Ideal teammates for Zilean?

[quote=Riggsinator]So I like Zilean, but I can't bring myself to play him very often because I just don't think my solo queue teammates pick good champions to mesh with him. Its like nobody plays ranged carries anymore, they're all going Xin/Trynd/WW and mages so I have to pick a ranged guy or suffer a team that can't finish fights or push towers very well. Most games I find myself cornered into playing a tank or a ranged ad carry. Which I like playing both but it can be frustrating when I'm best at champs like Zil/Anivia who are kinda situational. Zil more than Anivia, because that bird just wrecks a lot of champs. So what champs should I look for as a red flag that I should say to myself "Zil would be a good option"[/quote]

[quote=SixSonatas]Zil is great in 3v3 but is a lot less viable in 5v5s. Generally you'll want to use your ultimate to save a good offtank who can both deal and soak up damage. This is due to the mass heal from stacking AP, beating archangel's by a long shot.[/quote]

[quote=Zeprido][quote=SixSonatas] Zil is great in 3v3 but is a lot less viable in 5v5s. Generally you'll want to use your ultimate to save a good offtank who can both deal and soak up damage. This is due to the mass heal from stacking AP, beating archangel's by a long shot. [/quote] Zilean is great in both 3's and 5's. I suggest reading Mowen's guide for support Zilean (has a great description of how/when and on who to use his ult.) Zilean is one of the best "babysitters" in the game and is best placed bottom lane with anyone who needs a lot of farming/mana/early kills. If Xin/Tryn are going bottom, lane with them! let them get most if not all of the minion kills and grab a Mana Manipulator if your laning partner has mana or Doran's ring if they don't. Most of all, don't push! Especially if you have a jungler on the team. I personally play passively aggressive and try to zone out my opponents in the lane with time bombs/slows discouraging them from last hits/being in xp range.[/quote]

[quote=SixSonatas]I'm not saying he's not good, just less viable. Good teams will flank Zil before he can ult anyone, and he is a squishy. I have commanded teams to counter Zil based teams, so just trust me on that; I main supports lol[/quote]

[quote=Zeprido][quote=SixSonatas] I'm not saying he's not good, just less viable. Good teams will flank Zil before he can ult anyone, and he is a squishy. I have commanded teams to counter Zil based teams, so just trust me on that; I main supports lol [/quote] That's strange, I haven't mained Zil in a long time, only recently started playing him again, and I still usually have less than 3 deaths when I play Zil, never really have a problem since when they try to focus me I direct my team to focus and stick around to support them. They never get close to me and when they do, the majority if not all of my team is there. It's fun to bait and kite with him too.[/quote]

[quote=Mowen]Yeah that is hard for me to answer because I feel like Zilean compliments a lot of people, they just have to be competent to maximize your synergy, which as you have mentioned, can be difficult in solo queues. I still can manage to keep ppl alive and killing fools in solo queue too most of the time though. I feel like as long as you have any dps / carry you can do well with him. Or someone that deals damage and has a stun for early game kills [[evelynn]],[[pantheon]],[[malphite]] are some of my favorites for early game domination. Otherwise late game I feel like he can compliment any team. He just needs to focus on keeping the dps alive / snaring ppl so he can finish them off. Like Zeprido said, feel free to read my guide, I don't really have a laning partners section but I talk a lot about his roles in early, mid, and late game, and how to synergize your skills with other characters and give some good examples. For SixSonatas, I agree he's just more of a presence in 3's simply because having his rez is more powerful when there's less people involved. Though in 5's I still do well staying in the back and letting my team buffer me to have me not focused, and even if a few heroes get by with my build I have enough health to survive the burst and escape / ult myself. Obviously saving your ult for the carry would be more beneficial but if they just blew all their crap trying to kill you your team has a window to kill them in return.[/quote]

[quote=SixSonatas]In 5s , generally speaking, Zil is shut down by proper CC; hard CC will shut Zilean down before he can even ult himself; staying at the back helps, but I did mention flanking; assuming equal and proper warding, the team with Zilean would probably seem more powerful and will probably cause the other team to fall back, but there's not much the teams can do until wards run out, it kind of makes for a stalemate situation. Basically, wards + CC win games, and when it comes to Zilean, his team NEEDS to be using wards, or he can easily be flanked.[/quote]

[quote=Jebus McAzn]there's also the extremely fun Zilean+Sion "suicide-bomber" bottom lane tactic.[/quote]

[quote=SixSonatas]A lot of bot lane suicide divers are viable :o I've seen Malphite Zilean do very well, Sion Zilean as stated, Xin Zhao Zilean for the dash, Akali Zilean; you get the point - heroes with a dash skill are great candidates; heroes with stun burst are great, too.[/quote]

[quote=Zeprido]SixSonatas is right. Heh, forgot I'm usually warding all the time even if I'm the only one. But yeah, if Zil get's flanked and CC'ed they can take him out, but what about the rest of the team? =x It's happened before, but it usually turns into a 1 for 2-3 or 2 for 3-4 with us winning the team fight. [quote=SixSonatas] heroes with a dash skill are great candidates; heroes with stun burst are great, too. [/quote] ^This. Really anyone who can take advantage of Zilean's slow, I've had good experience laning with TF. Wound up feeding him 3-4 kills by 13 minutes in.[/quote]