First, Thanks for the guide (really good).
Second thing is can I join you for the video thing?

Very nice guide and very detailed GJ

i just wanted to ask a question on your optional items in your build on why you didn't say anything about using "death fire grasp" as an item over "rabedon's deathcap" you would get a cooldown.

Thanks!

I rly like this guide and play with similar items, but i buy at least 2 wards at very beginning (i like to buy Faerie charm for supp + 2 wards + potions). And im a bit dissapionted, dont no one consider boots of mobility as valuable for Zilean. I know he has enough ms, but boots of mibility has some pros. First of all its cheap and as supp we dont have so much cash as other players. 2nd, This special mobility gives you opoprtunity to approach escaping enemy and use his E to slow and slow his enemy. And 3rd... is so cool seeing Zil with so much movement speed.
But this guide is rly awsome and its all just personal pref.

@Emil: Interesting question. I'll try to answer you as best as I can.

Well, first of all, don't get me wrong. Ancient Coin it's a great item for passive supports, but if there something I encourage in this guide is an offensive minset!

Spellthief's Edge is way more useful for me, because in lane I'm always trying to land some Q-W-Q combos in my way, and drop a few autoattacks meanwhile. It might not be seen as an huge deal, but in early it can become devastating quickly enough. And combined with the Spell Weaving mastery, we can pull each Time Bomb damage outpout to the limit. All separated it might look senseless, but when you look at it as a whole, it makes a pretty different picture. To sum it up, I take spellthief's over coin in early game because:

- Ancient Coin is based on defensive/passive supports. In this guide, I encourage a totally different path, so...

- Spellthief's Edge will become way more useful. Added to the reason I gave before, we can increase our money earnings even more than we would with the coin, and dealing way more damage, and that's exactly what we are looking for. Sometimes, I even put Time Bombs on minions to put pressure under the enemy carry, taking a few minions with me in the way.

So, you see, for the build we have here, Spellthief's Edge matchs perfectly with gameplay, masteries and item development.

But you also talk about Frost Queen's Claim usefulness... I'm not going to argue about that, simply because I don't have a reason to do so. If you look in my late-game building, all the slots are filled. But the Frost Queen's Claim is nowhere to be seen, nor the talisman of ascension. I think I didn't even said the name of the queen's claim once in my guide.
You have to understand that the spellthief's is just a money farming item. Once we hit mid-late game, where we can farm safely from lane to lane with the help of Time Warp, I just sell it and buy something way more useful. I never had the plan of ending the edge's item chain.

I hope that cleared your doubts ^^ I would be happy to hear any other opinion or suggestion you may have to make, or clear something up if you didn't understand some of my points. Have a good day!

Interested to know why you wouldn't use the Coin -> Talisman path for your gold generating item. The active for the fully upgraded talisman (AE speed buff) seems much more useful than the actives for the frost queen.

First of all, my most sincere apologies for this second time of inactivity. Had some... so to say weird times in my life. Anyway, I'm back on rails, back on LoL, and most importantly, back on this guide.

I already answered all my unanswered questions to the people who is still active on Mobafire via private message. I had some interesting talks actually :P So, if I didn't reply to you, or you want to talk with me about anything, please, I'm open to talk at any day now, just send me a private message ^^

Oh, and about the guide, Season 4, here we go!! I'll start to edit items and masteries like crazy, and I hope for next week, we will already have a fresh, new guide back on the road! As usual, and now most than ever, I'm open to any kind of suggestion or comment on my guide, because I really need them now. Thanks to everybody who supported and helped me through this project, and will do in the future. I'll be grateful forever. It's time to see a phoenix rising again!

Strong guide- nicely in-depth where it counts. I especially liked the carry sections, as well as the summarized 'teamfight objectives' part that is sometimes neglected to be addressed in guides.

I disagree with your position on Kog'Maw's effectiveness with Zilean, however. I've had difficulty supporting him pre-level 6 because both champions have rocky early games, and because he doesn't have a distance closer or the safer, longer auto attack range of other carries that reliably work well with Zilean, like Sivir or Graves. If the enemy realizes that the composition only brings pokes and harassment to the table, and no dueling potential in those early levels, then they can rush in on you and shut you down. If you get chased after you harass in the laning phase, Koggy doesn't have the tools to scare them away.

I feel that Kog'Maw doesn't benefit much from the match up because he can poke by himself at level 6 and chunk opponents that way. In my opinion, Koggy would get much more use out of a support that keeps him alive with heals and CC to sustain that poke instead of a Zilean who would only be able to bring a closer distance poke, movement speed buff, and a revive to the table. What do you think?

Epic Guide +1

is it worth trying it with ability power runes instead of magic resist? do you have any experiences with it?

great guide :D been using zilean more and have found that him and teemo are great lane partners teemos poison and zileans time bomb seem to keep them out of lane for most of the laning phase. i've found only a handful of champs that can power through it.

First of all, a great guide. Has helped me a lot and is really informative. But I disagree with giving Urgot a 3. I read from this Urgot guide before my hiatus that Zilean and Urgot make a great pair. When I recently started playing again and by chance got the opportunity to try it, I took it. We completely destroyed their bot lane, 9 kills in I don't know, 10-15 minutes? Sure, it was a normal match, but apparently my lane partner tried Urgot for the first time. Of course, its just my opinion and it's your guide :)