Volibear Build Guide by Kunhai

Introduction

Volibear was a champion that interested me as soon as I saw him. He was in the the Tanky DPSish range of champions that I enjoy playing. First off let me clarify some things. Don't get turned away from my runes, this is my standard setup that I don't ever change because I'm spending all my IP on new champions. Also don't get turned away by the build, it does work very nicely.

Pros / Cons

Pros

Is very tanky late game (going over 5k Hp)
Does a high amount of burst damage with his frenzy
Has some CC making him a valuable player in a team
Excellent ganker with his Rolling Thunder and Majestic Roar

Finishing the build to get your high damage takes time
At early levels needs team support to finish off kills

Summoner Spells

This is the staple for Junglers and Volibear is no exception. You must take this.


Although not completely necessary, this is probably the second best spell on Jungle Volibear besides Smite. The reason is it gives you the double heals too do many interesting things such as diving towers very early for kills. Also, a lot of people often forget about heal and it will take them by surprise when you are either tanking for your team meaning you heal your teammates who may be getting focuses as well as yourself or when you are duelling in your jungle or lane with another champion.

Masteries

0/21/9 Masteries works very well on Volibear making sure you take Durability and Veteran Scars in Defense and Runic Affinity in Utility. This setup gives you early durability, prolonged buff duration and extra damage on Frenzy.

Why do you not take 4/4 Awareness?
The main reason for this decision is in all honesty you do not really need it to keep up in level with your team IF you are able to get early ganks in. Also it takes away from Volibear's tankiness as it is so far up the Utility tree after the masteries change.

Runes

As I said this is my standard rune setup, there are perhaps better ones for Volibear but nevertheless this works quite nicely. The Greater Mark of Desolation will give you an easier Jungle time, Greater Quintessence of Health and Greater Seal of Health give you more survivability and higher Frenzy damage. Finally the Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction allows you to use your Frenzy that much more often

Skills

Chosen of the Storm - Volibear heals rapidly for a few seconds when his health drops to a critical level.
This passive is amazing :D It will often take your opponents off guard in team fight and keeps you jungling for a lot longer.


Rolling Thunder - Volibear drops to all fours and runs faster if chasing an enemy champion. The first enemy he attacks is knocked into the air.
Volibear gains 45% Movement Speed while moving toward enemy champions. Lasts 4 seconds.

Volibear's next attack deals an additional 25/50/75/100/125 physical damage and flings the target behind him.

Cost
40 Mana
Range
300

I only take one early point in this skill at level 4 and max it last. The reason for this is that as it increases in level, you only gain more bonus physical damage for the fling. Compared to the amount Frenzy damages for, this is very little. When using this skill make sure to fling backwards away from their tower.


Frenzy - Volibear's repeated attacks grant him additional Attack Speed. Once Volibear has repeatedly attacked four times, he can perform a vicious bite on his target which deals increased damage based on the target's missing health.
Passive: Volibear gains 8/11/14/17/20% Attack Speed with each attack. Stacks up to 3 times.

Active: When Volibear has 3 stacks of Frenzy, he can bite an enemy to deal 90/140/190/240/290 (+  [20% of bonus Health]) physical damage, increased by 1% for each 1% health the target is missing.

Cost
35 Mana
Range
400

Your best spell, max it ASAP!!! Not only does it give you a LOT of burst especially when you have lots of HP but it also give you bonus Attack Speed and this helps your jungling and also getting that Frenzy active sooner and more often.


Majestic Roar - Volibear lets out a powerful roar that damages and slows enemies. Minions and monsters are feared as well.
Volibear deals 60/95/130/165/200 (+0.6) magic damage to nearby enemies and slow them by 30/35/40/45/50% for 3 seconds.

Minions and monsters are feared as well.

Cost
60/65/70/75/80 Mana
Range
425

This is the second part of your ganking sequence and should be maxed second for the extra slow percentage so that you can get in more normal attacks. This should be taken at level 2 to make your jungling easier as it fears minions.


Thunder Claws - Volibear channels the power of the storm causing his attacks to blast his targets with lightning that bounces to other nearby enemies.
Volibear channels the storm, causing all basic attacks for 12 seconds to deal 75/115/155 (+0.3) magic damage, which chains to 4 nearby enemies.

Cost
100 Mana

Range
300

Good for clearing out minions waves in 1v1 duels or for hitting multiple champions when you initiate and tank team fights. Also for bonus damage :P

Jungling

As Volibear you want to start with a Doran's Shield and Level 1 Frenzy at Blue Golems. The new jungle allows for non-conventional jungling and the Doran's Shield gives some nice tankiness and extra damage on Frenzy. Hold you Frenzy till after you smite for maximum damage. I personally tend to use smite at the start of the jungle purely to have it on Cooldown for more uses which equals more gold. Frenzy will do more damage post-smite.

Once you kill golems take a point in Majestic Roar and from here on you can spam your spells a little more not that you need to. Your attacking order should be to use your E as quickly as you can after you first auto attack on the jungle camp. You want to follow this with Frenzy on the biggest mob when they are at about 1/2 hp. Majestic Roar should always be used after an auto-attack and as often as your mana permits.

Ganking

At level 4 you need to take your Rolling Thunder and start looking for ganks. You want the enemy team to be around the center of their lane or further up to get in a successful gank otherwise you should continue jungling.

To gank, you should initiate with Rolling Thunder making sure to fling them away from turret. you want to follow immediately with Majestic Roar to slow them before using auto-attacks and Frenzy when they are a bit under half HP at earlier levels. Make sure your team knows you are ganking, you will need their extra damage.

Items

Early game:

This should be your early game setup. It gives you some health to tank for your team when you gank, Tenacity to allow you to deal with and Crowd Control that your opponents may throw at you when you are ganking and the passive on Spirit Visage to give you just a little bit more HP regen when you passive procs.

Mid Game:

Upon reaching Mid game you should already have picked up a number of kills or have farmed up enough for at least one Warmog's and this is where you begin to do more damage. Stacking a couple of these when your income lets you is a very good idea as it increases your ability to tank incredibly (I reach around 5000 HP) and also deal some serious damage with your Frenzy. You want at least 2 of these before moving on unless your are dieing a lot whereby you will need some other defensive items.


These two items would be my primary choices in alternate defense and you really don't need too much more defense considering you have 5000 health by now. What these items allow you to do damage by yourself outside of Frenzy. In most cases you will need a Thornmail rather than a FON. The reason being 5k will deal with most mages as not many can burst that much very quickly but DPS champions will often have lifesteal. With Frenzy being your only real damage ability and your auto-attacks being quite weak, a duel with a DPS will just be them slowly wittling down your health bar while they lifesteal your Frenzy Damage. This is where Thornmail comes in to counteract the Lifesteal.

Late Game:

With 5000 HP, and a lot of defense, you now want some real melee auto-attack damage. I personally don't see the point in Frozen Mallet but have heard that it is quite a viable item. The reason is you have Majestic Roar to slow. Atma's Impaler on the other hand I do use. This late in the game you want to see your Doran's Shield for an Atma's Impaler to give you an instant 100+ AD. Add on another Warmog's Armor instead of your Spirit Visage and you go up about 140 AD and have around 7000 HP.