Bears are like the most dangerous animals in Nature: they are 2 meters tall, have giant claws and a thick skin.
You can't run away from them, you can't get on a tree and you can't fight them.. so why did someone put a GIANT ARMOUR on one of these terrible machine war beasts?

Feel free to change Quintessences: you might want some movement speed, some health, or whatever.
I am always good with atk quints, so i can clear fastly the jungle early.

When playing top I recomend atk quints, because you will have enough movement speed and attack speed later.

Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer is the core item. Using it after red smite and while ultiing will let you win mostly any 1v1.
Edit: patch 4.21 : now you can chose purple smite too, because they nerfed the red one.

Spirit Visage and Randuin's Omen will give you all tankiness you need. Buy at least Spectre's Cowl and Warden's Mail right after Devourer, so you can get into fight early. You shouldn't need any other defence item.

Blade of the Ruined King gives you a lot of potential: you can catch almost everyone with your q combined with the item's active. It gives you a lot of atk speed, damage and some lifesteal.
Lifesteal is always useful.

Mercury's Treads Zephyr Tenacity is what Volibear really needs.
You can buy Mercury Boots or Zephyir. I really prefer the second one and go without boots.
The third dragon bonus is a 5% movement speed boost, Zephyr gives you 10% mov speed and your q grants great mobility too. So who needs boots?

Last item depends by the game: you need some sustain? Get a Warmhog or a Sunfire or Banshee Veil.
You can get a Statik Shivv or a Triforce too: your ult stacks with ap, so you will be even more powerful (and fast).

Depending on your playstyle you can get a Guardian Angel or an Hextech Gunblade too (lifesteal + spellvamp + devour stacks + ultimate + AA = Voli y u no die???)

There is nothing new to say: Trinity Force gives you movement speed, attack speed and some other good boosts. It's a must in your build.
Zephyr gives you tenacity and a lot of attack speed. My build is bootless, but with Triforce and Zephyr (and maybe the 3rd dragon bonus) you will not need them.

Randuin's Omen and Spirit Visage are a must in every game.
They give you all the sustain you need.

Last two items are really situational: you can build a Blade of the Ruined King or a Banshee's Veil, or whatever you really need depending on what enemy team is building.

Sunfire Aegis is an item that i do not recoment. Absolutely.
I know that is common to build it on bruisers/tanks, but not only you will not need it, it is really bad for your strategy: you will find yourself a lot of times being a big tank with high dps due to atk speed. You will be destroying towers even if somebody is defending them.
Sunfire cape will catch the tower's aggro, and this is not what you want to happen.
No Sunfire.

You want to start your jungle route red or blue, depending on where the botlane is, so you can clear it faster.
You can also start Gromp (only if it is top), so you can abuse your early lv 2 and gank top, but this choice depends on your toplane and their toplane mobilities, early aggro potential, etc.

All you have to do early game is earn money, because you want to start stacking soon.
You can get it farming or going for easy ganks, but don't lose too much time.

I assume you know what are best ganking spot.
Always try to get as near as possible to your opponent without using your q: if you get in lane running with active q is really easy for the enemy to get out of that situation: a flash, a cc.
But if he flashes and you don't already have used your q you can reach him easily.

A quite nice trick (that works expecially in low elo) is to gank/countergank with low life, but with passive on. If the enemy is fooly enough he will focus you (expecially if you have double buffs), but your passive will give you enough sustain and your teammate will slain him.

If you are a bit fed your potential is limitless, expecially after lv6.
Consider doing this only if you have vision of your enemies and their jungler is not too fed.
In a balanced gold situation you can 1v1 everyone with your red smite, devourer stacks and ulti.

Don't camp your jungle. Don't.
There always is a lane that is losing: go gank, get a kill or get the enemy recall and go to that enemy jungle side.
You are lucky (or you have previously ganked well) and all your lanes are winning and pushing?
Buy some wards, farm enemy jungle and try to kill enemy jungler or countergank.

You have to stay in your jungle only to take/give buffs or when there is nothing else to do.

If you are against a bully ad, like Riven or Wukong, get your Warden's Mail first.
Then ask for a gank and, if you took the kill and you farm is decent, start building your Triforce.

Against ap, like Rumble or Ryze, you should freeze the lane near your turret and ask for a gank. If you get even only a kill it should be easy for you to burst your opponent with your ulti.

Volibear's items are pretty expensive. You have to farm a lot and well. When the midgame will start feel free to push hard top and be ready to teleport everywhere is needed.

Teamfights time.
Are you fed? Do you have your defence items? Do you have your ulti and passive up?
Carry your team on your iron shielded shoulders and get in the center of the fight.
You have to initiate (or the supp, like Blitz, Thresh, etc..) with q and get one of them, mostly apc or adc, in the middle of your team.
Then start punching somebody. It's not really important who: your ultimate will damage everyone for all the fight (12 secs are soo many). Maybe don't focus a tank.
Your opponents will have to decide if focus you, a giant bear that deals insane damage and that heals like a Soraka, or your adc/apc and leave you free to get your pentakill.

If you are not fed it's pretty the same: at min 20-25 you should have enough stacks, even if you are doing really bad.
Just be sure to be tanky enough to initiate and try to use q on a carry. Then punch and slap.

Thanks to Piripiri0, a summoner playing in EUW server, that reached recently the Gold league following this guide for Volibear Top.

Feel free to send me your scores with my build!

Thank you for having read my very first guide.
I hope you liked it and I am waiting for your feedbacks!