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[8.2] Molding the Meta: Vel'Koz Support
Build Guide By JDawg20201
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241,949
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Vel'Koz Build Guide By JDawg20201
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Recommended Items
Runes:
Sorcery
Inspiration
Spells:
Exhaust
Flash
Items
Lane Items
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Utility Options
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Damage Options
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Very Situational
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Example Final Build #1
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Example Final Build #2
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Ability Order
Organic Deconstruction (PASSIVE)
Vel'Koz Passive Ability
Table of Contents
- TL;DR Why Vel'Koz Support
- TL;DR What I Need to Know
- Introduction
- Pros / Cons
- Runes
- Summoner Spells
- Ability Explanation
- Ability Sequence Order
- Items
- Summary
So why play
Vel'Koz support?- 52.45% win rate in Ranked Platinum+ in the month of January 2018
- Low play rate, and as a result an incredibly low BAN rate
- Fairly easy to learn and master (positioning, landing skillshots, and understanding the champion)
- Very fun to play
- You can almost always win lane, and put out as much damage as your mid laner
- Can carry a team through a number of different outlets (utility, CC, damage, poke, kiting)
- You can spoon feed your ADC kills in lane (E>W combo; E>W>Q>ult combo)
- Tons of damage to the enemy team (AOE ult, true damage passive, long-range poke)
- You can provide a moderate amount of CC and utility in team fights
- You can kite people like a boss
- He's an alien invader with a dope Battlecast skin that makes you feel like you're on the front lines of World War 2
How is this a great way to climb out of elo hell?
Besides the reasons listed above, it often makes strategic sense to queue "Fill" with the new Autofill
system. More often than not, choosing "Fill" will put you in the support role. Whether you are a support main in ranked or not, it may be valuable to master one or two supports so that next game you can be guaranteed your role. For the reasons listed above, I suggest the champion you learn to be Vel'Koz.Here are some core principles that will help you be successful with
Vel'Koz support.- Aggressively poke the enemies in lane
- E>W combo is your powerhouse. Ult instantly after landing it, if possible
- Always The Ultimate Hat
- Always Exhaust
- Almost always Morellonomicon
- Max your CDR as soon as possible
- Know your limits, play your role (squishy long-range mage), keep appropriate distance
- Try to give the kills to the ADC, you will be fairly strong with or without the kills
- You can often kite a champion and do enough damage while running away to turn on them or kill them (similar to Ahri)
- Know how you synergize with your ADC, and know how the enemy bot lane can expose your weaknesses (gap close / hard engage onto you)
- Roam once or twice during lane phase. You can gank mid-lane using your slow and knockup, but don't neglect your ADC by roaming too much.
Welcome! This is a guide for Vel'Koz: the hidden God-tier support. In this guide, I provide my opinion on the best way to build and play Vel'Koz in the bottom lane, attempting to be as concise as possible. I strongly encourage, and appreciate, feedback and comments. Thanks for reading, and TEAR it up on the Rift!!!
Pros
+ Great at kiting
+ Long range poke
+ High base damage
+ True damage
+ Massive AoE damage
+ Strong E>W>Q and E>W>R combo
Vel'Koz has two abilities that slow Plasma Fission and Life Form Disintegration Ray, along with a knockback Tectonic Disruption. As a result, he *can* provide great peel for the AD carry and insane CC in teamfights. All of Vel'Koz's abilities have very long range, second only to a few champions such as Xerath. The low mana cost and high base damage of Vel'Koz's abilities result in spammable long range poke, that HURTS. His true damage passive is fairly easy to proc, as landing the tear and explosion of Void Rift provides 2 out of 3 stacks. Lastly, all four of Vel'Koz's abilities are Area of Effect (AoE), sans his Plasma Fission which is multi-target. Following this guide will lead you to doing consistently high damage all game and proving to be one of the most useful supports out there!
Cons
- Squishy
- No escape
- Vulnerable when ulting
- Skillshots
- Unimpressive scalings
- Can't always peel for ADC
Being a long range mage, with three CC abilities, Vel'Koz was justly made pretty squishy. And while you have fairly strong peel, anyone with a strong gap closer such as Akali or Irelia will melt you instantly. This is because you have no escapes (besides Flash, if it's up). So I recommend keeping an appropriate gap between you and the enemy champion(s), while aggressively poking them down. As far as your ultimate ability Life Form Disintegration Ray is concerned, there are two things to be wary of. First, it is a channeled spell that can easily be interrupted by any hard CC (silence, knock-up, stun). Second, while ulting Vel'Koz is completely unable to move, and therefore left very vulnerable. Overall, positioning and timing is key with this champion, but these two thing will come fairly easy to you in just a couple games.
For runes, I chose the Sorcery as the primary tree, and then Inspiration. I feel this allows Vel'Koz to put out a ton of damage in lane, while also providing him some safety with Stopwatch and 45% max CDR, which is essential for waveclear and maximum teamfight damage!
Arcane Comet is a no brainer here. It adds more poke damage in lane, and adds to your AoE. Summon Aery isn't great to pick because it will encourage you to auto-attack in lane to get value out of it, often putting you out of position.
The Ultimate Hat is absolutely insane on Vel'Koz!! Early game you can have a ~50s ult cooldown. Furthermore, Manaflow Band isn't nearly as good as The Ultimate Hat, because most of Vel'Koz's abilities are fairly low mana cost.
Meditation
helps with Vel'Koz's early struggle with mana, and promotes spamming of his abilities. With 5 points in
Meditation
, you don't need to heavily focus your build path on mana or mana regeneration.
I choose Transcendence on Vel'Koz for two main reasons. First, the early game 10% CDR is quite nice. But moreso because I often find myself wanting to build items that get me over 45% CDR, so now that excess CDR is simply turned into AP. Absolute Focus is a fair option if you want even more damage. Vel'Koz is so squishy that you're usually above 70% health, or you're dead.
Scorch is a fairly straightforward choice here. Adds damage to your in-lane poke. Gathering Storm is a fair alternative, if you're worried about your late game damage (which you shouldn't be worried about!).
Cosmic Insight is great, because CDR is quite important on Vel'Koz, and you'll usually end up with an active item or two.
Perfect Timing is good on Vel'Koz, because it can often save you, and allow you to turn an early game fight/gank, which is often game altering. Also, I usually encourage building Zhonya's Hourglass, so this will save you a bit of coin for that rather expensive item.
I wanted to include this piece about Magical Footwear, because it's a great alternative to Perfect Timing. The permanent movement speed bonus is huge for Vel'Koz, because he needs all the mobility he can get. This is a great choice if you don't mind waiting 10 minutes for boots, and/or you don't typically build Zhonya's Hourglass. Obviously, you can also just buy Stopwatch straight up, if you decide you still want Zhonya's Hourglass.
Barrier: Barrier is awesome on Vel'Koz mid, but if you are going support, you almost always want to run Exhaust. Note: you can pop Barrier while ulting, which can end up making a huge difference!
Flash: An ABSOLUTE NECESSITY as for Vel'Koz, because you have no other forms of escaping! Cosmic Insight keeps your flash off of cooldown more often, to help you escape those sticky situations. Ionian Boots of Lucidity are also a valid pick on Vel'Koz, for this reason!
Exhaust: Exhaust is a great way to add some utility and peel for your ADC and for yourself. Although Exhaust isn't run in bottom lane as much anymore after its nerfs, Ignite puts you way out of position due to its short range. Additionally, you need peel for your ADC, since most supports will already have more peel than you do.
All four ofof the four also proc Vel'Koz's abilities are either AoE or multi-target skillshots. In addition, three
Liandry's Torment's passive, which is why it is an essential item! An important thing to note is that every one of Vel'Koz's abilities has a distinct delay. Familiarize yourself with this delay, and you will be landing his skillshots left and right, and likely doing the most damage in the game. High skill cap on this champion, but he is very fun to play (especially in bot lane) and fairly easy to get the hang of.
- Organic Deconstruction: Glorious true damage passive that is relatively easy to proc. An easy combo to proc this passive is to land your Tectonic Disruption, then follow it up with a Void Rift or your ult Life Form Disintegration Ray.
- Plasma Fission (Q): Heavy 70% slow with good damage. Branches off into a "T". Shooting this ability off at a 45 degree angle will result in a ~1.41 times longer distance (geometry, wow!) compared to shooting it straight ahead.
- Void Rift (W): The secondary explosion does more damage than the initial tear. Landing only the initial tear is acceptable for in-lane poking, but landing both is much more desirable.
- Tectonic Disruption (E): This is a fairly hard knockup to land, very similar to Nami's Aqua Prison as far as mechanics are concerned. However, unlike Aqua Prison, Tectonic Disruption is NOT a stun, merely a knockup. It will disrupt enemy channels, and landing this move is a tell-tale sign to GO ALL IN.
- Life Form Disintegration Ray (R): Great ultimate ability that applies a slow, therefore Liandry's Torment, AND Organic Deconstruction! Leaves you extremely vulnerable though, so position and time it carefully. I often bait the enemy bot lane into chasing me, Flash away, and then ult both of them in the face! Synergizes well with AoE CC such as Amumu, Malphite, Orianna, Wukong, Yasuo etc.
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I start with Plasma Fission, but max Void Rift first for a couple reasons. Plasma Fission is more appropriate level 1 since it has a much longer range and also applies a slow. However, I max Void Rift because it is often much easier to land than Plasma Fission, does more damage than Plasma Fission if you place it properly, AND has the potential to apply two stacks of Organic Deconstruction to multiple enemies. Next, get Tectonic Disruption if the enemy lane is pushing/harassing a bit; or Void Rift if you are pushing their lane and want some additional harass. Max Plasma Fission second followed by Tectonic Disruption.
Item Sequence
Boots of Swiftness 1000
Eye of the Watchers 0
Morellonomicon 2950
Locket of the Iron Solari 2200
Zhonya's Hourglass 3250
Banshee's Veil 3000
Great for the CDR and Summoner spell CDR. I'd usually suggest Boots of Swiftness or Mercury's Treads, but the early game CDR plus Summoner Spell CDR is quite powerful. And your excess CDR will give you AP with Transcendence.
An essential item for your build. Provides utility (Grievous Wounds), a big hunk of AP, 20% cooldown reduction, and enough mana regen for the whole game.
Three of Vel'Koz's abilities apply the passive on Liandry's Torment. Plus Haunting Guise gives you some early health and magic penetration. A great choice!
This is a great utility item, especially if you didn't have a great laning phase. It's a cheap way to chunkify yourself. Upgrade to Banner of Command if you seek a bit more damage, or Locket of the Iron Solari for more utility.
Zhonya's Hourglass is great on Vel'Koz, giving you yet another out when the enemy team dives on you. It will also usually give your cooldowns enough time to reset. I buy this mainly for its active and for the armor it provides, but the CDR is great as well.
Good item against a team with a ton of MR. For a much safer option, I'd go with Abyssal Mask. NOTE: ALL of your Abilities have longer range than Abyssal Mask's passive, so you may not get full use of it. However, the stats will beef you up and add to your sustain.
Get this item late game, if at all. While it provides tons of AP, there are much more appropriate utility-oriented items, that end up being more effective. If you want more damage, build something with magic penetration, like Liandry's Torment!
I'll be honest, I have mixed feelings on this item. All of your abilities except your E already provide CC. However, you could almost buy this item for the health and AP alone, to add some beefiness. Additionally, you will get some enhanced slowing with this item, especially out of your W.
Vel'Koz, while maybe not completely accepted as a support, offers much to almost any team whenever played in the bottom lane. A primary reason I play him, is that I can almost always win my lane and get my ADC fed, and also put out tons of damage, in case my mid laner isn't quite doing enough. For this reason, I think he's great for climbing in Solo Q! He's also a great pocket pick, for whenever you get autofilled!
The general playstyle for Vel'Koz support is most analagous to that of Lux support. He has great poke potential, massive range, consistently high damage throughout the game (if built properly), and some pretty decent peel. However, always keep your distance from high-threat enemies and stay in the back, because the gap between you and the enemy is usually the difference between life and death. He has a relatively high skill cap, but surprisingly only takes a few games to get used to his abilities and general playstyle. He brings CC and MASSIVE AoE damage to the team, which I believe is often more useful than what a "traditional support" has to offer. I highly recommend playing this champion as an AP support for these reasons.
Vel'Koz support synergizes best with champions with AoE CC and strong engages, such as Amumu, Galio, Malphite, Orianna, Wukong, Yasuo etc. Good bot lane synergies include bursty champions like Graves, Quinn, Twitch, and Vayne. Also, Caitlyn works great with Vel'Koz due to their ult synergies. Aces-for-0 are not uncommon with team comps like this. Play around with this guy, I think you will really enjoy him =)
Special Thanks to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here
Thanks all!
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