The complete AP Varus guide
Varus is one of the oldest champions in the game, but his versatility still makes him viable.
Over the last few years, Varus has consistently been one of the worst-performing champions in the game. As is the case with most champions that dominate professional play, no Varus main since season 10 has witnessed a win rate above 50%. But that doesn’t mean that AP Varus is bad, it just means people can’t see the writing on the wall.
Is Varus a Good Pick?
If you are wondering why Varus has had a hard time being good in ranked, you need to look at his kit. Ever since the item rework, the only time Varus has been good has been with the lethality poke build. Only recently has the on-hit build seen a resurgence and that’s mostly in pro play. Varus is one of the few ADCs that offers a form of engage, and he is completely dependent on hitting skill shots. But while Riot has tried to move him away from the noninteractive poke build, they have brought back a monster from season 6.
Is AP Varus Meta?
If you are still wondering why AP Varus is a good pick, you need to take a look at his patch history. For the past 12 months, Riot have done nothing but buff this champion. While trying to return him to the attack speed on-hit build, they have made him a one-shot machine.
The on-hit damage on his W ability has gone from 11 to 27 at max rank, through four consecutive buffs. But that’s not all. His passive, the ability power ratios on both his W and ultimate ability have all gone up. Maxing W on Varus now is the only logical way of playing him, but many players fail to realize that. Another thing they fail to realize is how effective these buffs turn out to be if you build Varus like a mage assassin.
Why AP Varus works?
Looking at this clip of AP Varus killing a full health tank with one combo probably has you confused. Well, Varus can do this to any champion in the game for a few reasons. Firstly, he has great base damage on both his ultimate and Q ability. His ultimate has a 100% AP scaling and if you have ever played AP Ashe you would know that hits like a truck. His Q ability has high base damage and scales with AD, but more importantly, it detonates his W stacks. This is what makes AP Varus so deadly. His W ability is made up of two parts, the passive and the active.
Varus W Ability explained
The passive does from 3 to 5% of the targets maximum health as magic damage per stack, and he can apply those stacks with his auto attacks and ultimate ability. AP Varus with two items does 30% of his target maximum health just with the W passive. The active part of his W ability empowers his Q ability to do more damage and detonate these stacks, while also doing up to 21% of the target’s missing health. Detonating these stacks can lower the cooldown on his non-ultimate abilities by 36% per target, so he can continue to dish out massive amounts of damage. With so much percentage of health damage, no champion can tank the entire combo of AP Varus, if it’s done right.
AP Varus Build and Runes
Ever since the durability update, bot laners have taken over the game. But in order to make AP Varus work, you need to be playing him in the mid-lane. Varus has a bad early game regardless of where you play him, and fighting against two players in bot makes it harder to win. You need the level advantage that solo experience gives you, and having a shorter lane on an immobile champion is quite nice. For the runes, there are two options you can go for.
AP Varus Runes
First Strike is your rune choice in the mid lane by far. Not only will you proc it regularly due to the absurd range AP Varus can hit from, but you also get a lot of help to scale safely. 9% extra damage that only gets bigger with more items, while getting paid for it is nice. But what’s better is the rest of the Inspiration tree. As AP Varus you can build Zhonya and still do tons of damage, so taking the free Stopwatch is never a bad idea. Otherwise, you can just go free Boots.
Underrated runes
Future’s Market is a must-have rune in the mid lane, as it helps you get your power spikes faster and helps your early game. You can choose any of the last three minor runes. Cosmic Insight gives you a lower cooldown on your Flash and Teleport. Ultimate Hunter is another must-have rune for AP Varus, as most of your damage relies on hitting your ultimate ability.
The Hail of Blades rune page is much better if you are facing multiple melee champions and tanks, or you want more laning power. You can easily do your combo before level six, and having Presence of Mind does help out a lot with the mana issue.
AP Varus Items and Buildpath
As for your items, you will be doing the same thing every single game. You will start the game by purchasing a Tear of the Goddess and completing Manamune as your first item. Building attack damage is necessary to make up for his bad early game and Manamune solves his mana issues so he doesn’t have to buy a mythic item from the start.
After that you will always buy Sorcerer shoes to further increase your damage and you most important item is Nashors Tooth. This item gives you an insane amount of ability power, 50% attack speed which has great synergy with Varus and helps him duel without using his ultimate ability due to the on-hit damage. After that, you can get your mythic item, which should be Riftmaker, as it gives him health, ominvamp, and even more true damage.
AP Varus Laning Guide
Like we said, if you want to play AP Varus, you must do it in the mid lane and always start in one of the brushes while charging your Q ability. With this, you start applying pressure and farming gold from your First Strike. At level two, you will always level up your W ability and try to do a fast combo while First Strike is active. Three auto attacks into W and Q to proc the massive damage and rune. After you get to level three, the combo is a lot easier to execute, since your E ability slows enemies and applies antiheal.
Recommended bans
Since Varus is immobile and squishy, make sure to play from range and ban the most annoying and mobile champions. Yasuo is a good perma ban since he can outplay, block everything and kill you very easily. Akali is another nightmare matchup, with Yone and Sylas being the remaining bad matchups.
How to combo on AP Varus
The key to being good at AP Varus is making sure you detonate at three stacks and your Q ability is fully charged. Doing a bad combo means that you lose around 70% of your innate damage, so be patient and precise. After using your ultimate ability on someone, don’t do your combo immediately. They will be rooted for two seconds, so take your time to charge your Q ability after using your W, and release it once there are three dots around your enemy. That means that the stacks are applied and you will do massive damage once detonated.
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