I've consistently reached Diamond since Season 7, without relying on duoing.

My YouTube channel actually has several video series that feature my climb from Bronze to Diamond, in entertaining, informative 3-minute videos you might want to check out :)

In each video, I break down specific things you can do and improve upon to elevate your own gameplay, which I in part will go through in this guide.

If you want to master , I strongly recommend you check them out.

I think there are enough guides that go over the basics - like how to do a Flash E-R combo, or going over ability explanations, so what I want to focus on to help you improve instead, is understanding specifically what you can do in games to carry, supplemented with videos.

Another focus I have, is to explain why you should do certain things.

Understanding the reasoning will give you deeper insight into what it means to play League at a high level.

Before the laning phase, always go .
The reason is simple: is contingent on consistently auto-attacking to make it worthwhile, enforcing a dangerous playstyle where you'll often find yourself in bad situations, possibly burning your or even giving up First Blood.

After buying your items at spawn, it's time to move to defend against a potential invade.


What's unique to at this point in the game, is her passive, .

Standing in one spot will let you spawn as many seeds as possible, and sets up a nice defense if the enemy decides to either invade early, or delay their invade.

With seeds on the ground, you can easily prevent the enemy from making any cheesy plays.

However, this only applies to Red Side.

On Red Side, it's a good idea to position yourself at the jungle entrance closest to your Blue Buff.

On Blue Side, it's best to stand in the Tribush closest to your lane.

Standing in brushes disables Zyra's passive, which means Zyra's ability to defend is compromised.

This is not an issue, as the most important thing when defending against invades, is simply to spot the enemy and call out their position through pings.

It might be tempting to stand closer to your buff at either Red Side or Blue Side to better help with leashing, but worst case, your plants might end up stealing the buff, putting your jungler behind.

Most importantly, you're weakening your team's position should the enemy invade, because you won't have as much time to react.

If no one is standing guard, and the enemy moves in from fog of war, it's much harder to defend.

The more time you have to react, the better your chances are of stopping an invade; standing at the entrance to blue buff on red side, or tribush on blue side, is a big part of that.


On Red Side, stand in front of the entrance to your Blue, but not too far into the river.

Use your to ward river at 1:25 when on Red Side, unless one of your teammates does it.

Sometimes, they'll ward the river Pixel Brush, however this is done erratically, so don't count on it most games.

The reason you want to ward at 1:25 is threefold:

1. Warding at 1:25, still leaves you time to help your jungler leash.

2. If the enemy late invades, you'll catch them on the map.

3. Warding as late as possible will catch their jungler's rotation if he either tries to steal your Blue level 1, or goes his Red, then River for a surprise early gank, which is pretty typical pathing early game. If he doesn't invade to get your Blue or try to pull off an early gank, that still gives valuable information about his pathing.

As you can see, the importance of the Pixel Brush/River ward is extremely important.


Same principle, but this time you want to stand in the brush closest to your tower bot side (Blue side tribush).

Start walking towards river at 1:11 and ward in the middle of the river at 1:15, before returning to either leash for your jungler, or simply going to lane to wait for your wave to spawn.

I recommend staying in tribush after warding at 1:15 if you're not leashing, and only walk out of tribush when your wave is close to your turret.

Be careful about lazy pathing when your wave spawns - this applies to both Red and Blue side.

When on Red side, I recommend pathing through the tribush and not going into River.

When on Blue side, I recommend pathing from tribush downwards to your lane safely - not walking into River.

Lazy pathing can give the opposing team an easy First Blood, or both you and your ADC's flash; don't let this happen.

During the laning phase, positioning is key.

It's very important to be wary of how you're positioned relative to the enemy, while accounting for the possibility of a gank.

It's always a good idea to stand behind minions against champions like or , to make it much harder for them to land a hook.

With champions like , you can be more liberal with your movement and move in to harass.


Usually, you want to harass using a - combo.

The range of your is deceptively long, and coupled with the fact it goes through minions, it's an amazing ability to gain a lot of control.

This could mean lowering the HP of the enemy ADC and support, or preventing the enemy ADC from farming.

Look to use the range of your often.

Be careful to not become too predictable.

If you use abilities off cooldown, it becomes a recognizable pattern.

Mix things up by spacing your ability usage out based on how your opponent is playing.

If you used early in the laning phase, and stopped using it afterwards, the enemy might be getting more confident about moving up to harass because they might think you're lacking in confidence.

Take advantage of this mentality, and aggressively use your E-W-Q and autoattack when an opportunity presents itself.

At all stages of the game, positioning is especially important.

Zyra's biggest weakness is her lack of mobility, and if you get caught out, it's very easy to punish that.

Keep trying to land through the minion wave, to catch your opponent off-guard.

Another tip is to use the - combo as a means of getting your plants to harass for you - and not necessarily hit your directly on a champion.

The priority system of the plants is always based on champions first, and minions second.

In practise, this means you could use through a minion wave, and in the vicinity of the to spawn a plant, which would then focus the closest enemy champion.

Just remember: the damage you deal from a that lands, and just harass from plants, is vastly different.

Be careful about not focusing too much on just proccing your to damage your opponent, because you'll soon run out of mana, and without mana, you'll lose a lot of lane control.

Mid game is turning point for .

At this stage, you've hopefully finished your .

With this item, you have amazing teamfighting capabilities, as well as objective control.


Using the long range on your and , you can keep the enemy at bay while safely securing either or . Your can even be used to block entire jungle entrances, or to land a satisfying 5-man knockup while the enemy is trying to sneak a or .

and also provide great safety when taking turrets.

If the enemy decides to collapse on you and your teammate, they'll have a hard time.


Your lack of mobility is undoubtedly an issue, which is why I like rushing .

will let you move in and out of situations quickly, which makes it both an aggressive and defensive item.

There's nothing wrong with going as an example, but I personally prefer for the versatility it brings.

Movement by itself opens up a multitude of playstyles, ranging from aggression to defense, to having a more vision-focused approach to the game.

Your is also a great defensive tool if the enemy is collapsing either on you, or your team.

A typical example of this might be their going in with his and his team following him close behind, or a landing his .

In these situations, your positioning is pivotal, just like in the laning phase.

You need to be positioned safely behind your teammates, but not so far away you can't react with your immediately.

The damage and knockup from your , coupled with your plants and , make for a lethal combination.

To ensure you're maximizing your effectiveness, staying alive and dying as little as possible are both absolutely necessary requirements.

Late game is very dangerous for , but also a stage in the game where you can heavily impact the outcome.

Your squishiness and low mobility are huge detriments, and difficult to work around.

On the upside, you have insane damage and as a result, even better objective control than you did Early or Mid game.

This is key.

At this point, when a single or can decide a game, your zoning capabilities with - and your , is ridiculously good.

Use this to your advantage.

To be able to use this strategy best, it's a good idea to ward.

Securing wards this late in the game is very difficult, but luckily, your provides you with a way to do it relatively safely. Use your and then to get vision in bushes before warding.

Your is preferable to activating your than because of its range.

After putting down wards and pinging objectives like mad, it's all about positioning and timing.

Positioning to stay alive, and timing to use your abilities at the most impactful moment.

Most likely, that time is when the enemy is hard committing and using a lot of cooldowns to get to your team.

It could also be when the enemy is hard committing an objective, like , but also trying to take down a Turret or an Inhibitor.

Use these distractions as a way to land your abilities and win the game :)

Early game, is extremely important to get early wards.
Try to secure hits on melee minions and cannons whenever possible to maximize the effectiveness of this item, as well as proccing its active as early as possible.

Two Health Pots help with survivability, and is very good to ward river early, as well as securing deep vision in their jungle when roaming.

In the early-mid game, you want to prioritize first, always. You also want to prioritize upgrading as fast as possible.

Always go , every game, regardless of team composition.

is both a defensive and an aggressive item.

In lane, it allows you to make plays because of your increased movement speed, and it also allows you to roam quickly and unexpectedly.

Whenever you find yourself in a bad situation, the increased movement speed is often a lifesaver.

After your first back, you want to get as well a or two.

Second back, you want to upgrade to above anything else. If you can afford it, stack up on 2 as well as upgrading your to through its passive.

It's important to stay conscious of your positioning. If your turret botlane hasn't gone down yet, you might consider staying bot with your ADC.

Zyra is not a champion fit for roaming, so stay with your team and always be wary of your positioning.

Start working towards , always; in every game.

Never go anything else besides > > > , early-mid game.

This combination is insanely good to carry with, even if you don't have .

As Zyra, is particularly amazing. Damaging abilities or pet attacks slow enemies for 20 % for 1 second, which means you can continually refresh the slow every second. With the long distance you have on your and , this makes for awesome objective control. This item also makes it easier to catch enemies off-guard, because you can slow them using your plants, with close to complete safety. This is very important to keep in mind to carry and capitalize fully on your itemization. After , it's a decision between , or .

when there are few assassins on the enemy team. As Zyra, a big focus is simply on staying alive. If you go instead of and the enemy has a lot of mobile champions, it's going to be easy to pick you off. is a great item on anyway, because it greatly amplifies your damage. Typical champions you'll buy against instead of would be , and .

when the enemy team composition has 1 or more assassins on their team. With , it's going to be impossible to survive the burst of a or . You need untargetability to survive if these types of burst champions engage on you. isn't just about surviving though - it gives you the opportunity to go for riskier plays with more safety. Knowing you have a get out of jail free card can make all the difference in a tense, even, 50-minute game.

is great when the enemy has a sustain-type support, like or . The reason is because your abilities now apply Grievous Wounds, which reduces healing by 40 %. Another factor is the magic penetration it gives, which can be decisive mid to late game, when items like and are typically completed.

Ultimately, you want to try out different build paths to figure out what's best for you, and your own playstyle.

There's not one specific way to play League, both from a total perspective, as well as an individual perspective based on a respective champion.

You can play completely differently than me, and focus much more on roaming than staying with your team, if you can make it work.

There's also nothing wrong with opting for instead of , if that's what you prefer.

Figure out which way you like to play, and play to that playstyle's strengths.

To figure out what your playstyle is, try things out; make mistakes and learn from them :)




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