Talk:Vel'Koz/@comment-24496127-20160915012125/@comment-30641829-20170715114720

As somebody who mains Vel'Koz since he came out, I can give you (and others reading this) a few pointers:

Probably the most important thing to know, is that Vel'Koz is all about proccing his passive. This means that comboing your abilties on Vel'Koz is very important if you want to be successful on him. Never try to poke an enemy champion in lane if you cannot get the three passive stacks, since you are basically wasting mana (of course, you can use your Q or W to build up stacks on the enemy champion, forcing them to leave your minions alone until the stacks wear off).

The second thing that is important, is that Vel'Koz has 5 skillshots: 2 on his Q and 1 on his W, E and R. This makes it harder for Vel'Koz to hit his abilities, but it does give him the opportunity to heavily punish predictable movement by enemy champions. Many assassins like Yasuo (who is a fighter, I know), Fizz, Zed, LeBlanc and Ahri have predictable movement, despite having dashes. All except Ahri also need to be in melee range in order to farm minions, which a Vel'Koz can punish very heavily.

The third and last general important detail to know, is that Vel'Koz has very poor AP scaling (except for his R since his rework), but very high base damages and low mana costs. This makes Vel'Koz incredibly dangerous in lane (especially early on), because hitting a single combo (Q+W or E+W) will take half of the opponents health away without having any AP. Using this at level 3 (Q+E+W) will force your opponent to play carefully or chunk through their potions.

The individual abilities are already discusse in the strategy section, but to quickly give my own advice:

Q: Most likely his most important ability and practically always the ability I max first in lane. The base damage is incredibly high, it has the highest AP scaling of his basic abilities, has a low (but static) cooldown of 7 seconds, has a low mana cost and has an incredibly powerful slow of 70% for 2.6 seconds at rank 5. Vel'Koz's Q is very versatile due to its splitting behavior, allowing one to hit opponents (champions or minions) behind enemy minions. Its range is also very high if used correctly, basically outranging all abilities you will encounter in the mid lane (except for Xerath Q). Vel'Koz's Q also refunds mana if it kills a target, making it very useful for last hitting minions, especially if these minions already have two passive stacks. (Note that lasthitting three minions will actually give you more mana back than the cost.) I also start with maxing Q in lane, because you can start experimenting at level 1 on how your opponent tries to dodge your Q's. After a couple, you will notice a pattern, which will come in handy when you reach level 3 (Q+E+W combo) and level 6 (Q+E+W+R combo). Also note that his Q is a very powerful kiting ability and its missile speed also makes it useful in catching up to enemy champions.

W: Vel'Koz's W is simply a tool to get passive stacks on enemies very quickly. I usually max it second, simply because the cooldown is lower than E and also because you use it more often. Vel'Koz's W is quite useful in farming minions, since it goes in a straight line and is basically guaranteed to put two passive stacks on all minions. Simply following up with a Q kills the three brawler minions in front, making the whole combo only cost 30 mana at level 2. The damage of Vel'Koz's W is unreliable if used against enemy champions without proper CC first. I therefore never use W on enemy champions unless it is to last hit minions while poking. It is much better to use your W right after you use your Q or E on an enemy champion (I always use W after using E, no matter if it's going to hit or not).

E: Vel'Koz's E is the only hard CC that Vel'Koz has and should never be used for poking unless a W will follow. Its extremely long cooldown, low AP ratio, lowest base damage of all abilities and the only ability with hard CC, makes this ability something that should only be used if necessary. Vel'Koz's E can be pretty hard to land, especially on short range due to it always taking half a second to land, regardless of distance. E is best used to kill enemy caster minions after they have been hit by a W, or on an enemy champion while being slowed by Vel'Koz Q. Note that hitting your E almost guarantees that both W damage procs will hit the enemy champion if W is used immediately after E.

R: Arguably one of the most damaging abilities in the game (I still cannot believe Riot released this ability in this state, especially after rework), while still being semi-reliable (unlike Nunu R for example). Vel'Koz's R deals a ton of damage in a straight line, while also slowing enemy champions (something many players don't know). Although it may look like researching enemy champions is mandatory before using R since his rework, this is actually not really true. Doing some math will reveal that using Q+R (which is a really good combo) will always deal more damage post-rework after reaching something like 200 AP, regardless of channel time. Vel'Koz's R can, if used correctly, completely obliterate the enemy team and score you an easy triple kill 2 seconds after the teamfight started. In late game, a good Vel'Koz R can easily deal 2.5k true damage to the whole enemy team (not counting any abilities used to research enemy champions), guaranteeing winning the teamfight. Something a Vel'Koz player needs to keep in mind, is how long the range is on his R. It outranges every ability that cannot be targeted using the mini-map, and it cannot be blocked by any means. The right time to use R comes with experience, but usually it can be used when the enemy team is too busy with your allies, they are CCed by your Q or E or you are too far away/out of vision for them to reach you in time. There are only a few champions that willingly stand in your ult, and even fewer that will survive it. Irelia is no problem at all as long as you used Q or E on her before using R. She will never get to you unless you were too close to her to begin with.

To sum it all up:

Vel'Koz is a champion with insanely high damage, but only if played correctly. Comboing your abilities is the key to success. Vel'Koz has no movement abilities in any way (which is why I always take Flash and Ghost), and therefore positioning is also very important. I always use a slight variation of Zed's quote for Vel'Koz: "The unseen Vel'Koz is the deadliest.". As long as the enemy team cannot reach you, you are safe and can dish out huge amounts of magic and true damage at long range.

For building: I usually focus on building as much AP and CDR as possible. Since his rework, AP is a bit more mandatory than before. MPen is not as important as it is on other champions, due to his massive amounts of true damage. I highly recommend building a Morellonomicon (for AP, CDR, Mana, Grievous Wounds and Mana Regen when getting a kill or assist) and Luden's Echo (turning Vel'Koz's Q into a long range poke ability that can drain half the opponents health with a single hit). Rabadon's Deathcap is not really important, and should be bought 5th or 6th (unless extremely fed). Void Staff can be bought if the enemy team has a really massive tank, but is not required. Rylai's Crystal Scepter used to be a very good item on him due to the 40% slow on ult and passive, but is not a good item anymore. Liandry's Torment is very helpful, since enemies in Vel'Koz's R are slowed and thus take double damage from the passive. Since Banshee's Veil rework, it is also a very good item on Vel'Koz by giving AP, MR (for surviving midlane), CDR and a nice spellshield.