BEFORE GOING INTO THE ITEMS READ THIS
Volibear has an absurd amount of diversity. The synergy he has with some of the new items is very good, and some of the old item changes are actually better for him.
I highly recommend testing and experimenting to see what playstyle you like best. I have put all the items
I consider viable, but there might be some you like more. I have tested
almost every single item at this point, with some exeptions like not taking any
crit
items on
Volibear, it's his worst stat by far and I think it's never proper to build a single
crit
item on him, exept
Navori Flickerblade, but you never buy it because of the
crit
. With that being said, I have put the breakdown of every item I have on the build option section.
Iceborn Gauntlet: Very consistent item on
Volibear. In terms of
Sheen items this one is the best generally. It provides
health, a reliable slow and good
armor. Your stick potential is very good once you complete it.
Heartsteel: This item works very well if you are going for a heavy tank build. It gives massive
health late game and you can pair it up with
Jak'Sho
and
Iceborn Gauntlet. It can work very well as a standalone item as well if the enemy doesn't have %
health damage in their kit or doesn't normally buy %
health damage in items.
Jak'Sho, The Protean: It is a very solid choice. Not a whole lot to say here. It can be built into mixed damage matchups like
Akali or
Jax, or can be solid for trying to build very tanky and just being a meat shield for your team.
Trinity Force: This item had very little time when it was actually the best choice for
Volibear. Right now it feels very lackluster compared to the other items, especially seeing as it's lost the threefold strike passive as well. The big
Sheen procs is what the item is most known for, but
Volibear's base
damage is very low and would not make it all that great. It doesn't feel terrible, but it's not very good either. If you are snowballing out of your mind perhaps you can, but even then I would rather buy
Iceborn Gauntlet, or if you really want to you can pair it up with
Spear of Shojin and explode people.
Riftmaker: Very good item if you want to go for a more
AP focused build. On top of that, the
omnivamp is amazing on
Volibear. They changed how it works and now is even better for him, as his ult
and E
are AOE, so now that he fully heals off it, it's great.
Cosmic Drive: Right now I actually tend to rush
Cosmic Drive. It gives a very good stats for
Volibear right now: good
health, solid
ability power, very good
Ability Haste, and even
Movement Speed, which is extremely good on him. Before I used to go
Spear of Shojin, but now
Cosmic Drive is basically always the take between the two, unless you wanna do a build with both in them or you want more
AD because your comp is doing heavy magic damage already.
Rod of Ages: At first I didn't really like it all that much. There is a build setup where you do this item plus
Navori Flickerblade, but I have been steadily warming up to it, and it feels quite good. It is a very good item when doing a specific 3 core setup with this,
Navori Flickerblade and
Hullbreaker. You becomes a split push
MONSTER.
Black Cleaver: It's a solid choice when looking to shred down tanks such as
Ornn,
Rammus, or other hyper armor stackers.
Sundered Sky: Very good item on
Volibear. It's very good in 2v1s or 3v1 as you can proc it very quickly multiple times, and in lane it makes it so you almost always win every single short trade, especially against tanks. A lot of champions buy
Sundered Sky, and if you are in one of those lanes you can also just match it and you also buy it and do really well.
Warmog's Armor: It is quite a weak item right now, especially due to it being hit with some rather large nerfs. That being said, it can be done second if you absolutely need the
health regen to survive extremely tough matchups.
Thornmail: Solid
heal reduction item. Not a whole lot to say here. Works well against a lot of
healing and if you need defensive stats.
Force of Nature: Very good once fully stacked, giving a ton of
magic resist and
speed
.
Overlord's Bloodmail: It can provide you a lot of extra damage later on, but most of the time I tend to buy it around 4th or 5th item at the earliest if I choose to do so.
Kaenic Rookern: The best anti mage item in the entie game for tanks and bruisers right now, in most cases. If you struggle to survive certain
AP matchups in lane just rush this and they won't ever beat you. It's hilarious how strong it is. You will always come out on top of short trades, and basically eat any chip damage they deal.
Guardian Angel: Can be a very good last item for a specific teamfight to end the game. Usuaully late game a single fight will decide if the game ends in a win or a loss, so if you have the revive for it at that point then it's great. Can also sell your full boots to have it in the hyper late game.
Sterak's Gage:
Volibear won't get a lot of attack damage from it as his base
AD is rather weak compared to other juggernauts. The shield however is good and you can increase it when you use your ultimate
.
Stridebreaker: It's not anything too amazing, but the stats are decent and the slow effect is quite good as well. Not a super amazing item, but it's decent. If you use the active of the item while your are in your Q
the animation will play as if you actually used the empowered attack to stun someone, possibly confusing the enemy. This works great vs
Fiora as the will most likely parry
thinking you used the attack to stun.
Titanic Hydra: The active is nice on
Volibear, but it's quite hard to fit into the build regularly. The issue is that he doesn't have enough room to buy everything he wants, so he would have to forego
Spear of Shojin, or
Sundered Sky in favor of it. Even though it's not bad the tradeoff is meh in my opinion. That being said, can still do a lot of
damage and work.
Manamune: Insanely good damage item. The sheer damage this item gives for
Volibear is nuts. Also, because it is a
Tear
item it does mean your
mana issues will feel a lot less punishing.
Winter's Approach: Not the best defensive item, but it does get the job done. If you don't need the damage from Manamune while also needing more
mana it feels decent enough. If you combine it with
Spirit Visage and
Unending Despair you will be very tanky. That 3 core is very strong for just tanking through a lot of damage.
Archangel's Staff: The weakest out of the 3
Tear
items, but it's not bad. It can be bought if you are going for an
AP focused build, and the shield makes you a bit tankier.
Edge of Night: This item in particular is very good against
Vayne. She can never push you away when you have it. Other than that there's not much use for it. It hard counters
Vayne, and that's about it really. You can also try it into
Singed as he also can never
Fling you off him.
Serpent's Fang: Good item against a team comp with a lot of shields. Your E
will also proc it so you can do it from range at a safer distance if you wish to.
Chempunk Chainsword: The offensive heal reduction item for
Volibear. Great against a lot of
healing where you need to proc it very quickly on priority targets that you dive on, like
Soraka.
Bloodletter's Curse: Your passive
will actually proc the shred from the item, so you can actually get some pretty good usage out of it.
Hullbreaker:
Volibear uses it rather well. It's only used to heavily split push now, the problem is it doesn't give enough to make it worth buying most of the time. You are buying
Hullbreaker to get a
Demolish proc every 5 hits, and most of the time it's not good enough. The time it's actually good is when you take it in combination with
Rod of Ages and
Navori Flickerblade. Due to the reduction from Navori you can get A LOT of procs very well.
Navori Flickerblade: This is the second item you will be doing in a 3 core setup consiting of
Rod of Ages, this item, and
Hullbreaker. You get a lot of reduction on your spells due to the fact that both your Q
and W
proc the effect on top of your auto attacks, and both abilities are also auto attack resets, so they work very well.
Spear of Shojin: Every single one of his abilities gets the damage amplifier from it, including his Q
. He will stack it very quick and have his W
deal the maximum damage every time. The
Ability Haste is also very good for him. That being said,
Cosmic Drive is generally the way to go now over it. It can still be fun to do though, especially if you are playing a 1 tap auto attack build to nuke people.
Unending Despair: The mixed resists are very good and the
healing the item provides is solid. Can be rushed vs lanes who do both types of damage, such as
Jax or
Irelia.
Guinsoo's Rageblade: If you combine this item with
Navori Flickerblade you will get your cooldowns back insanely quick. It also allows you to proc up any other on hit effects you have from other items and it does allow you to proc your passive
more as it is another on hit.
Spirit Visage:
Spirit Visage has now become a lot more reliable to build on
Volibear due to the fact that you can pair it with
Sundered Sky to get even more
heal amp. The increase in shielding and
healing is very good if you have more than your own from enchanters like
Soraka,
Lulu,
Taric. The problem is it still does not give you enough
magic resist against
AP users most of the time. However, it can be used as a softer
mr
choice if the enemy champions have a lot of mixed damage, like with
Akshan,
Irelia,
Jax etc. These champs have some magic damage in their kit that isn't insane, but the
mr
does help into it. If you need heavy
magic resist though, take
Kaenic Rookern or
Force of Nature, much better.
Abyssal Mask: Very niche item. Can be used as a decent damage amp for the AP allies when you use your ultimate
to get into the middle of a teamfight, but it's basically never bought as the other
magic resist options for
Volibear are much better and much more reliable.
Dead Man's Plate: It has to be bought as a 4th or 5th item, sometimes even sooner. It doesn't feel amazing for
Volibear in top lane. You lose out on other more important core items, and it's more so bought if you want to be extrmely speedy and pair it up with other items, possibly a hit and run playstyle paired up with
Hullbreaker, where you push waves to get close to the turret, hit it 5 times and then run away to safety because of the extra slow resist on it in case people want to collapse on you. You can also sell your boots for it and buy it for tankiness and
speed
in the hyper late game.
Terminus:
Volibear used both the armor and magic pen quite well from this item, and the resists are also pretty good for him. You can take this to have very good shred power vs virtually anything.
Randuin's Omen: Solid tank item. Works best against champions with
crit
. The active slow also works nicely when jumping in the middle of a teamfight and using it.
Frozen Heart: Very good rush item into certain champion matchups like
Tryndamere or
Yone. It also fixes a big part of your
mana problems during the laning phase. It is also a cheap item, and will make it very frustrating for auto attack based champs to play out the lane.
Nashor's Tooth: Very good item for an
AP focused build and split push build. Your attack speed will be insane with it.
Stormsurge: Only ever built into full
AP burst builds, it doesn't really have a place in other ones. It makes it so if you one tap someone in a teamfight quickly with an ult hit the enemies also take a massive aoe from it as well.
Rabadon's Deathcap: It is best used into an
ability power focused build. It will spike your damage massively when you complete it later on.
Lich Bane: It is best used into an
ability power focused build, or to sell boots and buy it for the
speed
and
damage in the hyper late game.
Zhonya's Hourglass: This can be the last item in your build, or can work into an
ability power focused build. The stasis is amazing at buying time, and if you use your E
then use the active, by the time you get out, you will have the shield on you.
Mejai's Soulstealer: It is best used into an
ability power focused build. Best bought if you think you can hard snowball a game. You can sit on
Dark Seal for most of the game if you want though and not upgrade it until much later
Blade of the Ruined King: The item in theory is very good for
Volibear. Both his Q
and W
proc it, but sadly the lack of resistances is too glaring. Unlike an item like
Cosmic Drive, it doesn't give any speed, aside from the passive that doesn't even last that long, is more expensive, and the stats it gives are less valuable on Volibear at that particular stage of the game. It is best bought as a 4th or 5th item in very niche scenarios, like vs hyper scaling hp tanks like
Sion,
Cho'Gath, etc.
Wit's End:
Nashor's Tooth is a better alternative to this most of the time. It is not a bad item, and can be used decently well, but it fits very awkardly into most builds. It is however viable in very niche scenarios.
Tier 2 boot upgrades:
Ionian Boots of Lucidity:
Volibear loves
Ability Haste so these boots work great for him. He always wants to rotate his basic abilities as much as possible.
Plated Steelcaps: Very good boots to rush in certain lanes where they allow you to hyper stonewall or hard win the 1v1. They give great value
Mercury's Treads: The tenacity from these boots is great for
Volibear as he usually gets kited quite a bit, so if they are heavy on crowd control you can take them.
Boots of Swiftness: These boots are the ones that make
Volibear the quickest. The slow resist is also insane in certain lanes and comps and helps out a ton.
Tier 3 boot upgrades:
Crimson Lucidity: The extra
speed
these boots provide when you hit an enemy champion with a spell will always be on because of how much you cycle your spells. The extra
Ability Haste is also very nice.
Armored Advance: Solid shield for taking more physical damage, allowing you to win out a lot of melee duels more consistently.
Chainlaced Crushers: If there are a lot of
AP champions poking you down, the shield ensures it takes them a bit longer to do so.
Swiftmarch: Your
speed
goes through the roof with these. Your will be very quick.
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