The 2011/06/30 :
During The next month, I'll be far from any form of Internet.
Therefore, if you feel like you need to ask me something, please do, but don't expect any answer before the 2011/08/03.

Hello everyone,

This, here, is my first guide ever, and I dedicated it to one of my favourite hero of LOL :

VEIGAR

Throughout the Internet, I have found many guides about this tiny master of evil, and though many corresponded to the one I'm about to do, there are some slight differences, which are an improvement -according to me, of course.

This guide isn't perfect at all, it only reflects the way(s) to play Veigar that suits me most, and hopefully will suit you also perfectly.

So here comes the first part : the Runes section.

Let's see the build, then I'll comment.

I. The Build for Runes :

9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration. that grants you 8.55 % of magic penetration.

9 Greater seal of Replenishment. grants you 3.69 / 5 sec mana regeneration.

9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction. that grants you 8.10 % cooldown reduction at level 18. You can also go for glyphs of Potency which would grant you 8,55 AP.

And finally the Quintessences :

3 Greater Quintessence of Ability Power. that grants you 14.85 ability power.


II. Why you should take this build :

As you might have noticed, the marks are the common ones for a Mage.

If you have ever played Veigar before, you may have noticed that he is reeaally hungry for mana early game, and as it gets closer to the end, you starting to be mana free. The Seals Greater seal of Replenishmentare there to counter that lack of mana early game. This explains one should choose Greater Seal of Replenishment over Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration. With this and a few masteries and the right items (I'll develop that later), you should be mana free from the start ! (or almost)

Here is the most complicated pick to justify : the glyphs.
Most people would choose Ability power over Cooldown reduction for Veigar, ans I understand them : giving veigar a lot of AP is a way to make him own his lane. That's why I let it up to you to pick AP over CR. But in any case the runes you shouldn't pick are those of AP/LVL (the Force ones). Veigar doesn't need AP bonus from his runes in mid/late game if he has been able to farm early on. That's why if you pick AP glyphs, pick constant AP (Glyph of Potency) to increase your strength early game. It's a gamble of course, but a safe one, I can ensure you.
Let's come back on the CR/LVL runes : I chose them because Veigar doesn't really need CR early game. Veigar is not an harass, it's a nuker, so what you should do early game is to farm creeps and never push outside of your turret range alone and then later on, you should be able to wreck havoc on your enemies. Veigar, as I said before, is a nuker, which means that if he casts his 4 spells, he can basically kill or severely hit an enemy champion. The weakness of Veigar is that once he cast them, he does nothing. Therefore you'd really want him to have his abilities back as soon as possible.

Then finally there are the quintessences. Why AP ? I said before that Veigar needs AP in early game to nicely clean its lane. Well, here is the AP ! The interesting thing about Potency quintessence are their ratio with other runes. People often say that a quintessence is as powerful as two or three other runes put together. Potency are far beyond that ratio : their ratio is about 5 out of the best other rune (glyph of potency) !

So with this build you have magic penetration, mana regeneration, cooldown reduction and ability power.

I have three possibilities there :

two 9/0/21 builds :
..
the classic with Archaic Knowledge in Offence

..
the unusual with Burning Embers in Offence...


and one weird 10/0/21 :
..
with Archaic Knowledge and Burning Embers in Offence (wtf is going on here ?)


I won't extent myself on the first one, the most classical Masteries Build for a mage. Also because many masteries are depending on which summoner abilities you pick, etc.

The second one is weirder, I admit. But it also has my preference.
Indeed, many of you are maybe saying right now "OMG! He didn't pick the magic penetration as a mage, what a noob build that is". Wrong ! Magic penetration reduces the magic resist of the enemies in form of a percentage of their previous resistance. But early game creeps have 0 of magic resist. And 0*(1-0.15) = 0 right ? so magic penetration helps in nothing early on for Veigar. So ok, you don't do as much damage in early game as with the first build on heroes, but in exchange you'll get 10 free AP with the ignite bonus ! You will be able to better farm creeps and that's all Veigar needs to become a monster. (And it compensate for the 8.55 AP lost by choosing CR/LVL runes over AP runes).
Choosing this mastery also means that you took Ignite as spell, which can give a hell of a time to the support player (50% less healing, plus true dmg, plus dps).

And then the last one, the 10/0/20. It is for those of you who wants to harass quite early on the enemy champion (I don't). However, losing the 15% CR for the summoner spell is a risky bet, that I don't support except in very special occasions.

EDIT : For more information about the relative efficiency of these two masteries, please take a look at my discussion with Demordir in the comment section, where some maths are made to really see through it

First of all, you shouldn't choose your item according to what I say but according to what you are experiencing in game.

However, my philosophy of play with Veigar is never engage fight alone vs 2 or more, and make sure none will ever gank you. The second part is hard I know, though there is a simple solution: Wards ! If you don't have any support player in your team, don't hesitate on buying wards for your own protection. And there are stealth in the other team, don't be scared to buy those costly wards with vision.

Now the build in itself :
Meki Pendant. (+1 and +1 )
-> Lane as long as possible, really safely. (Ideally near your turret, yet not under)
You should get between 800 G and 2k gold depending on the harass of the other team.
Tear of the Goddess (+2 and +2-5 sight ward)
Boots
-> Again lane calmly around your turret, you can start to focus more on the opposing
heroes, even bait for ganks.
Blasting Wand (+2-5 sight ward)
-> you should then be around 150-250 AP depending on how well it went, and the gank
play should be more and more intense, you can now take a part in it as you have
normally twice as much AP as any other AP carry.
Needlessly Large Rod (+2-5 sight ward)
-> play carefully as gank will start to focus you.
Rabadon's Deathcap (and many sight ward of course)
-> your second major item is build. With this only I often go around 400 AP.
Sorcerer's Shoes

Then, if there is still some time left :
Archangel's Staff (Complete the Tear of the Goddess)
Void Staff OR Archangel's Staff
Zhonya's Hourglass
Archangel's Staff OR Frozen Heart ( Only if there is already an Archangel staff, that grants you another 15 AP, 99 armor, 500 mana, 20% CR, -20% AS to the nearby enemies -> survival item) OR Lich Bane (Same requirement : gives 90.5 AP, 350 mana, +7% MS, 30 MR and one deadly passive)

My best AP was 1708 with a completely one-sided build far too dangerous to be played each time (1 Rabadon's Deathcap + 5 Archangel Staff). This build was thought in the nuker style, which means a lot of AP, and low life. Be found out of bounds and you're dead, except in a 1 vs 1 fight,where then he is probably dead.

I like the idea of having a Lich Bane : Although it costs a lot, it can double your fire power during a fight, and save you some cooldowns. Allowing you to take two enemies rapidly, instead of one. Plus it has a survival/kill bonus with the movement speed.

Baleful Strike :
(Passive): Veigar gains bonus ability power for each champion kill from any damage source. Bonus Ability Power: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
(Active): Unleashes dark energy at target enemy dealing magic damage. If the unit is killed, Veigar gains 1 ability power.

Cost: 75 Mana
Range: 650
Cooldown: 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 seconds
Magic Damage: 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+0.6 per ability power)


Dark Matter :
(Active): Veigar calls a great mass of dark matter to fall from the sky to the target location, after 1.2 seconds, dealing magic damage.

Cost: 100 / 110 / 120 / 130 / 140 Mana
Range: 900
Cooldown: 10 seconds
AoE : 300 (Diameter)
Magic Damage: 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 / 320 (+1 per ability power)

Event Horizon :
(Active): Veigar twists the edges of space around the target location for 3 seconds, stunning enemies who pass through the perimeter for a few seconds.

Cost: 80 / 95 / 110 / 125 / 140 Mana
Range: 650
Cooldown: 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 seconds
AoE : 600(Diameter)
Stun Duration: 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 seconds

Primordial Burst :
(Active): Blasts an enemy champion, dealing magic damage plus 80% of his target's ability power.

Cost: 150 / 200 / 250 Mana
Range: 650
Cooldown: 130 / 110 / 90 seconds
Magic Damage: 250 / 375 / 500 (+1.2 per ability power)

Passive Ability :
Equilibrium : Veigar's mana regen is increased by 0.75% for each 1% of mana he's missing.

All this section has been taken of http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Veigar

This is how I upgrade them.

1 : Baleful Strike <- to farm, need to maxed the earliest possible
2 : Event Horizon <- safety
3 : Baleful Strike
4 : Dark Matter<- AoE dmg, use wisely to depush or harass the enemy (costly)
5 : Baleful Strike
6 : Primordial Burst <- Ulti
7 : Baleful Strike
8 : Dark Matter
9 : Baleful Strike
10: Event Horizon <- becomes a 1.75 sec stun, enough to launch all your spells
11: Primordial Burst <- Ulti level 2
12: Dark Matter
13: Dark Matter
14: Dark Matter
15: Event Horizon
16: Primordial Burst <- Ulti level 3
17: Event Horizon
18: Event Horizon

Finally the Summoner Spells :
I greatly recommend Teleport on veigar. Veigar is a nuker and with teleport, he can go wherever he wants on the map, especially if there are wards (yes, you can tp on wards!), creating unexpected insta-kill. And becoming a great threat to the enemy team. You can also be more efficient in early game as you never leave your lane for more than 8 seconds, compared with the normal way, it's a 20-30 seconds gain in time, so about 3-8 bonus AP.

If you don't like Teleport, use Ghost (or maybe Flash). It would be my alternative choice. It is a good way to escape fight. However, Veigar is slow and the Ghost effect is a gain in %, so faster champions will still get you easily using theirs. My personal philosophy is kill, scare and die without hoping to escape. Indeed if Veigar initiates a fight it will become a 4 vs. 5 very often, then a good defence from your team and you're alive. You can then deal some dreadful damage to someone else before dying, letting your team finish the job. 2-3 kills for 1 is a good exchange, I think ;).

For the second spell, I chose Ignite. Less healing, and dps. A good way to start a hero, especially with the bonus AP. Dangerous, though, because of the small range of ignite.

An alternative choice is Flash. Ah, popping in and out of fight... I think everything is said there. You kill a hero then back behind your defensive lane. An unpleasant vision for your enemies. However beware of the cooldown...

In a premade game, there is usually one AP carry (here, Veigar), one AD carry, one tank, one support, one jungler. Usually, there are 2 lanes with only 1 person on it. I sincerely recommend you to play Veigar top alone. If so, He will be far from ganks and only one or 2 wards are sufficient to counter the attempts. Plus, as he is alone, he won't have any ally stealing his last hits, so important to him.

If in blind pick, I recommend you to play mid with a lot of wards. Warding is crucial with Veigar as his escape possibility are very low (he's slow and his Stun cooldown last for more than 10 sec...).


I. Early Game :

The idea is to put on fire the enemy as soon as you can, in order to get the 10 bonus AP, and to scare him. Therefore he will be a bit more cautious and you will be able to lane more easily. Playing with Veigar early game is game of mind. You need to make your opponent believe that you can deal him a lot of burst damage (which is false in the beginning) so that he backs off, then realises later that you don't do so much damage (while in fact, you do now).

If you put that through, your enemy will let you farm then come too close and be at your mercy. However don't ever think to make kills before lvl 7-8, except if your opponent has to much belief in himself (face tank the turret is an example of over committing).
Lane safely under or near the turret, make the maximum last hits possible with Baleful Strike. And last thing, if your opponent do not let you last hit creeps, call for early gank or lane swap.


II. Mid Game :

Lane. Always Lane. However, if your team is smart, they'll put wards all around the map, so that you can gank rapidly. Be cautious about entering in a fight already begun : never try to tp to save some allies that are badly hurt and being chase. Except for great luck, you won't be able to save yourself after you save them and sometimes your wounded allies will try to save you, and you'll all die. That is particularly true in Solo Blind Pick game (where there is no VoIP).

So lane. And be prepared for ganks. You can initiate them, but its dangerous. The best way is to hide, let them think its a 2-3/4-5 until they start the fight, and then stun. And do all the burst damage you can.


III. Late game :

Same as mid game, minus the lane part. Have fun ;)