Ziggs Build Guide by Stamatozaur

Introduction

Hi there, I'm Stamatozaur and this is my 1st guide on Mobafire. I hope it'll help you improve your Ziggs gameplay.

Now, let's get to the serious stuff.

Legend

This is a small term legend for begginners. You'll find these terms in my guide/build, whatever.

AP = Ability Power
AD = Attack Damage
Blue buff = Crest of the Ancient Golem
CC = Crowd Control
Mid = Middle Lane

Pros / Cons

Pros:

Fun to play
Good AP carry/pusher
Has good CC with Hexplosive Minefield
Has only skill shots (I consider this a pro, although, some might disagree)
He's good for mid or solo top.

Cons:

Requires a lot of mana early game (until you get that Archangel's Staff)
Ziggs is squishy, so if you're caught off guard you're most likely dead
Missing your ultimate can be annoying.

Runes

Nothing really unusual here.

Masteries

Standard Mastery Tree for an AP hero. 21 in Offense, 9 in Utility. That Runic Affinity extends your blue buff's duration, Summoner's Insight and Summoner's Wrath improve your summoner spells. Pretty basic.

Summoner Spells

All right. Time for me to explain the Summoner Spells.

Flash + Ignite are my basic combination. Ignite to get that 1st blood and Flash to save your butt or to catch an enemy - your choice. Either way, you have masteries for those spells and they are both really good. Note: If you aren't level 7 yet, then get Exhaust and Ghost. Exhaust will allow you to hit the enemy a few more times and Ghost will make you run like the wind and save your hairy yordle butt.

Now, if you go mid, I recommend you to take Flash and Ignite.
If you choose to go solo top, you can switch to Teleport and Flash. This will help you to keep your tower 'alive'. If you're wounded, Recall , buy some stuff if you have the coin and then Teleport back into the battleground.

So, overall, you should consider taking these spells:

Good Spells: Flash, Ignite, Teleport, Exhaust, Ghost

Not the best choice
Clairvoyance - this spell is usually for support champions, so, don't take it
Surge - the little extra AP and attack speed don't help you very much, and you have better spells to take anyway.
Clarity - good in early game, almost useless mid and late game when you have your Archangel's Staff
Heal - since Ziggs is squishy, heal won't do too much for you. It might save you from Teemo's mushrooms or from Twitch's poison, but in a gank, you're dead even if you use it.

Skills somewhat explained

Grab Bouncing Bomb as your first spell always because it's good for harassing, for last hitting 2 or 3 wounded minions, or for checking brushes.

Take Hexplosive Minefield second to crowd control effectively. It can be used both for escaping and for blocking the escape route of enemies.

Satchel Charge This is more of a utility spell. Use it to jump over walls or to blast enemies. It can be quite tricky to use, so take your time and learn how to position the satchel (and yourself if you are going to jump over something).

Mega Inferno Bomb One of the best damage-ultis in game. It's quite tricky to use but it pays if you land it properly. I saw people that used it to initiate a fight, but that's pretty pointless. Just chuck Bouncing Bombs at them and then, when they're low on health, finish them with this Mega Inferno Bomb. You might even get a pentakill (I'm still trying to get that penta... the best that I got was a triple).

Items

What's this? Items section? Ok.

Sapphire Crystal Health Potion Mana Potion <-- These are good for mid and solo top because you have extra mana and you can last longer without having to Recall . If you want to lane with someone, grab a Doran's Ring instead, save some money and buy directly Tear of the Goddess and Boots of Speed

Another viable start is 3x Health Potion and Boots of Speed.

Core build

Sorcerer's Shoes are a must have for AP champions.
Archangel's Staff gives you a loooot of mana and some ability power too. With this, you're no longer blue buff dependant (however, blue is still useful with that CD reduction and mana regen).
Rabadon's Deathcap again, a must have for AP champions. 140 AP + 30% AP increase? Hell yea son.
Void Staff 70 AP and 40% magic penetration. I think that's quite useful.
Morello's Evil Tome This item solves your CD problems and even adds some extra AP and mana regen.
Zhonya's Hourglass 100 AP, 50 Armor. Toggle it to be invulnerable for 2 second. If an enemy Twitch was giving you problems, this should come in handy.

Situational Items

Mercury's Treads If the enemies have a strong CC-er in their team, Morgana perhaps, get these instead of the Sorcerer's Shoes.
Will of the Ancients If your team has 3 or perhaps 4 AP champions, this would help all of you, otherwise you can get more AP out of other items.
Banshee's Veil So, that Karthus kept getting free kills with Requiem? Shut down his killing spree with this.
Lich Bane Need AP and Magic resistance? Ok, get this.
Rod of Ages Want to be a more "tanky" Ziggs? Take this and last more on the battlefield.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter Adds a nice chunk of HP, AP and a slow to your spells.
Deathfire Grasp is good if you face tough enemies, like Dr. Mundo, Cho'Gath or any other tank for that matter. Use this against them to take out a large chunk of their health.
Guardian Angel Take this only if the enemies keep targeting you over and over. This item will your team more time, or perhaps, it will make the opponents to target another teammate of yours, since this revives you.
Mejai's Soulstealer Is a nice item, and really pays off if you remain alive and don't lose your stacks. 180 AP and 15% CD reduction, for just 1235 gold. Get this item if you're fed in early game.

Farming

Farming is easy at higher levels for Ziggs. Throw a Hexplosive Minefield on the incoming minions and if they're not dead, throw a Bouncing Bomb too for the lulz.

Captain's Log

I will continue to update this guide because I think that I haven't fully mastered yet Ziggs (and that's quite obvious, he isn't even a week old). As I said in the beginning, this is my 1st guide, I don't know all the coding for Mobafire yet, so this build/guide might look a bit too 'raw'.

07-Feb-2012 - Build/Guide created.
08-Feb-2012 - Added some more 'Situational Items'