Hello everybody, I'm JustFunPlay, an EUW support/top player.
I have about 60K mastery on Vel'koz and get at least 50% of the time an s- or higher.
He is my most favorite champion to play as support because he allows me to carry games when my teammates fail, while stil being able to get your allies kills.

Vel'koz is a mage with increadible range and high (burst) damage.

His innate, Organic Deconstruction, allows him to deal 33-169(based on level) +50% ap true damage to enemies he hit 3 times with abilities. This allows him to even kill high MR targets without a lot of magic pen.

His Q, Plasma Fission, is a long range skillshot, that, upon hitting an enemy, reaching max range or reactivation, splits into 2 additional bolts at 90 degree angles, dealing the same damage(cannot hit targets twice). It deals 80/120/160/200/240 +80% ap magic damage and slows 70% for 1/1.4/1.8/2.2/2.6 seconds. Refunds 50% of the manna cost if you kill an enemy with it, up to 150% of manna cost if you kill 3 enemies.

His W, Void Rift,is a skillshot that damages all enemies hit for 30/50/70/90/110 +15% ap magic damage. After 1 second, the area detonates, dealing an additional 45/75/105/135/165 +25% ap magic damage.
While Void Rift deals relatively low damage, it is really good at proccing your Organic Deconstruction as it can hit twice with 1 cast and it has 2 charges, although it has a 1.5 second cooldown in between casts.

His E, Tectonic Disruption, is a ground targeted ability that knocks up all enemies within the area and dealing 70/100/130/160/190 +30% ap magic damage.
Tectonic Disruption is best used after you already slowed the enemy, or if somebody is ontop of you to give yourself some time to run because of the delay between casting and the effect taking place.

His R, Life Form Disintegration Ray, is a long range lazer beam that updates it's trajectory to follow your cursor. it deals 45/62.5/80 +12.5% ap magic damage every 0.25 seconds, for a total of 450/625/800 +125% ap magic damage over 2.5 seconds. Enemies inside the beam are slowed for 20% and gain 1 stack of Organic Deconstruction every 0.7 seconds. Deals true damage to those who have been affected by Organic Deconstruction's detonation.

Apart from the obvious support item you should be getting( Spellthief's Edge into Frostfang), you want to rush either Luden's Tempest or, my personal preferance, Archangel's Staff for the manna. the former granting more poke while the latter grants more ap over the game due to awe but also a nice shield once it evolves into Seraph's Embrace.

Next up are boots, which you take depends on you own preferance, i usually take Mobility Boots because it allows me to reposition and get to fights faster. other good options are Sorcerer's Shoes and Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

For my second item I usually take Liandry's Torment, it give a nice bit of extra damage to your poke and also gives a bit more damage for longer fights. While it's passive "madness" doesn't synergise with your passive and ult becaus of the true damage, it still adds a nice bit of tank shredding since Life Form Disintegration Ray also slows, bringing the max hp damage to 2.5%

I usually refrain from finising Remnant of the Watchers until after or during the process of completing my third item because the additional stats are often note really worth completing it earlier.

My third item is often Rabadon's Deathcap, the stupid ammount of ap it gives is just stupid.

As my last option I often get what is most usefull for the situation, Luden's Tempest for the additonal poke, Banshee's Veil if the enemy team has annoying cc or Zhonya's Hourglass if the enemy has an assassin that is constantly ontop of me. Spellbinder is also a very good item, although is is most usefull early, it can add a lot of damage with the active and a full combo + ult.


You should really avoid Rylai's Crystal Scepter at all cost, since only your w applies it and it shouldn't be used for that.

Very strong keystones:
Dark Harvest allows you to scale very hard in the game, but only take it in matchups where you can poke the enemy laners to below 50% health consitantly.
Arcane Comet adds even more damage to your poke, as the slow from Plasma Fission almost guarantees it to land

very strong secondary runes:
Taste of Blood allows you to heal when you poke the enemy with high early base damage and decent ap scaling later
Eyeball Collection, Ghost Poro and Zombie Ward are all very usefull for the free stats, with the buffed Ghost Poro and Zombie Ward also granting a bit of vision utility
Ravenous Hunter allows you to heal from the damage your abilities deal, even true damage
Ultimate Hunter migth be usefull if you want Life Form Disintegration Ray up all the time, but at rank 2, 30% cdr it is already low with 80 seconds
Manaflow Band grants some extra manna early and gives more ap with Archangel's Staff and Seraph's Embrace
Transcendence allows you to reach the cdr cap at lvl 10 with just Frostfang and your first item
Scorch adds a bit of poke, but falls of verry hard late game
Gathering Storm is the exact opposite
Magical Footwear gives free boots, what could go wrong
Perfect Timing is very nice if the enemy has assasins or divers and you plan on buying Zhonya's Hourglass
Biscuit Delivery is just very nice for sustain
Cosmic Insight is only usefull if you plan on reaching the cdr cap

what to avoid:
Pretty much all of Precision because it is either AA focused or doesn't affect true damage
Sudden Impact can only be triggered by using Flash or optionally Hextech Rocketbelt, but you already have true damage
All of Resolve just focusses on making you a tank, not really usefull for a mage
Minion Dematerializer because you are a support and shouldn't focus on taking CS

Before level 6 you want to get as many hits with Plasma Fission to get gold for your support item and stacks for Manaflow Band. Do keep your manna reserve above 200 so you can all in on your enemy to get a kill. Once you have Tear of the Goddess from your first back, you should really be spamming Plasma Fission to stack it.

Once you get Life Form Disintegration Ray at level 6, you want to keep you manna above 300, as a full combo(see combo's below) cost about that much. Be sure your enemies are researched first so your ult deals true damage. With only a Tear of the Goddess and a Frostfangyou already deal about 500 damage with your ult alone, if you land all of your abilities you deal about 370 magic damage and 760 true damage.

This chapter is all about the comparisons in poke between common supports, in comparison to Vel'Koz. I only take 1 ability per champion without follow-up, so the experience might be different in-game. Conclusion will be based on how often you should hit your Plasma Fission in comparison to the enemies poke to keep up in damage.

For Lux, she will most likely use Light Binding for poke.
At rank 1, Lux has slightly less base damage(70 compared to 80), but at rank 5 she has slightly more(250 compared to 240), this is negated by the fact that Vel'Koz has higher ap scaling on his poke. Lastly, Lux has a longer cooldown(10 compared to 7 seconds), giving Vel'Koz more oppertunities to hit.
Taking all of this into consideration, if you hit an equal percentage, you will have more damage on Vel'Koz, because of the lower CD and higher scalings.

For Zyra she will most likely use Deadly Spines for poke.
Zyra has less base damage at all ranks(60-200 compared to 80-240) and also has a lower ap scaling. Zyra does have lower cooldowns at higher ranks(7-5 compared to 7), giving her more oppertunities to use it. It is also deceptively hard to get out of a Zyra Q, giving her a higher chance to hit.
All of this would still suggest that you need a pretty high hit percantage with Vel'Koz to keep up with damage, even without Zyra's plants to poke you in the eye.

During teamfights you want to constantly be spamming Plasma Fission to poke the enemies down, if somebody gets close enough, you can also throw out a Void Rift. If they still do not back of, go for a full combo on them and possibly your ult if they are worth it.

Although not really a part of teamfighting, stealling objectives such as dragon is pretty easy as Vel'Koz because of you burst and true damage, just wait until it is low enough and throw out a Q-W-E for a quick passive proc on the objective. If you are good enough with the timings, you got yourselfes a nice team buff, otherwise you might want to ult for a little bit of extra damage. Once the objecitve gets killed, you should get out asap unless the rest of your team is with you, because you just used up alot of your damage and cc.

The most basic combo to proc your passive is Void Rift followed by a Plasma Fission. The slow should ensure the second proc from Void Rift.
Total damage form ap scalings: 120% ap magic damage and 50% ap true damage

For a full combo without your ult you place Tectonic Disruption underneath the slowed target and throw out your second Void Rift. With this you should get a second Organic Deconstruction proc.
Total damage form ap scalings: 190% ap magic damage and 100% ap true damage

Afterward you can use Life Form Disintegration Ray for even more damage to finish of a target, your ult grants an aditional proc of Organic Deconstruction, for a total of 3 procs.
Total damage form ap scalings: 190% ap magic damage and 275% ap true damage

This is the end of my guide to Vel'Koz support, thank you for reading it.

If you have questions, suggestions or something else related to this guide please leave a comment.

- JustFunPlay

June 26th 2019

-Added Yuumi to matchups

May 15th 2019

-Removed

Electrocute from recomended runes, since your passive doesn't work with it


April 17th 2019

- Added the Poke guide chapter, will be expanded over the upcomming weeks.

April 3rd 2019

- Added ap scalings to the combo's section
- Changed eyeball collection and added ghost poro and zombie ward to runes section to accomodate the changes to them
- Added spellbinder to optional items and explained why in the items section