Hi, my name is Marcus Phillida and im a Volibear onetrickpony with over 300K Championmastery on him.

This is the first guide i've made, and also the last since i wont ever stop maining Volibear.
I made this guide because i think all the other guides about Volibear are not really good. (No offense, just my opinion)

Please (!) leave feedback if you dont like something, so i can work on it and make it better.

Pros

+Can go fulltank and still deals DMG you cant ingore
+Very good single target peeling
+Strong early/midgame
+AS steroid + really satisfying execute
+Strong duelist
+A BEAR, MAN HE IS A FREAKING ARMORED BEAR!

Cons

-Get's kited easily in Teamfights (not in 1v1)
-Damage falls off late
-Has not a single Dash
-No passive if Ignited

Chosen of the Storm

Chosen of the Storm is Volibears passive and heals you for 30% of your maximum HP everytime your HP falls under 30%. 2 Minutes cooldown.

This is one of the strongest passives in League of Legends and it's one out of 2 reasons you play Volibear as a Tank. It heals you more the more maximum HP you have, so it's effective to stack HP on Volibear.

Rolling Thunder

Volibear gains movement speed that gets higher if he chases an enemy Champion, your next autoattack within 4 seconds will flip the target behind you and deal additional normal DMG.

This is the only Mobility you have, max this second so the cooldown get's lower, This Ability is the only reason Volibear is a good teamfighter.

Frenzy

Passive: Volibear get's AS with every autoattack, stacks up to 3 times and lasts for 4 seconds.
Active: While you have 3 stacks, you can bite an enemy and deal normal DMG to him, this ability deals more DMG the more bonus HP you have and the lower the HP of your target is. You wont lose the AS if you use Frenzy. This is the other reason why you play Volibear as a Tank.

This ability is your main DMG output besides your Ultimate, max this first.

Majestic Roar

Volibear deal magic DMG in a small area around him and slows every affected Champion. Minions and monsters will get feared.

This is the only reason why Volibear is a good Jungler, max this last.

Thunder Claws

Your autoattacks deal bonus magic DMG for the next 12 seconds and will blast lightnings on the enemy that bounce up to 3 nearby enemys and deal magic DMG to them aswell.

This is your Ultimate ability, max this at 6/11/16.

Runes

In the jungle you take AS reds, scaling HP yellows, scaling CDR blues and 2 AS quints + 1 scaling CDR quint.
This will help you clearing jungle without losing much HP while still scaling pretty well into the latgame.
Change the scaling CDR runes with scaling MR blues and a additional AS quint if your team already has a fulltank on Toplane and you want to buy Trinity Force instead of Sterak's Gage.

On the Toplane you take AD reds, Armor yellows, scaling MR blues and AS quints.
This will help you last hitting early and make you to a decent duelist aswell.
If you playing against an AP champion, you can change the yellows to flat HP and the blues to flat MR.

Masterys

Resolve

Unyielding: Makes you more tanky than the alternative, it's such a good mastery on Volibear

Runic Armor: Together with Spirit Visage, your passive will heal you for 40% of your maximum
HP instead of 30%

Insight: You will have Ghost/Flash more often which will often save your life/secure a kill.

Swiftness: Volibears main weakness is CC, this mastery will make every CC on you weaker.

Courage of the Collosus: This is the best Keystone mastery for Volibear by far, together with Sterak's Gage you will get a shield that is bigger than 50% of your max HP for a few seconds. It's incredible how tanky this mastery makes you.

Cunning

Savagery: Take this if you go Toplane, together with your AD reds you will have a easy time lasthitting. You can replace it with Wanderer if you go Jungle, but dont have to.

Runic affinity: Take this only as Jungler, your Redbuff and Bluebuff will now last 18 seconds longer. Replace it with assassin or secret stash if you go Toplane.

Merciless: it's a great mastery for every not Support. You deal more Damage if the enemy is under 40%HP, perfect for your Bite.

And finally dangerous game: It's simply better than the alternative masterys, and it will help you surviving Teamfights better, you can replace this with Greenfather's Gift if you want to.

Starting Items

Start with a Hunter's Machete and a refillable potion if you are jungle.
I start with Doran's Shield and a health potion on Toplane, you can also go with Corruption potion or Doran's Sword.

Cinderhulk

Must have as Jungle Volibear, it gives you 400HP, +15%Bonus HP and the Sunfire Passive, it makes you more tanky and your bite deals more DMG. First item on Junglebear.

Sunfire Cape

Buy this instead of Cinderhulk if you are Toplanebear, usually first item unless you are against an AP opponent. 500HP + 50Armor + massive AOE DMG, must have.

Dead man's Plate

Great Item on Volibear, it gives anything you need. 500HP + 50Armor alone are awesome, but the passive generates stacks while walking, and if fully stacked you get 60MS and a 50%Slow for 1 second + 100 extra DMG on your next autoattack. (including your Q)

Spirit Visage

Usually the only MR item you will have as Junglebear, besides your mercury's Treads. 500HP + 55MR and 200%Base HP regeneration is Great on Volibear, but the thing that makes this item so much better than Banshee's Veil it's his passive, which increases all heal effects by 25%.
Spirit Visage and the Runic Armor mastery together let your Passive heal you for 40% of your max HP instead of 30%. Buy this after you finished Boots.

Randuin's Omen

Most of the time you will buy this after Spirit Visage as fifth Item. You can buy this earlier as Toplanebear if you play against a Tryndamere/Yasuo. It will negate alot of DMG from the enemy ADC, 500HP + 60Armor is great, but the passive slows the AS of everyone that attacks you by 15%, and lowers the DMG of critical strikes by 10%, perfect Item against Latemgame AD carrys. The active slows the enemy Champions around you by 35% for 4 seconds, it's a huge slow together with your E.

Sterak's Gage

400HP and 25%Base attack DMG dont sound like much, but the passive is simply to good to not buy this as last item unless your team got another Tank. with the standart Build you will have 4800HP in Lategame and the passive of this item gives you 30% of your max HP as a shield. 30% from 4800 are 1400, this item gives you a 1400 Shield plus Courage of the Collosus you get more then 50% of your max HP as shield! Sounds great? Because it is!
You will usually buy this as last Item, unless you have another full tank in your Team, in that case you should probably go for Trinity Force.

Zz'Rot Portal

Such a great item on every Champion that can use the stats it gives.
55 Armor and MR and 125%Base HP regeneration is great, but a lane that pushes automatically while you are helping your team is the only reason you buy this Item. If you go Toplanebear buy Warmog's Armor and Zz'Rot Portal instead of Randuin's Omen and Spirit Visage. As Toplaner you often need to hold your lane while helping your team at Drake, perfect item for this scenario.
Enemy team got an Inhibitor and you have to contest Baron? No problem, Zz'Rot Portal will hold the Base while you are contesting Baron.

Warmorg's Armor

You need this Item usually as Toplaner, because of Zz'Rot Portal. Since you buy Portal instead of Spirit Visage you have not much HP, and since you already got 55Armor from Zz'Rot Portal you dont need Randuin's Omen anymore. This item will compensate the HP lose from not buying Spirit Visage and Cinderhulk as Toplaner.

Iceborn Gauntlet

You can buy Iceborn Gauntlet or Frozen Heart (IBG recommended) as Volibear instead of Zz'Rot Portal if the enemy i full AD, you will usually buy Thornmail in that case though.

Righteous Glory

Not a bad Item on Volibear, buy this if you feel like your team needs a Hard-engage. Poke comps are countered by Hard-engages.

Thornmail

Also a very situational Item on Volibear, i would only buy it if the enemy is full AD.
There is no reason to take this Item over Randuin's Omen except if you already have a Randuin's Omen. Against full AD teams you go Cinderhulk + Deadman's + Ninja tabi + Randuin's + Thornmail + Warmorgs. Sunfire instead of Cinderhulk if you are Toplanebear.

Trinity Force

Trinity Force gives you Tons of damage while still giving you 250HP and utility through the 20%CDR. It allows you to oneshot squishys while being still very tanky. Every single stat this Item gives is Great on Volibear, but especially the Sheen passive is godlike on him.

Buy this as Last Item instead of Sterak's Gage if your Team has another full tank (which is not the support), and dont forget to put the 20%CDR out of your runes and replace them with scaling MR if you are going to buy a Trinity Force instead of a Sterak's Gage.

Wit's end

A very situational Item, you can buys this if either the enemy team is heavy AP, or your team is heavy AP. 40 bonus Magic DMG, 40 AS and 40MR are all good things for Volibear, but it also takes MR from the enemy Champion (5MR per hit, 25 max) and gives it to you. You should also buy this instead of Trinity Force if the enemy has like 3 Tanks, and your team got at least two AP carry's.

Blade of the ruined King

Buy this item if the enemy team is very tanky (Toplane/Jungle and Support is a tank), or if you want to be the 1v1 god.

Boots

You go Mercury's Treads 90% of the time, only go Ninja Tabi if they have weak CC and are very AD heavy, Boots of Swiftness are almost never as usefull as the other 2 options, however, you can buy them if you are really far ahead and want to play greedy.

Early Game

The early game is all about farming on Volibear, try to get your Sunfire Cape as soon possible since this is your biggest powerspike together with Trinity Force. If you can get 90CS at minute 10, you can already buy a complete Sunfire Cape at minute 10.

Besides this you can also try to bully your enemy if he is a easy matchup, but i usually dont try to trade if not really needed and focus on farming to get my powerspikes as soon as possible.

Put your Controll ward in the Tribush if you are Redside and in the Riverbush directly under the Toplane if you are Blueside. Put your trinket in the other bush.

If you dont want to freeze your lane, you should delay buying a Bami's Cinder since this Item will autopush the lane.

If your opponent TP'd bot to help his team, you dont necessarily HAVE to do the same thing, you can also DMG his turret and deny him alot of farm while he is on bot. Be sure you stand in a position where the enemy minions will attack you and not your minions and also get DMG'd by your Sunfire Cape while you attack the turret.

Important to the early game is also the enemy Champion, there will be more specific tips against each Champion in the Matchup section.

Midgame

Midgame usually starts when people start leaving their lanes to group up for objectives such as Drake and Herold. At this point you already want to have some tankyness for the small skirmishes around these objectives. This is why farming in the earlygame is so important.

Be sure your lane is Pushing before you group up with your team. If your team is grouping up mid and sieging already just because you got a small lead, something is wrong. Dont waste time like this, if you siege for a minute and you see you cant dive the enemy team, just go to another lane and make pressure, you can go pretty deep if you have Ghost up, almost no one can catch up to you.

if the midgame started and you fell behind in the earlygame, try to stay Top and farm/make pressure until you get tanky enough to be usefull, it wont help your team if you engage a Teamfight and cant even flip someone before you die.

Lategame

Lategame usually starts around 4 to 5 Items, at this point you are pretty tanky and your DMG will start falling off slowly.
In lategame it's all about Teamwork and pressure. Place your Zz'Rot Portal down at bot or top (or mid if enemy got an inhibitor (Place it somewhere where it dont get destroyed immediatly), and try to look for a opportunity to push the opposite lane.
Only splitpush while your Ghost is up or you see can see the enemy team.

Do not make the mistake and push toplane/botlane while one of your teammates is dead and the enemy's are grouping up as 5 man midlane.

If you have your Items and you see a chance to win a Teamfight, then go ahead and try it, remember the longer the game, the more your DMG falls off.
Do not run into the enemy Backline like an idiot unless you are really far ahead, try to peel the enemy Divers/Assassins of your Carrys, flip them away with your Q and slow them with your E, this should give your carry enough time to kill him.


There is much more to say, but i just leave it here, there are also alot of things you cant learn from others, you just need alot of experience and practise, GL&HF!

Jungle is a complete other experience than Toplane, it's almost like you play another game.
Volibear is a better Jungler than Toplaner, so this should be your mainrole if you focus on climbing. (Not if you just want to have fun though, just play what you like more in that case!)

Early Game

Blueside clear: Redbuff, then Wolves, then Bluebuff, then Gromp and then you should look for a opportunity to gank (pushed in lane), if you cant gank (no one is pushed in enough) then you go Scuttlecrab, Krugs and Raptors before you go shop.

Redside Clear: Bluebuff, then Gromp, then Wolves, then Redbuff and then try to look for a gank, if you cant gank, do Krugs then Raptors and go back.

Ganks: Do not run into a lane with your Q, keep this ability until you really need it. if the enemy laner has pushed, you walk up to the enemy and slow him with your E, use your Q AFTER he flashed/dashed to catch up to him and flip him away from his turret. After every autoattack you make it will pass a short time until you will autoattack again, use this time to walk in front him after every autoattack. AA - Walk in front of him - AA again, and and and...

Midgame

Midgame is like i already said all about small skirmishes, Volibear is a great 2v2 and 1v1 fighter in midgame.
At this point you should try to help your botlane as good as possible because a dead enemy botlane means a free drake for your team.
You can also look for a gank on toplane for a nice Heroldbuff.
Dont waste time if there is nothing to get, there is no point in kiling a enemy if you cant get anything (Turrets/Drake/Herold) out of it, if you cant get something out of a kill, try to farm up and get your Items. (This rule doesn't work for earlygame, early kills/assists are always important as Junglebear)

Lategame

Lategame is basically exact the same as on Toplanebear, except that you have no Zz'Rot Portal.
Just make pressure on the sidelanes through slowpushing them while you group up somewhere.
You can also go a little bit deeper while pushing if your Ghost is up, you dont really want to waste it for this in lategame anymore though.

If you see a opportunity to win a Temafight, go ahead and group while your sidelanes are pushed out.
You can also try to siege if the sidelanes have huge waves that will take turrets of their own, in that case at least one enemy will have to go and you can engage a 5v4 dive.

Make sure you keep Baron and Dragon warded.

There is much more to say (where will the enemy jungler be at what point of the game), but i just leave it here, there are also alot of things you cant learn from others, you just need alot of experience and practise, GL&HF!

Farming is everything as a Toplaner, the higher your farm, the higher your elo.

There is a little time you cant autoattack directly after you flipped someone, use this time to cast your Ultimate.
You can interrupt the animation of your Ultimate if you Q immediately after.
Use your E in the very last moment before the Camp will hit you, to avoid as much DMG as possible.
Your E cant interrupt your own autoattacks.
You will keep the bonus MS from your Q even after you flipped someone.
If your smite deals 1000 DMG, smite the drake already at 1400HP and finish him off immediately after with your bite, this lowers the chance for the enemy to steal it.


Volibear is ALL about using your Brain, no mechanical outplay, not hard to play, nothing but using your Brain. Dont play on autopilot, be aware of what you do and keep asking yourself why you do what you do.

Summary

Volibear can be strong if used right. He is a better jungler than Toplaner but can be played in both roles. His Midgame is his strongest phase of the game. His role in lategame is to peel the enemys of his carrys.

This was my First Guide ever.

Please tell me if i missed something and i will try to add it as soon as possible.
If you have any questions, ask me. I will read everyone of them!

Thanks for reading, now go ahead and get your Freelo!