Hi,

here is a short brief guide how to play Zilean as a Support

Zilean is a really nice support he exells to counter supports with low heal and high manaconsumption. Unlike others you concentrate on denying the enemies their farm during the lanephase on the botlane. Second you support while dealing damage. Third you can disposition the enemyteam with your bombs. Fouth you have an amazing ulti. And last but not least you have to ward the map with like any other support.

1. Introduction
2. Table of contents
3. Pros and Cons
4. Runes
5. Masteries
6. Summonerspells
7. Skills and skillsequence
8. Items
9. Way of playing

Pros: Very nice passive Is not a normal heal support Can support while dealing lots of demage His demage will be close to true dmg for supports and ad/ap carry Good Support skills (high slow/increasing movement speed and Revive Can disposition enemyteam Can hold a lane pretty good when his bombs are lvl 3+

Cons: Is squishy You need to time your ulit correctly to save your teammates Manahungry

This runeset will give you good ap early and lategame which means you have good demage output. The manaregeneration runes compensate your lack of manaregen lategame.

I also considered to go full magicpenetration, but i think this setup is the best because it will also affekt your ultimate.

I suggest to take heal, so that you can save your lanepartner in critical close to death situations, so he can get out of it and wont die.

SPACE

CV is just a musthave for every support to keep an eye on enemy jungler, baron, drake, bushes, ....

SPACE

you could replace heal for it but i prefer having heal. For escape mechanics you can still use Zilean's Time Warp and Rewind to boost your movement speed and get out of dangerous situations.


All the other summonerspells are not suited for Zilean since those 3 should be the best option that support Zilean can have.

Hightened Learning Increases experience gain of all allied champions by 8%..
Nice supportpassive for all your teammates, especially toplane and jungler.

Zilean places a time-delayed bomb on a target. After 4 seconds this bomb will detonate, dealing 100 / 155 / 210 / 270 / 330 (+90% of ability power) magic damage to all surrounding enemies.
This skill will make you very very annoying to your enemy at botlane and allows you to seperate supports and ap/ad carry from their team. Do not forget you can place yuor bombs on enemy creeps/champions and also on your own creeps/champions!
Reduces all of Zilean's other spell cooldowns by 10 seconds.
Used to get over your cooldowns to doublebomb, or double Time Warp

Zilean slows an enemy champion's movement speed or increases an allied champion's movement speed by 55% for 2.5 / 3.25 / 4 / 4.75 / 5.5 seconds.
VERY VERY usefull item. Use it to boost your or your teammates movementspeed or combine it with your carries Exhaust to almost freeze an opponent.

Marks an ally champion or himself with a protective time rune for 7 seconds. If the target takes lethal damage during this time, instead of dying, they will be untargettable and remain in stasis for 2 seconds, then return to life, regaining 600 / 850 / 1100 (+200% of ability power) health.
You have to learn when to use this on you teammates. Use it preferably to save your ad carry then ap carry then your offtanks and to save yourself is the last option.


I max out Rewind last because i prefer to have a higher movementspeed boost/slow.

+4 Sight Ward
Its good to have lots of wards, this gives you lots of mapcontrole on the botlane and makes it more difficult for enemyteam to gank your lane.
Ask your jungler if he wants to gank enemy jungler at red. If yes place a ward there at 1.30-1.40 so he can see enemy jungler.
Put one ward at the river and if you did not spend a ward at enemies red place another ward in one of the bushes of the botlane. Which one depends on if enemyteam is push hard or you.


Philosopher's Stone +X Sight Ward
you get this for the normal reasons: mana/hp regen, and gold per 10 seconds


Kage's Lucky Pick + X Sight Ward +
I get the Kage's Lucky Pick because if gives me more dmg on my Time Bomb and also synergizes pretty nice on my Chronoshift becaue of its nice x2 AP scale. Boots for more movementspeed to easier land your bombs.



get this to increase your dmg and ultirestore
Sorcerer's Boots + X Sight Ward Now your bombs will hurt even more. 30 magic penetration is what you have now and additional movement speed.


+ X Sight Ward
Now you wreck the most of the magicresistence of supports and ad/ap carries. AP is also welcomed for your dmg output and ulti restore



Do not hesitate to sell your philosophers stone later to get another item or more wards. but remember to upgrade it first and sell it after at least 13mins of having it so you sell it with at least 10g bonus

Normally the game is already over after you got these items. If you still have money you can get more (situational) items.

and Both for more magic penetration.


These following items here are good to passively support your team. This might be needed if they always focus you or the game goes very bad for your team.



(Btw i dont know why aegis of the legion is so small has same format like the others)

Do not play Zilean against those heros on the botlane: Blitz and Nidalee.
Nid and Blitz will deal lots of demage to you so you wont be able to deal enough demage to enemies. But still you might get an upper hand on botlane since they dont have heal mechanics or have high mana comsumption.
But still all heros that have bad or no heal options are good enmies. All the others are bad.

On the botlane stay in the bush and get only out to land a bomb on the enemy ad carry/support. If he has low hp slow him with your q land another bomb and mobilize your ad carry to get the kill. Sometimes a ward in one of the bushes of the botlane really helps wonders to dominate the lane. Dont forget you can doublebomb with your W. Thats a good trick to play against a Janna support. Place a bomb on her so she puts shield on herself, then place another on ad carry so one of them is getting hurt.

And dont forget to ward. When you have enough money and you have to go back to the base then buy a pink ward from time to time so the enemy team wont have a safe botlane. This way you can get rid of enemy ward and have higher killchances for your jungler for 3mins and 25 additonal gold (since you get 25 gold for destroying a ward)

In teamfights always try to land the bombs on supports and low hp chars, usually the carries. This way you disposition them and the carries or the support run around so they dont demage their team.
Try to slow the target of your team so you increase the probability to kill it ^^.
And dont forget you can also put a bomb on your teammate that engages!!!

So thx for reading my wall of text. I hope you like it and please try out this build and tell me what you think of it. Also vote for it if possible and leave constructive critism and no flames.
Some votes might be welcomed since the guy who downvoted me didnt even leave a comment why


bumtschak