I saved my Yorick impression post for late in the evening because I figured Riot would have to weigh in on his current status. Most everyone is claiming that he is horribly underpowered, and for the most part I have to agree. His early game is incredibly lacking and he is highly reliant on a strong team comp to maximize his potential. That said, late in the game with the right comp he does pump out some damage. Riot recognizes his relative weakness and has already stated that he’s going to receive a buff, but we all know that won’t stop me from sharing an opinion or three.

One of the biggest problems I’ve had with Yorick is his damage output from level one to eleven. The burst from his ghouls seems just barely too low, mostly because he doesn’t have the damage to improve them for quite some time. They also die fairly quickly, which isn’t a big problem when they don’t deal much damage but becomes a larger issue in the mid game. I think a mana cost reduction would also help a lot here, and I’m glad to see that Riot is considering that sort of adjustment.

The other major issue plaguing (yeah, I did it) Yorick is the design around his ultimate. Pet design that is based around champion clones feels misguided at the very least. The scaling gets really hard to manage late game and can even be overwhelming in the early game. When a jungler comes around for a gank and Yorick also ults, the 4v2 is frustrating. I haven’t felt outplayed by a Yorick yet, just outnumbered (only by his ult, the ghouls die too fast to really matter), which is pretty boring. Getting outplayed is a good thing – it teaches me how to play better. I wish he had something that felt more skill based.

One of the biggest problems facing Yorick, at least for me, is that he’s following Orianna. I’m starting to realize just how perfect a champion release Orianna was. She’s a blast to play, fairly difficult to pick up, and strong with a quality team around her. She takes more than one game to learn and a whole bunch of games to master, both of which are great things for a champion. Her design makes me want to get better with her, while Yorick’s design just makes me wish he was better. Hopefully the upcoming buff will give him a little boost in the early game.

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It looks like I was wrong about the Yorick release schedule. We got the “champion approaches” post today, which usually means he’ll be out in the next week. While there certainly are a solid number of Rioters overseas, there are also quite a few on domestic soil, working to keep the game going. Hopefully that will translate into Yorick’s release on Tuesday.

But enough of that – let’s check out the skills.

Omen of War: Yorick’s next attack will deal bonus physical damage and summon a Spectral Ghoul that deals additional damage and moves faster than Yorick’s other ghouls. While the Spectral Ghoul is alive, Yorick moves faster as well.

Omen of Pestilence: Yorick summons a Decaying Ghoul that arrives with a violent explosion, dealing damage and slowing nearby enemies. While the Decaying Ghoul remains alive, nearby enemies continue to be slowed.

Omen of Famine: Yorick steals life from his target and summons a Ravenous Ghoul that heals Yorick for the damage it deals.

Omen of Death (Ultimate): Yorick conjures a revenant in the image of one of his allies. If his ally dies while its revenant is alive, the revenant sacrifices itself to reanimate them and give them time to enact vengeance.

Unholy Covenant (Passive): Yorick’s attacks deal more damage for each summon that is active. Meanwhile, Yorick’s ghouls deal some percent of Yorick’s Attack Damage and have some percent of his total health.

I mentioned the other day that I wasn’t as worried about Yorick as I have been about Mordekaiser, but I am a bit worried that his passive will allow him to snowball in lane the way that Mordekaiser does. If his ghouls get too tanky, too quickly, he’ll be able to zone just about anyone out of lane while sustaining himself with a healing ghoul. I am glad to see that the collision ignore has been removed from Omen of War.

Watch for him next week!