By GamGem ResearchLast updated 18 Oct 2026
the Arrow of Retribution
Patch 26.20 · Stats from the 26.18 Master+ sample (2,894 games).
Varus, the Arrow of Retribution, gains attack damage and ability power after every takedown through Living Vengeance, and Chain of Corruption spreads a root from one champion to the next. A top-lane Varus shows up in the Master+ count beside the bot-lane one, mostly on Lethal Tempo, with Statikk Shiv into Guinsoo's Rageblade as the on-hit build bought most. His hardest bot-lane pairs were Jhin, Kai'Sa and Aphelios.
MarksmanMage
Patch 26.18 · Bot · Ranked Solo/Duo · Master+ · EUW · KR · NA · 2,894 games · Preview sample
2,894
Games
High
Confidence
Win rate by lane
54.1%Win Rate
Flash
Barrier57.9%Win Rate
Flash
Exhaust
This exact page: taken in 7.4% of games·51.4% win rate over 214 games.
Hitting an enemy champion 3 consecutive times deals bonus damage and amplifies your damage until you leave combat with champions.
Takedowns restore 5% of your missing health and grant an additional 20 gold.
Takedowns on enemies grant permanent Attack Speed.
Deal more damage to champions while you are low on health.
After taking damage from an enemy champion, the next 3 spells or attacks you receive from them deal 30-60 (based on level) less damage. Duration: 1.5s Cooldown: 55s
Gain permanent max health when minions or monsters die near you.
Press the Attack29.1% taken · 50.8% win841 games
Arcane Comet9.1% taken · 45.6% win263 games
Hail of Blades0.4% taken · 54.5% win11 games
Precision + Inspiration52.6% taken · 48.9% win1,523 gamesPrecision + Resolve33.8% taken · 48.0% win978 games
Sorcery + Inspiration7.9% taken · 45.7% win230 gamesWhich ability to max first, and the level each point goes in — Varus's most common path.
QVarus readies and then fires a powerful shot that gains extra range and damage the longer he spends preparing to fire.
Cooldown 16/15/14/13/12s · 50/55/60/65/70 Mana
WPassive: Varus' basic attacks deal bonus magic damage and apply Blight.
Cooldown 40s · No cost
EVarus fires a hail of arrows that deal physical damage and desecrate the ground.
Cooldown 18/16/14/12/10s · 90 Mana
RVarus flings out a damaging tendril of corruption that immobilizes the first enemy champion hit and then spreads towards nearby uninfected champions, immobilizing them too on contact.
Cooldown 100/80/60s · 100 ManaMax W first, then Q, then E. Take R whenever available (6 / 11 / 16).
| Ability | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QPiercing Arrow | Q | Q | Q | Q | Q | |||||||||||||
| WBlighted Quiver | W | W | W | W | W | |||||||||||||
| EHail of Arrows | E | E | E | E | E | |||||||||||||
| RChain of Corruption | R | R | R |
How Varus performs against enemy bot laners
Recommended items by enemy team composition
VarusBot average
102030
102030
102030
Close the gap early — it wins at range and at three items — neither before ten minutes
Dodge the primary — its rotation is one skillshot; sidestep it and the rest is chip
Punish the cooldown — Varus is exposed while its rotation is down
Ward the flank — vision is what turns its best opening into a worse one
Respect the spike — Riot rates the kit 2/10, so a practised player gets more out of it than the average
PLiving Vengeance
On kill or assist, Varus temporarily gains Attack Damage and Ability Power. This bonus is larger if the enemy is a champion.
Passive — never cast
QPiercing Arrow
Varus readies and then fires a powerful shot that gains extra range and damage the longer he spends preparing to fire.
Cost 50/55/60/65/70 ManaCooldown 16/15/14/13/12sRange 925
WBlighted Quiver
Passive: Varus' basic attacks deal bonus magic damage and apply Blight. Varus' other abilities detonate Blight, dealing magic damage based on the target's maximum Health. Active: Varus empowers his next Piercing Arrow.
No costCooldown 40sRange 750
EHail of Arrows
Varus fires a hail of arrows that deal physical damage and desecrate the ground. Desecrated ground slows enemies' Move Speed and reduces their self healing and regeneration.
Cost 90 ManaCooldown 18/16/14/12/10sRange 925
RChain of Corruption
Varus flings out a damaging tendril of corruption that immobilizes the first enemy champion hit and then spreads towards nearby uninfected champions, immobilizing them too on contact.
Cost 100 ManaCooldown 100/80/60sRange 1300
Riot's notes from patch 25.S1.1 to 26.20 change Varus in 7 patches. The latest is patch 26.12, published 2026-06-09.
PLiving Vengeance
QPiercing Arrow
WBlighted Quiver
Varus has steadily become the highest priority ADC & top laner over the course of the year among the top tiers of gameplay. While the changes to Experimental Hexplate should help alleviate his dominance in top lane, in bot lane, we're looking to further disincentivize oppressive early game focused lethality builds, while being relatively less impactful to the most common on-hit builds and helping them scale a bit better.
QPiercing Arrow
WBlighted Quiver
Oh, Varus. Look, canonically you’re kinda three people at once, so having three times the balance changes of other champions is only fair, right? We’re nerfing Varus’s lethality build as it’s the most pro-dominant ADC in the current patch. However, because on-hit Varus in bot lane is weak, we’re compensating AD on-hit Varus to keep that build afloat.
Base Stats
WBlighted Quiver
Last patch's Varus buffs heavily overshot our target and has resulted in him becoming one of the game's strongest top laners as well. We're sorry for the inaccurate tuning and now that we've got more room to work with, we're looking to weaken his top lane performance as much as possible by rendering him more susceptible to all-ins, reducing his affinity for the top lane role quest, and weakening his top-specific build of AP and maxing W first.
QPiercing Arrow
WBlighted Quiver
Varus isn’t doing very well in the new season so we’re here to lift up his two primary builds, on-hit and AD caster.
QPiercing Arrow
WBlighted Quiver
EHail of Arrows
Bugfix
We’re tweaking Varus this patch in order to make him stronger in the hands of the average player while making him weaker in pro play. To achieve this, we’re nerfing lethality Varus, as it’s his primary pro build, and buffing his on-hit builds as compensation.
Base Stats
Varus’ strength in lane combined with his ability to choose between poke and on-hit builds has made him one of the highest presence ADCs in the pro scene. We’re looking to chip away at some of his laning strength this patch to open up space for other carries to shine.
Base Stats
QPiercing Arrow
WBlighted Quiver
EHail of Arrows
Like with Ashe and Kalista, we'd like to make Varus's super early laning phase feel more interactive. Hail of Arrows is an extremely long range and reliable poke tool, especially when combined with undodgeable systemic damage from Comet and Scorch. While Varus has very good reasons for his E being long range and reliable (mostly for popping Blight on fleeing enemies), we can price that spell cast such that it requires those Blight stacks to be worth casting. So we're shifting his mana constraints to let him play around Piercing Arrow much more, which has higher-quality gameplay around dodging and hiding behind minions, and relegating Hail of Arrows to a more situational skill. To further create room in the early game, we're also stretching out Blighted Quiver's bonus on-hit damage.
Riot's data lists 16 looks for Varus with their own art, the base skin included and 55 chroma variants.
Best ARAM build
This champion’s win rate on each patch the preview sample spans, over its own games there. What actually changed each patch is in Riot’s own notes.
| Stat | Varus | Rank | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base health | 600 | =116th | 620 |
| Health per level | 105 | =74th | 104 |
| Base armor | 24 | =130th | 30 |
| Armor per level | 4 | =157th | 4.6 |
| Base magic resist | 33 | =4th | 32 |
| Magic resist per level | 1.1 | =145th | 1.55 |
| Base attack damage | 59 | =86th | 59 |
| Base attack speed | 0.658 | =54th | 0.656 |
| Attack speed per level | 3.5% | =11th | 2.5% |
| Move speed | 330 | =117th | 335 |
| Attack range | 575 | =6th | 175 |
| Stat | Level 1 | Per level | Level 18 | Rank at 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health | 600 | +105 | 2385 | 93rd of 173 |
| Mana | 320 | +40 | 1000 | =94th of 145 |
| Armor | 24 | +4 | 92 | =165th of 173 |
| Magic resist | 33 | +1.1 | 51.7 | =141st of 173 |
Riot Data Dragon 16.20.1. Growth curve: League of Legends Wiki — Champion statistic.
Varus, the Arrow of Retribution, is a Marksman and Mage champion in League of Legends. Riot rates the kit 2/10 for difficulty, 7/10 for attack, 3/10 for defense and 4/10 for magic. Varus spends Mana and has 16 skins with their own art. Varus's attack range of 575 is the 6th-highest of 173 champions on patch 26.20 (shared with 2 others).
One of the ancient darkin, Varus was a deadly killer who loved to torment his foes, driving them almost to insanity before delivering the killing arrow. He was imprisoned at the end of the Great Darkin War, but escaped centuries later in the remade flesh of two Ionian hunters—they had unwittingly released him, cursed to bear the bow containing his bound essence. Varus now seeks out those who trapped him, in order to enact his brutal vengeance, but the mortal souls within still resist him every step of the way.
Published by League of Legends on YouTube, 8 May 2012.
14 years old. League of Legends has been patched since, so watch it for how the kit plays, not for numbers — the rest of this page is written for the current patch.
It plays in YouTube’s own player once you press play. Nothing is downloaded or re-hosted here, and nothing loads from YouTube until then.
