The main idea of bruiser Zyra is that her crowd control (CC) is more important than her damage when it comes to fights, which is the reason why she is played more as a support than a mid laner in 5v5. Her jungle damage will still be very high thanks to her plant damage. I've played with the idea of a full-tank Zyra, which may also work because you can spam CC thanks to your cooldown reduction bonus from Rampant Growth while tanking fights which makes tank Zyra very useful. I like the bruiser Zyra more only because I already know very good tank 3v3 junglers like Galio and Skarner. It depends very much on your playstyle how you build Zyra.

I tested this build before I published it.

Pros:
- Much CC while tanking fights
- Wards everywhere
- AoE true damage passive that can decide teamfights
- Very fast jungle clear at all stages
- Top 10 win rate on 3v3
- Sustain with Spirit of the Spectral Wraith
- Good for counterjungling and good to defend invades
- Free 20% cooldown reduction from Rampant Growth

Cons:
- No gapclosers or mobility spells
- Vilemaw destroys plants easily
- Squishy early game
- Can get countered by Fizz and champions with gapclosers, risky 1st pick ranked

The runes are standard Zyra. The AP helps you out very much in the jungle, which is why I prefer it over movement speed quints. Magic penetration for ganks and fights and scaling magic resistance and flat armor because jungle creeps deal physical damage so that you need magic resist way later in the game.

For masteries I like to go for extra points in defense over offensive, simply for the reason that you have more sustain in the jungle and Zyra's damage output with this build is not very high. As you maybe noticed I took 2 points in Fury and not in Sorcery. It doesn't matter much, but attack speed works very well with Spirit Stone's passive "Maim". Attack speed doesn't increase your plants' attack speed though.

This item is better than Doran's Ring when jungling and upgrades in very good items. You and your plants deal more damage and you have more sustain. A jungle start with Doran's Ring makes taking 5 camps before the altar impossible. More about this in the jungle part.


It gives: CDR, spellvamp and smite cooldown reduction. This means that you have more sustain in the jungle, can jungle much faster and gank more often. You don't see this item very often in 3v3, more in 5v5 because 3v3 junglers don't take Smite every game and the 3v3 jungle is squishier.


Your plants proc its passive but the true damage is very low. The health regen is as good as the spellvamp from the above item. It doesn't give Smite CDR and AD instead of AP, your plants deal a maximum 160% AP damage. You have to decide if you like to auto attack (you have 575 range which is very much) and don't need the Smite CDR but IMO Spirit of the Spectral Wraith is better at all.


This is your only mana item except for the mana regen from Spirit of the Spectral Wraith. It's also the core item to make you tanky. An early RoA is better than a late RoA, get it secondly.


It's designed for AP bruisers who need mobility. It gives huge resistances, little damage and Zyra is one of the few champions that can use it. It's your only tenacity item but you may replace it. It's a little situational but can increase advantages IMO.


This item is better on tanky Zyra than on glasscannon-supportish Zyra since you are in range of your enemies so that you reduce their magic resistance effectively. It gives a lot of magic resistance, so you may decide for something else when enemies build voidstaff.


A very defensive and offensive item at the same time, somehow overpowered on champions like Fiddlesticks. It can be very useful against auto attackers and you can use the active ability to bait.


This is an HP item, it's okay-good on Zyra since Vine Lashers already do slow movement speed.

Boots

Good aggressive item, especially at early game ganks.


Very good item against auto attackers and AD comps.

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Other boots are okay but don't really work with the rest of my recommended build.

Important spawn timers:
Jungle Creeps [1:40] / respawn after 50 sec
Ghost Relic (Heal) [1:55] / respawns after 90 seconds
Altars unlocking [3:00] / unlock after 90 seconds
Vilemaw [10:00] / respawns after 5 minutes

Jungling is very different in 3v3 than in 5v5. You get very much farm so that you are able to play carries like Zyra in the jungle. Altars not only give gold and AP+AD over time but also give gold when you capture them. They are important and you should prevent that the enemies take it.

Jungling with Zyra

Zyra is probably the fastest uncommon 3v3 jungler. She can do incredible 5 camps before taking the altar at around 3:05.

1. Begin at golems with deadly bloom because it deals the most damage with the lowest cooldown, use Smite on the big golem when it spawns.
   
2. Move to Wraiths, at level 2 level up Rampant Growth so that you have plants, let your plants tank the damage but make sure that they don't die before their time is up. You have to tank the first 3 seconds mostly.
   
3. Move to wolves.
   
4. Move back to golems. Use 2 seeds for them. You will get level 3 there. Level up your Grasping Roots.
   
5. Move to wraiths again, you will have your Smite back. Smite the big wraith, let 1 plant do the rest.
   
6. Take the altar with only a short delay.

This spell helps you much with your ultimate and snares but is also an excellent escape.


This spell makes super fast jungle farming possible, there are not many junglers that can do 5 camps before taking the first altar. The early advantage makes this spell very good on Zyra.


You're a support bruiser, consider this spell a good choice against assassins.


Since Zyra has amazing damage with her combos and plants, this spell will help you finishing enemies off. It's good for ganks.


A good spell for the early game.

AoE CC, AoE damage, 2 tanky champions and 1 assassin to clean the floor


Very good engage and disengage, tons of CC, good hybrid damage


AoE CC, damage over time, good synergy, easy ganks


Fog of war, what's that?