Counter Guide

How to Beat Vel'Koz

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

Vel'Koz chips half your health away from the back of the lane, and then the laser finishes the job in true damage.

Playing bot lane into a Vel'Koz support is a slow bleed. Every wave you walk up for last hits, something lands on you, and three hits from him in a row burst for true damage that no amount of magic resist touches. When he finally ults, whoever he's already hit a few times melts. What he can't do is move. He has no dash, every ability is a skillshot or a delayed blast, and his ultimate roots him in place while it fires. The supports who beat him use exactly that. You'll find his current standing on our solo queue tier list.

Matchup Snapshot Vel'Koz, the Eye of the Void

Where You Meet HimSupport

Damage TypeMagic and true

Why He Is FrustratingPoke you can't armor against

MobilityNone

Biggest ThreatLife Form Disintegration Ray [R]

Hardest CounterSona

What a Counter Needs

Healing or shields that outlast his poke
Crowd control to cut the laser short

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Vel'Koz on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Vel'Koz

Sona622 games54.0%
Zilean536 games53.7%
Rakan542 games51.9%
Karma1,106 games51.5%
Janna582 games51.4%

Picks Vel'Koz Beats

Alistar710 games43.7%
Morgana1,925 games45.0%
Bard656 games46.0%
Pantheon985 games46.7%

Win rates are for the champion listed, playing support against Vel'Koz. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 43,692 Vel'Koz games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Vel'Koz Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

Three hits means true damage. Organic Deconstruction [Passive] stacks with each ability that lands, and the third stack bursts for true damage.
Plasma Fission [Q] hits from odd angles. He can split the bolt in flight, and the two halves fire sideways, so dodging the line isn't always enough. It slows by 70%, too.
Void Rift [W] stores two charges and hits twice per cast (once as it opens, again as it collapses), which is how he trades in lane without spending much.
Life Form Disintegration Ray [R] turns into true damage against anyone he's already landed three stacks on. He steers it for up to 2.6 seconds.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

He has no dash. If you reach him, he can't leave.
The laser stops him in place. He can't move while he fires Life Form Disintegration Ray [R], and a stun or knock-up ends it.
Everything is a skillshot. Even Tectonic Disruption [E] lands after a short delay (you can see where it's going), so moving well beats him.
His ultimate has a long cooldown (100 seconds at rank one), and without it his damage comes in small pieces.

Countering Vel'Koz

Pick any one:

Heal through the poke. If his chip damage gets undone every wave, the lane never gets low enough for his all-in.
Interrupt the laser. Hard crowd control on him mid-channel cancels the rest of it.
Get on top of him. He's a mage with no escape (not even a speed boost).

If your support has none of those, the lane's still winnable.

Playing Into Vel'Koz Without a Counter

Don't stand in line with your marksman. Plasma Fission [Q] splits sideways, and two champions lined up behind the minions are exactly what it's built to hit.

Count his hits. After two abilities land on you, back off for a few seconds and let the stacks drop (they last seven seconds), so the third one doesn't turn into true damage.

When he starts the laser, walk out of it sideways. He can steer it, but not quickly.

Best Vel'Koz Counters

Each of these supports goes at a different weak point.

Sona Heals It Back

Aria of Perseverance [W] heals Sona and her most wounded ally on a 10-second cooldown, so whatever chip damage Vel'Koz got in last wave is gone before the next one. Hymn of Valor [Q] needs no aim at all (it fires at the two nearest enemies, champions first), and his whole kit does.

Crescendo [R] ends the laser. It's a 1000-range line that stuns everyone it hits for 1.5 seconds, and Vel'Koz can't move out of the way while he's channeling.

Zilean Undoes the Kill

Vel'Koz lives on landing a lethal combo, and Chronoshift [R] turns lethal into a three-second pause. If the rune's on your marksman when the laser finishes them, they revive with health instead of dying.

In lane, two Time Bombs [Q] on the same target stun, and Rewind [W] brings the second one back fast. He can't dodge a bomb that's stuck to his marksman and blowing up next to him. Time Warp [E] speeds up an ally who needs to get out of a Plasma Fission [Q] slow (or slows Vel'Koz, who has no dash to escape it).

Rakan Lands on Top of Him

Grand Entrance [W] dashes Rakan onto Vel'Koz and knocks him up after a brief delay, which is exactly what an immobile mage hates. Battle Dance [E] shields an ally and dashes Rakan back to them, so he's rarely stranded afterwards. A stun on Rakan mid-dash knocks him out of it, and Tectonic Disruption [E] can do that, so go in once it's on cooldown (it's 12 seconds at rank one).

Itemizing Against Vel'Koz

Magic resist helps against most of his damage, though his passive burst and his laser on a Researched target are true damage. Mercury's Treads also cut the stun from Tectonic Disruption [E]. Kaenic Rookern gives you a magic shield after 15 seconds without taking magic damage, which fits a lane where he pokes and waits. Banshee's Veil blocks the next ability that hits you. On a support, Locket of the Iron Solari shields everyone nearby once the laser starts.