[Champion] Vel'Koz

Your abilities add stacks of Deconstruction which last for 7 seconds. At three stacks, the stacks detonate and deal 25 + 10*level true damage.

This makes your spells sting a bit more, and can add a surprising amount of damage by the end of a game. Since you aren't building a void staff true damage "outscales" magic damage even harder for you than for AP carries. Your ult applies 5 stacks in total, meaning if you've tagged a target once with anything else, you may get two procs off. 900 magic damage plus 360 true damage on several team members is nothing to sneeze at.

"Geometry!" Fire a plasma bolt which splits upon reaching 1050 range, hitting a target, or reactivating the skill. The two bolts fly at right angles to the original direction for another 1050 units. This deals 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 60% AP) damage and applies a decaying 70% slow for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds.

Cooldown: 7s
Mana cost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60

This is your bread and butter poke spell. It's cheap, but don't waste all your mana on it in lane; it does a fair bit of damage and makes targets dodge (wasting time), but if you're using it for poke you're not going to get the true damage procs. You can extend the range by a factor of sqrt(2) (to ~1500) by firing it at a 45 degree angle to the intended direction, and can do "trick shots" around creep lines.

I prefer to max this first, because of the short cooldown and increasing slow duration. CC is good, damage and poke is good.

Open a rift to the void 1050 units long that explodes First for 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 (+ 25% AP), and then again for 45 / 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 (+ 37.5% AP) an instant later. Both hits apply stacks of Deconstruction. You can cast this while moving or casting another spell (but not your ultimate, AFAIK.)

Uses charges; 2 charges max, reloads 1 charge every 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 sec.
Mana cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70

This spell doesn't do much damage unless both procs hit, but covers a lot of area (good for teamfights), and is a convenient way to stack up Deconstruction. Combo this with either Q or E to ensure both procs hit.

I max this second.

At level 9, you're at 2 points in W, one point in Q. Landing both will do 365 magic damage + 115 true damage -- nothing to sneeze at.

Mark an area on the ground which explodes an instant later, doing 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 / 190 (+ 50% AP) damage, knocking enemies into the air, and knocking them back if they are close to you.

Range: 850
Cooldown: 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 / 15
Mana cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70

Max this last; it's your one-point-wonder crowd control skill. Can also be comboed with W for an Organic Deconstruction proc. Hitting multiple people with this in a teamfight can be devastating.

Channel a big ol' laser for 2.5 seconds, doing 500 / 700 / 900 (+ 60% AP) damage over the duration to anything in the beam, applying a stack of Deconstruction every 0.5 seconds, and slowing them for 20% for 1 second. Vel'Koz can spin while channeling, sweeping the beam over targets.

Range: 1575
Cooldown: 130/110/90
Mana cost: 100

Even though it doesn't seem like it, this is a support skill, not an AP carry skill. This is one of the most devastating ults in the game as far as raw damage goes, but it is FincCky in its use. You can't use it up close (since you won't be able to spin fast enough to keep people in the beam, plus you'll get cc'd or die) and you can't use it outside of an engagement (since it can be juked). In order to get all that damage, you need something else to keep your target at tentacle's length: your cc, or better yet your teammates.

Use this from the back of a teamfight or -- better -- use it from over a wall in the jungle. In my most recent game, the final teamfight took place near red side bot outer tower; I was late to the engagement and was in their jungle, but was able to get close enough to knock up a few people and then ult over the wall, devastating their team. They can either scatter to minimize the damage (at which point your team kills them), or bathe in purple lasery death.

Flash/Heal or Flash/Exhaust. Exhaust is great because it means you can slow someone diving you to hold them still, then lead your combo with your E and blast them.

You probably want at least 9 in offense, but going up to 21 isn't essential; you're not going to be building huge amounts of AP, nor are you an "executioner".

How much you put in the defense and utility trees depends on what you're up against: kill lane vs. poke lane vs. farm lane.

For runes, you probably want armor or hp yellows, mpen reds, AP or HP quints (depending on the lane), and mana or AP blues. You should be playing far enough back that you don't get caught by a Leona, for instance, so a Leona lane doesn't automatically mean "get your safest rune page".

I'm not going to give a hard and fast build because it depends on what you've got and what they've got. Vel'Koz doesn't like AP as much as an Annie or Karma, but likes mpen, CDR, and all of the other goodies that supports like (vision, locket if they have lots of magic damage, etc.)

Usually getting Spellthief is reasonable -- you're going to be poking, you might as well get paid for it. However, Frost Queen's Claim's active just gives you more of what you already have. Getting coin is reasonable too; the active is better and it gives you sustain against poke lanes, at the cost of Less gold and no AP.

You don't want to start Doran's shield ever; you are not around to trade blows with people. If you're worried about getting all-inned start ruby crystal and make an early sightstone; this will save you a good bit of cash in wards, at the cost of giving you no mana regen.

You'll want a chalice pretty quickly to sustain your mana costs, but you also want to get a Liandry's as soon as possible if it looks like there are going to be sieges involved. Yes, you're a support, but three of your abilities snare, they're all AoE, and this makes you into a relevant poke threat; you'll wind up getting more Liandry's procs in teamfights than you think.

I also like the new Spooky Ghosts (Twin Shadows) as a late game luxury item; knowing where people are is crucial for you, since you are squishy but also need to land poke. I'd rather have that than a Zhonya's or Deathcap, since it's not that much less AP, and Zhonya's isn't great on you unless people go out of their way to dive you.