Click to open network menu
Join or Log In
Mobafire logo - Happy Halloween

Join the leading League of Legends community. Create and share Champion Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

Community celebration time! Share a Halloween story or creation to enter our Special Halloween Giveaway! Less than 24 hours remaining. 🎃
Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

x
Zyra Build Guide by poolooto

Support [9.16] ZYRA - CARRY AS SUPPORT

Support [9.16] ZYRA - CARRY AS SUPPORT

Updated on September 11, 2019
New Guide
Vote Vote
League of Legends Build Guide Author poolooto Build Guide By poolooto 9,097 Views 0 Comments
9,097 Views 0 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author poolooto Zyra Build Guide By poolooto Updated on September 11, 2019
x
Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment. You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment

You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.

I liked this Guide
I didn't like this Guide
Commenting is required to vote!
Would you like to add a comment to your vote?

Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.

Runes: Typical Rune Page

Sorcery
Arcane Comet
Manaflow Band
Absolute Focus
Scorch

Precision
Triumph
Coup de Grace
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10% Tenacity/Slow Resist

Spells:

1 2
Typical
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Champion Build Guide

[9.16] ZYRA - CARRY AS SUPPORT

By poolooto
GUIDE






1. INTRODUCTION → About me and Zyra

2. ABILITIES → Basics on Zyra's abilities

3. BUILDING → Runes, summoner spells, and items

4. WARDING → The critical job of a support

5. GAMEPLAY → Zyra during laning and teamfights

6. TIPS AND TRICKS → Helpful hints to improve your gameplay

7. CONCLUSION → Thank you for reading!


Hello! I am an avid Zyra player with hundreds of thousands of mastery points on her. She's one of my favorite champions and she helped me climb to plat. I decided to create a guide to share everything I know with you guys and hopefully help some of you out! This is my very first guide ever so feel free to tell me what I should add or fix.
Support is a very complex role and requires quite a bit of game knowledge. One of your main jobs is to play around your carries and make sure they are alive and fed. Zyra has amazing damage and can snowball a lane very quickly. Her teamfighting is insane as well. Her main issue is how squishy and vulnerable she is due to having no mobility.

Garden of Thorns Seeds spawn around Zyra periodically, becoming faster with level and lasting 30 seconds. If an enemy Champion steps on a seed, it dies. Zyra can cast spells near seeds to grow plants. Extra plants striking the same target deal reduced damage.
It is important to note here that seeds do not spawn if Zyra is in a bush. It is also important to know that additional plants of the same type only do 50% damage. That is why it is a good idea to combo your skills to spawn one of each plant (one from your E and one from your Q)

Deadly Spines Thick vines spread through the ground and explode into spines, dealing magic damage to enemies within the area. If cast near a seed, Deadly Spines grows a Thorn Spitter plant, which fires at enemies from afar.
Remember that plants spawned by this ability have longer range, making it a really good ability for poke. Make sure you hit your skillshots or the plants will not prioritize targetting nearby enemy champions. An auto attack can also cause plants to target the enemy.
Rampant Growth Zyra plants a seed, lasting up to 60 seconds. Deadly Spines and Grasping Roots cast near seeds will turn them into plants who fight for Zyra. Zyra can store multiple seeds at once, and killing enemies reduces Rampant Growth's recharge time.
It is a good idea to put a seed down when you have 2 full charges so that you can begin charging up another seed. This seed might prove useful later when you want to fight. Make sure you place your seeds somewhere the enemy cannot easily step on them. The main use of this ability is in combination with other abilities.
Grasping Roots Zyra sends forth vines through the ground to ensnare her target, dealing damage and rooting enemies they come across. If cast near a seed, Grasping Roots grows a Vine Lasher, whose short range attacks reduce enemy Movement Speed.
This ability (apart from your ult) is the only way you can escape or engage. Try not to use it constantly. The range of the plants is short (but they do slow making it helpful for escapes) and therefore this ability should be used when you are committing to a fight.
Stranglethorns Zyra summons a twisted thicket at her target location, dealing damage to enemies as it expands and knocking them airborne as it contracts.
This is your strongest ability and makes you very valuable in teamfights. When you ult over your plants, it enrages these plants to gain health, damage, and attack speed. This is why is it best to ult after you have used your other abilities and have plants up. You can also use this ability for peel or escapes.


ABILITY SEQUENCE FOR ZYRA

When playing Zyra, you would normally max Q, then E, then W, and of course level up R when needed. The reason for this is because Q is very good for poke and pretty easy to hit. It also has a shorter cooldown and therefore makes it ideal to max. While maxing E will give you a longer root and a bit more damage, it has a long cooldown and the plants it spawns are much shorter ranged.

ABILITY
SEQUENCE
1

Q
2

W
3

E
4

Q
5

Q
6

R
7

Q
8

W
9

Q
10

E
11

R
12

E
13

E
14

W
15

W
16

R
17

W
18

W
In this section of the guide, I will show you how I build Zyra, including runes and summoner spells. There are many ways to play Zyra but the following information is for a high damage carry support.

Runes
Arcane Comet is a great rune and an ideal choice as it provides extra damage when you poke or engage.

Perfect Timing is a good choice if you know you will be building a Zhonya's that game (like if there are many AD champions or someone like Lux who's combos you want to avoid).

Absolute Focus This is also a good choice on Zyra because Zyra is normally very healthy when she pokes, and this can amplify that poke damage.
RUNE PAGE EXAMPLE #1
RUNE PAGE EXAMPLE #2

Summoner Spells
FLASH: Flash is a must have on Zyra because her kit provides no easy way for her to escape. She also tends to push up the lane often and therefore is more prone to ganks, therefore flash is crucial. Flash can also be used to make plays.
IGNITE: Ignite is great for Zyra's aggressive playstyle. It gives her greater potential to secure first blood and snowball her lane from there.
EXHAUST: There are occasions where the enemy team could be running many fighters and assassins. Exhaust is a good spell to have if you want to play around your carry and protect them. If someone jumps on you or your carry, you can exhaust them and your chance of survival increases.
Items
Core: Rylai's and liandry's are two of my favorite items on Zyra. The rylai's slow is very easy to proc and makes it harder for the enemies to get out of your deadly garden (especially in teamfights). Liandry's allows Zyra to deal more damage the longer she is in combat. If she stays safe in the backline, she will deal consistent damage for a long time, making Liandry's great on her.

Offensive Options Zyra can be very helpful when dealing with tanks due to her consistent damage. By building magic penetrtion and greivous wounds, she can do much more damage in a game of tanks. The deathcap should usually be built last unless you are really ahead since it only provides raw AP. Twin shadows helps Zyra ward safely to avoid getting picked off due to the movement speed and active ability.

Defensive Options Usually if you are behind, it helps to get either a Zhonya's or Banshee's depending on whoever is strong on the enemy team. Only get armor or magic resist shoes if the enemy is running an all AD or all AP team since you will be sacrificing quite a bit of damage for it.




As you probably already know, warding is very important in league as it helps you make safer decisions and plan according to the enemy. There are many guides out there dedicated strictly for warding since it is a broad topic, but I will try to summarize some key ideas.
Usually, you would ward to keep yourself safe or to plan for your next objective. For example, if you wanted the tier 2 top turret, you would ward the jungle around that turret to avoid flanks and make picks. Here are three common scenarios for warding and where some helpful wards would be placed. Blue dots are if you are on the blue side of the map and pink dots are if you are on red side. Keep in mind that sometimes warding intersections can give more information than simply warding a bush.



Laning
When laning, you want to keep a control ward up at all times because it will save you from ganks. When you are warding river, it is best to place a ward a little deeper than the bush so you have more time to escape ganks. It is important to note that if you are pushing the lane, you must ward. Do not push up if you have no wards or knowledge of the enemy jungler's location.
Dragon/Baron/Rift
If there is an important objective coming up soon that your team needs, begin warding for that objective. One of the most important wards for epic monsters is in front of the pit since this directly lets you know if the enemy is near it. Note for late game-- do not ward alone if you do not know where the enemies are. Getting caught out can cost you games.
Seiging Mid
At the end of laning, botlane may rotate up mid to help get mid turret. While seiging, you must place wards to avoid dying. The spots you ward depend on the jungler's location and the types of champions the enemies have. For example, if the enemy has a Renekton or Hecarim, you need to watch out for flanks from behind, so warding more towards your side is a safer bet.




LANING
Zyra's ideal playstyle is somewhat aggressive, constantly pressuring the lane and poking the enemies. However, this is not always possible due to matchups or other reasons. It is okay to play back and let your ADC farm. Positioning is key to not losing lane as Zyra.

Try to hit level 2 early by Q'ing the caster minions on the first wave to push. When you hit level 2, hit a Q-W combo on one of the enemies. At the early levels, your auto attacks deal a lot of damage. Do not underestimate this damage. Anytime the enemy ADC walks up to CS, hit them with auto attacks if their support is not pressuring you. When you walk up to harrass, make sure you walk back immediately after you deal your damage so that you don't take too much damage yourself.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you don't have to constantly use your abilities, or you will run out of mana. A Zyra with no mana is useless and vulnerable. Make sure you only use abilities if you know you can hit them, and don't forget to simply just auto attack in the early levels.



TEAMFIGHTS
Teamfighting is one of Zyra's strongest aspects. She has massive AOE damage and also has pretty good burst. Just like in laning, positioning is critical if you want to survive to deal enough damage. Do not step up too far or stand still for too long. She is squishy and will die almost immediately if caught by CC with no flash.

Teamfighting is in Zyra's favor in jungles and chokes where the enemies are clumped together. This is perfect for Zyra to land a snare into a potential 5 man ultimate. The best time to use your ultimate is after you have 2 or more plants down and if the enemies are snared together. Another great time to use your ultimate is if an assassin jumps on you or your ADC. The damage and knock-up is great peel and allows you both to stay safe.


Your seeds give vision when they spawn. And they only spawn when you are not in a bush. You can tell if a bush is warded by seeing if your passive goes off or not.

If you or your ADC gets engaged on, always combo the enemy adc. Throw your entire kit at them. If you are not behind and have ignite, you will have the damage to kill the ADC on your own or at least get them low enough to back off-- this will save you and turn the fight around.

Get used to using your W at the same time as, or after, your Q or E. This will spawn a seed that instantly turns into a plant, giving the enemy no time to react or step on your seed.

Your plants are not only useful for damage. They can block abilities! The easiest way to do this is to use your snare (E) and W right after. Using Q works too but it is not ideal since your Q will take slightly longer to spawn the plant.

Use one seed per ability to maximize plant damage. A simple and effective combo to burst an enemy would be E-W-Q-W-R.
If for some reason you miss your Q when trying to poke the enemy with a W-Q or Q-W combo, your plants will not prioritize targeting the enemy. Just auto the enemy and your plants will target them.


I had a lot of fun making this guide and I really hope it helps. I learned so much about making guides and as this is my first official guide, I hope to improve for future guides, so feel free to leave me feedback. I am also happy to answer questions or comments and will try my best to respond.
Thank you for reading.


Credits

    To jhoijhoi for creating a helpful guide on guide making and the summoner spells formatting.
    And to Elusive Ferret for the beautiful runes formatting.







Download the Porofessor App for Windows
League of Legends Build Guide Author poolooto
poolooto Zyra Guide
Vote Vote

League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide