Vayne/Strategy

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Skill usage

• For best burst damage try combining the third hit from Silver Bolts and the bonus damage from Tumble in the same attack.
  • If you are afraid of retaliation against your harassment try this combo, auto attack > Tumble > auto attack > Condemn.
• Tumble can be used to dodge skillshot abilities. Tumble is also effective at dodging delayed damage abilities like Rupture or Pillar of Flame.
• If you're fighting near an allied turret, try to Tumble behind the opponent and then Condemn them into your turret's range. Same can be done to push an enemy towards your team.
• Don't forget that Night Hunter only works facing the enemy and with that combined with your ultimate makes it very hard for the enemy to escape you.
  • Activating Final Hour to triple the bonus movement speed from Night Hunter is an effective way to catch escaping enemies.
  • Don't overestimate Vayne's mobility. Night Hunter's bonus movespeed gives you no bonus while running away from enemies, and Tumble doesn't go on cooldown until you actually attack an enemy which essentially adds 6 seconds of cooldown that you can't reduce with cooldown reduction when you are using it to run away.
• Tumble cannot cross several wall terrains (though it can cross Cataclysm).
• Tumble's extra damage only activates upon attacking enemy units, not structures. But the buff from Final Hour allows Vayne to quickly dispatch towers and inhibitors.
• You can escape in the midst of a battle by using Final Hour and Tumble to stealth and confuse the enemy. It is recommended to change direction than the one you where running in or to chose a alternate route.
  • It is recommended to bring the Summoner spells Ghost and/or Flash as she has no method of escaping other than using Final Hour in conjunction with Tumble stealthing for only 1.5 seconds. Her Tumble does not tumble very far. She does not gain bonus movement speed from moving away from the other enemy champions. These two summoner spells can also help with chasing enemies as well. Since she is squishy, it is highly recommended to use those.
  • One of the above can be substituted for Cleanse. If you are stunned or are focused down with Crowd Control like Exhaust you can escape without taking as much damage as you would have and may even be able to come back in and position yourself again in the teamfight so that you won't get focused.
• Condemn will stun the target if it hits a terrain, a turret, an inhibitor, or a nexus, but will NOT stun with Cataclysm or Crystallize.

Build usage

• Adding Sheen or Trinity Force can add some significant burst to Tumble.
  • Vayne has zero abilities which scale with AP, so consider this fact when deciding what order to buy items in.
• Purchasing Cloak and Dagger is a good idea when facing teams with heavy array of crowd control abilities.
  • Cloak and Dagger benefits Silver Bolts with increased attack speed and Tumble with increased critical strike chance.
• Madred's Bloodrazor together with Silver Bolts can devastate her enemies, as both scale off of the target's maximum health.
• Buying Sword of the Divine is also viable, because it can work well with her Silver Bolts and Tumble combo.
  • Activate Sword of the Divine before attacking, so that you can gain the armor penetration and your attacks can not be dodged.
  • Her Silver Bolts' third attack and Sword of the Divine's passive (fourth attack) together, can produce a significant non-physical damage output.
• Due to Silver Bolts dealing true damage, Vayne does not need to purchase Last Whisper to deal with tanks, she only needs to buy more attack speed.
• Buying Boots of Swiftness combined with Zeal and Night Hunter might seem like overkill, but it allows Vayne to chase down even the slipperiest champions like Nidalee and Kassadin.
  • Note: Boots of Swiftness alone give her a total speed of 395, at which point the movement speed bonus from Night Hunter hits the diminishing returns boundary and you get only 35 bonus movement speed instead of 40.
  • Not exactly; the diminishing returns mark only affects percent movespeed increases, so you get 440 movement speed, but it greatly decreases the effectiveness of Zeal and Phantom Dancer.

Recommended builds

Regrowth Pendant Regrowth Pendant

Prospector's Blade Prospector's Blade

Countering

• Engaging Vayne in one-on-one combat is almost always a bad idea once she gets all three of her basic abilities, and engaging her at all requires you to be absolutely certain you'll be able to either get the kill or make her run away. If you begin the engagement and she starts to overwhelm you, you most likely will not be able to escape unless you can Flash over walls or have your own dash. Thus, you should never engage unless you are absolutely certain you can defeat her.
• Even at low health, Vayne can keep her distance from melee champs and tear their health down without much retaliation. As such, going toe-to-toe with her as a melee champion is a very bad idea, unless you have a champion like Olaf that can close the distance without getting knocked back and put out good damage, or Jax, who specializes in countering DPS champions with his Counter Strike. Even Olaf would have difficulty fighting her with her Silver Bolts doing true damage, and Jax is usually pretty squishy until later levels, so unless you can also inhibit her attack speed or completely overpower her, engaging her as a melee champ is not recommended.
• In most situations, Vayne should be the primary target in team fights. Her DPS is very powerful, even against tanks. She is also adept at escaping and avoiding damage, so coming in from behind with a gank is highly recommended.
• Malphite is one of the few hard counters for Vayne right now, as her damage relies heavily on her auto attack ( Silver Bolts) and her Tumble to help her avoid getting hit, so Malphite with his attack speed slow to counter her Silver Bolts, movement speed slow to counter Tumble, and intimidating damage output can be an effective force against her, particularly if he has some help (preferably good DPS).
• A champion with a suppression, self heal, and/or one that specializes in focusing on one enemy, like Warwick for example, can also be very effective in countering her. Infinite Duress can make it much easier to focus her in team fights, and as long as she has her Condemn off cooldown, he can even 1v1 her as long as he can heal quickly enough and keep her close.
• When playing a mage, getting off your own harass/combos when she tries to get hers off is mandatory. Allowing her to take shots at you and not retaliating will allow her to whittle you down and either force you to recall or be slain. A champion like Brand is a great laning counter to her, as he is specialized in taking down aggressive laners and can, with proper placement of skillshots, shut down an opponent while dealing great damage. Annie should always be prepared to stun and run, Swain to root, slow, and/or Torment, etc.
• Taking a Vision Ward with you or activating a Oracle's Elixir is useful against Vayne's Final Hour as her stealth will be useless.
• When building defensive items against Vayne, consider that utility will often be more useful than armor or health, as these won't decrease damage from silver bolts. As such, effects that slow attack speed, like Frozen Heart, Warden's Mail, and Randuin's Omen, or Thornmail's damage return on hit may be more effective. Note that, while Thornmail does not return Silver Bolts damage, it will still return damage for the other attack damage portion of it.

Champion spotlight

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