Playing From Ahead

When you are ahead as Yorick in Mayhem, the game fundamentally changes. You stop looking for fair fights and start forcing impossible ones. The trigger condition is simple: you have completed your first major item component, or you have landed a few good Dark Procession (W) cages that resulted in kills. At that point, your Mist Walkers and the Maiden become permanent siege engines that the enemy cannot clear fast enough.

Your primary action is to group with your team but position slightly to the side. Do not stand on top of your allies. If you stand with the ranged carries, area-of-effect spells will kill your ghouls instantly. Instead, approach from a flank angle. When the fight starts, throw your E - Mourning Mist into the enemy backline, drop W on a high-priority target, and summon the Maiden. The consequence is that the enemy team must choose: focus you and die to your team's carries, or focus the carries and get torn apart by your ghouls.

Augments push this lead further. If you picked ghoul-focused augments like Ghoul Party or Shepherd's Call, your damage becomes unavoidable. You do not need to hit skill shots; you just need to create a zone where the enemy cannot stand. Use your lead to take permanent control of the health relic brushes. Push the wave to the enemy tower, then retreat to the brushes. If they contest, trap them in a cage under your tower or in a narrow choke point.

How to Avoid Throwing

  • Do not dive deep for kills. In Mayhem, death timers are long and death blobs are common. If you chase a low-health enemy past their inhibitor tower, you will get collapsed on by their entire team. Your ghouls can chase for you. Let them secure the kill while you reposition.
  • Respect Snowball. When you are ahead, enemies will try to engage on you with Mark/Dash. Do not stand still. Keep moving between ability casts. If a tank lands a Snowball on you, immediately drop W at your own feet to cage them when they arrive.
  • Do not waste the Maiden. If you send the Maiden down a side lane or into a tower dive where she dies instantly, you lose half your pressure for a significant cooldown. Keep her with you during major teamfights.
  • Watch for global ultimates. Mayhem often features augments that reset cooldowns or add global range. If you see an enemy with a reset augment, do not overextend after a kill. Back off, heal, and reset the fight on your terms.

Playing From Behind

Playing from behind requires patience. The trigger condition here is usually early deaths, lost tower health, or an enemy team with heavy area-of-effect that clears your ghouls before they do anything. If the enemy has a Ziggs, Syndra, or Vel'Koz with strong poke augments, your standard playstyle will fail. You must adapt.

The core action shifts from aggression to disruption. Stop trying to be the damage dealer. Your job becomes creating chaos so your actual carries can function. Use W purely for peel. If an assassin or diver jumps on your ADC, cage them immediately. The cage duration in Mayhem is often long enough for your team to kill the diver or for your ADC to reposition. Use E to slow approaching enemies, not to mark them for ghoul damage. The slow provides more value than the damage when you are behind.

Augments can cover your weaknesses if you chose defensively. If you selected Phantom Cage or any augment that increases W duration or size, you become a dedicated utility bot. Your damage is low, but a well-placed cage can still win a fight by trapping three or four enemies in a bad position. If you took Dark Procession augments that add effects like stuns or damage reflection, use the cage as a zoning tool rather than a catch tool. Place it in narrow choke points to force the enemy to walk around, buying your team time.

Recovery Plan

  1. Stop splitting. In a deficit, you cannot survive alone. Stay with your team. If you get caught out, you are dead, and your team loses their only frontline utility.
  2. Maximize Mist Walker value. Even behind, your ghouls apply pressure. Summon them when the enemy wave arrives. They will push the wave back slightly, preventing the enemy from diving your tower immediately. This buys time for your team to heal or wait for cooldowns.
  3. Wait for the enemy mistake. Mayhem is chaotic. Teams throw. When the enemy overextends for a kill, trap them with W under your tower or in a bad angle. One good cage on a carry can swing momentum.
  4. Build tank or utility. If you are behind, stop building damage. Build Hullbreaker for survivability or Warmog's Armor if you need to sustain through poke. Your goal is to survive long enough to land one good cage.

Unrecoverable Situations

Some games are simply over. If the enemy team has a dedicated ghoul-clearing composition and they are ahead, you cannot function. If they have a Kayle or Veigar who has scaled out of control, your cage will not save anyone. In these scenarios, play for the one-in-a-thousand play. Hide in a brush, wait for the enemy to group, and try to land a multi-person cage. It is your only shot. If it fails, the game ends. Accept it and move to the next match.