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Varus changes on the PBE - Blighted Quiver (W) update.

Furor Nexis·4/4/2018, 11:10:24 AM·10 votes·12,336 views
4/3 PBE Update

As highlighted in the Quick Gameplay Thoughts: March 30, Varus' update to his W - Blighted Quiver has shown up on the PBE rotation for the 8.8 patch and is currently under-going testing.

As it stands on the PBE, this is the new effect: >Blighted Quiver (W): Passive damage lowered from 10/14/18/22/26 to 4/8/12/16/20 New Active - Cooldown: 40 seconds at all ranks "Active: Varus' next Piercing Arrow deals bonus magic damage equal to 6/7/8/9/10% to 9/10.5/12/13.5/15% of the target's missing health (scales with Piercing Arrow charge). Blighted Quiver is capped at 360 damage against monsters."

Let me put this across as cleanly as possible: This is an insane damage boost for Varus as he currently stands. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE Varus, he's been my main for almost as long as I've been playing League. It always puts a smile on my face to see my man getting some buffs. However, this is a destructively strong buff. With his current meta hybrid setup of Guinsoo's Rageblade into Wit's end, followed by a mix of AP items, you have an already fairly strong build, as Rageblade has been considered his power-spike item for a long while. The extra 300 gold may hurt his power-spike a bit more due to the higher costs as of 8.7 though, so it will be slowed by quite a bit, or phased out for something else entirely.

AP Varus and his Hybrid builds were always considered a niche build, as you relied on stacking up on AP to do insane damage and you swapped out traditional ADC itemization such as crit and auto-attacking power. However Varus has never been able to utilize traditional crit as well as other champions who are far more capable of utilizing those items. There was always the fact that it relied too heavily on stacking blight, relying on Chain of Corruption, or it's 'weak' early game. After the travesty that was Lethality Varus, Piercing Arrow (Q) got chunked with quite a damage reduction, as well as a huge cooldown (20 seconds at level 1), however Varus received compensation buffs for his passive in the form of scaling attack speed. The change to Blighted Quiver brings the power back into Varus' Piercing Arrow, now giving it AP ratios on top if it's raw AD damage. (I personally find this hilarious because it's always been a joke to give AP ratios for Varus' Q)

"Hey you're saying all this stuff about Varus but get to the point already!"

Right, the whole point is how am I going to explain this to you about why it's stupidly strong.

Currently, a hybrid damage build for Varus is what his FoTM build is right now and looks roughly, or similar to the following:

item 3124 item 3091 -> item 3111 / item 3047 ->item 3135 item 3089 item 3157 / item 3139 / item 3102

A mix of early AD then switched up into AP. With these items, Varus can have an average AP output of 250-400

Obviously it sounds and looks stupid but the payoff is insane. Full AP Varus, or variations of the Hybrid AP build have always been disgustingly strong, but considered too niche or completely ill-suited for the position of AD Carry, and the meta that AD Carry fluctuates in. Everyone is aware of the current effect of Blighted Quiver on liver servers: 10/14/18/22/26 (+25%) AP damage in auto-attacks, as well as percentage max health damage per stack that's popped, scaling by an extra 2% for every 100 AP that Varus possesses. The build style has long been touted as a tank buster as well as a squishy nuke that even makes assassin players step back and say 'What the F-' as a reaction to the damage that can be pulled out.

Now, with the changes to Blighted Quiver, that percent max HP damage stays the same, the 25% extra AP damage stays the same, but the base damage is lowered. However, every 40 seconds, Varus can also apply percent missing HP damage on top of the percentage max HP damage. It's not a soft chunk either. This shit will hit hard, scaling from a potential 6%-15% of missing health damage. This new change to Blighted Quiver has shifted the power drastically back into Piercing Arrow - to be fair, it is Varus' key ability and the one he's known most for. This will make Hybrid Varus builds one of the strongest he'll have yet, and potentially making Lethality Varus look like a splash in the water.

TL;DR: The changes to Blighted Quiver (W) will shift power back into Varus' Piercing Arrow (Q) for the first time since the lethality nerf in Season 7, giving it execute potential every 40 seconds due to it getting %missing HP damage. The meta hybrid Varus build (and potentially full AP Varus builds) benefit from this buff massively, as he'll be potentially capable of stacking BOTH %max HP damage as well as %missing HP damage in a single movement.

24 Comments

Darkin Hybrid4/4/2018, 12:07:13 PM12 votes

Honestly i'm glad his power is being shifted to his Q again, brings back that skill expression. I been a long Varus main myself, almost 3 years now.

Meep Man4/4/2018, 3:30:46 PM4 votes

I like Varus changes that reward him for hitting charged Qs though. I like Varus as a "long range, ability driven sniper" Marksman, except he doesn't cheat and have point and click snipe abilities like a sheriff we know.

It Hertz When IP4/4/2018, 1:11:36 PM2 votes

I know few will care, but this is gonna push Varus from a good ARAM champion into the "stupidly OP" ARAM list.

Carnicore4/4/2018, 6:32:51 PM1 votes

I like this change. Varus' Q had to have its damage nerfed because it was so easily spammed, but this active ability has a long cooldown so it won't have that problem.

Dead flag blues4/4/2018, 7:10:15 PM1 votes

Can we stop giving even more magic damage to "Attack damage carry" and making itemization impossible against them ?

FakeGravity4/4/2018, 7:55:56 PM1 votes

i like how they focus the sniper play pattern into varus and jhin, while cailtyn feels more of a hunter/archer on a high turret, she rely on enemies to step on her traps to feel like a sniper, her ult and autos require no aim or skills

T4underbolt4/4/2018, 9:37:13 PM1 votes

I hope this will be taken down and varus gets proper nerfs. he already can kill people with 4-5 autos and ability and reached late game after one item. Why give him execute DMG in addition to max hp dmg. Riot seriously losing his mind.

AirKingNeo4/4/2018, 9:38:41 PM1 votes

This change won't do much actually other than be a needless buff. Varus's Q requiring Blight, otherwise 4 seconds more cooldown, already killed his Q.

Refer A Friend 14/5/2018, 5:46:57 AM1 votes

Why is an already op champion getting a buff?

Nick Da Chip4/5/2018, 1:55:24 PM1 votes

I have a feeling this is going to be too strong. I love Varus' as much as the next main but this seems like a pretty hefty buff to a champ.who is already relatively strong. I'm definitely excited about this though, I've been playing AP varus' for about 3 years now so any buff to that playstyle is good news I would say.

I don't necessarily understand the need to his on hit AP W damage though, it never seemed like it was too noticable.

Anyways, I hope this doesn't make him too OP and they start shifting his power around, he seemed fine as he was. If anything maybe they will change this W damage to scale with his AP if it becomes too prominant.

Hayaishi4/5/2018, 2:22:07 PM1 votes

Very good buff in line with Varus' playstyle. Well designed champions should be strong like Varus is. For once cancer like Vayne/Trist/Twitch isn't dominating bot lane.

Varus is relatively hard to play. He should hit harder than all the other Marksmen that hit 1 button and reach their maximum DPS. This is a good buff that follows this idea.

KlydeFrog4/4/2018, 2:51:02 PM1 votes

Bro I've been doing on hit varus since season 4 and I was trolling then but noooooo now it's gospel lol. Also people do it wrong .....stop waisting time on void staff and ie that I see people. You need nashors tooth for ur w passive and rageblade blade passive . Also I used to get gunblade because I would have 300 plus ad and AP . But the cdr on this new active ain't worth it it's to long to rely on a skill shot that is easily avoided

C9 Squeeky 4/4/2018, 3:42:59 PM1 votes

Why isn't this on PBE boards? o_O