
Viego the ruined king is a really interesting champion seeing as to how he turns to enemy champions and gains their abilities when he kills them. He literally wields the blade of the ruined king which we all know is an item in league of legends. Riot Games also expanded the lore with his arrival to league of legends. In this guide, we will show you how to play him in patch 12.16
Best Viego Build
Viego jungle is a tanky bruiser that has lots of healing and attack speed. Viego can deal physical damage to enemy champions and gain bonus damage depending on how high the HP of the enemy is. Because of this, he should rush building the item he already wields, the ruined king blade if that makes sense. With this as his first item, he gains bonus attack speed and even Movement speed after he procs the effect. But before we get to the best items here are the best Viego runes in patch 12.16.

Best Viego runes
The best runes for Viego jungle start with a Conqueror keystone. Viego excels at extended fights because of his passive. The longer he fights, the better he can stack Conqueror and gain its full stack passive that lets him deal more damage and heal.
Best Rune Path | Precision ![]() | Inspiration ![]() |
Best Keystone | Conqueror ![]() | |
Best Slot 1 (Rune) | Triumph ![]() | Magical Footwear ![]() |
Best Slot 2 (Rune) | Legend: Alacrity ![]() | Cosmic Insight ![]() |
Best Slot 3 (Rune) | Coup de Grace ![]() |
Legend Alacrity increases Viego's damage output seeing as how he is very reliant on his basic attacks, the more attack speed the faster he can kill tank Champions. Coup de Grace is his finishing damage usually activated by the burst damage from his ultimate.
Taking Magical Footwear allows you to gain a huge gold efficieny as you will gain boots even if you don't buy one. The more offensive items you buy in the early game will allow you to take over the opposing jungler's camps.
Best Viego Rune Shards
Viego is built like an ADC when it comes to rune shards. The best Viego runes to take on Viego are +10 attack speed on offense, +9 Adaptive Force on Flex, and +6 armor on Defense to mitigate the damage of jungle monsters.
Best Rune Shards | Effect |
Offense ![]() | +10% Attack Speed |
Flex ![]() | +9 Adaptive Force |
Defense ![]() | +6 Armor |
Best Viego Spells
Summoner spells on VIego is pretty basic, he is a jungler so smite is a given. Flash can also be used to instantly stun your enemy when combined with Viego W Spectral Maw. You should not forget to change your summoner spells during the pick and ban phase if you are a jungler.
Best Spells | Icon |
Flash | ![]() |
Smite | ![]() |

Best Viego Abilities Order
In Viego's skill order, you should max your Q ability Blade of the ruined king first. This has a really low cooldown and can be used to cancel animations. Viego jungle should also max E next as this will be your main ganking ability.

You can channel your Viego W Spectral Maw while inside the mist and not break your invisibility and the first champion hit by this ability will be stunned.
Best Viego Items
This Viego build prioritizes Blade of the ruined king as a rush item. So this should be your first complete item as well as the first in skill order. The Viego runes in this build also synergize with this item so well that the next items you should build will be defensive items.
Best Starter Viego Items
Viego jungle plays with a challenging smite leaning towards a tankier but can still deal damage with his basic attacks and ability. Challenging smite also allows you to invade the enemy jungle as this will make you really tanky in a 1v1 situation. Refillable potion completes the starting items of Viego.
First Item | Second Item |
Ember Knife ![]() | Refillable Potion ![]() |
Best Mid Game Viego Items
The starting items really don't bring out the best in Viego but once he builds blade of the ruined king, he can now start clearing the jungle camps really fast. Divine Sunderer improves his damage and also gives him tons of healing. But if you need to deal true damage, Kraken slayer is also a great substitute for Mythic items.
First Item | Second Item | Third Item |
Blade of the Ruined King ![]() | Plated Steelcaps ![]() | Divine Sunderer ![]() |
You can also substitute Mercury's Treads as your boots if there are lots of crowd control abilities and no magic penetration on the opposing team. These items guarantee to give you the best performance when going on early to mid-game skirmishes and objective clearing.

Best Final Late Game Viego Items
You can see that other Viego guides will also feature this item because of its value on Viego. Death's dance allows Viego to fight longer during team fights because of its unique passive and defensive stats. Guardian angel also synergizes with Conqueror as it allows Viego to fight much longer.
First Item | Second Item | Third Item | Fourth Item | Fifth Item | Sixth Item |
Blade of the Ruined King ![]() | Plated Steelcaps ![]() | Divine Sunderer ![]() | Death’s Dance ![]() | Sterak’s Gage ![]() | Guardian Angel ![]() |
In league of legends, it's not all about how much damage you can dish out, it is also about countering the enemy and avoiding deaths while killing the enemies. That is why we are so focused on building balance on defensive and offensive stats on Viego and speaking of Balance, Sterak's gage provides that for Viego.
Best Champions to pair Viego with
Viego players really love to play with a Singed as he gives really good initiation for Viego. He can be played in the top lane and whatever lane he plays in, Viego can just farm there. Blade of the Ruined king can also be easily activated especially if enemies are slowed by Singed's W. It is basically a free game if you are partnered with a Singed player.
Champion | Win Rate % | Icon |
Singed | 55.4% | ![]() |
Gragas | 55.4% | ![]() |
Heimerdinger | 54.2% | ![]() |
Strongest Champions against Viego
Viego is easily countered by these opponents for three reasons. His blade of the Ruined King really gets shot down by Rammus' return damage. Elise has much faster clear speed and stronger burst and harrowed path can be easily countered by her W. Warwick also beat him in healing even if he has Blade of the Ruined King.
Champion | Win Rate % | Icon |
Rammus | 59.9% | ![]() |
Elise | 58.1% | ![]() |
Warwick | 56.7% | ![]() |
Weakest Champions Against Viego
The weakest champions against Viego in league of legends are the ones that end their value after an all-in. Viego can survive an all-in assault from these assassins and he can easily out heal their damage. With Guardian Angel and Death's dance, there is almost nothing these assassins can do against Viego no matter how they switch their item builds.
Champion | Win Rate % | Icon |
Zed | 46.4% | ![]() |
Pantheon | 47.7% | ![]() |
Jarvan | 48.6% | ![]() |
When you see Viego get locked in, just don't play Zed or Pantheon against him as they have a negative win rate against him.