I might turn this into a guide in the future. Right now I am simply using it as a way of recording my experience playing with Vel'koz as a support and and learning the BBCode.

Boss support. Seriously. He has good poke with Plasma Fission (Q). Because you can angle shots you don't even need to fire from the cover of the bushes to have a chance at hitting the enemy laners. If they get on you or your carry, you can knock them up with Tectonic Disruption (E). If they are chasing you can slow them with your Q. And lay down Void Rift (W) to give them the choice of continuing the chase or eating the damage. Oh yah and then there is Life Form Disintegration Ray (R) >:D Oh and if you land three abilities on an enemy champion they take true damage due to your passive Organic Deconstruction.

Other things to note about Plasma Fission (Q).


If you fire it and then press Q again it will split early (as opposed to splitting when it hits a target or when it gets to the end of its max range).

If there is a minion or another champion between two champions you can hit all three by targeting your Q to hit the center target.


You can angle the main projectile to go off the rift. One half of the projectile will come back onto the rift when it splits at the end of its path. Useful for hitting people that are hugging the inside of a turret* or are simply standing near a rift wall.
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*I won't say don't stand here under any circumstances, but really, don't stand there if you can help it. If your turret is that under siege just back off and give it up, because while it may prevent you from being hit by some projectile it makes you a sitting duck for others and if you are against the wall when the turret goes down you are dead for sure.

There are a lot of lane combinations that you can push out of lane simply via your poke and if they hang around long enough for you to hit 6th level they are dead.

If you don't panic and have the mana for it, Vel'koz is quite good at kiting people trying to chase him if they don't have gap closers. Except Vayne. F her and her Tumble and invisibility and speed boost for running toward evil doers. Make her and her support cry in lane so they aren't relevant later.

Mana management in Lane:

With just Spell Thief for mana regeneration you can keep a fairly steady stream of Q's flying at the enemy laners. If you can, try and hit both of the enemy laners to get more bang for your buck. Tectonic Disruption and Void Rift are more costly to use than Plasma Fission so you really should only be using those when you need to kite/disengage or if you see a guaranteed opportunity to hit with them such as when the enemy laners are slowed by your Q.

Laning Against:

Blitzcrank - Is Blitz. One Rocket Grab can change the course of a game. Stay behind minions as best you can. Get good with your angled shots to harrass. If you get grabbed early, flash out. If you get grabbed after you have all three abilities, unload on their marksman and worry about how to get out safely later. Seriously, you deal tons of damage if you connect with three abilities. Blitz can interrupt your ultimate with three of his abilities, so do not try to ult if he is next to you or within flash range of you (factor in your positioning and the length of his rocket grab).

Nidalee - Kind of annoying. You're poke is better, but she brings sustain and traps for the bushes where you will want to lurk at times. If she hits you with a spear, she can be on you from a long way off when she switches to cougar form. Sometimes you have to worry about getting the cat off of you before dealing with the other team's marksman.

Ryze + Blitzcrank - You probably won't ever see this combination, but it is surprisingly annoying if you are with a short ranged marksman such as Vayne. They are both typically tanky enough that they can shrug off your poke for a while (not forever though). And there is always that pesky Blitz grab. Just don't give up too many free kills and let your marksman scale into late game since they don't have a marksman to compete.

Draven + Thresh - Very winnable lane if you can avoid hooks as Draven, even more than most ADCs due to his passive, League of Draven, needs kills to be relevant late game. When Draven has his Spinning Axe up a big freakin' circle appears on the ground that shows you exactly where he will be after the axe rebounds so abuse knowing where he is going to be. That said OMG he hurts even with no items. May be worth trading out one or more AP quints for more armor quints. Do not get hooked or you are most likely going to die or need to back. Draven also has a speed boost, Blood Rush, that he can use to juke your skill shots. His Stand Aside is also annoying but since you should be staying at max range to poke him, it usually isn't the end of the world if you get hit by it. Another point to remember about Draven is that even if you dodge the initial cast of Whirling Death unless Draven dies it will eventually come back so be prepared to dodge it.

Xin Zhao - Xin is pain in the rear to deal with as if he dashes at the right time he can basically dodge all your peel.

If he E's onto you there are two choices.

1) Drop your tectonic disruption right on yourself to get him off of you for a second. The thing is he will already have activated his q and he is faster than you with or without boots by virtue of having a higher base movement speed, so he can just follow you and knock you up.

2) You can just count off his autoattacks and flash before the third one hits you. But if you are far enough away from your tower, he can just flash after you and chase you down.

Ideally what you want to do if you see him coming to your lane is to get behind your carry as you have tools to get Xin off your carry and kite him afterwards.

Of course this all becomes more complicated if the enemy support and adc are involved in the skirmish. I would say the main thing is to get Xin off your carry so they have a chance to fighting chance to hit back or run.

Master Yi - is pretty much like a Xin Zhao that is even harder to kite due to Alpha Strike making him untargetable and his ultimate, Highlander, making him immune to slows. On the plus side, compared to Xin Zhao, Master Yi doesn't have a knock up. On the down side if he has Wuju Style active he does true damage. The best defense against Yi is to ward the entrances to your lane that way if you see him coming you can simply back up to your tower and wait for him to go away. If he does get close enough that he is likely to be able to engage on you, judge how far you are to your tower and if you are close enough try to flash before he can alpha strike* you and then work on getting him off of your carry. In team fights the way to deal with Master Yi is to hit him with crowd control. If he is fed it is worth focusing a lot of crowd control on him otherwise he will rip through your entire team, especially if you are low and he is coming in for cleanup. *Musing (haven't actually successfully done this or seen it done) - It would be hard to accomplish but if you are going to be the fifth target he hits with alpha strike and you flash toward your turret he should be teleported along with you bringing him into turret range.

Leona - Yuck. You are squishy. She is good at locking you down so her carry can wail on you. Generally not a good idea to pick Vel'koz into Leona. She will make you cry large void tears.

Thresh - really depends on the Thresh. If he is super aggressive you and your carry need to be on the same page and make him pay for his aggression. If you don't laning against him is probably going to suck. If he is mostly passive to passive you can poke the souls out him like any other support. But be advised he still has the potential to turn a lane around with one good hook and/or lantern toss.

Sona - kinda annoying to lane against with all the healing. Not impossible.

Lucian - Watch out for the double tap from Lucien. You are pretty squishy so it hurts even with some Armor Quints. Also if the Lucien has good reaction time he can dodge the majority of your poke with his dash.

Annie - ouch. Make sure you have a Sightstone before she hits 6th level so you hopefully have enough HP to survive an ult at least long enough to protect your carry.

Malphite - another one that sucks for Vel'Koz. He can ult you at the back of the team.

Lux - Not super annoying if you can dodge her Light Binding. She can keep you pushed off your minions just like you can, so you have to play around her Lucent Singularity and she can shield some of your damage with her Prismatic Barrier. And of course there is her ultimate, Final Spark, which is on a shorter than your ult's and is applied as a burst of damage rather than over time.

Teemo - Blinding Dart doesn't really bother you, but his attacks and spells hurt since my build doesn't include any MR. Mushrooms are annoying. Sweeper might get one, but there could be a bunch more. Avoid walking through brush that you haven't scanned. His move quick can get him out of Q range. Need a touch of patience at times.

Vayne - can tumble to avoid your Q's though sometimes she will tumble into the secondary explosion. Stay away from walls when fighting her, though Condemn knocks you back quite a ways so this can be hard. A pink ward can help a little when she uses Tumble with her Ultimate in effect, but probably not enough to be worth keeping them in your inventory just for that purpose because you have to be super quick to take advantage of the vision.

Laning With:

Ezreal - if you are partnered with an Ezreal that can land Mystic Shot you can poke the snot out of the enemy laners. And if they get low they can eat double ults. Wah hah hah ha!