Hello and welcome to this insane Yorick Carry Top Lane Guide. Despite being an obsessed human being of Yorick and I love to experiment with him, I am a content creator and Yorick is my absolute main and favorite character with the Meowrick pink skin. I love to troll the enemy team 😀 I had a Yorick guide back in season 6 which was rated by the community one of the best Yorick guides on Mobafire, but after a huge nerf, I've decided to archive it. But now, not anymore! We start it from scratch!Ok, enough with me. Shall we get started?

Believe me or not, Yorick is one of the very few champions which you don't have a real counter. All you have is champions with different threats level, and if mastered well, you can win with Yorick nearly every single game, at least the top lane.
I know that some people may have a total different opinion, but believe me, Yorick is a very strong pusher and very underestimated by other players.

Let's see the advantages and the disadvantages of this champion

Yorick's advantages:

• Very strong lane pusher
• Scales well with the game
• Has little to no real counters
• Can solo early rift (and baron if you have some kills secured and a few items)
• You can 1v1 most champions without any issues
• Your ghouls and maid can change the course of the game (and they can also push a lane for you)
• Yorick is extremely powerful and can easily carry on late game, even if you lost early lane.

Yorick Disadvantages

• Can be squishy and weak early game against multiple champions
• The idea of a successful Yorick match is to play defensive before offensive
• If you are behind with the level, you will have a hard time winning with Yorick.

Yorick does not require hundreds of games to learn and master him, but it does require a bit of studying and knowing your enemy champion if you want to have success with Yorick. He can be extremely powerful, take down enemies instant, easily 1vs2 if done right, you can give the enemy team a nightmare when they expect less. :)

Below is a full game I played with Yorick and ended with 23/0/4 KDA. Just for a general idea on how Yorick works. Of course, not every game could be the same, but Yorick has indeed good potential to carry the game.

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Shepherd of Souls (Passive) RANGE: 1200 COST: None COOLDOWN: None

Yorick raises a grave for every enemy champion, large monster and 12th / 6th / 2nd non-champion enemies that dies near him (depending on level), as well as for every enemy he kills with Last Rites. Only 4 graves can exist at the same time, with the furthest ones being replaced by the newest. Large monsters that die near Yorick always leave a grave. Yorick can use Awakening to raise a Mist Walker from a grave. Mist Walkers has 100-185 (+15% maximum health) in health (depending on level) and deals 2-99 (+30% of attack damage) in damage to its target (depending on level). There can only exist 4 Mist Walkers at the same time, with the closest ones being replaced by the newest.

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Last Rites (Q) RANGE: 125 COST: 25 mana COOLDOWN: 7 to 4 seconds

Active: Yorick's next basic attack within 6 seconds deals 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+ 0.4 per attack damage) bonus physical damage and heals him for 12 - 82 (based on level) (doubled to 24 - 164 (based on level) if he is below 50% maximum health) as well as spawning a Grave if Last Rites kills the target. If there are at least 3 Graves nearby, Yorick can cast Awakening within Last Rites' cooldown. Last Rites resets Yorick's autoattack timer. Active - Awakening: Yorick raises a Mist Walker from each nearby Grave.

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Dark Procession (W) RANGE: - COST: 70 mana COOLDOWN: 20 to 12 seconds

Active: Yorick summons a circular wall of spirits around the target area after a brief delay, forming impassible terrain for the next 4 seconds. Allies can walk through the barrier without impediment. Dark Procession can be targeted by enemy basic attacks and takes 1 damage per attack, dissolving after taking 2 / 2 / 3 / 3 / 4 damage.

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Mourning Mist (E) RANGE: - COST: 50 to 70 mana COOLDOWN: 12 to 8 seconds

Active: Yorick hurls a globule of Black Mist that splashes across an off-centered area, dealing 15% of target's current health in magic damage to all enemies hit, down to a minimum of 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+70% of ability power) damage. All enemies hit by the globule are slowed by 30% for 2 seconds and champions and monsters are marked for 4 seconds. Yorick, his Mist Walkers, and the Maiden of the Mist gain 20% bonus movement speed when moving towards marked targets, and Mist Walkers that were near an affected champion gain the ability to leap to them on their next attack.

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Eulogy of the Isles (R) RANGE: 600 COST: 100 mana COOLDOWN: 160 / 130 / 100

Active: Yorick summons the Maiden of the Mist, along with 2 / 3 / 4 Mist Walkers. The Maiden of the Mist has 300 / 1000 / 3000 (+70% maximum health) in Health and can both move and attack on her own, dealing 0 / 10 / 40 (+50% of Yorick's attack damage) magic damage every second to her target enemy and raising Mist Walkers from nearby enemy deaths. Yorick's basic attacks against the Maiden of the Mist's target deal 3 / 6 / 9% of target's maximum health in bonus magic damage. This cannot happen more than once every 2 seconds, and triggers against structures. Yorick can reactivate Eulogy of the Isles to set the maiden free, causing her to push the nearest lane until she dies.

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FLASHFlash is the mother of summoner spells on Yorick and should be taken every time without any doubt on Yorick.

TELEPORT Teleport would be the secondary summoner spell you may want to grab on Yorick top lane, not only because you can have a map presence when is not on cooldown, but also because you can return to top lane at any time (ofc, when not in cd) after roaming the map or an unexpected recall or death. Keep in mind that with Teleport in rare cases, you can end the game if the enemy nexus is all its left to take it down and the fight is in your favor or there is no enemy presence there but a ward to teleport. There are endless useful applications for Teleport and I will strongly recommend it to take it whilst on top lane as Yorick alongside Flash

IGNITEIn some rare ocasions, you can take Ignite alongside with Flash on the top lane with Yorick if you know that you have that kill pressure from the enemy champion but enough not to get poked continuously which may require you unexpected recall. Take Flash + Ignite to balance a game which may be favoured to the enemy champ.

Barrier, Exhaust, Ghost or any other summoner spells than the ones above I won't recommend that much. Frankly to be, neither I experimented with Ghost or Exhaust or any other summoner spells on Yorick, therefore, I can't say much about. I only know that Exhaust "may work" against a heavy top AD carry such as Vayne or Quinn, perfect for an all-in combo to slow and decrease the enemy champ damage. Good also to secure a kill in some ganks. But as I've said, I don't have enough data with Exhaust but feel free to experiment with it and I will be glad to hear some opinions.

KEYSTONE - Conqueror Conqueror stacks very easily on Yorick because you have meele damage, your abilities and in special your ghouls, not to mention the burst heal you will have once this is stacked (works well with your Last Rites). Many top laners take Grasp of the Undying and I've tried also endless games with these runes but does not work by far as good as Conqueror. Press the Attack is also a good keystone to take into consideration for Yorick as it boostes your burst damage when you auto - Q - auto. But for now, I would strongly recommend you to grab Conqueror HEROISM - Overheal Too many people underestimate and ignore Overheal, but let's be a bit honest here: You will 'always' have a little shield up when you are full hp because of your Last Rites heals alongside life steal and other healing abilities. This won't make a major difference throughout the game but it is a little nice rune to consider as it may negate up to one auto-attack (more or less, depending on the shield amount) LEGEND - Legend: Bloodline Yorick will benefit a lot from lifesteal on mid and late game, and this rune, although will be weak at the beginning, will scale better than anything from the rune line during the game. Don't ignore it! COMBAT - Coup de Grace It will happen a lot in special on 1vs1 fights that your abilities and ghouls will damage a lot the enemy champions which may fall under 40% health, where the Coup de Grace would be beneficial over any other runes, giving you an 8% damage increase in this case. Don't ignore it, this is a really powerful rune if we have to put it in the perspective.

EXCELLENCE - Transcendence Yorick's Last Rites has a relatively low cooldown, but in order to take the best out of that killer damage ability, you need to build as much as possible and mostly prioritize CDR throughout the game. Going on Sorcery as for secondary runes and grab Transcendence amongside with the bonus of 1-10% CDR(lvls 1-18), after level 10 when you rash the Trinity Force you will already have a CDR of 35-37%. In normal cases, if you take any other secondary trees, by that time you will have only 20% CDR from the Trinity Force. Remember, Last Rites is your bread and butter and you want to prioritize CDR from the secondary runes tree rather than items so you can prioritize other beneficial items on Yorick. Moreover, with this rune, if you go over your maximum CDR, this will become adaptive damage. I can see only a win-win situation by picking Transcendence. POWER - Scorch I choose to pick up Scorch only because most of the time as Yorick on top to be able to play offensive, you have to play defensive!. Because of that, you will find yourself that you will poke a lot the enemy champion. Scorch gives you an small advantage over the situation and make your pokes stronger. The strong alternative would be to pick Gathering Storm but this will stack well only on late game on Yorick. Remember, not all the games tend to be long, and most of the times you may or may not have already an advantage over the enemy champions, therefore, for the best early poke I would recommend you to get Scorch BONUS - +1-10% CDR (Lvls 1-18) Some extra CDR scaling into the game amongside Transcendence would be the best pick in special that in our main build we choosen to go early full CDR. By the time Transcendence will come into effect, you will benefit about 6% of extra CDR from this bonus. BONUS - +9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP) Some extra adaptive damage, useful early game. BONUS - +15-90 HP (lvls 1-18) Your maiden's health would benefit % from your health. This is just a little bonus of HP for you and your maiden.

STRENGTH - Demolish Running the Resolve tree as for the secondary runes would be beneficial for Yorick to take down turrets and inhibitors in seconds, where the Demolish will come into effect. You will also have an advantage for taking a few plates down for extra gold if you push your enemy champion off the lane. But this won't always happen though, remember the defensive - offensive playstyle of Yorick? Anyway. It is a strong rune for split pushing. RESISTANCE - Bone Plating with the Bone Plating you will become quite tanky early game, giving you a bit better sustain when playing against aggressive champions like Darius or Jax. The only disadvantage of the Bone Plating is the long cooldown. BONUS - +10% Attack Speed because you choose to go split pushing and take down objectives, 10% attack speed is a little bonus helping you not only on the lane while farming but throughout the game. Take this if you decided to go Resolve BONUS - +9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP) Same as before, a little extra damage for Yorick which stacks well early game. BONUS - +15-90 HP (lvls 1-18) Same as before, some extra health for you and your maiden would be beneficial not only early but along the game.

I've tried and experimented with dozen and dozen of different builds in different games vs different champions. Not every game is going to be the same and for you to have the same standard build. The build may fluctuate depending on the enemy team and the synergy of your team.
As an instance, if the enemy team is running 4/5 AD champs, it would be logical that you focus on buying some defensive items with armor.
Keep in mind that Yorick is not main tank! He is a fighter with off-tank capabilities, therefore, you may not stack a lot of armor and magic resist, but you will stack a lot of damage and hp.
Yorick also benefits from a burst of movement speed. You will not have abilities which increase damage depending on your movement speed, but with your "E"'s burst, Trinity Force passive, Boots of Swiftness and some other secondary perks, Yorick can easily catch a running enemy champion or even better, escape from dangerous situations (unless you are in the middle of the fight)

Corrupting Potion

Warding Totem

Those are the standard items I start about 99% of the time. Rarely, you may want to pick Doran's Shield if you play against a heavy AD champion on top. But remember, Corrupting Potion will give you the early sustain on the lane you need. As for the totem, Stealth Ward is a standard you want to pick when you play on the top lane with Yorick or any other champs.

Sheen

Control Ward

Sheen is the most important item you may want to pick on your first recall (will cost you 1050g) because of the extra burst damage you start to do with your "Q", extra mana for longer sustains and the CDR which you start to stack it. Add a Control Ward which is necessary for vision, to disable enemy wards, and detect invisible champions such as Shaco. The Control Ward I also use it when I do the Rift Herald solo, to check if there are any enemy wards placed around. Oracle Lens may help you do that, but this you may want to pick it later during the game, or if you play against Teemo on top lane when he reaches level 6 (to disable the mushrooms).

Boots of Speed

Phage

While you farm some more gold or secure a kill, depending on the amount of gold you have on the second recall, what I personally do is to buy the Boots and then start prioritizing to finish Trinity Force as soon as possible. Phage is what I normally get for some extra hp, damage and the passive which will help me a lot if I start to engage the enemy champion.

Trinity Force

Boots of Swiftness

The most important and core item on Yorick is Trinity Force. This item has everything you ever need and the burst and other passives from it are incredible. By now you should have level 10 (more or less) and with this and the runes (if you go into Sorcery as secondary) you already have around 36% CDR and your "Q"'s are becoming abundant of burst with a very low cooldown as you already maxed it out.! Boots of Swiftness is what I usually build as movement speed on Yorick on the top lane. You are probably more agile than most of the enemy champions, you can run or catch an enemy champion without any issues (depending on champ)

Vampiric Scepter

You may ask why I left this item to now and why should you build in the first place, although you are not going to finish the item anytime soon? You build this item now because you already have some burst damage from your "Q" and you will start to have some healing. Also, having now Vampiric Scepter would be beneficial for the rest of the game giving you long-term sustainability while pushing lanes or fighting enemy champions. This is only a part of the Death's Dance item which although it is a very good item with a lot of lifesteal, you may want that to be as the 5th or 6th item. As you have some lifesteal now because of the Vampiric Scepter that item should not be prioritized anymore and something else should be instead. Also, I've waited only until now that two of the core items, Trinity Force and Boots of Swiftness are a much higher priority!

Sterak's Gage

Frozen Mallet

Now is time for you to continue with your build. The next item would be Sterak's Gage which will give you a good amount of health, damage, and the legendary passive of a strong shield and tenacity. This item will make a great difference in a 1v1 fight against a bursty champ or even a team fight and should be prioritized. After this, I usually go for Frozen Mallet for extra tankiness and CC! The damage from that item is not very high but you already have some damage, so you need to resist a bit more. With the CC from that item and all your movement speed, rarely I can see any champions running away from you.

Death's Dance

Guardian Angel

The next step you may want to do is to finish building the Death's Dance for extra damage, armor and MR, bleed effect on you and the life steal. The last item would be Guardian Angel and this item should not be ignored because you will become a very high threath to your enemy team, despite your high damage/burst and your tankiness, you will revive yourself now. (Add a Zilean and a Yuumi with you and you may Pentakill blindfolded)

Dead Man's Plate

This is a defensive item you may want to build on Yorick if the enemy team has very aggressive and maybe they have fed AD champions. The armor and health from the item are very useful to improve the Yorick's tankiness and not to forget the burst of damage.

Iceborn Gauntlet

Iceborn gauntlet will be a Trinity Force replacement in the rare case where the enemy team has full AD champions. Will not work well if they have fed AD champions as you may already have trinity by the time they forward in score. Also, this can be an option when you go against a very aggressive AD champion on the top lane such as Jax.

Maw of Malmortius

This item would be a replacement of Sterak's Gage if the enemy team are heavy AP based, because Maw of Malmortius has the same unique passive as Sterak's Gage

Edge of Night

In general, this is not I often build on Yorick because there are some other items you may want to prioritize, but this can be useful if the enemy team have a lot of tanks and you need some armor penetration ( Lethality ). Although this is not much, the item has also a shield that can block one ability. Good to avoid high bursts of damage when you go into combat with an enemy champion.

Spirit Visage

You want to run as well Spirit Visage if the enemy team is heavy AP based. Only don't prioritize it over the core items unless is really necesarily.

Black Cleaver

You may wonder why I left black cleaver only here and this item is not part of the core items? Although this item is Legendary, the fact that Black Cleaver has the same unique passive as Trinity Force, this does not stack and is a waste of a good passive. INSTEAD, if you get Iceborn Gauntlet THEN THIS Black Cleaver BECOMES A CORE ITEM.

Ninja Tabi

Mercury's Treads

Ninja Tabi and Mercury's Treads can be prioritized instead of Boots of Swiftness for the same reason as above: if the enemy team is heavy AD or AP based, or if you are going to play against an aggressive AD or AP champion on the top lane and you need some early armor or magic resist.

I apologize that for some reason I cannot embed images into the post. I will try to explain the positioning, wave control, teamfight, and the way you should play Yorick



When you are playing defensive on Yorick and again, this is the way I recommend you to play in special if you play against aggressive champions, try to control the wave close to your turret but out of its range. If the enemy champion is very aggressive, then to farm under turret until level 6+ is okay.

Yorick does not have a lot of killing potential early level but it does have quite a good poking potential.

It is crucial to have your graveyards before advancing in lane and pushing the enemy champion a bit (e.g. going out of your safe zone). Beware if you do this as if the enemy champion is attacking you and you don't have the graveyards, they can out-trade you and you will probably die. Yorick is better as the game progresses and you really want to wait for level 6 before you start to play aggressive.
In some cases, when you really can take down the enemy top laner, do it, but beware of their jungle. Not only once I got ganked and killed. I've learned my lesson by hard way.
Whilst still on the early part of the game and because you play defensive, it is good that after your first recall to return to lane with your teleport. If higher ELO, you know, keep your teleport for a dragon fight, in case you need it.

After level 6, you have your maiden and your little ghouls. What I normally do, I wait for the rift herald to be first spawned. It is a good point if your jungle may help you to do the rift, not because you are not able to do it (in fact you can do it very well) but to avoid a teamfight or surprise herald gank.
Use your maiden and ghouls to tank herald. They will do it very well and you are able to take it down quite fast.

After level 6, you start to have as well some killing potential. Don't forget that altogether with your ghouls and maiden, you can deal a great amount of damage on the enemy champion. Then they can see your capability. But still, play safe and push their turret (or take it down) only if it's safe so.

Oh, one more thing. Early level if the enemy champion recalled into base (2nd time or does not have teleport) and you know their jungle position, try to quickly advance and take down a plate or two.



As you advance with your level, past level 10 when you already have your Trinity Force and your Sorcery runes, you already have nearly max CDR. Your "Q" will have a very little cooldown and burst a lot.
In team fights, if you have a jungle tank, let him or her engage the teamfight. You try to trap them with your cage or send your ghouls/maid to do so. Btw, in a teamfight you have two options with Yorick: fully engage into a single target with your "E", "Q", the same target as your ghouls and maiden are attacking because of the extra damage, or if you send them on the wrong target, let them attack it until your "E" is available again and attack the enemy champion you consider it has to be taken down first (their ADC, APC etc.)
Keep in mind that if you attack the same target as your ghouls and maiden are, you will have better chances to take that champion down and win the team fight. Try to land your "E" as good as you can, also, your "W" as well.
With the "W", I like (if I cannot reach a specific target), to land in the middle of them when you engage. The enemy champions probably won't prioritize their target into your wall only to break it and engage. They will simply get stuck.



The late game with Yorick can be game-changing for your team. If you had secured kills along the game and you are ahead with your level, you will clear the map of towers, enemy champions and other objectives. Of course, you should not do that by yourself and you should play as a team with your mates.

You can also push lanes by sending your ghouls and maiden one lane. Remember, you can do this at any stage of the game, but at level 16 after you have three points in your "R", this alongside with your HP would make your maiden to be a super-tank, pushing a lane for you.


If you engage a turret while you have your maiden active, after a few seconds, the enemy turret will attack your maiden, even if you have ghouls and there is a wave of your minions attacking the turret. Ensure you keep your maiden safe.

You are not able to control the maiden, and this will always follow you. Get afar from enemy champions if they target the maiden, so you can bring it back to you.

When you summon your ghouls, they will push the lane for you until they die, even if you get far away from them. Ghouls summoned when there is not a target to attack or from the jungle, will always follow you. Try to take advantage of Yorick's ghouls mechanics.

Most of the matchups I was able to think about and remember are detailed at the beginning of the game on "threat", also the same for the synergies.

Now to summarize this, Yorick does not have real counters as some other champions, not as far as I've noticed by playing hundreds of games with it. It does have enemy champions with increased or decreased difficulty and will matter a lot the skill matchup, but once you get late game and you are ahead of them (which you can be most of the time with Yorick), you can basically slay anyone, as long as they don't escape.

This section I will try to keep it up to date and share with you games with Yorick against different champions and how to play against them.

Well. I love Yorick and is my main since Season 5 or 6. I think I have enough experience with him to sustain my guide and this is a champion you can easily boost your ELO ranks.

I will try to update this guide as often as possible, to experiment more with Yorick and share my insights with you.

I hope that I've been helpful and please take into consideration the amount of time I've worked on this guide to make it as best as possible. I would really appreciate a like to this guide, and if you have any questions or anything to share with me, please leave a comment and I will do my best to respond back to you.


Thank you again and I hope to see you around!.

Patch 10.15 - No changes for Yorick or to any items which can affect Yorick.

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Patch 10.14 - No changes for Yorick or any core items, however, now when you choose to go with Yorick jungle, the correct recommended jungle items will display.
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Patch 10.13 update (buffed) Yorick
R range for Maiden of the Mist’s leash decreased.
Making it so the Maiden leashes more responsively when Yorick exits a fight. We suspect this will be a small amount of power that skews towards the upper echelons of play where Yorick is currently weak.
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