Mini-Rework for Varus to make AP play-styles more viable

Ok sure but why··2 votes·384 views

I put this in "Gameplay," before I remembered just how sadistic everyone who lurks there is. ahem We all know how Varus's auto attacks work with Blight, currently.

>PASSIVE: Varus's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage and apply Blighted Quiver Blight for 6 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE: 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26 (+ 25% AP) Varus's other abilities consume Blighted Quiver Blight on enemies upon damaging them, dealing them magic damage for each stack, capped at 360 against monsters. MAGIC DAMAGE PER STACK: 2 / 2.75 / 3.5 / 4.25 / 5% (+ 2% per 100 AP) of the target's maximum health

But what if Varus could be designed to work around AP as well as AD, as in turn Varus into a legitimately powerful AP carry?

I have some suggestions that would make his AP auto attacks more sustainable in the late game, as well as give his proccing some nice bang, without it being too overbearing.

1: Reduce his AP ratio to 10% on each shot. 2: Make the amount of stacks Varus can apply on a single target scale with rank, as 3/3/4/4/5. 3: Allow the damage Varus deals with blight to multiply by however many stacks the target will have after that auto, up to 50% AP at max rank. (So autoing a target with 0 stacks will deal 10% AP, and autoing targets with 4 and 5 stacks both deal 50% AP.) 4: When an enemy champion reaches 5 stacks, grants Varus the passive attack speed bonus currently reserved for killing a champion, and fully charging your Piercing Arrow will allow you to lock on to the champ and deal the full 25% (+ 10% per 100 AP) max health, given that champ isn't in Stealth. (Charging Piercing Arrow will freeze the decay time of blight on targets with 5 stacks.) Not only will this give Varus a choice between playing as AD and AP, but he will gain two very distinct play-styles in the process (Three if you wish to separate Crit and Lethality, as well). He'll be given the Darius touch: where he starts off weak and puny, but if he applies all his stacks to a champ, he'll be allowed to punish the enemy team for allowing him to stay alive for so long.

But although it has the potential to become very powerful, it still has its choices during team-fights. For instance, if he's applied the stacks on the champion, he can decide whether to use his Q or E, or not, based on how tanky his opponent is, or if his opponent is running away. Because if he decides to proc the %health damage, he then has to re-stack his blight in order for his autos to deal meaningful damage again.

It also won't affect early game at all. Varus would need to be level 9 in order to achieve all 5 stacks and the passive benefits he gains from it, and by then his Q would assuredly only be at rank 2, which deals 70 AD at max charge, which isn't much compared to Lethality Varus at level 9. Ohhh, boy.

Why would this be a good idea? Well, I want Varus to feel unique!! What does Varus do with his abilities right now? He sits in the back and spams them, hoping to chunk his opponents down. If you're really that loathsome, then fine, have fun with that. What does Varus do with his ult? He roots you in place and autos you outside your auto range, since he probably outranges you by at least 2 units. That's cheap, boring and unoriginal gameplay that any ADC with a CC Tank support can do.

So come on, Riot. Steal this idea from me and make it your own. Please. There are so many champs that could benefit from having both AD and AP scaling, and it would be so incredible if you could take a step in the right direction to positively encourage creative freedom with this.

5 Comments

Hirakael2 votes

just applying AP ratio on Varus is way too much. Varus is really powerful and many players don't know how to use him in-game.... The marksman are suppose to be in the role of the Attack Damage Carry ( ADC) not in the role of Ability Power Damage Carry (APC).

Ok sure but why1 votes

So you dislike it solely because it's different and nothing else? Why would Ivern ever have become a champion if every champ in its role had to function the same way? Why would Corki be allowed to do mostly magic damage on his critical strikes? Why would new champs be released at all if they were all meant to function the exact same way? Don't be a clown. They called the Bot role "Bot" because the only criteria it requires is for that one champion to do damage, such as the notorious Ziggs ADC.

As for people not knowing how to use him in game, that's a load of horseshit. All he does with a crit build is what anyone else would do: Auto a lot, and use his ult if he's getting chased for a free two seconds of unfair trading. All he does with a Lethality build is sit in the back and spam his Q, hoping he can hit the same target three times for the easy kill.

In a game where Cho'Gath can build 6000 health and 500 Armour, it would be nice for a champion other than Vayne to have at least a chance to counter such a monstrosity. I doubt you complain about Rageblade Vayne. I doubt you'd say "She's an Attack Damage Carry, not a True Damage Carry!!!!"

Hirakael2 votes

[{quoted}](name=JZ Jora,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=Jg7fW2Q3,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2017-08-02T22:04:50.659+0000)

So you dislike it solely because it's different and nothing else? Why would Ivern ever have become a champion if every champ in its role had to function the same way? Why would Corki be allowed to do mostly magic damage on his critical strikes? Why would new champs be released at all if they were all meant to function the exact same way? Don't be a clown. They called the Bot role "Bot" because the only criteria it requires is for that one champion to do damage, such as the notorious Ziggs ADC.

As for people not knowing how to use him in game, that's a load of horseshit. All he does with a crit build is what anyone else would do: Auto a lot, and use his ult if he's getting chased for a free two seconds of unfair trading. All he does with a Lethality build is sit in the back and spam his Q, hoping he can hit the same target three times for the easy kill.

In a game where Cho'Gath can build 6000 health and 500 Armour, it would be nice for a champion other than Vayne to have at least a chance to counter such a monstrosity. I doubt you complain about Rageblade Vayne. I doubt you'd say "She's an Attack Damage Carry, not a True Damage Carry!!!!"

If you are so confident about adding AP ratio damage on Varus, why don't you ask Riot about it eh? I do believe that Riot would gladly say that there is enough adc's who can use AP damage instead of attack damage. ;)

GamerThink2 votes

This one may shock you: Varus is ALREADY viable as an AP marskman.

WIth Nashor's Tooth he has 40% AP scaling on AA that can be 100% enhanced with Guinsoo's Rageblade. In lategame your 3 stacks - proccing deal around 40%-50% of opponent's max health as magic damage (you see this number?), and could even be procced to multiple targets with Runaan's Hurricane.

And... why would you give Orianna's passive actually? That doesn't seem the way to go.

Ok sure but why1 votes

Wow, an actual, well-thought-out comment.

I have actually played varus myself, and AP is the only way I can actually enjoy him, but every single game is filled with those teammates who say "wtf AP Varus reported" non-stop, and he deserves to have his AP build actually scary, and not just gimmicky.

That, and quite a few champions have AP scaling with their autos, but Varus is stuck having 5% less than everyone else (25% instead of the usual 30%), and that's all Varus gets with it if he sucks with his other abilities. Teemo's hits poison for extra over time. Volibear's chains to enemies. Kayle's create explosions! All Varus's does is "some magic damage." Wee. I've tried Orianna as an on-hit champion before, and I can easily admit it was fun, since she is the queen of unfair base damage. But the concept behind her passive is just remote and unneeded on a champion that can absolutely nuke an entire team from the backline without thinking. Varus could have benefited off of such a passive so tremendously well.

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