MOBAFire's first Mini Guide Contest of Season 14 is here! Create or update guides for the 30 featured champions and compete for up to $200 in prizes! 🏆

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

Zoe Build Guide by

Tsuna's Guide to Mid Zoe

8 1

30,332 Views

3 Comments

Zoe Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (3) More Zoe Guides

Choose Champion Build:

Mid
Alternative Poke Runes.
Support

Runes:

Domination

Electrocute

Sudden Impact

Eyeball Collection

Relentless Hunter

Inspiration

Magical Footwear

Minion Dematerializer

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Items

Starting

Rush

Offensive

Defensive

Final Build

Ability Order

Zoe Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

About Zoe, Aspect of the Twilight

Zoe, Aspect of the Twilight

Ability Power + Cooldown Reduction

Zoe is unlike a traditional mage where she only has two spells for her full combo, it being her Q () and E (). Her kit makes her a sniper mage, using her to sent enemies to sleep and snipe them with her from afar. During the laning phase, she is often immobile but is able to punish melee champions when they go for last hits. In teamfights, she needs to stay as far as possible from the front lines and use her abilities to kill the backline or damage them as much as she can. Like any mage, Ability Power is important to her. But, due to only having two offensive spells, capping her CDR is also a must to make sure she have her combo ready at all times.

Pros

Good at one-shot killing people
Punishes most immobile champions
Her CC's range can be stupidly long
Very strong roaming potential with E
She's that one overly optimistic person

Cons

One chance to kill someone. You miss, you lose.
Very immobile
Her CC to save her from ganks have a delay
Her CC's range is sad without passing through walls.
Getting nerfed constantly..

Masteries

Stop!

- Your whole combo revolves around three abilities, anyway. While this gives you less damage in pokes, it scales better later into the game while giving you better dueling power. Just remember to proc your passive for it to take effect.

- Useful for . She can easily have this on full uptime due to her ultimate at a measly 3 second cooldown at max CDR.

- Gives you some AP.

vs - Similar to , it gives you some movement speed to move around quickly. It helps a bit in roaming. The alternative is . It functions like but stacks a lot slower due to needing bounty. If you don't think you need the extra movement speed, the extra CDR is good.

- Don't have escapes? Make your own. Gives you free boots with 10 extra movement speed. Saves you 300 gold, which is always nice since AP items tend to be more expensive.

- Because you want more CDR.

- Allows you to push faster. This is good against champions who can shove lanes quick like . Against mages who can't push as fast, would still be better.

Summoner Spell

The most preferred spell for an immobile mage like as you have no immate escape abilities. Also, dodge skillshots that will kill you etc. etc.

Good if you plan to go for early kills. It's good against champions who heal a lot but since Morellonomicon can also provide Grievous Wounds debuff and it's close to mandatory for you to get it anyway.

If you think you're going have trouble dealing with your lane opponent, will be better as you can prevent giving them free kills. Also good if you want early ganks as your is a bit hard to land pre-6 since they can easily hide behind minions.

Skills

> > >

Paddle Star

Zoe hurls a star in the target direction that collides with the first enemy hit, dealing magic damage in a small area, dealing [ damage that is based both on champion level and ability rank, and is increased by 0% - 150% (based on distance traveled).

Deals 80% of the damage outside of the first target hit.

Hymn of Valor

Your bread-and-butter skill for damage. This skill is normally coupled with your to perform executions. A max range combp can easily chuck an enemy for 50% of their health.

First part consists of firing the projectile and second part redirects it. The beauty about this ability is you can get creative with it. If your enemy minions are standing in front of him, shoot it to the side and hit him from there. The enemy is on the verge of dying, shoot him right in the face so he can't dodge it. The missile speed for this ability is quite fast, but shooting it backwards will tell your opponents to quickly hide behind minions, making it a bit tell-sign if they are observant. This is also your main pushing tool so use it if you want to shove the lane.

Spell ThiefStuffffgg

Whenever enemy champions cast a summoner spell or item active, they drop the corresponding Spell Shard onto the ground that grant Sight icon sight over a 100-radius area. Spell Shards last for 40 seconds. Some enemy minions spawn with random Spell Shards that only drop to the ground for 20 seconds if killed by Zoe. Using Spell Thief and summoner spells give Zoe bonus move speed and magic orbs.

Aria of Perseverance

For the most part, this ability is an RNG dice game during laning phase. However, getting certain spells can be really effective for you. Spells that you can get from minions are:

Exhaust - Offensively, you can use Exhaust and follow up with a Sleepy Trouble Bubble to execute your enemy. Otherwise, keep it for when enemies dive you.
Ignite - Use it as a separate Ignite since they don't stack. Use this at the start at the fight, then follow up with your summoners.
Heal - Use it to escape or get some HP back. Just remember to go close to the enemies so Spell Thief can damage them, if its safe.
Ghost - Shove the lane in and go for a gank. Ghost will allow you to rotate quickly so you don't lose too much.
Redemption - Get some HP back or you can use it on other lanes to get free assists. Just know that you'll need to move halfway up before you can target the other lanes.
Hextech Rocketbelt - Useful for all-in. If you can land a Sleepy Trouble Bubble, follow up with your Paddle Star to Portal Jump in front of them and use it. Otherwise, you can use it to shove the lane.
Everfrost - Not as useful as its counterpart. It's like a ****ty Exhaust or a ****ty Hextech Rocketbelt. You can try to use to land a Sleepy Trouble Bubble or just poke your enemy with it.
Chilling Smite - You can use it to steal the scuttle crab or raptors. Or you can use it as a followup of your combo for an Electrocute proc or Spell Thief orb. It's good to hold on to it for a bit to see if your jungler wants to do dragon.

Also, the orbs floating around her once using a spell will target 's attacked targets, which also affect turrets. You can choose to burn the spell to down the turret faster if you're sure it is the right call.

If your picked up spell is running out of time, you can always use it to poke your enemy by ing to them and burning the spell. Hopefully, a couple of your bubbles will hit them.

Sleepy Trouble Bubble

Zoe kicks a bubble in the target direction that bursts on the first enemy hit, dealing damage, else forming a trap at maximum range for 4 seconds that arms after 0.8 seconds. The bubble can only move through terrain once but may do so indefinitely, can only move up to 650 units once outside terrain, and will fall short if it would enter terrain again.

Aria of Perseverance

The setup for your notorious one-shot combo. The principle of it is simple, you hit someone with this and they fall to sleep, making them useless for up to the next 2 seconds while they take your max-ranged to the face.

This ability is what makes very annoying, even if she's not in lane since she can shove this ability into the wall and it shoots down the terrain to disable someone on the bottom lane. It also deals extra damage for your and so make sure you follow up with either one of these.

Portal Jump

Zoe targets a location and then dives into a portal that she opens beneath her, blinking to the target location.

Aria of Perseverance

You Flash forward for a second, that's it.

allows you to extend the range of your . It also allows you to see through walls even without going over said walls. You can easily use this to check Baron or Dragon pit without endangering yourself. You can also pick up and use spell shards using this. Like this is a very versatile spell and can be used similar to an offensive .

Items

Zoe only have one truly offensive spell, her along with her passive . have a really high AP scaling and is the main source of your damage. Therefore, stacking AP is considered efficient on her, along with CDR to allow her to spam it as often as possible.

Rush

- The new staple for AP. is still rushed first for the mana sustain. Since 's waveclear has been gutted, you need an alternative form of waveclear. Luden's Echo fits this criteria. Since it also gives your mana which you can use as well as CDR, this is often the first item finished.

- Depending on who you are against, you may delay this up to the end. It allows you to make yourself invulnerable, often buying you the time for your cooldown to run down or for your allies to help you. Alternatively, you can combo it with your to make yourself invulnerable during the arming time.

Offensive

- Good against if the enemy have a lot of squishy targets. The penetration allows you to deal more damage. Also good against champions who innately have heal. Since a majority team will have at least 2 squishy targets, the penetration will always be useful.

- This is good is you want to focus on single target damage or your team decides to seige instead as you can stack this along with your , allowing you to easily take down turrets. Remember to put yourself in range with your . Normally I pair this with the to make sure I get into range more consistently.

Defensive:

- Good against enemies who has impactful skills that can start teamfight (). Or alternatively reduce the amount of burst a mage can have on you. Normally, this isn't very good against champions that can easily dispel it with cheap abilities. If that's the case, finishing or may be more useful.

Situational:

- Not really situational, but heavily depends on when your enemy starts stacking magic resistance. Eventually, you'll be getting it with the difference of when. If the top laner is against an AP champion as well, they're more likely to start going for Magic Resistance first. You would want this as your 4th or so item so.

- This one is more of a win-more item. You're already equipped with a spell to allow you to move around easily in teamfights. Having this pushes you to have one more advantage. It's sort of good if you're against a team who requires you to constant reposition like against a 's .

- Depending on your playstyle. Generally, I get this if I want more health apart from what give. You can use this to get a bit more damage or shave the lane faster. With this, you can to hit your and use this to replace the portion of the combo.

Matchups

More popular ones first.

Start
Finish -> ->

Poke him whenever you can to disable his shield as much as you can. He'll try to all-in you at level 2 so try not to shove too far out as you don't have a good escape early on. Get early on and finish with a to cut off his damage as much as you can. Post-6, he becomes more dangerous. Always dodge his 3rd . Remember that your has a delay so you need to use it early. Your laning phase mainly consists on just farming and not getting killed. Farm under turret if you need to. You can opt to roam if you want, but make sure you can get back in time before he smashes your turret too much as he can push in quite fast.

Watch out for his as he is prone to cast it if he gets caught in . If you can't hit him with your just use instead. If needed, bring .

Start and 2x
Finish -> *

His Pre-3 is quite weak so dodge his shuriken and poke him as much as you can. Once level 3, remember he can use all his abilities to burst you so watch out. Try to call for a gank if your jungler is nearby when his wastes his . In terms of items, get first if you're doing reasonably well. Otherwise, just rush for first to cut most of his damage. If he gets level 6 before you finish , time your so that he appears further away from you so you have a chance to retreat or fight back. This requires some practice but will make it a lot harder to kill you without burning more resources. If needed, bring .

Start and 2x
Finish ->

Be careful of his Yellow Card if he is close to you since you'll end up taking his whole . He can shove lanes pretty fast so you need to finish your as soon as you can so he won't be able to roam without consequences. Post-6, remember to let your team know if he starts going off. If he decides to use his in front of you, try your best to land your . Best case, you'll stop his abilities. Worst case, he'll arrive at his target but is asleep. If he does leave, shove your lane in as much as you can and punish his turret. You're unlikely to reach wherever his going in time so just push as much as you can.

Remember to ward your river bush or outside of it so you can watch the jungler since his stun have a good chance of killing you. Once he gets his damage can hurt quite a bit so watch out. Get a if needed but you need to be careful as his can still dispel it. Bring if needed.

Somewhat Small Tips

Combos:
E > Q > R > Q
One of your most basic combo post-6. You use your E through the wall and once it procs, start your Q and send it backwards. Use your R to put your Q in range of the enemy and let your Q hit it again.

R > Q > Q
Used against enemies in melee ranged of you. Blink backwards and start your Q even further back and sent it forward.

To maximise your damage, remember to weave in an auto-attack every time you use a spell to proc your .

The more flashy ones (Assuming you have '' as a Spell Thief ability and you're willing to use it offensively)

R > Flash > Q > Q
backwards and even further then send your even further back.

Generally, you don't want to use this way as you're immobile mage and the extra will normally keep you alive.

Utilising the Fog of War:
Your can travel however far a terrain it is. Once in terrain, it has a really fast travel speed and is close to impossible to dodge it. Punish your enemies if they stick to terrain. Your also works similarly that you can send it through fog of war, especially while fighting in the jungle area.

Conclusion + To-Do List

And with this, I'll end my guide, I would appreciate it a lot if you leave a vote and a comment on what could be better or how the guide was in overall or if I missed out on anything.

- Yasutsuna

01.06.2018 - Updated Build for 8.11
12.04.2018 - Swapped Perfect Timing for Magical Footwear. Working on Electrocute build.
17.02.2018 - Guide Created.