Varus/Strategy

Skill Usage

 * During early laning, it is best for to spec into either one of  or  for his preferred harassment.  makes last-hitting much easier and lets him outdamage most carries early on during autoattack exchanges, whereas  lets him snipe minions that would be hard to reach and is a superior harass from range. You should spec into  if you can reliably get away with going into autoattack range and  when you will likely be strongly zoned.
 * Using while channeling  will not interrupt the spell. You can use this to finish off escaping enemies.
 * During skirmishes, it's sometimes best to fire quickly, rather than charging it to full power - although the ability gains range and damage with charge time, he cannot autoattack as he does so and  will likely be sacrificing a greater DPS if he takes too long.
 * has a distinct sound effect and causes to change stance and slow down while charging it, making it easy to see coming. Try casting the ability from brush to keep the element of surprise.
 * gains more power and range the longer it is charged. However, the ability does not need to be channeled for the full duration in order to reach its maximum potential.
 * The range indicator for the ability will visibly expand once the ability begins to be channeled. Once the indicator stops growing, you will no longer gain any benefit for additional channel time.
 * Try to take advantage of very long range to snipe at enemy champions before a fight or as they're trying to flee.
 * can also very reliably steal buff camps with the ability. Most importantly, he can snipe the from behind its cove wall with it even if it has been pulled out to the river by the opposing team.
 * When aiming for greatest possible DPS, you should employ strict cadence and fire off an ability after each three autoattacks on an opponent in order to detonate the most  stacks.
 * Remember that stacks on the enemy will only detonate when  connects with one of his other abilities, and all of his abilities have moderately long cooldowns - if you use  and  to initiate a fight, you will be left without an ability to proc  stacks for a short while.
 * stacks will last for several seconds before expiring - if you have the chance, you can increase the efficiency of your large-scale attacking even more by hitting multiple targets sequentially and getting stacks on as many opponents as possible before detonating them all at once.
 * Since both skills scale with AD and are multi-target, can effectively farm large waves of minions instantly late game using only  and . He can be an effective pusher lategame if needs be.
 * is useful for helping you escape from or catch up to opponents due to the slow. It should also be noted that the healing debuff is very strong against champions that have heals such as.
 * has many uses - it can assist greatly in a gank by preventing the opposing team from fleeing, can cause massive disruption in a teamfight if it is allowed to spread, and can help ensure your own escape when on the run.
 * Remember that the disable from the ability is a snare, not a stun - ranged attackers and mages can still attack and use most abilities while they are caught. It can be much more effective to target any melee attackers instead, as they will be far more badly affected by the inability to move.

Build Usage

 * Due to late game farming potential with  and, he can very quickly charge up  stacks, making the item an even better fit than usual for him.
 * benefits more than most carries from : aside from the attack speed and critical strike which greatly increase his overall DPS, the large movement speed bonus it gives him helps to cover his lack of a solid escape ability.
 * Building a  can be a very useful item on Varus increasing the damage output on his  and  as well as standard auto-attacks.
 * is also a very good item as it decreases enemies armor, grants cooldown reduction and health.  is a better choice on most of the games though.
 * based items can increase Varus's DPS and give him some other stats to help him out:
 * passive additional magic damage can stack with and gives him some additional protection against sustained magic DPS.
 * gives a high amount of attack speed and applies Blight stacks on up to 3 enemies at once.
 * can be an unusual build choice for - while it's high price will interfere with other carry item purchases, he benefits well from all of its stats and passive effects. In particular,  procs can be consumed immediately after a  detonation, giving  impressive burst potential.
 * Despite primary role as an AD carry, an AP/AS hybrid can be a deceptively effective build in the correct circumstances. This style of play involves usage of the AP ratios on his  to deliver respectable autoattack damage and has formidable burst potential from  detonations and.
 * is one of AP core items - it grants him ability power and attack speed to make use of his, and cooldown reduction is crucial on him to proc detonations of  as often as possible. The on-hit magic damage passive of the  has been added to , further increasing Varus's damage output with auto-attacks with this item.
 * A can add considerable damage to his burst immediately following a detonation.
 * Applying all 3 stacks of and detonating them with  results in massive burst damage
 * If requires some additional multi-target damage output, he can choose to buy a  after some early ability power has been obtained to allow him to debuff several enemies with  at once.
 * active, Doom, can both synergize well with and enhance the health shred his provides him due to its damage being based on the target's maximum health and amplifying any damage the target takes against . Against a low-MR champion that has 3 stacks of, using  after applying  active can result in a spectacular and deadly burst of damage.
 * Building a  or a  can also be useful in an AP/hybrid build due to the build's normally distinct lack of any sustain being made up for by the lifesteal and spell vamp boosts both items provide.

Countering

 * Avoid being caught by . Spread out in teamfights to prevent it from spreading.
 * When Varus begins to charge, he will slow down and draw his bow back. He cannot perform any other action while in this stance, and his movement speed is reduced so take advantage of this time to juke his shot or close the distance on him.
 * Varus lacks the mobility that many other ADC bot laners have, which gives him a hard time avoiding skillshots and ganks.
 * This gives him a somewhat weak laning phase, but he quickly scales into a powerhouse late game, superior than most  ADCs.
 * Lane bullies such as Caitlyn, Nunu, Draven, Lulu, and Leona will give Varus a very harsh laning phase, aslong as they are able to consistently keep their distance, as his AA damage is superior in lane to almost any other champion
 * Mobile champions like Ezreal, Vayne, or Graves will be frustating to Varus as they can easyly sidestep ALL of his abilities.
 * Once Varus has used and, he won't be able to detonate  stacks for several seconds. It may be a good idea to engage him after you see him use those two abilities.
 * Being hit by reduces your champion's healing and regeneration, so use healing abilities after the debuff wears off.
 * Varus is severely countered by CC, even more so than other ADCs, due to his lack of reliable escape and mobility.
 * Draven, with his bouncing axes and AS steroid of his own is between the few ADCs who can match Varus AA damage at all stages of the game.
 * He however lacks the range of Varus and can be harrased by him.
 * Varus does not have any form of hard-CC, feel free to cast your channeled abilities while fighting him without fear of getting interrupted.
 * Varus lacks any escape while his is down. This makes him very vulnerable to jungler ganks.
 * Varus's only deals damage once on impact. When fighting Varus 1v1, don't be afraid of standing inside the Desecrated Ground unless the reduced healing/movement speed will significantly hurt your capabilities.
 * Watchout for when Varus fully charges it, especially if you have several stacks of  as you will recieve formidable damage.
 * Varus becomes more dangerous after he has scored a kill.
 * During laning phase wait for his bonus attack speed to for killing a minion wears off and quickly step in to harrass, do not engage if his bow is red as   and the attack speed allows him to overly outmatch any other autoattacking champions.
 * In teamfights it's easy for him to get a great attack speed bonus for scoring a kill or assist, in this case his bow is silver-purple, quickly avoid engament while this happens as Varus is one of the stronger champions lategame and with the large AS steroid he is even more destructive.