Welcome to my Varus - The Arrow Of Retribution - Guide.

First off all, I have to say this is my first guide. There will be many things to correct, and many things wich might change later, since Varus was just released and might get nerfs (or buffs?) in the near future. I will update this guide when I think it's necessary, if some items get idiotic or unnecessairy with upcoming patches, ect.
I'm always keen on questions, improvements and critics. All, that can help me to master this guide.

At first, Varus' Pro's & Con's


Pro's:
+ Can deal unbelievable damage if played right
+ Awesome range ( Piercing Arrow)
+ Good a gainst tanky champs ( Blighted Quiver)

Con's:
- Very squishy, especially early game
- Skillshot's require practice
- Damage depends on items
- Without Flash almost no escape mechanism
- Long cooldowns early game

Next are the summoner spells:

Suggestions:



At first I would choose Ignite. You can secure kills with it & lower your opponents health-regen.-spells, like Heal. I recommend this, if you aren't able to hit your Piercing Arrow to finish off enemys.



Well, Flash is self-explayning. You have no escape mechanism but your Chain of Corruption. You can slow enemys with your Hail of Arrows but in most situations it wont help you at all.



Another possibility to escape from enemys, or secure a kill. Since your Piercing Arrow slows you while being charged, you might be able to maintain in range.

Runes are also important. These are my choices:


Greater Quintessence of Desolation

Armor penetration is a must-have for an AD Carry.
Since Varus' abilities cause attack damage all his skills (but his Ulti) and basic-attack's will make profit from that.



Additional attack-dammge is never wrong for an AD Carry, too.



Especially in early game you will like a bit more attack speed. It makes farming a lot easier and help you to get first blood/kills on you lane.



Dealing aditional damage by causing 'crits' on minions or champions will make both your farming and you kills easyer. Though it's not very much, every critical strike without a crit item will help you a lot in lane.

Masteries


I suggest using 21/9/0 masteries.

Full AD-Offense-Masteries to deal more damage, self-explayning.

In the Defense-section I add 1 pionts at Resistance and 3 pionts Hardiness .
Additionally defense and magicres. is never wrong for a squishy, especially early-game.

Another bonus health per second by adding 4 points on Durability can help you to stay on you lane longer, especially when you don't start with Doran's Blade.

Skilling Veteran's Scars adds bonus health, wich is also never wrong for a squishy ad-carry.

Varus' mid/late-game damage output basicaly depends on his item-build.

I first start off with and 3 OR if you got a support like Soraka playing on bot lane.

Next I rush to get more crit, attck.speed and movement speed.

After that, get a . It's passive combined with your Zeal (later with your Phantom Dancer) creates a nice damage output. These items should be finished at around 20/25 minutes.

Next, finish your / or finish it before grabbing your Infinity Edge, depends on the situation.

After that, finish your .

If you got the gold, buy a Vampiric Scepter for life steal, and later to finish you .

Core Build: / / /

I recommend getting . It's passive will strenthen your basic attacks as well as you abilities, wich most do attack-damage. Also the bonus attack-speed and damage is very nice, especially for around 2800 gold.
Grab it, if possible.

As you final items, there are several possible options:



Add damage and health, also it's passive is nice to chase enemy champions with high mobility like Teemo or Master Yi.



Adds several nice bonus stats like health, mana, mobility, attack speed and several passive-skills.
High recommended. You can also think of getting this item first after your boots if you got feeded early game.



Not a bad item on Varus, but his 2nd passive Blighted Quiver makes it not a real important choice. Only buy, if you got much tanky champions in the enemy team.



Nice aktive, but his passive makes it kinda senseless.
I dont think, you should get this.

I recommend you watching the League of Legends Varus Champion Spotlight on Youtube or the official hompage before playing him. The skill sequence, Phreak explains in his video, are much the same I would suggest to use.

If there are any other questions, just ask in the comments, i'll try to answer them.
Play Video

In my opinion, Varus isn't as OP as much summoners I played with say.
He is squishy, he depends on items, he need quite practice and will be focused on teamfights.
His abilities are nice, he got a good damage-output. I guess he is quite balanced.

In the end, if you can play a champion realy, realy good, your enemeys will tell you, that your champion is overpowered.



I hope you enjoyed this guide, leave comments below how you think about it.
Add me in LoL if you want, my summoner name is EmpTy SplasH.
Feel free to ask me questions anytime.

Gameplay-stats:

~Lore~

For his incomparable skill with the bow and his unquestioned sense of honor, Varus was chosen to be the warden of a sacred Ionian temple. The temple was built to contain an ancient pit of corruption so vile that Ionian Elders feared it could envelop the island in darkness. Varus prided himself on his position, as only the most exceptional Ionian warriors were selected for the role. He lived with his family in a nearby village and led a quiet life of disciplined routine until the day the forces of Noxus invaded Ionia. Their shock troops left nothing but death and desolation in their wake, and the temple lay in their path. Varus was forced to make a decision. He was bound by honor to stay and defend the temple, but without him the village's few inhabitants could offer little resistance against the oncoming war machine. Gravely, he chose to fulfill his duty as a warden. The corruption could not be allowed to escape.

His arrows sundered the troops who tried to wrest the temple from him that day. However, when he returned to the village, he found that it had been reduced to a smoldering graveyard. Remorse at the sight of his slain family gave way to overwhelming regret and then to seething hatred. He swore to slaughter every Noxian invader, but first he needed to become stronger. He turned to that which he had sacrificed everything to protect. The pit of corruption would consume him wholly, as a flame devours a wick, but its abominable power would burn within him until he was lost. This was a path from which there could be no return. With grim resolve, he condemned himself to the black flames, feeling malevolent energy bond to his skin...and with it, the promise of ruin. He left, seeking the blood of all Noxians involved with the invasion, a grisly task that eventually led him to the invasion's most infamous perpetrators in the League of Legends.

''The life of an arrow is fleeting, built of nothing but direction and intent.''

- Varus