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Veigar Build Guide by Bashyourass

AP Carry [S5] [Revamped] Veigar, The Overpowered Underrated Midget Of

AP Carry [S5] [Revamped] Veigar, The Overpowered Underrated Midget Of

Updated on February 13, 2015
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Bashyourass Build Guide By Bashyourass 182 11 3,353,090 Views 110 Comments
182 11 3,353,090 Views 110 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Bashyourass Veigar Build Guide By Bashyourass Updated on February 13, 2015
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Introduction



Hello. My summoner name is Bashyour*** on EU West and I am a diamond level League of Legends player. I decided to make a Veigar guide because he's one of my fun champions to play and because there wasn't a good up-to-date guide for him.

This Veigar guide capitalizes on the fact that Full-Nuke AP Veigar is very very viable. I've met a lot of players on my team that have said "Please don't pick Veigar" only to find out they started getting carried by me.

Disclaimer: I am not perfect; This guide may not be perfect, but I'm just here to share with you all of my experience in league of legends with Veigar. Fun fact: I've played league for 4.5 years and have had a total of almost 5,500 games played.
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Pros / Cons, *And solutions to the cons.

Pros:
+ Best single target AP nuke in the game.
+ You have the ability to farm your Q over and over again.
+ Event Horizon Is very useful in controlling teamfights.
+ Strong Mid-Late game.
+ Destroys tanks with ease, Destroys squishy champions even more easily.
+ Best laugh in game.

Cons:
- Your early game is a joke.
- You're hilariously squishy.
- No escape or mobility mechanisms/spells besides your Event Horizon.
- You are most likely to be focused in a teamfight.
- You will single target nuke, but they still have 4 other players.

Solutions:
1. Your early game is a joke, which is why you should farm your Q everytime it's up. You shouldn't care about your teammates, there's nothing you can do anyway to help them pre-6, so it's best to farm and farm and farm. Your early defense masteries and Health Potions should keep you alive and sustained.

2. While it's true that you're hilariously squishy, it would be almost impossible for them to kill you if your positioning is perfect. You have 4 other members on your team, atleast 1 or 2 of them will be the main initiators, causing CC chaos and soaking up some damage for you, and that's when you come out, stun everyone, nuke someone, and laugh after they die.

3. You don't have an escape/mobility spell. This is perhaps the one problem that is hard to solve, but there are still precautions you should take. Flash is very good for either using it to better co-ordinate your Event Horizon, or to Flash away from danger. Flash should be used with care, it's precious. Your Event Horizon also protects you for a long time (It stuns enemies, how surprising). For melee champs bashing at you, it's best to locate your stun's circle's edge right next to you, so that it would stun them instantly.

4. You are most likely to be focused in a team fight, but that's ok. You have your Zhonya's Hourglass, You have your Flash, you have your Event Horizon, and you (hopefully) have a team that will look out for you.

5. So you fulfilled your purpose in nuking down one person, which is statistically around 20% of the enemy team. As soon as you instakill someone, it's 4v5. Instantly. This is a major advantage morally and realistically. The enemies feel outnumbered, weak, and will try their best to 'wing it' and run. Veigar's Baleful Strike has a relatively low cooldown, combined with blue buff it can really do some good damage every few seconds after the nuke. It's important to nuke down their carries, because then more than 25% of their team is gone instantly. (The supports don't do much).
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Veigar's Champion Abilities

*Wallpaper by trumpetfro.

Equilibrium: This passive may not be the best passive in the game, but it works synonymously with Doran's Ring and will generally give you all your mana needs when you're out of it. It helps you farm up your Ability Power.

Baleful Strike: This spell has the lowest cooldown out of all of your spells, and has good permanent AP farming potential. The best thing about this skill is that it's endless, limitless. You can literally farm up to a million Ability Power. This spell is also used as a harass/poking tool. Your Baleful Strike should really be on cooldown in most of your laning, making sure you last hit all minions (and monsters, if possible) with it. You get 2 AP if you last hit a cannon minion or big monster, so use it and prioritize to your advantage.

Dark Matter: This underrated spell has one of the largest base damages in the entire game, accompanied by a 100% AP ratio - guaranteed to inflict some serious damage if used properly. It also reveals an area for a short period of time. This spell should be used with Event Horizon which I'll talk about in a bit.

Event Horizon: This is your main initiation, escape, preparation spell. You will not be able to perform your full nuke without this. I usually max this spell out last after getting rank 2 of it, but you may choose to rank it up higher earlier in the game if you're against certain champions that can dodge your nukes (See match-ups). This is the spell that brings together all of your nuke.

Primordial Burst: This is one of the best single target damaging nukes in game, if not the best. The base damage is extremely high and the AP ratio is insane. Just when you thought it couldn't get better it also deals 80% of your opponent's AP in damage. Always use the stun with Baleful Strike and Dark Matter to ensure a full nuke. It's best to waste all of your spells, guaranteeing a kill rather than wasting some of them only to find out they have escaped.
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Runes



The runes that I actually use are quite weird, but work really well depending on who i'm going against.

~Going against an AP champion~
3x Greater Quintessence of Ability Power.
3x Greater Glyph of Ability Power + 6x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist.
9x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration.
5x Greater Seal of Scaling Health + 4x Greater Seal of Health.
This gives us a total of 18 Ability Power,, 8 magic resist,7.8 Magic Penetration and +120 health at lvl 18, +32 health
This rune page is quite odd, and I agree with the fact that it's odd, but it works. You don't need any armor if you're going against a champion that deals magic damage. It's better to start off with higher Ability Power to help last hit minions and give you the edge when you go to nuke someone.


~Going against an AD champion~
2x Greater Quintessence of Ability Power + 1x Greater Quintessence of Armor
9x Greater Glyph of Ability Power.
9x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration.
9x Greater Seal of Armor.
This gives us a total of 25.6 Ability Power, 9 Armor and 7.8 Magic Penetration.
If you're going against a champion that deals physical damage then you don't need magic resist.
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Masteries - What and Why

OFFENSE (21)
Sorcery: 5% cooldown reduction is important for your AP farming.
Butcher : Could prove to be useful in last hitting, and it's the best point to invest in.
Mental Force : AP/level, good AP scaling with your farm.
Arcane Mastery: +6 Ability power, enough said.
Executioner : During our epic combo, Primordial Burst will come out when they're less than 50% health, meaning it'll deal way more damage.
Archmage : Self explanatory, more AP.
Dangerous Game : This may seem a bit pointless but is literally the only point worth investing in.
Devastating Strikes : I don't like the idea that there's armor penetration in it, but hey 6% magic penetration is still useful.
Arcane Blade : gives that extra last hit / poke potential.
Havoc : More damage makes Veigar happy.

DEFENSE (9)
Recovery : That health regen provides extra sustain in lane.
Block : This will stop some of the poke damage you'll receive from opponents.
Veteran Scars : +36 health may not seem like much but trust me, you'll seem a bit bulkier and it will really help in your laning.
Unyielding : Provides that extra defense that Veigar desperately needs.
Juggernaut : Who would say no to an extra 3% max health? This will scale really well endgame it is important to get.


ALTERNATIVE: UTILITY (9)
Meditation 3/3: Extra mana regeneration that synergises well with Equilibrium.
Fleet of Foot 1/3: 0.5% isn't much but what else can you get?
Summoner's Insight 3/3: 10% cooldown reduction on your summoner spells is handy, you never know when you need that extra few seconds to Flash away, or to execute with Ignite.
Alchemist 1/1: With Veigar you should be getting health/mana pots frequently for your sustain needs and this will boost it a bit.
Runic Affinity or Culinary Master : Take the first one if you're planning on utilizing buffs as much as possible. Take the second one if you're planning on utilizing potions.
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Items - What not to get

I have already presented the item list in the beginning of this guide, so in this section i'm actually going to talk about the items that you DON'T need.

Abyssal Mask: You have to be joking... As a squishy AP Mage your job is to stay as far back as possible, picking out their ADC/APC and nuking them to dust. You don't need to walk up to them with this item, it's pointless.

Lich Bane: is a very popular item choice on Veigar these days, but I feel it's ridiculously dumb to get it. Sorry to the Veigar players that get this item but, come on you're an AP mage nuke, not a 'damage over time, spam dat Lich Bane' evelynn-type of champion. Lich Bane also requires you to auto attack. It's unreliable to walk up to someone and auto attack him, you make yourself vulnerable. It's pointless if you're planning on killing someone instantly. Please don't get this; there are better options.

Liandry's Torment: Just as bad as Lich Bane, if not worse. This is useless. VERY useless. You don't even deal damage over time, You're a nuker dammit, you DON'T need it. If I catch you buying this item ever again on Veigar, I will torment you.

Mejai's Soulstealer: I have this really weird hate for buying items that require farm, specially when it's not even 'guaranteed' farm. If you buy this early game and never get kills then sorry dude but you just messed up your entire game. It'll take you a lot of time, farm and money to get back on track. It's better to not take the risk, unless your playstyle is just extremely passive and steal every kill.

Rod of Ages: While Veigar is a mid-late game champ, Rod of ages just isn't that reliable and worth getting compared to other options.

Twin Shadows / Will of the Ancients: Every time a Veigar buys one of these, 50 Teemos resurrect. Please don't buy them. They just don't give useful stats compared to other options (Spell vamp is useless).
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Items - What to get and why


The all-round stats of Doran's Ring are too useful to ignore, the AP, the health and the mana regeneration is exactly what Veigar needs in the early game to continuously farm his permanent Ability Power while being relatively 'healthy' with the health bonus from the ring. You should always pick up 2 of these if you're having trouble in lane.


RIP DFG 2K15


Rabadon's Deathcap is the best item in game in terms of Ability Power, and since our spells scale extremely well with AP, we have to pick it up. It's a must, no questions asked. It seems pretty self explanatory.


This item will help you a lot endgame. Being squishy has it's consequences, but you are certain to avoid a few spells (and deaths) with this item. With Zhonya's Hourglass you could dodge critical spells cast against you. The AP is too good to let go, and the bonus armor comes in handy late game if you get focused too much. This is also a must in your core build.


Imagine all your other items are like delicious types of food, and Void Staff is the plate that carries them and keeps them together. The penetration, calculating it mathematically, is insane. It can drastically increase your damage output even if it doesn't have a lot of base Ability Power to offer. This is very important... Pick it up.


Sorcerer's Shoes are really the best boots option for Veigar. The penetration is excellent for that early nuke. A lot of Veigars tend to pick up Ionian Boots of Lucidity for the cooldown reduction, which is understandable since you can spam Baleful Strike more and therefore farm your AP more, but it usually falls end game. The way Veigar is built is an AP nuke, we are assuming that we just want to nuke the first carry (or any other squishy, maybe even tank) that we think is a threat on the enemy team. Buying Ionian Boots of Lucidity then selling it for Sorcerer's Shoes is not recommended.


Seraph's Embrace is a very good item on Veigar for 3 reasons. 1, It has a lot of Ability Power which scales with mana. 2, It has 1,000 mana and 60 Ability Power which are really good base stats for an item. 3, the Active shield effect is too good to let go, being squishy and deadly means you're going to be the focus, the center of attention. The shield combined with Zhonya's Hourglass will give you the necessary defense you need to go in, instanuke someone, and go back out safely.


I personally like to pick up homeguard just to get to places faster, in case there's a quick dragon, baron, or buff that the enemy is contesting. The speedy running animation of Veigar is hilarious, and it helps you get into lane faster which is useful if you're going against other champions that can push because Veigar is a bit slow. Bonus: Hold down Space Bar while homeguard is on, it looks nice.


I personally prefer Morellonomicon due to the fact that it has higher mana regeneration and more AP. The only downside is that it doesn't offer magic resist. IF you go against an opponent that is giving you heaps of magic damage trouble, then Athene's would be your best option.

[
Usually you're not going to pick this up earlier on in the game. This item belongs more to the endgame after items are completed and you have no more items to buy and a lot of money to spend. However, you may want to pick this up right before you plan on nuking someone. The extra ability power may be the difference between a kill or not.


With trinkets, this bad boy should definitely be picked up as soon as you enter the game. It gives you a free 60 second ward every 180 seconds and will be upgraded automatically once you hit level 9. You don't need the red trinket because you couldn't care less if your enemy has wards or not; your jungle is meant to pick that up. The blue trinket is useless since it's only for 1 second. The main reason we pick up Stealth Ward is because of the extra vision to be aware of ganks and enemy positions (Not that you should get yourself into a bad gankable situation, remember, you need to play it safe and farm your AP). OPTIONAL: You may trade out your yellow trinket for a red one if your team isn't taking vision control matters in their own hands. It becomes useful when securing dragons and barons.
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Summoner spells



Get: Flash Ignite
Might get: Barrier Heal Exhaust Teleport Cleanse
Don't you dare get: Clairvoyance Clarity Revive Smite Ghost
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Explanations:

Get:
Flash is the most important summoner spell you could possible get, specially on a champion like Veigar. The ability to flash in and nuke someone, or flash out of danger is extremely useful; you MUST pick it up.
Ignite is also very important against champions like Swain and Vladimir since you can reduce their healing, and the true damage is also important incase your nuke isn't just enough to take them down. I feel that Ignite is also a must but feel free to swap it out for anything else in the "Might Get" section.

Might get:
Barrier could come in handy when you're getting focused or ganked, as it can give you a ridiculously good looking shield. The problem is, it only lasts 2 seconds, so the timing on it has to be perfect. Don't pick up Barrier if you're going against a champion that focuses on damage-over-time. Pick it up if you feel like you ABSOLUTELY need it against other nuking champions like Annie or Syndra.
Heal. I personally don't like taking this, it's easily countered with Ignite and I don't think you generally should pick it up. You may want to take it if you wish as it's not completely useless, but keep in mind that you're a nuker and not some sort of support/tank.
Exhaust can prove to be useful at times, but is generally an unacceptable spell to get. You should never be in range to use it in a teamfight anyway. Your job is to nuke someone completely and stay safe, your support should pick this up, not you. Again, take this if you absolutely need it because it's not as useless as other spells.
Teleport is arguably one of the most important summoner spells in the game, as it can change the pace of the game greatly. For example, you could use it to teleport to a ward or other objects that will help set up a gank, or take dragon , or even just teleport back to your lane as soon as you go back to continue your AP farming. This is a nice spell, and if you're going to trade out Ignite for anything it should be this.
Cleanse is a situational summoner spell. You shouldn't really be caught in a bad position, but sometimes you can't control it, for example Lissandra's spells can easily catch you out. With Veigar, Timing, Positioning, and Quickness are the three big qualities that you should have in order to do well. In my opinion, Cleanse is not worth picking up unless you're going against champions with hard CC like Morgana. Summoner spells are always situational and dependent on playstyle - Keep that in mind.

Don't you dare get:
Clairvoyance is pretty useless. You really don't need this because who cares where your enemies are? This spell died in season 2 and it won't get much recognition until it gets modified. You have Dark Matter to look into the fog of war and Stealth Ward.
Clarity is also quite useless. The extra mana is useful early game, but that's the whole reason we get a few Doran's Rings and blue buffs. We already have the mana sustain that we're looking for and this is just not worth picking up as it falls late game pretty hard.
Ghost is not that useful, because an increase in movement speed won't help much if you get caught out with CC (Crowd Control) like stuns, fears, mega slows, etc. And if you're not caught out, then you wouldn't use Ghost anyway, so it's pretty pointless.
Revive: I really shouldn't have to explain why you don't need this summoner spell. Honestly, this is the worst summoner spell you could get on 96% of champions. Getting Revive is like planning to die, it's just plain stupid. Anyone in Bronze V and upwards should still be intelligent enough to know it's useless.
Smite is for junglers, don't bother picking it up.
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Unleashing the combo

The main combo you're aiming to go for is this:

E>W>>Q>R.

In spell terms, the combo is:
Event Horizon> Dark Matter> Baleful Strike> Primordial Burst

The combo as a whole is not that hard to do but may take some practice games to get used to how much damage will be enough to kill a target. Your fingers have to be QUICK. To present it time-wise, you need to do that combo in less than a second if not faster (From E to R, INCLUDING the stun and wait time, delay, etc).

The reason why we start off with our Event Horizon is pretty simple, we need a stun to better co-ordinate our other spells. Next up we have Dark Matter first because it has a delay, so by the time it takes effect you would have used your other spells. Baleful Strike and Primordial Burst come right after (at this time your Dark Matter would have went down).

- See media section for the combo in action.
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Mathematical Calculations


RIP DFG 2K15.

In this section I'm going to explore certain scenarios to show you exactly how much damage Veigar can do. For Assumption purposes, we're assuming our enemy has 0 magic resist, 3,000 health and 500 AP. We're also assuming that we're at full build and at 900AP. Our last assumption is that all of our spells will hit. While it may seem like a lot of assumptions, it's still a fairly accurate estimate.

Baleful Strike damage: [260 + (0.6*900)] = 800.
Dark Matter damage: (320 + 900) = 1,220.
Primordial Burst damage: [500 + (0.8*400) + (1.2*900)] = 1,900.
This brings us to a total of 3,920 damage.

Our total damage comes to 3,920 and our opponent's health is 3,000. Was the nuke enough? Definitely. This is proof that Veigar has incredible damage potential, and can take down even tanks with his full nuke (Although it's recommended to focus their more dangerous champions like AP Carries, AD Carries ). Keep in mind that 900AP endgame is a somewhat 'light' assumption. Realistically, at that point in the game you should have around 1,000 Ability Power or more.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Our next calculation will be about how much permanent Ability Power we can farm in a given amount of time. For this calculation, we'll assume that we'll be straight-farming for around 15 minutes. We're also assuming that Baleful Strike will successfully last hit a minion every 5 seconds. This is a relatively good assumption since the cooldown is less and you might get double AP bonus if it's against big minions.

Minutes: 15.
Seconds: 900.
Calculation: 900 divided by 5 = 180 Ability Power.

180 Ability Power is A LOT. Think about it, that's exactly 2x Needlessly Large Rod and Amplifying Tome. Which in total cost 3,635 gold. We can see from this calculation that Veigar has some real potential.
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Early Laning Phase

Your early laning phase should be as passive as possible, farming your permanent AP with Baleful Strike whenever possible. You literally shouldn't engage in fights before level 6. Around level 7-9, you will really feel a power spike in your damage. To know whether you can nuke someone down fully or not is difficult. You have to take their defenses, items, runes, and summoner spells into account. If they have a Barrier, Heal, or if they Cleanse out of your Event Horizon, it may be a massive problem. You may want to bait out a barrier or heal by using Event Horizon > Dark Matter > Baleful Strike (a mini nuke) to give them a false sense that you're doing your whole combo. It's best to wait until their Cleanse is on cooldown. You could also poke with Baleful Strike until they're low enough to be taken down.

To test whether you can nuke someone down is simple. Try going in and poking them with one Baleful Strike. If you feel like they really got dealt a lot of damage, go all in with your nuke. If the Baleful Strike did less than 15% of their health, it's best to stay farming. The idea is to play passive the entire game so that they won't expect a surprise-nuke coming any time soon. The whole idea is to surprise them with a nuke. Because you've been farming all the time, they'd expect you to keep doing that.
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Lane Dominance and Control

With Veigar it's extremely important to know when to push your lane, when NOT to push your lane, when to roam, and other specific things that will be explored in some detail.


When to push your lane:
It's important to push your lane when your opponent goes back to base, or when your opponent decides to roam for a few kills. As long as you have a bit of vision, knowing that you won't get surprised and destroyed, push your lane and go for a few tower hits. Your first move should be to follow your opponent wherever he goes, to follow-up and help your ally that's about to get ganked. But if for some reason you weren't able to, pressure mid so that he is forced back into lane to protect it.

When to NOT push your lane:
It's important to play safe at your tower for a variety of reasons. First off, your job is to play defensive and farm as much as you can early game, waiting for your Primordial Burst. Secondly, pushing your lane means you're more vulnerable to getting ganked, so just don't do it. There's no reason why you should be pushing your lane anyway unless the scenario is what was just discussed above. Thirdly, the champions you're going against will most likely be able to destroy you, especially Diana Akali Zed Fizz, all the champions with untargetables, invisibilities, dashes, etc that can get right next to you and kill you, so it's best to stay under tower UNTIL you are able to instanuke them, then feel free to bring pressure onto them. Forthly, if you're doing badly in farm, hold your lane close to your tower as long as it doesn't take drastic damage. If you push your lane too much you might get easily zoned out by your opponent (like Anivia or Annie which have strong threatening spells, and you'll end up missing out on a lot of minions and farm.

When to roam/gank:
You should always look to roam bot lane because they're usually squishy and it's easy kills. It's best to roam after you've taken down your first tower, or if your opponent isn't that good at pressuring your lane. Against someone like Akali for example, you should look to roam lanes freely as she doesn't create much lane pressure. Always beware of opponents that might follow-up and counter-gank you. Roaming includes helping out your jungler invade the opponent's jungle and going for a buff steal. It's hard to co-ordinate this in solo Q but just letting you know it's possible.

When to NOT roam/gank:
You shouldn't be ganking or roaming if your mid lane opponent is someone that can create a lot of mid pressure such as Malzahar or Anivia that can clear minions easily and destroy your turrets. It's also important to take vision into account. If you decide to roam and you don't have vision, and it turns out that they know where you are, you're in for some deep trouble. They'll gang up on you as soon as you start facechecking bushes. Always consult your support, ask them if they can ward gank paths for you or ask them which places have enemy wards in them.
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Team Fights


This part of the game is a little more difficult, because there are certain choices you have to make. Should you go in with your Event Horizon, Focus on ONLY stunning your primary nuke target, and taking them down? Or should you focus your Event Horizon in a way that you stun as many people as possible to give your team the edge? Is it possible that you can do both at the same time? Should I nuke their AP Carry or AD Carry? Which one of them is more likely to escape my nuke? All of these questions can be answered through practice and judgement. There really is no secret 'ingredient' to win team fights. You just need to practice all the time.

Positioning plays a large part in teamfights. Not every teamfight will be the dream fight where you're killing everyone and nobody is focusing you. Heavy-Engage champs like Jarvan, Gnar, Lissandra will pose a HUGE threat to you. If their front line is in front of their back line like they're supposed to, then maybe it's not that easy to go for their carries. Peeling is something that everyone has improved on, and tanks know they have to protect their damage dealers so you will have to watch out. Timing is key to getting your nuke off successfully. Another thing that can help is to nuke someone before a fight. Hide in a bush with a pink or red trinket to make sure they don't know you're there (otherwise you can drastically throw a game) and try to nuke one of their important players (Preferably not the support unless it's someone like Annie that has huge teamfight presence).
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Tips + Tricks

*Banner by carcar9

Tips:

- Prioritize AP farm over everything else except helping your jungler and getting kills.
- The best lane to gank is bot lane.
- Proceed to take dragon or a turret after a successful bot gank (Beware of wards).
- Get every blue buff whenever possible, It helps a lot in farming and nuking.
- Veigar works best with heavy reliable initiators like Zac, Malphite Jarvan IV, but it's not needed at all. It's just a bonus.
- Use your spells effectively, Don't waste Event Horizon (You might get ganked).
- Watch out for Fizz's Playful / Trickster, Vladimir's Sanguine Pool,and other champion spells that can dodge your nuke.
- Watch out for items like Banshee's Veil, Zhonya's Hourglass that can dodge your nuke.
- Watch out for enemy nukers; You might be VS a heavy nuker aswell (See Matchups).
- Frequently buy mana pots, to furthur spam Baleful Strike and farm your permanent AP.
- Mentally calculate how much mana you need for a full nuke, there's nothing worse than setting up the perfect nuke if you run out of mana halfway


Tricks:

After you lay down Event Horizon, the automatic enemy reflex response would be to go back in order to 'dodge your nuke', So you may cast your Dark Matter right on the edge of the stun in the direction that they'd walk in. BUT, beware of smart foes that would actually walk inwards and attempt to counter-nuke you.

Dark Matter may reveal the area, so use it on bushes or any part in the fog of war to see what's ahead of you. (You may pick up a few wards, or use your Stealth Ward).

Try to bait Vladimir's Sanguine Pool, Fizz's Playful / Trickster, and other champion invulnerabilities by using your Event Horizon, Dark Matter, and Baleful Strike. E>W>Q. This mini nuke will likely scare the hell out of them. Remember that all of these invulnerabilities cannot be cast if they are stunned, but as soon as the stun finished they may be untargetable while your spells are in the air, and they end up dealing no damage, so spec a few points into Event Horizon.

Your Ultimate deals a bit more damage to AP champions, so take care in your focusing.

Use Event Horizon in clever places; To save a teammate, To set up a gank, To help you escape, Or even put the edge of Event Horizon right on you, VS champs that can jump to you like Talon, Zed, Vi : So that they'd get stunned the moment they land on you. Again, this is based on prediction and judgement.

General Tip/Trick: Be FAST. DON'T take your time with your actions. The most important thing I've learnt to become a good player is to NOT take your time. If you're flashing for an ult on someone to kill them you have to do it instantly. It's not a brawl. Don't flash, wait a second, and then ult. You chain them right after one another to not risk the enemy getting away. This may seem obvious but it works insanely well when you think of Katarina's Flash Shunpo combo for example.

SMARTCAST: Everything except your E (Recommended, but not required)
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Common Match-ups (Difficulty and how to deal with it) [PROCESS OF UPDATING]

Ahri - Difficulty: Medium
- Ahri is Irrelevant Pre-Level 6 if you play cautiously
- Dodge her skillshots (Specially Charm)
- Post-Level 6 she can ult through your stun (but will still get stunned!)
- Pick up Athene's Unholy Grail against her if you're having trouble.
- Watch out for her Ult-Charm positioning or Flash-Charm surprise nuke.

Akali - Difficulty: Easy
- Totally irrelevant Pre-Level 6.
- Post-Level 6 she will try to go all-in every single time.
- Post-Level 6, keep the minions to your side of the lane (Freeze) to avoid getting killed.
- Warn your team if Akali roams.
- When she goes stealth, throw a Dark Matter in there for harass.
- You could harass her with autoattacks and Q-Poke Pre 6.
- Get your jungler to gank if she's overextending (rare occasion).

Anivia - Difficulty: Hard
- She can stun and slow and will play aggressive early game.
- Dodge her Q (frostball thing) and you wouldn't have to worry about her other spells.
- Post 6 she will zone you with her ult and may take you down if you come near.
- She will outfarm you and might build Rod of Ages which can ruin your nuke.
- Post 6, her Ult-Ice shard combo will do a lot of damage and has a low cooldown, dont get close.
- Even if you do manage to kill her with your nuke, she has an egg form.
- Don't try to beat her in a 1v1 duel. Try to farm as much as possible for late game.
- If you can co-ordinate early ganks with your jungler, it could make your lane much easier.

Annie - Difficulty: Medium
- Flash Tibbers stun is more deadly than your stun.
- Pre 6, most Annies would last hit with their Disintegrate, because it gives them a full mana refund and half-cooldown and when they build up to 4 spells and have their stun ready, they'll most likely stun you and follow up with an Incinerate.
- ALWAYS look at her stun icon, you NEED to know if it's ready or not. This is more of a skill match-up than "This counters that". Simply put, the first to be stunned loses the fight (Assuming you both can nuke each other down).
- If Annie pushes lane, tell your jungle to gank. She has no escape (besides flash)

Azir - Difficulty: Medium
- He only summons soldiers at level 1
- At level 2-3 he will play aggressive by positioning his sand soldiers and autoattacking.
- He isn't particularly "dangerous" at any point in lane.
- As long as you farm, you'll be able to nuke him down easy later on.
- Always position yourself away from the soldiers (Unless u need to go in to farm) then you can go back.

Brand - Difficulty: Easy-Medium
- One of the best AOE Nukers in game, but not when he's effectively stunned.
- Brand pushes lane by nature without escapes. Get jungler help.
- You can poke him with Q if the time is right and dodge his skillshots.
- Beware of Conflagration, the spell that spreads fire everywhere. If you see one of your friendly minions on fire, stay away from it, he will likely use Conflagration on it and spread it onto you.

Cassiopeia - Difficulty: Medium
- Damage-Over-Time lane bully meaning you win 1v1s if you go all in and can nuke her post 6.
- If you get hit by Noxious Blast, you will take way more damage from Twin Fang spam, so dodge it in the first place.
- She's squishy, no escape, easy jungler ganks if she's pushing.
- Use your longer stun range to your advantage.

Diana - Difficulty: Medium
- Dodge her Q pre 6.
- Post 6 she becomes a nightmare like Akali. Make sure you stay near your turret.
- Warn your team if Diana roams.
- You could harass her with autoattacks and Q-Poke Pre 6.
- Get jungler help since she has no escape.

Fizz - Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Fizz is a slippery son of a fish. He can literally dodge your entire nuke with Playful / Trickster (Which goes down to around a 6 second cooldown with a bit of cooldown reduction). Before level 6 he will try as hard as he can to get that Sheen. Once Fizz gets Sheen and level 6, you better prepare yourself for the worst. Alot of people think that Fizz is the ultimate counter to Veigar, but I will try my best to explain the strategy that I use to beat him in lane. Before level 6, everything's good, you're farming, he's farming, etc. After level 6, it gets dangerous. Always prepare your stun in a way that if he decides to attack you, he'll be stunned as soon as he dashes to you. Also, when you have blue buff (CDR and Mana Regen), you can use it to quickly shoot out Baleful Strike. The idea is to bait his Playful / Trickster using Baleful Strike over and over again. If a Fizz is smart, he'd wait for your ult then use his Playful / Trickster to dodge it, but you're going to be just poking him with your Baleful Strike since it has a low cooldown with blue buff and sooner or later he's forced to either 1) Jump on you and attempt to destroy you, or 2) Use his Playful / Trickster to avoid the Baleful Strike. In scenario 1, As mentioned previously, defend yourself with your Event Horizon and attempt to start harassing him until the same situation happens. In scenario 2, He's now VERY vulnerable. A good Event Horizon followed by your nuke will completely destroy him. Top off your nuke with an Ignite and he's a gonner.

Galio - Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Galio has great harass and team fight presence. His early laning is a bit horrible, so take advantage of it by farming safely. Once he hits level 4-5, his pokes start to get more dangerous. Dodge every skill shot ( Resolute Smite and Righteous Gust). Most Galios will spam their spells to farm and end up pushing their lane by doing so. This is somewhat good for you, as long as you know how to farm under your turret, it should be fine. Galio is not the easiest mid laner to nuke down, so it's best to take it slow, farm your AP, and maybe try and roam bot lane or top lane for ganks. Ganking will be difficult however, since his mid lane pressure will be devastating. Your only option is to stick to your lane and farm until there's a team fight phase. It all depends on the game flow, but generally you will not be able to nuke him down if he stacks magic resist. You can try and poke him with Baleful Strike but if it doesn't do much, save it to farm.

Gragas - Difficulty: Medium
Gragas Barrels are too strong to ignore. They are very hard to dodge, and surely you won't dodge all of them. Before level 5 Gragas isn't much of a problem. After level 5-7 his ultimate will be ready and his barrels will take down 25% of your hp. Nothing is stopping him from Body Slam into you and nuking you down... Oh wait... There is something stopping him, Your stun. Play it safe as usual under your turret, Farm up real good, and wait for the nuke opportunities. Gragas is usually pretty squishy so after Deathfire Grasp and your Primordial Burst you'll be able to take him down easily. Bring a lot of Health Potions, you'll need them.

Jayce - Difficulty: Medium
Jayce is one of those champions that either do really well in a game, or really fall behind and become useless. His main source of damage comes from his Acceleration Gate Shock Blast combo. Dodge that, and you'll be doing just fine. If he doesn't build a Hexdrinker, you can easily nuke him down after Deathfire Grasp. This should be an easy match-up, but if you have trouble, you can always call on your jungler to help you gank, or you can pick up an early Seeker's Armguard and buy Health Potions.

Karthus - Difficulty: Very Easy
Karthus is one of the easiest champions you could go against. He is probably more squishy than you are, and will try to focus on getting more farm than you. I think this is the only exception where you might actually want to poke him with your Baleful Strike when you hit level 5 and have it at rank 3. You'd be surprised at how much damage it deals. After level 6 alert your team that his ult is ready. Bring some Health Potions if you can't dodge his Lay Waste, and destroy him with your ult whenever you have the chance. Use your stun to stop his Requiem from channeling.

Kassadin - Difficulty: Hard
Kassadin will most likely silence you with Null Sphere whenever it's off cooldown and focus on his farm until he gets to level 6. Most Kassadins tend to build Tear of the Goddess and catalyst the protector early on, so they won't be doing much damage. It becomes a problem when they start to do Riftwalk-Damage combos and you won't be able to retaliate because you're silenced. the best way is to poke with Baleful Strike after you get Deathfire Grasp until he gets to around 60% hp, then proceed to get a good stun on him. Kassadin can Riftwalk through your stun without actually being stunned, so beware of that. Hug your turret, Bring Health Potions, Buy a Chalice of Harmony if you're getting destroyed, Farm AP.

Katarina - Difficulty: Medium
Katarina is one of the weirdest champions to lane against. 7-9 is a big difficulty range considering the previous champions I talked a little about. This is because some Katarinas are really good at dodging your stun by Shunpoing out of it, and appearing right behind you when you plan on going to nuke them and miss your stun. Katarina pre-6 may decide to farm with her spells, or may decide to play aggressive and poke you with Bouncing Blades. Buy some Health Potions, Farm up your Baleful Strike. She cannot tower dive you. After level 6 you have to bait her. It's very risky to try and go in and stun her, because if she Shunpos behind you and does her ult, you're pretty much screwed and you can't stun her because it's on cooldown. The best way is to 'bait' her. Let her bring the fight to you. Wait for her to Shunpo to your location (Behind you) and with your super-ultra-fast-midget reflexes put the edge of your stun in the same area. This will stop her combo before it even starts and may even stop her Death Lotus if she was quick with it.

Kayle - Difficulty: Medium
Kayle before level 6 isn't much of a difficulty. She will just naturally push her lane with her Righteous Fury. Tell your jungler to gank before she hits level 6. After level 6, she has the ability to absorb your entire nuke with her Intervention. It's important to realise that she CANNOT cast her Intervention if she is STUNNED. Most Kayles will go full glasscannon (full damage, no defense) because they rely on their Intervention to protect them. Spec a few more points into Event Horizon rather than Dark Matter, those extra stun seconds will ensure that your nuke will be done before she even gets out of the stun. This shouldn't be difficult. Farm early, Destroy her after level 7 and top it off with Deathfire Grasp and Ignite.

Kha'Zix - Difficulty: Medium
Kha'Zix is an annoying champion that is not dangerous, but rather 'weird'. I haven't faced many Kha'Zixs to know the ins and outs of how to beat them, but generally they can't really kill you because even if a Kha'Zix jumps to you, you can just put down the edge of your stun right where you are and stun them before they get to do anything else. Bring some Health Potions. If you take fatal damage, build an early Seeker's Armguard. You may be able to nuke him down if you've farmed enough early game and if he doesn't pick up a Hexdrinker. Most of these match-ups are just waiting for the right opportunity.

Leblanc - Difficulty: Medium-Hard
LeBlanc is one of the most annoying mid laners, specially against Veigar. Her sigil of silence- Distortion combo is too strong to ignore. She will harass the hell out of you. Bring a lot of Health Potions and itemize for Chalice of Harmony if needed. (You may want to pick up a total of 3 Doran's Ring aswell). Leblanc is a nuissance at all levels after level 2-3, so beware. Farming will be difficult when she comes to harass you. You can still nuke her after level 6 and Deathfire Grasp, if your stun is aimed cleverly. When Leblanc uses her Distortion, she is likely to go back to it, So you might want to put your Event Horizon Edge of the circle stun right on the position that she will teleport back to, so that as soon as she re-activates distortion she gets stunned, and by then you would have prepared Dark Matter, followed by a Baleful Strike to retaliate the harass. Stay near your turret and play defensive most of the time until you see a window of good opportunity. Her Mirror Image will not "block" or "dodge" or "absorb" your nuke, so keep that in mind.

Lissandra - Difficulty: Medium
Lissandra can harass very well, and may blink through your stun using her Glacial Path. Before level 6 she's not really a dangerous champ to lane against. But after level 6, she might use her Frozen Tomb to make herself invulnerable and dodge your nuke. The best way to beat her is to poke her down with Baleful Strike after you've farmed a considerable amount of AP early on. Poke with Baleful Strike repeatedly, test your damage, test her defense. She may Glacial Path right into you, stun you, and destroy you. Bring Health Potions, Buy Chalice of Harmony if needed, Stay under your turret and wait for a good nuke opportunity.

Lux - Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Lux's spells are very hard to dodge, considering your movement speed is low early game without boots. She definitely outranges you, so you might not want to start any fight early on. It's best to farm until you get Deathfire Grasp, then try to flash in, stun, and do your combo to finish her off. She has no escapes, so killing her should be easy peasy. Bring a few Health Potion, Buy Chalice of Harmony if she pokes you down with Lucent Singularity too much. Remember, Lux specializes in poking, Veigar specializes in nuking, So if you're gonna fight, go all in.

Malzahar - Difficulty: Medium
Malzahar's spellkit is hard to control, but if controlled properly, is one of the most dangerous combos in the entire game. He can Silence you with Call of the Void, use Null Zone and then suppressing you with his Nether Grasp, with Malefic Visions and Ignite going off, it's some very deadly stuff. He will push your lane and create pressure on mid lane with his Malefic Visions. Always beware of friendly minions around you that are about to die with the Malefic Visions on them, because they'll spread to you. The good news is, Malzahar is very nukeable as long as you position your stun right. Your Event Horizon stun range is longer than his ult range, so you have the slight advantage in this fight.

Mordekaiser - Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Mordekaiser is a melee mage that can use your own minions to give him a shield with Iron Man. When you see your minions attacking him with you, you automatically assume you have the edge because there are more things attacking him, right? Wrong. He will literally fill up his shield by dealing damage to every single minion (All his spells are AoE), and it will be incredibly hard for you to nuke him down. Mordekaiser will push his lane by nature, in order to keep the shield up and farm. You will be farming safely under your tower. Pick up a few Health Potions. Chalice of Harmony is not worth picking up for this match-up, but if you need it, by all means get it. Tell your jungler to gank mordekaiser early on in the game, he literally has no escape mechanism and is very vulnerable to a good gank. Don't hesitate to tell your jungler to babysit. Your best bet is to farm as much as possible early game, and after level 6 or Deathfire Grasp, go all in and nuke him down. My advice : Wait until his shield is down, then go in. The best time to go in would be when both sides of the minions are meeting each other, by then his shield would have decayed by a bit (if not all) and your job is to nuke him down before he can get to your minions and fill up his shield again.

Morgana - Difficulty: Hard
Morgana will push your lane, Morgana will sustain. She can walk through your stun with her Black Shield, so good luck trying to nuke her down. Honestly, A good Morgana will never get herself into a position where she'd be 'caught out'. Quite frankly, you cannot nuke her down. Sorry dude :(, but what you can do is farm your permanent AP under your turret. Sounds like fun eh? Focus on roaming top and bot for ganks, but beware... Morgana creates a lot of mid lane pressure with her Tormented Shadow and Soul Siphon to sustain it. You may want to try and poke her with Baleful Strike after you get Deathfire Grasp and maybe try and all in her when she gets to around 60% health.

Nidalee - Difficulty: Medium
Before level 6, Nidalee will be focused on farming, and Bushwhack nearby bushes, so alert your jungler. At level 5 and onwards, you'll notice a drastic increase in the amount of Javelin Toss harassing... Specially if she's picked up some mana regen items early on. Each Javelin Toss will deal around 34% of your health, so bring a lot of Health Potions and dodge them as much as you can. Stay behind your minions. After level 8 or 9, her spears become really deadly and will do up to 65% of your health if she's well fed. Again, you have to buy Health Potions and play defensive under your turret, and nuke her down whenever you feel like there's a good opportunity. Nidalee's Cougar can Pounce through your stun but will still stun her at the place she lands on. You may want to pick up a Chalice of Harmony.

Orianna - Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Orianna has relatively low cooldowns. She will try and harass you with her ball as much as possible ( Command: Attack and Command: Dissonance), and they're very hard to dodge. You might want to pick up a Chalice of Harmony and 3 Doran's Ring with a few Health Potions to sustain her poke. If you could dodge her spells that would be great too. Pre 6 she's a nightmare, After 6, she's more of a nightmare. She has really good team fight presence with her Command: Shockwave. Warn your teammates not to stay grouped up in one place as her ult can change a team fight entirely to her favor. In lane, focus on farming as much as possible and wait for the right time to all-in nuke her.

Ryze - Difficulty: Medium
Ryze is very weak early game, Sounds like another champion we know. Ryze relies heavily on farm, he is an endgame carry. It's absolutely crucial to find the opportunity to nuke him down between the time that he 'starts to get dangerous' and the time that he 'completely destroys everything'. Your job is to shut him down early, making it hard for him to come out on top in the end game. But early game, you have to farm, so how do you know when to all-in nuke him?- When you get Deathfire Grasp: It's a gift from Riot especially to Veigar. Abuse it. If Ryze builds Spirit Visage follow it up with a Void Staff. If he builds Banshee's Veil then i'm sorry mate but you're going to have to bait it with your Baleful Strike. As usual, farm your AP, test his defense out once you get Deathfire Grasp, and nuke his punkass down.

Swain - Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Swain is one of the hardest champions to lane against, as his ultimate Ravenous Flock provides the ultimate sustain. Before 6 Swain may try and harass you with his damage-over-time spells ( Decrepify and Torment). Make sure you dodge his Nevermove or else you'll take some serious damage. Be equipped with a lot of Health Potions, 3 Doran's Ring, maybe a Chalice of Harmony. Farm your AP until you feel like you are able to take him on, then all-in nuke him with your Ignite (IMPORTANT). Ignite is crucial to stop his ult from healing him a lot. You may want to test his defense with a Baleful Strike before you go all in. You may also want to wait for your Deathfire Grasp.

Syndra - Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Syndra has good poke before level 6, so make sure you dodge all of her spells ( Dark Sphere and Force of Will, ESPECIALLY her long range stun Scatter the Weak. If you get stunned, she'll likely follow it up with a slowing ball of doom followed by her ult nuke ( Unleashed Power). If she gets that combo on you, you are most likely dead. You may want to pick up 3 Doran's Ring and a Chalice of Harmony if necessary. As usual, farm AP, and wait for good nuke opportunities. Pick up a few Health Potions.

Talon - Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Talon is "One of the best counters to Veigar" which is true in some sense, but false in others. If you're farming your AP under your turret, then you shouldn't be afraid of anything. Talon can't dive you, and if he's foolish enough to do so (Assassin's Greed), you can just stun him and let the turret do all the work, picking up the kill. Before 6 he will try to harass you with Rake. After level 6, he'll try and destroy you. Bring Health Potions and build an early Seeker's Armguard. Tell your jungler to gank Talon before level 6, as he has no real escape mechanisms other than his blink. You can nuke him down if you land a good Event Horizon followed up with Deathfire Grasp if he hasn't bought Hexdrinker.

Twisted Fate - Difficulty: Medium
Twisted Fate early game will dominate you; Pushing his lane, harassing you with his Wild Cards (Which is dodgeable by the way, so dodge it). Alert your team when he hits level 6. You may want to pick up 3 Doran's Ring and a Chalice of Harmony if necessary for this match-up. Your job as Veigar VS Twisted Fate is to farm AP, and play it safe until you get Deathfire Grasp. After DFG, Feel free to spam-insta-nuke his bottom over and over again for free kills. He is unable to nuke you; he just doesn't have enough damage. Be sure to outrange him with Event Horizon and don't go in if he has his gold card ready.

Vladimir - Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Vladimir is basically useless until he hits level 9, when he has his max rank Transfusion ready, but is still quite deadly after he hits level 6. He can use his Sanguine Pool to dodge your nuke (including your super duper ultimate) so situationally, you have to bait it out. Farm your AP with Baleful Strike early on, and once you're powerful enough, try to poke him with Baleful Strike, test his defenses. Spec a few points into Event Horizon rather than Dark Matter. If you feel like you can nuke him, do so. You may want to bring 3 Doran's Ring and a Chalice of Harmony if necessary with some Health Potions. You don't necessarily have to bait out his Sanguine Pool, he can't use it when he's stunned anyway, but if you have some delay issues (if you panicked, etc), he can pool as soon as he gets out of stun while your ult is flying towards him and your ult will end up getting cancelled so beware. Use Ignite to reduce his heals if you're going all-in nuke.
It's recommended to bait his Sanguine Pool before you go all-in, otherwise your spells will be on cooldown and it will hurt your game.

Ziggs/Zyra - Difficulty: Medium
With these champions, it's all about dodging skillshots, Ziggs's Bouncing Bomb, and Zyra's deadly bloom Grasping Roots) and finding the right opportunity to go in and instanuke them. They're all relatively squishy, you can nuke them down by level 7 with Ignite guaranteed. Their early poke is dangerous, however, so bring some Health Potions. Don't be afraid to go for 2-3 Doran's Ring. For individual tips: You can farm your Baleful Strike onto Zyra's plants and I encourage you to do so. Ziggs "escape" spell ( Satchel Charge) will take a bit of time to activate, so use your stun on him and nuke him down.

Xerath - Difficulty: Medium
Xerath has recently received a rework, but most of his abilities have remained similar. For this match-up you may want to even start with boots and a few pots to dodge his poke. Pick up a chalice of harmony if you get too bullied. In my opinion Xerath is relatively "useless" compared to Veigar in teamfights/nuke potential even though Xerath will push you (or try to push you) out of lane. While he's charging his spell, he gets really slow and that's when you should go in (after 6). If he's got Chalice of Harmony you might want to poke him with Baleful Strike first to see if your nuke will be enough. In general, Xerath has long ranges and will position himself in a way that's impossible for you to get to him - BUT. If you finish off deathfire grasp and have all your cooldowns, wait until he charges his spell then go all in and destroy him. You also have to watch out for his single-line-missile stun, but yours should last longer at later ranks.

Zed - Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Zed is a melee assassin that will poke/harass you before level 6 with his Razor Shuriken + Living Shadow + Shadow Slash. You may want to build Seeker's Armguard, even starting off with Cloth Armor and 3x Health Potion, 2x Mana Potion. Zed can be quite dangerous once he hits 6, and unless you know how to counter his assassination combination, you're in for some deep sh*t. When he ults you he becomes untargetable ( Death Mark) (Yes, he can dodge your ult). However, when he ults you, you should know exactly where he's going to land (right next to you if you didn't know), so you can put down your stun's edge right on your so that as soon as he appears he'll be stunned. For advanced techniques, you may even want to Flash back under your turret (if you're close enough in turret range) and then stun him there, where the tower will help you finish him off. Most Zeds will build a Hexdrinker even if you don't harass them early. If they don't build Hexdrinker, feel free to poke then insta-nuke them.
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Thank you for reading my guide (fully, I hope). This is just a guide that I randomly decided to do and I think it gives a lot of help in decision-making and giving you knowledge that you otherwise would not have gotten. Veigar is very good, especially in lower leagues (Bronze, Silver) as he can massively carry games with ease. Please Vote my guide up, leave some feedback and give me some suggestions on how to improve each chapter of it.
Good Luck on the fields of justice :)
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