PROS:

CONS:

fun to play! burst damage and CC off meta (unexpected, supports likely won't counter pick) varied utility with Spell Thief healing potential

skillshot reliant immobile squishy hard to learn and master no utility built in kit

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Hey summoners! I started playing Zoe support after picking her up in the mid lane. I have a friend who mains Jhin and I thought it would be fun to just hop on a bot game and try her out as support. Surprisingly, the game was super fun, and me and my ADC seemed to work well together, too. I think in lower elos and normals support Zoe can be a pretty strong pick with certain ADCs, and I liked the aspect of focusing on hitting skillshots and combos rather than CSing like I would have to in mid. I hope this guide is helpful and I also hope you give support Zoe a try! :)

Primary Tree:

I always take Summon Aery on Zoe support. It's the best keystone for her that gives a good balance of utility and damage. You could take Arcane Comet if you want to play more offensive but it won't give an ally shielding on Heal like Aery does. Phase Rush just isn't that good on her.

Manaflow Band is a great choice for support Zoe. Since you get a Spellthief's Edge and don't CS, you're gonna be using your abilities a lot more, which drains your mana quickly. Being able to gain extra maximum mana from poking enemies, which you should be doing anyways, is really useful in the early laning phase. But, once you get your Everfrost, running out of mana won't really be a problem anymore.

As Zoe support, you use your Portal Jump often to land skillshots like your Sleepy Trouble Bubble, and looking over walls or jumping places to safely ward. Zoe support also utilizes a lot of item actives like Redemption, so getting CDR for all of those things is super useful.

Either option is viable, I usually take Scorch just as a personal preference. I wouldn't suggest Waterwalking unless you know you're going to have good roam opportunities.

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Secondary Trees:

Domination

Take Sudden Impact if you're going to be using Portal Jump a lot. It has a low CD so the rune can be procced many times. Take Cheap Shot if maxing E so you can make the most out of those sleeps.

We take Ingenious Hunter to get the CDR on our utility actives and trinkets.

Inspiration

Good for early sustain in both mana and health, and also contributes toward a larger maximum mana cap.

Time Warp Tonic works well with Biscuit Delivery, making it easier for you to cast more of your abilities early laning phase. If you don't think you need the extra sustain you can take Magical Footwear for the extra MS and free Slightly Magical Boots, since your gold income as a support is not that high.

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Flex

• Take Adaptive Force for your first 2 slots and either keep HP as the 3rd slot or replace with MR/Armor depending on enemies.

Obvious choice, no explanation needed. Always take Flash.

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99% of the time I take Heal with support Zoe. She does enough damage on her own to not need Ignite, and it can be cast without a target if you just want to get the movement speed and Spell Thief passive. Also gives movement speed to your ally and sends Summon Aery to them, granting a shield. All in all useful as Zoe doesn't have a sustain ability in her kit like Soraka.

Still a strong choice on Zoe, gives even more kill pressure in lane so it could be a good pick if you know the matchup is easy. Also useful for mitigating healing from champions like Soraka and Sona. Less safe pick because Ignite is targeted and can't be easily cast for escaping/chasing with bonus MS.

One of the weaker summoners to take on Zoe, but can be useful if the enemy has a bursty assassin like Zed that you need to protect your team from. Again, no selfcast for escapes/chases.

Starting Items

Standard choice for every champion. Provides sustain.

The support item that works best with Zoe. You'll get more use out of this than Relic Shield because Zoe is a lot more aggressive than your standard AP support. (It also has the same name as one of her abilities, cool! :P)

Standard vision item for every champion at level 1.

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First Back Items

Rush this item to build into a Everfrost. It provides a good amount of AP and mana to keep you strong in lane.

As Zoe you're pretty immobile, so we want to get to our Mobility Boots as soon as possible.

Buy one each time you back. Vision as a whole is super important, and as support you want to make sure your warding game is A+.

Situational. If backing pre-lvl9, I would say go Oracle Lens to be able to take out enemy vision. You'll still be able to ward using the active from Frostfang. After level 9, I go with Farsight Alteration, because I like to use the ranged vision for setting up bubbles through walls. If roaming, however, sticking with Oracle Lens is usually the better option.

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Core Items

Builds from Spellthief's Edge, no extra gold needed.

Replacement for Luden's Tempest. Lower gold cost and still provides you with the mana and AP you need, plus an active that gives slows.

The most versatile support item for Zoe, gives allies healing while dealing damage, and can be used while dead. You can also pick up extras using Spell Thief.

We take these boots vs. Sorcerer's Shoes, which you would take mid. Because she's support, Zoe doesn't really need the MPen (unless enemies build lost of MR) and would benefit more from MS to chase/escape/come to assist allies.

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Situational Items

Enemy team has a lot of CC that's making your allies easy targets? Mikael's.

Passive is easily triggered by Portal Jump because of the short cooldown. Good for when your ADC is ahead and you want to grant them extra kill pressure.

Not the most essential support item, but I'll take this if my ADC wants to be able to chase or needs help disengaging.

Gives you AP for extra damage on Paddle Star and the active can scout out enemies and slow them to prevent ganks.

Useful if your team comp has a lot of AP. Buy in late game when teamfights are happening, because in laning phase the aura only buffs magic damage which isn't as useful for your ADC.

Passive: More Sparkles!

It works like a mini Lich Bane and gives you great poke potential even just with autos, so you can get charges on your Spellthief's Edge and do good damage at the same time. Good for: finishing off enemies extra poke taking towers

Q: Paddle Star

This is the ability you're going to use to poke the enemy laners, and is your main source of damage. If used on enemies put to sleep by Sleepy Trouble Bubble, it deals double damage up to a cap. Since it deals more damage the longer the star is in flight, throw it to the side or behind you before redirecting for the most value. Good for: poking almost oneshotting (leave kill for ADC)

W: Spell Thief

This ability is really useful in bot lane because you have twice as many champions that can drop spell shards for you to pick up. You can use offensive spells that the support drops like Ignite against them, or pick up spells like Heal and Redemption to give you and your ADC more sustain. Casting summoners also grants MS and projectiles that orbit her on cast (similar to Ahri's Fox-Fire) , so you can use shards that are about to expire to get into lane faster or escape. Minions with star balloons also drop shards, so remind your ADC to leave those minions for you to last hit, or you won't get the shard! Good for: chasing/escaping utilizing actives a little extra damage

E: Sleepy Trouble Bubble

This is the ability you're gonna wanna get really good at using if playing Zoe. On support, your main job is to put enemies to sleep so you or your ADC can chunk out their health and go for a kill. Sleepy Trouble Bubble can be blocked by minions, so it would benefit you to throw your E's through jungle walls because the range gets extended and the enemy won't see it coming. Remember that only the first damage to break the sleep is doubled, so remind your ADC not to break it with an AA! Good for: peeling for team roams bursting enemies before teamfights hitting far away enemies

R: Portal Jump

This ability works really well with runes like Sudden Impact because it's a blink, and items like Zeke's Convergence because of the short CD. Specifically as support, you can use your Portal Jump to check for ganks or place wards more safely. Offensively, you can use it as get in a better position for landing Sleepy Trouble Bubbles or extending the range of your Paddle Star. Good for: extra range on Q dodging skillshots bodyblocking abilities for others landing skillshots

Combos

There are plenty of Zoe guides that can explain these to you, so I'm not gonna go too into detail. This video gives you a basic idea of how her kit works together.

Interactions

Since Zoe's abilties are so unique, there are a lot of interactions they have with the map and other champions that you can learn to utilize for maximum outplay as a support. I'll go more in-depth here once I have more experience with Zoe in the bot lane, but for now here's some videos I found interesting/useful.

E Interactions w/ Champions

R Interactions w/ Champions

R Interaction w/ Terrain

If you've played Zoe mid before, you know that Portal Jump is used to land Sleepy Trouble Bubbles, extend range on Paddle Stars, and generally play offensive.
But, playing support requires some different uses of her ult.

Warding

Portal Jump is your one mobility ability, so take advantage of it and use R to ward areas you normally couldn't safely. It's quite easy to ward the bush left of Red side's turret if you know how to portal there correctly. Even if you don't have any wards, just Portal Jumping to a location grants you good temporary vision of the area.

Defending Your ADC

While Zoe isn't a tanky champion who will be able to take a lot of shots for the ADC, her Portal Jump makes this a little different than supports who just walk in front to take damage.
You can block hooks/stuns/CC from champions like Blitzcrank and Lux by portaling in front of your ADC. The ability will hit you, but Portal Jump always returns Zoe to her start location at the end of the jump. The enemy will have 1 second to do damage on you, but after that your portal pulls you out of their range. Stuns/CC aren't canceled by Portal Jump, but you'll be much farther from the enemies to buy you time until the CC wears off. This is much better than letting your ADC take the hit, since if they're hooked/CCed they have no instant way of getting out.