Ziggs Build Guide by roselol

hello!
im roselol and i've been a ziggs onetrick since season 7!
that's like...a lot of years!!
i've consistently hit diamond 1 with ziggs and play him mid and support into every matchup.

i pretty much stream ziggs gameplay daily at twitch.tv/roselol !
if you have any questions or would like to see any specific matchups.

he is cute

strengths:
1. he is easy
2. you can play from two screens away
3. even when you are behind, you will do damage


weaknesses:
1. super easy to dodge skillshots
2. easy to gank
3. rly short

i started playing ziggs because i played vs one as a lux. i smashed this ziggs in lane (he was 0/5) but he was still able to oneshot me and i got salty and started playing him. as i played him, i noticed he waddles when he walks and he looks so happy to live life so it's super easy to just zoom in on him and ignore my afk jg and top lane arguing in base all game.

BASICALLY go into lane, auto the wave and try to push.
when your laner walks up, q+auto them. if they're on the minion wave, q should be very easy to hit because u will hit the minions and the aoe will hit your enemy. if they're melee, auto them until you're aggro'd by enemy minions too much.

if you pushed your wave, look for places to ward. if you can get ganked, ward the safe way. if you will not be ganked, ward semi deep into river. help your jg get skuttle or they may quit the game.

look at enemy jg and think about if they can camp you. if they can't, you are allowed to walk up and hit tower once in a while.

watch out for all cc. if you get cc'd you will get hurt. you do not want to get hurt.

ziggs has unreliable damage so make sure you're playing with champions that can cc champions for you. hold skillshots until you know for sure you can hit it! especially your q.

If you're dying to ap carries, build a banshees.
If you're dying to ad carries, build a zhonyas.

don't sit in base and think it through too much.

when in doubt, just build damage and play in a perfect distance.

your passive

"Ziggs' basic attack is periodically empowered to deal 20−160 (+50% of ability power) bonus magic damage (depending on level), increased by 150% against structures.

Ziggs reduces Short Fuse's cooldown by 4 / 5 / 6 seconds whenever he uses an
ability (at levels 1/7/13)."

it's just an auto attack buff.
every time you use a skill, this buff will decrease in time.
generally when you hit towers, you want to auto, throw two abilities, and your passive should be up again.

your q

"Ziggs throws a bouncing bomb that deals 85 / 130 / 175 / 220 / 265 (+65% of ability power) magic damage upon hitting an enemy or after bouncing twice."

it bounces two times and it blows up.
if it hits something (enemy or monsters) it will blow up.
your main damage source.

your w

"Ziggs flings an explosive charge that detonates after 4 seconds, or when this ability is activated again. The explosion deals 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to enemies, knocking them away by 250 units. If Ziggs is within the explosion radius, he instead flies up to 500 units away while taking no damage in the process.

In addition, Satchel Charge will hexplode structurally unsound towers below 25 / 27.5 / 30 / 32.5 / 35% of their maximum Health."

your escape and damage buff.
you can put this on top of ziggs to be able to escape a lot of things.
you can put a w between you and someone who's chasing you to knock them away, and then knock you forward.
you can also w people to a wall to stun and catch people out.
w can also execute towers at around one and a half plates.
you want to max this second because it's a fun ability with a lot of potential.
you can also jump over most walls! the thick ones will take more practice.

your e

"Ziggs scatters 11 proximity mines that detonate on enemy contact. The first mine deals 40 / 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 (+30% of ability power) magic damage and slows the enemy by 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% for 1.5 seconds. Enemies who have already hit a mine will take 40% damage from additional mines. The mines are visible for all players and last 10 seconds."

it's a minefield of little q's. if enemies walk over it, they will be damaged and slowed.
put this in choke points if you're getting objectives. enemies will usually not be able to run through all of it.
if you use the sugar rush ziggs skin with the green chroma, the e will look like honeyfruits.

ur ult

"Ziggs deploys his ultimate creation, the Mega Inferno Bomb, hurling it an enormous distance. Enemies in the primary blast zone take 300 / 450 / 600 (+110% of ability power) magic damage, while those further away take 33% less damage."

big damage circle that is delayed depending on how far away you're ulting.
inner circle does more damage than outer circle.
if you're ulting bot from mid, know that the delay on your ult will be huge so you have to aim where they'll be in 3 seconds.

1. E Q auto if you know exactly where the enemy will sit, this combo is good for quick burst. e will be first because e is the easiest to hit, then depending on where they walk, throw the q. your passive should be up by then, so auto then.

2. Q W this is for when you're far away. you can throw the q to where they'll be and throw your w so they will be knocked back to the q. really easy to do with a little bit of practice.

3. objective steal calculate how much your R W and Q will do and throw it in this order: R > wait > Q > W. make sure you're not standing on a ward or every champ in the game will jump on you.

this and two pots is standard for most poke mages. doran's ring is great for sustain because of its passive. you're gonna have a lot of mana problems early if you play anything like me

this item is super super super good and should be thought as your spike. you're able to shove and push lanes very good without losing too much mana. if you can, stay in lane until you have 1300 gold and buy this straight up. but sometimes, you get perma ganked as ziggs because he "has no escape", so you can just buy boots and amplifying tomes and a pink ward and get the book next back.

this is what i get if i am against an ad matchup that i'm bad against. if i am confident the laner i am playing against is good enough and will kill me at level 6 and beyond, then i will rush this item before book. i will have mana problems but at least i won't int champions that are super snowbally!

buy this at almost every back. you want to ward mostly safe spots (place in the jg right by the river) because if you're against good players, they will camp you. they will 4 man you. you do not want to be 4 man'd. it is not fun. so buy this and you can even ask your jungler to help you ward the river. but they will usually not listen because they are probably fullmuteall.

vs i personally buy liandry's torment because [insert some kind of ******** reason here]. honestly i just like liandry's. i feel powerful and it had a burn damage that people don't expect so i get a lot of kills with that. you can honestly get what you want, but i've heard a lot of bad things aout luden's tempest so use that information how you will.

magic penetration is fun. you never want to go any other boots because your kit should make it that you don't need defensive boots. you really want to maximize damage because your damage is really why ziggs is picked in the first place. "you ideally want to maximize your damage output above all else, and rely on positioning and peel to keep yourself alive."

i just like this item. it makes me happy. buy this item if you want to be happy.

you want to build this for antiheal. don't build morellonomicon until way later. the item is not great

vs both is good but honestly, but when you're making this decision, it's probably late into the game so void staff is probably better.

Situational Items

dark seal is always safe to buy if you're playing well. if you have 10 stacks, think about their team and if they're able to kill you. if they can kill you, dont upgrade. if they can't kill you, upgrade it for sure. it's big value.

this item is what you build when you're dying too much. it's great for baiting out tower dives and outplaying people after you e+q and wait for cooldowns to come up again. if the enemy team has a Zed, a Talon, a Nocturne or a Rengar, they will probably target you with their stuff and a zhonyas will let you survive long enough to be able to be useful and not get oneshot.

this is going to stunt your damage, but it's really good against fizz, diana, sylas, and other bursty ap assassins. you never want to build this as a first item though.

this is good for laning. it provides extra damage to your abilities with poke. super standard stuff.

this is good so you dont run out of mana. mana is big problems with this champion.

cdr is generally good because if your skills are up more, it means you do more damage! since ziggs has unreliable damage, it's really good to have more skills up more times! i hope that makes sense!!!

this is good for early game, for laning harass. you could also go gathering storm, but this meta is pretty quick, so this rune loses a lot of it's value.

i think the sustain in laning phase is super worth. these days, people outdamage you in trades, but since you have biscuits, it doesn't even matter. you can safely farm until you have 1300 gold for last chapter and you're life will be great. stuff like magical footwear is not great because then you can't decide when to get boots. i just don't like it personally.

this is just good because it goes with transcendence. it also lowers the cooldown for summoner spells, so you can have barrier more often.

with any control mage, you really want to think about all the people and abilities that can kill you. it's good in champ select to make a mental note, and in every teamfight or in any laning phase, just make sure you know exactly what to look out for and position accordingly. most deaths can be prevented, as you are a champion that can play 2 screens away.

make sure!! if your laner is a huge roamer, try to safe ward the river to make sure you can properly ping potential ganks that your mid laner might do. a pink in the safe side of your map (near the river) is really good for long term river control and they take super long to find that one.

think about ziggs role in the game! you want to make sure your lane is pushed so people are punished when you roam, but you will have mana problems early on if you use all your abilities on pushing. make sure to just auto the wave whenever you can!

playing in korea server is a really good option for ziggs. korean players (even in low elo) are more teamfight orientated, and they don't mind playing tanks with cc to be able to win the game. this is a meta that ziggs thrives in.

here are some korean ziggs players that we can maybe learn from.


korean ziggs #1
they are 3x master tier in korea. they've been playing ziggs since season 3. they also stream at twitch.tv/madziggs.
they max W second and it seems they take dark harvest and teleport as a rune. they also go bot lane every game. he starts tear and builds lost chapter. then builds it into a ludens. after boots, they upgrade the tear into an archangel. then after they build void staff. maybe a zhonyas if they are dying too much. in NA, bot lane may not be viable as some solo queue players are adamant on picking ap champions regardless of team pick. at the same time, all ap could still win the game.

korean ziggs #2
they play ziggs bot as well. it seems that they start dorans ring and then build liandry's torment. afterwards they build demonic embrace and then zhonyas/void staff. they seem to max E second, which is good for zoning for objectives. this player likely plays slow and safe.

thank you so much for reading my guide!! if you have any questions, feel free to comment!

i've been an avid ziggs player for a really long time, so im so happy that you read this guide and you're willing to try ziggs out in any game mode. i think he's not the best champion, but he's definitely a pick that people don't expect and definitely not a champion that's going to be nerfed for a really long time.

roselol.com

he could potentially carry a game or stall a game long enough so people can carry and not a lot of people expect his damage. there's times where i solo kill my lane every game and people get confused by ziggs range or damage, and allchat about how op it is. i hope that your ziggs journey is nice and smooth and i wish you the best of luck against all the assassins in the meta.