The issues with Yorick and why he's getting reworked.
There's no argument that Yorick needs a rework, but like every champion that came before him, from Sion to Poppy to Ryze, there are always going to be critics behind changing his mechanics. There are ALWAYS sincere naysayers, even if you had a champion that just made a different obnoxious squeaky noise globally on each skill.
So what's up with Yorick? Yeah, he sucks. Yeah, he looks like ass. Yeah, he's never played or banned (by anyone except me). But then you have the fanatics who won't shut up about how awesome he is and how everyone else just doesn't get how he's supposed to work and at least one who will inevitably lament his relaunch with threats of suicide.
But why, specifically, is Yorick twelve different grades of ass? It's easy enough to just say "This champion sucks" and expect everyone to agree with you, but if you are a game designer, you have to pin down a champion's core identity, figure out what's wrong about them and then decide where you want to go from there. If you don't do this, among many other things, you risk repeating the same mistakes.
Out of all the champions that have been reworked thus far, I think Yorick's core identity is the hardest to pin down. Poppy was the frontline Yordle with a hammer, shield and heavy armor (by Yordle standards) known for shoving around enemies like a schoolyard bully and being too stubborn to die. Sion was an undead guy with an axe who refused to die. Ryze was a salty frontline mage with an emphasis on spell combos. These elements, while different in their relaunches, are similar enough to their old incarnations that they feel like the same character, just made better.
So what is Yorick's core identity? Well, he's a gravedigger. He's undead. He's got a shovel, and he summons minions. That uhh.... isn't much to go on. Even more confusingly, despite building attack damage, Yorick's kit doesn't emphasize his own involvement in the fighting. Yeah, he can basic attack, but his ghouls do most of the fighting. His kit says mage like Azir, but his ratios mostly say brawler (with one ghoul mechanically identical to the others being AP for no reason). His ghouls also look so similar to one another that in the heat of battle, it's impossible to tell which ghoul is which and why you should care about that specific one. His ult, while the most interesting part of him, also scales off of AD and can be dreadfully underwhelming in many circumstances compared to Zilean's ult, which, despite being full of cheesy bullshit is functionally superior. All that aside, his ghouls are very unrewarding to fight against. Their hitbox is unbelievably small, difficult to hit, they usually died before you could make the killing blow, and up until a relatively recent patch, you didn't even get rewarded for killing them.
What does this mean for future Yorick? It'd be fine enough to make him a minionmancer like Azir, focusing on one type of minion and using the rest of his kit to command them around, but we already have that with Azir. We also have Elise, and Malzahar, and even Heimerdinger, whom their minions feel less of a core identity and more of just one part of their kit and overall menace (not to mention they are much easier and satisfying to hit). More than likely this will remain with Yorick with his relaunch, but Riot will have to show something really creative to make him stand out from the others who took his job.
Next up is his story, which has to be hands down the absolute worst story in all of League history. If you haven't read it, you aren't missing much. In short, Yorick was a gravedigger in a family line of gravediggers on the Shadow Isles who died before he could have children, and now is cursed to continue his family trade in undeath. He's basically a boring zombie or ghoul even by zombieghoul standards. It's a far cry from other "normal" characters like Braum, who despite being a humble goat herder is portrayed as a folk hero who once punched through a mountain and fought off an avalanche to save a troll child.
Given that Yorick is still a gravedigger, identified by his shovel in the social media teaser, I don't imagine his backstory will change all THAT much, but no doubt he will be made more interesting. He deserves it, hanging around dead things long before the region went to hell and EVERYTHING died and undied (not always in that order). He might have some ancestral gift, either before or after the Isle transformation, possibly even being a necromancer. We don't really have one of those at the moment (Borom Darkwill doesn't count; he's not a playable champion).
Finally, his appearance.
It's a face not even a mother could bring herself to love.
There's a lot to say about the old art. Everything looks insanely cartoony and overstylized, which even by the standards of way back when is pretty abysmal. Keep in mind that Orianna and Vayne came right before him, with Leona and Wukong right after. His face is mostly ashen, and unlike Nocturne, he doesn't even have the excuse of being a living shadow. His shovel looks all kinds of fucked up, and not even in the damaged way; more like someone wanted to overdesign it and never knew when to stop. His hair looks like a combination of moss and leather. His anatomy is all kinds of fucked up (even Dampe from Zelda looks better than him!), and he's got patches even where patches shouldn't be. Where do the clothes begin and where do they end? Is he naked? Do we need to censor this picture?
Now don't take this the wrong way, whoever designed him. I'm sure you're a much better artist now, but honestly, what were you thinking back then? Did you lose a bet?
I have no idea what New Yorick will look like, but I have endless faith in Riot. Ever since they started the Visual Update and relaunch shtick, they've never failed to disappoint. No doubt he will look awesome. If a prison warden can transform into this
a tree transforms into this
and whatever the hell Evelynn is supposed to be transforms into this
A gravedigger on the Shadow Isles must look pretty bitchin'. His shovel alone looks really cool. An impossibly cool appearance must be part of the benefits in the Shadow Isles.
So in conclusion, Yorick is even more of a wild card to predict than previous champions that went under the knife. He was never a distinctive champion to begin with, he looked fuck ugly, and his playstyle was all over the shop. With only a handful of champions left that I haven't unlocked, I might be forced to unlock him before the others rather than dead last, now that his relaunch has been announced.
A day after I post this thread, Riot teased us with a preview gif of Yorick.
Now THIS is what I like to see!
Okay, so Yorick's theme largely remained the same; it just looks infinitely better than his previous artwork. He's a pale blue, fitting in with the Shadow Isle aesthetic and the asian color theme for undead characters, so it's plenty safe to say that he's undead or in whatever way affected by the curse of the Shadow Isles.
He's got a MASSIVE build; Yorick's old art had him rather bulky-looking, and while I doubt he's as large as Sion or Braum, he definitely looks like he lifts (and doesn't skip leg day). It stands to reason; digging is grueling exercise, and a career of gravedigging will build you up right quick.
His face is hidden only partially under the hood now (for those who said his old ashen face was just shadow, you don't know how shadows work), his eyes glow blue rather than yellow (keeping in with the whole Shadow Isles color theme), and he's got a very cool beard.
There's something odd on his back. I can't tell what it is from this angle, but whatever it is, it's generating a black mist like a cape behind him. It probably means something, like some metaphorical and literal burden he has to carry like Ryze's scroll. He also has a pendant. I will guess it's not an ordinary pendant. It shines right out at you. Perhaps it's the source of his power? Perhaps its a phylactery, and if so, whose is it?
His shovel is also huge. I have two shovels and they are nothing near this size. I'm going to guess he's at least six feet tall, the shovel is taller than he is, and the general aesthetic around it and how he wields it makes it seem more like a staff. Based on how it glows at the very end and its general appearance basically confirms that the shovel is not mundane. It probably has powers over the dead that you bury with it, which would all but confirm Yorick's new status as a necromancer.
Finally, he has minions still, backing up his status as a close range mage or magelike; possibly an AP brawler like Gragas. They all appear to be the same type of ghoul, physical ones over ethereal, and they better fit the theme of League. They are still twisted abominations, far from being human; closer to imps than people. They also run very fast. I counted four of them, and it's likely his maximum is four (probably maxes out automatically when he ults or something).
Great, now the rest of the week will be spent watching the Riot news feed waiting for Yorick updates. You have officially intrigued me about Yorick, Riot, and those are words that are baffling to say in that order.
By the way, there's a dead Thresh in the background. This was probably ripped from their champion spotlight video, and dead Thresh also implies that he and Yorick don't see eye to eye, likely regarding to the dead and their souls. If that's the case, then Yorick's story and motives likely revolve around trying to bring order to the mortal chaos in the Shadow Isles and at the very least putting souls to rest, as opposed to Thresh who revels in the torment and seeks to torture souls forever. Possibly the closest thing to a good guy the Shadow Isles has.
- super old lore, some weird summoned thing of terror
- Angry drunk
- guy in a diving suit?
- a nightmare?
and 
/
just doesnt do a lot of anything lategame. the fall off is really hard.
