Hello everyone,

My name is TenaciousDean (EUW) and I'm a Plat 5 Malz main. Recently however I started one tricking Zilean and have been finding a lot of success so I thought I'd post about it here. This is my first guide so pls be kind :)

One thing that's important to note is that a lot of this is still in testing. The only things I'm really sure about at this point is that Ardent, Redmption and Knights Vow (the core items imo) are extremely powerful. As such, most of my game finish before I even get a chance to buy or try anything else, so please leave your suggestions down below as for what else to build. I sometimes toy around with taking Talisman (which is where the no boots thing comes from) but honestly for 250g it's difficult not taking EotA.

This idea first came about because I was looking for a useful keystone mastery for Zilean. At the time I was finding tdl too difficult to proc, deathfire is doubling down on damage, and everything else kinda sucked so I thought I may as well go with Bond of Stone since it would work. When I tried that in game, I then realised the mastery was pointless unless I actually started taking some hp items, so at this point tank Zilean was born. It's also important to note that his Q is the only ability that actually scales with AP, and whilst it does deal a tonne of damage, that isn't really what you want to be doing with a support anyway.

TL:DR I thought to myself "Zilean's utility is always going to be useful regardless of his AP, so let's try something different"

Oh yeah, and it's one of the most satisfying things in the world to watch a Zed ult you expecting you to have to ult only to realise he only knocked you down to half hp.

Ardent is OP af right now tbh and when I tried it, it worked with Bond of Stone and turned out to be extremely effective.

No but seriously, not only does it proc from his potentially team stunning Q (thereby healing your entire team as well), it also procs with his E and his R, that's 3 out of his 4 abilities!Whilst the heals from Bond of Stone aren't great, the attack speed and on hit health regen your adc will get from a slowed target is actually insane. That, plus the chase potential you give with your E and your Draven suddenly becomes a much bigger threat.

Essentially, by taking ardent, we're tripling down on Zilean's utility. You have a 1.5 aoe stun, a 99% slow plus you now give your whole team attack speed, on hit heals (from both ardent and Bond of Stone), a shield from Locket, AND a huge heal from Redemption. And this isn't even taking into account every assassins worst nightmare into account- His ulti.

I might actually be alone in the community for this but I like to max E first with this build. Having a 99% slow (Basically a snare) while still in lane is annoying as **** to deal with, and helps out your adc a tonne more as well. And since you don't really need to be doing damage anyway as a support you may as well get the best and most reliable utility possible, which I believe to be the E. Being able to basically snare both the ADC and Support in a split second is too useful imo.

You can render a gank completely useless if they don't have much chase potential in the early game. This sequence is a nightmare for someone like Shyv.

Pros

Keeps ADC alive longer than usual
Stops you and your adc being one shot
Buffs your adc to insane levels in late game if they proc ardent
Your team is basically unkillable when ahead
Even better engage potential than normal

Cons

People ***** that you play Zilean
Your Poke is nowhere near as good as usual
Depending on your adc, you will have to be more passive in lane

You have probably noticed I do not include boots in my build. This is because with Ardent you get +8% ms and with Knights Vow you get +15% ms as long as you're with your adc, meaning that whilst you might be a little slower, you shouldn't be left wanting too much more anyway. That being said, this is a personal preference of mine so if you feel like you're constantly having to E yourself around teamfights, just buy some boots of swiftness and replace the Righteous Glory. You can buy them at any point you feel necessary.

In terms of late game items I'm still testing so I might come back at some point to address that, but at the moment I'm thinking about buying Banner of Command in one of my next games to see how that turns out.