Caster Varus state?

Hi, I used to play Varus quite a bit back when he was played as a caster and lately I've started picking him up in that role again. However, I'd like to know what the community thinks about his current state.

For those who don't know what caster Varus may refer to, he relied on his Q rather than on-hit effects/attack speed and getting W procs like the current one, and generally built very AD/caster-heavy; usually an early Tear/Manamune into as much AD and Armor pen (later Lethality) as possible.

His Q got nerfed very hard for this role quite a while ago, and the build was abandoned for the current one ever since. In the several games I've played as him, he felt alright, but the Q nerf was really visible and he's not even close to what he once was. But given the current itemization, assassin-free meta and new runes which somewhat cover his old weaknesses, how do you think he would fit into all of this?