Summon Aery procs when you use Time Warp giving you extra utility and shielding, and it's a fantastic way to proc Ardent Censer. It procs with Time Bomb as well, giving you a little bit extra poke in laning phase.

Manaflow Band is the only viable rune in this column as support, it helps with your mana regen - which can quickly ramp up when you're consistently casting spells to poke and peel in lane.

Transcendence is very good for Zilean, he benefits extremely well off the extra CDR due to his Rewind, and he also gains extra AP from excess CDR with this rune.

Once again, focusing on an early lead in laning phase, Scorch is your go to rune. It helps give your ADC a wide berth around minions by poking down the opposition. It's one of the best options in this row. Gathering Storm is a good option as well, but it focuses more on post 20 minutes - if you have carries such as Ryze, Vayne and Kassadin, who scale high into late game, you might want to consider taking this over Scorch.

Biscuit Delivery is a great rune for sustain. It restores 10% of your missing health and mana, and increases your maximum mana by 50 anytime you consume or sell a biscuit. This is a great rune if you are facing a poke heavy opposition, and it also synergizes well with Manaflow Band.

Cosmic Insight has good synergy with Zilean's Rewind. It grants 5% CD, increases your CD cap to 45%, as well as reduces the cool down of both active items and summoner spells by 5%. It's not hard to overcap on CDR, so the extra is not wasted and converted to AP. Very good to take alongside Transcendence.

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Boots of Mobility > MOVEMENT SPEED These are the cheapest boots in the game, but often the most useful - especially on a support, and one that can engage at that. Zilean, like most supports, has the option to roam a lot, and catch people out with his Time Bomb or make a clutch save on an ally with Chronoshift, so having the bonus movement speed is invaluable. Sorcerer's Shoes > DAMAGE If you're going to be relied on to do a lot of damage in game, and/or the enemy team is taking a lot of AP resist, you might want to take Sorcerer's Shoes for the extra 18% magic penetration, helping burst down tanks. Ninja Tabi's > ARMOR If the enemy team has a lot of physical damage threats, and you need some extra survivability on top of Aftershock, Ninja Tabi's are the way to go, offering 20 armor, and reducing incoming basic attacks by 12%. Ionian Boots of Lucidity > CDR If you're wanting to have a little bit more CDR, you can take these boots, helps with getting your abilities out quicker, and reducing the CD on your summoner spells by 10%. Good synergy with Transcendence and Cosmic Insight.

Athene's Unholy Grail > DAMAGE/UTILITY/CDR/SUSTAIN Zilean primarily focuses on doing damage and stunning with his Time Bomb, making Athene's Unholy Grail a decent item as you can build the stacks fast, and proc it all with Time Warp, adding a nice chunk of healing into Zilean's kit. You gain CDR, extra AP giving you a little more damage, and some magic resistance.

Redemption > CDR/HP+MANA REGEN/SUSTAIN Redemption offers an aoe heal in an area, adding a health sustain for her allies that Zilean's kit lacks outside of proccing Summon Aery. It also offers HP and Mana regen, meaning you can stay in the fights longer, recall less, and you can help out even while dead. It also offers an extra 10% shielding power, which synergizes with Summon Aery's shield.

Ardent Censer > DAMAGE/UTILITY/CDR If you have a team comp that relies heavily on fast auto attacks such as Vayne, Kindred, Quinn etc. Ardent Censer is a great pickup to maximize your carries damage output while increasing their movement speed, it also offers you a bit more burst, a small bonus to your movement speed, mana sustain and 10% CDR.

Zhonya's Hourglass > UTILITY/SURVIVABILITY/DAMAGE If the enemy team has a lot of burst damage threats, you can take Zhonya's Hourglass to keep yourself alive longer, or negate damage spells such as Zed's Death Mark or Ignite. It can spell the difference between living or dying, you also gain a nice chunk of AP for your burst damage, 45 armor and CDR.

Mikael's Crucible > SURVIVABILITY/CDR/UTILITY A good pick when facing an enemy team with hard CC that you need to Cleanse on allies, such as Impale, Dark Binding, Cocoon etc and grants bonus movement speed for 2s after successfully cleansing an ability. Increases your Mana and HP regeneration, while granting you 40 magic resist, and 20% shielding power - good synergy with Summon Aery.

Twin Shadows > UTILITY/DAMAGE A great item to help you chase down enemies faster with the slow, up to 40% - or if you want vision of where enemies could be, helps you not to face check brushes or while taking objectives. You gain 70 AP, adding onto your burst damage window, 10% CDR and extra movement speed. Twin Shadows is very good on Zilean due to the immense slow Time Warp already has.

Morellonomicon > DAMAGE/UTILITY/SURVIVABILITY If the enemy team has a lot of healing such as a Soraka or Yuumi, you may want to rush Morellonomicon for the grievous wounds passive it applies. You gain 70 AP to add onto your burst window, magic penetration which can help burst through tank threats with AP resist, and 300 HP for extra survivability.

Shurelya's Reverie > UTILITY/DAMAGE/SUSTAIN If you need to engage on enemies quickly and efficiently with your team, you can take Shurelya's Battlesong for a quick aoe burst of speed. You gain 10%, 300 HP and HP/mana regen, along with 10% shield power - synergizing with Summon Aery - so it's a useful pickup, as well as having synergy with Time Warp.

Hextech GLP-800 > UTILITY/DAMAGE A great item to help you chase down enemies faster with the 65% decaying slow, and added damage the spray does - You gain 70 AP, adding onto your burst damage window, 10% CDR and extra movement speed. Much like Twin Shadows, Everfrost is very good on Zilean due to the immense slow Time Warp already has.

At level 1, you will be levelling up Time Bomb as it is your main harass tool
You want to try and harass the enemies away from taking CS, from a safe distance, your Time Bomb is your main poking tool. You at level 3, you can cast Rewind after a Time Bomb, to throw another onto the same target for a stun. Time Warp's slow can help you land this 2nd bomb. It's often better to just throw one bomb if you're poking, due to mana costs ramping up quickly otherwise.

You can choose between speeding up an ally like a ganking jungler, to catch fleeing enemies, or slowing down the enemies to stop their escape, you must make the choice. As stated above, you can hit a stun easier on slowed enemies, so often it is better to opt for the slow.

Level 6 is when you can safely all in the enemies, making sure to keep yourself or your ADC alive - or bring back to life with your Chronoshift. Stun your enemies, slow them down, or speed up your allies.



Outside of laning phase, you're going to want to be setting up a lot of wards around objectives, such as Baron Nashor and the drakes. If your team is ahead, and it is safe to do so, you can set up deep vision in the enemies jungle, allowing yourself and your team to get important picks, that allow you to take the previously mentioned objectives.

As Zilean is still a squishy, backline mage, you generally want to be around your team as much as you can, especially late game, where warding alone can get you caught out and potentially lose the game in a 4v5 teamfight.

During teamfights, you will be wanting to cast Time Bomb on high damage threats on the enemy team, the stun is very disruptive! Also focus on peeling for your team, preventing an all-in happening, or setting up kills, turning the fight.
You can use Time Bombs to zone enemies where and when possible, and to set up a potential stun.

Zilean is about damage and stuns with his Time Bombs, slowing the enemy and speeding up your allies with Time Warp, and reviving your core ally with Chronoshift.
You want to make sure you're timing your Chronoshift correctly, just before an ally dies, so the enemy does not back off and wait for the Chronoshift to wear off. A well timed ultimate can change the outcome of a fight, giving your chosen ally two lives, and making the enemy choose their targets differently.

The cooldown is significantly lower at later stages of the game, you don't need to hold it for long during a fight, especially with all the CDR you have available to you.

The main thing to be aware of, is making sure your teams threats stay alive, while removing, or zoning, the enemy teams threats.

Control Ward's are a staple part of any support, both to deny your enemies vision, and to provide your team extra vision. You should make sure to buy one at least every time you back, preferably to have 2 on you at all times.

I hope you enjoyed, and learned enough from my Zilean guide, to play him as well as the pro's.

If you enjoyed my guide, you can check out my other guides here, in which I've covered more styles of supports, incase you want to branch out on supports such as engagers ( Nautilus, Pyke etc!).

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