Why and how did this build originate?

The original source of it is a reddit post created by the user "Silverflash-x" (you can access to it by clicking here)

RiotTiza did a comment on this build based on his personal experience (and the Riot Games department experience):


RiotChopper also added below:

Full credits are given to the original author of the Burning Bush Zyra.

His name is Rhaqen (you can check his stats by clicking here) and is a North American Diamond player. He was the player mentioned before by Shantzilla who used this crazy and very innovative build for Zyra.

He has a video uploaded to Twitch.TV were you can see him using Ahri and Zyra for a more in-depth reference to this build. Feel free to check it out by clicking here.

Thank you Rhaqen for your replies both here in MOBAFire and in Reddit and for your excellent feedback on the guide :)

Runes are pretty much standard as of every AP Carry, including the following:

Armor seals are the best option available. They guarantee a more safe lane if you are against an AD Caster such as Zed, Kha'Zix, etc... They are also very important to protect you against minions which can be very punishing early game.

Flat magic resist glyphs protect you from the enemy's abilities. They are really effective against enemies who start with a lot of Ability Power because of their runes. This runes have a very strong early game, if you know that you will not buy any magic resist item throughout the game, then Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist may be also an option to consider.

Magic Penetration runes are a must for probably any AP Carry. The enemy mid laner will have bonus magic resist in 90% of the cases so the combination of these runes plus the Arcane Knowledge mastery will provide a higher damage output during the lane phase and the entire game.

Ability Power quintessences will help with lane control. As we don't have any source of ability power rather than our Blast mastery, this runes are required in order to have same damage early game which will help us through our laning phase, and specially increasing the damage output of our plants.

Another possiblity is to use Hybrid Penetration marks to increase the damage output of your basic attacks, but still having some Magic Penetration in order to help the damage caused by our plants, although this is not highly recommended.

There are two possible paths for masteries, one more oriented for Ability Power, while the other one is more focused on Basic Attacks which will help farming during the early game. This second path of masteries could also be complemented with the Hybrid Penetration runes I've mentioned in the chapter before to increase total physical damage output.

Ability Power oriented tree:

Offense Tree: 21 Points

As we use Ignite as one of our summoner's spells, this mastery will give us +5 Attack Damage and Ability Power while it's on cooldown which will slightly increase our damage output. One recommendation is to use Ignite early in Level 1 as we will be granted the bonuses of this mastery and thus, more trading power.

We only apply two points on this mastery which gives us a total of 2% Cooldown Reduction. Why don't we apply the traditional 4 points on it? Zyra's Rampant Growth gives us a total of 20% Cooldown Reduction when it's maxed, thus at our champion Level 13. By that time we already have bought Spirit of the Elder Lizard which gives us another 10% Cooldown Reduction, summing up to a total of 32% Cooldown Reduction at Level 13. Our fifth item, Banner of Command gives us another 10% CDR, exceeding the cap at 40%, thus using 4 mastery points on this mastery would be a waste (we still apply 2 points to it as a total of 5 points must be used in order to unlock the second Offensive's mastery row) [Thanks to the user Arcaroth for pointing this out]

As we only apply 2 points to the Sorcery mastery, we can use the remaning 2 points on this mastery. This will help us to last hit, specially during the lane phase as you'll deal 4 extra damage to minions.

This mastery is a must as we need to apply 4 points to it to unlock the Arcane Knowledge mastery. This mastery will help us with some little damage during early game though it will likely make a very small difference.

This is one of the strongest masteries por AP Carries. Combining it with the Greater Mark of Magic Penetration we will start the game with 8 Magic Penetration and 8% Magic Penetration which will help us to increase our damage output.

This mastery basically explains by itself. It increases our total damage by a 2% which will help us with our magic and physical damage throughout the game. This of course, will have a bigger impact during late game as our damage will be much stronger and thus, scaling better.

This mastery will help us with lane control as we'll have a higher damage from the beginning of the game. Combining this mastery with Blast and the Greater Quintessence of Ability Power will make us start with a total of 22 Ability Power at Level 1.

By applying 4 points to this mastery we will get a 5% bonus increase of our total Ability Power and thus, making us start with a total of 23 Ability Power instead of 22. This might not seem as an extraordinary change, but it will definitely help us late game where for every 200 AP, we will be granted a 10 Ability Power bonus.

This of course must be used always if you're going 21 points in the Offensive branch. It will increase our damage to low-healthed champions which will help the damage caused by our plants allowing them to easily burst enemies down.

Defense Tree: 9 Points

Applying 4 points to this mastery will grant us a total of 108 Health Points bonus at level 18. The real purpose of using the 4 points is to unlock the Veteran's Scars mastery which will give us +30 Health Points at Level 1.

This mastery will grant us 3.5 Armor at the beginning of the game. It is recommended to apply 3 points instead of 2 if you know you will lane against an AD Caster. If you're against an AP mid, it's still recommended to use 2 points because of minion damage.

This mastery will grant us 3.5 Magic Resist. As said before, always take 2 points unless you know your enemy will be AD where you may take only 1 points, and apply the remaining point to the Hardiness mastery.

The early +30 Health Points give a huge advantage against your enemy. This will increase your sustain in lane and survivability.

Basic Attacks oriented tree:

There will only be two changes in this mastery tree, the rest remains the same. We'll only change the Mental Force mastery for a combination of Brute Force and Spellsword to power our basic attacks.

This mastery will give us a 3 Attack Damage bonus at Level 1 which will help us to lasthit during the early laning phase. It also makes stronger our trades with the enemies using basic attacks.

The bonus damage we will get from this mastery will not be very high as this build is not Ability Power oriented. However, last hitting throughout the game will be made easier with it.

One of the biggest advantages of Zyra is it's basic attacks animation which really facilitates early last hitting a lot.

In early game, a Spirit of the Elder Lizard should be rushed which will give a high sustain during the lane phase because of its mana and life regeneration. The attack damage plus the true damage will help us to farm and harrass our enemies with basic attacks.

Inmediatly after this item, Sorcerer's Shoes are recommended, or at least Boots to have some mobility.

Liandry's Anguish will be our next item which will make our plants really strong as they apply the true damage of Spirit of the Elder Lizard plus the percentage damage of the Liandry's.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is an excellent item after Liandry's as they have a very good sinregy. Our passive from Liandry's will now be doubled due to the permaslow that Rylai's grants to our plants and ourselves, of course.

Banner of Command is our fifth item. Probably, many of you we'll be wandering why this item is a must for the build. Zyra's plants are represented as minions, this means that the passive of Banner of Command will grant our plants an excellent 15% damage increase plus it's active Promote which certainly helps split pushing.

The final items, as previously stated, really depends on the enemy team. If your team is lacking damage, Rabadon's Deathcap is a good path as our plants will deal insane damage. In the case that enemies are stacking Magic Resistane, then Void Staff is a good possibility. Zhonya's Hourglass will be useful in case that enemies are focusing you for increased survivability.

The skill sequence for this Burning Bush Zyra differs from the traditional skill sequence used.

For this build, the ability that will be maxed is Deadly Boom. Why? Maxing this ability early on the game will guarantee us maximum damage potential and lane control. Leveling up this ability also reduces the cooldown, such thing that doesn't ocurr while leveling up Grasping Roots.

As our second maxing ability, we'll max Rampant Growth for increased damage output, and by last Grasping Roots.

Of course we should max Stranglethorns whenever possible.

However, something should be highlighted, which I strongly recommend to read and follow:

As a final conclusion to this guide, it should be noted that the main potential of it is the damaged caused by Zyra's plants rather than the champion itself. It's a very good overall build which has the potential to be the FOTM, such as Ezreal's blue build.

Just to clariy things, I was not the one who designed the build but rather a player who used it and adapted to the best possible way I could imagine. I would highly appreciate feedback on it as I'll be answering all questions regarding this build.

Thanks for reading the guide and hope you enjoy it.

TheMazi [LAS]
Argentina