Hello, I'm "Squishy Support", I am 23 and i play in EUW. I started playing League of Legends at the beginning of season 2 and reached diamond during season 6 by playing AP tristana among others. I play mainly squishy supports (lol) but i also play some midlaners and junglers, and some weird ( but viable ) builds too. I'm planning to reach challenger during season 7 but i always try to keep my guides simple so everyone can read it ! You can check my other guides if you are looking for unusual but working builds, or for short guides about supports.

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Zyra looks like a standard mage, so what makes her an interesting support?
The main reason is that she has extremely high base damage without items, so she will be strong even without much gold (supports are rarely rich) and you will often be able to 100-0 the enemy adc when level 5 or 6.
In addition, your plants allow you to zone the enemy adc really hard and your botlane will always get far ahead unless you are in LCS.
Finally she brings very strong crowd control during teamfights.
To sum up, pick zyra if you like to stomp hard in lane, and also be a strong teamfighter. Avoid picking her if you need huge peel for your adc against bursty assassins and divers.

- Very high damage on both tanks and squishies
- Strong poke during laning phase
- Always wins 2v2 on botlane
- Good teamfight due to heavy AoE crowd control
- Huge synergy with Rylai resulting in good peel

- Vulnerable to ganks
- Being so strong makes you greedy
- "omg noob stop ks"
- No sustain in lane
- Requires very good positionning
- Riot never gives her new skins

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

AP champion -> magic pen. marks. Pretty simple ! Don't use anything else.

Greater Seal of Health

This is good only for very early fights, but this is important in high elo. If you are not trying to get challenger/high diamond, you really don't care and can take other seals without any problems. You can use : hp per level, armor, armor per level, mana regen, mana regen per level, or gold per 10 seconds.

Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration

We are using this because zyra is a champion who gains more damage with magic pen. than AP. If you don't have much runes You can also use : Magic resist, scaling CDR, AP, AP per level.

Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration

Zyra loves magic penetration. If you don't have those runes, you can use AP or Armor.

Fresh Blood or Expose Weakness ?

Fresh blood is good only in the first 5 levels or something like that. So take it only if you know you will be able to harass the opponents really hard with your auto attacks.

Merciless or Meditation ?

If you have mana problems you can take meditation. But when you are experienced you can take the bonus damage because you should never be out of mana.

Greenfather's Gift or Bandit ?

Take greenfather's gift only if you are able to abuse it in the first minutes! It looks good but it's actually not so easy to use it often. Otherwise take bandit for the extra gold.


Why is Deathfire Touch bad ?

The problem with this mastery is that it doesn't have any base damage (well it has 8...) so you need HUGE AP or AD to make use of this. As support you will never have rabadon, and you will always have pretty low AP. And also, Thunderlord is way better early game anyway.

Always take this.

Take ignite when you want to kill someone before he can escape or trade back. I don't recommend it for beginners

This spell is better than ignite in an equal 2v2 fight. It's also good to ignore the damage from an assassin/diver jumping on you or your carry. Don't use it for the slow please.

ALWAYS get sightstone first when you are support. Vision is really important and can win a lane or even a whole game. You also need the gold income (don't be that bronze support building doran ring, please. It's just bad)

Zyra hase huge base damage, so she likes magic pen. even more than others mages.

This has always been a core item for zyra. It has valuable magic pen, and the passive burn will be applied by your plants again and again, and on the whole enemy team ! Thanks to this item you will burn tanks and burst squishies. Always buy it.

It's the second core item for zyra! It will give you a slow on your plants and spells, and your enemies should always be like perma slowed during teamfights. It also makes it slightly harder to escape from your ult. Finally, the slow increases the damage from liandry!

Always buy this on AP champs, it is the most powerful item if you want damage.

Buy this as last item only if you need the active. You can use it to survive against an assassin, or sometimes to flash-ult-E-Zhonya if your team needs you to engage a fight. (If you flash in during late game you will instantly die without zhonya)

Buy this if you are getting instantly killed by an ap champ during each fight. You can't deal damage if you can't survive, after all.

Buy this as last item if you don't need zhonya or banshee. It gives you a lot of AP and CDR. Don't forget you can also buy it to reduce healings on your enemies.

This spell spawns random seeds around you. It is especially good in lane, or when your team is doing drake or baron.

Tips and tricks :

- If you are hiding in a bush the seeds will not spawn until you leave it

- You can see the timer on your passive's icon

- Plants will focus the target of your auto-attacks

- Seeds are destroyed by enemies who walk on it

- Remember nearly all your damage comes from plants!

This spell was good in the past, but the new shape (season 6 rework) made it really bad and too easy to dodge. The damage is still good when maxed first but i would not max it first.

Tips and tricks :

- If you cast it on seeds, a long-range plant with spawn.

This spell allows you to put seeds exactly where you want.

Tips and tricks :

- The seeds from this spell give vision of the area and of the champions who walk on it.

- Always place your seed AFTER casting Q or E, so your enemy can't react

This is a massive AoE crowd control but the cast time is very long.

Tips and tricks :

- Casting this spell on a seed will spawn a short range plant with slowing auto-attacks

- If you cast it after your ult's knock up you will always hit it

- It is easy to dodge, so it's sometimes better to use it on a target who is already stunned or something

This ult makes decent damage, and makes your plants way stronger! It's also a good AoE knockup

Tips and tricks :

- Knockup is harder to dodge if you have rylai

- If you spawn plants in your ult AFTER casting it, your plants will still have the damage buff.

- Example full combo : E W R A W

Why not maxing Q ?

The new shape of your Q made it too easy to dodge, and not good to hit multiple people. In addition, nearly all your damage comes from plants rather than spells, so it's not worth maxing Q (even second, because maxing W gives more plants and stronger plants). However, it is decent spell to poke during the early game, so we put 3 points in it, but not more than 3 points because you really need to have your max rank E during mid game.

Laning phase is often easy as Zyra. Your goals are to :

- Be safe level 1 unless the enemy comes to your seeds.

- Try to get level 2 before the enemies (you get level 2 after one minion wave + the 3 melee minions from the second wave)

- Poke using Q + W + auto attack (it will trigger thunderlord because the plant will attack your target)

- KEEP THE RIVER AND TRIBUSH WARDED AS MUCH AS YOU CAN

- Cast E + W when you feel like you will not miss it. When you hit E you can often kill the enemy by following by Q + W + ignite (if you picked it)

- Use exhaust on the enemy ADC when you feel like he will fight you and not run away. If you get stunned or something like that you should always cast exhaust on the adc or you will die very fast.

- Use your ult when you hit E on the enemy adc or a squishy support.

- If your adc goes base and you don't need to recall you can gank mid and come back when your partner comes back

- If you know the enemy jungler is dead and there is absolutely no danger you can sometimes put a deep ward in the enemy jungle

- BUY CONTROL WARDS OFTEN

- Replace your warding totem by a sweeper once you have sightstone

Teamfight Basics

Zyra is a huge damage dealer. During teamfights your role will be to stay with your ADC and using your crowd controls and damage on the enemies attacking him. Don't go on the enemy carries, unless they are terribly bad positionned and you can flash root them (and you have to be 100% sure your team will instantly kill them), or if they are stupid and are in front of you.

Your Best Friends

You will enjoy having people with strong CC in your team so you can add yours and hit your E on multiple people. (Or they can use their CC after you did a good ult or E) You also like people with strong AoE damage, and they like you too.

Your Deadliest Enemies

You will hate all the champions who can jump too hard on your backline because you don't have any instant stun or something like that. Basically you will hate the assassins because you can't instantly CC or kill them, the bursty divers (like irelia, diana, wukong...), or tanky initiators like Zac, Malphite, or Amumu (they are what Riot calls vanguards)

You are not that kind of champs at all. Thanks.

I tried to keep this guide simple because i want everyone to understand it. I hope you will have fun and win a lot with this build ! Keep in mind that even in ranked mode it is just a game, so stay friendly and don't flame as it would only make your teammates uncomfortable and sometimes even hurt them. They are just people like you after all.
You can vote for my guide if you found it useful, and if you like it i will write more guides about my other picks.
Thank you and happy gaming !