Hello and welcome to my 3rd guide on Mobafire, this time featuring my second best support champion Zilean, the Chronokeeper. First being which I do have a guide for, link will be at the bottom if your intrested.

I know alot of people prefer Zilean as a mid laner over support, But he has several unique options for supporting, and some good self utility as well. And his can be really annoying in lane since he can almost spam this ability and it deals some decent damage early. Just try not to push the lane to hard with it.

He also has an insanely strong ultimate that nobody should overlook, . A good Zilean will always land this ult at the right time and deny the enemy so many early kills.

Pros Annoying poke with Reliable speed boost. Game changing ultimate if used right. Extremely low cooldowns due to Impossible to chase due to

Cons Pushes lane with Vulnerable when is on cooldown High cooldown on

More damage from your early game, meaning more poke and zoning potential.

Makes it easier to survive the enemy carries harass. Not to much to say about these.

Since Zilean can be rather mana hungry from spamming . These should help

Since you won't be the one intentionally taking CS, this will help with getting some of the essential support items.

Optimal Summoner Spells

To many uses to list, Its a free blink, can be used to hop walls, and with some good reflexes you can do a combo and save someone out of nowhere.

Works to well with . combine these 2 and its almost a 90% slow. The damage reduction is also enough to give your carry the edge in a 1v1 fight.

Other choices

Makes a game of "Catch the Zilean" even funner, but I still prefer due being able to jump walls.

If you have an insanely wreckless carry, this can help for when they revive with with .

Essential Items
This item you should try and get really early, because it will save a ton of gold on wards. But it doesn't drop vision wards. Still have to buy those seperatly.

Really helpful on mana hungry supports, With an added game changing active effect. This + is enough to save anyone out of possition. Usually the first buy on Zilean due to the strong mana regen it gives.

Talisman of Ascension Really good item on Zilean and most supports. Some decent health, mana, and a really good active effect.

A decent pick on Zilean, some extra durability, Great followup initiation active effect. And the cooldown reduction is also helpful.

Choice of boots
The best choice for Zilean by far, the extra CDR is going to really help throughout the game with the high cooldown on and can put on almost a 3 second cooldown at max rank.

Situational Items
You already have a peel with but this can come in handy if you need to peel off several enemies at once.

Zilean already has great lane pushing pottential with , But if you need even more pushing power, go for it.

If you get a carry that likes to towerdive, this will help alot.

Choice of Trinket
Or
I personally prefer the extra ward over revealing a nearby area for a few seconds, The orb may have alot more range, but the extra ward is really nice. I prefer upgrading the totem to the vision ward personally when you reach 9.

Your gives him an easy time with catching those axes, and can make him almost uncatchable combined with his . And he can do some insane followup poke when you place a .

Used to be only picked 1 out of every 400 games or so, but his popularity seems to be rising again, Zilean is a decent pair with Corki. Both of you have some great poke, You can slow an enemy down if he flies in and opens fire with Machine Gun.

Not a huge fan of Ashe to be honest, her lack of damage compared to other carries is kind of bad. But she does have some good poke with . Plus her is basically a free ward every 30 seconds.

Really fun matchup for Zilean, her passive and your is enough to make her uncatchable. Plus you can slow enemies and almost guarantee a kill when she uses .

Another good matchup for Zilean. Your (slowing) and his works really well together.

Bit of a weird AD carry in the current meta (and has been for awhile) But can still do well if played right. But she doesn't synergzye to well with Zilean.

A decent matchup for Zilean. You can to slow an enemy, and a good Tristana will in and deal some good damage.

Another matchup I like, use to slow, and a good Quinn will automatically fire off a + AA combo, maybe even throw in a if possible.

This isn't the best matchup, but it can be a funny one if played right, place a bomb on Twitch while he is in stealth and he comes out with a little present for the enemies.

Zilean has all the "anti failure" tools needed to keep a good Vayne up and going early on. So keep the enemies away with your and if they do get close, let Vayne escape with .

Your slow on is enough for Ezreal to unload a free or 2 on the target really easily. You can also speed him up so he can save his for later.

Used to be considered trash tier, but with his rising popularity right now, he is more common to see. But alas he is not a good pair with Zilean. Lucian likes supports with strong lockdown, Zilean only has 1 massive slow. Not enough to be a great pick with him.

Extremely powerful early game damage, but lacks the attack range. Decent matchup with Zilean though, makes landing her easy. Just not much killing potential in this lane comp, more of a zoning comp with these 2.

Not a real AD carry, more of an "anti" carry. But makes landing his really easy, And then his poke becomes unavoidable. Prepare to zone the enemies like no tommorow if your with Urgot.

An extremely underestimated passive, but that 8% exp bonus is enough to get a good edge on the enemy carry, But the other thing about this is it affects all allies. So your not just helping your lane, but the others aswell.

Zilean's only damaging spell, and a decent one at that. This spell will often force the enemy to back off for a bit and miss a few CS. Which can easily put your carry ahead. And early game feel free to poke as much as you want, its mana cost is low early game.

Early game try not to use this every time its off cooldown, its a relatively high cost, high cooldown early game. So only use this early if its an emergency and have to get another out. But late game feel free to spam it to get your ult off cooldown really quickly, By doing so it will be ready in about 30 seconds. (down from its 180 second cooldown)

Zilean's main spell for supporting, This can be used in a variety of ways. Speeding up your carry to get them out of a bad spot, slowing an enemy to secure a kill or initiate a jungler gank. This spell has so many uses I can hardly list all of them here.

A game changing ultimate. This spell can deny the enemy carry a kill, Save an ally, or even force the enemy to switch targets in a team fight. This spell is all about timing though, if you use it to early the enemies will wait for it to wear off before killing, use it to late and you won't be able to react. You can also use this to troll the enemy when he uses .

And if you do land that revive in a teamfight, the carry coming back is enough to win it easily.

At this point in the game, you mainly want to focus on keeping your carry alive, keeping the lane warded properly, and poke with your bombs. If the enemy jungler comes to gank, your carry and get them to safety. This is also a good time to and boost yourself out if needed. And if all else fails, you have your ultimate.

Proper ward placement is key to having a good laning phase. It keeps your brushes safe, grants advanced warning of jungler ganks, and allows you to keep track of the enemies without having to facecheck the brushes and give a free kill to them. Below is a chart showing you the important spots to ward in lane. Also if the enemy is getting vision wards to counter you, go back and get some yourself. Counter their counter warding.

In teamfights, its your job to speed up your to keep everything on your side running smoothly with proper uses of , and saving your allies with when the need arises. Just remember not to use it to early or the enemies will switch targets and wait out its duration. Also throw in the occasional if you wish, They don't do to much damage late game though.

Well thank you for reading my Zilean guide, If you need help on anything I didn't post here, feel free to leave questions in the comments. I will get back to you as soon as possible. Also if your interested I have a guide for pre remake Karma which I need to update sometime, and one for Syndra, the Dark Soverign.


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