Zyra Build Guide by InstaNT C0ffee

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League of Legends Build Guide Author InstaNT C0ffee

Zyra - Strangle Dem Thorns! Build Guide (In-Depth)

Last updated on July 27, 2012

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Build 1 (Cheat Sheet)

Champion Build: Zyra

Recommended Runes

Purchase Order

Ability Sequence

Mastery Tree Is Outdated

WARNING: These masteries are still using the old tree and have not been updated to the new tree by the guide author. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.

Masteries

Offense: 23

Defense: 0

Utility: 7

Guide Table of Contents

Introduction

Pros / Cons

Runes

Masteries

Items

Summoner Spells

Early Game

Introduction

Hi there, this is my guide to playing Zyra, Rise Of The Thorns. Zyra has great potential to be a major threat in any game you play and I hope this guide will give you an idea of how you can play her. Obviously this guide is not 100% perfect and depending on how well you are doing and how you play you may need to shift around the build. Please take the time to have a look through this guide as I believe it will help you!

Pros / Cons

[[Pros: -
+ Zyra has a lot of damage output early game with her plants, similar to Heimerdinger.
+ Her seeds can be used to grant vision for a short amount of time, helpful when watching for ganks etc.
+ Zyra has a lot of crowd control. Grasping Roots ensnares your opponent for quick damage and then allows you to back off receiving minimal damage back. By using this move on a seed it spawns a melee plant which slows your enemies and does damage. Her ultimate Stranglethorns knocks up enemies in a radius which is useful for catching multiple enemies in a trap.

Cons: -
- Zyra is squishy early game and can be bursted down quickly.
- She focuses a lot on using her plants for damage and if you do not create them then it is difficult to do a lot of damage over time as her cooldowns are moderately high.
- Seeds only last 30 seconds so do not rely on them as you would wards as they disappear a lot quicker.

Runes

The runes I have pointed out are a what I use for standard mid champion runes. This build is mainly offensive rather than defensive, however with the little bit of extra MR you should be able to survive your opponents attacks and still do lots of damage.

Runes

Magic Penetration Marks

Magic Penetration marks are generally good for AP champions. If you think that the mastery page gives enough magic penetration don't hesitate to use flat AP marks instead. The added MP or Ap greatly helps in early game skirmishes for damage and early kills.

SPACE

Mana Regeneration Seals

Mana Regen seals allow you to sustain in lane longer and keep on using your spells. Coupled with a you should be able to stay in lane and farm for a long time as long as you are careful with your mana and can dodge attacks.

SPACE

Magic Resistance Glyphs

Although you may be in favour of damage damage damage! I am suggesting you actually take magic resistance glyphs as only the gives you magic resistance in your item build, and none of the masteries do. By having added MR you can therefore sustain longer in lane and take more damage. Especially early game I have noticed the difference they make for my gameplay.

SPACE

Flat AP Quintessences

Flat AP quintessences are extremlely helpful as they grant you a large sum of AP. Again, early game you can easily notic the difference in your damage, then late game you may find an extra 20 AP wins you a fight.

Masteries

The mastery page I have set up is a standard AP mastery page in my opinion. Others may suggest taking some defensive masteries, however what's the point in having defense if you can't trade enough damage to make the fight worthwhile because you have no mana? That's why I suggest the utility masteries for an added portion of mana & mana regen.

Masteries

23 in offense gives you all of the Ability Power and Magic Penetration masteries for early and late game damage. If you decide to take tanky masteries of more in utility you may find you are getting severely out-damaged in lane. However 7 in utility gives you some mana regeneration and mana per level meaning that you have just that added bit of sustain in your lane, and you can make mid yours!

Items

OR + A Doran's Ring first is my choice of item for the added mana regen and ability power, however if you prefer the added mobility and want some health regen then get Boots of Speed and 3 Health Potion. It's totally up to you and how you play.

THEN

AND Try to get these two at the same time if you can. This will give you an advantage with both damage and speed. If you're not doing too well and can't afford both, go for Sorcerer's Shoes so you can escape quickly, and vica versa go for a Blasting Wand if you want some nice AP damage.

Rabadon's Deathcap is a must for any AP mid champion. Zyra has a lot of damage potential and crowd control so getting a cap first means that you will be dealing extremely high damage early on and enemies will not be able to handle you.

A lot of guides are suggesting a Rod of Ages as your first item for the hitpoints, mana and ability power. I personally have gone off this item as Rylai's Crystal Scepter gives you both health and ability power. The passive of this item which slows enemies on hit will also stack with Zyra's Grasping Roots seed plant.

OR Choose between one of these at this point. If the enemy team has a lot of magic champions such as Malphite , Brand etc. then get a Abyssal Scepter. If they have a lot of attack damage champions then Zhonya's Hourglass is your item. However I generally get Zhonya's Hourglass first because of its active ability of making you invulnerable

I like a Void Staff as a last item as it provides you with a nice amount of magic damage and passively gives you more magic penetration so enemies with magic resistance will also be vulnerable to your attacks. However you can get another Rabadon's Deathcap if you want, totally up to you and your preference.

Summoner Spells

Recommended

AND Flash and Ignite are standard mid lane summoner spells and will give you an escape / engage option with Flash and then if you JUST missed that last hit, Ignite will finish off your opponent for you.

Viable

Surge will increase your ap and health so you could turn the tide of a fight or just escape a gank. I would recommend taking this instead of Ignite if you do, so you still have a secondary escape option or engage option.
If you're thinking of taking Ghost then take it instead of Flash as two movement summoner spells aren't useful except for champions such as Rammus and Malphite
If you want to take Exhaust I would recommend it instead of Ignite. This is because without Flash you will have to play extremely careful in your lane to avoid ganks and Flash engages by the enemy. Only do this if you are confident in your ability to escape.
Take Teleport instead of Ignite if you want. It is useful for getting to team fights quickly and possibly saving an ally/killing an enemy in another lane.
If you're bad at conserving mana then take Clarity so you can always counter a fight even when the enemy believes you low on mana. it's not my favourite spell but you might prefer it.

Not Recommended

None of these summoner spells will benefit you in any way in mid lane (imo). You may want to take one of these spells but I seriously advise you don't.

Early Game

Early game you should be looking to farm as many creeps as possible, amassing gold to buy your items with. Although she is adept with crowd control and damage, because all of Zyra's abilities are skillshots, you may miss some and end up losing a fight so it is better just to farm. That is unless you are confident in your ability to kill the enemy or you get a friendly gank.

The yellow circles represent the wraith and wolves camps. These should be up very frequently and you should take advantage of it as much as you can. For the wraiths I have a tip. You can simply walk alongside the camp, plant two seeds over the wall and then activate them with Deadly Bloom for AoE damage and your plants will activate killing the remainder of the monsters without you having to leave lane.

The orange circles represent where you should be planting your Rampant Growth seeds when you're not using them in lane. These positions are vital if you don't want to be successfully ganked by someone such as Alistar or some one else with crowd control. You can plant 4 seeds at a time so use them wisely. They do wither and die after 30 seconds so make sure you are vigilant and replace them when you can.

The blue circle represents the mana golem aka. blue buff. You should have your jungler help you get this the second time around then after that with the help of your plants you should be able to take it down by yourself rather easily for the rest of the game. As a tip you can plant your Rampant Growth seed in the brush by the golem to watch out for enemy ganks.

The pink arrows represent which lane you can go to for ganks. After level 6 Zyra is a very good ganker because of the range of her ult and the cc of all her moves.

Guide Discussion (7)

The Rise of the Thorns

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