Playstyle

Top Lane Carry Strategy

In the top lane, Volibear's most effective carry strategy revolves around dominating your lane opponent and taking down towers through splitpushing. While tank builds can work, they generally don't provide the same level of impact as damage-oriented builds that allow you to truly carry games.

Priority: Eliminate Fed Threats

Your primary goal should always be being able to kill the fed enemy laner. This takes precedence over everything else. A Volibear who can consistently eliminate the enemy team's strongest player creates massive pressure and opens up opportunities for your team.

Teamfight Limitations

Volibear is rather mediocre in teamfights for several reasons:
- Ultimate cast time is too long - makes it difficult to engage effectively
- Relatively squishy despite his tanky appearance
- Needs time to apply regeneration (second W cast)
- Easy to kite by mobile enemies

Optimal Playstyle: Splitpusher, Not Juggernaut

Play Volibear as a splitpusher rather than a traditional juggernaut like Darius or Mordekaiser. Focus on:
- Creating pressure in side lanes
- Winning 1v1 or 1v2 situations
- Taking objectives when enemies are distracted
- Avoiding large teamfights where your weaknesses are exposed

Volibear excels in sidelane situations and skirmishes where he can utilize his dueling potential and mobility more effectively than in chaotic teamfight scenarios.

PRESS THE ATTACK

VS

GRASP OF THE UNDYING

Press the Attack excels in both short and long trades, providing an initial burst followed by an additional 8% of all following damage. Both Q and W grant stacks, making it really easy to proc.

Grasp of the Undying on the other hand excels in shorter trades, giving you sustain paired with nice damage and permanent HP scaling. Grasp is better in very short trade-oriented matchups such as Jax, Renekton, or Riven.

PRECISION

Precision tree is often the best in toplane for extended fights due to the length of the lane. As explained above, you choose between Press the Attack or Grasp of the Undying.

This row is preference-based. I tend to opt for Presence of Mind, which offers healthier mana pool management.

Legend: Alacrity makes more sense with this particular build since it's attack speed based. You could opt for Legend: Haste in games where you won't be able to auto-attack much.

This is also preference-based. In theory, Last Stand synergizes really well with Volibear's kit, but the difference between each rune is minor. I switch between Cut Down against durable opponents, or Coup de Grace against champs that tend to survive at low HP such as Warwick or Sett.

I take double Adaptive Force + Flat Health to maximize Volibear's early game strength and snowball from it. It doesn't make sense to play scaling runes on a mediocre scaling champ. I'd rather play full aggro, stomp every lane, and win in 25 minutes rather than playing for a late game where I'll be unable to carry anyway.