Veigar is not just any glasscannon. He has THE biggest burst damage in the game. ESPECIALLY against other AP champs. I mean - nunu might get bigger numbers with his ulti, BUT Veigar's ulti is instant :)

His general role like any bursters is to ANNIHILATE all the squishy guys.

But the main focus should be on the enemy casters.

Sometimes you might see some Sorakas/Sonas in mid-game that you can 1hit with your ulti. Killing the support before the teamfight actually starts could win you the fight.

Also if you see a at half hp not suspecting anything then killing him before he pops his ulti can also win you the fight.

Never focus tanks.
And NEVER focus , since her passive kills your spells.

• Pros

The biggest instant cast damage. Without a doubt.
Sort of hard to gank ()
Very easy to farm with + free ap from farming
Very decent AoE damage (Small range but huge damage)
Can totally turn the game around with his ultimate (Enemy ap carry getting fed and has over 9000 ap. Ulti him and laugh)

• Cons

Global taunt
Misplacing your stun will probably kill you

is very easy to avoid if you dont land a stun and sadly it's your main source of damage lategame (excluding )

21/0/9

With the new masteries i found that these work best. Getting 21 in utility just isn't worth the major increase in burst.

Meditation or Swiftness, your choice. I prefer Swiftness.

Runic Affinity for longer blue buff.

You could replace it with improved recall or scout OR ignite mastery. I prefer a longer blue.

The rune choice above is my personal preference, since it gives me everything i need for different situations.

Why do i like the flat and perlevel combo?

Mana - Since it isn't impossible to fail early game with veigar, i like to be prepared. I take flat manaregen to be able to spam early without draining my manapool completely. And i take the perlevel manaregen to be prepared to come back with only a and be able to spam with having the mana to burst down the enemy in case of a gank or to escape in case i get ganked.

CDR - The flats give me 13-14% CDR early game so i can last hit every second or third minion with my and as my manapool grows bigger, so does my CDR with some perlevel runes and . This allows me to farm even faster and longer than before and also gain extra mana on faster.

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• REDS (Marks)

Mpen reds - Good until you get your staff/boots
or
Flat ability power reds - Good for an early game farm or harass, but imo mpen is more useful
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• YELLOWS (Seals)

MP5/MP5perlvl - Good for mregen until you get a higher lvl

Get either Per level MP5 or Flat MP5 or both

Full per level - your mana regen at early levels will be weak, but later it will improve (Not suggested, since later you are getting mana items that boost your passive)

Full Flat - Your mana regen will be good at early levels (I suggest this since after your first back you aren't really relying on runes anymore)

Half flat half per level - I use this combination, since when you fail at your lane and don't get on your first back, you will do with only a
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• BLUES (Glyphs)

CDR blues - You need to spam your stuff don't you :D

Same story as mp5

Flat - Good for early game farming, kinda meh on later levels

Full per level - your isn't quite so farmable early game but on later levels you will be spamming like crazy.

Combo - Once again, i use this. I took 4 flat CDR runes and 5 Per level ones. This will give you about 13-14% at the early levels which for me is just enough to farm without having terrible mana problems.

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• QUINTS:

Either
Mpen
or
Flat HP
or
Flat AP

This depends on your playstyle.
Magic Pen quints go well with both the builds.
Reasoning:
1st build - Since you are not getting any magic pen until these will help you boost your damage throughout the game. Probably not too early but close to mid game

2nd build - Mixing these together with magic pen boots will allow you to deal true damage to anyone who hasn't gotten any magic resist items.

Flat HP if you are not a careful player
Flat AP if you want to farm your early. (HeavensVVolf also pointed out that these will most likely be better than Mpen for early game harassment)

What is the difference between those builds and when should one be used?
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• 1st build is for destroying a team consisting of offtanks.

Loads of early spammability
Will rip through their 200 magic resist later

If you have like Jarvans, Jaxes, Xins, Mundos, Warwicks etc against you, then this build will most likely be better.

Also this build is a bit cheaper and will allow you to farm a lot better during early and mid game. Compared to the second build the damage to enemy champs will be lower during the early phases of the game.
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• 2nd build is when you got one or more squishies facing you, ppl that aren't really afraid of you and won't buy more than one magic resist item.

Basically, if you have a Sona or some other support that is stacking and a carry that hasn't bought any magic resist or is building some minor magic resist, then this is the build you wanna go with.

This build is heavy on the wallet at early phases, and it won't really help with your early farm too much BUT when you had a good early game with maybe first blood and/or one or more successful ganks, then this build will allow you to keep hurting your enemies more during the early phases of the game
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TL;DR
1st build - farm early,2nd build - kill early
1st build - longer game,2nd build - faster game
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- Not in the build, but viable, if you see that you can initiate without being killed and of course if you know how to use this item then by all means, get it. Helps a lot against carrys that build Warmogs as their only defense item.

- If your team isn't really pushing or if you find yourself needing just a little more damage or movement speed. I prefer this to because, although being a lot more expensive, it's a lot more useful - doesn't require your opponent to be full hp, 3 second CD, awesome for pushing, some minor defense, some movement speed, more ap.

- If you find yourself getting punished and need to back from teamfights, then you might wanna get this. I personally don't like this item on veigar since i find that there are much better items, that boost your damage alot more for the same cash. But it's recommended if you tend to overextend.

- Good against a full AP team combined with

Made a special section for this, just because.

This build is not good for poke wars tho. imo.

Start: +Potions(i usually take 1 mana and health pots. but you can take all mana or all health. w/e)
or


Core:

Up next:

Doing well (not being focused and dying all the time):

Not doing too well (also helps you sustain ur poke):

Full builds:
+Survival item

This is your GTFO or Epic jump-in-kill spell
When somebody is getting away. use this and stun the crap out of them
or use it when you see that trouble is headed your way

Use this if you are solomiding.

OTHER VIABLE SPELLS:
kinda good but also sorta meh with veigar
Even if i have it i usually dont get to use it too often. But might prove useful against or
If you know how to use it, it might help ya.

Veigar's mana regen is increased by 0.5% for each 1% of mana missing.




Don't be fooled by this spell and decide to get 0 mregen. You wont really see the effects of this spell early game. You actually need some extra mana for this to work



Active: Unleashes dark energy at target enemy dealing 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+60% of ability power) magic damage. If the target is killed, Veigar gains 1 ability power.

Passive: Veigar gains 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 ability power when he kills a champion from any source of damage.

Cooldown 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4seconds
Cost 75mana
Range 650



Just amazing, this spell. If used correctly you will have no need for almost any ap items early game and you can focus on your mana pool.

Pretty good damage early game. Sorta fades away lategame.



After 1.2 seconds, dark matter falls from the sky to the target location, dealing 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 / 320 (+100% of ability power) magic damage.

Cooldown 12seconds
Cost 100 / 110 / 120 / 130 / 140mana
Range 900




Amazing AoE nuke with capabilities.
Use it for facechecks. Dragon/Nashor checks. And of course to destroy your enemies.

Try not to waste it early-game since it has a pretty high manacost. If you want to harass with it then place it near minions in case you miss the enemy champion.



Active: Veigar twists the edges of space around the target location for 3 seconds, stunning enemies who pass through the perimeter for 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 seconds.

Cooldown 24 / 22 / 20 / 18 / 16seconds
Cost 80 / 95 / 110 / 125 / 140mana
Range 650




Endlessly useful spell. The stun has an amazingly long duration and sometimes you might even stun one enemy twice.

Perfect for running away, chasing, ganking and saving your allies.



Blasts an enemy champion, dealing 250 / 375 / 500 (+120% of ability power) plus 80% of his target's AP in magic damage.

Cooldown 130 / 110 / 90seconds
Cost 150 / 200 / 250mana
Range 650




The strongest instant-cast spell in the game. One-hitting with this spell is not rare.
Awfully long cooldown on early levels thou. Use it wisely.

Level your first to make lasthitting with it easier.
Next up is either or

If you think you can land the with a lvl 1 then lvl . If you think you cant hit them then just lvl your

Take ulti as soon as possible.

While fighting you have 2 choices.

Start with , use , use and then

or

start with next next and then



Cool trick:

Use your On an incoming minonwave and then use your on the edge. Quick farm :)

Ah yes, the and combo.

How to do it??

It might be abit hard and you might see yourself wasting loads of mana on this combo, so i suggest trying it out on like CO-OP or just with some friends first.

If you read the description then you know that only the edges of this spell stun your opponent. So there is never really a 100% you will stun your enemy but after some practice it will become easier.

Try NOT to place the center of the circle on your enemy if you are looking to stun him. Try to land the edge of the circle on him. It is abit tricky but once you get the hang of it you will be stunning people like this was not a.... skillshot?

okay anyway. Once you have successfully stunned your enemy try placing right on top of the buggers head OR slightly towards the direction you think he will be running after the stun

You must be pretty quick about this, since the level 1 stun only lasts for 1.5 seconds

OH, and watch out for ppl who use since these items reduce the duration of your stun


Various ways of using the E and W combo

Depending on which runes and first items you selected (See Runes and Item Build)

1) Harass a lot, let your jungler gank a lot. Get kills

or

2) Farm a lot and build up some major ap with your
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1)

Try to last hit with your but put your main focus on harassing the enemy with your combo.
Call the jungler in for ganks and get some easy kills.

Hopefully your jungler has some CC. Always pop your stun right as your ganker shows himself.

If you manage to kill your opponent very early, try not to destroy their turret. This will totally kill your chances of getting some early-game farm.
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2)

Be careful and stay away from your opponent. Farm with but try to keep some mana for your , for either when someone wants to gank your lane or if you need to gtfo out of a sticky situation.

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On your first back you should be able to get and

Sometimes people don't think when they start chasing you.

Give them a few combos and finish them off with when you have gotten them low.

I can't count how many times some has tried to towerdive me only to end up in my and after receiving a few hits from the tower finished off with my .

By mid-game you should have your core-build up. If you dont, then you probably failed at farming and didnt score any kills. But have no fear. Your ultimate is still good since it profits from enemy ap too.

In mid game you should be able to one-hit caster minions with your . So this makes farming very easy and enjoyable.

Try to gank as often as possible, since your gank is very powerful.

Tell the lane you are ganking to CC the enemy and jump in with your combo.

If you catch an enemy off-guard you are almost guaranteed the kill.
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Things not going so well in teamfights?
Getting focused all the time?


Get one of these earlier and things will go smoother.

Get instead of if you tend to forget to use it.

Get if you have some stupid AP flashing in and giving you the Stun+Shield combo.

Very rarely the game ever gets this far. But if it does you have to start thinking a little about your survivability in teamfights.

If you haven't yet then now is the final time to get AT LEAST one of these


I personally like the
+ combo.

But since doesn't benefit your damage in ANY way then you might think about getting the instead (BV gives you mana. Mana gives you AP due to )

DO NOT RUN INTO BRUSHES!!!!

Your acts like a short ranged

if you are EVEN THE LEAST BIT UNSURE then ALWAYS place your W in a brush before facechecking yourself.

This is crucial throughout the ENTIRE game!!!


You can also use this spell to check whether the enemies are taking nashor/dragon and possibly even land a last hit :)

1) Positioning is CRUCIAL!

If you are the first one to go in, then you team will probably lose the teamfight.
Although the second some squishy from the opposing team makes a mistake, do not hesitate to burst him down.

Just remember. DO NOT run in front of your tank. EVAR!
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2) Placement

Now there are 2 ways to use your which is a VERY VERY helpful spell in a teamfight.

You can either use it to directly CC your enemies OR set it up in front of yourself and your ranged carry so no one can directly reach you.

If you have against you then you can tell your ranged carry to stay next to you and use on yourself, setting it around you, so will not be able to run in from behind and destroy you. This is especially necessary if noone in your team has bought or the person using it just got killed.


Usual placement (Without )


Against

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3) Focus.

Don't waste your burst on a tank. Even if your team focused him and he is sorta low.
Your spells are needed to kill the enemy casters and carries.
DO. NOT. WASTE. YOUR. SPELLS!

Also once again. Keep in mind that focusing is almost the same as focusing the tank for you. Try not to do it.

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If you are miding then give a check to the enemy blue buff with your once in a while. If you time your little adventures from your lane correctly then it cant really hurt ( Your opponent has just backed. No one is MIA. )

In early game, this has landed me a blue buff once and has ruined a few junglers lives :D

Also once you get you should be able to 1hit wraiths with your W.

Ah yes, sometimes when queuing with random people you get put in various lanes when playing Veigar.
In this section i will explain Double Laning - when you are usually on the bottom lane with some other dude.

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• 1) Don't waste your mana.

By this i mean last hitting. Use only if you are absolutely sure that you will get the last hit with it. If you are laning with another ranged champion then it's not very likely that your lvl 1 will get the kill.
So, instead of wasting your mana on leaving minons with 1 hp or throwing spells in the air, it might be better to harass your enemies.

Once you pop lvl 3 then it will be alot easier getting last hits with .

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• 2) Check the brushes

Before running into brushes to facecheck always use on the brush, since it reveals the area.

If your lane is pushing and the enemies get very aggressive all of a sudden, then fall back and use on the bush where junglers usually gank.

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• 3) Wards. Wards wards wards!

If your lanemate is not buying any wards then you should atleast keep one ward in your inventory at all times. Every time returning to your lane try to get 2 wards, incase one should run out, or to ward dragon.

And try to remind your team to also buy wards, but do so in a friendly way :)

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• 4)ALWAYS have some spare mana

You need to have at least some mana to use your since it is a VERY powerful getaway spell. Please try to have mana for it should you need it, incase of a gank or

Veigar is a really fun character to play once you get the hang of him.

Get the Leprechaun skin on him and fill your enemies with rage lucking away with 10hp while laughing like a true Veigar :D It also dazzles them with the amazing Rainbow :)


Have fun :)

I sometimes stream.
Catch my stream here: http://www.own3d.tv/live/73312/SpaceCowboy_s_Livestream

20.11.2011

• New masteries
• Special DFG section

19.06.2011

• More info on items
• Fixed a few herp-derps

18.06.2011

• Added Pros and Cons

15.06.2011

• Changed runes explanation (thanks HeavensVVolf)
• Corrected some grammar
• More info on item builds

6.06.2011

• Added sum pixhurz
• Added info about double laning

5.06.2011

• Added "E and W combo"
• Explained rune choices further (thanks niNjaballa)
• Corrected some spelling mistakes
• Made the guide a little more presentable