Hello welcome to my guide, I put this guide together mostly for my own reference, and to collect my thoughts as I attempt to climb through OTP Zyra Mid. Feel free to leave advice, suggestions, feedback, or questions in the comments and I will do my best to respond.

I AM NOT CLAIMING TO BE AN EXPERT, NOR DO I THINK I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT ZYRA

This is primarily for my own reference, and if others get value too then that's great. Please be polite in comments.

This guide is still "in progress" and likely will be for a very long time as I learn more about the champion and the game in general.

P - Garden of Thorns:

Periodically, Zyra spawns one or two Seeds nearby that last for 30 seconds, briefly granting vision over the surrounding area.

Q - Deadly Spines:

Zyra sprouts thorny spines at the target location that appear after a 0.625-seconds delay, dealing magic damage to all enemies within the area. If Deadly Spine hits a Seed, it sprouts into a Thorn Spitter, which remains on the battlefield for 8 seconds. The inner rectangle shows the damage hitbox, while the outer rectangle shows the seed hitbox. As long as the seed is inside the outer hitbox, it will sprout.

W - Rampant Growth:

(Passive) Zyra periodically stores a Seed, up to 2. Killing an enemy unit grants 20% charge toward a Seed, increased to 100% for large enemy units and whenever scoring a Damage rating.png takedown against an enemy champion.
(Active) Zyra plants a Seed at the target location, which lasts for 60 seconds and briefly grants sight of the area.

E - Grasping Roots:

Zyra sends a surge of vines in the target direction, dealing magic damage to all enemies within their path and rooting them for a duration. If Grasping Roots hits a Seed, it sprouts into a Vine Lasher, which remains on the battlefield for 8 seconds. Similar to the Q hitbox, the hitbox to sprout seeds extends wider than the damage/root hitbox.

R - Stranglethorns:

Zyra summons a monstrous thicket at the target location, dealing magic damage to all enemies within the area as it expands.
After 2 seconds, the vines snap upward, knocking up all enemies within the area for 1 second.
Plants hit by the thicket become enraged, restoring 50% of their current health, increasing their maximum health by 50%, gaining 25% increased size and refreshing their duration while the thicket expands. Additionally they attack in a flurry, launching two shots per attack, dealing 150% damage per flurry. Plants will enrage even if they are sprouted after the R begins.

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Plants

Controlling Plants

Plants have a priority list for targeting, and it is important to understand this to get maximum value out of your plants.

1. Taunt sources (even if out of range)

2. Most recently applied high-priority marks

3. Nearest lesser-priority marks to Thorn Spitter

4. Non-champions Zyra has most recently attacked

5. Closest unit in range

The most important one of these to understand is #2. Zyra applies a "high-priority mark" by either hitting a champion with an ability, or an auto attack. You should be trying to get this mark on the champion whenever you're sprouting plants.

Differences between plants

Both plants share duration, health, damage, and attack speed.
A Thorn Spitter has a range of 575, while a Vine Lasher has a range of 400, but also slows its target by 30% for two seconds (this can stack up to two times with multiple Lashers).

Zyra's playstyle changes as you progress through the game. She is somewhat weak early, and gains agency as she levels up, and gets items.

Early Lane Minigame

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There are three goals for Zyra's early game in mid.

1. Farm 1375 - 1675.
You want to get Lost Chapter as soon as possible, so 1375 allows you to buy the item and a Control Ward. 1675 on the other hand allows you to buy Boots as well.

2. Push out your wave just before 3:15.
Pushing your wave at this time means you get priority to roam while the enemy laner is under their tower. The reason you push at this time is so you can rotate to help your jungler secure the scuttle. You don't actually care about the scuttle itself, but junglers love scuttle and will fight for it. If you can rotate and make it a 2v1, you have a high chance of killing the enemy jungler.

3. Poke/trade
Zyra is pretty weak in the early levels, so you don't want to be too aggressive. However, your plants allow you to poke the enemy laner while keeping your risk low. For poke, try and land a Q on the enemy laner, and if it hits, drop a seed. If you're playing with Electrocute you can easily proc it using this method, either by dropping two seeds (easiest/lowest risk), or by throwing out an auto at the same time.
Look to land Q when the enemy goes to last hit, AND you have Electrocute up, as well as something like Manaflow Band for example.

Try to pace your mana usage so you can achieve the other two goals. I've been only looking to trade (Q E AA combo) when I have both [Electrocute] and [Manaflow band] up. I've also been CSing with only autos as much as possible. These two habits together should mean you can stay in lane until you can get a good back.

Mid Game

You have a little more strength now and can more safely move around the rift. Zyra is not a hard carry champion, so you can't usually 1v9 games. Instead, we want to try and spread our influence around the rift. This is especially effective if we are ahead, but still valuable if not.

When it comes to how you spread influence, there are more options than can be listed here, but think along the lines of making it easier for your team to win. It could be as simple as placing some wards, all the way up to roaming and tower diving the enemy top laner.

One sneaky Zyra trick you can do is to steal the enemy raptors over the wall. If your laner has based or died, you can push in your wave, then drop two seeds into the raptor pit. Hit as many raptors as you can with your Q; they will aggro on the plants, and you can keep attacking them. Throw some autos over the wall, prioritizing the smaller ones to refresh your W. Then when your Q plants are about to die, Q or E with W to spawn more plants. Even if you don't manage to kill them all before your plants despawn, you've still taken gold away from the enemy jungler.

Even though you are roaming more now, you still want to be sure to keep your cs/min up as Zyra is very dependent on items. Collect and push out waves and sneak some jungle camps when you can.

Finally in this part of the game, look to help set up for or deny objectives for your team. Your plants are a great way to deter enemy players from approaching objectives. Place seeds in choke points leading to objectives and sprout your plants when you see enemies approaching. You can use Q and W to attack the objective but keep E just in case the enemy jungler tries to come and steal.

Late Game

Late game you want to be grouping with your team, or at least with your carry. Collect waves when you can, but make sure you are with your team before team fights break out. Finding the balance can be tricky, but it's something you'll learn through experience.

Vision is very important in league of legends, and even more so for immobile mages like Zyra. You want to give yourself as much time to react as possible to avoid dying to ganks. This is why I like to go Ghost Poro in my runes, so that my wards last longer. Zombie poro also is effective if you are in an Elo where people use wards.

I also tend to swap my yellow trinket for a blue at the end of the lane phase.

Take a look at the map below for ideas on ward placements.

Basic Trading Combos

Before getting into the combos, it is essential that you get in the habit of quickly planting seeds as you are casting your other abilities.

Q W W

This is your bread and butter. Hit the enemy champion with the Q and quickly press W twice with your cursor in the Q hitbox. Make sure you press the W while the Q is casting so the seeds will sprout. This combo is perfect for early trades, and to proc Electrocute You can also AA at the end for a little more damage, or if you only sprout one plant, an auto will proc Electrocute (assuming you landed the Q and the plant hit).

E W

Very simple disengage. If you get dived by a melee champion, quickly use this combo to snare them and disengage while your plant hits them. For more damage, you can also try and land Q W W for more damage. Since they will be snared and slowed, it should be easier to land, and you can follow up with autos, while keeping your spacing.

E W W R Q Ignite (all in)

This is your finishing move. When the enemy is low (<50%) and ideally without Flash, look for an E. If you land the E, quickly plant your seeds close to them, and R. The snare and slow from your E and Lashers should ensure that they get hit by your full ult, Q, and autos. This should be enough to burst down most squishy opponents, but if they are a little tankier, or have more health, you can continue the fight with Q W and autos. Your enraged plants will ensure that they cannot trade back with you without taking major damage, so you can get pretty aggro.

Team fights

R E Q W W

In team fights, just get your ult down on their frontline, snare them with E and hit your Q W W while your ult is still casting. This will do a good amount of damage, CC, and your plants will have longer range since they are Spitters, not Lashers.

Mythics

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Liandry's Anguish This item has the best synergy with Zyra's kit, as a lot of the time you will be able to make use of the bonus damage and burn when you get a couple plant hits on champions at long range. Really effective against tanks.

Crown of the Shattered Queen You can go Crown instead if you are up against assassins or burst mages. LeBlanc, Yone, and Katarina for example.

Luden's Tempest Luden's isn't bad on Zyra, but it is not quite as effective as Liandry's Torment. With that being said, it does give more burst, and can be useful when vs squishy champions. If you want to build Luden's swap Ultimate Hunter for Ingenious Hunter

Boots

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Sorcerer's Shoes These are the only boots you need on Zyra. If you're building Luden's Tempest you could go for Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

Partial Items

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Oblivion Orb This item is a good choice to rush early vs heavy healing champions like Irelia, and can be held for a long time while you finish other core items.

Seeker's Armguard Really strong early armor item, good to rush vs champions like Yone or Zed. Eventually you want to finish Zhonya's Hourglass, but you can finish core items first.

Blighting Jewel This item is good to buy if you need some immediate magic pen, and you intend to build a void staff later. Not very optimal though, since you already get some decent magic pen from Sorcerer's Shoes.

Legendaries

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With a core build of only two items, Zyra has the luxury of an extremely flexible build path. You can mix and match most of these items, with one or two exceptions (noted below).

Rylai's Crystal Scepter This is the only other core item for Zyra - build it every game. The slow synergizes excellently with Zyra's kit, as it allows your plants to get an extra attack before the champion moves out of range. With the recent reduction in price, this is a must buy item. You can buy it after mythic and boots unless you need to rush a more situational item first.

Rabadon's Deathcap Zyra has deceptively good AP ratios, so more AP is never going to hurt. You can buy this early if you're ahead or buy it last in a normal game. Once you buy this item, your plants start doing serious damage.

Demonic Embrace I've been experimenting with this item recently and it actually does get quite a lot of value even when not vs a lot of tanks. Remember to build health items for the AP passive.

Void Staff This item gives you some nice magic penetration, which comes in handy when your opponents build magic resist. It is sometimes worth buying this item even when they don't to help cut through their base resistances, especially if they are tanky champions. This item is better than Shadowflame when the enemy team have a LOT of magic resist. You can hold a Blighting Jewel while finishing other items if you want.

Shadowflame Similarly to Void Staff, this item helps against magic resistance, and especially if the enemy team have shields. If you're going to buy a magic pen item regardless, this is probably the better choice due to higher AP, health, and shield interactions.

Morellonomicon Pretty self-explanatory, this item helps against healing champions, you can either hold an Oblivion Orb while you finish other items, or you can

Zhonya's Hourglass Very strong defensive item, good to buy when you know you're going to need to evade certain burst abilities, or against assassins in general. Stasis lasts long enough that some of your abilities might come off cooldown, giving you a chance to turn the fight. To be honest though, I rarely build this item. I find that I get better value from other items, and my positioning is usually enough to keep me alive.

Banshee's Veil Another defensive item, this one is better vs magic damage, and is really effective for countering CC. Teemo's shrooms, Veigar cages, lots of great uses. I've recently started testing building this second and so far it looks promising.

DOMINATION

Electrocute is incredibly easy to proc as Zyra, and helps to make up for her relatively weak early game. Look to proc using Q W AA at level 2. In theory, Dark Harvest could also work, although the amount of stacks you would need to out damage Electrocute would be significant. Predator and Hail of Blades aren't great for Zyra, although you could probably do something with Predator. Regardless, neither are close to Electrocute or Dark Harvest

Taste of Blood is my preferred choice in this row, as it provides you with more sustain in lane. It does have a long cooldown, but it lines up with Electrocute, and Manaflow Band, which is when you are likely to be using abilities on the enemy. Cheap Shot is not a bad choice, however the bonus true damage is very small, and the benefit of having the short cooldown is irrelevant because you are not likely to be attacking that often.

This row is completely at your discretion. All three provide the same adaptive bonus, it's really just up to how you prefer to stack it. Zombie Ward is the only one I would caution, because if people don't ward in your Elo, it might be harder to stack. Ghost Poro is my personal favorite as I like to ward a lot, and since Zyra is weaker early, it can be harder to stack Eyeball Collection.

You have a couple of options for this row. Currently I like [Relentless Hunter] as Zyra is very slow. 2nd is probably [Ultimate Hunter], although you'll probably have enough AH to be using your ult every teamfight. [Ingenious Hunter] is good on Zyra as well, especially if you like going zhonyas.[Treasure Hunter] is not recommended.

You have no need for attack speed, and get plenty of ability haste from Liandry's Torment, so 2x adaptive and one MR or armor depending on lane opponent.

You will need to adapt your matchup depending on what type of opponent you have.

Assassins

At face value, these may seem like the hardest champions to lane against. In a way you are right, they will hard win any trade. Instead, play passive, get your poke in with plants and push out the wave. Assassins are usually somewhat squishy early, so you can put some pressure on them with a little poke, which in turn usually means they play less aggressively. Pushing the wave out helps to reduce the amount of time they spend roaming, and with your plants, you can push the wave quite quickly.

Something that really differentiates mid and support is that mid is a solo lane. You are solely responsible for the lane, and the wave. Zyra is different to a lot of supports playing in mid because she can push the wave easily.

Your seeds are your most important resource! Maximising your seed uptime and active quantity is absolutely essential if you want to compete in your lane.

Your W lets you place seeds in specific locations, and can hold a maximum of 2 seeds at once. Killing an enemy reduces the recharge rate by 20%. This means actively csing will give you more seeds to use.

This is not a very complicated concept to be honest. Simply place a seed whenever you have 2 stacks, or are about to get the second stack. This allows you to maximize the amount of seeds you have out, and ensures that your W is always charging.

When it comes to where you place the seeds, I have three choices:

Inside the wave
Away from the wave
Choke points and pathing lanes

FAQ: