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Vex Build Guide by

Ugh... people - Beginner in-depth Vex guide [11.19]

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0 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author TygoVe

Vex Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion More Vex Guides

Runes: Phase rush

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Sorcery

Phase Rush

Manaflow Band

Transcendence

Scorch

Inspiration

Biscuit Delivery

Time Warp Tonic

Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2

Scaling

Flash

Teleport

Items

Starter 1

Starter 2

Starter 3

Core 1 (Poke and pick)

Core 2 (Supportive and pick)

Core 3 (Anti-tank)

Viable items

Example full build

Ability Order

Vex Passive Ability

More Vex Counters

Champion Build Guide

Introduction

Hi guys! I am TygoVe, and this is my guide to Vex, the Gloomist. This is my second guide here, and I am very open to advise, tips or just any comments at all. Vex is the latest addition to the rift, so of course no one has a lot of experience on her yet. As a consequence of this, the runes, items and that kind of things are still a bit uncertain, so maybe these things are not perfect yet, but I try to keep this guide as up-to-date as possible.

Who is Vex?

Well, obviously, she is a sad, teenage yordle, but I am not here to talk about her lore. I mean, what kind of champion is she?

Vex is a mage, who will likely be played mostly on Mid, but perhaps she can be useful on Top or Support, but this guide focuses on her in the Midlane. She mainly has burst damage, on a very high range. Her passive might feel a bit similar of 's, while her ranged abilities might remind you of or . I think she is a very versatile champion, as she will have some decent AoE poke, but also a good all-in potential with her R and W. She will likely be a good counterpick against dashing champions, but also a very viable blind pick.

Why should you play Vex?

Advantages	Disadvantages

Good waveclear	A bit dependent of team
Huge range	No escape tools
Good counterpick against a lot of strong midlaners in the meta	Risky ultimate
Can follow Teleport with R	Semi-statcheck champion
Versatile kit	Skillshot-reliant
High burst	Takes some time to fully master
Easy theoretically

Abilties

As Vex is a mage, her power lies in her abilities. She has a very diverse and interesting kit. Here I will summerise her skils.

Passive - Doom 'n Gloom

Doom: Every now and then, when the bar underneath Vex's manabar is full, her next ability will fear opponents. Besides fearing the enemy, it will also knock them down, meaning it will interrupt their dashes. If you use this well, you can stop a lot of great engages from happening. It is important to know this only works for her basic abilities, so your R won't fear them.

Gloom: When an opponent dashes or blinks, they will be marked with gloom. Your next basic attack, Q or W will detonate the mark, dealing magic damage. This is extremely strong against enemies who dash all the time, such as , , and . An important thing as well, is that your E marks enemies hit, including minions.

Q - Mistral Bolt

A fairly spammable, long range skillshot. The only weird thing about this skillshot is that around half of the maximum range, the width is halved, and the speed is increased. Because of this it becomes easier to hit at a lower range. This ability is a pretty easy way to proc your Doom passive, especially to knock down enemies during their dash.

W - Personal Space

Another fairly simple ability. At a longer cooldown, you can shield yourself, and deal magic damage around you. This ability is not the strongest and will be maxed last, because you will only use it in certain situations. It does not deal a lot of damage, but the shield can be pretty big. Use this ability after your R2, or when someone engages on you. But you can also use it to just shield yourself from a skillshot or so.

E - Looming Darkness

This ability may feel a bit similar to . It also is an AoE circle of damage which after a delay damages and slows enemies. It has a pretty decent range and grows bigger the further it travels. The most important thing about this ability is that it marks enemies with Gloom. So you can also use this ability on a wave, and autoattack every minion, so your Doom will be up very soon. You could use this in order to prepare yourself for a fight. Another trick you can use with this spell, is landing it on a large group of people when you have doom ready, and after that landing your Q or W on them to detonate the marks, if done right and when enough enemies are hit your Doom will be back up again immediately, and you can fear the enemies again. Another interesting thing about this ability is that it fears away from the center of the circle, instead of away from you. This allows some cool tricks I will talk about in the Combo section, which I will add soon.

R - Shadow Surge

The perfect finishing touch to your kit, this creates so much diversity in your playstyle. Your R is a fast skillshot from a very high range. This will deal a little bit of magic damage on impact, and grant sight over the enemy. You can recast to travel to the opponent hit, while unstoppable. Upon arrival you will deal evenore magic damage. But one the most fun things about this ultimate is that when the opponent hit by your R dies within a few seconds, your ultimate resets, so you can fly from enemy to enemy in teamfights. There are a few important things to note about this R. First of all, the second cast of your R has infinite range, meaning you can follow enemy s and so with it. Another important thing you should know that your and will interrupt your ult's recast. You can use this if you change your mind about going in. Also you can use your active during your ult recast travel.

Runes (More soon)

For Vex there are a lot of runes that seem to be viable. First I will discuss the keystones you can take, and why and when they are strong. After that I will show the full runes you can take.

Phase Rush

Phase Rush seems to be the best keystone for vex right now. It compliments her kit perfectly. You can land two spells and a basic attack, or just three spells really easily on an opponent. The extra movement speed you get is great, because you can use it in so many ways, you dan just run away and disengage, fully engage, or dance a bit around your opponent to lans skillshots, basic attacks, and to dodge all the enemy spells. Also when you use your R, the movement speed is great because sometimes you will need to run away quickly.

Electrocute

This rune is procced in the exact same way aa , but it gives some burst damage instead of the movement speed. This gives you a lot more early strength, especially when paired with you can 100 to 0 an opponent unexpectedly early on. I personally prefer over this, since it is much more safe, and electrocute falls of very hard in the late game. But if you are against a lane you want to bully, or if you are the win condition, you can take this.

Conqueror

This keystone is also actually pretty viable, you can pair it with , you will have a more AP bruiser-like style, since you will want to have extended fights, go all-in and heal a fair bit. This rune scales pretty well and is also not too hard to stack on Vex, so it might be worth trying.

			All three of these keystones are likely viable. Phase Rush is likely the one you will take most often, but Arcane Comet and Summon Aery might also be good. Phase Rush is the safest option, Arcane Comet is good for poke, and Summon Aery is good for bullying melee champions
			You will almost always want to take Manaflow Band here, the only exception is when you are against a high AP comp, or a AP burst lane and you think you will have a hard time, then take Nullifying Orb. Never take Nimbus Cloak
			You will always take Transcendence here, the extra ability haste is a lot, and it really helps you as a mage. Absolute Focus would be bad because you want to be diving in with your ult, and you will lose HP there. I won't even explain why Celerity is useless.
			You will usually take Scorch, as it increases your early damage output significantly. It helps you a lot in poking, trades and fights early in the game. Gathering Storm is also a good choice, but in the first half of the game it is pretty useless, and as Vex is a mid-game champion, and not an insane scaler, scorch will usually do more work. You should always take Scorch or Gathering Storm, Waterwalking is never worth.

Items (More soon)

Starter items

A very nice item, helps you with mana problems and lets you deal more damage to minions. This item also allows you to take two potions with you, which may come in useful.

Starting Sapphire crystal with a has become more popular on certain mages, as it helps you get to your very early on, especially combined with and this is very strong. You also do not really need the , so this is actually very viable. I am not sure yet how strong this is for vex, but I suspect it will be pretty strong.

I think this item is pretty strong on Vex, it allows you to gain the push by having stronger poke, and stronger sustain than your opponent. It also greatly enhances your 1v1 potential, which is quite useful on Vex.

First back counter items

This is a very strong item to buy on a first or second back if you're faced against an AD matchup, you will notice you're opponent dealing much less damage to you. Buying this can be very impactful, do not underestimate it. You can build it into later on, but you don't need to. Buying this does have disadvantages, as a consequence of buying this item you will miss out on your early , and reach your powerspike much later. It also received some nerfs this season, so I would rather recommend buying it after your or buying . But if you are really hard losing, you should still buy this.

Exactly the same as Seeker's Armguard, but against AP champions, also same disadvantages. And obviously it doesn't build into , but into Which gives you a handy spellshield instead of a stasis active.

Mythic items

This is just the best mythic for Vex in this meta. It makes you faster and increases your poke and pick potential by a lot. It also gives magic penetration as a mythic passive, which prettu strong.

A pretty strong item, the active can be used to engage, disengage or land a quick combo. So it is some self-peel, as well as 1v1 power. The HP it gives can also be pretty useful. With this item you can also take a more supportive role if your teammates are ahead.

This is a very situational item, but it can be very strong if you’re against a team with many tanks, gives almost the same stats as .

I have a theory that this item might work, but I need to test this first. You will likely need to make this work.

Shoes

Sorcerer's shoes will be your default boots, the magic penetration is good in all stages of the game, and enhances your damage output fairly well.

These boots are also strong on mages. They are a fair bit cheaper than , and they give some ability haste, and also summoner spell haste. Both are very useful on a mage like Vex, you can spam your abilities a lot more, and can use your flash and other summoner spell more often.

Buy these into heavy AD teams, or when an AD opponent is very much fed. This won't be very often, but do not underestimate the difference this item can make.

Buy this into high AP comps, or when they have a lot of opponents with cc, think of Lissandra, Ashe, Amumu, Leona, etc. Once again, this will not be often, but you still will want to build it sometimes.

(More coming soon)

Summoner spells (soon)

Laning phase (soon)

Teamfights (soon)

Latest patches influences

11.19

Of course a pretty big patch for this champion because Vex got released.
But besides that there are also a few other changes in the midlane that you should be aware of. Since Vex is a very new champion it is still hard to tell how big of a problem some changes will be for her. But here I will show you the changes for the midlane.

Ryze is getting a nerf on his Q damage and E cooldown
Akali is getting a small buff to her HP and HP regen, not a big buff, so not a big problem
Fizz's 11.18 changes are being reverted, and on top of that his E cooldown is decreased. This is a fairly big buff, but Fizz likely is not the best Vex counter, so it is okay.
Sylas' manapool and mana regen are being buff, so he is able to spam his abilities a bit more in lane, but also not the biggest buff.

The End

Thanks a lot for reading this guide! I hope I was of any help to you. If you want to, you can show your opinion by leaving a vote at the top of this guide, or you can comment to ask questions, give tips, or just tell me something. Good luck and have fun playing Vex.