Volibear Build Guide by HVfun

Well Everyone, Volibear no longer flips so the name needed to be changed. He still nips and rips though... and now grips whatever is clenched in his paw and beats it against his chest after he cleans up the battlefield. So RIP the old Volibear. Pour some out of whatever you're sippin on.

I've updated this guide a bit for the new season. So far, I like the jungle item changes. They give you a little flexibility on what to build early game, and essentially open up an item slot for late game.

Hi all, my summoner name is HVFun on the NA server. I was ranked 25th in NA on Volibear in season 10 at one point according to leagueofgraphs.com, but I'll admit I've kind of washed up since then. I wanted to make this guide because I feel none of the current guides are 100% correct on the best way to play Volibear in the current meta.

The reworked Volibear is very different from his previous iteration. The old Volibear was an underrated, easy to play champ. All of his skills were point and click, where as the reworked voli has two skill shots. A basic thing you need to understand is Volibear is all about getting multiple Ws off on the same target now, and the rest of your skills can be used to allow you to do this. Another key part of Voli's playstyle is learning when and how to engage fights. This is the main reason I love this champ. You get to coordinate tower dives in the midgame, and control your team's engage during team fights.

Patch 11.4 had a nerf to the jungle. Camps give less XP now, and some of them have more health. This did hurt Voli a fair amount, because he's not the fastest clearer. Fast clearing and ganking champs like Udyr and Hecarim were the least hurt because they weren't affected as much be the increased health on the camps. With that said, I think it's a bit more important now to look to get an early gank off. Doing a 3 camp clear and looking to gank a lane is a pretty good idea. Be willing to burn your flash to get the kill, but don't over force it. If you fail the gank and burn flash, you'll feel immediately behind.

On ganks, there are a couple different combos you can go with. For early game ganks, my favorite combo is to get a good angle on the target by walking up behind them and immediately casting my first W. From there I look to zone out the area they try to run to with my E, and use my Q to stun them in the E damage. If you do this correctly, the target is forced to either walk into your E damage, or walk back into your teammate and the zoning E did it’s job.

Another good early gank combo is to get a good angle on the target, casting your E in an area that you're sure you stun them with your Q in, and then cast W right after your Q goes off. This combo is more quick burst, if you're confident that you and your laner can get the kill quick. From there just orb walk to the best of your ability to finish the kill or get a 2nd W off. Use your blue smite after you get all your skills off to close the gap for a 2nd time if needed. You can also cast your blue smite in advance if you need to use it to make sure your Q hits in your E.

A third gank combo once you have your ult up is to cast your E from range, and immediately ult into the area so your E and Ult hit at the same time. From there stun them with your Q and use W right afterwards before you even proc an AA. Again, use your blue smite to close the gap further if needed. This combo can be used for Tower dives as well. This combo can be flashed or dashed away from, so make sure you know the target's flash is down, and they already burnt their kiting skill if they have one.

To start the game, ward the enemy team's red buff if you start bot side, or the enemy team's blue buff if you start top side. This will give you some information on where the enemy jungle starts, and also what pathing they're going with. Reset, change your trinket to sweeper, and go to the first camp you want to take.

An efficient path in the current meta is to start red or blue buff, take your other buff and gromp, and gank a lane at level 3. Voli's level 3 isn't as strong as it was before his rework, but it's still pretty good. Only do this gank path if you're fairly sure that you'll be able to get the kill off.

You can also do a 5 camp clear before its time to contest one of the scuddle crabs if you're not confident that your level 3 gank will work. Before the game starts, analyze the other team and decide if you want to go for the level 3 gank. Always have a plan going into the game.

From here, your priority is to look for ganks that are open, but don't try to force anything that isn't available. If your lanes aren't set up for ganks, look to shadow and farm. As I wrote earlier, in patch 11.4 its more favorable to look to gank lanes more often than it used to be. Do your best to constantly look for lanes to gank early game, because it's a big part of winning on Voli right now.

Your next priority is to zone out the drake. Buy a pink ward and sweeper early, and look to use them to secure vision on the drake. Volibear isn't the best at soloing drakes, but sometimes you can do it early if the enemy jungler shows top. Look to take the drake after you get a kill either midlane or bottom, or if the enemy laners reset.

Your next priority is to take the rift herald. Path in a way that puts you in a position to take this right at it's 8 minute spawn. If you can get the rift close to 8 minutes, sometimes you can make a play that will essentially end the game. Take the rift and look to gank top or mid. If you have your cinderhulk complete you can potentially tower dive. If you can get the kill here, you can drop the rift, and take a ton of plates, or sometimes even the full tower. This play puts you and your laner ridiculously far ahead, and if you play cleanly you can snowball and close out the game. Only start the rift if you've cleared it of vision and if your mid lane and top both have priority, or if you're confident that the other JG is clearing his bot side.

Securing rift heralds and drakes are extremely important in the current meta. Obviously take ganks if they're available, but your job as a jungler should be primarily to control these objectives, and don't give easy kills. Strive to make your ganks worth the time spent every time. In other words, don't get in a habit of spending time in lanes that you don't get a kill or assist out of - your time is better spent doing something else most of the time. And in most cases if you help get a kill in a lane, help your laner push it in to take plates and deny the enemy of CS.

By late game, you're going to be grouping a lot. One of the main reasons I main Voli is because you get to have control over your team's engages. Essentially you always want to be using your sweeper and pink wards to control vision, and always be looking for an opportunity to catch their squishies out. If you're fed or in a decent spot, DO NOT hesitate to take the game by the balls and constantly look to all in any squishy who even shows themselves. A good combo to look for is cast an E, Ult on top of their face at the same time, and then immediately W and save your Q and smite to chase and get a 2nd W off. If your team follows up properly you will probably blow them up, but if not you have your 2nd W coming up for sustain to just force your target out of the fight. What feels bad on the current Voli is that you can't really do this if you're not ahead. You need to look to peel and help your backline out if you're behind in levels/items.

After you win a teamfight, even if your team just gets a 3 for 2, look to take an objective, whether its a tower, drake, baron, or even just the enemies Red or Blue buffs if that's all that's available. One of the biggest mistakes in low elo is teams not taking anything after team fights are won.


Here's an example of a game that I snowballed and had a nutty ult to finish the game off with a carry build:


And here's an example of a game that we were playing from behind, but a good ult helped win it:

Shadowing is a term used to describe the act of being in an area to help a laner who is in a shaky situation. Let's say your mid lane has 1/3 health because they just killed their enemy laner, and they need to push out their lane. However, enemy top, bot or jungler are missing.
This is an example of when your midlane needs a shadow. If possible, aim be nearby him in case anything happens, and danger ping their lane if you're not in a position to assist. This is called shadowing. You'd stick around and MAYBE do scuddle or another nearby camp, and be prepared to walk to him if he needs help.

This shadowing will give Pressure. Pressure will give the feeling to the enemy like they cannot gank your half-health midlaner because they think you might be nearby.
You have felt pressure before, it feels like any time you make a move on the map, an enemy champ will show up to counter you. The enemy team just seems to always be there. Or any time you take an objective, to your dismay the enemy team takes an alternative objective at the exact same time.
This pressure is more strictly based off of objectives and loosely based off of minion wave positioning throughout the map. Splitpushing is a good example -- draw Pressure to one side of the map. If your toplaner does this toplane and gets ganked by 4 ppl, then you are free to take drag.
The pressure is felt more strongly around certain areas (like objectives or towers), but exists within a dimension of time that is known as Tempo.

Tempo is keeping up Pressure across time, so that the opposing team is always reacting to you as you setup for & make the decisive moves.
You've felt this - it feels like the enemies keep steamrolling objectives/kills and you never get a chance to play your own game, farm, etc.
These concepts are the big-brain, mental warfare strategies that a jungler uses to win a game. You want to shadow your own lanes, but also their jungler (called Tracking their jungle - always keep your eyes on the minimap). Any time he makes a move, you are there, or at least have a counter play. It devastates opponents.

This is why you ward one of the enemy teams buffs at 1:05. You know where to apply a shadow based off enemy jungle start, thus generating Pressure, and allowing you to dictate the Tempo. If you keep this tempo all game, they will feel the Pressure and make desperation/reactionary moves, which you can be prepared to follow up on and clean up the fights.

These tools of the bread and butter of jungling largely, regardless of current Meta, Champion or ELO. Learning this skill has no skillcap, it isn't easy, and yet it will allow you to be the master of any chessboard of pieces.

Volibear is a fun champ to play even though he's not really meta in the jungle right now. Go have fun and win some games! I'll keep this guide updated to the best of my ability. Feel free to leave questions or comments and I'll give a response!