Boards›Gameplay

Varus deserves a rework.

Hayaishi2··28 votes·1,784 views

Why? Even though Varus is a good hero and in a decent place right now, after the changes to his Q he is no longer unique.

Before he could be played as a sniper/poke champion , which was probably the era in which he was at his peak when it comes to usefulness and power. With lethality nerfs and his Q changes the whole poke utility sniper role simply disappeared.

That role was the only unique thing he had. Very few heroes play like that, only Xerath comes close, not even Jayce can fill the role well. Now, even if he's decent with the attack speed build he is not different to other AD carries and will probably be outperformed if he is left in this role. Varus is not a good auto attacker relatively speaking he lacks the necessary steroids to compete in that role, this was because of his superior abilities and utility, but his bread and and butter ability piercing arrow is really lackluster; when i look at his kit i don't think "damn i should definitely pick him up for his superior DPS" He no longer excels at anything.

His Q was the thing that held pretty much 70% of his powerbudget. Varus is simply not fun anymore. So if the poke, Q spam playstyle that made him stand out is not coming back because it was deemed unhealthy then he should be reworked so he stands out a bit more. He's always been my favorite champion so please Riot making him unique again.

63 Comments

PePsiLemoNN22 votes

People asking for reworks for VARUS meanwhile stat check champs like MasterYi Kayle Tryndamere

undesirable team3 votes

{quoted}

People asking for reworks for VARUS meanwhile stat check champs like MasterYi Kayle Tryndamere

u forgot item 3504

HalcyonDweller3 votes

There is nothing wrong with wanting something to be improved/fixed.

It's possible for multiple things to need reworks at the same time.

You shouldn't mock people just for having a different priority than you as to what should be reworked.

Ozzie Storm21 votes

Varus is a good HERO

http://i.imgur.com/m34thZq.jpg[IMG]

Deneviel3 votes

Well lore whise he is in the Darkin universe now ... so some minor skill tweak, with a lore change and some VGU would be cool indeed

Sun Wu Ryuumoku3 votes

Was more fun to play when he was an AD caster. Riot need to bring him back... And add some Darkin quote.

KONO RUBICK DA2 votes

varus is picked a lot in competition

he's not a soloq pick, his E is why people in high elo pick him, he's the only champion that can reliably counter healing at level 1

Imperial Japan2 votes

He's a utility ADC similar to Ashe now. Also nidalee q is comparable. Anyways, I think he's perfectly fine. Part of his playstyle is for him to stack his passive and proc it. Also he does have a budget Jinx passive

AmazoX1 votes

{quoted}

He's a utility ADC similar to Ashe now. Also nidalee q is comparable. Anyways, I think he's perfectly fine. Part of his playstyle is for him to stack his passive and proc it. Also he does have a budget Jinx passive

Except ashe is much better lol

Imperial Japan1 votes

Except varus ult has a lot more potential and easily zones the entire enemy team

HalcyonDweller2 votes

I don't get why people seem to think Varus isn't unique. His whole kit revolves around stacking Blight and then proc-ing it with Q and E. It's very cohesive and fun to use.

If you're only using him for his Q then you're only using 1/4 of his kit. Just because lots of people used him only for his Q does not mean that he should be reworked into more of a one-trick pony.

Hayaishi23 votes

{quoted}

I don't get why people seem to think Varus isn't unique. His whole kit revolves around stacking Blight and then proc-ing it with Q and E. It's very cohesive and fun to use.

If you're only using him for his Q then you're only using 1/4 of his kit. Just because lots of people used him only for his Q does not mean that he should be reworked into more of a one-trick pony.

The whole stacking blight playstyle is really lackluster. As an autoattacker he'll always be outperformed by Draven, Vayne Twitch etc because his steroid is weaker. He has weak steroids because of his abilities. His abilities are lackluster right now except for his ult.

Using stacks to increase damage is not unique to Varus, detonating them with abilities is but it doesn't make him stand out.

With his poke build he was unique, no other marksman competed with him in that role, not even Jhin that made him different.

Now he is another autoattacker that gets outscaled by the other autoattackers that are meant to fill that role.

His Q is the ability that makes him stand out. Right now it does modarate damage with a huge cooldown and mana cost unless you proc a blightstack nothing else in his kit is amazing except for his ultimate.

So if his Q spam playstyle is not something Riot wants from he should be reworked to fulfill a unique role.

HalcyonDweller2 votes

Few (if any) other marksmen rely on stacking mechanics that are procced by abilities. It's a really high moment when an enemy escapes a fight but has blight stacks on them and you land a max range Q for the kill.

IMO all he needs is a shifting of his power budget. His kit works quite well mechanically / synergistic-ally speaking. It's just got too much of its power tied up in the wrong places.

Maybe blight should be moved to his passive and he should be given a new W. Aside from that I think his problems are just misplaced power budget.

EDIT: I've been inspired by your ideas and decided to make a post suggesting a variety of ideas to improve Varus. Link here:

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/L75woVuR-i-wish-varus-was-more-complex-interesting-to-play-here-are-a-variety-of-ideas-to-accomplish-that

KoKoboto1 votes

I love playing AP Varus for this reason but I feel it can be done better. Technically a lot of champions play like this already, stringing auto attacks between spell casts, so it's not that unique.

I'd love if we saw more corruption from him, like maybe his E corrupts more or something idk. Just more spreading stuff like how his ultimate works.

HalcyonDweller1 votes

That's a great idea :) I thought of something similar just recently and it is included in a post I created for discussing ideas for Varus tweaks and reworks. If you like, check it out at the link below. Please feel free to jump into the discussion as well!

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/L75woVuR-i-wish-varus-was-more-complex-interesting-to-play-here-are-a-variety-of-ideas-to-accomplish-that

Teridax682 votes

What about:

E - Hail of Arrows: Varus covers the target area in blight, revealing it for the duration and slowing enemies inside. During this time, Varus can attack any target within the blight regardless of how far he is from them. At the end of the duration or upon reactivation, the blight consumes itself, damaging all enemies within.

The idea here being to reinforce Varus's identity as an artillery marksman, by allowing him to shoot targets from long distances. He could probably use some other adjustments (his W could be his innate, and he could have a new active), but this could allow to use his Blight mechanic from afar with correct placement (the damage at the end means he could shoot an enemy a few times, then consume the area to detonate the stacks). I agree that it's not fun for Varus to have a large part of his power budget get placed into his Q, then have that get nerfed because of gameplay health reasons, and I also agree that he should still be one of the premier long-ranged marksmen in the game. With an effect like this, he could amp up his range situationally, and retain an edge over other marksmen without necessarily having to compete in terms of raw DPS.

Sexy Jack Rabbit2 votes

They didn't make him "Un-Unique" they made it so that you had to use the rest of his kit.

Varus being an unbridled "Q-Bot" fucking sucked. Even Xerath pressed more buttons.

Hayaishi21 votes

{quoted}

They didn't make him "Un-Unique" they made it so that you had to use the rest of his kit.

Varus being an unbridled "Q-Bot" fucking sucked. Even Xerath pressed more buttons.

Yes they did, maybe not on purpose but nerfing that playstyle made him play like most ADCs do and he is not good at it.

Varus is essentially a caster like Lucian, Jhin and Ezreal. Caster Marksmen are focused around their abilities , though their own abilities usually boost their DPS as is the case of Lucian and Ez with their passives, they are still focused around abilities. Varus isn't anymore, he's more focused around stacking blight which pretty much ignores part of his caster kit.

Yes he still needs to proc his W with abilities but the only reason you use your abilities is to proc W, not because they are strong on their own. Evidenced by how his E which is his weakest ability damage wise is now being maxed first instead of Q his actual damage ability because you only care about detonating blight and E makes it easy.

Piercing Arrow his supposed bread and butter, is weak outside proccing blight stacks from distance. If the ability is now meant to be a finisher instead of an harassing tool why doesn't it have bonuses like % damage based on missing health upon detonating blightstacks? Just a thought.

His E is weak damage wise but the aoe slow and grievous wounds are nice i guess. It's now maxed first because is easy to hit.

My point is that when they nerfed the poke playstyle their priority was to get rid of an obnoxious playstyle regardless of how it affected Varus. Varus is not necessarily bad at the moment that is not what i'm trying to discuss, it's more about how his current playstyle doesn't feel like it takes advantage of his whole kit. Which is why i believe he needs a rework.

Rotonaro1 votes

Varus is not a good auto attacker relatively speaking he lacks the necessary steroids to compete in that role

I do agree that caster Varus was a bit stronger but no steroids? 40% (+ 50% bonus attack speed) bonus attack speed for 5 seconds upon scoring champion kills or assists, reduced to 20% (+ 25% bonus attack speed) bonus attack speed on minion or monster kills. You'll be scoring an assist in a teamfight atleast once to activate your passive.

hhaavviikk1 votes

{quoted}

I do agree that caster Varus was a bit stronger but no steroids? 40% (+ 50% bonus attack speed) bonus attack speed for 5 seconds upon scoring champion kills or assists, reduced to 20% (+ 25% bonus attack speed) bonus attack speed on minion or monster kills. You'll be scoring an assist in a teamfight atleast once to activate your passive.

but that's the problem you have to get a kill or assist first, by the time that happened the teamfight is well underway and the AS boost acts more so as a snowball tool

Imperial Japan2 votes

Well that's how Jinx plays. Should she be changed too?

Jet Sett5 votes

Jinx has longer range and more readily available utility than Varus though.

Imperial Japan2 votes

Varus has better poke and has a readily available grevious wound. Plus his ult is better times 10. As for utility, varus ult is much better than Jinx e and Jinx e is still on a fairly high cooldown anyways

SpecterVonBaren4 votes

Except Jinx has access to a steroid even without that extra boost.

Imperial Japan1 votes

Varus gets extra attack speed with passive?

Edit; minions proc it too I believe

SpecterVonBaren1 votes

Yes, but instead of having to kill an enemy he just needs to proc his passive.

Imperial Japan1 votes

...Yes but all you have to do is kill a minion. A single minion

SpecterVonBaren1 votes

Which is terrible. Having his one, ONE, steroid be attached to either farming before a fight breaks out or for you to already be winning a fight is bad. Compare it with other marksmen who can have multiple steroids that have no requirement other than pressing a key and it's even worse.

OyddAWqJ5r3 votes

Hers is movement speed. Her damage isn't gated by needing a kill.

Imperial Japan1 votes

Hers is also attack speed. Not sure if you've played Jinx but her passive gives both movespeed and attack speed gated by getting a kill. Also I think Varus' attack speed is more readily accessable due to only having to need to kill a single minion

OyddAWqJ5r1 votes

Ah that's right forgot they added that to Jinx awhile back. Back when I tried her that didn't exist.

Imperial Japan1 votes

okay

HalcyonDweller1 votes

Good think there are minions readily available near every teamfight....

Imperial Japan1 votes

That's the thing, you're supposed to use your brain and play around the map accordingly to how you want the teamfight to play out

HalcyonDweller1 votes

Alright, I deserved that for my glib response. And I'm sorry for being a dick. But I stand by the core point I made. It's far too conditional for a passive.

Modern champions have passives that interact much more fluidly with their kit. Blight is precisely that for Varus, it's the identity that ties the champion together. I think it would be much more appropriate both thematically and mechanically for Varus to have the Blight passive from W be moved to his passive.

He could still get an attack speed steroid of some kind if people feel that is necessary:

  • maybe it should stack up with the number of blight stacks he has applied, much like Darius' movement speed with his bleed stacks.
  • or maybe it should trigger when he manages to proc blight on a fully stacked target.
Imperial Japan1 votes

Sounds fair enough

IxtaliKing1 votes

Maybe his W could get an active of some kind

Imperial Japan1 votes

You proc it with q and e - ult stacks of instantly

IxtaliKing1 votes

I know, but those stacks from W are passive. I was thinking maybe having an active component on W could improve him

HalcyonDweller1 votes

Indeed! I've proposed something like that in the post linked below. If you feel like adding to a discussion about that in particular please feel free to join in!

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/L75woVuR-i-wish-varus-was-more-complex-interesting-to-play-here-are-a-variety-of-ideas-to-accomplish-that

Charga1 votes

Varus is one of the only ADCs that are actually unique rather than being generic right clicking monsters. I don't think he needs a rework just because he isn't at the top right now.

Hayaishi22 votes

{quoted}

Varus is one of the only ADCs that are actually unique rather than being generic right clicking monsters. I don't think he needs a rework just because he isn't at the top right now.

The rework is not because he isn't at the top. Did you even read?

He is not unique, he is outperformed by dedicated auto attackers because he was never balanced as one.

KoKoboto1 votes

https://image.prntscr.com/image/5-_Cv8y1QG_XeUmJOja12Q.png

People don't like poke champions which sucks because often they got clear counter play (divers, assassins, sustain), however due to the recent metas where ADCs pretty much tear up everything other play styles aren't as viable.

I do agree with you. Varus could really use a rework.

iLBGAMing2 votes

That's why you learn to dodge tho

KoKoboto1 votes

Exactly. People just like to complain though when there is clear counter play. It's like how people complain about Zed and how people think champions like Orianna, Ahri, Taliyah, aren't that good.

Ok sure but why1 votes

I literally made a post saying he needs a rework in the past and got 15 downvotes instead lmao ok

iLBGAMing2 votes

Damn lol

weasley0091 votes

Varus is fun as hell mate. To me, Varus was never defined by the Q, but rather his W. If you play around his W mechanic, Varus can easily 1v1 most adcs and champs.

Hayaishi21 votes

bump

Craig1 votes

He's so weird to play, dude had an actual identity when you could play him as a ranged sniper

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by Hayaishi2

It's amazing how different this game used to be in S3
Gameplay208 comments
133
votes
I think League has lost its main selling point.
Gameplay95 comments
120
votes
I love how instead of nerfing Vayne
Gameplay80 comments
79
votes
Damage is so high
Gameplay17 comments
78
votes
Anybody else finds Poppy to be WAAAAY too tanky once she completes sunfire?
Gameplay150 comments
62
votes
Kaisa's build path and scaling needs to be revised.
Gameplay33 comments
36
votes