Counter Tips & Tricks To Beat Yorick In League Of Legends

Counter Tips & Tricks To Beat Yorick In League Of Legends

Yorick is a melee bruiser, viable only toplane. The champion doesn’t have any dashes or CC, only a slow on his 3rd Skill which explains his low potential on teamfights. Yorick’s main role is to secure objectives such as early plates, First tower, Drakes, herald and also Baron because of his ult Interaction with monsters.

His ability to split push isn’t as good as Camille or Jax late game, but Is really decent with Demolish. His strengths are linked to the low pick rate of the champion.

Players don’t know how to play against Yorick, how to dodge his E, Hitting his W and his ghouls, which makes him so powerful in low elo. In the other hand, most yorick players complain about how the champion struggles in the top ladder.

In fact, his winrate is inversely proportional to elo. So yorick gets weaker the higher you get in divisions.

Abilities

  • P : SHEPHERD OF SOULS

Yorick can have up to four Mist Walkers in his service at once. A grave is occasionally created when enemy minions or neutral monsters die near Yorick, and all enemy champions that die near him leave a grave. Yorick’s passive is around ⅓ of his damage which is really important. Yorick ghouls can proc black cleaver passive for each auto attack, tho it procs conqueror passive only once each 5secs. Ghouls don’t proc frozen mallet and heal yorick for only 33% of death dance’s healing.

  • Q : LAST RITES AND AWAKENING

Yorick’s next basic attack deals bonus damage and restores some health. The healing is double if yorick’s Hp is below 50% . If Last Rites kills a target, it creates a grave. If there are at least three graves nearby and Last Rites is on cooldown, Yorick can instead cast Awakening to raise Mist Walkers from the graves. (which is the passive).

  • W : DARK PROCESSION

Yorick summons a destructible wall of corpses that encircles a target area for a few seconds. Maxing this spell lowers the cooldown and grants the wall more HP ( 2 / 2 / 3 / 3 / 4 ). To avoid getting under this wall you must walk at 90° degrees from it and not straight, boots also help to dodge it.

  • E: MOURNING MIST

Yorick hurls a globule of Mist that deals magic damage, applies a slow, and marks a target. Yorick and Mist Walkers get a movement bonus when heading toward marked targets. This is the most important part of your kit since hitting it makes you deal insane damage with your passive and your Ult. Missing it in early levels means you lose the trade instantly.

  • R: EULOGY OF THE ISLES

Yorick summons the Maiden of the Mist (at higher ranks, she’ll bring some Mist Walkers with her). The Maiden moves and attacks on her own. When Yorick attacks the Maiden’s target, he’ll deal bonus magic damage based on the enemy’s maximum health.( 2secs cooldown). Yorick’s ult has high cooldown on early levels, so keeping it alive is crucial. When ult is summoned, Yorick is at 4/3 of a champion’s power, without it he’s at ⅔ of a champion’s power.

Learn more about Yorick’s abilities here.

Our Top Counter Tips

  • Yorick has no escapes, Going for an all in is always the best solution against him. His sustain relies on using Q on minions, making huge pressure on yorick can lead him to stay away from minions, which denies his healing.
  • Yorick third Skill is slow and easy to dodge, avoiding his ghouls focus would deny around half yorick’s damage.Getting speed and early boots help dodging his E . It’s possible to dodge his wall too ( W ) by changing direction by 90° to not get catch, otherwise if you get inside it, you have to auto attack it quickly to destroy it so He doesn’t use his E and P on you.
  • Yorick’s ult can’t be totally controlled. Abusing his AI ult is a good way to deny some of yorick’s damage. Attack it whenever you are able to and. Smiting it is also a great counter since it deals alot of true damage to it. The ult cooldown at level 6 is so high, so killing the Maiden makes yorick too weak for a long time.

Champions That Counter Yorick

  • Renekton

His sustain is insane( He heals alot from your ghouls ). He can out-trade yorick with his combo whenever it is up. A good renekton will always keep the second E to escape your wall, and would use his stun as empowered to make you unable to react to his all in. His ult makes it very hard to kill him and you’ll need an executioner’s to reduce his healing, which makes your trinity powerspike a bit late.

  • Irelia

Her kit counters yours perfectly. She even takes advantage from yours ; Her Q can be used on your ghouls ( She one shots them and heals from them alot ), and she can stack her passive quickly from it. Also she out-trades you every time and you can’t dodge her E easily. Her level 6 all in is really strong against yorick.

  • Jax

Jax has also a good all in to pressure on Yorick. His E dodge all your passive auto attacks, AA and Q spell which is around 75% of your damage. He outscales you after he gets Spear Of Shojin and you can’t beat him any time after that.

Laning Vs Yorick

  • Early game

You must always look for level 1 trades since yorick got one of the worst lvl 1 in the game. Cheesing him is really rewarding if he helps the jungler on the first camp.Yorick is really bad against poke aswell since his Q only heals about 12 HP early game. After level 5 you should always look for a freeze so you can All in him.

  • Early itemization

Boots are really good against yorick since it helps alot dodging his wall and his E. Getting executioners is also good against him around mid game since he might have bloodline, and his healing gets a bit higher. Taking frozen heart is also really good to debuff yorick and his ghouls attack speed.

summoners: Yorick struggles against champions that take ignite early game, his tankiness is really low early game. Without dashes, yorick is vulnerable to lvl 3 aggressions so you should abuse his weakness.Not taking flash is really bad against yorick ( with champs like singed), Though taking flash and ghost is fine. Having an escape summoner to get out of the wall is crucial against yorick.

  • Playstyle

As a ranged toplaner, Poking yorick to the point he can’t all in you is the best solution to win the lane against him. When you play a melee toplaner, keep your dashes up until Yorick uses his wall to escape from it. This way you will take nearly no damage from his ghouls. Keep in mind that dodging his E is your first priority since It denies Alot of his Kit damage.The more you are close from Yorick the hardest it is for him to Hit it.

Mid & Late Game Vs Yorick

  • Split pushing

Yorick usually splitpushes alot since he isn’t really good on teamfights. Being ahead from yorick allows you to counter his splitpush by going on a side lane to 1V1 him. At this point yorick has nearly no comeback to win against you, less if you are able to dive him. When you can’t 1V1 yorick you must always push the side lane and go for a teamfight, But keep an eye on yorick since he takes towers so fast and he can end the game with his ult without you paying attention to him.

  • Team fighting

As said before, yorick is so average on teamfights. He isn’t tanky enough to survive all-ins and he is really bad against mages, his role is usually to peel for the carry with his W and protect him. Tho he might do well on long fights since his ghouls deal alot of damage.

  • Rotations

Yorick rotates rarely unless there’s a free kill botlane to use his TP, in that case you should do the same, yorick isn’t that good at early teamfights and he is unable to roam to midlane.

  • Objective priorities

Taking baron usually makes sure yorick doesn’t comeback. His waveclear is really bad against baron buff, also taking first tower before him denies the gold he would get from it, so is mountain drake ( most important drake for yorick)

Yorick matchups

Yorick vs Nasus

After the yorick ghoul nerfs, Nasus and Darius and some other top laners became much harder to play against due to the lower damage your ghouls provide, (approximately 33% less in the early game compared to the season 9 ghouls).

The key against Nasus is to beat him in the early game and abuse his weakness in the early levels as much as possible.

Here are the main things you need to focus on to achieve your goal:

  • Freezing your lane as much as possible.
  • Going for early kills and all ins (kill him with a full combo).
  • Take turret plates to get more ahead.
  • Destroy the enemy tower in the early-mid game.
  • Get trinity Force as soon as possible and start building sterak to be strong enough to deal with his ult and Q stacks damage later on.

For the first point, the key to freezing lane is letting Nasus push the lane, you shouldn’t attack minions level 1 -2 to 3 unless you want to last hit them or get your level 2 or 3 at the same time as your opponent. Stack your graves up to Four graves, and start poking Nasus with an auto attacks + Q spell + Grasp.

Denying Nasus farm means he gets less Q stacks and less sustain from his insane lifesteal (12% level1 and goes up to 24% at level 13!) which grants you more pressure in lane, and helps you get a lead on him.

The first point helps you achieve the second, you can only kill Nasus if he’s under your turret, freeze the lane, poke him from time to time with Q auto and stay as healthy as possible, once he’s in a bad position, or when he’s attacking your minions near your tower, E him and auto attack + Q grasp then use your wall on him, for a 100% chance of killing him or popping his flash, make sure his Q in on cooldown because, otherwise, he can auto attack + Q your wall and destroy it instantly.

This is the only way you can kill Nasus because Yorick cannot dive enemies efficiently, ghouls cannot be controlled but they still proc tower aggro, which can lead to a failed dive, an early death can be the reason you lose the lane vs Nasus, and eventually the entire game can be lost since he will scale much faster with early CDR.

The third point is also a consequence of the second, you can only get plates if you force nasus to back twice in the early game (the first time he’ll tp, and on the second one you can force 2 plates). If nasus has no TP, this can be easier if you successfully poke him enough to force his back. To do so you will need demolish in your runes!

You can also force few plates with demolish if you crush a big wave into the enemy tower, stay near the enemy tower and once you can proc demolish use auto attack + Q and run away, you’ll be able to get at least a plate. If nasus decides to attack you, the big wave will start attacking him and the trade will be even.

ATTENTION TO NOT SUMMON ANY GHOUL WHILE DOING THIS!

If Nasus attacks you, your ghouls will instantly attack him and you will get few tower shots, if you are slowed by his W, you might get hit by 2 to 3 tower shots and he can finish you after that mistake.

If you kill Nasus and get few plates early game, make sure to not destroy the tower that early (never before min 11). Otherwise he’ll be able to stack safely, while you put yourself in danger if you push to the T2 enemy tower with the enemy jungler and midlaner being much closer to you, if you get the second tower after that time, make sure Nasus never freezes the lane eternally so you don’t lose minion wave and your gold and XP lead, and always get the enemy jungler’s camps such as krugs, red buff, or Gromp, Blue buff and even wolves if you’re dominating your lane hard.

If you have nothing to do in the map and feel safe about getting herald alone, go for it, but never go for the early inhibitor! Taking it before min 16-18 is really bad against most toplaners as they can free farm, especially Nasus who can stack much easily, Yorick is known to be a little weak in teamfights so you’ll have a hard time closing the game that fast even with that early inhibitor.

You might not be able to farm for an entire 5minutes, and you’ll have only 2 lanes to farm, if you do not dominate the entire enemy jungle you might start losing the game from that play. Just secure every drake and herald mid for the second tower or open an inhibitor, and wait for the 20mins baron rush.

Note that with the recent Nasus buffs you might need “executioner’s calling” really early in the game because Nasus will be able to life steal alot while being really tanky, taking some of his sustain will allow you to kill him anytime whenever he’s lower than 50% HP.
Last thing, always max your wall secondary against Nasus to be able to kite him more when he’s trapped inside your wall.

Yorick vs Jax

Jax is one of the most dominating champions in this meta, and has been really powerful since his Q buffs (his Q has lower CD now which allows him to run away whenever you try to kill him).

The Blade Of The Ruined King (BOTRK) also make it nearly impossible for you to kill him once he gets it. The item alone can now deal more than half your HP. To win vs jax you need to get a huge lead early game to be able to slower his BOTRK power spike.

Level 1-2: you need to play really safe, his E make it nearly impossible for you to win the trade.

You need to give up one or two minions in the first wave or you’ll lose your entire health bar if he goes really aggressive. If you are confident enough, you can fake an auto attack on him (and cancel it at the last moment, let him E you, and wait for the last tick of his E to Q him, you can actually hit Jax around 0.2 seconds before his E is done (when his E deals the dmg, he becomes vulnerable again to auto attacks). This way you make the trade even.

Level 3-5: you need to get as much graves as possible and be ready to use your wall instantly when he jumps on you.

If you successfully trap him, you’ll be able to dodge his E, E him, and wait for his counterstrike to finish, make sure you don’t get stunned, then spawn your ghouls and start hitting him with auto attack+ Q + grasp and ghouls, make sure to fight him only if he has no conqueror stacks already.

If you hit him with your combo you’ll be able to win by far the trade, and he’ll waste up to two corrupting potions to heal his HP back, do that twice and he has no potions, at that point he gets really weak because he cannot use the Time Warp Tonic (rune) that allows him to get a bonus movement speed+ instant healing from potion (around 70HP instantly).

Once jax is low you can just freeze a big wave and force one or two plates with demolish, make sure you have enough graves behind you incase he jumps on you, and do not spawn ghouls if you are looking for the demolish proc, otherwise ghouls might proc the tower aggro and you might lose tons of HP, forcing you to back and lose your entire lead. You can also look for a kill whenever he has no pots as he’s much weaker.

After level 6 it might get harder for you to get the tower plates as his ult grants him enough tankiness to win trades under his tower, in this case just freeze and poke him until you can all in him and get your second or third tower plate. You can only get them if you force his back or kill him.

Make sure to get your magical boots vs jax so you can rush your trinity force faster than his BOTRK So you have a window to 1V1 without problem once you complete the item. Then you can look for an executioner’s calling if he takes BOTRK otherwise just complete your Sterak as fast as possible to survive his all in.

To win trades mid-late game, you need to be the one engaging on jax, you need to pressure on Jax with E+ ghouls so he uses his counterstrike as fast as possible, if he jumps on you first, you are really vulnerable and you might die even if you have built a 1K gold lead or more.

When you’re the first to engage, you make him delay his conqueror stacks, you have your Grasp much faster, and you force him to use E or he loses the fight. If you want to use your ULT, make sure that Jax is hit by the mark, so your new ghouls attack him instantly and you don’t lose your DPS.

Yorick vs Irelia

Impossible matchup, must dodge or ban Irelia. I’ve been banning irelia for the last 2000 games personally, her kit counters every single spell yorick has, she heals from each ghoul and can one shot them with Q and stack her passive instantly, after that you’re at your half power vs a fully stacked Irelia, that seems a little unfair Riot!

If you ever play vs her make sure you take Executioner’s calling as fast as possible and take raw HP in the early game instead of armor because she has Mixed damage, ruby cristal can help you survive her ult combo if she tries to dive you.

In this matchup you basically cannot leave your tower, you need to freeze eternally and wait for jungler’s ganks so you get out of this lane with as few deaths as possible.

Level 1-2-3 you need to play extremely safe, especially the first wave, Irelia has one of the highest attack speed in the game with the passive at early levels, rare are the champs who can trade with her level1, you need to stay behind, and make sure you’re not close to any low HP minion as she can Q it and get near you really quickly, Irelia will get level 2 before you, so you need to stay really far from her once she gets it, he E + Q+ Q combo deals so much damage, and you can’t allow her to deal that much damage to you. Irelia can dive you pretty easily if you’re low HP.

You can attempt trading with irelia at level 4, but only if she misses her E. E her and auto Q and don’t spawn your ghouls until the mark is nearly over so she doesn’t one shot as they spawn. Otherwise just wait for you trinity force+ Executioner’s and your jungler to force a play.

Play around objectives, and protect your carries with your W, only sidelane if you want to clear minions, put your 4 ghouls on a solo lane and let them push, then roam mid and help your team for your next fights.

Yorick vs Illaoi

What makes this matchup easy is that Illaoi has no escape to your W, in the early game you let her push to your tower, to be sure to get her flash or kill her, don’t use your combo until she uses her W so she doesn’t destroy your wall with auto W instantly.

Make sure to get your executioners after your first back and always avoid attacking her when she ults, the best way to kill illaoi is to turn around when she ults, and W her so you can tempo while her ult is running out. Stay around her tho, so as soon as her ult is off you can end her.

The best situation against illaoi post level 6 is using 4 ghouls + E and baiting her ult, then summoning your ult once her ult is nearly off, do that because your ghouls will probably die during your first combo, so you need additional ghouls from your ult, in addition, your ult might die if you already have summoned it before she ults, since her tentacles can easily kill your ult if she’s near them.

To be sure to win the trades, make sure you dodge her E in the early game, and try as much ass possible to not get poked by her in the first levels, to do so you can push the first wave, but only the first wave since you want her to push into you after that. If you push the first wave you should have at least 2 ghouls up already, so you can get your 4 ghouls pretty quickly to poke her around lvl 2 or 3.

Yorick vs Urgot

Urgot is really oppressive in the early levels, you need to play safe and give up few minions especially in the first wave (caster minions), Urgot’s E is really hard to dodge and it allows him to kill all 3 caster minions while hitting you with his knock up. If you get caught, you might lose half your HP bar while not being able to trade with him because of his shield and his cc.

Level 4 is your best chance to engage against him,make sure his bone plating is not up, get 4 graves and E him, the key to win against Urgot is to:

  • Dodge his E : to do so, most urgots try to run away if you hit your E on them, make sure you’re not behind them and get hit by the knock up.
  • Make sure his W attacks you and not your ghouls! Urgot’s W interaction with ghouls is really annoying as he one shots all your ghouls in the span of 1 second, make sure he attacks you by staying close to him once you use your wall and catch him while also dodging his E to make sure he 100% dies. Grasp works well here, but conqueror is good as well as you will always look for a 100-0.
  • Combo rather than pokes.

Mid and late game you scale much better than him, but you can always take executioners if he gets like steal, and as a last item you can take Quicksilver slash to remove his ult, and then build it into Silvermere Dawn.

Yorick vs Cho’Gath

Cho’Gath is a really easy matchup if you pay attention to his early game’s poke. His E got buffed more than twice in season 10, so it deals lots of damage and he trades better than you in the level 1-3, make sure to stay as healthy as possible by sacrificing few minions to not get his auto attack+E+Q combo, and do not spawn ghouls unless you want to 100 to 0 his Hp bar. His passive works on your ghouls! So you basically give him free HP and mana.

  • Make sure his bone plating is not up and use your E+Auto Attack+Q+W.
  • Take a ruby cristal early if you feel like he can one shot you at level 6, HP works well against him and is more valuable than magic resist in that matchup for the early to mid game.

You outscale Cho’Gath really hard and you counter him with ult’s %max HP dmg, take triforce+Black cleaver and you can shred him HP bar soooo fast!

Yorick vs Mordekaiser

Quite hard matchup, still not impossible to win lane.

Mordekaiser is really hard against yorick because of his ult interaction with yours, on his R, your ult and ghouls cannot attack mordekaiser so you are basically at 40% of your power without them, while also having 10% less stats for 8 seconds.

The best counter to Morde is QSS, tho it makes you really behind if they have alot of AD dmg. Tho it is much better to take it in S11 as it can be built into a decent item later (silvermere dawn), which gives 40% slow resistance and tenacity which is really decent if he has rylai’s!

Sacrificing your 1300 gold is totally worth it even if you lose lots of stats, because you can get your ult as soon as he ults you, if morde is really ahead make sure you kite him for 8 seconds, because QSS doesn’t remove the 10% stats buff on him and 10% stats debuff on you! So you might be surprised sometimes to lose 1V1 even without his ult!

With the new omnivamp items i’d recommend taking executioners after 2 completed items, even tho morde has alot of AOE so his healing is reduced by 66% (while ravenous hunter getting nerfed and conqueror not healing that much, mordekaiser got an indirect nerf which is pretty good for yorick mains).

In the early game just pay attention to his level 2 if he gets it before you have 3 ghouls up, because he can deal lots of damage with his passive and his combo. Also try not to get poked by his Q alot so you don’t allow him to get a big shield from his E if you want to engage on him at level 4. If you don’t succeed at killing him before level 6 just play safe and wait for QSS.

Morde’s ability to go full armor with tabis+ seekers or bramble vest counters yorick alot, and allows morde to deal decent amount of damage, if he takes that build, you can still win once you have triforce and black cleaver + QSS. Late game and mid game, always make sure you are facing morde in side lanes because you are probably the only one who owns a QSS, also you can get 3 points on your W after maxing your Q to kite him much more.

Small tip, you can bait morde by letting him ult you, kiting him towards your ally’s side or tower, then use QSS, that will put him in danger and get him mispositioned, you can just use your wall and kill him afterwards.

Yorick vs Shen

Quite hard lane, what makes it hard is not his 1V1 potential but rather his ability to protect his tower pretty well with his taunt if you want to use demolish on it, while also being able to ult his allies and save them then recall and tp back to lane. He has alot of map impact for a weak early game champ like yorick.

To play properly vs shen you need to play like a weak scared player. This is the only way you can kill shen, going aggressive against him will never lead you to successfully killing him. because of his W+ E and also his Q’s slow.

Early game, you need to farm as much as possible while also making sure you’re as healthy as possible, you have a small opening lvl3-4 to kill him if he E’s you. Once the taunt is over, W him + E and wait him to use his W to spawn ghouls so he doesn’t nullify their first jump’s attack. After that keep attacking him while making sure his empowered Q doesn’t hit you and slow you while allowing him to deal extra damage to you if he decides to trade back.

Be careful from his level 2 combo, like urgot, darius and other champs like jax and irelia, level 2 is extremely important, play safe and make sure you are not GREEDY for these first wave’s minions. As much as you have more than 60% minion’s last hit and 95-100% XP from minions, you are totally fine.

Make sure to ping your jungler if Shen pushes early and decides to invade level3-4, it might lead them to steal your jungler’s blue, tell them that you’re weak in jungle fights before the game starts, and ask them to start on your side lvl1, so you are sure they don’t invade that side later on.

Extra Tips To Beat Yorick

  • Yorick has bad interactions with enemies, which makes him too weak in certain matchups
  • Renekton heals alot from ghouls
  • Irelia stacks all passive from ghouls
  • Jax can deny all ghouls dmg
  • Trynda can get his rage bar up from killing ghouls with 1 auto attack ( so with crit it’s almost 50% of trynd rage bar)
  • Syndra can take your ult with W
  • Nunu can eat your ult and deal 1K dmg
  • Smite is true damage against ult ( around 1k)
  • Nasus can stack your ghouls alot
  • Cho’gath’s passive works when killing your ghouls
  • Kled E one shots all yorick’s ghouls
  • Malphite attack speed debuff works on yorick ghouls
  • Mordekaiser’s ult makes yorick vulnerable without his ghouls and ult. And if he spawns them inside Mordekaiser’s ult, they die when the ult is gone

Tips How To Play Yorick

  • Make sure you don’t get cheesed by any toplaner at level1 waiting in the bush while you help your jungler. To do so, at around 500 range, stop and wait for 2 seconds as if you saw the enemy in the bush waiting you, this will lead them to go back to lane because they think that you saw them cheesing.
  • You can also ward and ask your jungler to come right after their buff to help you kill him level 1 or get his flash, it works pretty much every time if you make them think you didn’t spot them from the ward.
  • Lastly, if they don’t leave, you need to wait an extra second and then start running towards lane, do not trade back unless your grasp is finally up, as it can lead you to lose more than 80% of your HP lvl1 which could lose you 2 corrupting potions. Waiting more could lead you to lose XP which is really bad, giving up the first casters is not a really big deal if the enemy cheeses really hard level1. Bone plating helps a lot countering the cheeses at level 1 as it can deny up to 90 dmg!

Want more tips?

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