Hello fellow Varus mains,
Well, I do not play varus, but I am interested in character design and gameplay design. And from a concept-side, I really love Varus, especially after the "As We Fall" cinematic. But gameplay wise, he is really old and when I look at his abilities, I'm hella confused, highlighted by recent changes made to him.
In general, I can see that builds are a) Duskblade, Manamune and b) Attackspeed. Why do these builds make sense? What is with AP Varus?
My idea of a Fantheorycraft-Rework would be giving him a form-choosing passive like Kayn has, but dependent on Stats/Items bought and adjusting the abilities unique for every form. And because Varus is a fusion of three souls now? This passive would let you choose between Lethality+AD, AP and Attackspeed+AD. And here is where I encounter a problem with Manamune: it could belong to both Lethality and Attackspeed, or would you consider the current AS build is without Manamune every time?
Since it's three forms, and the Kayn ones are based on if he attacked/killed melees or ranged, the same wouldn't really work here. That's why I had the idea to make the player choose a form with the first item bought (not necessarily a Mythic one) and maintaining the predictive-side like Kayn, since the player has to choose runes beforehand setting the playstyle in champselect.

Crippling Depression (Varus)
First Appearance: New Varus Build
Use: Buffering the Ultimate while flashing to get more range on it
Fun Fact: Varus' special move list is called The Arsenal of Abnormalities
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Psychotic Anxiety
First Appearance: Understanding Botlane
Use: Using flash to curve Pyke's e for style points or to gain more range to catch enemies just out of range
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Autism Zone
First Appearance: Lethality Pyke
Use: Allows Papa to increase his Chromosomes tenfold for a short amount of time but is useless unless Papa already has a large amount ready.
Fun Fact: The name was later changed to Asberger Syndrome due to Copyright and Papa wanting to make a callback to the Nexus Blitz filler episode and was changed to only be allowed to access one at 80% or more autism level.
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Forgotten Dememtia
First Appearance: Lethality Pyke
Use: Papa dashes with his E and uses his R to curve the phantom so it hits his opponent.
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(Not a special move) Pink Pyke Cloak
First Appearance: ppp
Use: While wearing the Pink Pink Cloak Papa gains the power of gayness becoming so powerful that no words in the human vocabulary can describe him forcing the narrator to go silent while Papa wrecks his enemies
Fun Fact: I will be including characters different forms on this List.
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(Not a special move) Blood Moon Pyke Skin
First Appearance: Blood Moon Pyke
Use: While in this form Papa's chromosome power is boosted however it requires a large amount of chromosomes to remain in this form.
Fun Fact: In order to gain access to this power Papa had to join the Blood Moon Clan and perform the ritual of paying the 5$ lifetime membership fee.
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Crippling Depression (Pyke)
First Appearance: Pyke is very weak and definitely needs the buffs. Thank you League of Legends!
Use: Using flash to buffer the use on Pyke's q to get more range.
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Menacing Menpause
First Appearance: Pyke is very weak and definitely needs the buffs. Thank you League of Legends!
Use: A 3 hit combo of Q, E backwards, Tiamat (or just a regular AA depending on the season) to proc Electrocute to get his target low enough for an execute with his R.
Fun Fact: This move probably changed the most during the series as its core component of Tiamat and sometimes even Electrocute were removed depending on how viable they were on Pyke. It is also the most usable of Pyke's Weapons of Disorder as it doesn't require flash or too many chromosomes.
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Epileptic Epitaph
First Appearance: Clean Combos
Use: Allows Papa to see 10 seconds into the future. Papa can spend more chromosomes to see farther. Papa must already be at high chromosome levels to use Epileptic Epitaph although the exact level vary based on different translations, manga, or anime.
Fun Fact: Although it first appeared in Clean Combos Epileptic Epitaph was only scarsley used in episodes like The Duty of a Carry, Tenacity Stacking etc. and it didn't even get its name until Auto win at level 16. (It was just called precognative ability until then).
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Chromosome Stealing
First Appearance: BAN SYLAS
Use: Being only usable by a select few characters It allows them to steal the chromosomes of other characters and gain the power of them.
Fun Fact: This ability was first used by Sylas and is the main reason he is my fav character. No other character (yes even Evil Morde and Evil Papa) made me feel so much dread when they appeared. The way he just ruthlessly stole WhyGuy's chromosomes still gives me chills each time i watch the episode. There are only 3 characters who have demonstrated having innatley having this ability (Sylas, Papa. Evil Papa).
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The Snap
First Appearance: Tenacity Stacking
Use: At the Cost of 50% of the League playerbase WhyGuy can skip his Promos. This only works if Papa has been in The Hardstuck Zone for atleast a month and if Papa recieves a comment asking for more cliffhangers.
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Shining Jaundice
First Appearance: Well Designed Item
Use: Using either the Stopwatch or Zhonya's Hourglass the user's skin becomes golden protecting them from any harm for 2.5.
Fun Fact: Anyone can use this special move and it was used throughout the entire series but first got a name in the episode Well Designed Item.
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Lazy Editing
First Appearance: Return to Masters
Use: At the cost of 88% Autism level WhyGuy can erase the process of a game skipping it entirely.
Fun Fact: Papa's most costly move which has only been used once in the entire series so far.
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Death Realm Warp
First Appearance: Well Designed Rework
Use: Usable only by the current Ruler of the Death realm (Currently Mordekaiser) it allowes them to warp themselves and 1 other person into the death realm for 1 on 1 combat within a confined space
Fun fact: It's time for most peoples favorite villain: Evil Mordekaiser! While I personally like Sylas more, the sheer power Mordekaiser presents from here on out towards the entire series unquestionably makes him a very close second.
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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (or ADHD for short)
First Appearance: Well Designed Rework
Use: A move created by Papa specifically to counter Morde's Death Realm Warp which puts his body in constant motion becoming UNCONTAINABLE.
Fun Fact: One of Papa's most worthless moves due to only being a counter to 1 specific thing makes this move very weak. But the fact that someone forced Papa to create an entirely new move speaks volumes for Morde himself. What a shame that this move is very easily countered.
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Tourettic Transition
First Appearance: Pyka and Sona Bot Lane
Use: At the cost of Autism Levels Papa can skip anywhere betweeen 10 seconds and 20 minutes of a game.
Fun Fact: Like Epileptic Epitaph this ability appeared a long time before it actually got its name in Harvesting my adversaries with Dark Harvest Pyke.
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Crippling Anxiety
First Appearance: Pyka and Sona Bot Lane
Use: A combo move where Papa and Varus combine the moves Crippling Depression and Psychotic Anxiety to form a new even more powerful move.
Fun Fact: This is the very first combo move used in the series and I must say that it's pretty cool.
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Dead Weight
First Appearance: Mordekaiser's Revenge
Use: This move enhances the users desire to strategically iINT without getting banned
Fun Fact: This move is most often used in the series by villains and very rarely by allies of Whydra.
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Radiating Retardation
First Appearance: Dominating with Domination Runes
Use: The users chromosomes increase by 3 for every second that passes while in this state.
Fun Fact: This move can be techincally used even at low Autism Levels but due to it's high cost when you leave this state it's very unsafe to use it while below 90% Autism Levels.
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(Not a special move) Project Pyke Suit
First Appearance: PROJECT: Pyke
Use: When wearing this cybernetic form Papa stays at a permanent 80% Autism level and has a permanent Epileptic Epitaph installed. The suit also has a built-in casette player and a navigation assistant.
Fun Fact: Papa rarely uses this suit after its first appearance even after it was cleansed of the virus due to the fact that Papa prefers the risk of losing Autism levels for the reward of more than 80% than the safetey of a permanent 80%. Evil WhyGuy also wears a pink chroma on his suit to combine the powers of the PROJECT Suit and the ppc (Pink Pyke Cloak).
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Cybernetic Anxiety
First Appearance: Mama vs Papa of Realm 51
Use: PROJECT Pyke's version of Psychotic Anxiety.
Fun Fact: We don't know which of the 2 moves is stronger but my guess is it depends on the amount of chromosomes the current user has.
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Technostressing Depression
First Appearance: Mama vs Papa of Realm 51
Use: PROJECT Pyke's version of Crippling Depression.
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Diminishing Discrimination
First Appearnace: League of Legends makes me sad
Use: After landing her Q Mama smashes her keyboard with utmost finesse dealing massive damage and enlightening teammates that Supports should not be underestimated.
Fun Fact: Mama has decided that instead of focusing on various diffeerent moves for different situations she will just perfect 1 move that can be used in any situation. I am still sad that this means we will most likely never see the other moves in the Feminist Movement though (Whining Wamen, Bobcut buster, Entitled Endurance).
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Cultural Appropiration
First Appearance: Swain OP! Must ban instead of Pyke
Use: By becoming a bird himself Papa enducated uncultured 2 birds with his might showing them the power of Swain.
Fun Fact: I only put this on the list due to a YouTube comment as I don't even really see this as a special move.
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Vision of Whydra
First Appearance: YouTube comments made me a better Swain player
Use: Thanks to the help of all Swain mains within Whydra Papa unlocked his 2nd move in The Communist Manifesto where he hits an enemy with his full power W changing the game according to his vision.
Fun Fact: Welcome to Swain's own set of special moves: The Communist Manifesto.
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Cold War
First Appearance: Game Changing Snipes
Use: With the help of a german science device, Papa shoots out icicles while in his ultimate form running at them with Appreach Velocity.
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Death Defying Time Skip
First Appearance: Deadliest Weight
Use: With the help of an Ad Papa skips his own death
Fun Fact: Once again I am hesitant to even include this as it is more of a flashy way of using Tourettic Transition.
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Blighting Vasectomy
First Appearance: The Arrow of Retribution Returns
Use: Hitting an enemy with a fully charged Q while his W is up to completely destroy a far away enemy
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Crippling Vasectomy
First Appearance: Autofilled Varus Mid
Use: Similar to Blighting Vasectomy but now with Flash added in for more range.
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Sniping Seizure
First Appearance: Sentinels of Light vs Shadow Isles
Use: Senna shoots a blast of combined Light and Darkness at a far away low hp enemy killing them with so much power that PaMa (Papa and Mama) undergoes a short seizure from the satisfaction.
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Reverse Your Kill
First Appearance: Insane Healing with Fleet Footwork
Use: Using Piercing darkness while imbued with the power of Fleet Footwork, taste of Blood and Adent Censer, Senna overcomes the weakness of being squishy with massive healing powers.
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Wildfire Windup
First Appearance: AP Maokai with Ocean Rift is Free Win
Use: A combo of TreeGuy's non-ultimate abilities starting with Twisted Advance, Brambly Smashing his target near his Sapling burning the target's body on a molecular level so fast like a Wildfire
Fun Fact: Behold TreeGuy's special moves: The Armaments of Nature!
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Forest Grump
First Appearance: AP Maokai with Ocean Rift is Free Win
Use: TreeGuy's version of Crippling Depression where he flashes and then Twisted Advances for a suprise root.
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(Not a special move) Reforest Frustration
First Appearance: AP Maokai with Ocean Rift is Free Win
Use: A passive ability where WhyGuy's chomosomes sync with nature giving him more options to plant empowered saplings while frustrating his enemies.
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Rheumatic Roots
First Appearance: AP Maokai with Ocean Rift is Free Win
Use: Using Nate's Grasp out of vision to catch the enemy off guard and root 3 or more enemies.
Fun Fact: This move is best used when contesting Objectives.
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(Not a special move) Amazon Bushfire
First Appearance: Bites the Bush
Use: Used by Evil Papa to burn the entire Rift reducing the amount of bushes and limiting TreeGuy's power.
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Bites the Bush
First Appearance: Bites the Bush
Use: Using Epileptic Epitaph Papa forsees someone entering a specific bush at low health and plants a Sapling in preparation to utterly annihilate them.
Fun Fact: This easily lands in my top 5 moves just for the amazing effects the anime used to show it's power.
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Psychotic Assault
First Appearance: Getting my Pyke back in shape
Use: A variation of Psychotic Anxiety where he hits someone with his q before his e to do more damage.
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Forgotten Dementia: Ultima
First Appearance: OMNISTONE
Use: A variation on Forgotten Dementia which involves Pyke's Q
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Pedophiliac Predator
First Appearance: OMNISTONE
Use: WhyGuy's pedophiliac tendancies spread across the Rift warning any nearby enemies that enter his vicinity.
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Sedentary Stroke
First Appearance: Easy Executes with Dark Harvest
Use: By standing completely still Papa managed to perfectly blend into the background
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Crippling Counter
First Appearance: Omnistone Sett
Use: By filling Sett's testosterone gauge up to 75% papa blasts his enemies in a wide radius dealing true damage to those caught in the middle
Fun Fact: Meet Sett a.k.a. Testosterone Furry
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Paraplegic Pursuit
First Appearance: Hexflash Powerspike
Use: A fully channeled Hexflash followed by a burst of movement speed from Nimbus Cloak, Celerity and Sett's Q
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Prowling Anxiety
First Appearance: Prowling Anxiety
Use: Extending the reach of Psychotic Anxiety with the use of Prowler's Claw

I'm not the only one who is saying/thinking this am i? I find it hard to believe that i am, but in case you wanted to here my thoughts on this, here they are in no particular order:
¬ Lack of Mobility

 - being slow is one thing, but varus seems very slow. I understand that too much mobility combined with his kit would be unbalanced. However, when a champ is getting reworked, something is taken when something new is given. Keep that in mind. 

¬ General Playstyle/Builds

 - For the most part, it seems as if Varus' kit is designed for one of two different game situations: 1: Hitting enemy champ(s) with CC(e, r, teammate) and machine gun them down. Maybe also for getting out of sticky situations with cc and machine gun AA's, however he is slow moving so probably not. or 2: SnipeBlight Burst: Stacking blight on enemy(ies) by auto attacking then hitting them with an ability(usually Q, hence the title 'sniper') to detonate blight, thus doing a good bit of damage. - With just those two playstyles, there are 4 or more item builds for him: 1. Crit build 2. On-Hit(AD) 3. Lethality 4. AP "On-Hit" (nashors and W passive) - The point I'm trying to make here is that Varus needs a little more consistency in how he is played and what to build for him(I didn't even mention runes). 

¬ Passive

 - My suggestion: (if mobility is given to him) When Varus takes damage that reduces his health below 30%, grant him _ _% attack speed and either: 1_% life steal OR _ _ AD for _ seconds. Or something along those lines. Maybe keep it the same OR - (if no mobility is given to him) Varus gains x% movement speed when running *away from* enemies. Movement speed decays when Varus auto attacks or use an ability. Maybe? 

All in all i think he needs to be reworked and any comments, ideas, or tweaks on my thoughts is welcome.

Hey VarusMains I'm a new Varus player (considering adding Varus to my champ pool) and I just wanted some tips/knowledge on varus's strengths and weaknesses/power spikes and so on.
So my questions are:
What's varus's playstyle how should I be playing him? (On-Hit and/or Lethality) (Example: Poke and all in, scale and hyper carry, play aggressive in early)
What supports synergize well with Varus?
What's better Lethality or On-Hit and should I go either one in certain situations?
What runes should I be taking?
What items are Varus's best power spikes? (On-Hit and/or Lethality)
How should I play Varus if I'm behind?
What supports/ADC's hard counter Varus and/or what team comps should I absolutely not take him into/against
Thank you Varus players in advance I appreciate anybody who helps ^-^

Hello , Recently i started playing varus because i like this kit and the snips etc but the thing is there r multiple rune paths /' build paths and playstyle ia m confused with it , I need to know the build paths / best runes / Core build. Recently i am using Arcane comet (lethality Varus i like him better than DPS) so i go manamune > Duskblade now idk what to build first Full manamune or Duskblade before building the whole manamune item ?. And please Tell me about his build paths. And ik there are not many OTP youtubers who plays Varus but if there r some please link their youtube . Thank You. Varus mains

Senna is considered by the lolwiki as a marksman and an enchanter.
Well, rageblade is obviously the way to go if you need damage and its all teh fuzz, of course its an insane build and pays off really well, but it has the same problems adcs always had, explode everyone or be exploded on sight, its the way to go if you want to explore marksman senna.
Then there's the Moonstone build for some enchanter action, very good sustain, early presence, teamfight presence, global peel potential, etc but lacks in damage.
And then i think there's another good option that's not being well explored right now that it makes her play somewhat like a catcher hybrid, Frost gauntlet. Of corse that's not a new idea since frozen mallet was core for sup senna for a long time but since Frostfire Gauntlet got buffed to cost 2800 its actually a very good option at the moment, it doesn't compare in burst with kraken-rageblade of course and healing isn't as great but i'll be damned if it isn't really difficult to escape from Senna with this build, its on par with ashe maybe.
So for the most impact you don't get augment since you wont stack the slow as effectively.
Runes: Fleet footwork - presence of mind - legend: alacrity - last stand
secondary: inspiration with magic footwear and approach velocity.
Situationally you could get relentless hunter if you think actually reaching the target is gonna be more difficult than pursuing it after combat starts, celerity is also a good option if you are against mostly ap based champions since you can get null orb.
Mini runes always get the attack speed one, the others are situational.
Items: Core - Frostfire gauntlets and Boots of Swiftness, if you got relentless hunter you might consider Mobility Boots, its good for roaming as well.
Legendary options: Ruined king's, drain their move speed to the ground and watch then try to crawl for safety, its good against high max health targets as well.
Phantom dancers, if the max health thing isn't that much of a problem.
Black cleaver: classic pair with dead frozen mallet back in the day, its great against tanks but sadly its very costly.
Titanic hydra: Synergizes well enough with frostfire's mythic effect, it costs a ton but its a good option if you think teamfights are gonna break out more frequently than solo kills.
Rapid Firecannon: The first hit is the most important since its the one's gonna apply the frostfire effect and buff your move speed, makes positioning way easier.
Knights vow: I mean, since you are still a support after all its good if your adc cant stay alive for more than 2 seconds.
Sanguine blade: Its pretty troll actually but if the enemy team refuses to work together it might prove to be usefull.
For grievous wounds don't get mortal reminder, usually Chempunk Chainsword is better for this particular build since it gives you max health as well.
PROs:
Very good tankiness, watch assassins jump on you and not manage to kill you (Suk it zed)
Prevents enemy retreat.
Makes your adc's job of kiting way easier.
Decent teamfight presence.
Good lane phase sustain because of fleet footwork.
Cons:
Lacks in damage compared to rageblade.
Doesn't protect your allies as well as moonstone.
Awkward buildup since bami cinder is most likely wasted on you.
Getting enemy shade stacks is harder without glacial augment.
Good with:
kai'sa - you slow, she kills, its as easy as that.
Varus - Makes landing the slowest ultiimate in all time easier for him.
Miss fortune - harder to move means more time spent under her ultimate.
Caitlyn - Keeps her safer since its hard to reach her without displacement.
Good against:
Any melee support, pyke might be the exception.
Enchanters, since they usually specialize in mitigating damage bursts and you damage is sustained, its decent against janna and her insane movespeed, not as great against lulu's polimorph.
Immobile adcs, aphelios notably.
Bad against:
Mage supports - If you cant reach them to get the first hit you are useless, lux, morgana, vel koz, brand, xerath, you name it.
Lethality adcs - Your max health is good and armor decent, but a lethality jhin or varus could just turn around and kill you.
Ap assassins - This build lacks MR so leblanc, fizz, akali, even syllas are really high threats.
Ultra tanks - this build works really well against standard tanks but if you are facing the likes of chogaths, sions, Illaois or nasus you might find it a little bit difficult to kill them before they can turn on you.
That's it for now, i hope you guys try it and tell me what you think, personally i think its a very fun build if situational.
Obs: mandatory "sorry english is not my main language" comment.
Edit: Formating

With the arrival of AP twitch supp, has anyone played AP Varus yet?
In all seriousness, I just wanna know if this champ is good yet, what builds y’all running ?
I was thinking of maybe running a nashors tooth HOB AP build, with that AP item that has life’steal. Can’t see any of the AD items being good on him. Maybe an assassin / lethality build would be ok, problem is other champs are better off doing AD. I would rather go AP and let my mid top and JG get to play AD at this point.

What do you think is the best build for varus in 10.24? so far i've tried:
1) On hit ( krakenslayer - tbork - runaan - guinsoo / berserker // lethal tempo )
2) Crit ( galeforce - pd - runaan - ie / berserker // lethal tempo )
3) Lethality ( eclipse - collector - edge of night - youmuus / berserker // comet )
4) AP ( nashor - luden's - horizon focus - rabadon / sorcerer // hail of blades )
i got the best result with the ap build but it really lacks the runaan to be able to detonate 3 blight stacks using only 1 auto for a quick burst / cd reset. On the other hand the crit / on hit builds don't feel great and i think a lot of adc's can outdamage him on late while also having a better early game, it's like a worse version of ashe.
Will it be a good idea to try something like nashor - runaans - luden's / berserker // lethal tempo? maybe a guinsoo?

before preseason, riot declared their overall goal for grievous wounds and lifesteal was to make grievous wounds feel more impactful, and easier to get(they did that, good job)and reduce the overall amount of lifesteal champions have access tto, through runes items and champion kits. yet eclipse (lethality PLUS lifesteal), a new bloodthirster (lifesteal +crit???) new ravenous hydra(OMNIVAMP?!? and procs off abilities too???) riftmaker(ap omnivamp, i get its to replace gunblade, but it feels better on more champions than gunblade did previously) along with SHIELDBOW(15% lifesteal, with built in lifeline for a thicc shield and MORE lifesteal for 8 SECONDS) it feels like they kind of forgot their original goal towards limiting damage based healing in game. and those in addition to moonstone renewers giving more champions the ability to spam heals without thinking about it, it feels like healing is far more rampant throughout league than it ever was. Yes the new grievous wounds gives an extra 20% healing reduction under specific conditions, the excessive amount of healing champions can build through items more than offsets that, along with the ease of getting lifesteal PLUS the stats they want. like r u a lethality user? build eclipse and u get a shield plus ad plus lethality PLUS lifesteal, like i get it's a mythic, but u shouldnt get everything and the kitchen sink from a single item. bloodthirster giving u lifesteal and crit makes it hard to ever think of building a different item as a crit user, and giving champions that build lethality OR crit (jihn, varus, graves) access to the other stat through the collector is just absurd, the entire point of some champions having the crit OR lethality build was that they made tradeoffs, damage now vs scaling later, collector gives u the simplest bridge to go both and have no punishment until maybe your at full build and noticing your not 100% crit yet. Why??? https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/riot-games/preseason-2021-champion-class-item-goals/?ref=hvper.com

The community perhaps have forgotten the worst ADC meta in the entire League of Legends history which consisted of only two champions, Varus and Jhin. The meta was prevalent during Spring S7 (3 and a half months).
Back then, Lethality items were first introduced in S7 which made AD assassins viable for a very long time. Little did Riot know, the big brain players from the community found out ADC with long-range abilities and high base damage like Varus Q and Jhin W synergies with the items so well that it made ADC broken with only these two champions. Not gonna lie, it was fun for one week but the damn meta didn’t change for more than 3 months. On top of that, the support meta also suffered from the lowest pool of viable champions, Zyra and Malzahar, out of all things, MALZAHAR!
For more context, let's gather champion stats across all major regions.
LCK: https://lol.gamepedia.com/LCK/2017_Season/Spring_Season/Champion_Statistics
NA: https://lol.gamepedia.com/NA_LCS/2017_Season/Spring_Season/Champion_Statistics
EU: https://lol.gamepedia.com/EU_LCS/2017_Season/Spring_Season/Champion_Statistics
LPL: https://lol.gamepedia.com/LPL/2017_Season/Spring_Season/Champion_Statistics
As you can see, Varus had more than 75% PB (Pick and Ban), with a maximum of 87.8% PB in LCK. Jhin and Ashe hovered between the second and third most picked ADC in different regions. On the other hand, LPL had Jhin as their fourth most picked (LPL meta usually reads the meta differently than other regions which correlate with their playstyle).
Notice how I didn't mention Ashe in the beginning, Ashe was only viable for her utility because of the CD build (Essence Reaver plus a crit item = 30% CD Reduction, further increasing it with runes). It allowed her to E (Vision is the most valuable information for pros) and ult across the map for more than usual. Ashe's playstyle was vastly different than Jhin and Varus, while they focused on damage, Ashe granted vision and long-range stun for the team. Nobody would play her in solo queue because her playstyle was boring.
TL:DR I made this post because apparently, the community has been complaining about ADC lately cuz of preseason and such. Let me tell you, it's been super fun for me as an ADC player. I could play anything in this season compared to that time, Jhin and Samira are super busted right now. Meanwhile, Vayne, Lucian, Kai'sa, Ashe, Miss Fortune, Ezreal, and many others are very viable in this meta thanks to different itemizations across all champions.
There's no worst meta for ADC than that absolute sh*thole degenerate meta defined by 200 IQ BIG BRAIN solo queue players. Jhin and Varus only, Malzahar and Zyra support only for the span of 3 months. Not even S8 Summer (a very noteworthy yet arduous journey for ADC players) could compare to that.

Hello guys, I have started playing Varus recently, my mates told me to pick the ADC with the lowest winrate in the game, at the time it was Kalista then him.I had a stellar performance, and fell in love with that champion, something about his kit is just so satisfying... I only lost 2 games in my last 20 with Varus and can't understand why his winrate is so low. Yes, he does need 3 items to actually call himself a carry, but even his laning is really good.
Anyway, I've been going Kraken Slayer, Hurricane, Viego's Blade, sometimes I like to take a tear and finish muramana late in the game (i'm not following any guides just out off playstyle). I have tried Shieldbow builds, didn't like it, full lethality is just weak now imo.
What do you guys suggest? Also what other runes have you tried that seem viable other than lethal tempo?

Hello! So recently as a personal challenge, I decided to try and climb as far as possible using only Prototype: Omnistone, on any champion I pick, but before I started doing that, I wanted to rank a personal tier list of who can use Omnistone the best. This would help limit my choices to champions that could serviceably use the keystone.
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Note: These aren't definitive, and arguments can be made on behalf of certain champion placements. This is just my personal opinion. These also do not consider individual champion matchups, just how well each champion's kit can utilize Omnistone. If you're gonna run into SoloQ with these champions and Omnistone, practice it in normals to get a feel for it. This is an ASTRONOMICALLY LARGE POST, I WILL NOT DETAIL EVERY S-TIER PICK HERE, ASK ME FOR SPECIFICS.
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TL;DR: Look at the tierlist below, or use this link, I'll include some in-depth explanations for how I reached each conclusion, but if you want to know about any S, A, B, or C-tier placements, just ask and I'll tell you. If you want to know a specific champion's point distribution, ask me! If you want build suggestions as well, let me know!
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S-Tier (Every Situation) (14-17 Points)	Aatrox, Bard, Draven, Gnar, Jarvan IV, Kennen, Kindred, Leona, Master Yi, Miss Fortune, Mordekaiser, Nasus, Nautilus, Neeko, Nocturne, Olaf, Pantheon, Quinn and Valor, Rek'sai, Renekton, Riven, Samira, Senna, Sett, Skarner, Sylas, Tahm Kench, Taric, Teemo, Trundle, Udyr, Vi, Viego, Volibear, Warwick, Yasuo, Yone,
A-Tier (Most Situations) (10-13.5 Points)	Akali, Annie, Amumu, Aphelios, Ashe, Aurelion Sol, Caitlyn, Camille, Cho'gath, Corki, Darius, Diana, Dr. Mundo, Ekko, Elise, Ezreal, Hecarim, Irelia, Jax, Jayce, Jinx, Kai'sa, Karma, Kayle, Rhaast, Kha'zix, Kled, Kog'Maw, Leblanc, Lee Sin, Lillia, Lucian, Lulu, Lux, Malphite, Maokai, Morgana, Nidalee, Nunu and Willump, Orianna, Poppy, Pyke, Qiyana, Rakan, Rengar, Sejuani, Justice for the Brackern, Shaco, Shen, Shyvana, Singed, Sivir, Swain, Talon, Thresh, Tristana, Tryndamere, Twisted Fate, Urgot, Varus, Vladimir, Wukong, Xayah, Xin Zhao, Yorick, Zac
B-Tier (Specific Situations) (6-9.5 Points)	Ahri, Anivia, Azir, Blitzcrank, Brand, Cassiopeia, Evelynn, Fiddlesticks, Fiora, Fizz, Galio, Gangplank, Garen, Gragas, Graves, Heimerdinger, Illaoi, Janna, Jhin, Kalista, Kassadin, Katarina, Lissandra, Malzahar, Nami, Ornn, Rammus, Rell, Rumble, Ryze, Sion, Sona, Soraka, Syndra, Taliyah, Twitch, Vayne, Veigar, Vel'koz, Viktor, Zed, Ziggs, Zilean, Zoe, Zyra
C-Tier (Troll Pick) (0-5.5 points)	Alistar, Braum, Ivern, Karthus, Shadow Assassin Kayn, Xerath
Bannable-offense tier	Yuumi

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Rundown of the Tier List

• S-tier champions have kits that can maximize the effectiveness of nearly every keystone, with only a few that are sub-optimal, and with no more than 1 or 2 useless keystones. Omnistone can be considered one of their best choices,
• A-tier champions have kits that can either use every keystone moderately well, or can use most keystones well, with a few sub-optimal/useless keystone choices. Omnistone is a good choice most of the time, only bad in counter matchups.
• B-tier champions are much more limited on keystone choices, either based on their kits limiting the effectiveness of auto attacks (Azir's soldiers), or due to have a weak rotation that scales poorly with multiple keystones (Brand, Blitzcrank). Omnistone is only a choice when the matchup and game state allow it.
• C-tier champions generally can only use at max 2 or 3 keystones effectively from Omnistone (they tend to be primarily melee engage/peel supports). Their kits are either too hard locked on defensive aspects (Braum), or leave themselves with nothing after blowing an initial rotation (Alistar). These champions should avoid Omnistone.
• Bannable-offense tier exists only for Yuumi. I'm serious, I'm tried it. You wanna get banned? Go Omnistone Yuumi. You'll be about as useful as a wooden support beam made of termite infested, rotten wood. You probably would be more useful hopping into discord with your AD duo, whispering sweet nothings about in their ear, while you convince them to play 4v5 because uwu they have a big bulgie wulgie you'd like to *glomps* on. Do not play Omnistone Yuumi.

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Points distribution:

Points were assigned based on one of three factors:

Keystone is extremely easy to proc and the champion can get high effectiveness out of it:	1 point
Keystone is at least usable, but isn't the best in every situation, or in every build scenario.	0.5 points
Keystone is usable, but useless on the champion, or the keystone is unusable.	0 points

In addition, champions could receive anywhere from 0-3 points depending on how versatile their keystone options can be. If a champion can take a keystone in specific scenarios, and see good success with it, this boosts this score.
For example: Alistar can realistically only take Aftershock and Guardian, as he doesn't have a kit that supports the use of any other keystone. He earns 0 points in keystone versatility. Bard, conversely, could probably go into a game with no keystone, and still find large amounts of success, so he gets 3 points in keystone versatility.
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Breakdowns for the some S-tier champions

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Aatrox

12 points from keystones, and 2 points from keystone versatility, total of 14 points.

• Press The Attack: 0.5 Points
• Lethal Tempo: 0 Points
• Fleet Footwork: 1 Point
• Conqueror: 1 point
• Electrocute: 1 point
• Predator: 0.5 points
• Dark Harvest: 1 point
• Hail of Blades: 0.5 points
• Summon Aery: 0.5 points
• Arcane Comet: 1 point
• Phase Rush: 1 point
• Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
• Aftershock: 1 point
• Glacial Augment: 1 point

Aatrox, throughout the course of his rework, has utilized Fleet Footwork, Conqueror, Electrocute, Dark Harvest, Grasp of The Undying, Arcane Comet, and Phase Rush, either as meta or fringe Keystones that he can proc and utilize quite efficiently. Press the Attack is only usable if you know how to animation cancel on Aatrox, and Hail of Blades can be nice to bring your passive up quickly in the early game. Summon Aery does about as much damage as Scorch in the early game, and Glacial Augment does nothing, as you need to land sweetspots on Aatrox, and Lethal Tempo is too much AS for too long to be good on Aatrox. Solidly an S-tier pick with Omnistone. Any rune path secondary is good with Aatrox, as it depends solely on your build. Default to Sorcery/Domination if unsure. I have a whole Omnistone Aatrox guide in the works, so look forward to that if you're interested.
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Bard;

11.5 points from keystones, 3 points for keystone reliance, 14.5 points total.

• Glacial Augment: 1 point
• Aftershock: 1 point
• Grasp of The Undying: 0.5 points
• Phase Rush: 1 point
• Arcane Comet: 1 point
• Summon Aery: 1 point
• Hail of Blades: 1 point
• Dark Harvest: 1 point
• Predator: 0.5 points
• Electrocute: 1 point
• Conqueror: 0.5 points
• Fleet Footwork: 1 point
• Press The Attack: 0.5 points
• Lethal Tempo: 0.5 points

Bard is insanely good at using keystones, and since players already use Prototype: Omnistone with him, it’s no surprise he’s an S-tier pick. His worst keystones are Grasp, Predator, Conqueror, Press The Attack, and Lethal Tempo, and even those have niche uses thanks to his passive and overall kit. Overall, he’s a strong choice to take Omnistone on, and if you aren’t, you might want to consider trying it. Solid S-tier pick. Take Sorcery, Domination, or Resolve secondary on Bard.
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Draven;

11.5 points from keystones, 3 from keystone reliance, 14.5 points total.

• Glacial Augment: 1 point
• Aftershock: 0.5 points
• Grasp of The Undying: 0.5 points
• Phase Rush: 0.5 points
• Arcane Comet: 1 point
• Summon Aery: 0.5 points
• Hail of Blades: 1 point
• Dark Harvest: 1 point
• Predator: 0.5 points
• Electrocute: 1 point
• Conqueror: 1 point
• Fleet Footwork: 1 point
• Press The Attack: 1 point
• Lethal Tempo: 1 point

There realistically isn't any keystone that Draven can’t use. That being said, Aftershock, Grasp, and Phase Rush aren’t exactly stars of the show, as they don’t really offer much to Draven in the laning phase, and all Predator can do is help him close the gap on distant foes. Get hit with Glacial however, especially with an aggressive support, and Draven can easily run you down with axes, as there’s no escaping with a 55% slow on you. Precision, Domination, and Sorcery secondary are all good with Draven.
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Gnar

12.5 points from keystones, 3 points from keystone versatility, 15.5 points total.

• Glacial Augment: 1 point
• Aftershock: 0.5 points
• Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
• Phase Rush: 1 point
• Arcane Comet: 1 point
• Summon Aery: 0.5 points
• Hail of Blades: 1 point
• Dark Harvest: 1 point
• Predator: 0.5 points
• Electrocute: 1 point
• Conqueror: 1 point
• Fleet Footwork: 1 point
• Press The Attack: 1 point
• Lethal Tempo: 0.5 points

Gnar’s kit opens him up so well to multiple keystone options, most of which are great on him. Runes like Lethal Tempo are best during Mini Gnar, while Predator and Aftershock are only usable during Mega Gnar. Asides from this, Gnar’s flexibility makes him a prime-time Omnistone user. S-tier Omnistone user, and it isn’t even close.
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Jarvan IV

12.5 points with runes, 3 points from keystone versatility, 15.5 points total.

• Glacial Augment: 0.5 points
• Aftershock: 1 point
• Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
• Phase Rush: 1 point
• Arcane Comet: 1 point
• Summon Aery: 1 point
• Hail of Blades: 1 point
• Dark Harvest: 1 point
• Predator: 1 point
• Electrocute: 1 point
• Conqueror: 1 point
• Fleet Footwork: 1 point
• Press The Attack: 0.5 points
• Lethal Tempo: 0.5 points

J4 is flagging and dragging his way up to the S-tier. The Crown Prince of Demacia’s kit allows him to proc nearly every keystone with ease. Pulling Glacial Augment during a level 2 or 3 gank will always blow a flash, as the enemy cannot possibly get away otherwise. His E can proc Aery both on allies and enemies, allowing him to maximize its effectiveness, and his passive and E allow him to use every auto attack based keystone to some effectiveness. S-tier Omnistone user, give it a shot, full AD or full tank. Any secondary path is fine with Jarvan, because his builds are just as diverse as his kit.
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Kindred:

12 points from keystones, 2 points for keystone versatility, 14 points total.

• Glacial Augment: 1 point
• Aftershock: 0 points
• Grasp of The Undying: 0.5 point
• Phase Rush: 1 point
• Arcane Comet: 1 point
• Summon Aery: 1 point
• Hail of Blades: 1 point
• Dark Harvest: 1 point
• Predator: 0.5 points
• Electrocute: 1 point
• Conqueror: 1 point
• Fleet Footwork: 1 point
• Press The Attack: 1 point
• Lethal Tempo: 1 point

Kindred are prowling their way into the S-tier. With their scaling range and nimble nature, it’s very easy for Kindred to close the gap and use even the most niche of keystones: Glacial Augment. Beyond that, her ultimate can trigger Summon Aery on allies, which while pointless, does have merit. All in all, the dynamic duo are strong S-tier Omnistone users. Take Sorcery, Precision, or Domination on Kindred, based on matchup.
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Mordekaiser

12 points from keystones, 3 points from keystone versatility, 15 points total

• Glacial Augment: 0.5 points
• Aftershock: 1 point
• Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
• Phase Rush: 1 point
• Arcane Comet: 1 point
• Summon Aery: 0.5 points
• Hail of Blades: 1 point
• Dark Harvest: 1 point
• Predator: 0.5 points
• Electrocute: 1 point
• Conqueror: 1 point
• Fleet Footwork: 1 point
• Press The Attack: 0.5 points
• Lethal Tempo: 1 point

It’s funny, if you take someone into the Death Realm, you tend to not really struggle with keystone procs. That being said, outside of the Death Realm, Mordekaiser is dominantly an S-tier user of Omnistone. His kit is simplistic and offers everything he’d need to proc every keystone consistently and off CD. His passive’s bonus movement speed and on-hit damage make it so that he can easily proc keystones like Lethal Tempo and Hail of Blades, adding hefty chunks of damage to his profile. Take Resolve/Sorcery secondary with Mordekaiser.
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Nautilus

13 points from keystones, 3 points from keystone versatility, 16 points total.

• Glacial Augment: 1 point
• Aftershock: 1 point
• Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
• Phase Rush: 1 point
• Arcane Comet: 1 point
• Summon Aery: 0.5 points
• Hail of Blades: 1 point
• Dark Harvest: 1 point
• Predator: 1 point
• Electrocute: 1 point
• Conqueror: 0.5 points
• Fleet Footwork: 1 point
• Press The Attack: 1 point
• Lethal Tempo: 1 point

Another member of the “I CC you and get to have my way with you” club, Nautilus can quite literally proc every keystone Omnistone has to offer, and he can do it without batting an eye. His W’s auto attack reset lets him make good use of all auto-attack based keystones, and his spell-weaving nature ensures that spell-based keystones all get popped easily as well. S-tier, S-tier, S tier, one of the best users of Omnistone in the game. Take Resolve/Domination secondary with Nautilus.
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Neeko

13 points from keystones, 3 points from keystone versatility, 16 points total

• Glacial Augment: 1 point
• Aftershock: 1 point
• Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
• Phase Rush: 1 point
• Arcane Comet: 1 point
• Summon Aery: 0.5 points
• Hail of Blades: 1 point
• Dark Harvest: 1 point
• Predator: 1 point
• Electrocute: 1 point
• Conqueror: 0.5 points
• Fleet Footwork: 1 point
• Press The Attack: 1 point
• Lethal Tempo: 1 point

The only thing that keeps Neeko from reasonably taking Omnistone every game is the fact that the keystone still appears when she’s transformed, ruining the camouflage. Ignoring that, she’s the single best mage user of Omnistone in the game, and you should seriously consider it, ESPECIALLY with the new items. Take Sorcery secondary on Neeko.
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Vi

13.5 points from keystones, 3 points for keystone versatility, 16.5 points total

• Glacial Augment: 1 point
• Aftershock: 1 point
• Grasp of The Undying: 1 point
• Phase Rush: 1 point
• Arcane Comet: 1 point
• Summon Aery: 0.5 points
• Hail of Blades: 1 point
• Dark Harvest: 1 point
• Predator: 1 point
• Electrocute: 1 point
• Conqueror: 1 point
• Fleet Footwork: 1 point
• Press The Attack: 1 point
• Lethal Tempo: 1 point

Alrighty everyone, let's welcome yet another member to the Empire of Nevermove, as Vi's CC and lockdown potential ensures that she can dispense of pretty much any keystone she feels like, and she can do it quite easily. Her E's auto attack reset allows her to trigger PTA and Hail of Blades extremely easily, and her hard CC procs Aftershock without much trouble. Lethal Tempo's attack speed synergizes extremely well with her W's armor shred and ramping AS passive. Overall, it's no shocker that she's S-tier, with only Aery being sub-optimal on her. Take any secondary path, Vi is extremely flexible with Omnistone. I recommend Stridebreaker into Cleaver, or Sunderer into Sanguine Blade/Blade of The Ruined King versus tankier comps.
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In the interest of keeping this from being longer than Don Quixote, I'll stop listing S-tier Omnistone champs here. Please feel free to ask about breakdowns, item suggestions, or just generally list your thoughts! Have a great night!

Hello guys. I was a jungle nunu main on s10 and peeked dia 2. Now im looking to main varus. I started playing him with AS, kraken slayer etc and I am also maxing E first then Q just because I saw one challenger do it. Tbh the e has some good unexpected damage but i still dont know if it's worth maxing before Q. So... questions are:
1) On AS Varus, what's the best skill maxing order?
2) I've been wondering wether the AS build is superior or the lethality one. I know that varus is meant to be played AS since his creation but I am just asking if the lethality build is CURRENTLY stronger. Obviously we can leave aside the game where the enemies have like 2-3 tanks where you obviously go AS.
3) What's the standard lethality build and rune page?
4) Is ap on hit even viable at the moment? If yes with what build? You would be maxing W first probably and then? Q or E?
Thanks for bearing with my questions xD

Preliminary word.

It’s a lot of text so I choose to not add all the math, and I have to change a few things after the last hotfix that nerf Guinsoo. I don’t explain how to magically gain 200 LP.
Jinx has been hit hard by the crit nerf. She lose nearly 20% damages in a full build.
I will start this post by saying there’s a lot of fake “good idea” so I will try to explain them. I will start with explanation on the Ravenous Hydra + Runaan combo, then Guinsoo versus IE and after that I will detail some item (Mythic and Legendary).In the ends, I will suggest some build..

Part 1: analysis

Ravenous Hydra + Runaan Hurricane combo

Ravenous Hydra is a item with AD & Omnivamp that deal an splash damage around the main target. It’s now available to ranged and synergies well with Runaan like most on-hit effect. The AoE range is 350 units and the damage scale from 60% to 12% based on distance from the center.
Runaan Hurricane get some base AD and is now scaling from 40% to 70% based on level.
The combo is exactly like Jinx’s rocket combo but everythings is in the difference.

1. It work well with Fishbones: 110% main target and 170% to 122% splash damage. The AoE is bigger than the main damage.
2. It work well with PowPow: 100% main target + 60% to 12% splash damage.It benefit from Switcheroo! AS bonus (up to 130%).
3. Fishbone’s Rocket AoE is only 150 unites. Ravenous + Runaan combo is way more easier to do than Jinx combo. *sad*
4. Ravenous splash damage can’t crit but work well with Guinsoo.

In game, the combo work well in teamfight and for waveclear. But it’s much better on Guinsoo user like Varus more than Crit champion. Also the damage isn’t that big because the scaling drop quickly with range and the overlapping is near max range, limiting it’s power.
Finally, the lack of Critical Strical make it an item too build when full build.
TLDR:

• Jinx’s rocket AoE range need a buff to at least 300 units.
• Ravenous Hydra is good with Guinsoo but will be better on other champion.
• Ravenous Hydra is a last item in a crit build.

Guinsoo Rageblade versus Infinity Edge

The big crit nerf change a few things. It take 5 items to get 100% crit and the base Critical Strike Damage is only 175. It’s slower and less effective to be effective with a crit build.
Even more, Infinity Edge’s effect is now scaling from +50% to 8% every 20% crit, capping at +40% at 100% crit. It means that crit will only do at best 215% damages instead of 250%.
In short, most soloQ will end before capping crit.
Guinsoo Rageblade introduce an interesting change. It change Critical Strike Chance to be an on-hit effect instead of a damage scaling buff. With the last hotfix, it do 2 damage per 1% Critical Strike Chance. It still have the double on-hit every 3 auto-attacks.The down side is that it don’ have any AD.Guinsoo is also relatively cheap at 2800 golds (after hotfix) making it really effective early items to buy.
But Jinx’s rockets on-hit effect (+10% AD and splash damage) don’t work with the Phantom Hit that double every 3 attacks. It’s not a bug but a balance choice. A 220% AoE that can crit can be difficult to balance when you can cast 1.5 rockets per second.
Their is a theoric break point when IE began to be better than Guinsoo. And for Jinx, it’s a 3 items (Kraken+Runaan+IE/Guinsoo) with 437 damage versus 400 damage (against 0 armor). And thee choice of Kraken is in Guinsoo favor.
For completion, I also test Guinsoo+Runaan+Hydra. The result give 319 damages per attacks but the lack of AD really show in Rockets form and with Zap.
TLDR:

• Infinity Edge is a little better than Guinsoo as 3rd item.
• IE is best at 4 items and after, or with Gathering Storm.
• Guinsoo 1st item is a false “good idea”. No enough AD.

Attack Speed cap

Jinx will hit the Attack Speed cap (2.5 att/s) earlier than in previous season.The cap can be reach at 2 items (Mythic item+Runaan) and boots, with any AS boost (ardent, etc), Lethal Tempo or Get Excited.
And with Kraken Slayer, the 3 attack/s (with Lethal Tempo or Get Excited) can be reached with only 4 items.
In that case, there’s a few do/don’t:

• Take Lethal Tempo, it’s mandatory. You need to be able to overcap outside of Get Excited! proc.
• Take Bloodline instead of Alacrity. With this much AS, Lifesteal is more interesting.
• Berserker’s grave is still the way to go. But other choice can be interesting in late game, especially with Kraken.

Runes

There’s little change for Jinx’s rune, along what I said just above.
I think Gathering Storm might be a little better over the free boots for 2 reasons. First, with Galeforce, boots will be optional past 3 items. Secondly, Jinx need to snowball or wait the late game. In this case, the free AD from Gathering Storm will help a lot.

Part 2: items explanation

Mythic items

First, a word on Eclypse. It’s an items that give you 55AD, 10% Omnivamps, 18 Lethality and a scaling of 4% Armor penetration per Legendary item (16% with 4 items). The effect give you a shield, on-hit damage that scale on enemy’s max HP and 15% MS.It’s actually the best offensive Mythic Items by far, even after today hotfix.I don’t take it into account here because it don’t have crit and it shouldn’t be an ADC item. But Riot 200 years of collective knowledge have say better. I will give a build for it at the end.
Kraken Slayer is the mythic item to choose by default. Good stat, best scaling (10% AS per Legendary) and true damage to be pass tank armor.
Immortal Shield-Bow is the defensive choice with Life Steal. The shield will save you from an assassin (not from being too greedy) and it give 5 AD and 50 HP per Legendary. The AD is good but the HP have a down side because of Dominik’s passive.
Galeforce look interesting on paper but is lacking in-game. The dash might save you and the proc damage is good. But I think using it offensively is just suicide. The scaling MS is the worst.Everyone seem to forget that there’s 2 caps on movement speed (at 415 MS and 490 MS). It can help in team fight but compared to 20% AS or 10 AD/100HP, I’m not sure it’s worth.
TLDR:

1. Kraken Slayer - best choice
2. Immortal Shield-Bow - defensive choice.
3. Galeforce - situational choice.

Legendary items

Runaan Hurricane: it’s our 2nd items. It now give AD and the bolt now scale up to 70% at level 18. But the prize is now 3400 gold.
Stormrazor: don’t change but is way cheaper at 2700 gold. It’s a good option to get some poke with Energize. But it don’t give any movement speed.
With crit on everythings, there’s a lot of new option.
RFC and Phantom Dancer, like Guinsoo, don’t give AD. So it change them from good items choice to situational choice.

• RFC is for poke on-hit champion.
• Phantom Dancer is back to the item for AD melee that like to run in the middle of creeps with a big sword. The AS proc is really huge.

Here’s a few option for 3rd items
Infinity Edge: it’s the core 3rd items but it can be delayed for other item if needed. It’s less mandatory than before.
Lord Dominik’s Regards: The Giant Slayer effect is back. I think it’s nearly mandatory as soon as there’s 2 ennemis with more than 3500 HP and at least one armor item.
Bloodthirster : IT now give crit and that change everythings. The life steal and the shield stack with Immortal Shield-Bow.
The Collector: this new item is the greed choice. It give AD, crit and lethality. Contrary to Dominik’s who is good against tank, The Collector is better against squishy. It gave an execute effect that kill champion under 5% HP. The synergies is obvious with Mega Death Rocket but it work with every things (Zap, Chompers, Red buff, …). The 25 golds on kill make it the perfect 3rd item for snowballing.
Defensive items do have interesting change too.
Mercurial Scimitar: it now give Crit instead of Life Steal so QSS tax is really limited.
Mortal Reminder: It don’t give Armor Penetration but AS, Crit and 7% MS. So it can be build along Dominik’s. In some match-up, it might be the best 3rd items.
Guardian Angel: it gain 5 AD.
Death’s Dance : big change, it won’t heal alone. Buy a BT first.
Last items are options for very late when the game can be win or lose over 1 teams fight.
Ravenous Hydra: The combo with Runaan is huge.
BOTRK: I put it here because it don’t have crit and it’s not the best items on Jinx. But the 10% current HP on-hit is huge, even more with all those tanking item with ton of HP.

Part 3: builds

2 items Core builds

The 2 items core build is a Mythic + Runaan + Berserker boots. It’s not cheap but Jinx isn’t really an Early-Mid champion.

• Kraken Slayer + Runaan: best choice in most case
• Immortal Shield-Bow + Runaan: mandatory against Assassin.

3rd or 4th Items

The keyword here is adaptation.

• Infinity Edge: you will need it as 3rd or 4rth items.
• Lord Dominik’s Regard: if 2 ennemis with 3500HP+.
• Bloodthirster: against poke.
• The Collector: against squishy for snowball.
• Mercurial Scimitar: for QSS
• Mortal Reminder: against too much healing

Full builds

The most damaging 5-items build:

1. Kraken Slayer
2. Runaan Hurricane
3. Infinity Edge
4. Lord Dominik’s Regard
5. Bloodthirster or The Collector
6. Berserker’s Graves

If you want to sell boots:

• BT or The Collector: lot of AD
• Ravenous Hydra: combo teamfight
• Stormrazor: AD and AS, along some poke.

Part4: Eclipse build

Thanks Riot for broken OP item. Until it’s fixed, everything's explained is wrong if you use Eclypse.
Armor Penetration is multiplicative but the mythic scaling is additive.
So with 4 legendary item and Dominik’s, the Armor Penetration is :
1-(1-0.25)*(1-0.16) = 1-0.63 = 37%
So here’s a build for Eclipse:

1. Eclypse
2. Runaan
3. Guinsoo
4. Dominik’s / Ravenous Hydra
5. Dominik’s / Ravenous Hydra
6. Berserker Graves

edit: Eclipse isn't that broken because the effect cooldown is 12s on ranged.edit #2 : crit is still better at 4 items and later.
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Part5: Conclusion

Please Riot, buff Fishbone’s rocket slash damage range to 300 or 400 units.
There’s other things can be done, balanced, etc but 1 item is putting the signture combo of a champion to shame.
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edit for Wit's End, Sterrak and Black Cleaver:

• There's better option than Sterrak because it have 60% efficiency on ranged champion and Jinx don't have a lot of max HP. Just use BT.
• Black Cleaver is sadly a bad idea. Yes it work well on Jinx. But you want it in a crit build so it have to wait for 4 items. And It give 300 HP that reduce the power of Dominik's.
• Wit's End is interesting, in a Guinsoo build. Good magic damage and so much speed. If it's for the magic resist, there's 2 better options : Maw of Malmortius and Mercurial Scimitar.
• Maw of Malmortius is the best defensive item against AP user. I prefer taking Nullifying Orb rune and only buy Malmo in very bad case.

Hi guys, I recently starting maining Varus and have been testing various builds as Varus Adc. There seems to be quite a few builds going around so I'd share my thoughts.
First of all im Plat 2, so be critical of what I've been doing, it might not be optimal.
Op.gg
In my opinion there are 3 way's to build Varus as a physical damage dealer for your team: Crit, On-hit and Lethality. This is in my opinion one of Varus main strengths, since he can adapt his build depending on the enemy team composition.
Crit Varus: This build is the 'Standard' Varus build if the team composition indicates a lot of 5v5 team fights with both teams having hard engage and CC. You go for either Galeforce or Shieldbow first. If the enemy team has burst which is hard to dodge like Zed, Rengar and so on Shield bow, otherwise I like galeforce since it can be used as engage with R, or defensively to dodge and reposition. These items are followed by Ruunans and Ie.
Lethality Varus: This build is best used if the enemy team isn't that tanky and can be sieged and poked down. In my opinion the build is best run with a support that can harass in lane with Arcane comet, such as fiddle, brand, velkoz and lux, but tank supports also work great. The build, is Manamune, followed by Duskblade or Eclipse. Duskblade is preferred for the ability haste and damage however eclipse is necessary if the enemy team as a bruiser that can get on to you. Next is Serylda's Grudge and then The collector. Boots are for the most part ability haste boots in this build. Other items to consider for this build are Serpents fang (against shielding), Youmuus (Movement speed), Chempunk chainsword (Anti healing).
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On-hit (Uzi inspired): This build is run quite often by Uzi. You can go for either of the 3 mythic items, however kraken slayer should ONLY be bought if the enemy team has enough tanks to justify it. Next is Blade of the ruined king, and then Ruunans or Wits end depending on the enemy team composition, then the other. This build is easily the most fun, since Bork greatly enhances your ability to kite champions, and Varus really gets to abuse Lethal Tempo and go crazy.
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Runes:
Go lethal tempo for Crit / On-hit and Comet for Lethality.
Side-note on level 2 fights in the botlane and ability levelling.
I see a lot of guides on Varus suggesting E or Q (whichever you haven't got from level 1), as the ability to level for level 2. However there is the case in the botlane if you already have had a big trade level one, and you might fight for the kill at level 2, to level your W, for the execute. This has really been helpfull in quite a few games, with bot lane often fighting level 2.
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Hope this may be helpfull to some people!

These adcs are so bad that they almost dont get picked in high elo games at all. The main reason why these adcs are so bad it's because we dont have lethal tempo, pta, and guinsoos in the game yet. Pta is the main keystone for tristana and vayne and without it they almost feel useless in lane, same goes with Varus and Ashe without lethal tempo theyre just straight up garbage.
I think that buffs alone cant make them powerful and more viable like jhin, mf, jinx, ezreal and kaisa, these adcs are the most popular adcs right now because all the keystone and items that are in wildrift are viable for them. I just hope that wr devs release more keystones and runes in the game so that no adcs would feel like unplayable in high elo anymore.
Prediction: Xayah will also be weak asf because we dont have Lethal tempo, hail of blades and Essence Reaver in the game yet😪

Hey Guys,
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I'm a low Diamond Varus main that frequents this subreddit. Lately I haven't been playing much of our boy because of the pitiful state he was in. After the buffs, however, I think it's time I come back to him. Since the buffs dropped on Wednesday's patch, I've been screwing around with some new build paths that utilize the new CDR available and I think I've found something... well pretty special.
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For those of you who haven't read the patch notes, Varus' blight now returns 12% of your Q+W's cooldown per stack, for a max of 36% CDR upon the proc. What this means is that his 3 aa + spell trade pattern is much more readily available. However, there is still enough downtime between spells --3 or 4 seconds-- that you are often forced to retreat and wait for cooldowns in the middle of fights. I also was running out of mana in like 90% of my games and going tear really messed up my lane. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an item that gave you mana, CDR, and AD: Essence Reaver. But sadly, you are functionally locked out of essence reaver, as you can't get enough sheen procs to justify it. This really sucks because ER has literally all the stats Varus could want right now, between CDR, lots of AD, and Crit. So I explored other CDR options for ADCs, hoping I could find another build path that would work. I explored Tear paths, but they just didn't seem to have enough CDR and I kept dying instantly, plus it felt so awkward to build Tear any other item combo. Eclipse tear was ok, but tear gimped the lethality's early game. Shieldbow tear took way too much time to ramp, gives almost no damage until 3 items, and has a pretty unsatisfying spike So I tried something new. I don't know how many of you have built Navori Quickblade yet, but I really think you should try it. You may be thinking, sure quickblade gives lots of CDR, but how does that fix your mana problems? Well, it actually gives you SO much CDR that you CAN build Essence Reaver. The spell cooldowns get so short that you literally have JUST enough time to auto three times before your next spell comes up. Additionally, your range gets SO long you can play more like a Jhin or a Senna type.
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Here's what I've been building and why.
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First: Shield bow. Varus needs this item, I haven't found anyways around it, you just die otherwise and lethality builds are just not that great against tanks, which hurts a lot in this meta. It also gives you attack speed and crit, which will become very important later.
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Second: Quickblade. How this item works is Crits reset the cooldowns of non-ultimate spells by 1 second. It also happens to give the most AD of any ADC crit item, other than IE. On top of that, gives you 30 ability haste, which is roughly 20% CDR upon completion. It has a sold build path that includes caulfield's, allowing for a smooth power curve to completion. This makes the price tag a lot more bearable. This item is the core of the entire build. With the new changes, it allows you to completely reset the cooldowns of your abilities the moment you get three blight stacks on a champion, give you crit once or twice. I do not recommend building this first, because you will miss out on the defensive stats of shieldbow, plus this item doesn't come online till you have a bit of crit stacked up anyway.
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Third: Essence ReaveRunaans. Ok so I know I hyped up essence reaver a bunch, but I did want to just include runaans in here so yall could look at it and try it out for yourself. Essence Reaver is going to give you a ton of CDR, AD, and Mana sustain. Plus the sheen proc actually does a pretty nutty amount of damage, considering how much AD you are stacking in this build. BUT. There is an alternative. I call it the URF Build. This is because it plays like URF. Seriously. Go test it. If two enemy champions group up under your E, and you manage to get the full stacks off on them --meaning 3 stacks + 1 from the buffered auto-- it will fully reset all of your basic cooldowns. This is because all procs reset cooldowns by 12%. So if you get two targets with 4 procs each, that's literally 96% CDR. 96 percent. Go test it if you don't believe me. Even with 2 autos, it puts the CD on your e and q at about 1.5 seconds. Its insane. You print dps and the best part is that it combines all my favorite pieces of lethality varus with all my favorite pieces of attack speed Varus. With that being said, with runaans you may have no CDs but you run out of mana after like 5 seconds of a team fight, and you don't get CDR on your ult from Essence reaver. I've been really liking the ult cdr and mana sustain, so I've been building ER, but I think both are very very strong and runaans DPS is actually unreal. Essence reaver allows for this very fun engage combo where you go R>Q>Q. This is because the extra CDR from essence reaver allows you to nearly fully reset your Q on targets by virtue of just landing your q. This is why you can play like a jhin or a senna. When you land an ult, you can just stand at 1200 range and charge q, fire it off, and charge up another, this time with the W active. If they're a squishy, that's probably gonna mean death or close to it. With runaans, you need to auto to make up for the lack of cdr, so you need to play a little more close range. Test both out and lmk what you think.
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Fourth: Just build whatever you didn't build third. If you need a defensive item instead, you can do that.
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Final thoughts: I think there may be a way to work tear into this build. I still find myself pretty mana starved in the mid and late game, but that might just take some getting used to. I may also start taking manaflow band + PoM to lock down the mana needs even more. I also have been bouncing between lucidity boots and bezerkers. Unsure of which I like better at this point. As for runes, I think lethal tempo is still the move, as it gives you attack speed, which this build needs but is lacking from itemization. I suppose you could try phase rush, comet, dark harvest, and hail of blades a try --maybe even glacial?--, but I am really liking the way lethal tempo feels for now. Some items that intrigue me are seryldas, black cleaver, botrk, and rageblade. For now, I feel they don't add as much to the build as the other items mentioned. Rageblade perhaps late, but I hardly ever find myself reaching to 6 items.
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Let me know what you've tried, and let me know your results on this build!
Edit: Don’t build rage-blade, as the comments pointed out. It doesn’t work with QB.

Hi, well I have had a lot of fun playing Varus, I started playing mid with him, then ADC and support but all of them with lethality or attack speed. I wanted to learn more about how Varus ap works for example, or which items / runes are most effective.
My op.gg

I have never seemed to do good on Varus if I'm playing his normal build and runes but lethality has worked more than the base build for me personally and I was wondering if it would work to go manamune first item on it for more mana and harder poke/heavier ad scaling

I immediately noticed a few things about mythic item bonus stats, is they're misallocated. Only one item in the game now has any hybrid benefit, and that's Divine Sunder splitpen%. It's a tank item, that's being purchased on Ezreal/Sennas, simply for being one of the only Sheen item in the game that works for them. Neither of them benefit from the crit of Essence Reaver, or the ap from Lichbane, and the splitpen% is wasted on most champions that are buying it.
The champions that benefitted from hybrid items now have weird build paths. Guinsoos no longer gives both ad/ap and splitpen, but rather on-hit crit. Varus, kogmaw, and Kayle were probably the ones that got hit the hardest with that change.
Gunblade is gone, meaning Katarina, Kayle, Akali, lost their most efficient damage item. What is the purpose of champions scaling from AD+AP, if there are no longer any items that give both?
What is the purpose of putting splitpen% on a "tank/bruiser" item, that's built by ADCs?
Why does triforce not seem to fulfill any role anymore?
Why do they keep buffing the already best, most boring, 3hit ADC item? Did the game need more 3hit passives that shred tanks?
My proposal is put more adaptive force on items. By creating more hybrid items, you can open up more build paths, and don't lock certain champs into cookie cutter AD - cookie cutter AP builds, that don't fit their style or kits. Mythic item bonuses should benefit the champions that are buying them, it seems like Riot just played darts with how they were allocated.
Tank items need to be tanky. I don't want to be an assassin with a lot of health. I don't have to oneshot an adc as an 8k health chogath, I just want to absorb all their damage. I LIVE to play tanks that can take 8k+ damage in a fight (while my team still loses anyways hehe). I enjoy being able to keep multiple people on me and provide CC. When tanks do too much damage, you have 2 choices: Stay behind and ATTEMPT to peel assassins, or "be the only one on the team that can stick to the adc because you have so much cc and damage you can rush at them and guarantee a kill". Riot has nerfed the damage AND tank stats of sunfire items because they missed the mark and their purposes. My proposal for tanks has always been, make them debuff you to do less damage, but make you TANKY. If other roles want to build tank items, they'll have to accept the damage nerf, so they can't the best of all worlds. If Malphite wants to stack armor and do nothing but dive the adc, then perhaps that 800 armor from items should give a -20% damage debuff, so instead of being an immovable object that can assassinate, he's now just a massive unbreakable boulder.
If Katarina can proc on-hits with every ability, and Urgot procs on-hits with W, I want each Graves pellet to proc on-hits at 20% effectiveness (80% item effectiveness if all hit, 120% effectiveness for full-hit crits), opens up wits end, botrk, nashors AP builds, etc. on Graves.
I want Presence of Mind to have the old Catalyst passive, to grant more sustain to mages that also need a ton of mana.
I want some sort of archangel's mage shield back.
I want a Glacial Augment rework, since we only have one slow item that also snares now. The whole inspiration tree will need to be reworked, as half of them do nothing anymore after many nerfs.
I want an Omnistone buff, as I've always believed this runestone to have potential on many "hybrid" champions that can make use of the keystones. Either start with 5 dark harvest/grasp stacks, or make it buff every keystone used by 20%. This will give power to being able to make use of the randomness of it, and not find you fishing for a specific 2 or 3 rolls.
There are too many one-shots in the game, and they seem as skill-less as ever (not being salty, you all know it's true). What was the point of removing DFG, and then putting in Prowler's Claw? Why do akali, ryze, leblanc, seem as skill-less as ever, with overtuned damage? It seems Riot wants to reduce the amount of "pro-play" only champions by overtuning them to the point it doesn't matter your mastery on the champion, you can fulfill your role at any elo by landing a few abilities.
I honestly don't even mind the state of ADCs right now. I find them pretty powerful, they scale ok, but are susceptible to oneshots as always. Shieldblow+BT+Overheal shields are more than enough to keep yourself alive through any assassin. I find Mage vs Mage a bit harder, without Archangel shield.
The items I've seen no one build: Essence Reaver, Silvermere Dawn, Guardian Angel, Zeke's Convergence, Staff of Flowing Water.
It doesn't seem like they really have a role, or have bad stats, or are not worth it to ever build. I do not understand the nerf to Zekes. It's link effect is so bad now and hardly ever gets used. Staff is too expensive and doesn't benefit a team as much as Censer, unless you happen to be playing a double AP bot lane like Karma/Swain or something.
Essence Reaver, once again, does not fit the niche it needs to as a sheen item. I usually find myself needing a Sheen item, but my choices are Essence Reaver or Lichbane, if my mythic slot is already taken up. It would normally be paired with Quickblades, but I can think of Lucian as the only champion that would use both, and they usually go lethality since Eclipse is overtuned.
GA I guess people skip over because it's boring. Morello's also has really bad stats now for mages, it's so awkward to build in most games for the little health and ap it gives, to just get GW. You're better off building oblivion orb then finishing other items. Chemtech Purifier is supposed to be an ap-support GW item, except its stats are probably better for almost every mage in the game, so why not build it over morellos? For 200 less gold, you trade 20ap and 250health for 15 haste and mana. I don't see the point in splitting the items up like this.
Maw of Malmortius is also hardly bought, since Sterak's is just better on tanks and gives a better shield. It gets way higher, and isn't magic only. Maw was good for the other stats Lifeline gave, but they removed them for some reason. Having that steroid as a bruiser when you got low made all the difference in buying it over Sterak's.
Supports are REALLY boring without old Zekes and Athene's. I know Moonstone is supposed to fill the gap, but all the support items kind of feel like shit to build. And shurelya's doesn't even have a good animation. Zeke's and Knights are not worth it since they lost their good benefits.
Eclipse does not need omnivamp. I'm having a hard time figuring out who would buy this item if it wasn't just overtuned. Lethality marksmen and adc junglers? Why does it need to give sustain if those roles/champions have plenty of options to get sustain?
Why does duskblade give so much haste if it's a oneshot-and-reset assassin item? With it only being a 15s cd, is it supposed to be a lane-trading item now for quinn/rengatop lane assassins? If it's supposed to be a rengakhazix jg assassin item, the cd shouldn't be so short and powerful, and the haste is not needed. I think eclipse or duskblade could very easily be made into lethality Sheen items and fulfill their roles better.
I guarantee runes will get switched up when the season starts. They made many rune changes last season, but I fear Riot will have a hard time with mythic and legendary items. There have been many valid complaints about item costs, stats, build paths, on reddit, and rightfully so. The items felt rushed, and they're putting bandaids on champions themselves that are taking alternate buildpaths to abuse items, instead of creating items and runes that work for the champions themselves.
tldr: bad item stat allocations, and riot is missing the mark on many items and runes.