After three seasons, Volibear was finally seen again on the LCS stage, picked by GGS jungler Juan 'Contractz' Arturo Garcia. Golden Guardians created hype for the champion in solo queue after they pulled a victory over Echo Fox that game. The shocking pick may best be explained by the massive changes made to the champion in Patch 8.4, which made the champion a more viable pick in matches. While there was a minor nerf to Volibear's knockback duration in Patch 8.5, all of these adjustments made Volibear a more complex and adaptive jungler. Let's take a look at the changes.

Overpowering Volibear

There are several resources a summoner is able to utilise with these new buffs. First of all, Volibear's Rolling Thunder gives the champion much more ganking potential than before. The basic bonus movement speed increase now scales with skill upgrade rather than having a constant 15% throughout the entire game. Not only does this allow Volibear to gank much more easily, it also reduces the amount of time it takes for Volibear to move through the map. Essentially, Volibear will now have more effective map control. The second aspect of Volibear's ability is the increased bonus movement speed towards champions. Volibear now has more pressure under turret and in the jungle. Because Volibear is able to chase a champion much more easily, the bear would have more time to slay an enemy before disengaging. Finally, perhaps the most important part of the upgrade to Volibear's Q is the better disengage due to decaying movement speed. For example, if Volibear wanted to back off after facing a counter gank from the opposing jungler, the champion would be able to quickly move away from the target. Another benefit to consider is the bonus movement speed's sustain. Before, when Volibear wanted to dodge a skillshot without losing tempo, it wouldn't be possible; whereas, now, Volibear is able to continue chasing even while moving around obstacles. While Volibear's Q seems significantly stronger on paper, it is less noticeable until the ability is completely maxed out. Furthermore, most summoner's max out the ability last. However, the highest win % skill order is when Q is maxed out first. Clearly, this buff has given Volibear a strong influence on the outcome of the game.

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Next, let's discuss the upgrade to Volibear's Frenzy. Frenzy's passive increases Volibear's attack speed and can stack up to three times. Its active deals damage based on the enemy's missing health. The attack speed can help lower the enemy's HP more rapidly. Timing the skill at the correct time, at the correct amount of health, can secure the kill for the team. The cooldown reduction on minions or monsters means that it can be used to clear jungle camps faster and not be afraid that the skill won't come up in time.

In the previous two abilities, it seems that Volibear has only become stronger in terms of scaling. The new knockback effect on Majestic Roar is extremely short in duration, but it guarantees a proc on the rune Aftershock. When an enemy champion is CCed, Volibear is able to obtain a massive increase in tanking ability and in damage, making him extremely threatening in 1v1 situations. Prior to this effect, the only way for Volibear to proc the effect is through Rolling Thunder. The first benefit is that Aftershock can be procced more frequently. By being able to cast both Rolling Thunder and Majestic Roar, the champion is also able to CC the enemy for a longer duration of time. Furthermore, knockbacks are a form of hard CC, meaning the ability can restrict movement better than other forms of CC. Finally to top off the bonus strength is the bonus damage on dashing or airborne champions. The skill is extremely effective against champions such as Shen that may require more damage in 1v1 situations. The ability also could finish off a champion that is trying to escape such as Tristana. If Tristana tries to jump away, the additional damage may be enough to take out the champion or at least force her to back away.

Volibear's Fatal Flaws

Judging whether or not Volibear is a competitive champion wouldn't be fair without taking a look at his weaknesses and how they could potentially affect his gameplay. More importantly, the strengths and the weaknesses must be weighed against each other to determine how stable of a jungler Volibear could become.

Volibear doesn't really have any type of escape ability other than his Q. For example, if the opposing jungler collapses and the opposing mid laner flanks Volibear from the side while Volibear is farming or counter jungling, Volibear is most likely unable to escape early game, even after his buffs. One way to cope with this issue is by creating vision. Whether it's by killing scuttle crabs or it's by constantly warding, having vision and tracking where enemies may be will become a key element to master in order to avoid being caught.

Volibear is also still relatively easy to kite. The opposing laner could easily hinder Volibear's ability to farm by consistently counter jungling with a ranged jungler. The end result would be an uneffective bruiser late game. Instead of being the one that is sought after, Volibear players should try to invade the enemy jungler. Typically, a jungler that has the ability to kite, including Kindred, is extremely squishy in the early game. Taking advantage of those situations will put Volibear ahead and, as a result, prevent the enemy jungler from hindering Volibear's jungle pathing. Another possible way to cope is by counterganking. Jungle champions with kiting capabilities typically do not have the strongest ganks. By counterganking, Volibear could turn a losing situation to a favorable one.

A Champion on the Rise

Now let's look at some statistics to see how viable the champion is now overall.

Image Courtesy of champion.gg

As we can see, before Patch 8.4, Volibear has been performing far below par against other junglers. As soon as the new patch was released, the win rate drastically shot up. Some may argue that the high win rate is due to the need to adapt. However, even after the release of Patch 8.5 in which Volibear was slightly nerfed, he is still performing better than the average jungler. The win ratio is most likely not skewed as Volibear is played far more than the average jungler. As the number of data points increases, the less variance there is from from the true ratio. We can conclude that Volibear is a champion to watch out for. The amount the champion is played suggests that most have faced against the champion or have played the champion and have received the expected results. Many junglers are likely taking advantage of the state of the game.

The current stage of the meta involves champions either focusing on damage or on health. Volibear, as a bruiser, is a perfect fit for these types of situations. Volibear's capability to quickly eliminate the damage threat provides a lot of value in teamfights. Typically, teamfights only last as long as the carries do. Not only can Volibear reach deep into the backline to engage on the damage dealer, he's also tanky and able to soak up massive damage. Volibear's passive, recovering health in a brief period of time, gives him serious sustain in team fights. That being said, even if Volibear is unable to get to the backline, he can still offer enough health and CC to give his team time to deal damage.

Conclusion

All in all, Volibear's strength in the current meta is difficult to deny. Drafting is still important. Volibear's buff does not guarantee a win in an unfavorable match-up against a champion like Nunu. When being counterpicked, make sure to think of a plan beforehand to avoid some of the drawbacks in laning, team fights, or objective control. Unfortunately, soon, Volibear is likely to face some massive nerfs due to its current success rate. Riot Games has a pattern of buffing a champion a massive amount, then they make adjustments to balance out the champion with others. I encourage all summoners to try this champion out to reap its benefits before the power is toned down.

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