Hi! I'm Fickleflame, a Vel'koz support main who plays with ghost.

Despite only being in God V, I had a 57% win-rate with him as support last season with some 400+ games so, in theory, I know what I'm talking about.

The idea of this build is is to rush damage items and/or split push items. You no longer need to rush a sightstone. Exhaust and ignite are next to useless because Vel'koz is too squishy and no one - and I mean no one - should ever be in range for them to be used.

That was the theory last year, this year though, there has been so much free speed that ghost was rendered useless but, and this is why I'm updating this guide, the movement speed in much less common since Riot has nerfed MS in the last patches.

Therefore, long story short: Ghost is viable again.

My runes:
[*] Ability power quints: damage!
[*] 3 or 6 scaling cooldown reduction blues. The rest are magic resist.
[*] Gold yellows, as many as I dare take. The rest armour or health (more on the armour side if I take more magic resist in my blues).
[*] Magic penetration reds

What I don't take:
[*] Flat cdr, I'll run out of mana sooner
[*] Speed, I have trouble getting through the laning phase
[*] Mana regen, barely noticeable in lane

Note: when I mention wave-clearing, I mean prepping the minions for a teammate if one is around.


Level 1 -
On red side, cheese poke with q over the dragon pit on red side, then give your jungler a leash.
On blue side, skip the leash and harass the blue buff. You'll want to hide in the bush near the tri-bush and wait for the minions to reach your mid-tower. That's your cue to go in and poke.
Push for level 2 to bait the enemy support out to get some free gold from him/her.

Level 2 -
Poke with q, get gold. Rinse and repeat. Use all your mana on q if possible.
Get W second if you need to push the wave. E if you fear an early gank. Avoid using either e or w.

Mid level 2, hold back on the poke, the enemy jungler could be nearing and you need to save your mana for a possible enemy level 3 all-in.

Level 3 -
Poke less with q, save your mana. if the enemy is pushed into their tower, recall in the bush and get your frostfang and a ward. Ghost early to lane so it will come off cooldown faster. You should arrive back to lane a couple of seconds before the enemy expects you and can counter attack if they are giving your adc trouble.
Place the vision ward in the tri-bush on blue side. On red side, the best place is often by the blue buff to help out your jungler. If you are hard pushing the lane, place it in the bush nearest the enemy and wait to ambush them.

Level 4-5 -
If you are going for 45% cdr, buy an amplifying tome. If not, buy components for either a morellos or ludens depending on who you'll be poking.

Level 6 -
Kill someone now if you haven't already.

Vel'koz has a lot of waveclear. Use it to your teams advantage. Split push to catch-up in levels with the rest of the players. Only do this if your ult is on cooldown.

When your r is up, kill someone. Ambush the ennemy adc, midlaner, or support if you aren't with your team. Group up with your team to take obkectives. If you are grouping for a tower. "Wasting" (not killing) your ult on an enemy waveclearer is fine. It forces them to back and gives your team more pressure around the map.

Delaying the game rarely works anymore. You used to be able to waveclear and buy a zz-rot or banner to avoid assassin snowballs.

Now, your best course of action is to clear wards and secure jungle camps whenever possible. If you can leash them for teammates that's the best thing to do.

Although my winrate isn't going down, it feels like rito has been nerf-ing me (My last buff was when they let supports gain xp faster when a couple of levels behind). I used to play with rylais and had to switch to a more assassin like early-mid play-style with ludens into zz-rot to compensate when they nerfed the slow. Then, the change to zz-rot made it fairly useless (lower range). I then sometimes took a morellos (so less cdr in the runes, more mr) and bought a dead-mans as a 3rd or 4th item. Ghost has recently been changed but the changes are nothing like the ones to exhaust so this guide is safe.

This next bit is pretty theoretical because I haven't played as much Vel recently and so haven't yet found my ideal itemisation path. I'm currently thinking of switching to the ancient coin line. Talisman of Ascension is looking more and more appealing. Early cdr, extra mana in lane. I would skip the upgrade to Talisman of Ascension for a few items. Banshees for the spellshield and mr. Talisman for the speed passive, speed active and armour. Both also provide cdr. If I take Oasis instead of Talisman, I could take a Banner of Command for armour, cdr and an active that is better than the zz-rots at the moment.

[*] Don't buy Zhonya's on Vel.
[*] Mute your adc if he helpfully points out to you that you have ghost.
[*] Don't play Vel if your adc is Draven. Dravens are often super aggressive and bad tempered. What's more, there is no synergy in between both champions.
[*] Don't take the farm if someone else can. Keep your team alive and content when possible with good vision and smart roams.