Dark Star Varus

First time I saw Dark Star Varus load in was some random ARAM around season 6. Stopped me mid-cs for a second. The whole cosmic destruction theme on an ADC just hits different when you’re used to seeing base Varus with his sad purple arrows. Played against it maybe three times that week and bought it the following Friday.

What the skin actually changes

So this is an Epic tier skin at 1350 RP, meaning you get new VFX and a new recall but no fresh voice lines. Voice stays default. Honestly thats fine because Varus already has solid base VO thanks to Gavin Hammon, and the visual rework here carries the skin hard enough on its own.

The Q charge-up is the standout. Instead of that standard purple energy you get this swirling dark matter effect that builds into a cosmic arrow. Feels heavier. More impactful. When you snipe someone from fog of war with a fully charged Piercing Arrow the particle trail across the screen looks like a tear in space itself. Been running this in Diamond ranked for a while now and I still notice it every game.

W passive stacks show up as these little dark star markers on enemies. Subtle change but it reads cleaner than base in teamfights where you’re trying to track blight stacks on multiple targets in the backline. E spreads this dark cosmic ground effect that I think looks better than most of his other skins. Not gonna lie, the R is where Riot went hardest. Chain of Corruption sends out these gravitational tendrils that pull in with a cosmic collapse animation. Locked someone’s Katarina down in dragon pit last Tuesday with it and the visual was genuinely clean.

The recall animation has Varus opening a dark star portal. Short, sweet, no filler. Good stuff.

The Dark Star line and release context

Dark Star Varus dropped June 15, 2016. Mid-season 6 if I remember right. Xu ‘Crow God’ Cheng handled the artwork and honestly they nailed the splash. The composition with Varus floating in this cosmic void, bow drawn, surrounded by collapsing stars. It works. (Random aside: this splash was my desktop background for like two months straight.)

The Dark Star skinline is one of Riot’s better thematic lines. Dark Star Thresh came before, Dark Star Kha’Zix and Orianna followed later. Varus fits the cosmic horror vibe naturally because his kit already has that “inevitable doom” pacing with blight stacks and the long-range Q poke. The Dark Star fantasy of consuming everything maps onto how you play Varus in lane – slow, methodical, then one Q chunks half their health bar.

Only 1 chroma available, Antimatter. Black and deep red color scheme. Could be wrong here but I actually prefer Antimatter over the base purple cosmic look. The darker palette makes the VFX pop harder against Summoner’s Rift, especially during late-game teamfights around Baron where the lighting shifts. Kinda wish Riot had given this skin more chroma options like they do with newer releases.

Is Dark Star Varus worth 1350 RP?

Real verdict: if you play Varus at all, this is one of the best skins in his lineup. Conqueror Varus exists for the esports collectors, Cosmic Hunter is solid, but Dark Star sits in that sweet spot of clean VFX without being visually noisy. Spammed this in Diamond last season and the ability readability never caused issues, which matters when you’re trying to lane against aggressive engage supports.

1350 RP feels fair for what you get. New particles on every ability, solid recall, strong splash art. No new VO but at this price point that’s expected. Shop has it permanently so no rush. Maybe just my experience but this skin ages better than most 2016 releases because the Dark Star effects don’t rely on dated texture work – its all particle-driven. Top pick for Varus mains who want something that looks premium without dropping Legendary money. Skip Arclight, grab this one.