Hybrid Varus is a spicy build that has raised eyebrows this season in League of Legends (LoL) – here’s how to use it.
Veteran UK LoL esports player turned streamer Kallon ‘Kerberos’ Ram is known for his theorycrafting and unique builds, and he’s come up with some interesting Varus top-lane play this year.
First off, no, that’s not him pictured above. That is the only Varus-themed picture we already had in our website database so we used it. It’s actually of UK LoL caster Nymaera, from our article: Top 5 League of Legends champions Nymaera looks like.
“I’ve always loved theorycrafting and Varus is such a fun and flexible champion, where almost anything can be viable. I just had a gut feeling there was something ‘hidden op’ for him. Someone just had to go out and find it.”
Kerberos on his Hybrid Varus build
Anyway, Kerberos says this ‘resist-stacking AP setup rivals the Radiant setup both in strength and lack of dignity’. He made it after AP Varus got nerfed, when he began looking at ways to make the champion viable again.
“I created the Radiant Virtue build that saw popularity last year,” Kerberos explains. “With Radiant’s removal, I’ve been testing builds for months now, trying to figure out what’s optimal. The AP Bruiser build has felt the strongest to me by far. I think it’s super OP.
“I am also currently doing a Varus top only to Challenger run-through on [the Kerberos_LoL] Twitch stream.”
Onto the Hybrid Varus build itself.
Hybrid Varus off-tank Season 14 build
Itemisation for this new Hybrid Varus build includes Doran’s Blade, Berserker’s Greaves, Terminus, Zhonya’s Hourglass and Banshee’s Veil, into Riftmaker and Liandry’s Torment.
The skill order is E (level 1), W (2) and Q (3) first, then maxing W, Q and E.
Spells are Flash and Barrier, but Kerberos also says Ghost is viable too.
Kerberos says: “The majority of your damage comes from W blight detonation. Make sure to use two to three autos in between spells to continually detonate blight for percentage max HP damage, as well as cooldown refund.”
“Since the AP Varus nerfs in season 13, his AP ratios aren’t huge, but his base damage is still ridiculous. This build plays off his huge base damage by focusing on penetration, damage amplification and defensive stats.
“This build wastes very little gold on cooldown reduction, and maximises the stats that Varus actually wants.
“Zhonyas and Banshees provide game-changing defensive effects and good resistances, all while topping up your damage. With the added tankiness from runes and Terminus, you are a real bruiser in the mid-game and rarely able to be beaten 1v1.”
The same build below can be used in the mid-lane. But for ADC, Kerberos recommends some changes.
“For playing this build in the bot lane, I recommend a few small changes to the setup,” he says. “Lethal tempo (keystone), Conditioning (rune) and first item BOTRK (Blade of the Ruined King), Q max first, then W max second.
“Build as normal after that. You will only have room for one mask item instead of two, but it’s fine.”
How did Kerberos discover the Hybrid Varus build? And what’s it like going from player to streamer?
Kerberos tells Esports News UK: “I’ve always loved theorycrafting and Varus is such a fun and flexible champion, where almost anything can be viable.
“I just had a gut feeling there was something ‘hidden op’ for him. Someone just had to go out and find it…”
On going from player to streamer, Kerberos adds: “In general, I’m having a lot of fun with my transition from pro player to Twitch streamer, as it really allows me to focus on what I enjoy, which is thinking up and playing wacky picks like this.”
So there you have it, straight from the three-headed dog’s mouth(s). Thanks to Kerberos for providing input into this article and giving us his blessing to run an article on it.
We hope you enjoy his Hybrid Varus top-lane build for Season 14 in League of Legends.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
