Hello and welcome to my Zilean guide. About me, I am currently unranked in OCE averaging mid Silver MMR, and i barely have a level 5 mastery on Zilean. But fear not, i have a 100% win rate with this build. It may seem a little unorthodox as literally every high elo Zilean player does not take half the **** I run, but hopefully soon you will understand the tilting powers of this build.

For this Zilean build, you are mixing a combination of ap and utility. First thing you must understand is this is not a carry Zilean Support build, the AP is mainly for the increased HP on revive.

Eye of the watchers is an obvious must on support. Alternatively you can take Oasis easier gold generation and more protection against heavy ad comps, but the AP goes a long way

Your boots pickup is dependant on the game. If your team lacks ap or your fed you can take sorcs, but most of the time you take tabi or merc treads. With Zileans high move speed from e Mobi's arent as important for him.

The tear allows you to spam your spells in lane, and later on seraphs will give you a nice chunk of ap and a solid shield.

The bread and butter of this build is the twin shadows. It synergises very well with Glacial Augment and Ingenious Hunter. The long range slow allows you too catch out enemies from afar, plus it gives a large amount of psuedo-vision, helping you avoid face checking bushes.

Redemption is another solid pick up on Zilean. While he cannot benefit from the increased healing and shielding, the long range map pressure it provides really allows Zilean to help out his team.

In the last slot I typically take 3 control wards. If you dont feel you need the extra vision you can take shurelya's reverie, locket, Mikaels Crucible, Zekes or really any item that you feel is needed for the situation.

Glacial Augment is probably the first thing you noticed was weird. It does have good synergy with this build and his kit. In lane, while you do suffer from losing the additional damage from comet or aery, the auto slows makes it easier to land a bomb without having to expend mana for e. When you get twin shadows it really becomes unlocked, changing it from a 2s 40% slows to a 5s 60% aoe slow. It gives Zilean an easy way to catch out opponents, and can line people up for a double bomb stun without causing you to slow them first, allowing you to speed up you and your team more.

Magical Footwear is nice as it allows you to save 300 gold for this reasonably expensive supprt build,allowing you to get Twin Shadows much earlier.

Biscuits are a great source of sustain for lain, letting Zilean take a few more trades

Approach Velocity is nice as it allows you to run to your teammates faster potentially saving them with an ult, or allowing you to catch up with an enemy you slow with twin shadows or cc'd by an ally.

Zombie wards help you gain more vision control and is just a very good pick up for supports

Ingenious Hunter is probably the most broken non keystone rune in the game. Once you have it fully stacked you get a whopping 40% item and trinket CDR. This puts Twin shadows on a 54s cooldown,Redemption and Seraphs on a 72s cooldown and tinket on a 54-36 second cooldown. You get so much vision control, catch potential and teamfight presence with this rune it is a very strong pick up.

You want to put your first few points into q, as it is your only damage tool for trading. However I don't normally level it up past 3, as this is more of a utility focused build, and your main role is not to do damage. Maxing q often makes you steal your adc's cs, it is better to make E as it gives an insane amount of move speed or a crazy slow. You can also put a second point into W early if you feel you need the reduced cooldown.

Early game your trading is not the best. Without aery or comet you do suffer a fair bit in the damage department. For a quick trade, you want to auto then q while they are slowed. Don't double bomb too often as it is very taxing on your mana, only do it when going for a heavy trade, looking for a kill, or when setting up or escaping a gank. Zilean is very squishy and unlike most squishy supports, does not have a way to protect himself with heals or shields. You want to be careful depending on your lane match up, as often one misstep can force you to burn a summoner or die, especially against high engage champs like Alistar or Rakan. Always try and look for short trades to proc spellthiefs so you can get your items faster, and just try and get out of the lane phase safely into the mid game where he can begin to make picks and turn skirmishes in his favor.

Hopefully going into mid game you should have your twin shadows along with a few stacks of your ingenious hunter. If your team is ahead, you want to try and ward offensively and try and make picks with twin shadows. With your Ult you can force tower dives and can make over aggressive plays a little more forgiving when failed.

If you are even, you want to ward a bit more defensively. Try and get around the map to get some picks and stack that ingenious hunter. As Zilean you can both play to your strong side of the map by getting pick or to your weak side by preventing turret dives and saving allies. See where you are needed most and play accordingly.

When behind, it becomes a lot more difficult to make those twin shadows picks. Ward defensively and use twin shadows to scout out where the enemies are or to slows them down if they are chasing an ally. Play back and stay where you are needed the most. You can help with wave clear and your ult can be instrumental in stemming the bleeding.

In team fights, your job is to protect your carry. Play back and try and stun whoever is in front of you. If you can hit priority targets then go for it but don't over extend yourself to stun their backline, more often than not you will end up dieing for it. If you are engaging, speed up your front line. If you are disengaging, stun their front line and speed up your team. If an assassin or diver jumps onto one of your carries, try and stun them first before committing your ulti to your carry. Always wait with your ulti, try and wait until the last second to ult them, otherwise the enemy might just wait for the timer to run out and just switch targets to someone else. Don't waste your ulti on someone who is surrounded or will get killed instantly or revive. Zilean ult can be a game changer or a non factor.