Somewhere in Riot's HQ there was a slip, a slip which has woken up the Judge and Jury of all evil entities. This slip is directly associated with the following two runes and the beautiful underappreciated Vayne.

Hail of Blades
Nimbus Cloak

Vayne has been struggling lately in the current meta, with all the explosive bot lane picks that can just crush her early on, to the point where she is unplayable until late game. Her slow early damage output provides a lot of space for the enemies to bully her even under tower if not played correctly.

The leading problem early with Vayne is her W Silver Bolts.

Example: Unlike Lucians Piercing Light+ Lightslinger which takes under a second to discharge, It takes time to stack up 3 Silver Bolt hits, before hitting that damage spike which is needed to win trades.

To fix this we need attack speed, attack speed until now was something you strived to get as early as possible on Vayne resulting in initial loss of damage. This made her a poor early, mid game champion but a beast once you get both your Damage and Attack Speed Items.

With Hail of Blades you receive the needed attack speed very early, which allows you to build attack damage items without caring if you will lack attack speed.

This brings Late Game Vayne Power into Mid Game and no one wants to see Vayne Strong so Early in the game.

Additionally, this allows space for some interesting build paths, which you can choose to go and each build will define your playstyle around the damage output, since the damage will be ridiculous regardless of which Attack Damage Item you build. I will get into more detail regarding this later in the guide.

Passive

Vayne has an amazing kit when it comes to chasing down enemies. Her passive gives her movement speed when she is moving towards an enemy which allows her to finish her trades easily.

Tumble

When it comes to rolling, Vayne can roll a lethal one. This ability allows her to dash a short distance to your targeted location and your following attack will deal extra damage. This can be combined with Stormrazor's passive to apply a lot of damage in a single hit. What is even more amazing is that you can use a simple trick such as waiting for your Silver Bolts stacks to reach 2 and then using Tumble enhanced with Stormrazor to finish of the deadly third stack. Tumble also provides stealth for 1 second if cast during your ultimate Final Hour, I will get to it in a minute.

Silver Bolts

This is a very important spell. The whole Vayne playstyle is based on getting that third stack on the enemy. This is her powerspike and this is why the enemies build everything to end your existence. It is not always important to get the third stack, do not get hooked by the need to hit the enemy one more time as this can lead to bad trades. Remember it is better to have some damage output, it does not have to be big always, it should be just enough to keep you healthy and the enemy hurt.


Condemn

Mastering Vayne means using her damage output to the fullest while keeping the enemies either locked down or guessing. Condemn deals some damage, but its main purpose is to push the enemy away or into a wall, if they hit a wall (any object) they will be stunned for a few moments. This will allow you to either finish off your Silver Bolts stacks or... oh wait they are dead if that happens.

Final Hour

Her ultimate is where you start to shine. It gives you a burst of additional attack damage which boosts your entire kit for a good amount of time. During this period your Tumble provides you with stealth. Playing around the stealth is the game changer when it comes to Vayne. Using the stealth correctly will both confuse the enemies and allow you to position better in fights without allowing the enemy to predict your movement. You should always use Tumble the moment you cast your ultimate to give you that instant stealth. During this period use the provided stealth to figure out where you should position yourself for the best damage output while staying safe. Nimbus Cloak is super efficient here, because it gives you a huge amount of movement speed and you can travel a bigger distance, therefore allowing you to position a lot better.

Domination

Provides: +6 Adaptive Damage

Hail of Blades

Hail of Blades. Where do I start? This rune provides 75-125% attack speed for the first 3 attacks made against the Enemy Champions. As mentioned Vayne is struggling with attack speed early on and she has a hard time stacking the 3 Silver Bolt hits. This fact should be enough to understand the logic behind the selection of this rune.

Sudden Impact

Sudden impact provides 7 lethality against enemy champions for 5 seconds after exiting Stealth/dashing. This synergizes perfectly with Vayne's Tumble.

Ghost Poro

Vision is everything. If there is anything that can help you get more vision on the map take it. Remember: As long as you see the enemy they cannot kill you! Use that information to turn their positioning against them.

Ultimate Hunter

Provides 5% Cooldown reduction on your Final Hour initially and + 2% Cooldown reduction for each unique takedown. (Meaning you can stack up to 10% additional Cooldown reduction by killing each enemy champion once.) This totals 15% Cooldown reduction to your Final Hour



Sorcery

Concludes: +11 in total adaptive attack damage.

Nimbus Cloak

Nimbus Cloak is such an amazing Rune for Vayne that I cannot help but believe that it was created for her. Once you ult you gain a burst of movement speed. The common thing to do when you ult with Vayne, is use Tumble. Using Tumble while your ult is active provides you with Stealth. Entering stealth with a burst of movement speed allows you to position so much better and surprise the enemies when you decide to reveal yourself. This can be used as an escape method so well, since the movement speed from Nimbus Cloak + Stealth from Tumble allow you to fade away into oblivion before they can even decide to hurt you.

Gathering Storm

As the game progresses and you start becoming the main and sometimes the only threat to the enemy team, gathering storm will be your friend until the end while providing you more and more damage when the game reaches those late game minutes.

Doran's Blade

Great starting Item,with hail blades you will be able to put on a lot more pressure now. If you are still uncertain you can go for Doran's Shield to get a feel for the playstyle.

Berserker's Greaves

Attack Speed Boot nothing unusual, rushing it will help you with farming early.

Stormrazor

Literally the Powerspike. Once you get this item just make sure that you time your Tumble and the follow up attack speed from the Hail of Blades will just melt the enemy winning you most of the trades.

Guinsoo's Rageblade

Initially I placed Phantom Dancer here, but after further testing it seems that Rageblade is a better choice. Why you ask? Guinsoo's Rageblade provides additional attack speed to continue bursting the enemy after the Hail of Blades wears off. Since Hail of Blades will provide a lot of auto attacks in a row the Rageblade's passive will stack faster and therefor provide you with a lot of stacked damage and attack speed to slay the enemy.

Essence Reaver

One thing I noticed with Vayne is that she is reliant on her Tumble + Final Hour's Stealth . Essence Reaver gives you the needed CDR for Tumble, Damage and a sweet passive.

Blade of The Ruined King

Late game is around the corner, time to shred those tanks and heal up with the damage dealt in return. Note: Make sure that you use it as soon as you start attacking as the bonus movement speed will increase your attack damage due to Celerity

Black Cleaver

It's late game. Enemies most likely have armor and you do not like armor. Time to shred that armor and add additional cooldown reduction to your Tumble for that quasi permanent stealth. Additional health is always appreciated and to top it all off, your movement speed has peaked, you will fly around the map, just remember to breathe since they will definitely hold their breath.

DISCLAMER: I am not forcing this build onto anyone and I am a huge fan of thinking for yourself as well outside the box(meta). I am a Vayne Main and for quite some time I was unable to play Vayne properly due to the meta. After some thinking and build adjustments I found that this build/runes suit my playstyle best, as it allows me to expose my strengths properly. This might not work for you so feel free to play around with the build.

In the most general term, my goal when I play League of Legends, is to destroy the Nexus. Oh wait is that too obvious? Perhaps not. A lot of players get caught up in getting kills and the KDA aspect of the game that they forget that KDA and Kills will not make the nexus explode, you pushing towers and taking objectives will make the Nexus explode. A kill is useful but it is not mandatory, you can get just enough gold from the objectives and minions which you kill.

Take every chance when the opponent is dead or not in lane to push out the lane while keeping an eye where the opponent is. Buy wards and learn where to ward depending on the lane which you are pushing.

In the end pushing lanes is the only way for you to get to the Nexus in order to destroy it, correct?

YOUR MINDSET MATTERS

This game is not just about doing flashy plays and knowing what to do. You have to manage your temper and learn how to react to negative teammates and to your luck you will have plenty of them.

You are a human, you have a brain which constantly releases chemicals that can easily alter your performance.

You are tilted = You perform worse
You are positive = You perform better

Being consistent is very important if you wish to climb.

"What does being consistent mean?"

Staying consistent means, that you will play each game, with the same amount of effort, which you gave the last time you crushed the enemy team and won the game. This can be hard and it can be boring, but it is mandatory if you wish to climb and improve. League of Legends is hard. It is a big industry and there are players who are professionals for a reason.

Remember that game where you crushed that player who was a higher rank than you? You also managed to get 200 cs in 20 minutes, ward and take nearly every objective at your disposal, even your mid was 0/6 in the first 15 minutes but you still carried the game. Well since you've done this once why can't you do it every time?

Here is the reasons: Your mindset.

If you are losing more than you are winning, but you believe that you are a good player, then you are probably not being consistent with your mindset. You are not giving your 100% all of the time. Maybe your dog died, maybe your top gave first blood just like last game, maybe even you died 3 times in a row and now you are pinging for assistance; like that will change anything. All of these cases are mind-altering and will make you perform at least 50% worse.

Keeping a cool head and knowing when to play the game and when not to is the key for consistency.

If your dog died and you are a bit down. Why are you playing ranked? Go be with your friends, family, girlfriend, boyfriend. Do something else, or if you are really willing to play League play ARAM or anything else but ranked.

If your top gave first blood just like the previous 10 games, try to support them. Let them know that you will win bot and then rotate top or that you are stronger as a team and that you will get them all in the late game. Think of a plan for losing teammates, do not let them give up. Sometimes this can be hard and you will probably lose some games because of your teammates, but do not let this get to you just stay positive and do your very best while trying to help them out mentally.

If you died 3 times in a row do not by any means blame anyone else but you. No-one else but you is responsible for your death. No-one. Else. Do not go too hard on yourself as well, use your brain to think of a way to get back into the game without facing the fed opponent so much. Maybe ask your jungler to take gromp/krugs for additional gold. Take wards and ward objectives, there are hundreds of ways to be useful when you feel like you've lost the lane. Remember at one point in the game all of you will have a full build and it will no longer matter who was fed and who was not. Staying positive will raise your chances of getting to that point. If you are a Vayne Player you probably know who wins in late :)

Stay positive, do your best and DO NOT I repeat DO NOT use the surrender option.

Follow this and you will be a better player in no time.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, maybe it will bring an interesting mix to your gameplay if anything. Please make sure that you try this out on normal games before proceeding with ranked. It is an interesting and efficient way to play Vayne, but as with everything, make sure that you practice a bit.

Comment, Like, Experiment.

Due to me moving to China I will no longer play on the account linked to this guide so the rank will continue to drop unfortunately.

This is my first guide and I will do my best to create more guides in the future.

Evenflow

Link to my Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLgKGvx8JsuP6QH24Xun0jA