Hello everyone I am Frugalberries, and am writing my first guide to VOlibear and would appreciate if you bear, get it? with my lack of skill with commands and other elements to guide writing. On another note, I have been loving everything about Volibear's kit, and want to share my new-found knowledge with the league community, so let's get started.

Forgive my inability to use nice pretty lists here, but here are pros and cons

Pros
•Super tanky
•Massive damage output for no damage items
•Toss and tons of slows for chasing
•very few champions outrun him
•can clear out minion clumps faster than most tops
•can carry surprisingly well


Cons
•Can be shut down really hard by certain tops
•Easily kited by champions like Ashe
•Doesnt fight well against high sustain or cc
• Thundering Smash can easily kill teammates

For runes I like a good balance between armor, Magic Resist, and attack damage. This helps volibear achieve lane dominance no matter who you lane against. Something to consider would be going solid defense runes on him as you end up being a tank late game anyways. When in jungle these runes are extremely helpful as well, as it allows volibear to have faster clear time, while keeping him hardy (just like any other jungler's rune-page)

volibear, you can, but I do not take this. My reason being that volibear doesn't really need the buffs too much. I generally hand second blue off to mid lane and sometimes red buff to ADC if they are fed enough.

Withvolibear's skills I like a strong focus on Frenzy with a nice balance though (instead of rushing rank 5 Frenzy ASAP) with Sky Splitter. The reason for this, being that you can clear lanes quickly due to its fairly high damage, and allows you to get a better lead on champions for your harass. If I am having issues catching up to champions I will put a point or two into Thundering Smash earlier than usual, although it's usually not that important to the game.

Most people don't trust my Volibear build for some reason, mostly because of the rushed Blade of the Ruined King but will try and go into detail why I feel its so important to Volibear

Blade of the Ruined King -
This item is Volibear's bread and butter in my opinion, the life-steal adds massive sustain, especially with Spirit Visage, also it adds attack speed neccesary to quickly get your 3 stacks from your w, and lastly provides the second of your three slows.
Randuin's Omen -
This item makes Volibear and incredible chaser, and adds disruption to team-fights, using this with Sky Splitter and Thundering Smash makes escape impossible even for extremely quick targets like Udyr
Spirit Visage -
This is your first item for magic resist, its great to have a good balance on magic resist and armor for this champion as he's always in the front lines of team-fights, also it increases the life-steal effects from Blade of the Ruined King and The Relentless Storm
Item's That aren't in core-
use your best knowledge here, if they have lots of AD champions, or a fed ADC then build armor, and if they have lots of AP champions, or a fed APC then build MR. Also, on my extra item list I put Iceborn Gauntlet . I don't really recommend this item, but if you want to add another slow, and do a bit more damage, which is highly unnecessary. Also you don't cast enough to get it up more than once or twice in a team-fight. with that being said, it's still a viable item for Volibear

Flash -
A must, has great synergy with Thundering Smash
Ignite -
helps you kill enemies that should escape, also only way to fight high sustain champs
Smite -
Use if your jungler, use it, use it, use it. Speeds you up, secures dragon and baron, use it!
Teleport -
I don't bother with this, but if your lane-mate has no sustain, you can replace ignite for it
others -
I don't see a use for any other abilities, but your welcome to try them out, but always have Flash and Smite if your jungling

The Relentless Storm -
This ability is incredible for baiting fights, always keep an eye on its cool-down, you will have its icon in your buff bar if it's on cool-down. Late game this ability allows Volibear to 1v3 and walk out alive, or even with a triple kill.
Thundering Smash -
This is one of the best 'fling' moves in the game, not only can it stop a champion dead in their tracks but gives Volibear a pretty significant speed boost. Check Advanced Tactics to take full advantage of this ability!
Frenzy -
This is your bread and butter as Volibear, its only Achilles Heel is its long @ss cool-down; again, Check Advanced Tactics for this! not only does it do tons of damage but is an incredible execute for squishies.
Sky Splitter -
This ability adds an extra bit of poke for Volibear and makes jungling a cinch. This ability does a fair amount of damage, allows tossing champions easier because of its slow, and fears minions and monsters (with Baron Nashor and Dragon being exceptions of course)
Stormbringer -
I used to think this ultimate was utterly useless, but then I started using it more frequently and stopped saving it for an emergency, due to its fairly short cool-down and it's fairly high damage out put it can win you fights you shouldn't normally be able to. Also it can move a large distance and bounce half-way down lane and hit a low health champion hiding behind a minion wave. Check Advanced Tactics, and farming for clever ways to use it!

Jungling is straight forward with him, keep the same skill order as if you were top, only get your Sky Splitter first. Start blue, big wraith, wolves, wraiths, red, gank, lather rinse and repeat. when ganking you may want to spin up your Thundering Smash early, even if you can't get there in time to toss, you can still slow them and maybe secure kill. Volibear is pretty good at counter-jungling because of his early game damage and can quicklly find enemy jungler and shut them down.

Use this to excel with Volibear!!
This is where you go to hone your skills with Volibear, I'm going to break this up into three sections. Laning (top), utilizing items, and teamfights

I personally prefer to put Volibear in top lane as opposed to jungle because of his massive damage output and how quickly he can shut down enemy top laners. You can do this to most all top laners with a few simple steps.
harassing -
To harass with Volibear is really straight forward, most top laners are melee so you stand in the middle of a wave and farm your heart out. when the enemy top comes near you simply smack them a few times, when they are almost in tower range cast Frenzy and back off. you can start doing this with the first wave to stop their farming entirely.
Securing Kill -
To Secure a Kill with Volibear you simply wait till you harass the enemy to >50% hp, once they are there, and you are level 3, you cast Thundering Smash when they get near enough to where you don't have to charge down the lane and give them a heads up. Once tossed smack them with Basic Attacks and once they get away out of basic attack range cast Sky Splitter, then Walk ahead of them and basic attack until they get around 10% health cast your Frenzy . This almost guarantees a kill 90% of the time, if not they will be forced to recall.
Things to keep in mind while in lane -
While farming you cannot simply last hit every minion like you're an ADC, you have to keep up your 3 Frenzy stacks, just in case you have to engage in a duel, always do this, unless your taking too much harrass
Champions to look out for
Garen - garen is surprisingly strong against volibear because of his passive, and tankiness. to fight him wait till his spin is on cooldown and engage, also try and juke him out of his silence
Trundle - trundle is like garen, his passive makes him have extremely high sustain, to fight him don't engage for a full on brawl when his ult is up, also you can generally cast Frenzy through his pillar so its not always a great escape for him, but you must act quickly!
Kayle - Kayle's slow and ranged attacks make her impossible to fight, ask for lots of ganks and wait for lane phase to end, about all I can tell you here.
Teemo - teemo is annoying for any melee top lane, to fight him just wait till he exposes himself and you should be able to do most of his health in one combo.

There will come one point in every game where someone is just barely out of your reach while you are charging with Thundering Smash and you're Sky Splitter, my build is extremely useful for this. while charging your ranges go in this order from largest to shortest range Blade of the Ruined King > Randuin's Omen > Sky Splitter > Thundering Smash. use this to catch fast targets, if they are extremely fast use all 3 slows. generally you can just cast Blade of the Ruined King or Randuin's Omen and save the other two for when they run away again.

The number one thing to keep in mind for teamfights is: cast Stormbringer!, when you cast this ability it adds nearly 100 damage per champion in the team-fight, not only does this help your team dps every champion down whether you can get to them or not, but also gives you an assist for every champion. Aside form that - save Frenzy for the ADC or APC!, and only if you have to, cast Frenzy on a tanky champion, mid to late game it will do almost nothing to them. Another thing to remember in team-fights is try and get in the center of everything to cast Sky Splitter, Randuin's Omen, and most of all: TANK! Do not let your high damage output fool you, you are still a tank, and act like it!

Please commit on my first guide and point out anything that you think I should say differently and any advice to making guides, I really hope this helps everyone out. And I really hope you enjoy the almighty Volibear as much as I do! Until next time mobafire community!