Hey, what's up summoner(s)! I'm MangoMushie (IGN: ExcuseMeee.) This is my first guide so future apology for any "noobiness" in this guide. This will be an in-depth guide for Zilean support. Zilean, the Chronokeeper, who isn't the best suited for this meta, but is fun. Although good ole' Zil isn't "viable," in ranked, if played well, he could easily carry games. I'll teach you how to play with his strengths and play around his weaknesses. I'm making this guide because many people are saying "Zilean is such a worthless champion ever since he got changed." Even some pro players said Zilean isn't worth picking.

PROS

AOE stun that lasts 1.5s
GOTTA GO FAST! (speedup for team and self)
Has a slow that could "last forever"
Easy to get picks with
Clutch ultimate
Zoning with bombs




CONS

Squishy like jell-o
Time it takes to place double bombs
Early game is weak
Passive is ranged

Flash provides that extra utility and gap close you need
Exhaust eliminates most burst from assassins and damage from the enemy ADC/carry.
Ignite although you have more kill pressure and reduces heals, you're Zilean. Exhaust saves lives. Unless you're going against a Soraka ignite isn't worth running.

These are the generic AP mid lane runes. For those people that can't afford additional rune pages and runes, this will work just fine. You finish the utility mastery tree with 21 points so you get the Wanderer mastery. This will give you that little boost of movement speed when roaming or getting deep wards easily.

Warding with Zilean is really easy. Assuming you take the Wanderer mastery; the mastery and Time Warp gives you plenty of mobility to get deep wards.

One important concept of Zilean is his ultimate timing. The more you play, the more comfortable you'll get with the timing. Zilean can bait out many things with his ultimate and convert that bait into a pick. You never want to use your ultimate early making it useless. Especially with DOT's (dot= Damage over time//EX: Ignite Decimate Seastone Trident) you don't wanna ult someone when the DOT is about to wear off. But it's better to be safe than sorry!

Time Bomb's lobbing animation isn't the quickest so it can be juked easily. So keep this in mind when predicting movements to land a stun.

Throughout the game, your Time Bomb is a good zoning tool. In choke points in jungle, you can place your bombs right next to each other (so that if an enemy where to step in the middle, it instantly stuns.)

When you're setting up a gank, your E: Time Warp is HELLA strong. Whether its to slow the enemy into double bomb and stun, or to speed up your jungler. Even if its to catch someone out, Zilean slow into double stun of very powerful.

During teamfights, you want to look for stuns on the carry or multiple people. If you can stop the front line from getting to your backline with your stun, that relieves a lot of pressure from your carries. But if you get the carry/ies in a stun, you take away most of the damage from the enemy team.

When at baron or dragon, you can get easy set-up with your stun. Especially against a mainly melee enemy composition in baron. You can stun the enemy jungler and leave an open window to steal the big objective(s).

Depending on who your ADC/Carry is, your bombs half-life castor minions by level 3. So ADC's such as Jinx , Graves , or any other ADC that could clear creeps easily to shove quickly.

Zilean, not having the best early laning, should play safe until 6. Whenever you see the enemy ADC/Carry (referring to people who do Mord/cheeze bots) going for a creep, thats your chance to hit them with your Time Bomb. Just predict their movement when they go for cs and it should be a free trade. Depending on how you play Zilean (aggressive/passive) and your match-up, buy pots accordingly. But if you know you'll get harassed a lot to trade, its probably not worth it.

Sometimes harassing isn't always the best choice. For example, if you want to freeze the lane and the bomb is on the enemy ADC or support, they could bring the bomb to the creeps to break the freeze. Just as a support, you never want to roam when the enemy bot lane is freezing the lane. This will deny your ADC a ton of exp and gold.

Utilizing Zilean's passive, Heightened Learning is an important part in gaining an advantage in your lane. Those one-two minions difference in levels could mean the rise or fall of your lane. Also, those who aren't used to laning against a Zilean won't expect the earlier levels. (Going to update when I find the best way to utilize new passive 5.21.)

Depending on what items you have built ( Zeke's Harbinger) you want to stay by your ADC. You should have around 20% or more cdr by this time. You can also be roaming around the map depending if tower is still open, your ADC is freezing, or the wave is shoved up too far.

Passing 30 minutes, you should be two through three items. By this time, depending on your build order, you should have 40% cdr. You basically have a forever speed-up and slow. Although Rewind doesn't affect Zilean's ultimate anymore, with 40% cdr and level 3 ultimate, it gets down to a 36second cd. (level 3 ulti = 60s with 40% cdr = 36s cdr)

Any suggestion to make this guide any better, I'm all for it! I am not 100% finished making this guide, I just wanted to get it out for now. I will be constantly updating this guide whenever I can. If you want to talk to me about anything else you can add me. IGN: ExcuseMeee