Hello! I'm Alchemilla, also know as Apollo, I've been playing league since 2017, sadly I'm stuck in Silver I, but that's not a problem for me. Since Viego release, I instantly fell in love with him, his playstyle, abilities, passive, mechanics, etc. I currently have 200k+ M7 with Viego. And in the long time I've been playing with him, I noticed some problems with his itemization.

Firstly: He scales with crit chance, but people tend to build him with purely on-hit builds or full crit builds.

Secondly: ̶H̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶s̶t̶y̶l̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶t̶e̶n̶ ̶f̶e̶e̶l̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶s̶s̶a̶s̶i̶n̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶i̶m̶e̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶r̶u̶i̶s̶e̶r̶ That's a Skirmisher...

And thirdly: The builds were not optimized for my taste.

So that's why I made this guide, it's been months of testing builds, tons of match-ups, some of those I lost and I've won others. With all this knowledge and experience. I made this guide. To show others a way to play Viego, that I consider to be good.

Viego, like all champions in the game; has his cons and pros, and those are the following:

Pros:

Strong passive.
Good sustain.
High dps.
Can digest tons of damage while doing tons of damage .
Strong snowballing champ.
Good teamfighter and duelist.
Versatile and can pair well in almost every team composition.

Cons:

Expensive build.
In some cases is dependant of the team.
Hard to master.
One mistake and you lost.
Extremely hard to play if you're behind.
Hard to recover from a bad play.
Falls off in late-game.

The reason I came with these builds and runes alternatives, is because of how good it performs on Viego.

First I want to talk about Grasp of the Undying : I've noticed that every champion that has an instance of empowered basic attack , pairs up very well with sheen effects , like the Divine Sunderer one or the Tri-force one. Having that in mind, I can proceed to explaining why to choose Grasp of the Undying with Toplane Viego: The Reason you should use Grasp of the undying with toplane Viego, is it's great damage potential in short trades. These runes in specific are good when you are against certain match-ups where you can't afford yourself to extend your trades (E.g: Tryndamere, Fiora, Irelia), thusly becoming the lane phase way more approachable than taking Conqueror

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First Strike Top : First Strike Top is my favorite rune combination when I'm going against tanks (except Ornn), since fighting against tanks is less punishable in comparison to other match-ups, taking trades, or poking with Q , is way better taking First Strike to start snowballing faster, without compromising your lane-phase. Delving more into how to play this rune; you're going to charge W when there's little to no minions, or the enemy is away from them or simply you know you're going to stun him, in the middle of charging W , use your E to hide yourself and make it harder for the enemy to predict you, if you hit the enemy, great, start unleashing your combo; ->AA ->Q ->AA , and back up. If you didn't hit the enemy then back up instantly and wait for another chance to engage.

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The Divine Sunderer build : I like this build, is extremely powerful and you can melt down almost everyone. This is because the combination of items I chose; Divine Sunderer , Collector , LDR , and the BORK . With these items you're getting a 55% of armor penetration | 12 lethality. It's not too much but considering that with LDR and Collector, you're getting a total of 40% of critical chance, that is more than enough. Also the passive of The Collector , helps you to execute enemies faster. Another point of this build is that you're also improving your healing, The Q passive of Viego, heals you for a 150% of post-mitigation damage, this means that the more damage you do in a single hit the more you heal. So if you fight against a full tank Ornn, your healing would be highly crippled, so by taking the 55% of armor penetration and 12 lethality you're exponentially boosting your healing.

Durability update has messed up a little bit this build combination, I'm looking for a better alternative for one item in specific ([I'm looking at you ), since I believe is (somewhat) a wacky item in the current meta.

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The ̶4̶0̶%̶ ̶c̶r̶i̶t̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶n̶c̶e̶60% crit chance:

By this point you'll notice that the builds that have instances of crit chance, only reach a total of 40% of it. This is because in my testings, ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶u̶r̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶4̶0̶%̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶c̶r̶i̶t̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶g̶o̶o̶d̶ going 60% crit chance is pretty insane and a good boost to your damage. Yes, there's items like Infinity Edge , but the damage that it gives you can be replaced with one and even two defensive items that boosts your healing or survival.

Or that's what I thought, The passive from Infinity Edge is so good, but there two problems: as all items from the build, too expensive and you don't get any defenses whatsoever, althought is a good option for your last item if you wanna go more ofensive than defensive .

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The Tri-force build : Sadly, this is the weakest mythic choice when compared to the other options we have on the table, I'm currently testing some item combinations to make this mythic viable, recently I've seen that you can build this item without boots, this may lead to something, but I'm not shure.

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Inmortal Shieldbow Build : Since the nerfs to , it has become one of the weakest mythic choices for Viego, but it is still being viable, but only against burst compositions, and it isn't that beneficial, since you can get another mythic, like or and build a Steraks Gageand get better results in terms of defense and survivavility.

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When to use Barrier : Barrier, I strongly suggest to take this summoner spell if you recently started to play Viego, this spell is pretty good to make the learning experience a little bit less harder, only take this spell if you're playing on lane, like Mid or Top, althoug it performs better on mid, since there's the place when you can use more often, because it performs pretty well against burst champs such as Zed and Syndra or Yone and Yasuo.

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When to use Chilling Smite : I dont tend to use this Smite ; the cases are highly rare, only take Chilling Smite when you want to chase champions who are more faster than you. Or compositions with 3 or more movility-based champions

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The Kraken Slayer Build : The best build in the current meta, to delve more into why this mythic is the more efficient, I need to talk about the passives, stats, and the items which this item sinergizes pretty well. First of all the Mythic passives: Let's start with the unique passive Kraken Slayer grants you the ability to inflict bonus on-hit true damage every third AA , the amount of true damage you inflict scales based on 60(+45%bonus AD), I want to say with this, is that you don't need to build crit items to boost your damage in a high rate, you just only need bonus AD. And now, we have the mythyc passive, which gives you 10% bonus attack-speed per item. Now that we know exactly the passives of the mythic, I can delve more into the item options, which are , and . First of all, let's patch up Malmortius and Death's Dance; These two items sinergizes pretty well, both giving you resistances, AD, and good passives. First, the Death's Dance passive: The Death's Dance passive mitigates 30% of received damage, which succesively taken as true damage in a period of 3 seconds, if an enemy dies within that period of time, you heal the amount of the remeaning damage + 120% bonus AD for 2 seconds. This passive applies for both magic and physical damage. Then, we have Maw of Malmortius passive: What makes this item extremely powerful, is it's lifeline passive, which gives you a magic shield of 200(+225% bonus AD) if you take magic damage that would leave you below 30% of your HP. Also, when the passive is activated, you're granted with 10% of Omni-Vampirism, which last up to 5 seconds, and it can be refreshed 3 seconds whenever you take or deal damage. As you can see, these two items have similar passives, giving you strong defensive stats based on your bonus AD, having in mind that DD mitigates both magic damage and physical damage, and Malmortius grants you a huge shield + some extra healing, this combination of items turns you into an absolute unit. Lastly we have Essence Reaver , this works as your offensive item, giving a good sheen effect, some ability haste, crit. chance and bonus AD, overal a good item choice, but you can still build others, like Black Cleaver if you need more tankiness , or Bloodthirster if you're ahead in the game. UPDATE: DD has been nerfed, now taking 120% of bonus AD to the passive, this is a pretty big nerf which debilitated the overall build, MM nerf hasn't affected that much the build.

If you're going Toplane with Viego, go with Grasp of the Undying . Going with this rune, you aren't going to play normally. The reason this rune pairs very well with Viego, is thanks to how his kit works.

What you are going to do is the next: activate the passive of the grasp by hitting minions. When is fully charged, wait for the perfect moment to charge up your W . When you know you are going to stun the opponent, then release the W , if you stunned him succesfully then hit him with your grasp effect and go back, if the opponent is trying to catch you up, use your E to retreat faster.

There's a couple of exceptions and suggestions; more exactly, in two specific match-ups:

Jax: Trying to use this technique against a Jax is difficult because he can react to your W and activate his E and you won't do any damage and is possible he will stun you.

Fiora: The same as Jax; if you try the technique against a Fiora, is possible that she's going to react to your W and use her W and completely destroy you.

My suggestion is to; instead of using your E to escape, use it to hide yourself meanwhile you're charging your W , by doing this, you're making harder for both Jax and Fiora to react to your stun and increases your chances to succesfully stun him or her and proc your grasp and get out.

You can also do the same against any other champion, it proves to be very succesful.

When playing Toplane Viego, you have to be patient , Be aware of the condition of your Botlane, if they have lane pressure or not, how much HP and MANA they have, always, at the beginning of the match, ask the support to always put a ward whenever he cans; on the Tribush.

By knowing this, you are looking for the opportunity to use your Teleport to Botlane, only do it when the enemy Botlane has the lane pressure and one of your allies has half HP or more.

By doing this you can secure a kill or two, and granting you and your botlane an inmense lead.

I suggest doing this while you have lane pressure in your own lane, or the enemy have freezed the wave near his tower.

Playing Viego on Midlane is a little bit easier than playing on Top, the match-ups here are easy to deal with.

Your objective in Midlane is to get your R as fast as you can, also try to help your jungle with the river crab and whenever you can, go to botlane or toplane to help your teammates if they need help.

And lastly, Jungle Viego: Viego shines in the jungle, is the best place for him in the current patch, nonetheless; don't let this stop you from playing Viego wherever you want.

In the jungle you have two main objectives; One is to farm as much as you can until you get your R . And the second is to get any early kill or pop out some summoners spells . By doing this you have more chances to secure any dragon or herald .

Talking about lane tactics, first I need to talk about some basic strategies when playing on top.

Let's dive in: Something you need to have in your mind when playing in top is wave-management, this is the key to success is every match-up, no exceptions. Having a good wave-management gives the opportunity to make good plays and be consistent in the game by having an overall presence and helping your teammates.

When playing toplane you have to ask to yourself the following questions: When do I need to freeze the wave? When should I push the wave? And when should I let the enemy push the wave?

You have specific answers for these three questions, now, let's answer the first one: You should freeze the wave when the enemy toplaner is stronger than you, is a lane bully, he can win you in a 1v1, etc. By doing this, you are assuring a safer way to get more minions and keep scaling constantly in the game, also you're giving an opportunity to your jungler to gank your lane, and burning some summoner spells or getting a kill.

When should I push the wave?

You should push the wave depending on several factors: Your jungler's position, Botlane status and enemy the enemy jungler position (if you know where he is).

If your jungler is in the upper half of the jungle, in the river near herald or anywhere nearby your lane, push your wave. By doing this you're opening a window of opportunity to invade the enemy's jungle, this is thanks to the fact that the enemy toplaner is going to be a little bit busy trying to clear the wave to not to lose XP and gold and to prevent the wave crashing to the tower. You can get three things by doing this: You can kill the enemy jungler if he's there, steal the blue buff gromp and wolves (essentially crippling the junglers gold and XP income) and make the enemy toplaner to lose some gold and XP.

Have in mind that if the enemy jungler is fed or is an early-game champ, dont try invading unless you or your jungler has any kind of lead or you know you can win a 2v1, 1v1 or 2v2. In these cases, is mandatory to know where's the enemy jungler, thus you can invade while he's far away from you and your jungler.

The botlane status, one of the most important things after the 14 minutes mark. Since the changes to Teleport, you shouldn't bother too much about your botlane before the 14 minutes. But when the 14 minutes mark has passed, ask your botlane to put a ward in a bush nearby their lane.

So, if you see your botlane below tower, and the enemy botlane is crashing the wave against your botlane's wave, then Teleport to said ward in a nearby bush, it's better if that ward is behind the enemy, so you can flank them and get double kill or an assistance. You should only do this if you are pushing the wave and you're below or near the enemy's tower, if not, then pray for your tower's heatlh.

If you have a good lead or you're fed, then push the wave as much as you can, this is going to let your teammates to do more objectives like the dragon or the herald. Make shure to have your Teleport if your team needs your assistance while fighting for those objectives. And since Viego has a kit with overall mobility, you can escape a gank pretty easily.

And finally, When should I let the enemy push the wave? Pretty simple, really, you should let the enemy push the wave if you lost a fight against the opponent, when you know that the enemy jungler is going to be nearby your lane alot, your jungler is far away from you or your botlane or midlaner has any kind of lead/lane pressure. This gives your midlaner and jungler the opportunity to help you in the lane, via a roam from the midlaner or a gank from your jungler.

Well, that's it! I hope you like my builds, and if you find something else, a better item, a better sinergy, a worse counter, better runes, or you want to share your overall opinion, I encourage you to do it! I would really aprecciate any feeback.

In the future, I'm going to add more details, strategies, new build options and more.

And one last thing: sorry for the broken english, it's not my mother language.
And other last thing: I recently starter university activites + I got job, so, some updates may take too long to face the light of the day.