Even though I am not the best Vel'Koz player I hope my guide will be helpful to you. I am sorry that my English is not perfect and I know it will bug some of you, so I want to apologize ahead. If you have any relevant questions you are more than welcome to ask them in comments. I will always find some time and I am more than happy to answer all of them as best as I can. Enjoy!

About the champion:

Vel'Koz is really strong poke/combo/burst mage that relies on landing his skillshots. If he lands all his skillshots perfectly he can instantly delete almost anyone with his true damage. His kill potential pre level 6 is kind of weak, but after level 6 he becomes disintegrating monster that wants to learn everything about his enemies. Vel'Koz provides in teamfights a lot of AoE magic damage combined with true damage. He is immobile champion so assassins, CC and overall champions with a lot of mobility and gap closers are his biggest counters.

What is important to itemize on Vel'Koz: ability power (to hurt as much as possible) cooldown reduction (to be able to proc your passive as much as possible) mana sustain (mana - to be able to spam as much as needed) survivability (to make sure you survive to dish out as much damage)

P O S I T I V E S

+ long range + good poke + CC + good against tanks + good kiter + a lot of AoE + wave clear + low mana costs + great burst DMG + good DMG even when behind

Vel'Koz is good poke champion thanks to his long range. His Plasma Fission, Tectonic Disruption and Life Form Disintegration Ray provides him crowd control (CC) so he can set up kills, kite or save himself from ganks. His passive Organic Deconstruction helps him against tanks and bruisers, that build magic resist and a lot of health. It scales also with levels, which means Vel'Koz can still do a lot of damage even if he is behind. All of his spells have low mana cost and are AoE thanks to which he has really good wave clear.

N E G A T I V E S

- immobile - squishy - 100% skillshots - needs good positioning - his ultimate can be stopped - reliant on his ultimate - needs protection

On the other side Vel'Koz doesn't have any escapes, which makes him a great target for champions with gap closers, CC and for assassins. To utilize his passive to the maximum, you have to land most of your spells which are all skillshots. Land none of your skillshots = do 0 damage. He is very squishy and in teamfights Vel'Koz needs a good positioning, same as ADC, so he can spam his abilities and nobody can interrupt his ultimate Life Form Disintegration Ray that can melt the whole enemy team just by itself.

Organic Deconstruction (passive):

Vel'Koz's abilities apply a stack of Organic Deconstruction to affected enemies every time they deal damage. At 3 stacks, they consume themselves to deal true damage to their target.

Vel'Koz's basic attacks refresh the duration of Organic Deconstruction stacks on his targets and do not count as projectiles.

My opinions, thoughts, tips and tricks on ability:

• provides true damage
• good against tanks
• can distinguish clones
• timer can be refreshed with your auto attacks
• only you and enemy target can see the stacks of passive
• scales with level, helps Vel'Koz to be useful even if behind
• scales with AP, helps to snowball
• proc of the passive counts as single target spell

Plasma Fission (Q):

FIRST ACTIVE: Vel'Koz fires an energy bolt that deals magic damage to the first enemy hit and Slow icon slows them by 70% for a few seconds, decaying over a short duration. After a 0.25-second delay, while the bolt is in the air, Vel'Koz can activate Plasma Fission again.

SECOND ACTIVE: Vel'Koz splits the energy bolt in two, each of which fires in opposite directions perpendicular to the original bolt's trajectory and copies the primary bolt's effects.

The initial bolt splits automatically upon reaching maximum range or hitting an enemy unit.
Vel'Koz restores mana per target killed.

My opinions, thoughts, tips and tricks on ability:

• good for kiting and peeling
• effective range can be increased by shooting in different angle (max 477 extra range)
• main poke spell
• farm tool (restores mana for killing minions)
• good for setting up Tectonic Disruption
• good for checking bushes/camps
• can hit enemy laner if they are hiding behind minion
• can hit up to 3 targets
• it is a projectile, so it can be blocked by Wind Wall and Unbreakable

Void Rift (W):

PASSIVE: Vel'Koz stores a charge of Void Rift periodically, up to a maximum of 2 stored at once.

ACTIVE: Vel'Koz opens a rift to the void that cuts through the ground in a line, dealing magic damage and leaving behind a trail. After 0.25-second delay, the entire trail detonates, dealing magic damage to enemies standing upon it.

My opinions, thoughts, tips and tricks on ability:

• can cast while moving
• applies 2 stacks of passive
• good for wave clear
• use right after you hit enemy with Tectonic Disruption for both procs of Void Rift
• you can hold 2 charges of W at the same time
• it is a projectile so it can be blocked by Wind Wall and Unbreakable

Tectonic Disruption (E):

ACTIVE: Vel'Koz hurls a disruptive anomaly at the target location, Stun icon suspending enemies hit for 0.75 seconds and dealing them magic damage. Enemies close to Vel'Koz at the time of impact are also slightly Airborne icon knocked back.

My opinions, thoughts, tips and tricks on ability:

• grants vision
• good for kiting
• your only hard CC
• setup spell
• knocks back the enemy further if he is closer to you
• the direction of the knockback is relative to point of cast
• knock back can mess your combo sometimes
• it is a projectile so it can be blocked by Wind Wall and Unbreakable

Lifeform Disintegration Ray (R):

PASSIVE: Deconstructing enemies marks them as Researched from 7 seconds. Basic attacks and ability damage will refresh this duration.

ACTIVE: Vel'Koz channels for 2.5 seconds and projects an energy beam in a line, dealing magic damage to enemies caught in its wake in 0.25-second intervals, slowing them by 20% for 1 second, and applying a stack of Organic Deconstruction every 0.7 seconds to enemies hit, up to 3 stacks. Researched enemies take true damage instead.

The ray's trajectory updates itself over the duration to face the cursor. Moving or reactivating Life Form Disintegration Ray immediately ends its effects.

My opinions, thoughts, tips and tricks on ability:

• long range
• doesn't have indicator for range (you have to get used to the range)
• whole ultimate can deal true damage if played well
• you are rooted while channeling
• can be interrupted by CC/displacement
• huge base damage
• can't be blocked by Wind Wall and Unbreakable(going through Unbreakable reduces its damage though)
• you can change direction of the laser while channeling, but it turns slowly
• deals damage to enemies even if they are standing on top of you a little bit behind you
• can easily steal dragon/baron/buff
• starts the channel in direction where your cursor is
• can be canceled by pressing R again (so be careful)
• really strong in jungle fights (less space to move, more people in line behind each other)
• can reach the enemy back line from yours backline
• dodged easier if enemy is closer to you

Source: League of Legends Wiki

I like to start with Plasma Fission for some early game safe poke and farm. After that I take Void Rift or Tectonic Disruption, it depends on situation if I need to counter push or be safe. Take Void Rift for early wave clear or take Tectonic Disruption for safety and for potential gank from enemy jungler or to help out your jungler with early gank.
You can also start with Void Rift if you want – there is nothing wrong with it, it’s just a preference.

You HAVE to start with Void Rift in some matchups that push you under the turret at level 1. List of matchups against you always want to start with Void Rift: Azir, Cho'Gath, Heimerdinger, Kayle, Lissandra, Malzahar, Morgana. These champions generally push a lot most of the time as it is their strength.




First of all max Void Rift for better wave clear. If you manage to land Tectonic Disruption, it can deal together with Void Rift tons of damage. After that max Plasma Fission as it is your main poke ability. Last but not least max Tectonic Disruption for lower cooldown. As on every other champion max your ultimate Life Form Disintegration Ray whenever you can (level 6,11,16).




You can change the order of maxing first skill a little bit. You can max Plasma Fission first for stronger poke. Your overall burst with your whole combo will do less damage, but if you manage to poke them a little bit before you do that, it probably won't matter. Plasma Fission also refunds mana if it kills something, so if you max it, you can use it more effectively for farming and pushing (not as effective for pushing as maxing Void Rift though).

1. Farm

Basic farming in lane without pushing. Helpful if you are being zoned and can't afford to walk up to minions without getting hurt. You can use it on caster minions if they are about to die and you don't want to risk anything, but still want those minions. Enemy laner sometimes even walks into the second part of Plasma Fission, so you can get even free poke on him if you are lucky enough.

You are also not punished that much for using it for farming, because it returns you some of the mana you used up for casting it if it kills something. It can give you complete refund of the cost if you manage to kill 2 minions with it and it can give you complete refund + some extra mana if you kill 3 minions with it.




If there are multiple minions going to die, you can use Void Rift and kill them all. Only disadvantage is that you are going to push the lane with it even if you don’t want to.

2. Push

Your bread and butter for pushing. Just use this if you are being pushed and you should be alright. In the early game it will put minions at around half HP, but later to the game it wipes out whole wave.




This is more mid to late game push combo. Void Rift kills all caster minions but melee minions survive. To kill them use Plasma Fission or Tectonic Disruption, it is up to you. Be careful if you use Tectonic Disruption though as it is your only disengage tool you can count on.




If you got only 1 charge of Void Rift you can use it with Plasma Fission on melee minions and Tectonic Disruption on caster minions to kill whole wave. Sometimes it will fail because of Plasma Fission splitting and minion movement. Be careful because you are using all your non ultimate spells so if someone engages on you, well you are screwed. You can use only your Void Rift which does only damage and you have to wait out your cooldowns while you are escaping.

3. Poke

You will find yourself poking enemy with this most of the time as it is designed to be a poke tool. If enemy laner is hiding behind the minions or is out of your reach use the second activation of Plasma Fission to hit him. You have to get used to splitting the Plasma Fission. It is going to be hard to hit enemy at the start, but you will get better with it after some practice.




Use this to poke enemy laner only if he is melee. It doesn't work that well against ranged champions because they can easily walk out of Void Rift range. Don't use it too often as it pushes your lane.

4. Trade

Your only combo for trading when your Tectonic Disruption is on cooldown/you miss it. Doesn't proc Void Rift 2 times for sure but slow from Plasma Fission makes it more likely.




This is your heavy trade combo. It is harder to pull off because you have to hit your Tectonic Disruption, but if you do, it is going to hurt them a lot. If you have problem with landing Tectonic Disruption, try to slow enemy with Plasma Fission and then follow up with Tectonic Disruption.

5. Kill

Kill combo before level 6/ Life Form Disintegration Ray is on cooldown. If you want to deal maximum damage without your ultimate Life Form Disintegration Ray, this is the combo you want to use. If everything hits perfectly it procs your passive 2 times and deals huge amount of damage.




Kill combo after level 6. If this combo hits an enemy, Life Form Disintegration Ray will do true damage to them instead of magic damage and it will force them to use their escape/summoner spells or just die. This will get you most of your kills during the game.




Quick kill combo if enemy is fleeing away or if enemy laner has low HP and he underestimates your damage and range. You can combine it with Flash for surprise quick burst from fog of war.

Summoner spell #1:

Flash Flash is a must have for a champion with no escape. Helps you escape ganks or initiate on enemy laner. Overall really good summoner spell. Take different summoner spell instead of Flash at your own risk.

Summoner spell #2:

Barrier As my second summoner spell you should take Barrier. It is a safe choice. It will help you survive any gank, unfavorable matchup ot trade. It is a temporary shield so you need to time it well. If you are not good at timing it then you can try to take Heal instead.

Other choices:

Exhaust This is my favourite summoner spells to take instead of Barrier. It can negate more damage than Heal or Barrier if you can time it well. It can also help you land your skillshots thanks to the slow. However it has very short range and that makes it useles against long range champions. You should take it only against enemies that have to get to you melee range in order to attack you, for example: Yasuo, Zed, Fizz, Akali, ...

Heal Same as Barrier but instead of temporary shield you get permanent health. The main difference between Heal and Barrier is that you don't have to time Heal perfectly in order to use it to it's full potential. You can use it as well to save your teamemate as it heals you and one more teamemate near you. However it has much longer cooldown than Barrier. It can also be countered by Grievous Wounds. These two negatives make it inferior compared to Barrier. But if you can't use Barrier properly or like to have option to save someone else then you can definitely pick Heal over Barrier. It is matter of preference.

Ignite Most of the time this is second summoner spell you want to take after Flash as mid laner, but Vel'Koz doesn't benefit from it that much. Why? Because you are going to be out of Ignite casting range almost always because you should always use your long range to your advantage. Take this only if you want to snowball in early game with early kills as this will help you do more damage or you are going against champion with a lot of sustain such as Swain or Dr. Mundo, as it aplies Grievous Wounds and reduces their healing by a lot.

Teleport If you feel safe only with Flash or you know you are going to lose/win your lane 100%, you can consider to take Teleport. It helps you to take more objectives, help other teammates around the map or just gank a lane to get few kills and start snowballing the game. Vel'Koz is not the best champion as a ganker because his kit is based on pure skillshots. You can easily mess up by just missing 1-2 skillshots, but if you prefer this kind of roaming playstyle then go for it. Must have for Vel'Koz top lane, if you are brave/crazy enough to play top lane Vel'Koz.

Cleanse Helps against teams with a lot of CC or if enemy laner has lot of CC. It can save you life a lot of times. Good against champions like: Lissandra, Ahri, Twisted Fate, Amumu, Leona,...

In this section I will analyze and talk about which rune paths, keystones and runes are viable for Vel'Koz. This will be only a guide line for you on how to assemble your rune page for Vel'Koz. YOU should make choices and build you own rune page based on my recommendations, your own playstyle, strengths, weaknesses and based on what YOU value more. As a general rule you want to pick keystone and runes that give you more damage and utility (CDR, MS, ...).

You should choose your primary path based on which keystone you want to take and based on what stats does the path provide. There are 5 paths you can choose from: Precision, Domination, Sorcery, Resolve and Inspiration. They are viable as an secondary path and all provide different benefits. However, only 3 of these are viable for Vel'Koz as a primary path: Domination, Sorcery and Inspiration.

Keystone
	vs.		vs.
Press the Attack		Lethal Tempo		Fleet Footwork

TLDR: All of these keystones are useless for Vel'Koz because he is not auto attack based champion, but a spell caster. DON'T PICK PRECISION AS YOUR PRIMARY PATH!!!

Rune slot 1
	vs.		vs.
Overheal		Triumph		Presence of Mind
Overheal is useless for Vel'Koz because he doesn't have any means of restoring health to himself (he doesn't have a heal as an ability nor he builds life steal).		Triumph can be really useful in clutch situations and close fights. It can save your life or just provide some sustain in fights.		Presence of Mind is useless for Vel'Koz because he doesn't have problem with mana. Conditions you need to meet to use it are not ideal and not worth the benefit it provides. The proc will be most of the time wasted or it will force you to use your spells when you don't want to and potentially bait you in bad engage/situation.
TLDR: Triumph is the only rune that is worth taking in this tier. Useful in clutch situations and close fights.

Rune slot 2
	vs.		vs.
Legend: Alacrity		Legend: Tenacity		Legend: Bloodline
Legend: Alacrity is useless for Vel'Koz because he is not auto attack based champion, but a spell caster.		Legend: Tenacity is very useful against teams with a lot of hard CC. You can either use it as a substitute for Mercury's Treads or you can pair them together and have huge tenacity. Very helpful against laners thet rely on their CC in order to kill you (e.g. Lux, Swain, ...) or have a lot of CC (e.g. Lissandra, Morgana, ...).		Legend: Bloodline is useless for Vel'Koz because he is not auto attack based champion, but a spell caster.
TLDR: Legend: Tenacity is the only rune that is worth taking in this tier. Good against teams with a lot of CC.

Rune slot 3
	vs.		vs.
Coup de Grace		Cut Down		Last Stand
Coup de Grace is a solid rune that can help you finish off any low health enemies. Best choice for this tier of runes as it is most reliant of all of them.		Cut Down is not worth it. The condition you need to meet in order to use Cut Down is very limited compared to Coup de Grace. It is only good against tanks while Coup de Grace works against any champion.		Same situation as with Cut Down. It is just not worth it and Coup de Grace is safer and stronger option. As Vel'Koz you will spend most of the time with more than 60% HP.
TLDR: While all of them are viable, only Coup de Grace is reliable, versatile and it is the strongest rune of all of them.

Keystone
	vs.		vs.
Electrocute		Predator		Dark Harvest
Electrocute is great keystone if you are looking for more burst damage. Really good for bursting squishes. However, it is only good for killing one target. It is pretty weak in long teamfights thanks to it's long cooldown. If you like to poke a lot then this is not a good keystone for you.		Predator may be just for you if you like to roam a lot, gank and be present everywhere on the map. However, it has really long cooldown and by choosing Predator you are giving up on potential extra damage or utility from other keystones, which would be valuable in fights. It is not ideal and pretty weak keystone on Vel'Koz, but if you really like to play roaming playstyle then it might fit you.		Dark Harvest is for Vel'Koz straight up worse version of Electrocute. Why? You can't stack it/activate it reliably in lane. Only kills and cannon minions give you stacks/procs in lane. If you want to make this keystone work, you need to steal your jungler's camps (please don't do it, unless he is ok with it). That makes Dark Harvest not worth it.
TLDR: Electrocute is the best choice because of it's burst potential. Predator can work if you like to roam, but is not ideal. Dark Harvest is unreliable and weaker version of Electrocute.

Rune slot 1
	vs.		vs.
Cheap Shot		Taste of Blood		Sudden Impact
Cheap Shot is extra true damage on really low cooldown. Vel'Koz can proc it very easily with 3 out of 4 abilities. It won't help you while poking, but it will definitely increase your damage output in trades and teamfights.		Taste of Blood is kind of underwhelming. It provides extra sustain, which is nice, but it works only against enemy champions and has pretty long cooldown. It is viable, but definitely not ideal.		Sudden Impact is useless for Vel'Koz because he doesn't have any blink, dash, teleport, invisibility or camouflage.
TLDR: Cheap Shot is the best choice as it gives your combos more damage. Taste of Blood is viable, but not ideal and underwhelming compared to Ravenous Hunter. Sudden Impact is useless for Vel'Koz because he doesn’t have an easy way to proc it.

Rune slot 2
	vs.		vs.
Zombie Ward		Ghost Poro		Eyeball Collection
Zombie Ward basically doubles the duration of your wards you place or gives you free wards for destroying enemy wards. It is very strong and it works with both Stealth Ward and Oracle Lens. However, it can be easily countered as Zombie Wards are visible and easy to kill.		Ghost Poro is another vision rune, just as Zombie Ward. The duration and cooldown is what sets it apart from Zombie Ward. However, it works only in bushes. Also you have to be careful while using it as you put yourself in danger. The vision radius is also much smaller than a radius of Zombie Ward, but it is still big enough to cover the whole bush next to the mid.		Eyeball Collection is the rune you are looking for if you want combat boost instead of extra vision provided by Zombie Ward or Ghost Poro. You can accelerate the gain of AP by getting Oracle Lens and clearing enemy vision.
TLDR: Zombie Ward is great for safe extra vision. Ghost Poro is riskier and less reliable version of Zombie Ward, but still viable. If you don't care about vision and want to boost your damage then get Eyeball Collection.

Rune slot 3
	vs.		vs.
Ravenous Hunter		Ingenious Hunter		Relentless Hunter
Ravenous Hunter is a great source of sustain in form of spell vamp. It is weak in early game, but with few stacks and some AP you can get a lot of healing out of it in mid and late game. It works on minions, which means you will get healed while wave clearing with Void Rift. However, don't expect crazy amount of healing from it as most of your spells are AoE.		Ingenious Hunter is useless for Vel'Koz, as he doesn't build that many active items. However you can consider using it if you plan to buy Zhonya's Hourglass and you think you will need the active a lot. It also reduces CDR of trinkets, but it is not worth taking just for the trinket CDR, it's just a bonus you can use to your advantage.		Relentless Hunter is great for roaming. The extra movement is great even if you don't like to roam as it helps you get to lane and fights quicker.
TLDR: Ravenous Hunter is one of few choices for extra sustain. It is a little bit weak, but viable as a form of sustain in mid and late game. Ingenious Hunter is viable, but only if you plan to buy Zhonya's Hourglass and plan to use it a lot. Relentless Hunter is helpful for getting around the map, but doesn't give you any benefits in fights. It's a safe choice.

Keystone
	vs.		vs.
Summon Aery		Arcane Comet		Phase Rush
Summon Aery is pure poke keystone rune. It has very short cooldown compared to other runes. However, it's damage is really weak. Also you don't benefit from the second part of it as Vel'Koz doesn't have any shields or heals. For Vel'Koz it is worse version of Arcane Comet.		Arcane Comet is perfect keystone rune for Vel'Koz. It is a mix between Electrocute and Summon Aery. It gives you poke and some burst damage. It has relatively short cooldown that you can make even shorter by casting abilities. If you proc Arcane Comet with Plasma Fission or Tectonic Disruption you are almost guaranteed to hit with it.		Phase Rush can be vey useful for kiting and repositioning. However, by taking Phase Rush you trade damage you would get from different keystone for it's utility and speed boost. Also usually you will waste the proc of Phase Rush because you will channel Life Form Disintegration Ray during it's duration most of time. It is viable but very situational (for example against teams with many ways to engage on you).
TLDR: Arcane Comet is the best keystone from any path. Summon Aery is much weaker than Arcane Comet, which makes it not worth taking. Phase Rush is viable, but very situational and weak. You have to sacrifice damage for its utility.

Rune slot 1
	vs.		vs.
Nullifying Orb		Manaflow Band		The Ultimate Hat
Nullifying Orb is one of few runes that can help you survive some hard matchups. It can help you against teams with a lot of magic damage or against AP assassins and bursters. Definitely worth taking against someone such as LeBlanc or Syndra as it can save you life or give you more time.		Taking Manaflow Band on Vel'Koz is pointless. Vel'Koz isn't mana hungry champion so you shouldn't need it. Morellonomicon is enough mana sustain in most games. If you are having problems with running out of mana then you should work on you mana management. You could use Manaflow Band, but you will have to give up on a different rune just because you can't manage your mana well.		The Ultimate Hat is situational. It can either be very useful or useless. Life Form Disintegration Ray is a strong ultimate so more CDR for it is good, however The Ultimate Hat will be useless if you won't use it more often. If you often find yourself in a situation when you want to use Life Form Disintegration Ray but it is on cooldown then it will be useful for you.
TLDR: Nullifying Orb is a great defense choice against AP teams/assassins/bursters. Manaflow Band is viable, but it is pointless on Vel'Koz because he doesn't have mana issues. The Ultimate Hat is situational - it is only useful if you use Life Form Disintegration Ray a lot.

Rune slot 2
	vs.		vs.
Transcendence		Celerity		Absolute Focus
Transcendence is very valuable for poking and pushing thanks to it's CDR. If you like to poke a lot or like to push the lane followed by roaming then this rune will help you with that. You will probably never get bonus AP from it, but just the CDR portion of the rune is worth it.		While extra movement speed and AP from Celerity is nice, the bonuses are so small you won't even notice them. Vel'Koz doesn't have any speed boost nor he builds a lot of movement speed so the bonuses from Celerity are pretty weak.		Absolute Focus rewards careful playstyle. You need to be careful and stay as healthy as possible if you want to use Absolute Focus to its full potential. It is still good rune even if you are risky and just want more damage instead of utility.
TLDR: Transcendence is good for poking, pushing and long fights. Celerity is weak because it doesn't synergize well with Vel'Koz. Absolute Focus enhances your damage greatly if you are careful or just take it if you want more damage instead of utility.

Rune slot 3
	vs.		vs.
Scorch		Waterwalking		Gathering Storm
Scorch is Sorcery tree's equivalent to Cheap Shot. Another damage enhancer. Only difference is that Scorch works also for poking, but on the other hand has a lot longer cooldown.		Waterwalking can be good for roaming and teamfights in river, but it is not worth taking considering it's limited area of use. It will be useless to you most of the time. Still, if you like to roam then you can consider to take it.		Gathering Storm is really strong in mid and late game. However you have to sacrifice your early game for it. If you prefer to farm and play passively during early game and don't mind being weaker in early game and early mid game then go for it.
TLDR: Scorch is good if you are looking for easy and reliable access to more damage. Waterwalking is not that good, but can work if you like to roam. Gathering Storm is great late game rune, but you have to sacrifice early game power for it.

Keystone
	vs.		vs.
Grasp of the Undying		Aftershock		Guardian
TLDR: None of these keystones are good for Vel'Koz because he doesn't benefit from them as he doesn't build a lot of HP and they are weak on him. DON'T PICK RESOLVE AS YOUR PRIMARY PATH!!!

Rune slot 1
	vs.		vs.
Demolish		Font of Life		Bone Plating
Demolish is weak on Vel'Koz because he doesn't build HP.		Font of Life is weak on Vel'Koz because he doesn't build HP.		Bone Plating can help you survive fights and trades, especially in early game. It is useless against poke though. It also falls off in late game.
TLDR: Bone Plating is the only rune that is worth taking in this tier. It helps you survive fights but is useless against poke.

Rune slot 2
	vs.		vs.		vs.
Iron Skin		Mirror Shell		Conditioning		Second Wind
Iron Skin and Mirror Shell grant you just a little bit of armor or magic resistance, nothing special. Iron Skin can help you survive against AD assassins while Mirror Shell can help you survive against poke and AP assassins. However, the amount of armor and magic resistance is so small that in most cases it won't matter, especially later in the game. The second part of it will be mostly useless to you as Vel'Koz doesn't have any healing or shields.				Conditioning is combination of Iron Skin and Mirror Shell, but stronger. However, you have to survive without it during early game. That can be deciding factor. You need defense mostly during early levels to survive the laning against unfavourable matchups.		Second Wind's healing is so weak, it is not worth taking. Also, most mid laners have a lot of burst damage, which means Second Wind won't help you that much. It is better against low damage attacks, but even then it is not worth taking.
TLDR: Iron Skin and Mirror Shell give you some defense in form resistance in hard matchups. Conditioning is stronger version of Iron Skin and Mirror Shell. However, it is useless in early game. Second Wind is usually useless and weak on Vel'Koz.

Rune slot 3
	vs.		vs.
Overgrowth		Revitalize		Unflinching
Overgrowth is weak on Vel'Koz because he doesn't build HP.		Revitalize is useless for Vel'Koz because he doesn't have any means of restoring health or shielding.		Unflinching is similar to Legend: Tenacity. It's good for the same reasons as Legend: Tenacity and that's against teams with a lot of CC. However, in order to get it's benefits your summoner spells have to be on cooldown. This condition makes it worse compared to Legend: Tenacity which works anytime.
TLDR: Unflinching is the only rune that is worth taking in this tier. Good against teams with a lot of CC but it isn't guaranteed it will help you because of it's condition.

Keystone
	vs.		vs.
Unsealed Spellbook		Glacial Augment		Kleptomancy
Unsealed Spellbook is hard to judge. It is either useless or very strong. It depends how you will use it. Here are some examples of uses: You can start with Ignite for higher duelling potential during laning phase and then later change to Barrier for safety in team fights. Or you start with Barrier to survive laning phase and change to Teleport for roaming or split pushing. Or start Barrier and change to Heal to help out your teammates during fights. It is up to you and your imagination how you will use Unsealed Spellbook.		Glacial Augment can be useful for peeling or to make it easier to land your combo but you are putting yourself in great danger by getting in auto attack range. However, it can work with Twin Shadows and Everfrost if you really want to make this keystone work. But it is not worth it in my opinion. It is viable for Vel'Koz support if you want more CC.		Kleptomancy is useless for Vel'Koz as he isn't auto attack based champion.
TLDR: Unsealed Spellbook can work, but the strength of the keystone depends on how you will use it. Glacial Augment is not worth, unless you build Twin Shadows and/or Everfrost. Viable choice for Vel'Koz support if you want more CC. Kleptomancy is useless for Vel'Koz.

Rune slot 1
	vs.		vs.
Hextech Flashtraption		Magical Footwear		Perfect Timing
Hextech Flashtraption is similar to Unsealed Spellbook - it is either useless or very strong. Again, it depends how you will use it. If you like to be aggressive then it can be helpful as an engage tool from Fog of War. But if you like to stay in back line and play Vel'Koz as an artillery mage then this will be useless to you.		Magical Footwear basically saves you some money and gives you a little bit of movement speed. It is safe choice to pick if you know you won't need boots in early game. That being said you might not want to take it if you are facing skill shot oriented champion like Lux, Xerath or Zoe as early boots can help you dodge their abilities in early game.		Perfect Timing is a great defense tool against heavy burst and engage. If you plan to buy Zhonya's Hourglass during game then definitely get Perfect Timing as it helps you get it sooner.
TLDR: Hextech Flashtraption is either useless or very strong. It depends on your playstyle and on how you will use it. Magical Footwear saves you some gold on Boots. Don't take it if you are facing skill shot oriented champion. Perfect Timing helps you get Zhonya's Hourglass sooner.

Rune slot 2
	vs.		vs.
Future's Market		Minion Dematerializer		Biscuit Delivery
Future's Market can help you get your items sooner and hit power spikes before your enemy. However, if you won't use it effectively it will be just convenient tool that helps you get items when you are missing a little bit of gold.		Minion Dematerializer is useless for Vel'Koz because he doesn't have problem with killing minions and pushing minion waves.		Biscuit Delivery helps you with sustain during laning phase. It is great against poke heavy enemy laner or against unfavourable matchup. However, it is useless after you get all biscuits and won't provide you any more benefits.Take it only if you are facing hard/poke heavy matchup or you want to be really agressive during early game.
TLDR: Future's Market can help you finish your items when you are missing gold or hit power spikes sooner. Minion Dematerializer is useless for Vel'Koz. Biscuit Delivery is great form of sustain during laning phase, but it is useless after that.

Rune slot 3
	vs.		vs.
Cosmic Insight		Approach Velocity		Time Warp Tonic
Cosmic Insight gives you bunch of CDR spread out in different categories. The amount is so small it won't matter most of time. It can help in close fights.		Approach Velocity is very situational. It can help you with manoeuvring and positioning during teamfights, but that's it. It can also help you setup your combo. You can slow someone with long range Plasma Fission and then use speed provided by Approach Velocity to get in range to combo them.		Time Warp Tonic servers same purpose as Biscuit Delivery. It will help you survive laning phase more easily but it will become useless in mid and late game. Movement speed bonus is so small it is mostly unnoticeble. Take it only if you are facing hard/poke heavy matchup or you want to be really agressive during early game.
TLDR: Cosmic Insight bunch of different kinds of CDR. The amount is very small though. Approach Velocity is very situational. It can help you reposition in team fights or setup your combo. Time Warp Tonic will help you survive laning phase but it is uselss in mid and late game.

Basic AP starting item for mages with overall balanced stats. It gives you a little bit of AP, so your poke hurts and can lead to some kills, grants some early mana regen so you can farm and fight in lane longer before you have to go back and it also gives you HP to survive those early game fights. Sell it in mid/late game or whenever you need space in your inventory for new item/component. After buying Doran's Ring you are left with some spare gold. Use it to buy Health Potions. They will help you with sustain in lane against poke and to replenish health after a fight.

Corrupting Potion helps you with sustain. Only time I build it is when I go top lane against some matchups, it is long distance to get from base to top lane, so you need to recall as little as possible. This means you need in lane as much sustain as possible every time you come back in lane. This item is pretty good for that.

Also don't forget to buy a trinket! The best trinket for early game is Stealth Ward. You can swap it with any other trinket at level 9 according to your situation and preferences. I like to stick with Stealth Ward even after level 9, so I can help my team to ward around objectives. Other choice I like to take after level 9 is Oracle Lens, as you can use it from safety to gain vision of some areas that would be otherwise dangerous to explore and ward alone.

Not that much to say. These boots are best option for Vel'Koz as they give you more damage in form of magic penetration, which you need. They help you to bypass enemy’s magic resistance. They are not that effective against tanks, as they stack a lot of MR, but it is still helpful.

Do you want max CDR, but you don't want to buy more CRD items? Well, this can be your solution! These boots give you extra CDR on your spells AND your summoner spells. This can be useful, as you need to have your Flash and 2nd defensive summoner spell always ready in case of danger. I prefer to go with other choice of boots as I will rather get CDR from items and my runes. But if you don't want you can buy them if you are missing CDR in your build, there is nothing wrong with that.

These boots can be really useful, even lifesaving against teams with a lot of stuns, snares or silences. They can even mess up combos of some mages that rely on their CC to hit their spells such as Lux. A lot of mid laners have some form of CC in their kit and A LOT of them are long ranged. This means you can easily get caught out by their CC, which can result in your death. To prevent getting caught by their CC, you can buy these boots which will shorten time of their CC which may save your life.

If you are getting destroyed by enemy laner and he is AD, you can consider to get these boots. They are even more helpful if most of their damage comes from auto-attacks, because of Ninja Tabi's passive. Other scenario in which these boots are really helpful is if their team consists of many champions that deal AD damage.

If you like to roam a lot these boots might be just for you. They give you increased movement speed out of combat which is helpful for getting back in your lane, for chasing or for roaming. With these boots you can pressure enemy team with your presence all around the map. Just be careful to not get caught.

Mana and CDR are both very important utility stats for Vel'Koz that indirectly boost your damage output. You need them as an AP carry mage to dish out more damage. They go hand in hand - you need CDR to cast your spells and trigger Organic Deconstruction more often and you need more mana to support your higher CDR so you don't run out of mana while fighting. Luden's Tempest, Archangel's Staff and Everfrost are similar items that provide these much needed stats. Each of them are viable and have different uses. However, even though mana and CDR are important stats on Vel'Koz, he needs only one of these items to fulfill his mana and CDR needs. Getting more than one of these three items is huge overkill and waste of CDR passive and mana you won't ever use.
POSITIVES		NEGATIVES		When to buy Luden's Tempest:
+ poke + wave clear + extra burst		- most expensive - purely offensive		best choice in most situations if you poke a lot for early/mid game strenght
POSITIVES		NEGATIVES		When to buy Archangel's Staff:
+ most AP + most mana + shield		- takes a long time to stack - shield available only after it is fully stacked		if you spam a lot of abilities (poke and wave clear) for late game strenght for late game defense (shield)
POSITIVES		NEGATIVES		When to buy Everfrost:
+ cheapest + utility active		- least amount of AP - short range active - situational		for safe peel agaisnt engage heavy teams against close range laners

This is the best item to get when you are looking to amplify your power as much as possible. Not only it gives a lot of AP, but it also gives you bonus AP from your total AP. This is pretty much a core item for Vel'Koz, because you want as much AP as you can. While it is really strong, it isn't advised to build it as your 1st or 2nd item. However if you are in good situation and you are only looking for raw power and you already have 2 items, then go ahead and buy it. But if you can't survive in fights, it might be better for you to build some Offensive + Defensive item instead and build Rabadon's Deathcap after that.

Even though almost 20% of your DMG is true damage, you still do also magic damage which will be blocked by MR. Unless you build Void Staff. This item gives you % magic penetration, which means it is more effective against tanks that stack a lot of MR. So this is mainly another anti-tank tool. If enemies don't have a tank and don't build MR, you are better off buying something else instead of this. Even if they don't have a tank, but build some MR items, it is better for you to get Void Staff.

Spellbinder is mainly offensive item with additional utility in form of movement speed. It is one of few items that give you a lot of AP. Spellbinder's active is very versatile. You can use it to disengage, engage, kite or just in the middle of your combo to get more AP. It is kind of selfish version of Twin Shadows as the utility from this item benefits only you. But on the other hand it gives you much more strength than Twin Shadows.

Twin Shadows is mainly utility item with additional offensive power in form of AP. Twin Shadows's active grants you only utility and no combat power such as Spellbinder does. However, it has plenty uses. You can use it to catch enemies, scout, peel, make your combo easier to hit or to stop enemy chase after you or your teammates. It doesn't give you that much AP so if you are looking for more raw strength then look elsewhere. But if you want more utility to support your team you can consider to buy Twin Shadows.

Liandry's Torment is thanks to its passive a very effective item against tanks and bruisers. It is especially strong item in team fights because you can apply its passive to many people with your AoE abilities. You have also a lot of CC which means the passive gets even stronger. Even though this is mostly anti-tank tool, it is still effective item against squishies.

Morellonomicon is in terms of stats similar to Liandry's Torment but it is stronger against squishies thanks to its passive and magic penetration. Magic penetration will help you deal damage even if enemies are building MR. Grievous Wounds is very helpful against champions with a lot of sustain, heals and life steal such as ADCs, supports and tanks. It is sometimes essential to buy Morellonomicon against some champions because of that passive.

This item can be a lifesaver against many champions. Its active is the most valuable thing on the whole item. It gives you defense in form of invulnerability for set period of time. If you use it wisely, you can dodge Vi's ultimate, Zed's ultimate or even Karthus' ultimate. Against some champions it is a must buy as there is nothing left for you to do to defend yourself from them. Its active is not only useful for that. Anytime you get engaged on by someone, you can just use your stasis and wait for your team to help you out or wait out your cooldowns and burst down the enemy that was waiting to kill you. This item offers some useful combat stats such as AP and CDR and also defensive stat armor, which makes this item really helpful against AD assassins that always try to jump at you.

Banshee's Veil is a go-to item if you are struggling against AP laner. It gives you nice mix of defensive and offensive power. That means you won't fall behind in terms of damage output even if you choose to get this item. Its shield is really useful against heavy poke champions ( Xerath, Ziggs, ...) and burst champions ( Fizz, LeBlanc, ...) who heavily rely on all their abilities in order to kill you. It will be much harder to engage on you thanks to this shield.

These will help you survive against AD assassins and fights with enemy ADC, while also help you kite and defend from bruisers trying to get to you. Zhonya's Hourglass is more helpful most of the time because of its active, but if their team deals purely AD damage or their AD assassin deletes you anytime he sees you, then you should consider to get one of this instead.

Dead Man's Plate is good if their team does AD damage, but don't do critical damage (spell casters and bruisers/juggernauts). If you don't auto-attack you can build up extra movement speed which can be helpful for maneuvering. You can also use up this stacks to slow down enemy by auto-attacking him, which can help you and your ADC kite him.

Randuin's Omen on the other side is better against champions that deal AD damage and do critical damage (auto-attackers such as ADCs). I only get this item if their team consists of more than 2 ADCs. It greatly reduces their damage, so you can fight them more reliably.

Some people think Rylai's Crystal Scepter is really good on Vel'Koz, but they forget one thing - slows don't stack and Vel'Koz already has 2 slows in his kit. But in some situations it is still possible to build this item and fully utilize it. It gives you a lot of HP and AP, which means if you are in a good situation and you are looking for item that would give you power and survivability, you can consider to buy this. You can even utilize its passive effectively in some situations for example against team with a lot of melee champions, that you need to kite. With this passive you can use now even Void Rift for kiting if Plasma Fission and Tectonic Disruption are on CD.

Mejai's Soulstealer is feast or famine item. You can snowball out of control with this item if you are getting kills left and right. However it can backfire. If you die even once you lose so much power. I don't recommend this item because of this unreliability. There are much better choices for you if you want more damage. But if you decide to get this item play very safely so you don't die and lose your stacks.

Lich Bane is purely offensive item. However it doesn't synergizes well with Vel'Koz. The reason why is its passive. You need to be in auto-attack range in order to use it. However with Vel'Koz you want to stay as far as possible. That means you either use it and put yourself in huge danger or you don't get it and buy something else you can fully utilize. But there is one situation when I consider getting this item. If I am in late game and I already have all the items I sometimes (in 1% of all games that get to late game) sell my boots and buy this. It gives you movement speed so you will still be fast (not as fast as with boots though) but it will also give you useful stats. I do this ONLY in late game and when I need boost in my damage in teamfights.

Now you are no longer immobile! With this item you get small dash that deals tons of damage to your enemies while also repositioning you slightly. You can use it for engaging, dodging ability, kiting or even chasing. With its active comes little bit of AP,HP, so you don't die right after you engage on someone with your combo and CDR. Be careful though as it can't go through walls, so keep that in mind!

This item synergizes well with Archangel's Staff and it will give you AP from mana from Rod of Ages. Except mana, it also gives you some sustain from its passive, HP and AP. HP makes it good item to get if you are looking for some defensive stats while also offensive, but don't need Rylai's Crystal Scepters passive slow on spells. There is one negative though. You have to stack it or it won't be as effective. This means you have to decide, if you want to buy it in the early game, to get the most out of it before the game ends. Sometimes you won't be able to fully stack it before the game ends though.

Farm:

Counters: fight
Countered by: roam

You want to use this playstyle if you get countered by enemy laner (you are against Assassin, mobile burst champion). This is super passive playstyle which gives your enemy freedom to do whatever they want but it is the safest playstyle of all of them. If you use this play style it means that you can’t fight your enemy at all and even smallest mistake will cause you to die and give enemy even bigger advantage.

You have to stay in safe distance from enemy laner, even if it means to farm under turret. Try to get as many minions as you can, but not at cost of your life! If you can’t get the minions/you are being zoned, just ignore them, few minions are not worth dying. Use your spells to farm from safe distance rather than to poke. I recommend to freeze your lane near/under your turret so you can farm safely and to make enemy laner risk to get minions and to make them vulnerable to ganks.

If you use this playstyle, enemy laner will most likely go roam because he can’t get to you. If he does, please ping your teammates that he is missing. Try to have ward on each side of river so you and your teammates can see him roaming and alert them to back before he can get to them. Don’t follow him, he can be waiting for you in the fog of war ready to kill you. Follow him only if you have vision of him leaving to gank and you can see that he is really going to gank other lane/counter jungle. In that case you can follow him and help your teammates if you feel confident. Do not facechceck! If you see you will have to facecheck bush, then don’t go. If you decide to not follow him then switch your playstyle to push.

You can use this playstyle also if you are losing, you are behind and enemy laner is a lot stronger than you. If that’s the case then you want to use this playstyle but you don’t have to be that passive. Look for enemy mistakes while farming and try to punish them for these mistakes.



Push:

Counters: roam
Countered by: fight

Use this playstyle only if enemy laner has problem with farming under turret and you don’t want to fight him. Simple as that. Before you do that, think what you can do after that. Don’t do it unless you have a reason. Reason can be that you want to go gank, go back and don’t miss next wave, make it harder for you laner to farm, go farm into the jungle (only with your jungler’s permission), go counter jungle or to go ward around mid. Don’t use it unless you want to do one of these things listed. If you do so and you have no goal, you will have to do nothing as it is dangerous to overextend under enemy turret as you can get ganked very easily.

If you want to use it to make it harder for your laner to farm, then make sure mid is warded on both sides, it is safe and nobody is going to gank you anytime soon or you can get back to safety if the enemy laner goes aggressive on you.

Other use of this playstyle is to counter enemy roam playstyle. Use everything to kill enemy minions and push your wave under enemy turret. This will make enemy lose gold, EXP and potentially even a turret. If you want to damage the turret/destroy it, you can go with you minions. If you decide so, make sure enemy laner is ganking other lane 100% and warn your teammates about position of the enemy laner. Also be careful as you can get ganked by jungler and/or other enemy laner so go push the tower only if you are sure they are not coming for you. Don’t overextend.

If you have decided to not push/enemy is coming to stop your push, you can go back and return to lane just in time for another minion wave or you can go farm jungle camps to get little bits of gold, EXP and overall advantage over enemy laner (only with your jungler’s permission) or you can go gank other lane as they probably won’t be warned because your enemy laner is busy ganking.



Roam:

Counters: farm
Countered by: push

This playstyle is really effective if you want to be aggressive and want to snowball, but enemy laner is playing passively and just farming. If you want to roam a lot, then consider to buy early boots. They will help you a lot as you can perform your ganks much faster and get back to your lane also faster

First thing you need to know is when to roam. Try to roam after you have killed enemy laner or enemy laner went back or when enemy laner went to roam as well. Other thing that is really important is to shove your lane under enemy turret so you lose at least minions as you can. Whenever you roam ping your teammates that you are coming to gank their lane so they can bait enemy to play more aggressively and setup the gank for you.

If you have ward ready either from trinket or you have bought one try to place it behind you somewhere in a bush while you are roaming. That way you can see if your enemy laner is trying to follow you or if enemy jungler is trying to countergank. Either way you will be prepared and if you think you can burst them quickly you can stop your gank, wait in that bush and surprise the enemy from fog of war. Be careful as they can have that bush warded and they might surprise you.

During the gank you have only one chance. Try to land all your skillshots, even if it means to wait a little bit for 100% hit. If you miss all your skillshots, you will be effectively useless and you can even die. That’s the reason why it is hard for Vel'Koz to gank as he is 100% skillshot oriented and he can mess up everything really easily.

After the gank you can: go back if you have a lot of gold stacked up or you are low on mana and/or HP, go back to your lane if you are healthy enough or you can take objective with your team (either dragon or enemy turret). Everything depends on situation.



Fight:

Counters: push
Countered by: farm

This playstyle is most rewarding of all of them, but also the riskiest of all of them. It is even harder for Vel'Koz because he can mess up everything so easily. This playstyle is almost unplayable against champions with high mobility as they can just dodge your skillshots and engage on you ( Ahri, Akali, Yasuo, Fizz, …). On the other side this is perfect playstyle against champions with low mobility and sustain damage/not instant burst damage as you can land your skillshots much easier and even if you mess up you will be able to disengage ( Teemo, Heimerdinger, Karthus, Fiddlesticks, …).

If you will play this playstyle correctly, there is a high chance your enemy will change their playstyle to farm to prevent you getting more stronger. In that case you should change your playstyle to roam and help your teammates get ahead as well.

If you fail though and you gave some kills to the enemy you should start to play more passively even swap playstyle to farm if needed and focus more on farming to get yourself back into the game. If you continue to play aggressively, there is a chance that you will feed enemy and even potentially lose your team a game.

This playstyle isn’t long-termed so you need to know when to change to it to use advantage as much as possible but also to know when to stop.

Ahri is dangerous because of her mobility. She can easily kill you with her ultimate Spirit Rush or just disengage to safety. Use your ultimate carefully because she can interrupt it with Charm or just doge it and engage on you.




















You win pre level 6 as she is melee and you can safely poke her with your auto attacks and abilities. Akali gets annoying only after level 6 because she can easily stick to you with her ultimate Shadow Dance.






















Anivia is really annoying matchup because of her passive Rebirth. You won't be able to kill her alone easily so you will need help from your jungler. Most of the time both of you are going to be farming only and poking each other as it is hard to kill you because you out range her and it is hard for you to kill her because of her passive Rebirth.




















Annie is an easy matchup through out the whole game because you outrange her. Only thing you have to be careful about is that she can stop your ultimate after she has 4 stacks of her passive Pyromania ready. Also be careful about Flash+ Summon: Tibbers combo.




















Azir can be tricky because if he plays smart he can outplay you but if you play this matchup correctly you will have upper hand and this matchup won't be problem for you.




















Brand has almost same range as you so to trade with him/fight him you almost always have to take damage and that can be dangerous. Most of his damage comes from his 2 skillshots so if you dodge them it will be fine.




















Cassiopeia is hyper carry. Her ultimate Petrifying Gaze can stun you but it won't stun you if you are not facing her so try to predict when she is going to use it so you can turn around. After that it will only slow you.




















Cho'Gath is really easy matchup for you as he is melee and has no gap closer. He can sustain early game with his passive Carnivore but later as you get stronger it will be easy for you to kill him. Only tricky part is that he has 2 spells that he can use to cancel your ultimate Life Form Disintegration Ray and his ultimate Feast does a lot of true damage. If he goes full AP and no defensive items he can delete you but he has to use his Flash to get to you to use his ultimate Feast on you.



















Diana matchup isn't that hard but after level 6 it gets tricky. If you are not good in dodging this matchup is going to be harder for you. To dodge her Crescent Strike move counterclockwise. You should be careful if she hits minion next to you with Crescent Strike after level 6 as she can jump at him same as she would jump at you.




















Ekko can be really annoying during the laning phase because of his blink Phase Dive so try to save Tectonic Disruption for moment when he jumps at you so you can punish him for that. After level 6 it is harder for you to kill him because he can disengage and heal himself with his ultimate Chronobreak. I recommend to put Stealth Ward near his turret so you can see what he is doing when he is in fog of war (he can channel his Parallel Convergence on top of you so when you will see him doing the animation you can easily back off and be safe).




















Good AP Ezreal will poke you to death while still being safe. You just can't engage on him because if you do he will only Arcane Shift away. If he uses Arcane Shift offensively punish him for that and maybe even grab a kill. Always watch out for his ultimate Trueshot Barrage mainly when you are at low HP.




















Pretty easy matchup for you. In order for him to deal damage to you he has to channel Bountiful Harvest which you can just interrupt with Tectonic Disruption and burst him down. Only problem is his ultimate Crowstorm. If you are getting killed always by Crowstorm then buy Zhonya's Hourglass and as soon as he uses Crowstorm on you just pop Zhonya's Hourglass active.




















And the 1st place prize for biggest counter to Vel'Koz goes to ... Fizz! Good luck! You will need it to at least get near your minions without getting killed. In my opinion biggest counter to Vel'Koz (with LeBlanc, Ahri, Talon and few other champions being very close also). He has everything Vel'Koz player hates. A lot of damage that is easy to dish out, 2 freaking gap closers while 1 of them ( Playful / Trickster) provides invincibility, can use it for easy disengage from gank or just killing you under your tower or just dodge all your spells and ability that interrupts your ultimate and slows you. Basically if he has his Playful / Trickster off cooldown you can't engage on him or he will engage on you. Zhonya's Hourglass is good for surviving his ultimate Chum the Waters and Banshee's Veil is good for needed defensive stats against him.





















Galio is little bit annoying but nothing more than that. He is tanky because he scales with magic resist and Shield of Durand grants him shield. You will have hard time killing him because of this factors but you are pretty safe against him.





















Matchup against Gragas isn't very tricky or hard but he has some sustain in lane against poke and he is a little bit tanky. He has 2 ways to stop your ultimate Life Form Disintegration Ray so whenever you are going to cast it consider if he can stop it easily or not. Explosive Cask can be very dangerous because he can put you into bad position with it. So bad that even flash might not help. Other than that you can freely poke him and kill him.




















One of the easiest matchups you can get. His main damage source are his turrets ( H-28G Evolution Turret) but you have enough range to ignore them or just easily destroy them with 1-2 spells and auto attacks. You can go super aggressive after level 6.




















Jayce has advantage pre level 6 levels so try to not fight him during that period of time. After level 6 you have advantage because he doesn't a have a "real" ultimate. You outrange him even if he is in ranged form so if you are careful you can fight him without the problem. Even if he jumps at you you can easily kite him.




















Whole Karma's damage is baised around Inner Flame so she doesn't have burst. She can only poke you and you can avoid her poke by standing behind the minions easily. In 1v1 you can quickly burst her down without any problems or danger. Karma starts with ultimate which means she "doesn't have one". This means you gain huge advantage at level 6 so use that advantage.




















His main damage is from Lay Waste which is easily avoidable if you pay attention and have some movement speed. He is a sustain mage which means quicker trades are more profitable for you. Just burst him down and retreat. He has no gap closers and his only CC is slow so he isn't that dangerous. Recommend buying Zhonya's Hourglass so you can dodge his ultimate with it. After you kill him don't forget about his passive Death Defied.




















Kassadin is easy pre level 6 matchup but hard after level 6 matchup. After level 6 you have almost no chance to kill him as his ultimate Riftwalk is on really small cooldown. Don't chase him after level 6 because with his Riftwalk it's pointless.




















Katarina is really tricky matchup. She doesn't have any CC only raw damage and is melee so if she is behind she is useless in teamfights. Try to deny her as much CS/kills as possible. Her biggest counters are CC and burst damage.

Why this is a tricky matchup? Well both of you are burst mages and both of you have ultimate that has to be channeled. She can't interrupt your ultimate but you can so you have an advantage. Basically in this matchup person who engages have much higher chance to lose duel. If you engage and don't burst her instantly she can engage on you and you can't stop her. If she engages on you you can stop her ultimate Death Lotus and then use your combo to burst her down. Basically this matchup is all about outplaying and outsmarting enemy.




















Kayle has sustain damage which means your goal is quick trades. While she has to auto attack you to do damage you can just burst her down and fall back which makes this matchup really easy. It is going to be hard for you to kill her after level 6 because of her ultimate Intervention.




















Kennen's early game poke can be annoying because he has no mana and uses only energy which means he can just poke you, wait until his energy regenerates and repeat that. After level 6 he becomes even more dangerous, mostly in teamfights. He provides a lot of AoE damage for his team in teamfights as you but he has stun on top of it which you don't have and can change whole teamfight.




















Kha'Zix is sustain stealth assassin with great gap closer Leap which if it is evolved gets cooldown reset after a kill or an assist. He can be dangerous because he can juke you with his ultimate Void Assault if you don't have Oracle Lens. I recommend to buy Zhonya's Hourglass so you are safe if he jumps at you in teamfight while your team focuses him down.




















AP Kog'Maw is immobile pure skillshot oriented poke champion with long range. He only starts to be annoying after level 6 when he gains his ultimate Living Artillery. It provides him a very long range poke which is his main damage source. He is immobile mage and very squishy so if you manage to land your combo he is most likely dead. Building movement speed against this matchup is really efficient as it makes it easier to dodge his abilities.




















Your second worst nightmare after Fizz. She has burst, CC, and gap closer. You can't really engage on her as she will just jump away.




















Lissandra is a short range burst mage with a lot of CC. You outrange but that's your only advantage. She has a lot of CC which can win for her team a lot of teamfights. You have to be careful about her Glacial Path as it is long range gap closer she can to to get into the middle of the teamfight, engage on you during laning phase and burst you down or just escape gank.

Small tip: In order for her to use Glacial Path she has to reactivate it when she wants to teleport to it which means you can CC her with Tectonic Disruption so she can't reactivate it and deny her engage or escape. You have to time it precisely and predict when she is going to use it so don't get mad if you fail it first time. Tectonic Disruption's particle is very slow so if Lissandra has good reflexes she can activate Glacial Path as it is going to hit her.




















Lulu's main source of damage is Glitterlance. Matchup against her is really similar to Karma's matchup. Both have a lot of utility and defense but a not a lot damaging abilities. Best chance for you to kill her is pre level 6 because after level 6 she just has a lot of defense/disengage tools for you to be able to burst her down.




















Lux is probably my second favourite champion after Vel'Koz. She is very similar to Vel'Koz. Long range poke squishy with no escape burst kite 100% skillshot mage with laser ultimate. Few differences like she has less damaging abilities than you (you have basically 6) but she has shield, her passive deals magic damage and not true damage and her ultimate is instant and has longer range. Basically playing against Lux is like playing dodge ball. Dodge her snare Light Binding and you should be ok. It is her setup spell for kill or just spell to catch off people same as your Tectonic Disruption. Dodging Lucent Singularity is little bit harder so to maximize your chance to dodge it you have to keep your distance as much as you can or if you are to close than go forward, she won't expect it and she will miss it (same tactic works for dodging Vel'Koz's Plasma Fission - dodge the main part and move forward, it is hard to reactivate it correctly if someone is moving towards it and also it has small delay before reactivating).




















Malzahar can be annoying but if you play this matchup smart you shouldn't have problem. You have to abuse your range advantage as much as possible and kite also as much as possible. If you will do these 2 things you should be ok. The reason why you want to abuse your range is because he is low range and has a lot of burst and if he gets in range to hit you he will cast Nether Grasp which is 2,5 seconds stun which will most likely screw you up. Silence from Call of the Void can be really annoying so if you get hit by it back off because you can't fight him silenced.




















This is an easy matchup because you can just kite him around as he has short range with no gap closer. He has no CC so he can’t interrupt your ultimate or catch you off. Before lvl 6 you don’t have enough power to kill him because of his passive Iron Man but after lvl 6 you got pretty good chance.




















Morgana can be very dangerous sometimes mostly in late game due to her Dark Binding as it will snare you for 3 seconds which is enough time for enemy team to engage on you. Because of that you have to be very careful in late game. Other than that she will always try to push you during the laning phase under your tower with Tormented Shadow so you better know how to last hit under the turret.




















Game against Nidalee is like playing dodge ball. Just dodge that Javelin Toss and you will be alright. Not only it deals tons of damage but also makes it easier for her to jump at you with Pounce and nuke you. Her heal provides her with some sustain during the laning phase and some push power in late game because of attack speed it grants. She doesn't have the best wave clear so you can push her under the turret and poke her while she is farming.




















One of the early game annoying matchups. She has advantage over you pre level 6 but after the level 6 you are on the same boat. Orianna is a great teamfighter because of her ultimate Command: Shockwave so be careful during the teamfights.




















Riven has all she need to counter you – CC, mobility, defense from poke, damage. You can’t really engage on her because she will just use one of her abilities to dodge it. You have to kite her because if not you will get CC-ed to death. While kiting try to predict her movement for easy knock back. Zhonya's Hourglass is a must item against her. You can use it to dodge her CC, ultimate Wind Slash or just to survive. If she gets too close to you and you see she is going to hit you with next CC ability try to time it and Flash away from it. If you are low always watch out for Flash+ Wind Slash or just Wind Slash alone and try to flash away from it/use Zhonya's Hourglass to dodge it.




















Pretty easy matchup for you as he is short range caster so you can abuse your range and kite him. You have to be careful to not get close to him as he can chain his abilities really well and potentially burst you.




















Swain is a sustain short range mage so you want to keep your distance and do quick trades. If you do that, this matchup will be easy enough for you. If you can’t kill Swain] because of his sustain there are 2 easy solutions for that other than bursting him. One of them is Ignite and other one is Morellonomicon. Even though Ignite is pretty bad on Vel'Koz, it can shut down champions that relay on sustain pretty heavily. Either if you want to go early aggressive or you want to be sure Swain won’t be a problem you can consider taking it. It is not that bad in this matchup also because he has to be close to you to deal damage so you can easily Ignite him.




















Syndra has a lot of burst but her range is much smaller than yours. If the enemy plays Syndra well and manage to land stun you will have hard time. Her burst is much quicker and stronger than yours so only way for you to fight her is by using your range advantage. You have to kite and can’t get hit by her stun. If you get stunned she can easily deal tons of damage to you really quickly and then back off.




















Talon is pretty hard matchup because of his quick burst but it can be countered by Zhonya's Hourglass. Even though he is melee you want to play safely during the laning phase and save up your CC just in case he jumps at you. Oracle Lens can help you in the fights with him as you can see where he is if he uses his ultimate Shadow Assault and kite him back.





















One of the easiest if not the easiest matchup you can get. He has really short range and he has sustain damage rather than burst. If you can land your spells against him you will have easy time getting fed. Only annoying thing is his blind from Blinding Dart which can deny you some of the CS but if he uses it on you, he should be in range for you to hit him and punish him for that. Be careful if you are going roaming as your plans can be interrupted by Noxious Trap. If you walk in one of them it can give the enemy your position which can interrupt your roam.




















Even though Twisted Fate can do a lot of damage and can even interrupt your ultimate Life Form Disintegration Ray it is still pretty easy matchup. Half of his damage comes from his auto attack enchants which means while he has to auto attack you, you can just kite him back or CC him and burst him down with no problem. He will roam a lot with his ultimate Destiny and you have no way follow up unless you take Teleport so best way to punish him is to push a lot so he can’t leave his lane and if he does just take his turret.




















Veigar is pretty annoying matchup because of his stun Event Horizon and his ultimate Primordial Burst. His stun can zone you or just trap you inside and his ultimate can just by itself delete you in the late game. You pretty much want Banshee's Veil so you can do at least something in the teamfight before he deletes you. If your team does a good job protecting you though he will not be able to get to you unless he uses Flash. Other than that you have much more reliable damage than him and more range so if you play safely and smart you won’t have problem.




















Here we go! A mirror matchup! This can occur only in Blind Pick but you can use some of this tips if you are playing against Vel'Koz with other champion. Back to a mirror matchup. These are always really annoying and skill based. If you want to win this matchup you have to have more knowledge about the champion than enemy, have better decision making and better mechanics. I haven’t occurred this situation myself so this will be mainly tips what I think would work really well. I hope that after reading my guide you will have advantage over him and maybe learn even how to play against Vel'Koz when you are not playing him. If you will use all the tips from my guide it should be easy matchup for you but good luck if it is against me!




















Viktor can be annoying matchup sometimes but you have advantage of range which means you are much safer during the teamfights while you still can dish out as much damage as he can just from safer position. He has a zone tool though which you don’t – Gravity Field. He can use it during the laning phase to zone you from farming or during the teamfights so nobody can jump on him and focus him down. Either way a powerful zoning tool.




















Vladimir has a lot of sustain in means off healing and damage. You outrange him, do more damage so you would think it will be easy, right? But Sanguine Pool makes it really difficult sometimes to do something against him as he can use it to dodge all your abilities. Ignite/ Morellonomicon can be helpful to shut his sustain down during fights. He gets tanky thanks to his passive while building damage, but he has no hard CC so if he is behind he is useless in teamfights.




















Xerath is kinda same as Vel'Koz in terms of amount of damage, kit being 100% skillshot based,, amount of CC and range. Both of you have long range but he has longer and his poke with Arcanopulse is more reliant than your poke with Plasma Fission. His CC can be either worse or better than yours, depends on situation. Overall he is safer version of Vel'Koz. This matchup is kind of skill based as both of you are 100% skill shot champions. If you have problem to dodge his abilities early Boots can help you with it a lot.




















Playing against Yasuo can be sometimes frustrating and even more if their team composition has a lot of knock ups. He has a lot of mobility with Sweeping Blade and even if he has nowhere to dash he can still use Wind Wall to block all your spells except your ultimate Life Form Disintegration Ray. Thankfully you can counter him pretty easily and that’s with movement speed to dodge his 3rd cast of Steel Tempest and with Zhonya's Hourglass if he catches you with ultimate.

Small tip: Your auto attacks aren't considered as projectile which means your auto attacks will go through Yasuo’s Wind Wall. Helpful while farming in lane or just poking him.




















Zed’s poke and mobility can be annoying so you have to pay attention a lot to dodge his Razor Shuriken and manage to hit him with your abilities. He can easily kill you with his ultimate Death Mark, but you can counter it with Zhonya's Hourglass completely, so if he jumps at you, just active Zhonya's Hourglass and you completely negate his ultimate. Be careful though as he can still kill you without his ultimate Death Mark, so try to have Tectonic Disruption always ready to disengage.




















Ziggs can be really annoying because of his poke so if you are having problems with dodging his abilities (all are skillshots), you can consider to buy early Boots after your first back. If you want to fight him, you always have to be moving around between your ability casts so you can dodge as many of his skillshots as possible. Be careful to not walk into his Hexplosive Minefield as it trap you pretty easily while doing a lot of damage. You can use Zhonya's Hourglass pretty effectively against his ultimate Mega Inferno Bomb and dodge it completely.




















Zilean is an easy matchup as his only spell that can deal damage to you is his Time Bomb, though he can use twice at you because of his Rewind. He is very mana hungry and Time Bomb’s are easy to dodge so if you pay attention and you can avoid them, he can be out of mana pretty fast.

You outrange him so use that to your advantage. You can even wait for your abilities to come out of cooldown and make long trades if you manage to dodge his Time Bomb’s. Only thing that is annoying about him is his ultimate Chronoshift. It makes it so much harder for you to kill him, as you have to kill him twice (not that annoying as with Anivia because he gains less HP after he revives than she does).

After level 6 you won’t be able to kill him that often, so try to kill him pre level 6 as much as possible. After level 6 you can kill him if you manage to CC him with Tectonic Disruption, so he can’t use Chronoshift onto himself and quickly burst him down, but for this he has to be first poked down.




















Even though Zyra has nice amount of CC, she has to get into the range where you can hit her pretty easily with all of your spells. She is squishy and doesn't have escape which means if you land Plasma Fission/ Tectonic Disruption, you can follow up with the rest of your combo and burst her down really quickly. Her plants can be annoying (they can zone from getting your CS or block your poke with Plasma Fission) and deal a lot of damage so don’t underestimate them!