Varus Build Guide by arpadon

Introduction

Pros / Cons

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s Pros + Ranged AD Carry + Good CC! + Multiple Root + Awesome Farmer + Awesome Harras

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Cons - Squishy!!! - Need farm to be useful - No escape skills

Masteries

Okay, so I like to use offense Masteries,
as you can see I play 21/9/0

I think these Masteries give you the best opening,
for harras, farming with some defense masteries for early game.
You need to play safe, not to push hard into their turret becuse you can get ganked, even with a ward!

Runes

• Greater Mark of Desolation: Armor Pen is the best choice here, you can use flat AD marks too, but I don't find it more useful
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: Flat Armor seals gives you great armor the early game, shielding you from the enemy's AD carry
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: MR per level glyphs will give you good MR vs. the enemy's AP Carry & Support
  
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: Flat AD quintessences, cause no one had died from over AD... (Or not?)

Here you can find an awesome guide by glizdka which will explain give you more information about armor penetration or AD runes

Summoner Spells

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Flash: Flash is my favorite, it is very good spell for either offence or escaping. It is good for picking kills, escape, chasing and much more!

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Barrier: I find this spell the best for Varus, gives you great amount of armor, and isn't countered by ignite.

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Heal: In ranked games heal can save your life many times, and if you play smart you can easily trick your enemy to think they can kill you and then use heal spell in your favor. lately I stopped using heal, as more and more AD Carries takes ignite which totally counters this spell

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Exhaust: Exhaust is a decent skill too, it is good for chasing, and can help you kill your opponent, while weaking them.

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Ignite: Ignite is a very good "finisher", can be very useful after your enemy is getting under his turret. Moreover, it can be very effective vs. 'healer' champions such as Dr. Mundo

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Ghost: Ghost is the best skill for chasing, and can also be used for escaping. I don't recommand this skill for Varus, although, some may like it.

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Cleanse: Cleanse is a very important CC remover, it can counter hard CC champions such as Ashe & Sona.

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Teleport: Can be useful for many situations: backdooring, quick returing to the lane and even ganks with a good team who can put a ward in a bush for you. However, I find the other spells better.

Abilities

• Living Vengeance (Passive):
  "On champion kill or assist, Varus gains 40% attack speed for 6 seconds.
  On minion kill, Varus gains 20% attack speed for 3 seconds."
  
  This passive is really cool, helps you farm like a monster!
  
  
• Piercing Arrow (Q):
  "Varus starts drawing back his next shot, gradually increasing its range and damage, then he fires it, dealing minimum 10 / 43 / 77 / 110 / 143 (+1.0 per attack damage) to maximum 15 / 65 / 115 / 165 / 215 (+1.6 per attack damage) physical damage, reduced by 15% per enemy hit (minimum 33%).
  
  While preparing to shoot, Varus cannot autoattack or use abilities, and his movement speed is slowed by 20%. After 4 seconds, Piercing Arrow fails but refunds half its mana cost. "
  
  This skill is your best harras, I think it's the the normal skill (not elite) with the largest range in the game, learn to master it and max it first.
  
  
• Blighted Quiver (W):
  "Varus' basic attacks deal bonus 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26 (+0.25 per ability power) magic damage and apply Blight for 6 seconds (stacks 3 times).
  Varus' other abilities detonate Blight, dealing magic damage equal to 2 / 2.75 / 3.5 / 4.25 / 5% (+0.01% per ability power) of the target's maximum health per stack.
  
  This damage is capped against monsters."
  
  This skill will help you harras with you Q, and will help you finish kills with it.
  It stucks up to 3 times and explode when you use another skill on that target, max it second.
  
  
• Hail of Arrows (E):
  "Varus fires a hail of arrows that deal 65 / 105 / 145 / 185 / 225 (+0.6 per bonus attack damage) physical damage and desecrate the ground. Desecrated ground slows enemies' Movement Speed by 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45% and reduces their healing and regeneration by 50%."
  
  I see this skill useful only because of the slow, give it a point in level 3, and max it last.
  
  
• Chain of Corruption (R):
  "Varus flings out a tendril of corruption that deals 150 / 250 / 350 (+1.0 per ability power) magic damage and immobilizes the first enemy champion hit for 2 seconds.
  The corruption then spreads towards nearby uninfected enemy champions, applying the same damage and immobilize if it reaches them. The corruption will continue to spread until there are no further unaffected targets in range."
  
  Okay so this skill is a team fight changer! if you know to time it correctly, you can help your team clear the enemy team easily.

Items

• : Increase your attack speed, I think these are the best boots for Varus
  
• : Your main damage item, 250% criticals and alot of attack damage
  
• : Okay so more attack speed and critical strike is awesome! Get this!
  
• : This item gives you a decent life steal, with all your attack speed and attack damage you are healed very fast.

• : Gives you good health, mana, MR and protect you for a spell every 45 seconds. Very useful vs. high burst AP carries as LeBlanc, Brand and Karthus's ulti.
  
• : Really helps you kill the other team tanks. Recommended
  
• : More damage, attack speed and decreases their armor. Just awesome!
  
• : Gives you good health so you get survivability also slows your enemies, not sure about this item, can be useful vs. fed enemy AD Carry
  
• : Okay, this item has 2 sides, it depends on your team, if you have a good team, this item is your key to win team fights, cause you'll get revived after being killed. However, without a decent team, your team will fall back as soon as you are dead, and you'll get killed again the second you are up.
  
• : If the other team AP carry is fed, this item can save you ***, gives you a shield from Magic spikes.
  
• : Some people find it useful, I don't really think it worth the money for an AD carry, it gives you a ward every 3 mins and help you farm the lane, but good Varus don't needs it.
  
• : If you get the money and want to get more survivability, the Warmog's Armor gives you huge amount of health.
  
• : If you have long duration CC in the other team, like: Malzahar/ Amumu/ Skarner this item can remove their ultis.
  
• : Nice season 3 item, gives you tons of attack speed fire minor bolts at 2 nearby targets and.... most important : APPLY ON-HIT EFFECTS!!
  
• : Nice item, but not the best item for Varus. I find the PD more useful, although one can think differently.

If you got more items you want me to give my opinion on, ask for it in a comment

TIP: (Thanks to 'iownedya') If you get first blood it is recommended to buy one more Doran's Blade which will give you lead on the enemy's AD Carry, and will help you farm.

Gameplay

As the AD Carry of you team you MUST farm, farm and farm.
Varus skills can really help you farm but in low levels it will take you too much mana so my tip is to save it for harras.

Try not to push the lane too hard, and only last hit minions, when you get decent attack damage the attack speed from minion kill can help you clear all the wave.

Taric: The best laner for you, has heal and a stun with low cooldown.

Janna: good knock and nice shields, pretty good support.

Alistar: Got heal and alot of CC, a good Alistar can give you easy lane win.


Sona: Decent heals and multi stun ultimate, very useful.

Soraka: Unbelivable heals, let you spam your skills, but no stun at all.

Blitzcrank: His grabs can give you easy lane winning but he doesn't have any support abilities.

Nunu: His attack speed buff is nice but nothing more than that, not a bad option but not the best too.

Leona: The second CC support after alistar, no heals at all but if you play safely you can win the lane easily, moreover, her CC in TF are great.

Shen: His taunt is awesome, but his Q can't heal you much, he is fine but nothing more

Lulu: Cool ultimate, can disable your opponent, and can give you shield and dash. I don't find lulu as great support for Varus but she is pretty decent

Nami: Nami has great CC, however, her heal is pretty low. I find Nami useful only if your support really own her

Okay so you are going to be targeted it team fights, deal with it!
try to stay in back and target their AD Carry/the most fed champion.

Use your ultimate on the correct time, not too early and not too late.

Focus the enemy's most fed squishy champion, take him down and than move to the next one in the queue, like team can clear all the other team easily without dying.

Advance Tactics

Tactic 1#: Basic killing spike, stacking W->R->stacking W->E->stacking W->finish with Q.
This tactic require high level aiming skills with Q and R you can ruin the whole spike if you are missing that skills

* if your enemy is strong as much as you or more stronger than you this tactic isn't recommended. He can still attack you when he is rooted with R!

Tactic 2#: Have alot of map control, if neither your support is warding the dragon, nor your jungler, it is neccecery that you will! As Varus you can easily KS buffs, drake and even baron!! Just remember not to go into their jungle alone, cause they will get you.

Tactic 3#: How to harras, okay so this tactic can actually be splitted into 2 tactics, first of all you need to ask your self what is your purpose for the harras. 1) Kill your enemy. 2) Push the lane.
1) If you want to kill your enemy you must harras smartly! If you get him too low without killing him he will go back, and you will lose a chance. However, if you lower him to the exact amount you need for the killing spike, he won't go back and you will have easy kill. (WARNING: Supports like Soraka and Lulu can ruin this tactic so watch it)
2) In order to push the lane just harras them as much as you can if you go vs. very squisy support I love to poke him so he wouldn't be able to help his carry

Screenshots

Ranked game 11/05/2012Another Ranked



Below you can see awesome games of @BoLLoTox

@M4ceD0n14n B0Y game


Great game by @mithrandir77


Ranked game by StolenSin


Awesome normal games by WarArcaynjel

Awesome ranked games by Upside-down Orange


Thank you all!

Summary

So this is my guide, hope you read it and find it good.
I really want to get your feedback and tips! Post them!!
If you use the build and get a nice score you can send it to me and I'll upload it to a special chapter in this guide.

Have a great day :)

Raymus (EUW)

Credits

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

Thanks to glizdka for the AD or Armor pen runes guide.

Thanks to iownedya for alot of help in the guide.

Thanks to Helij for a good tip :P

Thanks to Dak393 for great help with season 3 masteries and items!

Thanks to MuffinPieFace for fixing guide's mistakes