Varus Build Guide by Hman7003

Introduction

Welcome to my guide on Varus, The Arrow of Retribution.

Runes

These runes seem to work great with Varus. They give him Armor Pen, which all AD carries need, they give him flat AD for that early game edge. And resistances for staying alive longer.

Masteries

My masteries as you can see are 21/9/0 my usual mastery tree for ranged AD carries. I make sure to get points in Summoner's Wrath because both Ghost and Ignite are in this mastery, and guess what its only 1 point for increased movement speed and extra AP and AD Brute Force for that extra damage Alacrity for some extra attack speed Weapon Expertise for that 10% armor pen, wow that's a lot for one point Deadliness more AD Lethality more Crit dmg, it'll show up late game Vampirism essential for laneing, the early phase, Sunder more armor pen, YAY![Executioner]] increased dmg on already weakend enemies???!!! WOOTTT!

Items

Now here comes the part that I guarantee that most of you came here for, ITEMS. Early game is an essential time to farm minions with Varus, that being said Doran's Blade is the first item on our shopping list. Increased AD by 10, 3% life steal, and 80 more HP, this is exactly what Varus needs to farm effectivly, stay healthy, and dish out some punishment. Next again is Doran's Blade more damage, more life steal, and more health = more farm. Up next is Berzerker's Greaves more attack speed on Varus means we are going to be able to apply stacks of Blighted Quiver and then detonate it with Piercing Arrow or Hail of Arrows for that crazy damage. Finally we get to the item we've all been waiting for, The Bloodthirster This sword is awesome. The more farm you got, the more life steal and dmg you have. Fully charged up, this is an extra 100 AD and 20% life steal, truly amazing. Next is Phantom Dancer Varus has a high attack speed, but this is only after he gets the killing blow on a champion or minion due to his insane passive. Also Phantom Dancer gives more movement speed which allows us to finish off those running targets with an auto attack or catch up for a Piercing Arrow. I like to finish the game off with Infinity Edge The Black Cleaver and another Phantom Dancer which are all self explanatory if u read the tool tip.

Skill Sequence

Living Vengeance - This passive is godly. Kill something, guess what? you just got more Attack Speed to kill other things. This passive is amazing for farming and in teamfights, get the kill or assist and you'll get double the amount of attack speed and duration than for killing a minion.

Piercing Arrow - This ability has a HUGE range and it does a considerable amount of damage, it goes through anything it hits until it hits its maximum range, depending on how long you charged it for. The longer the charge, the longer the range and damage. One bad thing about this is that you cant use it to go through six minions and expect it to kill that low life champion in the back trying to regenerate some health.

Blighted Quiver - Remember that annoying Vayne and her silver circles of doom? Well varus has his own version. Blighted Quiver inceases base damage and applies a stack of blight, which at rank 5 deals 5% of that targets maximum health as bonus damage, and blight stacks up to three times! Downside is these stacks of blight are not like Vayne's circles of doom, you need an ability to detonate them.

Hail of Arrows - Does a decent amount of damage, good for blocking escapes or making one yourself, due to the slow. But get this, the circle on the ground that it creates, slows and makes targets inside recieve 50% reduced healing, good for those pesky life stealers.

Chain of Corruption - Amazing. Immobilize a champion and if there are other enemy champions near by, the corruption spreads to them. Two down sides though, IMO not a long enough spread range and if targeted by the spread, you can run away long enough so it dies out :(.

Summoner Spells

Ghost is what I like to use as my, offensive/ defensive summoner spell. IMO its better than Flash but thats IMO its up to you if you want to use Ghost or Flash

Ignite Really helpful on life stealers, healers, or just getting those last few ticks of damage in for the kill.
Heal Can replace Ignite for Heal but I like to leave Heal for the support in your lane.

Teleport If your soloing top. (I prefer bot with Varus)

Smite YOU DONT JUNGLE.

Clarity If you have mana problems like running out REALLY fast and not even team fighting your playing Varus wrong.

Others are just useless on Varus.

Pros / Cons

Pros

Cons

Creeping / Jungling

Farm is a very important factor when playing ANY ranged AD carry. Farm is what decides the game besides turrets, teamwork, and how many deaths you have and kills.

Varus can possibly seen as a jungler due to Living Vengeance but, that doesn't seem likely so yeah, don't jungle.

Team Work

To better Help your team, use Chain of Corruption to get that last person off guard or snare their whole team and land your team and easy ace. Use Hail of Arrows To slow down those people escaping or those life stealers that are trying to just decimate your whole team.

Unique Skills

One of the top harassers with Piercing Arrow. Long range sniper shots to kill those players who think their safe at their turret, well guess again.

Farming

Living Vengeance is amazing for farming, kill a minion, get 20% speed for 3 seconds to kill the next minion and repeat till the wave is dead. A fully charged Piercing Arrow and a Hail of Arrows will decimate a minion wave late game.