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Recommended Items
Spells:
Exhaust
Ghost
Items
Ability Order
The Relentless Storm (PASSIVE)
Volibear Passive Ability
Introduction:

This is my first guide, so I hope that it gets some degree of recognition and is appreciated. As a player, I find myself constantly striving to build sub-standard builds for champions well enough to be used in ranked play. So without further ado, let us delve into the basics of the build.
I've added plenty of notes in the primary build section, so consider those a tl;dr to the rest of the guide for some quick advice.
I find that this build takes advantage of



In short, make it a difficult decision for the enemy team whether they should ACTUALLY focus the tank or not.


Good Against:
- Targets with low magic resist
- Enemies with little to no cc negation or escape abilities of their own
- Low movement speed targets
- Low to Medium burst targets without a great deal of hard CC
Bad Against:
- Targets with high magic resist
- Targets who deal % of max health/current health damage (watch out for
Blade of the Ruined King)
- Targets with healing reduction
- Targets with ranged poke/high movement speed/escape tactics (like
Teemo)
- High burst targets, particularly with hard-cc
- Targets who negate CC (like
Olaf with
Ragnarok active or
Master Yi with
Highlander active)
- Targets who dodge/block autoattscks or blind, like
Jax or
Pantheon or
Teemo)
Good With/Fun Champions to Play WIth and Why:
Riven: A successful
Thundering Smash can put enemies in range of
Riven's stun, where they stand motionless to be bursted down and slowed with
Sky Splitter after they recover from the stun.
Singed: Two slows make the target unlikely to escape, and double flips are fun.
Nunu & Willump:
Blood Boil is amazing with
Thundering Smash to help initiates and makes
Stormbringer hurt that much more with the increased AS.
Zilean: Increased movement speed is awesome, and what is more terrifying than a bomb strapped to a charging bear?
![]() |
Chosen of the Storm This passive is half of what makes ![]() |
![]() |
Rolling Thunder This is one of my favorite ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Frenzy The passive on this ability stacks on autoattacks to give ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Majestic Roar This is going to be your bread and butter ability particularly for this build. When your AP is stacked, it clears minions quick and does a great deal of AoE damage in teamfights. Of course the slow/fear is always welcome as well. I'll use this to last hit large groups of minions (more reliable than basic attacks since it is an instant cast), slow enemies at the edge of range in order to catch up that last bit while ![]() |
![]() |
Thunder Claws This ability is pretty straightforward. It does AoE chain lightning damage on autoattacks quite similar to that of ![]() ![]() |
A pretty standard setup for defensive masteries/damage negation.




Runes




Pretty standard seals and glyphs, the main controversies come in marks and quints. You have a few viable options for marks--go with one of the options or any combination of them that works for you.
- 9x
Greater Mark of Attack Speed for faster clear speed/
Frenzy charge and more hits on
Stormbringer while it is active.
- 9x
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration for better MR shredding on your
Sky Splitter and
Stormbringer for teamfights.
- 9x greater mark of hybrid penetration to get some magic penetration (slightly lower) with armor penetration as well, making your autoattacks and
Frenzy 's bite do more damage.
- 9x
Greater Mark of Attack Damage if you are opting for a hybrid approach to the build and want faster clear speed.
As far as quints go, you generally have a few options to select from--mix & match or go one or the other.
- 3x
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Used for effective retreats and pursuits. 4.5% movement speed doesn't sound like much, but it can save your life or get you a kill--consider enemies with no movement speed items, just standard level 2 boots and yourself with the same setup. In this scenario, a
Volibear with 3 movement quints runs faster than any champion without rune/mastery move speed enhances. (not counting champion dash skills/etc.)
- 3x
Greater Quintessence of Percent Health:Not much in-depth description needed on these. They increase your health by 1.5% each/4.5% total. How much you benefit from this depends on itemization. At a full build using my recommended items, 3 of these quints would increase health by ~165 points.
- 3x
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Health: An alternative to the above. Gives you ~145 extra points of health at level 18, might be better if you would like more in-game flexibility with itemization with no fear of not getting your quint's worth.


My Favorite Picks/Recommended Picks:
![]() |
Exhaust![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Cleanse![]() ![]() ![]() 1. It can be used preceding ![]() ![]() 2. It can be used in combination with ![]() ![]() 3. It can remove common cc effects that normally seriously cripple ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 4. Can be used to break cc while in pursuit of an enemy champion. 5. Can be used upon initiation of a teamfight to quickly shed hard-cc effects like stuns or snares that might keep you from peeling targets from carries, being positioned effectively, or from doing damage altogether. |
![]() |
Ghost Pretty self-explanatory. Helps you move faster/avoid unit collision. The movement speed is also buffed by ![]() Random benefit over ![]() |
Other Viable Picks:
![]() |
Heal A solid choice, it can be used to heal yourself if your ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Teleport Obviously this can help you get into lane faster so you can spend more time farming. Also useful to help in lanes/gank lanes, particularly when the bot lane has bushes warded. |
![]() |
Flash An obligatory option. Not my favorite, ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Ignite Another obligatory option. It does damage so it kill stuff. Also good vs. targets with good self heals, like yourself. The ranged benefit allows you to hit targets with it in case you can't take the time to run to them. The biggest 'benefit', if any, would be the early game benefit from ![]() |
![]() |
Barrier Barrier gives you a moment of safety to heal up when your ![]() ![]() |

Core Early Game Items:
![]() |
![]() Movement speed on ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() Gives you some armor to help withstand hits from enemy champions/minions and some AP to buff your ![]() ![]() |
philosopher's stone |
philosopher's stone: An extremely underrated item, in my opinion. It helps money flow by gold gained, and the HP/Mana regeneration helps you to stay in lane as long as possible, further increasing gold gain. |
Core Mid Game Items:
![]() |
![]() I will generally build this item before ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() If you are laning against an AP opponent or just would like to be generally tankier, I would recommend building this before Nashor's. It gives you the same CDR, extra health to beef you up + add damage to bite, awesome magic resist, and its passive increases the regeneration gained by philosopher's stone. |
![]() |
![]() Speaking of philosopher's stone, it's fully-built form, ![]() ![]() |
Late Game Items:
![]() |
![]() Some would argue this an immediate necessity, I would disagree. The aforementioned items are all relatively cheap (as far as full build items go), so allow you to get to this point in the build with relative speed. At this point you should have decent sustain & survivability between ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() This item offers more bonus health, which has its obvious benefits all around, as well as an AoE slow from your ![]() |
![]() |
![]() I usually build this item last, as it is expensive. It gives you a little more armor than ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Alternative Items:
![]() |
![]() These boots help you run between lanes faster/get into lane faster + gives you high speed initiates (you have level 5 boots until you enter combat/engage enemies with ![]() |
![]() |
![]() These amp your AS, which means faster clearing, more ult hits, faster frenzy build, etc. |
![]() |
![]() Used instead of ![]() |
![]() |
![]() Used instead of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() Used in the stead of ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
The opportunity cost is 200 health, some regen, flat AP, and ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() Used in combination in the stead of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |

Some Opening Notes:
The focus of this guide will be on the top lane, however this build can be somewhat effective in the jungle again with minor adjustments. AP-focused


Countering With Itemization:
Assuming that you are playing in the top lane, the first question you will want to ask yourself is "what kind of a champion am I laning against?" It is very important that you build in an order that counters your enemy, especially in the early game, or you will find yourself having a difficult time. Here's some ideas to get you started:
Any High-Sustain: These will be mostly champions with no mana & potentially self-heals. Common champions of this nature might include



Tanky/high sustain AP: You will want to focus building




Squishy AP: Once again, focus



Tanky AD: Focus




Squishy AD: Most of the top lane squishy AD's will be melee range like




The Early Game:
General Laning Tips:
By now you should have a good idea of how to play versus what kinds of champions. Versus champions who have more advantages on you than you on them (see Good Against/Bad Against), it may be wise to play passively and focus farming minions until you can build enough to swing an advantage. When you DO have an advantage though, abuse it. Poke them with well-timed




The Midgame/Lategame:
Roaming
Around the midgame, the laning phase will come to a close and most champions will be roaming the map putting pressure on individual lanes with their teams and team fights will start up. Make sure even in this phase that you aren't aimlessly roaming. Have a goal. Be pushing a lane, setting up a gank, defending turrets, securing an objective, etc. at all times, and if none of these opportunities present themselves, farm the jungle when it is available/safe. Always be doing something to keep the enemy from making gold or be doing something to make your own team gold.
Team Fights
Team fights are where this build will truly shine. Communication with your team is key--make sure the whole team is present or at least that it is an even fight (like a 4v4, as long as it isnt your support jungle, top, mid with CDs down vs. adc, jungle, top, mid with ults up). As a tank, it will generally be your job to engage/start the fight. It is key to make sure that you don't get tunnel vision and charge in at light speed (


Order of Priorities:
- Peel threatening targets off of your carries by tactical use of
Thundering Smash,
Exhaust, and
Sky Splitter When these skills are on cooldown...
- Try to position yourself in such a way that the AoE from your
Stormbringer and
Sky Splitter is affecting as many enemy champions as possible. Most of the time you can target a non-carry and still deal a great deal of damage to the carries in range with your
Stormbringer--hitting as many targets with it/dealing more damage is more important than autoattacking a specific target.
- Make the enemy carries your primary damage targets.
At this point, I think it would be important to emphasize one thing, which is:
DONT GET TUNNEL VISION AND CHASE A SINGLE TARGET DURING THE BATTLE.
I often see teamfights start out looking wonderfully--the carries are being targeted, everything seems to be going well. Then a carry starts to run. And people start to chase the carry while the other 4 enemies are still damaging your team. The end result is usually the carry living or dying (unimportant) but the other 4 enemies being alive and your whole team being dead.
If minimal effort is required, you can hunt down stragglers after a team fight is won, but do not over-dedicate. When the enemy team is dead is a prime time to secure objectives and push lanes--things more instrumental to the success of your team than MAYBE getting a single champion kill.

I hope you guys found this guide helpful! If you have any comments/questions/additions to make then feel free to do so in the discussion section! With that, I'll close with a quick recap and a list of a couple helpful hints!
- Don't forget how squishy you can be in the early laning phase! Forgetting that you are still a baby bear in the beginning can lead to a lot of unnecessary death and feeding on your side, which will haunt you all game long.
- Take advantage of your ability to poke! Most wouldn't think it, but a relatively effective poke combo is: Build 3 stacks of
Frenzy on minions >>
Thundering Smash to get in range of the enemy champion (don't hit them with it!) >> activate
Frenzy 's 'bite' on the target champion >>
Sky Splitter to slow and use the rest of the remaining speed buff from
Thundering Smash to retreat. This combo vs. most champions allows you to deal a good deal of poke damage with very little damage taken yourself.
- Don't let ranged champions scare you. They are generally squishier than you, and if you can get in range of them, you can make them regret poking you so much and think twice before risking it again.
- Your main job in teamfights is to be your carry's personal peeler. (sexy bear <3)
- If you pick up
Zhonya's Hourglass, note that activating it will likely lose all of your stacks of
Frenzy --(
Frenzy stacks fall off after 4 seconds,
Zhonya's Hourglass's active lasts 2.5 seconds)
- Be aware of your counters. To high AS champions with a
Blade of the Ruined King, you are a LOT less tanky than you are vs. other champions.
- Remember your role.
Volibear can do sick amounts of damage, but after an initiation is created, he best serves the team in battle by soaking damage and peeling targets from the carries.
03/30/13 |
Guide First Published |
04/02/13 |
Mastery Tree Updated, added an alternative full item build + added ![]() ![]() |
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