Veigar Build Guide by Crx604

Introduction

Hello everyone, and welcome to my Veigar build. I will warn you that my method and strategies of playing Veigar may be controversial and against the generally accepted way of playing Veigar, and so, don't rank my build higher or lower without first trying this build a few times.

In this guide, I will explain everything about how I play Veigar, from very specific information about Veigar's abilities to a huge wall of tips on how to do well in general and specific situations.

This guide will be under heavy and constant updating as I find more tips and important notes about Veigar.

Pros and Cons

By using this build, you will have the following advantages and disadvantages.

[*] High AP which equals high damage and burst.
[*] Limitless mana which means infinite harass and Q farm.
[*] Easy to harass large amounts of health from enemy champions with no return damage.
[*] No real need for blue buff.

[*] No true defensive items.
[*] Pathetically squishy.
[*] Generally single target focus.

[*] Capless AP due to Baleful Strike.
[*] Built in Mejai's Soulstealer due to Baleful Strike.
[*] Huge stun AoE from Event Horizon.
[*] Counters any AP-based champion due to bonus damage (and extreme base and AP scaling) from Primordial Burst.

Masteries

The reason for this weird masteries set up is so that you can have an easier early game.

Points in that are placed in the offensive masteries are relatively close to a basic AP setup, but then why the points in Brute Force and Butcher ? Simply because four ability power is nothing to you. Thats just four minions you have to kill with Baleful Strike to get. On the other hand, that extra bit of physical damage will make it just that but more easier to farm minions with your auto-attack. Veigar's AD is very low, and so just a small boost in it to farm minions will make it that much more easier to last hit.

For the points in the defensive masteries, they give you a very slight advantage in early game. Veigar's squishy, and on top of that he's not a very good pusher early game (according to my build anyway), and so you'll find yourself in the position to tank minions occasionally. For each minion that attacks you, you lose quite a large percentage of your health considering how low it is. Therefore a bit of points in Tough Skin won't hurt (as much).

Runes

Similar to the masteries, your glyphs and seals will make it easier to survive early game. Like most the AP nukers in the game, Greater Mark of Magic Penetration will boost your overall damage as Veigar. As for the quintessences, Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed will help Veigar move a bit faster. Usually, this extra little boost will be enough to have a very slight edge on other AP nukers who are also very slow. Alternatively, it's not unreasonable to get three Greater Quintessence of Health to make up for his squishiness, but that is more so personal opinion.

Summoner Spells

I recommend Flash and Ignite, but I'll go over each of the summoner spells and explain why or why not they're viable on Veigar.

Flash: A blink that can help you escape, chase, or ambush. This utility can save your life or get a kill(s).

Ignite: This summoner spell adds a bit more damage to Veigar's nuke, and prevents your target from effectively using heal. This spell will net you kills early game, and will also finish off tanks late game.

Ghost: Similar to flash. However, if you are about to be ganked by someone like Rammus or Lee Sin or anyone that's fast and/or has a blink, you're in trouble. Ghost, in my opinion, is a more offensive spell that can help you chase down enemies after they flash away or are retreating after a team-fight.

Teleport: This will help you get back to lane faster. With the items you need in this build, it's like that it will take several backs to purchase. Also, if you are simply new to Veigar and/or this build, teleport can be a safer, more defensive option than Ignite.

Heal: A clutch heal can often score kills, but as Veigar, you shouldn't really be committing unless you're sure you can score a kill with your nuke. Heal can also be used to save your life while fleeing, but wouldn't Flash do a better job than that? And if you plan to use heal to help sustain your lane, you can take Teleport instead. With Teleport, you can go back and heal (to full health and mana), as well as purchasing whatever you need.

Surge: Surge isn't a bad spell for Veigar, but it is for this build. Again, with this build you will be harassing a lot. Surge will give you that extra little AP to do some damage, but you already have massive amounts of AP. Ignite deals true damage, meaning it can go through all forms of defenses. Nevertheless, if you feel this is more suiting for your play-style, go ahead.

Exhaust: This summoner spell is quite viable for Veigar. The slow on movement speed and attack rates can save Veigar. And it can also be used to slow down an enemy so your own team can come finish the job. After throwing a stun, you can also exhaust your opponent for a gank. I don't like it because it doesn't help Veigar add to his nuke, and if there are more than one enemy targets, you can only exhaust one in the hopes of getting away. Flash and Ghost are more viable, but the choice to take exhaust goes towards personal opinion.

Clarity: This build offers you virtually unlimited mana. By the time you do your first back to purchase, you'll be buying a Chalice of Harmony which will clear most of your mana problems. And again, Teleport will get you back to lane in a pinch as well as restoring all of your mana.

Cleanse: To be honest, Veigar won't really survive long with this build. The idea of this build is to harass massive amounts of damage at a safe distance, and doing insanely massive damage in a team-fight. While you're harassing, cleanse isn't really necessary for anything. In a team-fight, if you get focused, you're not getting out alive anyways, so having cleanse really wont save your life. Ignite] is a better choice since it can help you do more damage.

Promote: This may not seem as a bad choice for Veigar at first, since he does have trouble pushing his lane. But then again, you really don't want to push your lane. In this build, it's not necessarily a bad thing if enemy minions go under your turret, so I wouldn't recommend taking promote.

Clairvoyance: Let your support take this. You don't need it.

Ability Sequence and Explanation

Read the following abilities and how to use them to understand why the ability sequence should be like this.


Equilibrium: This is basically a slightly weaker version of Chalice of Harmony. I'll explain how this passive works.

For each percentage of mana you're missing, your mana regen increases by 0.75%. For example, Veigar has 1000 max mana and 20 mana regen per five seconds. If you are missing 500 mana, then you are down 50% of your max. Your mana regen would then increase by 37.5%, therefore increasing your mana regen to 27.5 mana per five seconds.

This passive has a more powerful effect as Veigar's mana runs low. This, by itself, is very useful to keep your mana high enough to farm your Baleful Strike. Before you purchase Chalice of Harmony, you will have to keep your mana high enough to farm your Baleful Strike, and since you'll be spamming that spell a lot, your mana will often be near 0%, making your passive give you about 60%-75% more mana regen per five seconds.


Baleful Strike: This spell does several miraculous things for Veigar. It allows Veigar to last hit easier. Last hitting with this will permanently increase your AP, allowing all of your damaging abilities to do more damage. Killing a champion while you have this skill will make your AP go up by a small chunk. And finally, Baleful Strike simply does a lot of damage.

Each level you put into Baleful Strike will increase its base damage by a whopping 45! On top of that, each level you put into Baleful Strike will also decrease the cool-down, allowing you to farm faster with this spell. At 60% scaling to Veigar's AP, you'll do an extra 6 damage with this spell for each 10 minions you last hit with.

However, Baleful Strike consumes a significant amount of mana, and more with each level. With this build, you will only suffer this disadvantage for around 10 minutes, and then Chalice of Harmony and Tear of the Goddess will forever fix this deficiency.

Clearly, this is Veigar's most important spell (other than his ultimate), and therefore it must be maxed out fast.


Dark Matter: This spell can be a double-edged knife, so please read this part carefully.

I'll mention that Dark Matter does a lot of damage first. Every level makes it do 50 more base damage, which is pretty crazy. It also has 100% scaling to Veigar's AP, making every kill you got with Baleful Strike and all your AP boosting items add on to the overall damage of Dark Matter.

This spell must be used with care. It has a 1.2 second delay before it falls. In high level and ranked games, you won't be laning against a newbie who doesn't know this as well. You can not depend on Dark Matter to harass your enemy. It can also not be used to push your lane in the early part of the game due to its large mana consumption. The mana used to cast this spell is better used to farm your Baleful Strike.

You must then understand that since you can't push your lane with this spell, your opponent's minions will often be attacking your turret. There's little you can do about this but to farm while they are attack your turret, and to steal as many of your turret's kills as you can.

When you purchase Chalice of Harmony and Tears of the Goddess, this all changes. At this point, you must be very, very offensive. Your Event Horizon, should have a minimum of two points in it at this point, and it should be enough to hold your opponent long enough to hit them with Dark Matter when they don't have Mercury's Treads. Your harass combo ( Event Horizon then Dark Matter then Baleful Strike) will often do close to a third of your opponent's health or more!

Baleful Strike is very powerful. Therefore it doesn't need any points in it early on, so max it out last.


Event Horizon: This is Veigar's massive AoE stun. It has more range than one might think and holds down opponent(s) for a hefty amount of time.

Event Horizon is a circular stun. The perimeter of this ability is where it stuns your opponents. The inside does not stun. This is Event Horizon's number one rule. Don't forget it.

When you are aiming to stun an opponent, always place it where your opponent is on the edge. This will immediately stun them and allow you to do whatever you need to do. If you place the stun around your opponent, then you just put yourself in a very bad position. Not only will you not be able to land Dark Matter properly, but your opponent can walk up close to you without getting stunned and throw their own combo at you. Alternatively, they might have a blink or Flash to escape, meaning you just wasted your stun.

Not to forget, Veigar's stun has a very long cooldown time, at 16-20 seconds without cooldown reductions.

At level one, Event Horizon can be used as an escape mechanism, and really nothing more. At level two, it can stun an enemy long enough to land Dark Matter on someone without tenacity ( Mercury's Treads). At level four, it can land Dark Matter om someone with tenacity. Remember this and use your stun accordingly.

Max Event Horizon after Baleful Strike. By then, you should already have items that supply you with mana, so Event Horizon will be used to help harass your enemies with Baleful Strike and Dark Matter.


Primordial Burst: This is a Riot's idea of a joke. This is Veigar's ultimate and it does so much damage, it is actually quite funny.

Base damage is overpowered. Starts at 250 base and ends in 500 base. Quite a bit by itself. AP scaling is 120%. So to get this clear, this adds on whatever AP you have, plus an extra fifth of that. And just when you thought its a dream come true, there's even another effect of this ability. It adds on 80% of your opponent's ability power! Considering you'll most often go against AP-based champion at mid-lane, you'll use their own power against them.

This spell, by itself, can cause well over 2000 damage in many situations. Add on your Baleful Strike and your Dark Matter, and you can virtually kill any AD or AP carries with your basic nuke. Now if you add on Deathfire Grasp and Ignite, you'll do even more damage, but that will be explained later in the items section.

Primordial Burst has a reasonable cooldown time. It is not used to harass however. Your harass combo (Stun, Baleful Strike and Dark Matter will slowly quickly cut down your opponent's health, usually at a third of their health at a time. Your full combo with your Ignite (and Deathfire Grasp if you have it) will do about half their health (at a pessimistic viewpoint).

Like most other ultimate abilities, max this as fast as you can.

Items and Build Sequence

You'll want the Meki Pendent to be able to keep up early game Baleful Strike farm. It'll also increase your mana regen thanks to Equilibrium. Take two health potions to help with your sustain.



Chalice of Harmony will add on to your passive, increasing it fro 0.75% to 1.75%. This will allow you to have a much more dependable supply of mana. It is very preferable to get Tear of the Goddess on your first time back since it will increase your base mana regen per second. At this point, you'll be getting around 60-100 mana regen for ever five seconds at half mana pool due to Equilibrium and Chalice of Harmony. With these two items in unison, you can truly start playing offensively, harassing your opponent every time you get your stun ready.

If you can't get Tear of the Goddess yet, at least get another Meki Pendent.

And of course, Boots of Speed for all general purposes.

To many of you, the question arises: why not build AP boosting items? The answer: why? Veigar snowballs with his Baleful Strike. By the time you've gotten these items, Baleful Strike should already be rather farmed up. By spending money early to make Veigar stronger, he really can't kill his opponent in one burst without a gank or without some harass. With this build, you don't want to be building AP so early. You want to allow yourself to farm while it's the laning phase. Also, with this build, it is much more easier to score kills since your harass cut away huge portions of your enemy's health, without having to worry about being low on mana. When they have around half or less health, a full nuke can finish. Easy as that.



This is when you start building some AP-boosting items.

With this Veigar build, Veigar will likely hit 500+ AP. That means you can expect Deathfire Grasp will do 20% more damage of a champion's health. Totalling at 45%+, this item can rip apart tanks, or at the very least add yet another bomb in your nuke. 500 AP is pretty mediocre however, as one can expect to hit at least 900 AP when playing decently as Veigar. Do the math and that's 56%.

Sorceror's Boots are self-explanatory. Magic penetration equals damage. Rabadon's Deathcap simply bumps your 200ish AP to 400+.



That Void Staff will grant you more magic penetration, which is again useful against pretty much anyone. By this point of the game, you should at the very least have 400 extra mana from Tear of the Goddess. Upgrading Tear of the Goddess to Archangel's Staff at 400 bonus will add roughly 150 more ability power. This is possible because Veigar has a large mana pool himself, and then you must add on the 400 mana from Archangel's staff, and the extra mana from the bonus. Add all that mana together, and you have a little bit over a ton of mana dispensable. 3% of all that, plus another 45 AP from Archangel's Staff. And then add the bonus Rabadon's Deathcap.

Play Tips

This is the bulk of this build. This section will give a long list of general tips on playing Veigar. 12 tips and counting!

• Baleful Strike minions before your first time going back. Let your opponent push if they want, but just make sure to last hit with that Q.
• After you get your Chalice of Harmony and Tear of the Goddess combo, harass your opponent by using Event Horizon, Dark Matter, then Baleful Strike in order.
• To finish off your opponent, use the above combo and finish with Primordial Burst.
• If you are being chased, time Event Horizon to have the edge of it land close enough to the enemy to stun. It has about a third of a second channel so time it accordingly.
• If you are ganked and dived at by tower, there is little you can do. If you Flash and still do not make it out of the danger zone, use Event Horizon on whoever the tower is attacking and unleash your entire nuke. It is desperate, but it will often land kills, even on tanks.
• Don't worry to trade deaths for kills. As long as you are at least one to one in your kill to death ratio, you have the advantage due to Baleful Strike.
• If people like Katarina or Master Yi or other champions with blinks, and you know they are about to jump you, place the edge of Event Horizon on yourself, and tank a hit or two. If they aren't stunned when they blink on you, then either walk in or out of Event Horizon to have them follow you and become stunned.
• Tryndamere is an annoying champion to go up against. A very easy way to destroy him as Veigar is to use your Deathfire Grasp, Baleful Strike and Primordial Burst to get an insta-kill on him before he even thinks about using his ultimate. Tryndamere is a squishy champion, and this combo can snipe a solid half of his health away in an instant, so plan accordingly.
• After getting Tear of the Goddess, remember to spam your abilities to charge it up. In conjunction with Chalice of Harmony you won't be running of mana. And a charged up Tear of the Goddess will ultimately result in a powerful Archangel's Staff.
• If you miss your stun, either by placing inside or outside of your target, don't try to attack them, as you are no less vulnerable without the stun in the first place.
• Dark Matter can be used to check bushes.
• Dark Matter can be used to clear minion waves later game.

Update Log

18/08/2012: Guide published. Expect further updates.