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Volibear Build Guide by Kaizin

Top I Am The Storm | Kaizin's Volibear Top Guide | Patch 11.12

Top I Am The Storm | Kaizin's Volibear Top Guide | Patch 11.12

Updated on June 9, 2021
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Kaizin Build Guide By Kaizin 62 0 112,948 Views 0 Comments
62 0 112,948 Views 0 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Kaizin Volibear Build Guide By Kaizin Updated on June 9, 2021
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Runes: 3+ Melee Team / Safe

1 2 3 4 5 6
Precision
Conqueror
Presence of Mind
Legend: Tenacity
Last Stand

Resolve
Second Wind
Revitalize
Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2 3
Standard
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Champion Build Guide

I Am The Storm | Kaizin's Volibear Top Guide | Patch 11.12

By Kaizin
Introduction



Hi my name is Kaizin, I'm a Volibear Top OTP, I have an informative twitch stream and I create content for YouTube as well. I have been playing Volibear ever since his rework, I love his powerful feel and his godly thematic. I played Volibear a little before his rework but I wouldn't say that I was a Volibear only player. May I ask that if you do enjoy this guide or it has been of any help, feel free to upvote, it really does help!

This Guide is a constant WIP, as new patches rollout I'll be updating this guide to stay current with the live patch. The threats and synergies will also constantly be a work in progress as my own opinion/skill changes and I get more and more experience. The reason there is no low/no synergy champions is because Volibear is so versatile there really isn't anything he can't pair with, it's more about whether the champion itself is good or not. If you'd like to ask about my playstyle or my thought process feel free to drop into my stream when I'm live or check out my discord server!


Ability Breakdown




Below you will find Volibear's ability stats, a detailed breakdown of each ability and the interactions they have within the game.


P: The Relentless Storm



Innate:


Volibear gains a stack of The Relentless Storm for 6 seconds whenever he damages at least one enemy with a basic attack or ability, stacking up to 5 times, with the duration refreshing on subsequent damaging attacks and abilities. At 5 stacks, Volibear gains Lightning Claws .

The Relentless Storm


Volibear gains 5% (+ 4% per 100 AP) bonus attack speed per stack, up to 25% (+ 20% per 100 AP).

Lightning Claws:


Volibear's claws ignite with lightning, causing his basic attacks on-hit to deal 11 − 60 (based on level) (+ 40% AP) bonus magic damage to the target and the closest visible enemy within 450 units of the target, chaining up to 4 subsequent targets.



Q: Thundering Smash



Cast Time: None
Cost: 50 Mana
Cooldown: 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 Seconds
Bonus Movement Speed: 10% | 14%| 18%| 22%| 26%
Bonus Damage: 20 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 (+ 120% bonus AD)

Active:


Volibear drops on all fours, becoming ghosted and gaining bonus movement speed for 4 seconds, doubled when moving towards visible enemy champions within 2000 units.

For the same duration, Volibear's next basic attack becomes uncancellable, pounces (coded as a dash) on the target, deals bonus physical damage, and stuns the target for 1 second.

If Volibear becomes immobilized by an enemy while Thundering Smash is active, the effect ends prematurely and the ability's cooldown is reset.

Thundering Smash resets Volibear's basic attack timer, benefits from life steal at 100% effectiveness and is affected by critical strike modifiers.

Interactions:


Thundering Smash's empowered attack scales with Volibear's Attack Speed.

Unlike most spells that empower a basic attack, Thundering Smash does not have an increased range.

Thundering Smash deals basic damage, but also triggers spell effects by dealing an additional 0 spell damage.

Thundering Smash will still apply its effects to the target even if the dash is interrupted, but not if he goes into resurrection.

Thundering Smash's attack triggers against structures dealing its bonus damage, if applicable.

Volibear's next attack after using Thundering Smash will come out faster.

Despite being an empowered attack, Thundering Smash does not draw minion aggro.



W: Frenzied Maul



Target Range: 325 | During Stormbringer 350
Cast Time: 0.25
Cost: 30 | 35 | 40 | 45 | 50 Mana
Cooldown: 5
W1 Physical Damage: 10 | 35 | 60 | 85 | 110 (+ 100% AD) (+ 6% of his bonus health)
W2 Physical Damage: 15 | 52.5 | 90 | 127.5 | 165 (+ 150% AD) (+ 9% of his bonus health)
Champion/Monster Heal: 20 | 35 | 50 | 65 | 80 (+ 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 / 16% of his missing health)

Active:


Volibear strikes the target enemy, dealing them physical damage, applying on-hit and on-attack effects at 100% effectiveness, and Wounding them for 8 seconds.

Against a Wounded enemy, Volibear instead bites the target, dealing 50% increased damage and healing himself. The heal is halved against minions.

Frenzied Maul benefits from life steal at 100% effectiveness.

Interactions:


Volibear will be ordered to basic attack the target after casting Frenzied Maul.

Frenzied Maul deals basic damage, but also triggers spell effects by dealing an additional spell damage.

Frenzied Maul's bite heals even if it is blocked by a spell shield.

Frenzied Maul's strike can be dodged and blocked, but it cannot miss if Volibear is blinded. The Wound is applied regardless.

The bite can be blocked but Volibear still heals. It does not heal nor deal damage if the bite is dodged. The bite cannot miss if Volibear is blinded.

If the target becomes untargetable, dies, or Volibear loses sight of them during the cast time, Frenzied Maul does not deal damage nor apply the mark but its cooldown and mana are refunded.

Despite being single target, Frenzied Maul does not draw minion aggro.



E: Sky Splitter



Target Range: 1200
Effect Radius: 325 Damage Radius / 425 Shield Radius
Cast Time: None
Cost: 60 Mana
Cooldown: 15
Magic Damage: 80 | 110 | 140 | 170 | 200 (+ 80% AP) (+ 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15% of target's maximum health)
Shielding: 15% of his maximum health (+ 80% AP)

Active:


Volibear summons a lightning bolt to strike at the target location after a 2-second delay. If Volibear is within the lightning strike, he shields himself for 3 seconds.

The lightning bolt deals magic damage to all enemies struck within the area, capped against non-champions, slowing them by 40% for 2 seconds, and grants sight of the area for 1 second.

Interactions:


Enemies cannot see the location of the cast for the first second, but they can already tell that the spell is underway by noticing Volibear's cast animation.
Volibear will receive the shield even if he is untargetable.



R: Stormbringer



Target Range: 700
Effect Radius: 300 | 500 | 700
Speed: 750
Cast Time: None
Cost: 100 Mana
Cooldown: 160 | 140 | 120
Bonus Health: 200 | 400 | 600
Physical Damage: 300 | 500 | 700 (+ 250% bonus AD) (+ 125% AP)
Turret Disable Duration: 3 | 4 | 5

Active:


Volibear gains Stormbringer for 12 seconds and leaps to the target location with immunity to crowd control as well as granting sight of the area in a 500 radius during the travel.

Volibear gains ghosting, bonus health, 50 bonus attack range, 25 increased range on Frenzied Maul, and 35% increased size.

Volibear impacts after 1 second, slowing all enemies in an area by 50%, decaying over 1 second. Enemies in the epicentre are also dealt physical damage.

Volibear also disables enemy turrets in an area for a few seconds, rendering them unable to attack, as well as dealing them the same physical damage.

Stormbringer will cast at max range if cast beyond that.

Thundering Smash's duration will be paused for the leap.

Stormbringer will disable any turret that is not the Nexus, even if it is untargetable.

Stormbringer will not deal damage to untargetable turrets.

Volibear grows to his new size over 1.25 seconds, starting 0.25 seconds after landing, and shrinks back to his normal size over 0.5 seconds after Stormbringer's status ends, respectively.

Volibear leaps over 1 second regardless of distance or movement speed.

Volibear impacts immediately at his current location if Stormbringer is cast over terrain he cannot pass through (due to not being able to cover the distance required).


Runes Explained




Below you will find each of the runes that I would take on Volibear, if you're looking for a rune and it is not here, then that is because there is either a better rune to take or it is not worth taking.



KEYSTONES




Conqueror



This keystone is good into heavy melee teams, provides great healing and ramping damage (3+ Melee's to justify using it over Press The Attack).


Press The Attack



Easy to proc with ( Thundering Smash, auto attack, Frenzied Maul) Or ( Thundering Smash, Frenzied Maul, auto attack) Good in all situations and doesn't require stacking like Conqueror. (Very good into ranged matchups)


Grasp Of The Undying



Use this keystone against other grasp users such as Sion and Ornn not Camille as Press The Attack is better, she mostly doesn't allow you to trade back because of her high mobility and trading patterns. Grasp Of The Undying is good for short trades.



PRECISION TREE




Triumph:



Only take Triumph if you'd prefer to play safer, this rune is better for tank builds as the missing health granted on takedown is higher with higher max health.


Presence Of Mind:



This is your go to rune, your passive lightning procs it in lane whenever your lightning damages an enemy champion, that makes this rune very strong for laning. Each takedown during teamfights grants max mana back and this rune makes up for the lack of mana items.


Legend: Tenacity:



Tenacity gives you more power as a frontline, reducing cc time and being able to use cooldowns faster out of cc.


Last Stand:



You're more than often lower than you are higher health being a frontlining champion and along with items and other runes works out better than any other option (e.g Sterak's Gage pops at 30% max health which is exactly when this rune grants its maximum damage increase of 11%).



DOMINATION TREE




Taste Of Blood:



This rune grants a small heal when dealing damage to enemy champs on a short cooldown. This can proc off of your passive lightning so it's quite easy to use this rune. It's definitely better than using the other options in this row.


Eyeball Collection:



This rune grants adaptive power per takedown up to 10, once you reach 10 takedowns you're granted extra adaptive power. At max stacks grants either 18 AD or 30 AP.


Ravenous Hunter:



This rune grants Omnivamp based on unique takedowns, so it stacks up to 5 times. Omnivamp applies to any damage that you deal. Whether it is to champions, minions or monsters. Keep in mind when dealing aoe damage the healing is reduced to 33% efficiency. The sustain this rune grants is much better than the other options in this tier. This rune pairs very well with Conqueror.



SORCERY TREE




Manaflow Band:



Hitting an enemy champion with an ability permanently increases your max mana by 25, up to 250 mana, it does have a cooldown and it is more efficient to use ability casts once it's back off of cooldown. That way every time you're spending mana you're increasing your max mana. Once it is capped at 250, you will gain a passive where you regenerate 1% of your missing mana per 5 seconds. This rune basically just keeps your mana higher and helps with laning as well. If you take this rune you won't take Presence Of Mind, if they're stacked it's overkill for Volibear.


Transcendence:



You gain 5 Haste at levels 5 and 8, at level 11 On champion takedowns, reduce the remaining cooldowns of your basic abilities by 20% (Q, W and E). This rune is mainly important for the 10 Haste it grants you by level 8. The passive at level 11 is okay, but for Volibear it's not that amazing, as it reduces remaining cooldown. So you may get a second or two off of your Thundering Smash and Sky Splitter in teamfights but your Frenzied Maul is already a low cooldown without haste.


Gathering Storm:



This rune is okay, it grants scaling potential in the form of adaptive power, granting either AD or AP every 10 minutes and the amount increases per increment. Volibear has very high AD and AP ratios, but the other runes are more beneficial for him, unless you aren't taking Manaflow Band because you have Presence Of Mind, that is when you would take this rune.



RESOLVE TREE




Demolish:



Use this rune when you don't want/need the damage from Shield Bash or if you're planning to split push. This rune does great tower damage after a small charge up time being near the tower.


Shield Bash:



This is your standard rune in tier 1 when using Grasp Of The Undying, it gives bonus damage on your next attack after gaining a shield as well as armour and magic resist while shielded, this works with your Sky Splitter and also item shields like Sterak's Gage and Gargoyle Stoneplate.


Second Wind:



Take this rune into heavy poke lanes or matchups where you're consistently taking damage, very good for ranged matchups. This rune is very good against damage over time such as Teemo poison, Malzahar burn etc.


Bone Plating:



Good into burst trading/short trading matchups such as Riven, Renekton, Garen, Kled as it reduces the damage of the next 3 attacks or abilities for 1.5 seconds after it procs including the damage taken to start the Bone Plating.


Revitalize:



This rune increases all of your Frenzied Maul healing, Sky Splitter shielding, item healing and shielding such as Sterak's Gage, Gargoyle Stoneplate, Divine Sunderer, lifesteal, omnivamp by 5%. It also increases healing and shields received from allies, as well as increasing the amount by 10% while below 40% max HP. This rune is amazing for Volibear.


Unflinching:



Take this rune situationally, as Revitalize is almost always better for you. If you're against a heavy CC enemy team comp, then this rune will help you reduce the time of CC taken as you are a frontlining champion. It also allows you to build your core item Ionian Boots Of Lucidity and not worry about tenacity.



INSPIRATION TREE




Magical Footwear:



This rune works best when you want to scale, the bonus 10+ flat movement speed these boots grant are very beneficial for Volibear, it just comes down to preference.


Biscuit Delivery:



This rune grants a biscuit consumable at 2, 4 and 6 minutes. Each biscuit grants healing and mana, as well as a permanent 50 mana. So once all of the biscuit have either been consumed or sold at the shop, you'll have an extra 150 max mana. This rune grants extra lane sustain as well the bigger mana pool helping with more ability casts.


Cosmic Insight:



This rune grants 18 Summoner Spell Haste and 10 Item Haste. The summoner spell haste pairs very well with Ionian Boots Of Lucidity as together they grants 30 Summoner Spell Haste, this will take almost 70 seconds off of your flash cooldown, it will be at 230.77 seconds instead of 300. It will also reduce your secondary summoner spell cooldown time as well. The item haste is roughly a 9% reduction in item active cooldowns and also passive cooldowns. This will help with items like Turbo Chemtank, Sterak's Gage, Gargoyle Stoneplate and many more, any item that has a cooldown of some sort.


Playstyle




Below you will find my strategy and the strengths of Volibear that I use to win my lane and each game. I'll explained the level 3 trading and first bloods, as well as various ability combos you can use.



GENERAL MATCHUP TIPS


  • If you see that the enemy has the Resolve Tree, you can use your passive lightning to see if they have Bone Plating. If they do have Bone Plating make sure to break it before you go for a trade.
  • Be careful of your passive The Relentless Storm as it will automatically push waves, it's okay to drop a minion or two to let the passive fade, wave management is crucial to winning top lane.
  • If you are in a ranged/difficult matchup and you're farming with Sky Splitter, make sure you're positioning it properly and not on top of the whole wave, otherwise you'll push the wave and your enemy can freeze.
  • If you cast Sky Splitter from out of vision, the enemy will only see the ring form after a second and they will have less time to react and dodge the ability. Volibear has a very "easy to see" casting animation, where he raises his hand to the sky and has specific voice lines for the ability cast. So when you're able to, try to use brushes to cast Sky Splitter, or you can cast it during Thundering Smash because Volibear is down on all fours. But if you're running at your opponent it's a little obvious anyway.


Volibear Combos

VOLIBEAR TOWER DIVE (E >> Q >> W >> 3xAA >> R >> W2 >> 2xAA)




LEVEL 3 SHORT TRADE / PRESS THE ATTACK COMBO (E >> Q >> W >> AA)




LEVEL 6 ALL IN (E >> Q >> R >> W >> AA)


Final Thoughts
I will be adding matchup videos as I play the matchups in the near future, explaining exactly how to play the matchup and what to watch out for. If you have any suggestions or anything you would like me to add to the guide please feel free to either leave a comment or join my discord server and let me know. I appreciate you stopping by to check out this guide and keep in mind that all of this information is based on my own playstyle and experience with Volibear, it may not be 100% efficient but it's what works for me. If I find better ways to play the champion or better builds/items, I'll be updating that in the guide as soon as I can. Thanks again!


May The Storm Follow In My Wake
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