Introduction Pros and Cons Pre-Game Setup Runes Masteries Summoner Spells Item build and Explanation Starting Items First Back Early-Mid Transition Defensive Items to consider Offensive Items to Consider Skill Sequence and Explanation Level one skill What Next? What should I be maxing? Farming and early game Farming Under Tower Supports you will love Janna Leona Thresh Soraka Against these guys.. Blitzcrank or Thresh Leona Not Draven... Other Champs Late Game and Teamfights Team Fighting Pushing

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Hey, I'm Shutupandleesin on the OCE server, and if I have played with you, you've probably reported me.
In which case I am sorry but you shouldn't have fed.

I've been playing since Season II and ranked since III, only maining ADC since mid S3.
This is an in depth guide to my most played, best but not favorited champion, Vayne.

I mean come on: Lee Sin > All

This guide isn't going to tell you how to ADC. I write this assuming that the reader has some basic knowledge of positioning and your role as an ADC, however I will touch on it basics briefly.

This is my first guide so all criticism is welcome, I hope you all enjoy and learn something from it.

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Like all champions in League of Legends, there are benefits and drawbacks. To help you decide whether Vayne is for you, some are listed below.

Benefits +Strong late game +Incredible chase potential +Deals % of max hp +High amount of true damage +Extremely Mobile +Self peels with Condemn

Drawbacks -Low Range -Little Escape -Vulnerable to CC -Can easily get too far ahead in fights due to Night Hunter -Boring after a while

In League of Legends, getting that early game advantage matters. Why not boost that early game advantage with some 'Pre-game Setup'? This section will explain Masteries, Runes and Summoner Spells in a little more depth, also shedding light on why I pick them and the reasoning behind.
So, lets jump in:


Vayne is an ADC so you should be using your standard ADC rune page.




These runes are the bread and butter of any ADC in the game. They increase your Attack damage from level 1-18, giving you that extra last hitting ability and also a little bit more power when poking an enemy.

For Vayne:
The reason I take these, over Greater Mark of Armor Penetration, is due to the scaling on Condemn and Tumble. Although ArPen gives you a little bit more damage against enemy champions, that damage is made up with the bonus Tumble and Condemn damage. You'll also notice Last Whisper is also built pretty early, shredding any armor your foe dare have.


Again, a must have for most ADCs. In bot lane, you will be facing constant damage from Tower (Physical), Enemy ADC (Often Physical) and Minion attacks (Physical). It is essential you have some defense early game, else you will find yourself poked out lane with little to no farm. Greater Seal of Scaling Armor are okay to use, but considering majority of the damage you will be taking early game is physical, you really should be using Greater Seal of Armor for the bonus early defense.

On Vayne:

Vayne has very little in the way of escapes, Tumble is a one time micro dash that can barely be considered an escape alone. Vayne's range is also pretty low compared to others and can easily be poked down. Having a decent preparation of armor allows her to withstand more poke than you would without.


This is where variance can be obtained. In the current meta, supports like Annie, Thresh and Leona are all very desirable, not to mention hybrid damage carries like Ezreal, Corki and Tristana. These champions deal a large amount of magic damage, damage that should be minimized wherever possible.

On Vayne:
As stated above with armor, Vayne is vulnerable to taking damage due to low range and little escapes, opposed to carries like Tristana, Ezreal and Caitlyn.
With the amount of AP supports and hybrid carries in bot lane, it is unwise to venture south without some bonus magic resist.
However, if you are against an extremely heavy AD bot lane eg. Draven, or the enemy just lacks an APC (Common in bronze), then I would advise Greater Glyph of Armor instead.


Finally we look at Quintessences. There is a lot more variety in these, but many are situational at best.


Personally, I like to use these. They with early game damage output and last hitting, but don't really sacrifice anything. If you are capable of avoiding poke and predicting harass, then I suggest these are the marks for you.


Not so good at dodging? Well, these are probably better suited for you. Not as much damage early on, but really helpful with sustain. Advisable in lanes with Caitlyn or other poke-happy champions.


If you like never letting that kill get away on 45hp, then these are probably for you. The movespeed not only works well with your passive for chasing, but it synergizes well with Phage, Trinity Force and Enchantment: Furor for the many kites than you will lead enemies on.


Last but not least we have these. These are great for those pesky Draven's who just won't leave you alone. The ones that will ALWAYS be there with an axe, ready to take half your health for that one cs. He hits so hard that these even these runes might be in Vayne... (geddit?)

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Again, Vayne is an ADC champion so a stock standard 21/9 page would work, but I choose to take 22/5/3

In this section I will explain the item build and sequence, explaining why each item works well for Vayne. Bear in mind this is subjective and opinions may differ.

This item is my reccomended start for Vayne. It provides a small amount of health mixed with damage. It also provides in lane sustain due to the 3hp back from each auto. This combined with the Feast returns 5hp back for each minion you kill. Doesn't seem like much, but you will thank the passive later.

This is the recommended start for Vayne, according to the shop. I personally would never start with these items, they provide very little sustain after the potions are depleted, no damage to trade with and no bonus health. The upside to starting boots and three is the increased mobility. However, I find that when it comes to mobility, Tumble and Flash are more than enough to dodge skill shots and escape most close encounters.

Sounds crazy, but it can work. If you start with this item, you've said to yourself, "Okay, I am going to have a passive lane in which I only worry about CS." The 10hp/5 is really good for sustaining in lane, while the passive on the item can change early game altogether. I take this item in lanes against Draven, sometimes Caitlyn if I know they will harass. With Doran's Shield, Block , Unyielding and your armor, the poke you receive is nowhere near as bad, allowing you to focus on last hitting.

With the introduction of Blade of the Ruined King, Vayne's core items got an addition. This item has everything Vayne could want; Attack Speed, Damage and more percentage health damage. Bilgewater Cutlass is the main part of the item and gives you a really strong early game boost. It is usually my first item built as the damage and life steal provide sustain, while the active on it grants me a slow and 100 damage (equal to a extra auto attack.)

If you are going for the Trinity Force build (explained here), then I recommend getting a Sheen relatively quickly. This gives your tumble a bonus burst of physical damage and often provides unexpected burst if you tumble into the third stack of Silver Bolts.

This item goes without saying, all ADC's should build these boots as they increase attack speed. For ADC's, ESPECIALLY Vayne, auto attacking with haste is crucial.

This section explains the items you should hope to have completed before 25 minutes, but aim for 20. These items depend on the enemy team's composition and strategy.

As stated above, this item is crucial for Vayne this season. There is no item that fits her requirements as accurately, and the active on it only helps to burn the target down faster. This is the first full item I build, usually before any other item. Not much more I can say for such a perfectly fitting item.

Like I said earlier in the above section, this item isn't always advisable. I myself have only recently started building this. I will explain later the difference in playstyle you ought to have when building this, but it is a great item if you can adapt. The passive effect 'Rage', is incredible for kiting and also chasing; synergizing with Night Hunter well. As intended, the item gives you a little bit of everything: kite, damage and burst. If you build this, I don't advise Phantom Dancer

This item is what I usually build after Blade of the Ruined King and for good reason. The movespeed, crit and attack speed attached to the item are tremendous; higher than most other items available. Once you have these two items your damage output is going to be above average against enemy champions, but your tower downing ability isn't as strong as it would be if you had Trinity Force. I advise Phantom Dancer over Trinity Force if the enemy team is rather tanky.

Again, I would consider this item exclusive with Trinity Force and Phantom Dancer, because all three are beneficial in different situations. I like to think of Statikk Shiv as the ' Phantom Dancer Vs Squishy teams'. If the enemy team is tanky, Phantom Dancer is the optimal choice because it gives more attack speed, which combined with Silver Bolts helps drop tanks faster than the bonus 100 magic damage from Statikk Shiv. That being said, if the enemy team lacks the beef, then the burst from Shiv is probably going to outweigh the slight increase in Silver Bolts speed.

Zephyr is one of the most underrated attack damage items in the game, providing you with a 35% reduction on cc duration and 10% increase to movement speed. For teams with plenty of slow, this item with save you more often than you would like to admit as well as help you keep up with fast moving enemies like Shyvana and Ezreal. It also provides some cooldown reduction with is handy if you find yourself having to Condemn a lot.

Unless you are matched against idiots, someone on their team is going to be trying to kill you first. This is a fact. If and when they kill you, your team will suffer... Unless..

Become a walking Zilean with this amazing and ever so useful item. Even without the passive effect the armor and magic resist it provides is amazing. If they can break through the defensive stats on GA, the passive will trigger. The passive effect will bring you back to life on 30% after 4 seconds. This means that in the four seconds you are in stasis, whoever killed you should be getting slaughtered by your team, allowing you to resurrect with minimal threat.If the enemy team has an Assassin or a Nuker, I suggest building Guardian Angel relatively soon.

This item is listed in the final form; an upgraded Quicksilver Sash. For most of the game it is advisable to keep this item's progress at Quicksilver Sash as the only benefit in upgrading it is 60+ Attack Damage for 2150 gold. Less used than Guardian Angel it is extremely effective against debuff reliant champions, ie. Malzahar (Combo), Warwick (ult) and Skarner (ult). And of course Urgot, but you should always ban Urgot **(Yes he is a real champion, I'm not making him up.). This item is also very useful to cleanse Veigar stuns and Nasus slows. ** Not to be taken seriously!

The final item recommended for self defense is Banshee's. It will entirely absorb one spell every forty seconds. It is less advisable than the other two, but in low ELO idiots will ignore it and waste important spells on it. Only really think about this item against heavy magic damage teams.

These are items that should be considered and chosen based on the enemy composition.

Although the category is 'to consider', always try to build this item. It provides a huge increase to your damage, due to the passive +50% crit damage. This turns your 200% criticals into 250% critical strikes. The item also has some pretty wicked base damage and a helpful 30% crit rate buff.

Last Whisper is one of the most under appreciated items in the game, having a bare minimum 21 Armor Pen (Heimerdinger's base is 61, lowest in game).Realistically talking though, most champions will get around 110 armor in the game, which means you are ignoring 38.5 Armor. That's a noticeable difference even without the bonus +40 Attack Damage it provides. Against teams with heavy armor, this is a must.

Bloodthirster is the item with the highest damage and life steal in the game. Increasing +100 Attack Damage and 20% Life steal is extremely helpful for dropping enemies and sustaining in team fights, allowing you to continue pumping out a consistently high amount of damage after the fight is over. Advisable if you find yourself trading with enemies that aren't incredibly defensive.

As the title suggests, this section will explain the first twenty minutes of the game.
I will also go into support synergy, and tactics against enemy supports/adc in lane. Let's start on the important things.



As Vayne, you don't really want to push the lane very hard, so refrain from auto pushing.

Avoid this by only last hitting the minions.


The exception only last hitting is if you want to make use of your Doran's Blade and heal up after a trade or fight, or the enemy lane has recalled. Pushing in the second situation allows you to get your wave to the tower, meaning the enemy ADC loses farm(due to last hits going to tower) and the enemy tower falling faster (more gold for you).
Keeping the side bushes warded, continue trying to last hit. Once you get Blade of the Ruined King you should win most trades, likely to pick up a few kills in the process.



Okay, this is usually common knowledge but I will include it for the sake of it. When you are pushed to tower, this can sometimes interfere with your farming. However, if you use this knowledge it becomes much easier.

Tower will hit melee minions twice, then remaining health you can last hit with an auto attack.
Tower will hit caster minions once, then remaining health can USUALLY be finished off with an auto attack. Sometimes as the minions get stronger your auto attack will leave them with a little bit of health. If you notice this, use Tumble to try and finish it, as the bonus damage will certainly drop it.



Okay, now I don't play with many supports, so my opinion might be skewed here. These are the supports that I think work well in my experience.

Janna was without a doubt my favorite support altogether, then they went and buffed her. She is just an incredible machine bot lane, her disengage is amazing in ganks, her CC is great for setting up Condemn against unsuspecting bush-dwellers. Her Eye Of The Storm is also incredible for many reasons, not only is it Barrier on an eight second cooldown, but increased your attack damage tremendously; Giving you the edge in trades. Then we look at her move speed passive, Tailwind which works perfectly with Night Hunter. Her ultimate knocks back enemies, which if used right can also set up Condemn stuns and possibly knock them into towers, whilst healing all allies around her. My opinion of Janna might be flawed due to my lovely duo (Maedel) maining her, but even so... Great support with Vayne.

LEONA, THE RADIANT DAWN Leona is great with Vayne for similar reasons Janna is. The incredible amount of crowd control Leona has alows Vayne time to position and Condemn targets into terrain, increasing the duration of lockdown. Leona's passive, Sunlight increases your damage output incredibly. The downfall of Leona compared to Janna or Sona is the lack of sustain or shielding they provide. If you think that you will have an easy time laning and can play aggressively, I recommend Leona accompany you. THRESH, THE WEIRD HOOK GUY Jokes aside, Thresh is one of those supports you either love or hate. He can setup ganks extremely well, and a good Thresh can also use his lantern to help position Condemn by dragging you into a position where the Condemned will be thrown into a wall. My favorite thing about Thresh is that because he throws himself into the enemy team by reactivating Death Sentence, he usually soaks up most crowd control, minion agro and against morons, player agro. This means I have free reign over who I want to pick off and when. He is a good support for all round play, aggressive and passive, plus his team fight is great. SORAKA, THE STARCHILD I personally dislike Soraka and usually beg Maedel not to play her, however just because I dislike her, doesn't mean she is useless. She is extremely helpful in early lane, ensuring you never run out of mana or health, allowing you to recover from all trades. Her new passive Salvation is better in lane phase than her old one, Consecration, which lowered nearby enemy magic resist. Having Soraka as your support means you can concentrate purely on farming and lets you farm longer. Her downside is that she doesn't really provide much cc or damage compared to other season 4 supports; Annie or Zyra. In extremely passive lanes, Soraka is a lovely choice and against Draven I could never hate her. BEATING THESE CHUMPS This part contains some of the people you will often see in the bot lane, and little tips you can do to give you the edge against them. These might not always work, but keep them in mid. AGAINST THRESH/BLITZ As I said earlier, Tumble is great for mobility and baiting skill shot reliant abilities, like Death Sentence and Rocket Grab. Both of these abilities have a small 'chargeup' animation, so use this time to Tumble either direction. Try to mix up the direction because the enemy may soon adapt to your evasive actions. If you do manage to get hooked, again Tumble comes in handy. If you mash your Tumble key, you can sometimes get out of the incoming Flay and Power Fist. A lot of Thresh and Blitzcrank players usually sit in the edge of the bush closest to you, which zones you if you let them. If you see that their ADC is a fair distance from them, bait a hook by Tumble-ing the direction of enemy jungle and then Condemn into a wall. AGAINST LEONA Again, Tumble is the powerful skill involved here that will make Leona players hate you. Now I am not sure the exact timing of it, but you shouldn't try to dodge the Zenith Blade. From my experience I often let her land the skillshot, but Tumble while she is mid air. This leaves Vayne out of range of Leona's Shield of Daybreak. Leona is now well away from her ADC, without her CC and next to both enemy bot laners. Having no gap closer and isolated, most Leonas will back off, allowing you to get 3-4 auto attacks off. She has just lost the attempted trade, giving you the upper hand in lane. If you just cant perfect the above tactic, you can always just Condemn her mid-air. AGAINST DRAAAAAVEN This will be short. Do not trade with him. Do not harass him. Pray to the League gods that you are not on the 'list of things to **** up today'. I'd recommend starting Doran's Shield and playing passively, farming under towers and getting ganks when you can. Even late game, he will **** your **** up. I see so many Vaynes who attempt to fight Draven, your Tumble at max rank does 50% bonus damage, to his 85% from Spinning Axe. He will hit faster than you, due to Blood Rush and his hard hitting Whirling Death will wreck you. Just avoid fighting him. AGAINST UNMENTIONED FOLK Tumble is your best friend against most ADC's because you'll either out trade them due to the 50% bonus damage and auto attack reset, or because you've used it to dodge their heavily reliant skill shot; Zap!, Piltover Peacemaker. Condemn executions are hard to perfect but once you master using Condemn to proc the third stack of Silver Bolts then your life as Vayne will be a lot simpler. Most people forget about Condemn and you can often take advantage of that by getting off an easy stun. However, if you aren't at least 75% sure than you can win the fight without going 1:1, don't do it. A kill and death for both of you is worse than continuing to farm, as you scale much better than them into late game.

Final section I will do, this will describe your role in team fights and late game responsibilities.



As we have discussed, Vayne is incredibly squishy and extremely vulnerable to CC. For this reason you will want to be at the back of the group, usually with a support and/or peeler.
A common misconception I see in games I play is the ADC gets scalded for not focusing enemy carries. Ignore them.
As an ADC it is not your job to kill their carries. It is not your job to start fights. Your job as the ADC is to live. Of all your team, you have the most potential to drop a tower. The mage surviving a team fight is good, but kind of pointless when you see how slow they drop a tower. So, we established that you living is crucial to team advancement, but how do we achieve this?


The way I see it is this: You have your initiators/tanks. These guys sit on the front line and soak up damage, trying to CC people n that stuff; Amumu, Malphite, Dr. Mundo. Then you have the assassins. Their job is get around this front wall of tanks, and drop the carries; Shaco, Kha'Zix, Rengar. The role of the AP and AD carry is to deal as much damage to everyone that they can in their lifetime before/if dying. The fighter/bruiser job is to either help the assassin, or peel for the ADC.

If squishy Vayne tried to run into range of Caitlyn or Jinx, the tanks, assassins and bruisers would have a very easy time eliminating the enemy highest damage output. So, as Vayne I like to sit at the back, away from the fray and shoot whoever the hell is closest to me. If that's Dr. Mundo then so be it, at least I am safe and still dealing damage. If you have to run away from a fight to live, then do so. It means the rest of your team isn't doing their job, so why die with them?

Because you are the priority target in a team fight, it is really important that you sit at the back or as far away from threats as possible. I have a small checklist I go through when I start to see both teams grouping up. This is your first indicator that a team fight is imminent. Good ward coverage in the area that you are fighting helps immensely, because it lets you identify the motives of each of the enemy players.

Firstly, identify who of your five enemies poses the largest threat. Most of the time it is not the Shen with 400 armor, nor the Soraka with no mana. It is likely to be a bruiser that has the beef to break through your team's defensive wall eg. Renekton, Jax; or an assassin who will ignore the wall and jump directly onto you eg. Shaco, Kha'Zix.

Once identified, watch them. They SHOULD be targeting you, but idiots do exist. When you see Shaco use Deceive or Rengar use Thrill of the Hunt, it is a good indication that within a few seconds, you will need to take evasive action. There are two ways you can defend yourself against such assassins; Preemptive actions or reactive actions.

Preemptive actions involve placing yourself somewhere 'safe'. This can be next to Janna because of her Monsoon, or a Galio for Idol of Durand. When these are used just before or just after the assassin hits you, they provide you time to get away from the threat and burst him down. Another preemptive move is positioning yourself so that when the threat breaks stealth you can use Condemn to the full potential. Whether this is by using it to knock them into a wall, tower range or the rest of your team; it buys you time to remove them from the field. If you feel protective champions nearby and a defensive position still won't save you, running is always an option PROVIDED you can outrun them. If they catch you whilst fleeing, it is worse than being caught surrounded by your team; you will have no one to save you.

Reactive actions are similar, but if this happens you are usually taken by surprise. With the case of Rengar and Kha'Zix, both of them usually break stealth with a leap of some sort. This is a perfect time to activate Final Hour and Tumble, instantly providing you stealth. This now means that your would-be killer is now out of stealth, in the midst of your team, while you are protected by the wonderful effect of stealth. It also means that you now get the opening move, the element of stealth. In a way, they just activated your trap card.

Regardless of which choice you are going with, you must understand that there isn't only going to be one threat. You must also be aware that although Kha'Zix is stunned by Leona's peel, the Jax might also be running in with a prepared Counter Strike. There is no specific set of rules you follow here, your decision making comes from experience and pure luck in a lot of cases, but always be aware of how important your life is.





Not a lot to be said here, same as most ADC's; clear waves as fast as you can and burst turrets. Only downfall being you have no AoE waveclear unless you decided Statikk Shiv was your desired item. Keep in mind that Sheen proc does do effect towers, and Tumble-ing to cause the Sheen effect resets your auto attack timer.
Also, don't hesitate to use Final Hour on towers if it wasn't used in the fight and you don't expect a fight in the next 70 seconds. It provides a hefty 55AD that will help drop the tower a little faster. It can often be the difference of whether you take it or not.

Well, that's all I really have to say..
If you have any questions don't hesitate to post them or even message me in game.
(ShutupandLeesin @ Oceanic)
Add me and when ranked goes down we might all play :D
First guide, so make sure to thumbs up and leave feedback at the bottom!
A huge thanks to JhoiJhoi's 'Making a guide' guide, found here!

Thanks for reading, and good luck on the fields of justice.
Just don't take my Vayne from me *shakes fist*