Introduction
Today we will discuss on everything you need to know about Vex Guide, a for League of Legends a Riot game.
Did you ever struggle counter mid-lane assassins in season 12?
If the answer to any of those two questions is yes then you need to read through because I may have some insights that may help you out.
My goal is to help you climb in League of Legends and win more games.
I have been playing League of Legends Summoners rift since season 7. During that time I have played all roles of the game with particular focus mid and top. I have been able to easily reach high gold elo since the beginning of playing the game and have peaked to Platinum in several seasons. I have played in NA, EUW and EUNE servers. My main account is in EUW.Without going into the details of each we are going to break down each of those but first lets begin.
Vex is League of Legends’ newest Champion. Some players see Vex as a gothic-Annie with a skill shot, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Vex has more options and devastating ability combos when piloted correctly that can even unleash her power from thousands of units away!
In this Vex guide, not only will you learn how to play Vex, but how to pilot her in plenty of unique scenarios with the knowledge of very important interactions that exist. Since Vex is still new in League of Legends, knowing these minute interactions before anyone else does will drastically increase your chances of abusing enemies’ ignorance. Let’s start with the basic rundown of her abilities.
Abilities
Passive – Doom ‘n Gloom
Description: DOOM: Vex will gain Doom periodically, causing her next basic ability to interrupt dashes and fear them for a short duration.
GLOOM: When enemies dash or blink nearby, or are hit by ‘Looming Darkness’, they will be marked with Gloom for a short period. Vex’s next basic attack will consume Gloom and refund a significant portion of Doom’s cooldown.
Vex’s Doom ‘n Gloom Passive Bar
Basic Uses and Tips
Vex’s Gloom can be activated by basic attacks or abilities and has no cooldown. Thus, Vex should use her Looming Darkness to apply Gloom onto several targets and follow up with another ability to quickly regain Doom. With Gloom not having a cooldown, an enemy like Yasuo that constantly dashes will nearly always have a Gloom mark on them for Vex to take advantage of. Another advantage for Vex over Yasuo, is that the empowered basic attack onto marked enemies is not a projectile. Thus, Yasuo’s Windwall cannot block the basic attacks when he is marked with Gloom.
There are a few important things to keep in mind with Vex’s passive. To mark an enemy with Gloom when they blink/dash, Vex needs to have vision of them. Additionally, those enemies need to start their blink/dash within Vex’s Gloom radius and will not be marked when blinking/dashing into the radius. This is because the mark from Gloom always occurs when the enemy inputs the blink/dash command. Another important mechanic to remember is that when enemies displace themselves (blast cone, etc.) they will be marked with Gloom; if Vex or allies displaces them by hitting the blast cone, etc. the enemy will not be marked.
Advanced Uses and Tips
With Vex’s unique passive, there are a few ways to creatively use this to your advantage (as Vex and against Vex). It’s important to know that enemies will see the Gloom mark on them after they blink/dash and will know that Vex is nearby. Additionally, because Vex needs vision of the start of the enemy’s blink/dash, enemies will know if Vex has vision of them. This means that enemies can also use blinks/dashes in bushes when attempting to gank Vex to quickly tell if the bush is warded!
Finally, when considering Vex’s Doom passive, players must understand that the enemy will always be feared away from the center of the ability used to fear them. Vex can use this to creatively direct enemy movements towards her allies to ensure the enemy’s fate is sealed. With that in mind, the further Vex is from the enemy, the more movement speed the enemy will lose when feared. This is important to know because even if Vex fears an enemy while they attempt to run from her, they will be slowed more significantly and make it easier for Vex to catch them.
Q – Mistral Bolt
Description: When cast, Vex throws a skill shot that travels slowly at first, then accelerates after a certain distance.
Basic Uses and Tips
Vex should prioritize maxing her Mistral Bolt first. Mistral Bolt is Vex’s primary ability for wave clear and maxing it will drastically reduce its cooldown. With its slow animation, Vex should primarily use it to wave clear, and potentially poke enemies through the wave for more value (think of it like Lucian Q). Vex should avoid using this ability just to poke because of its slow animation. The best chance to hit the ability for poke is when the enemy is stopping to last hit a minion. The best time is when the enemy is attempting to last hit the cannon specifically, as it is the most desirable. To increase the range of Mistral Bolt, Vex can flash during the cast time to surprise the enemy with an extended range.
Advanced Uses and Tips
Advanced Vex players will know that they can use Mistral Bolt to check for enemy presence in bushes. The Mistral Bolt makes a slightly louder sound when it hits an enemy, so it takes some time to get a hang of, but it is there! Another advanced mechanic for Vex is to use the Mistral Bolt animation to hide the skill shot of Shadow Surge!
W – Personal Space
Description: When cast, Vex gains a shield for a short duration and deals damage to enemies within the ability’s radius.
Basic Uses and Tips
Vex’s ability Personal Space is quite simple to understand. The primary advice for newer Vex players is to remember that Personal Space is Vex’s best ability to escape ganks. With its higher cooldown, it’s important to only use it when required.
Advanced Uses and Tips
Advanced Vex players will also know that Vex can use Personal Space to check bushes like with Mistral Bolt! If Vex hits an enemy with Personal Space, the location will show a dust-like particle animation in the fog-of-war indicating the enemy’s location.
E – Looming Darkness
Description: When cast, Vex will target a small area in the shape of a circle to slow enemies hit for a short duration and deal damage after a short animation.
Basic Uses and Tips
A basic strategy for Vex is to use Looming Darkness on minions after activating Doom. My marking the minions with Gloom, Vex can quickly regain Doom. If the enemy is not paying attention, Vex can take advantage and look to trade again. A small mechanic that is important to know because it is counter-intuitive, is that Looming Darkness is blocked by Windwall and similar abilities. Although the ability doesn’t look like a skill shot, Vex’s shadow travels to the location to generate the ability, and thus, the Windwall will block the shadow’s travel.
Advanced Uses and Tips
An advanced mechanic to remember is that the fear direction is always going to be away from the center of the ability. Many players think this works like Orianna’s Command: Shockwave, but it does not! Orianna’s Command: Shockwave will send the enemy towards the center of the ability a fixed distance.
R – Shadow Surge
Description: When cast, Vex sends her Shadow in a target direction marking the first enemy Champion hit for a short period. When marked, the ability can be recast to pull Vex to the marked target, consuming the mark and dealing damage. If the marked target dies within a brief period of being hit by Shadow Surge, Vex can cast the ability again with no cost within a brief time.
Basic Uses and Tips
Vex’s ultimate ability Shadow Surge is crucial to master if any player hopes to maximize her potential. As such, it’s important to discuss all the intricacies involved in this ability. First, the first use of Shadow Surge will travel through all enemies and deal damage until it connects with a Champion. While traveling, Shadow Surge provides a significant radius of vision and will not trigger Gloom. As a result of the incredible range of this ability, Vex can roam and engage from a distance with relative ease. If enemies do not see her casting this ability, there is a good chance they will not have the time to react to dodge it by the time it shows up on their screen. When reactivating the ability, Vex cannot be crowd-controlled, but she can take damage and use actives on her items. The best form of engage as Vex is to use the second activation to place herself in the middle of the enemies, then use Personal Space when Doom is ready to trigger an area-of-effect fear.
Advanced Uses and Tips
Advanced Vex players will use Flash during the first cast to create odd animations to trick opponents. Vex can use this trick to hide the direction the ability is travelling in, and even blink forward when using flash to extend the range. If Vex ever regrets the second activation of her ultimate, she can use Flash or any displacing spells/items to cancel the ability. An interesting mechanic to use with Vex is to use the first activation of Shadow Surge, immediately recall (if empowered with Rift Herald or Baron), buy an item at base, and then activate the second part of the ability to travel back to the enemy in lane.
Playstyle
Vex’s Looming Darkness Can Fear Four Then Follow Up to Regain Doom ‘n Gloom
Early Game
As Vex, the early game is very important. Vex must use her strengths to generate priority over her lane by shoving in waves and harassing enemies when they attempt to engage (with fear). The only major risk to her laning is her lack of escape, so use time between waves to ward. Once Vex has access to more abilities and items, she can roam to other lanes to apply pressure. While her roams are more effective when she is level six, it’s not required to be successful. When she is level six however, she can roam much faster if she uses Shadow Surge to engage. If Vex plans to do this, she must be certain the enemies are unaware of her location to make the ability easier to hit. Ideally, Vex will get Oracle Lens early in the game or use a Control Ward to prevent enemy vision.
Vex should start with Looming Darkness at level one and prioritize her Mistral Bolt to max at level nine. Ideally, Vex should have a Lost Chapter and boots when roaming to be more effective.
Mid Game
In the mid game, Vex is still very impactful. Vex should always attempt to roam and influence the map whenever possible. If Vex builds appropriately to adapt to the enemies, she can continue to assert her power. Against tanky enemies, Vex should build Liandry’s as her Mythic Item. Against squishy targets, Vex should build Luden’s. Finally, if the enemy team is a mixture of the two, Vex can instead build Everfrost. Everfrost is the most adaptable in all three scenarios, but the other two will be more useful by the end of the game in their respective circumstances. Vex should always look to partner up with teammates to set up picks onto isolated enemies, and make sure to use her Doom passive effectively in skirmishes as it can single-handedly turn the fight.
Late Game
In the late game, Vex must play the fight carefully. If enemies can get onto her, she will have a lot of difficulty doing her job. Luckily, if she has Doom available, engaging enemies can be easily countered and even baited by her mis-positioning. Otherwise, Vex should look to follow up on her team’s engage with her Shadow Surge into Personal Space combo to get a massive fear, or precisely snipe and execute enemies with her Shadow Surge resets.
Vex Shrugs Off Her Enemies
Combos
The best level 1 trading combo is:
Basic Attack, Looming Darkness, Basic Attack (empowered and activating Electrocute)
From level 2-5, the best short trade is:
Looming Darkness (fear), Mistral Bolt (triggering mark), Basic Attack (activating Electrocute), and Personal Space for more damage or to shield against enemy trade
The best all-in combo from level 2-5 is:
Flash, Personal Space (fear), Looming Darkness, Mistral Bolt (trigger mark and activate Electrocute), Basic Attack, and Ignite (if needed).
The best combo to dive a tower is:
Looming Darkness (fear), Personal Space (activate mark), Basic Attack (Electrocute), Mistral Bolt, Shadow Surge, Shadow Surge dash, Ignite (if needed), Flash (out of range, if needed).
If multiple enemies are bunched, Vex can fear them twice:
Flash (into all enemies), Looming Darkness (fear), Personal Space (triggering all marks of Gloom), Mistral Bolt (will fear again).
The most advanced team fighting combo on Vex is:
Shadow Surge, Flash (during Shadow Surge animation to hit the backline), Shadow Surge dash, Everfrost (frontline while dashing), Mistral Bolt (backline target to fear and trigger Electrocute), Looming Darkness (backline), Personal Space (both front and backline to trigger marks and get second fear, killing backline target), Shadow Surge (front line), Shadow Surge dash.
Conclusion
If you found this Vex Guide useful and you think it may have helped you please drop me a cheer below I would appreciate it.
Overall, Vex is clearly a very potent Champion right now. Although she doesn’t require much mechanical skill, her being the newest Champion means there will be a significant period where people will not fully understand how she works or how to play against her. Understanding the small intricacies and interactions that other players will not know can be a huge advantage in every game if piloted correctly. Use these tips and tricks to get a solid grasp of how to efficiently pilot Vex and instill real fear in the enemies whenever they see Vex on screen!
If you have any questions, comments please post them below I check periodically and try to answer them in the priority they come in.
Also if you have any corrections please do let me know and I’ll update the article with new updates or mistakes I did.
Which is your favorite Vex counter?
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