In my opinion Vayne is one of the best ranged DPS heroes in the game. Her skills are not only good for chasing enemies, but also for escaping in dangerous situations. So if you are able to use her skills in the right way, nobody will be able to stop you!

v1.00 6th June 2011
First build published.

Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Quintessence of Desolation
I like this combination of runes, because you have lots of armor penetration, well suited to your physical attacks, armor and magic resistance, which increase survivability.

The main focus of my masteries is on maximizing Vayne's damage output. She is a ranged hero with quite good escape skills, so she does not need that many defense, but a little bit might not be wrong, so I also put some points in that.

I think there is no optimal build, it always depends on your opponents, your playstyle and the whole situation you are in. This item builds should only give you a basic direction, whereof you should probably differ from depending on the factors mentioned above.

Start Items

Doran's Blade

This item is a really great choice for starting with Vayne. It gives you damage, HP and life steal, which increases your harassing ability and your survivability at the beginning. I really recommand buying this item for most situations.

Boots

Mercury's Treads

Buy this boots if the opponent team has a lot of stuns, slows and taunts. This item gives you better survivability in that case and additionally also a little magic resistance. This boots I normally pick for Vayne.

Boots of Swiftness

This boots are hardly needed, but in some cases, where the opponents have high movement speed you might want to buy this kind of boots.

Core Items

Trinity Force

Trinity Force fits really well to Vayne, because it increases your damage dealt after casting a spell by 50%. This passive ability really increases your damage output a lot, when using Tumble and Condemn frequently. Furthermore you also get HP, mana and movement speed.

Situational Items

Madred's Bloodrazor

This item helps you against tanks or HP stacking heroes.

The Bloodthirster

Bloodthirster adds lots of damage and life steal to your attacks. It is really worth buying it as a ranged DPS if you feel your life gets low too easily.

Infinity Edge

If you need more damage, but survivability is no problem yet, get this item.

Atma's Impaler

This item adds armor and attack damage. So if you think you get damaged by physical attacks too often, buy Atma's Impaler.

Guardian Angel

Guardian Angel's passive is great, because lots of people then try to focus other heroes in team fights first, because they know you would be revived again, what is often a wrong decision, because you have very high damage in late game and can take out one by one. Additionally it also gives you a little armor and magic resistance, which also increases your survivability.

Force of Nature

This item is quite good, if the enemy team does lots of magic damage. Consider buying Force of Nature in this situation.

Night Hunter

Vayne's passive skill increases her movement speed while chasing an enemy, which really helps to finish opponents, which do not have many life left.

Tumble

Tumble is a quite good skill for harassing the enemies in laning phase and doing quite good damage in combination with Trinity Force later in game, but it can also be used for escaping dangerous situations.

Silver Bolts

This skill increases your base damage dealt for every third consecutive attack.

Condemn

This skill is really great. You can use it for attacking to knock back an opponent, stun him when he hits an object and it additionally does lots of damage. This skill probably needs a little bit of exercising to get enemies stunned at the right time or only knocked back in dangerous situations, but if you are aware of that, it is just amazing and so much fun to use.

Final Hour

Vayne's ultimate gives you lots of bonus damage on your attacks and it increases movement speed of her passive, so if your enemy is normally faster than you and low HP, use your ultimate to chase him. It also gives short time invisibility for Tumble, which increases your survivability. So use Tumble with your Ultimate to escape in dangerous situations.

First Spell

Flash

This spell is always good for escaping dangerous situations or chasing enemies, if the opponent has not many life left and you would not get him killed otherwise.

Second Spell

The second spell really depends on your team and your personal preference.

Exhaust

I really like Exhaust, because it is universally applicable. You can use it to attack in 1v1, in team fights to take out their main damage dealers, but also to escape from heroes chasing you.

Ghost, Ignite

Ghost or Ignite are other good options.

Vayne is simply great. She is fun to play and does a lot of damage. So if you like to play ranged DPS heroes, try her out!