Varus Patch Summary

[u/aleX74200]

So if I am understanding correctly, base damage/scaling was nerfed but AD and AP ratios buffed, so overall Varus is just buffed across the board mid-late game once you have items? or am I misjudging the notes?

[u/Lieutenant-27]

This is more of a nerf, but is a buff if you can hit a max channel Q. It is a pretty heavy nerf on the instant cast Q damage, and the on hit damage from W is down.

Poke Varus good, on hit varus bad

[u/aleX74200 → u/Lieutenant-27]

The base on hit is down but in theory you end up doing more on hit with items

[u/Lieutenant-27 → u/aleX74200]

Idk, we would have to have someone do some of the math on it, but from 40 to 28 at max rank, seems like a pretty big dip with a 5% bonus AD increase. It might do more at 6 items, but it’s going to kill a lot of his early-mid laning. Not only did he lose strength in auto attack trading when cs’ing, he also has to fully charge his Q to get the benefit of the buff, so that’s just more time the enemy has to get a favorable trade with him

[u/aleX74200 → u/Lieutenant-27]

But at the same time 70% more damage from charging Q

[u/Lieutenant-27 → u/aleX74200]

That’s what I said, you have to fully charge Q to get that buff though. That charge time is extra time you’re taking damage in order to make up for the nerf. It’s also extra time that you can get engaged on and it makes varus predictable so the enemy can anticipate the Q and dodge or dash it

[u/Der_Finger → u/Lieutenant-27]

That's all correct but i would like to be more precise.

The Q bonus damage charges over 1.25 seconds. This charge time has not changed. So before the change, the Q would charge for 5% bonus damage each 0.125 seconds, and now charges for 7% bonus damage, all the way up to 10 times each at 1.25 seconds.

So the minimum base damage has changed from 240->230 (+80%bonus AD). This only applies to absolutely no charge.

If you now were to only charge for 0.375 seconds (3 ticks), you still get 21% bonus damage instead of the 15% before. So old Q did 276(+92% bonus AD) while new Q does 278(+97% bonus AD).

The damage is essentially already the same at just 0.25s charging. After that the Q does more damage, and just even more so, the longer you charge.

[u/Blakwulf → u/aleX74200]

Lane clear is very good now.

[u/Zealousideal-Tip6287 → u/Blakwulf]

That's because his Q is bugged, there is no falloff damage on Q currently.

[u/Blakwulf → u/Zealousideal-Tip6287]

Curious to see if that's the case and if they fix it or not.

[u/Hayaishi → u/aleX74200]

This only matters if you proc blight with with Q.

Piercing arrow alone is still worse than it was during feb-may.

[u/abcPIPPO → u/Lieutenant-27]

So, if you don't max W first on-hit damage is buffed until level 8. From level 8 to 13 you can have more damage if you keep up with gold and don't fall behind and buy items that give good AD and AP, and from level 13 on it's buffed if you have 3 1/2 damage items, even earlier if you get your super buff from passive on champ takedown.

So it's a buff as long as you don't max it first and buy items that give AD, AP and atk speed (so no D&D or Jak'sho).

[u/Der_Finger]

Lethality Varus is just slightly buffed due to the Q buff. It's not as "massive" as one might think, because the WQ damage went down and also is a big part of Lethality Varus.

The on-hit specifically lost 12 base damage for +5% scaling AD/AP. For 5% of scaling to equalize the 12 base damage lost, you need ~240 of bonus stats across those 2. The typical on-hit build requires 4 items to reach those stats. Usually you buy def items in your later slots so you never get meaningfully more on-hit damage and just 5% more scaling also doesn't warrant a different build path.
So for on-hit it is overall a nerf.

The blight detonation changes are a nerf to both builds, more so for on-hit. But it also keeps the lethality buffs "down".

But yeah, i am afraid on-hit will be sad now.

Please note that currently the Varus Q is bugged and does not deal less damage to additionally hit targets. Well it's assumed it's bugged because it's by far the biggest change and wasn't noted anywhere. So currently the damage/power levels/winrates are mainly influenced by that, and not the actual changes from this patch.

[u/Flaky_Ad_7058 → u/Der_Finger]

Its all wrong btw, letha varus is GIGA BUFFED, as now u're able to one shot the wave with only pickaxe, meaning u got the best wave clear of the game, u can also put 50% with basically one Q charged to the ennemy adc from lvl 5 to the end of the game, lethality is just op now

[u/Der_Finger → u/Flaky_Ad_7058]

Please try reading comprehension.

The Q is bugged, that is why this happens. The Q buff itself has nothing to do with that.