To play Veigar is to choose a playstyle that doesn’t mesh well with the
general feel of of League of Legends.  Your goal is
two-fold.  You will farm creeps with your basic nuke
endlessly, something 95% of the heroes in this game wouldn’t dare think
of.  You also have one of the best stuns in the game, with a
wide area of effect and decent cast range, and should they be adept
enough to dodge it, effectively hold them in place for 3 seconds
anyway.  On top of that, you have one of the most powerful
anti-mage spells in the game in your ultimate.  So why isn’t
Veigar a popular pick?

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style="font-style: italic;">Speak softly, and carry a big
stick... it might make up for your puny frame.

You are made of paper.

You have a very high cooldown on your stun and ultimate.  You
are highly reliant on farming with your basic Q nuke to get anywhere
mid and late game, and if you don’t do this to the utmost extent, you
forfeit potentially hundreds of ability power if the game drags
on.  Should the game not drag on, you’ll be in a bind, as
Veigar grows in power not only with levels, but with creep kills over
time and even with the power of his enemies.



Being the Tiny Master of Evil isn’t easy.

Skills

Passive : Equilibrium -
Veigar’s mana regeneration is increased by .5% per 1% mana he is
missing.



    This passive effectively gives Veigar a
free Chalice.  You’ll be casting non-stop, from early game to
end game, from last-hitting to hero-bursting.  Veigar is one
of the most mana-hungry bastards in the League.  However, this
percentage increase is worthless unless you buy some flat mana
regeneration to begin with, or equip yourself with it ahead of time
with runes.  Keep this in mind and build a rune page or early
item that makes your passive shine, and build into it further with
later items!



Baleful Strike - Veigar
blasts a target with dark energy, dealing 80/125/170/215/260
damage.  If he kills a target, he gains 1 AP
permanently.  If he ever kills a champion with any spell or
attack, he gains 1/2/3/4/5 AP permanently.  Has a good range
and cooldown is reduced by 1 second per level to a minimum of 4 seconds.



    I hope you like pressing Q a
lot.  This is your go to, should always be on cooldown, basic
blast.  It stays at a flat 75 mana per cast, and that unique
bonus on kill should be exploited fully.  Always, always be
blasting creeps with it at low life when you’re not in a situation
where you’d be better off being aggressive with it.  Get a
feel for how low each creep needs to be before you go for the
kill.  If you are completely left alone in a lane, don’t even
last hit physically and strictly use your Baleful Strike to get kills
unless it’s on cooldown and the enemy minion will die before it comes
back up.

   

    Once Veigar hits level 7, he can poke
with this effectively.  Make sure you have a point in Event
Horizon to follow up with if the enemy gets aggressive at the same
time, and don’t ignore the creeps!  The more you kill, the
more damage each successive harassment strike will do!



Dark Matter - Veigar
marks an area for 1.2 seconds, after which a massive blast hits the
ground, dealing 120/170/220/270/320 damage.  Has a long range
and high mana cost, but also an outstanding 1.0 ability power
coefficient.



    Should you need to push, this blows up
everything quickly and easily.  Minions stay in place nicely,
and you only need a minimal amount of items in order to start causing
entire waves of creeps to explode.  It’s an effective
deterrent to chasing you or your allies as well.  It should
NOT be used to farm openly, as kills from this are not transferred to
your ability power count unlike Baleful Strike.  If each wave
is 6 minions, and you kill them all with Dark Matter, that’s a
potential 6 ability power you just threw away.  Do not farm
randomly with this!  Sure if you have a tiny window before you
have to retreat or recall, it’s okay, but don’t get too Dark Matter
happy.



    Hitting heroes with this is a fool’s
errand unless you have the assistance of a Event Horizon
stun.  The recent buff to the impact time now gives Veigar a
chance at nailing people with it even with Mercury’s Treads, if you’re
quick in the placement.  It can cause people to dodge in a
favorable direction though.  Say you’ve got a ganker in the
jungle nearby to the left.  If you aim Dark Matter to the
behind and to the right of the hero slightly, they’ll instinctively run
forward and left to dodge it--and right into your hands!



Event Horizon - Veigar
places a circle of pillars on the ground, and any enemy who touches the
boundaries of it is stunned for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds. 
The area itself lasts 3 seconds.



    Veigar has one of the better stuns in
the game for mages.  Aimed properly, this can stun people
instantly rather than waiting for them to hit a boundary.  It
also has the benefit of being able to completely ruin a push or retreat
by stunning the attackers or pursuers, and setting up a nasty Dark
Matter hit.  Even if it doesn’t stun the opposition inside it
as they wait for it to disperse, you effectively stopped them from
advancing or retreating for 3 seconds anyway.



    Be very careful about your aggression
after you place this.  It has a long cooldown compared to most
stuns, so enemies will know you have no way to stop them now other than
sheer damage!



    Note that while it has only a moderate
placement range, the actual circle extends far out from the radius of
placement, and the placement is near instant.  You can catch
people on the other side of trees or below cliffs with good timing and
positioning.



Ultimate : Primordial
Burst - Veigar blasts an enemy near instantly with white hot death,
doing 250/375/500 + 1 damage per ability power of Veigar AND +1 damage
per ability power of his enemy.
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    Your ultimate as Veigar is just another
glorified single target nuke, and the base numbers are quite small on
it.  However, this scales like no other spell in the game when
you target enemy casters stacking ability power.  Typically
offensive mages will skimp on their defenses in favor of getting as
much ability power as possible, which plays right into your
hands.  When both Veigar and his target are farmed, you’ll
likely have 700-900 ability power and your target will have
500-700.  That’s at least 1200 more damage on the
hit.  Short range casters like Ryze will be at your mercy if
they decide to go on the offensive, as this will basically one shot
them in conjunction with his other spells.



    Make it count though, because after this
is blown, Veigar’s burst trump card is on cooldown and other enemies
may engage you knowing this.

Essential Items

Tear of the Goddess /
Archangel’s Staff - Veigar will be casting spells
non-stop the entire game.  This will give him mana
regeneration, a much larger pool to work with and let the regeneration
work for him, and eventually a big chunk of ability power.



Rod of Ages -
Veigar has jack shit for HP, being the tiny master of evil and
all.  You might not live long enough to stun people in the end
game without some added health, and the mana & ability power
will work towards your late game domination.



Zhonya’s Ring
- When Veigar has blown his stun and the enemy is still laying into
him, it’s time to go invincible for a few seconds.  Consider
dropping a Dark Matter around yourself just as you hit this to punish
anyone standing on top of you waiting for the kill, and you might be
able to get a kill out of it before you go down.

Situational Items

Deathfire Grasp
- This is a burst item, which combined with your already high burst
potential during your stun, turns you into a ranged Poppy early
on.  Later on, it’s essential for combating beefy DPS heroes
such as Sion and Mundo, or making tanks like Shen think twice about
dashing in to engage further.



Lich Bane -
Veigar is an amazing AP masser, and this.... this actually makes him
one of the most effective backdoors in the game!  With two
spells that don’t even require a target, Veigar can trigger it to do
over a thousand damage to a building in one auto
attack!   This is ignoring the already powerful burst
addition it’ll give you with just a wave of your wand.



Void Staff
- When you start dominating, the rampant Magic Resist items will start
showing up in your opponents’ inventories.  This is necessary
at that point to maintain your sick burst capability.

Runes

Magic penetration reds, Mana regeneration yellows, and scaling magic
resist or cooldown reduction blues are the way to go with
Veigar.  The magic resist runes are recommended because Veigar
will be building little in the way of defensive items throughout the
game generally, and having those will help greatly against enemy mages
that show up when your ultimate is down, or mass Magic Penetration to
reduce your resistance to zero.

Masteries

9/0/21 is the generic Veigar build, taking the improved cooldown
reductions and magic penetration of both trees and various mage
improving abilities in the Utility tree.  You are a very good
canidate for taking the Golem buff (perhaps from your dead enemies!),
so taking the neutral buff duration increase is advised.  A
Veigar with maxed cooldown reduction is very, very scary!



9/7/14 is popular for giving Veigar a good source of HP regen in the
lane in the defense tree, since he will have a large mana pool quickly,
especially if you build around it.

Summoner Spells

Veigar has no need for assistance in finishing off his enemies
generally, but is focused very, very often.  Play defensive
and take Ghost and Flash, giving you a few ways out if your stun
doesn’t prove enough.  Veigar needs to farm to excel more than
most mages, so he will need to take chances in lanes to keep getting
those Baleful last hits.

Conclusion

Veigar is a tough to master champion that has been overshadowed a lot
lately, but with the release of so many new mages, rises up once more
to show them who the master of burst really is.  Play
defensive and bide your time.  The longer the fight rages, the
more ability power you’ll have and the more items you’ll be able to
farm up before you look your opponent in the eye one second, and then
at their dead body the next.  Be very attentive to your last
hitting with your Baleful Strike and hold out until Veigar becomes the
ridiculous explosion of damage, in the tiniest little package!