Viego, the first champion of League of Legends season 11, is here. While each champion release is an exciting event by nature, seeing the new champion in your public matches can have mixed results.
Players that figure champions out during their early release may impress you and encourage you to try them out yourself, while the less successful ones may prompt you to stay away. It mainly boils down to understanding their abilities and building the right items to scale into the late game.
Viego can dish out high amounts of damage through the game’s early and mid stages, but the champion needs some level of tankiness to sustain himself in teamfights.
The following item build was based on players ranked Master and above during the release period of the champion. There are other similar items in the game that have similar effects, and you can also alter this build with your inclusions to better fit against the team you’re facing.
Runes
Precision
Conqueror
The more Viego stays in a teamfight, the higher his damage output will be. Stacking the Conqueror rune to its maximum capacity quickly won’t be an issue for Viego since he casts enough spells alongside his auto attacks when he walks into a fight.
While his passive lets Viego regenerate a little portion of his HP, it’ll end up as an unreliable resource if he fails to secure kills. Conqueror will serve as a decent alternative and increase his durability in hectic teamfights.
Triumph
Ganking a lane may not always go as you had planned. Even if you decide to visit a solo lane, the enemy jungler may be waiting for your next move in the bushes. Overextending under the enemy tower can turn you into an easy target, but you can try to guarantee your escape with a small heal boost.
Triumph allows Viego to regenerate 12 percent of his missing HP after each takedown, allowing him to potentially move onto the next target in a gank or a fight. You’ll find out that Triumph also shines at helping you pull clutch escapes since that one last bit of heal can make a significant difference during the early game.
Legend: Alacrity
Viego mostly favors Alacrity from the Legend rune line. Each takedown, minion, epic, and large monster kills will grant you a slight attack speed boost.
Viego definitely needs a little extra attack speed in his build and this rune takes care of that. Most items that give attack speed don’t feature the stats that Viego utilizes to scale into the late game.
Last Stand / Coup de Grace
Both Last Stand and Coup de Grace increase Viego’s damage output. They just do it in different ways; Coup de Grace activates when Viego has lower than 40 percent HP, and Last Stand kicks in when he’s below 60 percent.
Last Stand’s damage bonus caps out at 30 percent HP and the choice between them mostly depends on the type of player you are. Slightly sitting below 40 percent HP will be easier than dipping below 30 percent, but if you’ve got the moves you can also try out Last Stand.
Domination
Taking the Domination route for his second set of runes works well for Viego since it offers a decent balance between more damage and lifesteal.
Ravenous Hunter
If you’re active around the map, you’re likely to collect all the five stacks for the Ravenous Hunter rune by killing each champion on the enemy side once.
Each stack will increase your omnivamp by 1.7 percent. Omnivamp is the general name given to life stealing from physical, magic, and true damage dealt to champions and monsters.
Sudden Impact
Considering Viego has a dash in his kit, he’ll be able to use Sudden Impact to its full potential. This rune increases Viego’s lethality by seven and also grants him six magic penetration for five seconds after using his dash.
This rune also gets activated by blinks and teleportation, so dashing won’t be your only trigger.
Skill build
| Level one | Blade of the Ruined King |
| Level two | Spectral Maw |
| Level three | Harrowed Path |
| Level four | Blade of the Ruined King |
| Level five | Blade of the Ruined King |
| Level six | Heartbreaker |
| Level seven | Blade of the Ruined King |
| Level eight | Spectral Maw |
| Level nine | Blade of the Ruined King |
| Level 10 | Spectral Maw |
| Level 11 | Heartbreaker |
| Level 12 | Spectral Maw |
| Level 13 | Spectral Maw |
| Level 14 | Harrowed Path |
| Level 15 | Harrowed Path |
| Level 16 | Heartbreaker |
| Level 17 | Harrowed Path |
| Level 18 | Harrowed Path |
Viego’s skill build is usually relatively straightforward with a few adjustments you can make if you’re planning on invading the enemy jungle within the first minutes of a game.
Starting off the game with Spectral Maw can play a significant role while securing a kill during the invasion, but you’ll need some considerable help from your teammates while taking out your first jungle camp afterward.
The best item build for Viego in League of Legends
Starting items
Emberknife
Though Chilling Smite has its uses and Viego can use them, the champion benefits more from the Challenging Smite.
Emberknife unlocks the Challenging Smite, and it helps Viego secure early-game objectives alongside doubling as a damage tool to finish off champions.
If you’re laning anywhere else on the map, you can simply replace the Emberknife with a Doran’s Blade.
Refillable potion
The refillable potion may have a healing rate less than normal potions, but you’ll get more value of it every time you return to base.
Refillable potions gain two charges when you’re inside the spawn area and it can also be upgraded to a Corrupting Potion, a version of the item that deals damage around you when you use a potion charge.
Core items
Boots
Junglers feed off tempo and more movement speed will be the key to increasing your momentum during the early game. While upgrading your boots may not seem that beneficial during the early game, getting the base ones will be well worth your investment.
Goredrinker
Viego wants to get his hands on value items that offer the best performance for the price during the early game. Goredrinker costs 3,300 gold and has a stat line that was almost tailored to Viego.
In addition to a decent damage bonus of 40, the item also grants Viego 400 health and increases his base health regeneration by 150 percent. This increases Viego’s sustainability even further, and the 20 ability haste bonus lets Viego spam his spells more often.
Blade of the Ruined King
Auctioning for 3,200 gold, Blade of the Ruined King is often picked up after Goredrinker or in place of it.
The two items are pretty close to each other when it comes to price, but Blade of the Ruined King is definitely a more aggressive item than Goredrinker.
Blade of the Ruined King doesn’t offer any tanky stats but tries to make up for it with its 12 percent bonus lifesteal. The item increases Viego’s attack damage by 40 and attack speed by 25 percent, but it’s the item’s unique ability, Siphon, that steals the show.
Using Siphon to its full potential will let you slowdown enemies by 25 percent for two seconds, which can increase the quality of your ganks.
Late-game items
Mercury’s Treads / Plated Steelcaps
Completing that Berserker’s Greaves may be tempting at times, but you’ll get more value out of Mercury’s Treads or Plated Steelcaps.
Both boots are perfect to increase your tankiness and you’ll need to make a decision depending on the enemy team you’re facing. If you’re against a more magic damage-heavy lineup, get the Mercury’s Treads, and it’ll be the Plated Steelcaps otherwise.
Sterak’s Gage
Dealing high amounts of damage isn’t really an issue for Viego since his kit was made for it. Viego mostly struggles when it comes to staying alive. Once you dive inside an enemy team, you’ll need all the HP and tanky stats you can get to increase the odds of your survival.
Sterak’s Gage is one of the better late-game pickups for Viego. It still offers 50 damage while increasing his health pool by 400.
Bloodlust and Lifeline, the two unique abilities of the item, are the perfect candidates to help Viego stay up in fights. In an even game where you feel like you’ve been getting burst down faster than you’d like to, you’ll instantly feel the difference for the better after completing your Sterak’s Gage.
Death’s Dance
When you’re against a heavy physical damage lineup, you’ll want to stack some armor alongside HP. Death’s Dance is one of those items that can be categorized as both aggressive and offensive, a trait Viego prefers while building for the late game.
Alongside granting 50 attack damage and 40 armor, Death’s Dance also increases Viego’s ability haste by 15. Death’s Dance can be a double-edged sword at times since it absorbs some of the damage dealt to you, only to inflict it upon you as true damage over time.
This essentially increases the time you’ll spend alive during a teamfight, and you can also remove this debuff by scoring takedowns.