Hey there everyone! This is a small guide on how to play Zyra in the support role! I've seen all too often the many mistakes people make while playing Zyra and I wish to help people not make those mistakes! Hope you all can learn something from this guide as I will try my very best to cover everything there is with Zyra support! Let's get started! :)

Pros


-Zyra support has a TON of dmg in laning phase and out of laning phase! Whether you build more as a support or more dmg (why would you build her support anyway) she just deals an insane amount of dmg!

-Zyra has got utility! It's no secret that she can lock down one to five enemies at once. And with her plants she can keep the CC going if you build Rylai's.

-Zyra has excellent zone control during team fights! She can separate the frontline from the backline in a team fight with her ult and E gives her a ton of control during a team fight.

-Zyra's W seeds can provide some vision for you if you have run out of sighstone wards or your trinket is on cooldown. Plus if an enemy steps on the W seed it provides true sight of that enemy for 2 seconds.


Cons


-Zyra is SUPER squishy. Which means she can easily be killed if you get caught out by any for of CC (especially if your flash is on cooldown).

-Zyra is very immobile. She's very susceptible to ganks and roams from the enemy if you don't have plenty of vision on the map!

-Zyra's cooldowns are pretty long. If you spam her abilities, you're not going to have any way of fighting back for at least 8-10 seconds. So be mindful when using abilities!

-Although she can provide a lot of utility, she's not a true support. In the sense that she cannot provide protection for an ADC. Her dmg IS her protection! Burst them down before they can burst you down!

A few important notes on Zyra's abilities:




Zyra's abilities have bad scaling but great base dmg, and because of that, magic penetration (mpen) is a much better resource for you than AP is. It doesn't mean AP is bad, you just won't get much out of building flat AP than you would flat mpen.

Zyra's abilities have relatively long cooldowns. So make sure you're not using them for no reason. Your E has a stagnant 12 second cooldown at all ranks. So make absolute sure that if you're going to use E it's going to catch someone or at the very least zone someone with an E plant or burn a summoner ability.

You can spawn plants even outside of Zyra's ability range. So take advantage of this by throwing down an ability and then using a seed somewhere near it. You can throw a seed behind your Q range to get a plant to spawn behind the enemy. Just be careful not to spawn plants in tower range because the turret will auto aggro your plants and kill them in 1 shot!

Your plants are pretty delicate and can easily be killed by a coordinating team. So make sure you use your plants sparingly and out of harms way! Things like Morgana's W Tormented Soil, WuKong's R Cyclone, or Anivia's R Glacial Storm can instantly kill plants! So be mindful of where you decide to spawn plats!

There's a LOT to talk about in the wake of Zyra combos because there's just so many different combos available! I'll try to tackle them all as best I can!

E W Q W R Combo

This is the most basic combo that Zyra has and is pretty much the bread and butter of Zyra's all in! Notice how I didn't put W before any ability? That's because you NEVER want to throw a seed before an ability. The reason for that is because when you throw a seed first it gives the enemies a chance to react because it's easy to predict that you will use an ability after (mainly E) so they can flash or move out of the way very easily. You can, however, bait enemies by throwing out a seed and then waiting for them to move accordingly. It's hard to do, as easy as it sounds, and it doesn't always work because the enemy could simply just not be paying attention. So it's just better to use W seeds AFTER your ability, not before! Also, the reason you want to use E W Q W R and not E W W Q R for example is because you never want to have 2 melee plants. The slows don't stack and it's easy for the enemy to get out range of the melee plants. So it's better to have one melee and one ranged! Because of your passive seeds, you might have more than one melee plant, but you want to spawn a ranged plant because the more ranged plants you have the better because it's much better poke!
Play Video

E Q W W R Combo

This is essentially the same thing as the previous combo but with 2 ranged plants instead of one ranged one melee. This combo is also pretty good because it gives you a lot of range with your plants! However, this combo lacks the slow from your melee plants. This combo is better used for team fights rather than small skirmishes for this very reason. Although, it can be effective for small skirmishes if you have a teammate with CC.

Play Video
E W R Q W Combo

This combo is your all in combo if you're maxing E first. The reason why is because you want to get the knock up from your ult as soon as the root duration ends for maximum CC. You throw down a W seed after your E for some added dmg while the enemy is rooted and knocked up and then secure the DPS with a Q W as they try to run away.

Play Video
E R Q W W Combo

This is the same thing as the previous combo, to get the knock up after the root if maxing E first, but instead of a melee plant you get double ranged plants. You want to use this combo if you've trapped 2+ people in your root so that instead of only hitting one person with your melee plant, you can hit multiple people with both plants because you have more range to do so.

Play Video

That about covers her combos! All these combos can be used with your passive seeds which I highly recommend keeping track of! If you play Illaoi you understand the importance of the location of your tentacle spawns. Well, the same thing applies to Zyra! Your passive seeds can provide a lot of extra dmg to a fight! Don't take them for granted!

Zyra, like every champion, is complex. On the surface, again, like every champion, she's seems rather linear and straight forward. You snare, you ult, things die! But she's more than just a killing machine. She also really great for utility alongside her dmg!

Zyra is all about control, hence why she's a control mage. A control mage is a mage who has excellent CC control and who can put up an area of threat for an enemy team. So the likes of Cassiopeia (ult and W), Orianna (ult), Annie (ult), Azir (ult), and Kennen (ult).

Zyra's abilities:

Passive - Garden of Thorns: Passively spawn a seed near Zyra increasing in speed with each level and lasting 45 seconds. If an enemy steps on a seed, it dies. Zyra can spawn plants using her abilities, but every subsequent plant spawned deals reduced dmg.


Q - Deadly Spines: 70 mana at all ranks 800 range 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 second cooldown and deals 60/95/130/165/200 +(60%AP) can be used on a seed to grow a Thorn Spitter plant which deals 0 +(15%AP) per attack.


W - Rampant Growth: No mana cost, places down a seed at target location 850 range stores a seed every 20/18/16/14/12 seconds and seeds last for 1 min unless stepped on by an enemy champion which grants true sight vision on that enemy champion for 2 seconds each level in W grants 10/20/30/40/50 % increased health for every plant.


E - Grasping Roots: 70/75/80/85/90 mana 1100 range 12 second cooldown at all ranks and deals 60/95/130/165/200 +(50%AP) and roots enemies for 0.75/1/1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds can be used on a seed to spawn a Vine Lasher plant which deals 0 +(15%AP) per attack.

R - Stranglethorns: 100/120/140 mana 700 range 130/120/110 second cooldown dealing 180/265/350 +(70%AP) to all enemies in the area as it expands after 2 seconds all enemies caught in the area are knocked up in the air for 1 second plants spawned in the area during it's duration are enraged and gain 150% total dmg and attack twice as fast. (Note about her ult: the dmg dealt starts in the center of the circle and expands out with the tendrils that spawn. The tendrils are what deal the dmg, not the circle itself).

Start of the game

At the start of the game depending where your jungler decides to start and what side you're on (your jungler should want bot lane leash because it's absolutely amazing, but it depends on them), Zyra can provide an excellent leash for your jungler! Her plants are easy to get to spawn in the pit of whichever buff your jungler starts and it's a great way to boost your jungler to lvl 2 almost instantly! Here are some videos showing where you should stand to get the best seed spawn from your passive!

***Also I didn't get to mention it above, but your second summoner spell, whether ignite or exhaust, is dependent on your lane matchup and the enemy team in general. Generally you'll take ignite because Zyra is a very all in support and ignite is really good for kill pressure in lane and for heal supports such as Sona or Soraka. Exhaust is taken when the enemy team has an assassin in the mid lane or in the jungle such as Fizz or Zed. You only really want exhaust for the ADC if it's someone who you'll be getting in close proximity with like Vayne because you're generally not going to be getting in range of the ADC unless you ambush them or your team can set up a catch. Ignite is just overall better for Zyra support than exhaust is.

If you're on blue side
Play Video
If you're on red side
Play Video

Laning Phase

During the laning phase, Zyra is strongest when she reaches lvl 3, that's when you hit a power spike because you have the potential to catch someone with your root and Q plant combo along with Thunderlord's. Your best bet is to try to push the lane for an early lvl 2 so that you can have your W seeds start storing so that when you reach lvl 3 you have 2 seeds available; one for poking with Q and one for E in case the enemy gets too aggro or you're getting ganked/you want to be more aggressive in case of an early gank from your jungler. You should always try to have at least 1 seed in storage at all times! Which means you're going to be utilizing your passive seeds more than your W seeds during the laning phase and honestly most of the mid game as well.

How to poke during Laning Phase

Zyra during the laning phase is your typical poke mage. Go in for pokes whenever you can using your Q and whichever passive seeds there may be about or even using a W seed. And because Zyra is a poking mage support, you want to gain control of the bushes as much as possible! Especially because your passive seeds will spawn in the bushes a lot which is a great way of gaining control! Utilize these bush seeds to your advantage! A lot of times the enemy laners won't really be paying attention to where your seeds are spawning. So you can get some surprise burst if you hit a Q on one those seeds while also a W seed as well! It will proc Thunderlord's almost instantly on whoever you hit! Also, if you just saw a seed spawn in a bush that doesn't have vision in it, and it disappears, that means the enemy walked over it! It's a good way of keeping track of the enemy support's movement without actually having vision if you're trinket cooldown is not up yet! You can also use your W seeds for this, but if you're going to use W seeds for vision it's better to use them for the river to make sure you don't get ganked!

Team fights

Being a control mage means Zyra can split teams up really easily! Which is really one of her primary roles when playing her support. Although your ult can deal an incredible amount of dmg, your role as support is to completely disrupt a team fight with your ult and plants to zone or CC enemimes to split them up. For example, if a Renekton is running towards your team with his team behind him, you can throw your ult behind him to zone out his team to buy your team some time to deal with the Renekton. Zyra is all about assessing a given situation in a team fight and playing accordingly. You don't want to waste your ult for nothing. It should always be used to either burst or zone (preferably burst but you can't always have that unfortunately). You basically want to stick with your team and make sure that you control the enemy carries either by catching them out if they play too aggressively or by zoning them out of a team fight for as long as possible.


Getting ganked

Zyra is really good at handling ganks with her E. You just have to make sure you have vision at all times and if you don't try to land your E on the enemy laners as opposed to the jungler ganking you. This way you can separate their jungler from their laners which buys you some time to harass the jungler and scare them off with a Q W combo. In the case of a fed jungler who can 2 v 1 you and your ADC, you should snare the jungler instead and just retreat. In this case you SHOULD try to have as much vision as possible in coordination with your jungler, but in solo queue this is hard to come by. So just try your best not to play too aggressively or up front if you know that they're jungler is fed and can easily gank your lane.

After laning phase

After the laning phase is done, this is general rule for any support, your main objective is to gain vision for your team. If you're ahead this is pretty easy to do. If you're even it's still relatively easy to do, but you should go with your jungler or someone who can protect you in case you bump into an enemy. If you're behind, getting vision out can be hard. So your best bet is to try to stick with your team and try to get vision when you can and not going out of your way to get vision. Going out of your way is a sure fire way of getting caught out and dying.

You're next objective is to stick with whoever is fed on your team. If you have a fed mid laner, they're going to be the main source of dmg for your team so you should protect them as much as possible. If your ADC is fed, first of all congrats on getting them fed and not stealing all the kills (I'm very guilty of that lol), and second try your best to protect them at all costs! Basically, whoever is carrying, support them as much as you can unless they're being an idiot and diving the entire enemy team 1v5... yeah don't support that. You can also peel for other teammates and zone, but supporting the fed person on your team is a sure fire way of snowballing them which snowballs your team!

That's about it! I will be updating this as I learn more about Zyra's abilities/if they make changes to items or abilities and with new champions that may come out, etc. But this is my short guide on support Zyra! If I get enough requests to make a mid lane Zyra guide I'll go ahead and do that! But until then, I hope you all find this guide helpful and "may your enemies feel the thorns embrace!" :)