The Relentless Storm

Whenever Volibear damages at least one enemy with a basic attack or ability, he generates a stack of The Relentless Storm for 6 seconds, refreshing on subsequent damage and stacking up to 5 times. At 5 stacks, Volibear gains Lightning Claws.
For each stack, Volibear gains 5% (+ 4% per 100 AP) bonus attack speed, up to 25% (+ 20% per 100 AP).

At 5 stacks, Volibear's claws ignite with lightning, empowering his basic attacks on-hit to deal 11 − 60 (based on level) (+ 40% AP) bonus magic damage to the target and the nearest visible enemy within 450 units of the target, chaining up to 4 subsequent targets.


Be aware that:

The 5 stack chain lightning auto is really good for poking down your enemies, especially if you have some AP.

The attack speed bonus, AP on hit and chain lightning all scale off of your AP. This passive is the reason why Nashor's Tooth is so strong in Volibear, due to both the AP and attack speed.

It might be hard to freeze or manipulate wave perfectly in the way you want due to this passive, so Volibear will be shoving or slow pushing a lot of waves that he can't hold a freeze on. Be careful with this, as it may make you susceptible to ganks.

Thundering Smash

Volibear drops on all fours, becoming ghosted and gaining bonus movement speed for 4 seconds, doubled while facing a visible enemy champion within 2000 units.

During this time, Volibear's next basic attack is empowered to consume the bonus movement speed to have an uncancellable windup and pounce on the target, dealing bonus physical damage and stunning them for 1 second.

If Volibear becomes immobilized or polymorphed by an enemy during Thundering Smash, the effect ends prematurely and the cooldown is reset.


Be aware that:

This ability is an auto attack reset.

You can go through thin walls if you hug the wall then Q an enemy over the wall if you are within range, due to the game registering this as a lunge ability.



Q through a wall

Frenzied Maul

Volibear strikes the target enemy to deal physical damage, apply on-hit and on-attack effects at 100% effectiveness, and mark them Wounded for 8 seconds.

Frenzied Maul deals 50% increased damage and heals Volibear. The heal is halved against minions.


Be aware that:
An auto attack reset ability with high base damage and AD scaling especially with an empowered W against marked champions.

This ability when casted on a wounded target, heals for a lot the lower HP you are.

Take 3 points into this ability pre-6 no matter your build, as the base damage and healing is too good to pass up.

Sky Splitter

Insta-R

You can use your R Stormbringer and without the casting animation and instantly have the stormbringer buff. You can pull it off by being casting it next to a thick wall that you can't jump over.

AA-Q-AA

Basic auto attack Q Thundering Smash animation cancel combo.

AA-W-AA

Basic auto attack W Frenzied Maul animation cancel combo.

E-Q-W-AA

This will be your standard short trade pattern. You are hiding your E Sky Splitter animation when you press Q Thundering Smash after casting your E Sky Splitter.

AA-Q-AA-W-AA

E-AA-W-AA-Q-AA

This is the maximum amount of DPS on a short trade you can output on Volibear without ultimate Stormbringer. You can pull this off usually when trading and your enemy is close to you.

E-R-AA-Q-AA-W-AA

A variation of the combo above but with your ultimate Stormbringer.

Bear special

Baus special with the bear.

Hit the two nexus turrets with your ultimate Stormbringer.

Tank Items

Heartsteel

Tank mythic for Volibear that scales really well into the late game.

The Colossus Consumption passive gives permanent HP per proc synergizes well with Volibear’s short trade patterns and your W and R can benefit from the gigantic amount of HP it gives.

This is an all around great mythic item, preferably taking it into a melee matchup, but it’s not too bad against ranged matchups either.

You would want to build resistance items afterwards since this mythic offers no armor and mr.

The item doesn’t help with your waveclear, and the component items are kinda mediocre in the early game, but Volibear isn’t reliant on these items in the laning phase, and so Volibear doesn’t really suffer from these weaknesses that other tanks would since his kit is sufficient in the early game.

Iceborn Gauntlet

Great first item when going against AD champions due to the 50 armor it gives.

The spellblade and AOE slow on the passive is also really good and synergizes really well with Volibear’s kit.

When going up against a full AD team comp, or the enemy has like 4 AD champions your first item is gonna be either Iceborn gauntlet, frozen heart, or sunfire aegis depending on what you need.

If you’re even or ahead of your opponents, Iceborn Gauntlet is a solid choice and when paired with a Frozen heart or Sunfire Aegis as second item, you're basically immortal against AD champions until they start getting armor pen. The component items on this mythic is also good.

You should look to get sheen as the first component item when backing with at least 700 gold.

Jak'sho

This mythic item shines during long drawn out fights, so this is a very ideal item if your enemy has 2 or 3 bruisers or tanks on their team because they wouldn’t be able to burst you down quickly in order to give you time to stack your stacking resistances passive which makes you stronger the longer you are in combat up to a maximum of 8 stacks.

This item lets you take on multiple enemies at the same time and is good if the enemy comp has mixed damage, due to the mixed resistances this item offers.

Radiant Virtue

Team oriented mythic item that also synergizes well with Volibear, especially his ultimate which already gives him HP when casted. Radiant Virtue’s passive stacks another chunk of HP on top of your ultimate and also gives a set amount of HP to nearby allies.

This is more of a supportive mythic item, and as such, you would need to make plays together with your team to make the most out of the item’s passive. You need to be a team player when using this item.

Frozen Heart

This item is, dare I say, OP.

A very cheap item that gives A LOT of armor, some mana, ability haste, an attack speed slow for nearby enemies on passive and reduced incoming auto attack damage. This item practically shuts down AD auto attackers.

Though this item does not provide HP, the armor it provides is gigantic and more than compensates for lack of it. You can rush this item first if you're having a hard time against your AD laner, or if you have AD auto attacking toplane and jungle.

You don’t need to worry about the lack of offensive stats from building this item first due to Volibear’s great base damage.

Sunfire Aegis

This item is a viable alternative to Frozen Heart.

It costs the same and gives armor, similar to Frozen Heart, though it sacrifices mana, ability haste and 40 armor(which is quite a big reduction) in stats and the Winter’s Caress and Rock Solid Passive from Frozen Heart in exchange for Immolate passive for stronger waveclear and a bit more damage, and 500 HP in stats.

I would personally rank Frozen heart higher than this item, but there are certain matchups where I would build this item, but mostly as a 1st item if I need armor and a faster waveclear, such as if I can see that my opponents are roaming a lot.

Thornmail

Anti-heal item. 8/10 games you're gonna be building this, or at the very least, the bramble vest component.

There’s so much healing in the game nowadays that the majority of matches would really require you to build some sort of anti-heal, it has become a necessity.

The stats this item gives is also pretty nice, and so is the thorns passive. You could rush bramble vest early on into the game, but should only be looking to finish the full Thornmail as a 4th, 5th or even last item, as there are other armor items that give better value than thornmail.

Spirit Visage

Your first item choice when it comes to magic resistance.

This item gives MR, HP, and Health Regeneration for stats, and a passive that increases all health and shield gained by 25% which works really well with Volibear’s kit.

With a bit of AP in combination with this item, you would have a gigantic shield every time you land E on yourself. Spirit Visage also increases the healing from empowered W.

You should also consider building this item if your team provides a lot of healing and shielding such as if you have a Soraka or Lulu on your team.

Force of Nature

Great alternative to Spirit Visage.

Force of Nature offers 20 more MR and 5% movement speed in comparison to Spirit Visage, but offers 100 less HP, no ability haste, and no health regen.

The passive on Force of Nature gives you a lot of movement speed and even more magic resistance when fully stacked and really makes you tanky against long fights against AP champions.

This item is a really good counter against Singed.

Turbo Chemtank

3rd magic resistance item option with Volibear.

This is good to build when you're looking to play for your team, roaming a lot, and making a lot of ganks across the map.

When perma-roaming with Volibear with this item, you should be building this first in order to benefit from the early snowballing potential this item provides, but you can also build this later on if you just need a small bump of movement speed to chase down escaping enemies.

Dead Man's Plate

If you need more movement speed while building armor, you build this against AD champions or Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank against AP champions.

Fimbulwinter

You could maybe take this in conjunction with hullbreaker, but I would rather build some other tank item than Fimbulwinter, since it doesn’t offer any resistances at all, but you do proc the shield passive a lot if the fights you are engaged with are long fights.

But still, I feel that this is an inferior item in comparison to the other tank items. You should build Frozen Heart when building this to capitalize on the %max mana to HP conversion passive.

Titanic Hydra

Take this if you need more waveclear when building full tank Volibear.

You can capitalize off of the additional HP from your items which turns into AD with this item.

Hullbreaker

Splitpush item that forces you to go solo without teammates to fully benefit from the passive which grants additional damage to turrets and empowered minions.

This is a good counter to roaming champions.

You can build this even if you aren't against roaming a roaming top laner, but simply looking to split push a lot, especially if you think your team is sufficient enough even without your help in teamfights.




Ability Power Items

Nashor's Tooth

One of the biggest powerspikes for Volibear, making his DPS go through the roof.

It offers everything that Volibear needs in terms of offense and makes his waveclear and tower taking one of the best in the game.

The attack speed from Nashor’s tooth makes him stack his passive faster, and the AP makes the attack speed gained from his passive even stronger.

The chain lightning at 5 stacks of passive also scales off of AP. Volibear’s passive, E and R all have AP scaling, and so, Nashor’s tooth greatly benefits those three abilities. Once you have this item, your chain lightning at 5 stack passive will start to really hurt your enemies and make your poke deadly.

I recommend buying this 2nd or 3rd item if you're going for an AP bruiser set up, or 4th, 5th or last item if you're building tank.

Rushing Nashor’s as a first item is really greedy and should only be done if you're snowballing and ahead of your enemy laner as this item is pure offense, giving AP and attack speed and AP on-hit with the Icathian Bite passive. If you rush Nashor’s tooth as your first item, you should be looking to solo lane and farm as much as possible until you get your other items and become tankier before joining 5v5 fights, because while you can delete squishies real fast with this build, you yourself can also get deleted real fast because this item offer absolutely zero resistances or HP and you wouldn’t be able to frontline for your team.

Pair this item with Riftmaker and you’ll be an absolute beast in the late game with your AP build.

Riftmaker

A must have with AP Volibear build, there’s no other AP mythic that fits Volibear the way Riftmaker does.

It gives everything you need for AP volibear: AP, HP, Ability Haste and Omnivamp. The passive is also really nice against tanks and bruisers. The omnivamp is basically the factor that makes this mythic better than other AP mythics on Volibear, because it also procs off of your chain lightning.

It’s really nice rushing this as your first item due to the sustain and HP it provides, making your abilities hurt while not turning you into a glass cannon unlike rushing Nashor’s tooth. It gives a nice balance of defense and offense.

The AP from this item also works towards giving you more attack speed via your passive.

Zhonya's Hourglass

This is pretty much your only defensive AP item in the entire build.

I would recommend building actual tank items if you're after the armor this item provides, but the stasis active is really good on Volibear especially if you land your ultimate wrong and get rooted, slowed, or just being in an awkward position.

This item gives your team a chance to save you from bad positioning or if you get caught, or are too deep into the enemy backline.

Basically, the only deciding factor I would have when buying Zhonya’s versus Frozen Heart or other tank armor items, is the active. Most of the time I would just buy actual tank items, but Zhonya’s is good in certain scenarios.

Demonic Embrace

Demonic Embrace is somewhat like an AP version of Titanic Hydra in the sense that it converts a certain percentage of your bonus HP into AP.

This item also has a mini- Liandry's Torment passive. This item offers no resistances so I would usually build this when I’m building tank to let the other items make up for the lack of it. When I am building it in a tank setup, I’m doing it for a little extra waveclear, damage, and shield.

Cosmic Drive

If you're looking for AP, Ability Haste and movement speed in one item, Cosmic Drive is the way to go.

I personally don’t buy this item a lot, because I would usually think about buying this as a 5th or last item, and by that stage of the game, I would much rather have more resistances because the enemies will burst me down fast if I build Cosmic Drive, so my suggested alternative would be Dead Man’s plate against AD champions and Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank against AP champions.

The spell dance ability lets you chase enemies you have engaged in combat with, so this is another good item if you’re having trouble sticking to your enemies.




Attack Damage Items

Blade of the Ruined King

Good stats, anti-tank mythic passive, and movement speed steal passive- all things that Volibear can benefit from.

The lifesteal is really good for sustaining. This item makes Volibear an absolute beast in 1v1s.

This item is a strong power spike for Volibear. When going for an AD bruiser build with Volibear, I usually go BORK rush, since it makes your solo laning amazing, especially against tanks with that percent current hp on hit damage and 8% lifesteal.

The only downside to this item is the lack of defensive stats, kinda similar to Nashor’s tooth, but a much safer, less greedy item, due to your W applying the lifesteal, on-hit passive, and not having to rely on a skillshot for sustain/shield.

Trinity Force

Spellblade attack speed item.

Makes your tower taking speed really fast, making you a split pushing threat.

Triforce also gives you all the stats you need with Volibear: Attack speed, HP, AD and Ability haste. This item is good against immobile melee champions.

Divine Sunderer

Another spellblade item.

This is the anti-tank alternative to Trinity Force, the stats are similar and also greatly benefits Volibear. It loses the attack speed in exchange for an arguably better spellblade passive.

The spellblade of this item deals 6% max HP as on-hit damage, which is amazing against health stacking champions like Cho’gath and Sion.

Stridebreaker

An underrated mythic on Volibear.

Similar to Trinity Force, this mythic gives HP, AD, Attack speed and Ability Haste, but loses the spellblade passive in exchange for the Halting Slash active which slows champions in an AOE around you.

The other passive grants you movement speed every time you attack which helps you stick to enemy champions even more as Volibear, and grants you even more slows.

Goredrinker

This is like an AD version of Riftmaker.
The stats are similar, but give AD instead of AP.

It also has an active similar to Stridebreaker, but instead of slowing enemies, heals you for each enemy you hit with it.

Black Cleaver

Best armor shredding item on Volibear.

This item gives all the stats that Volibear needs: HP, AD, Ability Haste and even Movement speed on the item passive.

The great thing about this item that makes it better than Armor Penetration items, is that this shreds armor, meaning that your entire team can benefit from the enemy having the less armor, vs only you benefiting from having the effect of enemy having less armor with the armor penetration items.

Another thing that puts this above armor pen items are the stats which are more suitable to Volibear than Serylda’s/LDR/Mortal Reminder.

Spear of Shojin

Gives similar stats to Black Cleaver; HP, AD, Ability Haste, and Movement Speed through the item’s passive.

This item focuses on giving the user a lot of ability haste, especially the passive which grants even more Ability Haste on basic abilities, but is halved on immobilizing spells, which in our case is our Q.

The passive also gives movement speed based on your missing HP, which maxes out on 33% remaining health, which gives you the extra boost in finishing off escaping enemies, or for escaping.

Maw of Malmortius

A defensive AD item which gives AD, MR and magic damage Lifeline passive.

This is like an offensive version of Shieldbow that counters magic damage. Though I prefer building an actual MR tank item, Maw is pretty solid sometimes, especially against a Karthus or other mages with very high AP burst damage, wherein the magic Lifeline can come in clutch.

The omnivamp during the Lifeline passive is also a very nice bonus, especially during teamfights. If you're ahead, and are feeling greedy, you can buy this instead of Spirit Visage/Force of Nature/Turbo Chemtank.

Sterak's Gage

This item is like a bruiser’s shieldbow, granting HP, AD and a Lifeline passive similar to Immortal Shieldbow.

This item is good for turning fights around with the shield it grants you when you’re low, and the passive gives you bonus AD equal to half of your base AD, and Volibear is on the upper bracket of base AD numbers so this passive works quite well.

I would usually only buy this later on into the game if I’m building tank, and wouldn’t buy if I don’t have any resistance items beforehand.

This item works well together with Spirit Visage which makes your Lifeline shield stronger when you proc it.

Do not buy this in conjunction with other items with Lifeline passive as they do not stack.

Ravenous Hydra

A good offensive item if you're ahead.

This is like an AD version of dark seal/Mejai’s Soulstealer, in which you lose stacks whenever you die, and gain stacks whenever you kill champions, minions or large monsters.

This also helps with you waveclear due to the cleave passive, similar to Titanic Hydra.

This item used to be a lot stronger when it granted omnivamp instead of lifesteal, but that was too strong and now only grants lifesteal, though the lifesteal it grants, which is 10%, is quite a lot in comparison to stuff like BORK and Shieldbow. This item also synergizes well with Spirit Visage.

Death's Dance

Defensive AD item that offers armor.

Death's Dance is amazing in teamfights, and against burst champions thanks to its Ignore Pain passive.

Another reason why it’s good in teamfights is thanks in due to its other passive; Defy. This would cause every takedown to basically heal you, similar to triumph and cleanses the damage that you would’ve received over 3 seconds from Ignore Pain.

Buying this item in conjunction with triumph would heal you for a significant amount for every take down, and really turns a lot of fights around.

Which build should I choose?

Which build you choose depend on a few variables, and you must decide based on these factors: Your team comp and damage type, your enemy team comp and your enemy laner.
Here are my thoughts on each build and which items to build in these set ups.



Tank

I personally don't like running full tank Volibear too often, I think it's only really good in the early to mid game and makes you dependent on your team to carry the game for you due to your lack of damage and splitpushing threat. You also fall off with full tank build, because only Volibear's W has health scaling. It is such a waste to not build any AD or AP with the amount of scaling his kit has. If you decide to go full tank and get a lead, you can transition into a bruiser build by buying BORK, or Nashor's Tooth to further press your lead forward.



AD Bruiser

This is a really good overall for Volibear. It has good early game damage, and the mid game power spike with AD items is very strong as well. While you do scale better with the AP build in the super late game, the AD build still holds on its own very well, you don't really get to fall off with the AD build. I go for tank items for my last 2 item slot to offer some survivability in conjunction with the damage and sustain from the AD items.


AP Bruiser

This is my favourite build with Volibear. It scales super hard into the late game, and makes your split push very strong. Your E and passive will hurt very badly and the from E shield will be a very big amount when you complete your Nashor's Tooth and Riftmaker. I go tank items after those 2 AP items, as I would need resistance and survability to survive the matchups to be able to output damage. I think Volibear is best suited to be an AP bruiser.

Aatrox

Difficulty- 3.5/5

This is somewhat of a skill match up slightly in Aatrox’s favor in the early to mid game.

The outcome of this matchup depends on who lands their abilities more consistently. With Volibear, you need to be looking to hit your E Sky Splitter in order to land winning trades in the early game, all the while sidestepping and dodging Aatrox’s Qs The Darkin Blade. Whenever Aatrox lands his W Infernal Chains on you, immediately start running to the left or right side of the rectangle.

One of the reasons why this matchup is favored to Aatrox is due to his passive Deathbringer Stance which gives him a more reliable form of lane sustain which is also why I recommend rushing Bramble Vest on your first back or even running Ignite instead of Teleport.
Ignite also deals damage which can be useful if you find yourself needing just that last tick of damage whenever facing Aatrox to finish him off.

Later on in the game, Aatrox will outscale you if you went for a full tank build due to Black Cleaver and Serylda's Grudge being a popular item on him, which will counter you and you’d never be able to win against him in a 1v1, and so, I suggest grouping with your team and winning fights there instead because you offer a lot more value in teamfights than Aatrox does.

The only way you match him in side lanes by this time is if you build at least 2 AP or AD items with Volibear, in which you should be able to 1v1 him and beat him by mid to late game.




Akali

Difficulty- 1.5/5

This should be an easy matchup for Volibear, one where you should win in virtually any situation if you know what to look out for, and how to play this matchup.

Akali’s only threat of killing you is during the early game when we don’t have any resistances yet, and if Akali took Ignite. But even with all these considered, unless you did a misplay, you should still be able to win against her if you play correctly.

I would take Doran's Shield and Second Wind/ Bone Plating in this matchup.

Be careful of her passive Assassin's Mark empowered auto and move away if she has it up after Q’ing Five Point Strike or E’ing Shuriken Flip on you.

One of the time windows you can afford to play aggressively in this matchup is when her W Twilight Shroud is down. You can and should look to trade hard or possibly even all in her during her shroud’s downtime.




Akshan

Difficulty- 4.5/5

This lane is very difficult in the early game, especially before you start to stack any armor.

Take Doran's Shield and Second Wind in this matchup, you can even consider going Fleet Footwork if you find this lane to be very difficult.

Akshan is a very oppressive lane bully.

He is mobile, meaning he doesn’t just get easily countered by ganks.

You need to play smartly in this lane and try not to die to prevent him from snowballing and taking over the game.

One thing you need to know with Akshan is that his E Heroic Swing can be canceled when he bumps into an enemy champion, which is one of the ways you can play against him. You can use your ultimate to cancel Akshan’s E Heroic Swing while he is swinging, then go for an all-in.

You want to farm safely in this matchup and be willing to sacrifice CS to stay alive and soak EXP. Rush Plated Steelcaps and Warden's Mail, then upgrade the Warden's Mail into a Frozen Heart as your first item, that should negate a lot of his damage.

You should be able to outscale him with AP build and beat him 1v1 in the sidelanes.

During teamfights, you bring more value to your team. Look to protect and peel teammates who are tagged as Scoundrels by Akshan’s passive Dirty Fighting to prevent him from resurrecting teammates.




Camille

Difficulty- 4/5

This matchup depends on the skill of the Camille player. I’ve had times wherein I get utterly dominated by Camille, and others where it’s the other way around.

The important thing you have to be wary of during early laning and trading with Camille are the cooldowns of her abilities and proper spacing against her.

Her passive Adaptive Defenses and Q Precision Protocol is very strong in early game short trades, so you want to play around those cooldowns.

With Volibear’s fully stacked passive it should be quite easy to proc her shield, you then wait till it runs out then you can be aggressive and make trades with her.

With regards to spacing, you want to kite her around when she has her W Tactical Sweep up, because she will be looking to hit you with the ability’s outer edge, if you are near her and can’t dodge it by running away, then you can run forward to get hit by the less powerful inner part of the ability.

Post-6, if you have ultimate Stormbringer, you can use it to avoid being CC’d by her E Hookshot when she goes in on you, as you are unstoppable during the casting of your ult.

She has a big power spike with the Divine Sunderer purchase, which hurts due to its percent max HP spellblade passive, the spellblade passive also synergizes well with Camille’s kit so be careful of her damage.




Cassiopeia

Difficulty- 3/5

This is a poke matchup, but isn’t too bad because Cassiopeia runs out of mana really quickly if she focuses too much on poking you.

Take Doran's Shield and Second Wind and you should be all good for this lane.

She will be a problem if you let her scale for free without punishing her, because she becomes quite strong with a few items later on in the game, but this shouldn’t really happen too much because Volibear’s early game strength should be enough to shut her down if played properly.

You can go through Cassiopeia’s CC while she's casting her W Miasma or Ultimate Petrifying Gaze using your own ultimate Stormbringer since you are CC immune while casting.

You should get Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank/ Maw of Malmortius(can be built as the first or second item) as your 2nd item, and take Mercury's Treads.




Cho'gath

Difficulty- 2.5/5

This matchup shouldn’t be too difficult, simply try to avoid his abilities, take proper trades and good wave management.

Early game you should be able to beat him if you are able to dodge his Q Rupture.

He might out-sustain you in lane due to his passive Carnivore, so make sure not to take too many unfavorable trades, and you might even need to take Teleport in this matchup, but by mid to late game you should be able to beat him, so long as you don’t build full tank with Volibear.

Blade of the Ruined King and Black Cleaver should shred him pretty fast if your going the AD bruiser build, and for AP, Nashor's Tooth and Riftmaker should be enough DPS to deal with him.

If you built tank, you wouldn’t have enough damage to kill him, and he would win versus you in a very long drawn out fight in the late game due to his infinite scaling HP ultimate Feast which he can convert into AP or AD with Titanic Hydra/ Demonic Embrace.




Darius

Difficulty- 3.5/5

This is quite difficult in the early game, since Darius is really strong pre-6 and will beat you in a 1v1 in almost any situation.

You don’t wanna trade with Darius until his abilities are on cooldown, because a simple E Apprehend-AA-W Crippling Strike-AA-Q Decimate is almost an instant 5 stacks on you from his Hemorrhage passive which hurts like heck in the laning phase. He also gets additional AD and a higher execute threshold on his ultimate Noxian Guillotine when you have 5 stacks on your head.

With this matchup I simply look to play safe in the early game, and scale. Come mid game, if you gave him a few kills, he will be able to snowball that lead so you should look to pressure and keep him in your lane and try to entice him to not group with his team when fights break out on the map.

If you played really safe and didn’t give out too many kills, you can look to group with your team since your team fights are better than his, as long as you and your team don’t let him get a 5 stack Hemorrhage passive ultimate Noxian Guillotine execute.

You beat him by late game as long as you're not doing a full tank build.




Dr. Mundo

Difficulty- 2.5/5

This is a poke matchup.

Dr. Mundo players are always looking to chunk you down slowly by throwing Q Infected Bonesaw and minions execute E Blunt Force Trauma on you.

And it’s kinda difficult to engage on him as Volibear because of his Goes Where He Pleases passive which absorbs a single hard CC spell on him and then goes on cooldown, he then drops a canister which he can pick up to restore HP and lower the passive cooldown or you can step on it to destroy it, putting his passive on a longer cooldown.

Volibear only has 1 hard CC on his kit which is his Q Thundering Smash and it gets negated by Mundo passive Goes Where He Pleases, as such, I recommend using your Q Thundering Smash as an auto attack reset instead, don’t even think of it as a stun anymore as long as his passive is up.

But when Dr. Mundo doesn’t have his passive Goes Where He Pleases up, and you have your Q Thundering Smash ready, that’s when you should be looking to trade or all-in him, because that’s one of his windows of vulnerability.

Look to purchase Bramble Vest or even consider taking Ignite in this matchup to counter his ultimate Maximum Dosage healing steroid.

Take Doran's Shield and Second Wind if you're not super confident, otherwise, you can take Conditioning for further scaling.

Mid to late game he shouldn’t be much of a threat if you didn’t give him too much kills because his just a gigantic stat check champion and you should be able to shred him with Blade of the Ruined King and Black Cleaver with your AD bruiser build, or straight up beat him in a 1v1 with your superior DPS AP bruiser build.

Building full tank wouldn’t be too bad either, because you would be grouping and focusing on team fights if you did that, and you are far superior to Dr. Mundo when it comes to teamfights.




Fiora

Difficulty- 3.5/5

This is another skill matchup that depends a lot on the skill level of the Fiora player.

Early game should be in Volibear’s favor, just don’t get hit by Fiora’s stun empowered W Riposte.

Always be aware of your vital direction. If your vital is facing Fiora where she can easily proc it, you can walk back a bit until the vital disappears, then you can walk forward again to see which position it reappears.

If your vital is facing a wall, simply hug a wall to deny Fiora her passive proc. Same thing applies to her ultimate Grand Challenge, you can hug a wall on her last vital proc to deny her ultimate heal.

Whenever you are looking to engage or trade with her, you usually don’t wanna start with Q Thundering Smash because it makes you look very telegraphed and Fiora can easily turn the trade around with a good Riposte.

If you are forced to use Q Thundering Smash for the movement speed, look to hit E Sky Splitter on top of yourself when doing this to at least negate the damage that follows after you get stunned.

A trade you can do against Fiora to avoid her Riposte is to E Sky Splitter-Q Thundering Smash but once you get in range of her, use your W Frenzied Maul instead of your Q Thundering Smash empowered auto attack to bait out her Riposte, and instead stun her after she uses it.

These are the two things you always need to keep in mind when fighting a Fiora; her vital procs and her Riposte. You wanna take Ignite(though I don’t recommend it because you need the Teleport for macro plays in the mid to late game due to her strong split pushing) and/or rush Bramble Vest because Fiora heals a lot.

Fiora gets a big power spike once she gets Divine Sunderer due to the spellblade passive which works very well with her kit, but sometimes they go Stridebreaker or Goredrinker which isn’t as good against Volibear.

Mid game should be in Fiora’s favor if you didn’t come out ahead of your lane because her mid game item and ability power spikes are very strong.

Her Q Lunge should be on quite a low cooldown by then.

You have to also be mindful of your macro decisions because Fiora is a potent sidelaner, and sometimes they would be looking to split push instead of grouping during teamfights. You have to use your best judgment whether to group with your team or match her splitpush.

When making this decision, you have to ask yourself these questions and take these factors into account: Who’s more valuable in teamfight?Who has more sidelane pressure?Who's team is stronger?What's the state of the game? What objective is being contested?
In the late game, you should beat her with the AP bruiser build as long as you don’t let her proc a full ultimate Grand Challenge.




Gangplank

Difficulty- 2/5

It’s unlikely that you will face a good gangplank player until high elo, so this is quite an easy match up most of the time.

The above average Gangplank players will be able to kite you around using his passive’s Trial By Fire movement speed, and E Powder Keg explosion movement speed.

Gangplank is a poke champion due to his passive, Q Parrrley and barrels. Taking this in mind, you should run Doran's Shield and Second Wind.

When facing Gangplank, be wary when his passive Trial By Fire is up, because it deals true damage and grants Gangplank a movement speed buff. Though it doesn’t hurt too bad, it resets every time he explodes a barrel, so if he’s playing well, he can proc multiple passives on you dealing a lot of true damage.

His W Remove Scurvy is a cleanse and heals him for a small amount, so he can cleanse your Q Thundering Smash, but that’s not too much of a worry to us, because the quarter of a second he is stunned for when casting his W Remove Scurvy, is enough to allow us to hit our E Sky Splitter on him, but sometimes that’s difficult if he’s properly utilizing his movement speed buffs, in which case, we can also get on top of him with our Ultimate Stormbringer.

Gangplank is relevant at all stages of the game, especially late game with the infamous barrel oneshots with the glass cannon lethality crit build, but you should be able to beat him at all stages as long as you aren’t too far behind and build Dead Man's Plate, or some other movement speed item.

You should be able to easily shut him down early in the game, as long as you play around and respect his barrels.

You have to time your auto attack to destroy the barrel before he does, because you last hitting it cancels the barrel and gives you 10 gold, while him last hitting the barrel damages and slows you while resetting his passive and giving him movement speed. The barrel has 3 HP when spawned and has a countdown timer before it loses 1 hp until it’s down to its final hp where it stays there for 25 seconds before despawning, and it goes down faster the more he levels up.

You also have to be careful of barrels hidden in bushes because Gangplank can connect them together, where exploding one will cause the others to also explode.

Also be wary of Gangplank ghost barrel combo, which is difficult to pull off, but can catch a lot of people off guard when done properly. When teamfighting, look to dive him with your ultimate Stormbringer, or zone him away from your squishy teammates because he can literally one shot them.

Don’t build full tank against him, his E Powder Keg ignores 40% armor. I suggest any of the bruiser builds.




Garen

Difficulty- 3/5

This is a semi-difficult matchup for Volibear.

You outscale him with AP build.

Early game you just wanna farm up and freeze the lanes, since he is stronger than you at this moment of the game, due to his E Judgment which beats a lot of melee champions like Volibear.

When he’s looking to hit his Q Decisive Strike on you, press Q Thundering Smash as well to gain the movement speed bonus, or if he’s too close, you can stun him and run away, or wait till he casts his E Judgment and then run away, because you're gonna lose that trade.

Try not to die early on, because he can snowball his lead pretty hard, and most Garens take Ignite as their summoner spell which raises their kill pressure.

In teamfights you should look to group, because you're stronger than him in teamfights.

By mid game, he should still be stronger than you in the side lane, but you should be slowly catching up to him. Look to play around your jungler, and help him set up a gank on the Garen when possible.

By late game you should start beating him if you went AP. You are a ticking time bomb with the AP setup, where the longer the game goes, the stronger you get against him.

If your team is doing well and able to handle the Garen, you can actually build full tank, since all you're doing if you're against a Garen is grouping with your team until late game comes around where you're able to beat him if you went with the AP build.




Gnar

Difficulty- 2.5/5

The Gnar matchup is semi-easy.

He will poke you down early, and will have lane priority until you finish Plated Steelcaps and Warden's Mail. You can rush Frozen Heart first item if their jungler is AD.

Take Doran's Shield and Second Wind in this matchup.

Whenever Gnar throws his boomerang, you want to stand behind your minions because it’ll deal less damage to you after hitting a minion.

When laning against Gnar, always keep an eye out for his rage bar, you will want to do most of your trading with him when he is in his Mini-Gnar form. Back off when he transforms into Mega-Gnar, or if his rage bar is filling up and he’s about to trade with you in his Mega-Gnar form.

You can start walking up to him and start being aggressive once his rage bar is about to be depleted in his Mega-Gnar form and he’s about to turn into Mini-Gnar.

In teamfights, Gnar will be looking to engage on your team with a 5 man ultimate GNAR!, during this time, you can cast your own ultimate Stormbringer to avoid getting CC’d because you're unstoppable while casting.

When you sense that he’s about to go in for an engage on your team, you can counter engage using your ultimate Stormbringer and dive into their backline.

This is one instance where Zhonya's Hourglass can be really good for Volibear.

You outscale Gnar with AD and AP build and beat him in the sidelane duel.




Gragas

Difficulty- 2/5

The Gragas matchup is quite easy, but you wouldn't usually be able to kill him in lane due to his sustain, self-peel and good scaling.

Don't underestimate late game Gragas, his abilities will hurt when he has his items, and his cc is annoying which he'll be able to spam with a few cdr items. You'll still be able to beat him, but not without a fight.

In teamfights look to go through his E Body Slam with your ultimate Stormbringer to zone the enemy team from engaging on your team once he goes in for combo with E Body Slam into his Ultimate Explosive Cask.

Build some MR and tenacity against him.




Gwen

Difficulty- 3/5

This is a skill matchup that slightly favors Gwen in the early game, and possibly the midgame if she’s able to snowball off of a lead in the early game.

She’s an AP bruiser similar to Volibear, but she has built in sustain in her kit, and true damage in her Q Snip Snip!.

Level 1 you want to avoid trading with Gwen as she’s way too strong with her E Skip 'n Slash.

You want to start Q Thundering Smash in this matchup to stun her if she tries to go in on you.

You generally want to play passively in this lane and look to do short trades once she uses her Q Snip Snip!.

Watch out for her resource bar, if she has 4 stacks be careful, she’ll be looking to unload her 4 stack Q Snip Snip! on you. When she does Q Snip Snip! on to you, try to avoid the center of it, since that’ll deal true damage.

Try to trade back with an E Sky Splitter-Q Thundering Smash-AA-W Frenzied Maul trade then backing off.

By mid game, you should be looking to farm safely, as she’s still strong during this time of the game in comparison to you, but you might be able to take her on after pulling off a few favorable trades here and there.

Late game you should be able to beat her in a 1v1 in the side lanes, and if you went tank build, you can play for your team since you are a lot better in teamfights than she is.

Gwen is strong in dueling and soloing in the side lane, but you scale better than her if you build some offensive items, but be careful, as she can still beat you if you don’t have anti-heal and constantly get chunked by the true damage portion of her Q Snip Snip!.

You can build Spirit Visage/ Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank or Maw of Malmortius against her.




Heimerdinger

Difficulty- 3.5/5

In this matchup you need a lot of PATIENCE.

Heimerdinger will look to control and dominate the areas where he has his turrets in place.

You have to respect his territory and not fall for his provocations, else you’ll be the one to suffer the consequences once you go in for a greedy trade on him with his towers.

Heimerdinger is pretty relevant throughout the entire game.

Most of the time in lane, Heimerdinger would be pushing towards you, so you’d be forced to farm under your tower for a while.

Simply keep patient, and wait for a gank by your jungler or mid laner. Once you do receive a gank, it is an easy kill, since outside of his E CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade, he doesn’t have any other form of self-peel, movement speed buff or dashes.

Once you are able to crash the waves to his tower, whether the gank resulted in a kill or not, you can look to proxy his waves if your healthy enough and want to pressure topside if an objective is spawning or being contested on the botside.

Take Doran's Shield and Second Wind in this matchup.

You can go any build with Volibear in this matchup, take a look at your team comp, your enemies’ team comp and build accordingly.




Irelia

Difficulty- 3/5

This is a scary matchup if you screw up and don’t build properly against her.

Try not to feed her too much early on, because she snowballs her lead really hard.

This matchup actually shouldn’t be super difficult for Volibear at all. You want to rush Plated Steelcaps+ Warden's Mail, into Frozen Heart as your first items, followed by a Bramble Vest into whatever else you need to build. Frozen Heart’s Rock Solid passive and Winter’s Caress passive coupled with Plated Steelcaps' 12% auto attack damage reduction, and the massive amount of armor your stacking should completely shut her down, and make her damage output nearly non-existent.

Even if Irelia gets Blade of the Ruined King, this actually shouldn’t be too bad for you since Frozen Heart doesn’t provide HP, so it lessens the value she gets off of buying Blade of the Ruined King against you. You also get your item spikes a lot faster than her because Frozen Heart is so cheap.

You don’t need to worry about Frozen Heart’s lack of offensive stats due to Volibear’s great base damage.

Irelia is relevant through all stages of the game, but the scary thing about her is her snowball potential, which can take over entire games, as such, her getting a lead early is so good for her, but you can deny her snowball if you quite well early into the game as Volibear. During the early levels, you want to watch out for her passive Ionian Fervor stacks. Never trade with her when she has 4 stacks up. When the first wave arrives, she will look to last hit the 3 melee minions by Q’ing Bladesurge them, then Q’ing Bladesurge you to chunk you for a good amount of your HP.

You can prevent or chunk her back by placing your E Sky Splitter on top of your own minions before dying, while standing inside the circle to gain the shield, then backing off or autoing her for a few times while your shield is up.

Throughout the laning phase, you want to keep an eye out for your low health minions because she wants to dash towards them, and this is one of the moments where you could pull off a safe trade with a quick E Sky Splitter-Q Thundering Smash-AA-W Frenzied Maul combo.

You can start to play a bit aggressively once you have Plated Steelcaps and Warden's Mail. Once you’ve completed Frozen Heart, you should pretty much be immortal and even able to proxy her wave.

During the mid game, she should have stronger item spikes than you if you're going for AP build, but with AD build, you should still be stronger. Your team fights are superior to Irelia’s.

Late game, as an AD Volibear going against Irelia, who wins would depend on which build she decided to go with, if she went for more damage and less survivability, then she wins versus you in a 1v1, but if she went more defensive, then you should be able to win. If she is stronger than you, then you can group with your team more, because that means she sacrificed survivability for more damage, which is mostly advantageous in the solo lane, but of course, take into consideration the state of the game and the minion waves.

If you went AP, you should be stronger than her late game.




Illaoi

Difficulty- 4/5

This is an annoying matchup and kinda difficult, but still somewhat playable especially in the early game.

The better you are at sidestepping abilities, the better this matchup is gonna turn out for you.

This can be considered a poke matchup due to her tentacles and her E Test of Spirit so do run Doran's Shield and Second Wind here.

You can be aggressive towards her levels 1 to 3, because she’s very weak during this time. You want to hide behind minions whenever her E Test of Spirit is up because it can’t go through minions.

When you do get hit, if she has a lot of damage to get the spirit very low, you should run away going out of range of her E Test of Spirit, but if her damage is not enough, you can look to trade back some damage without needing to run out of range of her E Test of Spirit.

Later on in the game she becomes a lot stronger with a few items and levels, and actually beats you 1v1 in the sidelane, even with the AP build if she has her ultimate Leap of Faith up.

But your teamfighting is a lot better than hers, so I would suggest to group with your teammates more frequently, rather than split pushing, because she beats you in the sidelane.




Jax

Difficulty- 4/5

Jax is another skill matchup that depends on the skill of the Jax player.

Jax is strong and relevant through all stages of the game.

In the early laning phase, you want to play around the cooldown of Jax’s E Counter Strike, which he’s gonna take level 1 and try to trade with you with it, in which case, you should back off because he’s definitely gonna win that trade after taking minion agro because his E Counter Strike gets stronger the more attacks it absorbs up to a certain limit.

You also don’t wanna fight Jax when he has full stacks of his passive Relentless Assault attack speed.

If you see that he’s looking to engage on you with his Q Leap Strike and E Counter Strike, place your E Sky Splitter on top of yourself to trade back some damage and block some damage with the shield.

Jax will also be looking to block your Q Thundering Smash stun with his E Counter Strike, so play around the ability’s cooldown and don’t use your Q Thundering Smash when he’s using his E Counter Strike.

Be careful of Jax and his Divine Sunderer power spike.

1v1 on the sidelines in the mid and late game will be pretty close between Jax and Volibear, and will depend on the mechanical skill of the player.

Volibear beats Jax when it comes to teamfights, though Jax’s teamfighting isn’t bad. Go bruiser build most of the time, very rarely do you want to go full tank.

You can maybe build tank if your team is very fed and can carry the game, while you just focus more on providing more utility and frontlining.




Jayce

Difficulty- 2/5

This is quite an easy matchup for Volibear, Jayce’s only kill threat on Volibear is during the laning phase, any other point of time in the game Volibear will beat Jayce.

During the laning phase we want to dodge his E Acceleration Gate-Q Shock Blast combo in his ranged form, and try not to get poked too hard when he is in ranged form.

Buy Doran's Shield and take Second Wind to ensure that you survive the laning phase, and if you ever screw up and the Jayce gets a lead, you can transition from whatever your building to building a Frozen Heart first item, which should guarantee the non-existence of Jayce’s damage towards you.

You beat Jayce in solo lanes, and you beat him in teamfighting.




K'sante

Difficulty- 2/5

This should be an easy matchup for Volibear.

You deal with K’sante the same way you do with other tanks using Volibear.

Watch out for his Q3 Ntofo Strikes which can knock you back, and his ultimate All Out which drags you and K’sante towards a short distance, greatly increased when passing through a wall.

Be careful when using your E Sky Splitter, make sure he has used his dashes before casting, or else it’ll be a really easy dodge for him.

When K’sante’s ultimate All Out is casted, he transforms and deals more AD in exchange for survivability, and he can use it to kidnap backline carries, so look to protect and peel well.

When K’sante uses his ultimate All Out while you also cast yours, you will buffer it due to becoming unstoppable while casting, and so he will dash or drag himself to the wall without bringing you with him.

You outscale K’sante in the mid to late game with Volibear’s AD or AP build. You also offer more value and are better in teamfight than he is, as long as he doesn't get to successfully kidnap one of your carries.




Kayle

Difficulty- 2.5/5

This is an easy matchup for us.

Be wary of Kayle’s level 1, it’s really strong and beats most champions, which a lot of players don’t expect.

Kayle is a late game hyper carry scaling champion, so her early game is really weak to compensate for her being super strong later on.

Her biggest power spike is level 16, when she gets to her final form.

Kayle pre-6 is basically a cannon minion, and while she does get range when she reaches 6, which does help her and enable her to farm more safely while allowing her to also poke melee champions, she’s still a very weak champion until level 11 where she begins to get AoE auto attacks on 5 stacks passive Divine Ascent, and making her E Starfire Spellblade an AoE attack as well.

With Volibear’s early game power, you should be able to shut her down 9 times out of 10, preventing her from being useful for quite a long time.

In the laning phase you want to try to zone her so hard that she’ll miss minion exp, do this even if you have to sacrifice CS for it, but always keep in mind where the enemy jungler is pathing towards to avoid ganks.

Kayle will never be truly useless though in any game due to her late game power and the utility she’s bringing to the team, even if she is a scaling hyper carry.

Her Q Radiant Blast shreds armor and MR, her W Celestial Blessing heals and gives a movement speed buff, and her ultimate Divine Judgment makes the target ally invulnerable for 2-3 seconds.

Even if late game comes around though, you still have a very good fighting chance against Kayle if you aren’t going for a full tank build.

If Kayle goes for an AD crit build, this will make her 1 item power spike stronger, and so she’ll be a bit stronger at around level 8, but you should still be able to beat her, and later on into the game she just becomes another ADC if she continues with the crit build.




Kennen

Difficulty- 3.5/5

This is a poke matchup.

Take Doran's Shield and Second Wind.

You have to play your macro well in this matchup since Kennen would be looking to teamfight a lot because that’s where he shines.

In lane, you wouldn't really be able to kill Kennen because he’s ranged, too slippery with his E Lightning Rush and a stun on his passive Mark of the Storm.

In lane, you want to avoid his Q Thundering Shuriken poke by standing behind minions, and just farm safely under tower until you receive a gank or get level 6.

By level 6 you should have some kill pressure against him if you have some tenacity ( Mercury's Treads and Unflinching) which is important to prevent him from disengaging with his stun.

You want to wait for his E Lightning Rush to go on cooldown before engaging, so he’d only be left with his passive stun to run away from you.

By the time level 6 arrives, he will also be looking to use his ultimate Slicing Maelstrom in a teamfight, and if you want to match him by also grouping with your team, you want to try and avoid his stun by casting your ultimate when the 2nd or 3rd proc of his ultimate Slicing Maelstrom drops and is about to stun you, since you become unstoppable while casting your ultimate Stormbringer.

Though you are pretty close or possibly inferior to Kennen when it comes to teamfighting strength, you are much superior in the sidelane dueling.

Whenever possible, you wanna try to pressure Kennen to not join the team fights and match you in the side lanes, due to his AoE strength in his ultimate Slicing Maelstrom, and his weak dueling.

AD and AP Volibear scales better than Kennen and is stronger at dueling.

You wanna build Mercury's Treads for boots, and Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank or both when facing Kennen for the additional movement speed and MR.

Maw of Malmortius or Wit's End is also a good offensive counter item for AD Volibear, which you can build as your first item.




Kled

Difficulty- 2/5

Kled is a matchup where you just look to scale, his early game is very strong and you have to respect that, but he falls off really hard.

Look to peel for yourself using Q Thundering Smash and E Sky Splitter whenever he engages on you or hits you with his Q Beartrap on a Rope.

You can start to trade with him once you reach level 6.

Be careful and make sure to be 1 step ahead of Kled when you decide to group with your team, because he can group really fast after taking waves in top lane due to his ultimate Chaaaaaaaarge!!! which grants a lot of movement speed.

You have to take Teleport against him, there’s no merit in taking Ignite because you won’t kill him early on, and you need the Teleport to match his roam.

Late game you just straight up beat him if you don’t go full tank build.




Malphite

Difficulty- 1.5/5

This is an easy matchup for Volibear.

Malphite will look to poke you a lot in the early stages of the game with his Q Seismic Shard, so you’d want to buy Doran's Shield and take Second Wind into this matchup.

Outside of the early laning phase, you beat him at all stages of the game. The only area where he does excel over you outside of poke, is during teamfights, where a good engage by his R Unstoppable Force can single handedly win him the fight.

You want to build Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank against Malphite to counter his AP damage and gain movement speed to chase him.

You can go AD or AP build against him.

AD build is especially good due to Blade of the Ruined King and Black Cleaver which counters tanks like Malphite.




Maokai

Difficulty- 2/5

This is another tank matchup that Volibear can deal with quite well.

Maokai has poke with his E Sapling Toss, so take Doran's Shield and Second Wind in this matchup.

Maokai may have lane prio in the early game if you get hit by his abilities frequently, but you will outscale him later on.

It is unlikely that you will kill him in lane due to his good sustain through his passive Sap Magic, consider buying a Bramble Vest.

During teamfights Maokai will look to use his ultimate Nature's Grasp.

You can go through Maokai’s Ultimate Nature's Grasp by casting your own ultimate Stormbringer when you're about to get hit by the root, because you are unstoppable when casting your ult.

Maokai deals AP damage, so look to build MR items such as Spirit Visage/ Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank/ Maw of Malmortius.

AD or AP Volibear can deal with Maokai really well, especially later on into the game.

AD build is especially good due to Blade of the Ruined King and Black Cleaver which counters tanks like Maokai.




Mordekaiser

Difficulty- 3/5

Morderkaiser is a semi-difficult matchup for Volibear.

Early game you cannot go for extended trades against him due to his passive Darkness Rise.

Morderkaiser’s early game is alright, his mid game is strong, but late game you beat him if you don’t build full tank.

Watch out for his Q Obliterate and E Death's Grasp, try to sidestep and dodge if possible.

If you have experience struggling to avoid Mordekaiser’s abilities in lane, or if you're not confident in sidestepping his abilities, you can take Doran's Shield and Second Wind to this match up.

Whenever you are in a position where you can’t dodge his Q Obliterate, make sure you stand beside a minion to avoid getting hit by an isolated Q Obliterate which does a lot more damage, and chunks you down pretty hard.

Make sure to build MR items such as Spirit Visage/ Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank/ Maw of Malmortius when facing a Mordekaiser.

If you time your ultimate Stormbringer well, you can actually buffer and cancel his ultimate Realm of Death, putting it on full cooldown without going to the shadow realm due to being CC immune during your ultimate casting.

Dueling Mordekaiser later on in the game will usually result in you winning.

When it comes to teamfights you should be able to have more impact than Mordekaiser, but you wanna try to zone him off of important teammates such as your jungler when objectives are low hp, because he can cast ult on your jungler to make your team unable to Smite to secure objectives, while his team can safely secure with their Smite advantage.




Nasus

Difficulty- 2.5/5

Nasus matchup should be somewhat easy for Volibear.

Volibear’s strong early game can shut down Nasus for a little while before he reappears with 500 stacks to his name.

Early game, we want to be zoning him off of minions and CS, preventing him from farming and gaining Q Siphoning Strike stacks.

Nasus does get a lot stronger though at level 6-8 due to his ultimate Fury of the Sands and his Divine Sunderer power spike, so do be careful, though you should still be able to beat him.

Buy Bramble Vest early or take Ignite to counter his lifesteal passive Soul Eater.

Whenever your trading, try to avoid fighting while inside of his E Spirit Fire because it shreds armor and incoming AD abilities and auto attacks hurt a lot more.

Nasus is very strong in the sidelands, but lacks in teamfighting in comparison to Volibear, so you wanna look to group with your team when securing objectives.

You can go either of the 3 Volibear builds.




Olaf

Difficulty- 4/5

This is quite the challenging matchup.

Olaf can run you down level 1 with the use of his Q Undertow. It slows, deals damage, and can have its cooldown refunded if Olaf picks up the axe. Once Olaf misses a Q Undertow and doesn’t pick up the axe, you can look to punish him here and look to trade.


Rush Plated Steelcaps and Warden's Mail, building towards a Frozen Heart as your first item. Having these two items should reduce Olaf’s DPS output by a lot, but it won’t completely shut him down due to the true damage from his E Reckless Swing, which ignores armor.

When Olaf uses his ultimate Ragnarok, he’ll be immune to CC for 3 seconds and the duration increases every time he hits a champion with an auto attack or E Reckless Swing, so you wanna try to run away and kite him while his ultimate Ragnarok is active.

You can consider running Exhaust or Ghost against Olaf if you struggle against him, but for me, Plated Steelcaps and Frozen Heart is enough to deal with Olaf.

Early game, Olaf will beat you. But by mid game, you should be beating him, or at the very least, stay even.

Late game you should be outscaling Olaf and beat him in the sidelands with the AD or AP build.

You can also build tank if you group a lot and don’t plan to side lane frequently.

Volibear beats Olaf at teamfights in all stages of the game.

Olaf beats you in duels in the early game, then slowly loses his dueling power against AD/AP Volibear the longer the game goes on.




Ornn

Difficulty- 2.5/5

Ornn is a semi-easy matchup for Volibear.

His trades are pretty strong especially if the Ornn player utilizes his brittle passive Living Forge well, but you should be able to still come out on top in short trades, Volibear also wins all-ins and extended fights.

You can take Lethal Tempo in this matchup, since you can run him down whenever his E Searing Charge is on cooldown and find an angle to all in or chunk him down.

In teamfights, you should be equal in teamfighting power, just depends on who lands more of their skills.

Look to buffer his ultimate Call of the Forge God with your own ultimate Stormbringer to avoid the CC.

Volibear is also better than Ornn in the sidelanes.

Ornn is gonna be relevant throughout the entire game, especially late game because he scales really well due to his passive Living Forge which gives him additional percent resistances and can also upgrade his team’s items to Masterwork items.

Tank, AD or AP build all work well against Ornn, with AD being the best due to the anti-tank items there such as Blade of the Ruined King and Black Cleaver which works well against tanks like Ornn.




Pantheon

Difficulty- 3/5

Pantheon is gonna be an even matchup, but becomes a difficult one if you let him get a lead and snowball.

Pantheon has great gank set up with his point and click CC on his W Shield Vault.

Level 1-2 you should be able to beat him while level 3 and beyond in the laning phase, you should avoid trades when he has full stacks of passive[[mortal will] ready to empower an ability.

What he'll be doing is jumping on you with an empowered W Shield Vault, tapping you with Q Comet Spear, and lastly Blocking damage from your direction with E Aegis Assault for a free trade. If you see him sitting with 5 stacks, be careful and try to anticipate when he'll jump on top of you with his W Aegis Assault, where you should look to place an E Sky Splitter on top of yourself to avoid some damage, then Q Thundering Smash and W Frenzied Maul to trade back some damage.

Watch out when level 6 arrives, and be ready to spam ping missing when you don't see him anymore and he has his ultimate Grand Starfall up.

You want to punish his roam by crashing minion waves, taking tower plates, and taking enemy jungle.

Another option you can do is match his roam using your Teleport.

You can go through Pantheon's W Shield Vault stun with your ultimate Stormbringer, which makes you CC immune while casting.

Throughout the entire game, Volibear should have better teamfights than Pantheon, but Pantheon has better small skirmishes due to his fast response and assistance with his Ultimate Grand Starfall.

In the dueling match, it's a skill matchup in the early game that transitions into Volibear favored in the late game.

You can go for any of Volibear's 3 builds.




Poppy

Difficulty- 2/5

This is a semi-easy matchup as long as we don’t take bad trades such as getting stunned by Poppy’s E Heroic Charge, because if you do, she will unload her entire combo on you, resulting in a big chunk of your HP missing.

Try to stand in the center of the lane when she has her E Heroic Charge available, to ensure she doesn’t land a wall stun on you.

Be careful when trading with her when she has her passive Iron Ambassador up, her auto becomes ranged, drops a buckler and she gains a shield when she picks up the buckler. You can also step on the buckler yourself to deny her a shield, be careful though, because she might look to engage you here when trying to step on the buckler.

You should be able to beat her throughout most of the game, especially late game, with the AD or AP build.

Volibear is superior to Poppy when it comes to teamfights and solo lane dueling.

Be wary of her Divine Sunderer power spike.




Quinn

Difficulty- 4.5/5

This is a very difficult matchup due to her annoying poke, blind and self-peel with her E Vault, but you outscale her.

She will be very oppressive in lane.

Always take Doran's Shield, Second Wind, and I may even consider going Fleet Footwork.

Sacrifice CS and just soak exp in this lane, take whatever CS you can without getting poked to death, since you dying will make her stronger and she can use that lead to help her team when level 6 comes and she goes to roam.

Rush Plated Steelcaps and Warden's Mail building into Frozen Heart first item. Sunfire Aegis is also a nice alternative in this matchup to Frozen Heart, since the additional waveclear is really nice to deny her minion waves and punish her when she goes to roam.

If you survive the laning phase without giving away too many kills, the game should become a lot easier for you.

I would personally buy Hullbreaker second item in this matchup to really punish her for every roam she goes for, threatening her towers and becoming a split pushing menace.

Volibear is stronger than Quinn in teamfights, and you should look to peel for your backline carries whenever possible if she goes for the lethality build. You also win against her in late game 1v1 sidelaning.




Renekton

Difficulty- 3.5/5

This is a semi-difficult matchup, but he falls off later on in the game, and you outscale him really hard.

Level 1 and 2, you should win trades against Renekton, try to zone him off minions during these levels to prevent him from stacking his Fury.

Levels 3-5 he will start to win most trades. Watch out for his Fury bar, if he has high Fury, then you want to play passively, as you will lose trades if you fight him with more than 50% Fury.

Rush Plated Steelcaps in this matchup, and if you're struggling you can buy a Warden's Mail and sit on it. Frozen Heart first item is optional, you can build it if you're against an AD jungler.

Watch out for his level 6, it’s a big power spike for Renekton and you will lose against him in extended trades or all ins during this stage of the game. Post-6 you will slowly start to become stronger than him in duels.

Volibear is better in teamfights than Renekton, but look to peel for your backline carries whenever possible, as Renekton is good at diving them using his E Slice and Dice.

Late game sidelane, AD or AP Volibear will beat Renekton.

You can build any of the three builds with Volibear, but with full tank you’re sacrificing solo lane power for more tankiness and a more team oriented playstyle




Riven

Difficulty- 4/5

This is another matchup that's very dependent on the skill of the opponent.

It's very difficult to hit your E Sky Splitter in this matchup due to Riven's dashes, and so your damage is gonna be lessened due to that, but you should still at least get the shield to negate some damage.

Riven is gonna beat Volibear when it comes to short trades, because she has a knock up on her Q3 Broken Wings, stun on her W Ki Burst and a dash with shield on her E Valor. Not only does she have CC, self-peel and dashes, she also has the damage through her passive Runic Blade and ultimate Blade of the Exile to further complement these abilities in her kit.

Good Riven players who are very proficient in her animation cancels can basically trade against us for free, with little to no damage back at all.

During teamfights we should be better, but more team reliant than Riven, she'll offer more damage for the team, but Volibear offers more utility.

When she uses Q3 Broken Wings or W Ki Burst on you in crucial moments, you can use your ultimate Stormbringer to go through her CC because Volibear is CC immune during the casting of ultimate.

In the early to mid game sidelane she might be a bit stronger than us in 1v1s, but we should be outscaling her in the late game with our AP build.

Just be careful and try your best to hit your E Sky Splitter against her, and sidestep whatever abilities you can from her.

There shouldn't be much of a problem in this matchup if the Riven player is not a one trick or someone who has lots of experience as her, as the damage output difference between these two players are pretty big.




Rumble

Difficulty- 3/5

This is a semi difficult matchup.

Rumble is a poke lane, and will be stronger than you in the early game if the player is able to utilize his kit very well.

Rumble is not the most difficult champion to play, but the Rumble player needs to really know how to use his overheat passive Junkyard Titan well in order to take control of the lane and beat you.

Never trade with him when his overheat bar is above 50%, as his Q Flamespitter becomes empowered and deal a lot more damage.

Once he gets overheated to 100%, he will get silenced, but his auto attacks will hurt and apply magic damage. Look to run away if this is about to happen, you can turn against him and trade/all in once his 100% overheat is about to run out.

It is kinda rare to find a good Rumble player in the toplane who is able to do that, so most of the time you just need to survive his E Electro-Harpoon and Q Flamespitter poke.

Take Doran's Shield and Second Wind in this matchup.

Rumble gets a big power spike with his ultimate The Equalizer and will be looking to use it in a team fight due to its big AoE, damage and slow. He can also use it for zoning.

Rumble will be looking to use it in the dragon or baron pit, so make sure to pull the objectives outside the pit before committing to secure them to avoid getting screwed over by a Rumble Ult.

Post-6 you should be able to beat him in duels as long as you didn't give too many kills.

You can rush Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank/ Maw of Malmortius against Rumble.

1v1 in the late game should be in your favor, as long as you didn't build full tank.

Teamfights on the other hand, are pretty close. Both of you have big impacts on the outcome of teamfights, with Volibear soaking more damage, providing more CC and slows, while Rumble focused more on poking and dealing big AoE damage.




Sett

Difficulty- 3/5

This should be a fairly easy matchup if you don’t allow Sett to snowball.

Try your best not to allow Sett to get an early lead, because while he is very strong early, he falls off in the late game.

Sett wants to get a lead early and take over the game from there before scaling champs hit their power spikes.

Volibear does quite well against Sett in the laning phase if played correctly.

Volibear wins trades as long as he doesn’t get hit by the true damage center portion of his W Haymaker.

Be careful when trading though, because it is more forgiving for Sett when he takes bad trades due to his passive Pit Grit HP regen, while bad trades are more punishing for Volibear because he doesn’t have the luxury of consistent lane sustain.

You can take Doran's Shield into Sett if you want to match his sustain and stay in lane longer, but if you’re confident in this matchup, you can take Doran's Ring.

You can rush Frozen Heart if you're losing the lane.

You can use your ultimate Stormbringer to avoid his E Facebreaker and his Ultimate The Show Stopper because you are CC immune when you cast your ultimate Stormbringer. When you buffer his ultimate The Show Stopper with your ultimate Stormbringer, he will go through and do a smackdown, but he won’t bring you together with him and his ultimate The Show Stopper goes on full cooldown when this interaction happens.

You win against him in duels later on in the game with AD/AP Volibear build.

Both of you have pretty much similar power in teamfights. Who wins depends on who plays it mechanically better.

Late game, you should beat him, just try to avoid his W Haymaker true damage.




Shen

Difficulty- 2.5/5

Shen is a semi-easy matchup for Volibear.

His trades are very strong early, especially with the empowered Q Twilight Assault where he pulls the sword through you.

Shen also counters Volibear’s Q Thundering Smash stun with his W Spirit's Refuge, you want to hold your Q Thundering Smash until his W Spirit's Refuge goes on cooldown.

Volibear wins all-ins and extended fights if equipped with Lethal Tempo in this matchup, since you can run him down whenever his E Shadow Dash and W Spirit's Refuge are on cooldown and find an angle to all in or chunk him.

In teamfights, you should be better than him, but his ultimate Stand United’s shield can come in clutch and save an ally from potential death.

You have to take Teleport in this matchup to match his ultimate Stand United.

Volibear should do more damage and have better engage in teamfights, while Shen is better at peeling and protecting his teammates with his E Shadow Dash, and W Spirit's Refuge.

Volibear is also better than Shen in the sidelanes.

Shen is gonna be relevant throughout the entire game, yes, even in late game because his ultimate Stand United shield does get quite big when casted on a low hp target, and with a few HP items. But when he builds some AP items, he sacrifices his own tankiness for higher shield on his ultimate Stand United.

Tank, AD or AP builds all work well against Shen, with AD being the best due to the anti-tank items there such as Blade of the Ruined King and Black Cleaver which work well against tanks like Shen.




Singed

Difficulty- 1/5

Very easy matchup, basically a free lane for Volibear.

Both of you scale well into the late game, but you beat him in duels and sidelaning, whereas in teamfights both of you have equal power.

After placing a ward, I would want to go to back to my tier 2 tower and walk the minions to lane to prevent any proxy attempts by Singed.

Most Singed players want to shove the waves to attempt a proxy, or a roam, especially the ones who equip the Predator keystone on Singed, when he has that rune, you know that they're gonna look to roam a lot.

Go for trades with him when he goes for CS or if his E Fling is down.

You should have lane prio the entire time if he doesn't proxy. You could also pull an UNO reverse card on him by proxying his wave.

Watch the spawn timer of the first dragon, because singed will usually go to help and look for a skirmish/teamfight because that's where he excels at.

You can rush Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank/ Wit's End in this matchup for the MR and movement speed, which is gonna be great for when he gets Rylai's Crystal Scepter and permanently slows you on his Q Poison Trail gas, alternatively, you can also go offensive items too, since the matchup isn't difficult at all, and you might get solo kills here and there.




Sion

Difficulty- 3.5/5

This is an easy matchup in lane, but he will outscale you massively in the late game if you don't itemize correctly.

Be very aggressive in the early game, and take control of the lane. Zone him off of CS and punish him when he goes for last hits. You need to shut him down hard before he becomes a late game raid boss.

Be mindful of jungle pathing of the enemy jungler, Sion has a very good gank set up.

Once you get a kill on Sion, back off and use your E Sky Splitter or Q Thundering Smash for self-peel if you're low. But if you're healthy you can back off a bit then kite his zombie form to kill it quicker to deny him more exp and gold in his death and to prevent him from manipulating the state of the wave.

Always listen to the audio of the game post-6 because you can hear a sound effect if he decides to use his ultimate Unstoppable Onslaught, even if you don't have vision of him.

Sion will have better team fighting capability, especially if he hits multiple targets with a full range ultimate Unstoppable Onslaught, chain CC'ing then into a full charge Q Decimating Smash, you can outplay this though by using your ultimate Stormbringer just as you're about to get hit by Sion ultimate Unstoppable Onslaught, because you become CC immune while casting.

Sion scales extremely well into the late game due to his W Soul Furnace passive which gives him max HP every time he kills a unit.

He will also hurt due to multiple factors that synergize well with his very big max HP, such as Grasp of the Undying rune, Heartsteel proc, Demolish rune, and Titanic Hydra. So not only will he be extremely tanky, but deal a lot of damage as well.

He'll also be a split pushing monster in the side lane, even more so if he builds a Hullbreaker.

For your build go for anti-tank items, rush Divine Sunderer or Blade of the Ruined King first item, then whichever of the two you didn't build as your 2nd item. These are Sion's kryptonites and will make your trades against him super strong with the 6%max HP spellblade passive on Divine Sunderer or the 12%current HP damage on-hit passive of Blade of the Ruined King.

Next you want to build Black Cleaver to shred his armor, which he'll be building a lot of, then you can go tank items from here, but if you really wanna melt down the Sion, you can take one more anti-tank item: Lord Dominik's Regards for the most damage of the three Last Whisper items, Mortal Reminder for anti-heal if their team has a lot of healing, or Serylda's Grudge for the Ability Haste which allows you to more frequently use your Q Thundering Smash stun and E Sky Splitter slow in him if you need the CC, the Bitter Cold passive is nice as well.




Tahm Kench

Difficulty- 3.5/5

Tahm Kench is a semi-difficult matchup for Volibear.

His trades are quite strong, and it’s really difficult to kill a Tahm Kench in lane due to his extreme tankiness his self-peel with his Q Tongue Lash, an escape/knock up with his W Abyssal Dive, and shield from his E Thick Skin.

In teamfights, you should be better than him.

When he has 3 stacks of his An Acquired Taste passive on you, you can buffer his Q Tongue Lash stun or Ultimate Devour with your own ultimate Stormbringer to avoid the CC.

Volibear is also better than Tahm Kench in the sidelanes.

Tahm Kench is gonna be strong early to mid game, then he will start to fall off in the late game.

Tank, AD or AP build all work well against Tahm Kench, with AD being the best due to the anti-tank items there such as Blade of the Ruined King and Black Cleaver which works well against tanks like Tahm Kench.




Teemo

Difficulty- 5/5

This is a very difficult matchup due to his annoying poke with his E Toxic Shot passive, blind, and movement speed buff.

You also don’t just easily dominate Teemo in the late game, because he also scales really well, but you should still be able to beat him in the 1v1 sidelanes late game.

He will be very oppressive in lane. Always take Doran's Shield, Second Wind, and I may even consider going Fleet Footwork.

Sacrifice CS and just soak exp in this lane, take whatever CS you can without getting poked to death.

Take a look at the enemy team composition, and decide which boots you want to buy. You can buy Boots of Swiftness, Mercury's Treads, or Plated Steelcaps.

You can rush Force of Nature/ Turbo Chemtank/ Maw of Malmortius /Wit's End for your first item.

Take Unflinching or Legend: Tenacity in your runes to minimize Teemo’s Q Blinding Dart blind duration, and Celerity and Nimbus Cloak as your secondary runes, or Gathering Storm and Nullifying Orb (note: Don’t take Nullifying Orb if you’re planning to build items with lifeline passive such as Maw of Malmortius or Sterak's Gage, since it won’t stack).

If you survive the laning phase without giving away too many kills, the game should become easier for you.

When you do wanna fight him, hold your Q Thundering Smash if he blinds you, as it will cause your Q Thundering Smash to miss and go on cooldown.

Look to use your W Frenzied Maul, E Sky Splitter or Ultimate Stormbringer instead.

Volibear is stronger than Teemo in teamfights.

You also win against him in late game 1v1 with AD or AP build.

You can use any of the 3 builds in this matchup.




Tryndamere

Difficulty- 1.5/5

This is quite an easy matchup for Volibear.

Tryndamere’s only kill threat on Volibear is during the laning phase before we can build armor items, any other point of time in the game Volibear will beat Tryndamere.

During the laning phase, we want to look for short trade combos on Tryndamere, avoiding his all-ins.

Once you get Plated Steelcaps, and Warden's Mail building into Frozen Heart first item, the lane should be over for Tryndamere.

You beat him in teamfights and you beat him in the sidelanes.

Don’t build full tank against a Tryndamere.

Be careful once he gets to build Kraken Slayer, Lord Dominik's Regards, and Blade of the Ruined King.

Look to shut him down in the early game to prevent him from getting to this point, but once he does get to these items, you can build Anathema's Chains against him to extend the duration of CC against him and make him deal less damage to you.




Urgot

Difficulty- 3.5/5

The Urgot matchup is somewhat difficult.

You have to play around his E Disdain cooldown in the laning phase, because it is very powerful in the early game.

Though level 2-5 you can get good trades in against Urgot because he's not super strong yet during this time and needs a few more levels to get really strong.

Take Doran's Shield and Second Wind in this matchup, as he will be looking to poke you with his range.

Urgot has a strong level 9 power spike, because during this time he will be able to toggle his W Purge on or off with no cooldown.

When teamfighting try not to get hit by his ultimate Fear Beyond Death, and if you did, be careful in engaging because he can use you to get a big fear off by flashing into your team when you die.

But you can outplay his ultimate Fear Beyond Death with your own. You have to time it so that when he’s pulling the chains of the 2nd part of his ultimate Fear Beyond Death, you also cast your own ultimate Stormbringer which should cancel the execute/chain pulling part of his R because you're unstoppable while casting.

Be careful of sidelaning against him in the late game, he scales well and has kill potential against you if you eat his entire combo.

You will gain a big advantage in the 1v1 if you can sidestep his E Disdain or his Ultimate Fear Beyond Death.

In teamfights, it depends on the mechanics of players of both ends. If Urgot uses his ultimate Fear Beyond Death against you and gets a good flash fear into your team, he wins, but if you can kill him before that happens or if you can outplay his ultimate Fear Beyond Death with your ultimate Stormbringer, then your team is gonna win the fight.

Build AD or AP on this matchup, you're gonna need the damage against this guy.




Vayne

Difficulty- 5/5

Very difficult matchup.

Ranged champion with dash, %max HP true damage auto attack passive, stun/knockback and an AD steroid for an ultimate with a few seconds of invisibility on every Q Tumble while active.

Basically almost everything that can make Volibear's life in the laning phase difficult and unpleasant.

Take Doran's Shield, Second Wind and would even consider going Fleet Footwork in this matchup.

Farm safely and scale in this lane, you can't do much other than not dying and soaking XP. Wait for a jungle gank, which should be possible since the waves are gonna be pushed towards us.

Never build full tank in this matchup, she's known for her anti-tank capabilities, instead, go for AD or AP build. Rush Plated Steelcaps, into Warden's Mail building into Frozen Heart if the enemy comp has an AD jungler together with Vayne top, else you can go offensive items here straight up, since Vayne is still a squishy ADC in the end.

1v1 early should be in Vayne's favor, while later on, it will depend on the mechanical skill of the Vayne player, but it's generally favored towards Volibear and should result in the bear taking the lead in dueling.

When it comes to teamfighting strength, Volibear wins this due to the raw damage, cc, slow and tankiness, and Vayne, although still offering a lot of damage for her team, is still a squishy ADC.

Picking Vayne top really messes up the team composition of a team, and results in team comp diff.




Warwick

Difficulty- 3/5

Warwick lane is difficult early, but you outscale him hard.

His early game dueling is really strong, one of the best in the game. Don't go for extended trades against him early in the game, even if he is low because that's where he's strongest.

He will be trying to bait you into going for an all in just to turn it around with his life steal and Barrier.

Take Ignite, or rush Bramble Vest into this matchup.

If your team is ahead or even, and there's not much interaction in the toplane by the enemy jungle/mid/support and you're just looking to beat Warwick in duels and gain leads there, you can rush Nashor's Tooth. The Nashor's Tooth power spike is really strong and will make you beat Warwick just with this one item. Keep in mind that you will be squishier since you don't have defensive stats with that item, but your damage output will skyrocket.

If you want a safer alternative, you can buy Riftmaker, or you can go the AD route and buy Blade of the Ruined King.

Tank build also isn't bad here, but you wouldn't be dominating him in lane. Make sure to buy anti-heal item. You can avoid Warwick E Primal Howl's fear by using your ultimate Stormbringer, as it makes you CC immune during casting. Same trick could also apply to his ultimate Infinite Duress, while he's jumping towards you.

Volibear beats Warwick in teamfights at all stages of the game.

Warwick beats Volibear in early dueling, and possibly mid game dueling if he's able to get a lead early.

AD or AP Volibear wins in duels during the late game.




Wukong

Difficulty- 3/5

This is a difficult matchup early, then you outscale him later on.

Try to avoid long trades and all ins with Wukong in the early game, as his passive Stone Skin makes him really tanky and be able to win most trades.

He can also bait out your Q Thundering Smashusing his W Warrior Trickster.

Look to farm safely in this lane, and scale up.

You can consider going Plated Steelcaps and Frozen Heart rush if they have an AD jungler and you're struggling against Wukong, but if you’re at least even with him, you can go for offensive items.

Be careful of his level 6 and Divine Sunderer power spikes.

Volibear beats Wukong in teamfights at all stages of the game, and beats him in the sidelane later on with AD or AP builds.




Yasuo

Difficulty- 3/5

This is an easy matchup.

Early in the laning phase, you should win short trades, do not look for long trades or all-ins because he will win that even if you equip Lethal Tempo, unless you have a big HP advantage.

Rush Plated Steelcaps and Warden's Mail building into Frozen Heart first item, then buy Bramble Vest afterwards. You should shut him down once you get your Warden's Mail.

Volibear should have more impact than him in teamfights, unless he has good knockup synergy with 1 or 2 teammate such as a Gragas or Malphite.

You only win against him in dueling once you have your Frozen Heart.

The scary thing about Yasuo is how he’s still able to scale into a late game monster even if you beat him in the early game, so be aware of that, though you should still be able to beat him with AP build in the late game.

If you're not ahead of the Yasuo and you don’t have a big HP advantage, run away if he hits you with his ultimate Last Breath, because it grants him armor penetration and it might be enough to kill you even with armor items.




Yone

Difficulty- 2.5/5

This is an easy matchup.

Early in the laning phase, you should win short trades, do not look for long trades or all-ins because he will win that even if you equip Lethal Tempo, unless you have a big HP advantage.

Rush Plated Steelcaps and Warden's Mail building into Frozen Heart first item, then buy Bramble Vest afterwards.

You should shut him down once you get your Warden's Mail.

Volibear should have more impact than him in teamfights, but you only win against him in dueling once you have your Frozen Heart.

The scary thing about Yone is how he’s still able to scale into a late game monster even if you beat him in the early game, so be aware of that, though you should still be able to beat him with AP build in the late game.




Yorick

Difficulty- 3/5

This is an even matchup that favors whoever can get an early kill against the other.

Whoever can get a lead early on, will usually win the matchup, though even if you fall behind, it isn’t too bad for Volibear, but it just makes the laning phase difficult.

Take Teleport to counter his split push.

Be careful when he has 4 ghouls because he can look for a trade with his E Mourning Mist and W Dark Procession, and it will hurt.

Try to maintain your 5 stacks on your passive The Relentless Storm in lane for the attack speed and chain lightning which will be very beneficial towards killing his ghouls and destroying his W Dark Procession wall if you ever get caught inside.

A trick you can do to instantly get out of Yorick’s wall though is when he or any enemy unit or champion gets close to the wall, Volibear can use his Q Thundering Smash on the enemy unit and actually go through the wall.

Be careful of his level 6, he will try to hit us with a combo because he spawns 2-4 ghouls (depending on level) together with his Maiden when he presses R Eulogy of the Isles.

When he has Maiden try to take it out whenever possible, especially when dragon, herald, or baron is about to be contested or a fight is about to break out because Yorick without Maiden is quite weak and the cooldown on his ultimate Eulogy of the Isles is quite long.

Later on in the game, you need to shove waves before grouping with your team to prevent Yorick from taking all your towers.

In the mid to late game against Yorick, always look at your map and don’t just mindlessly group with your team around objectives, else Yorick’s gonna take your towers.

Shove waves all the way to the enemies’ tower before grouping to have time before the enemy waves bounce back and reach your towers, and if Yorick is right there in your tower’s face, then just stay in the lane and deal with him for now, unless you have Teleport and it’s a game winning teamfight/objective then ignore Yorick for a bit, while you and your team take the objective/fight, then you could Teleport immediately back to lane if your healthy enough, or recall then Teleport or walk.

Throughout the entire game, Volibear is better than Yorick in teamfight, but that’s due to the nature of the champion, as Yorick is a split pusher. In the side lanes he is really strong together with his Maiden, think of his Maiden as a 6th champion on the enemy team.

Look to kill his Maiden first before fighting him in a 1v1.