Welcome Everyone! This is a Zilean Build guide, he is by far the champ I have gotten to know best so I hope you will be able to learn something from this guide.

I am still playing around with getting him totally perfected so any suggestions are welcome.

Pros

-Zilean is a beast of a support, "Oh no the tank is dying, nope zilean brought him back with full health."
-He is a harassing queen, one of my favorite activities is laying bombs on minions and watching the other team turn tail
-AoE, Its what Zilean is all about, you see 20 minions in a lane, no worries Zilean can clean them out with one round of bombs

Cons
-Zilean is squashable, defense and health are not his things
-At the beginning he is very mana hungry

The items are probably the most important for Zilean because it can completely change how he plays

Beware
-Things you need to consider, CDR maxes out at 40%
-With the Utilities mastery, Mastermind effects summoner spells, not Zilean's spells

One of the first things you will learn about Zilean is you run out of mana fast early in the game. I eventually started going with Tear of the Goddess, every time you use an ability you gain 4 mana permanently up to 1000 extra mana, problem solved very quickly. I try to get this before even shoes so that every spell will help to add to my mana pool.

Regarding the boots I choose the Sorcerer's Shoes because they help cause damage and through my mastery and runes I had built up some CDR, if you are going early on I would suggest the Ionian Boots of Lucidity due to their CDR.

kage's lucky pick is where people tend to get confused. Zilean's items are expensive and having this throws me a bit more money, it also builds into Deathfire Grasp which is a must have for Zil. It give you another way to cause hurt.