Varus has two builds right now: Lethality and on-hit. Lethality Varus is much stronger than most players realize, as maxing Hail of Arrows second is better but less common. Meanwhile, on-hit Varus has the problem of quickly approaching the attack speed cap of 2.5 attacks per second and suddenly doesn't have a passive any more. And all the while, Varus is the most picked bot laner in pro right now. We'd like to not only shake up the pro scene but also make Varus a more enjoyable and intuitive champion to play for everyone else.
The primary change here is a retooling of his passive. Instead of granting increasingly large amounts of attack speed, it will give a smaller amount up front that should feel similar in the laning phase, but as the game goes on, give stats that synergize with attack speed: AD for autos, Q, and E, and AP for the entire W loop. We're also powering up the spell-weaving loop by giving more cooldown refund on Blight pops. Ideally, Varus will have a strong spell-weaving AD-AS item build alongside his pure lethality and on-hit ones.
The secondary changes are around making his skill orders more intuitive and whittling away at his pro strengths. As mentioned before, most lethality Varus players were maxing W second, so we're making ranks in W matter a bit more for Lethality builds to close the power disparity there. Meanwhile, early game nerfs to his attack damage through base AD and Q+W damage should make him less of a lane bully. Finally, we're making it a little more forgiving to use the W+Q spell combo, giving more time to activate Blighted Quiver while charging up.