Veigar is a powerful burst mage who can deal massive damage, especially late-game, thanks to his passive (Phenomenal Evil Power), which allows him to infinitely scale his ability power. Here’s a full guide to help you master Veigar:
1. Runes
Primary: Sorcery- Phase Rush: Helps you kite and escape, especially if you're being engaged upon. Alternatively, you can go Summon Aery for poke or Arcane Comet for extra damage.
- Manaflow Band: Helps with Veigar’s mana management.
- Transcendence: Gives extra ability haste as you scale, which is great for Veigar’s long cooldowns.
- Scorch: Extra poke damage in the early game.
- Cosmic Insight: Reduces cooldowns on summoner spells and items, which helps you use your spells more frequently.
- Magical Footwear: You get free boots at 12 minutes, which can help you save some gold.
2. Starting Items
- Doran’s Ring: Provides AP, mana regen, and health.
- Health Potion: Gives sustain in lane.
- Stealth Ward: For vision.
3. Core Items
- Luden’s Echo: It boosts your burst damage and provides mana sustain with its passive.
- Rylai's Crystal Scepter: Adds health, AP, and the slowing effect on your abilities, which is useful for landing skill shots and keeping enemies at bay.
- Zhonya’s Hourglass: Provides a good defensive option to keep you alive during the chaos of a team fight.
4. Situational Items
- Liandry's Anguish: If the enemy team has a lot of tanky champions, this item is great for burning through their health.
- Morellonomicon: For healing reduction against champions like Soraka, Vladimir, or Swain.
- Rabandon's Deathcap: A must-have late game item for Veigar to exponentially boost his damage.
- Void Staff: Useful if the enemy team is stacking magic resist.
- Banshee's Veil: For some protection against crowd control and burst damage.
5. Abilities
- Passive - Phenomenal Evil Power: Veigar gains AP whenever he hits an enemy champion or minion with his abilities. This passive allows him to scale infinitely, so don't neglect last-hitting minions.
- Q - Baleful Strike: This is your main damage tool. Use it to last-hit minions for your passive stacks and poke the enemy laner. Try to position well to hit champions with it for bonus AP.
- W - Dark Matter: Deals a large burst of magic damage in an area. This ability has a delay before it lands, so try to predict where enemies will be, especially in team fights.
- E - Event Horizon: This is Veigar’s crowd control tool, creating a cage that stuns enemies caught within. Use it for zoning and setting up your other abilities.
- R - Primordial Burst: Veigar’s ultimate is an execute that deals massive magic damage based on the enemy’s missing health. It’s a great tool for assassinating high-priority targets in team fights.
6. Skill Maxing
- Max Q first – It’s your primary damage tool, and maxing it increases your farming potential and poke damage.
- Max E second – Reduces the cooldown on Event Horizon and increases its effectiveness.
- Max W last – Dark Matter scales well with ability power, but the delay makes it harder to maximize early.
- Always level R when available – Your ultimate should always be prioritized at levels 6, 11, and 16.
7. Playstyle
Early Game (Laning Phase)
- Veigar is a weak early-game champion. Your main focus should be to farm safely, last-hit minions with your Q, and stack your passive.
- Don’t try to fight early on unless you have a clear advantage or your jungler is around for a gank.
- Use your E (Event Horizon) to catch the enemy off-guard and to secure kills if they overstep. If you can land a good E and follow up with a W, you can burst down enemies, especially if they are squishy.
Mid Game
- By this point, Veigar will begin to scale up and be a decent threat with his burst damage. You should focus on roaming and helping your team with Event Horizon.
- Be mindful of your positioning. Veigar is squishy, so staying back and using your range to poke is important. Use W and Q to poke from afar and set up kills.
Late Game
- Veigar is an absolute monster in the late game. He will have a massive amount of ability power, and your R (Primordial Burst) can delete any squishy champion instantly.
- Positioning is critical at this stage of the game. Stay in the backline and use your abilities wisely to catch enemies in E. Remember, if you can land E into R, most champions will die before they can react.
8. Combos
- Basic Combo (for poking or skirmishes):
- Q → W (Try to predict the enemy’s movement with W)
- E → R (Use Event Horizon to lock the enemy in place and finish them off with your ultimate)
- Full Combo (for Team Fights):
- E (to set up a stun)
- Q (to deal damage)
- W (for burst damage)
- R (finish off the target with your execute)
9. Tips & Tricks
- Use your Event Horizon (E) strategically to zone enemies, block their escape routes, or force them into awkward positions.
- If you're behind, focus on farming with your Q and avoid unnecessary fights until you get a few items under your belt.
- Always be mindful of your R; it’s an excellent tool for securing kills on high-value targets like enemy ADCs or mid-laners.
- Stack your passive by last-hitting minions with your Q. Every stack matters and will build up your AP for massive late-game damage.
