Varus Dragon Lane Wild Rift Guide

Overview

Varus is a sustained damage marksman who kills with his attacks rather than from range. Every basic attack stacks Blight on the target, and every ability detonates those stacks for damage based on the target's maximum health. That combination makes him one of the few marksmen who tears through tanks and bruisers as fast as he tears through squishies. His pattern is stack and detonate. Attack to build Blight, cash the stacks in with an ability, then keep attacking through the fight instead of trading one shot at a time. Chain of Corruption is the fight starter: a root that spreads from the target to everyone standing near it. The cost is that he is completely immobile. He has no dash and no escape, and he has to stand inside attack range to deal any of his damage. Everything about playing him is about earning that space and then keeping it.

Build Snapshot

Rune Setup

Summoner Spells

Varus Dragon Lane Counters

Who counters Varus Dragon Lane in Wild Rift (WR)? These champions beat Varus in the Dragon lane matchup, with how each one wins. Learn to play around them or ban them in ranked.

• Jhin: He punishes you from a range you have to walk into to deal damage, and his root lands on a frame that cannot dodge it. Survive to your attack speed items and the fight flips, and your chaining ultimate out-values his single shots when teams group.
• Miss Fortune: Her burst trades faster than you can stack blight, and her strut keeps the spacing you need to close to attack range. She punishes your immobile frame until your items even it out.
• Caitlyn: Caitlyn out-ranges you outright and her traps cover the ground you have to stand on to attack, so she wins the lane phase itself. Your chaining root out-values her single-target damage in grouped fights later.

Champions Varus Is Strong Against

Varus's best matchups in Wild Rift. Varus holds an edge against these picks in the Dragon lane role, so look to press the advantage and contest objectives.

• Tristana: Tristana has to jump onto you to threaten anything, and landing next to a marksman holding a root is how that ends. Before she has items your sustained damage wins the straight trade.
• Jinx: Neither of you can walk away from a trade, which favours the one whose damage ramps with attack speed. Winning those extended trades denies the farm her scaling needs.
• Twitch: Twitch is no threat early and depends on farm you can contest by winning every trade he takes. His only early danger is the stealth flank, and he only wins if he reaches the late game.

Varus Dragon Lane Synergies

The best duo partners for Varus in the Wild Rift Dragon lane role. The Dragon lane is a 2v2, so queue with one of these picks to make the lane and the mid game much easier.

• Karma: Her shield and the movement speed are what get an immobile marksman into attack range and keep him there. She covers the approach his kit has no answer for.
• Lux: Chain of Corruption into her root, or hers into yours, holds a target still long enough to stack blight and detonate it. Her shield covers the escape he does not have.
• Milio: His campfire extends the attack range an on-hit marksman has to live inside, and heals him while he stands in it. His ultimate cleanses the root or stun that would otherwise end an immobile carry's fight before it starts.

Early Game

Trade in bursts of attacks, not single shots. Your damage comes from stacking Blight, so look for windows where you can land two or three attacks and then detonate with an ability rather than chipping from maximum range. Piercing Arrow is a detonator and a finisher this early, not the lane plan by itself. You have no escape, so hold your position behind the wave and respect the jungler, because a Varus caught out of position does not get away.

Mid Game

Your attack speed items arrive and your damage stops being a trade and becomes a fight. Around dragon, look for the ultimate that chains through a grouped duo, then attack into the root and detonate on whatever is closest. Blight scales with the target's health, so their frontline is a target rather than an obstacle. Stay behind your own frontline, because an immobile carry dies the moment a diver reaches him.

Late Game

You are the sustained damage in every fight. Percent health detonations mean you can attack into a full tank and still deal real damage, so the job is to keep attacking something for the whole fight rather than waiting on one big shot. Hold the ultimate for the angle where the root chains through their group, and position like the fragile immobile carry you are: behind everything, flanked by nothing.

Teamfights

Root first, then attack the fight down. Fire your ultimate where the chain reaches the most bodies, then stack Blight on whatever is in front of you and detonate it. Your damage does not care whether that is a tank or a carry, so take the target you can keep attacking safely rather than the one you would prefer to kill. Never step forward for a better angle. Your value is uninterrupted attacking from safety, and a dead Varus provides none of it.