Varus Build Guide by Alidonis

Introduction

Hello everyone, I am Alidonis and this is my guide on Varus. Please take the time to read the whole guide before you vote. Also any feedback would be great as this is my first real guide! Thanks and enjoy!

Varus is an AD carry that relies heavily on farming (last hitting) and surviving early game. Varus has great crowd control with Chain of Corruption, a slow and healing debuff with Hail of Arrows and a long range attack with Piercing Arrow. I also believe that Varus has one of the greatest passives in the game, Living Vengeance is great when paired with Phantom Dancer.

Pros and Cons

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Solo Top, Solo Mid or Duo Bot Amazing Crowd Control Great Farming Potential Great Early Through Late Game Awesome Team Fighter Cool Looking Skins

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Squishy Usually Focused First Shut Down If He Cant Farm A Lot Of Skill Shots

Masteries

We choose a 21-9-0 mastery setup because we want to get deep into the offensive tree for critical strike with Lethality . Vampirism also is of great use late game when you need to leave your team to go heal up. You can simple go into the jungle and kill a few jungle monsters and go from 25%-90% health and then jump right back in. Lastly Alacrity is great for Varus when paired with Living Vengeance and Phantom Dancer.

We go into the defensive tree for a little extra health from Durability and Veteran's Scars . These two masteries paired with Hardiness will make Varus a little less squishy. However you should still use caution because you are still squishy!!!

Runes

We choose these runes because we are focusing on a fast attacking/critical strike build.

• Therefore we get Greater Mark of Desolation and Greater Quintessence of Desolation to harass harder early game, which allows Varus to freely farm.
• Greater Glyph of Attack Speed is great because it give you a little faster attack speed early game, which will allow Varus to push harder.
• Lastly we choose Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration, these help you stay in lane longer early game and it also help with how effective you are in team fights.

Abilities

(W) We want to max out Blighted Quiver first because this give Varus the advantage early game. Blighted Quiver also help with farming and it applies stacks of blight. Blight can be detonated by any other of Varus' skills. When Blight is detonated at max level with max stack, you will deal 15% of their maximum health as damage, which is an insane chuck of damage.


(Q)This is Varus' main poking ability and finishing move. Piercing Arrow also detonates Blight, so use it on a lower health champion for a lot of damage. Piercing Arrow has a 'prepare' time; the longer you 'prepare' Piercing Arrow the longer it will shoot and harder it will hit. However, do realize that when you are preparing to fire Piercing Arrow that your speed is reduced by 20%. Piercing Arrow will also refund half the mana cost if you do not fire the shot after 4 seconds. Piercing Arrow also has the ability to snipe targets in the fog of war. If you can predict their path you could end up with a kill.

(E) Hail of Arrows is Varus' slow and healing debuff. This ability is best used against fleeing enemies, to slow them and then go in for the kill. Hail of Arrows also has a healing debuff, that is good to use when the enemy champions get low health (especially in a team fight as it will counter Heal). Hail of Arrows can also be used to counter enemy champions such as Dr. Mundo, Vladimir, Warwick, etc. However champions like Vladimir will just heal up after Hail of Arrows debuff wheres off (considering Vladimir Transfusion has a cool down of about 3-4 seconds and Varus' Hail of Arrows has a cool down of 10 seconds).

(R) The bread and butter of Varus' kit. A well placed Chain of Corruption can snare and damage the entire enemy team, giving your team the advantage. Chain of Corruption also has the ability the scatter the enemy team, leaving your team to focus down one or two targets. When and where to place your ultimate takes time and pratice, but usually you would want to go for the middle champion so the next snare will get 2 or more champions.

Summoner Spells

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• Flash is a great escape spell. Since Varus has limited escape options that have long cool downs this spell is a must.
• Heal is a great ability that can change the tide in a team fight or a one on one. Great spell to have.
• Ignite is a great finishing spell and also reduces the healing received by the enemy champion. However we have Piercing Arrow as a great finishing move and Hail of Arrows as a healing debuff.
• Teleport is a great skill for defending turrets and even doing a back door procedure. However, most of the time you should be with your team.

Items

• Berserker's Greaves:These are a must for Varus as they increase attack speed by 25%
• The Bloodthirster:This is must as it gives you sustain and at max stacks, it can devastate early game.
• Phantom Dancer:This is the bread and butter of Varus' items as it increases Attack and Movement Speed and Critical Strike. This item allows you to farm more effectively thus giving you a large advantage over the enemy team.
• Infinity Edge:This item will "complete" your build. It gives you 80 Attack Damage and your critical strikes do 50% more damage with this item.

• The Black Cleaver:This item gives you yet more Attack Damage and Attack Speed. The passive gives you an armor debuff to, which can be greats for "nuking" down enemies and tanks.
• Last Whisper:Gives you armor pen which makes you just destroy the enemy!
• Banshee's Veil:Great if you get a fed AP caster.
• Warmog's Armor:Testing this out, if anyone does let me know how it works!
• Atma's Impaler:Goes with Warmog's Armor. Again I am testing this combo out, so if any of you have let me know how it works!
• Trinity Force:This has the potential to be good, but I believe the cost of this item outweighs the effects.
• Quicksilver Sash:Great to have on a heavy CC team!

Farming and Warding

• As always you want to last hit to make sure you are getting the most gold you can.
• When you can,if your jungler and mid will allow you too, get Crest of the Ancient Golem as this will help you stay in lane even longer.

• If you are in a duo lane, your support should be doing the majority of the warding, however you should help out.
• Ward in obvious place, such as entrances to your lane, entrances into your side of the jungle, Baron Nashor and Dragon .

Teamfights

First of all, your tank and support should be the ones to initiate a fight! You should stand in the back and try to take as little damage as you can! In a team fight you are going to want to target the carries on the enemy team. Killing them first will ensure your team comes out victorious in a team fight. This will open up the map to kill Baron Nashor and/or Dragon and push turrets. You must determine the right time to use Chain of Corruption and Hail of Arrows as this can turn the fight completely around.

REMEMBER: DO NOT TARGET THE TANK!!!

Conclusion and Credits

I hope that you enjoyed my Varus guide and can make use of it! I would love constructive criticism to help me improve on this guide and any suggestions would be great! Thank you and enjoy!!

I would love to thank Jhoijhoi for writing an amazing coding guide which can be found here. Without this guide written by Jhoijhoi, my guide would not have been possible! Thanks!!!