One of League of Legend's newest champions is Vex, the Gloomist. With a unique look unlike any of their other champions, this emo can't decided if she wants to kill you or just go back to bed. Today, I'll be guiding you through her abilities, playstyle, build paths, and more! Let the doom and gloom begin.
The newest lovable emo to join League of Legends is Vex. As the harbinger of doom and gloom, Vex features abilities that focus on how she interacts with her Shadow. She's mainly played in the Mid Lane as a burst mage. Being one of the newest champions released by Riot, she can be somewhat of an enigma for players if they haven't had time to do some research and learn about her abilities. That's where I come in to help though, so let's get started!
The Doom part of Vex's passive allows her to gain Doom, which starts with a 25-second cooldown at Level 1, which makes your next ability fear enemies and slow them by 60-90% based on their distance from Vex. This fear can be extremely useful for trading as well as helping set up your Jungler if they are ganking and gives them a slower target to hit. If Vex's E, Looming Darkness, triggers Doom, the targets will flee away from the center of the circle rather than from Vex.
The Gloom part of Vex's passive marks enemies that dash or blink nearby for 6 seconds with a Gloom stack. Vex's next auto attack, Mistral Bolt, or Personal Space used against a marked enemy will consume the mark to help you deal additional damage and reduce Doom's cooldown.
Vex sends a wave of mist in a target direction dealing magic damage to enemies it passes through and accelerating in speed and narrowing in shape after a small delay.
This ability lets out a burst of magic damage that explodes around Vex and grants her a shield for 2.5 seconds. This ability spreads out with Vex in the center.
Vex's E allows you to command Shadow to a target location, where it bursts out and does magic damage in a circle that also slows all enemies hit for 2 seconds. Enemies hit with this ability will be marked with Gloom for 6 seconds, and Vex's next auto attack, Q, or W used against those targets will consume the mark to deal additional magic damage and refund part of Doom's cooldown.
As one of my favorite aspects of Vex's kit, her ultimate has two main parts. Upon activating the ability, Vex sends Shadow to a specific location that gives her sight along the path for 0.4 seconds and deals magic damage to all enemies hit. Shadow stops when it hits an enemy champion, marking and revealing them for 4 seconds. While the target is marked, Vex can recast the ability.
Once recast, Vex commands Shadow to pull her towards the marked champion with displacement immunity. When she arrives at the enemy, the mark is consumed and deals bonus magic damage. Being able to deal damage twice if you land this ability and recast it allows for quite a bit of burst damage. Since the second impact damage is greater than the initial magic damage, it's very important to use both parts of Vex's ultimate.
If a target dies within 6 seconds of being hit by Shadow Surge, Vex can use her ultimate again at no cost for the next 12 seconds. This part of her ultimate allows for fun maneuvers and allows you to continue a fight even after using your ultimate.
In the play above, my team and I are trying to kill the enemy as they are retreating. I use my ultimate on Malzahar to start the chain of damage and then, since Malzahar dies with in the time frame, I am able to cast my ultimate again on the Udyr. I recast my ultimate for the second time and then send out a Mistral Bolt for the killing blow on Udyr, cleaning up the fight.
When trading damage with the enemy in the laning phase, it's important to land your abilities on the enemy or use your auto attacks following your Looming Darkness to consume the Gloom that will be placed on them. In the early game, when you want to harass but not use too much mana, it will be beneficial to do this as much as possible. I find it easier to use an ability from range to consume the Gloom stack, especially if I'm going to be using a full combo and am trying not to get too close.
The combo I found that worked best for me was to have a full stack of Doom and use either my Q if the enemy was farther away or my W if the enemy was in melee range. Once the enemy is feared, it will make my ultimate easier to hit, so I follow up with that and activate it again to go in and deal more damage. Once I've reactivated my ultimate, I use my W for a shield, if I haven't already used it at the beginning, and this allows me to deal more damage to the enemies surrounding us. Vex is quite squishy, though, so I wouldn't all-in unless I have support from a roaming teammate or Jungler ganking my lane. After that, I can follow up with my E to slow them after the engagement and then use my Q and auto attacks until the enemy is dead.
From what we've seen from most higher ranked players playing Vex, they tend to go Domination for Electrocute, Taste of Blood, Eyeball Collection, and Ultimate Hunter, with a secondary in Sorcery for Manaflow Band and Transcendence. In terms of a Mythic item, I can see reasons to argue going for Liandry's Torment, but I find Luden's Tempest to be the most ideal because of its innate burst damage that synergizes very well with Vex's kit. Other core items I think that work well with her kit are Zhonya's Hourglass, Horizon Focus, Void Staff, Rabadon's Deathcap, and Sorcerer's Shoes.
There will, of course, be some variations depending on the enemy's champions, but for other build options or even trying out Vex as a support, I suggest checking out Mobafire's different build paths.
Through practice, you will learn the timing of Vex's abilities, which is one of the first hurdles I found while learning how to play her. The second hurdle I faced was being aware of which ability would be most advantageous for me to use to fear the enemy. For example, if I'm Mid Lane and playing against a Lux who is playing a little farther back, I might want to activate my Doom on them using Mistral Bolt, because it gives me a longer range and allows me to stay safe playing farther back myself.
With a 50.7% winrate and a 37.8% banrate, Vex is a new, unique champion that is extremely fun to play. She's banned quite a bit, but when you are able to play her, her Doom and Gloom are a fun addition to League of Legends' champion pool. Hopefully, after reading this article, you'll have a better sense of how Vex works, what combos to use, and her build paths. As always, good luck, and have fun on the Rift!
