Volibear Build Guide by EZYoDa

Introduction

Volibear is considered one of the best junglers in the game right now. His ult gives him good damage even when building 100% tanky items which is a trait of most OP tanks. On top of that, he has awesome ganks with two forms of CC, and can win almost any early skirmish with Chosen of the Storm

SPACE

Pros/Cons

Pros

1. Insane ganks
2. Stays healthy in jungle with Majestic Roar
3. Great damage with Thunder Claws even with all tanky items
4. Wins any early skirmish with Chosen of the Storm

Cons

1. No AoE ult
2. Easily stunned when engaging team fight
3. Slightly weak to ignite and other healing reduction
4. Flip can be hard to use properly

Runes

9x 9x 9x 3x

...

Greater Mark of Attack Speed Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed

Volibear definitely wants movespeed quints to catch up to enemies to land a devastating Rolling Thunder. Attack speed is also key on him since Thunder Claws is an on-hit effect, as well as small synergy with Frenzy. Other than that it's just your standard tanky jungle runes for glyphs/seals. I wouldn't do anything different on Volibear ever.

Masteries

We're building HP/tanky items, so we definitely want 21 points in defense. Top priorities in this tree are Juggernaut and Legendary Armor as they accentuate our build - all HP, armor, and MR. I also like 9 points in utility as Flash Rolling Thunder is your most consistent avenue of successful kills, so we want to reduce Flash cooldown by as much as possible. Also, our damage is kind of hybrid since we have both physical and magical damage abilities so the 9th point in offense matters less.

Items

Machete/5 is the standard jungle start. I would never do anything different.



You will want Spirit of the Ancient Golem as that's the best item at the moment for tanky junglers. The CDR, flat HP, and tenactiy are unmatched per gold by any other item. Get Spirit Stone first, then finish it after Boots of Speed. You should also consider Boots of Mobility before finishing Spirit of the Ancient Golem if you're doing really well, but usually finish Spirit of the Ancient Golem.

From there you should look to get Locket of the Iron Solari as it is extremely easy to build (extremely cheap recipe pieces). If you have a lot of gold when you back you can skip it and go straight into your end-game items, but usually you'll want it.


Spirit Visage is almost always a must-buy, again unless they have 0 magic damage (rare). The healing bonus is insane with Chosen of the Storm, and health/cdr are nice too. If they have no magic damage, take Sunfire Cape instead.

Randuin's Omen and Warmog's Armor are your big ticket tanky items. Get Randuin's Omen first if their AD is fed, otherwise Warmog's Armor has awesome synergy with all the other health items you bought.



If you really are lacking DPS on your team, Wit's End increases our damage by a large amount since AS stacks well with our Thunder Claws.

Summoner Spells

Smite is a necessity for all junglers. Helps you kill buffs, secure objectives, etc etc.

Flash is extremely important on Volibear. We got 9 points in utility just because it's that important - flash flip is one of the scariest things you can do as Volibear. I have seen people take Ghost, I think that's a lot worse though as it takes a lot away from your early game.

Skill Sequence

You want to take Majestic Roar at level one since it's the most efficient skill for killing jungle creeps - the 3 second fear is ridiculous. Also max it first, since it's your best source of damage output during fights. Max Frenzy second since it helps you clear faster, and also because maxing Rolling Thunder doesn't really give you much - in fights you don't really chase people down other than the initiate, you just brawl their front-line.

Early Game

Volibear's early game is his strongest time by far. Chosen of the Storm means you can win almost any 2v2 or 1v1 fight, so look to see where their jungler is and meet him either in the jungle or for a counter-gank. You can usually tell where they started by watching where mid lane came from after helping. Always try to guess their jungle path based on what they are playing, and the lane positions. Keep in mind the standard paths:

Purple side:
Blue (smiteless) -> Red -> Wraith -> Wolf

Blue side:
Red (smiteless) -> Blue -> Wolf -> Wraith

You should almost always follow the standard path, unless you notice that a lane is pushed with no ward. If it's your own lane, then you need to go back that person up by either camping for a counter-gank or just shoving the lane with them so they can go shop and get a ward. If it's the enemy, look to gank and be ready to brawl if the other jungler is there to counter-gank. Volibear is extremely strong for this because of Chosen of the Storm as I already mentioned, so you should win in most of these situations.

If no one is pushed up without a ward, your best bet for a gank chance is mid. Flash -> Rolling Thunder is almost always a kill unless they flash before you have range to flip them, in which case just come back again and there's no escape.

Mid Game

The mid game is pretty much the same as the early game - look for extended laners with no ward and either back them up or kill them, depending on which team they are on. The only change now is that you're tanky enough to dive towers, so look for low HP people that are trying to farm on tower as well.

Another trick you can do is to have someone pink ward the dragon, and try to solo it - Thunder Claws is an excellent DPS tool, and once you have Locket of the Iron Solari you can solo dragon - especially if just one person comes to help when it's too late for enemy laners to respond already. One important note here - don't just run up and do it, you need to have proper setup. Tell your team what you're about to do, have them push up the lanes and make sure you have vision so in the worst case you can just Flash out.

Late Game

Late game is pretty simple with Volibear. Look for opponents who are out of position, then use Rolling Thunder and Flash to catch them. One important thing - you don't have any catching tools after the initial Rolling Thunder -> Majestic Roar and Flash combo, so DON'T chase the enemy back-line. Just flip the person you caught and then use Thunder Claws and fight what's in front of you. Getting kited by their backline when you're a tanky piece of meat with high DPS is about the worst thing you can do.

Special Techniques

Almost all of Volibear's special tricks revolve around Rolling Thunder. There are however some important mechanics to learn so I'll write about them here as well.

1. Flash -> Rolling Thunder - As you may have guessed, this is your bread and butter combo. Nothing catches people off-guard like a speedy bear running at them and then suddenly they are caught. Make sure you understand the exact range of this combo as flashing then not getting the flip is embarrassing and costly.

2. Rolling Thunder in the right direction - I can't remember how many times I've seen someone attempt to use Rolling Thunder but actually flip the enemy the wrong way. Yes it is a stun but be sure you're positioned properly so you throw the person in the right direction and don't accidentally save them or get an ally killed.

3. Rolling Thunder interrupting jump/dash - This one is really really hard to pull off. Basically, when you're fighting champs with dash/jumps (ie, Jax, Irelia, Tristana etc), your Rolling Thunder trumps their escape spell if you use it at the same time. Try to predict when they will use their spell, then use Rolling Thunder at that exact moment and they will be completely owned.

4. Attack-reset with Rolling Thunder - Remember that technically, Rolling Thunder is an attack reset. So you can do attack -> Rolling Thunder -> attack for a nice triple-hit combo that includes a stun. Very useful for duels.

5. Majestic Roar with Rolling Thunder - There are a lot of times when Rolling Thunder is just barely short of catching them. At these times, you need to know the exact radius of Majestic Roar so you can use it to help catch up.

Conclusion / about the author

I hope you all have enjoyed my Volibear guide! Volibear is one of the strongest junglers in the game at the moment, and learning how to properly snowball a game with him will carry you far both in solo Q and arranged play! Here's an embed of my stream: