yo what's up, i'm TrueGIXERJ and this is my guide on Viego mid. I have been selected (by you) to impart some of my vast knowledge for your benefit. Throughout this guide, i will discuss how to play Viego at an entry level, what runes to take, items to buy, and how to dominate your opponents. I'm an experienced viego player with several hundred games so you can rest (somewhat) assured that i know what i'm on about. If you're lucky, Mr. Talent will rub his tentacles on your art.

I'm TrueGIXERJ, but I've already covered that. I'm a british player on EUW that has been playing since Pyke's release, whenever that was. I'm a mid player that enjoys off-meta picks like Viego, sat quite comfortably in gold.

I picked up Viego just after his release in Season 11, and have accumulated over 100k mastery points on them since then.



i honestly don't know what compelled me to create this guide, but i hope it aids you in your quest of perfecting this wondeful champion:

Viego is a super fun champ traditionally found in the jungle, but i have found myself loving viego in the mid lane for a number of reasons, lets get one of those nice and colourful "pros and cons" lists mobafire guide writers love using.

Pros → Super fun and unique champ → High damage and teamfight presence → Build flexibility → Great scaling & lategame potential → Surprisingly good early game too → Engage, Harass, Survivability, honestly you name it → One of the coolest and most interesting kit concepts in the game

sovereigns domination ability

Cons → Prone to CC → Need to know how to play every champ (for passive) → Struggles into ranged matchups → Had sex with my mother → Seriously this champ is great i love him he has no downsides

All in all, the champ's amazing and totally worth giving a shot if you're interested, they may be an off-meta mid laner but he certainly has a lot of merit.

		Flash is OP on every champ; Viego is no exception. Take this every game unless you are a cocky bastard that wants to play Shaco without having to undergo the mental trauma necessary to become a shaco player.
		Ignite is insane, the extra damage helps secure kills in the early game as you start to take fights around when you buy Blade of the Ruined King. And it also applies grevious wounds, reducing the amount by which the enemy is healed, letting you secure even more kills in extended trades where you're sustaining like crazy and their health plummets. Insane summoner spell, take it 99% of games.
		Cleanse is good, but only into some matchups. If an enemy relies on cc to kill you, cleanse could be a valid option. Ahri is always the champ i think of in this case, but oftentimes these champs have easy to dodge skillshots with Spectral Maw or just walking away from it. Take it if you fancy, but only sometimes.
		Honest question, why would you even think of taking Barrier? you have the insane sustain from Blade of the Ruined King and Sovereign's Domination to keep you alive as is, and if you like having big shields, just build Immortal Shieldbow. don't take unless you're a masochist or something.
		All other summoner spells might as well not be in the game, just take Flash + Ignite for ****s sake

(P)

Sovereign's Domination ✦ Whenever an enemy dies within 3 seconds of being damaged by Viego, a Mist Wraith of that champion spawns in place for 8 seconds. Viego can right click this wraith to possess it; healing himself and becoming untargetable for 1 second before becoming that champion. ✦ Possession lasts for 10 seconds and causes Viego’s attacks, abilities, items, and stats to be replaced by that champion’s own. After levelling Heartbreaker, this possession grants him a free cast after 1.5 seconds. He also gains a small amount of movement speed towards enemy champions. ✦ Viego’s passive is what makes him so iconic. Every kill (or assist) in fights nets you a free heal and cast of Heartbreaker, which can turn fights around incredibly quickly. Just Viego things. If possible during teamfights, get your team to focus the fed enemy, as if you can kill them, now you’re the fed one! This concept makes Viego an insane comeback champ, as one kill can turn you into a beast for 10 seconds, which is long enough to win a critical fight.

Q

Blade of the Ruined King ✦ PASSIVE: Viego deals bonus damage on hit (akin to the passive of Blade of the Ruined King. His abilities mark damaged enemies for 4 seconds, causing his next basic attack to strike twice, dealing less damage on the second strike, and healing him for 150% of damage dealt, reduced greatly against minions. This passive is maintained during Sovereign's Domination , converting the second strike to bonus on hit damage instead. ✦ ACTIVE: Viego thrusts his sword, dealing damage to enemies hit, with a percentage damage increase based on critical strike chance. ✦ Blade of the Ruined King is functionally very similar to Steel Tempest and Mortal Steel, just with a slightly longer range (making Yasuo and Yone very easy matchups), but with an added passive that is INSANE. It gives him so much sustain at all points of the game and the active still provides a good amount of damage, making a Q+AA combo a fine way to chunk someone, especially when ahead. Blade of the Ruined King should always be maxed first, it’s just too good to pass up on, and makes Viego a great champ.

W

Spectral Maw ✦ Viego begins charging for up to 3 seconds, self-slowing for 10%, and gradually increasing Spectral Maw’s range and stun duration over the first second. Releasing W will dash a short distance and fire a blast of mist that stuns for 0.25-1.25 seconds based on channel time. ✦ Spectral Maw is obviously best used when fully charged, but is a very telegraphed ability as the enemy can watch you channelling. If you can land a full 1.25 second stun in lane or from out of vision (in a brush, for example), it’s usually a guaranteed half health chunk at least, but the short 0.25 second stun can still be useful to get the benefits of Blade of the Ruined King’s passive. ✦ Spectral Maw’s dash does not increase based on channel time, and as such can be used to dodge important skillshots (like Ahri’s Charm) and to escape ganks safely; you can also cast Harrowed Path during the channel period to appear from camouflage, though Harrowed Path is also very obvious to enemies. ✦The only reason we don’t max Spectral Maw second is because it only increases its damage which is insignificant at all stages of the game - but do not labour under the misinterpretation that this ability is absolutely critical to Viego’s combo.

E

Harrowed Path ✦ Viego sends forth a projectile that leaves a trail of mist, which spreads around the first piece of terrain it hits. While inside the mist created by Harrowed Path, Viego gains bonus Attack Speed and, if he is not attacking or casting abilities, he becomes camouflaged, gaining bonus Movement Speed. ✦ Harrowed Path is a surprisingly simple ability, simply creating an area within which you gain stats, and as such there is not much to write about it. Harrowed Path does not need to hit terrain to create an area, although the area created is rather small, it can be used to step up for CS into ranged matchups or difficult lanes. It can also be used to give you advantages in close fights (though should be used nonetheless) due to the attack speed it gives. The most common use case for Harrowed Path will either be aforementioned trades or roaming into sidelanes, as it lets you get into the action quickly and win fights with the rest of your team.

R

Heartbreaker ✦ Viego discards any champion possessed by Sovereign's Domination and blinks to a target location after a cast time. Upon arrival, viego deals damage to nearby enemies, knocking all but the most wounded enemy champion back - who takes bonus damage and is slowed by 99% for 0.25 seconds. ✦ Given that Heartbreaker gains a free recast whenever possessing an enemy with Sovereign's Domination , you can view it sort of like Pyke’s Death from Below, as it deals % missing HP damage. This means it should be used as a finisher rather than an opener in the majority of use cases. Though it can also be used as a mobility spell if the situation really calls for it. ✦ A trick with Heartbreaker that I have only ever used once in an actual game is to use it behind you and then Flash over a wall, hoping that the enemy with follow with their own Flash, at which point Heartbreaker will transport you back to its target location. It’s mostly useless but you feel like a god if you pull it off properly.

I like to think i did a pretty good job at describing each rune, item, summoner spell, and whatever else above in the notes of the build section of the guide. but for those of you who fancy a little extra reading homework, i'll briefly cover Viego's 2 core builds;

Crit Since the changes in Season 11, I am of the opinion that the crit Viego build is the objectively better of the two. Since his primary damage abilities Blade of the Ruined King and Heartbreaker both have a critical strike chance scaling, you're going to end up doing some serious damage. The attack speed given by some crit items (especially the mythics Immortal Shieldbow and Kraken Slayer) means you'll be landing your damage even faster too. This build turns Viego into a kind of sustain-assassin? it's a brilliant build with a fun and flashy playstyle to go along with it that I would recommend to all Viego players in the current meta.

Bruiser This build dominated Viego's item pool for a very long time until the changes to his crit ratios, and while generally not as strong anymore, it still occasionally pops up in Viego's inventory. Utilising Divine Sunderer to give you some crazy healing, and defensive items like Sterak's Gage and Death's Dance to turn you into a much more traditional bruiser/off-tank. If you prefer this tankier, more frontline oriented playstyle for Viego, this build is certainly for you as it is not yet completely out of meta! Though I must emplore you to be conscious when using Sovereign's Domination as you will lose a lot of your tankiness posessing squishy ADCs!

Well, that about wraps it up. Thank you for reading through my guide to Viego mid, I actually had a blast writing it! I hope you learned something new and feel like trying out this pick in your own games! Make sure to practice in norms (or flex lol) before diving into ranked! REMINDER: I stream regularly HERE with some regular Viego gameplay! Hope to see you there some time. - TrueGIXERJ <3