Zyra Build Guide by rolrctermaniac

Introduction

Hello poeple of Mobafire! I am rolrctermaniac and this is my first ever champion guide. I chose to make a guide for Zyra because I have been doing very well as her and wanted to share my build and method of playing this fantastic new champion. All I really ask is that before you downvote my guide I would love foryou to first try a game following my guide then to give feedback on what I can fix with the guide. If you feel that my item sequence may need tweaking or if it is something as small as a grammar mistake or for me to go into more detail, please do not hesitate to tell me.

Pros and Cons

Masteries

On Zyra a 21/0/9 mastery spread should be used. Taking all the magic damage related points in offence. The utility tree is where you have more options. I feel that having 2 points in- Swiftness and 2 points in Meditation allow for a great balance of mobility and mana sustain, but if you prefer one to the other, go ahead and put the points in your preferred spot.

Runes

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration is standard on most casters and there is good reason. these runes provide a huge 9 flat magic pentration.
• greater seal of replenishment with a Meki Pendant allows Zyra to have a strong mana sustain before chalice.
• grater glyph of force gives Zyra a little bit of extra *umph* thoughout the whole game.
• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power gives Zyra a large 15 AP at the start of the game, greatly helping her early game harass.

Abilities

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Rise of the Thorns: This is Zyra's passive ability. This ability gives Zyra one last chance to finish off her opponent upon death. After dying Zyra transforms into her plant form and shoots a powerful skillshot nuke that does true damage.

• In a teamfight do not shoot immediately. Instead wait for the enemies to line up for a good shot for maximum damage.
• There is a slight delay after casting before the shot is fired. Take this into account when aiming at a moving target.
• In a 1v1 situation (such as in lane) try to get the shot off as quickly and as accurately as possible, or the opponent might just get away.

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Deadly Bloom: This ability is a powerful AoE spell That does damage with a short delay. Deadly Bloom is a fantastic damage spell with a very short cooldown, being just 3 seconds with maximum cooldown reduction. Deadly Bloom also has a very strong .75 ap ratio so it scales very well into lategame.

• Before getting your Chalice of Harmony, try no to spam this spell or you will quickly find yourself out of mana.
• I like to keep smart casting off for this spell. This allows for precise aim for catching enemies at the edge of the AoE.

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Rampant Growth: This is the ability that makes Zyra so unique. Rampant Growth places a seed at the target location that grants a small amount of vision for 30 seconds. If an opponent steps on a seed the seed will die and the opponent will be revealed for a few seconds. If one of Zyra's basic abilities hits the seed it will grow into a plant. If activated by Deadly Bloom, the seed will grow into a Thorn Spitter. Thorn Spitters have about the same range as Zyra. If activated by Grasping Roots, the seed will grow into a Vine Lasher. Vine Lashers have a range slightly higher than melee champions, but the attacks reduce the enemy's movement speed.

• If worried about ganks the seeds can be placed in the brush to act as a short ward.
• If using Deadly Bloom to harass it is almost always best to place a seed with it.
• In general Thorn Spitters are superior to Vine Lashers. Vine lashers are best used to slow down an enemy who is chasing you, or for preventing escape in a gank.
• Place Vine Lashers On the path that the opponent is traveling. If someone is chasing you, place one in front of them. If they are running away place it behind them. This allows for the Lasher to block pathing and have more slow time.
• If you plan on only placing one seed it is best to start the ability then quickly place the seed within the AoE.
• If you plan on using two seeds for maximum damage first place a seed, then activate the ability over the seed, followed by placing the second seed within the AoE. The seeds have a very brief cooldown between casts and this method makes it easier to get both seeds down in time.
• Use Thorn Spitters to zone your opponent and deny CS. It is better for them to get the 5 gold form killing your plant than it is for them to get the last hit on a minion.
• It is best to smartcast this ability to allow for easier combos.

*note leveling this spell or any other spell does not increase the damage of her plants. The plants grow more power powerful as Zyra levels not with her abilities.

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Grasping Roots: This Ability is a mid ranged skill shot nuke that roots the enemy for a short time. This ability has a very good ap ratio for the amount of utility it provides. The range is a little bit further than the center of Deadly Bloom, making it a very safe and reliable ability.

• The ability is a great tool for escaping enemies locking them down and slowing them with Vine Lashers.
• Grasping Roots is a great combo starter because it eliminates the enemies chance for escape.
  

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Stranglethorns: Zyra's ultimate is a damage spell with a massive AoE. Its scaling may be mediocre as far as ultimates go, but its greatness is the potential to hit an entire team. Stranglethorns increases the attack speed of all the plants within the AoE. After two seconds the vines will spring up and knock up all opponents within the AoE.

• The damage for this ability happens almost immediately remember this when casting it.
• If comboing with the ability, use it immediately after rooting someone with Grasping Roots this will make sure you're plants are attacking fast throughout the combo and will almost guarantee that you get the knock up.
• The knock up does not do damage.

Skill Sequence

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We max Deadly Bloom first because it is Zyra's main damaging ability. Leveling Deadly Bloom greatly reduces the cooldown so maxing it first greatly increases zyra's damage.

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We take a point of grasping roots at level three and the max it second. Grasping Roots' root time and base damage increase. The reason we max it second and not first is because Deadly Bloom has such a short cooldown and is the main harassing tool.

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Rampant Growth... I'm not sure if there is anything that is more of a one point wonder than this spell. The only real benefit to leveling it up is the added cool down reduction. We take a point in it at level 2 then max it last.

Items

These are my personal favorite starting items for Zyra. These Items allow zyra to stay in lane for a long time. Unless you are spamming your abilities you will not run out of mana. two Health Potions allow for you to take some harassment and to stay in lane for quite a long time. I prefer the meki pendant because the quicker you can get the Chalice of Harmony the quicker you can spam your Deadly Bloom.





The good old fashion boots with 3 pots. Use these items if facing champions with strong skill shots, such as Cassiopeia or Brand. Using These all the time is perfectly fine for the extra sustain and the oh so important movement speed.

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These items are great for the laning phase giving you around 110 magic resist. You also get around 70 AP giving you tons of defence from the other AP mids and the ability to hit them back hard.





start with a Needlessly Large Rod instead of going for a quick Abyssal Scepter when going against an AD champion, such as Talon, in lane. The Doran's Ring provides a little defence and some more ap while the Needlessly Large Rod paves the way for an early deathcap for tons of mid game power.

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These Items give tons of power. With runes you essentially have 49 magic pen and tons of Ability Power with the defense to deal with the harass in lane while the Chalice of Harmony gives the ability to constantly harass without any worry of running out of mana. The Abyssal Scepter helps boost everyone's magic damage in small skirmishes.

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Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a great item on Zyra. Its slow applies on each shot from the plants. This makes escape easier and makes thorn spitters huge thorns in the enemy's side (pun intended). Athene's Unholy Grail is an amazing item on Zyra. At level 18 Zyra gets 34% cooldown reduction between it and Rampant Growth. It also provides a huge 90 AP and essentially unlimited mana. With this Zyra does not need blue buff at all and someone else who is mana hungry, like Skarner or Corki.

Situational Items

Void Staff is a fantastic item for the end game. Only get this item if the opponents are stacking magic resist because otherwise there are just much better, more powerful options.

This item is fantastic for situations, such as being against an Irelia or Xin Zhao, where the enemy jumps on you and quickly kills you in the middle of a team fight. The item provides the armor you need to defend their attacks and the amazing active for sticky situations.

Guardian Angel is an awesome item for teams that hit hard on both sides and with champions that like to jump on you. The item will allow you to come back after getting terrorized by someone like Fizz. Coming back for Zyra is better than it is for most mages because if she is probably going to die quickly after coming back, she can most liekly unload all of her basic abilities again to add more damage to her opponents before killing them with Rise of the Thorns.

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Rod of Ages can replace athene's unholy grail for more defences. This item is a great item because Catalyst the Protector provides so much early-mid game sustain. One trade off of Rod of Ages compared with Athene's Unholy Grail is that the Chalice of Harmony is cheaper and also the rod must be completed early top be effective. Chalice allows for the purchace of the big damage items as quick as possible, maximizing Zyra's damage. Another trade off is that despite Athene's Unholy Grail costing less, it provides 10 more ap (after rod is charged0 and also contains 15% cool down reduction.

This item should be used instead of the Abyssal Scepter. If the enemy team has a lot of CC, plan on making your first big purchase a Rabadon's Deathcap and continuing with the regular build until the banshee's veil is needed. The trade off of going with this item is that it sacrifices the power and MR reduction that that the scepter provides.

Lane Strategy

Zyra's laning is spectacular! The goal of laning with Zyra is to harass and zone the enemy to get a ton of farm and minimize the opponent's farm. The best champion I can compare Zyra to in lane is Anivia after getting Glacial Storm, except she is like that from level 2 on! Use your Deadly Bloom so that it will either hit your lane opponent, or so it will hit all of the caster minions. Each time you use Deadly Bloom and you have a seed, grow a thorn spitter to either harass the opponent, or to push the minion wave faster. The goal is to destroy the opponents minion wave as quickly as possible to get the minions to the tower. This denys the oppoent farm and makes sure all of your minions die before the next wave comes keeping the minion battle zone right in the middle of the lane. When there is a cannon minion do not push the wave because usually those waves will not be dead by the time the next wave arrives.

In the future I will be uploading some screen shots to show how things should be done.

Team Fights

Zyra is super strong in team fights. Zyra has three goals in team fights. The first is to get some thorn spitters down. Second is to hit as many enemies, along with your spitters, as possible with Stranglethorns. This spell greatly increases the DPS of Zyra's plants, does a hefty amount of damage, and has a great knock up at the end of it. The last goal is to keep assassins away from yourself and any other squishy on your team with Grasping Roots and vine lashers.