What broke Yorick? Tldr@bottom

Yorick's winrate spiked by 3-5 across all elos after the preseason patch. In the spirit of offering feedback and preserving my favorite champion I want to talk about what made Yorick so good this preseason.

First of all, the winrate spike is due to a combination of changes. There were several changes that occurred recently to allow Yorick to become so strong in top lane. This means that nerfing Yorick or any single item/rune is not the answer. We must look at the problem holistically.

Yorick Buffs: In the preseason patch Yorick got some stat updates. These updates were good for a champ like Yorick, but not game breaking since everyone got similar buffs. In the same patch his q was buffed to allow him to hit towers with it. This is nice but it's not enough of a buff to spike winrate by 3-5%.

Sterak's Buff: Recently Sterak's Gage has also been buffed. The item is now a must buy on Yorick, before the buff it was optional at best. The tenacity, hp, and damage are too good to pass up on Yorick. Getting it as a second or third item makes Yorick much stronger than he was before.

New Runes: The resolve tree synergyses with Yorick to the point of breaking him. Grasp is slightly too strong this preseason and on Yorick. But the real game-breaker in the runes is the new demolish rune. Demolish combined with the q change allows yorick to demolish towers very fast.

In conclusion, Yorick's winrate spike was caused by a combination of Yorick and Sterak's buffs, and new runes. All I ask is that riot keep this in mind while moving forward to develop a plan.