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Hello, I'm PH45, and this is my Zoe Guide. My real name is Patrik, but you can call me either way. I am a long time League of Legends player (started back in Season 1). I'm a high-Diamond/Master tier top lane main but I occasionally play mid lane as my secondary role. Zoe is a really fun type of champion. She fits into burst, poke roles and also offers control with her Sleepy Trouble Bubble. Using her Portal Jump for creative combos goes a long way when playing her. I'd suggest practicing her in normal games though before going into ranked as she can be a bit tricky to get the hang of at first.

Pros + Extremely good damage + Oneshot potential + Small AoE damage on Q + Great CC ability with good range + W offers unique ways to lane and potentially outplay + Pretty low cooldowns + Great synergy with Lich Bane Zoe has a lot going on with her, she has tons of burst damage and her W allows her to do very cool plays.

Cons - Skillshot dependent - Opponents can evade damage by standing behind minions - Squishy so assasins are a nightmare - Weak to champions who can all-in - Opponents can play around your Q since it requires traveling distance in order to do tons of damage

Flash: Pretty normally taken summoner spell. Gives you an escape or a gapcloser.

Ignite: Good for lanes you want to go aggressive on and you'll be grabbing this most of the time as your second summoner spell. Adds a bit more kill potential for you in lane.

Heal: Helps you get out of sticky situations and also can score you a kill thanks to the movement speed boost you get from it.

Cleanse: Efficient choice vs comps with high amounts of CC like Lux, Twisted Fate and so on.

For the primary tree we grab Domination. Out of the 3 keystones we take Electrocute, it adds a bit more burst on to your combo and overall just works well for a champ like Zoe. Dark Harvest might also work alright, although the rune has seemed a bit lackluster for most champions for a while.

Next is Sudden Impact. You will use your ult quite often when making combos, so this will trigger whenever you ult and so you will be able to burst your opponents down faster. The other two runes are Eyeball Collection and Ravenous Hunter for a bit of extra damage and sustain.


For the second tree take Sorcery, from where you take Absolute Focus for extra damage and Manaflow Band to gain some more mana sustain.

Other possible choice is Inspiration where you can take Minion Dematerializer for extra waveclear and Time Warp Tonic for better sustain.

Zoe's abilities

• More Sparkles! (Passive): After casting an ability, Zoe's next basic attack or bubble within 5 seconds deals bonus magic damage.
  

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• Paddle Star (Q): FIRST CAST: Zoe hurls a star in the target direction that collides with the first enemy hit, dealing magic damage in a small area, increased by the distance the star has traveled.
  
  If the star does not collide with an enemy, it remains stationary for up to 1 second. Zoe can reactivate Paddle Star at any point to redirect the star to a new location near her, albeit resetting the current damage modifier.
  
  Both casts of Paddle Star will prime More Sparkles!.
  

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• Spell Thief (W): PASSIVE - SPELL THIEF: Whenever enemy champions cast a summoner spell or item active, they drop the corresponding Spell Shard onto the ground that stay there for 40 seconds. Some enemy minions can drop Spell Shards that last for 20 seconds if they are killed by Zoe.
  
  Collecting a Spell Shard allows Zoe to activate Spell Thief within the next 60 seconds, and she can also pick up a new shard to replace the current one by right clicking it.
  
  PASSIVE - SUMMONER SPECIALIST: Casting Spell Thief or one of her own summoner spells grants Zoe bonus movement speed as well as summoning three bubbles that orbit her for a short duration. The bubbles autonomously hurl themselves at nearest enemy, prioritizing her attack target, dealing magic damage.
  
  ACTIVE: Zoe mimics the active of the collected Spell Shard.
  

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• Sleepy Trouble Bubble (E): ACTIVE: Zoe kicks a ball that detonates on the first enemy hit, dealing magic damage and making the target Drowsy which slows them for 2.2 seconds,after which the Drowsy target falls asleep for 2 seconds.
  
  Sleeping targets take double damage from the next attack or ability to hit them, up to a cap of Sleepy Trouble Bubble's damage, but are awoken early upon taking damage.
  
  The ball's range is doubled when it passes through terrain. If the ball does not hit an enemy, it lingers on the ground as a trap for 4 seconds, which primes after a brief delay.
  

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• Portal Jump (R): Zoe targets a location and then dives into a portal that she opens beneath her, blinking to the target location after a very brief delay. After 1 second, she falls back through the portal and blinks back to her cast location.
  
  Zoe remains able to attack and cast abilities during Portal Jump, and can see over walls, but cannot move.
  

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Doran's Ring Great starting item for any mage really, gives you some HP, AP, mana regen and also restores some mana for you when you kill an enemy unit.

Lich Bane, more burst This item works extremely well on Zoe. It has great synergy with her passive which allows it to burst your opponents even more.

Sorcerer's shoes, you are a wizard! Pretty standard boot choice. Gives you magic pen which makes you deal more damage.

Morellonomicon, Great item as it gives you some HP now, magic pen and 80 AP.

Rabadon's deathcap, more AP! Great pickup once you have a couple AP items under your belt. It will increase your damage tremendously and helps you burst people even more.

Luden's echo Great item as it gives you a lot of mana, some CDR and a nice amount of AP.

Zhonya's Hourglass, the golden touch Great choice as it gives you a chance to survive any assassins that come your way. Even if the opposing team doesn't have that big of an AD threat still a great pickup just because the active is so good especially in teamfights if you are getting focused down.

Void Staff, what magic resist? If the opponents are getting some magic resist this is a extremely good item to get, or even if they aren't getting any still a really good choice.

Liandry's Torment Gives you good amount of HP and AP. You mostly get this item for the passives though. Damaging an enemy champion generates one stack every second for the next 4 seconds which makes you deal 2% increased damage for each stack, up to a maximum of 10%. The other passive applies a damage-over-time effect on your opponent with your damaging spells. The damage-over-time effect is doubled vs immobilized and slowed units.

Banshee's Veil Get this if you are facing a high AP enemy comp. Also good item for some burst matchups with its magic resist and the spell shield passive.

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Maxing your Paddle Star first is the obvious choice as it is your main damage ability. Next you max Sleepy Trouble Bubble for the CC, then Spell Thief. I'm still debating whether to take points on your ult when possible or not, but in the end it does shorten the cd which helps you with those creative combos.

At level 1 you want to push the lane as Zoe. This is done pretty easily with use of long range Paddle Stars and auto attacks. This way you gain lane priority and can possibly help your jungler secure a scuttle crab if it goes contested.

If you get pushed in under tower early that is going to hurt your laning quite a bit cause your main source of damage is Paddle Star and you can't shoot it through minions, which will give free time for opponents with abilties that can pass through creeps the advantage.

During early game remember to ward since Zoe is quite weak to ganks unless you have your Flash up or have a escape ability stored on your Spell Thief.


Basic trading pattern on Zoe is to cast Paddle Star, enhanced auto your opponent, cast Paddle Star again to hit your opponent and enhanced auto them again. You can also add Sleepy Trouble Bubble to this combo for more damage and easier hit on your Paddle Star.

Once you hit level 6 you can start doing wacky combos with your Portal Jump.

Zoe is pretty strong at roams also due to her Sleepy Trouble Bubble having extended range when cast through walls, making ganks pretty deadly if you hit your bubble on the opponents.

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During mid game Zoe starts to get quite powerful, especially once she gets her main items like Luden's Tempest, Lich Bane, Sorcerer's Shoes and so on. At this point you can really start looking to chunk people from surprising places. Look for enemies that are isolated from minions and cast your Sleepy Trouble Bubble through a wall to extend the range, and then just do a long range Paddle Star with your Portal Jump. If the enemies don't have vision on you this will catch them off guard, and might force them to back depending on how low you got them, or potentially scoring you a kill.

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Late game is all about teamfighting. Now naturally Zoe doesn't do very well in teamfights due to how she is more oriented around skirmishes and ambushes. It can be hard to hit your Sleepy Trouble Bubble or Paddle Star on high priority targets in teamfights due to fights often being very cluttered.

Due to this you most of the time want to be looking for picks, kind of similarly like in mid game with your Sleepy Trouble Bubble. If you manage to catch someone and kill them/force a back take advantage of the 5v4 scenario for your team, either taking down towers, forcing a fight or taking a objective like Dragon or Baron.

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Zoe is a really fun and unique type of champion that will surely keep you occupied once you start practicing her! Any feedback on this guide or on any of my guides is highly appriciated! Have a great time bursting and trickstering as Zoe! And of course if you enjoyed the guide make sure to subscribe on YouTube for League of Legends content! Subscribe - PH45