VI BUILD GUIDE: Vi Is For Violence. Vi Top Lane S3 Guide by Omnibeast

Introduction

About Vi, The Piltover Enforcer

Vi is a strong burst top laner with high damage and 2 strong sources of CC. She can easily jump into the backline of any team and rip out the AD carry. She can be built like any top lane bruiser. The main problem i find with her if you use your ult and your team cant keep up your left alone in 5 people with a hard time escaping. Her dueling potential is great with her Q doing high damage, the W AS and Armor shred proc as well her E doing tons of damage with a very short cooldown. Her Q and E combo also allows for great baron steals even if you don't have smite

Pros and Cons

Pro's:
Strong Burst Damage
Strong Initiation with her Ult and Q
Great armor shred with her W
Good wave clearing with Q & E
Low mana costs
Strong passive
High base stats
GIANT FUCKING FISTS OF FURY

Cons:
No real poke
An all in top laner
High cooldown on Q early. Makes escaping and chasing harder

Masteries

I advise 21-9-0 for Vi going heavy on the AD so she can jump onto any ADC and knock them out of a team fight

[http://gamerexp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ad-21-9-0.png]

[http://gamerexp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ad-21-9-0.png]

Going 9-21-0 Can be good when going up against a tough lane and you need to be a tanky bruiser rather than a damage heavy bruiser.

[http://gamerexp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ad-bruiser-9-21-0.png]

[http://gamerexp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ad-bruiser-9-21-0.png]

Runes

For marks you can run either AD or Armor pen. Either do well.
For seals i take flat armor but you can use flat MR seals if you are up against a strong AP top like Rumble or Vlad.
For Glyphs i prefer per level MR to scale into late game to give you 27 MR which can be helpful
i will always run AD quints for damage.

Summoner Spells

Explanation:

Ignite will always be strong to finish off kills and flash to escape with your Q

Other Viable summoners

Exhuast can be strong against AS heavy top laners like Jax. take this to stop them and the enemy AD carry
[summoners/ghost.png]

Ghost can give a lot of chase potential so it also works on Vi

Skills

Passive: Blast Shield

Explanation:

This is quite a strong passive, a shield for using abilities every 10 seconds based on your health. This can save your life when trading in 1v1 fights so never forget about it. Also very strong for jungling to reduce damage from jungle camps

Q: Vault Breaker

Explanation:

One of Vi's primary tools. This skill is her escape, engage and a major damage skill. It can go through most walls when fully charge so use it like you would use flash to jump through walls to escape of catch enemies. With level 5 the cooldown is low enough to help chase down enemies with ease. Deals double damage at max range so always try to engage a fight at max range with this.

W: Denting Blows

Explanation:

Denting Blows is an extremely strong passive skin giving a attack speed boost and shreding armor. it also deals damage as a percentage of there max help so Vi can easily take down big tanks like Mundo. The attack speed buff can really help you win trades early and do great damage late game. But W does NOT activate Vi's passive so this is why i don't take it at level 1 as that shield can come in very handle and be the difference in life in death.

E: Excessive Force

Explanation:

This is my favorite skill in Vi's kit. It is an instant attack so the idea is to use this skill straight after an auto attack. Do this combo do put out more damage quickly. This skill is Vi's only form of poke in a sense, as it attacks all enemies behind the the target of this skill. This skill even with its low base damage scales very with your AD and AP. Making a trinity-force

very strong.

R: Assault and battery

Explanation:

In my opinion this a very strong ultimate. Not only does it knock up the main target but anyone in the path is knocked back creating a clear path to your target for the rest of your team. This is such a strong engage and what makes her scary late game. I combo this with my [skills/vi/q.png]

as soon as i can by using it to knock back the target and any other surrounding enemies trying to stop you from bursting the AD carry or primary target

Skill Order

The reason i like to max [skills/vi/e.png]

over

is because the damage is more reliable and the cooldown on [skills/vi/e.png]

is very low at level 5.
W does alot of damage at level 1 that if can be left till last to max it.

Early Game

For the early game on Vi is where i think she is weakest but she can still do a lot of damage at level 3 when she has all of her skills. Just try to farm up to get your [items/the-brutalizer.png]

and that's when you can start to lay down the damage. Like all top lane bruiser don't go in head strong and find out you can't trade with the opponent. Test out your damage by using your [skills/vi/e.png]

for poke and if you think the damage is sufficient prepare your [skills/vi/q.png]

and charge it fully so you can start the fight with increased damage and your [skills/vi/p.png]

to negate early damage.

Level 6

Level 6 is the time when you should start going aggressive on Vi. At she is very strong at 6, if you can get your jungle to gank as you hit level 6 which will easily allow a kill or at least force a flash or ghost. Every time after that, tell the jungler or mid the cooldown for your [skills/vi/r.png]

so you can prepare ganks to take advantage of this high damage and great CC ult.

Mid Game

Time To Shine

Mid game is time for you to start destroying people. Around the 20 minute mark you want to have a [items/trinity-force.png]

or a

completed and upgraded boots. If you're ahead by a lot then you may have both items, and now you can cause a lot of havok. Roaming to mid and hurting the enemy top laner will continue to snowball as Vi snowballs very strongly. You can help with roams by going bot to grab a sneaky dragon or gank an unsuspecting botlane.

Late Game

Late Game Terror

Now late game Vi's main role is to jump the enemy carries. Using [skills/vi/r.png]

to jump straight into the backline is a great engage and if combined with another AOE ult like [champ/amumu.png]

can lead to very easy team fights. Just make sure your team understands whats about to happen otherwise you will be left in the backline alone whilst your team reacts to what you have just done. Always remember to try and use your [skills/vi/q.png]

as soon as your ult finishes to combo the CC and if do a lot more damage as both [skills/vi/r.png]

and

apply

so within one combo of [skills/vi/r.png]

you will have a enemy hit by [skills/vi/w.png]

and they should be thrown out the fight or killed if this is all done right

Team Fights

Vi is for Violate the enemy carries

Now late game Vi's main role is to jump the enemy carries. Using [skills/vi/r.png]

to jump straight into the backline is a great engage and if combined with another AOE ult like [champ/amumu.png]

as soon as your ult finishes to combo the CC and if do a lot more damage as both [skills/vi/r.png]

and

apply

so within one combo of [skills/vi/r.png]

you will have a enemy hit by [skills/vi/w.png]

and they should be thrown out the fight or killed if this is all done right. if anyone has survived your scary combo then you can easily clean up with your low cooldown [skills/vi/e.png]

making Vi tough to takedown without a fight.

Final Comments

Even in the first few days on Vi i can tell she is a strong champ with great potential and a lot of strengths. It is likely to see a nerf on her in a few days so make use of her whilst you can. She is very weak against heavy poke top laners like [champ/teemo.png]

so be careful. It may be hard to actually get Vi for the next couple of days as everyone will want to try out but i recommend just testing her in custom games or bot games.
I hope my guide has helped and any suggestion, comments or changes will be greatly appreciated.
Sorry if there are many grammar errors or scripting errors as my first guide has been a nice learning curve.

	Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
	Blast Shield (Passive)
	Vault Breaker
	Denting Blows
	Excessive Force
	Assault and battery