As a solo queue player, I have always found Zyra very reliable. She's a great carry mage support and can synergize at least decently with really everyone. She's fun, simple, really easy to understand which makes her good for beginning players and overall just a good champ. She doesn't get banned a fair amount, and even if she does, there's many champs like Zyra that can do what she does (either slightly better or slightly worse).

Zyra's Abilities

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Passive

Seeds spawn around Zyra periodically, lasting for 30 seconds. If an enemy champion steps on a seed, it dies. If Zyra is hiding in brush, seeds will not spawn until she reveals herself. Plants deal 40-100 bonus magic damage to all monsters (depending on level).

Casting Deadly Spines or Grasping Roots near seeds causes them to grow into Plants with 8 Health that deal 20-100 (at levels 1-18) (+15% of ability power) magic damage on hit and last 8 seconds. Plants of the same type deal 50% less damage against the same target.

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Q Ability

Zyra causes thick vines to spread and explode into spines, dealing 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+60% of ability power) magic damage.

If this ability is cast near a Seed, the Seed grows into a Thorn Spitter that deals 20−100 (+15% of ability power) magic damage and lasts 8 seconds (depending on level). Thorn Spitters have 575 range.

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W Ability

Zyra plants a Seed that lasts 60 seconds. These Seeds grant true sight of enemy champions that step on them for 2 seconds, but are still destroyed.

This ability has 2 charges with a 1 second recharge time. Killing an enemy reduces the recharge time by 20%. Champion takedowns, large jungle monster kills, and large minion kills reduce the recharge time by 100% instead.

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E Ability

Zyra sends vines forward, rooting for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds and dealing 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+50% of ability power) magic damage.

If this ability passes near a Seed, the Seed grows into a Vine Lasher that deals 20−100 (+15% of ability power) magic damage and lasts 8 seconds (depending on level). Vine Lashers have 400 range and their attacks slow by 30% for 2 seconds. The slow from multiple Vine Lashers stacks up to 2 times.

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R Ability

Zyra summons the fury of nature, growing a twisted thicket that deals 180 / 265 / 350 (+70% of ability power) magic damage. After 2 seconds, the vines snap upwards, knocking up for 1 second.

Zyra's plants within the thicket become enraged, resetting their duration, gaining 50% health and attacking for 150% bonus damage.

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Here's an overview of all viable Zyra runes.

Electrocute

Electrocute is the most common Zyra rune you'll see.

[*] Good against sustain lanes, you can out damage their healing.

[*] Makes your early game less reliant on ADC because you have more burst damage

[*] Good in meta

The only problem with Electrocute is it requires you to play super aggressive and you will lose lots of HP in trades. You also cannot easily proc it early level (3/4). Electrocute is worst against high damage supports (usually who also have a form of CC) like Brand and Vel'Koz. This doesn't mean you can't use Electrocute, but be mindful of the value you'll get.

Opposite of that, Electrocute is best into healing/enchanter supports like Soraka and Nami because you can easily out damage their healing with Electrocute.

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Arcane Comet

Arcane Comet is the second most common rune you'll see.

Arcane Comet struggles if they have an all-in. On the other side, Comet is good against enchanters (ENCHANTERS, NOT HEALERS UNLESS THEY HAVE REALLY BAD EARLY HEALS) who are squishy and cannot sustain the poke damage.

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Dark Harvest

Dark Harvest is more uncommon but that doesn't mean it's bad!

[*] Good against low sustain teams where you can constantly get Dark Harvest stacks

[*] Best with early game ADC's, but is still good either way

[*] Good in many matchups

Dark Harvest is instantly a no-no if they have any tank and healing, depending on who it is. If they are squishy, Dark Harvest is easily the best rune for abusing them and something to consider. It's best against super squishy early champions, and melee champions are usually super bad against Dark Harvest.

Do not go Dark Harvest if they have easy sustain.

Thankfully, Zyra is a pretty base-level knowledge champion. Her abilities are fairly easy to understand, and her itemizing is simple. She usually builds what any mage would build.

A big thing with some champions is just to build tank/supportive if you're behind as a mage. You do NOT want to do this with Zyra. It might seem like a good idea, but Zyra's main capability is her damage output. You don't want to diminish this in any way.

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Liandry's Anguish

Liandry's is really the only mythic item you ever want to be going on Zyra. It's the best mythic for her and the only mythic that mainly synergizes with her.

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Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Rylai's is absolutely always core on Zyra. It synergizes with her super well, and it's easy to proc. It's a good item especially if you're building Demonic Embrace because the extra HP from Rylai's will give you AP from the Demonic passive.
Zyra is a support who synergizes perfectly with Rylai's like Seraphine and Swain, and you should ALWAYS be building it, and in some cases RUSHING it.

Examples of when you need to rush Rylai's include:
- your team is already behind
- their team snowballs harder and the slow would help in shutting them down
- their team already has lots of mobility (ahri, rakan, lillia, camille, etc).

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Demonic Embrace

Demonic Embrace is a perfect item for Zyra. It gives extra stacking burn on top of your Liandry's, the mythic you will always go. It also gives lots of extra AP.

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Rabadon's Deathcap

Basically the best item for any mage. The AP is insane, but you normally build this item later than sooner. It's better later because the bonus AP is based off of a percent of the AP you already have. Otherwise, always try to pick this item up!

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Void Staff

Void Staff is a good item. It offers magic penetration and 65 AP for a really cheap price. Amazing item even if they don't build MR because you'll just shred through their base MR.

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Banshee's Veil

Banshee's spell shield will definitely save you more than once! Unfortunately, I do not like building this item unless I really need the MR it provides. Otherwise, it's a great defensive item and really helpful.

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Zhonya's Hourglass

Zhonya's is an item that's normally core on a lot of mages because of it's active. It's a good defensive because it provides good armour, but as Zyra you do not need to build this. I also don't normally build this item with Banshee's Veil because Zyra needs more damage, she isn't a support without it.

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Vigilant Wardstone

Vigilant Wardstone is a good item on every support. It gives stats for vision, which is perfect for you! Usually you won't go this item, unless they have an Evelynn or a Twitch or you don't know what else to build (hopefully this guide helps you get past that stage!).

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Morellonomicon

Morellonomicon is a pretty self explanatory item. You only go this if you need anti-heal. If they have champs like Nami , Soraka or Warwick (and other champs apply but these are just a few).

Any tips that were featured in the "Combos" section I will not put here, so I advise you to read every section!

Warding

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Warding is the most essential part of support. You always want to have wards up (don't just ward every bush you walk by) because without vision your team can't properly function.

The ward map above should give a pretty general idea of where you want to be warding, but also use your judgement and decide if an area is worth warding (their team contests it a lot, or you can catch them and get a pick or two).

Abilities

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I mentioned part of this in the "Combos" section but auto attacks are useful when playing Zyra! They don't do damage (of course) but your plants will target whoever you do, and it is good at getting out damage on the key targets.

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Your seeds give vision! Whether it's your W, or Passive.

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Only use one seed in your trades. Zyra is vulnerable without her seeds, and especially early game when they are on a longer CD.

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Since Zyra's seeds disapear when stepped on,you can use this as bait. Put a seed in the bush and if they walk up to it, you can easily E them because you know where they'll be.

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Your plants take minion aggro over minions. If you time this properly with a cannon minion, you can get more use out of your plant. Plants are good for poking under tower.

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Your plants can block hooks and projectiles. This makes going against anyone like Blitzcrank and Thresh a little easier despite your 0 mobility.

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If you are leashing your jungler red side, get your passive to spawn a plant on the Gromp and then spawn the rest on their buff. Sprout your plants with your Q as soon as the buff spawns. If you do it right, your Q should come off of cooldown and you can leash your jungler on their Gromp as well.

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You need to try to be as unpredictable as possible. Zyra's abilities take a decent amount of time to take affect and they are easy to dodge.

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It's important to note that you ALWAYS want to use your main ability and then your W, because it helps with plant flexibility, and also makes it harder to track your ability.

If you're engaging with your E ability, be mindful as to if it hits or not. If you miss your E but still use your other abilities, it leaves you vulnerable.

Your main form of poke will be Q, W, and an auto attack.

This way, even if you miss your Q, your plant will target whoever you used your auto attack on.

Your second form of poke/engage will be E, W, Q, W. Normally you don't use your second W because it leaves you vulnerable but if you know it will force them to back, or die, then go all-in.

Keep in mind that your R empowers your plant so you want to full combo normally, and then R. Your plants will do insane damage and also you can CC chain with your R and E.

Zyra is a champion that you want to play with her Pros and Cons in mind, so here is my list of Zyra's Pros:

[*] Zyra is super easy, and is a lot like other champions. She is easy to pick up.

[*] Super good damage despite being a support.

[*] Doesn't fall off in the late game

[*] Fun to play

[*] Very flexible in roles and playstyle

[*] Every game can be different with her unique plant functions

[*] Plants can tank jungle camps and dragons

[*] Plants can block skill shots ( Blitzcrank Q for example.)

[*] Able to play super safe with good poke damage

[*] Multiple forms of CC

And her Cons:

[*] Abilities are slow and easy to dodge

[*] No mobility and has no escape without her CC

[*] No mobility makes it hard to roam and ward

[*] Her early power can be reliant on her ADC's.

[*] Not flexible in itemizing

[*] Can be squishy without her core items

[*] Kill steals a lot (ADC may get mad)

[*] Damage will struggle if behind

[*] RNG on seed placement

Since Zyra's abilities can be predictable and hard to hit, you synergize best with any CC.

In laning phase, your best friends are Ashe, Jhin, and Miss Fortune.

Besides that, early all-in champions like Tristana or Draven or even Samira is really good.

Just remind your ADC that you should be aggressive, but you synergize with everyone decently enough to be able to make that happen.

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Besides ADC's, Zyra works great with champions that have long CC abilities like Morgana, Neeko, Leona, and so on.

I am a full-time support player! It is the first role I ever picked up, and also the same role I continue to play to this day.

I am not a pro player, but I play the role enough that I like to say I'm fairly good at helping people when it comes to learning it.

I'm also a new player (started season 12ish) but I continue to play this game the most in my time.

I wanted to create a guide on Zyra because as a support player I focus on high damage dealing mages like Lux, Zyra, and Neeko. Despite that, I'm a flexible support player who can play just about anyone, but my favourites are Leona, Rakan, Nami, and Karma!

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I also play basically every role, with my next in line being ADC>Jungle>Top>Mid, so

I know pretty general macro when it comes to every role, and YES that does help playing support.

(Also, as an ADC player I know how annoying Zyra can be, unfortunately. Whether she's on your team or not.)

I will try to update this guide as much as possible to keep up with meta, builds, and any important changes to support/general gameplay.
I am always free to contact for any support.

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ohsuko on Discord

Shiny Kyogre on League

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While you can leave suggestions on anything I missed, or just better knowledge, please don't police my guide! I made this in my own personal experience. Thank you for reading! :)