@bb, and anyone else who pondered my intelligence for that same reason: I'm not gonna lie, I almost never play AP mid champs with the exception of Kennen. I love Kennen's mid (and sometimes top) game, but I don't really play as any other mid caster champs. More often than not I'll fill some other role and let someone else take it.

That being said, no, I had not even thought of Lich bane, and will be trying it out asap to see how it works with Ziggs. Thanks.

@Averitas: I have tried builds in that mindset, but the mistake I kept making was starting with Doran's, THEN rushing Tear or Codex. After a disturbingly long time of trying literally every other possibility, it finally dawned on me to try starting with Meki + 2 health pots, rushing Tear and boots immediately. This worked really well, and was really fun to play, almost more fun than games I had 20-stack Mejai, deathcap, and void staff.

When I revamp the build, I'm making this my suggested early game path. Runes & masteries are going to stay relatively the same, since I've found taking away that early game burst of his in the name of CDR and mana regen really stunts his early game.

I guess I didn't really make it clear enough, so here it is in caps, bolded, and red for anyone who didn't get this point:

THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE MY FINAL BUILD & GUIDE

Really, I thought I made that pretty clear, but I guess not. It is a bit blocky and tough to read but I know I made it clear it was a work in progress.

This build is meant as more of a jumping-off point, more like what Phreak's spotlights are meant to do. He's not suggesting this is the best way to play the champion, but it's somewhere to start so you can get the feeling of the champion, and tweak the build yourself to maximize both the champion's and your own potential as a player.

That being said, over the course of today and tomorrow I'll be revamping the guide completely, given the experiences I've had so far (20+ games as Ziggs, easily over 50 with him on or against my team) and (some of) the input I've received so far.

Wow what a troll build. Want to be the highest voted ziggs build? Damn - and all wrong aswell. No Lich Bane? - That is a MUST for Ziggs. Specially when the 12 second cooldown does extra damage, add AP power and there you have done at least 4-500 dmg on a single autoattack. Downvote for being a troll and posting a build about a champ that you barely have played, if played at all.

have you looked in to lich bane? your passive should make you want to auto attack in fights as much as possible anyways, so doing autoattack -> e -> autoattack -> q -> autoattack could become really powerful.

You need mana regen and Cool Downs on him.
The way to play Mid is to out zone your opponents because of the Q's range and damage. You should use your normal autoattacks to last hit, Q and bomb to harass, and fit in an AA staff.

In mid game, his ganks are nasty because his W will go over ANY wall on the map. The closer you stand to the center the farther you go.

In a teamfight, spam your Q, and save your other two abilities for running/ganking.
If their team looks low, or around half health, throw in the R then.

With 30%~ CD, his Q has like a 2 second CD, which makes his autoattack bomb have a 4 second, which hits for close to 500 damage with like half build.

In regards to the spellvamp question, the GB gives less spell vamp, and your passive is spell damage.

try throwing that in, and you might last longer.

In the games I've played so far, I've found myself focusing on poking my opponent with Q, and this subsequently gets last hits. especially if you get q, e, and w by lvl 3, I've found that he kites well enough that the lane being pushed doesn't hurt too much. Granted I haven't even played any ranked games, let alone seen him in one, so I have yet to play against teams that will actually make an effort to gank over extended opponents, and even when a jungler has tried, I've managed to get out without dying, give or take an ignite.

You're right though, it shouldn't be used to mass farm, especially early game. That statement was meant more broadly than just in early game, so more for players who are finding it hard to get kills, or are getting ganked/pressured too hard to rack up gold.

When I make the guide actually look nice, I'm planning on including information like that, both as they pertain to Ziggs' abilities and to the game overall, like warding and such. I'll throw a note on there now anyway for safe measure . Thanks!

why would you ever last hit with Q? no offense that's ******ed. it pushes the lane so hard and takes away all your harass. just no, fix it and I'll give u my vote