Talk:Varus/@comment-25532677-20150210173235/@comment-8919271-20150211081924

Well theorycrafted (by which I mean not building stupid items like Morello's or Athene's or ROA or whatever, because they're just not effective) AP build has significantly bigger damage than AD Varus if we're talking about actual DPS, not poke, while also having way more burst and semi-AoE from ult. AP obviously has access to items such as Zhonya's etc should you need them, while lacking any form of sustain because spellvamp doesn't work with Blight. Hybrid  neither has the huge poke/aoe of AD Varus nor the burst/huge ult of AP Varus, so it's not really a good idea. It's kind of like Ezreal - you can build him AP for huge burst, you can build him AD, but mixing the two doesn't really work out. AD Varus is also way stronger in lane and not that skillshot reliant, like other ADCs; you can miss everything and you'll still do 'something' - not very effective something, but it's something nonetheless. Also, once people accustom to your playing patterns AP build is slightly more predictable than AD, you're usually going to slightly overextend in order to apply stacks in effective manner, so you could be caught by something like Riven or a good Yasuo; you don't have the option to sit back and spam Q because it doesn't do anything; you could always rely on 'just' hitting ult into 3-5 of them, but unless you're dealing half of someone's HP with ult alone (which would make the game basically won already, it only really happens if you win your lane) it's not the optimal playstyle. I mean, ulting is better than doing nothing, but I'd very much prefer to try and risk getting in some stacks in beforehand.

I'm saying this from the point of view of someone who has mained AP Varus since late 2012, and peaked diamond last season, plat 3 in current one.