Doubt it, he loves that bear too much.

I wouldn't say I'm particularly good with him but I won more times than lost. I built him mostly tank with some DPS. Attack speed, CDR and armor runes. I max his W which does the most damage both from autoattacks and from the active, which incidentally also increases the damage of his ult. I usually play him following or leading someone else who can take advantage of my initiation. He's great for defending (E frightens capping minions giving Thunder Claws enough time to kill them before your cap is neutralized) and I usually build health and armor/MR depending on the enemy team, except I always build Ionian boots and Brutalizer for just that bit of extra damage and cooldown. Don't bother with AP to boost your ult or E; Attack Speed is far more effective.

Watch the summoner showcase. I took Phreak's advice and seem to do well more often than not.

Start with giants belt.

Built Ionians. (should max cdr with 10% masteries 15% cdr@18 runes)

Then 4 more giants belts.

Upgrade giants belts.

Voli has a really strong early game with frenzy. Also, ban Vayne if your team can't pick her.

CDR Boots
Wit's End
Frozen Mallet
Atma's Impaler
Sunfire Cape
Stark's Fervor

This build allows him to do respectable damage and soak quite a bit. Its best if you are the off-tank though. Let someone else be the real tank. Rammus is your best friend. Taunt->Flip enemy into team->profit

Fight in the jungle. Tell your team to help you fight in there, so kiting him is very very difficult. You should be fighting most of the time in the jungle anyways since you get the speed shrine buff. Volibear is a very strong melee fighter, because of this I also suggest to use Q not to be used initially to engage but to prevent escapes, and your E after Q for the slow. Use your W often, it might be on a fairly high CD but it hurts and given the nature of Voli's build fights last rather long.

Current Match Histories:

Taenaryn: Hasn't played VB once

Chingmeister: Hasn't played VB once

Stimuz: Hasn't played VB once

Darmival: Hasn't played VB once...

Forestgreen02: Hasn't played VB once...

I appreciate the feedback but it would really carry a lot more weight if he was your main...


Speaking of which, FDru still only has one round with VB in his current match history and he didn't place in the top three... He seems to have moved onto Nasus...

Ionic Spark
Berserker's Greaves
Phage(build Frozen Mallet or Trinity force last depending on the game)
Randuin's Omen
Spirit Visage
Force of Nature or Stark's Fervor(depending on the game)

Don't level Majestic Roar until you have to instead put the points in Frenzy THEN Rolling Thunder
you phage and omen should slow enough in the early game.
Switch the boots for Ionian Boots of Lucidity or Mercury's Treads when the game calls for it.
Take the Greater Relics whenever possible... it stacks with your ult and ionic spark nicely. For materies i rock a 9/21/0 build for runes i go attack speed attack damage armor pen and health its up to you how you mix that up.
i would go ghost and surge but that is just me (only pop surge with your ult!!!!)
here is how it will look in the end.


http://leaguecraft.com/builder/Volibear/?items=124,83,105,87,28,36&runes=36,36,36,36,36,36 ,36,36,36,32,32,32,32,32,32,32,32,32,57,57,57,57,5 7,57,57,57,57,384,384,384&masteries=13004000100000 00001304321000033010000000000000000&level=18

Volibear isn't a good solo queue champ, in my experience. His weaknesses really stand out when you don't have a good team. One of his main problems is that he is guaranteed to die in unfavorable matchups due to no escape (E is pretty gimpy, to say the least, and it's only effective against melee and does nothing against melee with instant gap closers). You can do some funky jukes with Rolling Thunder and bushes but 9 times out of 10 if you get in a fight you can't win you're going to die. If you have a team that can't follow up on initiations you're going to get focused and die.

He has a hard time dealing with lifesteal/spellvamp due to favoring HP stacking over resists. Building straight resists significantly weakens his passive, autoattack (with atma's) and execute damage, and since sustain stats are extremely popular in Dominion this puts him in a bad spot.

The lack of a big straight up HP item in Dominion hurts him also, since that is his most important stat (if we ever get that Warmog's replacement I'm sure it will help him very much).

He needs CDR but usually can't afford to build CDR boots (mercs waaaaaay too important), which makes it difficult or impossible to max. Shurelya's is the only good HP + CDR item and it frankly isn't a very good item in Dominion since it has lots of wasted stats. Your only other good option is Frozen Heart with tons of useless mana (it's impossible to run out of mana on Volibear, impossible) and no HP at all, and you really want to limit your non-HP items.

It doesn't help that his Q gives him no speed boost half the time (mostly when chasing a target around corners). It seems to not just require sight of the target, but also no collision blockers between him and the target... or something. I can't say for sure what makes it do absolutely nothing but it happens constantly, and it's very frustrating to put yourself out of position for nothing. Even when it does work, you won't catch up to any ranged champ with a Rylai's / Phage / Triforce / Mallet / ranged snare of any kind, even if that just means Gangplank spamming Parrrley with his weak passive. Move speed quints and initiator mastery do not help. It's really quite sad.

That said, he's still one of my favorite champs to play and he's a strong pick against certain teams. Mainly melee heavy AD teams since his build becomes a lot simpler (you want Atma's and mallet on him almost always, and armor+hp tank items work well with him) and he won't be kited all over the place. He's great when paired with a good initiator, like Singed or Alistar or Blitz for the double repositioning (it's hilarious when you catch someone as Singed + Volibear.. they aren't going anywhere). With Ionic Spark + Surge + ult he puts out ridiculous damage in small teamfights against other melees.

Basically, pick him against teams of bruisers or if you have a decent, well-balanced team with people you know aren't retarded. Avoid him otherwise... especially if the other team has Vayne or WW who will make your life hell (Kog is another hard counter but Kog has no escape and can pretty much be insta-killed, but if he has a good tank or two watching his back he is a real problem).