I have no idea how or why the whole “Armored Bear” thing got started on the forums, but it spawned a new, non-humanoid champ and for that I’m happy. I love to see some design variety in the champions, and big bear that runs people down is a nice change of pace. As you might have guessed, Volibear is nearly the definition of Tanky DPS, bringing huge damage the more health you build on him. It’s not a terrible thing for the way his skills deal damage, but it definitely needs a numbers tweak.

In his current form, Volibear relies almost exclusively on Frenzy for his basic damage output. The skill passively increases his attack speed with each swing and provides a targeted nuke after three attacks. That nuke scales with Volibear’s bonus HP and has an execute component as well. The skill is on a long cooldown because it deals some insane damage. I’ve seen numbers as high as 550 before the execute damage before level 11. That’s awfully early to see such a large nuke.

Volibear does well if he can get ahead, which isn’t too hard in a lot of cases. I haven’t been able to play him in every lane just yet, but I’ve played against a couple strong duo teams bot. Volibear’s charge is enough of a threat to zone out most opponents, and his fling can net an early kill or two.

I don’t want to say much more about Volibear without spending a bit more time with him. I did have a few enjoyable games with him today, though he feels a little too cooldown reliant for my tastes. How has he been treating you?