If he plays cleanse, play extremely safe and try to get xp, accept to lose a lot of farm and bait for your jungler. If he dash in when your jungler is waiting in bush, he's dead.
If he doesn't have cleanse, farm safely and if he E in wait for the end of his E and send a bubble as he is autoattacking to have high chances to hit. If you hit, you are likely to kill or take a very good trade, if you miss it's a bad trade but should not be tragic if you were close enough from your tower.
You can't R in to flip bubble.
You can almost never roam by yourself in this matchup, if he doesn't have cleanse you can try to counter his roams but he may wait for you in a corner so focus and try to not miss bubble.
LeBlanc
Unplayable matchup, my permaban
Try to flip bubble as she dash in or during her E to prevend her from holding the 2nd proc, if she is bad you may be able to trade back sometimes, if she is good its completely one-sided for her.
Get a null magic mantle early and you may be able to farm a bit.
You can't ever R in to flip bubble.
You can try to roam but she will usually follow and do a better job than you.
Annie
You have more range than her, but she has way more damage and point and click.
Try to stay very healthy, abuse your range, she is really squishy so you may be the one killing if she does mistakes but try to only go for trades where you don't take much damage.
You can get banshee/zhonya later on
You can't R in to flip bubble, she kill you before falling asleep.
If you manage to crash the wave and roam it's your most consistent way to get a lead.
Fizz
He can't cast anything during his Q animation so you can sneak a bubble if you have a good reaction time, but be careful because if you send too late he get behind you and dodge it, and if he engages with E instead of Q and you still send bubble you are in a very very bad spot.
After 6 play extremely safe and be really careful he will always try to Q wave into R.
Zhonya is god tier item in this matchup.
Jungler usually can't help you against fizz.
You can't R in to flip bubble.
If you manage to crash the wave and roam it's your only way to get a lead.
Neeko
One of the worst zoe matchups if she plays well with the clone, you cant play agressive.
Her E goes further if it hits a minion before you so don't get in line.
If you notice she doesn't react W on your bubble and struggle to tank your Qs with it, you can try to solokill she's very squishy.
Otherwise, you can't R in to flip bubble
Try to push the wave and roam as its almost impossible to kill her, she usually can't stop you from crashing the wave.
Diana
In theory it should be a good matchup cuz bubble is fairly easy to hit + she's melee, but she just stats-check you extremely hard. Try to poke from range without getting hit back, maybe can find some solokills window but dont get baited she will often surprise you with tankiness and damage.
You can R in to flip bubble, but she may be too tanky for you to kill out of it.
Try to get some good poke to push and roam, or bait for jungler she is very weak to ganks.
Malphite
Terrible matchup if he plays ap. You can abuse him early, hit bubble as he cast Q ( not after cuz he get move speed burst ).
But after 6, he kills you whenever he wants with R, nothing to do aside flash. Exhaust may save you from this fate if you can react fast enough. Try to buy a null magic mantle it may help but I don't face enough this matchup to be sure. Zhonya is for sure your best friend here, your jungler aswell.
You can eventually as a last hope try to R out his R, but id not recommand as if he doesnt R, you give him a guarranted R right after you get back.
You can't ever R in for bubble.
You just want to roam after his 6 if you manage to with or without pushing. You can move before but usually you want to abuse lane while you still can farm & kill.
Heimerdinger
One of your worst matchups, you can't win a trade, rarely can hit a skillshot, cannot roam. Just beg for help from your jungler once, twice, thrice, and then maybe you get fed enough so you can play agressive, hard statscheck him and be able to run over him. But usually you will just get pushed on and your fate will be to clear waves over and over til the end of the game. Your dream is to find someone who want to do it for you, like a kayle who want to scale or something, so you can impact the map since you don't scale.
You can't really R into bubble since you can't do anything anyway and he will just put a tower in front of you as a proof of domination.
I don't really need to say that you cant push to roam.. but if you could, it would be a great dream
Mel
Kassadin
Best way to win against him is to push and roam to kill his team to the point he can't save the game anymore.
Another option is to play agressive in lane and try to kill and deny him farm. But with doran shield + second wind you won't kill him much usually wont get a significant enough lead, after 6 he will roam and get random kills, after 11 he will be 20x more useful than you, you will have no control over the game and only your team may be able to change your fate.
Anivia
Tricky matchup, you need to play with your range to make her Q easier to dodge, if she hit anything don't take long trade her E only has 4 second cooldown at all ranks.
After 6 be really careful, she can easily wall + R + almost guarantee Q and you can't do anything about it, you have to play out of her R range, you can try to R out her Q but if you don't hit bubble its still a hardlosing trade as you are slowed in the R and she spam E.
You can't R in to flip bubble.
You usually want to push and roam.
Brand
Hard matchup, stay away from your wave so he can't poke you slowly with E on wave, focus on dodging his W and stay out of range of his E. You can try to flip bubbles but once he has rylai don't even try anything you wont kill and you will die.
You can't R in to flip bubble.
You can try to push and roam but usually he will prevent it. Jungler help or brand being bad at hitting/dodging is your best hope
Yone
You need to poke him early or he can do whatever he wants.
When he E in, send a bubble where he come from and focus on kiting/dodging his Qs and keep your Q. When he gets back you can Q and then he gets in a very bad spot as hes low and you start playing agressive.
If you cant leave a bubble down where he comes from, just E him directly to force him to get back and accept the bad trade.
After 6 play very high range, poke safely and focus on using the E trick to find a kill window. Your main focus should be on dodging his R, so never R if he's in range to R you.
You can't R in to flip E, but when he press E you can R to find angle to send it where he comes from.
You can often push and roam but do it cautiously as walking up on this lane can be dangerous.
Jayce
You can flip bubble when he autoattack, or get guarranted bubbles when he dashes on you. He has absurd damage so most of the time you will have to play safe and hope he plays really badly and eat two bubbles while failing to poke properly.
You can often R into bubble as he wont be able to punish you without exposing himself to your bubble, but once he get a bit of item you can't anymore as he will just oneshot you.
Ideally you want to push and roam, waiting him in a corner for good trades is also great.
Kennen
Horrible matchup, try to flip bubble when hes casting Q, aside from that you can't do much he has more range more damage more mobility. If you hit bubble he's dead tho. Be really careful after his 6, even more after protobelt, his engage range with his move speed burst and protobelt is just absurd. He oneshot you with R from first item til the end of the game so you just avoid interactions that aren't fully safe.
You can't even R in to flip bubble.
You want to push and roam if you manage to, punish with bubble if he try to prevent it, jungler can help you if he plays too agressive.
Ekko
Play with high range.
If he reaches you, try to bubble after he hit you with E or while hes autoattacking.
It's a skill matchup maybe slightly favored to ekko, but whoever get a lead roll over the other.
Matchup is significantly harder if he plays hail of blade.
You can R in to bait his E and bubble after he dashes on you, if he is not fed.
You can often push and roam.
Syndra
Horrible matchup if she plays cleanse, just a bad one without. She outrange you, you can't really reach her if she plays properly. If she ever walks up in your E range, flip E and she's dead.
You can R in and flip bubble if you are above 90% hp, but not anymore after around lvl 11
You can usually push and roam but do it while trying to dodge/bait her E, as she will constantly try to land QE combo to stack her passive and bother you.
Azir
His poke is really hard to avoid. Usually you want to bait his Q and dodge it. When he Q you, sometimes he will have used almost all his soldiers and you will be able to walk straight in, he wont have anything to dps you or one soldier max as the others are stuck and his Q is down, you can bubble and trade him and maybe even kill him before his Q is back. Be careful, if you miss bubble on this situation it can be tragic. Other option is to just play extremely safe from afar.
Baiting a dash in while your jungler is in the bush is one of your best options to get a lead.
You can R in and flip bubble often, but be careful if he has R.
You almost never can push into roam, he is an extremely strong lane bully and will rarely allow you to do so.
Tristana
You don't have much control over this lane, you just want to bait her dash in, bubble as she try to autoattack and then you hardwin a trade. Do it twice and she is dead. Her burst is too slow early for it to be threatening if you hit bubble. If she plays cleanse try to do the same thing but safer so you take a small trade but still hit bubble and force her cleanse. You basically play with fire but its winnable. Once she gets some items, it will get significantly harder and you will have to hope your team can help you handling it.
You can't R to flip E.
You can't roam as she would kill your tower way too fast.
Vex
Play safe and try to bait her fear, if she fails it you can all in, but you still lose the trade if you miss bubble.
If you are not confident in baiting, just play safe from afar.
You can R and flip bubble if her fear is down.
You can try to push and roam but be really careful about her fear.
Galio
Abuse him early while you still can. Dodge his spells or he stats-check you, its fairly easy as he's a melee.
It's fine if you get hit by his W as it gives you a free bubble angle.
When you bubble him and he press W, he has a % damage reduction ( you can see it by him glowing a bit ). If you wait and Q right when your sleep end ( a little bit before or after is fine ), he won't have the damage reduction anymore and there you will deal you usual good damage. If he has mercury boots you won't have this window anymore as the sleep will be too short.
After he got one item you will just deal close to no damage to him, clear waves and roam/kill his team.
Don't forget to ping your team fast whenever you see him start moving to R, it's hard for your teammates to see it coming without your pings.
You can R in to flip bubble.
You can easily push and roam.
Lux
Play out of her E range, if she plays too agressive so you cant, try to bait her spells and walk up for bubble, don't hesitate to use ignite just for move speed to dodge her spells more easily during all in.
Ideally you want to crash wave and roam as she is hard to kill.
When she delete waves with R after 6, you can usually clear the wave fast enough to get a free roam or reset like her and not lose much.
You cannot R and flip bubble, if she is in range to connect Q you are most likely dead, unless you notice she is really bad and E is guarranted.
You can usually push and roam easily.
Cassiopeia
Major threat if she plays cleanse. In that case, play very safe, you may be able to win the lane if you try to bubble without being hit by her Q and bait her cleanse while still trying to dodge her Q, and then its a normal zoe favored matchup while cleanse is down.
If you walk in her range and miss bubble you are usually dead
You cannot R in to flip bubble if she has cleanse, flash or R up.
You can easily poke down and kill, or push and roam or fake roam and wait in bush.
Zed
Poke early, if there is a minion between you and his Q it will deal way less damage so just try to never get hit directly. Only bubble when his W is down.
After 6, try to bait his R, bubble behind you when he get out and R in a random direction to dodge his Qs ( flash is less risky than R )
If you dodged his Qs as intended, he's dead.
If he reaches a point where he has enough damage to kill without R or without hitting Qs, zhonya is extremely good to build
You can R in but hold your E, he will R and then you E behind. Don't do that if he's fed as he will have too much damage for you to survive until he fall asleep. If he's asleep and you are alive, he's dead.
You can pretty easily push and roam, and wait him in bushes.
Ryze
You can get bubbles pretty easily, but he will usually win poke battles, your best hope is to hit bubble once, pray he doesnt back and hit another one. After one item he already gets too tanky for you and deal too much damage. His scaling is the scary thing, he is not a real threat to zoe in reality but having zoe vs ryze is a huge issue as he outscale you too fast and you don't win lane that hard. He's just a statschecker, if you get too much lead it's extremely easy.
You can R in to flip bubble.
You can often push and roam, but don't stay way for too long as he push really fast.
Rumble
Fairly easy matchup because you can hit your bubble pretty easily, but he got absurd damage, his R is a good setup for ganks. E is easy to hit but if you miss it because he is just too good or smth, you are definitely dead.
You can't poke him cuz of his shield, and you need two combo to kill as hes a bit too tanky.
You can R in and flip bubble most of the times.
You can push and roam, waiting him in bushes is good but respect him at the end of the sleep cuz he may run you down, his champ is good to chase down he may often try to flash in and E, or R to catchup.
Yasuo
Poke him as much as you can level 1, try to go for a solokill level 2 as he doesn't have wall, after that you want to poke with Q and keep bubble. Only use bubble after he uses wall, if his wall eat bubble you are dead but you can usually survive enough to land a bubble if he chases after his wall instead of staying behind. You can easily kill if he does a mistake and get hit by your bubble. Don't hesitate to R out on his tornado, even if he still hit then his R will just send him further, whenever he tornado and you think its gonna hit just R on a random direction, ideally where you want to send him to be safe after you return. You can also just R out to dodge the tornado of course
Try to E during his dash so it hit just at the end of his dash while he is still animation locked, or during his autoattacks.
You can sometimes R in and hold your bubble just to bait the wall, his cd is pretty long.
You can easily push and roam but do it from the side of the wave so he cant reach you while you try to push. Be careful that he doesnt freeze and make you lose too much, yasuo very often does that.
Ziggs
He got too much range, usually you just clear waves before 6 unless he does a mistake and walk too far. You can cast E while he cast his spells if he's in range.
You can bait him for jgl he is not very good against ganks.
You usually want to wait for lvl 6 and constantly R in and flip E as he wont punish it much. If he try to send spells to punish, you get a free bubble as he stop moving to cast and you oneshot him while he doesnt oneshot you. Careful, as the game goes forward he will end up having enough damage.
You can try to push to roam, if you manage to its good but he will usually try to prevent you from pushing. It will often push him to the mistake, if you keep focusing on dodging his spells you usually will manage to push iwthout taking much damage or find an opportunity to kill him.
Vel'Koz
Not an easy matchup as he outrange you like xerath, his Q can be hard to dodge depending on the player, you usually want to bait his E and then run him down, get him to a situation where you can almost guarantee the bubble.
You can easily R in to E but only from far of his E range as he would be able to kill you out of it. If he tries to walk up to E, you have free bubble. If he doesn't, may get a huge poke or even a kill. Careful about barrier bait. If he plays cleanse, play more carefully, you usually can't kill him and want to bait him for jungler or do skarmishies/small invades. Roaming can work but he will usually push the waves so fast that you will lose too much from it.
Katarina
Its a matchup that you can easily abuse in lane if you know her properly. You need to know when she has a dash and when she doesnt, understand where she can/want to dash, and focus on not walking ever close from her daggers on the ground. Its truly a good matchup for zoe, but dangerous if you don't know exactly what she is doing.
You can often R in and flip your bubble behind you instead : she will often dash behind you to dodge it and get hit, and if she doesnt, then the bubble will be right on your return point so she cant chase you down to punish anyway.
You can push and roam but if she tries to follow, wait her in bushes, its too dangerous to take a 3v3 vs katarina as one reset will give a triple kill. If she gets fed and play decently, you start losing the matchup very hard as she kills you too fast without having to pickup any daggers.
Irelia
She is scary but you can often play high range and flip bubbles as she is gonna last hit, her E is quite easy to dodge, you need to flip your E only when you are sure to hit ( when she is out of dashes or autoattacking you ) because if you fail bubble you are dead. If she plays cleanse its a completely different matchup and you need to play very hard range and constantly respect her.
Keep in mind she is only truly strongs with her passive stacks. 2 stacks from minions are enough to be threatening as she can w and q you for 2 more. You want to play safe and range until she is low mana or make mistakes that give you free bubbles.
After she get blade, even if she is 0/6 and some level behind, she is still dangerous and you have to play cautiously.
Wait for the end of her W to connect Q after a bubble if she press it before falling asleep. If no mercury you have a window, if she plays mercury boots you don't.
You can R to flip bubble cautiously if you are close from your tower, but you need to make sure you don't miss it, you need to be away enough from your wave so she cant dash twice to you, and out of range of her R of course. Hold the bubble if it doesn't feel guaranted.
You can push and roam but its not recommended, since her passive refresh on tower she will demolish it way too fast. But you can fake roaming and wait her in the corner just in case she try to follow instead of pushing.
Naafiri
Playable matchup since the rework, now you are allowed to survive. After 6 she is dangerous but not as much as before as she doesn't have the same movespeed burst, you can stay fairly safe under tower and clear waves. Play with your jungler if you want to do anything.
You can't R to flip E.
You want to push and roam.
Aurora
Play safe and flip bubbles when she goes for last hit, focus on dodging her spells, whoever hit their spells win, it's easier for her than for you though.
You can R in and flip bubble
You can usually push and play for roams, as she is hard to kill, you can also get good trade by waiting her in a bush.
Malzahar
You can abuse him in lane extremely hard, run over him and statscheck as long as you make sure to not let too many of his voidlings before all in. Don't hesitate to Q just to kill them all at once as its his main source of damage and you will get back your Q fast enough. You win a fist fight in his wave.
He is a bad matchup because he can push you hard while staying safe from the moment he get a little bit of items or if he plays well and dodge your spells decently. By doing so he prevents you from impacting the map and stuck you to lane, and he also give a great gank setup to his jungler. You can't really be more useful than him in skarmishes after 6 as he just delete one person from existence. Your best hope is usually to get help from jungler to kill him and get roaming windows out of it. If you get ahead enough you can chainkill him to allow yourself to roam but keep being careful about his jungler.
You can't R in and flip bubble, not because of his passive as you can proc it before bubble, but because of his voidlings that can tank bubble.
You can't roam unless he dies.
Orianna
Early lane can be rough as she has more range than you. Usually its about baiting abilities and then walk up and try to get big trades to solokill.
After 6 you can often R in and flip bubble.
If you realise its too hard as she has good movements or play too safe, look to push and roam, she can't do anything about it. You can wait her in bushes, you hardwin 1v1 if you engage with bubble.
Sylas
Wait for his E to bubble cuz he kills you easily if you miss. You usually always stats check sylas as long as you hit E.
Ignite before he press W is key to win duels
Try to dodge the 2nd hit from his Q, it's his biggest source of damage.
You can R in and flip bubble
You can roam but since he is also strong in skirmishes, if he follows wait him and trade him instead, you win a straight 1v1 while you make sure to hit E and have ignite for his W.
Karma
Try to dodge her mantra Q, cast your E when she cast Q, if you hit bubble and she shields herself wait for the end of the shield to connect Q and auto. She is fairly squishy without her shields.
Avoid giving her mantra W as its what will allow her to poke you out of lane even tho she usually lose trades against you. She is not too hard to hit, don't hesitate to wait for her E move speed burst to be over before sending E.
You can easily R in and flip E.
You can push and roam quite easily, most of the time she will try to prevent you from doing it and you will just get a free good trade with bubble since she wont be as careful in those situations.
Kayle
The matchup is free but her E gives too much movespeed so she's hard to hit. You can constantly try to poke, deny farm, flip bubbles. If it works good job, else its fine you don't get killed back or anything. The issue is scaling, she will start being useful level 11, and be much more useful than you level 16 in theory. BUT, zoe does a great job against kayle as the bubble is one of the best tools against her, you can cc and kill without her being able to even press R as her R duration is lower than sleep duration. It all depends on how well she uses her move speed, but she is an easy target for you from fog and even level 16 you may be able to make her live hell. Or just get oneshot in two autoattacks.
You can R in and flip bubble, in fact its very much recommended to always do it as you just want to constantly pressure.
You can easily push and roam, but since your main focus should be to avoid letting her scaling, solokill so she gets late in exp is usually much better. Only play for roaming if you realise she is very hard to solokill because she has too good movements, then you want to bet on your team & put down her team and end before she scales.
Lissandra
Don't stay behind your minions as her Q deals a lot of damage this way, there is not much threats you can easily flip bubble on her without much risks, if she E out after you hit you will just deal more damage with Q thats good, be careful of enemy jungler she gives really great setup.
After 6 she start having decent damage especially if she got decent farm or kills, you may not be able to play as freely, in that case play safe with range, clear waves and roam / wait her in bushes.
Qiyana
Can poke her in lane easily, send bubble while she cast Q or just after she dash with W. You can also play with your range. Be careful about walls after 6, when she has river ( blue ) element you need to play high range cuz it's really risky to contest her, you want to bait spells whenever you can as she get out of mana very fast.
You can easily R in to flip bubble if she is behind. Careful about her completed items spikes, serrated dirk spike can be surprising too, and never do it close to a wall.
You can usually push and roam, and waiting her in a bush often work as she feel safe since she is a champion with dashes. They rarely react properly to bubbles from fog, but just in case send them from far enough so you are not in range of W E
Twisted Fate
Easy matchup as he doesn't have much threats, just be careful about enemy jungler since gold card is a great setup. Don't stack with the wave to avoid getting poke by red card, cast E whenever he try to auto you for a card or smth you have an almost guarranted bubble. He's fairly squishy.
You can easily R in and flip bubble.
You can push and roam before 6, but after 6 you don't want to as he will literally arrive before you. You want to perma push so he can't roam with R. Keep good wards so you can do it without exposing yourself to enemy jungler. You can fake roaming and wait him just on the exit of midlane, he needs to walk a little bit to get range to R bot or top, you may catch him there.
Viktor
You get outranged by his laser, its hard to dodge, but you can sometimes bait it. If he tries to Q, you usually have a guarranted bubble and hardwin the trade, can even kill. You have to play really agressive to pressure him and not let him poking you down. If you get ahead his game become unplayable.
You can easily R in to E.
You can easily push and roam, and wait him in bushes for free kills.
Xerath
Matchup difficulty depend just on how good he is at his skillshots. He can poke you out easily and make your life a hell, but most of the time it won't be that overwhelming and just feel fairly easy.
He outrange you with Q, but you can usually play out of his W range, if he walks up too much to W you can surprise him by walking up and do a skillshot battle, if you hit its terrible for him, if he hits its just a bad trade for you but it's okay you can handle one or two more.
Try to cast your E while he cast one of his spells.
You can R in and flip bubble.
You can push into roam most of the times. As he may follow to R from afar, it can be a great idea to just wait him in a bush instead. If you see him start to move, push and follow him ( or just follow if you cant push in times ) as he may stop to R and give you a free kill.
Hwei
The champion is overtuned but zoe does a pretty good job against him. You have slightly more range, can push wave without much risk. Play behind minions early in lane as he will try to poke a lot with QQ, focus on dodging his E E as its the beginning of his combo. The hitbox is made in a way that its quite easier to dodge by just walking away than walking on the side. He wants to poke you down out of lane, but any bubble you hit and he is in a very bad spot. You may get angles for it when he try to walk up for E E, dodge it a few times by walking away then just walk in once and run him down when he doesnt expect it and flip bubble.
After 6, his EE combo can lead to your death if he hit R out of it. You often have the option to just R out his R in the middle of his combo and then you can trade back. You can also play high range and try to push the wave and roam or wait him in the corner.
Ahri
Fairly good matchup even if it's still a skill one, don't let her poke you too much with W, if she walks in front of wave for it punish with E. You have much more damage than her and slightly more range.
After 6, you are easy to reach for her, but you still deal more damage. Try to send your E right after she dash, as she will still be in animation or send E and Q. If you hit bubble you win the trade and can kill or escape easily.
You can easily R in to flip bubble.
You can easily push and roam.
Veigar
Harass him on most cs, sometimes you can walk behind the wave and bully him.
Don't underestimate his damage, you need to look to dodge his Q, general rule is that after getting hit by two Q you are in range to die from his combo.
After 6 you can easily R in and flip bubble.
Look for solokills or roam, he can't do anything about it. Stay really careful about junglers, his E condemn you.
Aurelion Sol
His scaling is the only annoying thing. In lane, as in lore he is your little space doggy and can't do anything to you, his hitbox is big so you can hit E really easily. Be careful that if you miss E and his W is up, he can chase you down really easily. Flip E only if it feels guarranted to you or his W is down, or during his W if he dares trying to all in.
You usually have many free bubble timings when he tries to farm with Q.
You can easily R and flip bubble.
You can push and roam, or wait him in bushes, but he usually will just stay in lane and let you do whatever you want.
Swain
Be careful not to get hit by too many of his E but it's fairly easy, try to play out of his Q range its a bit shorter than your E. You can poke for free, easily walk up to flip bubbles whenever u want to, he's easy to hit, ignite to make sure you dodge E when you try to kill him.
You can R in and flip bubble, try to do it from out of his E range but it's still not very risky anyway hes useless early.
You can push and roam whenever you want.
Pantheon
He got huge damage and can be scary but you kinda counter him. Whenever he go for W you have a guarranted bubble if you can send it on react, and then you can wait for the end of his E to connect the rest of your spells and heavily win any trade.
If he gets so fed that you would get oneshot in one small rotation even before he fall asleep, then just play extremely high range and safe, he's still a melee champion.
You can R in and flip bubble fairly easily.
You can push and roam but most of the time he will try to prevent it, which will give you a free bubble angle and a good trade for you. If he doesn't, well you can roam. After 6 avoid actually roaming as he can R, just wait him in the corner instead.
Seraphine
She does nothing but clear wave, her spells are easy to dodge, she is squishy so you can easily oneshot her, you can walk up and flip bubbles without risk and even trade in her wave most of the time.
You can R in and flip bubble without risk.
You can push and roam if you want to, she can't even follow.
Zilean
You can just abuse him in lane, he is extremely squishy. You can play out of range of his Q, when you play agressive you can send E while he is throwing Qs.
Be careful as his E can make you an easy target for enemy jungler.
You can easily R in and flip bubble, no risk even if you miss his damage are not high enough.
You can easily push to roam, and really easily wait him on the path if he tries to follow.
Taliyah
You can easily dodge her spells and stats check her, since her only CC is a hard to hit skillshot you can run over the lane, if she walk in the wave you focus on dodging her spells and stats check with auto, ignite with w and some small q with passive procs, if she doesn't you have some easy bubbles and she is extremely squishy. You can also play from range if you are not that confident or fear jungler. Don't hesitate to wiggle left and right to make her Q harder to hit.
You can R in and flip bubble, if she try to reach your return you have an almost guarranted bubble and she doesnt have enough burst so you win, if she doesn't try its a free attempt and if you hit you kill.
You can also push and roam easily.
Cho'Gath
Easy matchup, you will usually have the movespeed to dodge his Q, his hitbox is extremely big, you have too much damage for him. If he builds ap you oneshot him and snowball and keep deleting him. If he builds tanky, it gets tricky and you have to play with team or for roam.
You can easily R in and flip bubble as its almost guarranted cuz of his size, but if you miss you die.
He can't stop you from pushing and roaming and he's too slow to follow properly, you can also wait him on the path if he tries to.
Talon
You can poke him in lane easily, try to dodge his W as he still have a good burst if you disrespect too much$. If he ever Q you just time your E during his Q and its guarranted unless he flashes. Be careful, if his W1 hit he will try to flash on the return and Q auto, this combo deal around 75% of your hp. If you see it coming and flash out you can connect bubble and he's dead.
He's a threat later in the game once he has edge of night, but usually you will do a zhonya around the same timing to match it.
R in for bubble is dangerous, if he react R and you miss he can easily reach you and kill.
You don't really want to push and roam as he has too much mobility on the map, play the lane and try to abuse him or play with your jungler. You usually want to push constantly to prevent him from roaming.
Vladimir
Easy matchup, you can poke easily, most vlad will struggle to react W properly, You can easily run in his wave and just stats check him stupidly early.
You can R in and hold E to bait his W and then he can't walk up to farm while its in cd.
You can push and roam easily he can't prevent it.
Rek'Sai
A lot of cc, insane damage, you can literally 2v4 in enemy jungler with zoe+rek'sai
Rengar
A bit of cc and insane early game power, you can play extremely agressive in enemy jungle with it
Pantheon
The best duo with zoe, if he can get in range he setup for you, if he can't you setup for him, absurd damage and counterless cc
Amumu
Great duo, he has a lot of cc and abyssal mask is core build on him so being two ap is fine.
Graves
Strong if the graves is proactive, you setup for him and he can 1v9 easily with your help, but bad if he fullclear stupidly, you will just feel like playing 1v2.
Jarvan IV
He can play agressively early and ganks a lot, so you can easily kill mid or push mid into 4man bot/invade for the entire game, you stats check most mid/jgl duo. His R is good setup for you aswell
Viego
Very good because he can be proactive at any timing of the game so you can play agressive, and you can just delete first target every fight to give him a reset and autowin.
Depend a lot on his skill level as he is the carry.
Lee Sin
Good but risky duo cuz bad scaling.
You can setup each other decently and deal lot of damage, and both want to play agressive early/midgame.
Lillia
Decent because she has a slow and a cc, you can setup each other quite easily against any comp. Downside is that she is ap but her champion is decent against mr and scale well.
Kha'Zix
No synergy early but he can enable you a bit in late with his W evolve and is a strong carry ad. Until late, you setup and play for him and hope he's good
Shaco
He can gank mid or just allow you to push and roam more easily just by the pressure he put on enemy team by existing if he's in fog. You can't really play with him but his gameplay may make your game easier.
Valid only if he plays ad, if he plays ap it's pretty bad
Zac
Decent because he can build abyssal mask and has really a lot of cc and is more of a tank than an ap damage dealer, but can be awkward as he moves the enemies a lot
Elise
Even tho she is proactive early and have cc, you are two ap that doesnt scale, so it hurts the draft extremely hard to have zoe and elise together. You fall off even harder since they build mr fast, if enemy mid is an ad champ he will roll over the game with ad/mr item and side pressure
Karthus
Magic resist is just too strong, you grief each other just by existing
Evelynn
Magic resist is just too strong, you grief each other just by existing
Talon
You usually hate having talon because you want to play with your jungler and he just roam around without caring much about you so you are usually all by yourself hoping he will carry.
Kayn
Very bad duo as he plays slow early you can't play agressive and just feel like 1v2.
Only upside is that he may compensate your poor scaling if you don't lose before, If his form is good against enemy comp
Ekko
0 synergy and magic resist is just too strong, you grief each other just by existing
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Rek'Sai
A lot of cc, insane damage, you can literally 2v4 in enemy jungler with zoe+rek'sai
Rengar
A bit of cc and insane early game power, you can play extremely agressive in enemy jungle with it
Pantheon
The best duo with zoe, if he can get in range he setup for you, if he can't you setup for him, absurd damage and counterless cc
Amumu
Great duo, he has a lot of cc and abyssal mask is core build on him so being two ap is fine.
Graves
Strong if the graves is proactive, you setup for him and he can 1v9 easily with your help, but bad if he fullclear stupidly, you will just feel like playing 1v2.
Jarvan IV
He can play agressively early and ganks a lot, so you can easily kill mid or push mid into 4man bot/invade for the entire game, you stats check most mid/jgl duo. His R is good setup for you aswell
Viego
Very good because he can be proactive at any timing of the game so you can play agressive, and you can just delete first target every fight to give him a reset and autowin.
Depend a lot on his skill level as he is the carry.
Lee Sin
Good but risky duo cuz bad scaling.
You can setup each other decently and deal lot of damage, and both want to play agressive early/midgame.
Lillia
Decent because she has a slow and a cc, you can setup each other quite easily against any comp. Downside is that she is ap but her champion is decent against mr and scale well.
Kha'Zix
No synergy early but he can enable you a bit in late with his W evolve and is a strong carry ad. Until late, you setup and play for him and hope he's good
Shaco
He can gank mid or just allow you to push and roam more easily just by the pressure he put on enemy team by existing if he's in fog. You can't really play with him but his gameplay may make your game easier.
Valid only if he plays ad, if he plays ap it's pretty bad
Zac
Decent because he can build abyssal mask and has really a lot of cc and is more of a tank than an ap damage dealer, but can be awkward as he moves the enemies a lot
Elise
Even tho she is proactive early and have cc, you are two ap that doesnt scale, so it hurts the draft extremely hard to have zoe and elise together. You fall off even harder since they build mr fast, if enemy mid is an ad champ he will roll over the game with ad/mr item and side pressure
Karthus
Magic resist is just too strong, you grief each other just by existing
Evelynn
Magic resist is just too strong, you grief each other just by existing
Talon
You usually hate having talon because you want to play with your jungler and he just roam around without caring much about you so you are usually all by yourself hoping he will carry.
Kayn
Very bad duo as he plays slow early you can't play agressive and just feel like 1v2.
Only upside is that he may compensate your poor scaling if you don't lose before, If his form is good against enemy comp
Ekko
0 synergy and magic resist is just too strong, you grief each other just by existing
I play zoe since season 9. My peak is 1076LP with 60% winrate on EUW this season.
I made this guide for people to enjoy, learn and get better at one of the hardest but funniest and most unique champions in the game, who definitely deserves to be played way more !
This guide will be updated on every major change or builds/zoe updates.
I'm streaming almost every day on Twitch so don't hesitate to check in to see how it's going, I answer every question and try to explain my thought process as I play. Hope you enjoy if you pass by !
I'm also posting highlights on Youtube and will post guides soon, but it may take a bit of time as I edit myself and always try to post something I'd enjoy watching myself
You want to play very agressive most of the time. You usually have 3 gameplans available :
- Push and bully under tower
- Play with wave and force mistakes for solokills
- Push and roam(or invade)
You are extremely strong in skirmishes as you are one of the best damage dealers in early/mid game.
Keeping the pressure mid is almost always the best option as you want to get opportunities to play agressively with your jungler or roam to other lanes and get yourself a lead.
You may invade, with or without your jungler, and countergank if you know where enemy jungler is through tracking.
Zoe offers a very wide amount of possibilities in early and midgame.
A good guideline is to make enemy jungler a living hell and make your team happy.
All matchups except Extreme Threats are killable in lane 1v1 if you play better than the opponent, perhaps it can be risky/unecessary.
Mid+Late game
Midgame start around 15mn, when you will be asked to go on side and start having around 2 items or atleast 1 item+boots.
Zoe hate to side, but most of the times, its still better for your botlane to go mid and they won't let you mid anyway.
- If you are extremely fed with an independent build ( lich+shadowflame or rocketbelt based builds ), you may be allowed to push side normally and go for towers or collapse mid once its pushed far enough. Careful still, it can easily throw your lead if enemy have a lot of threats.
- If not, you want to depush the side to just make it neutral ( middle of the map ), usually not more as it would expose you too much, and then look for plays on the map. You can play for catch, with team but can be done alone depending on your build and enemy team, siege enemy towers or ward/fight for objectives. If enemy push side, get back to side or force a fight mid depending on situation, but keep in mind you want to stay active and not let the game scale slowly.
The general idea with zoe is to always stay proactive to close the game as soon as possible as you lose complete control of the game past 25 minutes.
It doesn't mean flipping constantly : you need to keep control of the game, never give any opportunity to comeback, just cleanly get a lead and push it fast enough to end the game before 25 minute.
Why so fast? Because your damage will begin to be less relevant as enemy get more tanky, after your rabadon you don't get that much value from items, enemy champions scaling kits will start being enabled and deal as much as you ( on top of all their other strenghts ), and everyone will get more mobility to punish you.
The only part of your champion that is still untouched at this point is your bubble, so you become a high range bubble bot which completely depend on your team ability to use those bubbles properly.
Keep in mind it's just a general idea, it can change depending mostly on champions from both teams and your elo
Rune choices
Dark harvest is only worth it with shadowflame, and shadowflame need other synergies in the build to be better than horizon and rabadon. For this reason, I consider dark harvest as only worth it if you have lich bane + shadowflame in the build.
Electrocute is always better than dark harvest outside of lich bane + shadowflame, and even with this setup you can go electrocute if you want more laning power cuz of matchup/preference.
Spellbook is a good rune page since patch 25.10, zoe uses every single summoners greatly, smite and exhaust are a gift from gods, teleport can be really useful. But keep in mind zoe scaling is still pretty bad and for this page you lose a lot of early/midgame power.
I'm still not sure if it's worth to lower zoe strengths to compensate a part of her biggest weaknesses, but it's definitely not bad.
Aery is a good and consistent option into melee champions. One of its main strength is also the small runes of blue tree which are all really good or even god tier like nimbus cloak if you don't need manaflow.
Now hear me out, one specific thing I noticed about aery vs electrocute.
Electrocute will always have less damage in lane than aery on the tooltip, but I always kill more with it.
The reason why is rather simple : since you poke them slowly, they notice they are getting quite low hp around 60% and consider it as the normal kill range of a bursty champ in lane. So they will often back and tp or walk back. It's good as they lose some from it, but not as good as a kill. Now, with electrocute, your kill range is around 75% hp vs most midlaners. Nobody back when they are at 75% hp in lane, so any bubble and poof, they are dead, lane won
Conclusion? On melee matchup its preference.
You have the choice between :
- Aery, a rune page that will always get you consistently a slight lead and some haste/mobility oriented small runes
- Electrocute, a rune page that will give you a better mid/late burst, damage/snowball oriented small runes, but depend on your ability to land your spells to kill.
Also small but not least detail, with electrocute you are stronger in skirmishes, but with aery you may poke the enemy down to a point they just cant even take the fight so you get the objective for free.
I personally prefer the high reward side with electrocute but both are similarly viable. Keep in mind that into range aery is usually worthless as even if the small runes are great it doesnt compensate the fact you will never manage to poke properly vs a hwei or a syndra.
<3
Thanks for reading, I hope it helped you in any way. I will keep it updated regularly & improve it over time.
Don't pressure yourself too much, Zoe is a difficult champion so it may take some time to truly feel confident and perform with her, but you will have fun very fast and you perform your best when you're having fun !
Have a very great day and good luck on your Zoe adventure :3
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