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As a slightly obsessed Yorick fan, my thoughts on the rework.

nintentwins·8/25/2016, 12:00:14 AM·10 votes·1,855 views

In all honesty, his gameplay looks fantastic! Can't wait to play that! Looks fun, too. But can't talk too much about gameplay in this board, I wanna talk about the theme and story behind new Yorick.

If I'm being perfectly honest here...I'm kinda pissed that they changed his lore so much.

Out of all the "out of shape" or "need rework" champions like Urgot, Poppy, Sion, Aatrox, etc, I thought Yorick had by far the best lore. Not only that but even when not comparing it to them, Yoricks lore had alot of thought put into it and was quite amazing.

Just go to lol wikia>Yorick>History>Old lore then click on the "league judgement" tab. Its those paragraphs there that I fucking LOVE.

But theres a certain bit there that, frankly, BLEW MY MIND, and I'll copypaste it real quick.

"Yorick had tried to compromise once or twice, burying people alive so they could savor their precious lives to the very last moment, but that was generally twice the headache and nobody ever appreciated his efforts.

By the time he'd dug the plot, Yorick's mind swam with somber anticipation. For reasons he couldn't fathom, this burial meant something. He simultaneously wished it could last forever and that he could be done with it already.

The latter felt more practical. He heaved the body unceremoniously into its plot, then clambered down to refold the arms and arrange it with some semblance of dignity. There was something eerily familiar about it. All the faces he'd buried - the countless faces - bled into each other by this point, why was this one different?

He climbed out of the hole and stared down at it one last time. He hadn't wondered about the life of one of his wards in centuries, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of unfulfilled purpose radiating from this one. Just as he was ready to pile the earth back atop the grave, he slipped. The shovel clattered into the hole.

Yorick hadn't lost grip of his shovel... ever. Panicked, he chased after it, but he slipped again. The soil he'd mounded next to the grave started to slide in on its own, an unprovoked avalanche. Yorick tried frantically to hold it back, but it flowed past him unhindered. He glanced down and it finally came to him.

The shovel rested neatly atop the body, clasped beneath its folded arms. The face - that face he should have known - was his own. It was the face of innocence, hope, sadness. It was a face so early on its journey, already convinced it had seen the end.

And Yorick didn't even recognize it."

THIS RIGHT HERE blew my mind, and its clear it had alot of thought put into it. Love the gameplay for new Yorick and all, but the fact that they are getting rid of this amazingness makes me sad. ;-;

And they say Yorick was never played because he was a gravedigger?! Um, correct me if I'm wrong on this but since when has anybody refused to play a champion specifically because of his lore or theme. Thats kinda odd, if you ask me.

TLDR:Love new Yorick gameplay but will greatly miss his lore.

Hope whoever reads this has a wonderful day! Best of luck on the rift. :D

7 Comments

Kyattsu8/25/2016, 3:02:12 AM6 votes

They remade him to appeal to the masses, and by removing the twisted, inhuman and wretched aspects of his design (the things that made him stand out) they effectively removed his entire niche since no other champion occupies it.

We're left with a more conventional mainstream Yorick, with a design reminiscent of many others in the roster purposely catering to those who already have other champions they like, and meanwhile, the people that liked Yoricks existing design and lore are alienated because there's nothing else like him.

Chase Me Daddy8/25/2016, 10:10:24 AM4 votes

The problem is that riot wants all the champions to do something big. Yorick was just someone of a non meaning family that died, saw his own corpse and continues to dig to remember and be remembered. New Yorick has big goals, he gave up his life and memories to fight the mist with the mist itself. Even though death is his biggest wish he uses the curse to fight those that are responsable (Mordekaiser, The Ruined King, Karthus, Thresh and Mordekaisers puppet army) for the death of the blessed isles and the madness in what is now the shadow isles by creating his own army. He feels more like that he wants to forget himself than being remembered. The thing thats most true to the old Yorick is that he is still a tragic sight. I mean I loved old Yoricks design and lore too but this one goes a bit deeper on why he became the tragic... thing he is. We'll grow on him and we are still waiting for his whole champion bio. Overall the changes were for the good, there will be things we'll miss about him but there will be new good things that make up for it (enjoyable gameplay and more indepth lore as a good example).

Valaran Nara8/25/2016, 12:12:14 AM3 votes

Don't worry. Riot is going to clarify the hell out of what they meant by "nobody wants to play a gravedigger."

Other than that, I felt that the only reason Yorick was unique was because he was, in essence so bland. Now, don't misunderstand, I don't mean he had no thought put into him or that he was just bad overall, but what made him stand out was the fact that he was bland. Everybody had wild adventures, strengths, things that make them stand out. Then you have ol' Yorick Mori. A gravedigger. The simple prospect of him just being some random undead shmuck that decided to bury a few bodies instead of joining in on the fright fest was "Wait...really?"

But that part of him stood out. The only problem was that he didn't have any cohesion with any other part of the world. The moment you mentioned was definitely in depth, but if they were to rework his lore, just keeping him as that random gravekeeper wouldn't mean much if not anything at all if there wasn't anything special about him.

The monk thing came out of left field. I get they kept the idea of him being a grave digger (because that's what they said the shovel wielding monks did. Bury people with one end, cut up fools with the other. If we get lucky (and I'm somewhat hoping), Yorick could have been that random monk who wasn't all that special other than being a monk, and when you're in an order of monks where everybody is one, he's not special. (The monk is to add culture to him. I imagined him being 1800 ol England gravedigger pre-rework)

I would assume they definitely put thought in him. They just gave him a purpose for being around other than, "Oh, by the way, he's our resident grave digger, Yo...uh...that guy. Yeah."