What makes Vel'Koz a viable support?

Pros;

+ ****loads of consistent damage – poke, poke, and a strong combo + finisher. He’s someone who you don’t want to be laning against under 50% health. + Decent amount of CC. While not amongst best peelers, Vel’koz can defend his carry when needed, while also helping in initiating and picking off people. + Passive that provides true damage – current meta’s tanks are not as much of a problem + Good AA-animation and above-decent ranges – he’s relatively safe + Snowbally, can literally carry the lane by himself due to the combination of the above. + People are not used to laning against him – surprise mother*****s!

Cons;

- Vulnerable when his Tectonic Disruption is on cooldown due to only having a slow to rely on and no innate mobility. - Certain unreliability – only skillshots. - Ultimate is interruptable by various forms of CC, which negates a lot of his teamfight damage. Good positioning goes a long way. Don’t forget you can stop the channeling yourself. - No heals or fancy shields – you’re the lane bully in the most straight meaning of the word. - Tentacle jokes.

Gameplay

Vel’koz doesn’t have any real counters in current bot lane meta (in my humble opinion), with maybe Morgana and Soraka proving to be more irritating matchups. Also, I think Karma has potential to poke harder than you do early while reducing your own poke, so she can be a dangerous opponent – but she lacks the level 6 powerspike of most other champions. Vel'koz can still win pretty much every lane unless the enemy jungler is significantly camping at bot.

Vel’koz holds 2 things over Leona and Thresh: He can safely poke them while not exposing himself, and he has tools to disengage his ADC from them, or simply blow them up if they are too careless. His true damage also bypasses especially Leona’s durability, making the poke and ultimate strike and stick hard even on her.

What Vel'koz holds over Morgana and Nami are his cheap mana costs and damage output – you can simply overload their shield and heal namely, and if you’re a good dodger to boot/the enemies can’t hit their skillshots, those matches can be a cake-walk. You can also instantly take an ADC down to 30-40% health with Life Form Disintegration Ray when he returns to the lane.

In teamfights, you want to position yourself at the backline, peeling the would-be-attackers of your carries, while obliterating entire enemy teams with your properly timed ultimates. Sometimes there won’t even be as many teamfights due to your ability to poke and pick off single targets, similar to Ziggs.

Classified, Vel'Koz would fulfill the requirements for being both poke and all-in type of support, effectively being a “control”-type of support (too pokemon-ish?).



Building Vel'koz

Summoner Spells Flash is mandatory on a non-mobile champion like Vel’koz that really benefits from the fast re-positioning. Heal is a really strong spell after the recent changes, outshining Ignite and granting you movement speed, both excellent for squishy mage. Alternatively, in some games Exhaust can really save you or someone else from that enemy Zed or Graves and turn the tables.

Runes Personally, I use this setup most of the time since most meta-supports deal a hefty amount of magical damage themselves. Alternatively, you can opt for hybrid penetration instead of pure magic penetration. You can also swap MR for AP glyphs to give some extra boost to your early power at the cost of some survability. More magic penetration is also an option due to Vel'Koz's high-ish base damages.

I like to start with a Spellthief's Edge, 2 HP pots and 2 mana pots – or 2 pots and a ward - taking Sightstone along the first recall to base. From there, I like to build Sorcerer's Shoes for the magic penetration, which greatly benefits Vel'Koz, after which I finish Frost Queen's Claim for the active and CDR. The rest of the itemization varies depending on team compositions and needs, but I do think Liandry's Torment is a good item if you get fed (you have 3 slows at your disposal). Overall, Vel’Koz benefits hugely from CDR, mana regen and magic penetration. The more you're able to spam your skills, the better you can peel, and deal damage via constant bursts of true damage. Your ultimate is also up for use more often, which can be crucial late game.

Take points in your ultimate, Life Form Disintegration Ray at levels 6,11 and 16 respectively. Max Plasma Fission first, it’s your main poking tool and the slow duration increases with levels. Max Void Rift second for the damage and lower recharge time. Tectonic Disruption is your one-hit-wonder skill that has the lowest base damage of all your skills when maxed, and the cooldown is only cut by 1 second per level, so we take only 1 point at lvl 2 and max it last. You often want to use Plasma Fission or Frost Queen's Claim to set up your Tectonic Disruption to easily hit both parts of Void Rift, effectively adding 3-4 stacks of Organic Deconstruction. You can now either cast Plasma Fission if you didn't before, or wrap it up with Life Form Disintegration Ray to add a total of 9 stacks of Organic Deconstruction (3 procs).

Lane synergy