Mid Varus storms the Rift!

Riot·Jun 15, 2015·4 votes·107,966 views

The guilty will know agony. Varus is no stranger to the fissures of the Summoner's Rift, previously seeing competitive play down in the AD carry position. He isn't a regular pick, but don't write him off yet! Just because he’s meant to be a Marksman doesn’t mean you’ll always find him in the bottom lane.

High Damage, Low Mobility

No matter where he is, Varus brings tons of damage to the Rift with his immense ability to poke, thanks to his Piercing Arrow (Q). Blighted Quiver (W) applies additional magic damage and provides percent health shred, giving him the power to cut down enemy tanks. And that's not even mentioning Hail of Arrows (E), a triple threat that provides wave clear, heal reduction, and a slow. With the right team compositions, he provides a lot of utility as well as back line damage.

High damage and poke means that laning against Varus can be suffocating. But, his low mobility is a glaring weakness that enemy teams can exploit. Without escape mechanisms, the only way he can get away from a dangerous situation is through using Flash or by using his ultimate, Chain of Corruption (R). Because the corrupted Ionian warden is naturally squishy, eliminating him early in a fight also means that he will not be able to put down the damage he's expected to provide.

The 2015 Revival of Mid Lane Varus

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Recently, Varus has wandered away from the bottom lane to emerge as a viable pick for many pro mid laners. The Unicorns of Love's mid laner Tristan "PowerofEvil" Schrage showcased Varus in the EU LCS Spring Split Playoffs. Going 5/1/7 in the first Finals match against Fnatic, he showed the legions of League of Legends players worldwide that the Arrow of Retribution could be played quite successfully outside his intended role.

It's now a few weeks into the Summer Split and the teams in League Champions Korea (LCK) have wholly embraced Varus in the mid lane as well. CJ Entus, SKTelecom T1, the Jin Air Green Wings, and the KOO Tigers have all incorporated the Ionian archer into their team compositions.

It all started with Lee "Faker" Sang-hyuk in the Week 2 game against Najin e-mFire, where he was able to do more damage than Najin's entire team combined. Since then, Shin "CoCo" Jin-young of CJ Entus, the Jin Air Green Wings' Lee "GBM" Chang-suk, and the KOO Tigers' Lee "KurO" Seo-haeng have also pulled out the unfamiliar champion in the mid lane as a means to throw opponents off their game.

Synergy: It's Really Important

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Varus is strong -- but as showcased in the games below, the success of the pick often heavily depends on the synergy between him and other champions in the team composition. Four different teams chose mid Varus, and that means four different compositions were drafted. What worked and what fell short?

SKT T1's Team Composition:

MaRin - Nunu
T0M - Sejuani
Faker - Varus
Bang - Lucian
Wolf - Janna

SKT's double AD composition is bolstered by the steroids provided by Janna and Nunu, specifically with Blood Boil and Eye of the Storm. Two buffs and two AD dealers gives SKT the flexibility to split the buffs or to stack them onto a single champion. Sejuani provides a lock-up ult that synergizes well with Varus' Chain of Corruption, providing two forms of CC that is able to lock down the enemy team.

Jin Air Green Wings' Team Composition:

TrAce - Rumble
Chaser - Rek'Sai
GBM - Varus
Pilot - Vayne
Sweet - Alistar

Jin Air's composition lacks the steroids previously seen in the SKT composition, though we see another top lane AP damage source. Was it just coincidence? Jin Air didn't seem to reap the benefits of the mid lane pick, having no additional buffs and no reliable way to engage.

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CJ Entus' Team Composition:

Shy - Rumble
Ambition - Nunu
CoCo - Varus
Space - Sivir
MadLife - Janna

CJ Entus also picked an AP top laner to mitigate the lack of mid AP damage. Like SKT and unlike the Jin Air Green Wings, CJ was able to incorporate Nunu and Janna boosts for their two AD dealers. Sivir's ult enabled hard engage, coupling well with the Varus ult CC. Because the composition incorporated buffs, peel, and initiation, CJ Entus was able to use their picks successfully.

KOO Tigers' Team Composition:

Smeb - Riven
Wisdom - Gragas
Kur0 - Varus
PraY - Corki
GorillA - Karma

Kur0 actually saw success with the mid Varus pick in both his Week 4 games against the KT Rolsters, but the Game 2 team composition showcases champion picks that haven't commonly been seen in competitive play for quite some time. The interesting picks to note are Riven and Karma. Riven's Ki Burst (W) provides hard CC that can be used in conjunction with Chain of Corruption, while Karma fulfills AP damage, a root (W), and a team speed boost and shield with Defiance (Mantra'd E). Each champion chosen provided a certain complementary quality that helped Kur0, and Varus, shine.

The Item Build: What the Pros Chose

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Take a look at Faker, GBM, and CoCo's builds. Seeing triple? Aside from situational item picks for their respective games, each mid laner opted for four core items: Muramana, Last Whisper, Boots of Lucidity, and Youmuu's Ghostblade. The four items complement Varus' ability to shred targets and do so without running out of mana. Using the Youmuu's active means that he's able to make the most out of his %health shred. Boots of Lucidity? Even more cooldown reduction to poke enemies with.

With the exception of Faker -- who was too far ahead in the game to even think about building a defensive item -- the other two mid laners opted to build into a Hexdrinker, an item that provides magic resist and a protective shield.

No Turning Back Now

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It's much too early in the summer season to say that Varus will continue to be a contested pick. If the pro players' Solo Queue practice games are of any indication, however, he seems to be here to stay. What lies ahead for mid Varus? Whatever happens, it's clear that his work is not yet done.

152 Comments

RandomUsername12Jun 15, 201522 votes

Varus mid, coming to a solo queue near you!

EUNE HimymCZeJun 17, 20155 votes

RIP SoloQ

SukishooJun 15, 20159 votes

Now I wish people would STOP following this. Just cause the LCS does it, doesn't mean YOU can.

Why Liquid SoapJun 16, 20156 votes

I have seen kids in silver pull it off nice, you can play anything well as long as you practice it.

FluffehPoroJun 15, 20157 votes

Do you go ap or ad with him mid? I am kinda interested

PeacemakerJun 15, 20154 votes

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRKR1/640084?gameHash=5fd1dbb71ed75340&tab=builds&participant=3

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRKR1/640122?gameHash=6f624fa623fc1d73&tab=builds&participant=3

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/TRKR1/640116?gameHash=e7b7b9a399274223&tab=builds&participant=8

they linked these builds in article

Shroom JunkieJun 15, 20154 votes

I don't think anything but Varus's ult scales AP, so I assume AD.

TaredomJun 15, 20159 votes

His w does, which becomes substantial in the late game, sadly his early and mid games are lackluster when he goes the AP route.

ARKHAM KNIGHT OPJun 16, 20152 votes

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1854739374/216230139?tab=overview

now everyones gonna start playin varus mid -_- when i only play KENNEN & VARUS. ap scales fine with VARUS. i have builds on mobafire PROTEINBEAST AND BREAKTHEMETTA.

AP VARUS- Nashers Tooth, Blood Thirster, Runaans Hurricane BOW, Ludens Echo, Lich Bane, GUINSU RAGEBLADE if needed late into the game

w,q,e max q and w. w and ult scale well

FeedTheBearJun 16, 20156 votes

Why are you buying bloodthirster on ap Varus?

TaredomJun 16, 20157 votes

Not to mention a lack of ap, thats like 300 max, also no real mana sustain. Biggest fault i see is the lack of void staff.

What he's describing is like hybrid varus? Which sounds less than great.

ApplyForAGrantJun 17, 20151 votes

AD varus aka the Legolas. General items are Muramana -> CDR Boot -> Youmuus -> Last Whisper -> Bloodthirster and last item is situational. The build gives you the CDR and mana to throw out as many arrows as possible. The AD and armor penetration makes his arrows hurt real bad.

ExplosiveTurtleJun 21, 20151 votes

read the article?

Egg GongjuJun 15, 20156 votes

God I hate the pros so much. They think they are the first to do anything off-meta and be good at it. F Screw LCS Pro's. I was building Nashors/Rabs on Trist/Varus before they were. I'm sure others were too. Time to avoid League.

CAH EightseatJun 15, 201518 votes

Where did they ever say anything about Nashors or Rabs on Varus in this article?

Finding NàmiJun 16, 20151 votes

I think he means the pros aren't the chosen one by god and everything they did and created they weren't the first to do or create it they just worked hard to get pro then started using their position

PsyphearJun 16, 20151 votes

there is a difference between solo q and pro play. so pulling out varus mid in pro play is much bigger than the pleb taking varus mid with rab and nashor because he thinks its cool or good

HeKis4Jun 17, 20152 votes

Needless to say that pulling out a champ in team is nowhere like using it un soloQ. AD Varus needs a lot of peel, AP/AS Varus needs it even more due to the time spent stacking w and not doing instant damage like the AD build does.

Shipx7Jun 16, 20155 votes

You should make some exclusive "hipster skins" for champs like this that are played in situations like this. Give them for free to certain players who would do this before everyone else, before letting them be sold in the marketplace. Meant to be a sort of "I took mid Varus before it was cool".

4cd2SmurfJun 16, 20152 votes

Best idea. Although i doubt Riot with the dollar signs in their eyes will just give the skin away. No, at best the most we could hope for is a little icon with a fedora on it that symbolizes the "I took mid Varus before it was cool" hipster thing.

TheRealSherlockJun 17, 20151 votes

We need Talon skin..

OshGoshBoGoshJun 15, 20154 votes

I was so pleased to see C9 Incarnation tear it up today. I always loved his AD mids. Can we get a little Zed love this split?!

FreakyPigJun 15, 20154 votes

You're forgetting the kog'maw ap mid he made famous aswell.

RottedApplesJun 15, 20154 votes

all these noob lcs players. Don't they know you should build nashors tooth first?

Poseidon161Jun 15, 20156 votes

Those "noob lcs players" managed to snag a worlds victory, a LoL All-Star victory, and second place in the MSI.

RottedApplesJun 15, 20156 votes

do you not understand how obvious the sarcasm was? I was clearly kidding. It's so obvious

TheeInfectedJun 16, 20154 votes

you do understand it's impossible for someone to understand sarcasm through reading??? Sarcasm relies on facial expression's, body language or voice tone. its so obvious

whocares123Jun 16, 20156 votes

The funny part is that you used sarcasm in your argument, when you repeated "It's so obvious". But I do agree with you for the most part, although it's obviously not impossible to tell through reading, but it's more difficult and easier to mistake.

xFSN ArcherJun 16, 20157 votes

Actually, that's not true. In AP Lang we analyze for verbal irony (aka sarcasm) in the texts we read. There are multiple types of verbal irony, of which are understatement and overstatement. By saying that all the LCS players are noobs, you can tell that he is undermining the skill of the top players in LoL. The word "all" is key here in understanding his verbal irony (aka sarcasm) because it shows his understatement of saying that the LCS players are building poorly.

HQTankJun 22, 20151 votes

Good job,guys.From MID Varus Metta we are talking about the sarcasm...

FirebeardJun 15, 20154 votes

I am stoked! I am a Varus main going as far as to change my Summoner name to CrimsonBlight for his W and reflecting my ranked team CrinsonSociety ((despite being Bronze III, can it elitist "plat" douchebags, I don't care if you call me noob)) and as such, I am glad to see him being used. I tried him AP in the past with mixed success, and am fairly new to trying him AD mid with the different Manamune and cooldown boots, also with mixed success. I still wish I saw more people going ADC Varus too, but alas, it isn't to be. Everyone either calls him "Too ez and OP" or "Weak and just bad" which is also preposterous. I mean... He is the Nidalee of Adc's with his Q, offering tons of damage "nearly half health mid game against most squishy targets" but his Q is fairly east to dodge, and with no mobility, any champion can hardly be considered OP. any gap closer or stun wrecks his world. Sorry to anybody who might be reading this. I had a clear point for writing this comment in the beginning but it kinda broke down into a rant with no concrete thesis. Reply with whatever or don't, I don't really care. I look forward to seeing you on the rift! ~CrimsonBlight

Gilded BladeJun 15, 20153 votes

AD Varus mid? Those Vvortic M'chonics tho. These players deserve challenjo-...oh, wait.....

KöökieJun 16, 20153 votes

GENJA The Timelord Strikes Again....

L4RG3 LOCKETJun 15, 20152 votes

It's just op http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1857184814/47797267 Varus

Burrito BombsJun 15, 20151 votes

dude ap varus was the best, glad to see its back

Literal IRL TreeJun 15, 20155 votes

The Builds are ad MissFortune ly

The noob boobJun 16, 20151 votes

Ad Varus Varus is item 3042 + item 3035 + item 3071 + item 3031 item 3158 + item 3142 And the build is known as the snipes cause you work around your Q damage or the Arrow that's shot because it has such a high AD Ratio so you just pop them with armor pen items

Zair UmbrasJun 16, 20154 votes

Except Cleaver doesn't help at all in that situation since when you Q, you only apply 1 stack and it applies AFTER the damage is dealt. Cleaver is a good item for him if you need the tankiness, but you're already at 30% CDR with just boots and Ghostblade, you're going into 50%, which is 10% over the cap for CDR. o.o The old Cleaver worked well for that build. 40% CDR, an extra 10 ArP, and more sustained damage, but the new one is iffy at best on him.

Gr8umbreonJun 16, 20152 votes

The Cleaver could be used with the basic attacks reduce the armor by 30% then with Varus having the max stack of W on the target, His Q will hit even harder. Jinx would be crying so much because she would want to be able to do the same. In some cases Varus may be able to do close to 1k dmg with a single Q without it being a crit.

Zair UmbrasJun 16, 20154 votes

Varus currently is used similarly to Nidalee where he's more of a Seige and Poke champ, which is why they're having him at mid rather than bot lane.

Plus, you already have 39% ignore and 20 flat. Standard carry has 9 from runes, and since we mention Jinx, we'll use her base armor at max! That's 82.4, which is 91.4 in total. That's 39% ignored, which is 55.754, minus 20 is 35.754, divide it by 135.754 (Formula for Mr and Armor is Armor/MR divided by 100+Armor/MR respectively.). That's about 26.33% reduced damage. With a cleaver, you reduce the base by 30%, which is 63.98, then the 39%, which is ~39.03, minus 20, that's 19.03. Formula again gives us about 16% reduced damage. That means a Cleaver gives you 10% of your base damage more. You have to hit an enemy 6 fricken times to ONLY get a 10% damage boost against a squishy. Saying Jinx would be crying is silly since she'd be dead in 2 Q's regardless of a cleaver.

Cleaver would be fine against a tank, but on Varus when you have CDR boots and Ghostblade, you have 30% CDR and your Q is going to hit for chunks. You could easily get a BT for proper sustain and more damage without wasting 10% CDR and being incapable of stacking that passive properly. Varus without AS can't really stack a Cleaver well. Better off letting your bruisers use the Cleaver.

HeKis4Jun 17, 20151 votes

That makes sense, you always try to stack the w two or three times before Q-ing. Not saying that this is optimal, but it makes sense.

Zair UmbrasJun 17, 20151 votes

The current Varus at mid, doesn't oftenly get near his opponents early on. He's more played like Nidalee where he pokes for ungodly amounts. He's a great Sieger and can do a lot of scary damage with a Ghostblade active and the Muramana when his targets try to get close. Cleaver would be good against the tanks, but as I showed the math up above, at max level, a squishy carry with 30% reduced armor with the 39% ignore and 20 ArP already only gives about 10% boosted damage. It'd give more against a tank, but you're running Varus for his poking ability, AoE CC, and such, not so much for his DPS since without AS, even with the Ghostblade, he doesn't do much DPS. Pretty much all burst.

SS4 KakarotJun 16, 20151 votes

Please for the love of god riot stop posting these on the front page of league. At the very least you could add a TLDR to the end that says "hey these guys are in lcs lck etc. etc. they are pros and have communication therefore can do whatever they want. HOWEVER all you bronze and silvers cannot because your solo queue team doesn't understand or know how to protect you properly nor do you really know how to mid varus very well in the first place." rito plz stop posting these Teemo ing awful ideas on the league menu because it just brings anger and pain into my solo q

FirebeardJun 17, 20152 votes

Rude? I'm a Bronze III Varus mid, transitioning into the mid lane isn't too hard, and usually works well for me. Anyone can try Varus mid, as it is still somewhat skill reliant. Anyone of any ELO can take Varus mid with varying personal success. Sure, it does work better in higher ELO's with more focus on team compositions and whatnot, but that far from means that people of the lower ELO's shouldnt try it. That is an elitist idea.

ThamosJun 17, 20152 votes

I think what he said specifically about bronze and silver players was elitist, however, he was going in the right direction before that. These posts should recognize that solo queue (regardless of if you're bronze 5 or challenger) and ranked 5s in the LCS are completely different. Many LCS teams run champion picks and builds that are tailored around very specific team comps. In solo queue, people should really avoid playing varus mid every game if they want to have a consistently solid team comp as he is a rather gimmicky pick. If you want to main him, go ahead, but you'll never fit into as many teams as an annie mid main.

The reason he doesn't fit into comps all that well is because he's an AD mid and unlike the other AD mid laners that are viable, he doesn't have good split pushing. Xerath works very similar to him, except Xerath is AP so he fits better into most teams.

Don't get me wrong though. If you have a sejuani jungle and a rumble top, Varus mid could work quite well. Just be careful with what comp you throw him into as a mid laner.

Again, feel free to main whatever you want, but just understand that there are many other champions with similar play styles that are simply more viable because they fit better into more team comps. I think that's ultimately the point Beaverchief was trying to make, up until he made the low elo comment.

AclletJun 21, 20151 votes

AD VARUS MID Storms the Rift with Clairvoyance Varus item 3004 and a lot of SNIPES :D

Road to ŹionJun 21, 20151 votes

summoner 13

RasmutantJun 22, 20151 votes

when varus can out poke stuff like corki and tf i dont think his q needs to start counting the cooldown when he still charging tha q, you feel me? like why is i that corki missles do barely any damage but varus q op? not to mention an ammo component. varus aint balaced in my onion.