This pick is obviously off-meta. And as with most off-meta picks, this one will not gain you any significant advantage in ranked games. Only play it on your own risk and try to extract as much fun out of it as possible (preferably not at expense of your ADC's sanity).
Why
Veigar
? Because he is evil. He also has the most overpowered crowd control (CC) ability in the game,
Event Horizon
(cage). He feels decent in mid lane, but why waste his CC potential on one target, when he can hit two targets at the same time on bottom lane (three, if enemy jungler would pay a visit). Easier said than done, that's why there is not many
Veigar
support players, if any. So, I went on a quest to make
Veigar
support both viable and fun.
I played dozens of games with different
Veigar
support builds: classic
Electrocute
Everfrost
burst,
Guardian
tank with
Locket of the Iron Solari
or
Evenshroud
,
Arcane Comet
Liandry's Anguish
poke, you name it. Most of them failed, other ones felt incredibly unreliable. However, one keystone stood out for me. It was
Glacial Augment
.
Event Horizon
's CC power is unmatched, but strong slow and damage reduction the keystone provides, makes that ability absurdly overpowered.
However,
Veigar
also has a lot of downsides. He is very squishy. He lacks any damage output until he stacks his
Phenomenal Evil Power
and gets his favorite magic hat (
Rabadon's Deathcap
). Speaking of the hat, he doesn't get much gold because most of it comes from
Spellthief's Edge
and assists. I adjusted his build and play style according to his weaknesses. After some thorough testing and positive winrate, I think its ready to be shared.
Build
Here is the rune page and item build path. Rune and item choices, as well as the strategy are explained in the chapters below. Feel free to change secondary runes depending on enemy composition.
Rune Page
Skill Path
Veigar
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Runes breakdown
Breakdown
Glacial Augment
works incredibly well with
Event Horizon
. If you land your stun on one enemy, the rune spreads slowing aura on every enemy inside, reducing their damage on your allies. It also extends duration based on stun duration, leaving the slowing trail for up to 5.5 seconds. After you stack your
Phenomenal Evil Power
and get ability power items, the slow can jump from 30% up to 50-60%, which is useful in late game for picking opponents and letting the team catch up to them.
Apart from the
Perfectly Timed Stopwatch
being as powerful as it is, this rune saves us a lot of gold. Especially after changes to
Zhonya's Hourglass
. It can save us 750 gold, reducing the cost of the legendary item from 3000 down to 2250.
Veigar
and his unfortunate ally carry will be vulnerable early into the game.
Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will
will help with mana struggles and heal damage from poke or unsuccessful cage-engages. Other option would be
Future's Market
, but you will not have any struggle with gold if you can win early laning phase.
This rune has great value with
Flash
,
Exhaust
and
Zhonya's Hourglass
. Other options (
Approach Velocity
and
Time Warp Tonic
) simply doesn't make sense.
Staple for mages. Provides both maximum mana and mana regeneration. Try to stack it as early as possible with your
Baleful Strike
poke. But before you stack it, preserve mana for
Event Horizon
+
Dark Matter
combo at any time.
You are trying to get as much
Event Horizon
casts as possible and this rune perfectly fits that play style.
Transcendence
gives ability haste, it becomes very powerful after you reach level 11 and removes 20% of remaining cooldown on your cage every time you get assist. This lets you chain your cages, turning any teamfight into complete nightmare for your enemies.
Add New Item
Items breakdown
Breakdown
You are not a damage dealer, especially in early game.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
are cheap and provide both ability haste for your
Event Horizon
and summoner spell haste for
Flash
and
Exhaust
.
It's your first power spike and you will feel it. It's cheap. Only other alternative for 2800 gold is
Everfrost
. Usually, your problem is not rooting an enemy in place, but surviving any incoming damage after you landed your
Event Horizon
.
Crown of the Shattered Queen
allows you to not get caught by enemy and instead get close to them while your shield is up. Speed bonus it provides further reinforces that strategy. This item transforms
Veigar
support from beating bag into a zoning monster. You will start providing a huge amount of pressure from your mere existence, somewhat similar to
Blitzcrank
.
I already mentioned that
Perfect Timing
lowers the price of this item down to 2250.
Zhonya's Hourglass
is a great tool for any mage. Paired with
Crown of the Shattered Queen
it provides even more survivability, allowing you to make even more aggressive plays.
You should always get
Watchful Wardstone
as soon as you hit level 13. Bonus ward limit is great, but the stat increases
Vigilant Wardstone
gives for the measly price of 1100 gold are game-breaking. It is a smaller version of
Rabadon's Deathcap
, giving you 12% increase to bonus ability power. Not only that, it also gives you 12% to bonus health and bonus ability haste. This might be the most cost-efficient item in whole game.
You already should have won the game by the point you build
Vigilant Wardstone
. If not, every coin saved on previous item choices will help you buy
Needlessly Large Rod
. If you thought
Vigilant Wardstone
didn't give you the power you need, Deathcap will.
Rabadon's Deathcap
and
Vigilant Wardstone
bonuses stack, easily providing you with a total of around 1000 or more ability power. Nobody on the enemy team without hundreds of magic resist will want to walk in a mile range of you, because of your oneshot potential. The slow your
Glacial Augment
will provide with that much ability power can be compared to
Wither
.
Strategy
Don't take farm from your ADC to stack
Phenomenal Evil Power
, use abilities on the enemy champions to stack it. Play safe until level 3. Try to use your cage if the enemy overextends to poke your ADC. Your job is to protect your ADC, so no need to overextend to land your
Event Horizon
, because it will leave you vulnerable while the cage is on cooldown. However, you can start harassing the enemy ADC when you level your
Baleful Strike
. Once you get enemy ADC down to 75% health, try to land your cage when they go for cannon minion. If you can get early kill and back, buy
Dark Seal
. Otherwise buy boots, and play safe under tower, until you can get your ADC to stack the wave. Look for every opportunity to land
Event Horizon
on enemy ADC. Never use
Event Horizon
to engage when the enemy has a stacked wave.
Movement on
Veigar
is very important, especially when
Event Horizon
is your only tool for engage. Veigar's approaching movement is very readable, so the enemy will back off and will land skillshots on you. During laning phase, input small movements back and forth to the enemy ADC to make them comfortable, because they will be focused on CS. Watch enemy support positioning, so you don't bait your ADC into unfavorable trade. Once the enemy ADC stop backing off and go forward for last hit, cast your combo:
Event Horizon
with
Dark Matter
in the middle.
Always cast your
Event Horizon
to force enemy ADC inside the circle and zone off or stun the enemy support. If enemy ADC is stunned, wait the duration and cast
Exhaust
as soon as the stun wears off. Otherwise, cast it immediately when you catch enemy ADC in a middle of a cage. When your
Exhaust
is on cooldown, be ware of enemy
Flash
, because they can easily get out of
Event Horizon
and counter-engage. Never use your own
Flash
to engage.
In midgame your job is to provide as much vision as possible. You can easily check brushes with your
Dark Matter
and
Baleful Strike
. Try to get deep vision of every objective before it spawns. Sneaky
Control Ward
in enemy brush can get you a pick with a single
Event Horizon
cast and an ally nearby. Vision is crucial for catching unsuspecting enemies with your cage, so never save gold on control wards.
In skirmishes, you can safely walk to any enemy with your
Crown of the Shattered Queen
and
Zhonya's Hourglass
up and cast your
Event Horizon
because you cannot be bursted. In teamfights, try to follow your teammates CC with your cage, placing it further towards enemy positions, to zone off or stun the enemies. When your team is taking objective try your best to not miss and waste your cage, because the enemy will quickly collapse on your team while its on cooldown. One
Glacial Augment
activation can win you most teamfights. Spam your
Event Horizon
, because it can randomly receive cooldown reduction from
Transcendence
. During teamfights, always use your
Primordial Burst
on most fed and high damage enemy champions. Cast it when they get to roughly 50-60% hp, you will not get the most damage from your ultimate, but the target might receive some damage from your teammates before your ultimate connects.
Matchups
I usually ban Morgana when I play Veigar support. Never pick Veigar support into a terrible matchup, because you will lose lane and get flamed by your teammates for not picking meta support champion.
If you pick
Veigar
before your midlaner picks a champion, you can bait enemy midlaner to pick Veigar counter champion with cleanse, which happened to me multiple times. You can even hover some other meta midlane champions before picking
Veigar
to increase your chances of fooling the enemy team.
Event Horizon
Phenomenal Evil Power
Baleful Strike
Dark Matter
Primordial Burst