Varus Analyzed, why he isn't picked, why he isn't strong, and where he could be stronger

Right here, right now, I'm going to analyze and what hes good at. After that I will compare him to and tell what makes him good and what makes him weak. Why ? is in a good spot clearly, she has a high win rate in competitive play and is clearly synergized as an adc, with herself and the meta. If your smart and your convinced that Varus is weak and Vayne is strong already, skip down to when I talk about Vayne having more sustain, mobility than Varus.

(Laning strength) Living Vengeance: When kills an enemy unit, he gains 20% attack speed for three seconds. If scores a kill or assist for an enemy champion, he gains 60% attack speed for six seconds. This ability doesn't stack more than once, but the duration can be refreshed. This ability is good, but I wouldn't say needed this so much, and its strongest in the laning phase, since you can only take use of it for farming and then getting in small trades with enemy champions. It can be used when an enemy champion dies and there's another enemy champion trying to kill you or your team. You can't make much use of this when taking objectives or when ganking other lanes however, so I can just list it off as a laning skill.

(Trading, and minor objective securing strength) Piercing Arrow: can instantly fire a weak, small arrow over very little range OR wait a second and fire a big, strong arrow over a decent range. I'm not gonna get into numbers but this is main skill for trading and dealing damage, its also most players favorite ability he has, since it can deal a lot of damage and secure most kills because of its long range. Another feature about this ability is how it can travel through enemies, but has its damage reduced for doing so. This could possibly be used for taking Dragon or Baron, but its best suited for fighting other players.

(Minor farming and minor trading strength) Blighted Quiver: auto attacks deal on-hit magic damage and apply Blight for a while (Five seconds?) An enemy can have three stacks of blight applied to them at once. The stacks can be detonated by abilities to deal magic damage based on a % of they're maximum health. This skill is kinda weird, you need the on-hit magic damage to trade early on, but you don't max it because your other spells can trade harder, but late game it can be used to trade somewhat better with bruisers. The on-hit magic damage is rather weak lategame however, and nothing is promising about this ability in any stage of the game. Its best used at trading and farming, but not really good for anything else.

(Minor trading, minor sustain strength) Hail of Arrows: fires several arrows into an area, dealing weak on hit physical damage and creating an area. In this area, enemies are slowed by 25/35/45/55% and all healing is reduced by 50%. This ability would be really good to trade late game against an enemy adc, and it can be used to chase or run from enemies a little bit. Its not really a guarantee to get out of a bad situation though, like a Leona or Thresh engage. This is best used for trading, and somewhat usable for sustain. Unfortunately this easily falls off in terms of damage lategame. (Teamfight and minor escape strength) Chain of Corruption: unleashes a tendril of corruption over a decent range, dealing decent magic damage and snaring the first enemy champion hit for two seconds. It moves toward other enemy champions over a small area around the first target to apply the same damage and snare time to them. This ability can be best used to escape his enemies, or in a teamfight to lock down targets and trade. Its his best ability for escaping but its got a long cooldown since it can also be very useful in a team fight.

So combining all these, and listing them, has some laning strength, good trading strength, and weak sustain and escape strength. This guys just all over the place, but he also has the highest cooldowns and mana costs for an adc. He has a lot of utility, and damage potential but almost no sustain. Now lets look at .

(Minor sustain strength) Night Hunter: gains 30 movement speed when moving toward a visible enemy champion within 2000 units. This ability is very weak, but can get into fights more easily with this ability and unless an enemy enters brush or has an escape of they're own she will destroy them, if she has the burst.

(Sustain and minor trading strength) Tumble: dashes a short distance, and her next auto attack on-hit deals a decent % of her total attack damage as bonus physical damage, the dash resets her attack timer as well. This ability is known for dodging skill shots and getting out of bad situations, and it is very helpful throughout the whole game.

(Trading Strength) Silver bolts: basic attacks and spells mark an enemy, but can only be applied to one target, being removed if she switches targets. The third attack or spell against this target will deal 20/30/40/50/60 (+4/5/6/7/8% of they're maximum health) true damage to them. This is amazing compared to es Blighted Quiver, being a strong way to fight bruisers or trade with other carries.

(Sustain and minor trading strength) Condemn: fires an enemy away from her 470 units, dealing decent physical damage. If the enemy hits a wall, they take the physical damage again and are stunned for 1.5 seconds. This ability is es best form of sustain in her kit, and it also allows her to trade very well out of lane if she doesn't have a wall summoning support.

(Heavy trading strength) gains 30/50/70 attack damage and stealth for one second after using tumble, and her passive is tripled. The duration is 8/10/12 seconds. This is amazing for , it allows her to demolish an enemy adc in a flat out trade. It also gives some sustain since she can be stealthed temporarily. Overall, has a lot of trading strength, and a decent amount of sustain. does, however have some weakness in the fact that she has little to no trading strength early on, she can't nuke her enemies like but she does have strong auto attack trades in comparison. If we look at other champions, we realize that they also have heavy trading power and sustain. The exceptions being , , and . These characters don't have necessarily good sustain. They aren't mobile on they're own, and they don't have the same kind of trading power , , and have. Some of you might think, well if a champion is strong in multiple areas then they must be really good and easy, right? No, even if they have several other resorts of where they can do good they aren't really good, and they aren't easy because of the dreadful lategame meta. Because were talking about adc, not support, not mid, not top, and most certainly not jungle. being there in the top 35 champions with lowest base stats, he can't do other things. Some people take him mid, and its humiliating to see those ad ratios go to absolute waste and ulting the full health because he can't save himself. If were to be viable in high competitive play as an adc, he would need some sort of mobility or sustain to replace his utility. Some of you might think: “It would be SO op to see have an escape, when he already can make one with his ult and e.” That is honestly a joke now, because there already is a champion who can do that. Remember ? She has a spell shield, an escape or chase ult, and a somewhat escape like passive. may not be flat out safe but she can easily ignore a lot of her enemies and get back to safety. could be like that, he could have a real sustain tool besides his ultimate, it just couldn't be too easy to use. His E doesn't really count, since it has such a high cooldown and it is weak in this meta. So I hope that we the community, can share our ideas and hope Riot finds they're solution with our help so that can be a good marksman choice, that could only rely on his team countering the enemy team. Please, link to other threads about rework ideas or share your own idea of what could be fixed here. is currently an early game adc that falls off very hard with no sustain or escape.