Boots are pretty simple on Volibear. Mercury's Treads are the standard against most teams because most teams have crowd control. If the enemy team lacks CC you can buy Ninja Tabi to defend against armor, keep Mercury's Treads against Magic Damage, or get Ionian Boots of Lucidity to give you some cooldown reduction you can use quite well. If you buy cooldown reduction boots don't buy both Shurelya's AND frozen heart as that will ause you to have to much CDR.


Best Items



My general choice for starting item as Volibear because it gives a decent chunk of health regen as well as a lot of health and some armor. It's real bonus is how much it benefits you early game with that health. It really gives you the survivability you need to win your lane. The best thing is if you buy two your sustain problems basically completely go away and that way you don't need to invest in something more expensive such as a Wriggle's Lantern.



The main "core" item on Volibear. It's the single strongest possible item on him mainly because his W scales on bonus health. So Warmog really boosts the damage you can burst enemies for with W. It also gives him a high amount of natural survivability as well as providing him with more health to recover from his passive which gives him a nice solid 30% health regained over 6 seconds whenever he goes below 30% of his health. So basically it gives more then it says.



Wit's End is one of my personal favorite items so I might be biased but I know a good buy when I see one and this is a good buy. Basically, you can use attack speed to go with W and R (R more then W) as well as use the magic resist it gives. I wouldn't buy it to early simply because you need your health first but after that it's a good strong buy for that sustained damage you lack as well as that magic resist you need to go with your health.



While I don't personally buy this because I feel it delays items to much, and I would never suggest anyone buy it before Warmog (Warmog has to be farmed) I could see it being a fine buy after Warmog because he can use all the stats. The only real issue I have with it is it's a strong early game item but as Volibear it delays your real items a little more then it should and therefore isn't priority in my list of purchases. Get it if you want though.



A quite strong item on Volibear because it really has nothing but stats he can use. Generally I'll only buy this item if I build a Philo Stone early on. I buy Philo when I have to b before I have enough for a second Doran's Shield and instead have to buy boots + one of the parts. The reason Shurelya's is so strong is because you can use the regeneration as well as the health but it also gives the movement speed active which can be used to initiate or escape, you have no built in escape.


Another item I'm biased toward like Wit's End but unlike Wit's End I am completely certain that there is no better armor item for Volibear. Volibear makes great use of Cooldown Reduction so you buy this for armor and cooldown reduction, and you get mana and the attack speed reduction basically for free. Cooldown Reduction is strong on Volibear because his cooldowns aren't that short making it really noticeable. The cooldown reduction is worth more then the health of a Sunfire Cape.



While Attack Damage may not be the greatest stat on Volibear this is a strong item. The reason it is so strong is because you already build a naturally large amount of health because it benefits you so much so you buy Atma for the Armor and Attack Damage it gives and it gives you a nice extra chunk for the cost because you already have the health you need to make the attack damage very beneficial. You can buy this even if you don't need the armor.


Other Items



A good buy early game if you need defenses that you lack. It can recover you from issues in lane to give you some space as well as benefit your team in ganks. You'll most often buy this for neither of those reasosn though and instead buy it when the laning phase ends early and you need some extra defense to give to your team and give them the early advantage. Aegis of the Legion is one of the strongest early game items in the entire game. If you get it, get it early.



Banshee's Veil is a good choice of magic resist after Wit's End or if you need more magic resist. It is a much better choice then Force of Nature because it gives you not only magic resist but health as well which comes in handy quite often as can be read many times throughout this guide. It's a little pricey for the stats but it's worth it because everything it gives does go to use in one way or another except maybe mana because you have such low mana costs.



You can build this instead of a Warmog or after a Warmog if you'd like for more health, some damage, and more importantly a slow. It is rare you would build it instead of a Warmog because health is so nice and it gives half as much but it is a very offensive item and comes in handy a lot if you want to play more offensively and get more kills instead of just helping your team and winning your lane. Not a bad item but I personally would not buy it, or at least not often.



A strong hybrid defensive item giving defense in the forms of both armor and magic resist but the most impressive thing about this item is that once every five minutes if you die you come back to life with a rather low amount of health. The trick is that when you're reviving the enemy team is distracted waiting for you to revive and will take some free harass from your team. You can also sometimes escape with your life, not often though, usually you die.

Philosopher's Stone

The Philosopher's Stone is a good item for early game sustain in lane. I only buy it when I don't have enough to get boots and another Doran's on my first back, which means a difficult lane, and if that happens i buy one part of it and go back to lane and buy it later. The reason I buy it is because if you're having trouble in lane more sustain and more gold comes in handy. It also turns in Shurelya's Reverie later. Don't buy it every game, but it can be bought.




Basically the core armor item on anybody against a team with multiple attack damage heavy auto attackers. This is a super rare buy but I thought I should mention it because a Thornmail and some Health against a team with like Caitlyn, Tryndamere, and Master Yi can completely destroy that team in damage. They hurt themselves as much as they hurt you and basically it can and will quite often make a losing game a winning game. Esp. if multiple teammates buy it.




A strong damage item but not the strongest. Much like Wit's End it comes in handy for attack speed but it also gives a little of every other stat in the game too. The real bonuses are it has a slow and some extra damage you'll proc but the proc doesn't happen often with your cooldowns. I just feel it is to pricey for how little it gives however that does not make it a bad item it just makes it not the greatest item and i feel there are better choices available.



If you don't want to buy Doran's Shields but you need sustain this is your choice. This is also the item you rush when jungling. Basically it gives you some nice damage and harass as well as lifesteal (sustain) and a free ward. The downside in lane is a proc which kills creeps and pushes your lane when you try to heal off the lifesteal. The upside in the jungle is the exact same thing, it kills creeps faster. It's a decent item but to pricey in lane in my opinion.

Gameplay