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Viego Build Guide by

Yamikaze's Challenger Viego Guide

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Viego Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (4) More Viego Guides

Runes:

Precision

Conqueror

Triumph

Legend: Tenacity

Last Stand

Domination

Taste of Blood

Ravenous Hunter

Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+65 Base Health

Spells:

1 2

Standard

Flash

Ignite

Items

Starting Items

Core Items

After Core (Situational)

Boots

Standard Build

vs AD Heavy

vs AP Heavy

Ability Order

Viego Passive Ability

Champion Build Guide

-Table of Contents-

Pre Game

Runes
Summoner Spells

Viego

Abilities
Items

Gameplay and Extra

Introduction
Passive
Early Game
Mid Game
Late Game
TeamFighting
Conclusion

Hi, welcome to my Viego guide. I'm a Challenger mid laner and almost exclusively play melee mids. This guide is for mid Viego but the build should be fine on both top and jungle. Viego is one of the easiest to pick up & highest skill cap mid laners in the game atm. He snowballs extremely hard and requires a base understanding of every kit in the game to execute. But, hey, if you're new to League, you get to play every kit in the game 😋.

Oh, and for credibility purposes: I peaked rank 30 Season 8, ended rank 100 Challenger. Peak rank 101 Season 9, ended 1 win off Challenger. Season 10 peak rank 182, ended rank 273 Challenger. op.gg: https://na.op.gg/summoner/?userName=yamikaze

CONQUEROR RUNES

Conqueror
Standard for melee dps champs like as you want to be taking extended trades when possible. Super easy to stack for , especially since your Q passive gives 4 stacks total. PTA is also viable for more damage (your Q passive also applies 2 PTA stacks). Personal preference imo.

Triumph
Triumph - Best in slot for sure.

Legend: Tenacity
I slightly prefer tenacity over alacrity as there's a lot of cc in team comps these days and it's important that you don't get cc'd out of your combo / resets. However, alacrity is really good especially with on-hit items. Personal preference.

Last Stand
Imo always better than the other 2 choices, especially with goredrinker.

Taste of Blood
OP rune. Gives easily 1-3 health pots in lane and I personally think sudden impact is a really weak rune anyways.

Ravenous Hunter
Standard with goredrinker/conqueror builds for more healing & sustain.

Flash/Ignite
Generally good for kill pressure in lane and to help get first reset to snowball fights.

Flash/Teleport
TP is fine if you're struggling with melee laning or prefer TP to join fights. Also quite good in a more coordinated environment if you're playing 5 man / clash etc.

			Max Order:

	I recommend R>Q>E>W max. Max E > W because you get way better stats (more attack speed + ms) vs. damage on your W.

Passive: Sovereign's Domination

Whenever an enemy champion is killed by or dies within 3 seconds of being damaged by him, a Mist Wraith spawns from their corpse for 8 seconds. can basic attack a Mist Wraith to possess it, heal himseld based on the target's maximum health, and blink to its location after winding up for 1 second, during which he is untargetable (except to turrets).

Possession lasts for 10 seconds and replaces 's basic attacks, basic abilities, items, base stats (based on 's level), and appearance with the champion the Mist Wraith was summoned by and grants him a free cast of Heartbreaker that is initially placed on a 1.5-second cooldown. also gains 10% bonus movement speed while moving toward nearby enemy champions during this time. cannot use item actives, consumable items, nor the shop while under possession. will preserve his current health percentage between transformations.

Your passive is your core champ identity & most of the skill cap. If you kill or assist an enemy champion, you can auto them to pick up their soul. During this time, you heal and are invulnerable (except for turrets). Then, for 10s, you have all of their basic abilities and items. This means, if you pick up a fed adc's soul, you will become the fed adc with all abilities up. Similarly, if you pick up the enemy 0-10 support, you may not be doing much damage. Post 6, you get a free ult charge (of your own ult) whenever you pick up a soul. You can use this to cancel your form. This passive is a little tricky because it requires you to have a basic understanding of basically every champion in the game. If you're newer to the game, I recommend quickly looking up champion kits that you're unfamiliar with on the enemy team during champ select / load screen (I've been playing for almost 10 years and I'm still looking up kits occasionally lol).

Q: Blade Of The Ruined King

's basic attacks deal bonus physical damage on-hit. The bonus damage has a minimum threshold and is capped at 80 against monsters.

Additionally, 's damaging abilities apply a mark to enemies for 4 seconds. 's next basic attack against a marked target consumes the mark to strike twice, with the second strike dealing 20% AD (+ 15% AP) physical damage and healing him for 150% of the post-mitigation damage dealt, increased to 155% against monsters and reduced to 100% against minions. The second strike is affected by Critical strike icon.png critical strike modifiers and, while not under possession, it applies on-hit effects at 100% effectiveness.

ACTIVE: thrusts his blade in the target direction, dealing physical damage to enemies hit, increased by 0% − 75% (based on critical strike chance), and 10 bonus physical damage against monsters.

This is a basic line skillshot with a small cast time. Shouldn't be hard to hit but if you want to guarantee it you can always use it after your W stun (w-aa-q-aa). The passive on your Q is very strong. Use it in lane (q-aa minions) to heal after trades and you win most lanes through sustain. Weave autos between your abilities to apply the passive.

W: Spectral Maw

charges while being Slow icon.png slowed by 15% for up to 3 seconds to increase Spectral Maw's mist missile range and stun duration over the first second of the channel. Spectral Maw can be recast at any time within its duration. If the charge completes without reactivation, Spectral Maw is canceled and goes on full cooldown.

RECAST: hurls a blast of mist in the target direction and dashes a fixed distance in the same direction, though not through terrain. The mist deals magic damage to the first enemy struck and stuns them for 0.25 − 1.25 (based on channel time) seconds.

Your w is a charged dash (always the same distance) with a stun missile that goes further the longer you hold the cast (the missile goes further, not the dash). W is an auto reset, so you can sneak an auto in before tapping w if you're in melee range. You can also cast your Q/E/R mid dash. If you start charging your W in your E, you come out of stealth for 1s before going back in. Generally you want to open fights with W, but you can hold it in certain matchups (e.g. vs kat with ult) to interrupt or to guarantee the stun. Remember that your dash is a fixed range regardless of how long you hold it for, only the missile range and stun duration increase.

E: Harrowed Path

sends a spectre in the target direction that creates a trail of mist along its path which lasts 8 seconds. The mist spreads around the first instance of terrain encountered. While inside the mist, gains bonus attack speed and, if he is not attacking or casting, he becomes camouflaged and gains bonus movement speed. Declaring a basic attack or casting an ability will break the camouflage and remove the bonus movement speed, preventing from gaining them again for 1 second, increased to 2 seconds if he attacked a Monster icon.png monster. This duration refreshes on subsequent attacks and ability casts.

Harrowed Path can be cast during any of 's abilities.

Your e is a terrain modifier that gives you bonus attack speed and ms while standing in it. If it hits a wall, it will expand to cover the entire wall. Try to use E for any extended trades you take for the attack speed buff. If you're fighting in lane, you can cast E mid W to save time on the E cast and gain the buff for the trade. In lane, you can use E to fake recall / roam and sit on the edge to bait the enemy laner into stepping into your range.

R: Heartbreaker

ACTIVE: discards his current possession if he has one and gains displacement immunity over the cast time, then Flash.png blinks to the target location.

Upon arrival, creates a blast that deals 120% AD physical damage to all nearby enemies, increased by 0% − 75% (based on critical strike chance), and knocks back all but one up-to 400 units away based on proximity, though not through terrain.

The most wounded enemy champion, alternatively the closest one, is not knocked back and instead takes the blow from 's blade, which deals bonus physical damage, slows them by 99% for 0.5 seconds, and applies on-hit effects at 100% effectiveness.

Your R is a delayed cast execute in a circle. The cast time is pretty long and it's easy to flash. You can use it right after you hit stun for a guaranteed ult (and usually reset) depending on w charge length and enemy tenacity if you're worried they're going to dash out of your ult. You get a fresh charge of your R whenever you pick up a soul and you can use it to drop the soul you're currently holding. If you're ahead or confident that your target will flash your R if they're low, you can open with R into W-AA-Q-aa etc. Also, you can W-R to extend the range if your target is just out of R range.

Starting Items

Doran's Blade
Standard start. Good sustain + damage in lane. Try to delay selling for as long as possible (usually 3rd/4th+ item) as it gives a lot of gold & slot value. A second doran's blade on first back is good as well (the stats are still gold efficient even though the passive doesn't stack) if you're looking to fight a lot and/or snowball your lane early.

Doran's Shield
Safe start for poke / hard matchups you aren't confident in. Insane sustain and super forgiving so if you aren't comfortable in melee vs ranged matchups or want to play safe in general, start this. Don't feel too bad about selling this after laning.

Core Items

Blade of the Ruined King
Best 1st item for laning in the game. Slightly lower damage than Kraken (Kraken -> Bork is also very good). Huge powerspike with good utility (healing, ms).

Kraken Slayer
Very good second / first item and sooo much damage once completed. Huge powerspike and you can start killing people in 1-2 rotations very easily with this finished. I skip this and go straight for Steraks if I'm very far ahead and don't care about the extra damage in favor of survivability.

Sterak's Gage
Core 3rd or even 2nd item (when ahead). Once you have this, you're very hard to kill and can easily get your damage + resets off without getting 1shot. Again, I build this earlier the further ahead I am, as you want survivability > damage when ahead.

Death's Dance
After your core 2-3 items (Kraken, Bork, Steraks), I usually build tanky items like Death's Dance / Spirit Visage depending on enemy damage distribution. If the enemy team has AD heavy damage threats, I build Death's Dance as it's one of the best items in the game vs AD damage.

Spirit Visage
See above. I build this 4th or 5th for MR vs magic heavy teams.

Guardian Angel
Good 5th / 6th item as lategame teamfights often decide games and GA is very good at swinging late fights. Remember - if you have GA and you pick up a soul, you no longer have the revive until you swap out.

Randuin's Omen
If the enemy team is super AD heavy, you can build one of these and be unkillable.

How to play around Passive

I think the vast majority of skill expression comes from his passive, so I'll include this section before anything else. 's passive allows you to become an enemy champion, with all their skill points, items, etc. when you get a kill/assist. You also go invuln, heal, and get an ult reset when you pick up the soul, making it a huge snowball mechanic in a fight. However, you need to understand the basic rotations and abilities of every enemy champ in every game. Also, since you lose all your items and gain the items of the soul you're currently in, not every soul is worth picking up or staying in. For example, if you're fed and tanky with a Steraks and GA and you pick up the soul of a full crit adc, you can get insta 1shot and die without popping GA/Steraks as the adc you are holding doesn't have them. There's also a 1.5 second delay until you can cast ult if you pick up a soul, so you can't instantly pick up a soul and drop it. Another thing to watch for is when you pick up the soul of a very weak enemy player. players seem to tend to use their souls basic combos before dropping, but this isn't worth it unless the soul you're holding is stronger than your current state. For example, if you pick up a 0-10 qiyana, you'll probably do 0 damage and get 1shot before you can finish your basic rotation. It's important to know when to use your soul's abilities and when to drop it asap or even not pick it up.

Early Game

's early game is pretty standard for a melee mid. Use Q to poke & farm. Auto minions you've Q'd for insane sustain. Start trades by channeling W into aa-Q-aa. I personally take any trade that I'm slightly losing, without dying to obvious jungle ganks or dropping too low, as you will find that you outsustain basically every other mid laner in the game. Losing a trade by even 20% isn't a big deal as you can Q-aa the wave and be higher health in 10 seconds. Be careful about dropping too low, as you'll put yourself in a position where you're either getting zoned from cs or in lethal range if you try to heal with Q-aa.

Mid Game

After laning phase (when either bot turret falls), you generally swap to side lane and let your bot play mid. Look to shove waves and rotate mid for fights. The further you shove a wave, the higher your cs will be and the faster the minions will bounce back. Always focus on keeping good cs (this is true on any mid laner you play). A 2-3 wave difference is easily 1-2 levels and 2+ kills worth of gold, and it's a lot easier to build a 2-3 wave advantage than get 2+ kills.

Teamfighting

Aside from passive usage (covered in previous sections), try to start fights from a slight flank angle on . Always open with E on the most optimal wall for the fight. Look to either 1shot an out of position squishy or focus frontline with your team (the latter is always easier to execute). Aim for your first soul reset asap (usually off the frontline target you killed with your team) and continue to reset until you've killed their whole team. Or die and flip your keyboard.

Late Game

definitely has very good scaling (idk if I'd call him a late game champ because his early-mid isn't bad at all), so don't worry about games going late. Something to keep in mind in lategame teamfights (that usually decide the game) is that Elixir of Iron > Elixir of Wrath always. Also, since there tends to be a large item gap between players lategame (especially in lower elos), be very careful about which souls you take. Taking a 3 item adc as a 6 item will tend to get you 1shot and sad because neither your steraks nor GA proc and your health bar is 3k lower than expected.

Viego is a very high skill cap champion and I hope my guide helps your journey to mastery. Special thanks to Hoppermh for coding and banners. I stream at https://twitch.tv/yamikazexz and make yt vids at http://youtube.com/c/yamikaze. Leave a comment if you notice a mistake or something out of date. Consider an upvote if you found the guide helpful. Thank you for reading.