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[In-depth look into Varus] Can someone explain this to me?

Darkin Hybrid·4/2/2018, 11:46:19 PM·1 votes·1,375 views

How is Varus a tier 2 ADC with a 51.13% Winrate?

https://i.imgur.com/8cJ0tqn.png

I tried the 2 main builds on him: On-Hit build and Crit build, and both felt utterly useless.

https://i.imgur.com/thQaooj.png https://i.imgur.com/wE5E9lD.png https://i.imgur.com/BDZGtDv.png https://i.imgur.com/u69UB6P.png

Keep in mind to those wondering, the reason why I bought Zhonia's Hourglass is because to survive Nocturne ulting me. In addition I bought Sorcerers Shoes because I saw some high elo streamers buying it and I wanted to try it out.

Varus damage feels so lacking that even tanks like in this case, Malphite did double the damage I dealt.

Anyway, I just find Varus so problematic in terms of his kit.

His passive a boring attack speed steroid His Q suggests poking style His W suggests on-hit, AP style His E suggests crit style maybe? His R suggests AP style

Not to mention Rioter R3AVE mentioned that they are looking to make Varus's W an active now in patch V8.8. The Riot R3AVE post on that: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/na3Ko02t-quick-gameplay-thoughts-march-30

Some people could say that he's good because of how open he is to different kind of play styles, but each playstyle doesn't feel strong anymore.

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

Kai'Sa and Varus Comparison

So a while back Varus Q got nerfed because he kept poking people way too often from a long distance, and they nerfed his Q to have a longer cooldown. But Kai'Sas W has even longer range and when you upgrade it, some of the cooldown is refunded upon hitting the enemy.

Her W somewhat completely removed what made Varus unique, being a long range marksman (though it can be argued as well since Caitlyn and Jhin exist)

Her abilties in synergy with her passive make her deal lots of damage, while Varus's abilities aren't always reliable since his E takes too long to cast (makes him vulnerable to being bursted down), Q easily dodgeble. In addition if you build on-hit on Varus (which appears to be the only decent build for him) your Q and E damage is completely non existant and you would only be using those abilities to proc your W passive (which again isn't always that high unless the enemy team has a lot of tanks).

Right now there's quite a lot of inconsistancy between what Varus is described in lore and what his abilities are in-game. Varus in lore was described as a "deadly killer who loved to torment his foes with arrows, driving them to insanity before closing for the kill" suggesting that he would like to constantly attack them (on-hit style) and then finishing them off (with his Q). But he was represented to be this powerful archer, yet he lacks the one thing being able to constantly attack enemies safely due to his immobility, and his E (slow being unreliable) for better kiting.

My further thoughts on the upcoming potential change to his W in V8.8 is that it won't really fix his real problems, I would rather just wait for him to get a complete VGU. Since again when you compare Kai'Sa and Varus one on one, Kai'Sa just does everything that Varus does just better, aside from the CC on his ult.

Though I imagine people would argue about all this with me, but I been playing Varus for almost 3 years now. What are your thoughts on Varus?

3 Comments

Lil Lewd Witch4/3/2018, 12:34:02 AM1 votes

I've been maining Varus a little this season, and yeah, he doesn't quite put up the same damage numbers as the crit ADCs, but his lane pressure/trading is one of the best right now, and his item power spikes let him snowball ahead of other ADCs if played correctly. Most of my games with him, I'm taking the bot tower first, taking dragon control, and rotating the power to mid lane to get that tower down also, all before the enemy bot lane has the items needed to counter act with me.

So then using his very strong ult for safety and pick offs during rotations, it's a really strong overall pick. In Solo Queue its about constantly snowballing leads. in a 6 item vs 6 item fight, Varus is going to get shredded by most ADCs. But he provides more in a game sense rather than raw damage output. But with your mentioning, you're not putting out as much damage as a Malphite, are you utilizing his Passive/W correctly? 3 Auto's Q, 3 Autos, E, etc massively increase his damage output. He isn't an AA damage dealer.

This has mostly been with the on hit build, but I've been finding luck with a kind of hybrid build in the mid-late game

item 3006 item 3124 item 3153 item 3085 item 3031 + whatever fits the game item 3139 item 3036 item 3033 item 3156 etc

Though build wise, that is another strength of Varus which I really hope they don't take away from him with the mentioned, upcoming changes. He doesnt have a defined build. Hell, imaqtpie has been going Rageblade, Nashors, Deathcap, etc. Varus can adjust his build to however the game is progressing while other ADCs have a very cut and paste build.

Venompaw4/3/2018, 1:25:28 AM1 votes

Varus is good if you KNOW how to play him- take advantage of W procs.