My username is Leechoffme and I play on the NA server and this is one of my first guides. I'll try to be in-depth and explain everything properly but if you have any questions please feel free to ask me or add me. Ive been playing Volibear ranked since 2014 and he's my go-to champ to carry, besides LeBlanc of course. He's helped get me to plat and he can get you there as well! Volibear is a viable pick because of his carry potential through his vast amounts of cc and chasing power. It is very easy to get fed as him and late game he becomes a superb tank with a lot of dmg because his Frenzy damage scales with his health during executing scenes. I have over 300,000 mastery points in him so I know his ins and outs pretty well. Enjoy :) ps I will update with every patch and please feel free to comment and vote; all that good stuff. Currently Volibear is standing fairly well and works very well in jg as well as in the top lane up to plat. I would most certainly recommend him to a new player trying to climb to gold because he is fairly simple to play up to that level.

Currently at 73% win rate in S8 ranked for 43 games. Volibear and more wins than loses.

Pros

+ durable + Strong early game + Strong Ganks + Fast + Super tanky

Volibear is super powerful early game and his passive The Relentless Storm means you can gank with less worries about dying. He also clears the jungle with high health remaining so it's easier to gank early after your first clear. don't be afraid to engage on most champs when you are level 1, 2, or 3.

Cons

+ Easily kited + Low damage late game + Not great at soloing objectives such as drag/baron.

Volibear Can be kited, that's why this build focuses on speed so much and getting tanky with a strong execute.

I max w Frenzy first because it's your main source of damage and the attack speed and damage allows you to clear the jungle fast.

I go q Thundering Smash 2nd because you need the flat rate movement speed boost to chase down champions. The fling is useful but it doesn't do as much damage as your e Sky Splitter and is really not that great at clearing minion waves or mobs in the jungle. This is just for banking potential and getting into fights

I go e Sky Splitter 3rd and it prevents the minions from attacking you for a few seconds, provides damage, as well as coming with a slow. this is great for stopping enemy dashes (engages/escapes). use it when champs like xin, camille, ali, etc try to come for you with a dash. It's tough to time but it is very useful for many situations such as protecting your carries from being dived on, as well as stopping escapes when you get the timing down.

This is a timed picture of my item sequence for a game I did well in. You can see I have my full jungle item before 10 minutes into the game. I rushed Dead Man's Plate after the boots and jungle item and then went straight for Spirit Visage because their comp was fairly balanced. The game ended sooner than my full build but I was going for righteous glory next so I could close faster. I like righteous glory when I am in the lead.

This is the go to jungle item for you. You can use smite on champions and deal a little bonus true damage and it also slows them. Using it doesn't slow you down which is prime which makes it good for escaping and chasing. The bonus health and passive damage to enemies around you from the cinder hulk enchantment really helps as well!. Don't be afraid to use this on champions to slow them so you can get close or get a kill!

Your go to boots. These boots are best when you are facing a team with a lot of hard cc. This means you are facing a team with a nautilus sup, morg mid, jinx bot, elise jg, and some one top. The mass amount of stuns this team has means you want as much help getting out of their cc as quickly as possible. These boots will help you do that and give you some magic resist to boot.

Great item for getting in close to the enemy. makes you fast in the jungle and doesn't deactivate when you get attacked which makes it good for chasing and escaping! this item is what you want to get after your jungle item and boots. The slow it comes with and extra armor is also a nice added bonus.

This item is great because it gives you health, magic resist, and its 20% healing bonus affects your passive. this is the 3rd or 4th item you want depending on their comp after the Jg item and boots

If the enemy team is 4 people with attack damage you need this item. It returns the damage you take and you get a ton of armor which is very very useful. It doesn't give much health which kind of sucks but you'll get health from cinder hulk, Dead Man's Plate and Spirit Visage. sometimes you want to build this before spirit visage if their ad is getting very fed. 4th or 5th item to build. Also includes grevious wounds which counters champs with high life steal. great vs a fed adc.

Honestly this last item is up to you. The reduce on critical strikes on you is very nice and if you're getting kited the attack speed slow helps too. the armor is good against attack damage champs and the activated component of it which slows enemies is good for escaping and sticking too your target but theres items for that like Frozen Heart or maybe you don't need to be tanker so you can get Titanic Hydra or another item. Basically if you make it this far and you still need an item then get this but chances are you'll win before you need it. Make sure you buy your Elixir of Iron

I personally don't like this rushing this item that much unless I already have a few items such as deadman, and/or spirit. This is because of a few reasons. One you have a flip and slows and you can also enchant your boots with the iron elixir so your allies can follow up with you. Two I don't like that it doesn't give you and armor or magic resist, only health. Three the slow you can activate at the end of the bonus only lasts for two second while randuins last's for four seconds. Five it does not make a good escape item, It is great for starting fights but not much else. It is a good item when you are having trouble chasing down and reaching the enemies though and certainly has it's uses.

This item is best when you're ahead and you want more pushing power. It allows you to clear mobs fast because of the aoe dmg it supplies, and it increases even more because the health you get from it benefits your W Frenzy . I don't rush this item, it is usually only useful for me when I am trying to carry harder and am very tanky already.

I like using flash when I jungle with Volibear because you can use it to escape or chase over walls. you can Flash and then use your q Thundering Smash and turn it into a combo and potentially a kill after using your e Sky Splitter, which slows them. It's better than Ghost because you get enough movement speed from my build.

Self explanatory. You need smite to jungle effectively.

resolve tree: Tank tree :)

Aftershock: guardian isn't viable for obvious reasons and the ganking potential of voli focuses less on prolonged fights. Aftershock is better than grasp of the undying if you are in jungle. If you are top lane, you can take grasp of the undying for more sustain during lane (aka stay in lane longer before backing/maximize exp/gold before backing).

Font of Life: Font of life is a good choice because it enables allies to gain life steal after u cc a champion (very easily done as voli), and also makes sense since voli's abilities and this build go for a lot of hp which increase our allies life steal.

Conditioning: helps combat voli late game weakness by increases resistances to ad and ap. And second wind is less useful because the passive on voli more than makes up for the rune.

Overgrowth: you will constantly be around minions after laning phase is over and max health increases affects ur health and your w damage. This rune is a better choice than revitalize because you aren't guaranteed to have a champ on your team that can heal/shield you. unflinching is another choice but i find i like the health bonus more than the tenacity bonus. I personally find it hard to keep my smite always down, and i dont like wasting my flash.

---

precision tree:

Triumph: assists will now grant you bonus health back, and give you gold. NOT JUST KILLS. takedowns consist of assists as well. if you get 12% of your missing health back and you are low with a lot of hp, you can go back into the fray more quickly which can help turn a team fight.

Coup de Grace: dealing more dmg to enemies with low health will make ur w just that much stronger!

Top: Blue->Wolves->scuttler->Red or Gank.

Bot: Red->Wolves->Scuttler->Blue->Gank or gromp.




The first gank can set the pace for the rest of the game so it is very important you do it well. When I enter the game I get my first items and I rush bot lane or wherever my adc is starting. What I do is start on the side my bot is so I can get a good leash. You don't need a leash but it really helps keep your health and clear ability up so you can provide a good early gank. That means I start Blue when I'm on top team and Red when I'm on bottom team. I do not smite the first camp. I clear 3 or 4 mobs then go for the first gank. What I do is I clear Red/Blue then move to wolves, then do scuttler, then blue or red (whichever is left) in 8.12+ you need 4 camps to hit level 3 but you can still gank while you are level 2. your level 2 fighting potential is fairly high. I don't do the opposite blue or red second because it's more likely that they will go uncontested. Red gives u a nice burn/slow and blue will make sure you have enough mana to use your abilities while ganking. again, You do not smite during your leash. Save it for your later clear (your third one preferably) After I do my first wave clear I look at bot and mid and top to see which looks easier to come in on. Is the mid/bot/top lane pushing far in already and/or have low health? If they aren't that pushed in you can get the other rift scuttler to kill time and see if anything changes. By this time your passive The Relentless Storm should still be up and you should have more than 80% of your health. You want to have one point in all your skills as well. Make sure you don't stop farming in the jungle! Your e Sky Splitter is the second skill you want because it prevents enemy minions and neutral minions from attacking you which will help a lot early game! You still max your Q second though if you want to gank pre level 3.

This Volibear build is for being a tank or offtank in the jungle. You will be surprised about how much damage you do with Volibear. His w scales off of his own health so you'll want to build a lot of health to make sure he does the most damage he can with his w. You need Dead Man's Plate to stick to your target and your q [rolling thunder]] will help with that as well. You don't do well against champs that inhibit your chasing ability. That means that Zyra, Morgana, Vayne, etc will be very annoying to play against because they can kite you.

---

You may be wondering when is the best time to sell your potion. I don't upgrade my potion after buying it usually because I feel that it takes up too much space and money in the long run and I usually sell it once I need that little bit of money to get an item I want. That usually happens to me around the 20 minute mark of the game but it can happen at the 30 minute mark if I just don't need any extra money at the time. Basically sell the Refillable Potion when your strapped for cash and don't want to wait for a big item or when you need to make room for other items. the refillable potion sells for 60 gold.

Ok so you've made it to late game and your unsure which item to pick as your last item. You're doing great but you notice that the enemy adc is kiting you and your health, passive The Relentless Storm, and Thornmail are helping a lot but you think you need some more armor and some sort of way to escape and chase him/her down more easily. It is at this point you buy Randuin's Omen. Same idea if you need some more magic resist. Buy an item like Adaptive Helm or something with magic resist. By this point you should have a very large amount of health and you should be disgustingly tanky. Some important things to note is that while you can solo dragon at this point, it is not recommended because it will take you like 2 or 3 minutes. Your w Frenzy is great at killing champions by executing them. Dragon just has too much health and Frenzy 's cooldown make's it an ability to you don't just spam. Bring another person so you can kill dragon in a timely and reasonable fashion or just have them solo it. Make sure your team is warding a lot so you can get said dragon, and baron and not get caught out. warding is essential! never let your wards just sit unused!

Okay I've decided to do a chapter on boots to help you decide which boots you may want to run. These are often very situational.


The boots below are your main choices.

Mercury's Treads

your go to boots. These boots are best when you are facing a team with a lot of hard cc (very common in this meta). This means you are facing a team with a nautilus sup, morg mid, jinx bot, elise jg, and some one top. The mass amount of stuns this team has means you want as much help getting out of their cc as quickly as possible. These boots will help you do that and give you some magic resist to boot. I like to run alacrity when I buy these boots because I really like to get a lot of movement speed.

Ninja Tabi

These boots are best when you are facing some one like a fed master yi, who relies a lot on basic attacks. Basically when you are facing adc's. I use these boots fairly often, they are definitely useful in certain situations.

The other boots are not viable on volibear. you don't need the attack speed boost really, or the magic penn.

if you are playing 3's with volibear there are some simple things that you should think about.

• 3's is all about your team comp.
  
• Most people go AP bot lane, fighter top lane, and a jungle. In this case you would either go voli top or jg.
  
• vilemaw is something that usually requires 3 of you to complete because of the debuff it applies

• items should be both starter jgler items, and a refillable potion
  
• start ghouls, then go wolves, then go golems and use your [smite] for the golems only.
  
  Ganks
• You want to be invading the enemy jgler (volibear has a very strong early game) and bush camping.
  
• Because the 3's map is so small boots aren't the biggest priority, rather it should be farming and consistent ganking.
  
• You should also have the PORO WARD rune in order to provide consistent vision in the two middle bushes. You can be offensive and put that poro on their middle bush side, or more defensive and put it on your side.
  
• Don't force a gank.

-if you hit vilemaw when trying to escape, it can drag your opponents back in if you time it right.
-some of the best champs in 3's are champs with lots of cc, and aoe dmg
-use your [majestic roar] to stop the dive on your teammates
-control the altars, they are very important
-remember to farm their jg when you get a kill as well as take their altar
-expect the game to move at a faster pace
-focus on getting your lanes fed, especially if you have a hyper carry on your side

This will be a list of easy things that can help improve your Volibear experience and help you better understand him.

• His passive is benefitted from spirit visage.
• Your q Thundering Smash gives you a speed bonus so you can use for escaping and chasing.
• Thundering Smash resets your aa, and does bonus damage to towers.
• The fling form your q Thundering Smash doesn't get rid of the move speed bonus of your q Thundering Smash.
• If your passive The Relentless Storm comes off cooldown it won't activate till you take damage again, even if you're below 30% health.
• You can smite champs to get a kill or use it as a slow.
• You can e Sky Splitter before you fling them with your q Thundering Smash if you're having trouble reaching the enemy.
• You can fling enemies over some very thin walls and you can fling enemies into tower range all with your q Thundering Smash.
• Your w Frenzy is best used towards the end of a fight so you do the most damage with it.
• Your r Stormbringer can be used to kill enemies because of the chain it provides.
• Your q Thundering Smash and e Sky Splitter can be used to interrupt jumps, escapes, etc...
• You are a very fast bear running down your enemies, thats pretty cool and scary to face.

This video Breaks it down very well.

- Kite camps by trading 3 autos then moving towards your next camp clear
- weave spells in between auto attacks
- For gromp be sure to trade 1 auto and then kite back for the first five autos of gromp (he gets an atk speed buff
- For raptors kill the baby ones first
- For krugs kite around the big one so the little one can never attack you
- check health bars of teammates using the minimap to see if they need support or their lane opponents are low health
- for rift herald: start with one auto and spell woven in and then move directly back as it charges. When it charges you can auto and hit the eye. When the herald starts to wind up you should move to hit the eye, otherwise it will be hard and you will waste time. The herald does a big swing at percentage health points, be sure to not move back for them and continue to move through the herald on the other side. each eye attack does around 1400 dmg.
Play Video

Your job is to either fling enemies towards your team so you can kill them, or fling them away from an ally with low health to save them. you can also use Sky Splitter to stop escapes, as well as engages on your allied squishes. You also slow champions and provide mobility for nearby allies. You are a tank who is meant to soak up a lot of the damage. You also are a force to be reckoned damage wise, which if you are ignored and an enemy squishy gets too close you can kill them fairly easily. You execute low health champs quite easily with w Frenzy .

-Updated for 9.12, no changes
-Updated for 9.11, no changes
-Updated for 9.10, no changes
-Updated for 9.9, big buff to W :)
-Updated for 9.8, Buff from 200% to 300% dmg on cinderhulk encahntment on jg item
-Updated for 9.7, Buff to overgrowth. 2.5% to 3.5%. Buff to cinderhulk jg item. now 300% more dmg to monsters instead of 200%
-Updated for 9.6, No changes.
-Updated for 9.5, No changes.
-Updated for 9.4, No changes. Consider running new Conq on Voli Top for dmg
-Updated for 9.3, No changes.
-Updated for 9.2, Buff (adjust) to his E and Buff to his r! now more formidable against tanks and does more damage with his ult!
-Updated for 9.1, No changes
-Updated for 8.24b, Price increase to tiamat.
-Updated for 8.24, No changes
-updated for 8.23, changed the 3 small runes to reflect new changes
-updated for 8.22, no changes
-updated for 8.21, no changes
-updated for 8.20, no changes
-updated for 8.19, no changes
-updated for 8.18, no changes
-updated for 8.17, no changes
-updated for 8.16, no changes
-updated for 8.15, no changes
-updated for 8.14, no changes
-updated for 8.13, updated. fixed spelling and some images.
-updated for 8.12, updated clears. blue/red>wolves>scuttle>gank or red/blue, 3's still WIP
-updated for 8.11, no changes, 3's still WIP
-updated for 8.10, no changes, 3's still WIP
-updated for 8.9, no changes, 3's still WIP
-updated for 8.8, no changes at all
-updated for 8.7, no major changes
-updated for 8.6, Some minor changes to dead mans plate
-updated for 8.5, E knock back duration decreased, cinder hulk nerfed, aftershock nerfed
-updated for 8.4, buffs to q and w. fixed some of the text that was outdated and dead pics
-Updated for 7.21, Some minor changes
-updated for 6.15, no changes
-updated for 6.14, no changes
-updated for 6.13, volibear early game potential down. His mid to late game stays the same though.
-updated for 6.12, no changes
-updated for 6.11, boots of swiftness got nerfed again and now mercury's treads are a better pick. :(
-updated for 6.10, no changes
-updated for 6.9, Lots of big changes in items! the build path hasn't changed and neither have the items. boot enchantments have been removed, cinder hulk got buffed, and spirit visage got reworked, I'm not sure if i like it better or not but the passive is just too good to remove it.
-updated for 6.8, no changes in patch notes. I added a boot break down section
-updated for 6.7, no changes
-updated for 6.6, Titanic Hydra is still viable but it got nerfed pretty hard.
-updated for 6.5, no changes
-updated for 6.4, Boot's of swiftness got nerfed again. Now I usually run mob boots or mech when they have a lot of cc on their team.
-Updated for 6.3, Dead Man's Plate got nerfed a little but still viable. [boots of mobility] got buffed, and the boot price got raised from 800 to 900. no changes to build.
-Updated for 6.2, no new changes to build
-Updated for season six (6.1). Strength of the Ages now a better pick than Bond of Stone . tier 2 jungle items got cheaper, and there was a buff for mana regen on them!