Not Updated For Current Season
This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page
x
x
Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment.
You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment
I liked this Guide
I didn't like this Guide
Thank You!
Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
Choose Champion Build:
- Utility Oriented Build
- Offense oriented build
- Split Push Oriented Veigar (DO
Recommended Items
Spells:
Teleport
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Phenomenal Evil Power (PASSIVE)
Veigar Passive Ability
S3 REWORK
This guide is currently under rework due to the change of the S3.
As you may have witnessed, these changes were quite strong and thus brought a lot of change to this build. I have updated the Top Chart to reflect more up-to-date strategies.
I have also included a "fun build" under the name "Split Push Oriented Veigar (DO NOT DO THAT)". If you take a look at it, you'll quickly realize that it is not viable in many circumstances. I, however, managed to make it work as part of a broader push strategy, that my team and I put in place.
Finally, I'd like to remind you that Veigar is for the moment not amongst the most viable pick for solo queue. If you want to play mid ranked for the next few patches, I invite you to pick Pantheon, Wukong, or Talon for a free win. To be honest, you can currently say "Who needs an AP carry anyway?" and be right...
These are hard times for the APs...
Mwahahahaha ! Welcome Summoner !
I'm EuropeanOrigin, and this is my shot at providing a competitive build for one of my favorite heroes of League of Legends, Veigar. Any advice/feedback is welcomed, so feel free to comment down below. On the other hand, I'd also appreciate you take the time to go ask a question before downvoting the guide. And please no short joke!
You'll see that I have taken a quite different approach from the classic build for veigar, and I hope to have made myself sufficiently clear for you to perfectly understand my reasonning after reading this guide.
I'd also like to thank JhoiJhoi for her amazingly inspiring tutorial and PsiGuard for his extremely well-designed guide of veigar.
see this thread if there are abbreviations you don't understand
NOW A QUICK DISCLAIMER FOR THOSE WHO DON'T LIKE READING :
A guide is not a build. What you see on top is often slightly different from what you can read in the guide, which offers more diversity and discusses the pros and cons of each of these possibilities.
F.A.Q.
I have made a quick list of the "classic questions/flame", with their answer, that I receive from people who don't want to read the guide.
WHY TELEPORT ?
WHY SUCH RUNES ?
WHY ATHENE's first ? (Explained a second time)
You don't max a spell by level 9? Oo. NOOB !
Presentation
There are different ways to play Veigar and with different plays comes different mastery trees.
I present to you two strategies, each with its own pros & cons.
The Utility based mastery Trees :
The Offense based mastery Trees :
Why you should pick the Offense Strategy
In this situation, the key materies are Archmage and Executioner . The first helps you grow into a monster more quickly, while the second helps you secure the kills.
Besides, farming is also made easier with Executioner .
Why you should pick the Utility Strategy
In this situation, the key materies are Meditation , Awareness , Intelligence and Mastermind . Farming with Veigar is essential, and this strategy aims at fullfilling this purpose in a different way from the Offense.
-
Meditation
gives veigar a little more sustainability in terms of mana regen, so you can farm slightly more.
-
Awareness
grants veigar the edge in terms of level, giving him a fair advantage during mid games on other players - And a quickly reached Primordial Burst at level 16 can be extremely effective on veigar, much more than what
Executioner
could bring at level 14 or 15!
-
Intelligence
makes veigar timeframe of vulnerability smaller, increases his capacity to participate in team fights.
- Mastermind increases his overall presence and survivability.
Personal preferences
I prefer taking the Utility build, although I consider both strategies equivalent in terms of overall efficiency.
The Utility build allows Veigar to have the edge during mid game, as he levels faster than the others. This allows him to be a bigger threat during mid game, while the damage in late game will be less significant than with the Offense strategy. It's only a question of taste.
Runes
- Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: the words AP caster say it all.
- Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration: Veigar is quite demanding in terms of mana regeneration. These seals will help him get this mana regeneration.
- Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: these makes Veigar less squishy against most hero mid during early game.
- greater quintessence of swifness: This small buff in movement speed helps veigar evade more easily skill shots or agressive mid heroes. You can take up to three if you feel like it.
- Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp: these grant veigar a small buff in sustainability. (You'll gain about 15-70 HP for each spell you cast).
Some of you may not agree with my choice of runes, and that's why I wanted to give a little extra on why these runes and no others. If you want to know more, click on the spoiler section right under.
Reflexions on the possible runes for veigar, and why you shouldn't really pick them
Summoner Spells
Flash: The swiss army knife of any summoner |
space |
Teleport: great for increased presence in lane, and for some quick gank bot or top |
space |
Ignite: Ideal to finish someone, very good against off-tank. Good synergy with Deathfire Grasp |
I invite you to pick Teleport over Ignite for at least 2 reasons :
- 1 - Teleport helps you coming bot during an enemy's gank, and can save your ad carry and even give you some easy kills (as bot lane is all about bruising the enemies during the early game)
- 2 - Ignite has a short range, shorter than your shortest ranged spell ( Baleful Strike). In addition to that it increase the duration of the combo, forcing to take higher level of Event Horizon earlier, and if the enemy has some tenacity, it is possible not to be able to land the combo completely because of the time lost travelling to launch ignite. Thus you'd miss the Dark Matter, which does more damage than ignite on most champions in late game.
Equilibrium: This passive grants veigar more mana regeneration the lower his mana is. It is very close from the passive of Chalice of Harmony. It gives veigar a strong boost in mana regeneration in those dire moments and allows him to farm with almost no mana.
Tips and Tricks
- Equilibrium stacks up with Chalice of Harmony and Athene's Unholy Grail passive ! It also stack with the blue buff.
- Equilibrium naturally works with runes, masteries, and items.
- Equilibrium is often overlooked in building guides
- Equilibrium is used at its best when spamming spells !
Baleful Strike (Q): This skill is your main source of AP. Each minion kill grants you 1 AP permanently, and champion kills yield even bigger AP gain.
Tips and Tricks
- No cap on the AP gain
- the AP gain on champion kills is a passive of Baleful Strike. You can kill champion with auto attacks and you'd still get the bonus AP.
- Leveling Baleful Strike only increases the AP gain in case of champion kills, not minion kills. (It also reduces the cooldown)
- A good farmer usually gains 150-250+ AP out of this spell only !
Dark Matter (W): A extremely powerful AoE (small) spell, coming after a (short?) delay. This is the finishing blow of your combo.
Tips and Tricks
- Dark Matter has a long delay, but a well placed Event Horizon can do the trick.
- Dark Matter grants vision of its landing point. It's a great way to check bushes.
- Dark Matter lands in the form of a rainbow when using the Leprechaun Skin. Awesome, isn't it?
Event Horizon (E): The godly stun of Veigar. This stun is probably one of the strongest in game as it is an AoE stun with a long stun duration ! The enemy will only be stunned if touching the border of the spell.
Tips and Tricks
- Use Event Horizon to seperate a member from his team.
- Use Event Horizon to block entire paths in the jungle when retrating.
Primordial Burst (R): The anti AP Caster spell. Incredible base damage, insane AP ratio and to top it off, it also stacks with AP of your target, also with an incredible ratio! (Ex. : You have 800 AP, Your target has 600 AP, your spell will deal him 500 + 1.2*800 + 0.8*600 = 1940 damage in one spell! How insane is that ?
Tips and Tricks
- Aim for the squishies is not forcefully the right motto ! Vladimir is an excellent target for primordial burst while being quite tanky.
- Don't use Primordial Burst on anybody, use it only on the carries. An ultimate on Garen is most probably a wasted ultimate.
First of all, what is wraith control ?
Why is it important ?
Is Veigar any good at wraith control ?
When should Veigar start clearing the wraith camp ?
Wards and Wraith control :
Wraith control means the ability to defend and take the wraith camp, which is the nearest jungle camp for the mid lane.
Why is it important ?
Most people overlook the increase in gold and experience that the wraith camps provide to the mid players. Just consider : the wraith camp respawns every 50 seconds, and is worth 47 gold and 165 XP. On the other hand a creep wave is worth 135 gold/335 XP and spaws every 30 seconds (statistically speaking). That means that cleaning the wraith camp at its spawn time would bring you an increase of 20% gold and 30% XP over farming! That's a lot!
And if you do it, and your opponent doesn't, you'll have 20% more gold than him and will level much faster than him! Talk about important! Even more, if you manage to deny the enemy wraith camp to your opponent, that makes a 40% increase in gold and 60% increase in XP!
So, yeah, wraith control is crucial to the mid player.
And if you do it, and your opponent doesn't, you'll have 20% more gold than him and will level much faster than him! Talk about important! Even more, if you manage to deny the enemy wraith camp to your opponent, that makes a 40% increase in gold and 60% increase in XP!
So, yeah, wraith control is crucial to the mid player.
Is Veigar any good at wraith control ?
It all depends on the strategy you go for !
If you prefer maxing baleful strike by level 9, you'll be extremely bad at clearing wraith camp, as your AoE spell - Dark Matter - will only be level 1, which means you'll have to clear out all the wraiths with your Baleful Strike and auto-attacks. This will take some time, and you'll lose quite some HP to the harass of the wraith and time/XP/gold on the lane, which makes this not very efficient...
If you follow the strategy I propose in the previous section, your capacity to clear the wraith camp will increase incredibly! With a single Dark Matter, you'll obliterate the lesser wraiths and you will be able to land safely a Baleful Strike on the major wraith. The total time required to clear the wraith camp is then about 1.5 seconds ! Besides, you will not have to circle the wall between the wraith camp and the mid lane, you will be able to do it through the wall, which means an even more reduced time to clear the camp.
If you prefer maxing baleful strike by level 9, you'll be extremely bad at clearing wraith camp, as your AoE spell - Dark Matter - will only be level 1, which means you'll have to clear out all the wraiths with your Baleful Strike and auto-attacks. This will take some time, and you'll lose quite some HP to the harass of the wraith and time/XP/gold on the lane, which makes this not very efficient...
If you follow the strategy I propose in the previous section, your capacity to clear the wraith camp will increase incredibly! With a single Dark Matter, you'll obliterate the lesser wraiths and you will be able to land safely a Baleful Strike on the major wraith. The total time required to clear the wraith camp is then about 1.5 seconds ! Besides, you will not have to circle the wall between the wraith camp and the mid lane, you will be able to do it through the wall, which means an even more reduced time to clear the camp.
When should Veigar start clearing the wraith camp ?
During the first 6 levels, veigar will have a lot of trouble cleaning the wraith camp and you should therefore let them to your jungler. Upon reaching level 9, veigar is able to clear the wraith camp very effectively and you can start clearing the camp from your lane. If your opponent leaves the lane to roam/to take blue, punish him by taking his wraiths if possible.
Wards and Wraith control :
Ask your support to put a ward near your wraith camp. Take also a ward to put near the other wraith camp. This way, you'll be able to protect your wraith camp and check the availability of their camp/ the movements of their jungler.
If your support doesn't want to/doesn't have money to put a ward on your wraith camp, use your ward defensively instead of agressively.
If your support doesn't want to/doesn't have money to put a ward on your wraith camp, use your ward defensively instead of agressively.
There are two early game sequences possible depending on who Veigar is laning against.
If you are laning against a skill shot based hero like Ahri, Ziggs, Swain, Zyra for instance, grab some boots and a few pots. Once you'll have emptied your mana pool, go back to base and buy Chalice of Harmony. Play defensive before that!
Otherwise, just grab a Meki Pendant and 2 Health Potion. Don't lane as long as you can! If you've reached enough money to buy the Boots and the Chalice of Harmony, empty your mana by harassing the enemy champion and then recall.
Item Sequence
Health Potion
50
Health Potion
50
Chalice of Harmony
800
Boots
300
Sorcerer's Shoes
1100
Fiendish Codex
900
Athene's Unholy Grail
2250
Item Sequence
Health Potion
50
Health Potion
50
Mana Potion
0
Chalice of Harmony
800
Sorcerer's Shoes
1100
Fiendish Codex
900
Athene's Unholy Grail
2250
If you are laning against a skill shot based hero like Ahri, Ziggs, Swain, Zyra for instance, grab some boots and a few pots. Once you'll have emptied your mana pool, go back to base and buy Chalice of Harmony. Play defensive before that!
Otherwise, just grab a Meki Pendant and 2 Health Potion. Don't lane as long as you can! If you've reached enough money to buy the Boots and the Chalice of Harmony, empty your mana by harassing the enemy champion and then recall.
WHY CHALICE OF HARMONY/ATHENE AND NOT KAGE/DEATHFIRE GRASP FIRST?
Laning against Leblanc or Talon
Items
Item Sequence
Sorcerer's Shoes
1100
Rabadon's Deathcap
3600
-
: The newest item for mage. And it's a fit on Veigar! This items prevents two of veigar's major flaws : his "squishyness" and his hunger for mana. Imagine : it grants him 15% cooldown and about 12-21 mana per second! It's almost a blue buff! Don't believe me? the
crest of the ancient golem
would grant him 20% cooldown and 15 to 25 mana regen per second. In addition to that, it gives him 40 magic resist and 90 AP and replenishes your mana on kills and assists. What else?
-
: The boots of any AP caster. It's flat magic penetration makes some tremendous damage in early game (you'll almost do true damage)
- : The cap of any decent mage. You'd feel cold without it. Practical during rainy days.
In this section I'll describe the situational items that can be taken with veigar :
If you want damage and only damage, you should go for Deathfire Grasp, then Void Staff and finally Lich Bane.
If you want increased survivability go for Lich Bane, Zhonya's Hourglass and Banshee's Veil. The order depends on what makes the most damage in the enemy team (physical or magical ?).
-
: One strange item in a Veigar build. Well once again, it's an awesome item. Increased durability thanks to the magic resist AND the +7% in movement speed. Increased damage thanks to its 80 AP. And the passive... Or how to destroy a turret faster than you can say "BOOM!". Yes, because you'll have about 800 AP, so that means you'll hit turrets (and champions) with 900 damage. Four spells, and the turret is down. Excellent in late game.
-
: You're owning the ap carry but the ad carry is always focusing you ? Or maybe the bruisers are a bit too nasty with you ? Grab a Zhonya's Hourglass! Some armor, some AP, and invincibility for 2 seconds. Excellent against AoE teams.
-
: The most picked item for Veigar after Sorcerer's Shoes and Rabadon's Deathcap. Some cooldown reduction, some AP, and an unholy active : it will enable Veigar to take down bruisers who come at him, and even hit on tanks.
-
: Very powerful item in late game. Lets Veigar tear through almost anything. Quite cheap. Lacks survivability.
-
: Used to be good on Veigar. But since the range of the passive has been drastically reduced, it has become less effective. Still useful for the AP and Magic Resist. The passive now only comes in handy when fighting melee heroes...
-
: High survability item. Grants HP, MP and MR. Provides also with a shield that absorbs one spell every 45 seconds. Useful protection against some poke hero (like Blitzcrank or Nidalee)
- : Grants a lot of HP,MP and AP. But it takes some time to get there, it normally is a first item pick, but it can be taken as fourth if survivability seems to be an issue. Not my favorite item.
If you want damage and only damage, you should go for Deathfire Grasp, then Void Staff and finally Lich Bane.
If you want increased survivability go for Lich Bane, Zhonya's Hourglass and Banshee's Veil. The order depends on what makes the most damage in the enemy team (physical or magical ?).
Don't flame me for asking the question ! Nor for trying to answer !
Let me break it down for you : Deathfire Grasp has an extremely powerful active that synergizes perfectly with Veigar's combo (it's the first spell you should cast after the stun, and it's your longest range spell). It does tons of damage and pretty much secures every kill on AP/AD carry.
But is it only about security ? Is it not essential for veigar if he wants to kill ?
I'll try to answer that question by analyzing the increase in damage of Deathfire Grasp during late game and mid game.
Let's start with late game. I'll suppose Veigar has taken Void Staff and the 5th item has been taken, either by Deathfire Grasp or by another AP item, like Lich Bane or Zhonya's Hourglass, it doesn't really matter.
So I went through the top rated guides of EVERY champions available on Mobafire, to see which heroes would die with the combo only, which would require Deathfire Grasp and which wouldn't die even with it. Yes, you read me well : I went through ALL OF THEM. (And I can tell you this wasn't the most fun of my life). Another thing, I'm also taking the offense masteries. (it has some benefits over the utility build in late game)
Here are the results :
As you can see I have split heroes into tiers of difficulty, which are represented by an amount of AP. This amount of AP is credible! (90+140+70+80)*1.3 = 481 is the base AP you get from the 5 first items. It does not include the farm from your Baleful Strike, nor the AP a sixth item would bring.
Therefore, a champion who's in the 600 AP category is nuked for sure. A champion in the 700 AP category, will be nuked or not depending on your ability to farm correctly. And the 800 AP guys will only be nuked if you have a good farm and the 6 items.
You may have noticed, that some champions appear more than once. It's because the top guide proposed different strategies for this champion, some being consitently stronger against AP Casters than others.
Conclusions on late game :
Veigar is absolutely capable of handling most AD/AP carries by himself in late game. However, Deathfire Grasp opens your range of insta-kill to offtanks and supports, and some additional tanky carries, like Fizz. It is thus a good item choice if the enemy champions carrying the game is part of these categories. However, forget about nuking tanks, it's not made for you.
Alright. Deathfire Grasp is a more viable third item choice than Rabadon's Deathcap.
There, I said it. Now flame!
Actually this is not true. They would be on par for a very simple reason : a combo with Deathfire Grasp is stronger than a combo with Rabadon's Deathcap while Deathfire Grasp is much cheaper than Rabadon's Deathcap (about 1k gold). On the other hand, harassing/farming with Rabadon's Deathcap is much more efficient.
Obviously it is a bit more complicated than that. Deathfire Grasp becomes a more viable choice than Rabadon's Deathcap if your opponent is stacking a bit of HP , with Rod of Ages for instance. As soon as, your opponent hits 1.4k HP (which is about level 12, or sooner if stacking HP), Deathfire Grasp is more efficient during the combo.
What I invite you to do, is to take a kage's lucky pick before starting Rabadon's Deathcap or Deathfire Grasp. DO THIS ONLY IF THERE IS A CHAMPION AGAINST WHICH DEATHFIRE GRASP MIGHT BE GOOD IN LATE GAME.
To sum up, Deathfire Grasp is an extremely potent item, especially on veigar, but which is still situational, contrary to what most people think.
Let me break it down for you : Deathfire Grasp has an extremely powerful active that synergizes perfectly with Veigar's combo (it's the first spell you should cast after the stun, and it's your longest range spell). It does tons of damage and pretty much secures every kill on AP/AD carry.
But is it only about security ? Is it not essential for veigar if he wants to kill ?
I'll try to answer that question by analyzing the increase in damage of Deathfire Grasp during late game and mid game.
Late Game
Let's start with late game. I'll suppose Veigar has taken Void Staff and the 5th item has been taken, either by Deathfire Grasp or by another AP item, like Lich Bane or Zhonya's Hourglass, it doesn't really matter.
So I went through the top rated guides of EVERY champions available on Mobafire, to see which heroes would die with the combo only, which would require Deathfire Grasp and which wouldn't die even with it. Yes, you read me well : I went through ALL OF THEM. (And I can tell you this wasn't the most fun of my life). Another thing, I'm also taking the offense masteries. (it has some benefits over the utility build in late game)
Here are the results :
COMBO ONLY :
- 600 AP :
- 700 AP :
- 800 AP :
COMBO + DFG :
- 600 AP :
- 700 AP :
- 800 AP :
DON'T EVEN DREAM OF IT :
As you can see I have split heroes into tiers of difficulty, which are represented by an amount of AP. This amount of AP is credible! (90+140+70+80)*1.3 = 481 is the base AP you get from the 5 first items. It does not include the farm from your Baleful Strike, nor the AP a sixth item would bring.
Therefore, a champion who's in the 600 AP category is nuked for sure. A champion in the 700 AP category, will be nuked or not depending on your ability to farm correctly. And the 800 AP guys will only be nuked if you have a good farm and the 6 items.
You may have noticed, that some champions appear more than once. It's because the top guide proposed different strategies for this champion, some being consitently stronger against AP Casters than others.
Conclusions on late game :
Veigar is absolutely capable of handling most AD/AP carries by himself in late game. However, Deathfire Grasp opens your range of insta-kill to offtanks and supports, and some additional tanky carries, like Fizz. It is thus a good item choice if the enemy champions carrying the game is part of these categories. However, forget about nuking tanks, it's not made for you.
Mid Game
Alright. Deathfire Grasp is a more viable third item choice than Rabadon's Deathcap.
There, I said it. Now flame!
Actually this is not true. They would be on par for a very simple reason : a combo with Deathfire Grasp is stronger than a combo with Rabadon's Deathcap while Deathfire Grasp is much cheaper than Rabadon's Deathcap (about 1k gold). On the other hand, harassing/farming with Rabadon's Deathcap is much more efficient.
Obviously it is a bit more complicated than that. Deathfire Grasp becomes a more viable choice than Rabadon's Deathcap if your opponent is stacking a bit of HP , with Rod of Ages for instance. As soon as, your opponent hits 1.4k HP (which is about level 12, or sooner if stacking HP), Deathfire Grasp is more efficient during the combo.
What I invite you to do, is to take a kage's lucky pick before starting Rabadon's Deathcap or Deathfire Grasp. DO THIS ONLY IF THERE IS A CHAMPION AGAINST WHICH DEATHFIRE GRASP MIGHT BE GOOD IN LATE GAME.
To sum up, Deathfire Grasp is an extremely potent item, especially on veigar, but which is still situational, contrary to what most people think.
Game phases with Veigar are pretty straight forward.
I came across a guide which did this part so well, that I spent all the time I was reading at it laughing my a** off.
You can find the said chapter here
I invite also you to read the whole guide, it's a different approach to Veigar, and you should never limit yourself to one build/guide. (I prefer my way, but that may be biased :o)
I came across a guide which did this part so well, that I spent all the time I was reading at it laughing my a** off.
You can find the said chapter here
I invite also you to read the whole guide, it's a different approach to Veigar, and you should never limit yourself to one build/guide. (I prefer my way, but that may be biased :o)
In this section I have gathered most of the champions you could meet mid.
It does not aim at providing you with the way to win against such or such champion, but to give tips to manage more effectively against them.
If you feel like there is a champion that's missing, or if you think of some tips that are not present, please feel free to add them in the comments. I'll update it later with credits.
It does not aim at providing you with the way to win against such or such champion, but to give tips to manage more effectively against them.
If you feel like there is a champion that's missing, or if you think of some tips that are not present, please feel free to add them in the comments. I'll update it later with credits.
Laning against ...
ahri
akali
anivia
annie
cassiopeia
cho'gath
Diana
evelynn
fiddlesticks
fizz
galio
gragas
heimerdinger
karthus
kassadin
katarina
kennen
leblanc
lulu
lux
malzahar
mordekaiser
morgana
nidalee
orianna
ryze
sion
soraka
swain
syndra
talon
twisted fate
Urgot
Veigar
Viktor
Vladimir
Xerath
ziggs
zyra
You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.