[4.1b] Varus Guide - AP Varus, One Shot Tanks
AP Varus, One Shot Tanks
Pros
- R->W->Q can genuinely one shot tanks
- Has a strong early with the right runes and items
- Insane late game
- Can melt towers late game and early
Cons
- Very strange to get into, as you need to be very patient most of the time
- Awkward mid game where you dont have much poke or one shot ability
- Loses hard against hyper mobile champs unless you are really good at predicting dashes
Varus Build
Best Build Guide for Varus
Item Build Description
Additional information on the items
Varus
tends to be an ad poke, or attack speed on hit champ. The goal of this build is to go for one shots made possible by
Blighted Quiver
. We go
Manamune
first because it lets us have an early game where you aren’t just under your tower the whole time. Most of the time, you will start with
Sapphire Crystal
because early you have next to no mana and even with this you may struggle to not run out without the use of your honey fruit. After completing
Manamune
, get your boots asap. Go Mana Boots (this site doesn’t have them yet so sorry if you were confused about reg boots). Get whatever enchant you need (typically hourglass or repulsor), and then get [ludens echo], which is overall pretty self-explanatory. Next you’ll get
Horizon Focus
. With this item, your [varus:ult] will do an additional 25% ap and give vision. You are also able to activate it with
Piercing Arrow
or
Hail Of Arrows
. [rabadons deathcap] and
Void Staff
are just for the extra stats.
The attack speed build is kind of a hybrid between normal attack speed varus and ap. You will still be able to do a lot of burst, but probably not one shot. Most of your damage will come from auto attacks with
Blighted Quiver
active, as well as
Kraken Slayer
. The rest of the build is pretty self explanatory (build either attack speed boots or mana boots, your choice).
The situational ones are ones I almost never build, however under certain situations they may be able to carry you to victory. I would also recommend trying out
Lich Bane
in the attack speed build if you think it sounds interesting.
Varus Runes
Best Runes for Varus
Runes on this arent updated yet, but go either first strike or kraken slayer and whatever works for the enemy team comp.
Skill Order
How to distribute skill points
Summoner Spells
When to take which summoners
Combos
Learn how to maximize the champions potential
Make sure you don’t forget to press W. it really increases your damage. The auto is also pretty important most of the time just for the faster W stacks. Otherwise, this is pretty much the only combo you’ll ever use. Make sure to get good at hitting your R and make sure to be patient for those W stacks.
What you’ll do before you get your R, or if it’s on cooldown. Does the same thing as the other combo in a sense, it just has less damage and is harder to do.
Varus Matchups & Counters
Detailed information on how to play matchups and counters
This seems weird but he is really easy with the attack speed setup. If you go reg AP you may struggle but just space well and you should be fine.
Early Game
Varus
is typically oppressive early if played right, and that holds true for this build too. Start
Sapphire Crystal
or
Dagger
depending on what build you decided to go with. If your jungler started red side, go ward blue side and vice versa. This is really important for most mid laners to do and you could be losing games because you aren’t doing this (seriously, it’s that important). After that, go to lane and sit under tower until your minions start attacking your opponents. Your pushing power is good early but there’s really no need to use it. Just focus on last hitting and using
Piercing Arrow
to poke your lane opponent if you see the opportunity. You’re also free to trade because you will probably need to grab the honey fruits at some point even if you don’t get hit. Do this until you have enough gold to get a
Tear of the Goddess
or Nashors talon. Now burst the wave as quick as possible and recall. Go back and basically just do the same. At this point though, your opponent may mess up and you may be able to get a kill. If you do, don’t greed. Recall ASAP. They’re jungler is probably on his way, and if he isn’t someone else is. At this point kinda just do whatever aside from roaming too far. You aren’t mobile and you need to remember that. At the same time though, you’re range is plenty to help quickly if need be.
Mid Game
I define mid game as the moment people start roaming far. At this point you probably have an item, boots, and have started on your second or maybe even third item. This point of the game is your weakest but it isn’t too bad. Just go for one shots with your
Chain Of Corruption
into
Blighted Quiver
and
Piercing Arrow
. The most important person to get rid of is the support IMO. The team will still have damage without their adc or mid lane. The other one can fill in. The support usually is tailor picked for what the team needs. If they lack cc they’ll get someone like
Rakan
or
Thresh
. If they lack healing or shielding it’ll be
Seraphine
or
Soraka
and if they lack damage it’ll be someone like
Lux
. Point is the support is the glue holding the other four pieces together, and when you remove that glue everything falls apart. Really though just pick off whoever you can, and poke as much as you can.
Late game
This is where you shine.
Horizon Focus
, [ludens echo], and [rabadons deathcap] or
Void Staff
will make your [varus:ult] do half of someone’s hp, and your
Blighted Quiver
+
Piercing Arrow
will do the rest. Try to get first strike off and you’ll be set. Be careful of Bruisers and you should be good. Also stare at the map. A lot. Ward everywhere. Vision is super important for you late game.
Overall
Man this champ is stupidly easy. You will climb if you can hit skill shots. All of his skill shots pierce in some way so you can def 1v5 no problem. Nothing else to say really.
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