Here are a few suggestions I thought of that might make Yorick more viable

Ghouls should no longer lose HP/s, but have their duration capped at 4 seconds. Ghouls should be able to benefit from aura's.

Unholy Covenant- Ghouls should also increase Yorick's Armor and Magic Resistance by 10 for each. Ghouls also receive 5/10/15(+30% of Yoricks Armor and magic Resistance)

Omen of War- Add a buff for when he activates the ability and is ready to strike that gives bonus Move Speed, but shorten the duration of the "Readied Strike" period. When under the effects of Omen of Death the Ghouls will gain 15% Magic Damage from your AD and reduce Armor and Magic Resistance to all nearby enemies by 30.

Omen of Pestilence- When under the effects of Omen of Death the Ghouls will increase mana regeneration by 25% ti Yorick and return 20 mana to him when he casts spells..

Omen of Famine- When under the effects of Omen of Death the Ghouls will give 10% LifeSteal and Spell vamp to Yorick.

Omen of Death- Should be reworked entirely.

My suggestion: Drops a Tombstone at target area, stunning for 1 second and dealing 150/250/350(+1 per AD) Magic damage and lasting for 5/6/7 (+1 per 70 AD) seconds, with 50 Armor, and 100/200/300(+30% of Yoricks Maximum Hit Points) that gives your minions additional benefits, Slows 10/15/20% Attack Speed and Movespeed in its Radius.

Cooldown: 115/95/75 Seconds

All numbers should be and are subject to discussion and scrutiny!

Your opinions would be appreciated. Thanks for reading this wall of text.

http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board...d.php?t=884998

Interesting idea, but it is effectively similar to Tryn's "Endless Rage" that is castable on an ally in the essence that the allied player is "buried" and gets an invulnerable version of their hero that has no unit collision and moves faster. I would be concerned that this would become OP since it is a free "Get out of Dying" card. But an interesting suggestion nonetheless and thanks for linking it to me.

I agree that ghouls need to be more sustainable, though I feel that losing their natural DoT-based lifespan completely would break them. With enough health and only a little CDR, two-out-of three of them could be kept up indefinitely so long as the enemy team isn't constantly focusing them. If such a change were to be implemented, it'd require longer and more punishing cooldowns for Yorick, which sounds like a bad idea; he'd be largely useless for the rest of the team fight as soon as his summons are killed, and would fall into the same pit that Riot was trying to avoid (pet-based with effectiveness hinging only on whether the summons are alive.)

Most friendly auras are specifically applied to only champions, but I agree that Aegis should work on the ghouls. The fact that it doesn't is likely a glitch.

Yorick receiving defense buffs from his ghouls seems like a solid plan. It would facilitate the "ghoul up and charge" method that Yorick uses to get into fights. Though, again, it could get a little out-of-hand if Yorick's ghouls are too easy to persist.

Also, it may indeed be a good idea to have some additional form of defense scaling for ghouls, as it would open up more build options for Yorick (Frozen Heart, anyone?)

Too much. Yorick already has an ability whose primary benefit is an AoE slow, and adding a stun (let alone a splashing stun) is overkill.

The movespeed buff being on-hit only is a common complaint, and having it handled more similarly to Garen's Decisive Strike could be a good solution. the benefit from the ghoul itself being a "persistent" version, similar to how Omen of Pestilence has two versions of its slow.

I'd hesitate to make Yorick actually capable of outranging most casters. Remember that the AoE radius, too, is part of the spell's effective maximum reach. I've had no problems with the current range/radius.

See above. The current range, while shorter than that of some dedicated ranged casters, is still good enough for a melee champion.

The ghouls buffing your allies seems unnecessary. Can't the tombstone/ult itself do that? Plus, the amount is pretty extreme. But that leads into my biggest problem with these proposed changes...

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. You want an AoE totem that simultaneously buffs your ghouls a lot, buffs your team a lot, has damage reflection, has lifesteal, deals a lot of %-based damage over time, enables huge %-based nukes with 5-second timers (which also already have their own DPS anyway), CCs the enemy team a lot, and then finally heals your entire team and nukes everyone else A LOT?

Yeah, no. Sorry, can't endorse that. Pick one or two of the above listed effects and maybe it'd be reasonable. Or else slap a "once per match" cooldown on it...
I know this isn't the most constructive criticism I can offer, but I honestly thought this was a joke at first.

I edited the original post. How does it look to you now?

Bump for more feedback.

bump

Bump for more feedback on this idea.

Dat feedback

Prolly the biggest problem is your rework would take ALOT of time and effort to still have to go back to the balancing drawing board with no real info on how he works to start with. This is regardless of whether or not your idea would be balanced or not. My idea by comparison requires very minimal, yet important, changes.

With Yorick himself being pretty anemic as a champion and the ghouls being fairly counterable (low hp unless you flat out stack hp) as well as generally low damage unless you build damage....I really don't see an issue. Right now he requires ridiculous mana recovery to even be playable and his skills are balanced against having the ghouls.

Please realize also that making his pets perma would at best make him a hybrid minion champion. He would not be useless without minions no more than heimy would be without turrets, however he does derive a signifigant amount of power from them. Some players out there are achieving DECENT results with good play, and currently the minions essentially do not exist due to bugs and dying so fast.

Check it:

If you want a minion based champion go here:

http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board...d.php?t=888661

Upvote and add your voice or comment. Let riot hear us united in our desire for a viable minion based champion.