Hello dear summoners,

welcome to my second guide at MobaFire. My name is Wongstar from the EU West Server and i wrote this guide for all the players, who are making first experience with the LoL Champion Volibear. This Bear is one of my favorite Champions in LoL, so I want beginners to make a good start with this awesome Freljord Weatherbeast. And if you want to play a Champion who looks strong and powerful, then you should definitely chose Volibear.

Why am i writing a guide, while there are plenty very good guides here at MobaFire? Although i tried many other guides myself in the past to master my Volibear, i have found my own way to build & play my Volibear due to my own priorities. What I need: Extreme high Survivability via Health+Armor+Magic Items throughout the whole Game! But also I want high Slow Effects to make maximum CC in Teamfights.

Note: This is not an indepth Jungler-Guide for Volibear, so pls look for other Guides with more information about Jungling. I will add some more depths later by time.

Challenge of this guide: It requires you to play your Volibear correctly to farm alot early, what i will show you in this guide. The Price: If played correctly you can dominate your Lane very fast, make many kills, and then dominate the whole game thereafter with your team.

I won't tell you, that this choice is the only or best way to build Volibear. A build is only as good as how the player can use it properly. So if you are more like a Attack Speed or AD player, plz go for another build instead instant downvoting this one. This here is a personal recommendation for how i have played Volibear successfully over two years.

As a beginner you need to learn, what style you like to play, because if the playstyle makes max fun for you, you can make the best out of you. So most important is: Find your own style with this awesome Freljord Beast. Just do it!

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• Role: Volibear should be played as a Fulltank with incredibly viable CC for Teamfights and a Finisher-Skill, which scales insanely with his max. Health.
• Position: You can play Volibear Solo Top because of his high Health due to Tankitems and excellent Sustain via fast Health-Regeneration Rate but weakness against Kiting. Or you can play him as Jungler using his E.Skill to control the monsters, while you finish them off. With your Q.Skills you can throwback enemies, making you a good Ganker to prevent enemies to escape. When teamfights start you should play him as a Damage Sink in first place, while dealing high CC (Throwback, Multi-slow, Chainlightning-Attack) to the whole Enemyteam.
• Job: Volibear's job is to quickly break through enemy lines and deal aggressive CC Attacks at the whole enemy team. With his Q.Skills (Sprint+Throwback) he can reposition the enemy's dangerous ADCs closer to your team, so that they can kill her instantly. For taking down enemy tanks he has a fearsome Finisher, which you must maximize with Health-Items to get maximum effect!

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In this guide I will show you a basic & powerful Pre-Core-Build for Early-Mid Game, and then you have some options to finish your build depending on the match-situation. With this guide of mine i show you how Volibear can be a very deadly and fast Killer in almost every situation. The only challenge you have to deal with is to dominate your lane quickly and farm alot to rush many Health-Stacking Items. To make him even more tanky and hard to kill, i chose especially Health-Items, which also provide Volibear high Armor and Magic Resistance.

Thank you for playing Volibear and wishing you good Luck and big Fun with him!

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p.s.:
If you have some ideas to optimize my approach, i enjoy to read your constructive comments + ideas. And if you have success with this guide, pls don't hesitate to upvote. Thx!

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Pros:

• strong throughout the whole game
• adaptable for end game
• high Health+Armor+Magic Resistance Values from early game until end game
• deadly Finisher at early-mid game already (bite-to-win)
• lots of Slow-Effects (CC) via Spell, Skills and Items to prevent enemies escape

Cons:

• not a short guide, will take some of your time
• it's a guide for LoL Beginners, who need Guides to know the Champions better. Advanced Players can miss some more depths in some aspects.

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This here is the Standard Rune Build, which i use for Volibear. Its a good Build because the benefits are quite reasonable.

• Greater Mark of Attack Speed - for faster attacks to load up Frenzy
• Greater Seal of Armor - for more survivability during laning phase
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - for more survivability against mage attacks
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed - for faster rushes via Thundering Smash at enemies or escapes in critical situations

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Offense is best Defense. So go for the following masteries:

• Fury Great for boosting Attack Speed to load up Frenzy even quicklier
• Sorcery boost your CDR by 5%!
• Expose Weakness Great for Teamfights after using Thundering Smash and Sky Splitter
  
• Block and Unyielding boost defense in Fights
• Recovery , Perseverance and Second Wind Boost your Regeneration greatly
• Enchanted Armor , Hardiness and Reinforced Armor boost defense for Farming/Jungling/Fights
• Veteran Scars and Juggernaut Early Health-Boost for Frenzy
• Swiftness and Legendary Guardian Reduce incoming CC

If you play Jungler, you can put some points in Tough Skin , Bladed Armor and maybe also Fleet of Foot

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Spells are the summoner bound abilities. You can use two summoner spells during any match in the Fields of Justice. You select them during the Champion Selection before each match and they cannot be changed if the game has started. So chose wisely, because sometimes the spells can save your champion from being killed in fights or they can help you to secure kills for your team. In this chapter i shortly recommend you some useful spells for Volibear.

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First thing you have to know as Beginner: Volibear's Main Attack Skill is his W.Skill Frenzy and NOT his Q.Skill Thundering Smash or Sky Splitter! So your aim is to max out Frenzy as fast as possible. Of course you also need to put points into your ultimate skill Stormbringer whenever you have the opportunity. But dont forget: Your main skill is still Frenzy .

His Passive can regenerate Health if he is at critical low life. This is quite nice in Fights, to prolong your sustain. If the enemy doesn't have a Finisher himself, you have some more seconds to give your opponent the rest with Frenzy .

The Q.Skill is Volibear's initiation attack to storm into an enemy, but since it is a very predictable attack, you need to combine it with Flash as a gap.closer unless you have an enemy who lacks on escape options. Sometimes you need Thundering Smash maybe even with Flash to get away from enemies if your health is low and your Passive is on cooldown. What i personally like very much on this skill is the fact that it 1. gives you high Movement Speed and 2. can reposition Enemies in teamfights and 3. gives additional physical Damage to your next Auto-Attack aaand 4. it can damage Towers as well! Thats absolutely awesome!

The W.Skill is Volibear's Mainattack and gives him high Attackspeed and a deadly Finisher, which scales insanely with Health-Items. Additionally it scales also with every missing Health of the enemy.
Note: It is a powerful skill ingame to kill off Enemy Tanks!. You have to keep in mind that it does physical Damage. So use it only, if the their Health is low to maximize the Damage. So you must wait for the right Point of Activation (PoA) - TIMING is crucial here!

The E.Skill is Volibear's main CC-Attack with excellent slow and farming power because of its AoE. It deals magic Damage and put Monsters of the Jungle in fear, so you can attack them without getting harm yourself for some seconds.

The R.Skill (Ultimate Chain-Lightning Bolts) is a powerful attack to deal Damage to whole enemy team. This can boost your own Team's Attackpower greatly.

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Volibear's Attack Combo is simple to perform: (Flash-)Throwback-(Exhaust-)Roar-ChainLightning(-Bite).

If your Flash is Button 'F' and Exhaust is 'D', then it's ('F'-)'Q'-('D'-)'W'-'R'(-'W')

Your Q.Skill Thundering Smash is your Initiation Attack Skill, so you storm right into your Enemy. Because Volibear only runs into an enemy unlike other Champions Skill like Xin Zhao's rapid Audacious Charge you have to evaluate the situation before attacking. Is your Enemy right next so you can reach him before he can get away or is he too far? If the enemy is quite far away from you and you want to catch up, then u need Flash to do this. But be careful, if you get ganked you dont have anything else than Thundering Smash to run away. And in most cases thats not fast enough, especially if the enemy can slow your Movements.

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This is my preferred order of skill leveling. Its quite a standard recommendation since Volibear's main attack skill is the W.Skill Frenzy .

You should put 1 point first in Q.Skill Thundering Smash for better mobility and the viable Throwback right from the beginning. Leave it by 1 point after you have put as much as possible points into the other skills.

Directly after your first point set on Thundering Smash focus on W.Skill Frenzy , while stacking Health-Items, so put your next two points in this skill.

Put your fourth point in E.Skill Sky Splitter to give you some CC/Slow Effect and better Farming Ability. Some other players start with this skill, but i think it's too early, because the Mana-Costs are simply too hight at Lvl 1.

Go on with Frenzy until Stormbringer is unlocked and put your sixth point to it.

After that it is quite simple to level your skills. Max out Frenzy , then focus on E.Skill Sky Splitter to maximize your CC-Power. Dont forget: whenever you can put points into R.Skill Stormbringer, just do it.

The remaining points after max out R, W, E go into Q.Skill Thundering Smash to increase your Movement Speed and so to boost your Initiation Attack.

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Since the rightly chosen items are essential to build up an effective Volibear, i will give this chapter a little more depths, so to show you what Volibear really needs to become one of the deadliest Tanks on the Fields of Justice. As you have seen at the Example Builds at top, you should consider following Priority Order for Volibear's items: Health (HEA), Armor (ARM), Magic Resis (MR). I would say Attack Speed (AS) and Ability Power (AP) can benefit Volibear's Attackpower, but i would say, that the Damage Output from his Skills are strong enough in most situations. Everything else like Attack Damage (AD), Lifesteal (LS), Mana, etc. are not so much important for Volibear. So lets check the items i recommend to you for building up Volibear as a fearsome Weatherbeast of Freljord.

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The first 20 minutes will decide if you can dominate your lane or not. With these items you can stack up enorm Health while you have good options to raise your Resistance against incoming damage. Make sure you load up your W.Skill Frenzy to finish off careless Enemies at low Life. Try to farm as much as possible at the beginning, don't start a fight before you get your first Giant's Belt. If the Enemy is coming too near, try to throw him back behind your Creeps with your Q.Skill Thundering Smash and slow him with E.Skill Sky Splitter, so you can deal maximum Damage with the support of your Creeps. But still watch out for ganks and keep your distance, while making many last hits on enemy creeps. When you use up all your Health Potion, go back to base, get your items + potions ( + sight ward if you can afford it) and then rush back to lane with your mana-cheap Q.Skill Thundering Smash. Don't fight with low life, you will lose even with The Relentless Storm activated!

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After finishing the Pre-Core Build it is time to evaluate the situation and ask yourself, what Items you need from now till end game depending on all the other Enemies & their Abilities. Do your enemies deal more AD Damage or AP Damage? Can you go on with stacking your Health, or is it better to gain more Armor or Magic Resistance Stats to counter heavy Burst Damage. There are several very viable options for Volibear either in Armor or Magic Resistance Items. If you can foresee, that your enemies don't have high Burst Damge Attacks, then maybe it's good to build an Offense Item (AD/AS/AP) as Last Item.

Later I give you some few Final Build Examples, but that doesn't mean, they are the only viable ones. You can mix all kind of Items for your 4th-6th slots, but before doing that, you need to know the details of every single item and the synergy of them to each other very perfectly.

E.g. stack up Health Items, stack up Armor Items, stack up Cool Down Reduction Items, stack up Magic Resistance Items, whatever. Make your priorities depending on the match-situation! You can't win, if you don't master Volibear's Situational Items.




For the last item you can decide depending on the situation, what you need to finish the match. Extra Health, extra Magic Resistance, extra Armor, extra Attack Damage, extra Attack Speed, extra AP Power, etc. Decide wisely!

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Because Volibear is very weak against CC and Kiting Attacks, you usually want to play him at Solo Top Lane against Melee Fighters or Jungle. Keep in mind, that Volibear can be very strong at early - mid game due to his skillset, if played well. So dominating your lane early is most important to make Volibear be strong enough to tank Teamfights later. In this Chapter i show you which Lane is suited for Volibear and then some basics for Lane Domination, which you need to master.




One of Volibear's usual position, since he is doing good Damage, has extremely high sustain early, but is weak against CC and Kiting attacks. Rush to Top Lanes Bushes with Thundering Smash. In most cases, you reach them faster than your enemy. Hide there to scout the enemy's movement. If your Lane Enemy comes unprepared near you, you can initialise the first fight with Thundering Smash. If you play well, he is the one taking more damage, and so he must use health potions earlier than you need. The first fist exchange will give you a feeling of how powerful and experienced your lane enemy might be.

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Jungling Volibear is great! With jungler-friendly Spell+Items and his strong Sky Splitter plus a fasthealing The Relentless Storm you can do very well as Jungler with Volibear. The only thing, which makes him a perfect Jungler is the missing Gapcloser-Skill! His Initiation Attack Thundering Smash is predictable and the enemy has some few seconds to counterattack with slow/stun effects or to escape with a jump. So if you want to play Jungler i highly recommend you some other better Gank-Junglers (e.g. Warwick, Lee Sin)

Note: Even though you don't play Volibear as Jungler, you should farm the jungle from mid game on to earn money for items as fast as possible.

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Since on bot lane you have Enemies with high CC + Kiting Abilities, i usually don't play Volibear there. This doesn't mean that Volibear can be played on this lane as well. The only chance to stay long at this lane is to built up Health Items early. But the problem is the Health Item you definitely need for your Core Build is the Giant's Belt, which costs you 1k bucks. If you play with an ADC, you might let him lasthit creeps to be fed early. So you have to wait a bit longer to finish your Core. This can be fatal later, when teamfights start due to your lack of Tankiness. On the other hand, you have such a strong Throwback, Slow-Effect and Finisher-Skill, so sometimes you can completely destroy the Enemies with a strong ADC-Mate early.

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You won't play Volibear at Mid Lane, because this is the lane for magic casters, which can kite you easily with AP Damage, which you cant resist much at early game. Although it should be easy for Volibear to make fast Magekills with Flash, Exhaust and his skill combo, you shouldn't play him here, because: Where should your mage fight? At Top lane? At Bot Lane? Both not optimal for your mage. So let him fight at his best position. And let Volibear fight at his best positions. That's TOP or JUNGLE!

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Farming is very important at early game, much more important than killing the enemy. Of course, it will help you to farm without ruffle and excitement, if your enemy is on respawn time. But sometimes it's wise to play safely instead of risking a death, which will let you lose much time and dominance over your lane. Only go for Kills, if you are sure to succeed 100%. Otherwise it's better to harrass your opponent and push him back to base to lvl up yourself faster.



First thing to know about farming with Volibear is to know, which skills he can use instead of autoattack to rush up killing creeps.

• Thundering Smash Use this skill to strike the siege creep, when its Health is low. Don't let it be killed by your creeps, or you lose much money. Do it, if the Enemy is out of range or he will use your cooldown time to attack you.
• Sky Splitter Your main farming attack. Use this skill right in the center of a group of creeps to take out several simultanously. If several Minions Health is low, you can farm very fast.

Sometimes it is better to do autoattack + lasthits on the creeps and save your skills for sudden counterattacks of enemies. Keep your eyes on the minimap and figure out the location of your enemies. If you can't see one of them, then be careful.



Stopping the enemy from farming is very important to gain dominance over your lane. As long as your creeps are alive, you have more firepower on the enemy. Enemy creeps will fall faster and Enemy Champions will be shot by your creeps, if they attack you. At early game it is easy to harrass your enemy from farming with Thundering Smash. Strike your enemy, if he comes too near. He will be thrown back to your creeps, so he needs to run back to safety first to keep on farming himself. Wait for your attack, when the creeps started to fight each other. While your enemy is striked and retreats, you can use Sky Splitter to slow him down. Go for a full attack, when most of his creeps are killed, and you have several creeps at your back. Your enemy will risk his life if he counterattacks. In most cases he will retreat to his tower.

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There are some simple rules for fighting with Volibear. Keep those in mind, when you confront the enemy.

• Always fight with caution and never let your guard down, even when you are attacking. The enemy's teammates wont sleep, so whenever you feel you are running into a trap, retreat.
• Except at early game, never go into a fight solo, unless you know the exact location of every enemy.
• Whenever it is possible, use your Skill-Combo to push your enemy back.
• Whenever your Enemy has low Health, be ready to use your Ultimate Execution Bite Frenzy
• Whenever your Enemy starts to attack you (with his own Skill.Combo), activate Exhaust and Sky Splitter to weaken the Damage.
• Use Thundering Smash to reposition your enemy to your own advantage! Either for enhancing your own Attacks or to confuse your Enemy (e.g. to your own Tower!) or even for your own Escapes!
• Use Flash to close the gap to your Enemy, e.g. for finishing attacks
• It's more safe to have a Teammate in Engagements, who can give you backup
• You better load up you Frenzy as fast as possible, when you go into a fight just to execute him, when his Health is low. Sometimes is just the difference of 1 second to win or lose a fight. With your Finisher ready, you oftenly have that 1 Second Time bonus!
• Hiding in the bushes is always good for a fight initialisation. Hide in a bush and wait until your Enemy is within your reach. Should he come near you, rush in with Thundering Smash and unleash your skillcombo, before he can use any skills himself.
• If necessary activate your Ulti Stormbringer to maximize your Damage Output.
• Use Flash and Exhaust wisely for attacks, you won't have them for escape
• Towerdive, if your enemy has low Health (read in respective section)

Whenever your mates have difficulties with their lane enemies and they call your help. Ready up for powerful ganks! Tell them, that you are on your way and ping on the enemy, which you want to destroy. And be sure, the enemy hasn't set a sight ward yet. If he did already, then take another route to surprise the enemy.




Whenever your Enemy is back to base, you should concentrate your attacks on the enemy tower. Definitely stop attacking the Tower, whenever you see the Enemy is approaching. He could either slow you, stun you or distract you, while his Jungler ganks in! Do it carefully, because nothing is more annoying than to die, because you can't avoid Tower Fire.
When the Tower is fallen, your Role is to support Mid Lane, while the Jungler can concentrate his ganks on the other side lane. Do it carefully, sometimes it is wisely to retreat before the enemy can gank you. Use Thundering Smash to damage the Tower. If you have high CSC you can even destroy it faster.





If your enemy has less than 30% Health and hides under his tower, you can risk for a Kill by Tower Diving! It is very satisfying. :->

You need Flash, Exhaust, Thundering Smash and Frenzy be load & ready and to act fast as lightning. Wait until your creeps are attacked by the tower, wait until you have loaded Frenzy for an execution bite and wait until the Tower fires a shot at one of your creeps. Flash to your enemy, combo him with Exhaust and your Execution Bite from Frenzy , and finally escape the tower attacks with Thundering Smash. Be careful, sometimes the enemy lures you to attack him, while the jungler is on his way to you. So be prepared.

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In this chapter i want to give you a feeling for your most expected lane enemies. The following champions are mainly played at Top Lane or Jungle, and if you want to dominate with Volibear, then you should know how to deal with these guys.

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When you have succeeded to make some kills at early game, got the Enemy Tower destroyed and maybe even finished your early - mid game item core build, you should aim for extended team work tasks. Now is the time to prove, if you can survive as a team or not, if you are a better team than the enemy. LoL is a Teambattle Game. So don't ever try to play solo. If you don't understand this, then you maybe should play offline solo games. Ok, lets start with the real things you must know for winning the match, together.



Warding is crucial to win a match. With Sight Wards set at the right positions you can gain control over the enemy's movement. Whenever you have destroyed your first Tower, the next time you go back to base, buy a sight ward for your team. You might spend some money for it, but you earn it back later, if you can harrass the enemy from farming the lane and the jungle!

• Do i still have potions? No? -> Need to buy at least 2! Yes? Ok, go for items
• Do i have enough money to buy a ward after buying an item? No? -> Ok, buy one. The rest money is for items

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One of the favorite things, that Volibear does in his free time, while jungling or after doing his job on top lane, is ganking the enemy at the other lanes. If you see enemies fighting your mates, tell them by "pings" on the minimap, that you are on your way to them. Tell your mates to be ready for support if possible. Take paths over the bushes, so that enemy can hardly see your movements. Check the bushes, if the enemy has set sight wards. You can tell that by seeing the reaction of the enemy, when you approach them. If you are sure that the enemy didn't notice your movements, then call your mates for a gank together. With your Thundering Smash and your CC attacks, it should be easy to take your enemy down very quickly.

When the first towers have fallen usually the enemies are sticking together to make their way through your mid lane. Don't be careless, when you attack. Even if you are tanky, most times you can't take the full attack power from 2 or 3 strong enemies. At least have a support at your back, who can stun your enemies or even enforce you with Buffs.

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Knowing the dragon in detail and be able to kill him quickly before the enemy team does, is crucial to win a match. On the one hand each player of your team gains extra gold, on the other hand you would hinder your enemy to get faster gold than you.



By killing the Dragon at the right moment your whole team gets a gold advantage early to upgrade your item kits faster than thee enemy can do. Try to take down the dragon before the enemy notice. This will give you another advantage: Only you and your allies know the respawn time.

Beware, good players would set sight wards to control the Dragon. So it might be difficult to do it unaware. So don't ever try to kill the Dragon alone, especially if enemies are not visible on the map for you! You definitely will be ganked and worst - the enemy steals the Dragon away. Tell your jungler to set a Vision Ward if he can afford it. This would reveal enemy wards.

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Same as Dragon. But in my opinion not as important as Dragon. If your teamplay is good, you dont need the buff to win the teamfights. If you are bad, then even the Baron Buff cant save you. BUT: Controlling the Baron to hinder the Enemy team from getting the Baron killed is crucial to win a match. If your team is fast, you can try to disrupt their attempt and maybe you can even destroy the whole enemy team plus stealing the Buff to storm their base.

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When the first tier towers of the enemies (or yours) have been fallen, the first team fights will start. Now your team should have set enough sight wards to see the enemy's movements. If it comes to a confrontation of your team and them, you should know your role:

• Assassin the Enemy Carries as fast as possible, before getting killed (such like Ashe, Miss Fortune, Caitlyn, Draven, Ezreal, Sivir, Tristana, Varus, Vayne)
• Weaken the ones of the enemy team with the most dangerous ability, that's usually the CC ones (Stun, Slow Down, Weaken).
• As the Tank in your Team you can initialize the fight, by trying to throwback your target, so that your team can instantly finish it off.
• Give wise commands to your team!
• Survive till the end to exexute the Enemy Tank with your Frenzy , when no one of your team can take him down.

Never forget - never ever fight solo after midgame, because the enemy does not! Even with the suggested tank item builds, Volibear can't survive long, if he gets ganked and encircled by two or more enemies. If there is some enemy with gapclosing abilities, you can't escape, even with Flash. But with Teammates at your back or front, you will throwback-roar-chainlightning-bite the hell out of them. Promise!

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After reading this guide, you finally might acknowledge, who is the awesome Thunderlord of Freljord. This guide is directed to beginners, who needs guides to play better. Furthermore this guide features my own play style. It is very possible, that it is not suited for every Volibear Player. With this work i tried to combine many approaches to develop Volibear, so that beginners might find their own style of playing this awesome champion on the fields of justice.



Volibear is a very strong Champion throughout the whole game with awesome Sustain and Damage Output through his Skillset. He is very viable as Teamfighter and Teamfights-Initiator. He can be built as Tank, Offtank or as Jungler. His role in teamfights is attract Enemy Fire and to weaken the whole Enemy Team with strong Slowdown Effects. If you like, you can buy as last item something for more Offense Power or with extended Magic Resistance to soak more Enemy Damage. It's up to you. Just make wise decisions depending on every match situation.



Most important: Have fun with Volibear and always remember his attack style: (Flash-)Throwback-Roar-Chainlightning(-Bite). Never forget, who is the Stormlord! It's Volibear! Show this in every match, and you'll get damn Respect from mates & enemies.

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Thank you very much for reading my guide at MobaFire. I hope you enjoyed it. I know that there are many things, what other Volibear Players would do in other way. But in the end every player needs to find his own playstyle.

If you have any questions or advices or maybe even ideas for alternative super interesting item builds for Volibear, feel free to write me in the discussion thread. If there is anything worth to add in this guide for you, i'll do it asap! Have fun with LoL and don't dare to look down on Volibear or Freljord. You might be caught by an ultimate thundering Chainlightning and the deadly Bite of Frenzy . haha


Jhoijhoi for her guides to help us to make good guides at MobaFire
All Guide.Writers for Volibear at MobaFire with lots of stuff, which inspired me
My Wife for not killing me for putting so much time & energy into this work
My Family for supporting me (with foods. haha)
All the friends, who took a look and giving me advices

[27.12.2013] Release of Alpha-Version of this second guide of mine. Upcoming content-Updates will come by time..

[28.12.2013] Made the Looks more slender by using Spoilerboxes

[29.12.2013] Added alternate Start with Doran's Shield for more defensive gameplay in early game.

[01.01.2014] Wish you all a Happy New Year 2014!!! Updated Cheatsheet by adding "Order of Purchase" for the Core Itemset.