A [WIP] guide to Vel'Koz APC Mid!

Unfortunately this is a WIP (Work In Progress) so I don't have everything finished just yet, but the items, masteries, runes, and skill order is here, so feel free to try them out for yourself.
This is my second MOBA guide, my first being on Nyx Assassin of DOTA 2. Even so, I'm not very experienced at this kind of thing, so please leave comments on how I can do better/improve the guide! Of course this doesn't mean that I want you to say, "lol this guide sux go to bed kid" because that isn't exactly helpful. Thanks again, and enjoy the guide!

First things first.

PROS

-Has excellent hard CC (two slows and a knockback/stun)

-Very long ranged abilities

-Auto attack animation is smooth and has no travel time

-Very strong poke with Q>W mini combo

-Passive gives extra true damage in combos

-Good early game, Amazing mid game

-Can hit multiple enemies with ALL abilities

-Great waveclear and farming potential

-Very useful in teamfights if not focused hard

-Insane base damage on all abilities, especially ultimate

-Great against MR tanks due to M.Pen. build and true damage

-Very short cast times on abilties, and no cast time on W

-Can store two charges of W at one time to use immediately after one another

-Auto attack, E, and ultimate cannot be blocked by Yasuo's Wind Wall

-Ability sound effects and voice acting are amazing

-Battlecast Vel'Koz is badass

-Unique taunt/joke/dance

-Lasers

CONS

-No escape ability

-Very squishy

-Can have mana issues pre-chalice

-All abilities are skillshots

-Passive only works on enemies if they are hit by 3 abilties (each hit of your W counts as one/your ultimate applies one stack per 1/2 second of contact)

-AP scaling doesn't go above 60% on any ability (it sucks)

-Ultimate is channeled and can be interrupted

-Enemies can see range of Q, W, and where E will hit (like Cho'Gath's Q)

-Can struggle in duels against slippery champions (LeBlanc, Zed, Fizz, etc.)

-Relatively high cooldowns

-E technically isn't knockup (sorry Yasuo)

-Falls off a bit late game due to bad AP scaling

-You can't understand a damn thing Battlecast Vel'Koz says

Recommended EYEtems

Starting Items

The starting items that I have listed here are what you should buy about 95% of the time. If you have any doubt about what your starting items should be, get this.


This is what you should get the other 5% of the time. These items are for when you expect heavy ganks/jungler camping mid against you.



Early Game Items

You should have these items typically by the time of your second back or around the 15 min mark. The boots are good for extra mobility (which you will need) the chalice is ESSENTIAL for mana sustain, Haunting G. is excellent for a small ap and health boost with extra Mag.Pen.and the extra doran's ring is good for a stronger laning phase (don't get doran's ring #2 if you are way ahead in cs or levels).



Core Items

YOU MUST GET THIS ITEM BEFORE ANY OF YOUR OTHER CORE ITEMS!
Liandry's is extremely potent on Vel'Koz because of his many forms of cc (Q,E, Ulti). The passive DoT is doubled against you enemies because almost every time you deal damage to them, they will be affected by a slow or stun (if you combo correctly). The health and AP are very helpful too because Vel'Koz is AP (no sh*t) and he really needs a little extra health. The 300 HP that L's Tor. gives you has saved me on multiple occasions where I was <300 HP and would've died otherwise. Also, the Mag. Pen. fits in perfectly with the rest of the build b/c of low AP scalings.


These are pretty self-explanatory. This is what you normally get on most APCs, and Vel'Koz is no exception. Sometimes APCs will ditch these late game for Merc's or something, but due to your low AP scaling, it's better if you keep them throughout the entirety of the game.



This builds from your Chalice of Harmony that you bought early game. The main reason why you should get this is because of the whopping 20% CDR that you get from it. Another reason is that it gives you some MR, which is great because Vel'Koz does not gain any by leveling. The other stats (mainly the insane mana regen passives) are not bad on Vel'Koz either, and let you spam his abilities because of the previously mentioned CDR and the huge amount of mana regen you get from killing enemy champions, as well as the normal RoT (Regen over Time) that you get.



With any Mag.Pen. build, the Void Staff is 100% required. Of course you don't need it as urgently as you do with Liandry's, but it is still a core item. Not much else to say about it other than you might want to get this BEFORE Athene's if the enemy is stacking lots of MR. This is also where Vel'Koz hits a relatively large power spike because of the AP and MR Ignore it gives you, obviously. After you get this item, you should feel much better about taking on the tankier champions like Shen, Wukong, Vi, etc. but not necessarily the nearly impossible to kill champions: Alistar, Mundo, Rammus, etc.