Varus Build Guide by aham313

Introduction

Hey guys I'm Aham and this is my second guide on mobafire. This time, I'm telling you how I play Varus, The Arrow of Retribution.
Varus is a ranged DPS Caster. He relies on chaining autoattacks and abilities to deal maximum damage to his foes. Think of him as the ranged Lee Sin only with chaining being more important on Varus.
As always, nothing is cut in stone and I will leave summoner spells up to you. This is just a general guide to make Varus easier and more effective for you.
And oh! The hybrid guide is for when you're stoned. Though if you do get far along the build, it does deal some pretty INSANE Mixed damage.

Pros / Cons

Cons:

• Squishy
• Limited escape

• Great Passive Living Vengeance= Multi kill
• % health Magic damage from Blighted Quiver FTW!
• THE LONGEST poke in game Piercing Arrow
• More CC than an AD Carry should have with Hail of Arrows and Chain of Corruption

Runes

Runes are pretty standard as all AD Champions.
Greater Mark of desolation or Greater Mark of Attack Damage or a mix of both
Greater Seal of Armor for armor
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or the magic resist
And Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage because they scale better than greater quintessence of desolation

Masteries

In the offensive mastery tree the focus is on increasing physical damage and gaining armor penetration as well as magic penetration as Blighted Quiver deals magic damage. We also look to reduce cooldowns as Blighted Quiver must be detonated with other abilities in order to deal %health magic damage.
In the defensive mastery tree, we increase armor, magic resist and health to make Varus less squishy.

Items

I open up with a Doran's Blade and rush beserker's greaves
My mid-game goals are The Bloodthirster and Phantom Dancer so build build both paralelly.
Next I build my Trinity Force
Then Infinity Edge and then Hextech Gunblade

Let me discuss why I go with the not so conventional items on Varus, Trinity Force and Hextech Gunblade

As I said before, Varus is a Ranged DPS Caster, somewhat like Ezreal. Like for every caster, the Trinity Force works for him. The passive, the AD, the AS, the AP,the crit chance, health, mana, the MS bonus given his limited escape, all of it works for Varus.

Now by the time you complete your Hextech Gunblade you have 100 AP giving your Hail of Arrows 7% health damage per stack. If you're chaining right that is 21% health damage be ability thanks to the 70 AP from Hextech Gunblade. That is MASSIVE damage, and you also have 20% spell vamp :D
Of course, the AD lifesteal and active press its case too.

Skill Sequence

[Q] I pick this up at level 1 for the harass and max it last.

[W] This is the skill that makes you so dangerous. It applies stacks and detonates when the target is hit by one of your abilities dealing %health magic damage. I pick it up at level 2 and max it first.

[E] This ability gives you an AoE slow. I pick it up at level 3 and although it does less damage than Piercing Arrow i max it before that because of the slow.

[R] This is your ultimate. It is absolutely devastating in teamfights and against melee champions. It can catch the enemy out of position, divide them or make them desert someone

So to sum it up AA>AA>AA>E>AA>AA>AA>R>AA>AA>AA>Q and dont use the ult if you dont need to.

Situational Items

Last Whisper for armor stackers
Guardian Angel if you're getting focused to much
Maw of Malmortius for the AD, MR and great passive.
Madred's Bloodrazor for when that tank gets annoying

Let me know any other items that you feel do great on Varus

Summary

Try it out.
Let me know what you think.
Good luck and Happy Summoning.