Hi :)
This is my second guide on Mobafire, and it will cover what I think of Varus so far.
This guide will explain how Varus functions in bottom lane, in teamfights, and in general.
Please note that this build is not meant for ranked games, as I am not very familiar with playing ranked.
I've had a lot of fun playing Varus so far, and every time someone says OP in chat, it feels that much better. I don't see Varus as OP though. He can easily be killed, and you must have very good positioning to do well.

This took me 5 hours to make so I would be happy if you read the whole guide and tried it before you before commenting and rating :)

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

Pros +Very long range +He can reduce healing with Hail of Arrows + Living Vengeance: gives him amazing duelling early + Blighted Quiver Does % damage +He has a long range AOE stun with Chain of Corruption

Cons -Very squishy -You need good map awareness -Has a very low base damage -Has no escapes

My masteries are 0-21-9. You are a tank and you benefit most from the defensive tree


offensive tree:

Brute Force You are an AD carry, so ekstra AD is always good.
Butcher You don't use any spells taht benefit from Summoner's Wrath so just for last-hitting.
Alacrity As an ad carry you can't say no to mroe attack speed.
Deadliness gives you more damage.
Weapon Expertise Pretty self-explanatory. armor pen = more damage.
Havoc You deal more damage.
Lethality Even more damage.
Vampirism Allows you to stay in lane longer.
Sunder You get more armor pen.
Executioner Gives huge damage boost on low targets. Makes sure they don't run away with littel hp.


Defensive tree:

Summoner's Resolve Boost to your Heal.


Utility tree:

Summoner's Insight Gives Flash a reduced cooldown.
Expanded Mind Varus needs mana early and mid game. This fixes some problems.
Meditation This makes you have enough mana early game. You can easily harass with your Piercing Arrow without draining your mana bar completely.

• Greater Mark of Attack Damage: This gives you some highly needed damage early game. It also makes your Piercing Arrow much stronger.
• Greater Seal of Armor: Armor is always good to have. It helps you absorb some harassment from the enemy ad carry. Also makes you survive ganks more easily.
• Greater Glyph of Attack Damage: This one rune makes it so you get a total of 16 bonus ad from runes. All credit for this goes to the legendary Dyrus :)
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Late game you need the magic resist to stay alive in a team fight.
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: Same reason as Greater Mark of Attack Damage

Good summoner spells:

Flash: Flash is good on almost all champions. Use it to get out of sticky situations, or to get the last autoattack off to get a kill.

Heal: I find Heal almost essential on Varus. In the laning you really need this until you get your Vampiric Scepter.

Exhaust: It's very good for fighting the enemy carry. I would recommend your support to grab Exhaust instead of Clairvoyance. However you need good map awareness for this.

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Okay summoner spells:

Ghost: You can use this instead of Flash. Good for chasing but can't get you out of cc.

Ignite: Good for scoring the kill. Also gives you 5 bonus AD if you picked Summoner's Wrath

Cleanse: Could be used if you are against a heavy cc team.

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Spells not to take:

Teleport: Teleport is primarily used to split push and quickly get to dragon fights. Since you want to be in the team fights, and seeing how bot lane already is very close to dragon, there is no need for this spell.

Clarity: Never pick this on any AD carry. Save your mana instead.

Clairvoyance: With good map awareness this is a useless spell.

Smite: It's for junglers.

Surge: Let the hybrids take this spell.

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Living Vengeance: This passive is one of the best in the game. With this you have enough attack speed with just Berserker's Greaves And Zeal. It makes Varus good at dueling.

• Use Living Vengeance to farm more easily.
• Attack an enemy right after proccing Living Vengeance to get an extra damage boots.

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Piercing Arrow: Piercing Arrow Is very good at harassing you opponents. Use it to cancel enemies from recalling. It deals a high amount of damage and it can be fired without charging. However damage and range increases if you charge it.

You're going to want to max out Piercing Arrow before Blighted Quiver and before Hail of Arrows.

• Piercing Arrow can hit opponents very far away. Use it to get a cheap kill on an enemy.
• If you don't use Piercing Arrow before 4 seconds after activation, you get half the mana cost refunded. If you can't hit an enemy get the mana back.
• In a fight use Piercing Arrow right when you get 3 stacks of Blighted Quiver on your enemy. In a 1v1 fight, do not charge up Piercing Arrow. It will lower your DPS.

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Blighted Quiver: This is what really makes you do damage late game. At rank 5 it deals 5% damage per stack. Also it passively gives you bonus magic damage.

You're going to want to max out Blighted Quiver after Piercing Arrow and before Hail of Arrows.

• Blighted Quiver makes it easier to last hit in the low levels. It also gives a good boost when harassing your opponents.
• Use Blighted Quiver completely melts Baron Nashor and Dragon with up to 400 damage per stack.
• Your abilities have a fairly long cooldown, so make sure you only use them when you have stacks of blight up. You get less damage from just spamming every spell you have.

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Hail of Arrows: Hail of Arrows is your only utility spell. Use it to slow running opponents, or to slow down the people ganking you. Most of all use this spell for the 50% healing debuff. We max it last because we only need the reduced healing debuff it provides.

You're going to want to max out Hail of Arrows after Piercing Arrow and after Blighted Quiver.

• Use Hail of Arrows wisely. If you misplace it, you might miss out on a kill, or even die in a gank.
• Try to hit the enemy carry with Hail of Arrows. if you can prevent their support from healing them, they are easy to kill.
• Use Hail of Arrows to get assist. you can throw it far, and get some free gold if you hit a running enemy.

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Chain of Corruption: This is my favorite part about Varus. Chain of Corruption is devastating in a teamfight. It spreads to others, so it is brutal in jungle fights. It is very good for hitting enemies that are running away, and even for running away yourself.

You're going to want to max out Chain of Corruption before any of your other abilities since it is your ultimate.

• You can chain Chain of Corruption with other teammates stuns to secure a kill.
• Since you have longer range than most you can immobilize them outside of their range to get free hits on them.
• Even if you fail to hit your Chain of Corruption, people might still panic flash. Much like with Fizz ultimate.

Your general combe will look something like this:
If you can get this whole combo off all enemies except tanks will be dead. Remember to move between attacks, to prevent the opponent from getting out of range and you will be just fine :)

• : Berserker's Greaves Gives you some good attack speed. they are also cheap compared to other boots.
  
• : I like to get Bloodthirster as my first main item. It gives you a very big amount of AD, and the sustain on it is amazing. The reason I don't get Infinity Edge as my first main item, is because of the prize. You save 700 gold by buying Bloodthirster instead of Infiny edge. You also won't have to "Waste" an item slot by having a Vampiric Scepter the whole game.
  
• : Phantom Dancer gives you good crit, attack speed, and movement speed. Since your base movement speed is only 310, you really need the bonus movement speed. The crit is good with your Infinity Edge and attack speed raises your DPS by a lot.
  
• : Last Whisper is a great item for Varus. Since we only have AD runes, the armor penetration really helps out. However this item is not worth it if the enemies doesn't build armor. If the enemies build armor early, get this before you complete the Infinity Edge
  
• : Guardian Angel is always good. It gives you nice armor and magic resist, and you also get an ekstra life in the team fights. Overall a good item.
  
  
• : You almost never get to this point of the game, but if you do, I would very much reccomend you to buy Infinity Edge It has the highest base damage of all items in the game. The reason I get Bloodthirster instead of Infinity Edge is mainly the prize, but also the fact that you get 20 more damage from a fully stacked Bloodthirster.

Viable items

• : This item has high damage and it also protects you were good agains magic casters. You could get Hexdrinker before completing Infinity Edge and then upgrade to Maw of Malmortius instead of getting the Last Whisper
  
• : If the enemy team is not building more armor, buy this item instead of Last Whisper. It gives good damage and attack speed, and it is not very expensive.
  
  If you have more suggestions for viable items please write it in the comments :)

: So far i find Leona to be the best laning partner for Varus. She has two stuns, and Varus can easily follow up on her attacks. Leona is incredibly durable, and cannot be ignored due to her disruptive and damaging abilities.

: Alistar is also a very good laning partner. He has just as much cc as Leona, but before level 6 the enemies can easily kill him, and i think he lacks damage.

: Taric is also a good laning partner. He can heal you and stun the enemies, but for me his stun has too long range. The enemies get too far away before it hits, which may lead to bad engages.

He can work just fine with all supports, but it is best if they can deal good damage, and also if they have a lot of crowd control.

Your role in the laning phase is to get all the creep kills in your lane. You have to farm up so you can be strong late-game. If you deny Varus his farm, he falls off a lot in late-game. Your mission is also to harass the enemy carry with your long range, and make them afraid of you. If they think you are OP they run away when fighting. This is good, because you get free hits that way.

In the team fights you must wait to go in until the hard cc is burned. Once the cc is burned you use Hail of Arrows followed by Piercing Arrow on their carry. This should make him leave the fight so you can clean house on the rest of the enemy team.

Non.ranked

As you can see it's some pretty good scores.
I cannot promise you the same results, but what I can promise you, is taht this guide will help you get better at Varus.
I think in time people will learn to counter Varus. The only reason people think he is so good right now, is that only those who have bought him truly know how he works.

Varus is a strong ranged character with long range. If he gets farmed, he will do incredible damage, but if you shut him down he will be useless. His ultimate is really powerful, as it can immobilize more than 1 character. He has good damage throughout the whole game.
The key to doing good with Varus is to be able to utilize Blighted Quiver to its fullest potential.
i find Varus very fun to play and I think you should try him out.

Once more:
Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

If you have any constructive criticism please leave a comment saying what could be improved :) good luck using Varus I hope you will excel.

05.08.2012

• Varus was introducet to the league