Night Hunter (Innate)
Grants flat 30 MS bonus when chasing an enemy within 2000 range
Superb passive for an assassin like you. It will give you advantage in lane, by giving you more mobility, and will allow you to chase down your targets like a hunter you are.

Tumble (Q)
Tumble towards your cursor position that empowers your next attack with bonus damage
Fell in love with this skill ever since I started playing Vayne. Not only it gives you a skill for manual dodge that just nullifies a potential threat of skillshots like Enchanted Crystal Arrow, but also gives you insane damage on your next auto attack. It acts like you have a free Sheen available for you anytime. Also, the ability is a perfect chasing tool.

Silver Bolts (W)
Every third hit applies flat bonus damage + percentage of target's max. health as true damage
This is a key to this build. If not this skill, Vayne might have ended up as Ashe, very dependant on AD items. Now when you have this, you can focus on attack speed and self-defence, because the damage on every third hit will be high enough to still destroy your targets (remember, resists are completely ignored by true damage). This skill has amazing synergy with Madred's Bloodrazor and Wit's End

Condemn (E)
Single target knockback that impales if it collides with terrain
Your only CC ability, which however is a very heavy CC (knockback + possible stun). If the targeted enemy collides with terrain (not including terrain created with abilities like Crystallize or Cataclysm), he gets stunned for 1.5 seconds.

Final Hour (R)
Self-buff. AD increase, passive MS increase, invisibility upon using Tumble
Very useful ability with a remarkably short cooldown (you can use it every minute). On activation, it grants you increased Attack Damage. In addition, movement speed buff from Night Hunter is increased to 120 bonus MS instead of 30. Also, upon using Tumble while empowered by Final Hour, Vayne enters stealth for 1 second. Very nice ultimate to have as Vayne

• greater quintessence of desolation

  Armor Penetration. Pretty much needed for any physical damage based character.

• greater mark of desolation

  Same reasoning. Armor Pen. is the most efficient in terms of damage output.

• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

  Really like it in case if I have to take mid lane where you are likely to face an AP Caster with magic damage.

• Greater Seal of Armor

  This is more oriented to counter damage at bot and solo top lanes.

• Greater Quintessence of Health

  Niiiiiice quint to buff your health pool early on. If you choose these, take Veteran's Scars in defense mastery tree for extra 108 health in early game. However, if you can manage playing a squishy hero early in the game, I'd not recommend these, as armor pen. makes more difference in mid game.

• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

  If you wish to have more early damage to have a stronger early game.

• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

  If you take bot lane, you aren't likely to face a strong AP champion, so AP/level MR may be much better choice as it will charge up to almost twice as strong as flat MR by the time you get to face their AP Carry.

• greater glyph of replenishment

  If you don't meed MR and especially if you get a solo lane, mana regen is important, because you really need your abilities to feel safe and deal more damage.

• Greater Mark of Attack Damage

  Another choice for early damage. I doubt if it is worth the given up armor pen. If you have experience with these, feel free to use them.

Masteries are set up to boost damage and increase armor penetration, as appropriate to any AD Carry. However, instead of mana regeneration and prolonged buff duration in the utility tree, I prefer 9 points in defense tree for more durability early on.

Offence tree:

Brute Force - 3 more AD from the start. The best you can take in this tier.
Butcher - Since you are not using Exhaust, Summoner's Wrath is useless to invest into. And Butcher will help you just a little bit with last-hitting.
Alacrity - Attack speed buff. Before you will get your Wit's End/ Zeal, you will be really lacking AS.
Demolitionist - 10 more damage to turrets. Will complement your lack of AD when taking down towers.
Weapon Expertise - Good 10% armor penetration boost. Since you won't build any armor pen. in items, this mastery alongside your runes should make up for it.
Deadliness - AD per level is a nice thing. Get it.
Lethality - Mini Infinity Edge =P Good mastery to get as AD Carry.
Vampirism - 2% (put only 2 points into it) lifesteal. Combined with Wriggle's Lantern results in pre-nerfed Wriggle's Lantern :D
Sunder - 6 more armor penetration. Nice complement to your runes.
Executioner - best mastery in the game for any assassin. All damage dealt to target under 40% health is boosted by 6%. Maybe it's not a lot in early game, but late game, this mastery is literally felt when you attack someone at low HP.

Defense Tree

Summoner's Resolve 1 more second of Cleanse buff which grants you insane CC reduction. Definitely take it.
Hardiness More early armor
Durability Bonus 108 health at lvl 18. Not bad, considering that you will be focusing on building resistances rather then health.
Veteran's Scars 30 HP at level 1. Makes you more tanky right from the start.

* Superb spell, especially when used with this build.
* I'm not sure what is the exact percentage of CC reduction from both Cleanse and Mercury's Treads, but you hardly feel any CC that is Cleanseable (meaning that knockback's, knockup's and suppression are still working to the fullest).
* You should provoke the other team into CC'ing you just to cleanse all of it and let yourself and your real AD Carry kill them all.
* I strongly recommend this spell not just with my build, but on Vayne in general.


* Generally the best spell in game. It will save you so much times, rapidly blink into position to land a perfect Condemn or help you get a kill on your opponent.
* Overall makes for a great initiation/escape spell.


* With this build, Cleanse is much more appealing, but Exhaust is always a great alternative, if you prefer more offensive style and can guarantee that you won't get into a situation in which you need to Cleanse.


* Take this if you are going to solo top lane (especially in normal games as it often turns out to be a 2v1 lane).
* Although some people disagree with it, I find Teleport a must have spell for top lane champion. Usually they are isolated from the rest of the team and unless they have Teleport, they can't influence any fights at bot, dragon and mid.
* Teleport also allows for a great map control in mid and late game.


* This is more of a personal preference. Some players prefer Ghost over Flash
* Consider it as an ESCAPE summoner spell only. You have Night Hunter and Tumble for chasing. Everything else is really unnecessary, unless you are trying to chase down a Highlander Master Yi.

* You can take this to counter your AD carry/Offtank vis-a-vis. Ususally both will have some lifesteal and healing reduction may prove to be quite useful. Great for countering champions like Sion.
* Also, adds to your damage in early game. May be exactly that little bit of damage, needed to finish off your target. Not a bad spell, definitely.

* Not sure how it works, but I saw this play scheme in some high ELO matches. You will take Heal while your support will grab Exhaust to assist you. I'm not sure if it's a good strategy, but Heal is a fine spell anyways, very underrated. Up to your preference :)



* Why not? You do not scale with AP at all and AS will never be that much of a problem to sacrifice Cleanse or Flash for it.
* Turns useless mid and late game.
* Elixir of Agility is a fine substitute to boost AS
* For these reasons,

NO

* Why not? You aren't that mana hungry, unless you use Tumble every time it comes off cooldown.
* If you still have problems with mana, go duo bot with Soraka.
* Turns useless in mid game.
* For these reasons,

NO

* Why not? Pure support spell. You can't use it in any good way.
* Let someone else have it. Just a waste of summoner spell slot for you.
* For these reasons,

NO

* Why not? Although it's a decent skill for pushing, you don't want to push your lane till you get enough farm for your core build, therefore you will not find any use for it in early game.
* Later on, the Promoted minion isn't that scary, so the spell is also kind of useless.
* If someone takes it, let it be a support :)
* For these reasons,

NO

* Why not? I'm not even sure if Vayne can jungle at all...
* Take this on Vayne alongside nonexistent Rally to make people queue dodge.
* For these reasons,

NO

* Why not? BEST SPELL EVAH!!!!!!! OFC TAKE IT!
* ^ Self-explainatory
* For these reasons,

NO

• 
  Your best opening. These starting items give you 450 health stored in pots, mobility which is extremely important for controlling the lane well and an ability to rush your Mercury's Treads.
  If you are going to solo lane (either mid or top), boots are MUST HAVE.
  If you are playing bot lane, you may open with Doran's Blade (which will have to be sold later or other alternative options which I outline in "Situational items" section)
  
  
  
• 
  Your main boots choice. You buy them because of the provided tenacity bonus (Reduction of Crowd Control effects). This is the key to successfully ignoring most of annoying crowd control aimed at you. Combined with your Cleanse, the tenacity diminishes CC to almost unnoticeable duration. These boots literally break all the chains that your opponents try to wink on your wrists ;)
  Additionally, you get 25 Magic Resist that is very good for countering AP Carries in mid lane.
  Really, this is the only adequate boots choice for Vayne if you decide to build her as a durable AD Carry. Don't even think about getting Berserker's Greaves. That's for lame AD/Crit Glass Cannon Vayne =P
  
  
  
• 
  Your core laning item. You want to get this ASAP. As soon as you get 1600 gold, use the first opportunity to "go base" and get Wriggle's Lantern.
  It helps you with farming a lot with that bonus damage to minions, gives you a free ward that will definitely make you feel safer in lane and grants damage to harass more, armor to reduce incoming damage and lifesteal to sustain yourself in lane. Uber important item.
  If you are laning at bot, make sure to help your support with this free ward for better lane and dragon control.
  
  
  
• OR OR
  Now, it's time to get ONE of your Trinity Force components.
  Note, you don't want to buy more then one of these items (You need Wit's End and Madred's Bloodrazor asap to successfully deal damage and get more resists)
  It actually reminds me of upgrading Viktor's hex core :D
  You basically have a choice between three:
• Zeal - More MS, AS, Crit Chance
• Sheen - More Mana, Bonus damage upon using abilities ( Tumble becomes OP)
• Phage - More Health, AD, Chance to slow on-hit
  Make a choice basing on the current situation. If you stay in lane, farm and harass a lot, your choice is Sheen, if you are constantly in motion, chasing people down and rush here and there around the map, pick Zeal, if you feel a need in more ultility, damage and health, Phage is at your service.
  
  
  
• 
  Keeping adding resists to our defense. This item is great for several reasons. First, it's very cheap for the awesome stats that it provides. You pay 2000 gold for huge AS bonus, decent MR that stacks upon auto-attacking. And most importantly, your EVERY SINGLE attack deals 42 bonus magic damage. Now all the guys who stacked armor are in sticky situation, as your auto attacks not only deal physical damage, but also apply magic effect that ignores all the armor and scales with enemy's magic resist.
  
  
  
• 
  Now that your enemies are pissed off by your freaky physical-magic-true damage, they get angry and start building one thing that protects from all damage... Health ^^
  There are usually one or two guys who have decent health pools and proudly call themselves tanks. These are people whom you are going to hurt.
  After you get your Madred's Bloodrazor, you get even more AS and Armor, which means more procs of Silver Bolts, which results in more true damage. And the sweetest part of this item is on every attack you deal 4% of the target's max. health as magic damage.
  
  Now think about it...
  Your every attack deals your AD as physical damage (if lucky, you may crit) + 42 magic damage from Wit's End + 4% of target's max. health as magic damage.
  Not bad... But every third attack deals (considering Silver Bolts are maxed out):
  Your AD as physical damage + 42 magic damage from Wit's End + additional 60 physical damage from Silver Bolts + 4% of target's max. health as magic damage + 8% of target's max health as true damage.
  
  AND ALL OF THAT HAPPENS AT THE ATTACK SPEED OF ~1.7 AA's PER SECOND!
  That means 3 attacks in 2 seconds.
  Not speaking of use of your abilities that can increase the damage even further...
  I say, 10 seconds of consecutive auto-attacking will make anyone on the board pretty dead :)
  
  
  
• 
  Generally great item that gives you a lot of utility from the movespeed and on-hit chance to slow, some more health and mana and increases your AD and AS.
  Also, upon using the ability, your next attack scales with 150% increased base AD.
  With this, Tumble becomes insanely overpowered, as the next attack after tumbling will deal 160% of your Attack Damage + 150% of your base AD. Your AD at this point will be around 195, thus the attack after tumble will deal ~400 physical damage and apply all the on-hit effects. If you add up all the digits, this will not be much worse then AD Vayne's crit damage :)
  
  
  
• 
  Vital late game item. Generally, you want to pick it up to get a ton of resists, be able to calmly fight till death (as you will be revived) and increase your overall "tanky"ness.
  Maybe you disagree with getting this item and want to opt for investing into more damage ( Infinity Edge for example), but I assure you, GA is an absolute must in late game. If you need more DMG, buy GA and then replace your Wriggle's Lantern with stronger damage item.
  
  
  

  Situational items

• 
  Want to troll their AD Carry hard? This is the choice.
  I would suggest making these purchases if you choose to solo top against an aggressive AD champion like Renekton or Talon. Also, this allows you to rush Wriggle's Lantern faster, but reduces your mobility.
  
  
• 
  Not very viable with this build, as you will have to sell it later, but definitely a fine choice for farming bot lane. Not much to say here. If you feel comfortable without pots, by all means.
  I don't recommend this for solo lane. Remember, there is no support to babysit you.
  
  
  
• 
  Take this if you plan to sit back and farm all the time and just heal up all the damage that you might be taking. Also, faster Wriggle's.
  
  
  
• 
  Great replacement to Wriggle's Lantern after you've completed your build. Although you will lose that little extra armor from Wriggle's, the increased AD and lifesteal will be totally worth it. I suggest replacing Wriggle's with BT in late game.
  
  
  
• 
  I can see two potential places to fit this item into. First, you can replace Wriggle's Lantern with IE, but in this case you will have no lifesteal or whatsoever (only 2% from masteries).
  Also, you can build IE instead of Trinity Force. You will lose a little bit of health pool and two awesome on-hit effects, but crazy damage from Infinity Edge can be much more important in some games. If you dominate your opponents, better get Infinity Edge to pwn them even harder ^^
  
  
  
• and
  
  Don't really like FM, because only adequate decision is to replace Trinity Force with it. And apart from more health and 100% on-hit slow, it doesn't benefit you any better then TF. Not to mention that you lose AS, MS, Crit. chance and Sheen passive that TF provides alongside health and on-hit slow.
  However, FM will make you much more tanky then TF. Consider this, if you need to slow down fleeing enemies. OP slow when combined with red buff.
  If you buy both of these (replace Wriggle's with Atma's and TF with FM) it will turn you much more tanky and give some decent AD bonus due to Atma's passive as well as crit. chance.
  This combo is very nice, but you have to understant that your damage gets lower then it would be with TF and Wriggle's combination.
  
  
  
• 
  Getting owned by their AP burst carry early on? Hexdrinker is a thing you need. It's relatively cheap, provides MR and AD which is good for early game and most importantly, it gives you magic damage absorbing shield that will proc if you are dealt damage that would leave you below 30% health.
  Think of it as Blitzcrank's passive that works with magic only.
  
  
  
• 
  Another AP countering item. The best idea would be to substitute either Wriggle's Lantern (if their team is mostly AP) or Trinity Force with it. Unlike Hexdrinker, this item is great in late game and will likely protect you from LeBlanc or Brand that rely on combos a lot.
  
  
  
• 
  Veeeeeery nice item, but somewhat situational. You can replace Wriggle's Lantern or Trinity Force with it for a little bit of bonus health and some insane attack speed (I believe that it will put you at around 2 attacks per second).
  Most importantly, it's an absolute facerape in teamfights ^^
  On every fourth attack (meaning every 2 seconds of attacking), enemies around the target will be dealt 110 magic damage. Considering you will be attacking a lot, it will wear down your opponents very quick. Superb item to consider.
  I've personally waited for a long time for Riot to make it available on SR ^^
  
  This item will become available for purchase on Summoner's Rift with the introduction of Sejuani patch.
  
  
  
• 
  You can take this instead of GA if you get raped by magic damage and not so much by physical. Also gives you good health regeneration and some additional MS.
  
  
  
• 
  WAAAAAT? This is **** on AD carry...
  Oh, how wrong you are! This is a terrific item for you. Replace your Trinity Force with this.
  Think about it... An enemy will try to focus you after they see the crazy damage that you deal, so by buying Randuin's Omen you will make them cry.
  Although you lose the MS, AS, crit. chance and all the on-hit effects from TF, you gain more health, health regeneration, 75 (!!!) bonus armor and a great passive that procs on being hit and gives you chance to slow the attacker's AS and MS by 35%.
  Hell, with this, you can take on any AD based champion on the battlefield. Also, no one will want to focus you after they realize how disadvantageous it is. So you will be let act freely to keep shooting your enemies for crazy amounts of damage.
  And the greatest part... With Randuin's Omen active, you will not need that TF on-hit slow proc, as you will be able to slow their whole team's AS and MS by the same 35% for ~3.5 or 4 seconds (depending on your armor and MR)
  
  Also, if you decide to go for this item, buy Heart of Gold early on instead of getting Zeal/ Sheen/ Phage for your TF. This will help you out with gold. Very nice GP10 passive.
  
  
  

  Items to avoid

  
  
• 
  Don't even think. You will get a ton of AS from Wit's End and Madred's Bloodrazor. These boots are useless with this build.
  + you lose the tenacity bonus and extra MR from Mercury's Treads.
  Bad choice.
  
  
  
• 
  Again, attack speed comes from other items.
  While the armor reduction is nice, this item has no survivability to offer. Leave it for glass-cannons to pick.
  
  
  
• 
  Just like with BC, useless item for a tanky DPS that you are. Crit. chance and movespeed are nice, but you get enough from Zeal/ Trinity Force.
  
  
  
• /
  Not sure if anyone builds snowballs on Vayne, but I've gotta tell you, you will die occasionally (better you then a real carry ;), so better don't pick something that's going to cripple you upon death.
  
  
  
  While the health and armor are nice, this is more of a full-tank item. There is no adequate place for this in your build. Don't get it.
  
  
  
  
  Don't get crazy :D You are building a tanky DPS, not a tank. You don't want to lose all the damage and this ****-load of health won't help you carrying much anyways. Better invest into something with resists or damage.

Before anything else, let's quickly talk about when to play Vayne like this?

• Opponent's team consists of heavy AD, tanky champions with lots of CC (i.e. Malphite, Rammus, Blitzcrank, Ashe, Morgana )
• You want to have strong mid and late game.
• You need to counter a solo-top AD champion with a lot of health (i.e. Nasus)
• You have a Taric on your team xD
  Seriously, this lane combo is insanely overpowered. If your Taric knows what you are doing, you will get amazing results. If you see a Taric on your team, no hesitation, there is nothing better then Taric- Vayne in terms of lane safety, damage and defense.

When not to play Vayne like this?

• Their team isn't very tanky and there is a fair amount of magic damage and not so much CC (i.e. Shaco, Riven, Akali, Soraka, Graves).
  In such case, go for classic Vayne build, it will deal much more crazy damage from the very start since your enemies won't be building a lot of armor and MR (maybe only their tank, somehow you managed that before finding this guide :D)
• Your team needs a real tank or fighter (keep in mind, you can't substitute for a tank even though you get crazy resists closer to late game; Rammus will still remain a Rammus, if your team needs him, don't be a selfish bastard and pick what you all will need ;)
• You will not be able to get a solo lane/all the farm. Technically, this can happen in normals, when people pick only carries and fighters. Once again, you need farm with this build. It's no good if you can't get your gold fast enough.

Next,
It is very important to realize that if you are using this build, you are not such an early game faceroll as AD/Crit Vayne is. There are certain goals to your early game laning. These are must complete objectives. If you fail early game, you will likely slow down in building your items, while your opponents will speed up in it. It's pretty general knowledge, so I will not get into much details.

Your early game must do's:

• Take either a solo lane or a lane in which you will be getting all the cs. Duo lane with Tryndamere in normal game IS NOT an option.
• FARM! As much as possible. It should be easier, as you won't get denied as easily as classic Vayne (you are much more resilient to harassment). But you need certain items asap to get your build working to the fullest.
• DON'T DIE. It's vital. If you die, you lose time in lane, thus you lose cs and exp. Don't go for a kill if it will get you killed. You will be able to farm up those 180 gold and even more during the time that you'd spend dead.
  I completely understand that we aren't gods of farming, neither we are 2k elo players. So let's say your goal is 100 cs ~15-20 minute. Pretty decent cs for an average player.
  Of course, if you can get kills, never hesitate. Kills result in money, money = faster items, faster items = gg & wp <3
• If you are in bot lane, control the dragon! After you get your Wriggle's Lantern, drag should be warded at ALL TIMES!
  Also, you are the one to help your jungler take down dragon fast and safe. Wriggle's Lantern and Silver Bolts make it a piece of cake.

Now, let's discuss particular behavior in different lanes. I'll start from bot lane, as it is the most common place for an AD Carry (remember, however, that you can take any lane).

Farm.

Use an advantage of having support in your lane and farm as much as possible, without being afraid of getting harassed too much or ganked.
You should be getting all the cs at bot lane. It's very important for your success.

Harassment.

It's always good to make your enemy worried about getting killed. Your best harass combo is 2 auto attacks and then Tumble to proc Silver Bolts. This results in massive damage.
Ideally, you want to do it sometimes to keep your enemies at 50-75% health for a possible gank and make enemy support to spend mana on heals.
However, remember not to lose too much CC for the sake of harassing your contenders.

Ganks.

When your jungler approaches, be prepared to act quickly. There are two possible scenarios for a good gank.

1) Your jungler initiates with a disable to enemy and then you and support follow up with CC of your own for a chain disable.
Example: Udyr runs in stunning the enemy with Blazing Stampede then you follow up with Condemn to launch your target into a wall and Soraka silences him with Infuse to prevent Flash.

2) You and support initiate a fight, your enemies commit to it and then jungler rushes in, giving you an advantage.
Example: Taric casts Dazzle after which you immediately Condemn enemy into a wall, which lets Shaco the time to place Jack In The Box and for fear to proc.

Remember that you have Cleanse. During the gank, you will likely get Exhausted since you are a large damage threat. As soon as you see it, Cleanse it (if it's worth it of course. No need to Cleanse if the enemy dies anyways)

Protection.

Of course, enemy jungler will try to gank you as well. After you got Wriggle's Lantern, you should have zero problems with warding.

When you spot a gank on you, make sure to Tumble out of range of any blink or dash spell (such as Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike or Audacious Charge) or dodge any disabling skillshots (like Light Binding or Rocket Grab)
If enemies get dangerously close, Condemn them away from you and your support.

Remember to use invisibility from Final Hour if gank gets too dangerous or there's a tower dive going on. Cooldown is very short, so if you survive the dive, it will be back up by the time you return to lane.

Also, it is worth a note that you can stun enemies by using Condemn to launch them into tower or it's remains :D

Farm.

This will be a lot easier, because lane is very short and you don't need to worry much about getting ganked. In mid, Condemn and Tumble will get you out of sticky situation.
One very important thing to remember with mid-farming, DO NOT PUSH THE LANE TOO FAR!
If minions will be in the center of the lane, there's absolutely nothing to worry about, you are un-gankable. But if you pushed the lane all the way to enemy's turret, there's plenty of space for the jungler to get behind you.
Therefore, unlike bot lane, where you could AA and Tumble all day, you should try to only last hit. Use your skills for harassment, rather then for intense farming.

"Freezing" the lane

Thanks to Bryun's Akali guide. That's where I learned this method.

Very efficient strategy in mid. To exercise this, you need to keep the minions at the edge of your tower's range so that it won't attack them, but the creeps would be far enough in the lane for your enemy to be afraid of the gank.
This way, they'll have no choice. Either to stay back and lose gold or to open themselves for a gank opportunity.

This is the approximate zone in which you ideally want to keep all the minions.
Note that it might not work with champions like Malzahar who can just drop Malefic Visions on one of the creeps and get back to rest at his turret while gold will keep dropping into his pocket. However, it's just perfect versus champions like Akali who have to get into closer range to last-hit.

Harassment.

Pretty much the same 2AA- Tumble combo as in bot lane. Very simple with the bonus MS from Night Hunter.
Be careful with champions that can lock you down and punish for coming too close. Dodge the AoE delayed spells like Nevermove or Pillar of Flame with your amazing matrix Tumble. Apart from evading damage and CC, it makes you feel very boss :D

AP Carry as an enemy.

In 9 cases out of 10, mid will be taken by an AP carry. Therefore, you should prioritize Magic Resist over Armor. Wriggle's Lantern is still a must-buy-asap item, so get it first after your boots. But then you should rush Wit's End and possibly get a Hexdrinker vs. a champion like LeBlanc, this will alleviate all the pressure they can put on you with their spells. Remember, that AP carries have very low resists early in the game (they can't allow it without sacrificing AP), so press into them whenever you feel like it's worth the damage that you will take. Remember, you can heal using Wriggle's Lantern pretty quickly by just auto-attacking the minions.

Farm.

Same as in mid, last hit and try not to push the lane too much.
Later, remember to ward the river bush for maximum protection.

Harassment and denial.

This is what I absolutely love about solo top Vayne.
According to current metagame, a melee offtank that needs a lot of farm will take top lane. Best example of such guy is Nasus. He stays at top lane for first 30 minutes of the game, farming his Siphoning Strike up and then goes into a fight and destroys the whole enemy team.
Well, here's the deal... You work best against melee beefy champions. So in top lane, it's your job to harass the living hell out of that Nasus and deny him all the possible farm. You have superb range to do that, great health shredding ability, decent CC to stun or knock-back him and Cleanse to break out of his CC if he commits to a fight.
HARASS ALL THE TIME. He shouldn't be getting any creep kill without suffering 3 shots and a Silver Bolts proc.
When you get more freedom on mana usage, Condemn your enemy from the creep that they are about to last hit. This make them rage hard as well =P
Keep in mind to watch out for ganks. You don't want to get killed for the sake of harassment.

Overall, remember, at top, you have an advantage early game! Use it to the fullest.

Warding

At top, you definitely want to have a ward in the river bush. Also, it's good to ward baron and entrance to bottom team's blue buff (with a single ward). So if you have 75 gold to spare, do it. May help you a lot.
Remember, you aren't the AD carry only. Since you take solo top, warding is part of your responsibility.

Here's an unusual part about playing Vayne. You would never exercise this strategy as a classic AD/Crit Vayne.

First, please understand that I operate under assumption that your team has a typical formation (AD-Carry/Off tank (that would be you), AD Carry, AP Carry, Support and Tank. Maybe you would be an AD Carry and you will also have a real melee offtank).
Also, I suppose that your team knows that first targets in team fights are squishy targets. If they don't take care of them, but instead they prioritize a tank, please type "/surrender" in chat box. This will help ;)

So, what is your role in a teamfight?
You are an ANTI-TANK. Madred's Bloodrazor and Silver Bolts let you easily kill them and without having their tank, the rest of their team is defenseless.

Here's the game plan for a regular team fight.

• Target #1: The guy who carries their team. Focus him/her as a whole team, before anything else. It isn't gonna help much if you will kill Amumu while your team got quadra-killed by some Tristana. So, as usual, most dangerous target first.
  
• Target #2: An offtank. Someone like Wukong or Skarner who can deal a lot of damage, but are very durable at the same time. Isolate them with Condemn and finish with auto attacks and Tumbles.
  
• Target #3: The tank. Yes, a freaking Malphite. You don't care about his 300 armor. Magic and true damage still rape him through his stone skin. AA all day.
  I literally 9-shot 5k HP Maokai in one of my games. He had around 150 armor, but not a lot of magic resist ;)
  
• Target #4: AP Carry. To be honest, if they aren't dead by this point, your team did something wrong... Check if your guys are alive :D
  
• Target #5: Support. Same as a mage, should be well dead already.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT IF YOU SEE AN EASY KILLABLE AP CARRY OUT OF POSITION, YOU SHOULD KILL HIM. THIS ORDER ISN'T A CATECHISM. AFTER ALL, GAME IS FLEXIBLE, MAKE YOUR CHOICES BASING ON CURRENT SITUATION!

Also, important to know... You aren't a rambo to just go in and kill everyone. You can still get focused very fast in 5v1 situation. Remember, you are going in after your tank. Wait for him to initiate a fight and preferrably for some sort of Kennen or Morgana on your team to rush in with an ult at your enemies.
Keep in mind your Cleanse. If you know that you will get CC'ed, it may worth it to pop the Cleanse when you enter the fight to dramatically reduce all the disables in time.

Wait, Alba... Sounds cool, but what do I do if their tank initiates?

You should be aware of their tank's potential and be prepared to avoid impact with Flash or Tumble and go straight for main target.
If their tank initiates too early, make him pay for this mistake. Remember, you are melting tanks in a matter of seconds.
But remember to switch focus to main preference target as soon as you can.

What if they focus me first?

All I can tell you, this is near to perfect :D Of course, it would be better for tank to take the damage, but it's better for you to die rather then for real AD Carry of your Mage. You know what Kassadin can do with their team if they spend just 5-6 seconds focusing you down? Hope you do, but they don't :D It's ok for you to die in teamfight.
But remember to analyze why you died. Was it their AD Carry? Randuin's Omen asap. A mage with a ton of burst? Force of Nature. A mix of damage and idk who exactly is the guy, but I wanna live? Guardian Angel. Was it a support? Uninstall (O_o)

This section is about playing bottom lane, so you may skip it if you are not planning on going bot.

I will quickly outline all the pros and cons of every support and discuss the general teamwork :)

Finally, I'm not very experienced in playing AD Carries (My main preference is AP mid :), so please feel free to correct or add to what I've said. Always appreciated.

Alistar, The Minotaur

Pros/Cons:

• Subsequent heals that can sustain the whole lane very well. Great partner for pushing.
• Godly CC with Headbutt and Pulverize.
• Tanky, can cover you when fighting.
• Can't heal for a large amounts.
• No shield to protect you with.
• For these two reasons, only thing to rely on is a hope that your Alistar will be able to CC enemies that try to focus you.

Teamwork:

• After Alistar rams the enemy into a wall or uses Pulverize to knock them up, immediately follow up with Condemn for a stun.
• If Alistar manages to get someone into tower range, knock them into tower after they try to escape from there. Works in opposite direction as well. You Condemn an enemy into tower and then Alistar Headbutts them even further.
• Kill as much creeps as you can to proc CDR effect on Alistar's Triumphant Roar more often and get more heals.

Amumu, The Sad Mummy

Pros/Cons:

• Amazing CC with Bandage Toss and Curse of the Sad Mummy. If you plan to play aggressive, Amumu is a very strong partner.
• Very tanky. After getting a little bit of health, he can easily tank turrets for you to dive.
• Decent AoE damage with Tantrum. Unlike many supports, Amumu can easily hold the lane while you are buying items at base.
• No heals, shields or any other support abilities.
• He needs farm for him to be very good in late game. That's why Amumu probably wouldn't go bottom lane with you.

Teamwork:

• Pretty straightforward. Bandage Toss-> Condemn->Kill
• Curse of the Sad Mummy is a perfect ability for a massive gank. During 2 seconds of snare, you, mummy and your jungler can easily kill both enemies.

Blitzcrank, The Great Steam Golem

Pros/Cons:

• Hilarious tower pulls with Rocket Grab
• Very strong damage with Static Field and Power Fist
• Mana Barrier is such a bait. Can easily get you a couple of kills. Enemies chase Blitz, his passive procs. Blitz lives, enemy dies ^^
• No heal or any other supportive spell.
• Unintentionally may steal cs with Static Field's passive. Can't do anything about it.
• Requires very fast coordinated actions to successfully chain-CC enemies.

Teamwork:

• If he manages to pull someone into tower range, he will immediately use Power Fist for a knock-up. Get behind your enemy and launch them into turret for 1.5 seconds of stun. Overall 3-4 seconds within tower range kill anyone at starting levels.
• Know about his passive. Don't Condemn enemies away from him if the passive didn't proc yet. Use this as a bait. All the time.
• Don't rage at him when his ult accidentally kills creeps :D

Janna, The Storm's Fury

Pros/Cons:

• Best CC in game. Knock up, knockback and extreme slow.
• Eye of the Storm gives an insane damage buff for early game.
• Her passive, Tailwind, makes you move a little faster :)
• Monsoon isn't the strongest heal, especially if she doesn't have the time to channel it for a full duration.
• A little squishy lane, but since you are building resists, this isn't much of a problem.
• Besides that, no cons, really. Janna is like the perfect support ^^
  duration

Teamwork:

• Let her CC them to death and just auto attack them. If you can, Condemn an enemy into a wall after knock up from Howling Gale
• Whenever she puts a shield on you, become an aggressive *****. With 40-50 bonus AD at max levels, you can devastate enemies' health bars like crazy. Also, don't make that shield go in vain. Tank some damage with it, it's ok :D
• If she channels Monsoon after the initial knockback, stay in the range for the heal.

Karma, The Enlightened One

Pros/Cons:

• Trololololo burst, shield and heal at the same time early on if she opts for maxing out Soul Shield and Heavenly Wave
• OP movespeed/slow if Spirit Bond is maxed first.
• Hell of a tanky support. Also very deceptive due to Inner Flame. Perfect for low-health fights.
• She will build AP items, because that's a good Karma's playstyle. So she needs to farm some gold.
• A noob Karma is a total disaster.
• You will definitely have to help her out with warding. But she will help you out with burst damage a lot, so it's a fair deal ;)

Teamwork:

• You must ask Karma what spell she's leveling out first. It's important.
  If it's Soul Shield, your job is to Tumble into range so that shield, placed on you would damage both enemies.
  If it's Spirit Bond, you have to position yourself the way such that if Karma Spirit Bonds you, the tether will hit both enemies for slow and damage.
  If it's Heavenly Wave... Damn, can't see a reason for leveling out wave first :D Stronger heal and damage. You don't really have to do anything. Just don't Tumble out of range of her heal :D
• Always keep in mind how much Mantra charges Karma has. You can see this by the number of fans rotating around her. Also, there is a tool-tip that is displayed as one of her buffs.

Leona, The Radiant Dawn

Pros/Cons:

• 2 stuns and a brief immobilization. If landed properly, there's no escape for a targeted enemy.
• Her passive, Sunlight, makes last hitting easier
• Very tanky champion.
• No heals/protective abilities
• Really slow

Teamwork:

• Chain your CC by landing Condemn after Leona stuns the target with Shield of Daybreak or Solar Flare. Technically, two of you can completely pin the target to one place for ~6 seconds. That's huge CC time.
• Remember, that your attacks proc Sunlight marks for bonus damage. Use it for last-hitting and harrasment.

Lux, The Lady of Luminosity

Pros/Cons:

• Versatile support. Can either do great damage to enemies or help you with CC and shields.
• Shield can protect the whole team, if positioned properly.
• Lucent Singularity can be used as scouting tool for more protection.
• Up to 2 targets snare, slow.
• Shield isn't very strong
• No heal
• Needs farm/kills to build a lot of AP

Teamwork:

• Definitely one of the most nice champions to work together with.
• Easy chain CC with Light Binding-> Condemn
• IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZOR!!!. Enemies at low hp aren't getting away in this lane.

Nunu, The Yeti Rider

Pros/Cons:

• Extreme slow with Ice Blast
• AS increase for you and him
• Holds the lane easily on his own
• Ultimate isn't that awesome without AP + it's hard to use properly, therefore it isn't reliable.
• No heal for you (Although he can sustain himself pretty well)

Teamwork:

• Blood Boil- Ice Blast- Condemn-kill =P This slow is very strong.
• You can use Condemn to push people into Nunu & Willump's ultimate :D

Shen, The Eye of Twilight

Pros/Cons:

• Easy healing time for both of you with Vorpal Blade
• Taunt
• Ultimate saves lives.
• If you have a bad start, it's very hard for Shen to do well in mid game (remember, no farm for him).
• No real heal, only little portions of it.
  

Teamwork:

• Attack the minions marked with Shen's Vorpal Blade to heal.
• Shadow Dash- Condemn combo for prolonged CC.
• When you want to gank, hide in the bush, activate Final Hour, wait for Shen to cast Stand United on you and then tumble out next to your opponent. Shen's ultimate channel time is ~1 second, so to your enemy it will look like you both appeared outta****ennowhere =P
  Not really necessary to waste an ult on this, but it's very fun :)

Sona, The Maven of The Strings

Pros/Cons:

• Strong heals, strong harass, crazy CC with Crescendo
• One of the best supports at "babysitting"
• Can live off GP10 items only. All farm to you.
• Super fragile.
• Susceptible to silence.
• Only disable is her ult.

Teamwork:

• Farm farm farm.
• Sona is best at disabling several enemies at once. Wait for a gank and kill both of them!
• Sona can heal you in the same manner as Alistar, frequently and for moderate amounts.

Soraka, The Starchild

Pros/Cons:

• Best heal in game with Astral Blessing, Wish and Heal
• Only support to give mana to anyone.
• Her heal grants insane armor bonus (up to 125) for 5 seconds.
• Best "baby-sitter" in game, in my opinion.
• Heal has long cooldown.
• If she gets caught by cc, she dies.

Teamwork:

• You have infinite mana =P Of course, you still have to watch it, but feel free to use your skills more often.
• Soraka can heal you with Wish from any location.

Taric, The Gem Knight

Pros/Cons:

• Best support for you
• Great armor aura with Shatter
• Half-hour long stun :D
• AD boost from Radiance and Armor Reduction with Shatter's active part.
• Can't hold the lane well on his own.
• Relatively slow
  

Teamwork:

• After he lands Dazzle, it's super easy to Condemn enemy into a wall. Very long stun.
• Final Hour + Radiance = insane AD steroids. This combo takes down towers in no time. Also very good for getting dragon.

Veigar, The Tiny Master of Evil

Pros/Cons:

• Eternal stun that can catch several enemies.
• Very good vs. AP enemies. Primordial Burst kills even if Veigar doesn't have a lot of AP
• Can easily keep the lane from getting pushed.
• Nightmare for tower-divers
• Slow and squishy
• Not a real support. No heals or protective spells.

Teamwork:

• Condemn enemies into Veigar's Event Horizon... Evil, evil plan :D
• Condemn enemies already stunned by Veigar into walls... Even more evil plan :)
• Since most supports are AP based and squishy, let him instakill them with Primordial Burst several times to let him some early gold. After, he gets Deathfire Grasp, nothing else is needed ;)

Of course, it would be foolish of me to just rely on your belief with such a weird build :D
Therefore, I add some match results to demonstrate that this build is at least viable.

There are more to come and I hope some of them will be yours :)
Also, check my match history to see some less impressive wins and fails with this guide ^^

My own games as Vayne

Other people who used this guide (Thank you for sharing :)

Result of one of my in-game buddies :) I personally assisted him as Taric in bot lane. Very good gameplay on his part ;)

Any screenshots that you send to me (preferably, original LoL snapshot) are highly appreciated!

PLEASE, READ THIS, IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON VOTING!

First of all, this build is extremely unusual and please, understand that it shouldn't be your main Vayne build.
I beg you, for the sake of god, DO NOT downvote or upvote just because you "don't like" the build.
I want you to try the guide before voting.
There are also some conditions...

• YOU MUST HAVE THESE RUNES! Don't go into a game with AP runes and then whine that "early game is ****, no power, author is a bastard, thumbs down!!!"
• You must follow the guidelines. Build itself isn't good unless you understand why you are building her that way.
• I want some sort of response. I don't care if it's not very aesthetic and beautiful language-wise... But please, don't just "good guide ty +1"/"bad guide, gtfo n00b -1!!!".
  I wouldn't even bother turning on comment to vote function if I was looking for scores. Probably would just create 100500 fake accounts and vote myself up to the Olymp itself xD

I hope you read this :D
I sincerely thank anyone who did! You guys make me feel better when I see that my guide is actually read through ^^

Upcoming sections.

If the guide will have some success, I'll make sure to go into details about the following topics:

• Vayne's abilities (Much like I did in my LeBlanc guide.)
• Solo top, bot and mid countering (Sample also present in LB guide).
• Maybe add a classic Vayne build? To make the guide accessible for beginner players.
• Include some replays of me playing Vayne.

Any other suggestions? Post them in the comments, would love to hear them all ;)

Finita la comedia ;)

This concludes everything I wanted to tell you about Vayne's secrets. I sincerely hope that this playstyle will lead you to success or will just let you have some fun time :)

Once again, I would like to thank jhoijhoi for her amazing guide making guide and art templates :)
You are doing a great job to help the community, Jai! I adore and respect a lot!
(I hope you will read it someday ^^ Dreams :D)

Thank you and good luck hunting the shadows, Summoners ;)


Also, I will appreciate it very much, if you also check out my other guide,

P.S. (More of a technical sidenote)

I'd love to hear from every single one of you about how this worked out for you and if you want to see more optional build possibilities and explanations. Don't hesitate to comment.
Of course, +rep for any constructive helpful criticism and advices.

January 10, 2012 - Guide published
January 13, 2012 - Fixed a mistake in masteries section (magic pen mastery). Removed Sword of the Divine (as it will be removed from the game). Replaced it with Ionic Spark.
January 16, 2012 - Angrily changing some numbers due to Vayne nerf in Sejuani patch D:<

• Base movement speed reduced to 300 from 305
• Night Hunter movement speed reduced to 30 from 40
• Tumble bonus damage reduced to 30/35/40/45/50% from 40/45/50/55/60%
• Final Hour Tumble stealth duration reduced to 1 second from 1.5

January 26, 2012 Added Greater Quintessence of Health as an option for quints
choice.
February 2, 2012 Removed Zeke's Harbinger from explanations, as it was remade into zeke's herald, which is more of a pure support item.
March 4, 2012 Changed the guide title and changed guide category to humour. Apparently, people don't get my intentions for writing this. Fine, damnit.