Talk:Varus/@comment-199.27.76.23-20130210123507

So many ap Varus builds on this site and no one gets even a single defensive item. A 575 range mage without defense is just asking to die.

Also Varus does a lot of %health damage that scales very well, so you should stack ap and penetration, instead of tons of attack speed.

Sorcerer's Shoes, Rabadon's Deathcap, Runaan's Hurricane, Void Staff should be core imho. This leaves one slot for a defensive item (must-have, you cretins!) and one for more damage/sustain.

Please don't get Guinsoo's Rageblade, it is strong early to mid game, but it falls off hard, because you won't have enough item slots to build armor penetration. If you want some sustain, you should rather get Hextech Gunblade. It has the same problem of falling off as Guinsoo's Rageblade, but the sustain it provides is way more reliable and it also gives him one way to peel for himself (the active also works with spell vamp).

Nashor's Tooth is a very strong item, but if you go for it, you can't farm the jungle late game without losing hp. Since it grants cooldown reduction, it is better for sustained fights, but without life steal, Varus gets easily zoned out of those. The opportunity cost is too high imho, so I prefer the lackluster Hextech Gunblade for sustained fights.

That's also my main gripe about AP Varus. Sure, he deals tremendous (pretty op actually) damage, but he has no synergy with life steal or spell vamp. If you burst him low in a team fight, he can't life steal his way back into the fight like ad carries and he can't rely on his long range abilities like regular mages either, because they all scale with ad and thus do crap damage as ap.

If you want full out burst, you can't go wrong with Lichbane, though. That's the item, you want to get, if you just want to 'unload', die and let your team win the fight.

Never play ap varus, if your team doesn't have aoe hard cc initiation. Ad Varus can initiate with his ult, ap Varus however should not do this, because he loses one opportunity to ignite his Blighted Quiver stacks!

However, if your team rocks Malphite, Amumu, Sejuani, Ashe, Annie (unlikely if you are the ap), Galio, Jarman, Wukong, Leona, Hecarim or Kennen, go ahead and melt faces as follow up to their initiations.