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Varus Build Guide by

Face Oblivion: Varus ADC Season 8

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58 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author nrj6490

Varus Build Guide By Updated on

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With varus adjust i could still use those builds?

(3) |

69 votes lol

(5) |

Really like it! :D I will try it! :D

Played it, it's broken as ****, one Q and on E and everyone that is not a tank is dead.. i don't want to meet a good adc playing this build in my games..

(1) |

Hey! Nice guide! Isn't lethal tempo worth chosing in an aa build? After a kill, Varus will have something like 3.45+ attack speed ( I know lethality is the strong one right now, but not every game). Thank You!

Thanks! Lethal Tempo can for sure be taken (maybe better than Press the Attack on Varus rn), but from what I see, Fleet Footwork is the most popular option, probably as a means of making laning easier and adding to mobility.

-1

this build is bad. sorry that you placed some effort in it but it's not good for various. I mean various is an attack speed champion. to give him something that doesn't fit is bad. I tell you this. forget this build. I'll make a new one that is better

The build isn't terrible its just very poke intensive. I've played the recommended build for about 20 games in solo queue and its rough since most teams don't want to poke, they want to dive right in. The build does insane amounts of poke to squishes which I think the build is trying to highlight, but you're pretty much a sitting duck. You're also pretty vulnerable in duels with more assassin heavy champs. After that I've been running an AA build and having much higher success in solo queue just based around being a higher overall impact on my own and in fights. Great guide though for a new fun way to play Varus!

Thanks for your input, although you probably could've voiced it in a nicer way...

I'll try to address your concerns as best I can. Sorry if this sounds blunt, but if you think this build or style on Varus isn't good, you probably haven't been around League for very long. Just this spring, Varus and Jhin were the indisputable best ADCs in the meta simply based on how they could abuse the newly-introduced lethality items. The attack speed build that you mention had only replaced this poke-oriented style after heavy nerfs to lethality as well as buffs to on-hit items like Blade of the Ruined king, which also benefited ADCs like Lucian and Kalista near the end of spring.

This attack speed build lasted until recently, when the preseason began and both new runes and tweaks to lethality were introduced. These changes vastly changed the ADC meta from favoring attack speed based champions with Ardent Censer shielding supports to poke-heavy, lethality building champions like Jhin, Varus and Miss Fortune, all of which run Arcane Comet as their keystone rune. Just for some extra evidence, check out this link ( http://www.probuilds.net/champions/details/Varus ) to see what pro and high ELO players are building on Varus.

Of course, lethality and attack speed Varus aren't played in the same way at all. Attack speed Varus maxes E and focuses on getting out relatively close-ranged auto attack based damage in fights, and lethality Varus maxes Q, staying on the edge of fights and taking chunks out of health bars with long ranged arrows. The intricacies of Varus' playstyle are mentioned in my guide. Lethality Varus may not be the DPS based style from recent months that you’re probably used to, but I assure you it is a viable play style that has been around for some time.

Hopefully this wall of text helps you understand why this build is strong right now and why Varus isn't just an "attack speed champion". My goal with this guide is to provide the strongest Varus build for the current meta. If the meta shifts back to attack speed Varus (which it likely will in the future, as some experimenting with Fleet Footwork and Blade of the Ruined King based attack speed build is already happening in Korea), then I'll change it back, just like I changed it from the attack speed build to the current lethality one when preseason began. Of course, you can see that I've included 3 possible builds in my guide as well (Lethality, Attack Speed, and Crit), if you click on any of the three Varus champion portraits near the top of the page. If you end up making a Varus guide, I look forward to reading it!

(2057) |

Very graceful handling and informative too :)

I'm sorry if I sounded rather rude, but I wouldn't say what I said if I didn't try the 2 builds (yours and mine). when I play my build I can live a 2v1 fight because of life steal and aa. I played my build and got a decent score then thought maybe there is a better one so I saw your build and gave it a shot. it was so slow for me and kinda heavy I didn't feel it. maybe because I was playing it the wrong way, idk. anyway you put a lot of effort in your build and I respect that. I'll give it another shot and see how it goes c:. btw I max my W first for the extra dmg not E.

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totally understandable, building to your playstyle is the most important thing.

I totally understand how lethality Varus can be seen as slow, especially since close ranged DPS isn't itemized in favor of long ranged Q spamming. This doesn't fit with the playstyle of a lot of ADC players (to be honest it was a shock to the system for me to go back to playing lethality Varus after half a year of running attack speed), which is perfectly fine, especially on a champion like Varus that can be played in many different ways. The attack speed build is still viable, especially since it hasn't been directly nerfed, so you do you. GLHF :D

(I max E first for the soft CC in lane + trade power, and because maxing W second makes it line up with 1st/2nd item power spikes)

Hi there,
Your on-hit build is showing the lethality build.
Just thought I'd let you know.

ah, yeah thanks for reminding me

I keep having to switch around the primary build because lethality/on hit have been swapping a lot this season :/

Lethality Varus:
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(1) |

Nice Guide!

(5) |

Great guide! I don't actually play Varus much but I was just browsing through random guides and yours is legit. :)

Just an idea, but what about taking 10%cdr in runes and swapping to boots of swiftness on the lethality build? It obviously lowers your dps a tiny bit but the increased movement speed along with the slow resist(which lowers the self slow of your Q) works well when chasing, kiting, or repositioning to dodge skillshots and such in teamfights.

Anyway thanks for the great guide and hopefully looking at my comment!

-Willtato

(5) |

Hey nrj6490,

I've tried Varus 3 times now with your "BORK Build" from your guide and it's pretty awesome. I always get 20/3/10 or something like this :) But especially in early I have huge mana-problems. I saw that you've in your "pen Build". Do you think I can buy with the "BORK Build", too (and sell it in late)? Or even go for ?? And if yes, which Item can I delete in the "BORK" Full Build?

- Astrikas

hi, sorry for the late reply. mana items don't really fit into the new Varus build, as your main focus is auto-attack based DPS. Unfortunately, early mana problems is an issue, so try to make the most out of your abilities, which, in lane, could mean being more picky about when you want to harass. Hail of Arrows is very useful in this sense, as it gives an opportunity to get some autos in.

(5) |

alright, I'll try but this mana problems are very annoying haha.. thank you very much for your reply ;)

- Astrikas

(9) |

Hi, thanks for guide may I ask your opinions about 9x lethality marks and 3x lethality quints, it provides 29-30 lethality which is useful for Q build, also it synergises well with due to its passive is mainly physical damage also it works on pure lethality build too, investing early points into for 1 points add total 10 magic damage to normal attack which can close lack of ad runes, also picking adds another 5 physical damage against minions to our normal attacks which make life easier under tower, so I'm trying to tell its early is good as well as late isn't it? Can you please consider this runes in your build? Varus </2

That could work for the armor Pen/poke build, but honestly the only ADCs that frequently take lethality runes anymore are probably MF and Jhin, both of whom rely on their abilities for a lot of their damage. The three "main" lethality champions that used to be pretty top tier (Jhin/Varus/MF) didn't play like traditional DPS ADCs, but relied more on burst damage. Now that Varus is back to an attack speed focused build, it seems like the more standard AD/armor/MR/AS runes are the best for him, in terms of getting off more DPS at every stage in the game. Again though, if you really want to make your poke hurt more for the poke build, those runes could work. Lethality runes are best coupled with early lethality items though, which BORK Varus doesn't build.

(9) |

Uh, okay thanks for putting those brackets between different builds, that is making building situational a bit clear to understand, I just like playing Varus both poker and normal dps adc, mixing both builds was funny, even without a lethality build (items) you will still have your lethality always and it could help build versatility, and what's your opinion about a mix build of reaver + botrk since I am really personally use something like that build, and still have a little lethality too due to rune choices, on hit power yet still high cooldown reduction because of and sometimes I-i thank you for reply *-*

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it seems to me like the best way to incorporate BORK into a Reaver build would be to take it as 3rd/4th item (after reaver/hurricane) as your lifesteal option. You could try getting a reaver after Bork/hurricane/IE, but it seems more awkward to me. Glad you like the guide.

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