Bonjour mes amies!

I've been playing LOL for awhile now, and Varus is a character I immediately wanted to play. He looks badass, and has a nice skillset to boot. His attack range is decent, whereas the range on his Q is phenomenal. Basically, like any ranged AD carry, you wanna stack AD, AS, Crit, and maybe a little life-steal.

What makes Varus great to me is I feel like I can lane forever, especially when taking Heal.

History:
5/11/12 - Small content update (added items and summoner spells sections)
5/10/12 - created guide.

For Varus, I like to go 9x Greater Mark of Attack Damage, 9x Greater Seal of Armor, 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, and 3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage. The strength marks give you a great early game damage upgrade, and if the team builds armor you always have the option to counter build with some penetration.

Other valid reds:
Greater Mark of Desolation - an obvious great choice for AD characters.
Greater Mark of Attack Speed - to help get those blight stacks quicker

For yellows and blues I really recommend the armor and MR as they're great on just about any character in the game. Feel free to switch them out for whatever floats your boat, however. For quints you have:
Greater Quintessence of Desolation - " " above mark
Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed - " " above mark
Greater Quintessence of Health - for some extra survival power
etc.

I choose to go 21/9/0 with Varus.

The 21 in offense really takes his damage up a notch, and in the defensive tree you pick up improved heal as well as a little MR or armor (w/e you need) and health. A lot of people use 21/0/9 picking up mana regen in the utility tree... but honestly with my play style (using the skills primarily to set off blight stacks/poke) I rarely go OOM and can lane forever. So the extra MR/armor/health comes in handy. Heal also enables longer sustain.

(more to come)

Varus has a few good options for his summoners:


This is great on most characters, and Varus is not an exception. I would recommend taking this into most games. It sets up kills, it allows escapes... its flash. Just learn to use it properly and you'll prosper.

Varus has a decent slow, but on top of the slow this shuts down carries and if you grab the point to improve this, also reduces MR and armor for an easier kill for he team. Solid pick.

For when you need that extra damage to put your target down. Especially useful if the opposing team has a regen-a-holic: Dr. Mundo, Warwick, etc.

My favorite on Varus. Nothing makes me happier than an opponent tower diving me... having me pop this and then ult them while me and the tower melt away their health. Also somewhat useful to team heal, but don't count on it.

If you're playing in ranked and the other team has a lot of CC then cleanse is a great choice to keep you running around, cracking skulls.

I prioritize Varus' skills in the following manner:

> > >

With the exception that I take Piercing Arrow at level one, since you have no abilities to trigger the quiver damage with.

Living Vengeance is an ok steroid effect. You can always tag a minion for the CS and get the little increase to speed and auto attack the enemy for a few seconds ... set off with your other abilities or tag another minion. You'll love this in team fights.

Piercing Arrow: I see many Varus players max this out first. Its a good skill, don't get me wrong, but it stops your auto attacks in team fights (terrible thing for an AD carry) so is really more useful as a harassment tool (because the range is fuuuuuntastic), minion farmer, or to get that last little bit of a runners (or baron's) health.

Blighted Quiver: Here is where Varus gets a huge chunk of his damage (15% of enemy health with 3 stacks on a target, assuming its maxed out.) The magic damage on hit is nice, but you're mainly here for the % damage. I max this first. I've topped with Varus (lol) against Malphite and owned face because of this ability.

Hail of Arrows is a good slow, and good way to set off your blight stacks. Solid skill, but nothing too fancy. As Phreak mentioned in the spotlight, practice your timing with this beast and you can actually get 4 blights to go off on a target.

Chain of Corruption I've heard some people complain about this ult a bit, but to be honest I'm in love with it. It stops gankers, it stops runners, it roots enemies in team fights, etc etc and to top it off does a bit of magic damage. Solid ult imo.

Rotation:
I like to stack 3x Blighted Quiver, set them off with Hail of Arrows (aiming for a 4th blight proc if possible), then stack up your blight count again and finish them off with Piercing Arrow.

If you have your ult available you can use it to set off the first stack of blight damage then use your Hail second after stacking some more blights. I've rarely seen people escape that combination. However, a lot of times Chain of Corruption isn't required for the kill.

The build I normally follow is to start with

Then, on first B I either grab a or two, or pick up my first pending on how much gold I have. Often I'll throw a in there for some extra sustain, as well. After you get a sword, finish off your boots. Basically:

If they have lots of CC or Magic Damage.
If they have lots of AD characters.
If you feel you can remain alive in battle w/o the help from one of the boots above.

Next, I build my B. F. Sword into an for a huge damage increase. Following, I build , , then zeal-> . If the game is yet to finish, I like to aim for then another .

After the zeal is a good spot to fit in any items you need to counter another team. Basically:

Against a magic based team you should be building:


And against AD:


Other situational items:
For when you can't stick around long enough in team fights.
If the enemy is building Armor.
If the enemy is building lots of Armor.
If the enemies have lots of health.

I'm done with classes tomorrow so I shall find some time in the next few days to add a ton more content to the guide. Until then, try out the build above remembering that it isn't frozen in carbon -- a good player should always adapt (buy MR when needed, etc.) I promise I'll work on adding some styling as well ;P

Au revoir!