Ziggs Build Guide : Ziggs - About to Explode (Update 03/08)

Introduction

Hello, you can call me Campones (my nick), my natural language isn't english, so there are probably some grammar and spelling mistakes, if you find any, just let me know and I will correct it. After some training, I think I finally found a good build for the league's newest champion so far: Ziggs.
He is considered officially a ranged mage pusher, and he does his job very well. He damage is a burst type, which means you will throw all your combo on your foes like does. can explode their enemies life bar in a few seconds and kill even those runners with his ult.

Lore

Ziggs was born with a talent for tinkering, but his chaotic, hyperactive nature was unusual among yordle scientists. Aspiring to be a revered inventor like Heimerdinger, he rattled through ambitious projects with manic zeal, emboldened by both his explosive failures and his unprecedented discoveries. Word of Ziggs’ volatile experimentation reached the famed Yordle Academy in Piltover and its esteemed professors invited him to demonstrate his craft. His characteristic disregard for safety brought the presentation to an early conclusion, however, when the hextech engine Ziggs was demonstrating overheated and exploded, blowing a huge hole in the wall of the Academy. The professors dusted themselves off and sternly motioned for him to leave. Devastated, Ziggs prepared to return to Bandle City in shame. However, before he could leave, a group of Zaunite agents infiltrated the Academy and kidnapped the professors. The Piltover military tracked the captives to a Zaunite prison, but their weapons were incapable of destroying the fortified walls. Determined to outdo them, Ziggs began experimenting on a new kind of armament, and quickly realized that he could harness his accidental gift for demolition to save the captured yordles.

Before long, Ziggs had created a line of powerful bombs he lovingly dubbed “hexplosives.” With his new creations ready for their first trial, Ziggs traveled to Zaun and sneaked into the prison compound. He launched a gigantic bomb at the prison and watched with glee as the explosion tore through the reinforced wall. Once the smoke had cleared, Ziggs scuttled into the facility, sending guards running with a hail of bombs. He rushed to the cell, blew the door off its hinges, and led the captive yordles to freedom. Upon returning to the Academy, the humbled professors recognized Ziggs with an honorary title - Dean of Demolitions - and proposed that he demonstrate this new form of yordle ingenuity in the League of Legends. Vindicated at last, Ziggs accepted the proposal, eager to bring his ever-expanding range of hexplosives to the greatest testing grounds in the world: the Fields of Justice.

“Ziggs? Unpredictable, dangerous, yes yes. But quite brilliant!” – Heimerdinger

Pros / Cons

Pros:

Very good range, he hits their enemys from a thousand miles away.
Awesome damage, especially mid and late game.
Amazing pokes on laning phase, his abilities make the laning phase hard to your opponents
Amazing farming with his Bouncing Bomb
Mega Inferno Bomb is awesome to steal dragon, baron or securing kills
Its always fun to explode things up, and he does it very well!

Cons:

Needs very good aim, because he doesnt have target abilities, he becomes hard to play
Less effective without strategy and forecasting, you cant just spams abilities and hope to hit someone
Mana Hungry, if spamming abilities everytime you can.
Squishy, especially against AD champions.
He need expensive items to dominate.
Lacks of defensive mechanisms, his Satchel Charge have a pretty long cooldown, and misuse can kill you.
So strong that will be nerfed soon.

Masteries

Offense

Summoner's Wrath : Give me a little bit more of damage. Of course You should replace it in other mastery if you are not using Ignite, Exhaust or Ghost
Mental Force : More damage!
Sorcery: With Ionian Boots of Lucidity, gives massive amounts of cooldown reduction, amazing for mages, which depends of its skills, such as Ziggs, it is also an pre-requisite for...
Arcane Knowledge : ...even more damage! Also awesome against all champions.
Havoc : This is a filler mastery, you can put these two points on Butcher to help farming or Demolitionist to help dealing damage to buildings, but I dont recommend.
Blast : One big reason to use it: DAMAGE!
Archmage : This is one of the most valuable ap mastery in the offense tree. Why? It is a mini Rabadon's Deathcap!
Executioner : 6% more damage is a big "buff" for you damage while finishing champions.

Masteries in offense you should never choose:

- - - -

Why? All meant for AD champions.

Utility

Expanded Mind : Here we receive more mana, which basically means more lane sustainability and more skills.
Summoner's Insight : Great mastery to reduce Flash cooldown, supposing you are using it. Of course You should replace it in other mastery if you are not using Flash, Clarity or Teleport
Improved Recall : This mastery will be the difference between life and death. It saved me billions of times.
Meditation : More mana regeneration helps a lot, since Ziggs depends on it.
Swiftness : This is all about chasing or being chased, again, it is the difference between getting a kill or get killed. But we have others options to choose like Transmutation and Runic Affinity . If you have spell vamp runes, Transmutation is a great option. Runic Affinity is good when your team doesnt have a jungler that need the blue buff, but I choose Swiftness because it is my personal choice, feel free to change put this point wherever fits your playstyle better.

Masteries in utility you should never choose:

- -

Why? and are for supports, and ... are you planning to feed?

Despite that I strongly recommend 21/0/9 as masteries, you can go 21/9/0 if you wish, and I will sugest those masteries below.

Defense

Resistance and Hardiness : You will probably are going to face an AP on mid lane, so put 3 points in Resistance and 1 in Hardiness , but if you know you will face an AD, switch those masteries.
Durability : This talent gives you more Health Points, so you can survive a little bit more damage throughout the game. Totally worth.
Veteran's Scars : Same as Durability , except you will receive the bonus since level 1.
Evasion : This is a situational mastery, you should pick this when you know you will be facing teams or champions with lots of Area of Effects spells. The best example is Cassiopeia and Ziggs. In general, I dont recommend this.

Masteries in defense you should never choose:

- - - -

Why? are meant for summoner spells that doesnt fit , and are meant for junglers. No, is not a jungler. and are not enough to do a real difference in the lane or fights.

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

Explaining:

For quintessences I recommend Greater Quintessence of Ability Power for relevant damage early game. Other options would be Greater Quintessence of Health for durability, and Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp, for sustainability.
For glyphs, I suggest Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power, to increase your damage during the game. You can also choose to use Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction, this cooldown reduction helps Ziggs a lot, or you can use Greater Glyph of Magic Resist for a little bit magic damage mitigation. Both are great.
For seals, you have 3 great options: Greater Seal of Replenishment, Greater Seal of Armor and Greater Seal of Vitality. I strongly recommend Greater Seal of Replenishment here, but always pick the one that adjusts better to your playstyle.
For marks use Greater Mark of Magic Penetration. It will improve your damage early game and other options aren't so great than this one. Really. Use it.

Summoner Spells

Good

Great option to recall and go back to the lane really fast. It is great to aid other lanes or teleport to a pushed lane where your minions are destroying their turret.

Not the best spell for , but if are using the defense mastery tree and defensive runes, it is a good choice.

Like , you can use this spell to chase, escape or, unlike , reach certain locations on the map faster. But I still recommend for the "Jump over a wall" feature.

Not good at all. There is just 1 thing that this spell benefit : Disrupt threats against you, making them easier to deal with.

You only need to choose this spell, if the other team is heavy on Crowd Controls. And just in this case.

No. I mean... No.

: They are for Supports.
: Are you really planning to feed? I think you are!
: You are no jungler to get this.
: You are no AP Fighter.
: This doenst fit any champion.

Abilities

Skill Explanation

(passive): After 12 seconds, his next auto-attack hits for extra damage. The cooldown is reduced whenever uses an ability. This passive is quite useless for a mage during team fights, but it have a good side, it makes farming easier and poking stronger. can take great advantages from because of this passive. Remember that this passive procs on hitting buildings.

(Q): throws a bomb that can bounce twice then explodes, or explodes on enemy contact. This ability is similar to , since it can fly over champions and minions. Is your enemy hiding behind his minions? Not a problem! This bomb will hit him!
NOTE: The further you throw it, the larger will be its bounces.

(W): throws a charge on the floor that will explode after 4 seconds. It can be reactivated after 1 second to explode. The explosion will knock (Dealing no damage to him) and his enemies away. This is your main escape mechanism. Try to use it between you and your chasers to open a gap, or isolate that enemy from his teammates or minions.

(E): throws some mines on the ground. Mines explode on enemy contact and slows the enemy. This ability also helps you escape some hard situations and deals decent damage. Use it mainly as a damage ability or to scout some brushes. Last patch it had it's damage nerfed, so his early game got a little bit weak, but his combo is still strong late game.

(R): throws a giant bomb on target area that does massive damage on the center and 75% of total damage around the center. This is a simple but amazing ult! Its range is like , except that stays where he is. Its damage is awesome! You can easily hits enemies for half his life just by getting a direct hit with it. Use it to turn a loosing fight into a winning fight or to finish enemies. You can also throw it on other lanes to give your teammates some kills. You can also try to steal dragon and baron from your enemies from safety. Needless to say that this ult is extremely useful. Unfortunately is is so powerful right now that it will be nerfed soon.

Skill Sequence

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

Put one point in each ability from level 1 to 3, to have access to all his abilities, then max bouncing bombs by level 9, to have maximum damage from your main skill. must be maxed by level 13, for more damage. is the last skill to be leveled. Of course, level you ult on levels 6, 11 and 16.

Skill Combos

Your main damage sequence must be:

>> >>

this way you can do a good amount of damage in few seconds and run safely. But if your is not ready, try this combo.

>> >>

Maximum amount of damage combo:

>> >> >> >>

This combo uses all your skills to deal maximum damage from those and takes advantage of your passive, because using 3 skills after an auto-attack, enables another proc. Most of times you can kill someone this way.

NOTE: When I say , I mean an auto-attack with the passive proc.

The Good Part: Items

Starting items

Most common starting items. And I recommend these, because it is an "all-around". The mobility makes you Defensive and Offensive at the same time, and also makes it easier to choose your next item, since didnt started any.

This heads towards a more offensive playstyle. More AP means more damage. Unfortunately this core build doesn't use this item, then it looses a lot its value.

Get this if you are planning to rush your Catalyst the Protector. It is a possible start, but I strongly recommend you to start with something else.

This is an "all-round" item to start too, but you cant build it on anything. I suggest to get this if you are not doing so well. Its good to get two if you are really in need of some stats. Personally, I dont like this item, but is a good start and is awesome to balance a difficult lane.

Early game items

catalyst the protector

The key item early game is the catalyst the protector. will lack some damage at this point, but it increases his laning phase a lot, making a lot more difficult to kill. It also solve his mana problem.

Boots

Optimal:

This is by far the best option for . Reducing his cooldowns, he can throw his combo more often. You really should pick this.

Good:

This boot is not bad, but it falls of a lot late game. You can pick this if you are planning to pick a boot earlier in the game.

The truth is: This boot is amazing! And fits every champion on the game! Why? Every champion can be chased and chase.

This boot gives nice amount of magic resist and gives tenacity. It is great if you are having troubles with AP carrys early game and especially Crowd Control. I don't like to use this item on , but sometimes it is a must.

No.

Final Items

: This is the main item of every mage. The amount of Ability Power it gives is amazing, and also buffs all others buffs. The only negative of this item is its price, requires a lot of farming to get. If you are doing very good, I suggest pick this item earlier.

: Definitively one of the best pick on . Gives him a lot of survival and a nice amount of damage. The only real Con of this item is that it takes time to reach its full capacity.

: With this we will take advantage of . Most players will think it isnt so good on , but it is a really nice item on him. He will have more mana, movement speed, magic resist, ability power and the main reason we pick this, its passive. You want one more reason to pick it? Does hitting 600+ on auto-attack is enough to you? You should pick it as your last item.

Situational Items

: You will probably pick this item, because you must be rocking the enemy team so often that your enemies will be stacking magic resist. If you know that you dont need anymore defense stats, this is your item.

: You must pick this item over 2 main situations: Their are focusing you too much, especially their AD Carry, or you want more damage and they are not stacking magic resist. With 100 Ability Power, it is the second item that gives most Ability Power, so you will deal tons of damage with it. Also remember to use its passive during fights.

: You should pick this when you are facing an enemy like one of these: , , and others champions with tons of health. Always remember to start a fight with this item before your skills, in order to do most damage as possible.

]: This is definitively a worth pick. Giving a very nice amount of health, good amount of Ability Power and slowing effect in all your skills. It just isn't on the main build because it have a lesser slow effect on AoE skills, in other words, the whole kit. Pick this if your enemies are escaping.

: It is not the best option to buy for magic resist, but this is an offensive item too, giving some ability power and magic resist reduction. You can buy it to boost your damage and magic resist a little bit, but the aura is almost completely wasted. In some cases it is a nice item, but most of regular games, I don't recommend.

: This will be probably be one of the items you will pick. It gives Health Points, Mana, a nice amount of magic resist and the best aura in the game. I am sure this item will save you if you get this, also if the team fight lasts long enough, it can save you twice.

: This item have a alike active effect, on heavy Crowd Control teams it might be worth taking. It were much effective against champions like and especially , where I used it's active, threw a on him, and denied his ult full damage. Pick it as an alternative to

: Cheap and gives stats. You should pick this when you are underfarmed. This will boost up your game. But most of the games, you can pass this.

What you shouldnt pick

: This is a mid game item. Late game you will have to sell this and buy something else. So dont even bother yourself buying this.

: I am still looking into it, but so far as my tests go on, it is not as good on as could be on other champions, since you need to pick it really early game, it is still a little bit to stack it. You can stack faster mid to late game, but it loses some of it's effectiveness. In general I don't recommend this.

: Dont ever buy this on , really. Its passive wont have a noticeable effect on you, and this is the real reason to buy this. still fits a mage much better than this.

: So... you have tons of life... but you are still dying as fast as a bug... Really, dont pick it. It helps mages less than you think.

: This item is cheap, gives a lot of armor and very nice passive, but its passive requires a lot of life to be ideally effective. If you are having problems with AD Carrys, pick instead.

Items being reviewed

: range most of time makes all aura items on him be less effective in battle, but this item is still gives awesome stats. Tests will continue on this.

Playstyle

Early Game

In the start of the game, you should go mid if possible. Here shine. You can get kills easily, with your ult, you have control over the dragon and can establish global presence, securing kills or giving that little boost your teammates need to get a kill. In mid, focus on last hitting minions with your auto-attacks, if you are getting really pushed, start using your and to push a little bit. A more aggressive playstyle fits perfectly, thanks to his range. Playing passive on the lane can get some problems with ganks, because two almost full health champions will be running for your blood, meanwhile playing aggressively will help you kill their mid and make their jungler retreat. Playing passive will also make your enemy poke your more often.
If you cant go mid, try to go solo top, since you bot isn't your better option. In top lane, you should establish presence on mid lane and baron as well. Duo bot is an option, and you should try to play aggressive too. Here you should play aggressive too, and never, I mean, NEVER overextend or push too far in wherever lane you are, because they will kill you, and nobody can save you.

Mid/Late Game

Mid game is starting, so from now on you should always stay with another champions. Sticking to your Tanky DPS/Off Tank is the best idea. Never go alone on lanes. Really, with every champions you play, and I see this a lot. During teamfights, back off, land your combo on that distracted champion, wait for Cooldown of and Hextech Minefield and do it again. Soon, your enemies will be dead and your team will be pushing. Your ult can be used in two ways during the fights: It can be thrown in their whole team on the beginning or you can wait and kill runners, throwing it on their team's head is far more effective. Remember: Aim their carrys. Ever.

Tips 'n' Tricks

Playstyle tips:

Never underestimate your enemy, or he will kill you.
Always put some wards on dragon and baron, so will be easier to steal it from enemies.
If you are doing good, remember you are no god and never do stupid things, they still can kill you. It happens a lot people being fed and start feeding.

Ziggs tips:

Your Bouncing Bomb and Hexplosive Minefield is awesome for harassing and killing creeps, try to use it when you enemy is near their minions, so you can hit both.
If you know that your enemy is recalling near their tower, you can make Bouncing Bomb bounce twice and kill him.
Try to always setup your Satchel Charge for a quick escape if you know things will go bad.
The best way to escape using Satchel Charge is exploding it between you and your chaser, so the gap will be wider.
Bouncing Bomb at level 5 and about 240 Ability Power, is enough to kill minion waves.
If someone called MIA, you can use Hexplosive Minefield as a short duration ward by trowing it on brushes.
Bouncing Bomb is an awesome tool to check brushes, simply throw it where you think they are hiding, if it explodes before bouncing twice, you hit them!
Satchel Charge can throw enemies on Shaco Jack In The Box, Teemo Noxious Trap, Ziggs Hexplosive Minefield and other traps.
Hexplosive Minefield can block your enemy way to escape, so he will die to you if he run through it.
Satchel Charge can deny certain skill of certain champions, like Pantheon Aegis of Zeonia while he is in mid air and Galio Idol of Durand.

Summary

is a very powerful mage right now. He will surely be nerfed soon, so enjoy while he stills unbalanced. But if you are looking for fun, will provide you a good time. Who dont like explosions?

I will be updating this guide as soon as possible with the latest changes on . Please, if you read all those texts, leave a comment! I will be happy with all the community feedback! Remember to upvote if you liked it!

Special Thanks: JhoiJhoi and his guide "Making a guide".

Changes Log

02/07/2012

Guide Released!
Morello's Evil Tome moved to "Last/Situational Items" from "What you shouldnt pick". Some text changes.
Quicksilver Sash added to "Last/Situational Items". Thanks to @Husoris for reminding me about this.
Catalyst the Protector added to "Last/Situational Items".
"Items being reviewed" section added.

02/10/2012

Huge change on the items section and build.
Minor update on some masteries texts.

02/11/2012

Huge change on the items section and build.
Minor update on some masteries texts.

03/08/2012

Minimal changes on playstyle.
Added my thoughts over Morello's Evil Tome and Archangel Staff.

Ziggs - About to Explode (Update 03/08)

Ziggs - About to Explode (Update 03/08)

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Ability Order

Short Fuse (PASSIVE)

Bouncing Bomb (Q)

Satchel Charge (W)

Hexplosive Minefield (E)

Mega Inferno Bomb (R)

Introduction

Lore

Pros / Cons

Pros:

Cons:

Masteries

Offense

Utility

Defense

Runes

Runes

Explaining:

Summoner Spells

Recommended

Good

No. I mean... No.

Abilities

Skill Explanation

Skill Sequence

Skill Combos

The Good Part: Items

Starting items

Early game items

Boots

Final Items

Situational Items

What you shouldnt pick

Items being reviewed

Playstyle

Early Game

Mid/Late Game

Tips 'n' Tricks

Playstyle tips:

Ziggs tips:

Summary

Changes Log

League of Legends Champions: