I've tried all the "get a tear and rabals first!" approach, and all the others like them, and they just don't cut it. This build literally makes you off-tank potential. That beefy. And yet, you still hit 700ap. Other comments I have received were "But you could have 1k ap instead! Just think how awesome that would be!" Honestly, Veigar doesn't need 1k ap. He can do just as good with 700ap as he can with 1k ap. The big difference is your enemy cannot gank you! And when you survive all 5 of them, you become a HUGE asset to your team with a second round of stuns and nukes.

All I've gotta say is....don't knock it till you try it. You will be impressed. So it goes something like this:

Buy regrowth pendant and a health pot for your first items. Farm your Q like you normally would, but try not to fully engage the enemy until you get your ult (level 8....VERY key). Instead, harass them and deny them.

Key Strategy #1: With your pendant and strength of spirit...you can out harass any opponent other than, say, the Vlads (but can go toe to toe with him if you stay on the defensive). Because you go for such strong health regen, you can suffer a couple hits per minute. Use this to weaken their mid-carry. Since Veigar is a naturally weak early game character, this is a more advantageous way to play him than to shoot for first blood. By denying their mid-carry first blood, and potentially even creep kills by forcing him to stay far back...you are effectively accomplishing the same as a first blood, but in the yang to the yin (same effect, but in the reciprocal). Also, by keeping them harassed and weak...they will not be able to run to other lanes to gank.

Key Strategy #2: Key strategy #1 is effective from levels 1 through 6. At level 6, or roughly 8 minutes into the game, you will be blue pilling to purchase a philosopher stone and meki pendant and rank 1 boots (or if not enough gold yet, a stone and rank 1 boots....come back later for the pendant). Continue to use key strategy #1 while in your lane, but now additionally you will be farming 3 major jungle sources: Your wraiths, your wolves, and THEIR wraiths. Try to stick to the side that has no jungler. Example: If your team has a jungler, try to focus on getting THEIR wraiths more than your own jungle. If their team has a jungler, try to stay out of their jungle unless you know where he is and that you are safe from ganks. NEVER let their mid see you go into their jungle. Always push your lane enough that it looks like you are backing before you side step into the side bush to enter their jungle. Each time jungle mobs are killed they respawn stronger the next time around. A rank 3 dark matter will kill the first round of wraiths in a single hit, and your Q shot will kill the blue wraith after the matter lands (try to time it after the matter....to get the AP). The second round of wraiths will all die from a rank 4 dark matter, etc etc. If you try to do them with a weak dark matter after a jungler has killed them several times...it can become cumbersome. This is why we ignore going where the jungler went, and is why we rank up dark matter as the highest priority skill. That phil stone and meki pendant are being purchased early game to give you insane mana regen to cast lots of dark matters both in your lane and in the jungle to super-farm yourself into mid game items faster than anyone else on either team. Yes, you will get mid game items EARLIER than a person who does not buy the phil stone...if you use it the way it is designed to be used. And remember....you are doing this all while you have kept their mid-carry relatively denied of CSs the first 5 levels. This is *far* superior to getting first blood (though, there is no reason to not get first blood if its there for the taking, of course).

Team fights start to break out, and you will have your sorc boots and hopefully needlessly large rod at this point (20 minute marker). You *are* effectively already well-farmed to do serious damage in these first team fights, but you are in no way tankish yet. After all, you have to have your AP before your tankishness if you want to do what Veigar is designed to do. Finish your Rabal's which should be around 25 minutes into the game. Your next item is Lichbane. More importantly than being a straight up tank (mitigation), Veigar can benefit more from avoidance (runspeed). Lichbane gives you this mid game edge (or at least counters the runspeed bonuses that the enemy is obtaining). It also gives him some magic resist, which is likely sufficient for the rest of the game since you have magic resist runes and defensive tree spec. But most importantly, the completion of Lichbane will put a near-cap on your damage capabilities for the rest of the game. Yes, you will be getting more items that increase your damage later in the game. But Lichbane will be putting you near full capacity and from this point on survivability will have a much more crucial role. Q + auto attack = extremely effective harassing tool. Stun + Q + matter + ult + auto attack = death. Many times Q + ult + auto attack = death. One of Veigar's biggest weaknesses is his inability to maintain sustainable dps in long team fights. He is usually considered an "in and out" guy. Lichbane makes him MUCH more effective in sustained dps in team fights. The only thing stopping his insane sustained damage output...is his death. Thus why future items all focus on survival.

Congratulations on making it this far in the game. At this point you will be buying Glacial Shroud, Rylai's and Warmog's. After the shroud, buy the belt first. Both HP items are being purchased foremost for survivability. We obtain Rylai's first for one reason only: It prevents "coming of age" melee carries from chewing through you like butter by slowing them down with your Q shot, giving you time to run away. In cases where that is not enough, use your stun. But try to use your Q shot for defense more than your stun now. Stun should be for team fight cc'ing. Between your Lichbane's movement bonus, and your Rylai's debuffing slow...you should be able to kite melee champions with your Q + auto attack combo. Ranged units...well there is no reason to kite them when they all die relatively easily to you. Once you have obtained your Warmog's (sell your first phil stone)....you are now effectively the team's "off tank." You will have close to 4k hp. You will have sizeable armor above 100, magic resist above 100, and ability to support your team while doing insane amounts of damage (roughly 700ap still with this build) that is sustainable, and yet very hard to kill. If you get to this point...your team *should* win.

The 6th item in your purchase will be quite variable, and yet infrequently visited since most games do not last this long. The variation will be based, for the most part, on your opponent's team makeup.

Are they mostly AP (and/or cc)? Buy Abyssal Scepter (or Banshee's Veil).

Are they mostly AD (and/or auto attack)? Buy Frozen Heart. Fixes cooldown reduction issue too.

Are they mostly tanks? Choose between deathfire grasp or a SECOND Warmog's. This is a tough call because tanky teams can sometimes still dish out large amounts of bursty damage when engaging in a team fight. But sometimes they also do not do bursty damage at all.

a) IF they do bursty damage: BUY A SECOND WARMOG'S. This is absolutely key. Tanky teams who do huge bursty damage usually cannot do sustained damage after the first 6 seconds. But you WILL be their target, every time, and you need to survive that. A second warmog's will ensure your survival. From there...your team will whittle them to pieces (as will your lichbane).

b) If they do NOT do bursty damage: Buy the deathfire grasp. Often times tanky teams that are not bursty....are even harder to kill than bursty teams because they beefed up *that much more* Taking down turrets can be a real problem unless at least one of them dies early in a team fight. Deathfire grasp will help ensure that early kill.

With Veigar, and his infinite ability to farm AP, and with AP's bonus damage to turrets on your auto attacks (40% of your AP converted to AD)...you can do some MASSIVE turret damage with lichbane. Think about it. Lichbane puts 100% of your AP to your next auto attack. You already do 40% by game design. That is 140% of your AP...every 2 seconds. Q shot a minion, auto attack turret. No minions? Use dark matter, auto attack turret. A Lichbane Veigar can literally take 25% of a turret's health in ONE auto attack, every 2 seconds. You don't even need minions in the late game. If you bought a single item that has armor, or even have your first warmog's...that is sufficient to solo a tower down.

1) No real sufferage of your AP at any point in the game except at the 12-15 minute time frame. ALL times before and after that range...you will have normal AP totals compared to build guides that say "get tear and rabals first!"

2) To those who do the math, you will notice that buying a phil stone recovers all your gold spent after just 12 minutes of the purchase since you will be selling them later on. They are for SUPER farming. If you buy two stones at the 8 minute marker....at the 20 minute marker its pure profit (no advantage loss, and infact huge advantage gain from outleveling your lane via jungle).

3) Awesome mana regen without rune dependancy.

4) HUGE life total, great magic resist, great armor, and decent hp regen. (Though no longer *quite* as huge as Mundo). Mundo goes where he pleases? VEIGAR GOES WHERE HE PLEASES. No more sitting at the back of the pack waiting for a shot. YOU can be the tank with Veigar, and shoot straight for their back line when your tank engages.

5) You still have 700AP and near-max cooldowns (blue pots and blue buff...non item dependant stat).

6) Strength of Spirit is a huge free hp regen bonus from masteries that helps you in the early game.

7) Your opponents will SERIOUSLY underestimate your ability to tank their damage. Late game they will jump you all at once, and you will survive their CC and then stun and nuke them and flash out with almost half your health. Then, with your good regen, you are back into the fight before it is over. What good is a Veigar with 1k AP when he dies after he blows his abilities one time? Be a Veigar that has 700AP and uses his abilities over and over and over and over.

8) The most important Pro to this build is the fact that you have become hybrid damage. Your auto attacks do huge physical damage from lichbane, making those who stacked magic resist no longer immune to you.

2) The first 5 levels are a little bit tough. You have a low hp count until you get your warmogs. Use your rank 1 stun for defense only until you get beefy, unless you are absolutely sure you can get the kill or in a team fight.

3) Unless you buy deathfire grasp or frozen heart, your cooldowns will suffer without blue pots or blue buff. Though, lichbane makes up for that loss 10 fold.

This guide used to use two phil stones. However, with the recent patch changes which make its gold per 5 unique, it is no longer suitable to buy two. Now, instead, I just buy a meki pendant which is half the cost and has essentially the same effect minus the extra hp regen. This is why I re-wrote this build.

I am requiring comments for votes because drive-by-morons like to vote builds down before trying them.