Varus Build Guide by GrandmasterD

I am GrandmasterD and my speciality lies in AP casters; whom I play in the mid lane of course. AD Carries are not my strongest point but when it comes to AD casters, I'm back in my comfort zone. Hence, I love to play Varus and I decided to play him in the mid lane as well. Through theorycrafting and practicing I've come up with a, perhaps slightly odd, setup for Varus which will probably feel a bit different than you're used to be when it comes to AD carries. However, if you are used to it; you don't want to go back ever again!




I - Varus Introduced
II - Preparing for Battle
III - Itemizing and Basic Builds
IV - The Final Arrow




Welcome to my third guide on MobaFire which is on Varus, The Arrow of Retribution. I realise it is a bit soon for me to release a guide on a champion whom is just available for play. Anyhow, this is just a short note on how to play Varus in general and I will present his playstyle for mid lane, top lane and bot lane.

Varus is more than a standard AD Carry such as Caitlyn and Sivir; he brings some interesting utility but also incredibly long range harass. Varus' Q, Piercing Arrow makes him one of the best AD Carries to lane against non-healing supports. Actually, Varus is more of an AD Caster than an AD Carry which makes him rather potent in the mid lane as well. Hope you will enjoy this quick guide on Varus, The Arrow of Retribution.

Yours sincerely,
GrandmasterD





Varus is a versatile champion which is his main strength. He can lane about anywhere and perform really well. His autoattack range gives him a natural advantage to most bruisers in top lane, and because of his Blighted Quiver he is very hard to counterbuild against. He also performs well in the mid lane because of his long range harass and short bursts of damage. In bot lane, Varus can be just like any regular carry with one powerful feature: long range harass! His Piercing Arrow can just deal excruciating damage to enemies, giving you an easy advantage; if you play aggressively, that is. Varus' only real weakness is the lack of a good escape ability. He only possesses Hail of Arrows which could be used to escape or at least to kite but it is far from optimal.

Pros + Long range poke. + Build-in damage based on maximum health. + Multi-target snare. + Heal reduce and AoE slow. + Skills do not fall off late-game. + Snowballs in teamfights. + Slightly longer autoattack range than normal carries. + Epic voice acting.

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Varus

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Cons - No innate escape ability; only an AoE slow. - No steroids which makes him relatively weak in 1v1 combat. - Blighted Quiver requires other abilities to proc. - Ultimate is easy to screw up. - Hard to master since he solely has skillshots. - Wears too much purple make-up.

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Living Vengeance (Innate): On champion kill or assist, Varus gains 40% attack speed for 6 seconds. On minion kill, Varus gains 20% attack speed for 3 seconds. Nice attack speed boost. Allows for snowballing in teamfights.

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Piercing Arrow (Q): (First Cast): Varus starts drawing back his next shot, gradually increasing its range and damage. (Second Cast): Varus fires, dealing 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. Amazing Range. High damage, if directly hit. Great farming tool. Charges rather quickly. Half the cost is returned if you don't fire; which is something to keep in mind.

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Blighted Quiver (W): (Passive): Varus' basic attacks deal bonus magic damage and apply Blight for 6 seconds (stacks 3 times). Varus' other abilities detonate Blight, dealing magic damage equal to a percentage of the target's maximum health per stack. This damage is capped against monsters. Allows for a great burst. Makes you really hard to counter. Extra magic damage on standard attacks makes last-hitting easier.

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Hail Of Arrows (E): Varus fires a hail of arrows that deals physical damage and desecrates the ground for 4 seconds. Desecrated Ground reduces healing effects by 50% and slows enemy movement speed. Pretty nice AoE. Can be used to gain 4 procs of Blighted Quiver. Allows for zoning.

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Chain Of Corruption (R): Varus flings out a tendril of corruption that deals 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. Long duration CC. High burst if combined with Blighted Quiver. Could potentially CC an entire team. Very hard to hit skillshot.

For Varus I use two different skill orders. In both Piercing Arrow is maxed out first. We do this for harassment since it can deal quite nasty damage to squishy enemies; especially if maxed out first. After that we can either max out Blighted Quiver second or Hail of Arrows.

Bot Lane

When on bot lane, I tend to max out Blighted Quiver out second to gain some stronger harass and showdown. Also, we have a support to cover our *** so we don't need to max out Hail of Arrows for the higher slow. Although, we still take one point to proc Blighted Quiver.

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Mid Lane

When on top or mid lane, I usually max out Hail of Arrows second due to the higher slow and more consistent damage output. The higher slow allows us to escape ganks more easily, to kite better and to close the gap.

Offence Tree

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Tier I: Grab Summoner's Wrath and Brute Force for obvious reasons. You could also exchange the point in Summoner's Wrath for an extra point in Butcher ; you should do this if you don't take Ghost, Ignite, Exhaust or Surge of course.

Tier II: Well here is a lot going on; we take both Sorcery and Alacrity since Varus can put both stats to very good use. CDR can be used to proc Blighted Quiver more often and AS can be used to apply it faster, as well dealing more overall damage of course.

Tier III: We get three points in Havoc just to increase our overall damage. Additionally, we get both Weapon Expertise and Arcane Knowledge here. Weapon Expertise is pretty standard but Arcane Knowledge is taken to make Blighted Quiver harass hurt even more and the mastery scales well into late-game.

Tier IV: No points here? No we simply cannot afford it. The Vampirism mastery could be exchanged for Havoc from the previous tier.

Tier V: Take the three points in Sunder here; extra armour penetration is never a bad thing to have.

Tier VI: Executioner makes for a great mastery and really synergises with your ability to snipe low health targets. Stacks with Havoc as well; which is nice.

Defence Tree

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Tier I: We simply go resistances here; the distribution depends on your lane opponent. Take Summoner's Resolve if you can improve a summoner spell with it and don't take Tough Skin , we aren't jungling; even though that is possible.

Tier II: This tier is very straightforward; some extra health per level to become a little tankier throughout the game. Vigor isn't a bad mastery as well but just not as good as Vitality.

Tier III: Simply take Veteran's Scars as our final mastery. Just a little bit of extra health in the early-game; not bad at all.


















Below, I present the main item builds I use on Varus. Every item has been explained briefly and is listed in the current purchase order (i.e. top to bottom). I personally think this is the best purchase order but well, this is a guide; not an instruction booklet.

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For mid lane, Varus requires at least one Doran's Blade to gain some health and sustainability. Two Doran's Blades is preferred but that is not always possible. Powerful mix of AD and magic resistance. Getting it early can really shut down a lot of mages in the mid lane. Provides Varus with a ton of AD, causing his Piercing Arrow to deal massive damage. Additionally, this is Varus' main source of sustainability. Varus can also get stacks rather quickly since he can farm quite well with Piercing Arrow. Extra mobility for chasing and fleeing. Grants a lot of attack speed and crit chance; causing Varus' DPS to increase dramatically. A stronger Hexdrinker. Provides a lot more damage and the passive is a lot stronger. Adds little extra magic resist. New passive makes you deceptively strong at low health. In order for your Piercing Arrow harass to scale to late-game, we will require some armour penetration. If, for some reason, the enemy does not yet have a lot of armour by now; go for Infinity Edge first. The cherry on top of the pie; this will make your damage go sky-high! Infinity Edge combined with the already aquired Phantom Dancer makes you deal incredibly damage; also it adds some nice AD which boosts Piercing Arrow.

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Three of these awesome blades give Varus the necessary sustain, health and damage to become quite the threat in the lane. His Piercing Arrow harassment will become very strong with a couple of these. Some enemies tend to rush an early Zeal; when they do so, you should do too. This allows us to be faster than our opponent which makes it easier to harass with Piercing Arrow and Blighted Quiver. Huge AD boost and huge sustainability. After this, about no one will be able to trade blows with you. If they try, punish it hard! Additionally, Piercing Arrow will make them cry like little girls. Zeal on steroids! More critical strike chance, more attack speed and more mobility. A true miracle to your DPS. By now, enemies will probably have armour; hence we pick up Last Whisper. It makes your Piercing Arrow harass almost unbearable. Do not get this if the enemy doesn't have a lot of armour yet. Combined with Phantom Dancer and The Bloodthirster; this thing makes you extremely powerful and pretty much completes the build. An optional, second Bloodthirster. More damage and more lifesteal will definitely keep you alive; however, you might want a defensive item instead of this

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Well this quick guide is about to reach it's end so here is a list of helpful tips and some neat tricks you can use on Varus:

• When harassing with Piercing Arrow; try to use brush to your advantage and try not to hit any minions before hitting your intended target.
• When you can't hit a channeled arrow or simply don't know where to shoot; don't fire! You'll get half of it's cost returned, let's not waste mana.
• Use Hail of Arrows in combination with Chain of Corruption in order to keep them in the heal reduction zone.
• The Blight debuff lasts 6 seconds and refreshes with each newly applied stack. Use this to apply stacks slowly and then snipe them down with Piercing Arrow for minimal confrontation and maximum damage.
• Chain of Corruption is usually put to better use when used as a follow-up rather than an initate.
• An entire round of your spells can do up to 45% of a target's maximum health as magic damage.

Varus is a strong champion but he has his limits; it is useful to know which champions counter him but also on which team compositions he is at his best.

Synergies

Counters

Well this was my quick guide and personal view on Varus, The Arrow of Retribution. Since Varus only been with us for a short time; I will do some further research on Varus as I keep playing him. Expect this guide to be updated and expanded a lot in the upcoming month so I'd advise you to keep an eye on this guide, if you liked it so far; that is. Anyway, thanks for reading and happy hunting!

Special Thanks

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• Koksei - For creating the awesome dividers/separators.
• samgoeslol - For theorycrafting along with me on Varus.

Why did you release a guide on Varus already?

I can't find Youmuu's Ghostblade anywhere; is this an error? I mean, The Brutalizer is mentioned.

Maxing out Blighted Quiver first seems very promising, is it?

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05-10-2012

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Guide Release: Quick guide on Varus is released; enjoy and please comment/vote. Guide added, what else to say? Oh well, stay tuned for updates.

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05-20-2012

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Some Updates: Did some work on the items section and added Boots of Swiftness Much more pretty to look at; also more easy to read. Boots of Swiftness added, excited? Runes and Skill Sequence sections are both more clear about which lane.