Vel'Koz Mid Lane Wild Rift overview and best build snapshot
Best Build
Quick snapshot of the default setup for this guide.
Items
Summoner Spells
Spell 1
Flash
Spell 2
Barrier
How to play
Poke from angles around the wave Fire your 1st ability beside the minions, then press it again to split it sideways toward an enemy hiding behind the wave.
Keep your knockup for an enemy approach Use your 3rd ability under an approaching enemy to knock them up, then move away before using your other spells.
Use your beam when you can stand safely Your ultimate fires a beam while you stand still. Use it after enemies are slowed or trapped, with teammates between you and anyone who could interrupt it.
Guide author
Royal
Royal has reached Rank 1 in EU and NA, and Legend and Sovereign on the Chinese server. Created by Royal with input from high elo and professional players and the WildRiftGuides Discord community.
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Strengths
- Huge range and layered skillshots let him out-poke and zone almost every immobile mid.
- Every third ability stack deals passive true damage, and the ultimate deals true damage only to Researched champions.
- His channeled ultimate deals heavy area damage when enemies are clumped and cannot interrupt him.
Weaknesses
- No mobility of any kind, so divers and gap-closers run him down once they get past the poke.
- His damage relies on skillshots, so a missed rotation gives opponents time to cross his range or leave.
- Squishy and easy to pin down; hard crowd control or a windwall (2nd) can shut his damage off completely.
Vel'Koz Mid Lane Wild Rift best build, items, runes, summoner spells, and skill order
ITEM BUILD
Best Wild Rift build for Vel'Koz Mid Lane, including items, runes, summoner spells, and skill order.
STARTING ITEM
Early ability power, since his lane is landing three separate abilities to trigger his true damage.
BOOTS
Magic penetration sharpens everything except his passive, which already ignores resistances.
CORE BUILD
His abilities tag several enemies at once, so the stacking bonus counts multiple champions.
All of his abilities land from long range, so the reveal and amplification trigger on the poke he was already throwing.
Multiplies his ability power, and his passive true damage scales with it, so it raises the part magic resist cannot blunt.
Cuts the magic resist blunting the two thirds of his damage that is not true damage. Choose it over Cryptbloom when enemies are stacking magic resist and maximum personal damage matters more than ability haste and team healing.
Stasis interrupts his beam, so this is not a way to finish the channel safely; it is the button that keeps an immobile artillery mage alive through the dive so he can start the next one. Buy Seeker's Armguard early for the armor and ability power.
SITUATIONAL ITEMS
His abilities keep applying, so the max health burn stays refreshed on anyone holding ground against his poke.
The mana pays for poking every cooldown, and Echo adds damage to the first ability of every rotation.
Crits against low health targets, which finishes the group his poke leaves low.
The alternative to Void Staff. Less penetration, but the ability haste and healing on takedown help when his ultimate closes a teamfight. Choose it when enemies have not built much magic resist, so trading Void Staff's extra damage for more ability haste and an area heal after takedowns is worthwhile.
Build this when the enemy heals through his poke. Buy Oblivion Orb early, since the anti-heal works from the component and the full item can wait.
Build this when the enemy has shields that keep absorbing the poke his passive needs to land.
Build this when the enemy has a hook or point-and-click stun, since he has no mobility and a channelled ultimate.
RUNES
KEYSTONE
He out-ranges almost every mid laner, so he reliably lands the opening hit.
PRIMARY
His ultimate is where most of his damage lands, so raising it raises the cast that closes teamfights.
Ability haste means more casts, and since his passive needs three separate abilities, that is directly more true damage.
He is a scaling artillery mage, so a rune that grows over the game matches the pick.
SECONDARY
His damage is a channel and a set of slow skillshots, and this keeps him casting through the first burst.
SITUATIONAL RUNES
Take this over First Strike against short-ranged or immobile enemies who cannot consistently avoid his poke. His slow and knock-up make Comet very hard to walk out of.
Take this when his knock-up and slow land first, since the target is impaired when his follow-up arrives.
Take this in a pure poke war, since his abilities chip the enemy mid every cooldown.
Take this over Bone Plating in safer lanes when the plan is repeated long-range poke. More frequent Plasma Fission (1st) and Tectonic Disruption (3rd) casts give Vel'Koz another damage rotation and another chance to stop an approaching threat.
SUMMONER SPELLS
MAIN SPELLS
Flash
Must take. He is immobile with the slowest combo in the lane, so Flash is his only answer to a dive.
Barrier
His damage arrives as a chain of casts rather than one hit, so he has to live long enough to land all of them. This is what buys those seconds.
SITUATIONAL SPELLS
Ghost
Take this over Barrier when you keep getting caught out of position rather than burst down, since his casts need spacing more than they need a shield.
SKILL ORDER
Skill Priority Order
- 11st Ability
Q - 22nd Ability
W - 33rd Ability
E
Vel'Koz Mid Lane Wild Rift matchups and counters
Wild Rift matchup guide for Vel'Koz Mid Lane, covering favorable lanes and difficult counters to prepare for in ranked.
Good Matchups
These champions are favorable matchups for this pick in Wild Rift. You have advantages against them and can play more aggressively.
Annie
Annie has to walk into stun range to threaten you, and your reach means she eats a full rotation on every approach, so she struggles to ever close the gap safely.
Veigar
Plasma Fission (1st) and Void Rift (2nd) reach Veigar before Event Horizon (3rd) can cage Vel'Koz, and Organic Deconstruction (Passive) adds true damage once the spell sequence lands. Stay outside the cage edge, punish every Baleful Strike (1st) last-hit, and reserve Tectonic Disruption (3rd) for anyone trying to close the distance after Veigar's setup misses.
Syndra
Syndra is immobile and her effective range falls short of yours, so she has to walk into your poke for every last hit. The matchup gets tighter once her items come in.
Orianna
You out-range the ball, so she cannot set up her shield-and-clear rhythm without eating poke, and your range plus true damage wins the long game.
Ryze
Ryze has to get close to deal real damage while you massively out-range him, and your true damage lands with none of the resistances he builds blunting it, though his health pool still has to be chewed through.
Vel'Koz Counters
These champions counter this pick in Wild Rift and can be difficult matchups. Learn how to play against them or consider banning them.
Zed
Zed is built to walk through your skillshots and delete you from a shadow before your next rotation lands; once his ultimate is up, one clean combo takes your whole health bar.
Akali
Twilight Shroud (2nd) hides Akali but does not make her immune to Vel'Koz's untargeted area skillshots or a manually steered beam. Her dashes still close his safety range, so place Tectonic Disruption (3rd) near Vel'Koz for its extra outward knockback and aim through her likely shroud path.
Fizz
His hop makes him untargetable straight through your rotation, the worst thing possible for a champion made entirely of skillshots, and he dives you the second you mistime a cooldown.
Katarina
Her blink closes your range instantly, her resets turn one kill into several, and a single missed skillshot from you becomes a free all-in with no way to run.
Norra
Norra's charged Memory Surge (1st) and Portalpalooza (Ult) projectiles attack from changing portal angles that Vel'Koz cannot cover with one straight Plasma Fission (1st) line. Move before the charge completes, save Tectonic Disruption (3rd) for her recoil landing, and avoid channeling Life Form Disintegration Ray (Ult) while Journey to Nowhere (2nd) can banish and silence you.
Vel'Koz Mid Lane Wild Rift game strategy and teamfighting guide
Wild Rift game strategy for Vel'Koz Mid Lane, from early lane control through mid and late game map play to final teamfights.