Bel'Veth, the Empress of the Void, is the newest addition to the ever-expanding League of Legends roster of Champions, and she's a real beast both figuratively and literally (or at least the lore alludes to this). At her core, Bel'Veth is designed to be a jungler, as her main scaling potential is tied to killing Large Monsters and enemy Champions to build endless amounts of Attack Speed.
This doesn't mean she can't be played in other lanes in League of Legends' iconic Summoner's Rift, as she can even work pretty well as a Top Laner, but Bel'Veth was "made" for jungling and can completely carry a game depending on her build, similar to Gwen. In any case, both her abilities and build potential are pretty unique, so let's go over some of the most popular and battle-tested builds for this Voidling right now, how they interact with Bel'Veth's Runes, and Abilities, and why they work best overall. Though be forewarned, a nerf is surely incoming for this Champ since Riot does this often.
How Does Bel'Veth Work?
Before diving deep into Bel'Veth's builds, let's talk a bit about how this Champion plays and where her strong suits are. To put it simply, Bel'Veth has four standard Abilities, with two specific ones that have pretty unique mechanics compared to all the other Champs.
But, at her core, Bel'Veth is an auto-attacker. She has no Attack Speed cap by design and a Passive (Death in Lavender) that allows her to gain Attack Speed to an infinite degree by farming Jungle Camps and enemy Champs, so by the end of the game, this manta ray-esque Champion should be slapping enemies at Mach speed (which seems to counteract Riot's recent "slow it down" attitude). With that in mind, most Bel'Veth builds tend to focus around this Attack Speed with items that deal additional damage per auto-attack or just Life Steal items that let her regain most of her health in a single minion wave.
Bel'Veth's Runes
So far, there have been a couple of different configurations players have "sworn by" for Bel'Veth's Runes. And, while the secondary choices can differ, all of them have Precision as the primary Rune set. As far as which specific Runes to pick, there are:
- Lethal Tempo or Conqueror as the Keystone. Lethal Tempo allows Bel'Veth to build up Attack Speed faster in combat while Conqueror increases her overall damage with auto-attacks.
- The next line down has Triumph as the only "real" option as the other two don't really apply to Bel'Veth's strengths.
- For the third line, any of the Legend-type sub Runes work here, though most players tend to gravitate towards Alacrity or Tenacity over Bloodline
- Fourth has Last Stand as the option of choice, though any of the three options here can work pretty well.
- And of course for the Offense, Flex, and Defense Runes players go for Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, and Armor.
As for the Secondary Rune Set to run, players seem to be a bit conflicted between Inspiration and Resolve, with Inspiration being just a bit more popular with higher-ranked players. As for what choices people should make in either of these Secondaries, it looks something like this:
-
Inspiration:
- Magical Footwear
- Cosmic insight
-
Resolve:
- Bone Plating
- Revitalize
Which Abilities To Level First?
The final thing to go over before talking about Bel'Veth's Item Builds is her abilities and what order to level them in. Since Bel'Veth's bread-and-butter is her auto-attacks, which ability best helps her to auto-attack the most? Of course, it's her Q, Void Surge, which allows her to close the distance between herself and the enemy, so max this by level 9.
Then, after the Q, players should probably level the E, Royal Maelstrom, and max it around level 13 as it needs the scaled Life Steal to help Bel'Veth survive in team fights and the added damage can help her execute anyone low. Of course, in between all this, players should already know to grab her Ultimate, Endless Banquet, at 6 and level it more at levels 11 and 16. Last up is her W, Above and Below, which is an incredible ability but one that isn't quite as necessary for juggling as the other two. In short, level the abilities in this order:
- Void Surge (Q)
- Royal Maelstrom (E)
- Above and Below (W)
- Endless Banquet (R)
Bel'Veth's Builds
Now, let's finally talk about how Bel'Veth is built in a standard Summoner's Rift game. As previously stated, Bel'Veth is a Champion that benefits greatly from items that give additional effects on-hit.
And, while they might sound like a lot of potential builds, Bel'Veth actually has a surprisingly low number of unique builds, they mostly just come down to different configurations of the same items with some situational options replacing others depending on who the other team has. The typical build for Bel'Veth looks something like this:
- Emberknife + Refill Potion start then Kraken Slayer for the Mythic Item.
- Rush either Mercury's Treads or Plated Steelcaps depending on the ADCs and CC of the enemy team.
- Rush Blade of the Ruined King as fast as possible for the damage and Life Steal.
- Then from there, players either build Death's Dance or Guinsoo's Rageblade depending on if they need more Attack Speed or Attack Damage.
- The fifth complete item is whatever they didn't build for their fourth item above.
- And for the last item, the builds cycle between Wit's End, Guardian's Angel, or Spirit Visage, depending on how much Bel'Veth is carrying in the current game and how much AP damage the other team has.
Of course, there are other items that players can switch in or out of the core build relatively well compared to this "default" build, such as:
- Immortal Shieldbow is a great alternative Mythic choice as it gives earlier Lifesteal and a Shield at low health.
- Titanic Hydra works as a late-game item if the player is focused more as a Bruiser than a Carry, even more so if the team fights tend to happen in a small area.
- Quicksilver Sash is always a nice alternative option for hard counter CC like Malzahar's Ultimate.
- There's even an AP build that works for Bel'Veth as well that includes a Riftmaker Mythic, Guinsoo's into Nashor's Tooth, then Rabadon's Deathcap before ending the build with Zhonya's Hourglass.
Which Builds Are The Best For Summoner's Rift? How About ARAM?
Let's talk a bit more about why this previously leaked Champion is built this way and which variations work best if any when she's played in ARAM.
In the All-Random-All-Mid mode on the Howling Abyss (a map that desperately needs more lore exploration) Bel'Veth is actually still pretty decent. Sure, she doesn't have access to the extended duration of her True Form since that requires Rift Herald or Baron, but she can still transform off of the Void Coral left behind from Champion Takedowns. Plus, the Riot Team balanced her a bit for the mode by having Void Coral drop from destroyed Towers and giving her the ability to build her Passive Attack Speed off of Cannon Minions.
What's even funnier is that AP Bel'Veth using Riftmaker actually works pretty amazingly well in ARAM as it allows her to deal big bursts of damage with her abilities (especially her W) instead of having to rely on initiating and forcing fights in a mode where Ranged Carries reign supreme. Of course, her normal build also works pretty well, it just involves a bit more of an "all-in" playstyle and incorporates Spirit Visage and Bloodthirster near the end of the build rather than Guardian's Angel (can't be built in ARAM anyway) or Guinsoo's Rageblade.
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