Veigar Build Guide by ThaHood

Introduction

"What's black and blue, and is about to show you the definition of PAIN?"

The answer to that isn't Veigar, the question that does come with this answer is the following:

"What's black and blue, and is about to extinguish you?

That's because he doesn't show you pain. He gives you no time to even think of pain, he just blows you up. He will leave you baffled while you quietly say: "F*ck"

Do you also want to leave that expression on your enemies? Then is THE Veigar guide that will show you how to. I will try to explain everything in as much detail as I can. If, however, you still have any questions or whatever, feel free to ask them and I will answer them the best I can.

Pros/Cons

Pros

• Best single target burst in game
• Free AP with Baleful Strike
• Best non-ultimate stun skill in the game, Event Horizon
• He wobbles instead of walking

Cons

• Very bad laning phase (first 10 minutes)
• With this build focusing on burst, you need blue buff to stay out of mana problems.
• Only 1 burst every 60 seconds

Runes/Masteries

• Archaic Knowledge , amplifying Veigar's magic damage.
• Sorcery and Intelligence , to reach the maximum 40% cooldown reduction (special chapter).
• Quickness and Blink of an Eye , to outrun most champions (chasing/fleeing)
• Meditation , to be able to spam Baleful Strike early game.

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration, amplifying Veigar's magic damage.
• Greater Seal of Replenishment, to be able to spam Baleful Strike early game.
• Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction, with these we can reach the maximum 40% cooldown reduction (special chapter).
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, being able to run away from almost everyone adds a lot of survivability to this squishy Yordle.

Summoner Spells

Summoner Spells I recommend

Aside from Event Horizon we have no escape in case we get ganked or get caught in the jungle. If it is on cooldown we can safely jump away with this Summoner Spell.

Early game the burst we have won't always be enough. With this we can deal that little extra damage that we need to kill them. Also works great against champions like Dr. Mundo

Viable second option Summoner Spells

Some people prefer it over Flash, but we already have Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed and Quickness to be quicker then most. But most importantly, you can't jump walls with it.

Late game this Summoner Spell can be extremely potent, quick saving a tower/quickly joining your team, but I don't think Veigar is suited for this one. Leave it to someone who can actually hold a tower 1vs2, mostly your solo top laner.

Summoner Spells we really don't need

Although we are mana hungry without blue buff it loses it effectiveness after 20 minutes, making other Summoner Spells a much better choice.

We got Event Horizon and all this movement speed and you still think we need this Summoner Spell to catch up/run away from someone?

Ability Explanation+Sequence

Ability Explanation

• Equilibrium: Free mana regenaration.
• Baleful Strike: Our main farm skill. Use it 24/7 on last hitting minions to build up some free AP.
• Dark Matter: Perfect for killing a big wave of minions.
• Event Horizon: Use this for setting up your KABOOM. Made a special chapter for this awesome skill.
• Primordial Burst: Best anti-AP skill in League of Legends, deals formidable damage to single target.

Ability Sequence

Maxing Baleful Strike first to farm easier early game. I take Event Horizon at lvl 2 so I can safe myself in case I am playing against an agressive enemy, I upgrade it once at lvl 10 so my Dark Matter will always land on it's target, because someone with lvl 2 boots will simply walk away after a direct stun resulting in a missed Dark Matter.
Ofcourse we lvl Primordial Burst whenever we can.

Items

Items

• : More magic penetration.
• : Extra burst spell, cooldown reduction and minor AP/mana regenaration.
• : More magic penetration, survivability against other AP carries and minor AP.
• : More survivability, a slow and minor AP.
• : Major AP and a 30% boost on all those minor AP items
• : More magic penetration and minor AP.

What do we achieve with these items

• Enough magic penetration to ignore magic resistance.
• Enough AP, along with farm from Baleful Strike, to have enough power.
• Survivability

Gameplay

Laning Phase Pre-6

We start out with Boots of Speed and some potions. You have 392 movement speed already, making you uncatchable already. We want to have mid lane, because we need to reach lvl 6 quickly and farm Baleful Strike as much as possible.
When in lane try to avoid any harrass coming your way. If you get around half health you can use a potion to heal up. If you run out of potions you should blue pill, we are very squishy early on and shouldn't risk dying. Last hit with Baleful Strike whenever possible, only last hit with auto-attacks when it is on cooldown. Try to play very passive untill we reach lvl 6.

Laning Phase Post-6/Pre-DFG

From this point we need to calculate. Can I burst my opponent down? If yes, KABOOM him (KABOOM is explained later in this guide). If not you have 2 choices, 1: keep farming Baleful Strike playing passive or 2: harrassing. You can also gank other lanes, but be wary that your middle tower doesn't get destroyed.

Laning Phase Post DFG

This is where the fun part starts. Together with Deathfire Grasp and Sorcerer's Boots we have enough power to kill anyone. Be agressive, no more passive playing, and try to KABOOM them. Even if they manage to survive it they barely will, resulting in a blue pill for your opponent. Take advantage of these trip back and push! Only push if you feel safe and have a ward on at least 1 side of the river. Also remember to farm Baleful Strike. This is also the perfect time to start demanding blue buff.

Ganking Phase

People start to gank and small teamfights (3v3) start to happen across the map. As we can only KABOOM one person every 60 seconds it's best if we stay in a lane that hasn't destroyed a tower yet (these are safer then those who do have a tower destroyed). Only help when your team needs it. Keep farming Baleful Strike] and get ready to KABOOM someone when you can. Remember to buy an occasional [[Vision Ward

Teamfight Phase

Both teams have lost a few towers, dragon went down 2 or 3 times, teamfights start to be 5v5 and you are still farming Baleful Strike. We don't add a lot to teamfights and that's why we try to search opponents that are somehow alone. I personally like to go into a nearby bush and wait untill 1 of them facechecks. Try to calculate the risks of going KABOOM on someone and being able to run away from that position so the enemy team does not get the chance to return the favor.
If the teams are 5vs5 in a lane and both teams are waiting for the other to initiate you can pick someone who went just a little too far to KABOOM him. When you do this you must inform your team that it is not an initiation and that they must keep themself calm! You can easily burst 1 opponent down without any help!

How to use Event Horizon

There are a few ways to use Event Horizon, I will discuss them all in here.
Remember that you can be very bold and always drop a Dark Matter when you happen to hit someone.

• A direct stun. This means that you place the edge of Event Horizon directly on someone so they are stunned the moment the circle comes down.
• Zoning. This means that you zone your enemies out using Event Horizon. This is most often done in the jungle to make sure they can't chase you or that they can't run away from your team.
• Teamfights situation 1. Randomly placing them in close combat teamfight, for example in the jungle. Place Event Horizon in the middle of everything and if opponents are heavy on melee you should place an edge near your AD carry.
• Teamfights situation 2. If you happen to have a Galio or Nunu in your team you can place your Event Horizon around them if they ult (respective Idol of Durand and Absolute Zero). This way the enemy team can't escape there ult and are trapped inside, making this a perfect way to give them bad positioning
• Fleeing. When your running away for them you can drop Event Horizon to escape them. Do this by placing it a bit in front of them so they walk into it, which they mostly will.
• Tower pushing. When your team is attacking a tower and the enemies aren't around yet. You can walk past the tower and keep your enemies away with Event Horizon, giving your team the much needed time to take down the tower.

How to Harras/KABOOM

Harrassing:

Before you have your Deathfire Grasp you need to harras enemies before they can be bursted down. How do we harras with Veigar?

• Against melee: Use your Baleful Strike, this is the easiest way to conserve mana for your combo.
• Against melee with gap-closer: Event Horizon followed by a Dark Matter, this takes a little more mana and without a blue buff can't be done too often.
• Against ranged AD: Use your Baleful Strike, your Q does way more damage then they do with 2 auto-attacks so it's worth the trade. If however you don't feel safe enough use the same combo as we do against champions with a ranged stun.
• Against ranged stun: Event Horizon followed by a Dark Matter
• Against AP carries: Event Horizon followed by a Dark Matter

Important Note:
Mid/Late Game Veigar does not harras! You can either kill them with your burst or you will leave them alone! The only way you might want to harras is with Dark Matter when your pushing a tower.

KABOOM:

--> --> --> -->

First you want to stun them with E, after that drop a quick W as it takes 1,2 sec to fall down, before it falls you should use your Deathfire Grasp to gain the maximum amount of damage out of it, after we use Q and if there still alive you can use R.
Why do I use R last? Because in most cases you don't need R. I try to save it against there AP carries because R+Q is usually enough to kill them.

Remember that after you go KABOOM you can't do anything untill the spells are off cooldown! You can only support your team with a stun and I strongly suggest using it for defensive purposes only


OMG THEY ALL GOT WHAT DO I DO NOW?

Kill the shield with Baleful Strike ofcourse ^^ Don't try to combo anyone who has BV passive shield active because they will just walk through your stun.

OMG THEY ALL GOT WHAT DO I DO NOW?

Fake your combo. I do this by stunning them with E followed by a W+Q. If they walk away after stun you can try to go after them once E if of the cooldown and if they don't walk away you should finish your combo. Remember that this doesn't fully utilize Deathfire Grasp.

Annoying Mid Champions

I found my first annoying opponent for mid laning yesterday and that's the reason why I am going to add this section. In here I will put all the enemy champions I had trouble to deal with.



I found her so damn annoying. She played very agressive from the very beginning, harrassing me out and even killing me a few times. Her spells have a huge range, if not the biggest range of any caster. My advice against her is trying to avoid her spells, which are all skill shots. In my case I had a very good Lux against me and she anticipated 99% of my movement correct. I even tried walking towards her sometimes, but then I got hit by her stun. Try to stay behind minions and ask for many ganks if your jungler can. Luckly after the ganking phase started (early/mid-game) she starts to be less annoying as you have more room to move and have a bigger burst then her.

Ability Power vs Magic Penetration

I prefer Magic Penetration because I really want to burst down everyone. Carries are running away for you, supports are running away for you and even the tanks will run away for you. This psychological effect will cripple opponent teams. But what's really better? I found a great general guide here where they explain that Magic Penetration with a small amount of AP is lots better then having a lot of AP without Magic Penetration.
For those who want to read more on this subject I strongly recommend the following guide:
Magic Penetration vs Ability Power General Guide

Why don't we get Mejais

Pros:

• Potential to reach 180 AP.
• When fully stacked 15% cooldown reduction

Cons:

• Stacks need to be earned

As you can see Mejai's is a pretty risky item. But why don't we get it?

• We already have maximum cooldown reduction (see chapter below)
• We already get a lot of AP from Baleful Strike
• We don't need AP to burst more effective, but magic penetration

Quick word on Cooldown Reduction

How do we achieve the maximum 40% cooldownreduction

• Intelligence (6%)
• Sorcery (3%)
• Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction (5,85%)
• Deathfire Grasp (15%)

This gives us a total of 29,85%.

How do we fix the other 10,15%?

Adding another 10% making the total 39,85%




For those who think that you absolutely need the extra 0,15% here is a little calculation.

Let's take the spell with the longest cooldown, [[Primordial Burst], which is 130 sec at level 1. If we take away the 39,85% that leaves us with 78,195 sec (130/100*(100%-39,85%)). Now I calculate it with 40%, that makes the cooldown 78 sec.
Difference, 78,195-78=0,195 sec. A game or teamfight won't be decided by 0,195 cooldown and your Veigar, you can only go KABOOM once a minute and 0,195 will not make it any quicker. I also doubt if there is anyone who spam the KABOOM combo faster then 0,195 sec.

Special Thanks

• jhoijhoi's Making a guide...
• My friends for giving me a wonderfull time whenever I play Veigar

Final words

I hope I inspired you to try this awesome wobbling yordle and go KABOOM yourself. It gives me a very satisfied feeling once I burst down someone, especially when I burst down a 4k health, 200 magic resistance tank. Feel free to comment and please let me know what you think. If there is anything you need to explained more detailed, which I doubt I didn't, let me know and I will explain it.



If you want to downvote this guide that's up to you, but if you do I would like to know where your hooked off, have any critics on or just a simple good argument. Please don't troll vote like this:

Updates

19-8-2011: Added a little note on cooldown reduction
22-8-2011: Added chapters "Why don't we get Mejais", "What the stats don't show you" and "Ability Power vs Magic Penetration"
23-8-2011: Added chapter "Annoying Mid Champions"
8-9-2011: Reworked the whole guide according to the Making a guide... made by jhoijhoi