Hello, my name is Samikin. I started playing Zoe in Season 8, about a year after her release in Season 7. I have over 1 Million Mastery Points on Zoe and have peaked 1552 LP (rank 2 NA) mainly playing Zoe. I've also been the statistically best Zoe NA multiple times throughout Season 12 and 13.

I also stream my games at twitch.tv/samikinlol if you want to come by and watch live!

I stream almost daily usually between 5-9 PM EST at Twitch.tv/Samikinlol
Feel free to stop by whenever you want. I am always looking to find ways to expand and create a relaxing and chill community :D

In my personal experience, I've always found games and characters that have a controlled amount of variability/randomness to be the most exhilerating to play. Sometimes it takes a little bit of luck to reach their full potential, but it doesn't play such a large part in that character's success that they are reliant on it to be good- you can still skill yourself out of most situations.

Zoe is that character for me in League of Legends. She has basically two components of her kit that can be seperated- her one shot combo and her W flexibility / variability -and they both separately from each other, but also work together really well. If you like having a little bit of an uncontrollable variable in your games, this character is probably the best choice you'll get.

Flash + Ignite: Pretty standard. Best spells for outplay and kill potential in and out of lane.

Flash + Teleport: Teleport is a good summoner to take if you think you are going to get poked or out-traded by your lane opponent. Be mindful of how much kill pressure you lose without Ignite, which makes you lose a lot of carry potential (although you gain some of it back with TP's versatility).

Flash + Cleanse: Cleanse, great for lanes/games with a lot of Crowd Control you can't dodge.

Works exceptionally well against CC focused junglers like Sejunani, Fiddlesticks, e.t.c and laners that focus on a lot lock on CC like Lissandra.

Be mindful of the kill pressure you lack because of not having Ignite, but the trade-off is worth it if you can escape dying a few times.

Flash + Heal: Heal is great if you know your Jungler wants to fight early against the enemy Jungler for scuttle crab or any skirmish in general. Heal is also great at bailing you out of tight situations as the stacking speed from Heal, Nimbus Cloak (if you take the rune), and Zoe's W make it so you can basically dodge everything and outrun almost anyone.

Flash + Ghost: Ghost works great with Zoe since most movement speed works really well with Q and to keep the appropriate distance with enemies or to run them down/run away. A very versatile and self-centered spell. Also, multiple ghosts stack movement speed and reset the duration of all ghosts if you happen to pick one up with W.

Great for mobility, versatile, and applicable in most games, but still has the lost of kill pressure with Ignite.

Trades kill pressure for survivability and early skirmishes with teammates.

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There are 3 main Zoe builds that I normally go for that encompasses most game situations.

-Standard Luden's One-Shot Build



This is the most standard Zoe build across all players, with good merit too most of the time.
Check the build's notes to get a more in-depth explanation.

Pros:

- Focuses on stacking a lot of Flat Magic Penetration to one-shot enemies that don't build Magic Resist.

- Amplifies Zoe's strengths as a long range artillery burst mage.

- TONS OF DAMAGE.


Cons:

- Really relies on you being even or ahead of the enemy to deal a lot of damage.

- Falling behind really makes you basically worthless as a damage source.

- Very heavily relies on you being able to hit most of your abilities from long ranges, which can be pretty challenging/inconsistent.


-Skirmisher Zoe



This build focuses on enabling Zoe to play more up in the enemies' faces by providing protection against damage with Crown of the Shattered queen as well as mitigating the burst damage of other champions, such as Rengar, or high damage poke, like Viktor or Syndra.
Check the build's notes to get a more in-depth explanation.

- Edit: Patch 13.18: Crown is heavily nerfed, damage reduction going from 75% to 40% and no longer giving AP while having the shield up. Only use this build in fringe cases where you can get A LOT of value from Crown. Otherwise, this build is dead in the water, fun while it lasted.

Pros:

- Consistent Damage

- Facilitates a close-range battlemage playstyle as Zoe

- Easy protection w/ Crown of the Shattered Queen

- Lich Bane feels incredibly nice on Zoe


Cons:

- Long range damage is considerably less.

- The playstyle is completely different and may not jive well with most Zoe players.

- Have to learn to play around Crown of the Shattered Queen.

- Needs balls of steel to get up close and dirty with the enemy team.

-The Tank Killer Build



This build focuses on having Zoe as a source of burning through enemy tanks' health and resistances. Use this build if your team doesn't have a way to shred tanks AND/OR there are 2+ tanks/health stackers on the enemy team.
Check the build's notes to get a more in-depth explanation.

Pros:

- As the name suggests, great against tanks/bruisers/wardens/health stackers.

- Consistent damage from abilities due to Liandry's burn and Ability Haste.

- Cosmic Drive is easy to proc on Zoe.

- The best build for extended fights.


Cons:

- Long range damage is considerably a lot less.

- A lot less protection against damage even though you are close/mid range as Zoe.

- A very sitautional build and can make you feel like you do very little damage to squsihies compared to the other builds.

This is the very generic rune page for Aery Zoe.

Summon Aery:
The very best rune for poking lane opponents with less range than you since you normally activate it very easily with your Q and Passive auto attacks.
Arcane Comet can miss if you do not have a slow or other CC attached to your abilities. Zoe does not have that except for her E. Comet's cooldown is also much longer than Aery.
Phase Rush isn't required on Zoe because she already has a lot of mobility and self-peel with her W and E.

Nimbus Cloak:
After the mana buffs for Zoe's Q and R, Manaflow band isn't needed, making Nimbus Cloak a very great option due to its synergy with Zoe's W being able to pick up Summoner Spells. You can consider Nullifying Orb, but it has a relatively long cooldown, only works against magic damage, and the shield is very small. If you can dodge abilities or run away/chase people down with Nimbus, no need for a conditional shield, right?

Absolute Focus:
Gives a lot of AP in the early game, especially against opponents that can't get you below 70% HP. It also gives some easy scaling into the mid-late game since you will normally be really healthy or dead as Zoe.
Absolute Focus instead of Transcendence because Zoe's Q and E already have such a short cooldown that Transcendence is just redundant and doesn't work with Zoe's W since it straight up has no cooldown.
Celerity is just also equally as redundant (with Nimbus Cloak and Relentless Hunter already giving Movement Speed).

Scorch:
The best rune for poking with your Q, has around the same cooldown so it'll always be up alongside your Q. Overall very strong to keep chipping away at your opponent's health until you can kill them.
Waterwalking only works in the river, which is potent for roaming, but not the goal of this lane domination-orientated rune page. The conditional benefit is not worth it over Absolute Focus. Absolute Focus' condition is something you can at least control based on your playstyle.
Gathering Storm is a scaling rune and is useless the first 10 (or arguably 20) minutes of the game, which is Zoe's most important stage in the game as she will normally be stronger than most other mid-laners in the game. Without getting a lead, Zoe will naturally fall behind in damage compared to other mid-laners.

Secondary: Domination
Taste of Blood:
You will get a lot of minion aggro and will be scrapping with your lane opponent a lot. Taste of Blood helps keep you sustained in the laning phase. Try to proc it as soon as it comes up to make the most of the rune.
Cheap Shot is useless for you unless you can consistently land your E. Even then, your E early game is such a long cooldown that you don't get to even use Cheap Shot's low cooldown anyways.
Sudden Impact only works consistently after you get your R, making it useless for your early lane phase, not worth it over the extra 100-200 HP from Taste of Blood before level 6.

Relentless Hunter:
More Movement Speed means your Q can travel longer distances. It also helps you get into angles for your E faster and to travel in between lanes faster for rotations around the map. Great for roaming and covers the fact that you don't take Waterwalking. In the mid-late game, you will have permanent Movement Speed from this rune to dodge abilities and engages since you will be really far away throwing E's and Q's. If those abilities don't land, you keep your Movement Speed. If you land them, you chunk the opponents or stun them, usually forcing them off or winning the fight.

Attack Speed:
This is very important on Zoe since you always want to be auto-attacking enemies in early game skirmishes to cover the down time between casting your abilities. Also very good for last hitting minions, helping you farm under tower without having to use your abilities.

Adaptive Force:
You still want damage over resistances.

Health Scaling:
Health Scaling is way better than Armor or Magic Resist past like level 5, especially if you are facing an AP/AD character and they are the only type of that damage on the enemy team.
I would consider taking Armor/Magic Resist if both the enemy Mid and Jungle or team are the same type of damage (both AP or AD).
This one is mainly up to personal preference.

With this rune page, you normally want to rush Lost Chapter over Tier 2 Boots since you still want some extra mana later on. You don't really need to start slugging long range Q's until after the laning phase anyways, so the extra movement speed isn't needed, especially if you already have Relentless Hunter and Nimbus Cloak + W passive speed.

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This is a pretty standard rune page for the Electrocute One-Shot builds that most Zoe players go for.

Electrocute:
Very easy to proc when you are able to land Zoe's E + Q + Passive AA combo. Will usually be up every time you land the combo.
Dark Harvest is very situational and only procs AFTER you deal damage once they are below the 50% health threshold, which you won't be able to do consistently most of the time if there are multiple enemies nearby.
Predator is fine, but has a pretty long cooldown, locked behind boots, deals a minimal amount of damage, and wants you to get close to your opponents (it also warns them if you are nearby through a sound cue and a mark above their heads).
Hail of Blades just doesn't work with Zoe as her later AA's won't be empowered with her passive unless you are weaving abilities in between AA's, which defeats the purpose of Hail of Blades.

Taste of Blood:
Consistent and easy health gain to help you dominate and come out on top in the early game.
Cheap Shot is inconsistent and reliant on landing your E, which has a very long cooldown.
Sudden Impact only works once you get your R, so its a dead rune until then (unless you use Flash for the effect).

Eyeball Collection:
Free consistent AP through the game by just getting kills/assists.
Zombie Ward is good if you take Oracle's Lens as your trinket and is great for giving more vision for your team, but the AP it gives is inconsistent compared to Eyeball Collection.
Ghost Poro relies on you staying with your Warding Totem for a little bit longer than necessary. Your wards may also just be killed by the enemies and you never get AP you would normally get, making it unreliable and even a detriment sometimes.

Relentless Hunter:
More movement speed is always good for Zoe, especially considering the other options.
Treasure Hunter is a bait rune in my opinion. It gives you 550 gold in total, almost 2 kills worth of gold after getting 5 unique kills/assists on the enemy team. The benefits of Relentless Hunter is much better game to game and is much more rewarding in the early stages of the game to help you get back to lane faster, roam, dodge spells, e.t.c.
Ingenious Hunter doesn't help much in the Luden's build that you normally go with this rune page since Luden's passive doesn't do much.
Ultimate Hunter is useless on Zoe. Her R cooldown is already really low, so there is no need for it.

Secondary:
Nimbus Cloak is just my personal preference. Works very well with W and summoners to help you chase enemies or run away.
Taking Manaflow Band here is also good, up to your playstyle. If you still struggle with mana problems or want to rush Tier 2 boots instead of Lost Chapter, Manaflow Band is better overall.

Scorch:
Great for lane and chipping at the opponent, gaining lane control to be able to move and roam first. Also helps in trying to kill your lane opponent or put pressure on them.
Gathering Storm is also a good rune if you want to have a slower game or believe that scaling is more worth it over lane control.

Attack Speed is good for weaving in AA's between spell casts with Zoe's passive. It is also great for farming overall, especially under tower.

Adaptive Force
Well, it's better than Armor/Magic Resist. More AP = Win

Health Scaling
This is up to personal preference. It scales better than Armor/Magic Resist past level 5. You can also go Armor or Magic Resist if you like it more, but I would only go it if you are fighting against 2 AD Mid/Jungle or 2 AP Mid/Jungle.

Passive- More Sparkles

Zoe does extra AP damage on her Auto Attacks after casting a spell.

- This passive empowered Auto Attack has no travel time and no projectile- it does instant damage.(This means it goes through Yasuo's W "Windwall" and Samira's W "Blade Whirl".)

- A lot of Zoe's damage early game comes from Zoe's Passive Auto Attacks, so make sure to always use as many activations of it on the enemy as possible.



Q - Paddle Star

Zoe throws a projectile that does damage in a small area. The damage past the first target hit is reduced to 80%. She can recast to change the direction of the projectile, which also causes it to travel faster. The farther the projectile travels, the more damage it will do.

- Each cast of Paddle Star activates Zoe's Passive More Sparkles. If you can, make sure to use your passive Auto Attack first before recasting for maximum damage.

- Early game, it is better to get guaranteed damage with low range Q's to proc your runes like Scorch, Manaflow Band, Taste of Blood, and/or Summon Aery.

- Use Q's outside of the enemy's vision to give them less time to react as well as to make it so they do not know where it is coming from.

- Mid/Late game is when you want to start using more long ranged Q's to try to chunk enemies to win fights before they start. Zoe is actually not that good in 5v5s since she can usually only hit 1 enemy at a time and does very little damage to tanks.



W- Spell Thief

Spell Shards drop on the ground when an enemy uses their summoner spells or active items. These shards also drop when Zoe or her teammates kill marked minions. Zoe can pick up these spell shards to use the corresponding item or Summoner Spell. When Zoe uses her own Summoner Spells or the Spell Shard, she gains extra movement speed and three projectiles that orbit her, locking on and damaging enemies that Zoe last attacked in their range.

- The other half of Zoe's damage in the early game comes from W + Summoner Spells and running enemies down with the movement speed and missles.

- Sometimes, random minions will drop spell shards on death despite not having a spell shard attached to them when they were alive.

- This is where ALL of Zoe's slippery nature comes from. Do not be fooled into thinking Zoe is harder to catch than other mages when she does not have a good Spell Shard.

- Ghost can be stacked if you have multiple Ghost Summoner Spells active.



E- Sleepy Bubble Trouble

Zoe kicks a projectile that hits the first enemy, slowing them, and sleeping them for 2.25 seconds after 1.5 seconds of being hit. If no enemies are hit, it stays on the ground and the first enemy that walks on it will take the damage, be slowed, and then slept for the same duration after 1.5 seconds.

- Zoe's E animation can be canceled if you recast Q as soon as Zoe casts E, making it hard tell for the enemy even if they have vision of Zoe.

- Zoe's E can travel through walls, increasing its range by the amount of terrain it passes through, but will stop in front of the second terrain it would pass through. HOWEVER, you can still get the increased E range if you perfectly time it with your R returning you back to your original position.

- Zoe is unable to E + Flash to cast from the new position nor can she change the direction of where the bubble is targetted at.

- Damage over time effects, like Ignite, will not wake up a sleeping target, but Zoe's missles from her W will still up slept enemies, so be careful with getting too close. Summon Aery hitting slept enemies will also not wake them up.



R- Portal Jump

Zoe blinks in any direction for a fix distance, staying there for 0.75 seconds before blinking back to the original position she casted the ability. During this time, Zoe can cast abilities, Auto Attack, use Summoner Spells, taunt, mastery emote, joke, dance, laugh, place wards, and use item actives.

- Zoe gains unobstructed vision within a radius around her- meaning she can see through walls, but not inside bushes if she is not inside it.

- Portal Juump is great to help quickly escape skillshots by blinking around and then back to punish the enemy.

- Zoe can use her emotes like taunt and laugh to trick enemies into thinking she is using an ability and cause them to prematurely react with their defensive abilities or Summoner Spells.

- Portal Jump is great for warding from a safer distance or through multiple walls that would take a lot longer to walk around.

- Portal Jump can be used to artifically extend the range of Zoe' Q for extra damage.

- Zoe's portal acts a lot like a ward when used on larger pieces of terrain, meaing she can increase the range of her R as long as the inital spot is over half-way of the terrain.

- On the other hand, if you don't want to go over walls, terrain can be used to shorten Portal Jump's distance.

- Zoe esentially roots herself in place for a second, so be careful using this ability close to your opponents, especially ones that can just aim at where you are going to blink back to, such as hook-type champions.

- Zoe is still susceptible to all damage taken while in her portal.

- The difference between really good Zoe players and dead Zoe's is efficient use of Zoe's R.

Pros

+ An early game mage that loves to have skirmishes with enemies before they are able to hit their powerspikes.

+ Flexible in how you are able to play her. Long range burst mage, a slippery in and out type of champion, a supportive champion that provides a lot of CC, or even as a consistent damage dealer!

+ Most of Zoe's kit is very straightforwards and linear. Just based on her main combo, she is a very easy champion to pilot.

+ Fits into most team compositions with a considerable degree of success.

+ Loves fighting in closed spaces to make dodging spells harder.

+ High skill ceiling if you are willing to put time into learning all of the different mechanics and quirks she has.

+ A LOT of build paths for specific scenarios.

+ YOU CAN JUMP ROPE AND YO-YO! WHAT ISN'T THERE TO LIKE?

Cons

- Without a lead, Zoe doesn't scale as well as other mages.

- Can be very hit or miss. Literally. Missing just a few spells will tank your damage output.

- Will make you feel worthless when behind.

- Very hard to get the full damage out of her kit since she wants to play 2 different ways.

- Her mobility is somewhat reliant on luck, making it inconsistent.

- Requires a lot of hours to get good at her, more so than most other champions.

- Mainly single-target damage, a really bad teamfighter.

- Not good in fights happening in open areas.

- Skillshot reliant champion.

As a general tip, it is always a good idea to redo your runes every game in champion select. Make sure there is thought and reason behind each choice, such as thinking about whether Taste of Blood or Biscuit Delivery is better.
Also, think about the items and the item path you are most likely going to be going. They can affect your rune choices as well, especially between Relentless Hunter and Ingenious Hunter.
Example: If you are planning to rush Tier 2 Boots, choosing Manaflow Band over Nimbus Cloak may be more optimal.

For Zoe's early game, focus on activing Electrocute / Summon Aery as much as possible with Auto Attacks and short range Q's. Using long range Q's in the early game barely gives you any extra damage and the possibility to miss goes exponentially up. The risk isn't worth it when you can almost guarantee easy damage.

Hold your E ability if the enemy has a way to close the distance between them and you. It will be much easier to land the closer they are, anyways, and gives you a way to counter their all-ins. It will also help you escape ganks easier.

You can use your E ability more aggressively, but make sure to back off if it misses or if it isn't safe for you to follow up on the slept target, such as the enemy jungler being nearby. DON'T be baited by a slept target.

Zoe has the luxury of choosing between two playstyles more freely than other champions- lane solo kills or push and roam. With good pushing power and lane dominance in most matchups, Zoe can control the wave easily. If the enemy plays super safe, Zoe can easily roam and catch enemies in the side lanes with E's over walls. Both of these playstles are equally valid, but there will be games and situations where one is superior to the other.

When you have lane priority, try to get in deep wards into your enemies' jungle or throughout the river. This allows you to hopefully keep track of where the enemy jungler could or couldn't be, giving you more freedom to play more aggressively and to play on the opposite side of the lane to be harder to game.

It is fine to miss a few minions if it means you get a kill out of the extra poke you deal.

Ideally, you don't want to miss free minions, though.

After the laning phase, Zoe will most likely be moved to a side lane to clear waves to get experience and gold.

Zoe is in a weird situation, as she doesn't have enough waveclear to stay mid to gain control, but she is also very vulnerable in the side lane without a good W Spell Shard. Although, she is a lot more safe with Crown of the Shattered Queen compared to other builds.

If your goal is to push the wave as fast as possible, kill the back row minions first as they deal the most damage. You may not be able to reach them if an enemy comes to contest the wave.

The normal gameplay for Zoe is to push the side lane wave, then stay hovering around between the side lane and mid lane, making sure that you will be there first with your team if a fight breaks out.

Alternatively, you can stay in the side lane to catch your enemies out with your sleep and go for a sneaky pick over walls or in the bushes.

If you stay with your team for too long, you will end up sharing experience and gold, which is not beneficial to you or the other carries. If you stay in the side lane, you risk yourself getting picked off for free or not being close to your team when they fight. Knowing when to choose between the two options, otherwise known as macro, is what really separates good players from great players.

In teamfights, you want to be playing around or behind walls. Walls do not hinder your ability to damage since you will be able to R (Portal Jump) past the walls for your Q (Paddle Star) to surprise enemies with burst damage. Your E (Sleepy Bubble Trouble) also gains extended range for the first terrain it passes through.

You always want to be playing with your other carries because you do not deal enough damage to shred through tanks very easily. Remember, damage only matters if it forces an enemy out of the fight or straight up kills them. A 1 heath Irelia can still one-shot you as easily as a full heath Irelia can.

IDEALLY, you want to pick people off as Zoe before any teamfights start, or at least deal a lot of damage beforehand to have the heath advantage. Teamfights are not one of Zoe's strong points, the back and forth skillshot throwing and picking off targets out of position is what Zoe excels at.

HOWEVER, Zoe is great at cleaning up fights because of all of the Summoner Spells and item actives that drop after a teamfight, so surviving is usually Zoe's #1 goal in fights unless you can trade your own life for an equally valuable enemy.

Hi again! Thanks for checking out my in-depth guide for everything Zoe related (well, everything that can be put down into words without examples).
Even if it was just for a specific part that you needed, or a general outlook on Zoe as a champion, thank you :]

Once again, I try to stream everyday at Twitch.tv/Samikinlol around 3 P.M EST to 7-8 P.M EST and am looking forwards to building a chill atmophere within the League of Legends community :)

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