Viego: A Dark Yet Bad-Ass Champion

With the new League of Legends patch comes a new champion, Viego, the Ruined King! Here’s everything you need to know about MOBA’s 154th champion.

After being hyped up with a bunch of teasers from Riot Games’ Season 2021, Viego is the first new champion to welcome the new year in the Summoners Rift.

This guide will mostly introduce Viego’s abilities with tips and tricks you can do with him as a League of Legends Jungler.

Who is Viego in League of Legends?

Riot Games’ Viego has been a hinted champion since September 2020 and officially revealed during Riot Games Inc Season 2021 Opening Day Livestream.

Accompanied with a cinematic reveal, Viego was introduced as a jungle-skirmisher who can steal the abilities of his enemies. The Ruined King is an interesting character who can do a lot of damage with a lot of mobility and kill pressure.

Titled as Viego the Ruined King, he controls the deadly Harrowings around Runeterra as he desperately scavenges for anything that can restore his dead queen.

The Ruined King was once a ruler of a long-lost kingdom from over a thousand years ago and died in an attempt to resurrect his wife. Ahh, the things you do for love.

This triggered a magical catastrophe called the Ruination wherein Viego became an enraged wraith.

Fueled with longing for his long-gone queen, Viego destroys anyone in his path with the endless Black Mist coming from his ruined heart.

Talk about dark and awesome, right?!

What Are Viego’s Abilities?

With the aftermath of the Ruination comes the new abilities the Ruined King has gained.

• Passive – Sovereign’s Domination
• Q – Blade of the Ruined King (Passive and Active)
• W – Spectral Maw
• E – Harrowed Path
• R – Heartbreaker

Let’s break down his mist-commanding and death-dominating abilities below.

Passive – Sovereign’s Domination

With the Sovereign’s Domination, Viego has the ability to possess enemy champions he kills.

And it gets even better than that.

Once he takes control, he gains the abilities of the enemy champions possessed. Viego heals for a portion of the possessed’s max health and also gets bonus movement speed when moving toward them.

He has the power to replace the Ultimate of his enemy champion with a free cast of his own. Talk about a broken champ, right?

Q – Blade of the Ruined King

Passive: Viego’s spectral blade attacks deal bonus damage on-hit with a percent of the target’s current health.

This passive is maintained while possessing the rival champion.

If Viego attacks an enemy that was recently hit with an ability, the attack is considered the second strike.

The second enemy hit steals health from the target but still applies on-hit effects and can critically strike.

Active: Viego can thrust his zweihander forward and kill enemies in front of him.

W – Spectral Maw

Viego charges up before moving forward, releasing a blast of Black Mist that stuns and damages the first enemy hit.

This Spectral Maw is an auto-attack reset. The stun duration and mist range increase with charge time. Damage and dash range do not. Note that when using the Spectral Maw, Viego charges while being slowed.

E – Harrowed Path

Viego gets to command the Black Mist to surround an area.

With the blast of mist, Viego can hide and camouflage in it as a wraith all the while gaining attack speed and movement speed. The mist ends when Viego auto attacks or casts an ability.

Now, hold up there Leaguers.

Viego’s E ability isn’t as cool as you would think. We believe Riot intended Viego to use his E ability to gank lanes, but the problem is, the so-called Mist is just too obvious.

You’d see it in time to know a jungler is ganking your lane. We still feel Lee Sin gives more stealth than Viego in this scenario.

However, his R ability more than makes up for this.

R – Heartbreaker

Viego can teleport straight to the next enemy champion after he leaves the body of his current possession.

He can immediately stab the rival champion in range with the lowest health right after Viego discards the body and teleports.

These attacks deal bonus damage based on the champions’ missing health. While doing this, other enemies hit within the range are knocked off by a destructive shockwave.

How to Play Viego

Want to get started with Viego in League of Legends? Here’s a guide for some launch tips!

Team Fight

The Ruined King Viego is a jungler skirmish heavy champion that’s great for team fights.

Compared to most bruisers, Viego delays team fights. His abilities allow him to deal more damage while simultaneously dodging skill shots and incoming damage.

The Q Passive of Viego is one of his strongest abilities allowing you to play and use other enemies’ to your advantage.

When playing Viego, deal as much damage as possible to whoever you can. Take advantage of the champion who is ahead and has the most items.

Launch Tips and Tricks

• Using the Sovereign Domination, Viego possessing a champion will allow you to use their passive, items, and other abilities (except their Ultimate and Actives).
• When you steal a soul of an enemy champion, you can escape incoming damaging and dodge skill shots, and tower shots. You automatically become invulnerable to attacks until Viego discards the body.
• With the W Spectral Maw, Viego can stun first enemy hit but can’t dash over walls. You can use his Ultimate instead. Using R Heartbreaker, Viego can escape traps and sticky situations, having multiple enemies hit within range.
• When traveling to the jungle from the base, stay near the walls. Using E – Harrowed Path, Viego can get back to action more quickly as his attack speed and movement speed are increased.
• To get more bonus damage in a team fight, get the soul of the carry rather than those with more utility.

Viego Build

If you have access to the League of Legends’ Public Beta Environment (PBE), you can test out different runes and see which variations would work best to get a good Viego build.

Most League players start with a standard skirmish-heavy set-up as it has the potential to best work on Viego as a Jungler.

He’s still new so there’s no “best build” for him yet. But this is an opportunity to explore and further boost his already powerful mechanics.

So far, according to this guide, the best combination of items to get decent builds involves the Kraken Slayer, Blade of the Ruined King, and Sterak’s Gage.

These different builds currently have at most, 48.56% pick rate and 60-70% win.

In the same guide, the current given combination of runes have at most 92.91% pick rate and 48-50% win.

Don’t Use Viego in Ranked

With Viego being a new champion in League, DO NOT play him yet in ranked.

Don’t be that one player who upsets the League community by playing a low win rate champion in ranked. There are so many more different builds to be explored.

The Ruined King is incredibly strong at launch as we have seen in this guide. It’s better to play Viego in normal games, bots, or ARAMs. Playing him in rank will just ruin the experience for you and your allies.

As a new champ in League of Legends, do your research on Viego first! Practice his unique mechanics, see what other Viego players are doing, and check out different guides and builds.

Conclusion

We hope this guide was able to help you with the basics of Viego.

There are still so many things to explore with the Ruined King. As one of the newest champs in Riot Games’ League of Legends, there are endless possibilities to find the greatest build for him.

Let us know what you think about Viego! Feel free to ask questions in the comments!