Hi guys, my name is Coftsunt and this is my attempt at a guide on which in my opinion is one of the most fun champions in the league Ziggs (feel free to have other opinions, it is allowed ^^ ) If this guide helped you in any way, then please give me an upvote, if not then leave a comment letting me know why you didn't like the guide and what I could do to make it better, I am always interested in making the guide better and even making myself better :)

Pros +Great damage throughout the game +Not one single target spell +Semi global ultimate Mega Inferno Bomb! +Amazing at farming CS (creep score) +Pool Party Zigg's Skin! - Need I say more?!?!

Cons -Mana hungry early on -All skillshots -Ultimate can be hard to hit because of the warning -Can be quite squishy -High cooldowns early game

My rune set up is pretty standard for AP Casters, i'll go through each choice individually:



Marks - Greater Mark of Magic Penetration I think that these work extremely well on any champion that deals magic damage (With a few small exceptions) These synergise well with your Sorcerer's Shoes and in the late game, your Void Staff.

Seals - On Ziggs I prefer to use Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration As i feel that in the early game, using 3 or 4 Bouncing Bomb's can send you OOM and fast! These seals let you sit back and get enough mana back for a few more casts (Don't expect it instantly, patience is key :P) I did used to use Greater Seal of Armor for defensive situations such as being ganked or accidentally being in the middle of everyone in a teamfight but you thats not where you should be ^^ If you do feel a little squishy and want to grab some defense runes such as armor or health, go ahead they can work and after all, runes are your choice and its your playstyle :)

Glyphs - I take Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power here as i think that they are great on almost all ap carries (my exception is katarina but thats my choice), i mean who doesn't want to deal more damage >:D .... There are other viable choices though, its not all about damage *chuckles to self* You could take either Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist / Greater Glyph of Magic Resist for some defense, Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction / Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction for some cooldown reduction or even take Greater Glyph of Scaling Mana Regeneration/ Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration for some more mana regen. Again the choice is yours and you choose your runes to fit your playstyle.

Quintessences - I take Greater Quintessence of Ability Power as you get an amazing 14.85 ability power at the start of the game, its gonna help you harrass your opponent early game till you can start to build your items. There are plenty of other choices for your quintessences, both offensive and defensive, take a look through them all and decide which ones will fit you best. Although you can use the setup i have used, it seems to work for me >:D

Take a look through this list of Runes and see if you can find some that would fit your playstyle

Offense Tree;

First Tier - 1 point in Summoner's Wrath (We shall be using ignite so 5ap while it is on cooldown is nothing to complain about) and 4 points into Sorcery (Cooldown reduction will let you cast your abilities more often, and that can help secure kills, farm and/or just harass)

Second Tier - On this tier I just take 4 points in Blast and then move on as the other talents are not beneficial to Ziggs

Third Tier - I take 3 points in Havoc because a percentage on damage on top of what I would do already is too good to pass up. 1 point into Arcane Knowledge to help those abilities bypass the enemy's magic resist.

Fourth Tier - I only put 2 points into Mental Force and 1 point into Spellsword to make last hitting a hell of a lot easier, it also helps with taking down towers too. In my opinion passing on 2 ability power for extra damage on auto attacks is worth it on any ap caster. Spellsword also works great with Ziggs passive ability Short Fuse

Fifth Tier - 4 points in Archmage becuase i'd have to be an idiot to not take an extra 5% ability power!

Sixth Tier - 1 point in Executioner for those times when you throw your Mega Inferno Bomb for the killing blow :D (also helps when taking someone down at any point)

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Utility Tree;

First Tier - 1 Point in Summoner's Insight to reduce the cooldown on flash, which can help secure a kill or just escape a tricky situation. 3 points in Meditation for more mana regen which will let you cast spells more often.

Second Tier - 1 point in Mastermind this is just to help get to the third tier, feel free to put this point into Artificer if you choose to grab items that have actives on them. 3 points in Expanded Mind to get more mana per level so you can throw bombs more often, i mean who wouldn't want to make things go boom all the time :D

Third Tier - Put your last point into Runic Affinity because when your jungler offers you the blue buff, it will make it last longer, which at any point in the game, blue buff is amazing and you want it for as long as possible.


Those are my choices, feel free to make any adjustments you like to suit you, hell even dip into the Defense Tree if you feel too squishy but in my opinion, always put 21 points into the Offense Tree.

Here i will list the different types of summoner spells available and when each should be used:


My Main Choice:

Flash is in my opinion the best utility spell, it can help you gain a kill, get away from ganks, teamfights in which you are focused, generally running away and juking spells that would otherwise kill you. (There are other uses for flash but I am only listing a few) You should take this for 9/10 of your games.


Ignite is another summoner spell that should taken for 9/10 of your games as it is extremely useful, it deals TRUE DAMAGE! (for those that don't know, true damage will penetrate all of your enemies resistances so it will do the exact amount of damage it says on the tin) It can help you go 1v1 with those annoying lifestealing AD carries or those annoying spell vamping AP carries or even champions that have ability based life regen such as Dr. Mundo with his ultimate Maximum Dosage, Xin Zhao with the passive on his 'W' Battle Cry. Ignite can also help when you go 1v1 with your enemy and they get away on a tiny smidgen of health, you slap ignite on them before they run away and you may get yourself a kill :)


Other Viable Options:

Exhaust is a great spell, it slows movement speed, it reduces attack speed, the only problem with it is the fact that its rare that you will come across an attack speed champion in mid lane. You may take it to help slow down that pesky AD carry when you reach mid game and teamfights start or you could take it to help secure a kill when you gank a lane or even in your own lane, again the choice is yours.

Heal is a bit of a meh option, its not the best ever summoner spell on an AP carry, although in some situations it can really help, such as if you lane against a LeBlanc. Its safe to say her burst is incredible and may kill you after level 6 but with a sneaky heal inbetween her spells it may just save your life, same goes for Veigar's burst combo and other champions that have high burst combo's.

Ghost is another viable option if you are not too keen on flash, it increases your movement speed by a lot which lets you outrun most champions that don't have it, it can be used to escape ganks, get to a teamfight or an area quickly, chase down someone who may have got away on tiny amounts of health that are just screaming "CATCH ME AND AUTOATTACK" ;) or it could be used to save a teammate.

Another viable spell is Teleport, now teleport can be great, it can help you back to lane quicker after a recall or death, can give you some great ganking potential by using well placed wards from teammates and it can help you save a tower that would otherwise be destroyed by the enemy, same goes for taking a tower :)

Cleanse, now this summoner spell is extremely strong if the enemy team has a lot of CC, not many AP carries take this though, its mainly for AD carries in my opinion such as Vayne because people want to shut her down. You shouldn't really find the need to take this spell on Ziggs but if you do, it can be worth it e.g. you could cleanse that ignite that would otherwise kill you and get rid of those stuns that the enemy team has piled on you because you are fed and they want to shut you down. Cleanse has many times where it can be useful, but you shouldn't find yourself taking it often.

Spells that are only just viable:

Barrier has only just been released to Summoner's Rift and i can see some people taking it just because well its a shield, and who doesn't like shields. There is a chance that it could save your life on many occasions but there are much better choices for utility than this spell and it should only be taken in extreme cases where it could save your life every single time it is off cooldown.

Clarity is a spell that I used to take when i was a lower level and didn't have fully complete rune pages and mastery set ups, it can be very handy if you find yourself against someone you need to harass a lot in mid lane to shut down, when i say a lot, i mean throwing your Bouncing Bomb whenever it comes off cooldown. It can still be taken if you always find yourself struggling for mana but that shouldn't happen with an early game Chalice of Harmony

Spells that are not in any way viable:

Clairvoyance is for supports, as you should be focusing on farming and possibly getting kills, a support has more need for this as they can check out where the jungler possibly is and prevent ganks, show when the enemy team is headng for an objective (Dragon or Baron) and reset the timer on buffs such as golem buffs and Baron

Ahh Revive now the idea of this spell sounds amazing, I mean, you die, you come back to life instantly and go back to doing whatever it was you were doing but the majority of the time, that just isnt worth it. The only exception I have found to use this spell is Karthus as he will probably get focused early and he can die > Revive then press Requiem. Other than that, it has no uses, so this is a no no for Ziggs

Lastly there is Smite, it is used to deal damage to minions and monsters. It has little use to a mid laner or anyone that is not jungling. The only time it would be good was if your team was running with a full smite comp in which they take Baron Nasher at the 15minute mark... which is just stupid in my opinion ^^


Personally, I always run with Flash and Ignite but if you don't like those spells, then you have a choice of what to take and some ideas of when they can be useful.

• Short Fuse: This passive makes it so that every 12 seconds, your autoattack has gains more damage and the cooldown of this passive can be reduced by using abilties. I love the passive, it gives you the ability to last hit better sometimes, harass more efficiently with your autoattacks and deal extra damage to turrets and inhibitors.
  
• Bouncing Bomb: This is Ziggs main source of damage because you can throw it every few seconds. It is great for harassing and for farming. Once thrown it will bounce 3 times and explode or explode prematurely by hitting an obstacle e.g. An enemy champion, tower or wall. It can be used to harass by either throwing it right at the enemy or by hitting minions that the enemy is stood near as the the blast radius is larger than the bomb itself. This skill should be maxed first.
  
• Satchel Charge: This is Ziggs utility skill, it has uses for escaping and chasing, also for interupting channeled abilites such as Katarina's Death Lotus, Karthus's Requiem and Galio's Idol of Durand. When enemies are stood on the satchel when it explodes, it will deal damage to enemies and knock them back a short distance, when Ziggs is stood on the stachel when it explodes he will be shot a further distance (the direction depends on where on the satchel you are stood). It has amzing escape potential as it can be used to jump walls in the jungle which can save your life. This skill should be maxed last as the damage from it isn't great and is mainly used for utility.
  
• Hexplosive Minefield: This ability has both offensive and defensive uses, it can be used to slow down your enemy to help you land your Bouncing Bomb and your ultimate Mega Inferno Bomb while dealing damage, it can be used to slow your enemies while you run away and can also be used in conjunction with your Bouncing Bomb to farm. This ability should be maxed second as it has good damage and utility.
  
• Mega Inferno Bomb: This is a semi global ultimate (around the same as Twisted Fate/ Pantheon ultimate range.) It has great damage and can help you secure escaping kills, can be used in a teamfight to help take down everyone within it's radius, can be thrown to another lane to help kill the enemies in that lane and can even be used to farm (even though i don't recommend that one as the cooldown is relatively large and should be used for teamfights). There is also the option of stealing with this ultimate e.g. Dragon, Baron and Blue/Red buff. This skill should be levelled whenever possible.

We max out Bouncing Bomb first as this ability gives our best damage, harass and farming potential, we then move on to Hexplosive Minefield as this gives great utility along with reasonably good damage. We level Satchel Charge last because it has poor damage compared to Ziggs other skills and is mainly used for utility.

I will always start with Boots and 3x Health Potion's because it is the best way to start with my playstyle. Again there are other options, take a look in the Item Build 1 section to see other starting options.
Now, at this point in the game, you should be after gaining as much ability power as possible ( Rabadon's Deathcap) and dealing amazing damage to the enemy team :) With these items, you will be dealing percentage damage with your Liandry's Torment, keeping your mana up and your spells on a low cooldown with Athene's Unholy Grail and the main amount of your damage from your Rabadon's Deathcap.

I will always start with Boots and 3x Health Potion's because it is the best way to start with my playstyle. Again there are other options, take a look in the Item Build 1 section to see other starting options.

When is comes to teamfights you should be like any other range carry be that AD or AP.. You should be at RANGE, don't be stood in melee range where you can get killed easier. Ziggs Bouncing Bomb has great range, use it, the same goes for his other abilities. Focus on the AD carry, or if there is someone more fed go for them (if you think you can do good damage to them, don't go attack the tankiest guy there if they have loads of MR and you don't have any magic penetration). You can either use your ultimate ability Mega Inferno Bomb early in the fight to deal some good damage or you can wait till they are pretty low and "kill secure" with it ;)

....Coming Soon

Ziggs is an amazing ap burst mage who does crazy amounts of damage. I find him possibly the most fun champion in the League :) I hope that my guide has taught you something new about Ziggs or even about League of Legends itself. If you liked my guide then drop a comment letting me know what you liked, or even what you disliked. You could even let me know if there's something you think I should add to it.


Thanks for taking a peek at my guide and I hope that you enjoyed it and will help you kill many enemy champions :D

I would also like to thank Jhoi jhoi for her amazing guide on Making a Guide and for her help when I was writing the guide.

-Coftsunt