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.

The latest champion sneak peek popped up last night, bringing us news of Yorick, the Gravedigger. It remains unclear what type of champion Yorick will be, but I like the direction his art is headed. I’m curious how much of his playstyle relies on minions. If too much of his damage comes from minions, I’m worried that we’ll be looking at another tanky DPS champ.

Here’s the blurb from the sneak peek:

The true sign of a master is when you’re able to impress everyone with your execution of a skill that might otherwise be considered mundane. So it’s probably quite safe to say that in order to dazzle anyone with your skillful shoveling, you’re going to have to be rather good at it.

With this in mind, allow me to introduce Yorick, the Gravedigger. In addition to being more adept in the art of entombment than any who have come before him, he makes a point of keeping good company… or at least ravenous undead company. One of those two.

As I mentioned, I like Yorick’s art direction. I’m looking forward to learning more about him this weekend.