It looks like Riot is mulling over some improvements to Yorick and his little ghouls. While the project is not very pressing at the moment, I'd have to admit that would love to see this project come to life.
I'm experimenting with some multi-minion AI models that Coronach didn't have time to do when he was working on Yorick and then passing that research off when things are more settled.
Yorick right now has some pretty crazy self-sustain in lane but has poor chasing ability and a somewhat confusing mixed ranged/melee playstyle that is hard to get into - The goal is to get him to flow better into attacking alongside his ghouls, rather than treating ghouls as ranged spell nukes that summon minions.
It's a slow burning research project at the moment - due to tinkering with AI models and stuff - some interesting stuff has fallen out of it though.
Playing as: Yorick's ghouls don't feel cool. in an effort to make him not feel like a SC Carrier (float around while ghouls do the work), we pushed them too far so the ghouls don't feel important. The middle ground is when you feel like you're fighting with your ghouls.
Playing against: Killing the ghouls does not offer sufficient reward/counter-play due to the point above.
For example, imagine if Omen of Famine's ghoul would start out small while summoned and each time it hit an enemy grew larger and larger. You could click E to consume the ghoul to heal based on how large it's grown at the cost of losing it's damage output. The CD of the spell is modified to trigger after the ghoul is consumed.
(For this thought experiment: Consider Yorick's passive changed from damage reduction per ghoul active to gaining a property of each ghoul that is active. In this example, Yorick has 10% lifesteal while the Ravenous Ghoul is active)
In my mind this presents better gameplay than what is currently on live because the opponent has the opportunity to:
- Remove the lifesteal effect from Yorick
- Reduce the damage output for a guaranteed amount of time
- Directly reduce the burst healing by killing the ghoul before it can grow to the maximum size.
Meanwhile, I think this is more fun for Yorick because:
- Your ghoul has more personality (through the visceral nature of it's size corresponding to heal potency).
- We could remove the 5 second lifetime of the ghouls which make them feel transitory and not worth your attention after casting.
- His passive creates more gameplay and decision making.
I really feel like we missed an opportunity at a much cooler character here. Xypherous' string of characters is cooling down soon, and my work on Co-Op finishing up (BuffMePlz will continue to kick ass on that feature), so I hope we can realize it
O_O NO!
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