This is my first guide so any questions or comments are gladly accepted!

Since Season 2 I've gravitated towards a specific champion that's out of meta but fun and climbs well. Galio, Viktor(long before the rework), Quinn, and now Zilean.

And as much as I loved him mid, because of the changes to his Q and R I've moved towards supporting and it's insanely fun.

Here's the 15 that got me directly from Plat 2 promos to Diamond 5. No stopping, only two loses were in promo to Diamond!


Here's a quick montage I put together. To show you why you should consider trying out Zilean Support.
Play Video

Because of his high base damage and some of the most utility in LoL, he makes a great addition to the list of supports, which you can be dominating solo queue with. He can run at 600+ms at an innocent Annie farming the mid lane and get slowed 99% for 2.5, stunned for 1.5 seconds, and then slowed again. Giving plenty of time for anyone on your team to come get a free kill.

Pros
-High base damage
-Insane movement speed
-Game changing ultimate
-Counters many meta picks such as Darius and Mordekaiser
-High CC with a 1.5 second AOE stun and 99% slow for 5 seconds
-Easily picks off anyone remotely overextending


Cons
-Incredibly squishy
-Poor early game
-Only one damage skill
-Needs a team of with damage(doesn't work well with protect the ADC comps)
-Has to land skill shots to be effective

Always make your runes fit your playstyle. For me these are optimized to get you through the early game as your items and high base damage will do plenty for you mid-late game.

Why 13/0/17?
These are optimized to give you enough CDR to end at 40%. Give you extra damage, keep gold up as a support, and help with mana problems of Zilean's early game, which late game don't exist.

The reasoning behind leveling E after Q is really preference. I prefer having a 99% slow on a longer cooldown than a 40% slow on a shorter cooldown. Definitely feel free to experiment and find what feels right to you.

Now you need some guidance on how to Zilean.

Let's start Levels 1-6

You are as vulnerable as you will ever be here. Zilean is one of the few champions that can actually die level 1 due to minimal CC, unless you flash. But you have movement speed on your side. So DODGE. Learning to avoid grabs and stuns etc. is essential to being Zilean and any champion for that matter. As I tell all my friends, You dodge 100% of the damage of every skill shot that doesn't hit you.

On top of dodging, you're harassing. This is where practice comes in. You want to land as many bombs on the enemy as possible and make sure you're not missing them and hitting minions. This will push the wave hard and sometimes make it harder for your ADC to CS.

But the enemy can use your bombs to their advantage. Walking into low health minions so you get the CS instead of your ADC. So be careful and take minion health into account.

Now while you're weak defensively, you are incredibly strong offensively. Level 3 you have the ability to throw two bombs, adding up to 300~ damage! For level 3 harass that's amazing.

At this point your getting your Time Warp which is great for a ton of reasons. Speed up your ADC to run away from a bad situation, or help a jungler initiate. Even slowing down the enemy jungler to make his ganks a waste of time.

Remember, unless your harass is on point, just bide your time until 6 where you can be aggressive and know you have a second life.

Level 6+

As long as your not 0/5/0, then congratulations, you have reached God Mode.

You control life and death like no other. With your high movement speed you can rush into lanes and slow the enemy down and stack bombs on them, dealing massive damage and stunning them for your teammates to finish off.

Don't be afraid to use bombs defensively as well. Although you've built little AP, they hurt enough for people to want to actively avoid them. You can cut off choke points in the jungle to help teammates escape, and split the enemy team from each other to the point the enemy decides to abandon one of their own because the bombs and slows are just too much.

Zilean is only as good as his team. You provide an insane amount of utility and CC but if your team doesn't follow through, you're dead in the water.

The reason behind the name Wandering Zilean is I don't chain myself to bot lane. If I land a stun on the enemy and then slow them twice and my ADC is farming minions, I'm gone level 6. I'll wander to mid and top lane and get them kills. I have nothing against ADC's who want to play safe but for that, you're better off playing Soraka or Janna.

In team fights, you control the flow of battle. Speed up whoever is going for the enemy backline and slow down anyone trying to go after your carries. And remember, your stun is aoe. If you see your ADC get popped up and the Yasuo is about to use his ultimate, throw your bombs on them, and the Yasuo will get a nasty surprise.