Varus has been growing in popularity over the last few months on Summoner’s Rift, both on the League of Legends ranked ladder as well as in professional play. The marksman was picked a total of 19 times at the 2022 World Championship, the third most-picked ADC at the tournament, according to stat site Games of Legends.
The champion can count on a safe laning phase thanks to his long-range spells and good linear scaling into the later stages of the game. Not only that, but Varus deals both physical and magical damage, making it hard for enemies to itemize effectively.
That being said, the biggest strength that Varus has currently is his diversified itemization. Depending on what team composition you’re facing, the Arrow of Retribution can be built with different items and rune setups. To better understand in which situations you should prefer going with a build over another, we’re going to break everything down in detail.
Here are the best Varus builds in League.
Runes
Lethal Tempo Varus
Precision
Lethal Tempo: With this rune setup, you are looking to maximize the attack speed to quickly stack the passive from Varus’ W. Lethal tempo grants him good early-game trading and even greater teamfighting ability. If Varus is in a position to attack freely, this is the best rune for him.
Triumph: A rune that allows Varus to remain in the action and gain gold quicker, Triumph will grant Varus 12 percent of his missing health after a successful takedown. Alternatively, you can also opt for Overheal to have an extra shield. That being said, we will see later in the build section that it might not be necessary.
Legend: Alacrity: we already mentioned that attack speed is key with this setup, so Varus will get the best out of the rune. It’s also strong when snowballing since you will be getting the stacks faster.
Last Stand: Being an immobile carry, Varus will often find himself having to deal with champions that want to take him down. Last Stand allows him to increase his damage greatly when on low health, and it will synergize with Immortal Shieldbow, which we will explain later. As an alternative, Coup de Grace works better if you’re sure you can snowball with the champion.
Domination
Taste of Blood: It can be procced easily with his E or Q and it is a great rune for varus since it partially fixes the lack of sustain he has in the early game.
Treasure Hunter: Just like most ADC, Varus need gold to buy his expensive items and reach his power spikes. Treasure Hunter helps him accelerate the build and get the two core items as soon as possible, granting him a total bonus of 550 gold if he gets all five unique takedowns.
Hail of Blades AP Varus
Domination
Hail of Blades: With this keystone rune, everything will be all about bursting down one target. Hail of Blades allows Varus to quickly put three stacks on the enemy and then burst him down with the passive proc. It’s also better compared to Lethal tempo for early-game trading, especially with shorter skirmishes.
Taste of Blood: See above.
Eyeball Collection: It rewards you with more attack damage (or ability power) the more takedowns you get.
Ultimate Hunter: You’re looking to use your ultimate offensively to lock down a target and burst him down. Having your cooldown lowered grants you the ability to use it more often in the later stages. You can also go for Treasure Hunter, but Ultimate Hunter is the better choice in most situations with this rune setup.
Sorcery
Absolute Focus: It gives you additional adaptive force when above 70 percent health. It works well if you’re poking from a long distance or when you want to use your combo to kill someone.
Gathering Storm: It makes up for the lack of DPS you might have after the 30-minute mark by granting you more adaptive force.
Poke Lethality Varus
Sorcery
Arcane Comet: With this setup, it’s all about hitting the Qs and making sure that they pierce through the targets. The comet adds a bit of extra damage that can amount to significant damage when procced multiple times.
Manaflow Band: Varus is quite a mana-hungry champion, especially with the poke build. The Manaflow Band helps to address that issue by giving him a bonus of 250 mana when fully stacked.
Transcendence: Just like mana, Varus wants to spam his spells as much as possible. The ability haste from Transcendence will boost his rotation of combo even more, starting from level five.
Scorch: If you’re able to activate it off cooldown consistently, you get up to 100 more damage within the first few minutes of the laning phase. It works best to bully out your opponent and he won’t be able to walk up to farm minions or force a trade.
Inspiration
Magical Footwear: Lethality Varus is all about getting the attack damage and armor penetration as early as possible. Magical Footwear saves 300 gold and it also grants an additional ten movement speed that is optimal for an immobile champion like Varus.
Cosmic Insight: Having the summoners’ spells up sooner is always welcomed on Varus. Not only that, but you will also benefit from the item haste too.
Bonuses: +10 percent attack speed, +9 adaptive force, +6 armor
Items
Lethal Tempo – Hail of Blades Varus
Doran’s Blade
Doran’s Blade is the most common starting item for attack speed Varus. Doran’s Blade gives attack damage and a bit of sustain to win trades against the enemies. The 80 extra health is the icing on the cake. Alternatively, you can go for a long sword if you need the extra attack damage and rush the Noonquiver on your first recall.
The 1300 gold item is the item that must be always rushed first. It grants you attack speed, attack damage and additional damage to minions to better last hit them and play with the wave. Get boots if you can as well or a control ward to check for vision.
Core Items
Immortal Shieldbow is the Mythic Item that you’re looking to rush on Varus. On top of giving attack damage and attack speed, it has lifesteal and a shield that can save him from dying.
That being said, Varus’ first real spike will come in with his second item, Guinsoo’s Rageblade. This is because when fully stacked, the item’s passive will double proc Varus’ W passive onto the targets, greatly increasing his damage output. Not only that but the critical strike chance is converted into physical damage on-hit, which is far more consistent in terms of DPS output.
Following your two items and boots, the fourth item will depend on the current game state of the game. If you’re struggling to fight because there’s a control mage or heavy magic damage on the enemy team, consider going Wit’s end. Otherwise, opt for Runaan’s Hurricane, which is much more valuable when it comes to teamfighting. You will be able to put stacks on multiple enemies with very few auto attacks and quickly take them down by using your other spells.
To round off the build, you can decide between a Bloodthirster for maximum sustain or Guardian Angel, if you’re against heavy physical damage or need the revival passive.
Below is an example of a full build on Varus:
Lethality Poke Varus
As the name suggests, this build is all about Lethality and armor penetration. While it might not be as effective in terms of total damage output, this build allows Varus to deal damage from a distance and not allow them to fight back in any way.
Your first recall should always be revolved around the Serrated Dirk since it is a strong spike that can allow you to bully the enemies out of the lane. For Mythic Items, you can either choose Prowler’s Claw to capitalize on the lethality bonus or Eclipse for the percentage armor penetration.
Make sure to rush a Tear of the Goddess early to have enough mana throughout the laning phase, and stack it as quickly as possible so you can evolve it into Manamune.
Always get Ionian Boots of Lucidity for the ability and summoner spell haste. After those, you can decide between Youmuu’s Ghostblade, Serylda’s Grudge, or Edge of Night. On most occasions, Serylda’s Grudge will be your go-to item since it applies a slow when landing your spells so you can hit them more easily.
You usually don’t need the defensive item if you’re sure that you can poke without getting targeted by enemies. In case you need them, Maw of Malmortius or Guardian Angel are going to be your choices.
Off-meta build: AP Varus
There has been a new build popping up recently and it’s AP Varus. This build takes advantage of the ability power scaling on your passive as well as your ultimate, while your Q and E are going to be the spells you just use to proc the stacks.
The starting items are going to be fairly similar to other builds, but this time you’re looking to rush Recurve Bow for its attack speed and a Blasting Wand for the ability power.
For your core items, Nashor’s Tooth is the item you need to rush: it grants you attack speed, on-hit damage, and ability power. Pair it with Sorcerer’s Shoes to get good magic penetration in the mid-game. The Mythic Item for this build is going to be Riftmaker with its omnivamp to make you sustain through the fights.
Once you get those core items, you can either go a defensive item like Zhonya or rush Rabadon’s Deathcap to maximize your burst and damage output. In most cases, Zhonya should be the better choice as it can save you from nasty situations.
To close off the build, buy a Shadowflame to burst down squishy targets more quickly or a Void Staff if the enemy team is building heavy magic resistances. Guardian Angel is a situational item: avoid building it unless it’s necessary.
