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Veigar Build Guide by FreestyleKneepad

(Season 2) Veigar, the Tiny Master of HOLYGODSOMUCHBURST

(Season 2) Veigar, the Tiny Master of HOLYGODSOMUCHBURST

Updated on April 9, 2014
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League of Legends Build Guide Author FreestyleKneepad Build Guide By FreestyleKneepad 44 14 227,227 Views 67 Comments
44 14 227,227 Views 67 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author FreestyleKneepad Veigar Build Guide By FreestyleKneepad Updated on April 9, 2014
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Veigar
  • LoL Champion: Veigar

Introduction



Hi, I'm FreestyleKneepad. The name isn't supposed to make sense, but if you know where I got it from, I love you. (Hint: I've had smurfs named JamHelmet and ImprovVest.) But that's not important.

What's important is Veigar. This guy is a twiggy, insane little b*stard that will say hi to you with about a million billion damage in an instant and then run like Usain Bolt because after that he's about as useful as a Vladimir building mana items.

I tend to play tanky characters like Olaf, Rammus, Singed and Mordekaiser better than squishy champs, so for awhile I was terrible with Veigar... and any other AP carry. Except Fiddlesticks. I've always been decent at Fiddlesticks. But that's because he's a b*stard.

Because I like taking hits and giving them back, I wasn't keen on Veigar at first. And then I learned to last hit, and he became my best friend in the whole wide world. I haven't played a lot of games with him, and I won't bother giving you pictures of a match history full of wins, because let's face it, normal people don't get a million wins in a row. Everybody has bad days, and everybody has days where your enemies are horrified at the thought of you being MIA for fear of seeing the gray screen enough times to haunt their nightmares until they switch to DOTA 2 to get away from you.

This guide is aimed at beginners, or people trying to switch from tanky champions to someone squishier but deepsier, because that's what I know. I'm not a pro in any way- I don't actually play ranked games, I play normal games because I play to have fun. I wrote this guide from the perspective of someone who is above average at the champ, not the perspective of a tip-top pro player. If you want a pro's take on AP carries, go watch Reginald. If you want 13-pot Mordes ****ing around all day, go watch Dyrus. I mean it. Sh*t's hilarious.

This is my first guide ever, so I'm always willing to take advice. I hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. If this guide is received well, I'd consider writing some for some of my other champs, IE Olaf, Graves, Mordekaiser, Rammus, etc.
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Disclaimer

THIS IS NOT A BUILD. IT IS A GUIDE.


I don't like following builds to the letter. It promotes bad habits and should be avoided at all costs.

A good player should know a large number of items that work well with their champion. I can provide you with a large list of items that work well with Veigar and I can tell you what items are good in what situations, but I refuse to tell you exactly what items to by for the "average" game, because the idea of an average game does not exist.

Here's the direct quote from Bguggs about his guide on MOBAfire. It mainly applies to tanks, but it's a concept that really applies to the game as a whole:
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"I think it's a common misconception. There is no build. This isn't a build. There can be no build. You can't "build" a tank with an item path. You can only list the options and scenarios in which they make the best choice. Every Rammus must learn to itemize each game as an independent unit. I think this is a limitation of MobaFire. It gets you thinking linearly, when LoL isn't a linear game. HoG, Aegis, Randuin's... I mean, there are plenty of games when I get none of those items. The "build" listed on the cheat sheet is less than a suggestion, it's a snapshot of a possible game."
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My cheat sheet includes Deathfire Grasp, Rabadon's Deathcap and Sorcerer's Shoes because those are the only items you should be regularly getting in a large number of your games as Veigar. I wouldn't even include Deathfire Grasp if MOBAfire didn't require 3 items minimum. Hell, sometimes you shouldn't even get Sorc boots, and I go over that.

If you want nothing more than a rune/mastery/item build, there's plenty of shorter guides on MOBAfire.

If you want a hefty guide explaining everything I care to share about Veigar and my thoughts on how he should be played, you're in the right place. Get comfy, I tend to ramble.
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What You Need To Know

If you're picking up Veigar for this first time and just need to know what is absolutely vital for playing Veigar because you're an impatient person by nature, here it is.
  • FARM YOUR Q.
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  • Never be the one to initiate in a teamfight ever ever never.
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  • Rabadon's Deathcap is the best item in the whole wide world of sports. More important than Deathfire Grasp or Mejai's Soulstealer.
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  • FARM YOUR Q.
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  • You get destroyed under pressure like a building made of marshmallows and dry spaghetti. Remember this always.
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  • FARM YOUR Q.
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  • The part of your Event Horizon that stuns is the edge, not the center.
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  • Start with Event Horizon, then Dark Matter, then Deathfire Grasp before the Dark Matter lands, followed by Primordial Burst or Baleful Strike. Congrats, you have another kill.
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  • JESUS DO I HAVE TO KEEP SAYING IT FARM YOUR GODD*MN Q YOU SCRUBS.
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  • Ryze gets damage from mana, not AP. Hate him with all of your being, then run away when you see him because he will wreck your sh*t. Unless he's stupid.
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  • FARM YOUR Q.
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Veigar's Role

You know how most AP carries are supposed to hunt down the enemy AD carry and facef*ck- I mean, tenderly love them from full to dead before they can unleash their Infinity Edge-fueled instacrits? F*ck that noise. You are the anti-AP carry. Your job is to find that cocky f*cking Brand and make him wish he'd never been pulled out of the ice. Only when you've left them simultaneously cursing your name and begging for mercy as the color drains from their screen should you focus on dealing with anyone else. And for the love of god, do not waste your ultimate on the tank unless he's the only one left and you're one burst away from a pentakill. I know I do it in one of my videos, it's hard not to throw everything you have at something, but it's not worth it.
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Pros / Cons

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Pros

+ // Strongest burst in the game
+ // Amazing teamfight CC
+ // Is a superb villain
+ // Definition of "late-game champion"
+ // Hurts stronger enemies more
+ // Good for learning to last hit
+ // A born AP-carry-killer
+ // No one takes him seriously
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Cons

- // Absolutely requires Q farm
- // Very easy to shut down in lane
- // Requires solo lane farm
- // Absurdly easy to kill
- // Hard-counters himself
- // Useless against heavy CC
- // Is focused often and easily
- // No one takes him seriously

Props to JhoiJhoi for the codes.
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Skill Breakdown

I'll just leave this here.



Passive: Equilibrium
(Innate): Veigar's mana regen is increased by 0.75% for each 1% of mana he's missing.


This is nice, but don't assume this means your mana problems are solved forever. You need a lot of mana for it to really be effective, and if you spam anything besides your Q in early game, you WILL run out of mana fast and hard.

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Q: Baleful Strike
(Passive): Veigar gains 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 ability power for each champion kill from any damage source.
(Active): Unleashes dark energy at target enemy, dealing 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+60% of ability power) magic damage. If the unit is killed, Veigar gains 1 ability power.


This is what makes Veigar such a monster. Treat him like a squishy, cooler Nasus and just farm the ever-loving sh*t out of this in the early game, and you will be rewarded with Trogdor levels of power late-game as you burstinate the countryside and one-shot all the peasants. Always always always level this first always. Also...

FARM YOUR Q FARM YOUR Q FARM YOUR Q FARM YOUR Q.

FARM YOUR Q.

...

FARM YOUR W- I MEAN Q.


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W: Dark Matter
(Active): Veigar calls a great mass of dark matter to fall from the sky to the target location, which lands after a 1.2 second delay, dealing 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 / 320 (+100% of ability power) magic damage.


You know why this does such insane damage? Like, around 1000 or more damage late game? Because it is a b*tch to land. This is why Veigar's stun is so vital. That said, it's not as necessary early game, so you can choose to level it third after Event Horizon if you want to. Late game, you can insta-kill caster minions with this, so throw your W down on them and Q the melee minions if you need to quickly push a lane.

Also keep in mind that Dark Matter gives vision. USE IT TO FACECHECK. Would you rather lose some mana or die to the Garen sitting in the bush just waiting to skeet skeet all over your health bar and make you cry?

I like getting Dark Matter at level 4 and prioritizing it second.

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E: Event Horizon
(Active): Veigar twists the edges of space around the target location for 3 seconds, stunning enemies who pass through the perimeter for 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 seconds.


Without this, the only person that could possibly land Veigar's W with any kind of consistency is Shawn Spencer, because that man is a godd*mn psychic. This is amazing in teamfights for zoning and trapping the enemy AP carry in the caress of >2000 damage in a second. It's really tricky to land because the stun is on the ring of the spell, not the entire AOE, but that also makes it great for wranglin' people in one spot. Keep in mind that the size of the ring is big enough that people inside can still dodge your W, because it's that hard to f*cking land.

I tend to get one in this skill at level 2 for ganks and max it last. The 1.5 second stun is long enough to land W if you're quick on the draw and can predict which way they'll run when they're un-stunned. If you're still having problems landing it, get another rank it in early so that the stun duration is longer than Dark Matter's fall time by a large enough margin that it's MUCH easier to land.

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Ultimate: Primordial Burst
(Active): Blasts an enemy champion, dealing 250 / 375 / 500 (+120% of ability power) magic damage plus 80% of his target's ability power.


Read that again. "Blasts an enemy champion, dealing 250 / 375 / 500 (+120% of ability power) magic damage plus 80% of his target's ability power." ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY PERCENT OF ABILITY POWER PLUS EIGHTY PERCENT OF HIS TARGET'S ABILITY POWER. HOLY MOTHER OF MARY SH*TTING ON AN UNDERPAID HOOKER THAT'S A LOT OF DAMAGE. This ultimate is what makes you the bane of every AP caster's existence. Except Ryze. F*ck Ryze.
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Runes/Masteries

Runes

Domination
Electrocute
Predator
Fleet Footwork
Phase Rush
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Runes

Precision
Fleet Footwork
Phase Rush
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Again, this is what I choose, I highly recommend playing Veigar for yourself and making your own choices, not everyone has the right runes for every champ.
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Summoner Spells



THESE ARE YOUR BEST FRIENDS.
THEY WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOU AND YOU SHOULD ALWAYS COME TO THEM FIRST.

  • Flash: Flash was nerfed, but people still use it. Why? Because it's so utterly completely just plain d*mn good and will be until they nerf it to only flash you 2 inches away from the angry Xin Zhao trying to shove his spear in your sphincter. Veigar has 0 mobility and an expensive, tricky to use CC as his only way to get out of a bad situation. Get this ALWAYS.
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  • Ignite: Extremely good on Veigar, because people tend to take his burst and either outright die or run away with barely any health left. I prefer Teleport for its all-around utility, but Ignite is extremely good too, especially if you play a very aggressive Veigar (I don't until late game).
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  • Teleport: Every team should have a teleport, it's one of the best summoner spells in the game. The ability to instantly back up a pressured tower, cross the entire map to rejoin a teamfight or return to your lane before the enemy has a chance to touch your tower should never ever be underestimated. I prefer this to Ignite because I just plain like Teleport more. It's seriously my favorite summoner spell in the game.

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THESE ARE YOUR ONE-NIGHT STANDS.
THEY COULD BE NICE, BUT YOU SHOULDN'T USE THEM OFTEN ENOUGH TO FIND OUT.

  • Clarity: Veigar has mana problems early game in that he has very little mana, so Clarity can actually be useful in that regard. It's useless in late game, however, because if you're smart you'll get Morello's Evil Tome or an Archangel's Staff or a million blue buffs from your incredibly nice jungler so you don't really need this as much as you might think.
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  • Ghost: If the enemy jungler really has a ******* for you, another escape would always be nice, but never get this instead of Flash. Ghost is best on Olaf, because it makes him ungankable in addition to already being THE CRUSHINATOR. Flash is best on Veigar because you shouldn't be so close that you need to run like a Kenyan on Powerthirst in the first place.
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  • Exhaust: Some extra CC is nice, but this spell is really best on AD carries and tanky bruisers who end up in 1v1s the most. Your 1v1 experience consists of some combination of using your full stun combo on someone, dying outright or running the hell away, so Exhaust is a good choice, but you don't use it to its full potential.

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THESE ARE THE BOOTY CALLS AT THE BOTTOM OF YOUR LIST.
THEY ARE USEFUL FOR EXTREMELY DESPERATE SITUATIONS ONLY.

  • Surge: I can see the appeal of this, but I haven't tried it. You shouldn't need the AP boost this gives, and the attack speed boost is utterly wasted on you. I think there's better spells you could put in the slot Surge would fill.
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  • Promote: Like every summoner spell it has its purpose, but like all the other spells here at the bottom of the list, it's not worth not getting Teleport or Ignite. Besides, the pushing it causes prevents you from Q farming at maximum capacity, which is bad, m'kay?
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  • Cleanse: Quicksilver Sash isn't THAT expensive.
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  • Heal: Heal got buffed, but it's best on Mordekaiser and that son of a b*tch Volibear. You die so fast in teamfights that Heal will prolong your life for approximately 0.005 seconds.
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  • Garrison: I haven't tried Veigar in Dominion, but I imagine he'd be the bot champion, so this might work well for him.

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THESE ARE THAT 300-POUND GIRL HIDING IN THE DARK CORNER OF THE BAR.
YOU'D HAVE TO BE SO DRUNK TO PICK THESE THAT YOU SHOULDN'T BE PLAYING
IN THE FIRST PLACE.

  • Smite: You are bad and you should feel bad. If you're not, you're Saintvicious, in which case: why are you reading this?
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  • Revive: You should never be dying enough that this would have any sort of benefit ever. Seriously. No.
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  • Clairvoyance: CV is for the support. You have many better options than this.
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Items

This is where I tell you exactly what items to get to utterly rape with Veigar and where you only ever build those items, right?

WRONG.

I read a Rammus guide on MOBAfire by a guy named Bguggs awhile back that really made me realize the value of being able to assess the enemy team and make my own decisions with items. It's a skill that's absolutely vital when playing tanky champions, because if you build a Force of Nature against a heavy-AD team with a gimped AP carry, you just wasted a ton of money for resistances that will never help you in a fight. It's not as important for AP and AD carries because they all tend to build the same items, but it's still important as hell.

Here's what to look for when choosing items for Veigar.

You want AP. AP means damage, and damage means burst. Sexy, sexy burst. You may think you can get away with fewer AP items on Veigar because of his Baleful Strike, but you're wrong. You're d*mn wrong. The idea of Veig's AP stacking is to get more AP than humanly possible AND THEN DOUBLE IT. LIKE A BOSS. Every single time you buy an item that doesn't give you AP, weigh it heavily against the possible second or third Rabadon's Deathcap you could be buying, because it better be d*mn worth it if it cuts back on your twiggy, bursty deathiness. You are a nuker, first and foremost. AP should always and forever be the most important thing in your arsenal.

You want CDR. That stands for cooldown reduction, kiddies. It means you spend less time being "please oh please not in the a*s that's where poop comes from" ability-less Veigar and more "I WILL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL AND SH*T OUT YOUR ESSENCE" g*ngbang-ready Veigar. Never prioritize this over AP, but if you find yourself spending too much time on cooldown and getting buttraped, you shouldn't let Viktor take the last Morello's Evil Tome in the discount bin. Grab that sh*t for yourself, and then run Viktor over with your shopping cart, cause the dude deserved it for getting in your d*mn way.

You want Mana. This applies to both mana and mana regeneration. Pimpin' ain't easy, and since Veig is the biggest pimp in the bursting game, it's especially not easy for him. His passive makes stacking mana extremely beneficial, because the more you've got (like 'dat paper) the more it comes rolling in. Building mana regen works too if the Archangel's Staff touched you in a naughty place when you were a little young'un and makes you have horrible flashbacks whenever you try to buy it, but it's always gonna be less effective because it doesn't use Veigar's passive nearly as well.

You want Magic Penetration. So you've been farming all game long and now the very mention of your name gave Kim Jong Il a heart attack. Congrats. America will take the credit for that, and in the meantime you've got another problem: the enemy is getting wise and building magic resistance. I know, right? So rude! That's when you whip out you secret weapon: Magic Penetration. Oh, there'll be some penetrating happening, alright.

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STARTING ITEMS


  • : This is what I start with if for some reason I want to be really aggressive in lane, it's an all-around good item on Veigar. A little extra AP (with AP quints alone this gives you 30 AP), a little mana regen and some extra health. You won't have any money for health pots, though, so be extra careful because any damage you take is basically permanent until you recall.
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  • : This builds into Tear of the Goddess as well as Fiendish Codex, so if you're the type that has trouble managing your mana, this a good starting item. Don't underestimate the health pots, either, they were nerfed but when you're so squishy every pot counts.
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  • : Good for more burst and a little bit of healing, but you'll be hurting for mana if you're not careful or prepared. This is nice because Amplifying Tome builds into so many things, which is great if you want to rush something.
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  • : Build this when you're up against a Brand, Morgana, Lux or anyone else that's gonna have you dodging a LOT of skillshots. The mobility and pots make you much more survivable, but you're stuck with only the AP in your runes and masteries, so you'd better be careful and farm well if you go this route.
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  • x13: Hi Mordekaiser, your guides are -> that way.
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BOOTS


  • : The best choice for Veigar, hands down. Makes it even harder for people to take your INSAEN DAMIG and stay standing.
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  • : Buy these if CC is ruining your day. Don't assume you'll be OK if you just stay out of it, CC is designed to catch you, make you sit down and make you shut up, and if there was a single word to describe Veigar, "quiet" would not be that word.
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  • : Good with Morello's Evil Tome if you really want to burst as much as humanly possible, but your goal should be to murderize people with your first burst and hop into the fog of war cackling madly as your cooldowns reset.

AWESOME ITEMS THAT ARE AWESOME


  • : This is the single greatest item you could ever possibly get on Veigar. Better than Deathfire Grasp, better than Zhonya's Hourglass, better than Mejai's Soulstealer. If you ever get a full build and a Deathcap isn't a part of it... get off my internet. It's required for every single AP carry because it alone gives you about 180 AP with its AP and its passive. Deathcap synergizes amazingly well with Archangel's Staff.
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  • : One of the best items on Veigar because it does more damage the more AP you have. I like to map my first item slot to my T button and put Deathfire Grasp or Zhonya's Hourglass there and treat it like a second ult, in which case your burst combo goes E > W > T (before W lands) > R > Q.
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  • : An amazing item, but it can be difficult to use at times, since it doesn't work when you're feared, stunned, suppressed, etc. This is another item I put in my first item slot (mapped to the T button) because you need to be able to use it at a moment's notice. Good judgment is the difference between using it when Malzahar has already used all his spells and is about to ult you and when he's already got you suppressed on his pool, watching your health bar shrink like Ant Man on Slim Fast.

MORE IMPORTANT ITEMS


  • : Morello's on Veigar? Better nerf Irelia. (Edit: OH SH*T IT HAPPENED YOU GUYS) Seriously though, this is a great item on Veigar, it gives him everything he needs: AP, mana regen, cooldown reduction and a book with a really cool-looking Japanese symbol on the front. A little reading material never hurt anyone, it gets boring AFK-farming mid all day sometimes. Thanks to the recent item changes, it's even better against Dr. Mundo, Sion, Master Yi and all of those guys that heal really, really hard.
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  • : Got mana problems? GET MANAMU- ARCHANGEL'S STAFF! This is a great item on Veigar, it basically solves your mana problems and really makes great use of Veigar's passive. It also synergizes extremely well with Rabadon's Deathcap, and the mana-to-AP passive isn't unique, meaning you can get a million billion AP if you get a Deathcap, boots and 4 Staffs, although your team will hate you.
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  • : Great if you need a little survivability, because Veigar does so much damage that 25% spell vamp gives him enormous amounts of health back. Especially good if you have another AP damage champ on your team.
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  • : If your enemies are smart, they will get magic resistance. Abyssal Scepter punishes them for being smart. Also good if you're melting that enemy Brand (as you should be) but he's still putting some serious hurt on you before you turn him into something that should be stuffed in a jar and stuck on some old widow's mantle. Plus it looks f*cking cool.
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  • : Already raping the enemy team? Check. They sh*t their pants and run in fear if you so much as type "I WILL RAPE YOUR SOUL" in all-chat? Check. Feel like you could kill them a tenth of a second faster with just a little more help? Check. Time for a Void Staff.
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  • : ROD OF AGES, ROD OF AGES, STILL ROLLIN, KEEP ROLLIN. Good early/mid game item if you're having trouble farming, since it gets stronger over time. A Catalyst the Protector is a great thing to have during the laning phase, too.
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  • : The thing about Mejai's is that it's a hard item to use because it requires you to play a certain way to make it effective. This is why you don't follow guides to the letter- when I started playing Sona I followed a guide that suggested Mejai's Soulstealer for the assist stacks and I wasted so much money on Mejai's that I thought I was just bad at Sona and stopped playing her for awhile. My point is, really assess your game before buying a Mejai's. It's amazing on Veigar- anything that gives him tons of AP is, and the CDR is icing on the cake- but keep in mind people will do everything they can to kill you if you have it because they want you to lose stacks as much as possible. Never rush this if you're not absolutely dominating your lane, you want to be sure you can put it to use.
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  • : Excellent item on Veigar, especially if your team is hurting for some CC. The bonus health also helps survivability a good amount, but don't expect Banshee's Veil-like protection, it just makes you die a tiny bit slower when focused.
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  • : What's more annoying than a Veigar that anally rapes your carries the moment you forget he's there? One that revives with fresh cooldowns when you try to focus him and decides he's still nice and rock solid and ready to fistf*ck all over again!
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  • : In some cases this is a better defensive item than Guardian Angel, and in others GA completely overshadows it. I'd get this if I didn't have Archangel's Staff and the attack speed reduction would make a big difference, otherwise the revive from GA is too good to pass up.
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  • : Should not be underestimated as a defensive item. Makes Karthus cry tiny lich tears, lets Veigar survive the first attack that hits him, which will likely be CC to stop him from casting. Don't rely on it too heavily and it'll never let you down. Just remember that Banshee's will never make you anything resembling invincible, neither will any other tanky item.
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  • : Better than Cleanse because then you get to keep your Teleport/Ignite. I'd only get it if I absolutely had to, though. Getting QSS means one less slot for AP, which is always something to consider with Veigar.

EXTREMELY SITUATIONAL/UNVIABLE ITEMS


  • Philosopher's Stone: Good for early game sustain and gold-per-ten, but you really don't need Shurelya's ever so it's only good if you plan on getting rid of it when you need the sixth item slot.
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  • : No. Autoattacks exist to make last-hitting with Q easier pre-level 6 and for nothing else.
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  • : Support Veigar is not pleased.
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  • : The pros: cheap, tons of armor, gives those annoying AD carries a taste of their own medicine. Amazing if you're getting focused hard by a ton of AD champs with a ton of attack speed. The cons: it's armor, it's just armor, YOU ARE NOT GETTING ANY AP, COOLDOWN REDUCTION OR MANA REGEN BY BUYING THIS.
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  • : Builds from Hextech Revolver, which is great for Veig's early game, but half of this item is useless to you so it's just not worth all the money it costs.
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  • : Not as good on Critgar as it is on Fiddlecrits.
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Game Phase Guide

NEVER FIRST PICK VEIGAR IN RANKED UNLESS YOU ENJOY LANING AGAINST RYZE, YOU SICK MASOCHISTIC F*CK.

ALSO BAN RYZE. WHY? BECAUSE F*CK RYZE, THAT'S WHY.


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Early Game



Grab your sh*t and go to mid, or top/bottom if your team hates you and doesn't want you to succeed. (Seriously though, a Veigar anywhere besides mid is never going to be as strong as a Veigar that had mid all to himself. He should be the main AP carry, not someone else.) Grab your Baleful Strike first unless your team plans to invade, in which case you want your stun first because 1.5 seconds at level 1 is ridiculously strong in a level 1 teamfight.

Your goal as laning phase Veigar is the same as it is for Nasus: Farm. Farm farm farm farm farm. Farmity farm farm godd*mn farm. Aggression is for fools. Veigar bides his time, lets his enemies think he's not a threat, then comes around late game and makes them wish they could pick Ryze 5 times. Make sure to tell your jungler you want blue buff after he gets it for his first clear. Unless he's Fiddlesticks, odds are you'll put it to much better use than him. If he is Fiddlesticks, don't turn your back on him, split up or say "that was close" and you should be OK.

If you're really being pressured, don't be afraid to ask your jungler for help, but don't assume that means you can do what you want, either. Play defensively and farm as much as you can while staying safe. If that enemy Lux is going to completely crush you if you get anywhere near her holy-sh*t-OP range, then back off the turret when she comes near. Losing your turret isn't the end of the game, losing your life ten times before ten minutes is. Kage's Lucky Pick is a great item to buy if you're really hurting for gold, because it's a gold-per-ten item and it builds into Deathfire Grasp, which is one of Veig's key items. Philosopher's Stone is alright too, but Shurelya's Battlesong is a waste of an item slot, so only hold onto it as long as you don't need the item slot for something more important.

Also, BUY WARDS. It's not incredibly important, especially if you have a support and jungler who know what they're doing, but trust me, wards save lives. Put a ward in each river bush into mid or somewhere nearby the area (there's a bunch of great guides out there about ward placement, the internet is your friend) and pay attention to the minimap and you'll be just fine. This is especially vital if you're being aggressive and they have a jungler. It helps to think about item costs by taking the item cost and adding 75 to it, then recalling to buy at that number so you have enough money for both the item and a ward.

As a benchmark, you should have somewhere between 20 and 30 AP from your Q by 10 minutes. As with all of these benchmarks, if you have more than that, good job, keep it up. If you mouse over the Baleful Strike icon, you can see how much AP you've harvested with Q in the tooltip. Use this to your advantage, Q farm is what separates the good Veigars from the great Veigars. You want to have your first item at least half-done by the time the early game ends, Veig is a little more lenient with item building speed because he gets free AP.


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Mid Game



This comes around when one of you destroys the other's tower. If you destroyed their tower, odds are you crushed them a few times, too. If so, congrats! You can start roaming and ganking, but be sure to keep an eye on mid lane to make sure they can't push too hard or farm that much. This is where Teleport becomes extremely nice to have.

If you lost your tower first, don't worry too much. Your team might talk ****, but losing your tower provides some significant advantages. The space between your river tower and the tower behind it is much safer than the middle of mid lane, so you can sit there and slow push by only last-hitting with Q. Since most champs will leave the lane to roam at this point, make sure your teammates know to be careful and enjoy your free-farm. Just make sure to take the enemy's mid turret soon, before your free-farm advantage is overshadowed by the disadvantage of being behind by a turret.

DON'T STOP FARMING YOUR Q. At this point you can push lanes by casting Dark Matter on the caster minions and Qing the melee minions, but if you're hurting for AP because Annie kept asking you about her bear Tibbers and you kept finding it when it appeared out of nowhere and stuck its d*ck in your face, take it slow and last hit with Baleful Strike as much as possible. You should also have your Rabadon's Deathcap by now, and likely one or two other full items if you've been doing really well. As a benchmark, you should have somewhere between 60 and 80 AP from your Baleful Strike by 25 minutes.


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Late Game



Welcome to late game. This is Veigar's domain. If you did well through early and mid-game, enjoy one-shotting ALL OF EXISTENCE. No, seriously. Veigar is to "late game champion" what Phreak is to "tons of damage"- the two define each other. Late game you'll be unloading your combo for about 2000-holy-f*cking-sh*t-how-does-something-that-small-tear-my-anus-open-that-far damage, which melts squishies and makes tanks... kinda uncomfortable? Don't focus tanks. No, seriously.

Positioning is absolutely key with Veigar in teamfights. You never want to be in the middle of the action, you want to be on the outskirts, safely away from all the pokey and slashy bits that Veigar is so allergic to. You're supposed to kill the enemy AP carry, but if that means wading through Tryndamere's b*tch-slap-a-riffic sword, it's not worth it. You'll die before you can do anything, and if you don't you're building Tankgar and I hate you please die.

Make sure to stay with your team at all times, because smart enemies won't roam solo and neither should you, because you're not Tryndamere. On an unrelated note, have you ever bursted a Tryndamere so hard that he didn't even have time to ult? It's pretty godd*mn funny, you should try it some time.

DON'T FORGET TO FARM YOUR GODD*MN Q, YOU DO NOT GET TO SLACK OFF ON THIS. The thing that makes Veigar so crazy strong is that the longer the game goes, the stronger he gets. It's extremely easy to see that you're doing truckloads of damage with just a Baleful Strike and assume you're set as far as Q farm. IT'S NOT ENOUGH. IT'S NEVER ENOUGH. YOU AREN'T THE BEST VEIGAR IN THE WORLD AND YOU CAN'T STOP FARMING YOUR Q UNTIL YOU'RE 357-0-0 AND HAVE OVER 9000 AP FROM YOUR Q. A good benchmark is to have about 90-100 AP by 35 minutes, and 20 or 30 more every 10 minutes after that, because even in late game you should be farming HARD. A free Deathcap's worth of AP is nothing to scoff at, because if you scoff at it Veigar will turn on you and molest your dog with his +140 AP staff. He values his AP very highly.
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Matchups

I can't give you a detailed list of every single matchup versus and with Veigar since I haven't played him since before League of Legends was an idea like SOME PEOPLE, but I can tell you from experience which people you have a hard time with and which people are money pinatas waiting to be popped with a well-placed Dark Matter.

Veigar's Enemies



: Seriously, f*ck Ryze. F*ck him with a rake. He's the only AP champ that scales off of mana, not AP, and so he's the only one that can resist the tempting charms of your HOLYFOMGSH*TTONSOFDAMAGE. If you got paired against a Ryze... I will mourn for you.

: LeBlanc has a kit designed to really put the hurt on Veigar. She silences with her combo, preventing you from comboing back, her dash can juke your stun if she's good, and her snare keeps you from making distance between the two of you. Keep her at a distance and you're fine, but you better be **** good at landing your stuns.

: You know all that time you've spent Baleful Strike farming? So did he. Better hope you can ult him before he ults you.

: Same problem as LeBlanc. Kassadin's silence, jump, slow and Darth Vader voice all combine to make him ******edly hard to deal with as Veigar. Pick someone else if you see him in champ select, or he will ruin your day.

: Nothing is more frustrating than trading blows with Lux, because her range is so immensely better than Veigar's and a good Lux knows this. Prepare to take pots if forced to lane against a Lux, because you will be hurting and you will not farm well.

: Your only non-targeted spell is Dark Matter which is crazy hard to land without a stun, so her Shadow Dance and Twilight Shroud will f*ck your sh*t up hard. Try accusing your teammates of being pirates in the hopes of making her attack someone else.

: Cho's kit is designed to disrupt, and both his Rupture and his Feral Scream shut you down hard for their duration. If he's building AP you can deal with him, but be really careful around him because his Feast will do around 1000 true damage, which most people tend to forget until they've been bitten in half out of nowhere.

: A Tryndamere went mid against me once. At first I thought "Hell yeah, free turret", and then he spun towards me and slapped me in the face with his sword. And it f*cking hurt. It likely won't happen but if you lane against Tryndamere, be extremely careful. He'll ult through your burst and rape you while you're on cooldown. Why? Because f*ck Tryndamere, that's why.

: HE STOPPED YOU FROM CARRYING OUT YOUR EVIL DEEDS! HE IS CLEARLY YOUR GREATEST ENEMY! Also he doesn't need a lot of AP for his mushrooms to do massive damage to you and make you trip f*cking balls, so AP Teemo isn't as easy to deal with as you might imagine.

, , : Veigar's job is to burst down carries, not pathetic bubbles. If Veigar wanted to poke things harmlessly, he'd be Teemo.


Veigar's Gold-Filled Pinatas



: Karthus never ever builds defense and always stacks Rabadon's Deathcaps and Archangel's Staffs, making him a big, scary target for your hyperactive, twiggy little hero to pump full of AP-boosted death juice. He'll spend so much time as a ghost that you'll wonder if Mordekaiser is somewhere nearby ulting people from the bushes.

: Likewise, Brands tend to build like hardcore glass cannons, making them extremely easy to kill. His stun requires 2 abilities to land, which gives you a window to stun him first, so in a 1v1 you have an upper hand.

: Heimerburger's big brain is just packed with AP for those annoying turrets. You have 2 options, depending on how much AP the two of you have and how strong you are compared to how weak he is. Option one, thank him for the Baleful Strike farm his turrets give you by killing them first then stunning him and pounding his stylish brain afro in with a Dark Matter. Option 2, walk by and casually toss a Primordial Burst in his direction, cackling when it one-shots him. I've done this to an Archangel's-stacking Heimer 3 times in one game. It's f*cking hilarious.

: Early game, he outbursts you with his double bomb. Late game, you teach him what burst is all about. You might want to save your Primordial Burst unless you're sure he's burned his Chronoshift, but that's really the only thing you need to worry about with him late game.

: You know all that AP the enemy Veigar's been farming? Make sure to thank him for giving you all that extra damage. Also, if you lane against each other, try to convince him to have an evil-laugh-off, then tell your jungler to gank him while he's distracted thinking you're just here to have fun. NO MERCY.

: He likes to just kinda sit there and hope you'll let him drain you. Buy Mercury's Treads, then slap a stun or a Dark Matter on him and teach him what it means to do real damage. Most Fiddlesticks don't know when to stop draining and can mistakenly believe they can drain right through Dark Matter, so if you can burst them down while they're standing still, f*cking do it.


Veigar's Best Friends



: Event Horizon, Lucent Singularity, Light Binding, Dark Matter, "Double Kill!". It gets even better when you have your ultimates.

: What's scarier than a Fiddlesticks Crowstorm from the jungle? That moment when Veigar stuns you and you know it's coming but there isn't a d*mn thing you can do about it. His heavy CC also makes unloading your combos way easier.

, , , anyone with an AOE ultimate: Veigar's Event Horizon makes for a great wranglin' cage, and it's even better when people are trying to escape a scary ultimate and you can lock them right in the middle of it.

, , : "Get off my carry! He may be pure evil and rocking a leprechaun outfit like a dumb*ss, but he's mine!"

, : MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I AM UNKILLABLE

: Tryndamere is tied with Teemo for the title of Most Despised Champion, which means he has a global taunt that makes everyone want to kill him. Use this to strike when they ignore you and punish them for their ignorance. And then try to kill your allied Tryndamere, because f*ck Tryndamere.
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Videos

Here I'll post a few videos of me playing Veigar, as well as some replays (as soon as I figure out how the f*ck to upload replays). I'm not claiming to be the best Veigar player or even a really really good Veigar player, but I'm pretty good at the champ, so if I can teach one person something with a video, I'll be happy.

/league-of-legends/champion/veigar-33 /league-of-legends/champion/veigar-33
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How To Win

FARM YOUR F*CKING Q.

IT IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO STRESS THIS ENOUGH.



Let me tell you a story. For reference, the date is 3/4/2012 and the time is 11:54 PM, so I didn't just make this up. This actually just happened to me 10 minutes ago.

I roll Veig in a blind pick and end up with Ryze mid. I sh*t my pants a little and then grab a Null-Magic Mantle and head to mid, ready to switch with my AD carry if things get dicey (top was against Morde, equally bad situation). Ryze doesn't touch me. He doesn't harass until level 5 or 6, by which time I've been getting my farm on and my jungler comes out and tears him a new a*shole. He's still a threat, though, so I stay careful and farm harder and grab blue when I can. By 20 minutes I only had 70 or 80 AP, so I was doing pretty good but not great. People still f*cked me up if they wanted to.

Mid game comes around and I keep farming, only running around when I had to. I started getting kills and Ryze really didn't get much himself, and by the time they surrendered I was 14 and 2 and had over 180 bonus AP and almost my full build. If Ryze had been aggressive, I had a chance, but because I farmed so hard, I overcame my lane pressure and absolutely murdered every living thing.

That's why you farm Q.
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Question & Answer

Now it's time for the section I totally didn't steal from condon (who totally isn't the best guide-writer on the LoL forums and totally isn't worth stealing great ideas from, I swear), where we analyze the questions you should ask yourself if you end up losing a game.

Q: Did you farm your Baleful Strike?
A: F*ck yes I did! That Brand almost wondered if I knew he existed from the way I dove through his Pillars for last hits! I had 100 AP by twenty minutes and I spent half that time thumbing through Morello's Evil Tome looking for dirty words!

Q: Did you remember that you're a squishy motherf*cker and play accordingly?
A: I treated Veigar like the Noisy Cricket: tiny and easily broken, but HOLY SH*T IT JUST BLEW A HOLE IN A SEMI TRUCK, A GODD*MN SEMI TRUCK FOR CHRIST'S F*CKING SAKES, DID YOU F*CKING SEE THAT?!

Q: Did you wrangle carries with your Event Horizon like a coked-up John Wayne?
A: Yippie-ki-yay, motherf*cker!

Q: That was Bruce Willis, but close enough. Did you focus the enemy AP caster?
A: He spent the second half of the game on WebMD looking up diseases that matched the symptom "extreme bleeding from every pore and orifice of the body".

Q: Did you farm your Baleful Strike?
A: No.

Q: You best be joking, brother.
A: Relax, I was farming even while we were taking Baron. Don't ask me how I did that, I don't even know.

Q: Did you build for maximum AP and ultraburst?
A: Actually, I decided to build an Infinity Edge.

Q: You are bad and you should feel bad.
A: I do. Not. Because I actually built eight Deathcaps.


If you've gotten this far, congrats! It's probably your team's fault! Time to blame the jungler!*




*Don't actually blame the jungler unless it was their fault because they jungled Karma because they're Dyrus. And in that case, you're probably Janna and you should feel bad.
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Conclusion

That wraps up my Veigar guide. This took a good amount of time to write up, but I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. I'll take any advice anyone can give me, because if there's one thing a good player should have, it's a willingness to learn. Not being an a*shole also helps a lot. I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

My ingame name is FreestyleKneepad (obviously), and I can also be contacted on Steam at FreestyleKneepad. Me and my friends enjoy playing League of Legends to have fun and I enjoy recording it and putting it on YouTube. We also play Left 4 Dead 2, and are in the process of playing Borderlands and a couple other side projects, so please subscribe to my channel (bezerika14) if that sort of thing interests you.

I'd like to extend my thanks to Bguggs and Condon. I'd like to thank Bguggs for teaching me to treat these sites as places to find "guides", not "builds", and for really affecting how I play the game in general, and Condon for generally being an obscene, hilarious motherf*cker and teaching me that you don't need to be completely analytical about a guide to give good information, as well as showing me the value of cracking a joke once in a damn while on one of these guides.




TL;DR: F*ck Ryze.
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Change Log / Patch Notes

Change Log



1/15/2012: Published guide.
1/15/2012: Added more matchups and items. Added four more rune/summoner spell suggestions.
1/16/2012: Added a full-length game to the Videos section. Added a list of stat priorities to the Items section.
3/4/2012: Added moar to the "How To Win" section.
6/19/2012: Updated items section.


Most Recent Veigar Patch



v1.0.0.131:

Primordial Burst mana cost reduced to 125/175/225 from 150/200/250
Dark Matter mana cost reduced to 70/80/90/100/110 from 100/110/120/130/140
Baleful Strike
Mana cost adjusted to 60/65/70/75/80 from 75 at all levels
Total ability power accumulated from Baleful Strike is now displayed in the tooltip
Event Horizon mana cost reduced to 80/90/100/110/120 from 80/95/110/125/140

This is a good buff to Veigar, just something to make his life a little easier. Mana regen runes aren't nearly as important for his early game, so running AP runes and a Doran's Ring gives you enough mana regen to keep your Q farm rolling in.
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