Hello everyone! This is my second guide on MOBAfire and I decided to make a guide for my all-time favorite spellcaster, known as Veigar. His powers are known and feared, and in the hands of a good player, he WILL be devastating. Please take note that this guide is not ranked game oriented, even though some tactics may apply on ranked games too. So, let's get started!

Pros

+ Excellent counter-spellcaster
+ Humongous nuking potential
+ Very strong from level 4 and on, once he gets all 3 of his spells.
+ He swallows souls!

Cons

- Needs at least mediocre last-hitting skills (to gain AP for Baleful Strike
- No sure-hit CC (one can Flash out of Event Horizon
- Tiny

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration The bread and butter runes of any spellcaster. Make your spells hurt a lot early and late game. I can't see any alternative marks.

Greater Seal of Replenishment Bonus MP/5 + your passive = Unlimited mana. If you feel these runes don't give you enough MP/5, feel free to swap them with Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration even though the only time you will need MP/5 will probably be early game. Another choice would be flat health seals, if you decided not to take health quints or you need even more survivability.

Greater Glyph of Ability Power 10 bonus AP from level 1 is good, right? Paired with a Doran's Ring or Amplifying Tome and flat AP quints you start with 40/45 AP right off the bat. Pretty damn good, if I may say. Feel free to swap them with AP/lvl runes if you feel you don't need a lot of AP early game. Also, you can pick CDR glyphs if you feel like your spells need smaller cooldowns. Just note: Veigar is a faceroll champion; he casts all his spells and then he just waits for them to cooldown. His only low-CD spell in Baleful Strike, even though if you also buy enough CDR items to reach the 40% cap you can become a strong spell-spammer.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power More flat AP = more happiness. Nuff said. You could swap these for AP/lvl even though they take a lot of time to pay off. Another choice would be flat health quints, if you need more survivability. Besides, they're worth to buy, since they work with pretty much any champ.

9/0/21 Nothing special, bonus AP, CDR, mPen MP/5 and more utility. If you feel you don't need bonus CDR on your summoner spells, feel free to swap Prescence of the Master for Burning Embers on the offense tree. Another 10 AP after using Ignite? Yes, please.
I believe 9/21/0 would be viable if you need a lot more tankiness, but I wouldn't advise it, since Veigar isn't a defensive spellcaster. 9/0/21 gives you what you need, and some more.

Ignite Nice for finishing off champs after facerolling early game. If you also decide to take Burning Embers, this can work out pretty well. A nice summoner spell overall.

Teleport As I said on my Teemo guide, Teleport is a must for me. It has a billion uses. Offers a lot of flexibility.

Flash If you need an escaping technique, you should use this. Flash through a wall, drop an Event Horizon behind, and you're pretty much done.

Ghost Another escaping technique. Drop Event Horizon, actvate Ghost, and RUN FORREST, RUN!!!!

Early Game

Start off with a Doran's Ring or an Amplifying Tome paired with a health pot.
Try to stay in lane as long, or until you can afford Sorcerer's Boots.
Until you reach mid game, you should have Sorcerer's Boots and WotA, or most of it.
If you're having a hard early game, consider buying another Doran's, since it helps you a lot.

Mid Game

Start working on your Deathfire Grasp (props to Da_Fridge for this) and buy a part or a whole Deathcap, if you're doing really good.

Late Game

Buy your Zhonya's and if the game stretches that long, sell the Doran's and make a Rylai's.
After that, keep buying Elixirs of Brilliance.

Situational Items

Moonflair Spellblade Even though I haven't used this yet, it looks good on paper. Good against a team with many CCs.

Mejai's Soulstealer A snowballing item. If you're doing good, you should probably buy this, if you're not afraid that you can be killed easily. On 20 stacks, this gives a whopping 180 AP + 15% CDR. Ouch. If you manage to get 20 stacks and a Rabadon's, the game is yours.

Abyssal Mask If you've got many casters on your team, this is a nice item to purchase. Also gives a nice AP and MR bonus.

Morello's Evil Tome Buy this if you're facing problems trying to build up your Rabadon's, since it has a relatively cheap build-up. But DO NOT exclude Rabadon's from your build, at any cost!

Early Game

Buy your items and go to your lane. You could opt for mid, even though I usually go on the side lanes with someone that doesn't need lasthits. Focus on killing creeps with your Baleful Strike, that bonus AP you gain is really valuable! Be careful though, as if you spam Baleful too much you may end up with and empty mana pool, even with your passive and runes. Always try to be sure that you can use Event Horizon or Dark Matter if it is needed. Also, try to grab a kill or two with your partner, and ensure lane control.

Mid Game

If your early game went well, you should be lvl 7-8 by now and with 1 or 2 kills or at least assists. If not, don't worry. At this point, you should go surprise ganking, if you decided to pick Teleport. If not, you should stay in lane and call your mid to gank, considering you picked a side lane. If you find a fragile hero alone, by all means, drop by and say hi, and then instagib him/her. Your combo should annihiliate any fragile hero.(E->W->Q->R if needed)
Just be sure that you'll be fine. eg. don't go ganking a hero farming if their whole team is missing.

Late Game

Teamfights, pushes, teamfights, pushes. Your role in teamfights is to pick off the enemy ranged carry, before he/she manages to do anything. Also, drop an EH wherever it can stun the most people. One successfully placed Event Horizon Followed up by a Dark Matter can turn a whole teamfight around.

So, this was it! I hope you enjoyed this guide, and it helped you. If you have any suggestions as to what I can add, please, post it in the comments. Also, if you vote, please tell me why. Well, I hope you liked it!

11/7/11 Published guide.

12/7/11 Put Deathfire Grasp in the main build, thanks to a suggestion from Da_Fridge. Morello's changed to situational items. Also switched Zhonya's with Rylai's in the item sequence.