The newest champion for League of Legends, Vel’koz, the Eye of the Void, is live and ready for play! As is so often the case, however, there are a few tricks to using him that can almost instantly and drastically improve your effectiveness.
Learn the Delays
Every one of the Eye of the Void’s abilities except his ult has a delay built into it. This makes them all potentially avoidable by an opponent with fast enough reflexes, makes them harder to aim accurately, and makes them more confusing for opponents who do not know what to expect.
Vel’koz’s Q, Plasma Fission, can be an extremely tricky ability due to the way it splits.
When hitting a target or being re-activated after firing, it splits and fires off shots at 90 degree angles, letting it fire around corners, minions, and even bouncing off one champion to hit several more. The delay on this ability comes when you activate it again to split the beam, taking a moment before actually firing those paired shots. Knowing the exact timing on this delay is essential to getting the most out of the ability, and actually makes it even trickier for your opponents to predict until they also learn the delay as well as you.
His W, Void Rift, only does a small amount of damage initially.
The real damage comes about 3/4 of a second later. It can sometimes be worthwhile to fire Void Rift in front of a moving target. Either they have to stop, setting them up perfectly for your other abilities, or they have to take the second, more damaging hit.
Vel’koz’s E, Tectonic Disruption, has the least obvious delay for your opponents, but the most important for you to learn.
It has a travel time to its destination before taking effect. This makes it possible for a canny foe to bait out as they change directions and makes it more important to use care when aiming.
Use His Abilities Together
There are two excellent reasons to learn to combo these abilities together smoothly rather than simply using them on cooldown to harass.
The first is Vel’koz’s passive. Organic Deconstruction does true damage to someone who gets hit by three of his abilities in short succession. These stacks go away if they go seven seconds without being hit by any, and the true damage the passive inflicts is high enough to be worth the effort. Never forget his ult can rapidly apply multiple stacks of the passive and will likely leave one or two after it ends and his W can apply two if it hits both before and after its delay.
The second reason to combo these abilities is how well they compliment each other. Hitting the knock-up and then throwing damage at the enemy is obvious enough, especially since he has one ability that delays most of its damage so an immobile target is effectively guaranteed to take the full damage and the true damage from the passive.
Less obvious is reversing that and using Void Rift to bait someone into walking right into the knock-up from Tectonic Disruption. A quick Q and then Vel’koz has a target with no way of escaping a sizable duration of his ult, effectively guaranteeing heavy damage and either a kill or a rapid retreat. Throwing Ignite right before ulting further ensures the kill.
Plasma Fission can also be used to bait people into Tectonic Disruption. Firing it past your foe and having it split while immediately firing E forces the opponent to choose which one they take a hit from. Since the Q was fired first, most people will instinctively react to it first, leading them right into your knock-up combo.
Watch for Junglers
Vel’koz has a lot of power and utility, but he lacks one very important thing many other champions have: mobility. None of his abilities enhance his mobility in any way, meaning if he gets stuck in a fight he cannot win, he will not be able to escape without a lot of luck. Always be extra careful to keep track of the enemy jungler or anti-carries later in the game to avoid being caught in a no-win situation.
Vel’koz is an interesting addition to League of Legends. He brings a lot of damage and some unique tricks to the board, rewarding skilled play, but is also very easy to over-extend with and fall behind with in a hurry. Avoid tunnel vision and keep your opponent guessing how you intend to tear him apart next, however, and he can carry his way through Summoner’s Rift with the best.
