Vulcan the Panzer

Hi guys, as you may have noticed, this will be my first "guide" and since it is not a 100% serious guide I'm not going to spend more time than 15 minutes on it. Feel free to downvote me you mean critics. Vulcan used to be a guardian but then he was revamped to be a mage and I am looking to resurrect support Vulcan.

Watcher's Gift

I feel like this is the best starter item for our Vulcan because of his low base defenses he can't afford to stick around for long, slam that turret down and get back. Also helps with ADC's stacking/farming early game. I like to drop this item when I have my Helmet or Void depending on enemy team.

Midas's Boots

I feel like these boots are required as Vulcan has a hard time with gold since his existence early game revolves around providing a disposable tower for his carry to fall back to. I only drop this item if I happen to complete my build and I switch it to Reinforced Greaves mainly for the move speed and of course the minor protections.

Ethereal Staff

You might argue to take the sash instead for third item but I think your carry is doing you a huge favor by letting you Tank at all as a Vulcan so you really wanna let him just stack his devourer's and of course the 600 hp helps a lot.

Dynasty Plate Helm / Voidstone

You have some solid health with the staff and the boots, it's time to get some protection/attack brawler items. You want to observe the enemy team by looking at your tab and deciding if their magical(Voidstone) or physical(Helm) are doing better and you buy your defensive item accordingly.

Sovereignity/Gaia's Stone

Same case as above, you want to decide by observing the enemy.

Urchin's Hide / Bancroft's Talon

You will 90% of the time be going for Urchin's but if your team just absolutely decimates the enemy you might as well go for some damage, eh?

Rod of Tahuti

If you got this far, top it off with style.


ACTIVES

HoG rank 1 will be the first item you buy. You want to clear that blue fast and you may later advance the HoG to rank 3 to finish off the Gold Fury or the Fire Giant if your Jungler doesn't. I usually leave it at rank 1.

Tower Teleport / Greater Blink

If my team is doing bad I go for the teleport to be able to rotate quicker. I almost never get around to take a second active but if I do and we are winning I take blink because Vulcan has a bad mobility.

CONSUMABLES

To start off the match, you will buy watcher's, rank 1 shoes, hog and of course 2 WARDS, VERY IMPORTANT TO GET TWO WARDS EVERY TIME YOU RETURN TO BASE!!!

I usually don't take potions unless my lane is being pushed hard and I need to stick around then I like to take a mixed potion because I need space for wards.

I will not give you a breakdown of all skills, only things that you should know about them. You may check Vulcan's scaling etc. in-game any time.

Passive: Heavy Shot: Along the worst passives in the game... after using an ability your next basic attack (not successful,any-- meaning if you screw it up, its gone) it will slow your enemy by 20% for 2 SECONDS (OMG, Ikr.. buff it Hi-Rez. It may contribute to your peeling capabilities but not that noticable.

First Ability: Backfire: Vulcan's main source of waveclear and utility, I like to put only 1 point into it early game and let my ADC get the last hit (we got Watcher's, remember?)When I hit level 4, I will put 1 point into it for the sole reason of marking an enemy for my cannon in case they push.

Second Ability: Inferno Cannon: Vulcan's core ability (most useful), it does huge amounts of base damage which is always good if youre looking to build bruiser. Make sure you start with this item as it will be your tool to tank jungle camps and hold the line. When you get a few points into it, it will work like a disposable tower.

Third Ability: Magma Bomb: (or meatball...)This is your 2nd most important ability as a Vulcan support as this will be your only peel/poke. I like to level it whenever I cant put a point into the cannon. Make sure you learn how to aim it and predict enemy movement because you may screw it up and actually do the reverse of what you originally wanted to do which is either pulling them to your ADC or away from them... This is also one of your "escapes" you wanna predict the chasing enemy's movement speed and throw the bomb at you or in front of you accordingly so they will be knocked back and stunned as you run away. I like to drop it in front of me a little in case they are close to make sure I dont know them ONTO me.

Fourth Ability or Ultimate: Earthshaker: This is huge rocket that Vulcan shoots into the distance, it does more damage to targets that are far away so its useful for things like disrupting gold fury or fire giant fights while also securing the kill maybe. Its a long range snipe, not much to talk about. I usually dont pick this ability up until I get my voidstone but it depends on the enemy team, really...

It doesn't exist (yet). Hopefully Hi-Rez will listen and give us a character with Vulcan's old kit or give us my suggestion, which is stance change...

Pros: -Solid sustain.
-Good mid-game damage.
-Breaks the meta, confusing unaware enemies.
-Good soloing (camps, FG, GF) capabilites.
-A properly placed cannon and ward makes you incredibly hard to gank.
-Important teamfight presence with cannons and high AoE damage.

Cons: -Low base stats resulting in low early game survivability.
-Medium crowd control (understandable for a brawler)
-Countered by high-sustain gods like Ra, Aphro and Sylvanus.
-Countered by aggressive early gameplay.

The best tank for this, imo, his turrets tank a lot of creep damage as you increase your protetions and especially early game, your turret can tank the blue allowing you to start the game with full healh saving you 50 gold on a potion.

Make sure you let your team get all the kills (duh) because now youre a support, not a mage. Make sure you get the assists though. His cannons may benefit his team a huge deal by forcing enemies to either retreat or take the damage or kill the cannon(all 3 options benefit your team). His magma bomb provides good AoE knockup/stun/damage and is generally pretty disruptive. You may also launch your ultimate into a crowd of people doing a hell of damage or causing enemies to leave their position in order to doge or use their aegis (again, all 3 benefit your team).

Enemies: You might think that high burst gods such as Odin counter you but its not the truth. All it takes is a little awareness to counter most of the things with your 1 and your 3 and of course have your cannon to scare them off. If someone gets on you and you have a chance of winning the fight you may use your ultimate for minimal damage as well.
But the truth is.. high sustain gods are a bigger counter to you such as Aphro, AMC, and the most annoying of them all, Sylvanus...

Partners: Ive seen it work really well with Neith helping eachother secure kills with the snipe/rocket combo and also the immobilize/backfire or magmabomb. She may also serve as a great bait for your cannon as she may leap back any time something goes wrong. I'm not aware of any top best combinations as of now.