Varus ARAM Build and Guide

Updated for patch 26.21. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch; ARAM balance numbers come from the League of Legends Wiki’s champion data.

A Varus ARAM build is lethality and Mana for a marksman the mode barely touches: Varus deals 98% damage and takes 105% damage on the Howling Abyss. A charged Piercing Arrow down one corridor, a Hail of Arrows on a group and a Chain of Corruption that spreads through clumped champions all get better here, so you build to fire the arrow as often and as hard as possible.

The items are our picks from the patch 26.21 data, nothing else. Win rates don’t come into it.

How is Varus changed in ARAM?

Varus deals 98% damage and takes 105% damage in ARAM. Two percent off the damage is close enough to nothing that you won’t feel it on a single arrow, and the 5% extra damage taken is the standard Abyss tax on a marksman with no dash. Why so light? Because the kit punishes grouping, and ARAM is nothing but grouping, yet Varus still has to stand still to charge the arrow and still has no way to leave when someone arrives. To be fair, the mode gives him the targets and takes almost nothing back. The rest is on your aim.

Why does Varus fit the Howling Abyss?

Because three of his four abilities want enemies standing together, and on the Abyss they always are. Riot’s data for patch 26.21:

• Living Vengeance (passive): a kill or assist grants temporary Attack Damage and Ability Power, more if the enemy was a champion.
• Piercing Arrow (Q): a shot he readies and then fires, gaining range and damage the longer he prepares it. Cooldown 16/15/14/13/12 seconds.
• Blighted Quiver (W): attacks deal bonus magic damage and apply Blight; his other abilities detonate it for magic damage based on the target’s maximum Health. The active empowers the next Piercing Arrow. Cooldown 40.
• Hail of Arrows (E): physical damage and desecrated ground that slows and reduces self healing and regeneration. Cooldown 18/16/14/12/10.
• Chain of Corruption (R): a tendril that immobilizes the first champion it hits and spreads to nearby uninfected champions. Cooldown 100/80/60.

Picture the enemy team waiting behind their minions. A fully charged Piercing Arrow travels the length of that wait and hits whoever is in the line. Hail of Arrows lands on the clump, slows all of it and cuts whatever healing their support was planning. Then the chain. Chain of Corruption roots the first champion and spreads to the uninfected ones nearby, and on the Abyss “nearby” is everyone, so one good chain is five rooted champions and a free arrow into all of them. Living Vengeance pays out on every assist (and there are many), which in a mode of constant fights is most of the game. What’s missing? Any way to move, on a 575-range champion who takes 105% damage.

What should a Varus ARAM build focus on?

Piercing Arrow, cast as often as the Mana and the cooldown allow, and hitting as hard as Lethality can make it. Four items from the current patch.

Manamune first. It gives 35 Attack Damage, 500 Mana and 15 Ability Haste, Awe turns bonus Mana into bonus Attack Damage, and Manaflow grants 3 maximum Mana whenever an attack or ability lands (doubled against champions), transforming into Muramana at 360 bonus Mana. Piercing Arrow and Hail of Arrows hit several champions at once on the Abyss, so the stacks arrive at a pace Summoner’s Rift never allows. No recall means no fountain to refill at, and a Varus with no Mana is a Varus with a bow and no arrows.

Axiom Arc is second, and it exists for Chain of Corruption. 55 Attack Damage, 18 Lethality and 20 Ability Haste, with Flux refunding part of your ultimate’s total cooldown whenever a champion you damaged within 3 seconds dies. Chain of Corruption is 100 seconds at rank 1; in ARAM, champions die near you constantly. Honestly, the item turns a once-a-fight ultimate into a most-fights ultimate, and a chain that roots five people every other fight is the whole reason to play him here.

Serylda’s Grudge follows: 45 Attack Damage, 35% Armor Penetration and 15 Ability Haste, and Bitter Cold slows enemies below 50% Health by 30% for 1 second whenever a damaging ability hits them. A charged arrow through a low back line is now a charged arrow through a slowed back line. The Armor Penetration is for the one tank who bought Plated Steelcaps and thinks that settles it (it doesn’t).

Hubris finishes it. 55 Attack Damage, 18 Lethality and 10 Ability Haste, with Eminence granting 90 Attack Damage plus 3 per champion killed for {{item:6697:fx:Eminence:4}} seconds whenever a champion you damaged within 3 seconds dies. That stacks with Living Vengeance, which already gives Attack Damage and Ability Power on a kill or assist, so a Varus who gets two kills in a fight is carrying two separate damage buffs into the next one. Boots are Ionian Boots of Lucidity, 10 Ability Haste for 900 gold, because the arrow’s 16 second cooldown at rank 1 is the number this build is fighting.

How do you play Varus on the Howling Abyss?

• Charge from behind the minions, fire down the lane. Piercing Arrow gains range and damage while you prepare it, and the Abyss gives you a straight line every time.
• Chain the front, not the back. Chain of Corruption spreads to nearby uninfected champions, so the first target should be the one standing closest to the rest.
• Hail of Arrows under the enemy, not on the ground they left. Desecrated ground slows and reduces self healing, which only matters while someone is standing in it.
• Save the W active for a fight, not for poke. Blighted Quiver’s active empowers the next Piercing Arrow and sits on a 40 second cooldown.
• Max Q. Piercing Arrow falls from a 16 second cooldown to 12 by rank 5, and every cast is the reason you bought Manamune.

How do shopping and Mark change the game on the Howling Abyss?

The shop is open to you twice: at the start and each time you respawn, since there is no recall on the Abyss. The relics along the lane are your Health between those visits, and for a champion who spends Mana on every poke, the lack of a fountain trip is the real constraint. That’s why Tear of the Goddess comes first, before any damage component, and why finishing Manamune beats finishing anything else. Buy it, stack it, and the rest of the build arrives on its own. The catch is the dead time: a Varus with Tear and nothing else does very little in the first fights, so poke from the back and let the stacks build (patience is cheaper than a respawn timer).

Mark is the mode’s summoner spell: throw a snowball, and if it connects you may dash to the target. The choice is made before loading and doesn’t change. On Varus the dash is a trap more often than a tool, because dashing forward on a champion with 105% damage taken and no way back ends the way you’d expect, and the chain already reaches the people the snowball would. In practice the better use is defensive by omission: a Varus who never presses the follow-up is a Varus who never dashes into five people. Funny enough, the snowball itself still has a job, since a hit tells you exactly where to aim the charged arrow.

Is Varus good in ARAM?

Yes, and the modifiers are the mildest kind of warning: 98% damage dealt and 105% damage taken on a kit whose arrow, hail and chain all scale with how many enemies stand together. The Abyss supplies the enemies. What he can’t do is leave, and 575 range with no dash means every fight has a moment where somebody reaches him and the build has to have already done its work.

The champions who make that moment arrive early are in the Varus counters guide. Our guide to LoL roles covers what a marksman is expected to do on the normal map. Each item named here has a page with numbers and patch history in the item database, and the Varus skins page collects his cosmetics.

Long story short: Tear first, Manamune fast, chain the clump, arrow the chain. That’s the Varus ARAM build on a good day. Then you respawn, buy the next Lethality piece, and charge another one.

FAQ

Is Varus nerfed in ARAM?

Barely. For patch 26.21, the League of Legends Wiki’s champion data puts him at 98% damage dealt against 105% damage taken, and nothing else moves.

What items does the Varus ARAM build use?

Manamune, Axiom Arc, Serylda’s Grudge and Hubris, with Ionian Boots of Lucidity. It is a Lethality poke build around Piercing Arrow.

Does Chain of Corruption spread in ARAM?

Yes. It immobilizes the first enemy champion hit and then spreads to nearby uninfected champions, and on the Howling Abyss the enemy team is usually close enough for it to reach all of them.

Why Manamune on Varus?

Piercing Arrow is cast every 12 to 16 seconds and there is no recall to refill Mana. Manamune gives 500 Mana and converts bonus Mana into Attack Damage through Awe.

Is this build based on win rates?

No. We built it from Varus’ patch 26.21 ability text and the item data, and from nothing else.