After so many years of delays, Riot Games has revealed the highly-anticipated Yorick character update. Once a problematic hero plagued by binary gameplay and paltry popularity, Yorick has been given a fresh coat of paint to deliver on the melee necromatic play style that was promised from initial release back in 2011.
Here is the updated lore for the ghoulish brute:
Yorick has always been a practical man. He knew he’d need strength to destroy the Black Mist that corrupted the Blessed Isles, even if it meant fighting evil with evil. So he harnessed a whole world of evil in the cape that now clings to his shoulders; in the unknowable depths of the cloak swirls the essence of a thousand damned souls. When the Shepherd summons forth a being from that seething miasma of lost spirits, only he hears the wretched assembly’s great wailing and gnashing of teeth—this is his burden, and the source of his power. In his quest to free these souls, he’ll use them (and they’ll use him) to crush anything in their way.
In his current state, Yorick had issues with not being fun to play with or against. He had the capability to summon three different ghouls which provided bonuses, an ultimate which was both hard to understand and to use, and very little else besides smacking your opponent with a shovel. Laning against Yorick was very binary, as you would either beat him every time or you would be forced to retreat with no counter-play. Riot has acknowledged this, and has refused to create any additional character skins, or to add the champion into the free character rotation, until his remake was complete.
Yorick was given a complete overhaul both visually and mechanically, with the updated visuals displayed above. He looks heavier, more menacing, and no longer hops around like a rabbit as he moves. The visuals are on par with League of Legends current art direction, and are silky smooth compared to the five year old animations.
As a champion, Yorick has four abilities and a passive–common for many champions. As a reminder, League of Legends abilities are mapped to QWER, with the Ultimate ability on the R key. His passive ability summons “graves” where enemy minions and neutral minions die nearby. Called Last Rites/Awakening, his Q causes his attacks to deal bonus damage and a minor heal, while activating the ability summons Mist Walkers from nearby graves to maul his enemies. His W is Dar Procession, with summons a ghastly wall of mouths around an enemy, encapsulating them. His third ability, Mourning Mist fires of a projectile, slowing enemies hit and granting a movement speed increase for Yorick and his Mist Walkers towards the target. His Ultimate, Eulogy of the Isles, summons a large Maiden of the Mist who attacks and moves on her own. As Yorick bashes the target of the Maiden, he’ll deal additional damaged calculated off of the enemy’s maximum health.
Yorick is intended to be primarily a split pusher, which means he focuses on destroying towers quickly as your team mates distract the enemy. This update a large step above where the champion previously sat, and should raise his bottom five champion popularity significantly. He is set to release with Patch 6.18, which does not have a set date.