Flash Flash is the best Summoner Spell around. Not only is it the most popular Summoner Spell, but it also provides Zyra and every other champion a variety of options when it comes to basic gameplay. Flash can be used to engage, escape, to finish players off and to help allies. I would recommend taking Flash whenever you play Zyra period.

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Ignite Ignite is a must-have Summoner Spell on any Support in the current meta. As every game relies heavily on the early game, and as Zyra is an AP Support, taking Ignite is a fantastic Summoner Spell that will help you win lane and dominate the enemy. I recommend taking Ignite in every matchup regardless of the situation. The reasoning behind this is that if you don't take Ignite and the enemy does, you lose all lane priority.

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Exhaust Exhaust is a possibility, but I don’t really like taking Exhaust on Zyra. The reason for this is that it reduces my kill pressure in the lane. Ignite offers her so much, while Exhaust is just a spell that reduces one enemy target. When I take Exhaust, I take it into matchups where the enemy has a lot of assassins or is full AD. I may also take it into matchups where I have little to no kill threat. I would never take Exhaust into champions like Soraka or Janna though as Ignite offers you a lot of healing reduction.

There are a lot of different Rune choices on Zyra. I will break down the two most popular pages for her. While these are the most popular, you may find yourself branching out or taking different secondary Runes on Zyra. I have spoken to a lot of different Zyra one tricks, and pretty much everyone I have spoken to agrees that there is no “perfect setup” for Zyra. She is so flexible and can take a lot of different Rune setups. I myself like to experiment a lot with different setups.

To clarify, these are the most popular Rune choices. However, the flexibility that Zyra has to offer makes her incredibly strong. Test out different Rune setups to see what you like.

Arcane Comet This keystone works amazingly well with Zyra. She can proc it incredibly easily with her all of her abilities. It offers her tons of extra poke in lane, which increases her kill pressure. Furthermore, even if she doesn’t land her Deadly Spines or Grasping Roots, she can still proc Arcane Comet with her Plants. Even if you’re not going to land your Deadly Spines, as long as Arcane Comet is up and you spawn a plant, you will get a stack on Spellthief's Edge and proc Arcane Comet.

Manaflow Band As Zyra is a champion who needs mana to use her abilities, Manaflow Band is a nice pickup on her because it allows her to have a wider mana pool: allowing her to use her abilities more frequently.

Nullifying Orb can be good into champions with lots of poke, or double poke matchups like Syndra and Xerath. I would take this when I am against champions like Vel'Koz, Xerath and Brand because it increases my survivability in these matchups. Nimbus Cloak is a good option too. It can be good into mobile matchups. It will help you chase/ escape the enemy thanks to the extra movement speed.

Transcendence Transcendence gives you ability haste when you hit certain levels. This will allow you to use your abilities more frequently in team fights: allowing you to save more allies with your Grasping Roots, fish for more bindings with your Deadly Spines and ensure that your Ultimate Stranglethorns is up in every team fight. There are not really any other good Runes in this line.

I’m not a fan of either of the other 2 Runes in this line. Absolute Focus is too hard to make use of especially as Zyra is squishy and can easily go below 70% health. Celerity doesn’t offer much for Zyra period.

Scorch This Rune provides Zyra with a little extra damage in lane which works great with the way you play Zyra. Scorch's extra damage will increase your ability to harass in lane as it makes your trades with your abilities more potent.

Waterwalking is not good on Zyra period. Gathering Storm is definitely an option, especially if you’re the only AP champion on your team. Taking this is good for the later parts of the game, but you will miss out on extra poke in lane.

In the secondary tree, take Domination with Taste of Blood and Relentless Hunter. Taste of Blood provides you with some extra sustain in lane. As Zyra is pretty squishy, getting as much extra in sustain will make laning easier. Relentless Hunter makes you faster and allows you to get back to lane faster, move around the map quicker and will help you escape danger. Zyra is traditionally quite slow, so having the bonus movement speed is great. For your final set of Runes, you should take AD/AP, AD/AP and Armor.

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Electrocute Electrocute on Zyra is very good. It offers her a lot of extra burst potential throughout the game. As long as she can use one rotation of spells, she should be able to proc Electrocute with ease. This is a really good Rune to take into champions who have healing because Arcane Comet only offers poke, which healing champions like Soraka or Nami can heal up from by the time you want to trade again. Electrocute offers more burst, which makes it harder for them to out sustain and recover from.

Taste of Blood Taste of Blood is a good Rune. Taste of Blood gives extra sustain in lane, which will help you against tough matchups. Taste of Blood also helps you with trading and it can sometimes make the difference between dying and survivng in lane.

Cheap Shot is an option, but it only really helps you when you commit to all-ins. It doesn’t offer you any extra sustain, and neither will it help outside of hard trades and all-ins. Sudden Impact doesn’t work very well with Zyra’s kit, so avoid this one.

Eyeball Collection Eyeball Collection is pretty good on Zyra because she should be able to get the stacks easily. As a damaging Support with a lot of poke and kill pressure, she should consistently be able to stack this. However, in hard matchups like into hard engage or long range poke, she probably wont get stacks.

In all honestly, there is a lot of flexibility in this line of Runes. You can take whatever you want, and what you find more comfortable with. Once again, Zyra is super versatile, so you can get away with swapping this line out and trying different things.

Relentless Hunter Relentless Hunter offers you more movement speed which makes you faster. It is very useful on Zyra because she is pretty immobile and easy to catch out of position.

Here’s another Rune line that is up for debate. You can choose different ones depending on what you prefer, and what you think is best. However, I would not recommend Ravenous Hunter as the healing isn’t very beneficial. Ultimate Hunter is also not that great, because it only reduces the timer on her Ultimate Stranglethorns. However, you may find this reduced cooldown will help you get more picks. Ingenious Hunter (in my opinion) is the only real other option. The additional haste is good for your active items and your trinket. It will allow you to clear more wards as a result.

For the secondary tree, take Sorcery with Transcendence and Scorch. The extra haste will be very helpful when trading in lane and it will come in handy as the game develops. The extra damage from Scorch will make your trades more potent. For your final set of Runes, you should take AD/AP, AD/AP and Armor.

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Dark Harvest The third option takes Dark Harvest, but includes the same Runes as the previous Rune page. Dark Harvest is good into squishy and immobile champions and matchups. If the enemy has tons of sustain, I wouldn’t really recommend taking this Rune page because you will never get them low enough to get stacks.

Taste of Blood Taste of Blood is a good Rune. Taste of Blood gives extra sustain in lane, which will help you against tough matchups. Taste of Blood also helps you with trading and it can sometimes make the difference between dying and survivng in lane.

Cheap Shot is an option, but it only really helps you when you commit to all-ins. It doesn’t offer you any extra sustain, and neither will it help outside of hard trades and all-ins. Sudden Impact doesn’t work very well with Zyra’s kit, so avoid this one.

Eyeball Collection Eyeball Collection is pretty good on Zyra because she should be able to get the stacks easily. As a damaging Support with a lot of poke and kill pressure, she should consistently be able to stack this. However, in hard matchups like into hard engage or long range poke, she probably wont get stacks.

In all honestly, there is a lot of flexibility in this line of Runes. You can take whatever you want, and what you find more comfortable with. Once again, Zyra is super versatile, so you can get away with swapping this line out and trying different things.

Relentless Hunter Relentless Hunter offers you more movement speed which makes you faster. It is very useful on Zyra because she is pretty immobile and easy to catch out of position.

Here’s another Rune line that is up for debate. You can choose different ones depending on what you prefer, and what you think is best. However, I would not recommend Ravenous Hunter as the healing isn’t very beneficial. Ultimate Hunter is also not that great, because it only reduces the timer on her Ultimate Stranglethorns. However, you may find this reduced cooldown will help you get more picks. Ingenious Hunter (in my opinion) is the only real other option. The additional haste is good for your active items and your trinket. It will allow you to clear more wards as a result.

For the secondary tree, take Sorcery with Transcendence and Scorch. The extra haste will be very helpful when trading in lane and it will come in handy as the game develops. The extra damage from Scorch will make your trades more potent. For your final set of Runes, you should take AD/AP, AD/AP and Armor.

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In tough matchups, such as against long-ranged poke champions like Xerath, swap your minor armor Runes for magic resistance instead. You can go double magic resistance if the enemy has stacked magical damage too.

When you’re laning against poke champions, you can also switch your secondary runes or opt for Nullifying Orb to help protect you versus their range and damage. As she is very squishy, it’s worth taking this to protect you further in the lane. Take this over Transcendence if you’ve gone Sorcery secondary.

What Rune page is best for Zyra?

There is no best Rune page for Zyra. If you want to, you can get away with taking Rune page 1 or Rune page 2 into any matchup and do fine. However, I would recommend you go Electrocute into matchups that have lots of sustain so the enemy can not out sustain the damage you deal via Arcane Comet. In my opinion, you will find it hard to kill a sustain lane when taking Arcane Comet because it offers no burst- only poke.

Like I said, you can get away with going either Rune page 1 or Rune page 2 as default and do fine while playing Zyra. Dark Harvest is kind of a niche pick and only good against squishy champions who lack sustain (in my opinion).

Similarly to Zyra's Runes, her build is very versatile, and players like to build many different things on her. Over the years, I have experimented with a lot of unique and weird builds on Zyra. I will recommend a bunch of different items in this guide for you to try out. Give them a go, and see what you prefer.

As she is very versatile and lots of players have different opinions on her build, please keep in mind this is just my opinion and what suits my play style. Many players have other builds they like to use on her, which is fine. In this section, I will not be really talking about Control Wards. Make sure you buy them and place them as the game develops. You need to buy them alot.

Zyra will always want to go Spellthief's Edge because it offers her a ton of poke and sustain in lane. In good matchups, you will be able to stack this item incredibly fast. I would always recommend that you start with this item.

Your first major item is going to be Sorcerer's Shoes. Without a doubt, you'll always want to get these as fast as possible. They're relatively cheap in comparison to the rest of your items. Penetration is worth a lot more than flat AP in the early game for Zyra because they synergize incredibly well with your plants and allow you to dish out more damage throughout the laning phase.

If you're against a tanky enemy team comp, I would recommend getting Liandry's Torment. It gives you a lot of damage in the lane while also increasing her survivability with the extra health. Not only does it increase her ability damage, but it also increases her plant damage. Whenever her plants attack an enemy, they will deal burn damage to them. If you are versus a sustain heavy lane, make sure you delay your Mythic item and get an Oblivion Orb for the healing reduction in the lane. It will help you get kills against champions like Soraka and Senna.

The other options for Mythic items are Luden's Tempest, Night Harvester, Imperial Mandate, Everfrost and finally, Moonstone Renewer. Each of them is viable on Zyra, but the only other item I buy on Support Zyra is Moonstone Renewer. I will build this item if I am behind on Zyra as it offers me a lot of utility that can keep me in the game even if I am behind. Yes, I lack damage, but the utility is very beneficial for my team. Luden's Tempest synergises well with your plants and gives you more poke. Night Harvester is good versus squishy teams. Imperial Mandate procs off your Grasping Roots and Stranglethorns. Everfrost is good against assassin teams.

For your third item, it depends on what you need. Most players go with Demonic Embrace, which offers Zyra extra protection and lots of damage. She works well with this item. However, you may wish to switch it up with another one of the items I will talk about. For example, you may wish to go for Zhonya's Hourglass as a third item, especially if you're against lots of assassins or if you keep dying.

If the enemy team is very tanky, you could go Void Staff, which offers you a lot of pen. It is good versus tanks because it will penetrate their defences. Morellonomicon is also an option and is excellent versus sustain. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is an option, although I do not like this item. It is pretty expensive for the stats it gives.

Your fourth item will be Zhonya's Hourglass. The protection and active it provides is incredibly strong. I love getting this item on Zyra as it offers her a lot of protection and damage. As Zyra is pretty squishy, she can use her Zhonya's Hourglass to reduce her chances of dying, and it is excellent versus assassins who like to pop her.

For the final item, you should get Morellonomicon. This item is excellent in the current meta as there is so much sustain in the game. I don't like upgrading this until last because Oblivion Orb gives healing reduction, and upgrading it is only icing on the cake.

You will naturally upgrade your warding item and get Shard of True Ice as you play the game. I would not sell this item on Zyra regardless of the game state because it gives you vision.

To some extent, every AP item is situational on Zyra. Here are the more common situational items that you may find on her, though.

Vigilant Wardstone is an item you can buy on Zyra. However, I never buy it because I love the pure damage that other things give her. While the cost is somewhat effective, I find more use of other items rather than buying and upgrading this item.

Mercury's Treads are good into teams with lots of CC or magical damage. You can buy these if you wish to. However, you will be missing out on the magic pen that Sorcerer's Shoes provide.

Plated Steelcaps are good into entire AD teams or teams with lots of assassins. They increase your survivability thanks to the armour they provide. You will be missing out on the magic pen that Sorcerer's Shoes provide.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter works on Zyra, but it's not very good on her in season 11. It only really offers her a slow, which is nice, but there are better items around.

The most important thing you need to learn for Zyra is what each of her abilities do. In this section, I will break down the basics of each ability, and give you some handy tips and tricks along the way.

Zyra’s Passive is Garen of Thorns

Periodically, Zyra will spawn a seed or two that briefly grant vision. An enemy can step on one of the seeds to destroy it. Zyra can have a total of 8 Seeds at max. These seeds only last for 30 seconds though.

These seeds will not spawn when she is inside a bush. You can use this to your advantage because the enemy will not know that you’re in there. Her seeds will not spawn very close to another, however, she can manipulate the location of the drop by standing near one side of the lane for a long period of time. This is very good versus champions who have engage tools as you can spawn lots of plants and potentially turn the exchange around.

Zyra’s Q is Deadly Spines

Zyra sprouts an attack at a target location. It deals damage to all enemies who are hit by it. if she uses her Deadly Spines near a seed, a Thorn Spitter plant will appear and deal damage to enemies.

Your Q is going to be your main poke tool during the laning phase. I always start Deadly Spines unless I’ve gone for an invade because it offers me a lot of poke at level 1 and 2. E at level 1 isn’t very good outside of invading (in my opinion). At level 1, try to poke and harass the enemy with your Q and basic attacks. Avoid using your Q so much during levels 1 and 2 because you will easily run out of mana trying to poke the enemy down.

If you’ve got loads of mana and you have your Arcane Comet up, I like to throw out my Q with my W to get the procs off. Even if I don’t land my Q, if the plant focuses the enemy champion, then I’ll be happy with it as I can get Spellthief stacks and deal some damage with the Arcane Comet.

Zyra’s W is Rampant Growth

Zyra periodically stores a seed, which can stack up to 2 times. Killing an enemy will increase the charge rate of the next seed. Getting a takedown provides you with a seed. Placed seeds will last for 60 seconds, and they give you some vision in the area where it was placed. If an enemy walks on them, they will be revealed for 2 seconds. You can place your Rampant Growth inside bushes that you’re hiding in so you can spawn a plant when the enemy walks close to you. If you’re setting up an ambush, make sure you keep placing them whenever they’re up so you can deal more damage.

You can use your Rampant Growth to face check bushes, and you can use it in conjunction with your Deadly Spines and Grasping Roots to spawn plants. As these plants grant vision, if you Rampant Growth a big bush, you will not see everything inside of it (such as the bushes around red/blue buff or around the mid-lane), you can spawn a plant in there and it will grant vision throughout the bush. Your best bet when using your Rampant Growth is to use your W after using your Deadly Spines or Grasping Roots straight away to reduce the enemies chances of stepping on it.

Zyra’s E is Grasping Roots

Zyra sends a vine in a target direction that roots all enemies it comes into contact with. If Grasping Roots comes into contact with a seed, a Vine Lasher plant will spawn.

As this ability is a root, it’s best to use your Stranglethorns against champions with channels because roots do not stop them. This is very important vs Vel'Koz and Katarina. Using your E first will not prevent them from dealing damage with their Ultimates.

Zyra’s E offers her a lot of burst and kill pressure. You can use it aggressively from the bushes to ambush the enemy when they walk up close to you. In many cases, it’s better to use your Grasping Roots when the enemy is close to you to make it easier for you to land the ability.

Zyra’s Ultimate is Stranglethorns

Zyra summons a thicket that deals damage and knocks up all enemies in the area. Plants that are already in the zone, will become empowered.

When the enemy has channel abilities, it is important that you use your Ultimate as quickly as you can. Her Ultimate takes some time to “come online” and if you use it immediately, the chances of you knocking them up will be increased. Do not use your Grasping Roots before your Stranglethorns because your Grasping Roots will not cancel the channel, and this will provide time for the enemy to deal extra damage to you. Before casting your Ultimate, it is good to put down as many plants as you can and spawn them too. If you use your Ultimate, while you have seeds down, they will not spawn into plants unless you activate them with your Q or E but before your Ultimate knocks the enemy up.

The differences between her plants

Zyra has 2 plants. They can be spawned by pressing either Q or E around a seed placed by her Passive or by her Rampant Growth. Each plant has the same priority list when it comes to who they want to poke. If Zyra auto attacks a target, they will get a “high priority mark” on them for 3 seconds. If she doesn’t but a plant attacks a target, they will apply a small and lesser-priority mark on the target they focus on.

► 1) Taunted sources
► 2) Most recently applied high-priority marks
► 3) Nearest lesser priority target
► 4) Non-champions that Zyra has recently attacked
► 5) The closest unit in range.

What does this all mean? To cut a long story short, you can manipulate who your plants attack by auto-attacking a target. If you auto an enemy, the plants in range will focus that target. Try to auto-attack enemy champions over minions as the plants will focus the same target you focus on.

Her Deadly Spines will spawn a plant called Thorn Spitter. It deals a lot of damage, applies spell effects and can burst champions down. It has much further range compared to the other plant.

Her Grasping Roots will spawn a plant called Vine Lasher. It deals the same amount of damage, applies spell effects and will also burst champions down. This plant however also slows its target. It has a lot less range compared to Thorn Spitter.

When you cast your Stranglethorns on top or near these plants, the plants will become empowered: resetting their duration, restoring 50% of their currents health and increasing their HP by 50%. It attacks become empowered too, gaining bonus damage briefly.

In this section, let’s break down her max order priority. I know I’ve said this a lot in this guide, but as Zyra is super versatile, she can to some extent max anything and do well.

Let’s start with the differences. Q max offers more poke, E max offers more all-in potential. That’s the basics. If you want to learn the basics of Zyra, or if you’re not really investing too much time into her, generally speaking, Q or E max is fine. E>Q>W or Q>E>W is the way to go.

I always prefer to go Q>W at level 1 and 2 because E costs so much at level 2. You can get 2 Q’s down at level 1, or wait until level 2 to spawn a plant and go for a good early trade. In my opinion, going Q>E at levels 1 and 2 costs too much mana.


Q gives you a lot of poke and is great into matchups that have dodges or dashes because you will have good damage in lane without relying on landing your E. If you max E versus champions with dashes and you can never land it, you’re missing out on free damage. Going Q max in this scenario is way stronger.



E max gives you a lot of burst damage. It also offers a lot of all-in potential. This max order is great against champions with sustain like Soraka or Senna. I would not recommend maxing E against champions with dashes like Ezreal or Lucian because they can easily dodge it. Maxing Q into them will be better as it is more reliable to hit.



However, I have been testing out and enjoying E>W>Q max. The ability to place and spawn a lot of plants is really beneficial because it can help you turn the tides of a trade. While pointing points into Q helps, you don’t rely on landing this ability to deal damage. Instead, you put your faith into the plants.

With W max second, you can spawn lots of plants that will deal a lot of damage in fights. E max will always be beneficial and good for all-ins. The issue with this rune setup is that you lack burst, but dish out consistent damage.

When to max Q over E

Please note, there are tons of variables that influence this decision. If you’re not interested in potentially optimizing your max order, then just go either E or Q max and do well on Zyra.

When I am versus a champion that I think will be very hard to land my E on, I’ll generally go Q max. The way I see it, if I am putting lots of points into E but never going to really be able to hit it, I’m missing out on potential damage. So I go Q max instead so I can dish out damage and be a nuisance in the lane. I will tend to go Q max versus champions like Ezreal or Lucian as they both have dodge tools.

E max is good versus immobile champions, or champions that are very squishy. E max is great into Soraka and Nami because it offers you more burst. If you go Q max into them, they may be able to out sustain you. Taking E max in conjunction with Electrocute will make it easier for you to kill them. E max is good versus tanks, and is overall a really good ability to max first.

Try out both, and don’t be afraid to adapt. Zyra is super versatile so she can max either E or Q!

Here are some basic combos to Zyra. There are a lot of different things you can do on her, but here are some of the main combos that I use in basically every game. Some important things to note about these combos. It is almost always better for you to cast an ability before using your Rampant Growth. If you Rampant Growth first, the enemy may be able to back off and dodge the damage, especially if your combo is slow.

Q W AA

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Super basic Zyra combo. Make sure you auto-attack the enemy at the end to proc Electrocute. This is a good combo to proc Arcane Comet during the early laning phase.

E W AA

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Another very basic trading combo for Zyra. Ensure you finish it off with an auto-attack to proc Electrocute.

Q E W

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Another basic trading combo that starts with your Q. Place multiple plants if you can for extra burst damage.

Q W E

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Another basic trading combo that starts with your Q. Place multiple plants if you can for extra burst damage.

F E W Q W R

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You can do this combo with or without Flash. E first to land the root on the enemy, and then place a plant. Use your Q and then W again and finish the enemy off with your Ultimate. This combo is best done with E max (or in the later ranks when you have more points in your E as the duration will be increased). Using your Stranglethorns last allows your plants to become empowered.

F E

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Look Flashy with this Zyra combo! Just make sure you don’t Flash into the enemy team.

In this section, I will go through some tips and tricks to help you improve as Zyra. I hope that these tips will assist you in carrying and help you improve as Zyra.

► Use Rampant Growth to face check bushes. It will protect you against face checking and potentially dying by an enemy trying to set up an ambush.

► When laning against champions with strong all-in, hugging one side of the lane will force your plants to spawn on that side of the map. Using your Grasping Roots when they engage will spawn lots of plants and allow you to turn the exchange around.

► Try out different items and rune setups on Zyra. She is very versatile and can build a lot of different things.

► Look at what the enemy team consists of and what items they’re building. If they are stacking magic resistance, go Void Staff.

► Playing around your Arcane Comet even if you can’t land your Deadly Spines will be very helpful. Your plants can proc Arcane Comet for you.

► Your Passive will not spawn seeds inside bushes. This means the enemy will not know you’re in there unless it’s warded.

► If you’re setting up an ambush, make sure you place your Rampant Growth inside the bush as your stacks tick over. The more seeds you place, the more plants will spawn when an enemy walks past you. Make sure you never have 2 stacks while hiding in a bush.

► If the enemy has used Zhonyas or Guardian Angel, or any other form of stasis, don’t put your Rampant Growth right under them. It’s better to put it off to the side because they may destroy the seeds before you have time to spawn them.

Pros ► Zyra can snowball very easily thanks to her high damage output. ► She is incredibly versatile. She can build a lot of items and a lot of runes. ► Similarly, her ability max order is also very versatile. She can either go E or Q max depending on your play style. ► Is very good for Solo Queue as she can carry. ► Synergies well with lots of meta ADC’s.

Cons ► She is very squishy. She dies easily if anyone can get on top of her. ► Zyra has low mobility which makes her easy to kill. ► If Zyra doesn’t get ahead, she will not be very useful. However, you can fix this by adjusting your runes. ► She doesn’t have a dash, but then again a lot of other Supports don’t. ► Struggles into champions with long range poke and hard engage.

Let’s go over some of Zyra’s power spikes throughout the game. I could go into more specific details, but I don’t want to bore you! You’ll naturally find when she is weak and strong the more you play Zyra!

Early Game ► Zyra’s early game poke is very good. Once you have a few levels under your belt, you can constantly harass the enemy with your Deadly Spines and Grasping Roots. ► After you’ve completed and brought your Sorcerer's Shoes, your damage output increases heavily. Look for aggressive plays once you’ve completed them. ► Zyra’s level 6 is by far one of the best level 6’s in the game. It offers her a lot of extra damage, alot of extra kill pressure and good gank/counter gank potential.

Mid Game ► Zyra is great in mid-game team fights because all of her abilities are AOE. As teams will be grouping, she can deal a lot of damage to them in team fights. She can also use her Stranglethorns to knockup the whole enemy team. ► Once you hit level 9, you would’ve maxed your first ability. It depends on what ability route you took: if you went E max, you will max that at level 9. The extra duration will be really helpful. If you max Q first, your Q will deal a lot of damage at level 9. ► During the mid-game, you will have multiple items completed. Your damage output should be quite high during this stage of the game.

Late Game ► Zyra’s late-game damage will be good. The more items she has, the stronger she will be. Make sure you get magic penetration items so you can break through the tanky enemy players. ► At level 16, you should put the last point in your Ultimate. Stranglethorns will deal a lot of damage at this stage of the game, and it will be on a lowish cooldown. She can deal a ton of damage during this period of the game. ► Zyra can poke the enemy heavily in the late game due to her low cooldowns and overall damage. Delay team fights while you harass and poke the enemy down with your Deadly Spines and plants.

Team fighting as Zyra is rather simple in all honestly. In a standard situation and team, you will want to be stood near the back of your team. You should avoid being in the frontline because you’re a squishy champion and can easily die if the enemy focuses you. You should try your hardest to stood near your carries in the backline, and as far away from the enemy as possible.

In team fights, use all of your abilities to deal damage to the nearest enemy champion. In particular, spawning as many plants as possible will help you dish out a lot of damage to the enemy team. I would recommend that you should use your E to CC the nearest enemy target, or as many targets as you can. You should try to CC the target that will be the biggest threat to you and your backline or try to CC multiple targets at once.

Use this image as a basis to position in team fights. Try your hardest to stand in the backline and out of the way. You deal a lot of damage and if you die quickly, you won’t deal any damage in a fight.

However, Zyra is great and getting picks with her Grasping Roots and Ultimate. You can look to set up ambushes and flanks on the enemy team and pick someone off before a major team fight occurs. This can be really good in the mid-lane and around objectives like the Baron or Dragon. What you can do is hide in an unwarded bush (check it with your sweeper or a control ward) and then spam placing your Rampant Growth inside the bush. If an enemy walks past you, use your combo to blow them up. Remember to place as many seeds as you can with your Rampant Growth as your Passive will not spawn them when you’re in a bush.

If you get blown up at the start of each fight, you’re positioning far too forward. You can reduce your chances of dying quickly buy purchasing defensive items like a Zhonyas.

Warding in the early game is very simple. It doesn’t change much and you’ll usually ward the same places, but you will have to adapt as the game goes on and as the laning phase develops.

You will not usually place any wards early, unless you’re getting invaded or if the enemy has a strong level 1. As an example, you could ward the bottom lane tri-brush if you’re the blue side and the enemy has a strong level 1 combo like Alistar or Thresh. Many champions will try to cheese at level 1 and kill you while you walk to lane. You could ward here to spot them, and then take an alternative route, or you could just take a longer route to lane to save your ward.

Other than that, you will not need to ward unless the enemy has a strong level 2. A tri-brush or river ward early could be very helpful if you’re scared of a level 2 gank. If not, then you can just wait until level 3 before warding. There’s no exact timers to warding, so you shouldn’t be too precise about when to ward.



For your first set of wards, you need to ask yourself- what do I currently need? Is the enemy pushing you under Tower, you might need a defensive tri-brush ward (for the red team) or you may need a river bush ward (blue team). Sometimes you will need to have wards in the closest bush to prevent ganks when being pushed under your Tower.

If you’re pushing, you can have offensive wards such as in the river bush (as the blue team) or a tri-brush ward as the red team. These wards will help you when it comes to preventing enemy ganks and give you enough time to escape. Remember to [bold] never [/bold] have 2 wards on your Trinket as you’re missing out on valuable information that can help your team win the game.

Once you have your warding quest completed, you should continue to use the above image to ward, but you will have a lot more options on where to place extra vision. You may wish to place it into the enemies jungle (with help from your teammates or when you know that the enemy Jungler is not nearby) or near their jungle entrances. Deeper wards inside the enemy jungle should not be done alone or without assistance from your allies.

I can’t really give you too much more information when it comes to basic warding early as it is pretty self explanatory and pretty simple, but I have created a very indepth warding guide for all lanes that can help you out. Matter of fact, it has every ward you’ll need regardless of champion/matchup, so I would highly recommend it if you want more information.

Let’s move on to Control Wards. Control Wards are expensive right. That means you need to get value out of them. As a bot laner, you have a few choices to where they should go. You can either place them in the nearest bush in lane when you’re pushing, or inside the river. You shouldn’t place a Control Ward in the red side tri-brush as it will not give you much information. Nor should you place a Control Ward in the blue side tri-brush if you’re losing or being pushed in. The reason for the latter is because you do not have priority in lane and the enemy can just clear it which results in you losing the ward and wasting a lot of gold.


When you’re pushing, you can definitely ward the river and the closest bush. This prevents the enemy from getting vision and can help you escape if the enemy Jungler shows up. In addition to this, it can also allow your Jungler to lane gank or fight the enemy when they over extend. This a really good way of getting your team ahead, but it does require some cooperation.

When you’re unsure of where to place your Control Ward, a good place to put it is inside the river near the mid lane. This can provide your team with a lot of information, and shouldn’t be cleared quickly by the enemy bot. The best time to ward this is when you’re returning to lane as you will not miss out on XP or gold and your ADC will not be left alone and potentially die because you’re gone.

Once the laning phase is over, you need to continue to place wards as you move around the map. As there are plenty of wards you can place and which all depend on the scenario you’re in, I would like again to remind you of the in-depth warding guide. I’ve created as this and more will be on there. I’m not going to go too in-depth in this section as it is all in there…

As the game develops, you need to continue to buy Control Wards and place them throughout the game. Regardless of if your first Control Ward is still alive, you need to place it somewhere else. As the game has moved on, the likelihood of the enemy walking near your first Control Ward is reduced compared to a fresh new ward.

As a general rule, all the wards you place in the mid and late game will be according to your current position and the games state. For example, if you’re playing around the Mid lane, you would place wards around the Mid lane. If you’re losing, you would have more defensive wards and if you’re winning, you would have more offensive wards. If the game is rather even or you’ve just come out of the laning phase, you would have more even wards in the river.

Where you ward depends initially on the situation, but for the most part you should ward in areas that have high priority or what I like to call high traffic areas. These include: jungle bushes, river entrances, on buffs and around objectives. On the image in this section, you can see more high priority areas.

Regardless of game state, you should always have objectives warded if they’re up or are coming up. A nearby Control Ward or a plain ward on an objective can come in handy and help your team out a lot- so keep an eye on objective timers and the map at all times so your team can move into position if the enemy starts to take it.


In the later stages of the game, you should not ward alone as if you’re caught out of position- the enemy may use the advantage to force an objective like the Baron or the Elder Dragon, and they may even try to end the game from the advantage and pick up more kills. So it’s important that you do not ward alone.

Team up with a buddy and go to ward major objectives together; or you can go alone if you know that the enemy is not anywhere nearby. If the enemy is nearby, then you cannot ward unless your whole team is together with you. If no one is in a position to ward- then do not do. You cannot ward alone when the enemy is nearby, so just don’t. Wait patiently for your team to come to you and then go and ward together.