The vast majority of you will simply skip or skim through this section, but to the few who do read this, let me extend to you a warm greeting.

Hello, my name is FelixKam, but you can just call me Felix. Some of you might know me, some of you don't, and this probably won't change in time either. And so I welcome you to my in-depth guide to Veigar, The Tiny Master of Evil.

And now a warning, this guide is greatly in-depth and covers most aspects related to playing as Veigar, and so this will be a long guide. Second of all, the actual guide itself won;t cover all of the masteries, runes, and items for every single build, to do so would be too much work, even for me. So instead I shall only explain those things for the standard AP guide, including the core items, other information will be placed in the appropriate section instead. It's possible that given time these things will be provided as well, but until then. Third of all this guide assumes a few things on your behalf, that:

1. You know how to play League of Legends.
2. You know some of the more common "League specific" abbreviations, and words.
3. That you understand the need to adapt to enemy teams.
4. You know how to ward, and you understand that it is necessary.

I would ask that you do not downvote me without reason, though you might not listen... This is my first guide, and if you have any questions about it, just comment me below. When, and not if, I have time I will respond to your query. Also I would ask that you do not downvote my guide simply because it does not look flashy, considering that this is my first guide and that I didn't know BB Coding until now, I think I did okay. So thank you in advance for your cooperation.

I give thanks to quite a few people, the first is to jhoijhoi for making her wonderful "Getting Started Guide". But aside from that it is a very nice guide on how to get started, so thank you once again. The second is to all those less than good Veigar players (This probably includes me xD ) I have encountered thus far in-game. You were my inspiration, and I hope this will help you, as it has helped me. The third goes to all you readers, for taking the time out of your busy lives to read this, so thank you.

P.S. This guide is very infrequently updated. Please be warned about this beforehand, as some of the information below is outdated.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS!
28/04/2014, Kinda back. Still going to be fairly infrequently updated for various reasons.

To most, thoughts of yordles do not conjure images to be feared. The easygoing half-pint race, though fierce, is often regarded with some degree of joviality. Their high-pitched voices and naturally cute forms inspire something of a protective instinct in the larger races, or at least bring to mind images of children playing at being adults. Every now and again, however, a yordle turns so bad that, even at its small stature, it strikes terror into the hearts of others. Veigar is such a twisted yordle. As a master of the magical black arts, as well as a corrupter of cosmic energy, he is one of the most powerful sorcerers on Valoran.

As a child, Veigar was a normal yordle with one small exception - he had a deep curiosity for the world beyond Bandle City. The young yordle spent much of his time studying the rest of Valoran, and he jumped at the chance to join a business that traded with other major city-states. Unfortunately for both him and the world, a deal with Noxian traders turned into shady business and went bad; Veigar and his companions were subsequently set up to take the fall. Arrested by the authorities, he was imprisoned within the walls of Noxus for years. Such isolation is very dangerous for yordles - undoubtedly why his cruel jailers did such a thing - and Veigar was slowly driven mad.

He eventually escaped, having become a twisted version of his former self. Instead of returning to his people and Bandle City, he sought tutelage from dark wizards across the land. With his demented will focused on one task, he quickly became a dangerous and powerful wizard in his own right. Now he seeks to end all conflict on Valoran by bringing all of the city-states to their knees, regardless of their affiliation. The League of Legends is the perfect tool to help him meet his ends - for now.

"Who says evil needs to come in a fearsome-looking package?"



The moral of this story is, don't feed Veigar, or he will devour your soul. Oh, and don't put yordles in isolation chambers either.

Benefits
There are quite a lot of reasons to choose Veigar for your match, here are the most important few:

• You have insane amounts of burst damage, at your disposal.
• You can attain amounts of AP other mages only wish they could reach (no AP cap).
• Good at farming, particularly last-hitting, thanks to your innate, and your Q.
• Due to your horrific early game, some less intelligent people will think that you're weak, and underestimate you, allowing you to devour their souls later on.
• You annihilate other mages, and squishies, except Ryze (The only "AP" carry who scales off of mana).
• The longer the game goes, the stronger you get. Limitless AP FTW!
• You have an awesome voice, and you get to devour people's souls.

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Drawbacks
Unfortunately no champion is perfect, and Veigar is no exception. So here they are:

• You are very, very weak early game, so no first blood for you!
• You are squishy, and at no point in the game will you stop being squishy.
• You are especially vulnerable to spell shields, just one can mess up your whole combo.
• You have fairly long cooldowns, and while your abilities are on cooldowns, you're little more than a sitting duck.
• You are probably the single most farm reliant champion out there, slightly more than Nasus even.
• People hate your voice.

• Sorcery, this gives you bonus cooldown reduction, which allows you to last hit with your Baleful Strike more often. However because the extra 5 AP, and 5 AD from Ignite is more useful so three points should suffice.. What more could you ask for?
• Blast , maxing this out gives you 1 AP per level, adding up to 18 free AP, and unlocking Arcane Knowledge for you.
• Arcane Knowledge , this is one of the best masteries for Veigar, if you want to know more read the spoiler (comes with math!).
  
  Spoiler: Click to view

  8% bonus magic penetration really counts when you deal as much burst as Veigar. The 8% magic penetration it gives you can be seen as an 8% bonus to damage, which is great, it means you deal more damage to tanks, deal more damage to assassins, deal more damage to carries, and just, well... deal more damage.
  
  Assume you have 400 AP, I would say that sounds about rate with some good creep score, and Baleful Strike farm. Your Baleful Strike will deal 500 magical damage before reduction. So we'll just say your enemy has been stacking a bit of magic resistance and has 100 magic resistance. That right there is a 50% reduction to all magic damage they take. Pretty bad for you, because that means your Baleful Strike just went from doing a nice 500 damage, to a petty 250 damage. Luckily you have magic penetration from things like Sorcerer's Shoes, Greater Mark of Magic Penetrations, the Arcane Knowledge mastery, and the Havoc mastery. This gives you 23 flat magic penetration, a 8% magic penetration, and a 2% damage increase. Now then the flat magic penetration is applied first, so the enemy now has 77 magic resistance, multiply that by 0.92 and you have 71 magic resistance which is the final magic resistance you have to deal with. Now the 23 flat magic penetration gives you an extra 32 magic damage, and the 8% flat magic penetration gives you 8 magic damage. Not quite an inspiring value, but remember this scales with more of your own ability power, the enemies magic resistance, and it's just a single mastery point, which makes it sound much more appealing. Also if you apply this for a full combo the damage shoots up to 37 damage, 45 damage with a Deathfire Grasp
• Havoc , helps you unlock the next tier, and give you 2% damage amplification against all enemies. That extra 2% helps you to last hit, burst, farm your Q, etc.... Take it, you have no better choice in this tier for AP Veigar, well aside from Arcane Knowledge but you've already taken that, right?
• Brute Force , early on in lane, you'll be using your basic attacks to last hit, and harass. This just gives you 3 extra attack damage, making your basic attacks more effective, just so you can get the last hits when your Baleful Strike is down.
• Spellsword , 5% AP becomes damage when you hit stuff. If you want a more in depth explanation, read the spoiler.
  
  Spoiler: Click to view

  taking this means that you gain 5% of your ability power as damage on your basic attacks. When you're talking about a champion that has, easily, 800 AP late-game, 5% of that is 40 magic damage for free, on each basic attack. While this doesn't seem gamebreaking, nothing often is, but this 40 damage adds up. How often have you experienced this: You've just burst someone, and they're nearly dead, but you have no more spells, and so you're forced to send one more basic attack hoping that it will knock out that meager 75 health they're left with, but no, your basic attacks are worthless and they make it out with a tiny 15 health. Well no more! With this the extra 40 magic damage will whack'em and kill them, wonderful! Also this scales with AP, so farm up your Q and it will eventually make your basic attacks hit like a truck (word of warning: you might need to farm a while before that happens).
• Archmage , when you are able to amass as much AP as Veigar, this really comes in handy. Your average game will end with you having 800-1,000 AP. With this mastery you get an extra 5 percent, which may not seem like much but can really mean 40-50 extra AP late game, scaling further as you farm your Q.
• Executioner , 5% bonus damage to enemies counts for quite a bit, when you're dealing 1,000+ damage with just a single Dark Matter. Need I say more? Yes? Well then, this mastery pretty much just helps you to farm early game (remember it affects minions), burst enemies with low health down, and make your Primordial Burst which is traveling to that Annie who just escaped your combo do more damage.

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• Summoner's Insight . this is taken mostly because I prefer having both the summoner spell Teleport and Flash with me. The 15 second cooldown reduction for Flash is handy, and sometimes those 0.5 seconds saved from Teleport could mean, on occasion saving a turret, saving a teammate, rather than teleporting in for a burst to the face.
• Expanded Mind , more mana per level, helps you stay in lane, and recover a tiny bit more when you level up, etc...
• Improved Recall , sometimes that extra second saves you from all those enemies who take the long way around to hit you again. Also this allows you to get back to your lane that tiny bit faster.
• Meditation , mana regen is very helpful for Veigar, especially since he is so mana dependent. This helps you to keep farming your Q all throughout the game.
• Runic Affinity , makes Blue Buff last longer on you as an AP mid. Makes Red Buff last longer on you as an ADC. I think that's enough to be said.

• Summoner's Wrath , useful if you take Ignite, Exhaust, or Ghost.
• Butcher , if you really want this, take it. This allows you to deal 4 more damage to minions, so that last-hitting is even easier, but aside from that, don't bother, it's just not worth it.
• Don't bother with anything else, they're just not for you.

• Summoner's Resolve , is useful if you really want Cleanse or Heal. Though truth be told, I can't see why you would want them. This will be explained later, in the section "Summoner Spells."
• Resistance , if you want that extra survivability, and you know you're going up against a magic damage based enemy (ie. Brand, Annie).
• Hardiness , see the reasoning for Resistance above, except replace the magic damage based enemy, with physical damage based enemy (ie. Riven, Caitlyn).
• Durability , extra health, equals more survivability. Helps you with your squishiness.
• Vigor , extra health regeneration per five seconds, equals more survivability. Also helps you with your squishiness.

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration, this gives magic penetration, about 7.8 points worth, early game that could mean as much as a 7.8% increase in damage! Late game 7.8 magic penetration is still quite a lot, when you consider Veigar's nuking capability. Combined with your Sorcerer's Shoes, and you masteries, you will almost deal true damage to enemies who don't stack magic resist.
• Greater Seals of Armor, are a possibility if you know you'll be laning against an AD carry, going duo bot, or going to solo top. These will help you weather a bit of damage during the early laning phase (which is vital to your success). If you have mana problems however, you might want to consider something else.
• Greater Glyphs of Scaling Magic Resist, the amount of magic resist they provide aren't that high at first, but they scale, which makes them stronger the closer you get to the teamfights where you'll need these.
• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power, personally I find that the extra 15 ability power these provide allows me to last hit, and harass with increased ease. Helping to make up for Veigar's less-than-great early game. And yes I know that Psiguard recommends Greater Quintessences of Scaling Ability Power, but it is mostly because it depends on what you desire, a better early game, or a slightly improved late game, where you are already at your best.

• Greater Seal of Scaling Mana, this gives you an extra bit of mana, per level. You may have noticed that upon leveling, however much mana you would gain at that level, from any source is recovered to you, so every level you gain 10.53 mana back upon leveling, and that same amount in maximum mana. These seals are aimed towards maximizing lane sustainability, and helping you burst more late game. Use these if you need help managing mana.
• Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration, this gives you bonus mana regeneration, which works well with your innate, but is otherwise about it. I know Psiguard recommends these, but they don't work out as well for me. It's just a matter of opinion.
• Greater Seal of Scaling Magic Resist, this gives you bonus magic resist, good if you know you're up against an AP based mid-laner, but not that much else.
• Greater Glyph of Ability Power, take these if you're sure of your early game, and confident about it. Also take these if you want a better early game. A bit more AP at first, but it falls of quickly in time.
• Greater Glyph of Focus, helps you farm with you Q more often in lane, and get back your burst earlier. Not much to be said. However you do have less AP at first, so remember that.
• Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power, take these if you want a slightly better late game, at the expense of your early game. Provides more AP in time, but the immediate AP that the Greater Quintessences of Ability Power provide can be more useful, especially during the early game laning phase. In the end it just comes down to personal preference.
• Greater Quintessence of Health, 78 bonus health is nothing to laugh at. It can save you in early battles, but it comes at the expense of AP, and damage. Your call, summoner.
• Greater Quintessence of Swiftness, helps you manoeuvre into position early on, and helps you move that little bit faster when chasing, and running away. Can be useful, but it does come at the expense of AP, and thus damage.
• Wonderful, wonderful magic resistance! Makes you a whole lot tougher against other AP carries. The 12 magic resistance is nothing to be laughed at, though once again the added survivability comes at the expense of AP, and damage.

• Flash, the quintessential summoner spell. it allows you to chase down enemies, run from them, and help with just about anything! In fact from what I've seen thus far, this is a necessity for all games you might play as Veigar or really anybody!
• Ignite, this helps you secure kills, and with the mastery give you bonus AP and AD, which is always helpful. You probably won't be using this to get first blood, but it does add quite a bit to your full combo.
• Exhaust, slows the enemy down, lowers their damage, lowers their magic resistance. Fairly straightforward. Just throw it on the enemy AD carry and laugh away! Would be better on someone else, but hey, it's still pretty damn good!
• Teleport, helps you get back to lane faster, and on occasion net extra kills. Use this for added utility, and mobility, or if you don;t like Ignite. Your Dark Matter is fairly useful for pushing lanes, as is your basic attack (once you start stacking ability power big time, or get a Lich Bane), and also allows for the use of a wonderful technique known as "Haha sucker, I teleported away just before you got me!."

---

• Ghost, helps you run, useful but Flash is better due to it's immediate blink. Helps you get away in extended chases, but Flash let's you go over walls, and surprise the enemy.
• Heal, meh, useful for baiting, and health sustain in lane since you already have mana sustain. But not that much else. Maybe the occasional saved teammate in fights, but...
• Barrier, Useful, but you're not a tank, and you're going to be squishy no matter what you do. This is like Heal but only for yourself. It's nice, but you shouldn't be getting hit often enough by enemies who don't blow through this for this to be viable. Remember Veigar isn't a sustained damage dealer, unless you build him as such, so use guerrilla tactics, hit and run, hit and run, hit and run, rinse and repeat.
• Cleanse, useful, but you're a burst mage not a sustained fighter! Your job is to go in there assassinate a person or two, then gtfo out of there! Might save you on occasion, but in my opinion, meh.
• Clarity, you already have enough mana sustain through your innate, so this isn't really necessary, unless you spam your spells like there's no tomorrow, and even then I'd suggest a chalice instead.
• Revive, unless you have a Revive, Teleport team, no. Besides you shouldn't be dying enough to use this spell well.
• Smite, you're not jungling. Enough said. Unless you're jungling of course, in which case you should probably take this.
• Observer, if you have this spell use it, it's godly. It reveals everything on the map to you. Too bad only Riot Staff have access to it.
• Stifle, this is a 3(3.5) second silence and purge. If this wasn't removed it would be a top priority pick. Oh, you got blue/red/baron buff, here let me be an as*hole and get rid of it for you! Oh, you're someone that relies on casting spells, here let me be an as*hole and silence you for 3 seconds! Oh, you have a invaluable buff on you that's making me not kill you instantly, here let me be an as*hole and get rid of it for you! Yeah, the list goes on, but it's some pretty good stuff. Unfortunately they removed this so... Good luck using it, eh?
• Surge, the extra AP makes it okay... but the bonus attack speed is wasted on you, and besides there are better choices. Also this spell has been removed, makes it kinda hard to use don't you think?
• Promote, you're not a support, and you don't want a super powerful minion pushing your lane away from the safety of your turret, you're aquishy! Also the super minion has a habit of messing up your Baleful Strike last hitting. Finally this spell has been removed, makes it kinda hard to use, don't you think?
• Rally, so a small banner that can be destroyed and provides bonus attack damage for all allies in the area. You're not a support, and you're not going to be using the attack damage for much. This might be usable against turrets to waste a hit, but honestly? It's a waste and you have better options. Also this spell has been removed which makes it kinda hard to use, don't you think?

Items

• Doran's Ring, the quintessential starting item for all AP casters. This was in my opinion, recently buffed. The health gain of 80 is great for early survivability, matching the bonus health that 3 Quintessence of Healths would give you, with an additional bonus of 4 health. The 15 AP helps with last-hitting using your Q Baleful Strike and the bonus mana recovery whenever you kill something works very well with your Q Baleful Strike. The mana regeneration it provides was slightly nerfed but the new passive more than makes up for that.
• Boots and 3 Health Potions, the former start for every champion. It used to be that the extra speed and mobility that the Boots gave you made it vital at the very beginning, but now due to the revamped Doran's Ring, and the 25 bonus movement speed given to everyone, it's not quite necessary. However it is still a good, solid, viable starting set of items.
• Crystalline Flask, and 3 Health Potions, A bit of a strange set-up but still a viable one. This gives you huge lane sustain, providing 810 effective health points, and 180 effective mana points.
• Crystalline Flask, a Health Potion, and a Sight Ward, An alternative to the possibilit shown above, you'll still have ample regeneration, but you'll also have a Sight Ward to help out against early jungle gankers like Lee Sin and Nunu & Willump.
• Amplifying Tome and Health Potion, This is a very aggressive start, and I do not recommend it. However if you are confident in your early game skills, go ahead. If you have extra gold this suddenly becomes much more viable, since you can purchase a bit more sustain.

As you can see, there are a couple ways to start your typical game of Veigar with. These are the most effective options in my opinion. I myself prefer the third option, relying on the starting AP my runes and masteries to enhance your early farming with your Q Baleful Strike. Afterwards the bonus AP you get from your Q Baleful Strike farming will keep your power increasing all throughout the laning phase.

Tier One Boots

• Boots, These are the only choices for tier one boots. They provide 25 flat movement speed for 350 gold. The low cost allows you to start off with this item, while building a bit of sustain to stay in lane. In any case these are a necessary purchase. If you do not start with these, you will want to have them by your first trip home. The extra movement speed allows you to dodge, chase, run away, and position yourself better (which is of tantamount importance).

Tier Two Boots

• Berserker's Greaves, The cheapest boots available. Although they cost a mere 900 gold, the simple fact that they provide an unnecessary stat makes them less desirable than the other options available. The ~200 gold difference can be farmed easily, thus the saved gold does not make a difference.
• Mobility Boots, The potentially fastest boots available. If you are doing well in lane, and your other lanes need you to gank for them, this is a possibility. The bonus movement speed will allow you to get to the enemy, and back to your lane much faster than otherwise. However to accomplish this you will also need to increase your wave clearing speed, which means leveling up Dark Matter over Event Horizon, and maybe even keeping your Baleful Strike at 3rd or 4th rank, depending on the amount of cooldown reduction you possess. Besides this, there are better alternatives, which I would recommend.
• Boots of Swiftness, The typically fastest boots available. They might be good against a slow heavy team featuring the likes of Ashe, and Sejuani. This ways the passive bonus, which specifically states that it reduces the effectiveness of slows it could be viable. Honestly though? There are better options for Veigar, by the time these boots became strongly useful, you'd probably be dead already.
• Ionian Boots of Lucidity, The boots with the most cooldown reduction. Also the only boots that provide cooldown reduction, but that's besides the point. 15% cooldown reduction could be seen as a 15% increase in damage. However since you're not spamming your spells at every single moment, it's ought to be less. In Veigar's case, it's not. All thanks given to Baleful Strike and the additional farm it could give you. It's one of the top choices for Veigar.
• Mercury's Treads, The boots most purchased and used. Also the boots with the most tenacity, and magic resist. This is actually a fairly strong pick for Veigar. Currently I am considering the uses of it while in mid lane. The magic resist could prove useful, as could the tenacity. More to come.
• Ninja Tabi, The boots with the most armour, and ninja powers. You should get this on Akali, Kennen, Shen, and Zed just to continue the ninja theme. Jokes aside, these are a viable choice depending on the lane setups and the situations. If the enemy uses the old NA meta and sends an Ashe mid, picking this can be extremely useful, afterall you can sell it later, or pick up Sorcerer's Shoes as well. Otherwise stick with something else.
• Sorcerer's Shoes, The boots with the most magic penetration, and most awesome lore behind it. Also the boots with the lore that would be better on another boot. In case you're wondering the lore behind this is that:
  For nearly a century, the greatest mage in Valoran resided in the scorched desert of the Zear realm until the first crusade of the Rune Wars devastated the entire region forcing millions to flee. The crusaders killed all desperate travelers attempting the mass exodus from Zear, but one mage escaped their grasp by making such haste across the land that word spread throughout Valoran that the very shoes this mage wore must be imbued with immense power.
  Regardless, these boots are easily the most commonly purchased and used on AP Mages. This is because they deal magical damage, and magical penetration is one of the key things to boosting their damage. For Veigar more damage, more burst, is usually more important than the utility that the other boots grant you. On most occasions, get this.

Tier Three Boots

• Enchantment: Alacrity, I honestly with this enchantment was called haste. If it were I would make some kind of generic quip relating to the exploitation of game mechanics in Dungeons and Dragons. As it stands however this enchantment simply grants 15 bonus movement speed, rather than an additional standard action. In any case, this in competition with Enchantment: Homeguard are the enchantments I usually purchase. By purchasing this you gain 15 flat movement speed. This helps you in running away, in chasing, in positioning, essentially it makes boots better at what you purchase them for.
• Enchantment: Captain, Onwards ho to individual glory and success! If you aren't playing with people you know, or playing in low ELO this is what it feels like. Everyone is running after their own scores, and for themselves. Supports will fight for last-hits, tanks will try to clean up, and carries will run in like fools. If you're in this kind of a game, don't get these enchantments. These enchantments provide allied champions moving towards you with an 8% bonus to their movement speed, this is also increased to a 25% bonus on minions. Unfortunately the effects of this do not stack. It's possible to get these on Veigar since a proper Veigar will be on the backlines, allowing your team better capabilities when it comes to disengaging from combat. However these would be better on either your tank, your support, or both.
• Enchantment: Distortion, Distortion! All things have a 20% chance to miss you. Oh wait, that's 3.5e's blur. In League of Legends, this doesn't give you a 20% concelament, however great that would be, instead your cooldowns for the summoner spells Flash, Teleport, and Ghost are reduced by 25%, which applies before flat reductions from masteries such as Summoner's Insight . If you find yourself constantly using any of those summoner spells, this might be of use to you. Generally, there are better options elsewhere.
• Enchantment: Furor, Berserker Rage! I have no idea how that makes sense, but overzealous attempts will never fail. These give you 12% bonus movement speed whenever you hit an enemy. This could help you catch up or run away, but as Veigar you should not be doing either. You burst, and then you fade away. You aren't in the midst of battle and constantly attacking, nor will you be kiting people around. Your stun works better for escaping, and if you're that desperate a Rylai's Crystal Scepter is better for slowing, and thus chasing.
• Enchantment: Homeguard, Enchantments consisting of something that isn't even a word! Hurrah! The name Enchantment: Homeguard means just that Enchantment: Homeguard. After being out of combat for eight seconds, if you so much as touch your fountain/base, you'll be fully healed, and gain a massive movement speed bonus. The 200% movement speed is enough to make Veigar look like a sprinting yordle of doom, who is on crack. It also helps you get to where you want faster. If your lane is difficult, or you guys are on the defense you might want to consider these boots, but otherwise you'll want to consider other enchantments.

This covers the items you should pick up regardless of the situation you are in.

This covers the items you would pick depending on the situation you are in.

Hextech Gunblade, It's a weird pick. But it's one that can be made to work. The Hextech Gunblade gives you some AD and lifesteal, but more importantly, much more importantly, AP, spellvamp, and a very powerful active which deals 150 (+40% AP) magic damage on a 60 second cooldown. In effect, Hextech Gunblade, functions as sustain thanks to the spellvamp, and additional burst, something which cannot be underestimated.

General

R>>Q>>E>>W
Q>E>Q>W>Q>R>Q>E>Q>W>R>E>W>E>W>R>E>W

Aggressive

R>>Q>>W>>E
Q>W>Q>E>Q>R>Q>E>Q>W>R>W>W>W>E>R>E>E

Defensive

R>>Q>>E>>W
Q>E>Q>E>Q>R>Q>E>Q>W>R>E>E>E>W>W>R>W>W

Support

R>>E>>Q>>W
E>Q>E>W>E>R>E>Q>E>W>R>Q>Q>Q>W>W>R>W>W

As a busy person myself, I know that you all have busy lives, and so rather than keep the guide long, I decided to listen to some of you and make a shorter section for the people who want to take a look at Veigar, but just don't have that much time. So without further ado, Veigar's abilities.


This is Veigar's innate, it gives you a 1% increase to your total mana regeneration per 5 seconds, for every 1% of your total mana that you are missing. This means that stacking mana regen on Veigar is more effective than actually stacking just plain old mana. This also stacks with Chalice of Harmony, and it's upgrades, giving you ridiculous amounts of mana regeneration, great for keeping you in lane, and able to spam your skills.

Your innate, Equilibrium provides you according to it's description "Veigar's mana regeneration is increased by 1% for each 1% of mana he's missing.". What it doesn't mention is what form of mana regeneration he's missing. As an answer, the mana regeneration provided from this ability is increased from all sources. So be it the Crest of the Ancient Golem or Exalted with Baron Nashor the mana regeneration they provide are also increased.

Essentially, Veigar's innate is an infinite font of mana. It makes Veigar much less blue buff dependent, just like Twisted Fate. As you may imagine this opens up many possibilities, such as:
1) Do you really need that blue buff?
- Depends. The cooldown reduction is useful, but it's not really necessary and other allies might need it more. As an example your ultimate Primordial Burst might take down one enemy AP carry, but compare that to Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy which has huge ramifications in teamfights.

2) Could I let the jungler take the blue buff instead?
- Once again, does your jungler have a major teamfight abilities like Amumu and his ultimate? If so, consider letting your jungler take it instead. Does your jungler have mana problems from spamming spells constantly like Amumu? If so, consider letting your jungler take it.

3) Could I let somebody else on my team take the blue buff instead?
Once again, consider the situation. Do you have enough man regeneration already? Does your ailing Sona on the bottom lane need more mana regeneration, but is unable to afford it? Could my team's Nasus use this to farm up his Q, Siphoning Strike faster? Is our Rammus running out of mana while helping the team out with ganks? If yes to any of these, consider letting them have the blue buff instead. It's called being a team player, and adapting to the situation (this is a very important matter that becomes increasingly relevant in high level play).

A couple of interesting tips and facts about this ability are that:
1) It stacks fully with a Chalice of Harmony and it's upgrade Athene's Unholy Grail.
2) It works with Mana Potion's. This is because Mana Potions provide an increase to your mana regeneration for that time, rather than recovering a specific amount per second.
3) Some interesting advice is provided by the Chalice of Harmony. It's that "True harmony can only be attained when your enemies are dead". Good advice, I'd suggest following it and ace'ing your enemies at every opportunity.

Your Q, Baleful Strike is your version of a bread & butter skill. that is if bread & butter made you stronger whenever you used it, while dealing damage of course! Specifically your Q, Baleful Strike, deals 80/125/170/215/260 (+60% AP) magic damage. While this isn't great damage, it's passive components make sure it far outstrips other AP carries bread & butter harass/farm skills.

The reason why this section is called "Farming It Up!" is entirely because farming with your Q grants you ability power. Every last hit you get with your Q grants you one additional point of ability power, permanently. That's right, the ability power gain is permanent. Now just think about what this means. Based on standard values each point of ability power is worth approximately 22 gold. This means that every last hit you make with your Q Baleful Strike you are getting ~150% extra gold.

In addition, last-hitting a large minion, large neutral, or champion with this ability grants you double the AP bonus! Now you are getting an additional 44 gold per last hit! Isn't that awesome? Hell yeah it is. So once again this stresses the point of farming it up, particularly on these larger minions/neutrals/champions.

But wait, there's more (I starting to sound like an infomercial...)! Now whenever you kill an enemy champion, you'll get an additional 1/2/3/4/5 ability power! So of course, the real application of this skill is to make you snowball like crazy, but here's a better application: Go play a Ranked game, which rewards IP based on your KDR, and use this as an excuse to kill steal every ally you have. Even the AD Carry....No, I'm just kidding, please don't do this, or at the very least please don't say I recommended you to do this.

Regardless this passive means that for every minion kill you get with your Q, you get an additional 22 gold. For every enemy champion you kill, regardless of how, you get 22/44/66/88/110 extra gold. As you may have realized from this, this can make you scale into lategame, or simply snowball ridiculously hard. When combined with the fairly high scaling of your other abilities, this increases your burst and potential to nigh infinite amounts!

As a rule of thumb, because of how much potential this ability grants you should try to maximize the use of this by ranking it up as often as possible, with the exception of your ultimate, of course. Also as a rule of thumb you should aim to have 50 Q farm every ten minutes. Which honestly speaking isn't impossible, considering that nearly 110 minions come out and die every 10 minutes, starting from the 1:30 mark.

Now then onto the main uses of this spell. So as I mentioned before, any time Veigar slays an enemy unit with this spell he devours their soul to gain a single point of AP, however if you killsteal, uh, ensure the death of an enemy champion, it gives you an additional 1/2/3/4/5 ability power. The applications for this are nigh endless:

• While farming they provide you with what is more or less free AP to keep ahead of your enemy, allowing you to start easily, with boots and three health potions, or additional sustain.
• While laning it makes last-hitting and trading progressively easier and advantageous for you.
• It makes you extremely efficient on a per last hit basis, and a per kill basis.
• Since there is no limit to the amount of ability power you can amass with this skill, it lets you scale infinitely, making you extremely effective in the late game combined with your AP ratios.
• Boosts % based AP increases like crazy since the AP you gain from this ability count towards those. For example, Rabadon's Deathcap's 30% total AP bonus, and Archmage 's 5% total AP bonus.
• Helps you in your quest to 2-shot or even better 1-shot the enemy. If you don't know this, one of the most infamous things about Veigar is his ability to either one shot or two shot enemies in the late-game, simply by stacking massive amounts of AP. This has become much harder due to the rework of Deathfire Grasp, although it is still a possibility.

Your W, Dark Matter, deals 120/170/220/270/320 (+100% AP). Which translates to, and I quote Phreak on this "tons of damage". The main problem with this spell however is not it's great range of 900, nor it's ridiculously short cooldown, and not even it's small radius of ~125 units. It's the delay, before it lands. But how bad could it possibly be? 1.2 seconds. That's right, you need to predict where your opponent will be 1.2 seconds later. Oh and your enemy know's that the meteor is coming. Luckily there's a simple solution, called Event Horizon. But even then the damage isn't guaranteed, some enemies, who are smart will pick up Mercury Treads which with it's tenacity will enable them to run away from your Dark Matter.

So how would I aim this so that it hits? How do I optimize this skill? How do I make the most of it? When should I use it? Why should I use it? Where should I place it? These are all valid questions that need answering, and here are the answers.

1) How should I aim this so that it hits?
Answer: Since this depends on the rank of your stun, and the enemy's tenacity... here's a chart to refer to (I'm experiencing technical difficulties with this chart, please wait a while >.<):

A potential AoE 2.5 seconds stun that lasts for 3 seconds... OP? Hell yeah! Essentially Veigar's E) is a 950 unit circle that lasts for 3 seconds, and anyone who brushes up against the edge of it, is stunned for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds. Some people may claim that it's difficulty in being properly aimed makes up for it being a ridiculously powerful stun that lasts ridiculously long, with the ability to affect everyone near it in one way or another. But they're wrong. Trust me, it's overpowered, even when you include Veigar's casting animation which honestly isn't that bad. It' not like, if you play DOTA, LeShrac's casting animation that is nearly 0.6 of a second. If anything Veigar's is about 0.15 - 0.25 of a second. This means that you need to maybe predict a quarter of a second for your enemies path.

The unholy grail of all nukes!

Welcome to Summoner Spell Wasting 101! Today you will be instructed in the wonderful, magical, mystical art of wasting summoner spells, both yours and the enemies. For Veigar the wasting of summoner spells comes in a few minor forms. The most admired is the wasting of an enemy’s Flash, however despite how great that is, you also do participate in the wasting of your own summoner spells by initiating your combo with an Ignite.

To begin with take out your League of Legends Wiki textbook, and turn to the page about summoner spells. Good... Now why don’t we stop making me talk like a professor, and let me get on with it? Hmmm? Yes? Good.

Alrighty then, summoner spell wasting is an important part of any champion’s role. Wasting an enemy’s Flash can grant you a free kill within the next 300 seconds. Inversely wasting your own Flash can get you killed. Likewise wasting your Ignite can cause you to miss a kill. So a quick list of information can be seen as follows:

Wasting Summoner Spells:

Flash
Enemy:

• Farm up with your Q, Baleful Strike to have a decent amount of damage upon the usage. Then proceed to stun the target with your E, Event Horizon and hit them once with your Q, Baleful Strike, and animation cancel your W, Dark Matter. This is, unless they are really observant or unafraid of you be enough to make them back off. Add in your ultimate Primordial Burst, or actually casting your Dark Matter should be enough to either waste a Flash or if they don’t use it, finish off your burst and kill them. It’s a win-win situation!

Yours:

• This simply consists of Flashing at the first sign of trouble, rather than in an otherwise inescapable situation.
• Flash is kinda hard to waste since no one knows if you might or might not have survived without using it. So kind of an ehhhh situation.

Ghost
Enemy:

• Like Flash, wasting a Ghost works in pretty much the same manner. However to do so, the enemy has to believe that running away might save them (Side Note: It Can`t). But all in all if you get a good, solid stun off Ghost will still be less of a problem than Flash.

Yours:

• Like Flash it’s pretty hard to tell if you actually did waste this. It’s mostly a matter of making it out, and guaranteeing an escape.

Ignite
Enemy:

• Simply put, if you survive an Ignite, it got wasted. So strategies to survive:
• Get Soraka to heal you. Heck, get anyone to heal you.
• Use a healing potion.
• Cleanse the Ignite from yourself.
• - Use Zhonya’s Hourglass to place yourself in stasis, to avoid 2 ticks of damage.
• - Have enough health regeneration, or flat health to survive it.

Yours:

- When you use

Ignite and fail to kill an enemy. Solutions to this are:
[*] - Use it at the end of your standard combo if the enemy is still alive.
[*] - Use it only when it’s sure to net you a kill, which the enemy might otherwise survive.


Barrier
Enemy:
- To waste an enemies Barrier, you merely need to make them use it, and then ignore them after the usage of it. Easiest way to do this, is stun them, use your Baleful Strike, and Dark Matter, but not your Primordial Burst. Chances are if the enemy isn’t paying too much attention they will blow their cooldowns to try and save themselves. If they don’t then just kill them anyways.

Yours:
- In order to preserve this, you’ll want to save it for when you get dived on, focused on, bursted on, or Karthused on. It’s enough to stop a tower dive, and save your life. Unfortunately, it’s still a pretty bad choice for Veigar, so just don’t take it.

Clairvoyance
Enemy:
- You can’t make them waste it on your own, but if you constantly gank and can’t be found on the map, you can make them use it to try and find you, instead of trying to locate your jungler.

Yours:
- Chances are you don’t have Clairvoyance, but if you do then you should be playing as support Veigar, and as such using it randomly, and without purpose would be the way to waste it. Instead use it to check bushes for your allies, use it to keep enemies in view, use it to locate the enemy jungler, etc...

Cleanse
Enemy:
- Stun them with your Event Horizon, and fake them out with a stop cast on your Dark Matter. They might save it for something else, but if they do use it, then they have more or less wasted it.
- Better yet, just get enough farm on your Baleful Strike that you can burst them down regardless of their Cleanse, just bursting them down with a quick, Deathfire Grasp, Baleful Strike, and Primordial Burst. This is assuming that your enemy isn’t just standing in your Dark Matter.

Yours:
- Using it for no reason whatsoever.
- Otherwise it’s kinda hard to waste a Cleanse, sometimes it’s just really hard to tell if you would have, or wouldn’t have lived with it on.

Exhaust
Enemy:

Yours:

Garrison
Enemy:

Yours:

Heal
Enemy:

Yours:


Revive
Enemy:

Yours:


Smite
Enemy:

Yours:


Teleport
Enemy:

Yours:

This is the lane you take as Veigar, when you have a jungler, and you have another carry in mid. Don't worry about a thing, because solo top is not as bad as some people make it out to be, here's the reasons why:

• It is a solo lane, and thus you can control how aggressively you play, and farm your Q without worry.
• You have less to worry about from ganks, because you have less points at which the enemy team could ambush you from.
• If you have a good jungler, you may call him/her in for ganks, can give you a nice head start in terms of your number kills, and ability power.
• Chances are the enemy, in accordance to the current meta, will send an AD bruiser your way, making your range able to kite them, and those armour runes you hopefully have, particularly useful.

The laning phase for Veigar in solo top, is wonderful. You have a solo lane, and no ally to contest last hits for you. My advice? Farm as much as you can, while this lasts. Depending on who your opponent is, you might want to harass a bit, but mostly just keep out of their reach, and farm. If you do choose to harass however, you'll want to call in a jungle gank, the moment they get to 1/2 health, or they overextend. This ways you'll either push them out, or get a kill, both of which are good things. However you must remember to play somewhat passively, because you are squishy, and good enemies will take advantage of that, so tower hug, and remember to ward.

Mid-game is when Veigar begins becoming powerful, you have your full combo up, and can nuke down squishies very quickly. I would recommend, ganking the enemies AP carry whenever you have your ult up, and then going back to farming at top lane. You should have at least 300 AP by this stage, so a single Dark Matter should be able to clear up entire minion waves, with good positioning of course. However I would not recommend doing so, because farming your Q is by far more important. So instead try this, Dark Matter the melee minions, while farming your Q on the caster minions. This should give you plenty of gold from the minions, while allowing you to fit in a nice bit of Q farm.

By now you have reached level 18, and you should have about 600-700 AP. This is your moment of glory! This is the time when you roam around, nuking down squishies, and still farming minions with your Q. Not much to say about this, just nuke squishies, kill carries, run away from ganks, and farm minions (You should always farm minions when you can).

This is when all players have reached level 18, and achieved their full builds. You will rarely see this in any game, but when this does happen, you are god. By now you should have at least 1,000 AP if not more. And this means that:

1. You can kill the enemy AP carry (ie. Brand) who has been stacking AP, with a usage of your single ult.
2. You can practically nuke down tanks as well, thanks to a wonderful item known as,

Deathfire Grasp, which is dealing ~40% of their current health as magic damage, after reductions.
3. You will only get stronger as the game goes on, so please, keep farming your Q up.

NO, JUST NO!

My reasoning? Simple, here is a list:

• Veigar unlike most junglers is not auto-attack reliant, and as such has a slow clearing speed, especially at low levels.
• Veigar performs far more effectively in lane, partially due to his need to farm.
• Veigar has no move speed enhancers, and as such moves slowly throughout the jungle.

However if you must... You know what, just no. Here's a link to a YouTube video on it. I'm not even going to try.

Only difference between his guide and mine, is that I like to build it more defensively. And that's for the old jungle. With the Season 3 jungle, it's going to be even harder to pull of for all you intrepid junglers. Good luck, eh?

Who is Veigar good against? Who is he bad against? Who is he mediocre against?

Well truth be told Veigar can be good against anyone, but then again he can also be bad against anyone, so rather than provide a single section for champions Veigar is good against, let's just make it based on each and every champion, cause why not? Hurrah for over comprehensiveness! Also thanks to DarkPercy for the help in BB Coding, since everyone knows I’m terrible with that.

This will be updated whenever I discover such questions, feel free to post them in the comments section!

1) How do you get kills instead of assists? (Asked by LuckyKero)
Answer:


2) If Veigar's innate Equilibrium is a nigh-infinite font of mana, why get Chalice of Harmony? (Asked by FelixKam)
Answer:


3) Wait what? Why is this guide's creator FelixKam putting questions for himself in the Frequently Asked Questions Area? How does that work? Is he insane? (Asked by FelixKam, again?!)
Answer:


4) Why get Athene's Unholy Grail over Archangel's Staff on a typical game? (Asked by Deadicated)
Answer:


4) What do you do if you have more starting gold than usual? (Asked by Mr.Hobbitt)
Answer: