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Zaahen Build Guide by

Season 16 Challenger Zaahen guide

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4 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author ozneviik

Zaahen Build Guide By Updated on

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Runes: Conqueror

1 2 3 4

Precision

Conqueror

Triumph

Legend: Haste

Last Stand

Resolve

Second Wind

Overgrowth

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

1 2 3 4

Most games

Flash

Ignite

Items

Starting items

Starting items vs poke

Starting items vs situational

Main build

Boots

Situational

Testing right now

Probably bait

Elixir

Early game components

Ability Order Ability order

Zaahen Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Cho'Gath

Extreme

Against HoB cho you have to just sustain and NEVER WALK IN MEELE RANGE,hope your jungler comes to punish but be healthy enough to be useful in ganks. He is easy to gank since no dashes

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

More Zaahen Counters

Champion Build Guide

About me

I'm 19 and from Estonia. I quickly became the rank 1 Zaahen when I picked up the champion and I'm the kind of person who loves to change champions a lot so it's been pretty challenging to stick to one but I'm doing it for you guys so you get good quality content because Zaahen doesn't really have any. Also don't get me wrong I love the character but I also like Aatrox and Olaf who just lifesteal from 1 hp to kill everyone.

My ranked climb

I started taking the game seriously a year ago and I got from EUNE diamond peak to EUW Master the last year. Now at the start of this year I was playing olaf very close to grandmaster and then switched to Zaahen. I lost a bit of lp when I started playing Zaahen but came back to get Grandmaster and played challenger lobbies and pro players.

After the hard rank reset I got to be the first challenger Zaahen in the entire world after the reset (even including servers where there was no reset like Vietnam, Japan and EVEN KOREA). With that climb I peaked rank 69 in the EUW server.

Right now I started back from diamond to go Challenger again so I can shut all the people up that say I did it too early in the season like I didn't play against top 10 players every game and stomp pro players.

Full matchup spreadsheet

Here is every matchup explained with runes, summoner spells and tips vs the champ.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UdKu_SUlnZ9o2KHpEdp9ZutcaQp7gqgwgR73nRKo4qE/edit?usp=sharing

How I improved from EUNE diamond to EUW chall in a year

The best way to improve at the game is to watch your own games back and see what mistakes you did. Easiest way is just to skip to back to your deaths in replay and figure out why did that happen and what could YOU have done differently. 2nd best way in my opinion is to watch others play and that's a lot more fun so that's what I'm doing currently most of the time.

How to have good mental?

Your mentality has to be focused on yourself only and not caring about your teammates since in the long run luck doesn't really matter.

Even I'm sad about a lose streak but you have to look at the bigger picture and ask yourself if you have gotten better than you were a week ago and if it's a yes then there is no issue and playing with a mindset to improve is gonna make sure you have a lot more fun in the game because you always aspire to be better than the last game.

It might seem a waste to play good in a game you lost but if you do that over a long period of time then it's the exact formula to ranking up consistently. EVERY GAME IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN AND NOBODY CAN TAKE IT AWAY FROM YOU.

I'm a beginner how do I learn Zaahen?

If you don't know anything about Zaahen then the best way to learn is play it yourself some games and when you are comfortable then watch how others play the character and try to mimic their gameplay(or if you are smart you can make a new playstyle which I dont recommend trying).

I recommend you always play conqueror since that is the best rune on Zaahen and only thing to change in build is boots and death's dance and maw build order. Everything else keep the same.

Why is that? Because if you have your runes and your build basically the same every game you will improve at the game so much more since you don't have to think about what to buy or what runes to go.

I got to challenger with playing only conqueror even in every range matchup even against the best players (tfblade vayne and LEC pro players) so trust me the runes or items aren't holding you back.

Where can I see full games?

I stream on twitch almost every day GMT +3 19-23 on average but I also have a Vod-s channel where I upload every Zaahen matchup.

Common mistakes

Lvl 1 make sure you don't lose too much hp since then your lane is unplayable against a good player.

Going all-in at the wrong time because Zaahen is strong in that. You still have to play around your waves and if the enemy has more minions he usually has a higher chance at winning that particular fight. This is very important in the first 5 lvls because you are squishy and you won't even get your passive stacked up in a fight for a revive.

This is overall,(not even champion specific like in when to fight section) that if you are ahead and you are sure you can win the 1v1 then the worst thing to do is engaging without knowing where the rest of the enemy team is and then getting 1v2 or 1v3 and losing your advantage.

Don't be pressured to make a play when you are ahead you will slowly win the game if you just hold your lead and make okay plays because the worst thing to do is flip a play when you are ahead and fail to just throw the game away.

Why do I not like Hail of Blades?

I don't have anything against the rune itself and I think it could be pretty good in some matchups. Conqueror is just the perfect rune for Zaahen since it has ad stacks like the character itself and healing.

With hail of blades you are a burst character and your extended fights are weaker and it scales worse. If you fall behind you are pretty much cooked with hail of blades since you put all your eggs in one basket to win lane but you just became a bit useless and it's a lot harder to sit under turret too without second with or extra health that conqueror page gives.

When to trade?

You can trade with the enemy when the wave is frozen on your side and then you hit W and e q2 knockup into running away - in that combo the enemy mostly has nothing to do but take that 300 dmg and just deal with it. If the wave is on your side and you hit a W and you think you can run the enemy down then that's the perfect time to do it(make sure wave is not big enough or you are not playing against a very long trade champ).

But remember that the best time to fight with the enemy is when you are close to your turret so you have the most amount of time to run the enemy down the lane (stridebreaker giga op for that) and there is also a lot less of a chance you get ganked (gotta watch out for the lane gank tho).

When to fight?

If you ever think you can 1v1 the enemy so easily, take a deep breath and ask yourself if you see the enemy jg on the map or know where they are(in higher elos track support too). If you have no clue in the world and you are not confident you don't win the 1v2 then you have to wait for the enemy jungle to show up (usually doesn't take that long under grandmaster). And when the enemy jungle finally shows up far from you and you still have the angle then go claim the free kill.

Powerspikes

In lane his lvl 3 is a good power spike but usually if you are going to look for a kill then engage right as you get lvl 4 and then you just win the fight in most matchups (especially if the enemy is lvl 3) if the wave is on your side and you can run the enemy down.

Lvl 6 if you hit all your abilities you should get your passive up which usually means you win the all-in against almost every champion

Usually Zaahen's biggest power spike is stridebreaker but as he buys more items he just gets insanely stronger with each item. Most of the matchups you can easily 1v1 after first item but it's pretty matchup dependant but in fights you are very strong with 2 items (if you got them in reasoable time) and then after 3rd or 4th item you can usually 1v3 or 1v4 easily.

How to play Zaahen early game?

In most matchups you have to give prio lvl 1 so be ready to just fish for some cs. Then let the 2nd or 3rd wave crash and collect the wave. Depending on the matchup but in most matchups you can start pushing the wave slowly and then all in lvl 4 but if you think it might go wrong DONT DO IT since if you die and the wave is pushing away from you, game over against a good player.

But against the best players it really is a back and forth game. So without making it too difficult, if the wave is pushing towards you DONT FIGHT, if the wave is pushing away and its a okay matchup and you are even YOU CAN FIGHT but make sure you don't get ganked.

If you get chunked while wave is pushing away it's bad too so if you want to be the safest possible then just stay healthy push waves when it's your turn and outscale(most ranged matchups are like that) but there could also be games where you just under turret and the enemy harasses you. Then your best bet is to call for help and stay 50%hp+ at least so you can help your jungler kill the enemy. If the jungler doesn't come to help you then you have to accept it and suffer a bit but on the bright side you will probably be more useful than the enemy in teamfights.

How to play midgame

In the midgame you are usually stronger than the enemy so you can probably shove waves to tier 2 tower and then roam to mid or keep him stuck there and then tp to a fight while he is clearing a wave. Make sure that if you go push waves that you have vision of enemies(if not then don't).

If you are the one being pushed in and you can't fight then just sit there and clear waves. If the enemy starts looking like he is roaming mid then spamping he is missing or danger so your team won't get killed. Against bad players the best thing to do is just dodge all their poke and clear waves and you eventually outscale them because they have no clue what to do.

But most games: you push wave to tower - roam to mid or enemy jg to make a play - go back top push wave in - recall - repeat

If there is a objective you can: push wave in - roam there/teleport (depending on how urgent and far) - if the fight is long or necessary drop a top wave and recall - run back to lane and clear the wave from your tower and repeat

The difference is that you are away for longer and enabled the enemy to push the wave to your side (turret) on the 2nd example, first example you just push wave in on repeat while looking to roam and you are back in lane the second a new wave arrives(keep enemy stuck under their turret)

How to play late game

This is very dependant on the game so I can't say that for sure, some games you must sit in sidelane and then teleport to a fight after you pushed a sidewave. Safest route is just to sit with your team (since you are very strong and your teammates probably throw on their own) near objectives and call the shots yourself. I mostly do that in master lobbies since the team has no clue how to play it and I have to babysit them.

Usually you can get 1 guy offposition and try to stack as much as possible on them and then you can jump in to the rest of the enemies with some stacks already so you can basically guarantee a revive if you hit them and after that it should be a free win if your team is even a bit competent

Don't try to take all the blame if you lose a close game since I personally get very tilted if I play a game very well but my team is just unable to be carried. Accept that and move on and if you played well, at least you learned something.

How can I manage the wave with tiamat/stridebreaker

Yes it is harder to freeze with stridebreaker but you can also learn to do it. It really depends on how many minions you have and which ones (meele or range) do you have.

For example if you want to hit 1 singular edge minion you can just tiamat or stridebreaker the ground and hit the minion with its edge radius and last hit it with that so you don't damage other minions.

In lower elos you probably won't even have to freeze for longer than a wave or two before the enemy walks up and if you have stridebreaker at that time you probably just run them down and netting you kill. Why they walk up usually is because they see the freeze and get very tilted or they try to come fix it and you punish that.

Pushing is no bad thing either because then you can roam or move to objectives with a time advantage (or if you are cheesy then fake a recall and kill the enemy when they come to take the neutral wave).

If you feel stuck in a lane and no objectives are up then don't go doing something stupid like forcing a play since you probably outscale the enemy laner anyway.

But in short: you can still do everything but it's harder (but easier to punish if you have stridebreaker)

If you follow the 3 minion rule to freeze then with wave clear items don't be scared to use even more

How to play against ranged top

I'm talking about the worst matchups where you can't even engage on them since they have a quinn e or jayce e or a dash etc.

The most important part is that you have doran's shield and second wind. Then laning phase: lvl 1 you just fish for minions with w usually and then let it push into you (its okay to take 1 or 2 attack).

When it crashed you can try to w the enemy to take a quick trade on them but the most important part is that you give up some minions that would cost you 200+ hp by getting hit by a full combo. If the wave ever starts slowpushing from your side to them then walk up for 1 auto attack from them so the minions aggro them so she takes a bit of damage but most importantly your wave stops attacking the enemy wave so it starts pushing to you again.

You have to spam q on the minions as well if you need some health to help you stay in lane. If the wave is on your side then most of the time they eventually get ganked and after that you can push the wave to get a recall off but if you can't count on that then take teleport and just get a free back off whenever you feel like it(but usually you can still chunk the enemy out of lane at least once so you can match the recall).

Most matchups are easy once you get stridebreaker since you can force fights onto them and just all in and win after that usually until end of game.

Vayne is a different champ so don't try to do that too much on her and if you think you can't kill then trust your instinct but don't be scared since you still have to limit test and know when you can do certain stuff.

Don't be scared to go behind in cs in these matchups since you still outscale them and xp is a lot more important.

When to use teleport

If you are in a very bad matchup and play teleport then the best usage is if you are stuck under tower and you clear a wave then instantly back and tp back to lane so you don't miss a full wave(best case scenario you lose 1-2 minions).

If you are with ignite (so most of the games) you should teleport only to a dragon or baron fight or in some games you could also teleport for a guaranteed bot double kill so the game gets 2x easier. In the ideal world you teleport at 13 minutes to some bot fight and get a double or triple and then at 20min again you teleport for baron while being at the opposite side of the map pushing waves.

THE WORST MISTAKE: Teleporting with your 7 minute cooldown tp (when you have ignite) back to lane after 14min, I would rather lose 10 minions than do that because then against a good team you wont have teleport for baron and if your team has noone else with teleports you are cooked.

Why do I build stridebreaker not trinity force?

Stridebreaker is the best item because Zaahen lacks mobility to get to the enemy and this item solves the biggest issue on Zaahen which makes it super strong on him. I understand trinity force in some matchups where you just need pure damage but I still don't buy it in those. Movement speed overall is just a really op stat in higher elos and Zaahen doesn't lack damage usually and if he ever gets on top of an opponent he wins it regardless so fixing the gapclosing weakness is the biggest priority.

Why not go stridebreaker 2nd?

The reason I build stridebreaker 1st and then instantly into death's dance and maw is because resistances are really op (on Zaahen even more). If you build trinity force and then stridebreaker 2nd you need to get to 4 items to be able to get armor and magic resist both and most of the games end at 2.5 items so I would never even make it there. Death's dance is also really op into ad top/jg too with plated steelcaps since then most of the games you can easily 1v2.

Why are armor and magic resist so op on Zaahen?

Armor and magic resist are so op on Zaahen because you heal so much and % hp as well which means the more resistances you have the stronger your heals are (more effective hp). If you only build health then Yes you have more healing but you also take a ton more damage because you don't have any resistances against enemy damage which in the end makes you squishier with more total hp than if you had a bit less hp but more resistances.

Why maw not spirit visage?

Spirit visage gives you hp and magic resist so why is that not good item? It probably is fine into full ap team comp but maw just synergizes so much better with Zaahen kit since you get damage which scales with everything and then you also get a shield which scales with attack damage which you stack up insanely in a fight and end up having like a 1k shield in a fight from magic damage which you are the most vulnerable to (behind true damage) and then on top of that you also get 10% omnivamp which just makes you unkillable.

Why do I like death's dance so much?

Death's dance is just a super broken item on Zaahen since it gives you armor (most top/jg are ad) and also a lot of damage. The most broken part of it however is the passive which gives you delayed damage and then if you kill someone it cleanes that delayed damage and even heals you after and it usually happens in 1 or 2 scenarios.

1. You have up to 3 extra seconds to get your passive up in a fight and it happens a lot where you get the passive up at the last second before reviving and then you just oneshot everyone with full stacks after.

2. You kill someone when your about to die but death's dance damage hasn't come through yet so it deletes the damage you were about to take and you heal instead and after that you hit a insane clip on the enemy with full stacks up instead of dying like a normal champion.

Why I play haste not alacrity

I haven’t used it myself but If I would then in some really close matchups to get the last passive stack before ressurecting.

Overall Zaahen benefits more from abilities than getting 1 or 2 extra autos in and that’s also one of the reasons Zaahen is op later on since he can jump around and spam abilities rather than attack once more in a fight.

Ability haste is a very good stat on Zaahen and that is also one of the reasons why endless hunger is so op on him.

If I missed anything

If you think I missed anything or you want me to add something to the guide then comment under here or ask me live on my twitch channel or any of my socials really since I look at them all.