Yorick didn't even get to be part of the most important part of his lore so I think that is very telling of what RIOT thinks of him.

He's obviously not a 100% flawless rework, but I think he provides the players with a very niche style of gameplay. That's also why he is very unpopular. The only failure, in my opinion, is how much of a low elo stomper he is, and how hard he falls off in mid-high elo. I may also count the fact that out of all splitpushers he's definitely the easiest one to catch, since he has no escape. Also fuck Ruination, they did him so dirty

I dont think he has low playrate because he is bad or badly designed it think it is because it takes a specific mindset/personaloty to play him. Take smash bros for example jigglypiff and lucario while not the best characters arent trash or something but have very low playrates because you need a very different mindset to play them than the rest of the roster

Loved Yorick at release and still love him now. As far as mains go, there are dozens of us... DOZENS

old Yorick was way worse from a gameplay design perspective and 100% needed his rework but at the same time. I miss the mindless fun of just spamming ghouls on people as old yorick. definitely not a kit that should have existed in a competitive game but his old kit was good dumb fun

Exactly. Split pushing, especially as Yorick, is a lot deeper than simply buying Hullbreaker and turning on auto attack. A bad Yorick player can focus only on split pushing and have decent success at low ranks or if the enemy team doesn’t deal with him, which doesn’t make for fun gameplay for anybody. For a good Yorick player however his effective splitpushing is a tool he has to put pressure on the enemy team, just like how Darius has a tool where he can last hit someone with R and go crazy, or use his stick potential to beat anyone in lane. A good Yorick player can and will be effective in team fights and in taking objectives, while obviously not as much as a good Irelia would be in teamfights, he also excels in other areas where Irelia can’t keep up like taking baron solo at 20 minutes or demolishing turrets. He has a uniquely proportioned power budget, a very special play style, design and personality which makes him a very unpopular champion. That doesn’t mean he’s underpowered or badly designed however. Part of the appeal to Yorick mains such as myself is that he is niche champion, but for those he suits he works perfectly with. While I’d argue that he’s a bit weak early game and lacks damage without his R, the feeling of destroying someone when they totally don’t expect it makes up for it, and if he got more popular and people knew how to counter him he’d have to get buffed early and nerfed late as a compensation.

Back in the day, I was a Yorick main, I REALLY miss him. League lacks a summoner like yorick, he was a such unique champion, I feel so sad to remember the there's not a single champ similar to the old one. Also, nowdays you don't see that many manamune users anymore.

Who is Yorick? I'm still looking through the Ruination story for him.

The old Yoric used to be one of my most played champions, as ive got a sweet spot for summoners, with old Yoric specifically being what I would call a "minionmancer". His whole concept of utilising varied minions doesnt exist anymore. The new Yorik is more like a melee Azir, focusing on manipulating one kind of minion instead of a variety of them. Add to that that his minions arent available at a moments notice anymore unless you have your maiden ready. I personally prefer the old one, though I must unfortunately admit that his current iteration is more fair to play against.

The thing that was really cool about OG yorick to me was how unique his ghouls were. You felt like a god of death because you have control over these different types of undead creatures. The current “mist walkers” are soulless and uninspired, they don’t make me want to play the champion at all anymore. Hell I’d argue Bard accomplishes the personal minions mini game better as well

What i remember old Yorick for the most, was being the ultimate Teemo counter. If you were Teemo, and the enemy picked Yorick, you may aswell dodge on the spot.

I think it sounds like what old yorick needed was to be forced to choose a ghoul type. Maybe by ability cast all ghouls for the next 10 seconds will be of that type for example. so he doesn't get them all just chooses between catching, draintanking, or the last one I forgot

I was the only Yorick player pre-rework. I loved the kit. I wish they’d rework him and go back to something similar to the old one or make a new champ that summons.

Good and informative video, I hope you keep making these Gars

For me it's a no, i never played the old one but i LOVE how satisfying is his minion and push advantage. He is extremely safe in lane, very few characters can bully him hard and make him feed, even then, it doesn't really matter as he gets so much more farm than the others, quickly evening the disadvantage. Plus i really don't mind and kinda like the heavy setup gameplay, it makes you reconsider what you can do in every situation and plan ahead, and when you do. Also the feeling of being an unkillable monster with maiden, or leaving her just at the right time so the enemy is thorn between the teamfight or losing half their base, is something no other character gives. (He reminds me of azmodan from hots, which was one of my mains, probably the reason i like him so much)

Though the closest thing I've been to maining any champion was prerework Jax, I would say I was a very big fan of old Yorick. So I really strongly believe that the rework was just gutting him and replacing him with something somewhat similar, similar as in a Cat and a Dog. The funny thing is, I think old Yorick had alot more possiblity in showing up in metas just because he had such a strong ult, meanwhile his ult now although impactful isn't really game changing.

I love the way you can just listen to his videos as a podcast while you are doing something else :)

Current Yorick is imo a good rework, he has good dmg and okay-ish sustain with his Q heals, the best part is that nobody really knows in low elo what he does and i keep perma-pushing because of it, I imagine he is a lot worse in higher elos only because players know how to deal with him.

I feel like the 2 main issues with new Yorick and the reasons I dropped him after rework are: 1) he went from summon-based playstyle to summon as an augment. So they gave him some power without summons, but not enough to be relevant, and lowered his overall summon power. They essentially stole what used to be fun out of him. I would have preferred they gut his personal power more and put more into making more interesting and more skill expressive summons instead. 2) his lane pressure is now tied almost exclusively to his e (technically his w can also be used against immobile champs to the same effect). He suffers from the same issue as Illaoi. Dodge e, win trade. Get hit, lose trade. I agree he previously had too consistent a trade pattern, but it feels really bad to have all these summons and they are almost useless unless you killed all the enemy minions or you land e.

very good video. didnt even realise it was 20 min well done

Oh the memories, I was a old Urgot OTP (Mid) and my duo was a old Yorick OTP, both super underrated picks and pretty strong too.

8:25 Manaless Champs in a nutshell, love your vids VARS!

I could never forget old Yorick because if they one EU LCS match years ago when he was used by Unicorns of Love to assist the teams Cassiopeia. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever scene that still occasionally rewatch to this day.

I love your video , keep them coming

As a yorick main this pleased me greatly. I only started a couple seasons ago so I've always been sad that I never got to play his original version because it seems like a blast. Honestly I think one of his biggest weaknesses is the fact that he basically doesn't have a passive. His passive should simply be his q passive and maybe have his old passive returned. It simply does nothing for him a majority of the time. In lane it's useless and in team fights and skirmishes it's even more useless

I miss the old days of “yorick walks into a bar there was no counter”

I tried the old Yorick when I heard that he was going to get reworked. Man, he was insane. I ended up taking him to ranked games and solo killed every junglers. He helped me get to gold

He’s one of my favorite champions bar none alongside Taliyah. Champs that are different from the standard of their peers are just more fun for me idk why. He also just has one of the coolest designs in the game and I love his voice actors deliveries.

I loved the old Yorick, it was so fun to play with him

I was a yorick main until his rework frankly all my champs have been reworked in ways I didn't enjoy playing

Love your vids, CARS

At 15:42 you can see 3 major spikes in pickrate. 1st one was when the rework first released. The 2nd was when the added maiden being tethered to yorick (on release she would automatically run down a lane) 3rd was when they added e mark spawning ghouls as well as a damage amp to marked enemies. The champ pre and post rework has always been riddled with bugs and intentionally neglected by riot because of this. It’s quite sad.

I think that if they gave him a lot more consistency he wouldn't be as unpopular as he is right now and an alternate niche build would be nice too (quite frankly his kit would fit ap items a lot better). For example if the range and radius of W were bigger and if E was on a lower cd, had a doubled (or even tripled) size, had a larger range or was even turned into a point and click, Q had higher healing and also each abbility would always spawn a ghoul or fully healed one if all 4 were spawned allredy. All of that at the cost of lower damage. It would make playing him a lot more enjoyable and a lot more competitively viable.

No it wasnt. It was just Riots fault for not following it up lorewise. Also "99% may not remember the old Yorick Mori", now I feel old... please, do old Shaco next. And how did that Q land in 15:14?

always love to see the first champ that I mained when I was new to the game being talked about.

1:52 Thats gotta be one of the best simplified explanation of what old Yorick was.

Another great video Btw your opinion on Aurelion getting a Gameplay rework only and what in your opinion what other champions could get one ?

at 15:12 the Yorick auto attacks a target that is more than double his auto range away from him

I love new Yorick, but I also loved old Yorick very very much. Nobody knew what he did or how he worked, so I used to stomp so much in the old days. I had great fun and although I believe his update is better, I still miss the old one from time to time.

I recently picked up yorick and so was intressted in what his old kit was. While I did not prefer it over his current state I did like the idea of it. I've been having a blast with this oversized shovel dwarf and seeing this video premiere I was kinda hooked. I personally don't see too many problems with his set up playstyle (but I don't mean I don't see any at all, there are ofc issues with a juggernaut needing set up) but the way I see some of the other stronger characters require some set up as well (all though maybe minimal compared to like pre level 6-11 yorick) like Yasuo or Yone (amazing examples I know, who doesn't love these guys) I'd love to see some possible adjustments to maybe remedy some of his issues but it's been so far so good for me at least. Good video none the less, would love to see more.

i started playing in s9. and i love the current yorick. those changes he got at the begining of last season made him so good

He was the face at the beginning of the splitpush meta- it was infuriating how many yoricks I faced (and still do) in clash

I had the honor to play the old yorick quite a few times and he was one of my fav. Champs back in the day. I had a looot of fun with him back then but i do apriciate his rework for being different.

Old Yorick was one of my main supports alongside Old Sion. Both were so much fun to play, because my enemies never knew what to do against them due to them being so underplayed to the point of non-existence. Though part of me still misses having every ability summon a ghost, I really love what Riot has done with Yorick's rework. Nothing more satisfying than watching your ghouls fly across the map to bite at the ankles of an enemy you've marked.

​i would like a champ with summon or/and a abathur type gameplay it would be fun if handle carefully

I've been waiting for this my entire life, just like how yorick is still waiting for people who actually play him

15:00 The moment when I subbed. I love these jokes sneaking into analysis videos like this xD

gotta love the character most obsessed with being remembered most can hardly remember because of how rare he was

Old Yorick will always hold a special place in my heart. He was the first "Counter Pick" I ever learned. When I first started playing lol I would only play Garen top and would get dominated by Teemos every game. I picked up Yorick because he was listed as a counter to Teemo and went on a rat extermination campaign. Was really a turning point for me to understand how counters work and how to have a more diverse champ pool so I wasnt stuck getting bodied by Teemo every game.

FINALLY IT'S TIME! This right here is my favorite champion. I was super obsessed with playing him for a majority of my time playing this game and will forever be my comfort champion.

I main Yorick but never get to try the old one wished to try out because he sounds interesting. Nowadays I love how something that looks so simple like Yorick Gameplay can have so much dept and long term impact on the game

14:44 cho'gath's passive lets him heal off of mist walkers so they kinda help him more than they hinder

As a pre-rework Yorick player (InvertedComposer anyone?) I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. I don’t ever comment but seriously thanks for the amount of effort that goes into these, they always are great!

That FE Awakening BGM though! ❤️

Old Yorick was so fun to play, I remember picking him up because of InvertedComposer.

As a Yorick main I have quite a bit to say. I feel like this video was awsome but you missed the biggest part of Yorick identity and why people often miss the value and skill of split pushing. It's all about pressure. I remember you said everything is about fighting recently in league and that's a problem, right? well Yorick shows how you don't have to do that. Pressure is a currency everybody uses but yorick teaches it. keeping waves pushed is pressure with tp because it's a constant threat that the opponent can't commit to something big like baron or elder while your team can. and is your pressure better by making people come deal with you topside on drake spawn or helping the fight? they might get a quadra and drake but you get two towers and their inhib is now open. I just feel like it would have been nicer to talk about this. especially because people always flame split pushers and now I get why. I have watched several people build hullbreaker right click top lane and that's it! those people are stupid and only succeed when the opponents don't deal with it well. It's disgusting and I want people to actually learn what split pushing is. You just didn't touch this. That said, I liked it, although I didn't play Yorick before his rework.

I would like a summoner like those old goules. That seems fun

I remember back in the day when you looked up counters to a champion yorick was almost always the number one, even to himself

It's crazy seeing gbay 99 play Yorick in someone else's video like 7 years later

i remember the old yorrick, and i mained it, i want it back! Only one problem: as i remember in the early seasons you cant pick him on ranked, he just basicly not in the champ select

I remember back when he came out there was a statement by riot that they expected him to sit at a low winrate. Something bout necromancers focused on summoning were not popular.

It would be cool if new Yorick has an additional passive similar to Illoai or Zyra, where the mist walker souls would spawn at a set cooldown (in addition to minions dying). And that CD would go down with level, so his mist walker army respawn rate will go up in late game; giving him more presence in team fights mid-late game.

Though I never got to play him, pre rework yorick still is my favorite champ, he looked so fun and jungle yorick looked so fun he could kill drag at lvl 2. I really hope someday were able to play the older champs in a gamemode or even a seperate game.

One relatively minor thing that I think would help is reworking the heal on his Q to be 2% max HP, doubled below 50%. As it stands, his healing is a flat value, but he ends up getting way more value from items like Steraks and Divine Sunderer anyway, which also end up raising his max HP and further limiting the value of the heal. Early game, that value roughly matches the current heal, but allows it to scale into the mid and late game. It's too low to really matter late, but that's honestly fine. We don't need more Aatroxes. If it *was* meant to scale into the late game, it could be made into 2-5% max HP, scaling with ult level.

Yes. Original Yorkick was a great champion, who summoned on every ability. His ult was also really flexible, since you could get a copy of the ADC, or use it to get a quick revive on the tank.

15:10 the longest auto attack range registered in League ( after gp flashes and Yorick didnt begin aa )

I was a one trick with his old kit. never lost lane. was just to hard to carry hard with. i miss it.

it's funny that you did not find the fore horseman conection with old yorick, but that mide be because i look those thing up when i started and am stil playing Yorick not good enough for the ruination mori.

Weird seeing Gbay99 in this video but I remember him going through his yorick phase

Can we just appreciate Cait auto range at 15:13 ?

i miss old yorick but god was he a menace, i remember having so much fun when i first found him and not even that long after he got reworked, now instead of being the biggest "f you i win" pick hes basically completely dependant on his e, which isnt a whole lot better but hes no longer going to survive a 1v5 for 40 seconds and get 3 kills anymore

How I miss playing this yorick version it was so op and it had so much sustain

watching this video made me realize that i was one of the only people who played a lot of old yorick. his ultimate was insanely powerful back then, and honestly i remember it being super prevelant prior to season 3.

Yorick is pretty much everything I want in a champion. My power fantasy is commanding minions and making strategic impacts all over the place without actually being in the thick of things, and a champion who can push all 3 lanes at once and specializes in crushing the enemy base or taking objectives (it's hilarious how easily he can solo Baron) while everyone else is busy killing and dying suits me just fine. Although he's not specialized for it he is actually quite good in teamfights as well. W can help your whole team escape into the jungle (provided they realize they can run through it) or lock down a target for your DPS specialist to kill. Ghouls rarely secure kills but are great at softening or scattering targets. And jumping a squishy and deleting half their health bar with a shovel to the face is a rare but satisfying treat. My one complaint was the difficulty in controlling his minions, but once he was given the ability to send the Maiden down a lane with a recast that alleviated much of that problem, though I'd still like some way to call his ghouls back once they are pushing a lane. And honestly, I LIKE the fact that he's unpopular. Having basically zero pickban means that he's a great champion to one-trick, and I'll probably stick with him unless Riot releases a champion who can actually play the game like an RTS.

Besides he not being part of the sentinels history i think his gameplay comes very close to what his lore tells us, he starts slow and kinda humble but slowly building up creating an army that destroys the lane if not checked

Really looking forward to the Karma's rework for the following video!!!

I used to main old Yorick I climbed to plat on him in S3, you built triforce manamune and frozen heart and you would stomp anything that came to lane.

cool to see how a champ look't before since i barelly play'd the game in 2013-2014 when i was 11-12 woul'd be cool to see how old urgot was since he is my favorite champ

what song was he using at the end? i can't quite place it...

I remember the secret to old yorick was buying mana potions. Mana instead of health at level one, then maintain 3-5 every recall until you got tear. I had such a high winrate on him with this approach. No more mana potions these days! Also, his old winrate and playrate wad literally only bad because his mana costs were pushed until he was considered unplayable. Riot used to "delete" problematic champions through nerfs rather than do reworks. Evelynn being the biggest example in early league.

I was an avid player of Yorick and liked him pre-rework, however I came to love him post rework. The differences at first were jarring but the more you play it the more you realize they acknowledged every facet of his old gameplay in some way with this rework. You can tell Riot really tried to pay as much respect as possible to his original design instead of just creating a new character like they often do with other reworks. As far as it being a successful rework or not, I'm not sure if it's fair to call it a failure all because he reminds a niche, unorthodox pick. I think this is intentional. Let's be real, Yorick is a degenerate ass character. His sole win condition is to split as much as possible in the hopes that he can end the game before the enemy team does. He is incentivized in many ways not to play with his team and pretty much do the opposite of whatever everyone else is doing. It can be very frustrating not only to play against a Yorick but to have one on your team as well because you probably wouldn't realize he's even there. If this style of play was meta in anyway I feel like that would be very unhealthy for the meta and the game overall. NO ONE would enjoy a meta where Yorick flourished. We got a small taste of what a meta Yorick could look like back when they made a lethality build viable for him. And even though that build focused more on skirmishing it was still more than enough for his ban rates to go through the roof. Nobody wants to live in a world where Yorick is a meta pick, and as a Yorick player I'd prefer it no other way.

15:13 This Yorick's Q was nuts

Only played him in ARAM and I can say the following: Shovel go bonk Teamfighting as him is a pain, a serious pain in the booty 1v1ing Yorick is a dumb idea much like Illaoi if he gets on you it's game over, eat a shovel Lastly and most importantly his voicelines and sound design are real good, love that his theme plays during his ult...what do you mean that is irrelevant to gameplay 👀

I’ve seen yorick personally 5 times in one day and every single time he’s completely destroyed my team and 1v5 the entire 30 minutes

Saw a face check ad yesterday... Swear to everything holy it had your voice. You pimping your voice out?

I really enjoy playing the new Yorick for a few reasons, 1 most people don't know how to fight against him effectively, 2 he can split push two lanes at the same time by using his maiden for easy gold, 3 he can split push while also team fighting as long as he doesn't die, 4 champions with pets are super fun :)

I need to see a Fiora version of the Reword series, since u like her so much

old yorick was fun af, i picked him up in like season 4 when i just noticed that he wasn't ever in the rotation and decided to try him, i noticed how busted and tanky he can be and you could essentialy be immortal and carry with him, it was ridiculously strong cuz no one knew how to deal with him from time to time. you only needed manamune in your build and go full tank or a manamune and trinity and the rest is tank, it was bonkers and fun, really miss his old ult too it was pretty fun, now he feels balanced but it seems like he lost that amazing pet gameplay, tho i wish malzahar's voidlings were as resistant as the current yorick cuz rn you sneeze on malzhas pets and they just die and also deal no dmg.

I like the replay stats on the play bar at 15:13. We are all trying to see how tf he hit that auto lmao

Made it to plat 2 with old yorick, one trick as support only. Although his E was mana heavy, you could basically spam it for free damage and healing on the adc and watch it chase them back to their turret so they miss minions lol. Truly miss that champion, he was extremely fun. Some of the older reworked champions were my favorite. GP, Yorrick, Soraka, to name a few.

Hi Vars, Season 14 called and Low Elo has something to say regarding “has not found any success”. Great video as always though, recently discovered you and have been working backwards through your videos

Thats one hell of narrow reasoning. First of all, he can still summon his army on command with ult. Secondly, he is now much more interactive than he was. Anything is better than old Yorick for a reason. Also him having the ghouls is his identity, so problems tied to that are withing the expectation. To be accurate, new yorick, is old Yorick with actual kit. His ability to summon ghouls got tied to minions and he has Maiden now but thats about it. Just this makes him success by default.

A nice video to watch before Yorick get a mini-rework anytime soon.

Old Yorick + Old Mordekaiser was pretty fun. You could turn a 5v5 into a 7 v 4.

What music is this? Why did I think this was from spirited away when they met yubaba and was running away

Wow, so weird seeing gbay's footage. Haven't heard of him in a while

Yorick's old playstyle of having your unique ghouls being up constantly to help you felt like you were a real summoner champ. Now his minions feel more like a burst of damage and nothing more. His old W and E got me so many kills and saved my ass so many times back then. And I remember going Athene's then Liandry when I fought Jax back when Athene's was a damage with that sweet sweet like 10% or something mana you'd get back on kill.

It would be cool if the maiden summoned something similar the og 3 basic ghouls when activated instead of the generic ones

300k yorick so I'm excited to see someone finally talk about the best champ in league

You should do pre-rework poppy next. You qualify for veteran discount if you remember.