About the Author: Hello, I'm Gleebglarbu, a high elo player on the NA server and have peaked at rank 4 on the ladder, but am currently sitting around rank 30 in challenger as of 12/16/13. Zyra is one of my most played champions in season 3 and I currently have a 53.5% win rate with her in solo queue over 127 games.



Zyra is still a strong support pick and can excel in both 1v2 and 2v2 laning. Her kit provides incredible bush control through the use of Rampant Growth and her long range allows her to out trade many popular supports. The combination of her Grasping Roots and Stranglethorns give her some of the best zone control in the game. Zyra is also an incredibly fun to play champion that every support main should have in their repertoire.

Pros

1. Wave clear
2. Disengage
3. Can be built for damage if ahead
4. Long auto attack range for harass in lane
5. Seeds/Plants can act as temporary wards and can scout for you

Cons

1. Squishy
2. Vulnerable to ganks, especially before 6
3. Vulnerable to poke
4. No healing or sustain capablilites

9x 9x 9x 3x

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greater mark of hybrid penetration Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Quintessence of Health

9 x Greater mark of hybrid penetration

Zyra does magic damage with all of her abilities and also has an auto attack range of 575 which makes hybrid pen marks appealing. They will give you the biggest increase in damage output out of all options for marks.

9 x Greater Seal of Armor

These runes are very effective at mitigating physical damage. They are mandatory as a support because you will be taking physical damage from the enemy AD, the enemy support, and creeps in lane.

9 x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

Getting magic resist in blues is helpful because many supports do a fair amount of magic damage, such as Sona and Thresh, and a few AD carries also do substantial magic damage, such as Corki. If you are laning vs a bot lane that has little to 0 magic damage such as Graves Janna or the enemy team as a whole is primarily AD you can switch your glyphs to either Greater Glyph of Armor or Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration.



2 x Greater Quintessence of Health

Taking three Greater Quintessence of Health is beneficial because it prevents you from getting bursted in the event you are caught out in a gank and gives you more time to fire off all of your skills if you are about to die. If the enemy lane has little to no kill pressure against you you can AP instead.

0/9/21 is a great fit for Zyra with the new season 4 masteries. She can deal a lot of damage which may make the offense tree seem appealing, but puitting 9 in defense gives Zyra safer laning while the utility tree greatly amplifies her gold generation, mana regen, CDR, and ability to roam around the map with Wanderer . The reduced cool down on active items is especially good because you'll either have a talisman of ascension in almost every game. The changes to support for the new season have made the utility tree much more attractive, especially for ranged supports like Zyra.

This start is emerging as one of the most common builds for supports in the new season. The Sweeping Lens has a very long cool-down before level 9, but can still be very useful for setting up ganks and forcing the enemy to play scared by denying vision. Ancient Coin is the strongest of the 3 new support starts on almost all champions, especially ranged ones, after the nerf to Relic Shield. Getting a ward helps make sure you stay safe in lane and grabbing potions will keep your health and mana high.




These are the items you should aim to buy when you first head back to base. Sightstone will give you vision to protect yourself from ganks and the Nomad's Medallion will give you increased regen as well as gold flow. Picking up a Vision Ward at this stage of the game is nice as well because they no longer have a duration. You can usually put it down in the small bush in the middle of the river early game and often have it last for 10+ minutes because most players just walk through the river without actually checking that location.





This will be the new commonly seen core item set for most of the supports who decide to not itemize as tanks or to be heavy damage threats. Talisman of Ascension is an incredibly strong item currently, giving you a whopping 20% CDR, regen stats, and the old active that used to be attached to Reverie. Mikael's Blessing also saw a massive reduction in price in the new season which makes it almost always a worthwhile purchase for a mana hungry champion like Zyra. These items will allow you to better set up engages with Grasping Roots, keep your mana pool afloat in longer fights, and cleanse/heal your allies with Mikael's Blessing's active.

Situational Items

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This item provides a great magic resist aura and active that can be useful against heavy AoE based AP teams. If the enemy team has multiple sources of magic damage or AoE damage it can be a great pick up for teamfights.

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Good item to get if you need CDR and AP. The active is nice as well and helps you pressure side lanes with a promoted minion. The increased unit damage also benefits your plants which is nice to have in team fights.

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This item provides you with an easy way to start fights and get a slow onto targets from a long range. This is a good pick up if you are going talisman of ascension or Locket of the Iron Solari so that you don't go over 40% CDR by getting Morellonomicon.

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This is my preferred damage item after I have completed talisman of ascension and Mikael's Blessing. The % hp effect is applied by your plants as well as all of your spells which makes you a much bigger damage threat in team fights.

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These trade off mobility for an increase in damage. I tend to take Mobility Boots most games to be able to roam the map effectively and get vision in appropriate areas, but if you feel your team is lacking damage or you want to further increase your damage contribution to a fight, switching to Sorcerer's Shoes is a great way to do s.

Zyra is not like most supports that have a constant way to skill up their abilities that is used in every game. The only constant when leveling up Zyra's abilities is to always take Stranglethorns at 6, 11, and 16.

Maxing Grasping Roots first in lane will give you longer duration cc which helps you set up ganks and escape from them, but it will give you a bit less kill potential in lane compared to maxing deadly bloom first. The other benefit to maxing deadly bloom first is that it's cool down goes from 7 to 5 seconds, allowing you to cast it 2 - 3 times in a fight where you could only cast Grasping Roots once.

If maxing Grasping Roots first, you can either opt to max Rampant Growth next for the CDR of your root or deadly bloom for increased team fight damage. Maxing Rampant Growth is especially important to make sure you can get multiple roots off in team fights and that you always have your ult up when fights break out.

If you max deadly bloom first you want to make sure to skill up Grasping Roots because of the increase on root duration for teamfights, followed by Rampant Growth last.



For solo queue, Flash and Ignite are always the best summoners to take. Soloqueue is about snowballing the game and getting a lead for your team, this is easiest to do with the added kill pressure from Ignite. In competitive play, Exhaust is a smarter choice vs certain champions such as Kennen and Zed, while Heal is a strong teamfight summoner against a lot of AoE damage such as Karthus and Vladimir.

Laning with Zyra is pretty simple due to her high damage and long range, but there are a few things you need to do properly to ensure you have a successful lane phase.

1. Ward out to protect yourself from jungle ganks. Where you ward each game depends on the jungler you are playing against and the kill potential the enemy team has on you. You don't need to ward heavily pre 6 for instance if you're playing vs Janna and Shyvana, but if the enemy team has Jarvan IV and Thresh for instance, you'd need much more vision to lane safely.

2. Abuse your AA range to harass the other support and enemy AD carry. You have an AA range of 575, 25 longer than most ADs and supports. This lets you get free auto attacks off in them in lane.

3. Use plants to negate skill shots. This is a very important tip that I do not see new Zyra players properly utilize. You can negate almost all of the pressure a champion like Thresh or Blitzcrank has by throwing a plant up in front of yourself and then poking him while the plant is between the two of you. If he tries to hook you, he will end hitting the plant as you continue to harass him.

4. When you have no way out in a fight and are going to die, position yourself to properly use your passive. Many Zyra players will run out of the fight when they are low or 100% dead to something like an Ignite and end up out of range to use their passive. If you know you're caught and about to die, try to throw down 2 plants along with your Stranglethorns and ignite, then fire off your passive in an attempt to set up a kill for your AD carry.

Zyra is a very safe and powerful support and can win all bottom lane match ups, so there isn't much of a reason to add a match up section. Just know that maxing deadly bloom is even more effective against champions without sustain such as Thresh.

I hope you enjoyed my guide for Zyra! This is one of my favorite heroes and her kit offers great damage and disengage , allowing you to bully your laner and also be a menace in teamfights. Following the advice presented here should make you a much better Zyra player and help you to perform well in lane and in teamfights. If you want to see me play Zyra, you can follow my stream at www.twitch.tv/gleebglarb1