Through the northern reaches of Freljord are some of the most unforgiving lands in Valoran, the Ursine have survived upon the region's barren, stormy tundra for centuries. As a fierce and respected warrior of the Ursine, Volibear devoted his life to the protection of his people and loyalty to his elder brother, the tribe's chief. When his brother was killed during a hunt on the tundra, the tribe looked to Volibear as his successor. It was an honor and a burden that Volibear had never expected, but he shouldered the charge with pride. However, by Ursine tradition, the tribe could not recognize Volibear as chief until he returned from a journey to the peak of their sacred mountain, a place forever shrouded in a thundering maelstrom. There, Ursine chieftains must speak to the storm itself, gaining clarity and wisdom to empower them as mighty leaders.
Donning the chieftain's traditional armor and enchanted gauntlets, Volibear began the long and perilous climb up the slopes of the mountain. When he reached the peak and gazed into the raging storm above, he saw a horrific vision of a Freljord utterly consumed by war. Amidst the carnage, the Ursine fell dead upon a bloody battlefield. Believing the vision to be an omen of things to come if he did not act against them, Volibear traveled to the capitol of Freljord. The Ursine had not ventured across the southern mountains in centuries and his appearance was met with unease. However, Queen Ashe recognized Volibear as a wise and powerful ally. In what Volibear considered the first step against a war-torn future, they forged an alliance. As part of their agreement, he joined the League of Legends in the name of a unified Freljord, representing the primal might of his nation on the Field of Justice.

"Few can weather the storm that follows in the wake of Volibear's roar." - Ashe, The Frost Archer.



Quotes

Upon Selection
"Let the storm follow in my wake."
Moving/Attacking
"Strength and wisdom guide me."
"So it shall be."
"As fate decrees."
"Let the storm follow in my wake."
"To war."
"The Ursine do not know fear."
"Battle is in my blood."
"Trust in your instincts."
"The thunder calls."
"Tremble at my roar!"
"I do not pity cowards."
"By Freljord's might."
"Is that a challenge?"
"Sniveling cubs!"
"Let none survive!"
Taunt
"A fool and his head are easily parted."
​Joke
"Hmm, I suppose you're expecting an unbearable pun."
Upon using Stormbringer
"Face the storm!"
Upon slaying Zilean
"Your time has run out, Chronokeeper"
"I have a special claw for you, Zilean."



Trivia

- Volibear, the Thunder's Roar, is a response to an ongoing joke on the League of Legends forums about armored bears.
The champion actually led to the creation of pro-armored bear and anti-armored bear factions, with leaders being the designers of the Riot Team, which eventually escalated the Riot Wars.
His name is derived from Travis 'Volibar' George, the Riot producer who first put forth the idea of an armored bear champion.
When there is an enemy Zilean present in game, Volibear will gain the Chronokeeper Hater icon: "Not even Zilean could keep an armored bear out of the League of Legends".
Zilean also gains the opposing Armored Bear Hater icon regardless of which team he is in with the text: "In my day, we would never have allowed an armored bear into the League of Legends."
Volibear's dance is a reference to Sam B's dance from America's Got Talent. A side-by-side comparison can be seen here.
In Volibear's Champion Spotlight, his skin names were on the opposite skins. The name "Thunder Lord" was on the Northern Storm skin and vice versa.
Armored bears appear inThe Golden Compass also Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, known as panserbjørne (lit. 'armored bear', Danish/Norwegian origin). Volibear and Iorek Byrnison, King of the Armored Bears share strong resemblences.

Sources: Qoutes & Trivia from LoL Wiki

Now, this is nothing but a suggestion, since I have not had a chance to actually try out this build yet.
Basicly, this Volibear build is based on his synergy between HP and AD/AS. Also, it's mostly designed for solo top.

Pros
- Very durable.
- Mediocre to high damage.
- Good chaser.
- Good at destroying towers.
- Exceptional offtank.
- Decent AoE.
- Very deceptive, HP-wise.
- He's an animal... And he's way more badass than Warwick.


Cons
- Lacks a bit of armor and resistance with this build.
- Rather slow while skills and items are cooling down.
- Somewhat expensive build.

I've chosen to go with Greater Mark of Desolation, due to the fact that enemy solo top champions are often equipped with some sort of armor improvement (through runes or build) right from the start. Unless countered, this will negate a fair amount of your damage early-game, and thus rendering you incapable of putting up a good fight.

For seals I go with Greater Seal of Armor, simply because you will usually meet an AD-based champion in top.

Greater Glyph of Attack Speed seemed like the right choice due to Volibear's reliance on AS for his Frenzy .

And last, but definately not least, I'd use Greater Quintessence of Health, to give you that early game HP boost.

For this build, I feel that the AS boost from the Offense tree is a must. Apart from that, most of the points are somewhat optional, however I recommend maxing Hardiness , Resistance , Veteran's Scars and Mercenary .

This section is very simple. I max Frenzy right away, since the entire build is centered around this skill.

After Frenzy , I max Thundering Smash to further improve my lethality.

Ult is improved whenever possible, and Sky Splitter is maxed last, mostly because it doesn't deal a lot of damage, since this build doesn't contain any AP items.

Heal I pick this one to back up Volibear's passive, The Relentless Storm. With both massiv health regen and a powerful heal, you'll be able to trick your opponents into thinking they're able to kill you, before you eventually pop back up to way more health than expected.

Flash I always use one of my summoner spell slots for a spell that helps me chase and escape. Your choices here are Flash and Ghost.*
Flash provides the ability to move across walls, and thus escape dangerous situations by blocking the enemies' paths.

Ghost Unlike Flash this spell does not provide the ability to move across intraversable terrain, however, it provides you with a longer-duration speed increase, which helps your much more in the middle of a teamfight. Also, this spell will more often than not work better for chasing than Flash, however Volibear's Thundering Smash makes up for the loss of movement speed when you pick Flash instead.

Exhaust This is a very viable choice for Volibear. If you choose to use the summoner spell, I'd recommend using it instead of Heal. Use it for chasing, escaping and supressing AD carries.

Smite Don't use this spell unless you're jungling. Simple as that.

Surge While this spell provides a huge damage in theory, it's not as much of a damage increase in reality. This is mostly due to the fact that you have to be in range of your target for the full duration to get the most out of the attack speed increase. For pure damage, Ignite is a better choice.

Ignite Ignite is a perfectly viable choice for Volibear. Again, you should pick this one instead of Heal rather than Flash. In addition to granting you a fairly noticeable DoT, Ignite provides you with healing reduction to counter other top champions like Dr. Mundo, Gangplank (to some extent) and Warwick.

Cleanse While this is a pretty good summoner spell, I don't like it on any fighter-style champions. This one is somewhat reserves for squishies.

Clarity Don't use this one. You don't need heavy mana replenishment.

Revive Leave this one out, as well. With this much health and a little awareness, you'll be alive most of the time anyway.

Promote I haven't had the chance to actually test the viability of this summoner spell on any champion. Any input would be appresiated. Feel free to comment.

Clairvoyance This is not a very good choice for Volibear, however, if your support refuses to get this spell for some reason, you may want to consider picking it up, to aid the rest of your team.

Now for the centerpiece of this guide (for now, anyway. I may end up revamping this guide to make a complete Volibear guide once I get the chance to actually test him properly.)

So, at first, I'm going to explain the items that I've selected for the main build, after which I will go through alternative items.

I start off with Regrowth Pendant, since I feel Volibear needs to health regen to be viable in the earliest part of the laning phase.

Once you recall the first time, you'll want to have enough gold for Boots and Philosopher's Stone.

Before your next recall you'll be aimed at having enough gold for a Giant's Belt as well as either Mercury's Treads, Ninja Tabi or Berserker's Greaves. Most of the time I'd go with Mercury though, since this build lacks a bit of magic resistance, plus, the tenacity bonus is a huge benefit.

By now, you should start thinking about pushing the top tower, call for help from your jungler if you have one.

Once you manage to bring down the enemy tower in top, recall and buy your Warmog's Armor if you have any additional gold, go ahead and grab Chain Vest for your [Atmog's Impaler] which will be your next item either way.

Next finish your Shurelia's Reverie. You need the movement speed boost to be able to dart around teamfights and wreck havoc upon your enemies.

The remaining two items can be built in any order, depending your team setup. In general, if you team has a lot of CC, build Zeke's Harbinger first. if your team lacks CC, get Frozen Mallet.



Alternative Items

Guardian Angel seems to be a fairly viable item on Volibear. Can be used instead of Zeke's Harbingerif you're not a huge fan of that particular item.

Banshee's Veil is also a viable replacement for Zeke's Harbinger if you want to go fully beefy HP-wise.

Trinity Force seems to be a very strong item for Volibear, however, it's quite expensive, so I've chosen to leave this one out for now. If you do want a Trinity Force you should get it instead of Frozen Mallet

This build is centered around being able to stick to teamfights without dieing. Your job is simple. Deal damage damage to suppress the enemy team, and stay alive.
Try to use your Thundering Smash to interrupt channeled spells like Nunu & Willump's Below Zero.
Also, you may want to consider intercepting skillshots headed towards your team's squishies. After all, you're way more durable than your carry and support.

So, this was my idea for Volibear Thus far. I'll return to update this guide once I've played a bunch of games with this guy.
I'm open to suggestions, and happy to discuss the build as well as any other possible builds. Also, I'm considering to add full tank build to this guide. The tank build would be centered around being extremely beefy HP-wise (much like Cho'Gath or Singed.)