The lethality build that carries Varus through every ARAM game travels to mid lane far better than it should.
Varus spends nearly every one of his games standing in bot lane, and mid lane Varus stays firmly in weird pick territory. Give him a Tear of the Goddess and a Domination page, though, and he turns into a poke mid laner who never runs out of mana and never stops shortening his own cooldowns.
Weird Pick #10
Mid Lane Varus
Poke mid laners come and go, but the ones that stick around all share the same two things: a charged skill shot and a mana bar deep enough to throw it forever. Varus has both, and he still spends nearly every game in bot lane.
The lethality build that carries him through ARAM travels to mid lane far better than it should. Muramana turns his mana pool into damage on every Piercing Arrow, Dark Harvest turns every finished target into permanent bonus damage, and Blighted Quiver hands cooldown back every time a detonation lands on a champion.
Here is how to make it work.
Mid Lane Varus Build
How to Play Mid Lane Varus
- Abilities
-
R: Chain of Corruption 
Q: Piercing Arrow 
E: Hail of Arrows 
W: Blighted Quiver - Ability Priority
- R > Q > E > W
- Summoner Spells
-
Flash 
Teleport - Starting Items
-
Tear of the Goddess 
Health Potion Health Potion - Strategy
- Charge Piercing Arrow from the back of the wave, detonate Blight stacks with Hail of Arrows to claw the cooldown back, and let Dark Harvest bank the kills your poke sets up
- Core Items
-
The Collector 
Ionian Boots of Lucidity 
Muramana 
Serylda's Grudge - Situational Items
-
Hubris 
Edge of Night
Mid Lane Varus Runes Setup
Primary: Dark Harvest, Taste of Blood, Grisly Mementos, Treasure Hunter
Secondary: Presence of Mind, Coup de Grace
Shards: Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force, Health Scaling
Dark Harvest is the reason this page beats a standard marksman setup. Varus finishes low health targets from outside their range all game, and every one of those takedowns raises the keystone permanently instead of paying out once. Presence of Mind keeps the mana flowing into Muramana, and Coup de Grace covers the exact health range Piercing Arrow tends to leave people in.
When to Pick This
Mid lane Varus wants a lane opponent who has to physically walk at him. Melee assassins spend the first six levels trying to close 900 units against a champion holding a charged arrow, and every failed approach hands Varus another Dark Harvest stack. Against a mage who can trade back at the same range, the pick loses most of its point.
Draft matters just as much. Varus mid is a physical damage pick in a slot that usually supplies magic damage, so he only works if your top laner or jungler already covers that side of the damage chart. Lock him into an all-physical comp and the enemy builds two armor items and stops caring.
He also gets better the more health the enemy team stacks. Blighted Quiver detonations deal a percentage of max health as magic damage, so a tanky enemy comp gives his poke a damage type that armor cannot answer.
How It Works
Detonations Pay For Themselves
Blighted Quiver stacks on Varus' attacks, and his other abilities detonate those stacks for max health magic damage. Detonating on a champion also refunds part of his basic ability cooldowns, so a Varus who keeps landing poke gets his next Piercing Arrow back faster than the enemy gets to full health.
Mana Turns Into Damage
Muramana converts 2% of his max mana into bonus attack damage and adds a chunk of that mana as bonus physical damage to every damaging ability against champions. A Tear started at minute one means the item that punishes ability spam is already online by the time he wants to spam abilities.
A 1300 Range Root That Spreads
Chain of Corruption roots the first champion it touches and then travels to nearby uninfected champions, rooting them too. It is a teamfight opener that Varus can throw from behind his own front line, which is exactly where a poke build wants him standing.
Potential Pitfalls
There Is No Escape Button
Varus has no dash, no blink and no shield in his own kit, and charging Piercing Arrow slows him while he does it. Any jungler who arrives while the arrow is drawn gets a free kill, so the lane plan has to be built around never being worth ganking rather than around winning fights.
A Charged Arrow Is A Commitment
Piercing Arrow loses damage for every enemy it passes through, so poking through a full minion wave gives up most of the hit. Charging it in the open telegraphs the shot to anyone paying attention, and a whiffed charge leaves Varus slowed, out of position and holding a 16 second cooldown at rank one.
The Build Wants Takedowns
Dark Harvest, The Collector, Treasure Hunter and Hubris all scale with kills and assists. That makes the ceiling high when the poke converts, but a Varus who chips people down and never finishes them ends the game with a weaker item set than a standard build would have handed him.
Mid Lane Varus Conclusions
Mid lane Varus is a patience pick. He does nothing flashy in the first ten minutes beyond farming safely and throwing arrows at whoever steps too far forward, and the payoff arrives in the mid game when a stacked Dark Harvest, a finished Muramana and a spreading root turn every skirmish into a fight his team starts a health bar ahead.
The pick lives or dies on the matchup. Give him a melee assassin to bully and a team that already brings magic damage, and he is genuinely good rather than merely weird. Put him into a ranged mid matchup on an all-physical comp and he becomes a worse version of a champion the enemy has actually practiced against.
Suggested Tier: Tier 3, higher into melee matchups
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i saw an ap varus mid once
ReplyDeleteShouldn't it be: "When maxed, it is very potent and its projectile speed is fairly [difficult] to dodge."?
ReplyDeleteIndeed...I need more sleep
ReplyDelete#sp4zie
ReplyDeleteI see Default ADC mid Varus , LCS :D
ReplyDeleteThe runes aren't that standard. PoE plays varus with 2 attack speed quints (1 damage quint), and CDR per level blues. You can play it with health per level yellows.
ReplyDeleteWith the Black Cleaver change and not being built from a Brutalizer any longer, would you still grab an early Brutalizer? If not, how does this change affects his build and will Varus mid be good with the reworked Black Cleaver?
ReplyDeleteWith the latest black cleaver rework, going bloodthirster instead is also a viable option for pure damage. I think Brutalizer is still worth it, and upgrading to Ghostblade gives him decent mobility.
ReplyDeleteuol vs fnc,final,first game...varus mid able to carry with decent peel and some nasty ks :D
ReplyDeleteWhich team used it. I love both UOL and NATTTIC. but I root for FNATIC , it's old school fave team.
ReplyDeleteAP Varus is totally playable, actually. Not as good as AD Varus, but totally playable. Tier 3 worthy on the Tier list.
ReplyDeleteIt works because the %-health damage on his W scales with AP, as does his R.
I'll openly admit it isn't good, but it works.
ap varus is lamer
ReplyDeleteUoL used it, worked pretty well.
ReplyDeleteif riot adds some random ap scaling on his E or Q i think he will be a very legit choice
ReplyDeletehttp://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRLH3/1001130066?gameHash=96d4cf113afcd471
ReplyDeleteVarus is a pretty solid mid-laner right now, would definitely agree with the high Tier 2 placement. Many ADCs are functional mid-laners.
ReplyDelete-
Feels appropriate to bring up mid Corki here, since it's similar in many ways and sees a significant amount more play competitively.
People tend to start with AD and resistances on it, rush a Trinity Force, and then get Sorcerer's Shoes, a Luden's Echo, and a Liandry's Torment.
Quite confused as to why competitively Trinity Force is being opted towards rather than Lich Bane, since the Luden's is generally rushed next.
Let me compare the two items:
Lich Bane gives 75% base AD + 50% AP magic damage, compared to 200% base AD from Trinity Force. Lich Bane gives 80 AP compared to 30, 5% movement speed compared to 8%, and 250 mana compared to 200 mana. Trinity Force gives 30 AD, 30% attack speed, 10% critical strike chance, 250 health, and Phage passive.
Lich Bane gives more potent autoattacks and abilities, which would seem to work better with his kit as an AP mid than the other combat stats he recieves. But, maybe not? I can see how Trinity Force would be stronger earlier into the game, with Lich Bane scaling significantly better. So, is Trinity Force being bought then for its better early-game statistics? Trinity Force also gives more sustained damage than Lich Bane, but again, that's only really relevant early-mid game.
Any sort of additional insight here would be great. Been thinking about this for a few days, still not entirely convinced that it's worth getting the Trinity Force instead.
Definitely. I think I'd rather see it on his E so as to add some AOE damage to the off-build.
ReplyDeletei never used him in bot tbh i play him in mid either ap or ad xD
ReplyDeleteThey extra move speed and rage passive would give Corki significantly more kiting ability, and the 30 AD and 30% attack speed are strong even on AP Corki, since all of his spells scale with AD aside from his W, which is primarily an escape ability anyway.
ReplyDeleteSpellblade passive is something I really make an effort to heavily utilize on Corki, mid or bot lane. I tend to rush Sheen. Gives a really significant boost in damage.
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of counter pick, when he knows Vlad is a short range mage and does not have some dash (just a tiny MS boost which costs 20% HP).
ReplyDeleteAnd such "weird" pick did not continue because against any assasins (Zed, LB, Ahri, ...) or just Xerath he would screw up :) .
But if people in Yolo queue thinks Varus is new FoTM I would be very happy, Freelo waiting!
It's just Ez and Corki are better mid-laners , given the same build.
ReplyDeleteAs a blind guy I approve of your sleepiness affecting your eyesight during proofreading
ReplyDeleteHad one Varus mid in ranked Plat 1... Firstpicked him, fed a zed to 5/0 and went afk. I hate this shît.
ReplyDeleteThen it was his mistake, you dont go Varus mid agaisnt a rival with a extreme proximity skill
ReplyDeletethat zed was smurf
ReplyDeleteHad to play this as anivia. I was bored out of my mind. He took barrier and started flash. Seriously the gayest shit. I wish people would stick picking these cheese boring champions.
ReplyDeleteStrangely whenever I play AP corki I always rush Luden's, I feel like you make more out of it than either Tri Force or Lich bane with the extra waveclear off all your spells (W doing over 300 dmg per second in some builds is quite funny), hitting The Big One with the Luden's proc will often chunk off about 1/3 to 1/2 of someones health.
ReplyDeleteI normally don't even get either item until 3rd as I feel that depending on the situation Liandry's or Athene's will always be a better choice second item, despite how well Spellblade works on Corki I generally don't want to be in AA range as AP corki unless I'm going in to finish off a kill. Yeah you lose Tower killing power but you make up so much more in siege and poke