[Champion] Volibear

Post a Reply

Normal

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

June 26 2012 23:30 GMT

Volibear, The thunder's roar.

[image loading]

+ Show Spoiler +

season 2 guide
Abilities:

[image loading]

Passive - Chosen of the storm: When Volibear's health hits 30% or lower of his maximum health, Volibear heals himself for 30% of his health over the next 6 seconds. Chosen of the Storm has a 120 second cooldown.

This is a very effective skill for a couple of reasons. It can be deceptive in trades early game, it also if available, makes tower diving for a kill possible at very low levels, because of his passive it is very hard to 1v1 Voli at low levels with it not on cd.

Passive also makes it possible to be extremely greedy on your first pass through the jungle, Vamp Scepter and Regrowth openings are viable if your team is ok with no gank potential before first back.

internal cd starts when the regen begins not ends. if it comes off of cd when Volibear is below 30% it will not trigger unless he takes further damage. The cd does not benefit from cdr.

[image loading]

On June 27 2012 09:47 R04R wrote:
His QWE all synergize to catch someone and make sure they don't live to tell about it. I don't think the guide places enough emphasis on how great of a ganking skill Q is. Like.. his Q repositions your opponent behind you, that's like lengthening the enemy's flee back to turret by ~500 range after animation delay and E. OP should include that it's not necessary to open your gank by pressing Q if you can intercept your opponent by just walking up to them, saving Q for after they burn an escape summoner.

W - Frenzy: (Passive) Volibear gains bonus attack speed after an auto attack. This bonus stacks up to 3 times and stays active for 4 seconds.
(Active): If Volibear has 3 stacks of the passive he can use the active, although it does not consume the passive. The active is a bite doing damage based on Volibear's bonus health and the missing health of his opponent(1% increased damage for every 1% of missing health), this combined with it's 18 sec non scaling cd, makes it best used as an execute if possible.

Physical Damage: 80/125/170/215/260 (+15% of bonus health)
Mana: 35
Range: 400

This is Volibears most damaging ability any way you slice it, the attack speed bonus is substantial even if the active didn't exist and the active is amazing for kill stea.. Securing. Volibear is not a support jungler (if you subscribe to such a role) he scales as well as any champion in the game, and if a gank results in no kill it can set you way behind, what I'm getting at, is if W will kill use it.

[image loading]

E - Majestic Roar: An Aoe Slow/fear with 425 range dealing magic damage, slowing champions and fearing minions, monsters or pets.

CD: 11
Mana: 60/65/70/75/80
Magic Damage: 60/105/150/195/240 (.6 ap)
Slow: 30/35/40/45/50%

Volibear's other utility. It also does a fairly good amount of base damage so even building ad bruiser the damage isn't negligible. Generally leveled first to increase the slow, and to help with jungle clear speed.

As mentioned earlier it has no cast time so it can be used during other activities mainly it can be used during q dash. also good for trading in lane as you will take less minion damage due to the fear.

[image loading]

R - Thunder Claws: For 12 seconds Volibear's auto attacks gain an on hit magic damage that can chain up to 3 additional enemies with 0 damage reduction (all targets take the full damage)

CD: 100/90/80
Damage per attack: 75/115/155 (.3 ap)
Chain range: 300
100 mana

Not much to add here, it's free damage, obvious utility for teamfights as well as shoving before a back. I've seen it used to get that last bit of damage on a fleeing opponent by attacking a near minion for the chain but I'd call that lucky. My advice activate in situations you would use Riven sword or any other steroid ult.

GUIDES

Jungle Volibear
Summoner Skills: Flash/ghost + Smite. Not much to say about smite you don't really have a choice so I'll touch on the second summoner. Mobility summoners are best for ganking on Volibear, between his q and his e, movement is going to do you more favors than exhaust. Personally I've been falling in love with ghost lately on a lot of melee champions and Volibear is no exception, but a definite argument can be made for flash.

Masteries: 9/21/0 (10% arp)

Runes:
Marks: Armor Penetration
Seals: Flat Armor
Glyphs: Scaling MRes
Quints: Movespeed.

Nothing to controvercial here, movespeed quints I think benefit a jungler in almost every way. clearspeed and gank potential are both increased by having them, and movement quints compared to other stats and the items that provide them just have such a huge opportunity cost advantage over say health or ad quints.

Some people might tell you to go attack speed reds or perhaps mix in ad reds, but I disagree and I will elaborate when I get to starting items

Skill order and Starting items are all very closely related for jungle Volibear in my opinion and the choice is largely based on champion select.

[image loading]

I'll be honest here, I haven't done the Regrowth open in a long time, I almost always go Vamp Scepter if I don't plan to gank level2, but I'm still a major fan of Wriggles as I'll get into later. the idea of getting Philo rolling asap is appealing, but to be honest I don't know what happens. However if you start Vamp Scepter I suggest you start blue, and open with W, the passive attack speed is what lets even the nerfed version of vamp scepter keep you alive indefinatly even on your first clear.

This is a very greedy build so it requires two conditions,
a)I do not reccomend vamp scepter open vs CV
b) I do not reccomend vamp scepter open vs Shaco, you will be very low when doing red and will trigger your passive clearing it.
your team must also be aware that you will not be ganking before first back, which can go all the way back to wolves if you like, but after first back you can have boots1 a scepter and a longsword at a point in the game that makes you an untouchable duelist with passive available.

I imagine Philo first would put you in a similar situation only slightly later in the game, however now we are talking very mediocre gank potential on a character with pretty strong ganks, his dash is the same, his throw is the same and his slow is the same, but I personally prefer the clear speed and the ability to man mode you get out of wriggles on Voli. LIfesteal interacts really well with his W passive, combined with passive and the armor/longsword damage, as well as the ability to ward for your mid, and Dragon control, I just think Wriggles is the total package for Voli.

if you start with the greedy build I reccomend going

W>E>E>Q, into R>E>W>Q

-Tested out Regrowth open in a normal, first clear actually higher on life than with vamp, went E>W>E>Q open and I was able to buy boots1 and finish philo on first back. However unlike vamp open in which you sit at 100% hp while clearing from here on out, with this build I was constantly sitting at 50-75% while clearing, I went Philo > HoG and finally bought a 2nd regrowth for my eventual warmogs which finally kept me topped off at all times. I transitioned into the full tank build mentioned in the item portion of this guilde, which while hilarious 366 hp5 w/Baron it re-enforced my feelings towards the build vs. my standard build, that being said Regrowth open into wriggles, has a lot of potential with a slightly later power curve than vamp open, but it will push back your gank potential a little more.

on a final note before moving on from skills, if at any point you feel like either your lanes are too far behind, or too far ahead, or just playing to aggressive to gank for. swap W and E, W will benefit you personally more in the long run than E.

Core
+ + +
[image loading]

I actually consider boots2 to be a core item on junglers because of the importance of movement speed. you could make an argument to get phage which will be talked about in the next segment, before boots2 but I disagree. obvious order is to get your gp10s rolling as soon as possible after wriggles, I prefer philo first as it will allow you to give 2nd blue without seeing as much of a dip in your clear speed. Finish up your core with either Merc's or Tabi.

What Next:

[image loading]

pretty self explanitory. more damage, more stick, and health for tankiness and his W. basically more of everything Voli benefits from including some double dip.

[image loading]

The order of these two items is more nebulous both are very good for Volibear but which will benefit you more at the time is very game dependant, if you are ganking a lot or fed shurelya's can exasterbate that fact. If you need the MR Wits can be strong. Sometimes if I'm feeling greedy I'll go Bow > Reverie > Wits for maximum personal benefit.

Why wits end? I think it's important to touch on
[image loading]

as an alternative to Wit's end here. if you go Philo opening and skip wriggles, this might be a better option or if the other team is double ap and are doing good/well in lane. Wits scales better with his w and life steal which is why I consider it the standard build but this is an option if you want to go the regen route, and opens up the door to a warmogs where wriggle's would have been. This is a very strong build, but I feel it is situational mainly because volibear is not a true tank, I mean to say he has to create a reason for the other team to focus him in teamfights because he has no hard cc or taunt. For that reason I think the damage you get out of W passive + Wits+ Ultimate is more useful than the extra longevity this build would give, thats not to say it isn't useful and thats why I bring it up, but again, you give the other team the option to ignore you with this build in my opinion.

My Standard Final Item Build
+ + + + +
[image loading]

When you get Mallet and Randuin's is really up to you, like with all things Volibear it can be volatile you aren't building any armor after wriggles until randuin's so you cercumstances might dictate you have to build it much earlier than you would like to. despite the fact that it brings the least personal benefit to clear speed and kill potential. You will be getting plenty of health so you can usually get away with it.

Frozen mallet is nice because it alllows you to hit confirm your q with e, because frozen mallet Volibear is a one touch kill, Frozen mallet means a fight to the death, which because of Voli's strong duels is almost always a good thing for him.

Lastly I'd like to touch on:
[image loading]

I'm not a huge fan of Oracle's on Volibear, but it definitely not out of the question. he definitely is tanky enough, and he definitely has the gank potential to benefit from removing wards from the map, but I feel Volibear's item scaling makes it a really hard pill to swallow. that combined with his ability to not give a shit under towers with his passive available, sometimes Oracle's can remove that killer instinct. Never a bad choice, but if you do buy it, you can't play like a pussy because you have it or you will be a terrible Volibear.

I'm not going to delve too deep into jungle playstyle, I'm actually not even a jungle main but when my team needs a jungler I like to break out the Volibear from time to time, because I think the lack of familiarity the community has with the character hides my inexperience as a jungler, by allowing me to take advantage of things they don't know I can do.

If you want to know more about jungleing in general I begrudingly reccomend T_D's Jungle guide:
Two_Down Jungle guide.

ty to Mogwai used your Panth thread as a template
ty to anyone who's ever edited the wiki, used it for ratios and exact damage numbers.

WIP

Jungle Guidelines by Slusher and Requizen

Intoduction by Requizen
Let’s talk about roles for a second. Melee characters can have a few roles. They can be heavy damage dealers like Talon or Akali. You can be an unkillable tank that disrupts and supports like Shen or Nautilus. Or you can be somewhere in between, a tanky sonovabitch who also happens to do a respectable amount of damage, like Olaf or Darius.

I feel that Volibear fits in the latter. Thanks to your good AS from W’s passive, your bite execute, and your ult, you will end up doing both a good amount of single target burst and decent sustained to both your target and the nearby enemies. With a couple health and resistance items and perhaps a single AS item, you become pretty tanky and are still threatening enough to scare a squishy AD or Mage.

However, you need to know your limits. You do not have an instant gap closer like Jax or Irelia, and you can’t ignore CC like Olaf. So sometimes diving straight to the back as the first initiate on your team means you get CC’d and locked down before you reach that target. You don’t have a lot of front-loaded burst, so you can’t expect to go in and kill something instantly, you need to stick to your target as long as possible. And finally, your escape is minimal and has the same mobility and CC issues as your initiate, so a lot of times when you’re in, you’re in.

You aren’t a hyper carry like Jax or Irelia, you aren’t an unkillable wall like Singed or Shen. You’re somewhere in between, and it makes you very strong as long as you recognize your downfalls and play to your advantages.

Abilities:

[image loading]

Passive - Chosen of the storm: When Volibear's health hits 30% or lower of his maximum health, Volibear heals himself for 30% of his health over the next 6 seconds. Chosen of the Storm has a 120 second cooldown.

This is a very effective skill for a couple of reasons. It can be deceptive in trades early game, it also if available, makes tower diving for a kill possible at very low levels, because of his passive it is very hard to 1v1 Voli at low levels with it not on cd.
internal cd starts when the regen begins not ends. if it comes off of cd when Volibear is below 30% it will not trigger unless he takes further damage. The cd does not benefit from cdr.
Scales off of Voli’s max HP so it synergises well with HP items, most notably Visage which gives HP and better self heals (more on this later.)

[image loading]

Q- Rolling Thunder: Volibear gains a 15% movement speed increase for 4 seconds, if you are chasing an enemy champion the speed increases to 45%. His next auto attack will then deal bonus damage and flip the opponent behind him similar to singed.

CD: 12/11/10/9/8
Mana: 40
Range: 300
Bonus damage: 30/60/90/120/150

This is Voli's gank tool both as a jungler and for gank support Voli, usually leveled last because of the far higher damage increase on w and the slow utility on e. In combination with the slow on his E, it creates very high % gank sucsess if the q is hit.
The speed boost does require vision so if you are ganking a side lane and they run into the brush you will drop to 15% move speed, try to maintain vision if possible

you can use e while the dash is active to ensure that you land the q, for obvious reasons e second is superior but don't get stingy and let them get away for free, if you need to e to catch them, do it. After Phage/Frozen mallet this becomes more of a no brainer.
It’s important to remember that not only is this an attack reset but it will do the bonus damage to towers as well as provide an extra stack of frenzy to quickly get you up to 3, if at all possible always try to get to your opponent, BEFORE using this ability, but in a lot of cases it won’t be feasible, above all, don’t get greedy, if you can’t clutch it, don’t clutch it.
The Dash speed lasts for the full 4 seconds even if you have used the flip, keep this in mind for escapes, but also keep in mind that the bonus movement speed is far smaller when moving away from opponents

[image loading]

W - Frenzy: (Passive) Volibear gains bonus attack speed after an auto attack. This bonus stacks up to 3 times and stays active for 4 seconds.
(Active): If Volibear has 3 stacks of the passive he can use the active, although it does not consume the passive. The active is a bite doing damage based on Volibear's bonus health and the missing health of his opponent(1% increased damage for every 1% of missing health), this combined with it's 18 sec non scaling cd, makes it best used as an execute if possible.

Physical Damage: 80/125/170/215/260 (+15% of bonus health)
CD:18
Mana: 35
Range: 400

This is Volibears most damaging ability any way you slice it, the attack speed bonus is substantial even if the active didn't exist and the active is amazing for kill stea.. Securing.
This is similar to what I touched on with Q, if at all possible use the active try to hold on to it as long as possible without waiting to long as it is an execute mechanic and does substantially more damage than if used up front. The CD does not scale with rank so you will most likely not get to use it twice in the vast majority of teamfights, make it count.
Because the damage from this ability scales with health Volibear has become quite a bit stronger with the season 3 health changes this and his passive easily make health THE priority stat on Volibear.

[image loading]

Jungle Volibear
Summoner Skills: Flash/ghost + Smite. Not much to say about smite you don't really have a choice so I'll touch on the second summoner. Mobility summoners are best for ganking on Volibear, between his q and his e, movement is going to do you more favors than exhaust. Personally I've been falling in love with ghost lately on a lot of melee champions and Volibear is no exception, but a definite argument can be made for flash.
I would strongly take opponent team comp into consideration, thinks like Jarvan/Anivia/Janna/Lulu can make flash highly advantageous. I also like flash as an advanced technique, with enough experience playing volibear you can use flash to aim your toss, flash flip away from ad I’ve used countless times as well as the more situational flash flip into nunu ult (only once but it was lol)

Masteries: 9/21/0 (10% arp) at the end of season 3 I was using Magic pen (which I think is stated earlier in this thread) I’ve gone back to armor pen mostly because of the new calculations, and your best burst (W) being Physical, I also felt that having to spend 4 points in ap was a stealth nerf to taking this talent on ad champions.

Runes:
Marks: Armor Penetration/Attack speed
Seals: Flat Armor
Glyphs: Scaling MRes
Quints: Movespeed.

Nothing to controvercial here, movespeed quints I think benefit a jungler in almost every way. clearspeed and gank potential are both increased by having them, and movement quints compared to other stats and the items that provide them just have such a huge opportunity cost advantage over say health or ad quints.
I’ve started using attack speed reds will provide you with a better first clear of the jungle, as well as more AoE damage in team fights, if you want to get that situational, Arp reds are most likely still superior for lvl2 ganking and not that much worse than aspd reds once you have built up a couple of levels, up to you.
Split pen reds sound sick, but I don’t have them (the ip on those is “you gotta be kidding me” territory) but if I get them I will update the guide I can promise you.

x3
You have three basic options on Volibear here are some questions you want to ask yourself
Purple side: Top matchup, does my team have a snowball top? does opposing top have low mobility lvl2 or Blue side the same thing for the bottom matchup, if you think you can do it, start boots3 and do wraith>red>gank. if it is top you can do golems, but not bottom, it is imperative you get there before wards or you potentially put yourself way behind. Mid is also an option regardless of side volibears lvl2 ganks are extremely strong, however most cases you just get a flash mid this early, unless your mid has strong gank support lvl2.
This option is significantly riskier in season 3 than it was in season 2, if the gank fails you will might find yourself not being able to do blue before backing , I don’t like to do it as much (it was my standard open if top was gankable in s2) but it’s worth mentioning because few can do it better than Voli, it’s still a solid reason for choosing him.

For lvl2 gank, E > Q, followed by E>Q>W>E, into R>E>W>Q

Then you have the well rounded option, and the greedy option.

x2
or

x5

the two other opens possible are the “standard” machete open and the double bead 3 pot open

double bead open replaces the rejuv pot open from s2, you have a lot of options here, you can go into a lot of things, philo, belt buckle and locket all use a bead, this is a good start if you don’t want to buy a machete item

I imagine Philo first would put you in a similar situation only slightly later in the game, however now we are talking very mediocre gank potential on a character with pretty strong ganks, his dash is the same, his throw is the same and his slow is the same, but I personally prefer the massive clearspeed boost from Madreds with his W passive. Wriggles combined with passive and the armor/longsword damage, as well as the ability to ward for your mid, and Dragon control, I just think Wriggles is the total package for Voli.

For those of you that remember my season 2 guide I no longer recommend vamp scepter as you cannot buy it level 1 for that reason I no longer recommend skilling W level 1 for farm opens.
E>W>E>Q, into R>E>W>Q

Items
Core
+ + +

[image loading]

This is my open in pretty much every game I play on every wriggles(Claw) jungler, it’s very flexable with the exception of I guess buckle which is a commitment to Aegis. The reason I include buckle is because in most cases I’m not looking to complete wriggles early and this is my sustain. I feel that shoes, especially on a jungler who’s gapcloser is speed based are essential. And lastly kindlegem is just a godlike item on Volibear, literally every item it builds into is useful in some ways on him, not to mention because his E and W do not scale with rank, 10% cdr translates to over 1 second on EVERY ability on Q last builds.

A look at spirit stone with Requizen
[image loading]

Boot choices
[image loading]

Ninja Tabi
Personally these are my favorite shoes, the unique passive makes these one of the most powerful damage reduction items in the game, combine that with the fact that they are the cheapest shoes in the game, it makes it pretty hard to argue.

Boots of Mobility
I can't say much here I hate mobiles but a lot of people (Including pros) have a lot of success with mobiles so they are here, but I feel like all 3 other options are better on Volibear

Boots of Swiftness
I think these are the route to go on Voli in the situation you would go mobiles on other junglers, you get the extra speed when in combat, combined with the slow reduction, it make that bear on all fours a lot more dangerous. on teams with no snares, and mostly slows, these are arguably better than mercs

Merc treads
Let's face it Merc treads are the least interesting shoe, if all other tenacity items weren't super expensive and or role specific, you would never see these bad boys. That said, those things are true and Tenacity can be very important in certain match-ups as melee (or anyone really) so you will need these in some games.

The Rest of the options...

Health
[image loading]

The cost nerf kinda hurt this as a jungle item a bit, but on a character that scales well off of health, while the game is currently very rewarding to health items, it's still really really good. There is basically no teamcomp/situation when this item isn't worth a look.
[image loading]

This item is really good on Voli it has a lot of what he needs, health, some damage and that sticking power for throwing down the damage once w is stacked, I don't build this item nearly as often as I did in season 2, but it is still a reasonable purchase on Voli

I actually put this item here just to take a shit on it. I don't like sunfire cape on champions who don't build magic pen, and Voli has other options for AoE clear and Wave pushing. If you want to split push you chose the wrong champion, the only real benefit of this item is your chain vest and your giants belt only take up 1 slot, please just don't make this.
[image loading]

This item is really good health, armor, CDR and a great active, this is my go to first full item if I am not in immediate need of MR when combined with your passive it makes your eHP extremely deceptive.

Armor Options

Both of these items are really good on Volibear, at first glance it might look like Randuin's is the obvious choice because it has health. While in most cases this is true I still think it's worth taking the hit and getting Frozen heart if your team isn't otherwise building one.
[image loading]

Really like the only bad thing about this item, is slot effeciency at 475g this item is a absolute beast and a really good bridge to late game if you want to put off blowing dough on armor until late game.

MR Options

This item is pretty good on Voli but at the same time it has just a hint of noob bait to it. at first blush it looks really sick when combined with his passive but in reality you are paying ~672g for a 6% max health heal every 2 min, still at 50 mr, 200 health and 15% cdr it's worth a look if your team is flush on aegi. (plural for aegis)
[image loading]

imo the best mr item for Voli, even if the support is building one, I feel like it's still a great item for the double stack, it would pretty much take top and support having one for me not to build aegis, it's just a great item all around.
[image loading]

In Season 2 I built this item almost every game on voli but in s3 it feels like a distant 3rd to the other two, it's worth mentioning because it does provide a decent damage increase without having to build a full on offensive item, if zephyr didn't exist I might still make it from time to time, but I'd rather have a stinger and one of the other two mr options than this item.

Other options
[image loading]

I love this item on Voli, it has attack speed to boost his ult damage, CDR, Movespeed and Tenacity the only drawback is it has a beastly cost. Much like Requizen's love for the ability to buy boots that are not merc treds are also a huge bonus to this item.

Not something I would build every game but it is a useful item, the active can be good for catching people out as well as making Voli into a strong initiator if your team needs him to be and as always the inclusion of cdr and health is always a plus.
[image loading]

This item is in a bad spot right now, it's an option if you go the 0 jungle item route as it is a good source of sustain that doubles as an aura item, but very situational.

Lets Invade Iraq!: Items you probly don't need but fuck it, lets get some oi.. I mean turrets
[image loading]

3 hits at max attackspeed = instant ramp up on w, combined with the crits and the w execute this has the possiblility of letting voli function like an assasin, because Voli has an innate slow he can use it to make sure he gets off all 3 hits (a common problem when building this item is people will just run as the active is very short) Can't say I'm a huge fan of this item on Voli but the theory is sound just keep in mind as your probable only damage item even crits won't be that impressive, and the lack of any stats whatsoever if the blade goes on cooldown makes it real unappealing on a jungle salary.
[image loading]

I posted this item here to take a minor dump on it, Black Cleaver is still a decent item, and early bruta would be strong on voli, however, Voli might just be the worst brusier for applying BC stacks to the enemy team in the game. All of his AoE is magic damage, he has an attack reset but in teamfights it is best used tactically and has a long cd by attack reset standards. The only redeeming factor about BC on Voli is it has health and CDR two of our favorite stats.
[image loading]

If you feel like you want to buy a pure damage item on Volibear (I don't count Zephyr as pure damage), this would be my recommended item, it's somewhat cheap, gives you good damage vs the opposing teams tanks which is good, because if you are able to get to squishys in team fights, you most likely don't need a pure damage item anyway.
[image loading]

I've never made this item but I like what Requizen brings up about it, because the passive lasts "Until out of combat" Voli's passive makes him perhaps the best user of this item in the game, the item is beyond cost effective when the active is on, and it gives some great stats for him. Even pointing out what looks like the wasted stats Voli has AP scaling on his E and R. I won't likely build this anytime soon, but it is interesting in theory.
[image loading]

I don't think this is a particularly good item on Voli, however there are some things to consider. Avarice blade is actually a significant source of gold in the jungle, and it gives him even more AoE damage attached to his autos in teamfights, again I' not looking to make one of these anytime soon, but there are logical reasons why picking one up would have it's uses.

Summarized thoughts on items

For the most part Requizen and I see eye to eye on the point that Volibear is a strong champion in season 3 because of the current value being placed on health, combined with him having a health scaling defensive steroid and a health scaling offensive steroid, combine that with the fact that he gets a nice chunk of free damage from his R and you have someone that can put out enough damage to force 2-3 people to focus on him despite being built almost full tank.

my ideal build
[image loading]

I hesitated to include this section because I feel like it's saying fuck the whole last section just make these 6 items, but at the same time I feel like I need to at least give some suggestion and not be so nebulous. So even though I think quite a few variations of the items in the previous section are viable and in fact better in certain games here is my reasoning for choosing these 6 items if there isn't some raid boss in the game I need to tailor my build for.

-I go ninja tabi because as I said in the shoe section, I feel like they are the most cost effective boot, not only are they the cheapest but they scale with the opposing AD
-Runic Bulwark is too stupid of an item right now, it shuts down double AP, it is strong vs most AoE comps, the carrier gets enough mr to ignore all other mr items, I have a feeling I'll be rewriting this someday because it's too good not to be nerfed in the near future
-Locket more armor, cdr, a great passive, combined with bulwark AoE comps are not so scary as they once were
-Warmogs, though I generally build this item last if I get to it, I feel like I might be met with some opposition here (mabye I'm nuts) because I chose not to build randuins but really with tabi, aegis and locket the health here is better, even if W and passive didn't exist and they do so it's even better.
-Zephyr, I love this item on Volibear, it's hard to build when not fed, but it gives you a ton of damage on your ult, cdr and tenacity which is really nice on a character who's gap closer is a speed boost
-Lantern, because of his attack speed boost, claw is to good on Voli, eventually I think it's worth upgrading to lantern for the lifesteal, if the game goes super long I'd sell for wardens/randuin or even Zekes but in most cases my build is pretty expensive to begin with, slot capped is a non issue.

s3 is in it's infancy but it feels like the key to being top tier in the jungle is doing un-ignore-able damage with all tank items, and Volibear does this with strong gank presence to boot. his clear is strong thanks to the consolodation of health to the one enemy each camp and the beastlytness of the s3 razor, he's hard to counterjungle, and he can 1v1 the majority of the cast at low levels making him a threat to invade.

Good times to pick Volibear

Volibear is really good in dive comps, he also is useful in 4 protect 1 comps. he is ok-ish in AoE and strong vs AoE comps. Obviously he decimates low cc teams and squishy teams and he's really good in situations where the other team has chosen a no escape lane dominatior such as Morde, Kayle or Darius as he is able to gank early and often and has one of the most effective lvl2 ganks in the game thanks to his passive. He also synergises really well with strong engages such as Crystal Arrow and Tidal Wave(Nami)

Good things to pick vs. Volibear
[image loading]

Volibear struggles vs hard cc, and strong slows. The best way to deal with a Volibear pick is to avoid picking lane pushing champions and get a ranged slow like Lulu or Janna to help you in teamfights. Also BUILD MORELLOS this item is retardedly powerful against Volibear because his passive triggers at %30, this item is always able to negate his passive, it's arguably more annoying than qss is for malzahar

That's the guide for now [2/24] thanks for reading any input is appreciated and will be considered for addition to the OP, I hope you can find it helpful.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

June 26 2012 23:30 GMT

Lane Volibear by Barbsq

Lane Volibear:
TLDR version:
R > W > E > Q (You need to have all 3 skills by lvl 3.)
Summoner Spells: Ignite + Ghost
Masteries: 21 defense mandatory, then pick either 9 offense or util, whichever is kinda irrelevant.
Runes: Counterspec your enemy (have lots of armor or mres or both) and then have some attackspeed runes thrown in there.
Opening: +
Final Items: [image loading]

sell for

Now the meat and potatoes

Skill leveling:
R > W > E > Q
Note: At lvl 3, you should have all 3 of your normal spells, but it's a case-by-case decision which ones to get when. Q and E are better for lvl 1 aggression, Q if you need to be the one to catch somebody, E if you're the follow-up. If you're not doing anything at lvl's 1 or 2, I usually just open W.

Maxing W first gives you greater burst potential, also, E's mana cost goes up as you level it, meaning your mana spent/dmg ratio is significantly better (on a champion) if you max W.

Optionally, maxing E first will give you stronger pushing power in situations where you're getting shoved to tower or in situations where you want to shove to tower and go all aggro in their jungle. I very rarely do this though, as W is your bread and butter damage skill for a couple of reasons.

Summoner Spells: [image loading]

is what I like most of the time. Volibear is all about sustained damage, and sustained movespeed really helps when you're a melee-range sustained damage type of person, hence ghost. Ignite is pretty much used just because it's really useful to have a strictly offensive summoner in top lane. A number of other options are ok though, like exhaust or teleport or w/e

Masteries: My personal masteries
21 defense is mandatory, The other 9 points are kinda yours to do with as you please.

Runes: Runes are pretty much as flexible as masteries. I typically just counter-spec whatever is top, whether it's an armor page, and mres page, or mixed. A couple of attackspeed runes (usually in the form of a quint or a couple reds) to finish it all off. You can also do just fine with any hp runes you'd like to use as well. Movespeed quints are probably pretty good too.

Items: Volibear's damage scales almost entirely on attackspeed. His ult is basically an extra 155 damage (at lvl 3) on up to 3 targets on every attack for 12 seconds, so it's well worth your while to get as many attacks in there as possible. This is why you want to stock up on a good amount of movespeed and attackspeed as possible, in order to get as much lightning out there as you can in that 12 seconds.

Openings: + x5, alternatively a mass of hp pots, a mana pot or 2, and mybe a ward isn't all that bad tbh. Voli has trouble in the early levels as he's almost completely melee range with limited mobility and no innate sustain outside of his passive, which you can't really rely on as a long-term sustain option. Even when i'm confident i'll roll my opponent, I still run cloth x5. Boots x4 might be doable though, but I've never tried it.

Core: + + [image loading]

Phage and omen are in there because voli absolutely has to be able to stick to people, and simply cannot without items to help him out.

Vamp scepter item is necessary in lane because you cannot rely solely on your passive to sustain properly in top lane.

Options, options, options:
[image loading]

and/or

possibly

I like wriggles. A lot. Sometimes though, I end up just rushing straight for zeke's herald first without grabbing this, though. Also, if your team is really low on cc, and you just want to be a slowing beast, going for bilgewater cutlass first can be OK too. That's pretty much the only reason it isn't core. Very good, and in some lanes, absolutely necessary to survive.

I adore herald on Volibear, it gives him a little taste of everything that he needs, HP, attackspeed, and lifesteal. I get it most games, as it is not only a nice package for voli, it's great for your AD as well.

Bilgewater is situational, to say the least. If your team is absolutely starved for cc, it can be a really good buy, but voli doesn't scale particularly well with AD, so, while it's not wasted necessarily, it's also not boosting your damage by all that much.

[image loading]

and/or

possibly

At least 1 of these is necessary, in addition to herald. Which one depends on a lot of different things. Wits is going to be the safe one, as it is an all-around strong item, and typically ends up being your primary mres item for the majority of the game. Malady is cool if you feel 0 magic dmg threat whatsoever. Additionally, malady can be bought in addition to wits if you feel minimal damage threat and can skimp on a defensive item for an offensive one.

Ionic spark is more an item for amusement's sake, as double-lightning is fucking hilarious. It seems like it would be an item tailor made for voli (attackspeed + hp + lightning = fuck yeah?), but in practice it's honestly not that great.

If you're getting fed out the ass, then you can consider bloodrazor for da big damages.

[image loading]

Voli absolutely needs to stick to people, and these items are specifically designed with that in mind. Due to voli's additional scaling off of HP (both due to his passive and his W's active) mallet is typically the better bet, not to mention voli doesn't really work well with crit.

[image loading]

Most times I go frozen heart, since both towers and ranged AD can be scary. If they have that much magic dmg tho, get FoN. Use your head, I suppose.

[image loading]

I can't remember the last time I got this on voli, but it's a solid option i suppose. It certainly has stats that he would want, and a good active (dunno what to say here really, lol ~.~)

[image loading]

To be blunt, I simply don't like either of these options. Volibear's % bonus hp on W simply isn't enough for me to want to buy these items over all of the other ones listed above. You are free to disagree, however, and while I don't necessarily endorse them, I don't condemn them either.

MindBreaker

United States574 Posts

June 26 2012 23:49 GMT

Great!!! I've been waiting for a good voli guide he is my favorite jungle! I agree with ghost instead of flash it just works so well with his q you get crazy move speed.

little fancy

Germany2504 Posts

June 27 2012 00:12 GMT

Nice job, thanks for this work!

I really like Volibear, but he has nothing that is so unique to him that he would be played because of that.

If I want a deadly support jungler, I'd take Maokai or Naut. If I want a damage dealing carry jungler, I'd prefer Mundo or Shyvana or Olaf.
He is more of an allrounder, but then I think WW is the choice to go for a balanced jungler.

It's just that he doesn't really shine with something unique and of course that next to no well-known streamer ever plays him.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

June 27 2012 00:27 GMT

I outline how to gank at lvl2 in the guilde and you compare him to WW? d'ok.

Didn't mean to come across as a complete dick, but I just don't agree.
Volibear has initiation that does not get shut down by qss,
Volibear does signifcantly more AoE damage in a team fight,
They are both very tanky, but WW probly outlasts him.
Both have good rushdown, but Voli does not require the champion to already be on his deathbed.

I actually really like WW, but I do not like champion comparisons, this game has it's fair share or rehashed mechanics, but I just don't think WW>Voli is one of them

little fancy

Germany2504 Posts

June 27 2012 00:43 GMT

On June 27 2012 09:27 Slusher wrote:
I outline how to gank at lvl2 in the guilde and you compare him to WW? d'ok.

On top side, WW can start wraith -> red with boots, then gank top lvl 2 (which was a pretty common move after the latest WW buffs). It's obv not as strong as a bear gank but since many people still don't expect it can still be deadly.

Apart from stronger pre 6 ganks I think WW and Voli both fit into the allround jungle category (an archetype that has fallen out of favour, see my post above).

You don't have to get condescending like that. I wasn't criticizing the information you give so there is no need to be pissed.

Peace.

R04R

United States1631 Posts

June 27 2012 00:47 GMT

His QWE all synergize to catch someone and make sure they don't live to tell about it. I don't think the guide places enough emphasis on how great of a ganking skill Q is. Like.. his Q repositions your opponent behind you, that's like lengthening the enemy's flee back to turret by ~500 range after animation delay and E. OP should include that it's not necessary to open your gank by pressing Q if you can intercept your opponent by just walking up to them, saving Q for after they burn an escape summoner.

Vaporized

United States1471 Posts

June 27 2012 04:33 GMT

well i was going to try the jungle build but then i saw the next post that said no well-known streamers play him so i guess ill just stick with noct or something.

anyway. i just tried the jungle build (hadnt played voli in months) and it was really fun. i went 9-3-9 and my final build was randuin, fromal, wits, boots, wriggles. shurielias. i sold the wriggles late game for bt (wasnt sure what would be good, but the bt worked out well, i got a triple in the last fight and the other team surrendered).

i used the vamp scepter opening and was a bit concerned at first, but it actually worked out exactly as you said it would.

it was sort of frustrating to play against varus, malph, lulu, veigar, akali who all have slows or stuns. they seemed to all realize that cc'ing me would be real bad (for me, not them). late game i went in after our top lane udyr and we managed to pull out the win. on the positive side voli farms like a beast, once i got wriggles i mowed down the camps.

i went with ghost this game but i think i will try flash next time. if i got slowed i could flash onto someone and use my slow/fromal to stick. ghost wasnt great when i was slowed myself.

anyway thanks for the build. im def. gonna play some more games with him.

Chexx

Korea (South)11232 Posts

June 27 2012 06:44 GMT

I enjoyed him playing as a support because you just wreck people really hard.

Gaslo

Finland951 Posts

June 27 2012 10:28 GMT

#10

Thanks guys! I really love the community here. Someone says that we need a volibear guide, and 12 hours later here it is.

I have like 5500 IP, and i think i will use them on Voli when i get the rest, just because of this guide.

I <3 u all

Vaporized

United States1471 Posts

June 30 2012 04:11 GMT

#11

after some further games, i gotta say voli really needs some kind of cc reduction to be viable.

iCanada

Canada10660 Posts

June 30 2012 05:31 GMT

#12

Wingsofdeathx plays Voli all the time, it top lane though.

Decelea

Australia92 Posts

June 30 2012 06:48 GMT

#13

First off thanks for the guide guys, I think I suggested it in general discussion, I come back in a few days and there is already a very detailed guide for both lane and jungle Volibear. Hats off to the OP.

Personally i'm a bigger fan on lane volibear, i used to play him as a jungler a lot but i never really felt i was using him to his true potential. In lane he trades very well against most melees, is strong at low health, does both physical and magic damage making him hard to itemise against, provides great gank assist and almost auto-wins lane against opponents who don't take ignite to counteract his passive. His only really big weakness in my mind is his weak match-ups against any ranged champs, i.e. teemo, kayle, or an AD top.

My playstyle is to generally play passive until level 3 where i have one point in Q W and E each. Then I try to trade as much as possible. Fling the opponent into minions when they try to last hit and then auto them they should back off as they are in the middle of your minions, so you slow them as they try to leave and use W at the last second to maximise damage. Then wait for W to come off cooldown and repeat. Even if they are able to retaliate with some damage of their own, Volibear should still come out on top because if both of you are at low health you will be the stronger hero thanks to your passive and the extra damage on W. At level 6 you can often go for the kill (or earlier if they're playing poorly) and if not i use thunder claws to push the lane quickly so i can go buy. Always max W unless they do something odd such as rush chain vest, in which case it MAY be better to max E, but a maxed W is just so strong at level 9 i've only done this once or twice.

In terms of item builds i've always used to start boots or cloth, then go into philo + HoG then straight to Wit's End. I realise the problems with this, you have no real lane sustain and it's probably only something you can get away with below 1400 elo. I've also always tended to go phage-less but everyone else seems to suggest it. I've tried it a couple of times but i'm not quite sold yet. I also prefer flash over ghost, simply because flash > fling is really strong in team fights although admittedly i haven't experimented with ghost yet. Other than that i don't really disagree with anything Barbsq suggests, a very strong guide all around.

On June 30 2012 14:31 iCanada wrote:
Wingsofdeathx plays Voli all the time, it top lane though.

I haven't watched many streams lately, does he tend to play him mainly as a counter to certain champs? Regardless i'm glad to hear a high level streamer plays a lot of Voli, I'll have to watch Wingsofdeathx stream more often and hopefully he will make a belated appearance in competitive play soon.

iCanada

Canada10660 Posts

June 30 2012 07:15 GMT

#14

Volibear just strong in general, imo.

I've seen him be successful against like any champion. He wrecks melee champions so hard with good creep control. If Voli pushes the lane he has stupidly good kill potential on everyone at two; picture this, you have two creep waves (10~ creeps) and they only have like 3~ creeps. Other top laner goes to last hit, you auto them then press Q to auto them twice and flip them into the middle of your creeps.... other top laner has two choices 1) get chunked for free by a voli just beating on him with autos and W, or 2) trade back with 10 creeps on Volibears team.

It sounds kinda cheesy, but the only other option (assuming your support loves you and warded your lane/wraiths) is for the other top to push as hard as volibear is, in which case you can get really easy ganks if you buy pinks and counter-ward. Its the same way that singed doesn't just get rolled in every lane, only difference is that Volibear has a slightly harder time pushing the lane in exchange for the fact that he gets like a stupid amount of kill potential and thus snowballs stupidly hard.

Worst come to worst, other top laner successfully survives and is able to farm at tower while you go back and get an item advantage which you use to either zone him indefinitely or kill him with Voli's stupid kill potential. Best case scenario, you get First blood or force him back, making him lose a huge amount of creeps/experience to tower to the point that you just win because you are 2 levels higher and have better stats/skills (and who knows, maybe kill monies too!).

Some of the matchups against ranged champions are kinda rough (Nid, Kayle, Teemo) but Voli's gank assist so strong that you can win these lanes if your jungler gives you an advantage because you have an absurd amount of kill potential and your passive allows you to play rather aggressive (especially against these ranged champs as they dont really have much burst damage) which allows you to snowball pretty hard.

Other thing about Voli is that he scales really well into the late game with little offensive items... just a wits and then like straight HP/tank stats and he is a really strong bruiser with a solid initiate as well.

I might be a touch biased, but I think that Volibear is really really really strong and he should be played more. I rmeember hearing Dyrus say he wanted to play more somewhere, but I dont really recall where.

Vaporized

United States1471 Posts

June 30 2012 16:04 GMT

#15

too clarify i was jungling voli. havent actually tried him top lane.

barbsq

United States5348 Posts

June 30 2012 16:44 GMT

#16

On June 30 2012 16:15 iCanada wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

volibear is really easy to gank in top lane, doubly so if you're shoving to tower like that. I don't know how you don't just get camped top lane.

@Sickshakes: Thing about philo+hog on top lane voli is that I just don't think that philo is necessary on volibear. The mana regen is very much wasted after abt lvl 6ish or so. I also don't find reverie to be a must buy on voli either (although I suppose that's debatable), which makes philo even less attractive.

RE phage: I get phage because voli desperately needs to stick to people to do damage, his range is very limited, and therefore needs to be constantly in somebody's face, and phage helps facilitate that. If you're running philo+hog into reverie + omen, then you're probably not running into this problem as much, as you already have 2 quite good sticking items in addition to voli's kit, making phage a bit more optional. Basically, I run phage (into mallet) instead of reverie as a sticking tool. Additionally, this is also the reasoning behind ghost vs flash.

also glad u liked the guide. I want to expand a bit more on lane interactions and how to really exploit voli's strengths in lane, but I want to play some more games to A) refresh my voli experience, and B) accumulate more and better experience to condense it into words. Unfortunately my regular computer is away for repairs, so I won't get to play any LoL for the next couple of weeks, so that will have to wait :[

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

June 30 2012 17:00 GMT

#17

I've played lane Voli maybe once or twice, but I don't see how he would be easy to gank. the move speed bonus on q is 4 seconds regardless of when you fling, walk towards the jungler, E> Q him toward his own tower and just keep running.

am I missing something? I mean yea you will die sometimes but thats top lane if you get caught with the jungler behind you.

also like barbsq said, Phage is mainly just to ensure 3 stacks of W before they get away, very important, tho in lane you can charge on minions first, when the lane phase ends you need to hit someone 3 times to realize Voli's true damage potential.

Simberto

Germany11548 Posts

June 30 2012 17:51 GMT

#18

The movespeed bonus ends as soon as you fling someone.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

June 30 2012 19:41 GMT

#19

just checked in game to make sure I wasn't wrong, fling and movement speed independant. It might feel like you lose it because you will no longer be moving towards a champion so it will only be 15% but you do not lose the speed. You can see clearly that you still have the buff, also if you turn and move back towards the champion you will again be going mach 5.

Simberto

Germany11548 Posts

June 30 2012 19:51 GMT

#20

You are correct, i was fooled by the animation. When you fling someone, you stop running on all fours, but apparently you indeed still run faster.

Ferrose

United States11378 Posts

July 03 2012 15:47 GMT

#21

On June 30 2012 16:15 iCanada wrote:
Volibear just strong in general, imo.

I've seen him be successful against like any champion. He wrecks melee champions so hard with good creep control. If Voli pushes the lane he has stupidly good kill potential on everyone at two; picture this, you have two creep waves (10~ creeps) and they only have like 3~ creeps. Other top laner goes to last hit, you auto them then press Q to auto them twice and flip them into the middle of your creeps.... other top laner has two choices 1) get chunked for free by a voli just beating on him with autos and W, or 2) trade back with 10 creeps on Volibears team.

It sounds kinda cheesy, but the only other option (assuming your support loves you and warded your lane/wraiths) is for the other top to push as hard as volibear is, in which case you can get really easy ganks if you buy pinks and counter-ward. Its the same way that singed doesn't just get rolled in every lane, only difference is that Volibear has a slightly harder time pushing the lane in exchange for the fact that he gets like a stupid amount of kill potential and thus snowballs stupidly hard.

Worst come to worst, other top laner successfully survives and is able to farm at tower while you go back and get an item advantage which you use to either zone him indefinitely or kill him with Voli's stupid kill potential. Best case scenario, you get First blood or force him back, making him lose a huge amount of creeps/experience to tower to the point that you just win because you are 2 levels higher and have better stats/skills (and who knows, maybe kill monies too!).

Some of the matchups against ranged champions are kinda rough (Nid, Kayle, Teemo) but Voli's gank assist so strong that you can win these lanes if your jungler gives you an advantage because you have an absurd amount of kill potential and your passive allows you to play rather aggressive (especially against these ranged champs as they dont really have much burst damage) which allows you to snowball pretty hard.

Other thing about Voli is that he scales really well into the late game with little offensive items... just a wits and then like straight HP/tank stats and he is a really strong bruiser with a solid initiate as well.

I might be a touch biased, but I think that Volibear is really really really strong and he should be played more. I rmeember hearing Dyrus say he wanted to play more somewhere, but I dont really recall where.

Yeah it's pretty obnoxious that he can still blow people up late game with just Wriggle's and Wit's for damage because he gets 60% attack speed and 155 damage on hit from his kit. And then he gets an effective 30% extra HP from his passive on top of all those tank items. I don't know what to do for HP though. Items like Aegis and GA and Randuin's are always good, but I hate Mallet as an item, and I always feel like I get Warmog's way too late.

I've taken to trying to auto creeps every few seconds to keep up stacks of Frenzy so I have full stacks already when I trade, but I'm sure that that will just get me camped once I play against some junglers who are halfway decent.

Jojo131

Brazil1631 Posts

July 03 2012 15:58 GMT

#22

I've been having a lot of success with Voli in ranked lately, really wonder why he's not seen as much in tournaments.

With jungle Voli I like to start with E and max it first, along with a decent leash, the creep fear really helps in the jungle for those early levels. If you go wolves/blue getting a lvl2 gank is also pretty easy with QE (+flash if you need). I find that with AS reds and a point in W at lvl3 I can just skip the wriggles and build straight into FM then Atmogs into whatever else you need. I've yet to try wits since I dont understand the appeal other than against double AP.

I've given up on lane Voli since I found it hard to trade against someone who took ignite for my passive.

iCanada

Canada10660 Posts

July 03 2012 16:21 GMT

#23

I really dont think Voli dies to ganks that hard.

Assuming someone comes from behind him he has a 45% movespeed buff while running away as well as atleast a 30% slow. Plus his passive means the other team needs to burn ignite to kill you.

Other thing is you dont need to hard push all the time. Volibear can freeze lanes much earlier and with a much smaller advanatge than most laners because he can just flat out ignore creep damage with his E. Another neat thing is he can take Wraiths by himself at level 1 rather easily assuming he goes E first, you take literally zero damage if you start cloth and just lose a pot if you start boots which is a pretty paltry price to pay for almost three quarters of a level of experience.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

July 03 2012 16:58 GMT

#24

On July 04 2012 00:58 Jojo131 wrote:
I've been having a lot of success with Voli in ranked lately, really wonder why he's not seen as much in tournaments.

With jungle Voli I like to start with E and max it first, along with a decent leash, the creep fear really helps in the jungle for those early levels. If you go wolves/blue getting a lvl2 gank is also pretty easy with QE (+flash if you need). I find that with AS reds and a point in W at lvl3 I can just skip the wriggles and build straight into FM then Atmogs into whatever else you need. I've yet to try wits since I dont understand the appeal other than against double AP.

I've given up on lane Voli since I found it hard to trade against someone who took ignite for my passive.

pretty simple, Voli scales hard off Attack speed because of W and R, so wit's provides MR and attack speed. I would say the same thing about Atmas, I don't get the appeal when you can get heart of gold early and just get a randuin's late. Atmas adds far less damage than wit's for Voli in go time, due to his ultimate. I outlined in the OP why I feel strongly about wriggles, but skipping wriggles is legit in my mind if you replace it with a warmogs so I can agree with you on that, but I just really really like wriggles on Voli.

Alaric

France45622 Posts

July 03 2012 17:32 GMT

#25

Wit's gives AS which enhance your ult's power, for a good price and defensive stats.

Xenocide_Knight

Korea (South)2625 Posts

July 04 2012 05:58 GMT

#26

I like to sometimes grab boots of mobility. It makes your ganks terrifying. Fastest bearman

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

July 04 2012 17:24 GMT

#27

Voyboy about to play Voli top on stream.

Lane v Morde

Boots3 > Wits rush > HoG > Phage > Spirit Visage > Mallet > Warmogs > Randuins

was not watching the game super close order could be slightly off. went 11-2 before hotshot threw the game and Anivia/Ashe took over.

Terranasaur

United States2085 Posts

July 04 2012 17:37 GMT

#28

If you don't build Ionic Spark on Voli you are doing it wrong. Too much Thunder!

DaRkFrosT

United States407 Posts

July 04 2012 21:11 GMT

#29

Just played voli in the jungle using the OP's guide. Went 14-4-13

Morphx2

147 Posts

July 04 2012 21:42 GMT

#30

i just played jungle veigar and went 14-3-13. viable for sure!

Terranasaur

United States2085 Posts

July 04 2012 22:39 GMT

#31

On July 05 2012 06:42 Morphx2 wrote:
i just played jungle veigar and went 14-3-13. viable for sure!

why would you jump in here just to troll like that?

Veig thread is over here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=171372

sylverfyre

United States8298 Posts

July 05 2012 02:21 GMT

#32

On July 05 2012 02:37 Terranasaur wrote:
If you don't build Ionic Spark on Voli you are doing it wrong. Too much Thunder!

You know, it's actually really nice for all the same reasons Wits is, and also the HP works nicely with W-active.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

July 05 2012 03:09 GMT

#33

it's not as bad as it is on other champions, and after the upcoming buff, all the stats are good for him, but you run into cost benefit of 6 item slots and midgame items.

Probly best saved for taunting your opponents in those 7-0 at 10 min type games.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

July 10 2012 04:38 GMT

#34

Volibear half off RP until friday.

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

November 26 2012 16:14 GMT

#35

Played quite a bit of Volibear recently. Long musings from a really bad player:

I've seen arguments for both offensive and defensive Volibear builds/specs. Some have said that it's best to do something like 21/9/0, get quick bruiser style items (like Phage and Wit's), and then go more for a damage-oriented role than a defensive-oriented one. I respectfully disagree. I think a defensive build focusing on Health and Armor is much more effective. My preferred role is to play semi-initiator or follow up, then charge and focus on the AD, similar to someone like Olaf. While you don't have his perma-Axe-slow or CC negation/defense buff ult, you do have quite a bit of effective health vs sustained damage thanks to your passive, and it's very hard for people to escape you between Q and E.

Additionally, I don't see offensive options (which for Voli is mainly AS) as necessary as defensive options. You have very high sustained dps thanks to W's passive AS boost, your ult, and your base AD being on the higher end (especially since I run Arpen runes and 9/21/0 for the Arpen in offense, so you're doing great damage to squishies). Additionally, you have very high burst with W's active, especially with high health count and if the enemy is low thanks to the execute mechanic. So I like to prioritize Health and CDR alongside whatever defense you think is necessary. SV is a great item, and Randuin's will be amazing come S3 (will be Giant's Belt + Warden's).

Therefore, while many people will come in and tell me I'm wrong, I do like to prioritize him as a tanky disruptor and DPS rather than an AS-focused damage dealer. Especially in solo queue at lower ELOs (where I play), I think the scariest champions (aside from fed Vayne) are tough-to-kill tanky champions who can still dish out pain. A well played Olaf, Mundo, Singed, etc. Voli can stand up with them, but I don't think the way to do that is through Phage/Wit's bruiser style.

This said, I don't know if I'll continue to play him. Perhaps it's my inexperience, but he feels pretty weak against a lot of current top laners, especially those who can harass him and dicatate fights, or those that can ward him off and sustain. My goal in most lanes is to try and farm quickly to get defenses and then become an unstoppable force, a la Singed/Shen. However, without an activate-able sustain mechanic (as passive is unreliable at times), you can't do that as reliably or well as either of them, or other options like Regen Garen (who has his shield, CC reduction, and slow-removal).

He's a strong duelist, for sure, but his weaknesses are many and great. No range to farm/harass with is painful against some laners and suicide against others. No sustain outside of his passive makes him prone to harass, so you either really need to set the tempo yourself or you get shoved out rather hard. And of course, as listed above, there are a lot of champions who do his job (build health, be unkillable, still do damage) better.

I mean, it's not all gloom and doom, of course. I think he's an above average jungler, and will do well with the S3 changes. His ganks can be pretty brutal, as you can contribute both good CC and high damage. With Machete and W passive AS, you'll be able to tear through the jungle at high speeds and be safe thanks to your 3 second fear, and building it into Spirit of the Ancient Golem will be amazing on him. And the lane matchups he does well in, he does REALLY WELL in. Amongst other duelists (i.e. low harass/low sustain laners), he's one of the better ones, and even in hard lane matchups, if you get ahead by better play or jungle help, you can really dominate. But I don't know if his "pros" outweigh his "cons" enough for him to be super successful.

I welcome advice and feedback, of course, these were just my experiences.

Sufficiency

Canada23833 Posts

November 26 2012 19:38 GMT

#36

I think he will definitely be better at laning for S3, due to a series of changes that will work in his favour:

- resistance changes make stacking health more viable
- better warmog
- ignite nerf
- freezing lane is harder (harder to shut him down if he is behind)

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

November 26 2012 20:06 GMT

#37

Indeed, the new items (and masteries, looking at the defensive tree) will be great on him. I just don't know if they'll be enough to push him ahead of other champions that do his job.

I may consider buying Swifities on him if I buy another Tenacity item like SotAGolem. Slows and CCs just butcher his usefulness, imo.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

November 26 2012 23:26 GMT

#38

to be honest the guide is really outdated at this point.

a) I almost always convert my vamp sceptor into a Zeke's instead of wriggles now
b) I actually spec into 10% mpen instead of arp, because of the usefulness of cdr and the bad interactivity of arp runes

but I mean there's no real point in updating it at the moment esepcially with point a & b changing in the next patch. that being said I still think he needs wits to be a relevant target in a teamfight.

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

November 27 2012 00:50 GMT

#39

I rarely get a Vamp Scepter at all. Wriggle's is meh, even in the jungle, and I don't like Zeke's on him. I'd rather put Kindle into SV, and I'm not a fan of making Voli into the aura carrier in the first place.

I'm thinking http://www.finalesfunkeln.com/s3/#Ua5Ma2xAsMgd as kind of a base, shuffling points around based on who you're laning against and whether you're jungling or not.

barbsq

United States5348 Posts

November 27 2012 01:35 GMT

#40

vamp scepter is kindof a necessity, you can't do extended trades without one.

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

November 27 2012 01:40 GMT

#41

I suppose I can see that, I just don't know what I'd build it into. Like I said, I'm kind of ambivalent about Zeke's and Wriggle's. And it'll be more annoying to get come S3, since it'll build out of Long Sword.

obesechicken13

United States10467 Posts

November 27 2012 05:45 GMT

#42

Volibear's actually a much decent laner than most people give him credit for. His Q is hard to constantly stay away from so even if you're ranged you can get screwed over by his superior damage. Voli's Ult and passive is what makes him a real terror. 70 damage at level 6 for free on every auto for 12 seconds, and 155 at level 16. If he flips Kayle past level 6 then he'll win the trade and against any slightly below average Kayle, the lane. The trick with ranged champs is to just run away until Q wears off.

He gets less move speed from Q when running away so you can punish him then.

He has a lot of problems though. Without ult he can't farm creeps very quickly.
He has no escapes so he has to build tanky or die if he ever gets targeted by two damage dealers in a team fight.
If he just tanks on the front line there's a good chance he'll die before doing anything to all the ranged crap coming from the enemy team, but that's the tank's job: to soak damage.
He's good at coming from the sides to 1v1 someone and good at flinging someone away from a squishy and then using thundering claws to beat them into submission.
Even melees with good range can poke at him in lane. Similar to how Olaf can chuck axes at Darius even though they're both melee, Wukong can hit you with free Q's if you're not careful.

GhandiEAGLE

United States20754 Posts

November 27 2012 06:12 GMT

#43

Lane Voli is hilariously underestimated. He can actually pick up lvl1 kills very easily when your opponent isn't wary. Champs like Riven or Talon get shut down hard.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

November 27 2012 18:07 GMT

#44

On November 27 2012 09:50 Requizen wrote:
I rarely get a Vamp Scepter at all. Wriggle's is meh, even in the jungle, and I don't like Zeke's on him. I'd rather put Kindle into SV, and I'm not a fan of making Voli into the aura carrier in the first place.

I'm thinking http://www.finalesfunkeln.com/s3/#Ua5Ma2xAsMgd as kind of a base, shuffling points around based on who you're laning against and whether you're jungling or not.

a vamp sceptor is going to provide far more healing than SV over time on a character with a massive aspd steroid and their only self heal having a 2 min cd, the synergy between Zeke's W passive and Wits is both more damage and more survivability

not to mention if the person you are dueling has ignite they will save it for your passive so putting all of your eggs in that passive is dicy at best. This argument is really dumb tho with it only being relevant for like 7 days at most but it really bothers me when people look at Zeke's as an Aura item when most bruisers who scale off hp get a LOT out of it.

Bladeorade

United States1898 Posts

November 27 2012 21:55 GMT

#45

I prefer Zekes on him, I think it has everything he needs. Health, CDR, AS and lifesteal.

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

November 27 2012 21:59 GMT

#46

Mph. I guess I'm just closed minded about aura items.

Sadly, the new Zeke's has half the Lifesteal and AD instead of AS, for a more expensive package.

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

February 04 2013 15:47 GMT

#47

Despite my deriding comments in General Discussion, I've started playing a large amount of jungle Volibear recently to great success. I still feel that he's a poor laner, as he has a fair amount of bad matchups against common laners and has issues being behind if he gets zoned or ganked.

However, in the jungle his clear speed is pretty impressive and safe, and his ganks can be very very effective with a small amount of coordination. Spirit of the Ancient Golem is monstrously good on him as well, making his building out of the jungle very strong. It's made me want to update my S3 Voli guide, but it would be mostly (if not completely) focused on jungle, and I don't know how many others play him there as opposed to top.

yokohama

United States1116 Posts

February 05 2013 03:42 GMT

#48

On February 05 2013 00:47 Requizen wrote:
Despite my deriding comments in General Discussion, I've started playing a large amount of jungle Volibear recently to great success. I still feel that he's a poor laner, as he has a fair amount of bad matchups against common laners and has issues being behind if he gets zoned or ganked.

However, in the jungle his clear speed is pretty impressive and safe, and his ganks can be very very effective with a small amount of coordination. Spirit of the Ancient Golem is monstrously good on him as well, making his building out of the jungle very strong. It's made me want to update my S3 Voli guide, but it would be mostly (if not completely) focused on jungle, and I don't know how many others play him there as opposed to top.

I would definitely read a Voli jungle guide if you updated yours, I play him as my main top lane champion and right now I am learning jungle with Xin Zhao, but if I could utilize Voli in jungle as well I think it would be great.

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

February 05 2013 16:47 GMT

#49

Season 3 Jungle Volibear Primer

I used to be a pretty vocal outcrier of how bad Volibear was, and I still hold that he's not a great laner. That said, Season 3 has been very, very good for jungle Volibear. He feels at home there, in my opinion, his E feels designed for both ganking and safe clearing, his Q is a great gank tool, especially if coupled with another CC from the laner, and he thrives on getting tanky out of the jungle, especially with how good health is right now.

Roles:

Let’s talk about roles for a second. Melee characters can have a few roles. They can be heavy damage dealers like Talon or Akali. You can be an unkillable tank that disrupts and supports like Shen or Nautilus. Or you can be somewhere in between, a tanky sonovabitch who also happens to do a respectable amount of damage, like Olaf or Darius.

I feel that Volibear fits in the latter. Thanks to your good AS from W’s passive, your bite execute, and your ult, you will end up doing both a good amount of single target burst and decent sustained to both your target and the nearby enemies. With a couple health and resistance items and perhaps a single AS item, you become pretty tanky and are still threatening enough to scare a squishy AD or Mage.

However, you need to know your limits. You do not have an instant gap closer like Jax or Irelia, and you can’t ignore CC like Olaf. So sometimes diving straight to the back as the first initiate on your team means you get CC’d and locked down before you reach that target. You don’t have a lot of front-loaded burst, so you can’t expect to go in and kill something instantly, you need to stick to your target as long as possible. And finally, your escape is minimal and has the same mobility and CC issues as your initiate, so a lot of times when you’re in, you’re in.

You aren’t a hyper carry like Jax or Irelia, you aren’t an unkillable wall like Singed or Shen. You’re somewhere in between, and it makes you very strong as long as you recognize your downfalls and play to your advantages.

Pros/Cons:

+ Show Spoiler [Pros/Cons] +

Pros:
Gains damage and extra survival from health, meaning you get better pretty much all around the more health you get.
Good teamfight synergy in many comps.
That passive.
Amazing dueling.
Pretty good base stats (decent to high health and armor, enjoys MR/level, and higher end MS)
Fairly low mana consumption.
Good clearing capabilities.
Surprisingly good damage even when building tanky.
Works well with a whole crapton of items.

Cons:
No built in sustain aside from passive.
No ranged abilities
Gap closer isn’t instant.
No innate tankiness aside from passive.

Abilities:

Passive: Chosen of the Storm
Description: When Volibear's health drops below 30% of his maximum health, he will heal for 30% of his maximum health over the next 6 seconds.
Cooldown: 120 seconds (internal)
Notes:
+ Show Spoiler +

-This passive is awesome. It’s basically a Mundo ult that kicks in when you get low. It helps win duels with sustained damage dealers, it discourages people from diving you, and generally makes you a tough badass. It has great synergy with Spirit Visage and any Health item you can get your hands on.
-Watch out for burst (especially execute moves like Darius, Garen, or Riven ults) and Ignite/Grevious Wounds. This isn’t necessarily negated by Ignite effects, but they cancel each other out. So if Ignite is ticking, it won’t save you from the enemy, but it will save you from Ignite killing you. Know when to use it to stay in fights and know when to use it as a way to escape alive.
-Especially hilarious when you walk off into the fog of war with low health and this ticking, only for the Karthus to ult and wonder why you didn’t die.

Q: Rolling Thunder
Description: For the next 4 seconds, Volibear will gain 15% movement speed. This bonus increases to 45% movement speed when headed toward a nearby visible enemy champion. Additionally, Volibear's next autoattack during this time will deal bonus physical damage and will fling the target behind him.
Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 seconds
Cost: 40 Mana
Fling Distance: 300 arbitrary units
Bonus Damage on Fling: 30/60/90/120/150
Notes:
+ Show Spoiler +

-Gap closer, escape tool, CC, interrupt, damage, attack reset, and it dices too. The bonus damage also works on towers, which is sort of nice. This is an amazing ganking tool, and tool to stop slippery escapers. This basically precludes anyone from escaping without a jump or CC, as you can catch anything that’s running from you for the most part. It also helps for running away, although obviously not as much as other, more powerful sprints. All in all, it’s a really nice mobility tool that forces CC on you over someone squishier.
-Always remember that this works as an attack reset and gives you a stack of Frenzy, so if you don’t need to use it to get in range, it is better to auto-Q-auto rather than hitting it first.

W: Frenzy
Description (Passive): Volibear temporarily gains bonus attack speed after an autoattack. This bonus stacks up to 3 times and lasts for 4 seconds.
Description (Active): While Volibear has 3 stacks of Frenzy, he can activate this ability to bite a target enemy. The stacks won't be consumed. The bite will deal physical damage that scales with his own bonus health. This damage will in turn be increased by 1% for every 1% of the target's missing health.
Cooldown: 18 seconds
Cost: 35 Mana
Bite Distance: 400 arbitrary units
Bonus Attack Speed on Passive: 8% / 11% / 14% / 17% / 20% per stack (24% / 33% / 42% / 51% / 60% total if you can’t do math)
Bonus Damage on Bite: 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+ 15% of bonus health) -> Up to a max of 160 / 250 / 340 / 430 / 520 (+ 30% of bonus health) based on enemy health
Notes:
+ Show Spoiler +

-Another great ability, and very fun to use. Bitchslap people a couple times, and then bite their face off. What’s not to love? Especially nice because it gives both sustained damage (AS) and burst damage (Bite) in one nice package.
-Make sure you have full stacks when you pop your ult for obvious reasons.
-Always be aware that this is an execute style ability. It may be better to just hold on to it until they’re low enough to ensure the bite will kill them. The cooldown is long, so you generally only get to use it once, maybe twice.
-Great synergy with Hunter’s Machete, stupidly good synergy with Spirit of the Ancient Golem.

E: Majestic Roar
Description: Volibear lets out a powerful roar that deals magic damage and slows nearby enemies for 2 seconds. Minions, monsters and pets are also feared for 3 seconds.
Cooldown:11 seconds
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 Mana
Roar AoE: 425 arbitrary units
Roar Damage: 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+ 60% AP)
Slow Power: 30% / 35% / 40% / 45% / 50%
Notes:
+ Show Spoiler +

-The ability I originally wrote off as “standard” or “boring”, but the fear is really nice. Allows you to fight in creep waves even better than many tanky champs. I take it first, as it means you take way less damage than you should, basically a free extra pot or two early on.
-Don’t be so fast to hit this after you land your Q flip. It has a decent AoE range, so sometimes it’s better to hold on to it until they’re just about out of range, rather than when they’re right on top of you.
-The fear affects pets. Not amazing, but kind of cool to help your team against Annie and Morde.
-The CD is pretty hefty, so try not to get baited by gap-openers like Flash.
-Damage is pretty low, but it can 2-3 shot small jungle creeps and, at max level if pushing out a lane, it can push rather hard when coupled with ult.
-This fears Shaco and LeBlanc clones, allowing you to differentiate them against sneaky bastards.

R: Thunder Claws
Description: For the next 12 seconds, Volibear's autoattacks will blast his target with lightning that will also bounce to up to 3 nearby enemies. Each bolt of lightning will deal magic damage and will only hit each target once.
Cooldown: 100/90/80 seconds
Cost: 100 Mana
Chain Lighting Distance: 300 arbitrary units
Bonus Damage from Zapping: 75 / 115 / 155 (+ 30% AP)
Notes:
+ Show Spoiler +

-Good multi-purpose ult. The AoE gives him pretty good pushing potential, and increases your damage by quite a bit during teamfights. It allows you to zap at their back line (not for a lot, mind you) even if you can’t reach them.
-As above, try to make sure your Frenzy passive is fully stacked before hitting ult. Even if it’s only for those two slower swings, that’s less AoE damage you’re putting out
-The bounces will jump to stealthed targets, always a bonus.
-Not much else to say. Hit it when you're fighting, especially against bunched enemies, or you want to push a lane.

Skill Order:

E-W-(E/Q)-(Q/E) into R>(E/W)>(W/E)>Q

+ Show Spoiler +

You want E first for your clearing, if not for the AoE, then for the fear that basically gives you enough mitigation to not need all your pots. Especially with a good leash, you can take Wolves and Blue with little life lost. W next, because of AS and Machete being so sexy good together. At 3, you either get Q if you're going to gank, or another rank in E if you're just going to keep clearing.

Get R whenever you can, as the chain lighting is far from negligable in teamfights. Q should be last, as I personally find that the CDR and damage from leveling it aren't enough to warrant taking it over W or E. E max makes your clearing super fast and the extra slow is actually pretty noticeable. W max gives you a crapton of free damage. Which you max first is personal preference, and should be decided based on the game. If you need a bit more CC or find yourself farming more, go E. If your team needs you to be a damage presence, go W. I prefer W somewhat more often, but either works.

Summoner Spells

[Ghost] + [Smite]

+ Show Spoiler [Reasonings] +

I take Ghost pretty much at all times. Flash is Flash, but Ghost couples with Q, gives extra sticking power (good for your sustained damage), and just generally lets you run around teamfights being a Bear. I guess you can take Flash if you really want, it’s necessary against some opponents such as Jarvan or Anivia if you ever want to escape with your life. I do miss being able to chase over walls and the like, but Ghost feels stronger most of the time.

Smite because you're a jungle bear. Duh.

Exhaust is also good. If the enemy team isn't as kite heavy, you might be able to forego Flash or Ghost and get Exhaust, giving you stupidly powerful ganks and helping you dive squishies later in the game. That said, I find it highly situational and I almost never use it. You already have a strong slow and the displacement, but I suppose if you want the AS and damage dealt debuff, it's a decent choice.

Masteries

Defense is your friend. You want to be tanky, and really tanky, and unkillable. It also offers Tenacity and Slow reduction and gives you more health, which you like because you're Volibear.

Runes

Reds: AS. Synergizes with your W, gives more damage from Machete/SS/SotAG, and gives you more ult procs. ArPen or Hybrid Pen are possible substitutes, but I'm not crazy about them.
Yellows: Armor. An argument can be made for Health/lvl, I guess, but you’re going to want that armor at low levels.
Blues: MR. Whether you bring Scaling or Flat is up to you and the laners. I like Scaling unless there's someone like LeBlanc that's going to make my early ganks a nightmare of burst or something.
Quints: Move Speed. You need more MS for Q to be as effective, to stick, and to escape, and there really aren’t that many other good options.

Stats:

Volibear likes Health. Volibear likes Health a lot. It makes you hit harder, it makes you harder to kill with your passive, and it’s fucking Health, so it’s good anyway. Armor/MR are the same as they are on any other champ. Buy what you need based on enemy comp and fed champ, etc. You don’t need Health on everything, but it’s worth noting that with his passive and W, Voli gets more out of it per point than most champions.

Offensively, Voli likes Attack Speed, as it synergizes well with W and R. Armor Pen is nice, since you’re going to be autoing a lot and Bite is physical, but I’d not itemize for it.

CDR is good, as it is on nearly every champ. With low mana costs on W and Q, a fair amount of CDR gives you a lot of damage and disruption. Sadly, your passive doesn’t come up quicker with CDR, but we can’t have everything. W and E especially are good with more CDR, but even with max you won’t get more than 2 off a fight mostly.

Basically, defensively you want Health on most items, mixed with what resists you need. Offensively, you want AS and CDR (CDR also increases your utility with slows and what not). AD and AP or either Penetration added on are ok, but not required or should be sought out.

Items

Starting:

Machete 5 is the jungle standard. I can't think of anything else right now, unless you get like a huuuuuge leash and do Machete/Ward/Pot start.

Boot Choices

Shocking, but I buy Boots of Swiftness almost every game. Mercs, Tabi, and Mobo are still good, though:

+ Show Spoiler [Reasonings] +

[Boots of Swiftness][Mercury Treads][Ninja Tabi][Mobility Boots]
Swiftness boots used to be a joke. Now, they also reduce slow duration, which can help you way more than you realize, especially when you stack it with Tenacity and the Defense tree. The extra MS was always good, but never better than Tenacity + MR.

Now, you get Tenacity from Spirit of the Ancient Golem, and Spirit Visage is core (often along with Runic Bulwark), so I'd not even put Merc's above Tabi. Even then, unless they have an auto attacker getting fed, you get plenty of Armor from runes/masteries/SotAG(/Aegis) that Swiftness feel pretty strong in comparison.

Mobility Boots are a pretty normal jungle ganking item, but I've never been a fan, since a stray auto or spell will cancel them out. You also have Q charge, which puts you over the cap with Mobos, so I rarely feel like I need that first burst of speed to initiate a gank or fight. On the other hand, it helps you get around the map, so don't discount them.

Everything else is for no. You don’t need AS badly enough to pick Zerker’s, and you don’t care about MPen enough. You like CDR, but I don’t think it outstrips any of the four I listed above.

Boot Enchants
Volibear can use all of the enchants, so buy depending on your playstyle and situation.

[Alacrity] Flat MS is good, and you get a lot stacking these with Swifities. I get these often, and they feel good, but I'm sure a number cruncher will tell me otherwise.
[Furor] Sticking power and also gives you a charge when you Bite. Good for never letting someone escape, or Bite-Slow-run away combo.
[Captain] You likely will be the first or second person to run in, so yeah, self-explanitory. If you’re initiating, consider as a great team follow up for Q. If you’re split pushing, consider as well. Not high on buy priority, but worth a thought.
[Distortion] You bring Ghost, so I can see this being useful. Not that great generally though.
[Homeguard] If you’re being pushed back, this is always a good choice. If you're looking to upgrade your boots early, though, these are a good choice. Until you get some regen under your belt (Aegis, Locket, Warmog's), you'll be backing unless you have pots/Flask. This cuts down on your time in base.

Items

I don't really believe in "build paths", but you do have more or less a core. Spirit of the Ancient Golem + Boots + Spirit Visage is a strong core that can deal with most, if not all, mid games and transition you into other items as you need them. Your first back should almost always be Spirit Stone + Boots1 unless you desperately need a low level defensive item. From there, build Giant's Belt and upgrade your boots in no particular order. If you want MR early, you can either grab a NMM and sit on it until Aegis, or get a Negatron if you can afford it to build into Spirit Visage. From there, read on.

Core Items - The big two items I talked about above. Get these with boots in pretty much any situation, and you’ll be golden.

Hunter's Machete/Spirit Stone/Spirit of the Ancient Golem - + Show Spoiler +

The only option out of the jungle items. Sure, Machete can work well with your W free attack speed, but Health, Armor, and Tenacity is all you want and more. Plus, the regen never hurts since you have no sustain of your own. Seriously, if you have to ask why SotAG is good after looking at the stats, you probably shouldn't play Volibear.

Spirit Visage - + Show Spoiler +

Oh my goodness. This is exactly as good as you think it is. CDR, MR, Health, and the passive are all so good that it feels like a sin not to buy this item even if they have no magic damage at all. Grab a Kindlegem early and you can sit on it until this, if you feel you don't need the MR immediately.

Great Items - These are items you should consider in every game. Use your own judgement as to when you should buy what, but these are items I think always have a place in a standard game.

Warmog’s - + Show Spoiler +

This seems obvious, and it kind of is. You love Health, I love Health. As a pure health option, it’s good. Voli can rock pure health and eat the regen as tasty dessert, especially since you don't have much of your own. However, of course, this doesn’t give anything else. FMallet as a “pure health” item gives more sustained damage and sticking power, so don’t always herp derp Warmog’s, but it’s perfectly good as a core item.

Phage/Frozen Mallet - + Show Spoiler +

Good mid game health item. However, it’s more of a tanky dps than a beef item, and you don’t get as much out of the AD as others. The slow is still good, but you have a pretty good slow and a lot of MS between items/runes/Q. Consider this if you want a big health item, but want more sustained damage than Warmog’s, or if you really think you need more sticking power.

Aegis of the Legion/Runic Bulwark - + Show Spoiler +

It’s Aegis, so it’s good. You like the stats, your team likes the stats. Confer with your Support/Top as to if you should build it or not. Bulwark is a great item to build towards if the enemy team is AP heavy.

Locket of the Iron Solari - + Show Spoiler +

It got more health, CDR, and a lower price during the transition to S3. If you have a Kindlegem and think you don’t need SV right away, consider this. As people on TL will tell you, it's a stupidly good item, just remember the active. Especially consider this if you're too poor to get Warmog's/FMallet/etc.

Good Items - As it says. These work with Voli for reasons listed, but generally not picked above the Great Items for one reason or another. Never count out these items if the situation arises, but generally don’t rush them I’d say.

Randuin’s Omen - + Show Spoiler +

Good item if you need a lot of armor. Champs like Riven, Panth, Trynd, and Talon can be stopped with the armor, and your other health items + the Giant's Belt on this can deal with things like BC. Additionally, you can build this to fuck over a fed Vayne or Kog with the active.

Sightstone/Ruby Sightstone - + Show Spoiler +

Wards? Check. Health? Check. This is really damn good if you want vision and health. So... it's really damn good. However, don't panic buy this every time. You get passive boost and damage out of it, sure, but often times other items + Wards is a better option. It's a good item for later on when you want wards but don't want to waste slots on it, especially if your team isn't warding and you need the vision.

Wit’s End - + Show Spoiler +

MR and AS. Pretty good as a single damage item, especially if you need MR against a Ryze or Cass or something. However, SV and Bulwark are better items in my eyes, and you’re spending too much on offensive stats. While AS is nice, you’re not a primary damage dealer.

Situational Items - Maybe these items could be good on Volibear, but I’m not 100% yet. Some of them are very situational and you’d buy maybe 1 in 50 games, some of them are good, but not as good as other items that bring similar stats.

Glacial Shroud/Frozen Heart - + Show Spoiler +

CDR and armor are good, of course. FH is a good item on Voli, and if you find yourself needing more armor even with Omen already built, it’s a good item. That said, I’d never prioritize it over Omen, and especially since you already have a good amount of armor from SotAG, so yeah.

DShield - + Show Spoiler +

An interesting item. I generally don’t think about getting this a lot, but it can be a good situational early pick against ADs that are getting ahead. I generally don’t like building Doran’s items out of the jungle on any character, but it’s a strong pick for him if you get some gold and want power right now.

Shurelya's Reverie - + Show Spoiler +

Health, CDR, and regen isn’t bad. If you feel like you need more mobility (especially for your team), it’s not a bad choice. However, I feel like if your team really needs it that badly, your support should probably be getting it. Kindlegem should go into other items.

Catalyst of the Protector/Banshee’s Veil - + Show Spoiler +

I don’t know about this one. Health good, passive is nice in early game where you have little to no sustain. Consider early (to take advantage of the passive) if you’re going for Banshee’s or Ohmwrecker (read below).

Against really heavy Magic teams/poke teams BV can be good alongside the other two. Pretty good to help your charge ignore CC incoming. Skip, mostly.

Guardian Angel - + Show Spoiler +

Less great since the nerf, but still decent resists and a revive. Consider if you’re getting focused quickly and hate dying during teamfights, or as a final item for a full build if you get to that point. They’ll have to burn through you, your passive, and then 30% of your health again. 160+% health Bear is funny.

Damage Items - Sometimes you have a Cho/Malph/Galio on your team as a pure tank and you can stand to build some extra damage. These two are decent choices after Wit’s.

Guinsoo’s Rageblade - + Show Spoiler +

This is one that I never really considered, but the more I muse on it, the nicer it seems if you have a crapton of money and can go straight Murderbear, or even as a luxury item for a standard build. The AS passive works with W, the AD and AP give a bit more damage, so it’s nice. The real beauty, though, comes from the second passive. The Lifesteal/Spellvamp can really stick together with your passive if you’re getting focused/dueling to give you hella regen and make you hard to kill. I’ll buy it in games where I can and report back on it.

Zephyr - + Show Spoiler +

Every stat on this is amazing for Voli. Tenacity overlaps with SotAG, but it’s still dumb effective on him if you can afford it. If you can afford to fill a slot with a pure damage item.

Item buying tl;dr

Get your core of SotAG + upgraded boots -> SV and then build from there. Pure health is so strong right now, so you can go for Warmog’s to get tanky or FMallet for a similar result but a bit more damage + sticking power. You can go Locket or Aegis if you want auras or mixed resists. Wit’s is if you want more damage (not likely).

General Notes

- Know when you have “power spikes”. You are pretty scary for your first level 3 or 4 gank, but Voli with just Machete stops being scary quickly. When you get Spirit Stone + Boots, you get more ganking prowess, but not any tankier, so your non-dive ganks become scary. The point that you get Giant’s Belt or Kindlegem while others are just getting Long Swords or Amp Tomes is the point where you are the most terrifying early on, so abuse that time.

- Rolling Thunder is one of the best ganking tools in the game, but you can really screw your team over if you fling them badly. NEVER fling them away from your team, if you have Q up and they juke you or something, it’s better to not auto until you are between them and your allies. Also, try not to fling them out of skillshots or AoE spells your teammates may be laying down.

- Your W active can work as a “double smite” of sorts. Since it is an execute and you’re getting the bonus from Butcher on SotAG, you can Smite a couple hundred HP early and then follow it up with W to have good control on Buffs/Dragon/Baron.

- When looking at team comps, you love people with ranged CC for obvious reasons. A Taric stun, Elise web, Lux/Morg/Zyra snare, or even a slow like Nasus Wither or Nunu Ice Blast is a great thing for you to follow up with Rolling Thunder.

- If you’re playing more gank heavy, especially around bot lane, an Oracle’s can be invaluable. Because you need to run at a target and you don’t have Hecarim or Rammus levels of speed, you need to make sure you can get close enough for Rolling Thunder and Majestic Roar to connect.

- While it is good to charge into a teamfight and fling/slow the enemy carry, you’re also a strong peeler for the same reasons. You can keep a bruiser off of your carry pretty well, so if they have a strong Jax/Irelia type, work on bodyguarding your AD. It wins games, especially if it’s someone like Varus or Ashe who has issues with strong divers.

Final Thoughts

Volibear is a good champion, and one of my favorites currently. He’s not “finesse-y” like Lee or Zed, he’s very straightforward in his kit. I like that playstyle. You just have a strong kit that does damage, is tough, and helps your team, and is fun on top of all that. I don’t claim to be the best player, or a great one, or even a great Volibear player, but these are my thoughts and a skeleton guide for players who are trying out Voli and want to see what he can do.

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

February 05 2013 16:48 GMT

#50

Will update with formatting and pictures later.

Skithiryx

Australia648 Posts

February 10 2013 09:05 GMT

#51

I've bean going a fairly similar build to yours in my recent games however I normally turn machete into a razors and then go Locket > Visage > Tankstuff here, will defeinitely dive SotAG a shot!

Scip

Czech Republic11293 Posts

February 10 2013 12:16 GMT

#52

Remove the references where you say that attack speed synergyzes with your W imo, yeah it helps you charge it a tiny bit faster, but it's only 3 hits to get it to full charge, and after that it makes your attack speed less useful overall. Obviously attack speed is still good on him, but thats because of his ultimate, not his W.
I'd add CDR blues as a possible reccomendation, he doesn't use CDR THAT well for jungling, but it's still better if they got insignificant amount of magic damage or got someone who's just not going to attack you, like Fizz.
You're probably expecting me to say to add Locket into the core items, but yeah, here I go. It's a more expensive than SotAG (1600g vs. 2000g) and it doesn't provide tenacity, but even when you take Voli's passive into account Locket gives the same amount of HP, and while you trade Tenacity for CDR, which isn't necessarily desirable, the shield for your allies is worth waaay more than some 500 gold.
A special synergy that Voli has with the shield, you can use it after your passive activates, giving you an extra HP layer to protect you against burst before you regenerate enough. The difference here at this point is only something like 80hp, but it may be something to consider, especially because the utility of these 2 items is so close together anyway.
Also I prefer flash, but you can probably guess the reasons, so yeah.

Zdrastochye

Ivory Coast6262 Posts

February 10 2013 13:46 GMT

#53

Honestly I've had the most success with him as support. He's incredibly punishing vs any AD without an escape (Varus, Kog, MF) and even if their AD is slippery you can probably burst down their support. If the lane is pushed up towards your tower they're dead meat if your AD is on board with you. His damage is far above what any other supports is, and with the right summoners (I go heal/exhaust) nobody can 2v2 you no matter who your AD is (as long as you don't get too far behind). I spend a lot of time camping in the bushes, so expect to stock up on pinks to be able to zone them off your hunting grounds, and buy a ruby crystal on your first buy (or boots of swiftness if they're not ready to respect you yet) and you can generally snowball any lane.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

February 10 2013 18:24 GMT

#54

kinda embarassed this got bumped before I had a s3 guide ready, if a mod wants to spoiler my s2 guide for archives and replace it with Requizen's. That said I have some things I was planning to add to my s3 guide,

1)After playing a good amount of Vi I decided to try leveling q second, and I really like the cdr, it's a significant drop in damage from w second but I'm still toying with the idea. (Diamond, I know you are wondering, went E>W>Q)

2)I still think because of his W Voli is and always will be a wriggles (claw because TL don't upgrade the x-man claw) jungler

3)I can't get behind swifties, Tabi/Zephyer is too good on voli

4)Locket is core

5)Visage is highly overrated on Voli, just make a bulwark

6)at some point you actually do need to finish lantern even tho Yango will vomit lifesteal makes you last a lot longer (the argument of vamp sceptor vs visage from s2 still holds true today)

Still have more to test (hence the lack of an updated OP)

EDIT: Actually I will update the OP tonight when I have time (2/10 US) and just credit Requizen, I want to make the OP more of a mix of both of our thoughts if it's going to have my name on the OP

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

February 11 2013 00:04 GMT

#55

I understand that the W AS boost synergizes with the Wriggle's/Razor proc for good single target clearing, but something that only affects your jungle clear (which doesn't really matter past like 10 minutes once you have enough health for W to crush jungle creeps and enough ranks in E to clear the little ones) doesn't feel nearly as useful as getting Health, Armor, and Tenacity on one item. The Tenacity means you don't have to get Merc's, and, while I understand hesitation at getting Swifities, the slow reduction + tenecity really helps to solve Voli's giant problem of being kited super easily, and you finish both of those together super early. I could see not getting Swiftness if you went Wriggle's, but if you have SotAG, I can't really see the reason not to.

As far as Zephyr as a Tenacity item, sure it's good damage, but I can't stand building him with pure damage items. I'd love to build it, since the stats are pretty amazing, but I really think he's not nearly as good at utilizing damage items/stats as he is getting health and resists and being a big tanky bear. Maybe it's just a playstyle difference.

Locket I can get behind. I'm starting to agree that SV is not as core as I thought it was. Mathematically, I like the extra healing, but I've never really noticed it as much as I thought I would. Bulwark feels better.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

February 11 2013 02:12 GMT

#56

xman claw is 700g (counting machete) and you don't have to upgrade it from there until after 2-3 items. Razor has 5 less armor and provides better baron/dragon control. Even when you complete the Lantern(1600g) it's still 700g cheaper than jungle hand (2300g)

Zephyr is hard to defend, it's a costly item at 2850g but it's really good if you have the dough, on this champion it's cost effectiveness is extremely high. This is where I find doran shield to be a really great earily item to help you bridge the gap into major items, once you have tabi and a dorans shield you can withstand ridiculous amounts of abuse from ad based champions.

Ninja tabi are just broken I don't even know what to tell you, best item in game when combined with dorans shield and defensive masteries.

don't know where this "pure damage" thing is coming from a wriggles will generate far more health than SV could ever hope to on a character with an aspd steroid, and Zepher if you can work it in, you'd be suprised how long you can live off of just a dorans and tabi (here's a hint the ad won't kill you.)

I don't want to be too rigid because I really like your style of presenting items as ideas, and not as a build just trust me when I say your view on machete item will be reflected in the OP, and I'm glad you posted as it will make your side of the argument more clear.

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

February 11 2013 02:41 GMT

#57

I'm not saying my way is the only way, I understand that a lot of people prefer and excel with that style of Voli. Hell, just look at Diamond in LCS.

I think saying "damage vs defensive" is a bit of a miswording on my part. Zephyr/Tabi/Wriggles will make your jungle super fast and safe, but I feel that early/mid game ganks and skirmishes need more than some lifesteal and ~60 armor. I will fully admit that Tabi/Shield/Block makes autoattackers screwed early on, but I don't think I'd feel safe vs AD casters or early game mages like LeBlanc or, say, Akali with a decent lead. I feel super duper safe with a nice SotAG.

Maybe grabbing a Kindlegem and a NMM (for Aegis) can make up for that, but I don't know. Having a big health item (especially in today's meta) as a first core item just feels like it's nice.

But to be fair to the community, I'll be testing out Wriggles/(non Swiftness) boots/Zephyr/Aegis/Bulwark as the type of stuff I shoot for, at least for a few days worth of games.

Also, have you been doing Lanebear at all? I still think his weaknesses (lack of range, sustain, escape) are pretty bad for laning, but I'm sure there's some kind of setup that works for him.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

February 11 2013 03:32 GMT

#58

well I don't build things in the same order every game, but tabi claw gobstopper is almost always my first 3 because it's so universally useful, vs a burst mage like you mentioned picking up an early nmm for aegis is good. Zehper is 100% not first item material even vs heavy cc teams. a typical build for me would be

Machette > Claw/boots1 > tabi > belt buckle > gobstopper, then freeform jazz from there. (this is actually the exact same open I use on J4 and Xin)

never play lane bear, s2 guide was written by Barbsq, I generally try to get mid or jungle and if I can't I volunteer to support.

I don't know Zephyer is so good movespeed (obvious) cdr (On q last this is a minimum of 1 second off every ability) tenacity (obvious) and aspd I love the item, I wish it was cheaper so I could make a better argument for it but I really like to run this item.
The only thing I can say is on him the gold is efficient.

honestly I'll go to what I said in my season 2 guide, Volibear isn't a true tank in the sense that you cannot force yourself to be attacked he has decent peel in his slow and his flip but at the end of the day he has no taunt like ability, therefore you must be a threat to either kill a bruiser before they kill your carry, or to kill a carry before they can kill you in order to draw attention to yourself, and while Voli scales pretty damn well with hp items, it eventually just does not cut it.

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

February 11 2013 04:29 GMT

#59

Eh, I'd just tend to disagree on your last statement. With slow and fling (and an extra slow if you get Phage/FMallet), you can peel pretty extraordinarily for your AD, and between both aspects of W and your ult, you are a big enough threat to enemy carries damage-wise even if you're building pure health.

However, that said, I think Voli is a perfect example of someone who can play with a myriad of items and do well, so I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with your build.

Thereisnosaurus

Australia1822 Posts

February 11 2013 07:59 GMT

#60

I wonder what people think about sword of the divine. Voli seems to downscale hard past early game since he can no longer eat people over time and he doesn't really have the burst to be a serious threat, so all he offers is a bit of zoning and his fling. After completing your core though, around the time you start falling off, if you build a SOTD it gives you an incredible burst combo of ult into 3 very rapid autocrits into your bite, after which your passive ASP is all stacked up and you can just go wild. It's not exactly a great item in any other aspect, but it gives you that few seconds of serious threat you need to really control a fight.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

February 11 2013 21:12 GMT

#61

pretty simple answer to this one, it's too risky, if you don't get the kill you end up with 2k gold sunk into an empty item slot for 60 seconds, not to mention 40% attack speed ONLY for a passive is pretty weak, honestly I still think this is an AD assasin item (if ever) period.

only champion I build it on is Zed.

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

February 11 2013 21:54 GMT

#62

I'd buy it if your passive lighting could crit. Would be like, first buy. Imagine getting into a teamfight and suddenly three crit chain lighting procs in a row.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

February 12 2013 01:36 GMT

#63

technically twitch functions this way, and I've only ever seen one guy buy it.

the 0 stats when on cd feels brutal.

Thereisnosaurus

Australia1822 Posts

February 12 2013 02:28 GMT

#64

It's certainly not like a buy and bash item. you're basically getting it to be able to pull off a heavy damage combo on someone, enough to scare them badly enough or get them low enough that they can't risk staying around. This means that you can just rage on through a teamfight, find a carry and more or less guarantee they are out of the fight. normally if you try this on voli you just don't do enough spike damage to really threaten an ADC when you're both at 3 items. once your burst is off, you're basically a big slow kitable doof. But if your burst is doubled and comes out in a split second, you won't have that problem.

Besides, with frenzy you get resets on the thing with stupid frequency.

I think it's pretty situational, but that it has its place. Overall atmas is probably a safer buy for the price if you just want to brawl, but if the enemy team has a bunch of squishies with high damage but low CC like lux/draven/khaz etc, the spike damage might win you a teamfight.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

February 12 2013 03:58 GMT

#65

first draft of the OP should be up tonight, I'm sorry been really busy last couple of days, and playing > guide writing.

Hellburn

Switzerland229 Posts

February 13 2013 16:41 GMT

#66

Against which champion would you recommend using Volibear? And against which champion should he stay away from ?

Requizen

United States33802 Posts

February 13 2013 16:59 GMT

#67

I stay away from Voli lane in like any regard. However, if you really want to take him to top, he does well against sustained damage traders who don't particularly build tanky. I'd say Jax or Xin would be decent matchups for him, maybe Fiora if you play really aggressively and rush DShield + Tabi.

Bursty people like Riven or Darius will ignore your passive and trade hard way before you can stack W or get them low for Bite to be effective. Tanky people like Cho/Olaf can mostly ignore you and have a stronger late game, while shoving harder than you can.

Maybe he'd be effective against ranged characters like Vlad or Elise if you play really aggro and stay in their face. However, as the levels go on, they'll gain ways to kite you and they'll take advantage of you not being able to farm from a range like they can.

Just my thoughts, I honestly haven't played him enough in lane to be an authority on the matter.

Mattacate

59 Posts

February 13 2013 17:03 GMT

#68

Voli demolishes ranged champs. All of them. The only ranged I've ever lost to was a swain, and that was because i was greedy and kept running through nevermove. Level 3 just all in and you snowball your lane very hard.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

February 13 2013 22:48 GMT

#69

according to numerous pro players he's even harder on Vlad than Fiddle but I don't play lane Voli. If you mean in the jungle, he does well against non Ezreal AD teams who don't have Lulu or Zyra. He also does very well vs assassin heavy comps as he is not easy to take down 1v1 due to his passive.

he has retarded trade potential lvl2 and especially level3 due to the interactions between his flip and his minion fear and minion aggro, but as minion damage becomes less and less relavant this advantage also becomes less helpful.

Another strong place to pick lane volibear is vs. no escape tops if you have a good feeling for your jungle, especially on a carry jungle like Vi who needs some help to get the job done it's the ideal lane for a jungle who needs the lane to bring the cc, and if it's a cc oriented jungle then it's just that much more dangerous.

Tula

Austria1544 Posts

February 13 2013 23:59 GMT

#70

he has ideal synergy with a xin jungle. I've been playing xin in jungle pretty much exclusively for 3 weeks now, and a friend of mine mains voli top lane. Unless the enemy has a retarded amount of escape skills or sticks to his turret from level 2 onwards its pretty much guaranteed first blood. Charge, flip and 3 talon strike as a combo kill every single top laner if you can reach him for the flip before he reaches his turret (meaning only a ranged char who is willing to skip quite a few creeps might be safe, so far I haven't met a single one who does that).

Slight downside of this is that your team will have two very tanky bruisers and most likely zero assassins (unless you run one mid, which might not be safe if Xin is focusing on snowballing top). Personally I like such compositions more, but not everyone agrees on that point.

Hellburn

Switzerland229 Posts

February 15 2013 01:42 GMT

#71

I just had a pentakill with voli today. I love you guys

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

February 24 2013 17:35 GMT

#72

The s3 update is complete, I will probly update again when locket/Bulward are nerfed (lol) oh and I have split pen runes now, my initial feeling is that they are really good, but for the next month or so I consider the guide complete.

If anyone is interested in re-writing the lane Voli section for s3, PM me and I'll get it in on the first page.

Semtext

Germany287 Posts

March 21 2013 14:24 GMT

#73

I haven't played Voli on top lane in a while, simply because I feel so strong in then jungle if I don't stumble ofer a few of Shaco's boxes on my way to the red buff...

Could anyone try to explain to me why Voli should be played on top and not in the jungle? I might have been playing badly, but the last times I played the bear on top lane I lost horrendously to a wild array of champions, from Teemo over Nunu to Darius and Elise. And then I just said "Fuck this, I'm jungling."

Phunkapotamus

United States496 Posts

March 25 2013 18:56 GMT

#74

I think that Voli is better in Jungle because he is very predictable in top lane. You're only going to make plays via summoner spells or ganks unless the opponent has no idea how to fight him.

His lane performance is highly dependent on his passive. If you're behind and your passive is down, you can get zoned. If you're ahead and your passive is up, you can zone. He is very match up dependent too.

Jungle Voli doesn't have to worry about the status of his passive or the match ups much. He doesn't care about counterjungling since he's not extremely buff dependent. As long as he gets levels he's fine.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

March 26 2013 00:31 GMT

#75

been meaning post in this thread that even though Diamond originally agreed with me, (in the sense that he also was) building madreds, however he now like every other EU lcs jungler goes with the requizen build, including (but not always) going with swifts.

Elise is very strong vs. champions who scale well with health, his best matchups top are ones with weak 1-5, as he is very strong at those levels because of a)his ability to force bad creep positioning b)his ability to avoid minion damage with fear, and c)his ult being less than amazing for 1v1 duels.

iCanada

Canada10660 Posts

March 26 2013 05:40 GMT

#76

I've been building both Madreds and spirit stone. Makes your clear feel like S2 Shyvana.

JimmiC

Canada22817 Posts

March 17 2014 21:31 GMT

#77

--- Nuked ---

saddaromma

1129 Posts

March 18 2014 06:21 GMT

#78

Everyone knows voli is beast in melee. But his greatest weakness is pretty easy to exploit in current meta. Cc kite ignore.

OmegaKnetus

Germany431 Posts

March 18 2014 09:11 GMT

#79

If you have someone like Leona on your team voli can deliver the hurt, but otherwise you are really kiteable and wortless.

I'd recommend using flash instead of ghost, so you can actually reach someone. Sticking to them is a non issue with a slow + haste.
Also wouldnt use bork, but only triforce and pure tankyness. Has enough damage and movement speed.
If you really want more damage after trinity I'd rather go wits end than bork.

Also I presonally wouldn't get an early Sunfire Cape after the damage nerfs. Omen gives so much more.
Would only get sunfire if I need extra Armor vs a full ad team or really late into the game

JimmiC

Canada22817 Posts

March 18 2014 14:31 GMT

#80

--- Nuked ---

GreggSauce

United States566 Posts

March 19 2014 00:28 GMT

#81

i do voli jungle and ghost is killer on him. his only real weakness is elise. ban elise and it's a free win

saddaromma

1129 Posts

March 19 2014 03:00 GMT

#82

On March 18 2014 23:31 JimmiC wrote:
I'm not sure if you guys have played a lot of voli or just are theorizing. But with Ghost and q 1v1 no one can get away from you especially with the active from botk. In team fights if they waste all there cc on you it's usually a good thing for the team as it means your mid and adc can do work. And being so damn tanky and with that passive I still often live. If the team does CC you thn at least one squishy is dead. I can't even count the number of games where people go "gg focusing voli" afte I lived, or even died, and my team aced them. Between e your ult and sunfire you do a decent about of aoe as well in team fights.

I tend to make my decision on Omen vs sf based on whether there team is attack speed dependent or not. But again omen is another thing that makes kiting him not so ez. Same with Rage from phage, you almost always kill minions in fights wiht your ult up.

Why I like ghost more then flash is u can stick to them as they run getting off more autos. Also if you get cc'd it last long enough that you can usually still get to your target. Another kinda lazy thing is with the same cd as ignite and I tend to use them together.

I suggest you give him a try. He works awesome in games.

You're talking about those games when voli gets fed and becomes unstoppable, and usually there are one or two guys in enemy team who don't know basic stuff on how to avoid voli and they die everytime voli's Q is up. But if enemy team is coordinated and objective oriented then voli has a hard time to catch anybody. Regular supports with spammable spells shut down voli pretty easily (nami, zyra, thresh, leona). Plus junglers or mid have a some sort of CC too. Add to that sivir ultimate, or the talisman of ascension. And pretty much nobody is unreachable.

OmegaKnetus

Germany431 Posts

March 19 2014 09:05 GMT

#83

I play voli top regularly, you just need the right composition with lockdowns or other hard cc. I'm only gold 1 and even there most people know how to kite voli effectively. I prefer ghost on some champions, but on voli I'd definitely go flash to either dodge a crucial cc spell or surprise initiate.

It's just a matter of preference really.

JimmiC

Canada22817 Posts

March 28 2014 12:13 GMT

#84

--- Nuked ---

Normal

Please or register to reply.

[Champion] Volibear

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming