Click to open network menu
Join or Log In
Mobafire logo

Join the leading League of Legends community. Create and share Champion Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

x
Zyra Build Guide by Brainstorm

Support Support Zyra: Because the Best Defense is a Good Offense

Support Support Zyra: Because the Best Defense is a Good Offense

Updated on November 29, 2012
6.5
7
Votes
4
Vote Vote
League of Legends Build Guide Author Brainstorm Build Guide By Brainstorm 7 4 19,909 Views 14 Comments
7 4 19,909 Views 14 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Brainstorm Zyra Build Guide By Brainstorm Updated on November 29, 2012
x
Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment. You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment

You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.

I liked this Guide
I didn't like this Guide
Commenting is required to vote!
Would you like to add a comment to your vote?

Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.

Introduction

Hi, guys! My name is Brainstorm, and welcome to my Support Zyra guide! This is my first guide on MOBAFire, and I hope you find it helpful. Zyra is a one of my favorite champions, and she has become an increasingly popular support, so this is my take on it. Enjoy!
Back to Top

Pros and Cons

Pros:
Very Strong CC

Allows you to skimp on wards a bit

Excellent late-game scaling

Unconventional, so some players are unsure how to handle her

Has an Alistar-like fear factor in lane

Cons:
Very squishy early game

Has no heal/shield to give your ADC

Very easy to steal CS and Kills on accident

Relies heavily on skill shots

Whoever called mid will sometimes scream at you until they realize you're supporting
Back to Top

Runes

Runes

Precision
Fleet Footwork
Phase Rush
Not much to say here, these are standard support runes.

We take Greater Mark of Armor and Greater Seal of Armor to avoid getting melted by the enemy ADC.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist is for avoiding getting melted by the APC later in the game, as well as reducing the poke of the enemy support a bit.

Greater Quintessence of Gold is here because as a support, you won't be taking CS or kills, so you will be getting your gold from assists, your GP10s, and your Quints.

Feel free to swap the Greater Quintessence of Gold for Greater Quintessence of Ability Power if you're feeling gutsy and would rather get your gold by killing the enemy champions repeatedly.
Back to Top

Masteries

Back to Top

Items

Item Sequence

Stealth Ward 0
Stealth Ward 0
Stealth Ward 0
Stealth Ward 0
Health Potion 50
Nomad's Medallion 850
Boots 300
Rylai's Crystal Scepter 2600
Mercury's Treads 1100
Hextech Revolver 1050
Will of the Ancients 2300
Timeworn Talisman of Ascension 2200
Rabadon's Deathcap 3600
sight wardsight wardsight wardsight ward
Here, we have a standard support opening. Faerie Charm helps us get our philosopher's stone, while still leaving us money for our sight wards and Health Potion.

philosopher's stone
Is there a support that doesn't build philosopher's stone? This item lets you harass more, recover from enemy harassment, as well as get the oh-so-important GP10 passive. Other options here are kage's lucky pick and Heart of Gold, though I would ALWAYS recommend that you pick up your Philo. If you are having trouble in your lane, or are simply having trouble killing the enemy champions, feel free to pick up extra GP10s to catch up/get an edge. However, kage's lucky pick simply doesn't build into anything decent after the DFG nerf, so sell it when you need space.


This is an uncommon item to be rushed nowadays, but this item is perfect for Zyra support. Zyra is inherently squishy, so Rylai's helps her beef up a bit, and the slow passive is INSANE with her plants. With our skill order, the plants from deadly bloom won't deal too much damage, but when placed correctly, will hinder the movement of enemy champions too much to be ignored.


Mercury's Treads are great for combating the CC of the enemy support in lane, and gives you a bit of MR to make up for your lack of it in your runes/masteries. Ninja Tabi are great if the enemy team is AD heavy (such as a Talon or Lee Sin mid), while Mobility Boots are great if you need more speed to ward up the map. Ionian Boots of Lucidity really aren't necessary, as we get plenty of CDR from Rampant Growth/ Shurelya's Battlesong.


At this point, you should have some decent ranks in Rampant Growth, which allows you to use your sight wards only when strictly necessary. With a Hextech Revolver, your harass also allows you to sustain, giving you effectively infinite sustain in lane, only needing to recall when you're completely out of wards. Afterwards, we upgrade this to a Will of the Ancients for some extra AP and a nice aura for our allies.


Again, what support doesn't build Shurelya's Battlesong? This is the natural transition out of our philosopher's stone, since we don't really need that GP10 passive anymore. CDR, extra health, and a kick-*ss passive! What's not to like?

This is also the point at which you should build a Randuin's Omen if you bought a Heart of Gold.


At this point, you're less a support, and more an off-carry. Rabadon's Deathcap helps you dish out some awesome damage. However, you still don't have the pure offensive builds of the carries, so don't go off trying to duel enemy champions (unless it's the opposing squishy support caught out of position). Rather, this is to make your kiting/team fight presence terrifying.

sight ward
You'll notice that this build has no 6th item! That's because as a support, you should almost NEVER have a full build. That 6th slot is for your sight wards, which you should be buying 2-3 of each time you go back to base. If there's only one thing you take away from this guide, it's that as a support, if you do nothing else, BUY SOME F*CKING WARDS. If the river next to Dragon/the tribush is dark, you're not doing your job. Vision Wards are great for clearing your opponent's wards (or if the enemy team has an Evelynn/ Shaco). Oracle's Elixir is an item you should get if your top/jungler doesn't, though getting one on Zyra is honestly like painting a giant target on your back. However, if your top/jungler isn't getting one, just buy it and be very careful.
Back to Top

Skill Sequence

Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

This ability structure is designed to give you awesome engages/disengages. The damage from Zyra's plants scales from the number of points she has in the related skill, so because we prioritize Grasping Roots, our Vine Lashers willHURT. Enemy ADC/Jungler/Support looking to engage? Punish them with a Rampant Growth/ Grasping Roots combo. Enemy support out of position/camping the brush? Rampant Growth/ Grasping Roots. Enemy ADC/Support getting low on heath? Rampant Growth/ Grasping Roots will make them easy for your ADC to pick up.
Back to Top

Skills (Tips and Tricks)


This is a pretty sweet passive. It makes low-health carries think twice about going for you, if they know what they're doing. If they don't, then you get free gold. There really aren't that many tricks to this, apart from not stealing kills that your carry can pick up. Instead, you should either shoot to cut of the enemy's escape route or shoot for a higher health target. Though it doesn't happen very often, you can also use this for dragon/baron steals if the timing is just right.

deadly bloom
This skill performs third functions for you. The first is to create Thorn Spitters, which get some awesome Rylai's passive off on the enemy champion. The second is to harass, whether it's by itself or to get some extra damage off when you Rampant Growth/ Grasping Roots combo on someone. The third is to help your ADC push the lane. Since we only rank it up once, we can use it to soften up minions without stealing them from our ADC. Because of the short cooldown, it's tempting to spam this, but doing so will eat away at your mana quickly, so use it judiciously.


This is the key to your function as a support. These act as short-term wards, so you don't have to waste your wards on the lane bushes, and can use them to watch for enemy champions if you run out of wards but need to stay in lane. This is also how you create your plants, so you can place them in two ways. The first is to place them, then immediately use deadly bloom/ Grasping Roots to get some damage off. The second is to place them near the enemy carry, zoning him/her. The threat of the plant is sometimes more effective than the plant itself, but if they venture too close, feel free to follow through on that threat.

Additionally, Rampant Growth functions on an ammo system and costs no mana, so try not to waste free charges. However, you should typically keep a charge on you, in case someone chases and you need to Rampant Growth/ Grasping Roots combo them to get away. The exception is when you want to kill someone, in which case Rampant Growth/ Rampant Growth/ Grasping Roots may be appropriate.

Oh, it has a pretty sweet passive, too.


This is your bread-and-butter spell. You use this to engage, disengage, harass, etc. This is basically a Dark Binding/ Light Binding that goes through minions (which, by the way, is a good way to freeze a wave for a few seconds!). This also creates your Vine Lashers, which do some sweet damage and slow enemies even before you get your Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Apart from that, there really isn't much to say. You should be casting this a lot.


OH MY GOD THIS SPELL. This is by far one of the best ults on any support champion. Not only does this deal some nice damage and do an AOE knockup, but it makes your plants better. If you can poke an enemy champion down a little bit, Rampant Growth/ Rampant Growth/ Grasping Roots/ Stranglethorns should set them up for the easiest kill your ADC has ever seen, or at the very least, blow their Flash (and sometimes Cleanse/ Flash. Yeah, that's right. The enemy ADC took cleanse just because you're playing Zyra.) This spell is also why Zyra is so great in team fights, as she can take a whole enemy team out for a few seconds. Use it to engage! Use it to run away! Use it everywhere!
Back to Top

Summary

This concludes my Support Zyra guide! I hope you guys enjoyed reading through this. If you have any comments, suggestions, complaints, etc. about this guide, feel free to ask.

Finally, please upvote if you liked the guide. If you do downvote, please tell me why so I can address any issues with the guide.

Thanks for Reading!
-Brainstorm
Download the Porofessor App for Windows
League of Legends Build Guide Author Brainstorm
Brainstorm Zyra Guide
Vote Vote
Support Zyra: Because the Best Defense is a Good Offense

League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide