I played DOTA back in the day. I stopped playing it because it made me hate myself. I avoided League of Legends because I wanted to like myself :) Finally got into LoL though and I'm loving it.


Enter Veigar.

This guide is intended for people who are new to Veigar and possibly new to the game too. I'm only lvl 13 myself but I've done very well with him so far and wanted share some of my insights.

I also want to challenge some common ideas. Veigar isn't the same as the other AP champs. Sorcerer's Shoes while a great item, is not as important for Veigar as Boots of Swiftness.

Pros
+Looks kinda like Vivi from Final Fantasy IX
+Late game your Dark Matter will shake the screen
+You will often end the game with 600+ AP
+Incredible stun!

Cons
-Dies almost as quickly as he kills
-People say he's not viable at high elo
-Has trouble reaching the top shelf (yes Veigar, that's a short joke)

Best way to play Veigar is as a glass cannon. Don't try to balance offense and defense items. Use Baleful Strike to devour as many creeps as possible early on then go all offensive items. Your stun is your best friend. Your defense is: Cooldown reduction to stun more often, move speed to dive in and then get the hell out, and raw damage potential for the fear factor.

Each creep you last hit with Baleful Strike should be valued at about an additional 21 gold. If you where to stack Rabadon's Deathcap (only get passive bonus once) 3200 gold / (120 AP * 1.25) = 21 gold / 1 AP.

The value is a lot more if you take into account the limit of 6 items on both you and your enemies. This doesn't happen often, but when everyone has their ideal items your enemies are just going to seem more and more squishy because your AP will keep going up.

I kept hitting the wrong buttons... So I monkeyed with my hotkeys.

Disclaimer: Despite what I say here, for the rest of the guide Q farming still means last hitting creeps with Baleful Strike.

The purpose of said monkeying is to get the raised bump on the F key to be the stun button so I can find it easy. Assuming you have 5 fingers (Redditors know this is not always the case) your index finger would rest on F and your pinkie would be near, but not on, the Q button.

Stop attacking is very important for last hit farming, so it is now the space bar. This is especially important when you're playing a champion where you don't want to accidentally last hit with your auto attack instead of Q (but S is the new Q, keep up).

A: Attack anything
S: Baleful Strike (a.k.a. Q)
D: Dark Matter (a.k.a. Boom)
F: Event Horizon (a.k.a. Stun)
G: Primordial Burst (a.k.a. Ult)

Spacebar: Stop attacking

Q: Activate Summoner Spell 1 Ghost
1: Activate Item 1 (not used in this build)
R: Activate Item 3 Deathfire Grasp
Y: Activate Summoner Spell 2 Teleport

Eating Contest! Eat by last hitting creeps with Baleful Strike.

Don't waste mana on poking. Only poke if you need to scare them to get them away from your food.

Don't bother trying to soften them up for a Primordial Burst at lvl 6. Of course if they stick around with low enough health you can kill them. But only because that will let you eat in peace for a little while.

Save your Event Horizon and use it defensively until it's high rank and you have lots of cooldown reduction. After that you can be more aggressive with it.

Look at the minutes elapsed in the top corner of the screen. Now mouse over Baleful Strike. The amount of AP you have gained from it should be at least (minutes elapsed) * 3. At 20 minutes it should give you at least +60 AP. If not, you need to focus more on creep farming and less on fighting the enemy.

Lower cooldowns means you can last hit with Baleful Strike more. Your stun is also up much more often. 40% cooldown reduction is the cap and reaching this cap is the first priority! To this end, we're going to do something a little unconventional: get Ionian Boots of Lucidity early for +15% cd reduction and then after Deathfire Grasp is complete much later, sell it in favor of Boots of Swiftness with Enchantment: Alacrity. Wait till you have the money though. You don't want be without any boots while you're transitioning.

Boots of swiftness are the only raw defense item in the build. Super move speed is the only other form of defense we are going to have other than CD reduction for stun and raw damage for fear factor. Extra move speed is why you can live when you stun and run. Without it, some champions can still catch you after the stun is over. It's also what lets you finish someone when you run and stun. Use Ghost summoner spell when the boots aren't doing it enough.

Super move speed is also what allows you to participate properly in team fights. Anyone on the other team can easily tear you apart. Move in, open with stun, blow your cooldowns, move out. Don't stick around. Get out immediately and far away! You're a glass cannon remember? Don't be a martyr. Don't feed them. Yes you can go back in for another round when your stun is back up, but be careful and don't stick around.

Remember: You're a glass cannon.

You want to take Flash. You feel you need Flash. But you don't need Flash.


If they're on you, you're dead. It is better to keep them from getting that close. Ghost is normally nice to have, but with Boots of Swiftness and Summoner's Wrath and Enchantment: Alacrity, Ghost will make you absolutely fly! So easy to catch up and stun champions who run.

Ignite is not necessary. We don't care about hurting enemy champions early. Only if they get between us and our food. Late game ignite doesn't do enough and Morellonomicon keeps their healing in check. If you need that extra little bit to finish them, why not just Ghost and grab them with your long range instant Event Horizon and finish with the long range Dark Matter? Late game it does at least twice as much damage as an Ignite.


A well timed Teleport can net you 10+ AP from farming as well as a lot of gold from the Dark Matter boom (remember to farm as much as you can before using boom).

Both Teleport (the first time) and Ghost (the second time) should be used to get back in lane after shopping early on. Staying in your lane early game and farming Baleful Strike is vital to making this build work. Shop first time to get regular Boots and philosopher's stone. Second time to get Doran's Ring, Ionian Boots of Lucidity and whatever else you can afford.

Keep farming, but try to stick with your team more. Stay way in the back. If you get to the party several seconds late, then you're doing it right. Again: Move in, open with stun, blow your cooldowns, move out. Rinse and repeat.

Your ult wrecks AP champions, so favor them. But your CD reduction is so high that your Primordial Burst ultimate will be up again soon, so hit the high health people with your Ult if you need to. If you've been farming like you should and open with Deathfire Grasp, then their health wont be high enough. If it doesn't quite finish them they will be scared. Seriously, after the first time you melt or come very close to melting someone with very high health in less than 3 seconds they will treat you different and often run from you. Feels great!

At this point you have very little HP and are spamming your spells like a mad man. For this reason Eleisa's Miracle is still relevant to you even at the very end of the game. It doesn't take up an item slot (as long as you buy before or at lvl 15) and it makes it so you aren't tempted to waste a slot on Athene's Unholy Grail for mana regen or something else for Spell Vamp or Warmog's Armor for health regen. Eleisa's Miracle lets you have MORE DAMAGE!

Don't go alone if there are enemy champs unaccounted for. When you're on your own, resist the urge to decimate the creep line with Dark Matter. Take your time and nomnom them one by one with your Baleful Strike unless you are eating on the run, by yourself top for example, in which case obliterate away with Dark Matter.

Whenever I have teleported to a juicy group of creeps and am taking my time to farm with Baleful Strike and I see an ally coming I always think to myself "Get away from my food!".