Varus should get a mini-rework to solidify his viability as an AP Tank-Shredder.
I'm just talking about his gameplay. You can keep his Two Guys One Corpse lore to yourself.
I dunno, but here's my idea. Varus's Q, E and R are the same (albeit tweaked), but his Passive and W are switched around and enhanced.
Passive - Blighted Rage: Varus's basic attacks apply a stack of blight to its target and deal 2-12 (+10% AP) magic damage on hit per stack of blight on the target, stacking up to 5 times (Damage is calculated after Blight is applied). At 3 stacks of Blight, Varus's abilities have a unique effect against the target. Upon reaching 5 stacks of Blight against an enemy champion, Varus gains 20% (+40% Bonus Attack Speed) bonus attack speed and applies an additional stack of Blight to champions with 0 stacks of blight.
You might say, "Oh, but you're just ripping off Kai'Sa's passive, Darius's passive and Tahm Kench's passive at the same time!" but nah, Riot ripped off me. I made this post before.
Q - Piercing Arrow: The exact same. But lower its damage. If an enemy champion reaches 3 stacks of Blight, they will be Marked, forming a little circle around them. If Varus aims directly at this circle -- at the Marked champion -- as he casts it, the Piercing Arrow will curve towards the champion, guaranteeing an undodgeable hit (which can still be blocked, lowered by previous penetrations, the usual. It just locks on) and dealing more damage (Increasing Living Vengeance's damage as well).
This is balanced by the fact that Varus actually needs to get up and close for a nice trade before being able to lock on. What do Varus players do currently? Sit in the back and spam Q like the little tossers they are? Yeah, that's fun and interactive right there.
W - Living Vengeance (PASSIVE): Blighted Rage's bonus attack speed is increased to 30/40/50/60/70%.
W - Living Vengeance (TOGGLE): Varus's other abilities against targets consume the stacks of Blight and deal an additional 2/2.75/3.5/4.25/5% (+2% per 100 AP) of the target's Maximum Health in magic damage per stack of Blight.
Diversity is key! Do you wanna do a lot of tank-busting damage? Toggle on! Do you wanna do a lot of flat magic damage? Toggle off!
E - Hail of Arrows: Same. But against a champion or large monster with 3 stacks of Blight, Hail of Arrows roots the target for 0.75 seconds, grounds them for the entire duration, and refunds 50% of the cooldown. Each stack of Blight on a champion or large monster will shorten the cooldown by an additional 0.3 seconds for each basic attack landed on it.
Varus could use a way to apply his anti-tank damage multiple times in a fight, and this should be the key!
R - Chain of Corruption: Same. Well... It could use a few tweaks:
- It should apply its 3 stacks of Blight upon initial hit.
- The root should be lowered to 1 second.
- If a champion has 3 stacks of blight before being hit by it, they'll be rooted for 2 seconds instead of 1, the tethers root nearby champions 1 second more quickly, and each enemy within the tether range (regardless of being tethered (aka minions too)) gains one stack of Blight.
If you noticed, I'm aiming to get Varus away from playing like a total pussy in game. He should be punished for just slinging out spells Xerath-style, and he should be rewarded for going balls-deep!
You wanna be an asshole that still builds AD? Go for it! But if you wanna be UNIQUE, then AP is the build for you!