by Mana

[5.0] Varus Guide - Varus, a flexible ADC

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Look here for an updated independent version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O7P2xlbhsTuyxFS9z2ag_Ne2t3IrXzxvNXM8k6omJDk/edit?usp=sharing
Patch 5.0
February 25, 2024 17:29
Bot

Varus, a flexible ADC

This is a guide about Varus and his many different builds. Due to his flexible nature he can fit into many team comps and can fill multiple purposes, which makes him a great ADC to pick up.

Pros

  • long range abilities with high damage => great poke
  • high dps due to blight stacks (specially on-hit build)
  • high burst potential (can one-shot tanks in an ap build)
  • ultimate for great utility can change entire teamfights
  • hybrid damage => hard to itemize against
  • higher than average AA range (575)

Cons

  • no escape tool
  • has lots of skill-shots (requires good aim and prediction)
  • needs good positioning and champ mastery
  • if you miss your ultimate while getting dived, you are dead, if you miss your ultimate on AP build you miss a great chunk of damage
  • ultimate is countered by QSS, Morgana black shield, mundo passive, olaf ult, edge of night/banshees veil

Varus Build

Best Build Guide for Varus

Starting Items
Long Sword
Amplifying Tome
Example On-Hit
Manamune
Blade of the Ruined King
Gluttonous Greaves
Wit's End
Runaan's Hurricane
Bloodthirster
Example Crit
Blade of the Ruined King
Gluttonous Greaves
Stormrazor
Infinity Edge
Lord Dominik's Regards
Phantom Dancer
Example AP
Nashor's Tooth
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Riftmaker
Rabadon's Deathcap
Infinity Orb
Void Staff
Example Lethality
Youmuu's Ghostblade
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Manamune
Serylda's Grudge
Serpent's Fang
Edge of Night
Example Hybrid
Bloodthirster
Phantom Dancer
Gluttonous Greaves
Nashor's Tooth
Riftmaker
Rabadon's Deathcap

Item Build Description

Additional information on the items

Instead of a build order for each build i choose to rather give tips on the items themself, i will add for which builds they are mostly important (OH, Crit, AP, Lethal) so it will be less confusing.

Overall i use the builds in this order which i presented them (preferedly, things change due to not every match being the same), if things change i will update the builds


IMPORTANT:The skill order in this build is for AD builds, where you max Piercing ArrowPiercing Arrow first, on AP builds on the other hand you want to max Blighted QuiverBlighted Quiver first and Piercing ArrowPiercing Arrow second.


(OH; Lethal)
Muramana is a great first item in an on-hit build since it delivers high AD, gives you Mana to poke and extra ability haste. Since the on-hit build doesn't focus on crit rate building its a really good option to pump in some extra AD to make arrows hurt even without blight stacks. Other wise this item is due to the high AD great for the lethality build, but here i recommend to start with the Tear of the GoddessTear of the Goddess and then go for Youmuu's GhostbladeYoumuu's Ghostblade .

Important notice: ManamuneManamune will gain stacks every few AA after finishing it, thats why i suggest it as a rush item for the on-hit build.


(OH; Hybrid)
Great item. Offers sustain, attack speed, a lot of on-hit dmg and movement speed. If you play against a poking lane, i suggest to pick up a Vampiric ScepterVampiric Scepter before you finish MuramanaMuramana . This will help you to stay in lane.

(OH)
Scaling on-hit dmg + sustain if you are <50% hp. The added magic resist might prevent the enemy Akali to one-shot you before you kill her. The item is also a good pick up on crit build if you already have 100% crit chance and play against some fed AP champ.

(OH; Crit; Hybrid)

Super strong item on Varus. Each of your AA will spread blight stacks from Blighted QuiverBlighted Quiver which you can all pop in 1 chaotic teamfight with your other skills. Will also let you heal up pretty quick on clearing waves with Bork or BT.

(OH; Crit; Hybrid)

I pick up BT in the on-hit build for extra sustain and the shield, which makes it harder to kill you (can't dps if the enemy killed you already). For the crit build its generally good as item, lots of AD, sustain and crit chance.

(Crit)

First item you wanna pick up on a crit build. Stormrazor is just so strong right now that its a better choice as first item than anything else. The slow will also help you to hit your ultimate or a Hail Of ArrowsHail Of Arrows , to slow them for longer periode.

(Crit)

RFC is only good if you want to poke your enemy in a crit build. Hit a blight stack, pop it and refresh your RFC, else you got better options. VERY NICHE

(Crit)

Item works as a worse Runaan's, since ruunans stacks your blight. NOT RECOMMENDED.

(Crit)

NOT RECOMMENDED, since you don't spam enough abilities to make it work well, even with Navoris

(Crit)

High dmg + 30% extra dmg on your crits? Great 2nd item if you build crit.

(Crit)

This one is a bit tricky... Yes it will increase the amount of spells you can use in a fight, but technically, does Varus already has some reset mechanic, where he reduces cooldowns uppon popping blight stacks, but it helps you to get your skills way quicker back even without the stacks.

(Crit)

Might consider using it if you build Navori QuickbladesNavori Quickblades to get some Mana sustain, else you run out of the blue juice really quickly if you can't get your hands on a blue buff.

(OH; Crit; Lethal)

Oldest of the 3 armor pen items.. I wouldn't recommend Mortal Reminder tho. Reason is that you already have a 40% Grievious Wound effect in your Hail Of ArrowsHail Of Arrows . Getting 20% extra for 2000 gold (not counting in the price for Last WhisperLast Whisper ) is a bad choice.

(Lethal)

The 2nd armor pen item is better on lethality builds, because of the added Ability haste, but you sure can grab this one for crit builds if you already have 100% crit rate.

(OH; Crit)

Recommending this for the extra AS on first attack for on-hit builds as well. The crit rate makes it a no brainer best armor pen item for the crit build, but i still wish they would change LDR to be more like the PC counterpart. 35 AD for a faster attack feels bad since i could get my 100% crit rate on other items while picking up Mortal Reminder as armor pen.

(OH; Crit)

Great pick up against AP burst champs, like DianaDiana , AkaliAkali or VeigarVeigar .

(Crit; Hybrid)

Great defensive crit item. Can make you survive quick burst of an assassin, or just keep you long enough in a fight to kill your opponent.

(OH; Crit)

Prevents AD champs to burst you down, by reducing the dmg, which you gain as a true dmg DoT. The DoT can be cleansed, but you don't have a lot of HP to make the regeneration effect good. VERY NICHE ITEM

(OH, Crit; Lethal)

Most picked defensive ADC/AD champ item.. I will be honest here, i am not a great fan. If your team is mindless and ignores your GA then you get revived in the middle of the enemy team to die a 2nd time. It can work if you barely lose a 1v1, or you and the enemy kill each other, but thats the only good use for it.

(Lethal)

Best first item in the lethality build. The movement speed helps you, while the high AD will turn your Piercing ArrowPiercing Arrow into little nukes.

(Lethal)

Mostly used in lethality to stack up the "fix" (i mean just points of armor pen, not %) armor pen. If you play against KarmaKarma or ShenShen you also can pick this up for the on hit or crit build, but this is VERY NICHE.

(Lethal)

It got better armor pen than Edge of Night or Serpent's Fang, so consider to pick it up if you dont need one of the other 2 in your lethality build.

(Lethal)

Great if you want to survive 1 key ability of an enemy for the lethality build, else just to stack up high AD + Armor pen.

(AP; OH; Hybrid)

The only item with AS + AP. It will help you in the AP build to stack up blight on enemies, while increasing your DPS a lot, since you will now deal a % of your AP on each AA, same as your passive. For the on-hit build is is also nice since it adds a little bit of magic damage to your AA and increases your % health dmg if you pop blight stacks.

(AP; OH; Hybrid)

Increasing dmg, added true damage, a lot of AP and Omni vamp? The only option to gain sustain for your AP build. The sustain and true damage make it also a fun option for the on-hit build.

(AP; Hybrid)

If you want those sweet 1 shots you need a lot of AP. Rabadon's is therefor definitly a key item on the AP build.

(AP; Hybrid)

At 35% hp each of your AA will crit, while adding a nice ammount of flat armor pen and 85 AP. It is a really good item, which a lot of people sleep on for the AP build.

(AP; Hybrid)

You want that magic pen, since at some point tanks will build magic resist, or some carry will pick up maw or wit's end  to prevent your one-shot.

(AP)

An alternative for Infinity OrbInfinity Orb . Will add some extra damage due to the ludens passive, but its more of a NICHE ITEM.

(AP)

NOT RECOMMENDED. Yes it will add a burst after using a skill, but you already have your AA empowered with AP dmg due to your Blighted QuiverBlighted Quiver and Nashors.

(AP)

VERY NICHE ITEM, since you only have 6 slots. Sure you can easy proc the item with your ult and a Piercing ArrowPiercing Arrow but at this point you want the enemy already be dead, horizon defnitly offers some additional burst for that but you have to choose between replacing Infinity Orb or Riftmaker.

(OH)

Great if you play against multimple crit champs like ADC mid and bot lane or Windbros ( YasuoYasuo & YoneYone ) on both solo lanes. Since a team with many squishy crit champs won't build a lot of armor you are fine to not build any Last WhisperLast Whisper item on OH Varus

[amaranth twinguardian] aka Twinguardian

(OH)

Yea lets talk about the "tank's rabadon". The item is extremly strong for an OH focused build. The defensive stats are just massive and if you run ConditioningConditioning on top of it you gain even more value from the item itself. If you wanna be hardly killable then the item is a great choice as specially with BT + BorK + Runaan's for a lot of AoE lifesteal.




Varus Runes

Best Runes for Varus

Keystone
Lethal Tempo
Lethal Tempo
Domination
Gathering Storm
Gathering Storm
Resolve
Conditioning
Conditioning
Inspiration
Hunter Genius
Hunter Genius

You play most variations of Varus with Lethal TempoLethal Tempo . It's great to stack [varus:2] and pop them quickly with your skills to gain resets. 

Lethal TempoLethal Tempo works great with your passive as well and lets you quickly take down enemies.

For Domination runes Gathering StormGathering Storm is always a great scaling option and if you play AP Varus, it is a must pick, otherwise Hunter VampirismHunter Vampirism , TriumphTriumph and Giant SlayerGiant Slayer are great choices depending on situations.

For Resolve runes i also tend with the scaling ConditioningConditioning since it is free stats over time (13 min ingame you get free 1000 gold worth MR and Armor), otherwise against heavy CC comps pick up Hunter TitanHunter Titan or in some matchups Bone PlatingBone Plating which helps you against all-ins.

For Inspiration i suggest mainly Hunter GeniusHunter Genius for the Ability haste on your ultimate, while Manaflow BandManaflow Band can work great as well since u have mana issues early game. Alternative you can also use Nimbus CloakNimbus Cloak as a more defensive option.

Keystone
Summon Aery
Summon Aery
Domination
Scorch
Scorch
Resolve
Conditioning
Conditioning
Inspiration
Hunter Genius
Hunter Genius

Use this runeset for Lethality Varus, which is a poke build. 

When ever you hit a skill you will apply Summon AerySummon Aery and ScorchScorch to burn a chunk of their HP, which is combined with the raw AD lethality items give quite a lot of HP they can lose in a short time. If you look for more scaling an alternative for ScorchScorch is Gathering StormGathering Storm or against really tanky teams you want to use Giant SlayerGiant Slayer .

Pick up ConditioningConditioning for some free defensive stats and either Hunter GeniusHunter Genius for more Ability haste, Manaflow BandManaflow Band for some extra Mana to spam skills and a few extra AD on MuramanaMuramana or Nimbus CloakNimbus Cloak for the defensive value

Skill Order

How to distribute skill points

Living Vengeance
Living Vengeance - Passive
Piercing Arrow
Piercing Arrow
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Blighted Quiver
Blighted Quiver
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Hail Of Arrows
Hail Of Arrows
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Chain Of Corruption
Chain Of Corruption
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Summoner Spells

When to take which summoners

Flash
Must have. You have no mobility in your kit to use otherwise.
Exhaust
Great for duelling. You will win any 1v1 due to your high dps.
Ghost
In some matchups viable when flash alone is not enough to kite.
Barrier
To prevent burst.
Ignite
You serious want more damage... this summoner is kinda overkill on Varus and not recommended
Heal
After changes that the healed allied champ gets more heal, not recommended.

Combos

Learn how to maximize the champions potential

Chain Of Corruption
Ult
Blighted Quiver
2nd
Piercing Arrow
1st
Flash
Flash
Chain Of Corruption
Ult
Hail Of Arrows
3rd
Blighted Quiver
2nd
Auto Attack
AA
Auto Attack
AA
Piercing Arrow
1st

Flash ult + early blight procs with Hail Of ArrowsHail Of Arrows . Arrow will be much harder to hit since the target is free to move again

[flash] + [varus:ult] + Hail Of ArrowsHail Of Arrows + Blighted QuiverBlighted Quiver + AA + AA + Piercing ArrowPiercing Arrow

Varus Matchups & Counters

Detailed information on how to play matchups and counters

Samira
Easy
Samira
Miss Fortune
Easy
Miss Fortune
Xayah
Medium
Xayah
Ashe
Medium
Ashe
Jinx
Medium
Jinx
Tristana
Hard
Tristana
Vayne
Hard
Vayne
Draven
Hard
Draven
Caitlyn
Skill
Caitlyn
Kai'sa
Skill
Kai'sa
Jhin
Skill
Jhin
Ezreal
Skill
Ezreal
Lucian
Skill
Lucian

Quite a easy Matchup. If you are lethality, just poke her to death. If you are AP, just oneshot her.

In case you are crit/on-hit just out dps her with your Blighted QuiverBlighted Quiver stacks

Varus

When to go which build

The biggest question each match is "Which build should i pick" for Varus, since you have a couple of options.


First of, look at your team. Do you have AP champs? No? => AP Varus, works great against long range enemies and teams with 2-3 tanks. No need for Giant SlayerGiant Slayer .



If your team has AP then look at the enemy team. Are they close ranged? No?=> Go Lethality. If they have long range that means their champs are squishy and you will mostly be able to 1-2 shot them with arrows.



Another look on the enemy team to answer the following question: Does the enemy team has high burst/ won't you be able to constantly AA? No? => On-hit. Varus has one of the highest dps potentials in the game due to his [varus:passive] in combination with Blighted QuiverBlighted Quiver + Piercing ArrowPiercing Arrow to pop the blight. Overall on hit can work great against decent burst as well but crit would be better in other situations.


Varus

Support goals/synergies

Good pairings:

BraumBraum Really strong duo for the laning phase if you play on-hit or crit. He will block the dmg of the enemy adc, while simply shred the enemy adc. In later stages of the game he will be great at peeling for you. Similar to Braum works ShenShen , due to his Spirit's RefugeSpirit's Refuge he can prevent dmg from you and with his Shadow DashShadow Dash allows him to peel for you. After lvl 5 he can (theoretical) freely roam and still be on bot lane with his ult. Overall you can play pretty agressive with those 2, look for lots of trades, but you have to communicate with your partner.


KarmaKarma and LuxLux are awesome supports for you, with their poke and shielding for trades. They enable an really agressive play option, but it doesn't bother them if you play more defensive and scale. Important here is that the enemy minion wave shouldn't be bigger than yours, so both can land their skill shots. As soon as the enemy is low enough one of you can deliver the killing blow, especially with Lux at lvl 5.


YuumiYuumi is super annoying if you play AP Varus or Lethality. She will help you to poke down enemies and late game you shred them to bits thanks to her additional stats from You And Me!You And Me! . Play it save and scale with her.




Medium pairings:

NautilusNautilus , ThreshThresh , PykePyke and BlitzcrankBlitzcrank which disposition enemies for easy kills, can help you snowball, but else you are better off with enchant and poke supports. For these supports you want to keep the wave close to your side, so the hook is by far more devestating for the enemy since they can't easily flee under their tower.


AlistarAlistar , AmumuAmumu , GalioGalio , PantheonPantheon , LeonaLeona are basically same as the hook champs. You will play agressive, but you want to keep the wave at your side or neutal (middle of the lane) to make picks on the enemy. They usually dictate later in the game which picks your team tries to get to secure an objective. It feels pleasent to play with some since you have to focus less on the engages, but overall enchanters are better for you.


JannaJanna , SorakaSoraka , LuluLulu and NamiNami are pretty good. They help you scale into the game while provide good peeling with their ults. Most enchanters are actually really agressive supports which can actively trade and poke the enemy down (especially Soraka, you can't lose a trade with Soraka since you regain lost Hp after hitting a StarcallStarcall . Goal is to always have more minions on your side and to get the push against the enemy.


MorganaMorgana has a decent poke, and some good cc, but otherwise there isn't much synergy between you two than perma cc one or multiple enemies.




Rather bad pairings:

SonaSona idk.. She doesn't offer much to work with. Yea she scales great, but so do other enchanters as well, so meh.


BrandBrand , TeemoTeemo , SennaSenna and this damn rock MalphiteMalphite please no. Non of this besides senna is a support, so please stop picking them into this role and troll your adc. And for senna.. you have no synergy with her. Imo the only time Senna is good, is if you play a fastening Senna lane with an APC like Sera or Ori, or some tanks like Gragas or Leona.

Varus

How to..

WIP

Early game:

AP: For AP start lvl 1 with Blighted QuiverBlighted Quiver to match your enemy in first lvl waveclear. Try to survive the lane and farm save (since you have no AD-items the enemy ADC will most likely win short trades). If you can weave in an AA on them, do so and remember to use an spell afterwards to pop the blight stacks. As soon as you have Nashor's ToothNashor's Tooth you stand a chance in trades against some champs. Else just keep farming save and scale into mid and lategame where your real powerspike comes.


Lethality: With this build you try to poke constantly with Piercing ArrowPiercing Arrow and hold your enemies away from your minions, so they can't lasthit or get exp. Don't engage in long trades, because Summon AerySummon Aery is basically for poke while a lot of ADC pick Lethal TempoLethal Tempo and outdamage you then in few seconds. Due to your high range and poke rune they should barely be able to get close and stack LT which can get you ahead pretty quick and might end up in few kills during laning from which on you wanna go and snowball.

Note: On first base you wanna get a Serrated DirkSerrated Dirk + Tear of the GoddessTear of the Goddess


Crit/OH/Hybrid: Try to look for trades against the enemy (3 AA + Piercing ArrowPiercing Arrow / Hail Of ArrowsHail Of Arrows ) till you can all in them for a kill. Extended trades benefit you due to the Lethal TempoLethal Tempo keystone. Be careful with the enemy engage (example the enemy has a LeonaLeona if you dodge her [leona:3] + Solar FlareSolar Flare and kite backwards you win the fight). Apply a lot of pressure to the lane so you can roam to help your jungle, but check the map every few sec, so you don't get ganked by their jungle. In case you can't go for extended trades try to harras the enemies when they try to last hit (you actually should do this on any champ, but i specially wanted to mention this here) and use your abilities only if you can last hit yourself with them while also damage the enemy duo lane, to slowly poke them down.





Mid game:

AP: At this point in the game you become a big threat, because your combo will mostly take ppl down at 50% HP already, which means you will get focused by the enemy team. Always keep track if someone bought the Quicksilver EnchantQuicksilver Enchant . If you ult them and they use it, they won't build up Blighted QuiverBlighted Quiver stacks => you deal no damage, if you don't AA them and your entire CC/safety mechanism in your kit is gone.


Lethality: This is your peak in the game. You can decide the claim of many objectives with this build. If you hit few Piercing ArrowPiercing Arrow and the enemies are low HP, they can't contest Drakes/Shelly/Baron and you claim these for free, but if they still decide to contest them while already chunked out/outnumbered because someone recalled you take the objective + some free kill, nice. Try to win the game in this stage, because further on you get outscaled by other Crit ADC's.


Crit/OH/Hybrid:

At this point you already have some items and with this you are a force to be reconned with. Try to keep out of harms way (watch that you can't get flanked) for maximum dps in fights. One of your ultimates to pick of enemies can easily secure objectives which help you to snowball further into the game. Try on pushing your lead (if you have one) and pick off enemies (in any case, this helps a lot when you play from behind).




Late game:

AP: At this point you delete most enemies with your Blighted QuiverBlighted Quiver + Piercing ArrowPiercing Arrow combo. Secure objectives and never get cought. If you have elder usually 3 AA + your combo is enough to kill them with Elder buff.


Lethality: You basically are weaker than any crit ADC now. Try to poke them off of objectives. And secure them with your team to end ASAP.


Crit/OH/Hybrid: Similar to AP you are really strong right now. For crit you will with an Navori QuickbladesNavori Quickblades build be able to constantly spam abilites while Infinity EdgeInfinity Edge will keep your AA at high DMG as well. while On-Hit will be a threat becasue of the high dps in combination with a defensive item so you won't die quickly yourself. Hybrid works similar in burst as AP so.. you will kill a lot of enemies quickly. Secure the game, make sure you don't get cought off-guard.

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