Varus, “The Arrow of Vengeance” is probably the most versatile archer you can play in League of Legends. Unlike most champions of his class, he has an ult that he can use to open up fights at long range, follow up on his teammates’ engages, or use defensively to peel for himself and stop an enemy engage. In addition to this unusual utility, Varus has several buildpaths, so you can play him as a classic front-to-back carry with an on-hit build, but also as a poke machine at long range with a Lethality build.

His passive is “Living Retribution”. Varus gains additional attack speed for 5-11 seconds(level 1/6/11/16) when he scores an Execution. This applies to minions, monsters and champions. From level 1, Varus gains 10% attack speed when killing a non-champion, 15% from level 7 and 20% from level 13. When a champion that Varus has attacked is struck down, he gains 40% bonus attack speed.

Varus’ Q is “Piercing Arrow”. When the ability is first activated, Varus charges the arrow for up to 4 seconds, continuously increasing the range of Penetrating Arrow for the first 2 seconds. The range is between 925-1625 range units. In comparison, Caitlyn’s attack range is 650 units.

Summoner spells can be used while Varus is charging the arrow. Varus also slows himself down by 20% for the duration of the recharge.

If 4 seconds pass without finding a target and you activate the ability to fire the arrow, the ability cancels and refunds half the mana cost.

On the second activation, Varus fires a piercing arrow that deals normal damage to all enemies hit, which is increased based on the time you have charged the arrow. The damage is also reduced for each target hit. This reduction ranges from 100% to 33% of the maximum damage. From 1-5 targets the reduction looks like this: 1=15% 2=30% 3=45% 4=60% 5=67%. Subsequent targets will also take a maximum of 67% reduced damage. This is mainly relevant if your Q is targeted through the entire minion wave and then hits champions.

“Corrupted Quiver is Varus’ W ability. Passively, this grants bonus magic damage to Varus’ normal attacks. They also apply a Corruption buff for 6 seconds, which can be increased up to 3x. Varus’ other abilities consume all current buffs and deal magic damage per buff.

Varus’ W can also be activated with a cooldown of 40 seconds. The active of the ability relates entirely to the Piercing Arrow. If the W is active, it affects the next charged arrow. Important: If you cancel the channeling of the Q, the W active will still have the 40-second cooldown.

The Piercing Arrow with W active deals 6-14% of the target’s missing life as additional magic damage, which is increased by 0-50% depending on the cast time of the ability for a maximum of 9-21% missing life damage.

In addition, the cooldowns of Varu’s basic abilities are reduced by 12% for each increase he triggers on a champion or epic monster.

“Hail of Arrows” is Varus’ E ability. When activated, Varus sends a hail of arrows into the target area, dealing normal damage.

The ground in the target area is then “desecrated” for 4 seconds, slowing all enemies in it for 25-45% and inflicting Gaping Wounds (reducing all healing) on champions standing in it.

The ultimate with which Varus can hold entire teams in teamfights is called “Chain of Corruption”. Varus throws out a chain that infects the first enemy champion hit, deals magic damage and holds them for 2 seconds. In addition, the maximum 3 increases of Corruption are applied over 1.5 seconds.

On hit, Corruption will seek out additional uninfected enemy champions for 2 seconds, who will also be held for the duration of the initial ultimate and gain the ability-triggerable W passive buffs. This will continue until there are no more uninfected champions in range. The corruption will also spread if the first target dies or breaks free from the hold.