[14.13] Veigar - What to Build and Why? (2024)

Once we have identified his strengths and weaknesses, we need to find what builds fit him the most, i.e. what builds optimize his strengths and compensate his weaknesses.
If you want a build that optimizes his strengths but doesn't take into consideration his weaknesses, then you can simply opt for a glass cannon build (Electrocute; Luden's Companion, Stormsurge, Rabadon's Deathcap, Cryptbloom, etc.). Statistically, it works pretty well on average as it is never incorrect to play on your strengths.

So, why aren't Luden's builds good on Veigar?

So why not just stick to that? Because it is better to be able to adapt to your games than just autopilote the same build every game.
Why do good Veigar players in high elo and pro never build Luden's and rarely Electrocute?
Because this build is a pure coinflip that is very unpractical.
If it is able to grant you early kills because of the (low) damage Luden's brings comapared to the other options, then good for you, you did the right choice, there's no denying that.

But what if it doesn't pay off?
Then you're left with near useless runes and item after the early game.
Luden's damage isn't worth sacrificing a 600+ hp shield from Seraph's Embrace.
If Luden's had a huge AP ratio, it would be different, but 4% is just not worth it. It is the same for runes, Electrocute used to scale with AP/AD, but it is nowadays a gutted rune, that isn't very easy to proc on Veigar as well, especially after laning phase.

Since Veigar is an AP stacker and that he relies on Deathcap, he is a two items spiker. Veigar generates value by being consistent with his passive, he doesn't need to kill his lane opponent 4 times to be relevant in the game.

As the game currently works, with shutdowns and mid waves crashing fast, you're way more rewarded for being able to follow a steady gameplan than being able to smurf on your lane opponent. The most recent changes are also heading towards that direction as Riot nerfed 1000 golds components.

If you feel compelled to destroy your lane opponent, it's probably because your mid/late game is lacking. Sometimes, games are lost before you can come online, that's the downside of playing a scaling champion and you have to be mentally prepared. Most of the time, these games would've been lost even if you went 3/0 in lane instead of 0/0, granting that Electrocute+Luden's actually was the reason you were able to get these kills.

One additional downside of this build is that if you build Luden's > Stormsurge, you still have to build Deathcap and Cryptbloom, meaning you only have 1 place in your build for a useful item, and mandatorily as a last item.

If you play other champions, you'll understand quite easily that a 4 items+boots Veigar with absolutely nothing but AP is basically a walking purse of gold that is dead as soon as you flash his cage.

Even if we talk tempo, are you really stronger at Luden's+Stormsurge (2900x2=5800) than you are at Shurelya+Deathcap (2200+3600=5800)? And you'll still have to get Rabadon and you cannot really adapt at that point, while the other build can get Cryptbloom and deal damage to champions with MR (it's not enough to stack AP, due to how resistances work in League, a simple Negatron Cloak (50MR, 900g) can gut your damage).

When considering items and runes we have to think dynamically: our opponents aren't target dummies (even if it sometimes feels like it), and games do not always go the way we want. If you check the matchup section (Fizz for instance that many Veigars struggle with), you'll see that I recommend runes and buildpaths I wouldn't recommend in general.

When playing Veigar, we sign a contract with the game that says: we'll be weaker (and have less freedom) than the other mid for some time, but if we fulfil our part of the contract, then we'll be able to acquire enough power to make up for it, and even more.

Three First Items That Are More Efficient Than Luden's And Why

Once Veigar's strengths and weaknessses have been identified, we need to identify what threatens him.
There are two main threats that we can most certainly all agree on:

1. Getting oneshot (BURST)
2. Getting outranged (RANGE)

If you get oneshot, you are useless; if you cannot get close enough to cast your spells, you are useless.

In order to not get burst down, you need durability: Seraph's Embrace and RoA are the two items that allow you not to get oneshot. If you need survivability early (against a high threat champion for instance), ROA is better. But if you can wait until Tear is stacked, Seraph's is better (Seraph's ability haste is very comfortable, especially for stacking).
In order to get in and out of range, you need movement speed (as you cannot extend your abilities' range). Shurelya is the answer to that problem. High range champions also often rely on skillshots, and movemement speed helps you dodge skillshots as well.

If you do not want to rush Rabadon/Cryptbloom, you can always build Seraph's Embrace (if you got an early Tear of the Goddess) of Shurelya's Battlesong as a second item:
Shurelya's>Seraph's, Seraph's>Shurelya's, ROA>Seraph's (best anti-burst option), ROA>Shurelya. I didn't include these options explicitely in my builds but keep in mind that you can add them to the builds.

Veigar's Runes

Ever since Riot gutted AP ratios on runes like Electrocute and Arcane Comet, they've become laning tools and pretty much nothing more on Veigar. There are situations where you can take take Aery, Comet or Electrocute on Veigar because you feel like you can abuse your opponent, or because you feel you'll be playing a fast-paced game.

But in general, and it is also statistically true, Veigar's best (and most popular rune) is First Strike.

If you look at First Strike, this rune is ideal on Veigar for two main reasons:

a) Veigar needs items to compensate for a lackluster kit

b) First Strike's damage amp is based on the damage you deal and not a 5% AP ratio, which is the case for Electrocute, Comet or Aery.

That being said, First Strike has a serious contender that is sadly not very popular: Unsealed Spellbook.

Veigar is a champion that makes good use of summoner spells but cannot really play anything else than Flash/TP. Ghost especially is an extremely powerful summoner on Veigar, but pretty much every summoner has its own utility.

In case you don't know what rune to pick, here is a general idea you can follow:

If your First Strike is easy to disable, Unsealed Spellbook will probably be a better option. But if you're playing against short ranged champions and can farm gold on them, then First strike is the obvious choice.

For instance, if you're laning Hwei, First strike will be a dead rune. You're not going to play Electrocute, Aery or Comet either, as you won't kill him if he's not too bad.

As Veigar doesn't want to perma fight (quite the contrary) you won't probably get the most out of FS in the mid game in this scenario.

On the other hand, Unsealed Spellbook provides

benefits. It is therefore a very reliable rune and learning to use it will give you more tools for a better gameplay. Another advantage of Unsealed Spellbook is that it has a rather good synergy with Nimbus Cloak, that is a very good rune but not optimal on TP users (even if being faster after a TP can be good).

A quick note about the rune shards:

In my opinion, the ability haste shard is pretty much mandatory. Of course, it is easier to play the early lane with the attack speed or ap shard but they removed so much ability haste from the game that it has become a scarce resource. More uptime on Q is also always good to stack your passive, and less cooldown on E is also pretty nice to be safer.

The other shards are more up to debate.
The 2% movement speed shard is probably too good on Veigar not to be taken: Veigar has 340 base movement speed, which is already quite a lot for a mage. This rune shard provides 7 extra ms at level 1, making Veigar a 347 movement speed champion at level 1 (350 with celerity).

In some matchups, the HP scaling rune is a good option as well. If you take the scaling hp rune as 2nd shard, then I think you'll want the 65 hp rune. Otherwise, taking scaling hp is probably more reliable.

If you're facing a lot of cc, then you could consider the tenacity shard, but its value is lower on a champion like Veigar that is probably dead if it gets hit by a CC.

How do the best players currently build Veigar?

I try not to use "argument from authority", but it is always interesting to take a look at what pro and high elo players are building on a champion. What's interesting with pro builds is that pro teams have data analysts and are more likely to find the right builds.

In 2024, Veigar has been played 12 times in pro games.
Pros have built Archangel's Staff 9 games, Shurelya's Battlesong 8 times (but never as a standalone) and Rod of Ages 4 times.
As far as runes are concerned, they've picked Unsealed Spellbook 70% of the games, with some Aery and First Strike.

Bdd's build is interesting as it is extremely lane centric, but I wouldn't recommend it for the average player, especially in soloQ. In some rare matchups I would recommend going Aery if you feel confident, but minion demat, triple tonic and attack speed shard are a bit overkill if you're not laning ShaowMaker on Azir.
Using LoLalytics for the last 30 days, Luden's Companion's pickrate as a first item has been:

All Rank: 59.13%

Emerald+: 48%

Master+: 29%

If we browse high elo Veigar mains profiles on EUW or KR, they mostly build Seraph's Embrace and Shurelya's, then they either build Rabadon's Deathcap or Cryptbloom. Which is a huge difference with the rest of the player base.

One argument some may use is that high elo players need more utility because they are facing better player. For instance, if you're a Garen player in low elo, then you're probably just fine going Conqueror every game. It's probably even the best thing to do. Nonetheless, some of Garen's matchups in high elo are almost impossible without Phase rush.

This argument is valid, but only up to a certain point, and doesn't account for the fact that games in lower elos also are harder in some aspects. Instead of making you autonomous, the standard full burst build actually makes you very reliant on other people peeling for you, a little bit like an ad carry.

That being said, there is one item that performs better in high elo than in low elo for obvious reasons: Shurelya's Battlesong.

Don't get me wrong. Shurelya's Battlesong is a very good item by itself. It's very cheap and it's gold efficient even without the active.
But his active is a good part of his power and it's harder to make a good use of it in low elo simply because it's a group buff: to retraat defensively it'll do fine, but offensively people won't take advantage of it as much as they should. Also, if you have a hard time managing active items, I wouldn't recommend building Shurelya in your ranked games, the "Seraph's Rabadon Cryptbloom core" will do just fine.
That being said, if your team has champions that make a good use of movement speed, it's still worth considering, but probably not as a rush item. If you're the only one in your who needs movement speed, then Cosmic Drive, Force of nature or Deadman's Plate are good options.