Good build, only thing i really prefer, if you do not get tear at the very beginning, is clarity, i know it seems really noobish, it helps so much in a team fight, or begin game harass. I know how to control my mana, but having that extra mana boost can really help you out. Most game when im bot theyre bot chars are practically at the turret the whole phase. It makes you go from a bomb every now and then, to a ruthless bomb maniac. If they come at you when your low mana. clarity, speed and ult if needed. with clarity and cv you will never get ganked and you will keep the other team from getting gold or xp. And why flash isnt the greatest idea is because everygame i might die twice or so because i couldnt flash away, and considering how not far you flash and the cooldown, its not too great. Also, a ranked game zilean stays behind his team slowing and bombing where needed. You should not be getting ganked at all, if your buying wards and using cv. that it just my opinion, try it out. It works alot better. the amount of bombing might seem like more than needed, but ask your enemy they will be more pissed then ever.
--- also just to let you know where this is coming from, i main zilean from lvl 1 to lvl 30, and play ranked with him now.

well, the archangel's staff used in build #1 is taken at the end to drastically boost AP after your other stats are in check. If you want to take it before the Zhonya's Hourglass you can feel free to -- the build order isn't ever set in stone in LoL. However, I find that in more competitive games you'll often need the survivability granted by RoA and Zhonya's before the raw AP of archangel's staff (keep in mind that both of those items grant a lot of AP). As far as your comment about needing mana from archangel's early.. that is the reason for the early Tear of the Goddess-- it will give you significant mana and regen without spending the ~1800 gold for the upgrade to Archangel's.

With that being said, it is nice to have that archangel's staff earlier in some games.. It really just depends on the game

good build but i dont see any reason to not get arcangels staff right in the start, you need the ap and the mana since you are going to spam like a maniac. after arcangel i prefer getting the RoA for the health boost. good build tho love people who likes write guides properly... im not one of them, you can check out my zilean build too xD

My pleasure Price775!

I'm actually planning a large update to my guide sometime soon.. but I'm trying to get back into the swing of college currently, so it may be a week or two. Keep checking for updates because I have a lot of very useful information to add!

I was going to go with another build, but after reading your guide I will probably go wtih this one :)

Thank you :D

thanks! any time!

+1, good guide. Thanks for sorting out a lot of questions I had about mage zilean :D

Hey Jabni, Thanks! Your compliments mean a lot! Yeah, I really love Zil more than any other champion -- he has so many little techniques and tricks in his gameplay.

I think it's awesome that this is one of your favorite guides! And to be up there with Reginald is pretty nice too!

Such a great Guide. :)

I am not the user who posts guides or commenting much, but this one worked so great, from the first game!
I always searched for a good supporter. I tried nearly everyone at least Zilean. I tried at first the highrated guides, but they didn't worked greater, than other supporters. This guide showed me, how special and great Zilean is. Next to the epic Corki Guide from Reginald is this my favourite. I hope you still work on it!

I will test Zilean on ranked soon, you can play 3 really great roles with him and your builds and tactics are perfect for them! :)

Mowen, this just isn't true. If you know how to not over-extend, you will not instadie. You have flash and a double time warp. This build even builds CDR as one of its firsts, giving you more spamming ablility with your slows, speeds, and ult. You reallly should be able to survive with this one if you have any sense.



You'll have 15% cooldown reduction at level one. If your team is good, especially if you tell them your build plans, they will give you blue (yes, over the AP carry). When you build Soul Shroud as your 3rd item, you'll 25% cdr. If you need more and you don't have blue, take an Elixir of Brilliance to bring it to 35%, 5% from the cap. This build doesn't focus on cdr, it focuses on dealing damage while you support. There is a reason why I put an all about boots section -- so that you can make your own choice there. However, if you try build 2 with cdr boots vs sorc shoes, you will find that sorc shoes fit that build order better.




Late? As the second item.. Order: Boots, RoA, TOME = cdr.




I think you misunderstood that section. I did not say that you should ever lane with the AP carry (not good lane comp), and I didn't say you'd give the AP carry the farm. I said, if you have another AP carry (on your team!) you won't need to farm as hard for magic dps (which, yes, Zilean needs most of the time, believe it or not..) :P


Fair enough, but it does do damage, and if you use the bush correctly, you shouldnt draw more than one caster minion's attacks.


Will do :)



I probably should put more emphasis on it, I'll just link to a warding guide and put how it's imperative to ward in the description.

well all I can say is using variations of these builds, my season one zilean average is 60% win/loss and about 6/3/10 kda in ranked.

I know you only have 4 items here so not full build, but even so, my points still stand. Most games aren't going to be ended with more than 4 items anyways.

Build 1 - You are going to instadie (yes, before you can cast your ult on yourself) if anyone stuns you in a teamfight / an anticarry jumps on you. This build has 0 survivability and 0 tenacity.

Build 2 - You don't get CDR until late, and CDR is basically the best stat for Zilean because it scales exponentially with his W (you can have your ult up in 30 secs with max CDR, and your ult being up takes priority over AP) and if you're not the ap carry you're going to have to give blue to the ap carry. Replace Sorc shoes with CDR Boots

Build 3 - Once again, no CDR until late. Replace Sorc Shoes with CDR boots.

Overall your builds are all very squishy and have no tenacity. If the team has any brains at all they're going to see this and focus you down before you can ult anyone. I would suggest incorporating more "survival ap" items such as Zhonya's or Abyssal Scepter. ROA is good though.

I would never get Sorc shoes over CDR Boots. Zilean is support, a support that needs AP, but not magic pen. His ult is the tihng you've got to focus on, and it doesn't need magic pen. The CDR is SO much more valuable to your usefulness in the game because it lets you get your ult up way faster through a lower cd W and lower cd R. If you're having trouble being cc'd before you can ult, get merc treads then.



You've got the gp5 situation kind've mixed up. It's not as vital for the ap carry to have farm as it is for the ad carry. The ap carry should never lane with you if they can help it, because they get most of their damage through their spells and therefore levels. AD carries get it through items. So make sure if the ad carry is laning with you to let them have farm and get the gp5 items.

I wouldn't auto attack champs when you're trying to zone them in lane because it's not going to do much, and draw creep aggro.

Put Will of the Ancients in as a situational item.

Since you're saying this is for ranked games, you need to put more emphasis on warding. I only see a small note about it, people don't realize how vital it is, and how vital it is that YOU do the warding.