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If you dodge her skillshots, Ahri is not that bad to play against, but her mobility allows her to dodge your bombs. When dueling, space out bomb placement timings so she cant dodge both of your bombs with a single activation of her Spirit Rush.
Akali
Zone her while you can pre-6, then simply show a little respect to her when she has those disgusting dashes. All you need to do is waveclear and potentially roam to find other advantages.
Anivia
Do your best to match her waveclear. Never get too close or her wall could make you easy pickings for a gank or a massively advantageous trade in favor of Anivia.
Annie
Her stun and burst is annoying, but if you ult preemptively you can negate her burst and save your carries in teamfights. Just push her in with your better waveclear and look for roaming opportunities.
Aurelion Sol
His roaming ability is obnoxious, so try your best to zone him from the wave so he can't push with his stars. If he manages to get out of lane, ping your MIA as much as possible and prepare to TP if you need to.
Brand
Your speed makes it easy to dodge his skillshots, and his lack of mobility makes it easy to land bombs. Dodge his W and Q and you can trade just fine. If he saves his stun until the end of a fight, ult preemptively so you don't get stunned out of a chance to survive a bad fight.
Azir
Do not trade in lane unless he is making positioning errors. Farm it out and shove the lane so he can't roam and scale faster than you. Force fights mid game when given the opportunity, as Azir is not very strong at that stage of the game.
Cassiopeia
If you don't dodge her Q, the lane will be really rough. She is pretty strong in the mid game, so look for picks on her using your E and Q when it's safe. DO NOT TRY TO 1v1 HER!!
Corki
Dodge Q and R and waveclear to prevent him roaming with the package. His damage is insane, so don't go for much unless you're receiving a gank.
Diana
Just a more annoying Akali in a couple of ways. Take advantage of her early weakness and keep her pushed in. Dodge her initial Q to stay alive in fights and look to ult whoever Diana's prime target seems to be.
Ekko
You can kind of zone him early, but his gap closer and burst potential make him a bit more annoying than other melee champions in lane. His equally annoying waveclear means than you'll likely just be farming it out and trying to prevent / counter any spicy roams Ekko goes for. Keep him slowed in teamfights and look for a double bomb stun when he is low to prevent him from using Chronobreak.
Fizz
Waveclear and bully him while you can. Ult whoever he attempts to burst. Look for stuns all the time to try and burst him out before he can utilize Playful / Trickster.
Gangplank
Low threat, just poke him and take advantage of his weak laning. If he roams, follow and you're good to go. Do not stack CC on GP though, or he'll use his W and put your cooldowns to waste.
Heimerdinger
Just farm and bomb out his turrets when they are mixed into the minion wave to get the most effective use of your bombs.
Jayce
You MUST respect his early and mid game damage. Look to push the wave in as much as possible and stop him from getting an early lead on you and your team before he snowballs out of control. His low mobility makes him gankable though, so be prepared to stun and slow him to death when the jungler looks for something to help you out.
Karthus
Poke him out and set up ganks when you can. Put him behind as much as possible so he can't blow your team up with his R in the mid game.
Kassadin
Don't trade with him much as his Q will block a good chunk of the damage you put out with bombs. Look to shut him down pre-6 with ganks, or just shove and roam before he gets any opportunities.
Katarina
Katarina's high mobility through the use of her Shunpo makes her and obnoxious matchup. Don't trade much after level 3, and look to keep her pushed in as best you can. Try to teleport to match any of her roams and stop her from getting a lead and 1v5ing your team.
LeBlanc
Her solid waveclear and mobility make her very annoying. Look to trade with or gank her when she wastes her W for waveclear by using your slow to set up a free double bomb + AA combo.
Lissandra
Just don't line up for her poke and match her waveclear. All you have to do is stop roams and don't die. You can outperform her in fights because you somewhat counter pick champions with your ult, speed up and stun.
Lucian
High mobility champion with a lot of early-mid game power. look to slow him down right when he uses his E and set up a double bomb > AA combo for your jungler to gank and pick up a kill or summs.
Lux
She can't 1 burst you because of your delicious ultimate. Poke her out and set up free ganks on this low mobility garbage.
Malzahar
If he saves his ult until the end of a duel with you, you must ult early to prevent yourself from being suppressed out of using it to save yourself. If he doesn't use ult after you pop R, just try to wait it out until you get ult again.
Morgana
Just dodge Q and match her waveclear. Easy matchup.
Orianna
Be wary of the positioning of her ball. Stay away from it as much as possible and match her waveclear. Set up ganks and take advantage of her low mobility to get a lead either in lane or through roams.
Ryze
Match his waveclear and utilize his low mobility to set up stuns and slows both in lane and teamfights alike so he cant keep putting out consistent DPS.
Swain
You will never push him out of lane, and ganks can oftentimes be turned against you. Just match his waveclear, match his roams, and cc him out of teamfights until your team can properly deal with him.
Syndra
Don't get stunned before she ults and you should be ok. Beat out her waveclear and roam as usual.
Taliyah
Keep her shoved in before she can utilize her Weaver's Wall for free ganks and objectives. Don't be stingy with your E... Use it if it means you can evade her Seismic Shove.
Talon
Space out properly and use double bomb on yourself when he Q's in so you can walk away from big burst trades. Slow him when he's about to come out of the stun so it's harder for him to follow up or run using his ult.
Twisted Fate
Targeted stun is annoying but he should never touch you in lane. Push him in early to delay his level 6 and look to gank him to punish his low mobility. Use TP to match ganks he goes for using his ult.
Veigar
Farm, CC him for free ganks, out roam him, out push him. This lane is just really easy.
Vel'Koz
Dodge his abilities and study geometry to ensure success in this lane. Like many matchups, utilize his low mobility against him and set up free ganks with your superior utility.
Viktor
He has more reliable waveclear and can trade better if played well. His AoE damage also outclasses yours, so your only hope of winning lane is through ganks our outfarming. Use TP to match ganks when you're pushed in.
Vladimir
Weak early waveclear, but he outsustains you easily. Don't trade with him and match his roams as best you can. Slow him in teamfights to limit his ability to 1 burst your team with R > E
Xerath
Dodge his skillshots and match waveclear if you can. Use your E to dodge his ult and stun whenever necessary. If you dodge his stun, take advantage of the cooldown and look for a double bomb + AA combo for a quick burst.
Yasuo
Obnoxious mobility and windwall to stop your bombs. Waveclear and slow him in teamfights as you can't do much else to him.
Zed
Ult when he goes for a kill using Death Mark. You outperform his waveclear, so take advanatage of that for the entire game. When he casts Death Mark on you or an ally, double bomb his target so he gets stunned right as he becomes targetable again and watch as his tears water the Rift.
Ziggs
Just waveclear and keep him away from your tower. His escape is a long cooldown and is unreliable, so always punish him with ganks when you can.
Zilean
A matchup based purely around skill. Zilean players won't expect you to walk towards them when they slow you and look for a double bomb.. So, whenever you get slowed or have a bomb dropped on you, simply move toward him as fast as possible and he will usually miss the stun.
This is a very basic guide with very basic information pertaining to playing Zilean mid to a fairly good level. Most of the skill you might hope to acquire with Zilean will simply come with practice and time. Although he is not entirely difficult to play mechanically, great gamesense is required to play him to his maximum potential.
When to use Q?
- Waveclear
- Poking/Trading
- Setting up a stun for peel OR engage
When to use W?
- Set up double bomb
- Reset E cooldown to speed up or slow down an ally/enemy
When to use E?
- Slow down a charging enemy to peel for your team or get a pick.
- Speed up an allied champion to allow them to kite or engage with ease.
- Escape a sticky situation or dodge a vital skillshot.
When to use R?
- To save yourself
- To save an allied carry
- To save an ally from being picked randomly on the map
- To revive a frontline to continue a long fight. (Only revive frontline/tanks if you're sure your carries are safe).
Why Zilean in general over other mid lane champions?
Here is my mindset when viewing Zilean: I get to be similar to Orianna and Annie in that I have a huge AoE stun / CC ability which can set up my team for an advantageous fight, or even disengage; however, despite having this extremely high value CC/damage, I also have the ability to speed up an enemy by 99%, slow down an enemy by 99%, and do it all again in 4 or so seconds. On top of this, I have an obnoxious revive to keep both allies and myself alive for as long as possible. The button every player wants; the 'You can't feed unless I let you' button.
Zilean is easily a sleeper OP champion when played to even a decent degree in my opinion.
Personally, I have climbed to plat 3 from gold 5 this season from almost exclusively using Zilean as a mid champion.
FINALLY I APOLOGIZE FOR THIS GUIDE BEING LACKLUSTER IN TERMS OF QUALITY. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE OR ANYTHING, SO I SETTLED FOR A BASIC INFO GUIDE. IF ANYONE HAS OTHER QUESTIONS OR WOULD LIKE TO PLAY, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.
The Most Filthy and Annoying Champion to Walk the Rift
Build Guide By TheOutsiderHD
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