Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

Vel'Koz Build Guide by

(7.8) In depth guide to Vel'Koz - Support & Middle

8,465 Views

0 Comments

League of Legends Build Guide Author Cyburnetic

Vel'Koz Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion More Vel'Koz Guides

Choose Champion Build:

Regular Vel'Koz Support (Pleas
Hentai in a nutshell

Spells:

Exhaust

Flash

Items

Start

First Back (Ideal)

First Back (Low Gold)

Core (In order)

Situational (MUST READ NOTES!!!)

Example build 1 (BEST CASE SCENARIO)

Example build 2 (Good Scenario)

Example build 3 (Bad scenario -

Example build 4 (Bad scenario -

Ability Order

Vel'Koz Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Leona

Extreme

(Farm Lane)You done messed up Aaron! Why did you do this to yourself? She has great range, great CC, lots of tank, and diving capability. Just stay back and hope your jungle Senpai notices you crying.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Why choose Hentai?

-Great AP True Damage Burst
-Is purple
-Mimics the destruction death star
-Can carry as support
-Can carry as mid
-Has better tentacles than Illaoi
-Can cut through every other champion like butter in the name of knowledge

Introduction

Hello there!
I am Cyburnetic and I am a well versed support main (playing since S2). is one of my favorite champions in league of legends and my goal is to spread my love and knowledge of the laser squid to you so you may effectively kick champion butt.

If you haven't already I recommend you watch his champion spotlight.
[CLICK HERE TO WATCH]

More experienced or want to learn more?
[HERE IS THE ACTUAL INFORMATION ABOUT VEL'KOZ AND HIS ABILITIES]

Pros / Cons

Pros
-Amazing burst
-Insane true damage
-Great range
-Strong poke
-Lots of slows
-Decent AP scaling (consider the true damage)
-Great carry potential
-Amazing team fighting
-Superior geometry with:
Cons
-Low mobility
-Very squishy
-Decently long cooldowns
-Not good against assassins
-Needs peel

Ranked Play

Support:
Honestly in my opinion Vel'Koz support should really only be used as a counter pick or when your team needs damage. A good support player should play for the game and fill missing aspects of a team comp. Support is probably the most crucial role in the game and picking Vel'Koz when your team is devoid of tank and utility then you're asking to lose. However knowing support it can be hard to make up for missing skill in your ADC and Vel'Koz is great way to make up for an inferior ADC and carry your ranked games. Vel'Koz's main issues are that he requires peel and great positioning, so if you have a team that can't even work as adequate meat shields then you may be useless depending on ELO. Despite everything said if you're keen on being a Vel'Koz one trick I think you've made a great choice, although he has some annoying downfalls learning you're positioning for every situation as what to buy and when should make up for all of his downfalls. I highly recommend working on your game sense as mechanical skill can only get you so far. If you follow everything here I do believe that you get to at least mid-diamond with general ease if only playing the laser squid. However I highly recommend branching out and being a well rounded support player and 100% if the time game sense trumps mechanical skill.
Mid:
Vel'Koz is a great and under-rated mid laner. He works with virtually and comp as he can both team fight and pick off. He excels at team fights specifically due to his AOE AP/True DMG burst. Even against an unfavorable matchup grouping should fix damaged caused by a bad lane. His only real weaknesses are getting punished by surprise burst and pushing. Vel'Koz easily gets screwed over by assassins and has a tough time pushing by his lonesome. However Vel'Koz great at snowballing not just himself, but also the rest of his team. Even though his items are expensive I would say that Vel'Koz is relatively gold efficient because of how his magic damage converts to true damage with his passive. I highly recommend Vek'Koz for ranked, however once in mid-high diamond Vel'Koz gets outclassed by superior laners with lower cooldown who effectively have more spam and more burst.

Summary/Cheat Sheet

FOR THOSE WHO ARE LAZY HERE IS A CHEAT SHEET:

Summoner Spells:
-Middle should take & most of the time but can run with &
-Support should take & most of the time except against healers, then you take &

Runes:
-Just roll with what I have above, you wouldn't use the cheat sheet if you actually cared why you're supposed to take the runes that you do

Masteries:
-You just read the runes portion so you get the deal

Skills/Combo's:
-Mid: R>Q>W>E
-Support: W,E,Q, then R>Q>W>E
-Combo's: E,W,Q,R (Full combo) E,W,Q (Fast Combo) E,W,Q,E (Extended Combo)

Items:
-Just use the guide above, it's why I made it

Creeping/Wave Management
-Always make sure that if you're backing/roaming either the ADC is there to defend or the wave is pushed so their tower is taking free damage not yours.

Teamwork:
-Let your team be your meat shields
-Don't let yourself die
-kill everything (or at least hit everything if your support)
-Use your utility as support

Unique skills:
-Being able to treat tanks like panes of glass because true damage that's why
-Tilting the enemy simply by killing them with Hentai. For some reason people in NA get tilted by anime, if you also have Yasuo on your team work together to shove Japanese culture so far down the enemy's throats that they will be birthing body pillows and Waifu's for many moons to come (Rem is best girl).

Farming:
-Last hit the minions
-Your Q refunds 50% of the mana if it kills a unit, if you can kill at least 2 units you get all the mana back, if you kill 3 you gain mana.

Summoner Spells

(Supp/Mid)[ALWAYS TAKE THIS]
This is pretty standard, flash is the best summoner spell in league of legends which is why it's such a staple in League of legends. Flash can be used offensively or defensively as well as for re-positioning. This spell will get you out of a lot of sticky situations and save you more than once and may even get you a kill or two.

(Supp)[SAVES YOU + LANE PARTNER]
This is generally the best summoner to take as it can not only save you in pinch, but also the lane partner that you are sworn to protect (at least in lane)due to its slow and damage reduction. On top of being a savior it can also be used aggressively due to its slow especially considering how you usually won't be building a .

(Supp/Mid)[KILL PRESSURE + REDUCE HEALING]
This spell when in mid is only recommended when your team can always provide reliable peel for you or when confident in your abilities in a favorable matchup. When supporting you should only really use this against healers, however if you feel confident and it works with your team comp you can use this in a favorable matchup.

(Supp/Mid)[GREAT SURVIVE-ABILITY]
When mid this is pretty much your staple as it makes up for your big HP shortcoming and allows you to actually face assassins. The spell can give you the edge so you can burst the laner faster than they can burst you. Great counter to ignite which is commonly taken in the mid lane. When supporting you should only really take this if you are either the only, or one of two carries on your team and you being alive is crucial/essential.

Runes

Why do I take the runes that I do?

MID: You will be taking a lot more damage and will be building less CDR compared to support so you'll take the MR and scaling CDR runes to help make up for that. The HP runes give you the ability to take a bit more damage and help survive early in lane and will help survive ignite and deathfire at all points in the game. The magic pen and AP runes are just great damage runes that really help get off any missing damage from taking barrier.

SUPPORT: You will have to sacrifice some of your damage by supporting, so these runes will not only help make up for the missing damage, but also help get you enough gold to make up for the lack of farm that you will have by supporting.

Masteries

Why do I take the masteries that I do?
-Cunning and Ferocity are your two trees regardless of lane
-Staples:
-Support takes to help get gold in absence of farming
-Middle takes for more damage being a primary carry
-Support takes in order to make up for the loss of mana sustain caused by building support items
-Middle takes , , and in order to deal more damage and carry more effectively, however you can also take instead of it's more of a preferential choice
-Support takes in order to help his laner and team do more damage with Vel'Koz losing his damage by playing support. It also helps to stop kill stealing from your laner.
-Support takes to help make up for missing damage. You don't take because Vel'Koz deals burst damage not sustain damage and combat probably won't last 3 seconds and because you're not supposed to take kills you can't fully utilize

Skill Sequence/Combo's

This section is where preference plays a big role... if you're playing support

Middle:
Always goes in this order >>>(R>Q>W>E)
Why:
-Your ultimate is extremely powerful and takes priority overall
-Your Q is your main source of damage due to its scaling and cooldown, good peel due to its 70% slow, is your main poke because geometry, and refunds 50% of its mana cost for each unit killed giving you mana sustain. This means that if you can kill 3 minions with it you actually gain mana, and if you kill 2 minions with it it's entire cost is refunded which give more spam and harass.
-Your W is a great way to get off your stacks for your 3 hit passive .Also it gives great poke as it goes through minions unlike your Q and is essential to your burst combo, even though you hold 2 charges be wary of wasting them.
-Your E is awful for damage and is only used for its knockup and knockback. This is essential for your combo and peel, by landing this you apply a stack and usually secure your enemy(s) a grey screen (how thoughful of you).

Support:
-What you start (first 3 levels) is a matter of preference
-Past your starting options your priority is the same as middle: >>>(R>Q>W>E)
-Starting option #1: W,E,Q this is what you'll be using most as it gives easy poke to the enemys and a knockup/knockback for setup with your laner/jungler and peel for both you and you laner. Also you can't utilize your Q for the mana sustain so leveling it early just adds extra difficulty to your poke even with geometry.
-Starting option #2: Q,W,E This allows for a seriously aggressive early lane, it sacrifices the early peel that stops lvl 2 ganks/aggro lanes from securing kills for much more aggression. I only recommend this when facing both an easier lane and a jungler that isn't early game.

Combos:
-Full Combo: E,W,Q,R (one shots most champions at all times during the game and is why you normally have a lvl 6 advantage, you're on CD after so be careful)
-Fast Combo: E,W,Q (Why I usually get first blood on Vel'Koz)
-Extended Combo: E,W,Q,W (More damage than the Fast Combo, works better on low mobility champions, you're on CD after so be careful)

Items

Support:
VS
Eye of the Watchers is what you take for vision control. You sacrifice a lot of vision by getting Frost Queen's Claim instead. As support you are the one who wards (Breaking Bad anyone) and poor vision can easily lose a game. Having great vision control is especially important considering how squishy you are (getting jumped on sucks). The only times when your should take frost queens are when your team is unreliable and you need the slow/situational warding to keep yourself alive or when your team has amazing warding and you can sacrifice the vision control for an extra bit of CC. Only in extreme cases of poor team vision should you take frost queens as sometimes your vision can single-handedly make up for the entire team.

You should always get this, it is your best and main source of damage. This works especially well on you as movement impairing effects double the item effect. Getting a Rylai's Crystal Scepter works wonders as it will give you even more slows, but there is usually a better item so be careful on when to pair. You will regret not taking this!

You need the magic penetration especially because you won't have as much damage as Vel'Koz mid. No other boots really benefit you and this is your best boot option.

&
You will always have other vision options, this allows you to clear objectives and normally warded areas of any enemy vision. There is only a couple situations that are usually not recommended where you don't buy a Sightstone and those are the only situations where you would just keep your Stealth Ward.

You must take this if you take Frost Queen's Claim. Any situation where you assume that your team is garbage and not worth warding just screams bronze 5. Any situation where this isn't bought when paired with Frost Queen's Claim is a part of support game knowledge and you should either earn the knowledge so you can fully grasp the concept and not screw your team over or directly consult a pro who also plays a lot of Vel'Koz support (good luck with that option).

Very good damage item when building more AP, increases overall damage as well AOE damage because of it's unique passive.

This is a finishing item, if you don't know what to build this is usually a good bet. Works well with pretty much all build variations and is especially good against tanks. This item is has 2 specific champions that it cripples: Kassadin & Galio.

Pretty straightforward damage item, great to add to an already damaging build & great for builds lacking damage. If you don't need more damage and something else is more useful then don't build this, it's expensive and there is usually better options.

An insane item that benefits your entire team, unfortunately you can't really its unique passive too well, but you're in it for the active baby. This item can easily turn around team fights and keep someone alive being chased with low health. If your comp needs utility this is your number 1 priority after your core (maybe even before if in dire need). Even if you don't need utility this is usually a stellar addition.

This is your only defensive offense item. If you are against a heavy AP or are a heavy AP team this is highly recommended. on top of giving you more survive-ability, AP, and spam (CDR) it also forces nearby enemies to 10% more magic damage (that damage doesn't have to come from you). This is a must buy when in lane with an APC like Ziggs.

This is probably your best defensive item. Highly recommended against heavy burst or assassins. Works really well against champions like Lee Sin & Rengar who may try to jump on you.

Extremely useful against healers like Swain & Vladimir as well as life steal heavy ADC's like Jinx. Also useful against comps with healers like Soraka. All of this is because of the grievous wounds passive. It's other passive also provides great mana sustain for team fighting or tight situations due the passive's restoration of 20% of your mana from kills and assists.

As stated above this items pairs well with Liandry's Torment. Honestly though the only times that you should really buy this item are when your team is desperate for CC or when you aren't too sure what else to get as a finisher. If you are looking for a finisher I recommend looking at Void Staff and Morellonomicon before this item.

Middle:

Creeping / Wave managment

Support:
You shouldn't really be touching the wave in lane. The only times you should really be touching the wave is when pushing the wave or when poking with your W. Try not to touch the wave and work mostly around it. Any easy and some easier match ups should be pushed at most times. which easier match ups are pushed is relative and changes with play style. I recommend pushing against these easier match ups: , , , , , . Be weary of jungle ganks and don't perma-push, your goal with pushing is to apply pressure where you have an advantage in order to mess up the other lanes farm as well as provide good roaming opportunities for yourself. You don't want to push lanes where they can take serious advantage of you being pushed up, some examples of this are & . can just ult on you and screw you over easily, forcing him to have to ult you under your tower will at least trade a one for one in most scenarios if he even ults at all. has great poke and a bind that goes through minions, so one wrong move and you're calamari. The way that you should usually push the wave is by using wither your W or your E, only use your E when extremely safe as you lose peel by having it on CD. when pushing you shouldn't last hit the minions, but start them so your laner can still farm. When I say minions I am talking specifically about the castor minions not taking damage.

Middle:
This lane is pretty standard, in the early you'll want the minions to be in the middle of the lane most of the time. Against hard match ups you'll want to be pushed up, most likely you'll lose a bit a farm as farming under tower takes quite a bit of practice as Vel'Koz, however this is still ideal as you won't be dying and you can farm when you laner leaves to roam. Against easy match ups you can push, but by keeping the wave in the middle of the lane you can get kills a lot easier. Whenever you go to roam ensure the wave is pushed so as to ensure your tower isn't taking free damage for no reason.

Team Work

[DISCLAIMER]
I would just like to say this as a general rule for the game that I feel should be spread to the newer or lower ELO players who may have never heard this before: League of Legends is a team game, flaming only tilts your team making them play worse and securing your loss. Also the objective of the game is to destroy the enemy Nexus, not have an insane KDA. Please keep this in mind when playing and match in League of Legends.

Teamwork:
Your job is to combo as many champions as possible without taking damage, you have insane range and going to be a high priority target, so be on your guard and let your team shield you, by staying in the back line and watching your position to make sure that you don't get rushed or jumped on. waiting for the enemys to group then getting off a combo can easily secure at least a triple if done correctly. You may have to engage with your E then comboing, but you work best by following up other CC with your full combo. Focus the enemy carries and us your range to your advantage, catch them off guard. If you are not a primary carry or have other team mates who already eliminate the back line effectively then you can direct you attention to being the true damage tank slayer. Finally you can use your full combo to get a pick before forcing a 5v4 team fight in your favor.
P.S. REMEMBER TO USE YOUR ACTIVES!!! (and use them properly)

Unique Skills

-Being able to treat tanks like they're about as strong as a bag of feathers
-Burst an entire team at one time
-Snowball extreme effectively

Aside from your combo's they're aren't really any skills I would call specifically "unique" to Vel'Koz. His kit is pretty straight forward, it's mastering this kit that makes playing Vel'Koz look so smooth. A mastery of geometry can lull enemies into a false sense of security before destroying them.

Farming

Middle:
Last hitting with Vel'Koz's AA's is fairly tough because they deal next to damage, I recommend using the new practice tool (If you're too low level hop into a custom like we used to before the practice tool) to practice AA last hitting and get a feel for it. Because of the mana refund on Vel'Koz's Q you only really want to use this to farm with your AA unless you're pushing the wave (when pushing do whatever pushes the fastest. Keep in mind to always kill at least 2 minions with your Q or there's no point in using it to farm at all. Also remember how crucial your Q is to both your poke and combo, so be decisive on when to poke and when (this comes with practice and changes based on playsyle and matchup). Don't fret because after you get your lost chapter on your first back like a good little laser squid you have a lot more mana and can ability farm with more than just your Q (being very sparing).

Support:
You're a support, so farming is relative (this is more general support knowledge and less Vel'Koz support knowledge). Really you should only farm to push out a wave so as to save your structures from taking damage. Only do this when there is no other team member available and you have nowhere else to be END OF STORY.