Hi all, My name is VeigodTheVeigar and this is my guide for one of my favorite champions- Veigar. Veigar was one of the first champions I played in League of Legends. I played him pretty much exclusively for almost a year, and I'm currently playing him a lot in ranked solo queue. He's a really fun champion to play and has quite an interesting kit. I hope this guide will give you an insight into how to play Veigar and make you want to play him! This is always a work in progress, and I will do my best to update this guide as changes to League of Legends are made. Please comment and provide feedback so that I can continue to make this guide better!

Pros Cons

+Good damage output late game +Infinite Q stack- really satisfying to qq someone to death +Very good at bursting down carries +Box stun is great initiate, or zoning tool +Ult is phenomenal tool against any AP building champion +Mana regen passive allows for a bit more sustain early game -Pretty squishy -Not a lot of mobility -Relatively high mana costs early game -Relatively high cooldown on box -If you're playing with any skin but final boss- a pretty annoying voice

Veigar is a burst mage champion. His ability to infinitely stack AP with Baleful Strike is the thing that distinguishes him the most. This combined with his high damage output from Dark Matter and Primordial Burst makes him a prime candidate for taking down AP mids and AD carries. Event Horizon provides a great deal of utility to Veigar. It is a large AOE stun, that at max rank last for 2.5 seconds. However, targets are only stunned if they walk into the edge of the box. More often than not, you have to ensure that Event Horizon is placed so that you hit champions with the edge of it. It also functions as a good escape tool for Veigar. The downside of using it is the relatively high cool down. What separates good Veigar players from bad Veigar players are the timing and placement of Event Horizon

---

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: These are standard for any AP mid laner. The flat AP they provide is great for early game poke and help you CS with your Baleful Strike more easily. Take 3 of these.


Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: These help a great deal with your early game poke. Chances are people will take some form of magic resist runes against you. The magic penetration these provide helps you to bypass that and to allow for your spells to hit for greater poke. Take 9 of these.


Greater Seal of Armor: These are also fairly standard. If against an AD mid, these are a must as they provide you with more early-game sustain. If against an AP mid, you can swap them for hp/level seals. Take 9 of these.


Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: I like these better than scaling magic resist runes for the most part as I generally work magic resist into my item build. These help you take more early game poke from an enemy AP mid. I take 6 of these generally.


Greater Glyph of Ability Power: This is a personal preference. I like taking the extra AP as I usually work in magic resist. It's overall not a huge tradeoff, but it does make CSing easier early game and gives you a higher AP base to poke with. I take 3 of these.

---

These are the masteries I like to run. It's a standard 21-9-0 set-up. Take 4 points in Sorcery for the cooldown reduction and invest points in Mental Force and Arcane Mastery for flat AP increase. Executioner helps you burst down the enemy laner a lot more easily. Archmage and Devastating Strikes help you to really optimize your damage output, while Arcane Blade helps you poke more with your auto attacks and to absolutely shred towers and inhibitors late game due to the amount of AP you'll have. Your defensive masteries give you more health to survive the early game and Enchanted Armor gives you more utility out of your defensive items.

---

Equilibrium: As far as passives go, this one is not hugely game-changing. However, it can be very useful. Your mana regen is increased by 1.5% for every 1% of your missing mana. This is crucial early game. You'll want to be stacking AP with your Q as much as possible, while at the same time conserving mana for a stun should the need arise. The passive allows you to regenerate your mana quickly and stay in lane to Q farm and harass longer. However, you shouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security by this. While you do get a decent amount of mana regen, it is only that good when your mana is extremely low. You want to try and leave enough mana for a stun if you can- just in case you need to zone for an escape. When your mana is low, your mana regen is high, but you are also vulnerable. It's something to be aware about.

---

Baleful Strike: Your bread and butter as Veigar. Never stop Q-farming at any point in the game. The rewards are too good not too. With patch 5.4, Veigar's Q has changed a bit. The range on it has increased from 650 to 850 and it's now a skill shot. Additionally, it can pass through up to two targets- essentially providing the opportunity to get 2 Q stacks from one Q. With the patch 5.5 and 5.6 updates, it now travels faster and farther as well. You still get a permanent increase of one AP from killing melee and caster minions with your Q, as well as get a permanent increase of 2 AP for killing a large monster, siege minion, or an enemy champion. Keep this in mind in lane. Every time a siege minion comes into lane, do your best to Q it. 2 AP makes a lot of difference early-mid game. Additionally, you get 1 AP more per level of your Q for every champion kill or assist. So at level 5 Q, you get 5 AP for every kill/assist. The increased range on this ability means that Veigar can farm much more safely with his Q from a distance. As your box now has a delay on it and can't be reliably cast with a stun guarantee, your emphasis in lane will be geared more towards farming than trading- at least in the early game. This ability is what turns Veigar into a monster. No magic resist wins out when you have that much AP endgame.

• Try and line up this ability so it hits 2 minions for double Q stacks. If your minions are doing damage to one minion, do damage to an adjacent minion with your auto attacks so you can more easily get 2 minions with one Q. Timing is everything!
• You can use your Q to scout for enemies. Before walking into a bush where you don't have vision, send out your Q to check for enemies. You'll hear it if it hits a target.
• Always try to Q siege minions! They provide two AP on kill with your Q. Too good to pass up!

---

Dark Matter: This ability is a very strong damage dealer in Veigar's kit. After you cast it at a target location, a meteor will fall doing the damage at the rank you've scaled your W plus 100% of your AP. Late game, if you have 700 AP for example, this translates to 1020 total damage. Kind of mind-boggling. It's also a nice tool for clearing waves late game. However, the weakness in this ability is the delay. You see the outline of the meteor before it drops, so it's fairly easy to juke. With patch 5.4, the mana costs and cool downs have been reduced, so it's become a slightly more spammable ability. That being said, you should still try to be wary of using it too much early game. In the early game, this skill should predominantly be used for trades, not farming.

• Early-mid game, dropping your W on the back line of caster minions generally leaves them at low enough health that you can execute them with your Q for AP farm. Late game, your W will most likely kill caster minions, so you can drop it on the melee minions instead for easy Q farm. In general though, late game is more focused on wave clear so this isn't as big an issue.
• Your W can be used for scouting purposes. When cast, your W will reveal a small area before dropping. It's a great tool for scouting bushes that you don't have vision in and it can be cast at a far enough range that you're relatively safe in doing so.

---

Event Horizon: This skill is phenomenal. At max rank, this ability results in a 2.5 second AOE stun- the longest stun duration in the game. It's great for initiating a fight, catching someone out of position, and zoning. However it has a few weaknesses. The target is only stunned if they walk into the edge of the box. If they don't walk in, they're free to move around-albeit in the closed confines of the box. With the introduction of patch 5.6, an enemy that tries to dash through the walls will be stunned at the wall of the box, not after their dash is complete. Landing the box so that it immediately stuns a target is much harder now. After patch 5.4, there is a .75 second delay and particle effect before the box appears. The delay and particle effect make it so that the target can easily dodge the sides of the box. It's turned into more of a zoning tool against the enemy laner- forcing them into a position where they can't freely juke your other abilities. In patch 5.5, the delay on appearance starts on cast, not after the cast delay. This means, on a whole, that the box appears .25 seconds faster than it did during patch 5.4. This should make the stun easier to land, but it's still not a point-click-stun like it used to be.

• If you are smart casting this ability, there's a nifty trick you can do. If you are sieging a turret, start out of the field of vision of the turret. If you click the area that you want to cast, Veigar will walk up and cast right away. This will allow you to cast the spell in a way that gives the enemy less time to react
• Running towards an enemy to stun can tip them off as to what you're about to do. Before casting, try and bait the enemy forward and then cast the spell.

---

Primordial Burst: Veigar's ultimate is pretty straight forward. It was made to one-shot AP carries. With patch 5.4, it deals a relatively high base damage PLUS 100% of your AP PLUS 80% of your targets AP. The AP scaling went down from 1.2 to 1, but it's still a large amount of damage. Let's put it in perspective. If you have 700 AP, and your target has 700 as well, Veigar's ultimate at max rank will deal 500 + 700 + 560 for a grand total of 1760 damage-from one ability alone. This is a wonderful, wonderful tool. Make sure you try to use this on AP champs and AD carries- the former because of the added damage from your opponent's own AP and the latter due to their inherent squishiness. It's generally not a good idea to use this on a tank, even if they are AP, unless you are sure it can result in a kill.

• Try to use this ability predominantly on AP champions to get the full utility from its damage output. That being said, prioritize your targets. If your choice is a full tank Maokai, or an Ahri, pick the Ahri. It's not guaranteed you'll kill the Maokai.
• This ability has your shortest cast range. As you do your burst combo, you should keep moving towards your target so that they don't get out of range.

Ignite Flash

-Ignite will help you secure kills against the enemy laner. A full nuke combo should go box stun, dark matter, baleful strike, primordial burst, and then ignite to secure. If you get a gank from your jungler that looks promising, it might be a good idea to ignite early so that even if the enemy flashes, the damage keeps ticking. -Flash is essential for Veigar. The only disengage you have is your box stun, and it's on a hefty cool down early levels. Utilize this summoner spell carefully. Never flash to try and finish a kill unless you're sure it'll be worth something. It's also not a good idea to flash secure if you don't have vision in the side jungle. If you get baited to finish a kill, and the enemy jungler chooses that moment to attack, you're in a really difficult spot. TLDR, try and utilize flash as a mainly defensive tool.

4/16

-Introduced change log
-Added masteries section- still a work in progress
-Changed format of Runes and Abilities Section
-Added Ezreal to the Champion Matchup Section.
-Made minor grammar corrections and corrected misinformation regarding passive (had mana regen increased by 1% for every 1% mana missing instead of mana regen increased by 1.5% for every 1% mana missing)

3/27

-Included new champion match ups
-Added more information regarding patch 5.6