As usual, I’d like to thank Samurai Gamers for the info in this guide.

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If Streetfighter has Ryu and Ken, AoV has the tiltduo — Valhein and Yorn.  Yorn is probably second only to Valhein in terms of notoriously being instalocked and inducing tilt upon teammates even before a game starts.  He has been a part of my personal Tiltrinity/Tiltrio (Valhein, Yorn, Zanis).  Still, he’s the hero that I have the highest mastery with, mostly by spamming him in 3v3s (he either wins fast or loses fast and I’m just aiming to get the 4-game reward per day).

Yorn VS other marksmen

Compared to other marksmen, Yorn isn’t flashy. He can’t go in and out of fights like Violet.  He can’t poke like Joker. He doesn’t have a good cc like Slimz.  He doesn’t have slows like Tel’annas.  So why Yorn?

… on top of that, he doesn’t have good level spikes and his skills can’t contribute much in early skirmishes.  Violet’s poke hurts even pre level 4; Tel’annas can provide slow for small fights; Slimz has deadly pick potential; while Yorn only has damage which is mediocre at base, slow as molasses laser satellites, and hard to hit cc.  WHY Yorn?

… adding the final nail on the coffin is his complete lack of escape skills. His horrendous mobility makes him a food factory for divers and assassins. WTF! YORN?! Why in the nine realms of hell would you play Yorn over other marksmen?

Personally, I play him for the fact that he is well… Yorn.

• He has no fancy skills.  If you can throw a skill, shoot, and then run, you’ll be able to decently play him.
• He rewards good macro.  His ultimate is global and can “support” teammates across the map.  Since he’s heavily item reliant, being able to farm well is heavily rewarded.
• He can destroy tanks with just two items (Fafnir’s and Muramasa) and can stay relevant with 3 damage items (Blitzblade, Fafnir’s, Muramasa or Claves).  This gives him flex slots — tank items like Frost Cape and Hyoga’s and/or utility items like Curse of Death can be built on him without compromising his damage output that much
• He can be played as support artillery (not roam/full support but providing covering fire).

Actually, my main reason for playing him is the same why I became a Teemo main in League — to prevent my teammates from picking him.  I got teamed with a lot of bad Yorns that I decided to study him myself and just instalock.

If you’re reading this, I don’t think  I need to list any more reasons to play Yorn.  Admit it, deep inside, you need him just as much as you need the sun.  After all, the sun’s power is limitless… Limitless!

This guide will not make you a pro Yorn, but it might turn you into a smart Yorn.

Playing Yorn

Unlike most marksmen that rely mostly on NA (normal attacks) for DPS, I believe Yorn is more of a marksman/caster hybrid, meaning you have to “weave” your  NA and skills to get the maximum benefit of his passive.  I think of him as a less mobile version of Violet.  You can go the normal attack route for his passive procs but weaving skills and NA speeds up the procs which is essential since he is very squishy, you’d want to deal as much damage as possible in the shortest possible time.

Yorn’s passive is a double-edged sword.  With damage items, it’s like a Natalya ult that melts even the tankiest of tanks.  If gimped, his passive is a self stun that will poke your opponents’ cheeks until they get annoyed enough and decide to vaporize you.

Maximizing Yorn’s range is a crucial element to Yorn’s gameplay.  Fortunately, his range is pretty decent and he can even match most mages in terms of zoning.  Of course, his skills are weaksauce compared to mages so you’ll rely on Yorn’s passive for additional damage.  His range is the reason why I’m favoring him in Valley Skirmish (yes, I can go mage but Yorn wrecks towers with ease).

Knowledge of the opponents’ effective zone is a must in surviving  and being effective in a skirmish/duel.   For this, imagine circles around heroes to determine their effective ranges.

On the image above, I’ve drawn a rough approximation of Yorn’s effective range.  As Yorn, our goal is to overlap the orange circle into the enemy and attack.  Within the orange circle, I placed a red circle which indicates the danger zone.  As much as possible, you want no enemies inside this zone.  This danger zone may vary from player to player.  Personally, I made it a bit large to play safer so that I can avoid getting yamcha’d.

It’s also important to overlap the orange circle over your allies so you can provide covering fire quickly.  Proper usage of these circles can help a lot not only with survivability but effective damage dealing as well.

Note that with this, knowing the enemy heroes’ abilities is very important.  Without a good grasp of the enemy skill ranges, it will be difficult to effectively utilize zoning.

On the image above, we have Slimz in our range but he is too uncomfortably close.  If this isn’t an AI, the Violet could’ve easily rolled in for the kill.

In summary, your ideal position is in the backlines, maintaining a safe range but close enough to provide immediate artillery support.  You’ll be attacking ALL enemy heroes within your circle, regardless if it’s a tank or not.  You’ll focus on carries IF they’re within range.  If not, attack whoever is.  Never ever give up a favorable position just to damage the enemy backlines.  It is the assassin’s job to kill the enemy carries, not yours.  I’ve seen a lot of stupid Yorns through the frontline to reach the enemy backline and attempt to take down carries.  Don’t be one of them.  They’re overpopulated already.  Ignore teammates saying “don’t aim for the tanks, vovotanganoob.”  Attack whoever is within your range.  You don’t have the luxury of zoom-zoom or displacement skills.   Chasing kills outside of your ult is basically out of the question.

Situational awareness is probably the most important player skill in using Yorn.  You have to be able to position yourself properly in teamfights and determine which places are safe to farm.  Since Yorn requires items to be effective, you’ll have to be able to get all the possible farm that your arrows can reach.  Here’s a list of some things to take note:

on laning:

• Always look at the minimap.  I just can’t stress this enough.  Be wary when enemies are missing.  Take note of boss monsters.  With your ult, you can assist teammates in taking them or steal one from an opponent.
• Focus on farm.  You need to rush your first item (usually Blitzblade) in order to be of significance early game.  Take the small jungle monsters if possible (of course, don’t do it on the first jungle clear!).  Whenever you see a minion wave even in other lanes and no one plans on taking it, go for it as long as it’s safe.  Don’t let any minion go to waste.
• Don’t overextend (get back to farming).  Even just crossing the river is dangerous for Yorn.  Plan your pathing properly.  If planning to rotate, avoid dangerous spots like the river, especially if enemies are missing.
• Avoid facechecking brushes.  You won’t get any Brave Points for doing so.
• Don’t unnecessarily spam skills.  Weaving normal attack+skills requires a fuckton of mana.  Clear waves with normal attacks.  You can do a fast clears with passive procs on normals.  It’s even quicker if you got Blitzblade.  If the team approves, take the blue buff.  Yorn is a beast with one.
• Roam only if extremely necessary.  Pre-Blitzblade, Yorn is a shit roamer.  If the enemy laner rotates, it’s often better to just focus on the turret instead of rushing to the skirmish, especially if it’s far off your lane.  Carefully assess if your roam will be rewarding.  If not, try to help with your ult and push (again, safely).

on teamfights:

• Track your enemies.  Yes, all 5 of them; and yes, you have to look at the minimap for this.  Assess your team’s and enemies’ position.  Look out for possible flanks.  Be wary of brushes.
• Know your opponents’ effective range.  If you get caught, you’re dead.  Being in the backline does not mean you’re always safe.
• Master Yorn’s spacing.  You can do this in 3v3.  Don’t go too far unless you’re in grave danger.
• Always be on the move.  Move in between passive procs.  Always look for the best possible position to hit someone.   Try to kite.  One of the common mistakes I see on some Yorns is they just stand on one location and shoot til they drop.  Positioning with Yorn is extremely important especially that he roots himself when he procs his passive.
• Wait for a clusterfuck and unleash hell.  Use your teammates as a distraction as much as possible.  This is what I usually do in soloQ as you can’t really rely on anyone to back you up.  You have to find ways to deal damage without endangering yourself.

Building Yorn

I’m not recommending any specific build here as I strongly believe that builds or arcanas won’t make you win games.  Playstyle does.  I’m just going to list item options for Yorn.  When it comes to items, it’s best to maximize his passive.  A common lapse that I can see is rushing AS items to proc his passive early, with Devil’s Handshake and Slikk’s Sting being the most common culprits.  With Yorn’s already bad early game, this is like a nail on the coffin as they don’t really contribute anything aside from attack speed.  Yorn’s first items should be able to help his early game, either to increase damage or improve his survivability.

The Blitzblade rework is heavensent for Yorn.  It synergizes greatly with his kit and is cheap, making it a good rush/farm item.  It also helps with his near immobility and allows him to rotate faster and get to farming locations quickly.  Yorn’s passive also procs it (last arrow has lightning) increasing his DPS early game.  Late game, you can replace it with Slikk’s Sting (if you went Claves) or even Devil’s Handshake.

Fafnir’s Talon is Yorn’s true core item.  It has on-hit effect and lifesteal which provides decent lane sustain that synergizes well with his passive.  This used to be my rush item followed by an early def (when playing solo).  It might be suboptimal though against squishies and you’d probably lose a duel against early raw damage items.  Against HP stackers and/or Orb of Magi users, this can be a perfect rush item.

Claves Sancti can be rushed after Warboots when facing a squishy team.  This combination greatly spikes  Yorn’s overall damage potential and is impactful if your team needs to teamfight early for contesting objectives.   I used to personally dislike crit as I hate RNG-based stuff.  Most of the successful Yorn games that I’ve had were no-Claves builds.  Lately though, I’ve been valuing the random chance to chunk the opponent’s HP and I’m now respecting the powerspike that Claves provides.  Take note though that when rushing Claves, it’s better to go with Warboots instead of defensive boots as Claves doesn’t give attack speed.  Warboots helps with this to increase his DPS.

For movespeed, Warboots is rather cheap and can greatly Yorn’s early game.  If going with this, rush this over damage items unless you get early kills and can finish them at once.  Personally, I build defensively and opt for Gilded Greaves or Sonic Boots, depending on the situation.

After completing one (or two or even all) of the three damage items above, you can go defensively, offensively (penetration), or utility (anti-heal, etc), depending on the enemy team comp.

For armor penetration, Rankbreaker can be considered as a second damage item.  Personally, I like it for the %MS bonus and with Blitzblade, would allow you to even more quickly rotate.  I used to build it a lot when I hated to get crit items.  Late game,  Muramasa is better though as you’ll probably be hitting the enemy frontline most of time.

For defensive items, I go with Frost Cape (got this from Vex build IIRC) as it provides CDR, burst protection, and some additional damage and slow or Hyoga’s Edge if I want some m.def.  Hyoga’s Edge gives better kiting because of its %MS bonus in the expense of additional damage.  There’s also the option of building both if you need more survivability.  Most of the time though, one of the two would suffice.  Note that it’s better to proc Frost Cape slow with S2 as the slow will help landing S1 easier.  With Hyoga’s, you can just hit the enemy with a normal attack and use S1.

Other items to consider are Omniarms, which also increases his overall burst (I feel it’s better to get this as third offensive item); Fenrir’s Tooth which synergizes well with Fafnir’s Talon; and Curse of Death, which is a good punisher item against healers.  This is especially helpful since it’s rare to find teammates building anti-heal items.  I once tried Spear of Longinus since Yorn can instantly stack its effect but I find it too cute.  Perhaps it’s passable if running a super AD heavy team comp to boost the team’s damage.  Of course, the always popular final item, Blade of Eternity, can be considered as well for defense.   Death Sickle is also an option when Blade of Eternity loses its revive.  Still, I mostly prefer just having Frost Cape + Hyoga’s Edge if I want more defensive items as it allows Yorn to better kite and reposition.

How about more AS items?  Personally, I don’t think he will reap that much benefit stacking pure AS items like Slikk’s Sting or Devil’s Handshake compared to getting AD and/or good on hit effects.  Slikk’s Sting synergizes though with Claves.  Late game, if you went with Claves, you can sell Blitzblade and replace it with Slikk’s Sting.  Devil’s Handshake, on the other hand, is a bit suboptimal IMO as Yorn doesn’t have attack-modifying skills like Slimz or Tel-annas.

Yorn’s glass cannon build, when properly babysat, is absolutely disgusting.  Its damage output is simply ridiculous.  If playing with friends, I’d opt to this, but in soloQ where there is no reliable peel, this build tends to get deleted instantly.

As I’ve already mentioned, I’m not advocating a fixed item build on Yorn as I feel that it defeats the purpose of playing him.  If going for a fixed build, I’d suggest picking another marksman instead.

Arcana

In my opinion, Yorn is one of the less arcana-reliant heroes.  Still, arcanas would definitely help with his early game to a significant degree.  I’ve even used him with tank arcanas (Indomitable/Benevolence/Valiance) and did well.  All that matters is being able to farm his items.  Even AP mains can use him if they need a marksman even with the usual (Violate/Benevolence/Flurry) without wasting too much as Blitzblade deals magic damage anyway.  To tell you the truth, I’ve played him a lot with non-marksman arcana that I have no idea what’s the most optimal arcana build for him.  This is probably one of the reasons why I picked him up.  Still, if you want to optimize a page for him, the regular marksman set (Blitz/Guerilla/Skewer) is a decent thing to start with.  There are also some builds running purple Reave for sustain.  Haven’t tried them though.

A dedicated arcana page is not a must but it would help mitigate some of his early game weakness.

Talents

Flicker is a must, but for players like me though with poor reaction time, I feel it won’t help that much, so I opted for Heal which I can use for teammates too.

Yorn jungle, yes or no?

I’ve actually seen him being jungled in higher ranks.  If it’s viable in high ranks, it should be viable in the low ranks right?  Well, it’s hard to tell.  Teammates are reliable in higher ranks so that should be a factor.  Yorn is a fragile jungler and if invaded, he’s in a lot of trouble.  In low-rank soloQ, you can’t really rely on teammates to have your back.  Still, if NO ONE wants to go jungle and you’re confident with your skills, just do it.  It’s better than just freely giving away your jungle to the enemy team.

Final thoughts…

Yorn is not an autopilot hero, meaning it’s the player that makes or breaks a Yorn, not the other way around.  There are some heroes that can carry even a mediocre player.  Yorn is not one of them.   Still, I don’t believe Yorn is bad.  It just so happened that there are better options and it doesn’t help that the usual Yorn pickers often go YOLO.  Personally, I’d lock Yorn if I need to play marksman as I’m mostly a roleplayer and not a carry player.  I prefer to just support the team with artillery barrage than to duke it out wild wild west style like other marksmen.  The most important thing, I guess, is Yorn allows flexibility to observe, formulate, and adapt.

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My personal Yorn story….

You’re probably wondering why you’d believe me if I’m not even a Yorn main.  Sadly, my most played hero is Yorn who I spammed a lot in 3v3.  That’s where I saw his potential.  I kinda compare him to Natalya if played with NA-skill weaving.  Before that, I’ve tried multiple AS builds on him with limited success.  I stumbled upon a Vex(?) YT vid which builds Warboots, Fafnir’s, Frostcape, Muramasa, Fenrir’s, and Ancestral Glory.  Being a fan of tanky builds, I gave it a spin and kinda fell in love with the build.  That’s when I spammed it in 3v3 for fast games.  I found out it’s pretty stable in 5v5 too.

The problem that I had with the build though is rushing Fafnir’s feel a bit suboptimal against squishy targets early game.  Maybe it’s just me though.  I’ve tried the old Blitzblade but it feels too expensive for a bridge item plus it’s underwhelming. Still I had success with Vex build so I stuck with it, just modifying it sometimes with Curse of Death against healers.  I’ve stopped playing Yorn on my main as I don’t want him to be my “default hero” when I experience connection issues.

Lately, I’ve been playing on an account that I made to get a Veera skin.  It’s currently just Gold II.  I was having problems getting from Silver to Gold with Maloch for some weird reason so I tried Yorn for the lulz and tried the reworked Blitzblade.  The climb was rather smooth.  Out of 12 Yorn games, I got 11 wins, and I’m on a 9-win streak currently.

What I’m trying to imply here is Yorn can work in soloQ even with disorganized teams and lack of peel.  You don’t even have to play like a god but just to position yourself really well and play smart.  Focus on objectives and avoid unnecessary fights.

On average, I do 25% to 30% of the team damage with 3 games where I did 45% to 50%.  It might be rather low compared to other marksmen but I play a more objective-focused game.

There will be some games where you’ll suck.   If you can’t carry games, at least carry your own weight or let yourself be carried by teammates.  Yeah.  It feels terrible but if you want to win, you’d have to play like you want to win.  In the 0/3/6 game, I was barely able to farm as the enemies kept diving me.  I settled for scraps, scurrying from lane to lane and taking small creeps in the jungle to try to catch up.  I tried to help whenever I can with teamfights.  Notice that I built Curse of Death on this match.  We were playing against healers then so I decided to get a utility item.

At the moment, I am level 22 on the “yorn account” and have 2 arcana setups.  One for tank (of course) and one for AP (which I’m building for Burn Arthur).  The AP page is the one that I’m currently using for Yorn.  Just thought the AS from Flurry would help a bit plus Blitzblade deals magic damage and would benefit from the m.pen compared to Valiance from the tank page.

I believe I can still take Yorn higher if I can get by my ranked anxiety and if I can get better connection.  I get really salty whenever I get DC’d.  I don’t mind getting stupid teammates.  At least I can do something with that.  With shitty connection, I can’t do anything.

I finished Gold II in the “Yorn account” last season.  Not sure if I’d play him again this season.  I’m planning on focusing on my main and hope to get to plat at least.  Again, thanks for the time spent reading this and see you in the Antaris Fields.  Long days and pleasant nights!