Introduced in 2011, Yorick is one of those champions that many players will claim is one of the best top-laners in the League of Legends. Others argue that his worth drops dramatically when laning phase is over and it’s time for team fights. With so many old school champions getting a full treatment rework to bring them up to speed with current League of Legends champion kits, Riot intends to settle the argument once and for all. Yorick is next on the operating table and the gravedigging ghoul thrower won’t ever be the same.
Revealed recently on the League of Legends website, the revamped Yorick is set to appear in an upcoming patch. Previously, Yorick’s main kit was summoning a series of different ghouls each with their own status effect. This will still be apart of Yorick, but it will be regulated to one ability and his passive.
With his Shepherd of Souls passive, graves are created when minions or champions die near Yorick. His Q ability is actually two abilities that both apply to this. Last Rites empowers Yorick’s next strike to do bonus damage and restore health. If it kills an enemy it creates a grave. When Last Rites is on cooldown, Yorick will instead cast Awakening, which calls Mist Walker minions up from nearby graves. Yorick can have up to four mist walkers in his employ at once and they will attack nearby enemies or those Yorick targets.
Yorick’s W ability is Dark Procession. It summons a circular wall which can be attacked and destroyed. This can be used to cut off or trap escaping enemies or even possibly protect allies. The E ability is Mourning Mist. With this ability, Yorick throws a sphere that splashes an area for magical damage and marks a target. It will slow the target and Yorick and the Mist Walkers will gain a movement bonus when approaching the target.
Finally, Yorick’s ultimate ability is known as Eulogy of the Isles. It summons a Maiden of the Mist that will bring her own Mist Walkers with her at higher ranks. The Maiden will attack and move remotely of Yorick, but if he attacks her target, he’ll do bonus damage based on the enemy’s maximum health. It should be noted that Yorick’s Mist Walkers will die if they wander too far from him, but they can also stay close to the Maiden of the Mist to maintain existence.
From the looks of things, Yorick has a lot of familiar tools that are going to satisfy players who have enjoyed him in the past. That said, his new kit brings a lot of extra utility. His ultimate is particularly notable and welcome. Yorick’s previous cast a spell on himself or an ally that allowed them to continue to fight after death. Unfortunately, this was dependent upon an ally dying for the spell to work, limiting its use. With this change, Yorick’s ultimate ability is going to become far more dangerous and have less of a skill curve to it, most likely making him an overall safer pick as a mid to late game champion.
Yorick is just the latest of many in League of Legends to get the rework treatment. In the past, we’ve seen champions that were languishing become altogether more powerful picks. Sivir, Sejuani, Poppy, and Malzahar have each received heavy changes, sometimes offering new prominence to their place in the roster. It will be interesting to see if the changes to Yorick will have a similar effect as we approach his re-release in Patch 6.18.
