(TL;DR at the bottom of the post)AD and AP play a really interesting role in League of Legends. AD corresponds heavily to physical damage and AP corresponds with magic damage; however, this rule is not hard-and-fast (deals a lot of magic damage scaling off AD, for example, and'sdeals physical damage scaling with 40% AP). Also, while physical damage usually comes from physical sources-- hacking blades, crushing blows, etc.-- sometimes these sources deal magic damage (is a rock-man who punches people with his fists, and deals mostly magic damage). Most of us accept this and move right along, because to be fair this is a mechanic (like penetration) that is balanced around game balance, not literal or realistic phenomena. Butis a bit of a special case, because of his kit: each of Varus' playstyles corresponds to a point in his chronology, and building AD or AP on Varus has deeper implications than merely the type of damage he deals.Before going into the builds, let's examine Varus' Lore: he grew up in a devout Ionian village, and so it was only with incredible natural talent and discipline he could become a Watcher (unrelated to Freljordian Watchers) over the Pit of Pallas in a high Ionian Temple, a position he accepted with pride. Varus was so enamored with his position that, when faced with the choice to defend his home village from Noxian Invaders and defend his post at the Temple instead, he chose the latter option: duty over family. Turns out that was a, because after coming home to an empty village and his family's broken corpses he flipped out and released the evil within the Pit, the very thing he'd sacrificed his village to contain. Real smart decision, there, buddy.the important bit here is that Varus' "fighting style" has effectively changed over time. Pre-corruption, Varus protected his temple from scores of Noxian Invaders, and post-corruption he mowed down their ranks in a fury:Now, this "rapid firing" isn't consistent with Mid Varus' poke playstyle. It is, however, totally in line with ADC Varus' playstyle, because withand an auto-attack focused build, Varus can attack multiple targets in flurry similar to that described here. I'd compare Mid Varus more closely with the hunter he would become as time passed, no longer reaping hordes of soldiers but ambushing select targets to gather information about top Noxian agents:So the separation between the playstyles isn't solely a side effect of League of Legends itemization, game mechanics, and balance: it's also tied closely to Varus' actual lore. There still exists one style not covered by this interpretation: AP Varus, a version of Varus that doesn't useor auto-attacks for damage, instead relying on proccingand. Maybe you can see where I'm going with this by now: AP Varus is the, after either his vengeance is achieved or sufficient time has passed. When you think about it, it makes sense: building no AD, his power cannot possibly derive from his own strength as an archer; as the Blight has consumed him, he struggles even to draw the bowstring. Most of his damage scales with the target's max HP, which fits in with the theme of consuming the target on another level, damaging their bodies on a level that cannot be defended against. The fact that his, a physical manifestation of Blight, scales 1:1 with AP just makes this perfect.TL;DR: To summarize, ADC, AD Mid and AP Varus actually correspond with different points on Varus' timeline, and his style of killing matches his build paths. This is one more reason I love playing Varus: as I auto-attack with Runaan's I can't help to imagine Varus frantically slaughtering the terrified Noxian Soldiers in their retreat, and when I explode someone for 50% of their max HP as AP Varus I imagine them being literally consumed by Blight. Mid Varus' approach is more methodical and foreboding, and I'm less interested in that myself, but I think it no less appealing gameplay-wise.EDIT: Linked quoted text to the source . If you haven't read it yet, give it a read-through: it's written by Tycho (Jerry Holkins) of Penny Arcade.