I really like the new character Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise. He is a powerful melee tank that not only has the ability for self-sustaining his health points but also has the capability of putting out a serious amount of damage by himself. In a solo fight, he is very hard to be taken down because of his passive ability to rapidly regenerate a percentage of his base health over a short amount of time. This allows a little leniency for both being a little greedy in fights but also great escape potential. Personally I use a more aggressive style with Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise. I like rushing in and getting kills with turret dives. This character gives me that ability and does not punish me for it like most of the other champions do.
The potential this character has is seemingly endless. His passive as well as the abilities he has make him a fairly good jungler, but I find him more effective in a lane, especially in early game when teams tend to be very aggressive from the go. This is the build I use and it is nearly identical to the one posed in the Champion Spotlight by Phreak. However, my play style is a bit different as is the same with many people so feel free to adapt and orient this build in a way that suits your play style. If you have any comments on how I can adapt or improve this build please feel free to leave them here or message me personally.

Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise is usually a melee tank fighter for solo top build but can also be a very effective Jungler. Due to having such an amazing passive ability, Chosen of the Storm, Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise makes an awesome tank or dueler. Either way he can really pack a wallop in a team fight or solo battle if done correctly. He is amazing at disrupting the enemy’s movements while bursting a lot of damage on either single targets or even multiple targets as well. Timing Rolling Thunder right can both bring your enemies into the fray of a team fight or a turret but also can help you escape. Its movement speed buff is incredible as well as having the ability to knock your opponents out of the way making it easier for you to escape.
To be the most effective you want to take Rolling Thunder at level 3 and max it by level 13. Frenzy is taken at level 1 and should be maxed immediately. It provides a stacking attack speed buff, which in combination with Marks of Alacrity and Quintessences of Alacrity; make Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise a threatening target. In addition, this Frenzy provides a nuking ability on a single target champion providing damage equal to his bonus health this is augmented by your Seals of Vitality and Glyphs of Fortitude.The targeted part of this ability does increased damage on targets that are already wounded. At level 2 you want to take Majestic Roar, this will be the last ability you max. This ability is an area of effect attack that not only damages all enemies around you but also slows them as well. Any minions caught in the area of effect will also be feared. The ultimate ability Thunder Claws makes Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise’s auto attacks will cause an arcing chain lightning effect which is good for helping clearing out waves of minions as well as doing a significant amount of damage in team fights.

For Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise’s you want to take 9 Marks of Alacrity, 9 Seals of Vitality and 9 Glyphs of Fortitude while also taking 3 Quintessences of Alacrity. The speed buffs provides increases your damage output via Thunder Claws while increasing the stacking passive of Frenzy. The bonus health really make the difference when it comes to Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise’s feeding the active targeted portion of Frenzy and just his beefiness in general.
For the Mastery setup a 0 - 21 – 9 spread is the best. This provides for increased duration of neutral buffs via the Utility tree and decreased cool down reduction via the tree. This also helps with your Summoner’s Spells, Smite and Heal, because both are mastered early in the Defense Master tree.

Gear is a crucial part of this build as it helps drive Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise in many ways. Usually you want to start out with just a plain Cloth Armor and about 5 health potions. Next, you want to build Boots of Speed. After that, you want to start building a Philosopher’s Stone because the added health and mana regeneration makes Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise’s tanking ability infinitely better and the extra gold helps build some of the more costly items late game. From here you want to upgrade your Boots of Speed into Mercury’s Treads to start building some resistance, while you are at it also build Aegis of the Legion and Spirit Visage. By this point your resistances are pretty high and your health regeneration as well as your passive should make Volibear, The Thunder’s Rise incredibly durable. Now you can start building Shurelya’s Reverie and Rylai’s Crystal Scepter and either Sunfire Cape or Banshee’s Veil for end game domination. This decision is based around what the other team is comprised of and how you are faring against them. If you are doing well stability wise against the opposing team and just need a little more area of effect damage against a certain team then Sunfire Cape is a good option. On the other hand, if you are having trouble with opponents like Veigar, Caitlyn, Nunu or any of the other characters that have a high damage output on single abilities then Banshee’s Veil would be a better option.