Jungling with Winter's Claw: Building Volibear

Volibear is a strong jungler with excellent sustain and mobility. He was showcased in the LCS by All-Stars such as SaintVicious and Diamondprox. This guide will walk you through how to build Volibear in the jungle.

Masteries

As a tanky jungler, Volibear runs a 9-21-0 mastery page for maximum health regeneration, which helps him sustain in the jungle, and attack speed, which improves his clearing speed.

Runes

Volibear's jungle thrives on percentage Attack Speed Marks, flat Armor Seals, scaling Magic Resist Glyphs, and percentage Movement Speed Quintessences. As an auto-attacker, Attack Speed Marks allow him to deal more damage. Armor Seals and Magic Resist Glyphs improve his tanking ability. As an initiator, Movement Speed Quintessences help Volibear reach the enemies to flip them into your team.

Summoner Spells

As a jungler, your first Summoner Spell should always be Smite, which deals a killing blow to jungle monsters.

Flash is the best Summoner Spell to take as Volibear because it is more dynamic than Ghost. It offers a multitude of gank and escape options over jungle walls and in lanes.

Skill Order

Volibear’s skill order is fairly simple: start with Majestic Roar (E), then take Frenzy (W) at level two. At level three, take your Rolling Thunder (Q). Then, level your E and W evenly, taking Thunder Claws (R) when it is available. Finish levelling your Q last.

Starting with Majestic Roar is important because the fear prevents the jungle camps from attacking you which helps save Health Potions. Frenzy is an attack speed steroid as well as a killing blow to minions whose damage increases as the target's health drops. Leveling Frenzy alongside Majestic Roar is good because they combine to produce excellent jungle clearing speed and powerful ganks. Since Rolling Thunder's movement speed buff was nerfed, it is no longer effective to focus it because the speed boost does not increase fast enough to warrant choosing it over your other, more powerful spells.

Build

Volibear’s favorite starting items are a Hunter’s Machete and five Health Potions. The Machete has two unique passives that increase the damage that you deal to jungle camps. The Health Potions increase your sustainability in the jungle.

You should back when you have at least 750 gold. Complete your Madred’s Razors and pick up Boots of Speed. The Madred’s Razors will increase your attack speed and thus your jungle clearing speed. The Boots will improve your mobility both through the jungle and to gank lanes.

The advanced boots that you build will depend upon the damage composition of the enemy team.

-If the team has an even split of magic and physical damage, buy Boots of Swiftness, which helps you maintain your speed in fights.

-When fighting against large numbers of slows and large amounts of magic damage, build some Mercury's Treads. These boots increase your magic resistance and, more importantly, reduce the duration of slows, stuns, taunts, fears, silences, blinds, and immobilizes.

-Against a heavily auto-attacking team, try Ninja Tabi.  Ninja Tabi help because they block 10% of the damage from each auto-attack.

Just like your boots, the first full item that you complete will depend upon the damage composition of the enemy team.

-Warmog’s Armor is the best item if the enemy team has an approximately even spread of magic and physical damage because it gives health and health regeneration which combats both types of damage.

-If you are up against primarily magic damage, build a Spirit Visage for increased magic resistance. It has the added benefit of increasing your passive’s healing by 20%.

-When you need major protection against physical damage, try a Randuin’s Omen on for size. Besides the armor and health, its active and passive slow your enemies’ movement and attack speeds temporarily which heavily handicaps auto-attackers.

Next, build another one of the items above for added survivability in team fights.

If you are having trouble surviving, build the last of the three defensive items.

Finally, when you are surviving well, build a Blade of the Ruined King. It increases your attack damage, lifesteal, and attack speed, all of which Volibear thrives on. Blade of the Ruined King is a fantastic capstone because it increases your kill potential enormously.

Happy jungling, and remember to buy wards!