The State and Future of Varus (Gameplay, Healthiness, Theme, Reworks, Improvements, and more)

BLIGHTBRINGER··5 votes·3,815 views

#Introduction

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/1/16/Varus_OriginalSkin.jpg

Hi everyone, i'm Darkin Hybrid. I've been a Varus main for almost 4 years now, and i'm here today to discuss everything there is to Varus...

  • His Pros, Cons and the in-between
  • Possible things that can be taken out and added in
  • Potential ways to improve with minor/major changes
  • Potential ways to make Varus overall better with through a minor/major Rework
  • Possible directions for improvement/change that could be explored
  • Theme Appeal

#His Pros, Cons and the in-between

PROS

  • Mixed Damage
  • Crowd Control
  • Anti-Tank Marksman
  • Long Ranged Artillery Abilities

CONS

  • No Mobility
  • Really Squishy
  • Abilities have very high Mana Costs
  • Abilities have very high Cooldowns
  • Other Marksman carry potential is unmatchable against Varus
  • Complex kit scallings & unequal playstyle strengths
  • Delayed damage
  • Item dependant & Unreliable damage

###PRO: Mixed Damage

BASIC ATTACK BONUS - Varus has mixed damage available at his disposal, once he unlocks his (W - Blighted Quiver). Passively his Basic attacks deal additional Magic Damage equal to 7 - 21 (based on ability rank) that also has a +25% AP Ratio.

  • Personally I believe the reason why he deals additional On-Hit Magic Damage is for the sake of it making sense thematically that Blight should hurt somehow or have some sort of impact on the target.

  • It could of also been an attempt to create and suggest a full AP with Attack Speed playstyle. The problem with this playstyle is that without Blight Stacks his other abilities like his (Q - Piercing Arrow and his E - Hail of Arrows) on their own will have no noticeable damage for the following reasons; neither of them have an AP Ratio, Q damage is even reduced per unit that you hit, and E just doesn't scale well nor does it have a good AD scalling.

###PRO: Crowd Control

E: Hail of Arrows - Creates a zone for 4 seconds, applying a 25 - 45% Slow (based on ability rank) as well as Grievous Wounds.

  • The Utility on this ability isn't reliable for the following reasons; it takes a second to cast which is counted as part of the duration making this ability really just last 3 seconds, the zone is too small making the Slow and Grievous Wounds pointless because no one is going to stay in the zone long enough for the effect to even begin to take place.

R: Chain of Corruption - Roots the first target hit and others after a few seconds within range for a total of 2 seconds.

  • This ability is one of the biggest reasons why Varus is and always will be an abuse tool for LCS/Pro-Play if other better Marksman choices are picked or banned.

###PRO: Anti-Tank Marksman

% MAX HEALTH MAGIC DAMAGE: Varus' Basic attack applies a Blight stack for 6 seconds, stacking up to 3 stacks and abilities detonate Blight stacks to deal a total of (9 - 15% of targets Maximum Health, based on ability rank) as Magic Damage.

  • The fact that Varus is able to build AP and scale up his % Max Health isn't okay, because it allows him to one shot both squishies and tanks when at full AP build. This isn't something that is healthy to have or fair to play against, even if the downside to this is that he needs a lot of gold investment in expensive AP items that he can't scale well with at the start of the game.

  • After using all abilities to detonate Blight stacks, there's no other kind of interaction with Blight stacks anywhere else in his kit besides having to wait for the abilities to come back up again which have really long cooldowns.

###PRO: Long Ranged Artillery Abilities

Varus Varus

Q - Piercing Arrow = 925 - 1625 (BASED ON CHANNEL TIME) E - Hail of Arrows = 925 R - Chain of Corruption = 1075

  • I would say that Varus' Ability Target Range is quite big, but when you compare it to someone like other Artillery Marksman Abilities it's kind of meh (Jhin, Caitlyn). Even When Varus Q outranges, Caitlyn's Q he needs to charge it for 2 whole seconds for the full range, while he slows himself for 20% on top of it all, and a lot of the time if you were to go for a long range snipe you would find that enemies could just walk out of range quite easily due to this Slow.

  • On the other hand, I feel that even if this is Varus' iconic or main ability, it's given too much damage. It would be better to take some out and put it elsewhere like his E to have a more noticeable damage effect on enemies.

Caitlyn Caitlyn

Q - Piltover Peacemaker = 1250 R - Ace in the Hole = 2000 - 3000

Jhin Jhin

W - Deadly Flourish = 3000 R - Curtain Call = 3500

###CON: No Mobility

Movement Speed = 330

  • He is currently, the most immobile Marksman in the game alongside Kog'Maw (who's now the second most immobile Marksman due to getting a +5 Movement Speed Buff), because every other Marksman has either; a dash/jump, or a some sort of Movement Speed buff. I didn't include someone like Ashe for obvious reasons, she is able to deal with Mobility due to her consistent Passive Slow.

  • While Varus has 330 Movement Speed (not the lowest), the other Marksman have 325 Movement Speed and always seem to have an ability that gives them some form of mobility, or ways to deal against Mobility. Champions with 325 Movement Speed; Ashe Passive, Caitlyn E, Corki W, Ezreal E, Jinx Passive, Kalista Passive, Kindred Q, Miss Forturne W, Tristana W, Xayah W, R & E.

###CON: Really Squishy

https://i.imgur.com/NwomPoq.png

  • As you will see in the graph below, Varus' defensive stats such as Health, Health Regen are all below Average of any other regular Marksman making him not only the most Immobile Marksman, but also the most weakest/squishiest.

###CON: Abilities have very high Mana Costs

Q - Piercing Arrow costs 70 - 90 Mana, E - Hail of Arrows costs 80 Mana.

  • I actually like that Varus has high Mana costs, it prevents him from becoming someone like Caitlyn or Lux who consistently spam the same spell in laning phase, and it essentially forces you to put yourself in risk to apply a few Blight Stacks to make the most of the abilities power, so this con isn't really that bad for me but I thought I would mention it nonetheless.

###CON: Abilities have very high Cooldowns

Q - Piercing Arrow = 20 - 12 Seconds, W - Blighted Quiver (Active) = 40 Seconds, E - Hail of Arrows = 18 - 10 Seconds

  • I would be fine with the long Cooldowns if Varus wasn't so dependant on his abilities to be effective, but again it prevents him from being a crazy spamming artillery champion.

###CON: Other Marksman carry potential is unmatchable against Varus

  • This one is quite an obvious, but it was worth mentioning it. This is supposedly an additional drawback to playing Varus, he exchanges a portion of his potential damage for Utility/Artillery. It's also the reason why things like Critical Strike are not good on him as it is for other champions, the reason being that most other Marksman have an ability which can amplify the Crit damage (Draven Q) or have some other form of interaction with Crit (Xayah E).

###CON: Complex kit scallings & unequal playstyle strengths

  • Naturally AD favors Varus more in the early to mid game, where as his AP really favors him during late game once he has enough AP items.

###CON: Delayed damage

  • Because of Varus' unique playstyle as a Marksman (Blight Stack detonation playstyle, a caster and an on-hit champion), he always needs to auto attack someone atleast 2 - 3 times and then use an ability for his main damage source to take effect which makes his damage output overall very delayed and in most cases unreliable due to all the burst that exists in the game.

###CON: Item dependant & Unreliable damage

  • Varus is somewhat similar to Ezreal who requires items (example: Trinity Force/Iceborn Gauntlet) in order to become relevant. And in most cases if Ezreal or Varus in this case, don't get their items they get heavily punished more than other Marksman who naturally have enough damage even when facing such situations.

  • Usually anyone, including myself could say that Varus wouldn't be that item dependant if he naturally has decent base % Max Health damage, but to take the full effect on that Varus needs to attack someone 3 times to make use of this damage to it's core which can be risky since he doesn't really have a good Attack Speed steroid as he used to due to the nerfs to Living Vengeance I suppose.

#Possible things that can be taken out and added in

Now that I listed some ups, downs and in-between with my thoughts on it all. I wanted to delve right in into what I believe can be removed and what can be added in.

###NOTE: Remember that this is a list of suggestions, it doesn't mean that they all or any of them need to applied, you can select which ones you find the most suitable and not to over-board from your point of view.

  • (Passive) Make both Attack Speed bonuses 10% less but increase the duration of it by an extra second making it a6 seconds from 5 seconds.

  • (Passive) Make the duration 2.5 seconds but the Attack Speed bonuses are doubled (Minions = 40%, Champions = 80%)

  • (Q) Remove the Movement Speed Slow during channeling and instead place the Slow when he uses his W Active alongside with Q instead.

  • (Q) Remove the 50% cancelation Mana cost refund on Q, and instead have it when you Detonate Blight stacks on units you gain 15 Mana per unit hit with atleast 1 Blight stack.

  • (Q) Remove the W Active and instead have it that when Varus Detonates Blight stacks with Q, it also deals % Missing Health.

  • (Q) Change how the Cooldown reducement works when you Detonate Blight stacks with Q, so basically have it refund 2/4/6 seconds from Q based on how many Blight stacks were Detonated.

  • (Q & E) Take 40% AD ratio out of Q and add it to his E (Q = 125% AD & E = 100% AD)

  • (W) Change the Blight duration to 4 seconds from 6 seconds but have it increased by +1 additional second per Blight stack (3 stacks = 7 seconds)

  • (W) Remove the scalling on % Max Health and add bonus scalling to his Blight Passive On-Hit bonus instead.

  • (E) Remove Grievous Wounds and instead have Varus' W - Blighted Quiver Passive On-Hit Damage increased to 35 - 105 (based ability rank) against targets inside the zone.

  • (E) Remove Grievous Wounds and instead it last longer upto 6 seconds from 4 seconds and have a much larger effect radius.

  • (E) Remove Grievous Wounds and instead increase the Slow up to 35 - 55% from 25 - 45%

  • (E) Remove Grievous Wounds and give W Active interaction with E as well, where when you have any Blight stacks applied to the target within zone detonated instantly when applied with Basic Attacks.

  • (E) Remove Grievous Wounds and add a Cripple effect instead which reduces Attack Speed by 10 - 50% (based on ability rank or level).

  • (E) Remove Grievous Wounds and have the Slow scale with bonus AD (+5% per bonus 50 AD)

  • (R) Have the Root scale by ability rank (1 - 2 seconds) but have Blight stacks apply instantly.

  • (R) Instead of Rooting, have it create a massive area where everyone is Slowed for 2 Seconds.

#Potential ways to make Varus overall better with through a Minor/Major Rework

I wouldn't know how to rate each change so I will let you be the judge of that.

###NOTE: As before remember that this is a list of change suggestions, it doesn't mean that they all or any of them need to applied, you can select which ones you find the most suitable and not to over-board from your point of view.

  • (Passive) Darkin Bow - When applying Blight stacks to enemy units gain 5% (+5% per additional Blight stack) Attack Speed for each unit under the effect.

  • (W) Blight Affliction - When applying 3 stacks of Blight on an enemy, and attacking the same target will cause 1 Blight stack to jump to other nearby enemy targets around the main target. Chain of Corruption - When detonating Blight stacks, will cause the enemy target and any other enemy target with Blight stacks to get Rooted based on how many Blight stacks they had (1 stack = 0.75 seconds, 2 stacks = 1.25 seconds, 3 stacks = 1.75 seconds).

  • (W) Desecration - When detonating Blight stacks on enemy targets, Varus disables any bonuses they are under (self/allied/temporary buffs).

  • (W) Chained Pain - When applying and detonating Blight stacks on enemy units, other units will also take the damage if they have any Blight stacks, however this damage spread is reduced per additional effected unit.

#Possible directions for improvement/change that could be explored

  • Blight/Corruption - Not sure how much of this is intact due to many Lore/Theme changes but more exploration on how Varus could infect/weaken defeat enemies using this Disease/Blight would be really unique and interesting for a Marksman.

  • Put more emphasis on Darkin Bow for Passive - Each Darkin character has a Passive that reflects back to their weapon (Rhaast has Spellvamp, Aatrox deals % Max Health Damage and Mutilates enemies, Varus has yet to get something since his current Passive has no real connection with his Bow's actual power capabilities and it's more of a dull laning phase Attack Speed buff).

#Theme & Gameplay Appeal

Varus always had an appealing story and theme/lore to the players but his gameplay is what always prevented more people from playing him or even maining him.

Due to many Lore changes and etc, has caused a lot of number of people to change how they view him as a champion.

Never since Varus' release in Season 2, May 1st 2012 up until now, has he ever been really "OP" like other Marksman have, sure he had his moments but that's because it was the items that made him stronger not he himself being somewhat strong on his own and thus people were picking him up back then due to succession.

Here's a list of meta's which he was part of:

  • On-Hit Meta (Ardent Censer Supports)
  • Lethality Meta (Mid Lane/Bot Lane Q Poke)
  • AP Meta

All of these meta's he was part of, and all that power came from items that players purchased and not Varus himself.

#Thank you for those who chose to read through my thoughts and the state of Varus

Leave down below your thoughts/suggestions or anything that is on your mind, any kind of responses are much appreciated.

25 Comments

Hayaishi22 votes

There's many good ideas and analisis here. I agree with some problem is Riot doesn't care. For 6 years Varus has been a champion they have never cared.

BLIGHTBRINGER1 votes

I really felt that the W active they gave him, just to improve his Q snipe dream was just unnecessary. And that he needed improvements in other areas more than his Q.

Btw if I may ask, what's your favourite idea/change/rework?

Hayaishi23 votes

[{quoted}](name=Darkin Hybrid,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=7Px3e1kq,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2018-11-07T15:46:49.859+0000)

I really felt that the W active they gave him, just to improve his Q snipe dream was just unnecessary. And that he needed improvements in other areas more than his Q.

Btw if I may ask, what's your favourite idea/change/rework?

I'd personally like if Riot would just increase Q range at max rank. As you said too many times people run out of range because Varus slows himself while powering up the shot. The W active itself isn't bad it just feels like lazy work despite it fulfilling its intended job.

I personally like the "desecration effect" that removes bonuses. Seems like good unique utility. Tho riot might not like it.

The others i dont necessarily dislike. Just think that too many of them requires riot to change his kit too much in order to balance them.

His E definitely needs to be tuned. Right now is worthless after after the first 4 or 5 levels. Riot wants Varus to max E last yet maxing it last means you are stuck with a low damage, low utility (due to the slow amount scaling with rank) and high CD ability only useful for detonating blight.

I also completely despise his base stats. Riot is treating Varus as if he was as safe as Ezreal. Any aggressive support can engage on him, he's nothing like Ezreal or Caitlyn yet he shares the weakness of low HP and regen. Tristana is way safer than him too. But noooo better gut the base stats of an inmobile marksman that loses to hard engage by default. The balance has lost touch with the game.

reaper40421 votes

they may as well rework him from the ground up, for a hybrid damage champ kaisa is the best because she has high damage and insane mobility and kogmaw outdamages and outranges him, (with autos). There isnt too much point giving him utility because ashe will do it better, plus his ult is really good for teamfights as it is. Personally I think it'd be really cool if they added a transformation mechanice similar to gnar's, where he'd passively gain attack speed/ movement speed and lose ad /ap, and then gain ad/ap and lose attack speed/ movement speed That would tie into his lore too because hes "half-darkin". And to clarify my transformation mechanic, full ad varus is very fun to play, where you just snipe people with q's. The mechanic would in my head anyways, make him play more like a kiting, typical adc, but after x amount of time in combat, hed slow down but have a ton of damage.

BLIGHTBRINGER1 votes

they may as well rework him from the ground up, for a hybrid damage champ kaisa is the best because she has high damage and insane mobility and kogmaw outdamages and outranges him, (with autos). There isnt too much point giving him utility because ashe will do it better

I mean they might as well. I don't really enjoy playing him that much anymore because he doesn't really have something that he does better than anyone you have already mentioned, and he lacks this personal strength because he has a bit of everything.

Personally what I would want Varus to be:

  • A Disease themed character (Blight).
  • Who debuffs enemies in multiple ways using Blight.
  • Has a ton of AoE to spread Blight.
  • Exchanges a decent amount of damage for some form of decent amount of Mobility (to be able to kite better and survive).
BLIGHTBRINGER1 votes

Also the thing about low base stats (for Attack Damage) the excuse for that apparently is because his W gives him free On-Hit damage.

Hayaishi21 votes

[{quoted}](name=Darkin Hybrid,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=7Px3e1kq,comment-id=0001000000000001,timestamp=2018-11-07T17:36:09.859+0000)

Also the thing about low base stats (for Attack Damage) the excuse for that apparently is because his W gives him free On-Hit damage.

Meanwhile Kaisa.

Lv60 Retri Pala1 votes

first

A Bad Varus1 votes

[deleted]

BLIGHTBRINGER1 votes

Shirtless

It must get cold sometimes though :(

Olath Quortek2 votes

But his body is... so... hot... O.o

Olath Quortek1 votes

So you don't like AP Varus or full poke Q Varus? O.o

Honestly my favorite thing about the champ is how much I enjoy being able to build 3 different distinct builds with incredibly varied game play...

I don't think he needs any real changes at this point.

BLIGHTBRINGER1 votes

I didn't say that I don't, but I guess both of us share different viewpoints on what this champion is.

Olath Quortek2 votes

I do kinda feel ya on the wanting him to be a more debuff/blight/disease focused champion, it could be real cool, but I think he is beautiful where he is right now. I love his Q and I love his W. His E is a perfectly fine supporting spell to the rest of his kit. R is real strong.

If there is one thing I've always thought would be neat, it would be for his passive to give him AS when he procs blight stacks instead of gets kills, but shrug.

BLIGHTBRINGER1 votes

I do kinda feel ya on the wanting him to be a more debuff/blight/disease focused champion, it could be real cool, but I think he is beautiful where he is right now. I love his Q and I love his W. His E is a perfectly fine supporting spell to the rest of his kit. R is real strong.

Yeah, maybe what I need is a champion who resembles this more instead of forcing to change something that is perfectly fine. Thanks for the insight.

Olath Quortek1 votes

Shrug, happy to ramble about a champ I like, so thanks for making the post.

Also, I think you underestimate Varus' poke compared to Cait and Jhin. Sit down in a lane 1000 range from each other and Varus can out-snipe pretty much anyone in the game.

mk DILLY1 votes

My two biggest complaints with Varus (other than that for some reason pros keep picking him lately so he can never be healthy) is he feels so slow and he has a hard time living up to his vision of a spellweaver because his cooldowns are too long.

He feels slow because he is one of the only ADC's in the game with zero movement enhancing abilities or passives, his Q slows him, his E roots him, etc.

I want him to be a spellweaver, but his cooldowns are just ridiculous and he has no ability on his W, making this really difficult.

My thoughts?

Change his passive to be he gains hunger stacks on auto attacking that grant him move speed and attack speed (1/3rd for minions). Failing to auto attack for 4 seconds or being immobilized by enemy CC removes all stacks.

Lower the base max charge time on his Q to 1.5 seconds.

Change the active on his W to be a low cooldown ability that detonates and sucks in any blight in a small, auto-attack-ranged cone in front of him. This does no other damage other than blight damage. Instead, what it does, is it gives him corruption stacks, which can be used to overcharge his Q to do more damage and gain more range.

These changes would allow him to spell weave more, without increasing his damage much, would give him some movement speed built into his kit, and would still balance his Q while giving his W a neater mechanic than just press for extra damage every 40 seconds.

(Edit: I think it could be neat too if instead of mana he had a "corruption bar" that he filled up by auto attacking and using his W to consume blight. Then he could hold and charge any of his abilities to give them extra range and effects. That would be quite the change though, but it would be neat to charge his E to get a little extra range/slow or charge his R for a little extra range and faster spread, or something like that.)

Olath Quortek1 votes

His kit would need some serious changes if we want him to not be slow because he has way too much damage at high range and cc utility to be fast.

Also, with 40% cdr, E has a 6 second cooldown, Q has a 7.2 (3.2 if it is popping blight stacks) and brings his ult down to 42 seconds (all at max rank), which really isn't that bad.

I actually find it really interesting, from a spell-weaving perspective, to find the right combination of items to give you 40% cdr and the right amount of attack speed to get off 3 autos at the right cadence to pretty much always have 3 blight stacks to proc when a spell comes off cooldown.

mk DILLY1 votes

Honestly, he doesn't need to actually be that much faster. Part of the problem is certain things in his kit just make him feel slow, like his walk animation, the slow on his Q, and the self root on his E. I don't feel like he's a hyper carry like a Kog'maw or something that should be so slow. He doesn't need to have a dash, but a little movement speed build up on his passive and smoothing out his E could go a long way.

The problem is, when do you ever get 40% CDR on Varus? 6 and 7.2 aren't particularly low cooldowns for max CDR either. 3.2 is good, but I kind of hate that change to his Q cdr. It felt like a band aid fix that was never removed. It makes clearing waves feel a lot worse because you can't start charging your Q before the wave gets to you - instead you have to auto the first minion and then charge your Q.

Olath Quortek1 votes

I can agree that he feels slow, probably because he is heh, but honestly the way he is set up there is no reason for him to be fast, at least in my opinion. I actually think his kind of slow feels good; I kinda look at it like he is a predator that doesn't need to move fast to be effective, he has all the tools he needs otherwise. I'm not a huge anti-mobility-creep or anti-Jhin guy but I feel like Jhin could be almost as slow as him, or at least as "slow" as Cait, though I understand why he can be fast, even if it's a bit silly sometimes... or all the time... And no he isn't a hyper carry but he does have the highest effective/consistent dps at long range of any adc even with his not particularly low cooldowns at max CDR. I build 40% fairly often assuming I'm not building on-hit, at which point it isn't nearly as important. (though this item 3078 item 3115 can work for on-hit if you really want it)

item 3158 item 3142 item 3147 item 3812 is 40% item 3115 item 3100 + Transcendence is 40% item 3078 item 3508 is 40% (although I've only ever really built this with cheesy Hail of Blades with Transcendence stacking as much cdr as possible just for kicks and giggles item 3071 item 3812 item 3156)

The man has options if your willing to risk some off-meta action. (I love it)

raleprice111 votes

I really like all you have suggested here, and I agree there is room for improvement. His E feels really unsatisfying overall and I tend to use it as just a slow if I am going for a combo to kill after my ult. I really enjoy him and would like to improve, because particularly from behind he feels really weak. any suggestions?

Olath Quortek2 votes

His E can actually be a very effective early laning tool. You will run yourself out of mana spamming it, but it gives you some solid advantages in trades, letting you get off an extra auto due to the slow, cutting their in-lane sustain slightly with grievous wounds (I know it doesn't seem like much but if it kills them one auto sooner it was effective), while doing a reasonable amount of damage in itself, especially if you can proc a blight stack or two with it. It's good to keep in mind that his kit has a lot of power elsewhere and his E is mainly a supportive spell to the rest of the kit, it is generally easy chip damage and blight procs; keep in mind if a target has 3 blight stacks on it and you throw an E and then immediately auto the E will proc 4 blight stacks, and you can actually proc 5 blight stacks with good timing after you ult by ult - AA - E - AA.

What's your build preference? O.o

raleprice111 votes

i never actually knew about being able to proc more than 3 blight stacks, that's actually really cool! Personally, i like bork into rageblade, then runaans, but sometimes throw the AP build in there after rageblade instead depending on my teamcomp. My favorite part about varus is that I can pick from AP, AD, lethality, and on hit depending on what my team needs.

Olath Quortek1 votes

Mmm, AP has always been my favorite but I build Muramana and lethality most games nowadays, as it feels like its the most effective at keeping an immobile adc out of harms way lately... I do love the variety of builds he can pull off, despite some of his struggles.

Noor Sakata1 votes

His E shouldn't really get changes It's already a good ability , it would be good if the radius of his E gets bigger but that will mean he will be more popular in pro play and will get gutted It's a basic ability on a Marskman that has slows , buffing the slow by taking wounds will really make him popular in pro play

His Q is what usually needs most of the changes The Mana refund when cancelling the ability should be much lower The slow and maybe cast time should get lower by levelling the ability up Like , especially in Late Game , I always ask myself , Slow yourself and waste time for a stupid arrow or just use that time to use 5 basic attacks? It doesn't feel satisfying to use later at max range

Otherwise he shouldn't really get direct changes to his kit Only buffing his base stats will be enough

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