Volibear Build Guide by iskillzi

Introduction / why you should play Volibear

In this guide I will teach you how to jungle, build, and play Volibear

Volibear is a very good jungler, perhaps even one of the best mostly because of his Rolling Thunder and Majestic Roar combo to speed you up, and slow the enemies.

• Fast champion due to Rolling Thunder, making it easy to gank.
• Benefits from HP items thanks to Frenzy.
• Has an Area of effect slow: Majestic Roar.
• High damage.
• Passive Chosen of the Storm heals you a lot, similar to Sadism

• High CoolDown durations.

Runes

Runes
Greater Mark of Attack Speed 9	Greater Mark of Attack Damage 9	Greater Seal of Armor 9	Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist 9	Greater Quintessence of Health 3	Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed 3

The runes for Volibear can vary somewhat, My favorite Rune build for Volibear would have to be:

• 9x Greater Mark of Attack Speed: The Attack Speed helps a lot for early game Jungling.
  
  
• 9x Greater Seal of Armor: The Armor also helps for early game Jungling, for when you Gank Attack Damage Carries, and Team Fights.
  
  
• 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: The Magic Resist helps for Ganking Ability Power Carries, and late game Team Fights.
  
  
• 3x Greater Quintessence of Health: The Health Points help for Jungling, Ganking, Team Fights, and Frenzy Damage.

The other two Runes Greater Mark of Attack Damage and Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed are extras that can be used but are not recommended, the Greater Mark of Attack Damage can be used as a replacement for early game Jungling, and so can the Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed Runes.

Masteries

Masteries

1/1

1/3

3/4

4/3

1/1

1/2

3/2

3/1

3/3

1/3

1/1

3/3

4/1

1/1

• Summoner's Resolve gives a nice gold gain for Tanky Junglers
  
  
• I prefer only 1 point on Resistance rather than 2-3 because it's more worth it to get 3 points on Hardiness for Junglers.
  
  
• Some Junglers prefer Tough Skin over other Masteries however I feel Volibear can jungle just fine without it and the 6 damage from Bladed Armor isn't worth the 3 mastery points.
  
  
• Durability and Veteran's Scars is pretty obvious for Volibear seeing as his Frenzy gives damage for his bonus Health Points.
  
  
• Evasion is better than Indomitable in my opinion, because Indomitable only reduces incoming damage by 1/2 points rather than up to 3% of course the disadvantage is that it reduces AoE only, not all damage.
  
  
• Initiator is a great Mastery for Volibear because he will initiate most fights with his Rolling Thunder ability.
  
  
• Honor Guard is another great damage reducing mastery, I prefer this over Mercenary however Volibear doesn't get much gold in most games so you could get Mercenary instead in some games, Not recommended however.
  
  
• Juggernaut is a great mastery for Volibear because of the +3% hp, and also reduces duration of disables (like tenacity would).
  
  
• Summoner's Insight is used to reduce Flash CoolDown.
  
  
• Good Hands is good mostly for late game so that if you die it doesn't take like 70-80 seconds to revive, Expanded Mind could be used to replace Good Hands however if you are a good player and don't die much.
  
  
• Swiftness is another good mastery for Volibear because of the increased move speed making it easier to Gank at level 3 without boots and also to initiate late game and grab one of the squishy carries.
  
  
• Runic Affinity could be traded out for Scout however I prefer Runic Affinity more for Jungling, since it increases the buff duration by quite a bit.

Spells

• Flash is recommended in my guide because of the sheer fact it's possibly the best escape spell.
  
  
• Smite is also recommended in my guide because you NEED Smite for ranked games. if you don't get it the enemies could easily steal Baron, Dragon, buffs, etc, you also won't be able to steal any of these easily, and it makes it harder for you to jungle, Irreplaceable for ranked games.
  
  
• Ghost is another good spell that could replace
  Flash because of the fact that it makes it easier to not only chase, but also run, however, Flash is still a better spell for running.
  
  
• Exhaust is mostly used for lane Volibear rather than Jungle, because if you traded Flash for Exhaust then you could only slow 1 opponent making it very hard to run, only good for chasing.
  
  
• Heal is a spell that could replace Smite in normal games (DON'T REPLACE Smite IN RANKED GAMES) because it makes it easier to tank enemies and come out alive.
  
  
• Surge is actually a viable spell for Volibear believe it or not, but it gives him attack speed, and Ability Power, even so I would only use it in normal games.
  
  
• Cleanse can be used instead of Flash if the enemies have a lot of Crowd Control, I would only trade it in ranked if you're below 1100 elo where people don't usually use their brains, if you wan't this same effect in higher elo, get Flash and Quicksilver Sash.
  
  
• Teleport should only be used if you're solo top Volibear.
  
  
• Clarity isn't required for Volibear seeing as he doesn't use very much mana, it's only 30-60 per ability I believe.
  
  
• Ignite could be used if you're in normal or low elo and versus a few lifesteal/spell vamp people like Fiddlesticks, Warwick, etc. if you decide to get this you could trade Smite for this, however you would need to use Ignite on the blue buff to kill it at level 1.
  
  
• Revive worst spell ever in my opinion, only low levels use this ability because of the fact it has HIGH cooldown duration over 500 seconds, and in ranked you really don't die enough to use this effectively.
  
  
• Clairvoyance should be left to the supports.

Items

Item Sequence
Cloth Armor 300	Health Potion 35	Health Potion 35	Health Potion 35	Health Potion 35	Health Potion 35	Wriggle's Lantern 1600	Boots of Speed 350
Mercury's Treads 1200	Heart of Gold 825	Philosopher's Stone 700	Giant's Belt 1000	Warmog's Armor 2830	Warden's Mail 1100	Randuin's Omen 3100	Banshee's Veil 2610
Shurelya's Reverie 2100

Core build:

• Why the heck is Wriggle's Lantern in this build? you may ask, well, Wriggle's Lantern is a good item for most Junglers, even though Volibear isn't an Attack Damage Jungler, Wriggle's Lantern is still a good pick for him because it helps him Jungle a lot faster, gives a small amount of armor, and provides free wards.
  
  
• Mercury's Treads is good for any tank because of the Tenacity, this item can be traded out for Ninja Tabi if the opponents have atleast 3 Attack Damage carries (normally won't happen unless playing normal) and very little Crowd Control effects.
  
  
• Heart of Gold and Philosopher's Stone are great items for Volibear because he gets very little gold in most games, these both also build into good items for Volibear late game.
  
  
• Warmog's Armor is an amazing item for Volibear because his Frenzy gains damage from his bonus health, this item could be traded out for Frozen Mallet or Rylai's Crystal Scepter however, I found either Warmog's Armor or Rylai's Crystal Scepter does the most damage, I prefer Warmog's Armor more however because I prefer Tanky since I initiate a lot with Volibear
  
  
• Randuin's Omen gives Volibear another great AoE slow, more Health Points, and high armor for surviving team fights, another great item for initiators. I wouldn't recommend replacing this item, however if you don't go with this then you should take Frozen Heart which is good for high Attack Speed Attack Damage champions.
  
  
• Banshee's Veil is a great all around item for Volibear because it gives him good amount of Magic Resist, Health, Mana, and a spell shield great for getting rid of stuns or slows when you initiate. Wouldn't recommend replacing this item either.
  
  
• Shurelya's Reverie is one of my favorite items for tanks and supports, gives good Health Points, and a AoE Move Speed boosting active which is great for running away or getting your team mates away from team fights before death.
  
  
• Guardian Angel can also be used for Volibear, you can buy this item around early late game (35-40 or so minutes in game) if you find yourself dying quite a bit when you initiate, in the end you can always sell Wriggle's Lantern near end game and buy Guardian Angel if the game even lasts this long.

Other Viable Items

Situational items that Volibear can use are Atma's Impaler and Spirit Visage, Banshee's Veil could be traded out for Spirit Visage or even Force of Nature in my opinion if you would trade out Banshee's Veil it should be for Spirit Visage due to the passive and the Health Points it gives you.

Atma's Impaler could also be used on Volibear instead of Banshee's Veil if the opponents don't got much Magic Damage, otherwise trade out Shurelya's Reverie for it, and buy it right after Warmog's Armor then continue in building Randuin's Omen or Banshee's Veil / Spirit Visage depending on if the opponents got more physical or magic damage.

Updated items as of 12/31/12

Hey everyone, you may wonder a few things that I've changed in the item build such as Warmog's Armor is gone and I added Runic Bulwark along with Ruby Sightstone to replace the Wriggle's Lantern when you later on replace it with Blade of the Ruined King way later on in the game (if the game even lasts this long which would be over 1 hour).
ok so to explain myself on these changes: Warmog's Armor is no longer as effective as it used to be seeing as you no longer gain HP on killing enemy units, this is still a great item for Volibear because of the high HP though you no longer need it due to the HP from Sightstone and Randuin's Omen which is two new updates as well, giving you a +800 HP total, basically replacing the simple 1,000 HP from warmogs, which is really the only good use for it now.
ok settling the replacement of Warmog's Armor let's talk about Runic Bulwark this is simply one of the best tanky aura items in the game due to the +30 MR aura which gives you 60 MR (the most you can get in the game from a single item) simply making it a great item for any time during the game and you might want to think about getting this before Randuin's Omen because of it's amazing stats.
next up we have Ruby Sightstone which is a great item for Volibear because of the HP bonus along with 3 wards which refill every time you go back to store, providing a good use of wards for early-late game allowing you to simply be aggressive with your warding and not need to worry about costs of it, along with Wriggle's Lantern you will have a consistent four wards out at almost all times and with your support having Ruby Sightstone as well your team will have seven wards out at almost all times, this gives you as much if not more sight than you need for the whole game.
and finally we can talk about Blade of the Ruined King this item is a great replacement for Wriggle's Lantern if your game lasts long enough, simply because of the slow and you still have lifesteal which deals 4% of enemy HP per hit which is a great amount.

What items to use

The original build:
I posted this build as the "Core Build" even though it's really not. it was my mistake on writing that.

The REAL core build would be this: believe it or not the only items I would NEVER trade out for Volibear are these three, to explain my reasoning:

Mercury's Treads are most definitely the best boots for any tank/offtank because of the Tenacity, and Magic Resist, Magic Resist is really hard to get a lot of and even though its only 20, this is still a lot to help you especially early game.


Warmog's Armor is arguably the best item for Volibear because of Frenzy which can often give more burst than mages early game-mid game, and occasionally late game.


Wriggle's Lantern is in my opinion the best early game jungle item for Volibear However, mid-late game when team fights start happening you can trade this out for a few items like, Zeke's Herald which works well against any teams but you should only use when you have 2 AD users on your team, Atma's Impaler should always be used just you should decide on whether you get it mid or late game depending on how much AD users your opponents team has.


Randuin's Omen is a good item for Volibear because of the fact it gives HP, Armor, and a great passive/active. this item can be traded out for (someone mentioned this) Frozen Heart, the reason that this isn't in my recommended build is because its cooldown reduction is great and all however its passive isn't as good, and it doesn't give HP this item could be very useful against attack speed users like Kog'Maw and Xin Zhao more than Randuin's Omen in some cases.


Shurelya's Reverie is another great item with the passive, however Volibear doesn't need this passive as much as he would Randuin's Omen so this item could be traded out for a lot of items, like Atma's Impaler if you wanted to have a lifesteal/damage combo item, or Guardian Angel if you rather have the resistances, also you could get Ionic Spark now that it's available for all game modes, which I was not aware of until recently, which could be possibly one of the best items for Volibear I have yet to decide if it is or not. and many other items that you would trade out the other items in this build for. (this item is basically a filler)


Banshee's Veil is possibly my favorite tank item, I love its spell shield, magic resist, health, mana, everything about it. This item CAN be traded out however, many people in comments have been stating that Force of Nature is a much better item seeing as he has so much HP, well all I have to say to this is if you guys want the extra little Magic Resist and that passive HP regen, go ahead and get it, but in this guide I don't recommend it. if you must have the HP regen get Spirit Visage it gives HP, HP regen, and CoolDown Reduction which is much better than Force of Nature however, Banshee's Veil is an irreplaceable item to me which is why it's in the core build.

Gameplay - Jungling, Ganking, and Team fights

Gameplay - Early game Jungle

First off grab your Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potions. To start, either go to your blue buff and get a good leash on it, or you and your team go to the opponents red or blue buff and steal it, Be very cautious if you go to the enemies jungle always lead with your tank first (which in this case might be you).

• If you got your opponents Red buff first go to your blue buff next and have your mid lane quickly leash it for you, next go to the wolves
• If you got your blue buff first: kill the Wolves second, starting with the big Wolf.
  
• If you got opponents blue buff first start here V
  
• Next head over to wraiths and kill them, starting with the big Wraith then go to your Red Buff you will most likely use up all of your Health Potions by now, so now you should gank either Middle lane or Bottom lane, whichever lane is pushed more, make sure you don't use Rolling Thunder to throw your enemy the wrong way, always aim it towards your team mates (unless they're low Health).

if your bot AD carry wen't back after this gank then stay bot and farm, outleveling the opponents jungler is key to winning. if one of your team mates was having problems then you can do one of two things:

1. after you gank/farm if you're still pretty healthy head over to the lane that is having trouble and gank, don't do it if this will kill you, Feeding loses games.

2. after you gank/farm if you're low health go back to base, if it was a good gank pick up Vampiric Scepter and 3 more Health Potions then head over to the lane which needed help, and gank. after this keep Jungling and Ganking regularly remember to gank EVERY lane, and give blue buff to your Ability Power Carry if they use mana.

Mid game

Around now people will start roaming more, so now's your chance to pick up as much farm as possible whenever your team mates roam, if they're going in for a gank then go with them. kills are more important than farming at this point, also remember to get your CARRIES fed and don't save your Frenzy just to pick up a kill, use it when it's ready so that carries can ignite if they end up Flashing.

Late game

Now everyone should be done farming for the most part and all the team fights should start happening, you'll want to initiate team fights now that you have Warmog's Armor, use your Rolling Thunder ability to initiate, use your Randuin's Omen when you're near enemy carries so that you can fling them back and after that when Randuin's Omen wears off use Majestic Roar to slow them for even longer. Remember to use Rolling Thunder to also throw enemies away from your allies, NEVER let your Carries die in team fights.

Skill combinations

For ganking: wait until you're pretty close, like say in the bush then activate your Rolling Thunder to initiate, then use your Majestic Roar either when you're really close, or after you've tossed them over you, next activate Frenzy to deal burst damage.

in all for ganks:


For Team fights: wait for the perfect moment when a squishy carry on the opponents team comes in to do some damage, activate your Rolling Thunder possibly even using Flash to get close enough then Majestic Roar next activate Thunder Claws and last use Frenzy at this point you will want to back off of your opponents also pinging your team unless they're killing the other members, due to long CoolDowns, just try to keep up with your movement speed until you can use your Rolling Thunder again to grab another enemy, always target squishy carries first.

In all for Team fights:

Proof this guide/build works

This isn't too much proof that it works, only three games however one was Ranked so I'm hoping this is enough to please everyone for now.
if the picture doesn't work Click here to go to the link on photobucket

Change log

4-7-2012: Published this guide.
4-7-2012: Published the Proof section later in the day.

4-8-2012: Added Change log.
4-8-2012: Fixed Masteries as I had 2 points on Indomitable instead of 1 point on Veteran's Scars , and 1 point on Indomitable .
4-8-2012: Made the game-play section easier to read.

4-9-2012: Added the "Other Viable Items" chapter.
4-9-2012: Added the "Spells" chapter.

4-11-2012: Rewrote the "Spells" chapter.

4-12-2012: Wrote the "When to use items" chapter

12-29-2012: updated mastery page and adjusted some of the notes on the guide. Happy holidays/merry xmas and happy new years everyone =)

12-31-2012: updated Item build and Items chapter of the guide along with summary. Happy new years eve everyone and have a great new years!

Summary

Thanks to everyone who read this, please comment and rate this guide.

This guide took quite awhile to make, and I'm pretty proud of it so please don't rate down because you think it's a troll build since I have Wriggle's Lantern on a Volibear guide, take the time to test it out in a couple games first. =)

Also thanks to JhoiJhoi who put together a guide for BBCoding which allowed me to do most of this coding. A link to her guide can be found here

if you guys have ANY questions or comments at all leave them in the comments section and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can with an answer and I'll ad it to the (unanswered questions) chapter with an answer.