Hello and welcome to my mobafire guide dedicated to Veigar, the Tiny Master of Evil

In this guide I will show you what I personally think, the essential parts of Veigar.
Please feel free to send me feedback so I can improve my guide and provide a better help to you guys.

Also please don't downvote this guide without first giving constructive feedback and opinions.

Thanks alot and please, enjoy!!

This is a question asked by most of the people when they are deciding if they really want to use certain champion or not.
Well, Veigar is quite different from other AP Carries because of a couple of things I will list now. But what he can bring to the table which other APCs cannot is the completely destruccion of the table.

Veigar is an AP burst mage with a gift to completely destroy the enemy AP carry specially while they build AP (I'll explain why). In this chapter I resume it all in a nutshell so if you are short on time you can know the basics.
1. Farm you Q. Baleful Strike is an ability that increases your AP permanently each time you kill a minion with it. So it's a must-do in the game.
2. Don't pick Veigar against AD mids with high mobility and gap closers, like Talon, Pantheon or in this case, although he is AP, Kassadin can ruin your day. There's an ap carry with an exception, who is Ryze. He can build extremely tanky and get 0 AP while still dealing damage because of his abilities scaling also with his mana.
3. Learn to land your stun. Only the borders of Event Horizon stun. Not the full area.
4. Target squishies. Never the tanks nor bruisers. Always focus on the AD and AP carries. APCs as priority of course.
5. Once you get the hang of it, spam laugh by putting your /laugh on your "Z". This will make your foe want to cry.

Pros -High AP and damage -Incredible burst -Free AP from Q farm -Nice AoE stun -Powerful nuking against AP champions -Epic laugh

Cons -Super squishy -Cooldown dependant as you are burst mage -Weak against most AD champions -No real disengage besides stun -Risky -Too awesome

Why Flash and Teleport?
Where's Ignite?
Well, personally, I don't find Ignite that useful on Veigar compared to, let's say, Ryze who is more of a constant DPS mage. If you weren't able to completely demolish your target with your full combo, a few auto attacks or an Baleful Strike should finish the deal. Normally Ignite is not that necessary. Of course, it's still a very strong pick no matter what. Specially agains healing-heavy champions or fighting an ADC with lifesteal.
Flash is a must as you cannot escape that greatly when your stun is on cooldown and this spell is a must on champions without positioning skills.
Teleport is a very nice summoner spell. I take it so I can recall when I'm in trouble and come back quickly so I don't lose too much farm and exp, which are essential on Veigar. It also increases your prescence in the map and your overall comeback chance.
Ghost will help you alot if you feel like running away oftenly. A well landed Event Horizon, Flash and a Ghost pop can bring you to safety in a couple of seconds.
Barrier is a great spell on this little guy since you are squishy and some extra barrier sometimes will save your small life. A great spell to bring.
Clairvoyance is a spell for supports. It will just use your space and chance to take a nice Teleport or Ignite.
Smite is not good. You will farm with Baleful Strike and also this is more for jungling.
Garrison... No, you can't.

For runes I take:
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: These runes are always a must on AP champions. The magic penetration will increase your damage as the target's magic resistance will be ignored for a small amount. It's really useful, and I find it better than the AP runes. Synergizes very well with Sorcery, Void Staff and Sorcerer Shoes.

Greater Seal of Armor: Armor yellows are the standard runes any champion want to take. These runes will reduce greatly the physical damage in early to mid game. But it does not only defend you against enemy autoattacks, but also from minion and tower damage. I take these seals after reconsidering my rune choice.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: I have seen both Flat MR and Scaling MR work, but personally I prefer the scaling MR runes. Why? I really find the flat MR runes good only until level 6. At that point the scaling runes will out-scale the flat runes by a high amount of MR when reaching their full potential at level 18. That good amount of MR will save your life oftenly and it's a great way to defend yourself at some encounters with your target.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: My main reason to choose this is because normally mages take AP Quints, but I dislike that since Veigar has infinite AP gathering and that little don't seem to help as much as these Quints. Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed help your non-boot start to be less slow and you will be able to move faster in order to avoid ganks, CC, skillshots and sometimes this small boost to your movement speed will make a chase/escape, a success.

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For masteries, I normally take 21/0/9.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Crystaline Flask
After some trying, the suggestions were right. Doran's Ring only gives you good sustain if you only live with the ring. Crystaline Flask is much more helpful in the laning phase and is even cheaper.


Deathfire Grasp is another extra skill for your awesome kit. You will want it as soon as possible. The AP scaling on the nuke is something you will benefit from because of your raw high AP you are building up.


The old deathcap never gets old. This item brings up extra AP with an AP boosting passive which comes in handy for Veigar. Keep in mind that this item synergizes perfectly with your hat. (lol)


Morellonomicon also known as Morello's Evil Tome is a great item for Veigar if you are doing average or bad. It is a good cost efficent item but in lategame doesn't help much if you don't need the healing reduction from its passive. However AP, CDR, Mana Regen always is welcomed.


I more defensive version of Morellonomicon. But this item in this case is more helpful for Veigar. Its passive is the same as yours and they stack together. This will make you have tons of mana regen and be able to regenerate all your mana in a few moments. Also gives nice stats for a pretty low cost. You can get Chalice of Harmony early since the passive its the same but kind of weaker. That will give you a nice advantage in lane as your mana will always stay high enough if you know how to manage it.


Void Staff not only comes in handy for the magic penetration, but also gives you 70 AP for the good price. The passive is something that might seem really occasional item but believe me, you always need it. It ignores 35% of the enemy's resistance, so it always will reduce some and increase your damage as well. Did I mention it gives 70 AP? This item is the sweet candy.


This Zhonya's Hourglass is almost a must-get item in lategame. People will always want to focus you down and its active will make you invulnerable to damage or disables for a short time, but freezing you. It will give your team time to react and peel for you if they know what they are doing, but still, if not, this will save your life thousands of times. Keep in mind that this cool item brings up 120 AP. And some armor. Yeah, too good to pass by, right?


Rylai's is a nice item that brings up nice AP, HP and an amazing passive which will make all your spells activate a slow. I mean ALL of them. This item is very nice in specific situations but normally it is just a plus, but there are better items.



Abyssal Scepter provides decent amount of AP and great Magic Resistance. It creates an aura like Fiddlesticks's passive. It reduces the Magic Resistance of all enemy units around you. Nice defensive and offensive item to get. Its cost is quite low also.


under construction

BOOTS

Why I made a section for boots.
These are a very important choice for the Tiny master of evil. However, there are only a few choices that are good for him... But the choice must be made completely depending on how the game is going.


This are the standard boots any caster mage will get. It gives magic penetration. I won't explain much about this one.


Ninja Tabi is the best choice against AD. These tabis give you a great passive that will save you from deadly AD attacks and gives some nice armor. Pick these against AD heavy comps or an AD mid that you shouldn't really be facing.


My favorite boots. These sweetness give you magic resistance, which is useful since you should be facing an AP mid, and Tenacity, the name of the godly reduction of crowd control effects. For instance: A stun should last 2 seconds on you, with Tenacity passive on any of your items, it will only last 1.50 or less. Nice isn't it?


These boots of swiftness give you nice movement speed paired with a slow-effectiveness reduction. It isn't like Tenacity. It completely lowers the effect of the slow. (Not other CC effects though)
Only get these if you are going average or bad. Or maybe when you need faster comeback and map prescence.

For Enchantments:

I recommend only two of them:

Enchantment: Distortion gives you a nice 75 second reduction on your summoner spells' cooldown. Really nice and is almost my to-go pick.

Enchantment: Alacrity gives you a good movement speed boost that helps you in dodging, escaping, chasing and moving around. I get this if I'm finding myself too slow and I must get some speed.

Enchantment: Homeguard only is good when you are losing and you have to recover quickly, run back to lane in a second and keep on defending your base. I just take these if I'm losing the game. Overall nice though.

As you may have heard, Veigar is a lategame total powerhouse nuker. He can 100-0 enemies with a full combo easily... As long as you got your early game right.

Long story short, it's all about farming your Baleful Strike and playing safe.
But it's far more complicated than that.
Firstly, the main issue in early game is your high mana costs and low survability. Your stun is weak and your Dark Matter is if not useless, a waste of mana in early phase.
Why?
Dark Matter Takes fully 1.2 seconds to land. It is a long while and enemies even without boots can calmly walk out of the area of effect before it lands. So there's the stun. But Event Horizon won't hold them long enough for it to fully land. At least not until rank 3.
So personally, I max Baleful Strike first for faster farming and good damage.
How to deal with mana issues!
I start with Doran's Ring.
There's one reason for this: Recovers 5 mana on kill.
So, coupled with your passive, Equilibrium you can always keep your mana at 50% at least and even when out of mana, you will quickly generate enough to continue last hitting with Baleful Strike.
What to do now?
Try to not risk your life to get that 1 Ability Power, it's not worth it. The game is long and minions spawn oftenly enough for you to farm up that lost 1 AP.
Use your stun when the enemy wants to set up your death. This is crucial because early game heavily affects your late game. Keep care on your life and the enemy jungler.
Never forget to ward! Either you can buy wards or the jungler. Not a problem if the support puts one down when he or she passes by.

This is when things get fun. Usually mid phase starts when the first tower is down or when all of the players hit level 11 or so. Also you can know when mid game starts by feeling enemies are roaming too much.
At this point you have two choices:
1. Keep farming safe, try to set up good ganks with your almost maxed Event Horizon with your jungler
2. Or start roaming because you got fed somehow.

I recommend just staying in lane and help only when you are really needed. You shouldn't give up too much exp and farm because farm=gold=Q last hit=more AP.
At this point you can already start to trade with your lane opponent. But try to be evil as Veigar and stun him or her, drop a Dark Matter, Baleful Strike and run away. This way your foe will lose advantage over you as they lost health for nothing.

By this time your should have your items ready to be turned into a Deathfire Grasp and your boots.
Try to help your team by doing Dragon and securing targets that you happen to have to deal with. Like, an AP Master Yi running away at your blue after killing a teammate. You can easily get him by walking to check, stunning and ulting him.

Now this is gonna boom!
At this point of the game you should have a great amount of CS (minion kill count). Remember that farming is crucial on Veigar and now, you will see the fruits of your hard work.
The Deathfire Grasp and Rabadon's Deathcap will make you a monster of killing and anything that has AP, will be killed by your full combo.
You should keep in mind that your Deathfire Grasp active is very important and you should never forget it. It's like one extra skill that helps you rip your target apart.
You have to stay behind your team at any time. Or else any competitive player will focus you down in a matter of seconds. Your targets are squishy carries, both AP and AD. Of course, the AP mage comes first in your list.

Your main ability sequence would be this:
Event Horizon>> Dark Matter>> Deathfire Grasp>> Primordial Burst>> Baleful Strike

Now, how do you know if you are doing this the right way? Easy.


You have to land you stun so the enemy is stunned.
Your Dark Matter should already be cast on your enemy at most, 0.4 seconds later. Or at least, fast enough so they don't go away.
Dark Matter has an indicator before falling. You should have already fired your Deathfire Grasp after the indicator dissapears.
When Deathfire Grasp has probably hit your enemy, your Primordial Burst and Baleful Strike have to be already in flight towards the target.
Lastly, when Dark Matter falls, you should have a corpse under your tiny feet, and Veigar's laugh automatically toggled. (He does laugh automatically when dealing a killing blow).


Sounds hard? It hits harder.

Under construction

Q&A!

Q:Why don't you max Dark Matter?
A:Because I cannot rely on a nuke that is so predictable and slow. It has a powerful base damage and great scaling. But until I can get my stun long enough for it to safely land, I will max my Baleful Strike and my Event Horizon.

Q:I like to leave Q at level 1.
A:It is your choice. But keep in mind that it is your only spammeable spell and it provides not only easier farming, but better poke and higher damage at some unpredictable engages you will get.

Q:What if I farm alot and build tanky like susaN?!
A: Nasus has another style of playing. Veigar has to be able to completely destroy his opponent before he or she notices. His defensive stats are insanely low. Just like Sona. So focusing in defense is something that other tanky AP mids can do. For instance, Rumble and Vladimir. Of course, feel free to try. It's quite good if you are just starting as Veigar but in my humble opinion, it's better to be the AP carry that kills anything.

Q:AD and AP Hybrid Veigar!!
A:This has been a really interesting topic for a moment. But unluckily, is just not so good. You can farm up that AP surely, but how much last hits are you going to get in one match? Let's assume you get 200 CS. That's 200 AP. You will hurt, but not really enough. Your AD has to be built with heavy AD items as AD is very different from AP. AD carries have to get items to hit those hard attacks, but AP mages are more reliant on leveling up. So, if you want to actually have impact, you will have to go heavy AD items with medium AP. And that will make you weaker compared to the normal AP Veigar. But I love side builds, so try it if you want! I can't garantee victory though.

Q:I can't really kill anything with Veigar
A:You are then doing something wrong. Check out the ability sequence. Did you land your stun? Did you land your Dark Matter? Have you been farming up at least 150 CS? Did you get killed in early phase? Did the enemy build tanky and MR so you can't deal damage? Those are things you have to keep in mind to play Veigar. Check out the "What to keep in mind while dueling" chapter!

Well, thanks for reading my Veigar guide.

I love this champion and his personality is just crazy and adorable at the same time. Every moment in the game is fun and I have found myself enjoying this champion so much that I HAD to make a contribution to MOBAfire with this guide.

Good luck, have fun, keep calm and see you in game guys!

-Unit

CREDITS:
Guide to making a guide by jhoi jhoi

CHANGELOG:
28/05/2013:
Published. Added all the final touches and colors.
Added Ability Casting Sequence chapter
Added Frequently asked questions chapter
Removed Twin Shadows and Liandry's Torment from build.
Rewritten the Masteries text
29/5/2013
Changed Crystaline Flask, removed Doran's Ring.
Runes and Masteries reset.
Added Runes section
Inserted Masteries pic, but no info still under construction.
Liandry's Torment removed.
30/5/2013
Archive upcoming at 22 PM.