Yorick can be played as a mid or top champion, and is very effective in lane and in teamfights. It is hard to out sustain a Yorick as many champions which makes him a solid choice.

Start these items for incredible lane harassment.

versus an AP who has heavy burst damage so you can sustain through it in lane or versus a bruiser or something with no kill potential on you like a morgana.

is a filler item you can go between tears and manamune if your lane is difficult. This will be all the MR you need until late game.

get this item early against a bruiser or weak burst AP, but not too early. If you get manamune before spirit visage you will be super weak in lane, and very vulnerable to ganks. I would suggest upgrading your boots or getting spirit visage before completing your manamune.

manan + cdr + armor, synergizes great with manamune as well. Get this early if you decide to go merc treads instead of tabi. Upgrade this into late game.


isn't a bad choice later game if the enemy team is heavily magical based, just make sure you have some of your core items finished first.

is never a bad item, and it will allow you to save your ult until you absolutely need it.

or ?

Ninja tabi can be used if you are playing against a strong physical jungler, and your laning top or bot versus an ad.

Pros of tabi versus merc treads: You will be dodging like a mofo and you will basically be immune to enemy ad carries and junglers alike, at least until late game. Combine that with a late game frozen heart and you will be nearly immune to ad. Not to mention 10% movement speed buff from nimbleness is great, just make sure you spec into it.

Cons of tabi versus merc treads: with tabi you will be vulnerable to CC, and as a melee champion you are putting yourself at risk for CC pretty often. You will also be lacking the MR from merc treads, so grab your spirit visage early and possibly grab a negatron as well.

will synergize great with manamune, and having the extra movement speed can be key. This item will grant you a great boost to your stats, however it costs a ton to farm. Also, you will be too squishy if you build this item in the wrong situations, so make sure you have your defenses set before you invest into a tri force.

This 5355 gold monster will take half the game to farm, but if you do decide to go this route you will be incredibly tanky and you will have a ton of damage. I would suggest building this after you have your manamune combined with glacial shroud, and if you do plan on going atmogs I would forgo the spirit visage altogether. These "finisher" items should be built later, and situationally as you will usually not get enough farm to get your manamune, glacial shroud, upgraded boots, and atmogs on top of that.

For runes I am going to be getting physical damage quints and reds, mana regen yellows, mr blues, AD quints. This is optimal against a caster as you will be starting boots and you will not have any mana regen from mekai pendant until you grab your chalice. The early MR from blues allows you to trade harass with most if not all AP champions, and the AD reds and quints synergize with your abilities and your ghouls so that they will be doing tons of damage.

For masteries I am running 21 in defense and 9 in offense. This will make you tanky in lane, and you will be able to sustain most damage.

Yorick's basic attacks deal 5% more damage and Yorick takes 5% reduced damage for each summon that is active. Meanwhile, Yorick's ghouls have 35% of Yorick's Attack Damage and Health.

Because of this passive its good to constantly be spamming your abilities and keeping your 3 ghouls out. Your ghouls will benefit from you having more damage, which also synergize well with manamune and AD runes.


Yorick's next attack will deal 30/35/40/45/50 (+120% of attack damage) physical damage and summon a Spectral Ghoul for up to 5 seconds.

The Spectral Ghoul deals 8/16/24/32/40 additional damage per hit and moves 15/20/25/30/35% faster. While the ghoul is active, Yorick moves 15/20/25/30/35% faster as well.

Cooldown 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds

Cost 40 mana

Basically this ability can be used as an extra autoattack. After you swing, immediately hit Q to get an extra attack in. Also, you will have a ghoul chasing down the enemy champion, as well as a movement speed buff. Because of the movement speed buff you may find yourself just activating Q without using the extra attack, as you may not be able to stick in melee range while you are chasing. This can be used combined with W to escape ganks pretty easily as you will be moving very quickly, and the enemy will be moving very slowly.


Yorick summons a Decaying Ghoul that arrives with a violent explosion, dealing 60/95/130/165/200 (+100% of ability power) magic damage and slowing nearby enemies by 20/25/30/35/40% for 1.5 seconds. While the Decaying Ghoul remains alive, nearby enemies continue to be slowed by 10/12.5/15/17.5/20% for up to 5 seconds.

Cooldown 12 seconds

Cost 40/45/50/55/60 mana

Range 500

This ability is great for ranged harassment, escaping ganks, and chasing down enemy champions. It will spawn a ghoul as well that will hunt down the enemy champion, providing some extra harassment.


Yorick deals 55/85/115/145/175 (+100% of attack damage) magic damage and heals for up to 40% 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

Cost 55/60/65/70/75 mana

Range 550

This ability makes Yorick an incredible laner, as not only does it damage the enemy champion and heal you, it provides a heal over time as the ghoul attacks the enemy champion. On top of that, the healing scales with amount of damage done, so the more damage you have the more healing you will have in return. I will be prioritizing this ability first.


Yorick conjures a revenant in the image of a target allied champion. Revenants deal 45/60/75% of target ally's Attack Damage. If his ally dies while its revenant is alive, the revenant sacrifices itself to reanimate them.

Cooldown 120/105/90 seconds

Cost 100 mana

Range 700

I have an entire chapter devoted to using Yorick's ultimate. It is one of the most powerful ults in the game, if used correctly. Scroll down to see combinations as well as offensive and defensive uses.

Yorick's ult is one of the most powerful ults in the game. Combined with the right heroes, it can be devastating. Take Karthus for example.

Combine Yorick ult on Zombie Karthus (which involves basically running revive teleport), Karthus will die but will be able to freecast until they kill him again, in which event he has another 6 or so seconds to continue casting.

Yorick's ult is also good to use on your AD carry when your team is trying to burst down Baron. In teamfights you will rarely be ulting yourself with Yorick ult because you are going to be one of the last people dying due to your insane tankiness and self-sustain.

Also, you can use Yorick ult on yourself to maximize your damage in a 1v1 situation, not even necessarily when you are low. If you are stuck fighting in a 1v1, use your ult early if you think it will help you land a kill.

Basically I find myself using Yorick's ultimate more offensively than defensively, and ulting your carry early can result in your team winning the fight and your carry not dying, rather than saving your ult until the carry is about to die.

Yorick as a top lane is very strong. He is a bruiser with ranged harass that can force an enemy out of the lane pretty easily. At top lane you will need to get good farm while avoiding ganks. If you make sure to keep harassing the enemy champion early, you will be able to kill him if he tries to help the jungler kill you in a gank. Otherwise, it will be a 1v1 in a jungle gank situation in which you should win because you are going to be more farmed than the jungler, even if he has red. Just be mindful of your lane opponent's cooldowns, health levels, and summoners and be careful that you don't allow him to jump on you too quickly when the jungler pops out.

Basically your role in the team is Tanky-DPS. As such you will need a lot of farm, so don't find yourself roaming too often, especially early game.

In teamfights you will be using your low cooldown abilities to either stick on the enemy carry, or babysit your carry with a combination of slowing with W and ulting your carry.

Yorick's W makes it hard for a ranged carry to kite him in a teamfight, and he will be able to effectively zerg AD or AP carries with some backup, as long as he is tanky enough.

If you have any concerns about my build or questions about anything Yorick Morry related or want to discuss better alternatives to build/runes/masteries discuss below :).

Also, I apologize for the lack of diagrams and charts and equations. I tried uploading via photobucket and apparently I have gone over bandwith. And basically I couldn't figure out how imageshack works. But I promise next guide will have many diagrams and charts and mathematical equations that have absolutely nothing to do with the guide and probably will make no sense at all.