My name is Decide, and I've been a Vayne main since early Season 2. I've gone from Silver to Platinum, up to Diamond and back and forth ever since, all playing Vayne. Having experienced the depths of this champion throughout every competitive meta and being there for her highs and lows, I've got a lot to teach you about her capabilities, particularly in the tank meta we are now entering.

Vayne is a high skill floor, high skill ceiling Marksman. Unlike most other Marksman, her strength lies purely in her auto-attacks. Her Q, W and R are all designed to empower her AA's, and any additional function of these skills is really only to facilitate the continuing AAs. As a result of her reliance on auto-attacking, she requires above-average pointer accuracy and quick reactions to play effectively.

The primary mistake many Vayne players make is believing they can carry themselves purely on their mechanics. This is not true. Regardless of how fed you are, rolling 1v5 into the enemy team (stealthed or not) is a risk you don't need to take. Let them come to you -- everyone wants to kill the Vayne, and many people tunnel vision for it.

If, after reading the guide, you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them.

READ THE NOTES. I have put brief advice in the notes section on the build which should help you towards making an informed choice.

Lethal Tempo is the best Keystone rune in the game for Vayne. The 30% AS increase in the early-game is fantastic for proccing three stacks of W on the enemy ADC/Support, making your harass a much more potent force to be dealt with. Scaling up to late game, it provides an extra 80% Attack Speed, equivalent to 2.5 Statikk Shiv's, even allowing you to bypass the cap. There's no better rune to take.

Triumph is wonderful for engages in the botlane. We've all been in this situation - you've just nuked the enemy ADC at the cost of 90% of your HP, and the support comes in to clean you up, giving them 300g and the ADC a 150g assist. With Triumph, that 10% remaining HP becomes 25%, enough for you to escape or even secure a double kill. Plus, the extra 25g is always nice. Compared to the other runes, which give you a shield for overhealing (you don't heal much) or restore your mana for you (who needs mana when you have damage?) it's by far the best option.

Legend: Alacrity is a very nice late-game rune. The 3% bonus AS at Level 1 doesn't really do much for you, but by 20 minutes you should be sitting on at least 8 stacks - if not more. In total, this rune gives you an additional 18% AS, which is just over 0.5x a Statikk Shiv. The Lifesteal or Tenacity from the others runes wouldn't be bad, it just isn't as good as 18% free attack speed.

Cut Down is the final rune we take from the Precision path, and yet another obvious choice. As a low-HP Marksman, you will struggle to find another champion with less HP than you. As a Vayne, you'll likely be shooting their tanky frontline from behind your team. The extra damage granted by Cut Down will help you melt them even quicker, and will be impactful much more often than the other two runes.

Here, there are two potential options. Some people would recommend you take the Domination path - but I disagree. While Domination offers some nice bursty lethality, it also offers redundant stats - the Magic Penetration from Sudden Impact is useless on Vayne. You're also an AA based champion, so the healing from Ravenous Hunter just isn't impactful.

I believe you should go down the Inspiration path for the pure utility and survivability it offers to you in your lane.

Future's Market can be a literal godsend in lane. Let's say you have 1150 gold, but have only 150 HP remaining. Usually, you can either stay and risk dying to afford your B. F. Sword, or go back and return to lane without one. With the addition of Future's Market, you can now take a 50g fee and return to lane with your B. F. Sword in hand. This 50g fee will be paid off in seconds, thanks to your increased AD making last hitting much smoother. In the late-game, this rune scales, meaning that by 30 minutes you can take out a debt of 300g to pick up that Phantom Dancer much quicker.

There's no doubt, however, that this rune is much more effective in letting you catch up than letting you snowball.

Finally, Biscuit Delivery is your free survivability. The delivery of a nice biscuit every 3 minutes that restores both HP and Mana is an incredible boost to your ability to remain in lane, making the god-awful early game of Vayne much easier to handle. Nom.

Flash is a necessity. If you aren't running flash, you aren't playing optimally. I don't think I need to explain what makes Flash the best summoner spell.

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Heal is one of the three secondary staples for Vayne. It provides her and her support with a quick burst of HP and movement speed, allowing her to continue a fight without dying, catch up to a quickly retreating opponent or even bait an unfavorable engage. This should be considered the 'default' secondary spell.




Barrier is Heal's lesser known counterpart. While Heal grants you and a nearby ally immediate HP and a decent movement speed boost, Barrier simply gives you a temporary shield that fades after 2 seconds. Why might you choose Barrier over Heal, then?

Barrier offers more protection against burst. Throughout the whole game, Barrier mitigates slightly more damage than Heal at all levels (see the table below). It can also be used even when you're at 100% HP, making it a good way to avert 100-0 burst. If you can see the enemy is particularly bursty, or that they have champions which traditionally rush some Grievous Wounds item, Barrier is a better choice than Heal.

The obvious downside to Barrier is that the shield is temporary, only affects yourself and it grants no movement speed boost, whereas Heal is permanent, affects two people and does. You need to consider this trade-off when deciding between the two.




Cleanse is a situational choice of secondary spell, one you only make if you're relatively sure the enemy team is going to be CCing you to death. If you were up against a team with Malzahar, Amumu and Varus, I'd personally take this as you know they're going to lock you down. You could always rush QSS, but that will delay your power spike. It's your decision.

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As evidenced by the professionals, Heal and Barrier are both solid choices. While Cleanse is not a particularly popular spell to take, it can be a godsend when you know there's going to be a lot of CC coming for you from very early on.

As mentioned before, all of Vayne's abilities are constructed around facilitating her auto-attacks. They either enhance the strength of her AAs, increase her ability to position to land AAs, allow her to escape so she can shoot more AAs, or push away/stun the enemy so you can land more AAs. They are as follows:

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Night Hunter is a movement speed boost that is activated when moving in the direction of an enemy champion. You will gain a bonus 30 movement speed when moving towards a visible champion, which remains for an additional 2 seconds even after losing vision of them. This movement speed bonus is tripled in Final Hour.

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TARGET RANGE: 300
COST: 30 MANA
COOLDOWN: 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2
SCALING: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70% AD

Tumble is Vayne's bread and butter skill. It provides mobility, stealth (in Final Hour), additional auto-attack damage and an auto-attack reset. How you use Tumble is by far what defines you as a Vayne player - do you tumble into three enemies seeking a single kill, or do you use it to strategically reposition to maximise damage?

Trick: Using Tumble against terrain causes the animation to complete much quicker. If done right, this increases your DPS significantly and puts Tumble on cooldown faster. In the past, it could be used to go over thin walls, but not anymore.

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BONUS TRUE DAMAGE: 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 / 12% of target's maximum health
MINIMUM TRUE DAMAGE: 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110

Silver Bolts is one of the OG 3-hit passives. Upon attacking an enemy, you apply a mark of silver bolts. Upon attacking them three times, you pop silver bolts, dealing %HP true damage to your opponent. If you change targets in between attacks, you reset the silver bolt stacks on the initial opponent.

Silver Bolts is what makes Vayne such a terrifying ADC versus tanks. With high attack speed, she decimates their health while completely ignoring any armor they may have stacked against her. This is why Vayne excels during a tank meta compared to other ADCs.

Trick: Silver Bolts also procs on spells, not just auto-attacks. This means you can use Condemn to pop the final stack. A common harassing combo is Q->AA->AA->E.

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TARGET RANGE: 550
COST: 90 MANA
COOLDOWN: 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12
PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 45 / 80 / 115 / 150 / 185 (+ 50% bonus AD)

Condemn is Vayne's disengage, insec, stun and only form of CC. It's also the only spell she has that does not directly support her auto-attacking capabilities. By properly using condemn, you can push an enemy away from you to kite them better, push an enemy into your team to watch them die, push an enemy against a wall to stun them (and have condemn deal 2x damage) or screw up entirely and push them away from your team while you chase them. Condemn is one of Vayne's most impactful skills, and proper usage of it is necessary to master her.

Trick: Condemn can be used before a Flash so as to make it harder to anticipate. Using the practice tool, try to use E->Flash to push a dummy against the wall. This way you can stun an enemy against the wall without broadcasting your intentions.

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COST: 80 MANA
COOLDOWN: 100 / 85 / 70
DURATION: 8 / 10 / 12
BONUS AD: 30 / 50 / 70

Final Hour is your ace in the hole. The big red button that you press which signifies **** is going down. The mechanics by which Final Hour works are pretty simple - Vayne swaps out her little wristbow for a fat crossbow with bolts the size of your forearm. This, predictably, gives her a massive AD boost that can be equivalent to a free Infinity Edge later on.

While within Final Hour, Vayne moves towards enemy champions with an additional 90 movespeed, and enters stealth upon using Tumble. She can remain in stealth for up to 1 second, which is broken by auto-attacking. This means you can use the stealth as a handy re-position, and also to dodge skillshots.

Trick: Final Hour does not interrupt any issued commands. As such, you can auto-attack an enemy and activate Final Hour while the projectile is in flight. It will then deal damage with the bonus AD!

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Statistics don't lie. The vast majority of Vayne players know to max Q first in most cases, and the win-rate only proves the strength of that.

This section is currently a W.I.P. Refer to the 'Notes' section on the Cheat Sheet Build for a quick primer on what items to take as Vayne and when to take them. A more detailed breakdown will be coming soon!

Early Game

In the early game, Vayne is one of the weakest champions in the bottom lane. She doesn't possess the attack speed to properly proc silver bolts yet (although this is alleviated by Lethal Tempo in Season 8), has incredibly low base stats and the cooldown of her Tumble is too great to be used more than twice in any given engagement.

When playing Vayne in the early game, you need to be hyper-conscious about the capabilities of your support - are they a poke-heavy healer like Sona, or a tanky engager like Alistar? You will need to adjust your play style depending on the type of support you have.

If your support is poking, try and help them poke. If an enemy has two stacks of Silver Bolts, they are going to walk away rather than risk you using Tumble and chunking them. Use this to your advantage -- deny them minions when a wave is getting low, prevent them from securing that cannon without taking significant damage. Eventually, you may even force them out of lane, creating the ideal situation for Vayne to shine.

If your support is more of an engage support, help them when they are being aggressive. Look for opportune times to Condemn the enemy laners into the wall, either as a follow-up to an engage or to initiate one. Just be careful you aren't up against an early-game bursty ADC like Miss Fortune.

However, some supports are passive, existing only to protect their adc from harm for as long as possible ( Janna, for example). This means your job is to farm. Farm your way out of the early game and be ready to unleash hell once you get Final Hour, your first meaningful powerspike. If the enemy hasn't backed yet and you get Final Hour, you've almost certainly won the fight. Consider picking up a Cull to support your farming.

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Mid Game

Midgame is when things begin to pick up for Vayne. She likely has one or two of her core items built now, a few stacks of Legend: Alacrity and more than enough attack speed to begin excelling as a duelist. You have a few options at this point.

Begin by looking for opportunities - the recommended course of action is going to vary based on the game, but ideally, you should be focusing on objectives that you can reasonably take. Dragon, Rift Herald and Towers are to be your main focus for the moment, as the more of them you can secure now the more freedom you will have to move for the rest of the game.

If you notice a fight brewing on the map, immediately make your way over to assist. If a team fight breaks out, you are going to be a hefty source of damage. Stand back, let your teammates soak damage for you, and hit whatever is closest to you without using Tumble right into their face. Even if it's a 6000HP Malphite, that's what I want you to attack right now.

Once you win a fight, rotate to the easiest objective to take. Ideally, you will take middle tower and push down there. Next in line are top/bot towers, and finally you can secure dragon/ rift herald if open. Death timers at this stage aren't too long, but you can chunk down some outer towers quite well.

Rinse and repeat while ensuring you maintain a steady level of farming in order to progress to the late game. Do not take unnecessary risks for an extra kill. Do not Tumble into the face of a bush the enemy just walked into. Don't be stupid.

If you do all of this, you should transition nicely into late game - which is where Vayne shines.

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Late Game

The only point in the game where your mechanics mean much of a damn thing. Before this, you've been relying on game knowledge and not being an idiot. Now you need to pull those Mechanical God skills out of the bag and show them what a real Vayne is like.

This does not mean Tumbleing into the face of death. This does not mean trying to 1v3. This means strapping your team to your chest and letting them take all the damage for you while you strategically dance behind them, decimating the enemy front line in seconds with your fully stacked Guinsoo's Rageblade or your potent Lord Dominik's Regards, relying on your defensive itemisation to back you up in a pinch.

Shotcall if you can. Push your team towards objectives, like Baron or Elder Dragon. Try and secure a crucial pick for your team, but do not go out of your way to find one -- you could be picked off by the enemy. Make use of your Farsight Alteration to scout far-off zones in the fog of war, while constantly pushing lanes with the immense waveclear of a lategame Statikk Shiv. Never overstep your vision.

Never overstep your vision.

If a teamfight breaks out, you must stay alive. You deal the damage of three champions right now, and the enemy team knows it. If they're smart, they will be trying to kill you with the combined force of 20 abilities. Kill 'em all, and push their towers over.

Push over enough towers, and you'll eventually push over the Nexus. It's that simple.

Two years ago, a post was made on Reddit concerning a new family sport.

'Vaynespotting'.

The act of watching an idiot Vayne do stupid things.

Use this as a guide for what not to do. Vaynespot yourself, be it in-game or through replays, and see just how bad you're actually screwing up.

https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/37o4oj/vaynespotting_indepth_scoring_guidelines/

This guide is aimed to give you a good grounding in playing Vayne - it is to be used as foundation from which to build upon, or the glue for which to tie together that which you already might know about Vayne.

I hope everyone who has read this can now claim to have a greater insight into how Vayne works, the itemization options available to her and some of the smaller nuances of her skillset. I can only impart so much to you in words, however - the rest you must discover yourself.

If you feel my guide has helped you out, I'd really appreciate a +1. I put a lot of time and effort into this guide, and it'd be nice to see some ratings.

If you disagree with anything I've said, comment and we can have a discussion about it. I'm always open to hearing new ideas.