Veigar Build Guide by NinjaStrike07

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the New and Improved Master of Insta-Kills guide! This guide will tell you all you need to know to kill ALL the things with Veigar!
In the Darius patch, a new item was added called Athene's Unholy Grail. This item is extremely powerful and useful, especially for champs like Veigar, but I have yet to see it used even once in any games! So, this guide will be the first to finally implement this amazing addition to the game.

Runes

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration:Flat magic penetration to get through defenses early, before Void Staff.
  
• Greater seal of replenishment:Flat mana regen for mana early, before Chalice of Harmony.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist:Flat magic resist to go against mages in the mid lane, before teamfight stage.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power:Flat AP for more damage and easier farm early with Baleful Strike.
  
  There are a lot of different rune setups for Veigar, this one is just my personal preference. Feel free to experiment with these runes.

Masteries

For masteries, I go 21/0/9. In the offense tree, I take anything that saysAP or Damage on it so you can INSTA KILL everything! Seriously though, I just take the standard AP route with extra AP, CDR, damage, and Executioner for even easier kills with your combo.

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In Utility, I take Summoner's Insight for reduced Flash cooldown, as you don't have any other escape except for stunning with your Event Horizon. Then, I take Expanded Mind for a little extra mana, and because the other Tier 1's are useless.
In Tier 2, I take all four points in Swiftness because with your runes and items, you don't need the extra mana regen, and Scout is useless on you. Also, Veigar is a very slow champion, so this will help you escape and/or get back to lane faster.
In Tier 3, I take Runic Affinity because blue buff is extremely important on Veigar. It lets you spam skills to harass if you want to, and last hit with Baleful Strike much more frequently. This is important to have not only gold, but more AP as you progress in the game. Keeping this buff for the extra 20% time is just so helpful on Veigar.

Items

Begin with Boots of Speed and three Health Potions. This help you stay in lane longer in the beginning, be able to run around and farm, and dodge ALL the skillshots that so many mid lane champs have.
Doran's Ring gives you extra mana regen to stay in lane, a nice little AP bonus to hit harder/farm easier early game, and extra health so you're not going in there with four bars. This is my preferred start if I know I'm facing an enemy without skillshots.
Meki Pendant gives you that extra mana regen to stay in lane, plus two Health Potions, so you can stay in lane for a while early. Use this for a faster Chalice of Harmony.

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In the early to mid game, you want to start getting some smaller AP items, and begin building Deathfire Grasp as well as Athene's Unholy Grail. Get Doran's Ring because it has great stats early for a good price. Then, buy Chalice of Harmony. This item is so, so important on Veigar. It allows you to farm with Baleful Strike all the time, and YOU CAN FINALLY START HARASSING AS Veigar. Am I the only one who gets annoyed that whenever I try to harass as Veigar with E W Q, I instantly run out of mana? Well, now you can harass as much as you want because it gives you SO MUCH MANA REGEN!
Next, pick up Kage's Lucy Pick for some nice AP and GP5, as well as starting to build up to Deathfire Grasp.
Finally, take Sorcerer's Shoes for the extra Magic Penetration, as your opponent may have built some MR by now (possibly in the form of Mercury's Treads), or just have some natural MR from leveling. Either way, PENETRATION = POWER so buy it.

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Now, it's time to BRING OUT THE BIG GUNS in the mid/late game items. Start by finally buying your Rabadon's Deathcap, the best hat for all of your damage related needs.
Next, pick up Deathfire's Grasp, giving you a giant AP boost for moar damage, cool-down reduction so you can spam Q and/or use more than one round of skills during a fight, as well as a killer active that synergizes great with Veigar, giving him EVEN MORE BURST DAMAGE. Don't forget to use this when they're still full health so it can do the most damage, and you'll be killin dem *****es faster than they can say OMG SO OPPPPP!!!!!

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Now. The moment you've all been waiting for. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, WTF is Athene's Unholy Grail and why should I buy it instead of sticking to my old Veigar killing build? There's a lot to say here, so we'll go through the stats one at a time.

• 80 Ability Power: MOAR AP! not much to say here.
• 36 Magic Resistance: You WILL start to get focused, so this is to make you survive just a little longer.
• 15% Cooldown Reduction: This is great on Veigar. This way, instead of killing one guy in a teamfight and having done all you can do, this and Deathfire Grasp will make it so your abilities will be back up at least once in the same fight, making you a much your useful addition to teamfights than before.
• Restores 12% of max mana on Kill or Assist: This does the same as above, lets you use your abilities more than once in a teamfight without being OOM.
• Increases your Mana Regen by 1% per 1% Mana missing: This will give you HUGE mana regeneration at this point, so you will finally NEVER RUN OUT OF MANA! This and Chalice of Harmony both synergize extremely well with Veigar's passive, which gives .75% mana regen for 1% missing.

As you can see, Athene's Unholy Grail is an extremely effective item on Veigar.

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After this, you will get Void Staff because it gives you a nice AP boost, and more importantly, 40% magic penetration. Most people will have built some MR by now, so this will make it halfway useless! Hooray!

Finally, get Zhonya's Hourglass. The extra armor will make you a little more resistant to AD carries, so they can't just automatically insta kill you. It has a large AP boost for even more damage. Also, it has a killer active so when you're being focused, they'll either switch targets or just wait around being confused for 2 seconds (even better!). This will save you SO many times.

Skill Sequence

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Start with Baleful Strike so you can begin last hitting and getting the extra AP as fast as possible.
Next, level up Event Horizon. This lets you stun if there is a level 2 gank in your lane, or any other reason. Also, Dark Matter is really useless before you level this up, unless your opponent is ******ed.
Take another point in Baleful Strike for easier farm.
Now, level up your Dark Matter so you have most of your combo.
Max Baleful Strike at level 9 for easier farm and extra damage.
Get three points in Event Horizon next. This is your only escape mechanism, and it's also hard to hit Dark Matter, especially if they have Mercury's Treads or Moonflair Spellblade without these three points.
Then, max Dark Matter for TONS OF DAMAGE.
Finish up Event Horizon after this.

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Take your ult, Primordial Burst, at 6, 11 and 16, obviously, as it is WAAAAAAY overpowered, especially vs AP carries. Say you have 500 ap after finishing this build (and you'll have about 100 more from Baleful Strike). That means you'll do 500 (base) + 600 (120% ap) = 1100 damage, PLUS 80% OF TARGET'S AP! That means if they have 500 ap too, you'll do 1500 DAMAGE THAT CAN'T BE DODGED TO THEM! This is before MR, but even if they stack tons of it, your Void Staff will still let this ability do TONS OF DAMAGE. Whenever this is up, you have a free kill with your combo. Problem?

Summoner Spells

I ALWAYS take Flash and Ignite on Veigar. Flash is going to be your only escape mechanism other than stunning with Event Horizon. Ignite lets you do MOAR DAMAGE in your combo, as well as make sure nobody escapes with 10 hp.

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These three spells are okay on Veigar, just replace Ignite with one of them.
Teleport will let you come back to lane faster after you recall, getting more ap with Baleful Strike. However, I would much rather have the extra kills from Ignite than be able to recall once every 280 or so seconds without penalty.
Clarity is only okay to take if you're either a huge n00b, or you just can't control your mana usage at all and are constantly spamming skills. It makes it so you won't be OOM all the time and have to recall so much, but it's really not useful if you're any good. Also, as soon as you have Chalice of Harmony or Athene's Unholy Grail, it's unnecessary.
Only take either of these spells if you're new to Veigar, and only then if you really want to.
Cleanse is actually a very strong spell as Veigar, because you really need an escape mechanism, and this helps counter the CC that is targeted at you. However, this is a defensive spell, and I like playing Veigar very aggressively.

Gameplay

Early game as Veigar, you should be focused on last hitting using your Baleful Strike to get the extra AP bonus. Try not to harass too much, as you're extremely mana hungry at this point and will run out quickly. If you're OOM, then you'll be extremely vulnerable either to being ganked or just attacked by the other champ in mid, as you won't have your stun. Also, you won't be able to farm with Baleful Strike if you don't have enough mana left.

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Now that you've reached the mid game, your build should be going strong and you'll be hitting hard. Try taking out the other mid champion with your full combo, going Event Horizon for stun, Deathfire Grasp so you can get the full 25% damage it gives, Dark Matter to hit while he's stunned, Baleful Strike for damage, (add Ignite here if it's up and you want to), and FINISH HIM with Primordial Burst. This should kill all but the tankiest champs.

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You should now be insta-killing everything. Your role in teamfights is to focus down the most dangerous carry using your full combo. Hit as many other people as possible with your stun and Dark Matter, but your priority should be the enemy carry. After you kill him, stay back from the fight a bit, and use whatever skills you have as they come up.

Summary

Thanks for reading my guide to Veigar on how to insta-kill everything. Thanks to Jhoijhoi for the awesome guide making guide, found here: Making a guide. I hope you will find this guide useful for Veigar, the tiny master of OPness. Please upvote if you liked this guide. Don't downvote unless you've tried it a couple times and have gotten used to the gameplay, and still don't find it good. Please, LEAVE A COMMENT! I want to improve- both this guide, and my playing as Veigar! Thanks!
GLHF!

Changelog

6/1/12:Added more starting items
6/3/12:Changed skill sequence. Now get three points in Event Horizon then max Dark Matter
6/3/12:Added a build for the classic Veigar