ABOUT ME

On League I go by Federals1, and since 2018 I have hit challenger with at least 900 lp every single season.



I have also hit Challenger on EUW



I was also the number 1 Darius in the world in season 9.



Over the years have gotten top 10/5 on Volibear, Dr. Mundo, Sett, Garen, Malphite, Olaf, Aatrox and Mordekaiser. Most of the time I will play on my main account, so you can check out what I do there.

I will be livestreaming at https://www.twitch.tv/federals123 , so if you want to check it out and see how it's going be sure to tune in! I will be answering any questions and trying to give my thought process while playing, giving general tips and such. I hope if you end up checking it you will enjoy your time.

FUTURE GUIDES

I will be making more guides in the future, some already being in the works. My goal is to make a guide for every single champion I am extremely confident with, and ones I've been playing for a very long time where I have unique insights to share.
I am currently working on multiple guides but I cannot give an exact date when they will be out. I will post them gradually as I finish them, so if you want to see when they are out for a new champion you can follow and be up to date. To make sure they are done quicker not all of them will them will have a matchup spreadsheet at the start, that alone takes me a week by itself, it's massive.

When season 15 began I decided to challenge myself by going for the most accounts in Challenger at once a single person has ever had, and I have broken that record.

In the picture you can see that I have managed to get six accounts in Challenger AT ONCE, as well as having an extra GrandMaster account at the same time. These accounts are mine and no one else's. It took quite a while, but I am very happy with this acomplishment. I streamed almost the entire climb, and I had a lot of fun! (no like, for real, like legit fun not ironically)

While you wait in the loading screen, or even before minions spawn, go on an external website and check what runes your opponent has. I use op. gg or u. gg, but any website that show runes in full works. You will be able to see exactly what your opponent's runes are, and it can play a big part in your very first trade and knowing exactly how you might want to play out the first few waves. Here's an example: you see the enemy has Resolve secondary. It's extremely important to see what he has in Resolve. You can check and let's say they have Bone Plating and Overgrowth. Now you know you should play out your first trade a bit differently, trying to proc down Bone Plating first, or knowing that if you go for a trade he has that extra block power. This is something you should look to do every single game to gain an advantage.

When you click the link it will take you to the matchup spreadsheet for Volibear, with every single possible matchup.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YlLA-G0gjV6etsbwOGy8x6OqWOqGBu-2ALLHa_qBIZs/edit?usp=sharing

Game Stages xEarly Game xMid Game xLate Game Champ insight xAbility Tips and Tricks xCombos xAll final items explained

Runes,Pros,Cons xAll possible runes xPros xCons

Depending on the matchup you play, you can apply a ton of pressure early on as Volibear, or you can fall very hard behind. Volibear's level 1 is pretty bad, unless you really go for something like a W start with Doran's Blade. Typically you should wait at least to level 2 and have Q +E so your trades feel a lot smoother and have a big punch to them. You can also 2v1 starting with level 3, as you have the ability to do the burst combo on the enemy jungler or the enemy laner if he is chunked.

You can make sure you have priority up in top in almost every melee matchup if played correctly, meaning you can follow up on any invade your jungler might want to do. This way you create a solid snowball from the beginning and get the lead going. Solo invading can be done, but it is riksy and most of the time it is not worth to try it.

If you are maxing Q your general trade pattern will be: run towards them with Thundering Smash and just as you're about to make contact with them press your E . It has no cast time so it's very smooth to do. After that you will connect the Q auto attack into an auto+W , then try to back off. It doesn't take more than 2 times in matchups where the opponent is squishy to do this so you can get a kill on the third combo. Sometimes you can do the combo once and then on the second one can hard all in for a kill.

Playing out the early game properly has become more important with the introduction of the Voidgrubs . You can almost always ensure you are able to rotate and get them. If you constantly have the enemy at their tower you can now look to use that downtime and get some Voidgrubs . You don't need to take all 3 at once, you can do it slowly, perhas 1 or 2 the first time and then finishing it off a second time.

Volibear's mid game is his strongest point in the game. At 2-3 items he is spiking very hard. You want to look to split push in a side lane and draw people to you. If they are not that fed, you can usually 2v1 them with relative ease. However, if they are, try to play it safe, always keep tabs on where everyone is, and how many people you can take on without dying. Usualy in the 1v1 you are not going to lose as long as you didn't have a tough lane matchup.

Volibear becomes hard to 1v1 mid game with the bruiser build and especially if he has Navori Flickerblade into his build, and can escape with relative ease if he has just Dead Man's Plate, as the slow resist added makes a big difference, forcing people to hard cc him or he will outrun them, or by taking Phase Rush in his rune setup. Around 20-25 minutes however, you want to group up with your team and force plays together. Volibear can disable the enemy turret for a while, depending on ultimare rank, meaning mid game dives become safer, on top of them not having enough damage to burst you down as long as your team is backing you up.

Alternatively you can look to split push a lot and force people to answer you, especially with the heavy split push build. That way you open up the map for your team to farm waves safer, or take the enemy jungle if possible, perhaps even objectives on the other side of the map like Dragon or Baron . Navori Flickerblade gives you insane duel power as you constantly rotate your spells insanely fast. You actually become an insane powerhouse in terms of 1v1 once you complete it.

If you get to late game as Volibear, it won't be pretty. Volibear does not scale all that well. The general build as well as the bruiser build still do their jobs well enough, but you're no Kayle, Camille, Fiora, Jax etc. You can still win 1v1 matchups, especially if you have Navori , but you will almost always get crushed in anything that involves 3 or more people, sometimes even 2 people. Your best bet is to be a damage sponge that is a good disruptor.

You still have a lot of damage for teamfights, but any build you do will leave you feeling very easy to kill due to items like Lord Dominik's Regards or Void Staff. If you hit your ultimate onto a squishy you can usually chunk them to half health,sometimes even full on burst them if they're not paying attention. If they are however, you can make them panic and force their team to focus fire you, before going down. You can also play the role of the peeler, and stun whoever is trying to reach your carries, like a Zed or Kha'Zix.
In general, try not to let a game to beyond 25-28 minutes as Volibear, or you will feel the loss of power, unless all you wanna do is sit on side and split push if you have Navori .

If you are insanely fed, then sure you can still decimate people, but you seriously need to close out the game quick before other people get to their items and are able to reliably deal with you. Split pushing can still work, but again, you need to be very mindful of enemies and how likely you are to win 2v1s and 3v1s.

THE RELENTLESS STORM (P)

Your passive procs on both your Q and W , which means they can do a bit of extra damage off it. It will not proc effects from Liandry's Torment, Rylai's Crystal Scepter or stack stuff like Conqueror, but it will help to stack stuff like Jak'Sho or Riftmaker. Be careful when having passive if someone is under their own turret as it can bounce to them and make the tower hit you.

THUNDERING SMASH (Q)

It can be used as an auto attack reset, and if you have your passive up it procs the extra damage. You can guarantee your ultimate damage connects with your opponent as long as they don't have tenacity or some cleanse ability like Olaf Ragnarok. When it gets interupted by crowd control and resets, you do not lose the bonus movement speed. It will stay for the full 4 seconds, meaning you don't need to instantly use it again. You can ride off the initial 4 seconds before using it again, giving you the speed for 8 seconds total. It is also an unstoppable auto attack, meaning something like a Riven Q displacement or Vi Q displacement will not stop the attack from going out once it started. It won't even cancel on blindness effects like Quinn or Graves have.

FRENZIED MAUL (W)

Like his Thundering Smash, it can be used as an auto attack reset, and it also procs his passive damage if it is up. Unlike his Q , it will get canceled if Volibear is blinded or if you lose vision of the enemy. You can also use the bite heal to sustain off of minions if you get multiple bites in, with less health gained in total, but at least it's some compared to nothing.

SKY SPLITTER (E)

Using it does not interupt your movement as long as it is inside the range of the ability. If you cast it outside of it, Volibear will move to the cast direction until he is in that particular range and he will cast it. If the spell is used inside the cast range Volibear will not turn his character model if he were to use it behind himself, meaning it can be a very good way to trick opponents.

STORMBRINGER (R)

Much like Nasus ultimate or Renekton ultimate , Volibear does not gain the health instantly upon cast. It has a delay of about 0.25 seconds before you get the health. He also gains 50 extra range on his basic attacks, his Q and his W . Volibear gains displacement immunity while mid air, and the ability cannot be interupted by anything. If you use it to ult through a crowd control spell such as a Morgana Dark Binding, you will still be in the cc at the end of the duration if it's long enough. Volibear can jump certain walls with this spell. If he tries to jump a wall that is too thick, he won't move from where he originally stood at and the damage will come out faster. He also cannot use this ability when he stands on Singed Mega Adhesive or Cassiopeia Miasma.

BASIC COMBOS:

+ +




+ +



These 2 are just some normal combos you can perform on Volibear. They aren't groundbreaking or anything, but they're the essential combos you need to win very short trades. You can throw in an extra auto attack before and after spell uses as well but it takes a lot more time to do, so I put the basic attacks where it feels the smoothest to do generally. You can also use your E whenever you want in the combo, as it has no cast time.

BURST COMBO/MAIN TRADE COMBO:

+ + + + +



That is the bread and butter combo you will use for most of your trades if you want to dump everything on your opponent. If you want to save your E , don't use it. It is just a simple trade combo if Sky Splitter is not used.

MAXIMUM BURST COMBOS:

+ + + + +



If they have 0 tenacity your ultimate damage in undodgable if you use Q and then instantly ult right after. There is no way they can do anything. That is the combo you can use at 6 to dive your opponenent from full health. In the ideal situaton you want to have them W marked before the dive to do even more damage and also heal.


+ + + + + +



This is another high burst combo that uses ultimate to get on top of the opponent from a distance. You can also use your E anytime during that combo as it has no cast time and adds more burst to it, as well as some tankiness due to the shield you get, or shorten the amount of time it takes to do the full combo by cutting out on the basic attacks. You don't even need to cut all of them out, you can think about how many basic attacks you are willing to trade for a quicker burst.

BEFORE GOING INTO THE ITEMS READ THIS

Volibear has an absurd amount of diversity. The synergy he has with some of the new items is very good, and some of the old item changes are actually better for him. I highly recommend testing and experimenting to see what playstyle you like best. I have put all the items I consider viable, but there might be some you like more. I have tested almost every single item at this point, with some exeptions like not taking any crit items on Volibear, it's his worst stat by far and I think it's never proper to build a single crit item on him, exept Navori Flickerblade, but you never buy it because of the crit . With that being said, I have put the breakdown of every item I have on the build option section.


Iceborn Gauntlet: Very consistent item on Volibear. In terms of Sheen items this one is the best generally. It provides health, a reliable slow and good armor. Your stick potential is very good once you complete it.

Heartsteel: This item works very well if you are going for a heavy tank build. It gives massive health late game and you can pair it up with Jak'Sho and Iceborn Gauntlet. It can work very well as a standalone item as well if the enemy doesn't have % health damage in their kit or doesn't normally buy % health damage in items.

Jak'Sho, The Protean: It is a very solid choice. Not a whole lot to say here. It can be built into mixed damage matchups like Akali or Jax, or can be solid for trying to build very tanky and just being a meat shield for your team.

Trinity Force: This item had very little time when it was actually the best choice for Volibear. Right now it feels very lackluster compared to the other items, especially seeing as it's lost the threefold strike passive as well. The big Sheen procs is what the item is most known for, but Volibear's base damage is very low and would not make it all that great. It doesn't feel terrible, but it's not very good either. If you are snowballing out of your mind perhaps you can, but even then I would rather buy Iceborn Gauntlet, or if you really want to you can pair it up with Spear of Shojin and explode people.

Riftmaker: Very good item if you want to go for a more AP focused build. On top of that, the omnivamp is amazing on Volibear. They changed how it works and now is even better for him, as his ult and E are AOE, so now that he fully heals off it, it's great.

Cosmic Drive: Right now I actually tend to rush Cosmic Drive. It gives a very good stats for Volibear right now: good health, solid ability power, very good Ability Haste, and even Movement Speed, which is extremely good on him. Before I used to go Spear of Shojin, but now Cosmic Drive is basically always the take between the two, unless you wanna do a build with both in them or you want more AD because your comp is doing heavy magic damage already.

Rod of Ages: At first I didn't really like it all that much. There is a build setup where you do this item plus Navori Flickerblade, but I have been steadily warming up to it, and it feels quite good. It is a very good item when doing a specific 3 core setup with this, Navori Flickerblade and Hullbreaker. You becomes a split push MONSTER.

Black Cleaver: It's a solid choice when looking to shred down tanks such as Ornn, Rammus, or other hyper armor stackers.

Sundered Sky: Very good item on Volibear. It's very good in 2v1s or 3v1 as you can proc it very quickly multiple times, and in lane it makes it so you almost always win every single short trade, but I tend to run it way less often nowadays. It's not bad, it's just way more niche now in my opinion.

Warmog's Armor: It is quite a weak item right now, especially due to it being hit with some rather large nerfs. That being said, it can be done second if you absolutely need the health regen to survive extremely tough matchups.

Thornmail: Solid heal reduction item. Not a whole lot to say here. Works well against a lot of healing and if you need defensive stats.

Force of Nature: Very good once fully stacked, giving a ton of magic resist and speed .

Overlord's Bloodmail: It can provide you a lot of extra damage later on, but most of the time I tend to buy it around 4th or 5th item at the earliest if I choose to do so.

Kaenic Rookern: The best anti mage item in the entie game for tanks and bruisers right now, in most cases. If you struggle to survive certain AP matchups in lane just rush this and they won't ever beat you. It's hilarious how strong it is. You will always come out on top of short trades, and basically eat any chip damage they deal.

Guardian Angel: Can be a very good last item for a specific teamfight to end the game. Usuaully late game a single fight will decide if the game ends in a win or a loss, so if you have the revive for it at that point then it's great. Can also sell your full boots to have it in the hyper late game.

Sterak's Gage: Volibear won't get a lot of attack damage from it as his base AD is rather weak compared to other juggernauts. The shield however is good and you can increase it when you use your ultimate .

Stridebreaker: It's not anything too amazing, but the stats are decent and the slow effect is quite good as well. Not a super amazing item, but it's decent. If you use the active of the item while your are in your Q the animation will play as if you actually used the empowered attack to stun someone, possibly confusing the enemy. This works great vs Fiora as the will most likely parry thinking you used the attack to stun.

Titanic Hydra: The active is nice on Volibear, but it's quite hard to fit into the build regularly. The issue is that he doesn't have enough room to buy everything he wants, so he would have to forego Spear of Shojin, or Sundered Sky in favor of it. Even though it's not bad the tradeoff is meh in my opinion. That being said, can still do a lot of damage and work.

Manamune: Insanely good damage item. The sheer damage this item gives for Volibear is nuts. Also, because it is a Tear item it does mean your mana issues will feel a lot less punishing.

Winter's Approach: Not the best defensive item, but it does get the job done. If you don't need the damage from Manamune while also needing more mana it feels decent enough. If you combine it with Spirit Visage and Unending Despair you will be very tanky. That 3 core is very strong for just tanking through a lot of damage.

Archangel's Staff: The weakest out of the 3 Tear items, but it's not bad. It can be bought if you are going for an AP focused build, and the shield makes you a bit tankier.

Edge of Night: This item in particular is very good against Vayne. She can never push you away when you have it. Other than that there's not much use for it. It hard counters Vayne, and that's about it really. You can also try it into Singed as he also can never Fling you off him.

Serpent's Fang: Good item against a team comp with a lot of shields. Your E will also proc it so you can do it from range at a safer distance if you wish to.

Chempunk Chainsword: The offensive heal reduction item for Volibear. Great against a lot of healing where you need to proc it very quickly on priority targets that you dive on, like Soraka.

Bloodletter's Curse: Your passive will actually proc the shred from the item, so you can actually get some pretty good usage out of it.

Hullbreaker: Volibear uses it rather well. It's only used to heavily split push now, the problem is it doesn't give enough to make it worth buying most of the time. You are buying Hullbreaker to get a Demolish proc every 5 hits, and most of the time it's not good enough. The time it's actually good is when you take it in combination with Rod of Ages and Navori Flickerblade. Due to the reduction from Navori you can get A LOT of procs very well.

Navori Flickerblade: This is the second item you will be doing in a 3 core setup consiting of Rod of Ages, this item, and Hullbreaker. You get a lot of reduction on your spells due to the fact that both your Q and W proc the effect on top of your auto attacks, and both abilities are also auto attack resets, so they work very well. This item can also be placed in virtually every single Volibear build out there because of the massive reduction in cooldowns you gain from it from just attacking a lot.

Spear of Shojin: Every single one of his abilities gets the damage amplifier from it, including his Q . He will stack it very quick and have his W deal the maximum damage every time. The Ability Haste is also very good for him. That being said, Cosmic Drive is generally the way to go now over it. It can still be fun to do though, especially if you are playing a 1 tap auto attack build to nuke people.

Unending Despair: The mixed resists are very good and the healing the item provides is solid. Can be rushed vs lanes who do both types of damage, such as Jax or Irelia.

Guinsoo's Rageblade: If you combine this item with Navori Flickerblade you will get your cooldowns back insanely quick. It also allows you to proc up any other on hit effects you have from other items and it does allow you to proc your passive more as it is another on hit.

Spirit Visage: Spirit Visage has now become a lot more reliable to build on Volibear due to the fact that you can pair it with Sundered Sky to get even more heal amp. The increase in shielding and healing is very good if you have more than your own from enchanters like Soraka, Lulu, Taric. The problem is it still does not give you enough magic resist against AP users most of the time. However, it can be used as a softer mr choice if the enemy champions have a lot of mixed damage, like with Akshan, Irelia, Jax etc. These champs have some magic damage in their kit that isn't insane, but the mr does help into it. If you need heavy magic resist though, take Kaenic Rookern or Force of Nature, much better.

Abyssal Mask: Very niche item. Can be used as a decent damage amp for the AP allies when you use your ultimate to get into the middle of a teamfight, but it's basically never bought as the other magic resist options for Volibear are much better and much more reliable.

Dead Man's Plate: It has to be bought as a 4th or 5th item, sometimes even sooner. It doesn't feel amazing for Volibear in top lane. You lose out on other more important core items, and it's more so bought if you want to be extrmely speedy and pair it up with other items, possibly a hit and run playstyle paired up with Hullbreaker, where you push waves to get close to the turret, hit it 5 times and then run away to safety because of the extra slow resist on it in case people want to collapse on you. You can also sell your boots for it and buy it for tankiness and speed in the hyper late game.

Terminus: Volibear used both the armor and magic pen quite well from this item, and the resists are also pretty good for him. You can take this to have very good shred power vs virtually anything.

Randuin's Omen: Solid tank item. Works best against champions with crit . The active slow also works nicely when jumping in the middle of a teamfight and using it.

Frozen Heart: Very good rush item into certain champion matchups like Tryndamere or Yone. It also fixes a big part of your mana problems during the laning phase. It is also a cheap item, and will make it very frustrating for auto attack based champs to play out the lane.

Nashor's Tooth: Very good item for an AP focused build and split push build. Your attack speed will be insane with it.

Stormsurge: Only ever built into full AP burst builds, it doesn't really have a place in other ones. It makes it so if you one tap someone in a teamfight quickly with an ult hit the enemies also take a massive aoe from it as well.

Rabadon's Deathcap: It is best used into an ability power focused build. It will spike your damage massively when you complete it later on.

Lich Bane: It is best used into an ability power focused build, or to sell boots and buy it for the speed and damage in the hyper late game.

Zhonya's Hourglass: This can be the last item in your build, or can work into an ability power focused build. The stasis is amazing at buying time, and if you use your E then use the active, by the time you get out, you will have the shield on you.

Mejai's Soulstealer: It is best used into an ability power focused build. Best bought if you think you can hard snowball a game. You can sit on Dark Seal for most of the game if you want though and not upgrade it until much later

Blade of the Ruined King: The item in theory is very good for Volibear. Both his Q and W proc it, but sadly the lack of resistances is too glaring. Unlike an item like Cosmic Drive, it doesn't give any speed, aside from the passive that doesn't even last that long, is more expensive, and the stats it gives are less valuable on Volibear at that particular stage of the game. It is best bought as a 4th or 5th item in very niche scenarios, like vs hyper scaling hp tanks like Sion, Cho'Gath, etc.

Wit's End: Nashor's Tooth is a better alternative to this most of the time. It is not a bad item, and can be used decently well, but it fits very awkardly into most builds. It is however viable in very niche scenarios.

Tier 2 boot upgrades:

Ionian Boots of Lucidity: Volibear loves Ability Haste so these boots work great for him. He always wants to rotate his basic abilities as much as possible.

Plated Steelcaps: Very good boots to rush in certain lanes where they allow you to hyper stonewall or hard win the 1v1. They give great value

Mercury's Treads: The tenacity from these boots is great for Volibear as he usually gets kited quite a bit, so if they are heavy on crowd control you can take them.

Boots of Swiftness: These boots are the ones that make Volibear the quickest. The slow resist is also insane in certain lanes and comps and helps out a ton.

Tier 3 boot upgrades:

Crimson Lucidity: The extra speed these boots provide when you hit an enemy champion with a spell will always be on because of how much you cycle your spells. The extra Ability Haste is also very nice.

Armored Advance: Solid shield for taking more physical damage, allowing you to win out a lot of melee duels more consistently.

Chainlaced Crushers: If there are a lot of AP champions poking you down, the shield ensures it takes them a bit longer to do so.

Swiftmarch: Your speed goes through the roof with these. Your will be very quick.

BEFORE GOING INTO RUNES READ THIS

This season I have tested out a ton of runes, and I will have to say, much like with items, you can go nuts with these. Volibear right now is one of the most flexible champions in terms of build variety and rune choice. You can take almost anything you feel like it and it might work decently. Like with items there's some setups that tend to work more than others, play around with them and see what fits your playstyle. You also don't need to have only the secondary trees I put on the rune section earlier. You can have for example Conqueror with Inspiration secondary, that's another one I run, or Grasp with Domination secondary. I didn't want to put every single tree because it would be well over 15 rune pages total, with each individual thing changed. With that being said, here is my explanation for every single possible rune that works on Volibear in my opinion:

KEYSTONE RUNES:

Grasp of the Undying: This is the most consistent keystone rune Volibear has right now. It is best used into melee matchups where outsustaining is valuable. On top of that it also gives permanent health with each use, so in the early to mid game it can be a solid increase of 100 to 200 health and late game it can be about 300 to 500 extra health.

Press The Attack: Another great keystone rune. It is very consistent and will increase a lot of your burst power by a lot, while trading the sustain aspect from a rune like Grasp of the Undying or Conqueror. The buff it got a while ago with the extra damage staying while in combat means it's even better for Volibear.

Conqueror: This rune is a mix of both Press the Attack and Grasp of the Undying. It gives more sustained damage throughout a fight and it also gives healing. You can run it in a lot of matchups where sustained fighting will happen a ton and where you can really abuse the extra damage and healing, some possible matchups for it are Darius, Illaoi or Mordekaiser.

Lethal Tempo: Works best when going for an AP focused setup, but because you cannot go over 2.5 attack speed it's not super amazing. That being said, they on-hit damage you get is pretty solid, and the rune itself can be quite strong in the early and mid game.

Phase Rush: Very underrated rune. The speed means that after every short trade you can get out without much damage taken. It works best against high slows. There's a lot of matchups now where you can take it and they will become much easier, the best example is by far Olaf. You can make sure you outrun his ult duration and then turn on him. Another good example is Trundle, where you can do the same thing.



RUNE SLOTS:




Triumph: Very consistent rune. It can really help you to clutch out fights with barely any health remaning.


Presence of Mind: Can be used if you are struggling with Volibear's mana pool, making him be able to use a lot more spells. His chain lightning passive also procs the effect if it his a champion.


Legend: Alacrity: Can be taken instead of Legend: Haste, but usually not the case.


Legend: Haste: Default take in this tree. Volibear uses Ability Haste for his basic abilities very well so this fits him.


Legend: Bloodline: Can be used in a healing focused build. The least reliable out of the 3 Legend runes.


Last Stand: The best one out of the 3 from its respective space.







Taste of Blood: Chain lighting passive will proc it. Can be used as a decent sustain option.


Deep Ward: Best one from its respective space generally.


Ultimate Hunter: Works well as Volibear has a long ultimate cooldown.







Manaflow Band: Very good rune for mana sustain. Can be used with Presence of Mind to basically never go out of mana.


Nimbus Cloak: Generally good rune.


Transcendence: Volibear uses Ability Haste well so this one can be used to give him even more.


Celerity: Generally the best rune in its respective space that gives quite a bit more speed while in your Q , making you catch up to people just a bit faster, which can be important in a lot of cases.


Waterwalking: Volibear jungle uses this one a lot better, but it can still be used if you are looking to roam or be at every objective.


Gathering Storm: Can be used instead of Waterwalking if you want to have more damage in the late game. Volibear's scalings are rather high so the extra damage is put to good use.







Demolish: Solid rune if you want to take early tower plates or split push a lot.


Shield Bash: A bit more tankiness and damage throughout the game.


Conditioning: More scaling as you get into the mid game


Second Wind: Best rune in its respective space for sustaining in the lane.


Bone Plating: Works best against combo champions like Sett, Riven, Renekton etc.


Revitalize: Very good rune. It increases both W healing and E shielding. It's a really good option that you have in that tree.


Overgrowth: I actually take this a lot more and have been liking it quite a bit. Revitalize is great, but honestly, this doesn't feel half bad and can be done instead.







Magical Footwear: It basically gives you 300 gold for free once you obtain them, with a bit more speed as well. It will mean that your laner is forced to spend 300 gold and buy their boots, but you will get them for free.


Cash Back: It can allow you to cheat out your items a bit quicker. If you are going for Rod of Ages and Navori that item combo is already quite cheap. If you combine it with this you will get it even quicker by a bit.


Triple Tonic: The first potion is complete filler, it's good that it gives you the 40 gold when it's done but it's filler. The second one at level 6 is actually very good and allows you to get an even better all in. Since it gives 20 adaptive force if you start Doran's Ring you will get the AP value and have a pretty good all in window to burst someone down. And the final one at level 9 giving you an extra skill point into one of your basic spells is actually really good.
Volibear loves getting his W and Q maxed out as soon as possible, so having them both fully maxed out a level sooner can be very impactful.


Cosmic Insight: Generally good rune.


Approach Velocity: Your E and Q will proc it on top of items like Iceborn Gauntlet.

+High early game pressure if player correctly
+High 2v1 potential early on
+Sustained damage, can fight for a very long time
+Can stonewall a lot of matchups where the enemy wants to snowball
+Amazing dive setups
+Surprisingly quick when maxing q
+Mixed damage types
+Build variety, one of the highest in the game
+Good split pushing power
+Very good in early skirmishes
+Decent teamfighting mid game

-Falls off pretty hard late game in fights
-Basically useless without Flash or ultimate in late game teamfights
-Struggles into a lot of ranged matchups if played incorrectly even by a small margin
-You need to learn your range and damage limits very well or you risk getting run over very hard
-Very immobile, his q speed is not enough into high cc comps or high mobility comps
-Very hard to make him work when behind, basically just a turret disabler

If you liked this guide, perhaps you would like to check out some of my other ones as well. As I make more guides for more champions this list will be updated to contain all of them. Simply click on the words below the champion portrait and it will take you to the respective guide.

Garen Top Guide

Darius Top Guide

Olaf Top Guide

Dr. Mundo Top Guide

Mordekaiser Top Guide

Udyr Top Guide

Here there will be a list of all the significant changes I am going to make going forward on the guide, so you can look here to see what the newest updates are, or old ones:

Update Log

Season 15

Patch 25.04
3rd March 2025:
- changed Sundered Sky to Navori Flickerblade in the standard build
- added a new guide chapter called Six Accounts in Challenger at once
Patch 25.S1.1
18th January 2025:
- changed the items in the alternative standard build
- added Guinsoo's Rageblade, Terminus and Bloodletter's Curse as possible items to take
- removed some 2 core item combos
- renamed the "Ap Focused Bruiser" 3 item combo to "Ap Bruiser 2 Core" and removed Sterak's Gage as one of the items in the 3 item combo, making it a 2 item combo
- added Cash Back as a possible rune to take
- removed Berserker's Greaves as possible boots to take
- added tier 3 boots to the items section
- added tier 2 and tier 3 boots to the all final items explained guide chapter after all the legendary items
- Eyeball Collection and Ghost Poro have been removed, so the new rune Deep Ward has been placed in their place as a possible rune you can take
- changed Sterak's Gage to Frozen Heart in the heavy dueling and split pushing build

Season 14

Patch 14.23
22nd December 2024:
- added Overgrowth as a possible rune choice
- changed the secondary from Precision to Sorcery in the "general (1)" rune page
- changed Spear of Shojin to Cosmic Drive in the standard build
- changed Ionian Boots of Lucidity to Plated Steelcaps in the standard build
Patch 14.23
7th December 2024:
- added Udyr to the other guides chapter
Patch 14.20
9th October 2024:
- added Mordekaiser to the other guides chapter
Patch 14.19
5th October 2024:
- added other guides chapter
- added table of contents
25th September 2024:
- added Lethal Tempo back on the possible keystone runes and a Lethal Tempo rune page
-removed Biscuit Delivery as a rune choice