Hello everyone, I am a Volibear OTP (meaning that I only play Volibear). I have been playing the bear since S7, I am not a very high rank but that doesn't mean that I don't know what I am talking about. I have over 800k Mastery on Volibear and I am constantly testing out builds that other people think is troll. I mean, some of them are but I do know what I am talking about.

I enjoy playing Volibear because of his versatility, he can build pretty much anything and still be viable throughout the entire game. He can run most Runes as well. A lot of people say that Volibear is currently weak, I think that is not the case. He is rather strong, you just need to know why he is strong and I will explain that in more detail later.

Here I will list the pros and cons of playing like this.

Pros Early Game Pressure Dueling Power Usefulness Throughout Game Unexpected Damage

Cons Weak When Behind Straightforward Ganking Angles Easily Dodged Abilities

Items

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Figured I would stop you here and explain why I am not going to explain away every item above. The truth of the matter is that Volibear can build any of the items and still be rather good throughout the game. Main thing you need to understand, is not whether one item is better than another but that every item has it's purpose. Understanding why you are actually building that item in the first place is what really gives you an advantage with any build.

I chose these items because of the synergy they have with Volibear's kit. Every item above has synergy, even if they come with a change in playstyle. Although, I will admit that I haven't had the pleasure to play with every single item in this guide. That is fine though since Volibear is a champion that is meant to adapt to the game state and build accordingly.

Runes

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Since you are already here, might as well explain why I don't talk about the Sub-Runes like Triumph in this guide. Simply put, it is because of Volibear's versatility. Depending on what kind of build you want to run, Volibear can make use of pretty much any rune that you think will work. Even something like Legend: Bloodline could be beneficial.

Now, don't get to overwhelmed thinking about it. Instead, think of what benefit you want for your build. For example, let's say you wanted to make a build using Navori Flickerblade. Knowing that you won't need Ability Haste, what should be the main thing you want to look for in your runes? Survivability or more damage? Perhaps you want to just be a frontline monster. No matter what the reason you choose something, be sure that you know why you chose that particule thing.

Synergies

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As for synergies, there isn't really much to say about it really. Volibear synergizes well with anyone who has hard CC to lock down your target or someone with a lot of burst potential. Other than that, the main synergy you need to look for is anyone that can boost your engage with a speed boost or something similar. Something like Lulu, Yuumi, and Janna can be very good with Volibear.

Here I will discuss Volibear's abilities in detail and explain why there are good how they are.

The Relentless Storm is Volibear's Passive. This is what makes Volibear such a great Auto-Attack based champion, it is also partly to blame for why Volibear has low Base AD. For every damaging effect that you do, be it an Auto-Attack or Ability, Volibear gains 1 stack of his passive which increases his Attack Speed as well as his On-Hit Damage. His Attack Speed increases by 5% (+ 4% per 100 AP), up to 25%, and his On-Hit Damage now applies Magic Damage worth 11 - 60 (based on level) (+ 50% AP) to your initial target and up to 4 extra random targets.

Thundering Smash is Volibear's main way to gap close. It gives 8/12/16/20/24 based on points invested, which is doubled when moving towards a visible enemy champion or an enemy tower. It deals 10/30/50/70/90 (+ 120% bonus AD) in bonus physical damage, this is why it hits so hard when you build items like Titanic Hydra. A fun little tip about Thundering Smash that many people don't know, it is counted as a mini dash. Hence, you can actually go over small walls if the target is close enough. Thundering Smash will also stun the target for 1 second. If Volibear is immobilized or polymorphed by an enemy within the duration, it ends and resets the cooldown.

Frenzied Maul is Volibear's main way to sustain in a fight. It has a low cooldown of 5 seconds and has an increased range over your normall attack range. This ability actually has 2 casts, the initial cast and the cast on a wounded target. The initial cast wounds the target and marks them. Frenzied Maul deals 5/30/55/80/105 (+ 100 AD) (+ 6% of your bonus health) in physical damage. If you hit a wounded target with this, Volibear instead bites them and heals for 20/35/50/65/80 (+ 8/11/14/17/20% of your missing health). The bite still deals the damage just now it also heals you on top of it.

Sky Splitter is possible one of Volibear's most fun abilities, it is a skill shot that has a delay of 2 seconds and it doesn't reveal itself to the target for the first second after you cast it. This is awesome because people will not even notice you cast it and then flash or dash immediatly to get out of it. Sky Splitter deals 80/110/140/170/200 (+ 80% AP) (+ 11/12/13/14/15% of target;s maximum health) in magic damage, it also shields you (if you are in the radius) for 14% of your maximum health (+75% AP). This ability also comes with a slow of 40% for 2 seconds and grants you sight of the area for 1 second.

Volibear's ultimate is Stormbringer, which is a leap that grants bonus effects after casting and landing. Upon activation, Volibear becomes ghosted and is granted 175/350/525 bonus health, 50 bonus attack range, 25 increased range on Frenzied Maul, and 35% increased size. While Volibear is traveling, the area is revealed to him and he has crowd control immunity. After landing, nearby enemies are slowed for 50% (which decays over 1 second), deals 300/500/700 (+250% bonus AD) (+125% AP) in physical damage to those in the epicenter, and disables towers for 3/4/5 seconds. If this ability is cast while Thundering Smash is active, the duration is paused for the duration of the leap.

Please note that, same as with the items, Volibear can make use of any rune in which Health, AD, AP, Attack Speed, or Movement Speed are a factor. Because of this the secondary runes you utilize should be changed out to better help what style of play you wish to do.

You may decide to run Shield Bash over Demolish if you prefer to fight or turn on someone, rather than shoving towers as quickly as possible. No matter what runes you choose to go in those slots, made sure that you understand how you can utilize them with your kit and chosen items.

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Here I will go into detail talking about each Rune that is viable and for what reason. Since Volibear is so versatile in what he can build, we don't have to worry to much about why certain runes are just plain bad for the bear. Instead, we are going to talk about the main Runes that I suggest up above.

First up we have the Meta Rune that everyone runs with every build, Press the Attack or PTA for short. PTA is great for Volibear since he can stack it up very easily and make major use of it. Not only does it increase your own damage output against the target when they are Vulnerable, it increases your allies damage to the target as well. Press the Attack is great when you want that extra bit of damage for your Tank or Bruiser builds.

Now on to my favorite Rune to run on Volibear, Lethal Tempo. This Rune is a perfect Rune for any build on Volibear and a lot of people sleep on that fact. It grants the user scaling Attack Speed and increased Attack Range at max stacks, which Volibear can get very easily since Thundering Smash and Frenzied Maul both apply On-Hit, as well as On-Attack, effects. Meaning that you have a full stack after just one rotation of abilities. What makes this Rune even better on Volibear is that he has a 0.7 AS Ratio, meaning that all of that Attack Speed you are stacking up with Lethal Tempo just becomes even more powerful.

Conqueror is the next Rune we will discuss. Similar to Lethal Tempo with stacking, Conqueror gives Adaptive Damage which means that you will get either AD or AP based on what you are building at the time. At max stacks, it will heal you for 8% (Since Volibear is melee) of the post-mitigation damage dealt against enemy champions. This is very good for Volibear since the healing and damage helps you with extended fights, this is great for Volibear as he loves to fight for as long as possible.

Predator is a boots active Rune that grants bonus movement speed while facing enemy champions for 10 seconds after a 0.25 second cast time. The bonus increases based on level by up to 25% - 50.3% over 1.5 seconds. After the ramp up time, your next basic attack or instance of ability damage against an enemy champion ends this effect and deals 20 - 180 (based on level) (+25% bonus AD) (+15% AP). This is good for bursting people down as Volibear since you can actively combo this with Thundering Smash almost one-shot some squishier champions. This is also a good choice if you want to have even more Early Game pressure than with PTA.

Now for a sleeper OP Rune for the Jungle, Grasp of the Undying or simply Grasp. This rune is another one of my favorites as the charge time of Grasp is similar to the cooldown of Frenzied Maul and corralates rather nicely together. Grasp of the Undying empowers your next basic attack, at max stacks, within 6 seconds against an enemy champion. This empowered basic attack consumes all stacks and deals bonus magic damage equal to 3.5% of your maximum health, heals you for 3 (+1.2% of your maximum health), and permanently grants 7 bonus health. Keep in mind that this is the statistics of grasp on a melee champion like Volibear.

Here we have Glacial Augment, this rune is a very unique playstyle. Glacial Augment summons three zones that apply a slow to enemies that walk through them and reducing the damage they can deal to your allies. While it would be cool if you could proc Glacial Augment with Sky Splitter, you can only proc it it with Thundering Smash. Although, the zones do last last longer than the stun from Thundering Smash so it isn't all that bad. It is really good if you want to play more towards your allies, though you can still solo some champions with this setup.

In this section, we will talk about 4 different strategies that you can use to stay relevent throughout the entire game. Now keep in mind that you rarely want to actually make it to full build on Volibear, this is because you typically want to have the game ended by around 32-36 minutes. This is because your damage will fall off as everyone else gets stronger.

Late Invade Strategy

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This strategy is best used against farming junglers, champions that want to power farm and sequence their camps more than anything. So here are the steps you can take to make this strategy work;

1. Ward the enemies top buff. We do this to determine where the enemy jungler is starting, so we know where to path.
2. Then we are going to recall and buy a sweeper. This is so we can sweep on our way into their jungle to make sure we are not spotted.
3. We will be sarting on our Red buff into Krugs then Raptors. This way we can either run to their Blue side or cross Mid into their Red side.
4. Sit and wait. We will wait on in the bush next to their buff so we can kill them as they start it up.

Pay attention to lane states when you do this strategy. If the enemy laners have priority, they will most likely collapse and look to kill you. Use the PTA Rune page for this strategy as it will allow you to burst them down quicker, that doesn't mean you can't use the other Rune pages though.

5-Camp into Action

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This strategy consist of you doing a 5-Camp Clear to clear which allow you to hit the map quicker than someone that might look to Full Clear. For this stategy, we will look to do both buffs and each outer camp along with one inner camp. The outer camps, Gromp and Krugs, have argueably the most xp for you to snack early. You can decide which inner camp you want to take, keep in mind that the enemy jungler may end up trying to counter jungle you but with this strategy you will prevent that from happening by only having one camp available for them to take.

After you finish this clear, which should be at around 3:12, you will look to impact the map before Scuttle spawns. Whether that is Mid lane or a side lane, you want to make it to them just as they are hitting 3-4.

3-Camp into Cross Map Action

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This strategy is for when you want to make sure that you are not counter jungled while you make a play. For this, you take an entire quadrant or 3-Camps on one side. Then, you cross the map by either ganking Mid Lane and crossing or by walking behind your Mid Lane tower. Either way, the point is to end up on the oppisite side that you started on.

While doing this strategy, be sure to start oppisite of the side lane you want to impact. If that is Top Lane, then start with the bottom side and vise versa for Bot Lane. You use this strategy when you want to make first move on the map as well as have tempo over the enemy jungler that might be clearing slower than you.

After you are done impacting the side lane and/or Mid Lane, then you go to finish the remaining camps that you have not taken yet.

Full Clear

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This strategy is all about giving you the edge over a hyper ganking jungler. With this strategy, you will Full Clear your entire jungle and then look for action. This is a very situational strategy, though it can be a good base for new players that want to learn how to clear camps more effectively as Volibear.

If you clear properly, you should be done with the entire clear by 3:12. Now that doesn't mean that you need to do every camp before making a move on the map, it just means that you have a base line that will get you through the early game.