After almost two years since his release in the League of Legends champion roster, Viego continues to be one of the most popular picks across all levels of play. The Ruined King’s special kit makes him exciting to play and rewarding when piloted at its maximum potential.
With that being said, Viego is not an easy champion to master since it requires extensive knowledge of most champions to use their abilities to your advantage. Most importantly, though, it is important to understand Viego’s own abilities to possess his enemies’ corpses.
To help you out, we’ve broken down the best performing Viego builds that are used by the high elo players on the solo queue ladders across the world, explaining in detail every choice, from rune to item combinations.
Here are the best Viego builds in League.
Runes
Precision
Conqueror: it’s the best keystone rune for Viego and the only one you should be going for. Conqueror grants Viego additional adaptive force, which is perfect for someone who loves extended skirmishes. He can easily proc it thanks to the high attack speed he gets from his E and the sustain from the rune is just the icing on the cake.
Triumph: it’s a stronger rune than it might seem since it synergizes so well with his passive. By taking down an enemy, Viego will be able to heal both from Triumph as well as the corpse he possesses. In this way, he can easily start fighting again or escape thanks to the health gained. Not only that, but the extra gold can be handy since Viego wants to snowball during the game.
Legend: Tenacity: Viego doesn’t have many escape tools, except his ultimate which can be used to jump walls. That being said, you would try to avoid using it defensively. Having 25 percent Tenacity can be useful against enemies with lots of crowd control who look to take him down. Alternatively, you can also opt for Legend: Alacrity since the extra attack speed boost can also be useful on Viego.
Last Stand: just like the runes above, you also have two choices in this row of the Precision tree. Last Stand and Coup de Grace are both viable options and it depends on the enemy team and how confident you are to get a substantial lead. Coup de Grace works best against squishy targets and if you can snowball hard, while Last Stand can make a difference in the mid game when you will be looking to fight often. Out of the two, Last Stand is overall a more reliable rune.
Inspiration
Magical Footwear: most jungler choose this rune since it allows you to rush your Mythic Item and not waste the 300 gold to buy the tier-one boots. Not only that, but junglers usually have more takedowns than other champions on the map since they will be ganking more often so you usually would get the magical boots before the twelve-minute mark. The extra 10 movement speed is also great for a champion like Viego, who wants to stick to targets and fight constantly.
Cosmic Insight: it is the only other useful rune in the Inspiration tree. The summoner spell haste allows Viego to get his smite upgrade sooner. Remember that while the smite cooldown isn’t reduced, Cosmic Insight reduced the time needed to gain a charge of the summoner spell. In addition, Viego will get Flash on a lower cooldown which can be used either to chase a kill or run away from danger.
Bonuses: +10 percent attack speed, +9 adaptive force, +6 armor
The best item build for Viego in League of Legends
Starting items
The starting items for Viego are fairly straightforward: always go for the red smite upgrade since it’s more powerful in skirmishes. Always get the refillable potion so you get consistent sustain in the first few levels.
During your first recall, you can decide which component of the first core item to buy, depending on how much gold you have. If you have less than 1000 gold, you can buy the pick axe for 25 attack damage. Otherwise, always go for Recurve bow since it gives you bonus physical damage on hit and a much higher attack speed.
If you go for Recurve Bow, however, opt for Vampiric Scepter second since it grants you lifesteal which is perfect for early-game trading.
Your first core item and the item you always rush is no other than the Blade of the Ruined King. The item is effective on Viego since it gives him attack damage, attack speed, lifesteal, and the passive that steals movement speed to stick to enemies. It works wonderfully with the champion’s passive as well, making it even easier to proc the item’s passive.
Following that, close your tier two boots, choosing between Plated Steelcaps (if you’re against physical damage) or Mercury’s Treads (against magic damage or crowd control).
Out of all the Mythic Items, Divine Sunderer is the most purchased one, since it gives even more sustain and the ability to fight against tanks. That being said, high-elo players have also started using Frostfire Gauntlet for a tankier build, but you’ll lose a fair bit of damage.
Death Dance and Wit’s end are both strong fourth or fifth items: choose according to which resistance stats you need. In most cases, Death Dance is the preferred choice due to its passive that converts damage into a bleeding effect.
To round off the build, you will need more resistances to survive incoming bursts. Viego is a carry jungler so it’s crucial to not die at the start of a fight. Guardian Angel is strong for the revival passive and it grants extra armor while Maw of Malmortius can save you from the burst of magical damage sources. Choose according to the game state.
