etc. Mercury's, after gettin them we move to Manamune = mana+AD, then we build on some Health and AD and for that we have perfect item etc. Frozen Mallet. Those 3 items are core at beginnin, after geting them we should solve mana issues, get decent AD and Health. Now we can start workin' on:

Armor/Mana/CDR - if You feel enemies hit too hard, mana not enough and CD too long, Frozen Heart ll solve it immediately

AD/Lifesteal - always comes in handy - Bloodthirster here

More AD - I choose Sword of the Occult in here coz it's cheap and countin'on Your good play it ll give Ya up to 110 AD (with 20 stacks)

Most of recommended stuff for Yorick is ****, Trinity definitely not worth the effort! Spirit Visage is nice on the other hand and You may consider it If You need more CDR and Health

Innate (Passive): Yorick's attacks deal 5% more damage for each summon that is active. Meanwhile, Yorick's ghouls deal 30% of Yorick’s attack damage and have 30% of his total health.

Omen of War (Active): Yorick's next attack will deal bonus physical damage and summon a Spectral Ghoul for up to 5 seconds.

The Spectral Ghoul deals additional damage and move faster. While the ghoul is active, Yorick moves faster as well.

Cost: 40 mana
Cooldown: 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 seconds
Bonus Damage: 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150
Ghoul Attack Damage: 8 / 16 / 24 / 32 / 40
Bonus Movement Speed: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 %


Omen of Pestilence (Active): Yorick summons a Decaying Ghoul that arrives with a violent explosion, dealing damage and slowing nearby enemies for 1.5 second. While the Decaying Ghoul remains alive, nearby enemies continue to be slowed.

Cooldown: 12 seconds
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana
Magic Damage: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 (+0.8 per bonus attack damage)
Initial Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 %
Ongoing Slow: 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20 %


Omen of Famine (Active): Yorick deals magic damage and heals for up to 50% of the damage dealt. A Ravenous Ghoul is summoned behind his target, which heals Yorick for the damage it deals and lasts up to 5 seconds.

Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 seconds
Damage: 55 / 85 / 115 / 145 / 175 (+1.0 per bonus attack damage)
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 mana


Omen of Death (Active Ulti): Yorick conjures a revenant in the image of one of his allies. If his ally dies while its revenant is alive, the revenant sacrifices itself to reanimate them and give them time to enact vengeance.

Skill sequence explanation:

I start with Pestilence since its AoE and helps farmin' faster, on 2nd lv we grab Famine so we were able to heal a bit at beginnin', then we move back to Pestilence (we max it first) on lv 4 we grab last minion of War so we could last hit better and have 3rd guy to summon. After Pestilence maxed we rush Famine and in the end go for War. You may ask why we choose War in the end since it deals ****load of Damage on hit, well the answer is one - this skill requires Offensive runes into enemy lines - and I dunn recommend doing that early game - not saying its entirely stupid thing to do with Yorick, just think more defensive style suits him better early game than rushing :]

As for the skills, all of them are pretty nice, we can slow enemies (W - Pestilence), heal ourselves (E - Famine) and deal some nice one hit damage + speed ourselves up (Q - War). As for our ulti, personally I thought it ll be way better one, anyways it's decent one which I find useful in 3 situations:

Escape Mechanism - You runnin from enemies gank?Use Your ulti on Yourself, it ll definitely help, once they kill You forgettin bout killin Your revenent first You ll revive with full health and continue be able to run bit farther ^_^

Destroying Turrets - Again use ulti on Yourself, and go for it, both You and revenant do massive dmg to it, and another benefit is, turret ll focus Your revenant first so few more sec for ya to finish job

Supporting Teammates - If You see Your mate runnin' and almost dead throw ulti on him, he dies and ll get another chance to contine his run ^_^, same with teamfights, If You some1 almost dead put ulti on him and he'll get some more time

1vs1 situations - always nice to gain some help from revenant in 1vs1 situations, summon Your shady friend to help ya

Eearly game

I find Yorick decent laner at beginnin', You shouldnt have any probs with surviving unless You pushing too far into lanes, to prevent doing that we focus on defensive style and range skills first (both Pestilence and Famine are target range ones), we try last hitting as much as possible, and monitor our mana bar - out of mana = stay back or go refresh in base, You can try melee hit mobs If Your enemies aren't too offensive. You should get tear and boots within this stage.

Mid Game

We have all skills, tear, boots and goin for Manamune soon, You should be able to spamm Your minions more often, dunn be afraid to do that, hit Q, W, E as often as possible, push push push, try harass Your enemies bit more often, remember You have Your ulti which can save Your *** If You go too far ^_^, Your attitude should be in balance between OFF and DEF one.

Late Game

Spamm minions, push lane, take down towers, go into teamfights, You should have decent HP, MP, Armor and hit hard enough to be serious threat - as for choosing target for Your ulti, I prefer choosing myself since best target for it are AD champs, try avoiding ulti AP champs then ^_^ unless they r in need of help, then save em. One more impo thing, If You run into center of teamfight storm use Your ulti beforehand - remember that despite the fact You dig graves, You may often find Yourself in one If play dumb.

Pros

Decent laner, best with AD partner
Not that squishy early game
Can heal himself
Can revive himself
His minions can be used as shields from skillshots
Interestin and fun to play

Cons

Feel kinda UP once startin to play him
Minions and Revenant could last bit longer
If played as aggresive DPS = ****
Mana thirsty
Very item dependent

Well, that's my first guide ever so dunn blame me for some graphic issues ^_^ I'll work on this guide to look way better and provide more info, it's just one day since Yorick's released and to say something frankly...all guides concernin Yorick are bit like walkin' in darkness, we still dunno all things, and learning him. My guide is the way I see this champ ll work best, still improving it so pls be patient ^_^ and ofc, I await any comments, I mean constructive criticism, it ll help improve this guide so as find mistakes so pls...contribute guys and hope You'll find some infos I provided useful. Last thing...as You might have seen on forums a lot of peeps are complainin' bout Yorick, naming him underpowered and ****, I complained myself but...it's way too early to judge him and from what I've seen and played I can say this champ has great potential in right hands so dunn give up on him guys, let's find best way to play him together and to all Yorick fans - WISH YA AS MUCH GRAVES FOR ENEMIES AS POSSIBLE!TAKE CAREZ ALL!AWAIT COMMENTS!CYAZ!