Please remember that as with all guides, this guide is not the end all be all build and build order, in different matches different scenarios will arise and as such you will need to adapt. Thank you and I hope you find this guide helpful. Also check out my poke strategy, its probably the best thing I've found that no zyra that I've seen has used.

Hello everyone, so to start off i just want to get this straight, this is my first guide. Any and all criticism are highly regarded, but lets still be civil.

I tried Zyra on my friends account and immediately fell in love with her, and as such bought her and her skin immediately. She is a strong mid champ with great damage out-put in 1v1 duals and is an incredible utility and dps in team fights. Overall she is a very strong champion who can utilize a slightly tankier build and still pump out crazy damage.

PROS [*] High damage throughout game [*] Can push to turret at any time [*] Can last hit enemies with Rise of the Thorns [*] Incredible team fight presence [*] Great at ganks [*] Poison Ivy from Batman [*] Passive CDR with Rampant Growth

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CONS [*] Can end up pushed pretty easily [*] Has an extremely difficult time in the jungle without a strong leash [*] only has one skin ): [*] Has no sustain

So this is pretty simple you will want Flash no matter what. Take it, don't argue its fantastic and is realy just the best skill for almost any champ.

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The second skill on the other hand can be a little tricky, what i have found is that Ignite can often be out of reach,although be it still very strong when used at the right time, so with that in mind one would also be inclined to take Heal, Teleport or, Exhaust.

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Heal because of its ability to keep you in lane and allows you to bait people under towers.

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Teleport because it allows you to save turrets and once again stay in lane longer or even push down enemy turrets with a good old back door.

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Exhaust because it will keep your opponent inside your plants range much longer maximizing your damage even more on single targets.

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Smite can be taken for jungling which is definately viable on zyra, her strong ganking ability and fast jungle clear time after lvl 2 makes her very strong in this position. Just keep in mind she needs a heavy leash on blue to get to lvl 2 and be viable, so premades will be the optimal for this position, i don't suggest it with randoms. I will adding more information later on for jungleing with Zyra as i get more practice myself in the position.

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For runes I like to stick on the more defensive side rather than go with a strong focus on glass cannon style runes. This is due to the fact that your damage output early is going to be through a quick burst with your leveled up deadly bloom and placement of your plants and Grasping Roots. This way your survivability goes up early on allowing you to get earlier lvls by staying in lane more and farming. In the end I feel that more farm is worth missing an early kill that will end with you returning to base to heal. You never want to over extend and give your opponent the farming advantage, it will almost always end badly for you.

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Other Viable Runes

• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed is a viable option on any champ just because you can always use more movement speed for those chases, escapes and to dodge skill shots

For masteries i like to take standard 21-9-0 with a focus on the ability power and cd reduction in the offense tree and then taking the early survivablility in the defensive tree. I have found that a smartly played Zyra isnt very dependant on mana, and can out last almost any champ in a "mana fight", as such the utility tree isnt largely neccesary for her.

Early game-
Your focus here is to farm and pick a few kills if possible, as such you want some ap but mostly you all around good items. I pick up a boots of speed with 3 pots to begin so i can stay in lane longer against those aggresive laners and pokers. Then i move into a few dorans rings and a feindish codex, finishing off my boots as sorcerers shoes.

Early Mid Game- At this point you should be able to stay in lane long enough to farm it up all over the place and roam pretty effectively. As such you focus now is the heftier items. A needlesly large rod should be picked up next which you will try to quickly build into a rabadons.

Mid Game- After this things become a little situational, most likely your best bet will be to finish your Athena's Unholy Grail and then work towards more defensive items. I you find yourself having trouble dealing damage pick up a void staff for the magic pen, or if your having trouble staying alive cause those smart bastards are on to your shrubbery shinanigans, pick up a Zhonyas Houreglass or a Rylais Ceptor.

Late Game- This is the true situational moment, and what seperates a good player from a bad. In most situations though the items stated above end up being the most useful. The active on Zhonyas is amazing because while in stasis your plants will still attack your enemy. Then the rylais will help you hit your shots and keep em in range of your plants attacks not to metnion keep them in your ults knock up zone. Then the G.A. is mainly there for a little extra over all tankyness and due to your abilities you have a much more likely chance of escape or killing after your second wind. But in the end you are an ap nuker through and through so go with what suits your play style and the situation at hand. Please dont stick to this guide even when your know its a bad idea.

With Zyra your damage isn't like most champions. Of all the characters out before her she is most like a more nuke heavy heimerdinger. She uses her seeds like heimers turrets but also has very good reliable nukeing attacks which are used to activate these seeds. When dealing damage your goal in lane is to surprise your opponent with your snare into two seeds and Deadly Bloom Creating two Spitters. This can be changed to a vine lasher when your use your snare into a spitter with your deadly bloom but you want to get both plants out immediately to get the most bang for your buck. Likely your opponent will run away in which case you can often take them down with a second deadly bloom and an ignite getting you a nice early kill.

When you have your ult your damage explodes, due to its double attack speed boost it applies onto your plants. With this your goal is to hit your deadly bloom onto two seeds on top of your opponant immediately leading into your ult then snareing them in so the take the entire brunt of your show of shruby force. This will equal a masive ammount of damage not only on single foes but entire groups as well.

When possible always use the element of surprise, remember that plating seeds does not give away you or your seeds position. By waiting for your opponant to come to you or finish that pesky buff of theirs plant as many seeds as your cdr will allow following up with your torrent of nukes, which will easly take down even a Cho-Gath to a frightening level of health let alone melting any poor squishy sad enough to walk into your territory.

Last but certainly not least is your poke strategy. I have found the absolute best way to poke is by using the delay in zyra's deadly bloom to plant a seed. After u activate deadly bloom immediately press w to plant a seed which will sprout right away with the damage from deadly bloom dealing its own damage right away and dealing more damage the longer they stay in its range. This is the most reliable and mana friendly, not to mention most effective way of all to poke. You will find yourself winning in lane every time and will also find that you don't end up pushed accidentally.

I will be making the guide more pretty and updating it as i go, please comment and vote so i can better the guide. Hope you all enjoyed and got something useful out of all this.