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Zilean Build Guide by Hanjaro

Support [10.2] Hanjaro's Zilean Supporting your way to Challenger.

Support [10.2] Hanjaro's Zilean Supporting your way to Challenger.

Updated on January 23, 2020
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Hanjaro Build Guide By Hanjaro 23 3 81,043 Views 3 Comments
23 3 81,043 Views 3 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Hanjaro Zilean Build Guide By Hanjaro Updated on January 23, 2020
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Runes: General

1 2
Sorcery
Summon Aery
Manaflow Band
Transcendence
Scorch

Inspiration
Biscuit Delivery
Cosmic Insight
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+65 Base Health

Spells:

1 2
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None






Hey guys! Hanjaro here!
A little bit about me
I started playing League in Season 1, towards the end of the season. Since the beginning I was a support main, I enjoyed the 2v2 dynamics much more than 1v1s so I've stuck with it throughout my league career.
I have achieved the rank of challenger at multiple points during seasons 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, and continue to push for the highest elo I can get.
I love competitive games and have yet to find anything for me that compares to League.
Aside from League, I am a happily married man, father of 2 kids and I am a beloved pet owner. If you guys have any questions about my guides, champions or really anything in general, feel free to stop by my stream!


Why Zilean?

Zilean is a mage enchanter, excelling at poking down his enemies with his Time Bomb, increasing his allies movement speed, while slowing his enemies to a near stop. He can rewind time, bringing allies back to life, and has a very adaptive playstyle.


If you enjoy playing, or want to learn more about Zilean, you can read and discuss more over at
/r/zileanmains.

Summoner Spells



Flash is taken as your primary escape summoner, and can be used alongside Time Bomb to guarantee the stun, to slow an enemy down for your team to catch them, or to land a perfectly timed Chronoshift

The reasoning behind Ignite is that it gives you a lot of extra pressure in lane, and furthermore adds a 40% healing reduction.

Exhaust is used when there are high damage threats on the enemy team, such as Zed, Kayn, Draven etc
It gives you an extra chance at escaping with the damage reduction, as well as the slow it provides. The damage reduction can be used to negate all in damage, from something like a Zed's Death Mark.

Runes
Sorcery + Inspiration





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

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

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

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

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

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


Itemization


-OR-



-OR



-OR

Boots of Mobility > MOVEMENT SPEED
These are the cheapest boots in the game, but often the most useful - especially on a support, and one that can engage at that. Zilean, like most supports, has the option to roam a lot, and catch people out with his Time Bomb or make a clutch save on an ally with Chronoshift, so having the bonus movement speed is invaluable.

Sorcerer's Shoes > DAMAGE
If you're going to be relied on to do a lot of damage in game, and/or the enemy team is taking a lot of AP resist, you might want to take Sorcerer's Shoes for the extra 18% magic penetration, helping burst down tanks.

Ninja Tabi's > ARMOR
If the enemy team has a lot of physical damage threats, and you need some extra survivability on top of Aftershock, Ninja Tabi's are the way to go, offering 20 armor, and reducing incoming basic attacks by 12%.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity > CDR
If you're wanting to have a little bit more CDR, you can take these boots, helps with getting your abilities out quicker, and reducing the CD on your summoner spells by 10%. Good synergy with Transcendence and Cosmic Insight.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

Abilities



Time in a Bottle

Time in a Bottle (Passive)

TARGET RANGE: 1000 mana
STATIC COOLDOWN: 120 seconds
INNATE: Zilean generates 2 / 3.5 / 5 / 6 / 12 (based on level) experience (does not count towards level up) every 5 seconds. Time in a Bottle is on cooldown when the game starts.

When the amount stored is enough to level up an allied champion and Zilean has been out of combat for the last 10 seconds, he can right-click the target ally to initiate a 1 second channel (if interrupted, Time in a Bottle goes on a reduced cooldown).

A successful channel levels up the target and grants Zilean the stored amount as experience of his own.

  • Time in a Bottle marks allies with two circles around their feet; the inner one represents how close they are to leveling up, turning golden when able to activate Time in a Bottle on them.



Time Bomb


Time Bomb (Q)

RANGE: 900
COLLISION RADIUS: 100
EFFECT RADIUS: 300
COST: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 mana
COOLDOWN: 10 / 9.5 / 9 / 8.5 / 8
ACTIVE: Zilean throws a ticking time bomb to the target location that detonates after 3 seconds, dealing magic damage to all surrounding enemies.

Time Bomb will attach itself to units hit directly, or those who move within a small radius while it's on the ground, detonating at their location when the duration ends.

Time Bomb detonates immediately if another one attaches itself to the same unit, briefly stunning all affected enemies, up to 1.5s at max rank.
  • Time Bombs will detonate immediately if their holder dies.
  • Time Bomb can deal damage to the holder through untargetability.
  • Time Bomb will push the wave during laning phase so be careful of putting your lane in a vulnerable state.


Rewind


Rewind (W)


COST: 35 mana
COOLDOWN: 14 / 12 / 10 / 8 / 6
ACTIVE: Zilean reduces Time Bomb's and Time Warp's cooldowns by 10 seconds each.
  • Rewind cannot be ranked up at level 1 (it is essentially useless at that point).


Time Warp


Time Warp (E)

RANGE: 550
COST: 50 mana
COOLDOWN: 15 seconds
ACTIVE: Zilean bends time around the target champion, slowing enemies for 2.5 seconds or granting allies bonus movement speed for the same duration, both up to 99% at max rank.


Chronoshift


Chronoshift (R)

RANGE: 900
COST: 125 / 150 / 175 mana
COOLDOWN: 120 / 90 / 60
ACTIVE: Zilean places a protective time rune on the target ally champion or himself, lasting for 5 seconds.

If the target takes fatal damage during that time, they are put in stasis for 3 seconds and then revived, regaining a set amount of health (600 / 850 / 1100 - +200% AP).
  • Chronoshift takes precedence over all other revive effects such as Guardian Angel and Rebirth.
  • You should use Chronoshift just before an ally is about to die, otherwise the enemies will just wait until it has disappeared.
  • Chronoshift has a low CD at late game with all the CDR, take advantage of this.

Gameplay

Early Game



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

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

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



Mid - Late Game


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you're interested in seeing more of me, please follow my stream! I stream every day but Saturday, from 12:00pm - 11:00pm GMT. I play a wide variety of supports, and I am always engaging with my stream chat.

Please DM me on Discord at Mossey#6340 if you would like a guide created
Update Log
  • 06/18/2019 - Published Guide.
  • 11/25/2019 - Updated for 9.23.
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[10.2] Hanjaro's Zilean Supporting your way to Challenger.

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