Hey guys, welcome to my Volibear guide!
Let's kick it off with a question: Why Volibear?
Well the answer is simple. The first time I played LoL (on a decent computer) I played Volibear, because he was free to play. And, I just fell in love with his skills. After I played him for the rest of the week, he was no longer free to play. I realized I had to buy him and went to everyone I know who could buy rp for me and 1 person did it. Fortunately, he was on sale the next week, so I got him cheap :p.
What I'm saying is, is that Volibear was my first, and still is my favourite champion. So I decided to make my own guide.

I have to add that during my initial period of playing Volibear, I was following Iorek Byrnison: A Rys Aberdeen Guide and thus my guide is based a bit of his.

---

What you can expect in this build:

• Summoner spells choices with explenation
• Item choiches with explenation and possible alternatives
• Rune choiches with explenations and alternatives
• Some weird calculations
• An in depth ganking guide
• Pro tips and trick by an experienced Volibear and solo top player

---

As a Volibear player, you are going to end up with this:

To make you guys the best Volibear player you can be, I will share some of my tips and tricks with you:

• Thundering Smash is an on hit effect with extra physical damage. Because of this it can be used on turrets for that bit of extra damage.
  
• Cleanse does work on ignite, but only on the damage part. If you want to remove the health regen reduction, you will need a Quicksilver Sash
  
• Thundering Smash will flip the enemy directly behind you, so if an enemy is chasing down one of your carries, feel free to run behind than enemy, flip him and slow him with Sky Splitter to save that carry.
  
• If your carry is in danger of getting killed, and you know you can rush in to save his life, do so. You are a tank and have more chance to survive than that carry, thus giving the enemy less of a chance at getting gold.
  
• People are usually afraid of Volibear's Thundering Smash early game, so they will try to stay away from you. Use this to get some farm in while you can.
  
• The damage from Sky Splitter is instant, and can therefore be used to just get than minion kill when you autoattack didn't kill it, or when it's just out of range.
  
• When fighting 1 vs 1 against an enemy on lane, and inside his minion wave, be sure to use your Sky Splitter to fear those minions, and receive less damage yourself.
  
• If an enemy is really low on hp, and running away, and you can't chase him, try using Stormbringer and hitting a nearby minion to finish him off with the lightning bounce.
  

Greater Mark of Attack Speed: I chose this because Volibear is an on hit effect champion. Meaning that his power comes from items that provide extra damage when an enemy is hit with an auto attack. Now, if you gain extra damage with 1 auto attack, why not get more auto attacks? Frenzy also gives you 60% extra attack speed on lvl 5 and your ult is an on hit effect, so I enhanced it with attack speed marks.



Greater Seal of Armor: This give me a bit of extra armour, which is great early game. In late game you will have enough armour from these seals and your gaurdian angel to protect yourself from the ad carry. You will also have the hp and the magic resistance, also from your gaurdian angel but also from your Wit's End, to go with the armour.




Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: This magic resistance is much needed, but only late game. And since Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist gives more magic resistance late game than Greater Glyph of Magic Resist, it is a better pick.



Greater Quintessence of Health: The health is really usefull early game, because Frenzy and The Relentless Storm stack with health and because Volibear is really squishy early game.

---

greater mark of armor penetration: If you really want some more damage out of Frenzy , I recommend these. But again, you are not here for the damage, but for the tank. And besides, the only time you will need the damage is early and mid game, and the enemy won't have alot of armour at thtat time anyway.



Greater Seal of Health: Some extra hp is always welcome on Volibear, but it will cost you alot of armour early game, so even though your effective health and the damage on your Frenzy goes up, you will probably be squishier than with Greater Seal of Armor.



Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: If you're up against those pesky magic damage top champions like Teemo or Swain, these are the runes for you. You wil desperately need the extra magic resist early game against those kind of top champions.



Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Another thing that makes Volibear so strong, is his mobility. This mobility gives him his chasing and harassing power. Combined with his Thundering Smash, these runes make for excellent ganking, chasing and harassing. But you are giving up on some health, which is needed so desperately early game.

---

Greater Seal of Scaling Armor: If you take armour per lvl instead of flat armour, you will always end up with more armour, so you will be tankier late game. The problem is that Volibear needs it more early game than late game, so this is not the best choice.



Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: This will help you be more effective in a teamfight, as it will make you use your skills more often. But since you still are squishy early game, it will make for a bad laning phase.



Greater Quintessence of Percent Health: This is a personal favourite of mine, but I tend not to take it on volibear. Again, you need the flat health to start of your game with, so you don't get killed and harassed early game. But, the extra 4.5% of health will scale extremely well if you buy alot of health items, which is great for a champion that also has abilities which scale with health, like Volibear

Kindlegem: We take Kindlegem because Volibear is a health tank, meaning when building health items, he will get very strong and tanky, even more than other champs. Also the cooldown reduction is great if you want to use your Frenzy more than once in a teamfight. This is also a part of the later builded Shurelya's Battlesong

philosopher's stone: The mana and health regeneration on this item is extremely usefull, since it gives you enough sustain to stay in lane just that bit longer to outfarm your enemy. Also the gold per 5 is usefull. This is also a part of the later builded Shurelya's Battlesong

Crystalline Flask: This item is great. Having a health and mana potion in one, meaning less space consuming, it refreshes every time you go to base, meaning less money spending on pots. Crystalline Flask gives you more sustain and uses only 1 slot! Feel free to sell this when you need the inventory space real bad, or skipping this if your lane is going quite well.

---

Mercury's Treads: Check below for boots and explenations.


Shurelya's Battlesong: One of the most underrated items on Volibear. This item is one of my favourites, because Volibear uses all of it's aspects. Volibear benefits greatly from the 330 health it gives, the CDR is also really usefull and helps you be more effective in a teamfight, the health regen helps you stay on the battlefield even longer, and of course, the mini Ghost aoe speed boost. This active has a short cooldown, and makes your ganks and chases so much more powerful. If your support is building one, try to consider hanging around the support more so you can use his instead, and saving you a slot for something different. Or you can just buy 2 of them, and use them after each other for a longer effect.

Warmog's Armor: The health from this item is insane. On a health tank live Volibear, this item is a must have. The health regeneration of Warmog's Armor is now also insane, and makes you stay on lane so long, the enemy won't even know what to do.

---

Wit's End: An on hit effect item, making your autoattacks really strong, and also giving you some epic attack speed which also synchronices with Stormbringer, which is also an on hit effect, and with Frenzy which gives you massive attack speed.


Guardian Angel: Strong on Volibear, because it gives magic resist, armour, and of course the famous ressurection. Having this item means that you will be alot tankier, and that you will be able to use your effectiveness again in a teamfight after dying.


Guinsoo's Rageblade: Another on hit effect item, which gives a nice amount of attack speed and also gives you some attack damage, and a nice amount of ability power, synchronising at a epic rate with Stormbringer. Alternatives below.

---

Mercury's Treads: We take these boots because, well, alot of cc cripples Volibear, and we also need a bit of magic resist since we do not have that early game, neither from other items or runes.


Mobility Boots: These boots give you that extra movement speed if you're roaming. Of course the only time that you would roam is when you have practically won your lane, and the other lanes are not doing that great. The bonus movement speed is usefull for ganking when combined with Thundering Smash, and usefull for getting from lane to lane quickly.


Ninja Tabi: These boots are for when you just need that extra armour because the enemy team is kind of winning and really physical damage focused.






Working on it





Working on it.

The items for replacing Guinsoo's Rageblade can also easily replace Wit's End.

Your job in teamfights is fairly simple, yet quite difficult. Because of the high mobility and the cc of Thundering Smash you should initiate, except if anyone in your team has a stronger initiate. After this, you should always try to rush in and take out of the their carries, being the ad or the ap carry. If you have the choice, go for the ad carry, as the ap carry probably has already used his/her skills already, and has to wait for them to go off cooldown. You should not use your Thundering Smash on an enemy tank, bruiser or support, always go for the carry. After you have flipped him, use Sky Splitter to slow him/her, and let your team finish them off. After this, your job is simply to stand there, kill of some enemies, and tank everything.


An important side note:
Try not to killsteal with Frenzy . It's simply annoying and makes your team rage. I've caught myself doing it a few times, and blaming it on the fact that I'm a bear. While this is ridiculously funny, it's very annoying for your teammates. Remember, your carry can use the kills way more than you can, so try to give them kills as often as possible.

13/11/2012:
Added a quick teamfight section, so my guide can actually be used for things other than just reading.
Made the changelog, added some of the memes, fixed some grammar mistakes.

14/11/2012:
Some quick changes, some grammar mistakes fixed
Started working on the In Dept Ganking Guide (the idgg :D), and just, being a bear in general.

8/1/2013:
Started adapting it to season 3, finally xD

28/2/2013:
Quick edit, forgot to get surge out of the summoner spells, started reworking the calculations.

I'm aware that this is outdated, I am working on it.

I will begin with this:
Frenzy stacks off BONUS health, not full health, a common mistake.
Now for the calculations:
Assuming this is late game, and you build is complete, with a fully stacked Warmog's Armor and you trusty Ionic Spark by your side.
Anyway, you will have:
920 + 350 = 1270 hp from Warmog's Armor
330 hp from Shurelya's Battlesong
250 hp from Ionic Spark
and 26 x 3 = 78 hp from Greater Quintessence of Health
This gives a total of:
1270 + 330 + 250 + 78 = 1928 bonus hp

Now we will discuss 3 cases:

1. 1. The target is at 100% hp
2. 2. The target is at 50% hp
3. 3. The target is at 20% hp

1. We have 1928 bonus hp, and frenzy damages for 15% of that, so:
1928 x 0,15 = 289,2 physical damage.
As you also begin with 260 damage, the total damage is now 260 + 289,2 = 549 physical damage in one go, with them at full hp. Not bad right? But it gets better!

2. As we saw in the last case, we had 549,2 physical damage. But now, we have a target at 50% hp, which means 50% more damage, so:
549,2 x 1,5 = 824 physical damage, which is ridiculous by itself, but it gets better!

3. As we saw in the first cas,e we had 549,2 physical damage. But now, we have a target at 20% hp, which means 80% more damage, so:
549,2 x 1,8 = 989 physical damage!
Almost 1k of damage in 1 skill, that's enough to take any carry down in 1 hit, amazing isn't it?

I'm aware that this is outdated, I am working on it.

Well, as you all know, Volibear has 1 more epic skill that scales with health. His hidden overpoweredness. His passive, The Relentless Storm!
This passive allows Volibear to regenerate up to 30% of his maximum hp in 6 seconds after dropping down to 30% of his max hp. This effect has a 2 minute cooldown, which is not affected by CDR (cooldown reduction)
The following calculations are based off a full build, with my runes and they are assuming that you do not get ignited or have you hp regen cut down in any form.

We start with our base health at lvl 18, which is 1988.
As we saw from my previous calculations, this will be increased by 1928 hp so:
1988 + 1928 = 3916 hp! That's alot!
Now, 30% of this is:
3916 x 0,3 = 1174,8 hp in 6 seconds!
This makes Volibear's effective health:
3916 + 1174,8 = 5091 hp!
Which is, according to my books, alot.