How to be a Heartbreaker: insight on Vayne

Who exactly is Vayne?
Vayne is a hyper carry assassin who is talented in dealing high DPS while having an incredible amount of mobility. Her kit is all an AD carry can ask for: steroids and mobility. Vayne’s passive, Night Hunt, gives her movement speed when moving towards a visible enemy champion making her great at chasing down enemies assuring a kill. All of this damage and mobility comes with a cost, Vayne is known to be really squishy early game.

Let’s talk more about Vayne’s kit:
Her kit is exceptional at chasing down enemies and pumping out major damage. Vayne’s Q, Tumble, makes her roll to where the cursor is and gives her a huge damage increase. Her W skill, Silver Bolts, turns her into a monster late game. On every third consecutive auto attack or skill on the same target Vayne deals damage based on the target’s maximum health as bonus true damage, so even armor can’t negate this damage!

Her E ability, Condemn, deals damage and knocks back an enemy. Not only is this ability a great disengagement, it also activates her Silver Bolts and if the enemy hits a wall they are stunned for 1.5 seconds. Her ultimate is what really sets her aside from the rest of the AD carries. Not only does she pull out a huge crossbow, she receives a cool new set of tricks. While being granted extra attack damage she also gains 1 second invisibility every time she tumbles and her Night Hunt passive’s movement speed bonus is tripled.

How popular is Vayne competitively?
Vayne has seen a lot of competitive play. In the Season 2 World Championships, TPA Assassins’ Cheng "bebeisadog" Bo Wei chose Vayne and completely dominated. Ultimately the game ended up with the enemy team, Azubu Frost, surrendering. CLG NA’s AD carry Peter "doublelift" Peng is widely known for his Vayne play and is regarded as the best Vayne player in the world.

Vayne’s weaknesses:
Vayne doesn’t get away unscathed having so much damage output and mobility. Her early game is really weak compared to other AD carries. She is extremely squishy early on in the game so many carries can poke her out of lane causing her to lose minion feed. During team fights Vayne is particularly hard to focus down due to her invisibility when tumbling in Final Hour, a way to stop this is to buy an oracles granting vision on her while she’s invisible. CC stops Vayne right in her tracks which is why most Vayne players run the summoner spell Cleanse letting her escape out of sticky situations.

History and Lore:
Vayne's character concept is inspired by Abraham van Helsing, the protagonist from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula. She has seen the nerf bat quite a bit due to her overall damage and mobility. Vayne was designed by David 'Volty' Abecassis who also designed Diana and Draven.

Vayne’s father was an elite in Demacia, she grew up believing her world was perfectly safe until a witch took interest in her father. She tortured her family until she murdered them with Vayne being the only survivor. She took care of herself with her father’s money and began training to become Demacia’s first Night Hunter!

Now you have more insight on one of my favorite champions in the League: Vayne.