Veres — Patch 1.62 Verdict
[Liquipedia RPL: C] Pro play (RPL 2026): 1 picks, 0.0% WR, 0.3% pick/ban rate. Note: pro meta may differ from ranked.
Veres — Warrior Guide
Veres plays like a coiled spring: patient in the buildup, terrifying at the release. Her whole identity orbits stacking Serpent's Blood through autos and ability hits, then unleashing a passive proc that hits for over 250 physical damage in an AoE while life-stealing and resetting her cooldowns. That loop is not a feature of her kit, it is her kit. When she is cycling passive into Q into more autos into passive again, she becomes one of the most self-sufficient fighters in the slayer lane, sustaining through trades that would delete other bruisers and chasing with the 35% movement-speed steroid on proc.
She sits at A tier on the current Thai-server patch, and that rating is earned rather than gifted. Her 0.4% pick rate tells a story: the players who bother to learn her are rewarded, but she asks more of you than most slayer options. You have to respect the four-auto rhythm, know when your W is pulling versus pushing (directional sense is everything), and use Venom during the passive window to extend your Enrage timer meaningfully.
Pick Veres if you want a duel-oriented warrior who can threaten carries in the mid and late game through true-damage ultimates and armor shred, and who rewards mechanical repetition over raw mechanics. She is not for players who want to win by pressing R and hoping.
Strengths
- +Bloody Kiss's lifesteal scaling means Veres can sustain through extended slayer-lane trades that would exhaust almost any other bruiser, especially at low HP where the drain approaches 100%.
- +The double-strand stun on Bloody Fangs provides reliable solo CC that punishes enemies who overcommit near walls or in chokepoints, giving her a real kill threat without needing a setup support.
- +Venom deals true damage scaled off missing HP, letting her cut through tanky targets that itemize armor against her physical damage output.
- +Her passive cooldown reduction on every fourth auto means a fully stacked Serpent's Blood proc can reset Q and W almost immediately, enabling sustained fight pressure that few slayer-lane matchups can answer.
Weaknesses
- −The double-stun on Bloody Fangs requires both strands to connect, which almost never happens in open terrain against mobile heroes, her CC is far less reliable than it looks on paper.
- −Veres has no meaningful gap-closer outside of R's dash and the passive's movement speed buff, so heavy-range poke or kite compositions can prevent her from ever reaching the four-auto threshold safely.
- −Her damage pattern is rhythmic and readable; experienced opponents at Diamond and above will recognize the four-auto buildup and disengage before the passive fires, especially after her first rotation.
- −Enrage's extended 10-second window requires a kill on the R target, meaning if the enemy survives Venom, her threat level drops significantly for several seconds while cooldowns reset.
Abilities
PBloody Kiss
Gain Serpent's Blood on auto attacks. At 4 stacks, deal 250 (+150% AD) physical damage to nearby enemies and drain 10% of damage dealt as HP (increased up to 100% based on missing HP). Reduce cooldowns of abilities 1 and 2 by 1s, and ability 3 by 2s. While this ability is active, Veres gains 35% movement speed and immunity to crowd control.
1Bloody Fangs
Veres' snake splits into 2 lines and strikes, dealing 130 (+70% AD) physical damage and slowing targets by 50% for 2s. If both lines hit the same target, stun them for 1s. Veres gains Serpent's Blood if the attack hits a hero.
2Serpent's Embrace
Veres launches a snake in a straight line, pushing nearby enemies away and pulling distant enemies toward him, applying a brief stun and dealing 100 (+50% AD) physical damage. Veres gains Serpent's Blood for each hero hit.
RVenom
Veres dashes and commands his snake to strike from the ground, dealing 300 (+12(LV+3)) true damage equal to 1% of enemy's missing HP. If hitting a hero, enter Enrage, gaining 30% attack speed, 150 armor, and 15% armor penetration for 4s (10s if enemy dies to this ability). When Bloody Kiss is active, Enrage duration increases by 2s for each hero hit.
How to Use Veres's Kit
Every fourth auto attack is a mini-nuke, treat it like a fifth ability with its own cooldown management. The critical discipline is never wasting the proc: if you're about to hit four stacks, make sure at least one enemy hero is in melee range before you swing, because the AoE damage and lifesteal only matter if you're in their face. At low HP the lifesteal scales toward 100%, which means Veres can bait aggressive all-ins and heal through them, never panic-back when you're sub-30% health if the proc is ready.
Two snake lines firing in a spread, the stun only triggers if both connect, which means you need to be nearly point-blank or force the enemy into a narrow corridor. In the open, smart opponents will sidestep one strand and eat only a slow; in a bush ambush or against a wall, both lines converge and the 1-second stun opens your full combo. Each hit on a hero also grants a Serpent's Blood stack, so landing both strands pushes you two-thirds of the way to a passive proc before you've thrown a single auto.
The push-pull mechanic has a directional threshold: enemies within a certain range get knocked away, farther enemies get yanked in. The common mistake is using it as a raw damage tool and ignoring positioning, in practice, you want to use W to pull a fleeing carry back into your passive range, or to push a diving tank away from your body after R triggers Enrage. Each hero hit gives a Serpent's Blood stack, so in a grouped fight a single W can shortcut your passive proc almost instantly.
True damage scaling off the target's missing HP means this is at its most brutal when you hit someone already chunked, not necessarily near death, but below roughly 60% HP. The Enrage buff (attack speed, attack damage, armor penetration) lasts 4 seconds by default, 10 seconds if Venom kills the target, and gains 2 extra seconds if you fire it while Bloody Kiss is active. That interaction is the single most important mechanical detail on Veres: banking your passive proc and then immediately casting R turns a 4-second burst window into a 6-second rampage with 15% armor shred.
Skill Order
Priority: R > Q > W| Skill | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Bloody Fangs | 1 | · | 3 | · | 5 | · | 7 | · | 9 | · | · | · | · | · | · |
2Serpent's Embrace | · | 2 | · | 4 | · | · | · | 8 | · | 10 | · | 12 | · | · | · |
RVenom | · | · | · | · | · | 6 | · | · | · | · | 11 | · | · | · | 15 |
Loadout
Golden Body
Spirit
Dragon's ClawStandard Build
1
2
3
4
5
6Core Combos
Full Burst (Standard All-In)
1PRStack three autos into Q (which adds two stacks if both strands hit), finish the fourth auto to fire Bloody Kiss, then immediately cast R inside the passive window to extend Enrage by 2 seconds and enter the Enrage buff fully loaded.
Hard Engage with CC Lock
21PRUse W to pull a fleeing or ranged target back into melee range, then immediately land the double-strand Q for a stun and chain into autos, best used when the enemy is already at mid-to-low HP so Venom closes the kill.
Flicker Stun Opener
12PRFlash point-blank to guarantee both Bloody Fangs strands connect for the stun, then cycle autos and W to accelerate stacks before dumping R on a now-stunned and chunked target, reserved for ganks or when a key squishy has no escape.
Passive-Extended Enrage
PR12Pop passive first to guarantee the +2s Enrage extension on R, then use Q and W purely to refresh stacks and sustain the Enrage window, this is the correct rotation when you are deep in a teamfight with multiple targets rather than hunting a single carry.
Gameplan
Veres's first real spike is level 4, with all three abilities available and the full combo online. Her sharper spike is Frost Cape, which pairs with her passive AoE to punish stacked enemies and gives her enough tankiness to survive the dive into range. Spear of Longinus accelerates the armor-shred synergy with Enrage's 15% penetration. She is weakest in the opening two levels before she has Q and R, and when caught mid-cycle with zero Serpent's Blood stacks, which is the exact window her laner should look to force a trade.
Early Game
Levels 1–6- →Focus on last-hitting and learning the four-auto rhythm safely — harass with the passive proc only when the laner has no immediate engage tool, and retreat after each proc to avoid trading on your empty stacks.
- →Prioritize landing both Bloody Fangs strands near walls or bushes at level 3 for a kill attempt; if the terrain doesn't allow it, don't force a single-strand slow trade that leaves you CC-less.
- →Ward the river entrance to the slayer lane early — Veres has no escape and a jungler gank during a mid-combo cycle is almost always fatal.
Mid Game
Post Broken Spear- →After Frost Cape completes, rotate to Dragon or objectives where your passive AoE can hit multiple targets in a cluster, activating the full lifesteal value and making you extremely hard to kill in teamfights.
- →Use R on the enemy carry during fights, not as an opener but after they've been chunked by at least one passive proc — banking the kill means the 10-second Enrage window and your team fights a 4v5 for over 8 seconds.
- →If ahead, contest turret dives by standing in the turret range and using Serpent's Embrace to pull divers into turret fire while your passive ticks toward proc.
Late Game
Teamfight phase- →Position in the second rank of a teamfight initiation — let your tank engage, then dive the back line with Flicker into Q stun to isolate the enemy marksman or mage for a Venom kill.
- →With Blade of Eternity in the build, your post-revive window is extremely potent: Enrage from a pre-death R kill can still be active when you revive, so play aggressively into the revive item timing.
- →In close games, prioritize Dark Slayer objective over kill-chasing — Veres's burst is high but she is not a clean AoE teamfighter; use her pick potential to create numbers advantages before objective fights rather than trading hits mid-fight.
Matchups
Veres should rarely be first-picked. Her kit is at its worst against mobile, evasion-based laners, and the Thai-server Diamond pool knows it, so respect that in draft by locking her late or into a confirmed melee-heavy enemy comp. If you see Butterfly or Nakroth before you've picked, consider a different slayer entirely. She is a nightmare in a Baldum or Grakk team, because her gap in reliable engagement is completely covered. In bad matchups, survive lane and hit Frost Cape before you make a single aggressive play; the item spike changes the calculus more than any positional trick will.
Veres gets countered by
ButterflyButterfly's evasion passive turns Veres's entire auto-attack rhythm into a liability, missed autos delay Serpent's Blood stacking, and Butterfly's damage output during those missed windows simply outpaces Veres's sustain.
MuradMurad's displacement ultimate removes Veres from the fight entirely at the worst possible moments, if she gets sent to the void mid-combo, her cooldown reduction is wasted and she returns to an unfavorable position.
NakrothNakroth's raw mobility lets him dodge both Bloody Fangs strands consistently in open terrain, denying the stun that Veres depends on to land clean trades in the slayer lane.
AiriAiri's sustained evasion and self-healing out-durability Veres across extended trades, and her jump resets let her disengage out of Bloody Kiss range every time the proc is about to fire.
Veres synergizes with
BaldumBaldum's massive displacement ultimate compresses the entire enemy team into a cluster, making every Veres passive proc and R hit multiple targets and dramatically amplifying her AoE lifesteal.
GrakkGrakk's chain pull drags an isolated carry directly into Veres's melee range, the target is momentarily stunned and Veres can land both Bloody Fangs strands immediately for a guaranteed stun chain.
LumburrLumburr's terrain-creation forces enemies into narrow corridors where both Bloody Fangs strands naturally converge, turning Veres's conditionally unreliable stun into an almost-guaranteed CC in those zones.
AnnetteAnnette's wind ultimate keeps enemies grouped and slowed in one area, giving Veres time to stack all four autos and detonate the passive AoE at full value on multiple heroes simultaneously.
Pro Tips
- →Track your Serpent's Blood count as a sixth-sense habit, glance at the stacks before every trade decision, because entering a fight on zero stacks and no Q means you have no CC and no passive sustain for the next four autos.
- →W's push-or-pull radius threshold can be exploited intentionally: walk into point-blank range before casting to push a diving assassin away from your body, or stay at max range to pull a backline target, the same button does opposite things based on your positioning.
- →Firing R while Bloody Kiss is actively animating (the AoE has just fired) is the single frame-timing that separates average Veres players from strong ones, the passive window is short, and you need the R cast to register within it for the +2s Enrage extension.
- →Against champions who build Spear of Longinus themselves (common in Thai ranked), prioritize Medallion of Troy mid-build over its listed slot to offset the magic-damage secondary damage, Veres's dive path often takes mixed damage from AoE mages who follow up on her engages.
Veres is the slayer pick for players who want a true duelist with a self-contained sustain loop and a real late-game carry threat through true damage and armor shred. She rewards players who think in short rhythmic cycles rather than raw speed; internalize the four-auto count and the rest of the kit opens up. The thing to master is firing Venom inside the Bloody Kiss window for the +2s Enrage extension. Without that habit you are playing a weaker version of the hero every time. Invest thirty games into that one interaction and she stops feeling like a niche pick and starts feeling like an A-tier carry.
Veres — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Veres good in the current ROV patch?+
Yes. She is a legitimate A-tier pick on the Thai server, which means she wins games in the right hands. Her 0.4% pick rate is low, but that reflects her niche mastery requirement rather than any weakness in the kit; players who invest time in the passive rhythm consistently extract value from her above Diamond rank.
What is the best build for Veres?+
Thai-server consensus core is Gilded Greaves into Frost Cape into Spear of Longinus; the first two items turn her from a fragile auto-attacker into a durable brawler who can actually stick to targets. Mail of Pain, Medallion of Troy, and Blade of Eternity round out the build with survivability and a safety-net revive that complements her dive playstyle.
How do you counter Veres?+
Pick mobile assassins like Butterfly or Nakroth who dodge her auto-attack stacking phase or deny both Bloody Fangs strands in open terrain, removing her primary CC. In lane, force trades immediately after her passive proc fires: her stacks reset to zero and she has no sustain or CC for the next three to four autos, which is her entire vulnerability window.
Is Veres hard to play / good for beginners?+
Medium, and fair. The core loop of counting to four and firing R inside the passive window is simple to understand but surprisingly hard to execute consistently under pressure. Beginners can feel the fantasy early, but optimizing the W push-pull, the Flicker-Q stun, and the passive-into-R timing extension takes meaningful repetition before it is reliable in ranked.