Veigar Build Guide by SecantSix

Introduction

Hi everyone, and welcome to my guide for an early-game burst damage, late-game sustained damage, and annoyingly hard-to-kill Veigar. I realize this build is unconventional, and I've done this on purpose: PsiGuard has a MAGNIFICENT guide on how to play Veigar, and I feel it would be a waste of your time and mine if my guide mirrored his. I go into a fair amount of detail, but nearly everything I learned about playing Veigar comes from his guide. Go check it out!

This build, however, is very different from his. It focuses on making Veigar tanky enough to stay in a fight, while maxing out his cooldown reduction so that he can continue to deliver pain throughout. There isn't much focus on AP in the late-game items because Veigar doesn't need to build it: the passive on Baleful Strike should be giving him a bonus 150 AP by end-game. While it is fun to run around bragging about your 800 AP in all-chat, all it really means is that you can blow up one guy in 1.5 seconds rather than 2.5. With this build, you can last in a fight for much longer and put out consistent, high damage on everyone.

As always, I love constructive criticism and feedback. Please let me know if you agree/disagree with anything in my guide, and I'll be sure to respond. If your suggestions influence anything major in my guide, I'll give you the credit here in the introduction.

Speaking of credit, big thanks to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

Thanks to Swagmuffin99 for input on optional items, and Mikuroo for catching mistakes and constructive criticism on a bunch of things.

Let's begin!

Pros/Cons

spaaaaaaace

Pros + Insane nuking potential + Long-lasting AoE stun + Can farm himself AP + Powerful AoE damage + Easily snowballs into a late-game terror + YORDLE

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Cons - Very squishy - Vulnerable during the early laning phase - Dark Matter is easily dodged - No gap openers/closers - Needs to be close to fire Baleful Strike and Primordial Burst - His voice gets pretty irritating

Masteries

Masteries
1/5	3/5	4/5	1/1	3/5	4/1	4/	1/	3/5	1/1	4/1	1/1

Veigar

Summoner's Insight

Expanded Mind

Swiftness

Runic Affinity

Expanded Mind

Athene's Unholy Grail

Swiftness

Resistance

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

Hardiness

Durability

Veteran's Scars

Veigar

Runes

Runes
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration 9	Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration 9	Greater Glyph of Magic Resist 9	Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed 3

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Standard fare for the AP carry. Magic penetration lets you deal more magic damage. Plain and simple.
• Greater Seal of Replenishment: Even with his passive Equilibrium, Veigar is pretty mana-hungry before he's built Athene's Unholy Grail. These will help you stay in lane and farm up that AP for as long as possible.
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Flat magic resistance to help you stay healthy in the lane. If it's physical damage you're up against, go for Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist instead.
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Veigar needs to get pretty close to his target to hit them with Baleful Strike or Primordial Burst, and he also needs to get out of the fight fast when his cooldowns are...well, down. But without any gap closers (or gap openers for getting out), he has to do it all the old-fashioned way: running. These quints will help you dodge skill shots, chase, escape, and initiate with Event Horizon.

Summoner Spells

Flash: Remember how I said Veigar has no gap closers or openers? That's where this comes in. After Event Horizon, there's no way for you to quickly control your position relative to the enemy. Flash fixes that. Always take Flash.

Ignite: The extra bit of true damage that this offers can be the difference between a kill and a "lol nope" in all-chat. Also important for shutting down healing and regeneration in teamfights. An excellent choice for the early-game to help you snowball into the late-game.

Teleport: Nothing is quite as important to Veigar as getting a ton of farm, and this spell ensures that you will always be there to pick it up early-game. Later, this is great for ganks and split-pushing.

Cleanse: If Veigar gets caught in crowd control, his odds of survival are pretty low, as the entire enemy team knows how much of a terror you can be if they let you live. This lets you continue running away (and lets you get Event Horizon out if you were hit with a silence or a stun).

Abilities

• Equilibrium: A lackluster passive, but an excellent one. With this, you will never need to leave the lane because you ran out of mana. Just wait ten seconds, and you've suddenly got enough to fire off a decent combo. This is what makes maximizing Veigar's cooldown reduction so effective: once you've finished Athene's Unholy Grail, you will never, EVER run out of mana.
  
• Baleful Strike: Veigar's bread and butter, his farming tool, and the reason he is an absolute terror on the Fields of Justice. Every time you last-hit anything with this ability, you gain 1 AP. That doesn't sound very impressive...until you consider how many minions you last-hit during a normal game. Now imagine that number is AP. Yeah--it's a big deal. Last-hit with this as much as yordle-ly possible. Don't worry about mana; Equilibrium will ensure that you can farm under the tower indefinitely.
  
• Dark Matter: A high-damage delayed AoE spell. You can use this to clear minion waves, and you should do so if you can't farm with Baleful Strike due to harassment. But if you have the option, always last-hit with Baleful Strike. Hitting with this takes practice, and it's much easier to land if you hit Event Horizon first. Also, never forget that this spell grants vision in the target area before it hits. Check those bushes!
  
• Event Horizon: One of the best utility spells in the entire League. Fully maxed, this summons a large ring that stuns any enemy walking across its edge for 2.5 seconds. It sets up your combo, provides excellent initiation, and looks very sinister and dangerous. Try to cast it so that the edge of the ring immediately appears beneath a champion; they'll have no way to avoid it.
  
• Primordial Burst: It may not look as flashy as other ultimates, but it lays down some serious pain on the champion of your choice and spells certain doom for the enemy AP carry. Hold down Tab to look at the enemy team's build and determine who would be hurt the most by this spell. (Hint: It's usually the guy with Rabadon's Deathcap.) Use this as your combo finisher to secure a kill (or nab an assist).

Ability Sequence

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Veigar

Primordial Burst

Baleful Strike

Dark Matter

Dark Matter

Baleful Strike

Event Horizon

Baleful Strike

Dark Matter

Dark Matter

Items

For your first buy, pick up Boots of Speed and three Health Potions. This helps you to get the most out of your Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed early on, and the Health Potions allow you to farm safely.


On your first trip back to base, pick up at least one Doran's Ring. Take two if you are taking a lot of harassment: the extra health will keep you alive, and the extra AP will help you harass back. Either way, begin building the Fiendish Codex next. It gives you everything you need more of in your life: AP, mana regen, and most importantly, 10% CDR, which lets you farm more reliably with Baleful Strike. You'll turn this into Athene's Unholy Grail eventually, but for the early-game, the Codex is all you need.


Next, you'll want to think about your Level 2 Boots. If your AP is currently lower than 80, either buy the second Doran's Ring or, if you've already got two of those, get a Needlessly Large Rod first.

• Sorcerer's Shoes: These will help you punch through an enemy's base MR and deal near-true damage. My preferred boots for the early-mid game.
• Mercury's Treads: If you're just trying to survive (or if you hit so hard you don't any more magic penetration right now), take these. The MR and Tenacity will help you stay alive in general.

Time to turn up the heat! Rush Rabadon's Deathcap next: this item is an absolute must-have for Veigar, since it synergizes so well with Baleful Strike. Next, buy these two items:

• Athene's Unholy Grail: Take this if you need more magic resistance, or find yourself frequently running low on mana. If the enemy team is building MR, just finish the Chalice of Harmony, then rush Void Staff. Otherwise, build this to completion before moving on.
• Void Staff: If you're decisively kicking all sorts of butt and don't need to worry about mana or MR right now, pick this up first. It will help you keep the advantage and frustrate the enemy team to no end.
  
  
  Congratulations! You are done building AP on Veigar and it's time to get defenses. "What?!" you say. "What about Zhonya's Hourglass? Lich Bane? Rylai's Crystal Scepter? I can still build tanky and build AP!" First of all, look at your stats: thanks to masteries, you now have AT LEAST 405 AP and 46% magic penetration (and it's more likely to be around 500 if you had a half-way decent laning phase). If you can't kill an enemy champion with 500 AP and 46% magic penetration, it's not the build's fault, my friend. It's you.
  
  First, pick up the Glacial Shroud. The mana is nice, but what you really benefit from is the 45 armor and the 15% CDR. At this point, your armor will be around 150, your MR will be past 80, and your CDR will be at 34%. Baleful Strike is hitting for 560+ magic damage EVERY 2 SECONDS, and you have your AoE stun up every 10 seconds. That's pretty awesome.
  
  
  Now that your defenses are nice and high, health will give the most survivability. Pick up a Giant's Belt, then finish your items. First, upgrade the Glacial Shroud into a Frozen Heart for 54 more armor and 5% more CDR, bringing you just beneath the hard cap of 40%.
  
  
  Next, build one of these two items:
  • Warmog's Armor: Yeah, Warmog's on Veigar. Seriously. Health is literally the only thing that Veigar needs more of at this point. Plus, since you don't have any spell vamp, the health regeneration is great as well. This is my preferred buy.
  • Rylai's Crystal Scepter: If you find you're never really in danger of dying, take this over Warmog's. With CDR maxed out, Baleful Strike turns into a permanent slow if you keep it focused on the same target, making it a fantastic utility item.
    
    
    Finally, at any point after buying the Void Staff, sell your Sorcerer's Shoes for Mercury's Treads if you start dying to too much magic damage or getting hit with too much crowd control. Once you've got Void Staff, you don't need the flat magic penetration.

What? No Deathfire Grasp?

I know, I know. No Deathfire Grasp. Frankly, before its recent nerf, I would've replaced Athene's Unholy Grail with the DFG without even blinking, but the loss of the 15% CDR (and its early-game damage potential) is just too much. Granted, you could still replace Warmog's Armor with the Deathfire Grasp and buy it earlier, but this goes against the goal of this build: making Veigar a beefy mage who can stick around for the entire teamfight.

Also, consider this. I'll be generous and say that you cast the DFG on the tank and it dealt around 1200 damage before resistances at 500 AP. You could also deal 1500 damage with three Baleful Strikes, which you can pump out in 6 seconds. In other words, Warmog's Armor is comparable to Deathfire Grasp if it lets you stay in the fight for at least 6 more seconds. Thanks to all the armor and MR you've built, I believe it does.

Will your 1v1 fights be as lopsided in your favor as they used to be? No, of course not! But you'll still be able to nuke down most opponents with your full combo (and if not, just one extra Baleful Strike will do the job). On top of that, you'll be so, SO much stronger in teamfights. So give up the Deathfire Grasp. I know it's hard, but it's worth it.

Dueling and Teamfights

First of all, positioning is everything with Veigar. With no escape tools, one wrong step can mean death.

In a 1v1 or a surprise attack where you catch the AP or AD carry off-guard, unleash your full combo:

Event Horizon ---> Dark Matter ---> Baleful Strike ---> Primordial Burst ---> Ignite ---> Baleful Strike

This will easily finish off a carry at half-health in the early-game, and one-shot a carry at full health in mid- to late-game.

In a teamfight, wait for the tank or off-tank to initiate. Once the fight has begun, prioritize your targets:

• First, look for out-of-position enemy carries. If you find that you can hit either of them from a place of relative safety, unload the above combo on them. Try to save Primordial Burst for the AP carry rather than the AD carry, if you can.
• Next, keep yourself and your AD carry safe. You two are likely the squishiest members of your team. Stun anyone trying to get in your faces with Event Horizon, focusing your damage there if the enemy carries aren't a viable target. Stick close to the tank or behind cover, but don't stay close to the AD carry--you don't want AoE damage to take you both out.
• Finally, if both of the above aren't options, hit the squishiest thing you safely can! Remember: you should be constantly casting Baleful Strike. Its cooldown is incredibly low, so there's no need to save it for high-priority targets.
  
  If things look bad, start running and use Event Horizon to cover your team's escape. If the enemy team is running away, run towards them and use Event Horizon to stun them, allowing your team to catch up.

Conclusion

That's all I have for now, but keep an eye out for updates!

Please comment and upvote if you liked the build, because it makes me super happy.

If you believe the guide is worthy of a downvote, please send me a PM or comment on why you feel that way first. One of three things will happen:

• I'll explain myself to you better, and you'll change your mind. Hooray!
• I'll explain myself to you better, and you won't change your mind and give me a downvote. That's great, too! I'll have appreciated that you took the time to explain yourself.
• I'll call you a genius, fix the guide, and credit you in the introduction. Everyone wins!