Hello everyone. I'm Hazardis, but also go as Sieghardt in other games/accounts. I've been playing League since around season 7 and peaked at Master 300-something LP a couple of seasons ago, until unhappiness with the game led me to take a long break from it.

I used to OTP Skarner before and up until his rework last year. Some might recognize me as that guy who made the most upvoted and viewed Skarner guide on MOBAFire, from before he was reworked.

But now, I've moved on to OTP Yorick because I find him very fun to play while also being really strong in the meta and, of course, in the jungle, because I'm a person with decency and thus would never play top lane.

Yorick provides a unique archetype in League of Legends: summoner. While he is not the only one that spawns pets, no other champion has a kit that revolves around summoning creatures, nor in the amount that he does, nor creatures that hold so much of the champion's power budget. For people who enjoy overwhelming with raw numbers and strength, this is the closest thing to the ideal champion you can find in the game. While being a constant target of nerfs due to his relative success in the lower elos, he constantly remains a strong pick in every meta we have had over the last few seasons.

Pros

+ Easy to pick up + Among the fastest jungle clears in the game + Strong dueling + Maiden opens up high macrogame ceiling + Only gets stronger as the games goes on

Yorick is a beginner-friendly champion which will give you little trouble in learning how to play, and won't take you long to master. His clears become ridiculously fast after his level 6 powerspike, which opens up a lot of opportunities for you in your games as you will have to spend less time doing camps and soloing objectives. Later in the game, releasing the maiden in a lane effectively counts as if having an extra champion working for your team, which adds a great deal of pressure on the enemy no other champion would be capable of exerting.

Cons

- Low mobility - Lackluster ganks - Reliant on hitting E - Weak before level 6 - Easy to invade

The first few minutes of the game can potentially be a bad time for you if you get invaded or your laners get outroamed for free, as Yorick doesn't really have much outplay potential until level 6 or even the first item powerspike. His lack of mobility also makes him an easy target to land skillshots on, meaning control mages or anything similar will be nigh impossible for you to gank. Also, his teamfighting is popularly bad, which limits you to relying on macro game decisions to win games rather than on the mindless chaos that normally happens in solo queue.

Conqueror: Towards the end of season 14, Yorick got a very important bugfix which involved ghouls and maiden correctly stacking Conqueror with each separate hit again. This translates into them being able to fully stack it even by themselves, and very quickly, which means that your damage output skyrockets with this rune. The extra sustain helps in extended fights as well.

Triumph: Simply the best in slot, as neither of the other two options are useful at all for Yorick.

Legend: Alacrity: As a jungler, you will be autoattacking a huge amount of times every game, which makes any amount of extra attack speed very valuable.

Coup de Grace: More a matter of preference really, as all 3 options are acceptable. I prefer this one as it's the one you can make the most use of consistently, rather than rely on specific situations during the game.

Magical Footwear: Saving 300 gold on boots while getting an extra 10 speed is simply too good for almost every jungle champion in the current meta to pass up on.

Jack of all Trades: By rushing Trinity Force and running free boots, you will hit the first treshold of this rune, which provides 600 gold of value, as early as the 10th-11th minute of the game. Think of it as a way of enhancing the stats that your first item provides.

Rune shards: Attack Speed, Adaptive Force and scaling Health shards are the best for making your early game clears as quick and healthy as possible. While they provide little scaling value, it is better to compensate for your weak early game than to minmax late game stats when it comes to these.

As for the Sorcery tree, in the games where you go for that alternative:

Phase Rush: It's the reason we take this tree in the first place. The burst of move speed, which is easy to active as Yorick, offers really high value even in situations where you wish to keep fighting in close range because you will find it much easier to dodge skillshots and reposition yourself while you have far more movement speed than you're used to. While Arcane Comet has good synergy with Yorick, it doesn't offer enough damage to justify dropping the entire Inspiration tree for it.

Axiom Arcanist: This new rune may seem great on paper for Yorick, but the cooldown reduction on takedowns doesn't apply unless Eulogy of the Isles is on cooldown already, which is very suboptimal as you will spend more time with the maiden alive than dead during the game. Still, it's more suitable than the two other options from this row.

Transcendence: You naturally earn 10 Ability Haste from this rune that counts towards both basic and ultimate abilities, making it an easy source of 500 gold worth of stats.

Waterwalking: Needless to say why you will be spending a considerable amount of time during the game crossing the river as a jungler, so getting extra Movement Speed and Attack Damage while you're on it is the only right choice.

Gustwalker Hatchling is generally the best choice, as it helps compensate for Yorick's natural lack of mobility, besides enhancing your tempo in the jungle greatly as it helps you move between camp clears and bushes quickly.

Flash is arguably the most fitting choice for second summoner, because you would have a much harder time outplaying opponents without it if you choose Ghost over it instead.

On the other hand, Mosstomper Seedling is situationally better in games where you really need the extra bit of survivability provided by its shield, and don't mind losing mobility. It is especially valuable if you choose to build Spirit Visage.

Taking Last Rites at level 1 is of utmost importance because not only is it your lowest cooldown ability, it's also required to make and raise graves from Shepherd of Souls for your very first clears. Put an extra point into it at level 3 to quicken your first clear with no tradeoff, as Dark Procession isn't really useful in the jungle. Maxing Mourning Mist second is self-explanatory: a vital ability for Yorick, which provides a lot more value than earlier points into Dark Procession. As is standard with most champions, take a point into Eulogy of the Isles at levels 6, 11 and 16.

First back purchase options

If you complete a full clear of your jungle (meaning: all six initial camps) and take one Rift Scuttler, you will end up with just enough gold to grab a Sheen if you base immediately. This is a good play to pull off if you want to be on the map sooner for ganks rather than to take your second spawn of camps as soon as they come up.

Pick up a Phage when you have 1100+ on your first back (which you should, on ordinary circumstances) as it's a component that builds towards either Trinity Force or Black Cleaver, and can also possibly leave you with 250 gold left to spare to grab either a Dagger or Glowing Mote adittionally.

If you have between 1200 and 1300 gold on your first back, take a Hearthbound Axe as it's the component that maximizes the value of your early gold when there is little room for creativity.

Spending 1050 gold on three Long Swords instead is a viable option as well, as it provides you with 30 extra Attack Damage early which will boost the speed of your clears between levels 5 and 7-8, and also make you hit hard against champions in the case of duels or skirmishes in the jungle.

First item options

Trinity Force is the bread and butter item for Yorick jungle and my proposed setup. Once completed, you will automatically have hit the first threshold of Jack of all Trades (with the help of Magical Footwear) and be ready to absolutely demolish every camp, objective and minion wave you go take from thereon. Not to mention, enemies won't ever expect you to deal you so much upfront and sustained damage while not building Lethality .

Black Cleaver is another item very worthy of rushing. Even though most people take as a given that its passive only has acceptable value later on in the game, when everyone's armor values are somewhat high, the truth is that the stats provided by this item will always be useful on champions like Yorick regardless of what stage of the game it is, and even indifferent to whether the enemy team is composed of armor stackers or not.

Youmuu's Ghostblade is my favorite Lethality item to rush in games where I feel like sacrificing a bit of durability over more damage early and an easier path towards fully stacking Jack of all Trades, but you are free to experiment with other similar options such as Umbral Glaive or Opportunity. It offers great offensive stats for a relatively low cost, and the Movement Speed can prove useful in a wide array of situations.

If you are a beginner to either Yorick, the jungle role in general, or both, I would recommend you to stick to rushing Stridebreaker as your first item every game. It's an item that provides very useful stats throughout the game, makes clearing camps very easy and fast, and doesn't sacrifice any PvP power in exchange for it. The issue with it is that you are left with little to no Ability Haste, making every death punishable as it will send Eulogy of the Isles on a very long cooldown early in the game. This problem can be solved thanks to other items such as Black Cleaver though, which makes this item a big helper in the process of learning the basics.

Tier 2 boots options

Plated Steelcaps is the go-to purchase when the enemy jungler (or their most fed carry) is an AD champion, which only becomes more efficient against auto attack-heavy champions like Urgot, Master Yi or Briar. Don't hesitate to choose them if you need the extra armor.

Mercury's Treads are my favorite boots to run not only because of the Tenacity , which is very good indeed, but also because it will immediately provide you with two extra stacks for Jack of all Trades at the moment of building them, and makes hitting the 10 stats threshold easier all around.

Sorcerer's Shoes are viable on Yorick given that three of his damage sources are magic: the active damage on Mourning Mist, and the basic attacks + passive proc attacks of Eulogy of the Isles; adding a fourth source if you choose to build Liandry's Torment. Furthermore, the boots provide a stat you wouldn't otherwise get from another item ( Magic Penetration) and one more if you run the tier 3 version Spellslinger's Shoes, making them very effective when also running Jack of all Trades.

As of patch 25.04, Boots of Swiftness are arguably the strongest boots in the game taking into consideration their price. Having more Movement Speed in all situations, even when slowed, is simply too useful when it comes to dodging skillshots, pursuing or fleeing from champions, getting to fights and places of the map quicker, etc.

Second item options

Spear of Shojin has undergone a plethora of bugfixes in the last few months which have finally led it to a state where it's safe to build as Yorick. Your mistwalkers and maiden will help stack it, upkeep said stacks and benefit from them in full capacity, which will also strengthen them considerably on instances where they are pushing lanes or tanking camps and objectives in the jungle on their own.

Death's Dance as second item, and as an item in general, is severely underrated across the board. It provides a really high amount of Attack Damage while, at the same time, aiding your survivability as much as any tank item would, without completely conditioning you to build it against physical damage only. I like to run it second after rushing Black Cleaver against mostly AD matchups, but it has proven universally good in my experiences.

You can consider taking Chempunk Chainsword or Maw of Malmortius second in matchups where they prove exceptionally useful, such as versus champions with strong healing or a magic damage jungler that relies on burst (such as Evelynn) as they provide very decent stats to go along their niches, which means you're not going to set yourseful behind necessarily and will also still have a strong foundation to keep itemizing later on in the game.

Third item options

Overlord's Bloodmail has great synergy with the rest of the items on a bruiser Yorick build, maximizing the value of its stats for more Attack Damage and also boosting your Health pool greatly, turning you and your summons harder to kill. The passive effect can provide high value as well, so don't shy away from fighting on low HP when you have this item.

If your first two items provide 700 or more Health in total, Sterak's Gage becomes a good option for your third item as it will take from that health to increase your durability overall, without leaving you low on Attack Damage. The Tenacity is always good to have as well.

Hollow Radiance is a good alternative for not building any Tiamat items as it will help you clear camps and waves in AoE more comfortably, saving you valuable time over the course of the game.

Spirit Visage has great synergy with Yorick and this build in general, increasing the healing from Last Rites, your native sustain from farming camps in the jungle, and the shield from Sterak's Gage if you decide to build it. Its value only goes up if your team has an enchanter support focused on sustain, such as Soraka

The passive burn from Liandry's Torment will be applied by basically everything Yorick does, including damage instances from his summons. It is particularly good to build on games where you are ahead, especially if the enemy team has Health stackers and/or don't seem to be itemizing against magic damage.

To round out your build in the late game, just choose from the pool of second and third items that you didn't build within your first 3 purchases, and adapt to the specific situation and needs of the game you are in.

HOW TO GANK: Learning the blind vision spots is of utmost importance when it comes to approaching a lane quickly. Stick to the walls or other terrain if you're approaching from the river, and pop your Oracle Lens as you're approaching the bush; if you spot a ward, don't waste time clearing it and just keep going before the enemy has too much time to react. Always make sure to ping your laners (responsibly) 5-7 seconds before you go in.

WHEN TO GANK: As Yorick, ideally you want to powerfarm until you hit level 6, which means that ganks will probably not come before then. The only exception would be the small window of time you have during the first Rift Scuttler spawn (3:30) when ganking the nearby sidelane, or counterganking the enemy jungler, would be smart plays to look for before falling back to your second spawn camps.

WHOM TO GANK: I really advice you to not waste any time ganking any laner that has died before 4 minutes, or that by the 10 minutes mark has at least 3 deaths; that's all the proof you need that they don't know how to lane properly and that they're not worth trusting with any resources. You're better off focusing on lanes near live objectives who are also even or not losing by too much, and especially in volatile matchups (melee vs melee, etc).

JUNGLE TRACKING: In this season, tracking the enemy jungler properly is more important than ever due to how much priority early objectives such as Voidgrub have at all stages of the game. A good rule of thumb to follow the enemy jungler in the first minutes of the game is: if he started on the same side of the map as you for the first clear, he will remain on the same side as you for most of the first 10 minutes of the game, assuming that A) you have focused diligently on farming, and B) he hasn't wasted too much time hovering around mid or the sidelanes before the first objectives have spawned.

If the Dragon is alive or the next one is coming up, move to the bot side to gain vision control around it and prepare an ambush on any approaching enemies with smart uses your sweeper lens and control wards. If the Voidgrub or Rift Herald are alive, play around top side on your next rotation. Atakhan is almost always worth fighting for, but if you have to choose between your own tempo elsewhere in the jungle or contesting it, it's not something you should be going out of your way for.

If you are at a disavantage and your team lost all of the Tier 1 towers, go into your own jungle more carefully from there on. Nevertheless, it is really important that you do your best to keep your CS numbers as high as possible as this is the stage of the game where you can start to release Eulogy of the Isles and apply the most pressure on the map.

The late game is the time for Yorick to fully unleash his capabilities, as releasing Eulogy of the Isles plus your own splitpushing will exert an immense amount of pressure on the map that will force the enemy team to take riskier plays, give up on gains elsewhere, or risk losing their entire base to you.

A good tactic is to release Eulogy of the Isles on the sidelane opposite to where you wish to be on the map next; for example, if the next objective respawning is Baron Nashor, release her to the bot lane so that she can keep pushing it while you and everyone else is focused on the other side of the map. This will force the rivals to decide whether to fully commit to the baron fight and sacrifice whatever structures they have left on that lane, or to divide and make your life easier during the objective fight. Note that this is also a good move when the fight is for a Dragon or Atakhan as well.

Even though at this point of the game pushing lanes should always come first before grouping, you can still set up ambushes or picks in the sidelanes with your teammates if you have a good engage support or laners as Yorick can dish out impressive amounts of burst and sustained damage at 4+ items; the downside of it being that it's mostly single target, so you will lack efficiency in teamfights.