Hi im Geld007, and have been a big zilean fan ever since i discoverd him

Zilean was a very powerfull poke with point and click bombs with high dmg, wich was very fun to play
However now he has much more utility then he used to have with a increased slow a stun on bombs But these bombs are now a skillshot and not as easy to hit 2 bombs in a row
(in teamfights its easier)

These days i pick zilean mostly as a support becuase people tend to flame you for picking him mid or top (where he does fine btw)
Zilean can basically do fine anywhere as long as you have your manaregen cdr and a way to stay alive in check, i personally do think AP zilean is not as good a utility based one since ap zil is squisy and eventhough his scaling and base dmg are good, he only has 1 damage spell and for the rest it is kiting and waiting for Q-W cooldown

Runes are simply for more movespeed some extra stats to get easier trough that early game and CDR for the mid-lategame to have a easier time reaching the 45% CDR
You can switch out the runes how you like but the 15% Cdr is recommended to use on him, you can use ap glyphs and switch the quints to scaling CDR to still get that 15%

Masteries are mostly focused on Utility and some tanky stats
Again you can switch out resolve for ferocity, but personally think most of these stats dont make enough of a impact on zils dmg to take them
Cunning is in my opinion a must, simply for the manaregen and for the 45% cdr instead of 40%
The Pickpocket is also great since zil has a good autoattack range and can often sneak in a auto so here and there

When it comes to items i perosonally like to start with Cion the most, but spellthieves is also a good option if you plan to poke them.
On your first back you should atleast buy the upgraded version of your supp item, and if possible buy sightstone. if you cant buy sightstone then go for shoes.
Always buy a pink if you have the money (and non in your inventory) else buy some pots if you think youll need them

you want to max your Q Asap becuase how hard the dmg scales up, and its your only source of damage, after this i always go for E becuase the increased slow is imo much better then having W on a lower cooldown
And the CDR will allow you to use your E twice after eachother anyway, the only diffrence is after you use your E W E or QWQ you need to wait longer to do it again, but if done correctly then that should be enough to get away / secure the kill

But in the end it does come down to prefrence, but i highly recommend to max E over W

Q Time Bomb: Zilean's most known abilitys and also a very strog one this ability can eao stun, poke, cut off a escape root by placing two bombs on the ground, or cutoff your chasers
Zilean's Q is a skillshot and sometimes its quite difficult to land both bombs on one target, espcially if they have a dash or blink.

W rewind : reduces Q and E CD with 10 secs

E Rewind is a very powerfull spell that can slow or speed up someone for 99% thats basically a root for 2.5 seconds wich can be recasted instantly (its better to wait 2.5 sec though) leading up to a total of 5 seconds being slowed for 99%!
or if you see someone lookinf for a engadge simply speed them up, the movespeed allows them to basically initiate by walking up to them, use this on a heca, maplh or mundo (tanks/bruiser/initiators) for easy initiations, its also very usefull to get a ally out of sticky stiuation

R: A ENEMY HAS BEEN..... revived...., actaully a very easy ability to use, simply press R on someone who is about to die, carefull that you dont ult too soon though becuase that might result in them stopping from attacking him and waiting for the ult to end
(often they are forced to kill them becuase if they dont the person will dps/flee in the ult time)


E-Q-W..Q-W-Q?
Well with this combo you can basically stun someone twice with 3 bombs
What you do is you use your E to ensure you land the Q then you use your W and wait a bit, after about 1-1.5 seconds of wiating you throw your second bomb and stunning them you shouldve bought enough time for your W come off cooldown again and to stun him again with a W-Q combo, you can also slow the target again to ensure the second bomb to hit asumming they dont dash/blink
using this combo you get a total of 5 seconds of 99% slow and 3 seconds stunned for a total of 8 seconds of being cced
(this trick only works if you have 30%+ cdr and lvl 4 W)

A ENEMY HAS BEEN..... revived now what?, hes surrounded and will get killed instantly
Well you can try to double bomb his reviving body a little before we revives, youll iether directly stun the enemy or theyll have to backoff from the target to prevent getting stunned giving him room to do something
Your E comes in handy here too as soon as he comes back get that E on him so he can (hopfully) run away, a second E to ensure he gets away and home safely
Tell your team this at the start of the game too, else they might assume theyll die when they revive and will fight them again in hope to take someone down with him, while zilean can get anyone out of almost every sitaution

So zilean is a speed/slow master and a cc machine having with 45% cdr 4.5 sec cd on Q 3.5 on W 8 sec on E and a wooping 33 secs on your R
I perosnally do think damage is a wasted stat on zilean since his dps troughout a teamfight isnt a amazing if he doesnt hit 3+ targets, and when hes ap he also remains much squisier or slower ending up with you using your ult on yourself
With the utility build youll have movespeed and good defencive stats making you harder to kill if they can come close to you in the first place, often you dont even need to speed yourself up to get away from enemys

In ranked i wouldnt recommend playing zill top or mid, simply becuase your team will flame you for picking it, and eventhough it works fine and you can easily sucseed with it, it doesnt change the fact that if your team is frustrated from the start, and angry (unfocused) that they play worse then normal

If you dont worry about your team thier reaction and how that can impact the game, then go for it :D

Pro's : Very strong teamfighting
: Free GA
: Insane amount of cc
: amazing solo CC chain
: Hard to kill
: Can fix mistakes where your team ****s up
: Confusig the enemy on who to focus
: Allys adc his kiting will be heaven (enemy's adc will be hell if slowed)
: Can prevent any engadge based on movespeed (volibear, mundo, trundle)
: Very good pick potential
: Tons of fun

Con's : Very reliant on your team
: You cant do anything alone
: if you're team is far behind then zil is useless
: Very weak early game
: Mana hungry
: Stun is diffuclt to land
: last second ult can be ****ed up by ally dash/blink cuasing you to misclick
: Can be difficult to pickup

In lane your only goal is to keep your adc alive prevent then fighting untill lvl 5 (if it whent well so far else wait till 6) And then try to fight them by slowing them then landing your stun and slowing them again, this should give your adc plenty of time to follow up and if they are alone its almost always a free kill

You cal also setup ganks for the jungler extreemly easily, slow for them, stun for them movespeed for your jungler and you have a free gank without the jungler using any cc himself

If you do go in solo lane with zill then you can simply Cs, and poke with your bombs your waveclear will also be very powerfull later into the match, and for ganks its the same thing
ONces your lvl 6 in a solo lane you shouldnt die anymore in the laning phase, if your ult is down play passive untill you have it back

As zilean its also very easy to raom and gank a other lane, your movespeed (E) brings you into bomb range and after the bomb you can slow then again often forcing them out of lane or killing them (unless they have a certain champion called soraka -.-)

During teamfights you want to speed up the person who will start the fight for you and prevent their initiator from doing anything, if the enemy thier Adc/Apc or any focus target is out of position then you directly try to slow and stun them (and slow again) the enemy team will iether have to defend that person or let him die

During the fight you have to look for who needs help and you need to know what is happening
speed up your carries of they are near a lot of enemys, and slow a enemy down when he is going for the backline, or speedup someone going for thier backline
next to this you must know where most of thier champsions are so you can stun as much as possible enemys
You also need to check everyones health bars and ult someone who is about to die, however keep in mind that if your mid is about to die and he is very weak, and your fed adc is 3/4 hp but enemys are going for your adc to safe your ult for the adc
Make sure you get the best valeu out of your ult, a midlaner with no dmg and no cc is useless and not worth your R (this might get you some flame from the ignored person, simply tell them you saw it too late and he was already dead by the time you realised it, or say you misclicked, a annoyed ally is better then a pissed/angry ally)
During all of this also keep track of yourself, if you arent out of position to aid a ally, it would be horrible if you had to ult yourself, or die before ulting

I had a few times where in the choas of a teamfight i was too busy with looking at ally's/enemeys that i missed a skillshot that endups killing me or didnt even notice at all i was taking a truckload of dmg

Zilean comes in the end all down to teamwork, without a team to support there is no zilean

If you do play zilean, you have to assume your team knows what they are doing, and you must know what they want to do. And hopefully they know what to do when they have a 99% movespeed buff on them
If you think most people you play with are total ******s then dont play zilean, with zilean you must have some trust in your team that they do well, becuase if everyone sucks then your buffs debuffs and stuns wont matter at all

So have some faith in your team

I just want to mention that this is the first guide i made, and i hope i didnt offend you with any of my eglish (sowwy, i dont enlgish well :( )
Also i will probably add more Champions on how well Zill does vs them

I would love some feedback about the guide itself and or the content of the guide