Hello viewer. My name is jjoxuu and I am a bot lane fanatic. I enjoy playing the support role the most, but I also enjoy playing the roles of ADC and jungle. I can't back-up my guide with challenger or high diamond elo but I do have knowledge and experience of playing ADC in countless games.

I did notice some Varus guides out there on mobafire, but I noticed that they were not updated for S4 or fit my expectations of a good guide for this champion. I also just wanted to make this guide for my own personal satisfaction: usually I have just focused on filling guides for champions that lacked proper ones in my opinion, but this one is different.





I want to discuss a little of the ADC role play style, why would you want to play ADC and some generic thoughts on the role. One big point I would like to make first and clearly: YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THE BOTTOM LANE. Bot lane in the current meta is a 2v2 lane, meaning you have to deal/work with someone else in your team. The most common mistake I see is when ADC's go with the attitude "all me". Don't go shooting off in the chat that your support takes an accidental or secured kill. One of the worst things you can do is go blaming your teammates for your death. By behaving negatively, your support in the lane WILL play a lot worse and stop caring. Instead of saying, "OMG NO WARDS REPORT SUPPORT" you can buy 1 ward yourself or ask for a ward politely, without flaming. If your support secures 1 kill that you would've gotten, do remember that the support may not have the same knowledge as you (for example if u had Q off cooldown); don't flame him and say good job. It was a good play from his point of view.


I play ADC because I enjoy communicating with someone in the same lane. I like doing heavy damage and my team relying on that damage. It's also a very strategic and important role where 1 mistake could cost you the whole game. I also enjoy the overall combination of different compositions you can put bot lane, for example: you can combine 2 different kits into 1 strategic move to kill someone off. In the end, I believe it is the high responsibility, the ability to do tons of damage, and communicating with my support as to why I enjoy the ADC role.


ADC can be a really effective and a fast way to climb if you know how to play ADC relatively well. The ADC can carry a team really hard if you make the right pick. Most of a team’s damage comes from the ADC and nearly all efforts are put toward protecting them so that he/she can deal as much damage as possible. The majority of the top 50 players in the game have at least 1 ADC in their most played champions list. In lower tiers like bronze, ADC is a great way to get you out as long as you play it well. You can even go 4v5 with an AFK and win; that's how strong the role is. ADC's are often focused in team fights for good reason, but in lower tiers people don't do that as often or do it with too large of a cost.

Pros >>Poke >>Range >>Stable >>Easy

Explanation >> Varus has decent kit in my opinion. Piercing Arrow is a long ranged poke that can zone opponents and deal huge damage. Blighted Quiver is not that good early on, but late-game it can deal chunks of damage on hp stacking front line. Hail of Arrows is his escape tool and helps with zoning. Chain of Corruption gives you time to position or get someone off of you or your teammates. His kit doesn't have many counters and it is not that hard to master.

Explanation >> Varus is quite bad in close combat due to him having to stack or charge 2/3 basic abilities to get the best out of them. It is also hard to escape once you have been caught as the slow from Hail of Arrows isn't strong enough in most cases. Varus also falls off a little once you hit late game due to a lack of any real steroids, but the percentage damage from Blighted Quiver is useful; though it is often hard to stack and then pop later on.

>>Slow >>Immobile >>Skillshots >>Ap scaling >>Falls off

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ADC runes are quite boring and work the best with only 1 real set of runes. In marks, attack damage is the way to go. It helps you last hit and your passive scales well with them. Get armor seals for a bit of armor for early-game resistances against enemy AD carry damage. The damage resistance % skyrockets up, so don't take anything other than these. For some early defense against the enemy support’s poke, I highly recommend magic resistance over mana regeneration glyphs. Some run 3 mana regen and 6 m. res, but just go for the resistance. It is much better and you shouldn't run out of mana that easily if you show some restraint from spamming skills. Attack damage once again to last hit easier. With the new updates I don't consider life steal quints that good. You can still run them without any problem but myself I tried attack speed quints and I liked them. You can run either one or just run straight full AD quints. Plenty of options here.

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>> Fury for some attack speed, which can also be traded for the cooldown reduction, but the attack speed feels better to me and Butcher to help you with last hitting. >> Then go for Brute Force . Small amount of AD for late game. It's like an extra Long Sword, which is worth 400 gold. Honestly it is kinda meh, but it is necessary for us to get to the next tier along with picking Feast for the extra sustain. >> Martial Mastery is useful to help with farming: especially under tower. It gives you some extra damage for poking also. Then Executioner for the bonus % damage for the late game. >> Here I go for Warlord which is rather nice overall. It is nice to increase the total amount of AD further. >> Here we access the most cost worthy mastery: Devastating Strikes . Varus benefits greatly from this and puts the entire 12% to good use. Only a few ADC's can use the mastery point as efficiently as Varus. Finally Frenzy , which could be switched around for the 1.5% increased damage, but I feel like Frenzy actually benefits you, even though you don't need the attack speed that much. >> Finally the last point for Havoc . Not a "wow" bonus, but 3% extra damage for 1 point is OK I guess. Its not really that much if you start to count how much the percentage is from ~2k damage, but it is still worth it.

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>> Block and Recovery . The Block mastery is really good. It seems very little, but it is much more useful than you may think. LoLmath has video of it in youtube I believe, go watch it, if you want to see the math behind this mastery. Health regen gives some extra sustain. >> I take Unyielding to boost the effect of Block even further, making it a total of 3 less damage per auto-attack and some reduction against spells. Next take Veteran Scars for some extra tankiness, so you don't seem quite as squishy. >> Juggernaut is worth because it takes only 1 point for 3%. Not that much if you compare my example for 3% extra damage from 1000, but this point is a fair ~+20 health in lane early-game. >> I have covered a little bit about the utility vs defensive masteries in the following tree. It is pretty much up to what you prefer. Both masteries work well and are viable. Some may wonder why I skip over the enchanted armor and magic resist as it's 5%. The reason is, because you will have around 30-100 resists throughout the game and it is a mere 1.5-5 more defense. It's possible to go for it also though.

Really standard set-up since S4. With the newest patch, Doran's Blade gives life steal and 3% should do fine for laning phase. If you are forced to recall early without gold enough for Vampiric Scepter, taking a second Doran's Blade is not a bad option.


Vision is very important aspect of league of legends. S4 has given everyone a chance (forced chance) to participate in the vision game. For the ADC I think the best trinket for this is the Stealth Ward, because you should always be carrying at least 1 Stealth Ward once you go split-pushing or deep in lane. So my advice is to have the free ward trinket and 1-2 Stealth Wards after the first tower is down.


Rushing Infinity Edge is the way to go in the beginning after Bloodthirster got changed into a quite bad starter item considering the passive is pretty worth much more later on. Infinity Edge always likes a companion with attack speed/critical chance and Phantom Dancer fits the description really well. The boots are pretty standard and you can take them between these 2 items.


Bloodthirster is better than Blade of the Ruined King as you don't really want to start fight immediatly without poking so BT is a better option. Botrk is good against beefier team or just against champions that won't leave ur face. Then comes Last Whisper UNLESS enemy is stacking lot's of armor at this point. Then you can take this before BT. You decide the order of these two items based on how much armor the enemy team is building.


Mercurial Scimitar and Banshee's Veil both are useful against heavy AP and heavy front line CC teams. The only important difference is Quicksilver Sash, which allows you to remove CC effect or ultimates like Zed's. It's a good item on its own. If you don't have any huge problems and you are ahead, scimitar is the better choice. Banshee works better against burst without lot's of CC and it costs less. These items are good also when they don't have any assassins or really high burst to melt you down. If they do have high burst or assassins, Guardian Angel is the better choice. Once you are locked down, your team can focus on taking the helpless assassins after using their kits and the enemy team often gets distracted waiting for the Guardian Angel passive to finish, wasting 2 seconds. That gives your team time to react and you to escape the situation with your teams help and then come back for the fight.

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This ability sequence is all about damage. Ultimate is maxed first which is no surprise. It allows you to re-position in team fights and can be used to catch someone off guard/out of position. Q is maxed second because of the great damage scaling it provides and the amount of poke it gives. E is third for even more damage and to deny some mobility. W is taken last because you're not looking to trade auto-attacks that much.

Living vengeance: Decent passive. It gives you extra attack speed after executing a minion that can be used for an advantage in pokes and in a team fight, you can see the difference if you get the attack speed off. Don’t have a screenshot, because it is a rather simple ability to use. Piercing arrow: Your main ability to deal damage and get ahead in laning phase. It gives really great poke that hurts like hell after it is maxed and you gain some AD. This ability gives you great bush control. Blighted quiver: Another quite simple, yet important ability. It is really important to be able to pop the passive as soon as you reach the max stacks. If you are not able to use this passive correctly, the whole AS build is a waste and you should focus on the AD build. Save your abilities to pop it and just use Piercing Arrow without charging it, it guarantees that you will proc the quiver. Hail of arrows: This is really great zoning and poking tool after an AA trade. The most efficient way to use it is after 1 AA poke behind the enemy so that it hits and then slows down the escape path of your opponent. It also reduces healing effects from life steal, keep that in mind. Chain of corruption: Great ultimate for both defensive and offensive purpose. If you are attacked by several enemy front liners, it is best to use it on them to give your team time to position. In the other case in which you are the ones initiating, it is a great tool to deny positioning of the enemy carries.

Varus is meant to be played offensively early and mid-game to gain item advantage later on in the game and keep up with the late-game scaling ADC’s. If you are not getting these item advantages, you will have a hard time keeping up with them. Offensive supports with CC or heals work really well with Varus to zone and force enemies to go back to base. Defensive supports are a bit meh, as you need to get that kill or two. You want to avoid farming lanes most of the times. Hard lane match-ups are a bit different story, but even then a kill or two would help tons. I'm not saying you will suck and do next to 0 damage if you don't get the item advantages but ADC's like Vayne and Tristana are just beasts during the late-game and you will need something to be more useful than them.

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>> Quinn is pretty easy to lane against due to her having no long range abilities. Everything she has is limited around her basic attack range. Varus' ulti is also great in this match-up as Quinn's ultimate is only good in melee range. Just poke with Q’s and basic attacks.

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>> Draven has quite a strong early game that is somewhat reliant on catching axes and having mobility to chase for free auto-attacks. As Varus, you can anticipate where the axes are going to land so use your Hail of Arrows at the predicted landing spot followed with an easy to hit Piercing Arrow. This works as an escape mechanism also.

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>> Kog'Maw relies on his late game damage. Your job is to stop that goal early. Go really aggressive, because this bug only has mere auto-attacks to fight in the beginning. Auto-attack range increases as W is evolved, but the damages are rather minor still. Poke out of lane with Piercing Arrow.

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>> Twitch relies on AA damage. Pretty much the same playing style as Quinn. You need to deny farm in this lane, because lvl 6 is a different story. Before level 6 it is very easy to poke/zone with Piercing Arrow's range and deny stealth positioning with Hail of Arrows.

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>> Jinx is a semi-easy lane. You have pretty much the same tools ability wise with only slight differences, but the principles remain the same. Problem in this lane for Jinx is that throughout the lane, you should have minion advantage. Most of the Jinx players go for the machine gun build, which is outranged while rooted in your ultimate. In lane it doesn't matter, but the difference is, that you have easier poke + Jinx lacks mobility without the passive.

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>> Vayne is really weak pre 6 and you must do the same as you would against a Twitch lane, which is to deny as much as you can during the laning phase before level 6. Varus is not the best counter, but Piercing Arrow poke + Hail of Arrows combined with Chain of Corruption, you should be able to poke and deny mobility which Vayne relies on.

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>> Corki is kinda weak against poke as you tend to build life steal very late on him. He runs out of mana quickly if he tries to keep up with trades. Just poke with Piercing Arrow and use Hail of Arrows and Chain of Corruption, if he charges in or tries to escape.

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>> Ezreal lanes are about how you use your abilities. Depending on your support, Ezreal lane can go for poke or burst. Ez wins close combat fights and has quite a bit of burst, but you can get an edge if you hit your Q well. Even 2x Piercing Arrow can deal up to half of his hp. A well used ultimate can stop him from escaping also.

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>> Miss Fortune is good in close combat and somewhat long range with her ultimate and her Q. Lacks a bit of mobility, if passive gets blocked, but isn't really a problem. You will lose AA pokes and generally lose fights pre 5. Everything in this matchup depends on Piercing Arrow poke and how you land your ultimate and position yourself against Bullet Time.

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>> Ashe has strong lock-up and poke with long-lasting slows, so it is hard to kite yourself out of being chased with Hail of Arrows. I prefer not to go AA poke or contest cs far away from my own minion wave, because Volley gives a great chance for the opposing lane to engage. It is very much about farming in this lane and poking with your Piercing Arrow once again until you can possibly go for the kill with a Hail of Arrows slow or Chain of Corruption root.

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>> Tristana is quite weak in the low levels generally. The AA + E poke can get her through the early game and she gains range and burst with levels. Your best option is to try to zone and go aggressive early with as much cs as you can before Tristana gets too far ahead later on in the game. It is wise to be cautious of Rocket Jump while trying to close for a kill or make an escape.

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>> Caitlyn is an interesting match-up. Cait has really long poke and the one ADC out of 2 possible ones that can do well against her is Varus. Caitlyn wins auto-attack wars, but Varus definitely can punish her with Piercing Arrow and wins even more with the proper use of Hail of Arrows. It is all about how you use the abilities and how your opponent uses his/her. It is not as easy of a match-up as some websites may say.

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>> Graves is a very bursty champion that has insane synergy with burst supports. Graves is very good in close combat battle, which is unfavorable for Varus. He can dodge Chain of Corruption and Piercing Arrow with Quickdraw and the damage is just crazy even while behind in lane. A simple stun from Annie support with Graves burst can kill you in seconds. Try to farm and poke with Q as much as you can.

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>> Sivir is very good in close combat and has a really good ultimate for fights. Siv's Q poke is really strong and it is very hard to land anything on her because of her spell shield. Farm lane and poke when the shield is on cooldown is pretty much the only choice and option to do. Try not to give her a chance to snowball the lane.

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>> Lucian has good poke and some burst, can dodge your abilities rather simply by using Relentless Pursuit, has really strong close combat and wins trades quite hard. Try to farm throughout the laning phase to try and keep up with him. It is really hard to escape from him, so do your best not to give him a chance to snowball.

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Thresh - The chain warden Tank, Fighter, Support Synergy: High Jungler ganking potential: High Specialty: Huge CC, AA poke, Shield Explanation: Thresh is a great laning partner for Varus, because Thresh allows Varus to position better for abilities to land. Same goes the opposite way around together creating huge threat to enemy.

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Lulu - The Fae Sorceress Ranged, Mage, Support Synergy: High Jungler ganking potential: Medium Specialty: Poke, mobility, knockup Explanation: Lulu synergies well with Varus' poke. The amount of poke in early levels is really hard to deal with. Also allows some re-positioning and good escape from close combat situation.

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Leona - The radiant dawn Melee, Tank, Support Synergy: Medium - High Jungler ganking potential: High Specialty: Huge CC, burst, initiation Explanation: Leona fits really well with Varus if you're not facing really high poke lane. The hard CC, which she offers helps to lock someone down with Chain of Corruption, so Varus can just kill everything.

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Zyra - Rise of the Thorns Ranged, Mage, Support, Mid Synergy: High Jungler ganking potential: Medium Specialty: Plants, knock-up, poke Explanation: Zyra almost enjoys more from Varus' kit than the way around. Both have roots for stand alone damage and especially Zyra's plants benefit a lot from it, but so does Varus. Huge poke after early levels.

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Sona - Maven of the strings Ranged, Mage, Support Synergy: High Jungler ganking potential: Medium Specialty: Heal, wide stun, AoE support Explanation: Sona is all-around support giving lot's of useful stats for Varus. AD and AP buff works with Varus' mixed kit and both enjoy to poke a lot. Hard engage after 6 is almost a guaranteed kill.

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As I have stated many times throughout this guide: Get kills. Early levels you should poke immediately when the enemy is going for cs. Use your auto-attack followed by Hail of Arrows to deal lot's of damage. Repeat doing this process when the enemy ADC is going for cs, but be sure to pay attention to your own farming and mana also. After reaching level 3, you can seek a kill or push the enemy out of lane unless you have already done so with Piercing Arrow. The best usage of Piercing Arrow and Hail of Arrows is if you are able to push the minion wave to enemy tower. You can than zone your opponent from farming and continue to deal damage with your Q. So the enemy really has to be careful when going for cs.

Mid-game team fights should be dependent on how much you are ahead after laning phase. If you did get the few items mentioned previously during laning phase, you can really enjoy and dominate the fights with a great deal of poke. Varus fits really well in a poke composition because you can poke the back-line and stop/start initiation with well placed ultimate. You should never be cc'd as the first one in your team in the front line. If you are caught under melee range by the enemy team it is hard to escape. If you are behind the front lines, you can deal with 1-2 guys with your ultimate and give your team some time to help you out.



Late game is very much about positioning correctly and continuing where you stopped from mid-game. This is the part which is not as favorable for Varus if the enemy has a late-game team, but there is no need for desperation. Positioning is really important: I provide you with an example below:



Corki is positioned behind his front line and is out of initiation range, but remains in range to keep dealing damage with his ultimate and possibly to shred an enemy tank that charges forwards. The example obviously fits for Varus also.




Let's start off with a story first to make my point clear. I had been wanting to climb ELO and I wanted to see what I didn't do properly. I took the opportunity when it arose and played a few matches with and against a few Diamond I/Challenger bot lanes. I obviously lost every single time more or less, because of positioning.

I was playing a fair lane Draven, Thresh vs Miss Fortune, Leona.

• Every time I mispositioned, I got punished by basic attack.
• Every time I went to get a last hit, I got punished.
• If I was late from my lane, my opponent was level higher and punished me.
• Support went warding, I got zoned.
• I was alone in lane, I got zoned.
• Every time I lost vision, jungler ganked and I got zoned.

The more I got punished for mispositioning, the more frustrated I got --> Loosing cs, over committing, making more mistakes --> You end up with a death, lost tower + objectives. This was the clear difference between me and my opponent. I knew when I should poke and how to avoid getting poked, but there are so many chances to punish/avoid. He simply used the chances better than I did. I learned a lot that day. Lets take a look at some ways to punish, even the ones that seem basic to many.

I expect you to know bot lane locations, but I'll provide a quick explanation in case I use different terms than you. Locations, positioning and situations are from blue side's point of view. Red bush = Bush closest to the enemy tower. Blue bush = Bush closest to your own tower. River bush = Bush at the end of the river where lanes start. Keep this in mind while doing this: Minions > Small poke Here are some simple ways of zoning/punishing;

So you know they have a mana hungry jungler and that they will start at blue. Depending on how good the ganking potential the jungler has, place a ward at river. Have your support be placed at red bush to either land CC/poke OR zone the enemy towards their tower or force a ward there. Then just push the lane as hard as you can and keep the red bush vision. Basically what this does is allow you to achieve level 2 faster. With your stat and ability advantage, you can either go trade off with the enemy if they go contest minions or they will back-off and you are denying them minion gold.

This is where things get tricky. Let's assume you are even in lane and both supports are not doing anything special to control the bushes. Basically having control of the enemy bush is the base of zoning, but you can't do that at the moment. Poking with abilities is OK, but you can punish the enemy for taking CS, within limits of not loosing CS of your own while doing that. Look at your own minion wave HP, if you see he is going for your melee minions which are low hp and he has a full hp minion wave, FIRE EVERYTHING. At least hit 1 auto-attack. It's not worth it if you loose a minion on the way. The most important minion deny is the big siege minion. Time it right.

This is really easy and can often lead to burst of summoner/loosing resources/or ending up dead. The most simple rule is when either your enemy has only their ADC or support in lane, go kill/poke/zone. Deny everything you can by simply containing red/blue bush control depending on where your lane is. A second situation is when the support leaves lane to ward. Either punish the enmy ADC by zoning/poking or try to kill the support on their way to ward.

How to prevent getting zoned ?

• Have sustain
• Have high CC support
• Man-up. Know when you can win the trade in stead getting poked 24/7 for nothing
• Have jungler gank. No matter if river is warded, just CC the enemy bot lane.
• Have vision and deny it

More useful information;Attack Move/Stutter StepPredicting GanksHow to last hit




Thank you for reading the guide over and I hope you learned something about Varus. Hopefully I have opened his world and ADC role for you. At this point I'd like to credit:

• Bioalchemist For the massive grammar and spellcheck fixes!
• -NA-Veng Lmfao for many good coding formats!
• Jhoihoi for format of abilities & positioning chapter --> Coding help here
• fashionablellama For the awesome banner!

Feel free to ask questions or recommend feedback - I will try to respond to them all. This turned out to be quite long guide after all, but if you truly are interested in Varus, I think you should read it all. I could post some Varus stats over here also, if someone wants to send scores :)