Champion Dissection: Vayne, The Night Hunter

Vayne, The Night Hunter

Champion Dissection

Vayne is arguably the highest single DPS AD carry in League of Legends. In this post, we’re going to break down her kit in terms of Mechanics, Gameplay, and Theme (Theme is actually important in terms of how a champion feels and is presented, and shapes their kit pretty significantly). 


Let’s start by going over her role in a team and her theme: Vayne fills the role of AD carry, with a high amount of single target damage (above the level of other AD Carries), and exceptional chasing ability. Vaynes theme is that of witch hunter and destroyer of evil. Now let’s see how her kit enables her role and fits her theme.

Passive: Night Hunter

• Mechanics: Vayne's passive gives her 40 bonus MS when moving towards a visible enemy. Stealthed enemies, enemies in brush, or enemies out of sight for whatever reason do not 'proc' this passive.

• Gameplay: Night Hunter makes Vayne an exceptional chaser, and gives her fairly higher mobility in fights where she can be aggressive. Note that Vayne's passive is worthless for running away (unless you happen to be running AT an enemy to get away from others), so it is primarily an aggressive passive.

• Theme: Vayne's passive fits her 'hunter of evil persona' excellently. Her phrase ‘you cannot escape me’ is the epitome of this Passives feel, and you really do feel this passive when you're chasing someone down for the kill.

Q Ability: Tumble

• Mechanics: Upon activation, Vayne tumbles towards the cursor, travelling a short distance. At the end of this Tumble, Vayne gains increased attack damage (% increase) for her next auto attack.

• Gameplay: Tumble provides not only significant burst (with high enough AD), but increased damage over time, and mobility (which means better chasing, running, positioning). So not only does this skill do everything every AD carry might want, it is also more effective when used aggressively. Tumble cools down whenever Vayne uses the attack buff. This means that when tumbling away from someone (and not attacking), the cooldown is 6 seconds longer, whereas if you had auto attacked, you’d be able to tumble much sooner.

• Theme: Tumble furthers Vaynes persona. She can use this ability with an incredible amount of utility, which is what one would expect from someone who must adapt to destroy any evil she finds.

W Ability: Silver Bolts

• Mechanics: Silver bolts is extremely simple in a mechanical sense. Attack (or use abilities on) the same target three times, bonus % true damage occurs.

• Gameplay: Silver Bolts is not only immensely powerful, but incredibly fun as well. The reason for the power is that percentage true damage which scales on enemy health is strong no matter how you look at it. The fun comes from the feel of the ability. You WANT to hit that person three times, you want to do it as quickly as possible, and when you DO do it, you’re rewarded with not only a satisfying particle and sound, but a chunk of enemy health disappearing.

• Theme: Vayne's Silver Bolts fits fairly well, but mostly due to the ‘flavor’ of the ability. It’s the explanation of why the ability ‘works’ that makes it fit. Using silver to slay evil? Perfect.

E Ability: Condemn

• Mechanics: Condemn is a targeted spell, which causes the targeted enemy to take physical damage, and be knocked back. If knocked into a wall (or other such terrain), they take bonus physical damage and are stunned.

• Gameplay: Condemn brings arguably the most fun part of Vayne's kit. It has a slightly lesser amount of utility as her Q, but the reward for landing a successful Condemn is much more satisfying than a tumble. This is because the feeling of pinning an enemy to a wall is amazing, and in many situations, it’s a fight changer (especially in a duel).

• Theme: Thematically, Condemn still fits Vayne. Crossbow-ing the evil dude to the wall with a bolt is the epitome of evil hunting badassery, and condemn captures this feel perfectly.

Ultimate: Final Hour

• Mechanics: This ‘merely’ gives Vayne an AD steroid, stealth when she tumbles, and makes her passive more effective. Pretty plain in terms of function.

• Gameplay: However, the game-play associated with this ultimate is huge. The ‘boring’ mechanics generate a huge impact on how you play. Vayne’s ultimate is full on offense. You CAN use the stealth to potentially escape an opponent or gank, but it fully complements sheer offense. Everything it gives Vayne is for offense, and Vayne's ultimate quickly lets her catch and demolish most opponents one on one.

• Theme: This is an amazing ability thematically, and it's all because of how the ultimate is communicated. Vayne is done playing around when you press that R button. She puts away the kiddie crossbow, and pulls out the crossbow she uses to PIN PEOPLE TO THE WALL, and just goes to town on you. If the particles and animations conveyed something less intense, this ability might feel boring to use. However, the sheer visual thrill you get pushing that R key means that you really feel the mostly passive power she gains.

So, we see that Vayne is scary and awesome. What stats does she want? Much like all AD carries, she wants the Holy Trinity of AD, Attack Speed, and Crit. These stats synergize with her kit as well (AD benefits Q and E; AS benefit Q, W, and R; Crit benefits Q and R). What else might a Vayne want? Lifesteal, enough survivability to go toe to toe with your targets (lifesteal, defensive stats, etc), cooldown if you really want to tumble every second. For the most part though, Vayne is extremely happy with just the Holy Trinity (and even a trinity force if that’s your thing) and lifesteal.



I do want to go over briefly how to get the most out of your Vayne play with a few tips:

• All of Vayne’s kit is geared towards being aggressive, so keep that in your mind.
• Tumble > Condemn > Auto Attack is a scary amount of burst early game (especially if you have any bonus AD) and will cause a lot of people to flee from you despite the fact that you won’t be able to do that again for 10+ seconds.
• Vayne’s power (in duels) peaks at level 3 when she gets one point in each ability, and again at 6 when she gets her ultimate. Vayne can easily win many engagements at level 6 (especially if you land a tumble > condemn into wall with that ultimate on).
• Vayne’s Silver Bolts is not your major source of damage against anyone. It IS effective and nice against everyone, but her physical damage outclasses it severely. Do not get attack speed as your first main item purchase, get a BF item. Please.
• If you’re equivalently geared to the enemy AD carry, you can probably take them in a duel in most cases, so don’t be afraid to Rambo the enemy carry if you catch them all alone.
• A justification for potential Tri-force. It’s on-hit syncs perfectly with Tumble, it gives mobility via movespeed, it gives a (potential) slow for kiting, and there are zero wasted stats. It’s not the most optimal item, but it gives solid stats and utility.