How the hell's it going guys? My name is Constantine III and this is my one and only Ziggs guide. I'm a diamond five player who has been playing Ziggs since his release back in yi old 2012. Today, you'll mostly find my in the bot lane with the corkster and Lucian, but when dynamic que sticks me mid, you know the hexplosive hell is coming for my enemies. Anyway, you came here because you wanted to learn how to play the hexplosive hamster, the master of mayhem, the creator of chaos, the dankest destroyer, Ziggs, the Hexplosive Expert. I'm here to show you the way to crushing kids and blazing up the ladder, Ziggs style. In case you're new and don't already know what Ziggs does, here's a brief run down: Ziggs is an incredible burst mage who does massive area damage, obliterates towers, nukes people from across the map, deletes creep waves, and literally dunks scrubs in solo que. If you want a champ who can eat a whole team alive in 5 seconds, snipe people from across the map, or simply create chaos and mayhem, then Ziggs is your man. This guide covers everything you'll need to know, from items to laning, team fighting to objectives, combos to tricks, hell I'll dish out some life advice if you want. So what the f uck are you waiting for? Let's learn how to carry the sh*t out of your solo que games with Ziggs.

Hey reader! My name is Constantine, and I'm really glad you chose to check out my Ziggs guide. While you're here, why not check out my YouTube channel? The written guide is fine and dandy, but I've been making some awesome videos about how to improve (and, thus, how to get to diamond elo) that I'm sure you'd love! I hope you enjoy, thanks again for reading and take it easy my friend.

Liked the video? Check out my YouTube Chanel. I post tons of educational league content, epic highlights, and champion montages like this one I'm sure you'd love!
Anyway, now that you are rocking out and ecstatic about playing Ziggs, let's go over what runes, masteries, and items we need to PURIFY THE WOR- I mean... play Ziggs.

Tl;DR

THE KID IS BACK BOYS

I've already touched on this topic a bit in the intro, but it can't hurt to reinforce what makes Ziggs... well, Ziggs. Furthermore, I'd like to get his weaknesses out of the way early on. If any weakness is too big of a deal for you to play with, I'd advice picking a different champion. Luckily, Ziggs is both insanely fun and really good at wining games, so that shouldn't be an issue! Anyway, let's get started.

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Have you ever lost a game because you didn't deal enough damage to the enemy team? Clearly you weren't playing Ziggs then. Mother of God does this little hamster dish out the deeps. With smart placement on your skill shots, Ziggs can hit two, three, sometimes four enemies with three waves of his extremely punishing spells. This results in the deletion of said targets under normal circumstances.

Ziggs is one of the few mages in the game that can actually kill an entire enemy team by himself if you position correctly. God help the enemy team if you throw some CC into the mix to help you land your skill shots. Best of all, Ziggs can stay way the hell in the back and still deal a ton of damage, meaning that if you play him well he can both do a ton of damage and dish it out and a nice cool-guys-don't-look-at-explosions distance.

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With a kit all about blowing up things in a large area, Ziggs is a very easy champion to clear waves and get fat stacks of gold with. His passive, Short Fuse, even makes it super easy to secure tank minions. Not only that, but when Ziggs has a blue buff, he can clear mid almost instantly, go butcher his chicken camp (sorry Lee Sin) and make it back mid before the next minon wave spawns. Value boys!

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Nothing is more satisfying than watching a tank get slammed with two Bouncing Bombs, stumble his way through a Hexplosive Minefield, and reach his hand out to finally touch a Ziggs, only to be leap froged over with a well placed Satchel Charge. Few mages kite divers and tanks better than the ziggsanator. Life advice tip #1: Always spam laugh while kitting a tank. Always.

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Play Video

WHY HE IS A BOSS Has a ton of AOE damage His ultimate is so devastating. There probably is no easier champion to CS (minion farm) on. A rather good chase/escape skill set If played right can farm with spells and not go OOM. (out of mana) Dude, he has EXPLOSIONS! In his free time, he makes fun of Jesus for takeing 3 whole days to come back from the dead.

SPACE

HOW HE IS BALANCED His ultimate has a long delay if shot from far away and it gives off a warning before it lands. Takes some time to learn his W Rather squishy All of your spells can be dodged if used poorly You have an ignited bomb strapped to your back...

Standard mage runes. If you are new and don't know what that means, read on. Otherwise it's a waste of your time for obvious reasons.

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For my marks I pack Greater Mark of Magic Penetration. Ziggs is a spell caster, meaning that the majority of his damage comes from his abilities. Magic penetration counters the stat magic resistance, which makes our spells deal less damage. The more magic pen we have, the less effective the enemy magic resistance is, thus the more damage we deal.

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Armor seals increase your armor, which means you take less physical damage, meaning that shot gun shots and giant swords damage your delicate flesh slightly less. This armor will help you survive jungle ganks, creep attacks, damage from enemy champions in team fights, jungle creeps, and tower shots. Over all these runes will never fall out of use and should always be taken mid.

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After a lot of testing, trial, success and failure, I have come to the conclusion that scaling mr is the best glyph for Ziggs. The Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power gives you additional damage (quite a bit in all honesty) but extra damage is no where near the worth of the added survival you receive from the mr. Look at it this way; Ziggs is a burst mage who doesn't NEED any more damage than he has from his spells. The extra AP will end up being overkill. You'll get around 100-200+ from these runes end game, but if you take the MR blues you will receive 25 mr. 25 mr absorbs a tremendous amount more magic damage than 100-200, thus why I feel this is a superior choice.

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Greater Quintessence of Ability Power simply give you a ton of extra damage on your spells early on. They're really awesome like that. All of your AP really starts to come after your first back to base, so this is also a nice boost of damage until then. Flavors of the League community swear by move speed quints on essentially any champion. While this has validity, using move speed quints requires a very particular play style that the majority of you wouldn't like / know how to wield effectively.

There are two main mastery paths for Ziggs: Thunderlords and Deathfire. Thunderlords gives you superior burst/lane kill pressure, but Deathfire gives you exceptional poke/AOE damage. I'll explain both builds and their strengths/weaknesses.
Deathfire Touch is a keystone mastery that causes all your spells to burn your targets over a period of two seconds (because all your abilities are AOE).

• Sorcery
  Self explanatory choice.
• Sorcery 4/4
  Not a game breaker, but it's pretty nice to have. CDR= Moar bombz = moar damage
• Mental Force 3/3
  Flat AP for more damage. Yey damage!
• Arcane Knowledge 1/1
  Flat AP for more damage. Yey damage!
• Executioner 3/3
  This specialization will make sure that they don't get away. Also, if you are ever firing off your ultimate and someone low wanderers in, this is the extra kick in the balls needed to finish the job.
• Dangerous Game 1/1
  You would be shocked at how this can save you. Traded kills early on in the game won't happen if you have this. The 5% health restore will save you from those last ticks of ignite, so long as you kill your enemy first!
• Archmage 3/3
  There is no excuse for not taking this spell. Passing on a 5% AP boost? That's like saying "No I don't want an ultimate, thanks anyway!"
• Spell sword 1/1
  This will make your auto attacks hella stupid op mega amazing ultra epic strong... thus:
  
• Devastating Strikes 3/3
  More armor pen and magic pen to make it that much easier to obliterate all those who dare oppose the godly might that is the hexplosive expert! BOW TO HIS FURY! AHAHAHAH, AHAHAHAH, AHAA-...
  Note to self... drink less coffee...
• Havoc 1/1
  3% damage boost? How could I pass on that?

UTILITY/DEFENSE TREE EXPLANATION

• Meditation 3/3
  Ziggs can go oom easily if you're not watching your mana. This will give you a little buffer if you do have a need to spam.
• Block 2/2
  You will be trading auto attacks in the laning phase. Make yours better by making theirs worse. Basically, win the trade by dealing more damage, and if you can comparatively deal more damage (that is, by raising your own or lowering theirs) you can call a trade a win. Reduced auto attack damage would help in this ever present endeavor.

Summoner spells are key to your success in the league. These guys are extremely versatile. Let's look at your potential choices in order to be victorious.
THE AWESOME (what I think you should take)

• Flash
  This spell is probably the best spell ever. If you watch my video, you will notice you can use flash in a massive amount of ways to help you kill people, save your ***, or jump in to save someone else's. Unless you are horrible at using flash always take it.
• Ignite
  In most cases, having one offensive spell minimum is ideal. Packing ignite can and will A. Shut down those annoying healers (ignite reduces heals received on that target by 50%) and B. Give you the extra dmg needed to get the kill early on. Early game if someone is hanging around with 2 bars mid, a flash right click with your passive will and ignite almost always kill them. This spell also does true damage, so tanks will drop just as fast with it on them.
• Ghost
  Another great escape/chance tool at your disposal. Frankly I feel that flash is better because you can do some wicked awesome stuff with it, but ghost is better in a few aspects, i.e., running to a lane or sprinting out of a gank. Use in place of flash if you want it.
• Clarity
  I don't like this spell, in fact I hate it, but it is very good on Ziggs. This allows you to spam your skills and even mana bait. I don't take it because it is not very good end game.
  SPACE
  THE AVERAGE SPELLS (what you CAN take, but not the best)
  • Teleport
    This spell is mainly used by solo tops as that is much less accessible to be covered by your jungler than mid is. However tele ganks are very nice =D. All preference, but I don't recommend this spell. Getting back to lane faster is also nice as it is a 1v1 and level leads are devastating in mid. However, your ult is semi global, meaning that you can help other lanes without teleport. Some players swear by this spell, if you're one then feel free to prove me wrong.
  • Exhaust
    An underrated spell for AP carrys, but its only extremely good use is against AD. Against AP, it's not as noticeable and it won't completely break their DPS. Only take if they have 4-5 AD champions.
  • Surge
    This spell doesn't really have as much bang as ignite or another offensive spell. It's better for AD carrys and hybrids like Jax.
  • Clense
    Only take this if 4-5 of the enemies have extremely hard CC. They will end up stacking it, and this will get rid of it all in one fell swoop.
  • Heal
    I know this got buffed, but it’s more of a support spell. However, you could possibly take this if you’re fighting a Le Blanc mid. If she does a full burst and you live, just pop heal, turn around to fight, and show her who is boss.
    
    SPACE THE OMGWHYDIDUTAKETHATONZIGS SPELLS
    (I will personally drive down to your house and RIP OUT ALL OF YOUR HEMOGLOBIN IN YOUR RED BLOOD CELLS IF YOU TAKE THIS ****)
    • Smite
      You're not jungling...
    • Promote
      FOR SUPPORTS ONLY
    • Clairvoyance
      FOR SUPPORTS ONLY (on a side note a very good spell but not for you)
    • Revive
      I heard that if you pack revive the Riot staff comes to your house and beats you with turkey legs. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

As you all are well aware, there really isn't one sure-fire way to build Ziggs every game. In reality, you should be buying items based on what starting items you take and which items you think will help you best in a match. Ergo, the lay out of this section will be divided into utility items, damage items, survival items, and starting items.

The Starting Items

Path #1: Crystalline Flask
Crystalline Flask is a starting item that should be picked when you are looking for an aggressive early game. This start will allow you to buy a Stealth Ward and a Health Potion, allowing you to push your lane early on and trade damage. I take Crystalline Flask against champions that have a semi weak early game, such as Gragas. This is also a good start to take if you are trying to deny an enemy cs by shoving them to their tower. This would be a good idea against a mid like Anivia (pre level 6 of course). Like the doran's route, you can pretty much build anything you want if you start flask.

Path #2: Boots and Health Potion X4 / Health Potion X2 + sight ward
The boots start is not nearly as used as it used to be, in fact I would say that almost no one uses it now. However if you are laning against a very poke heavy mid and are afraid of early jungle ganks, you may want to use this start. It's really not optimal though, just an option. You should consider building sorc shoes if you start with basic boots.

Path #3: Doran's Ring and Health Potion X2

(By far the best start!)

The ring of blue is what you should pick up 99% of the time except in extreme circumstances. The ring got tremendously stronger in season 4, as now you can have two healing potions in your inventory, thus removing the risk that previously ran with buying dorans.
In addition to the extra health and mana regen, this item will give Ziggs39 ap early game, meaning he has a high chance of getting an early kill or getting a huge cs lead if he plays his cards right. You can pretty much build into any item without penalty with this start.

Trinkets

As you all are aware, season four brought with it a brand new pieces of gaming, one of them being trinkets. Let's go over why you always buy the warding totem.

Warding Totem

My personal favorite, this trinket lets you drop a free ward. Obviously the pro is a free ward, but there are a few problems with it. First off, it's like an explorer ward; it only lasts one minute. Thus to use it efficiently you should drop it into the river when you think the enemy jungler is coming, which can take some practice. However, this is easily fixed when you turn level 9 when it then lasts for two minutes, making it a bit more efficient. As a mid laner I would definitively pick this one 100% of the time.

Why, you would ask? Let's go over the other two trinkets; Scrying Orb and Sweeping Lens. Scrying Orb is an excellent scouting tool, brush checker, and buff stealing aid. This trinket is great for champions that A: don't have skill shots and B: roam frequently. As you all know, Ziggs does roam, and he does sometimes need to scout, but he's no Kassadin or Gragas. It's just not as useful as a ward. Sweeping Lens is just for supports and junglers tbh, it's much less useful in mid where there are 2 wards max at a time that you could potentially kill.

Items of Destruction

Pure Decimation
Rabadon's Deathcap gives Ziggs an absurd amount of just flat out boosted damage. A 30% boost to AP and a 120 ap bonus makes rabadon's the best offensive item for Ziggs period. Buy this item if you are wining lane rather hard and can afford a Needlessly Large Rod earlier on.

Siege em up boys
Ludens is a very storng item on Ziggs. Number one, it gives Ziggs a 7% boost in movement speed. Movement speed is one of the best stats in the game, and, when combined with the huge boost in AP ludens gives you, makes this item a must buy. Although the explosion passive was nerfed, this item is still king on the ziggs-a-nator.

Tercentennial Tower Terminator of Terror
No joke you will kill towers in three shots with Lich Bane + short fuse and full build. The thing is you actually think i'm exaggerating. You are thinking, "Dude come on, there is no way riot would implement a way for a champion to kill a turret in three shots."
WELL GUESS AGAIN FOOL, THIS IS THE REAL DEAL. If the enemies are not building mr and you are fed, whip out your orange swords of doom and melt some face with your glowing purple hands.

Magic Pen **********a
Buy it for speed and the damage. Both these stats are great. Buy it when you can. Let's move onto interesting **** shall we?

The MR Slicer
Void Staff gives 70 ap and 35% magic penetration. You should buy this item only when 3+ people on the enemy team have over 100 mr AFTER you subtract your flat magic pen. If you follow my runes and masteries, Ziggs has 23 flat magic pen and 8% magic pen after the purchase of sorc shoes. Basically if 3+ enemies have 130 mr, it's a good idea to buy a Void Staff.

The Health Obliteration
Liandry's Torment is a very nice pick if multiple enemies are stacking hp in some regard. Please don't take this as "3 people have to have Warmog's Armor to justify a Liandry's Torment," but rather any sort of health addition on multiple enemies. I usually pick up Liandry's Torment if the enemy mid buys a rod of ages, the enemy Taric has a Ruby Sightstone, the jungle Nocturne has Spirit of the Ancient Golem, and so on. With enough hp items, you can be doing up to 12% of someones current health if they step into mine field, meaning that you can obliterate the front line in seconds. I love this item and build it around 60% of my games.

The Double Edged Sword
You may be asking, "What does he mean by a double edged sword," after reading the title. Zhonya's Hourglass serves two purposes; to give Ziggs a massive damage boost and to itemize against strong ad champions. Essentially zhonyas is a strong pick when you are looking to upgrade your damage and fend off physical damage. The activiate is very useful when fighting very bursty champions that have a sort of "ticking ability". I would classify a ticking ability as something like Swain's q and e, Zed's ultimate, or any sort of bleed. Another good way to use zhonyas is to dodge a long ranged ult like Ezreal's. Finally zhonays can be used to allow your team to collapse on an enemy team while they wait for you to get out of your stasis effect if you get caught out. Overall it's a very strong item.

Items of Utility

Our Infinite Manna Well!
Now we can get ourselves to a sustain item. Athene's is an insanely good item. Let's brake down the stats, shall we?

• 60 AP. Not a tremendous amount but a nice boost.
• 40 MR. Oh hey Karthus that's a nice requiem you have there. OH WHAT I LIVED WITH 60 HP? GO DEAL MAN I HAVE MR.
• 15 Mana regen, restores 12% of your max mana on a kill or assist, increases your mana regeneration by 1% per 1% mana you are missing in addition to 15 mana regen. When I saw the mana regen here was my reaction:

Play Video Yes, the mana regen is insane. It's copious, it's endless, it's awesome. Finally we-
Billy Mayes- BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! YOU WILL ALSO GET 20% CDR REDUCTION! MORE SPELLS, MORE SPAM, MORE FARM, MORE DAMAGE, FOR ONLY 2950 GOLD!

... moving on

The Purple Book of Heal Crushing
This item is currently a very very niche item that I rarely take on Ziggs. Don't mistake this for a lack of quality but much more a lack of applicable situations. I wish I could find a graph of my item purchases, but on the week Aatrox came out my purchasing of this item sky rocketed. Why? Let's break down the stats of the item.

• 75 ap- This is a solid amount of ap, but it is rather weak compared to other items of equal tier levels.
• 20% CDR- Half the cdr you need to be caped! This is exceptionally useful, but an item like Athens gives the same amount. More on this later.
• 12 mana regen- Certainly not useless, but it pails in comparison to mana regen gotten from pretty much any other mana regen item in the game.
• Grevious Wounds- If you deal magic damage to an enemy when they are bellow 40% health, it will cut their healing in half. This is... it's like taking a steal chair and slamming it into that vlad's throat. There is no hope for the wee little vampire once this bad boy is on the table.

Now that we can see the stats, compare that to those gotten from athenes. If you do, you will notice the only thing that morells has on athenes is 15 more ap and the grievous wounds. Not exactly an optimal choice... unless there are enemy healers to be dealt with. I think you guys will know when to and when not to buy this item, if there is an enemy champion who is causing trouble and is heavily reliant on spell vamp or life steal, this bad boy is your go to guy.

Defensive Measures

Maximum Kiting and Thriving
Rylai's is a VERY AND LET ME RE-ITERATE VERY VERY VERY situational item that shouldn't be taken most of the time. The most common situation you take rylai's is if the vast, and I mean vast as the sea or a fat mans butt crack, amount of their damage comes from melee champion that you know for a fact that you can confidently kite with just slow and your spells. For instance, if Aatrox and tryndamir are pumping out most of their damage, you should be able to keep them off you if you have enough slows/cc of them. That's it. I don't want to see you buy rylais because Vayne is ripping you a new one and you want to live longer in team fights. Buy a zhons or a warmogs then, don't waste gold on a passive you won't use!


Repent Karthus! Your Bane Has Arrived!
This is such a wicked sick item. The stats, we shall dissect!

• 450 hp. Nothing huge here, it will suck up a heavy crit from an adc. Still it's a solid amount of hp and will help you to some degree, however negligible.
• 55 MR. Noice! This 55 mr will make your extra hp last for days when fighting a mage, especially if you already have a chalice.
• Le bubble. It blocks a spell. Hell ya!
  What, were you expecting some sort of extensive and comprehensive explanation as to the imperative nature of the bubble? What sort of insatiable lust for redundant teaching posses you? What sort of sadistic individual demands such a ridicules thing? You should be ashamed of yourself; revel in the dishonor you have beget upon your family name!
• Grants 45 health regen for 10 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion. Excuse me, poke team? Yes i'm here to crush your hopes of victory? Yah, I just bought this Banshee's Veil and now all of your poke is negated. Okay? Okay? Bye bye now!

This section is dedicated on counter items. All games are going to have some aspect that is unique about them, and they may even be drastic enough to cause you to derive from your build. Here’s a list of some problems you will encounter and how to deal with them.

THEY ARE STACKING HP ITEMS!
Countering HP items is easy to do, buying [[liandry's torment] will take care of that issue. MAKE SURE TO USE IT!!!

THEY ALL HAVE MR
Fear not, Void Staff is here! This item will cut their MR by 40%. Only get this if they truly are stacking MR and have 100+ MR on 3 or more champs. (don't buy a void staff because one enemy bought a pair of merc treads) If they have no MR, buy Abyssal sceptor and laugh your *** off as you're doing true damage.

THE AD CARRY IS REALLY STRONG!
Stacking HP won't work, this calls for an early Zhonya's Hourglass and, if need be, a Thornmail. We want to avoid buying pure defense items, but if they are kicking your *** it's worth the 2k gold.

erm... I fed mid...
If this happens don't panic. You may get some **** but you can counter. Build an early Null-Magic Mantle if you have died 2-3 times and haven't killed them, or if it's 3+ then buy a Banshee's Veil. If you are not feeding but they are eating you up, buy abyssal.

THE HYBREAD IS FED!
This one a bit tricky, as they deal both magic AND physical damage. These champions can actually be countered by stacking health, as no Akali in their right mind is going to buy a madreads... If they do bonus points for you as it's a horrible items for her =D.

I need to do more damage to the offtank
If you're are just destroying the squishes but can’t seem to kill the off tank like Riven, then they probably have a good amount of MR. If you are having trouble killing anyone with over 100 MR then buy a Void Staff. Still having trouble? Buy a DFG!

Sneaky ninjas are killing me!
In this instance, it would be appropriate to buy a Guardian Angel if it's really becoming that much of an issue. However the much cheaper (and less damage crippling option) is to buy a zhons and stand near your team at all costs. If the Shaco does jump onto you, pop zhons and let your team rip him to pieces. If he truly is killing you in two seconds, then he should die in two seconds. Also, upgrade your trinket into the pink ward instead of the super sight ward. Place it at a key objective where you predict fighting will happen. If you guys are, for expample, baron dancing, place it in the little tiny square brush between the two ramps and guard that ****. It could very well catch a sneaky bastard off guard =D

THEIR JUNGLER IS GANKING ME ALOT
Wards. Check this **** out if you are new to warding. Click me for warding info!Also make sure to hang back a bit more in lane. Don't over extend, and don't push your lane for the love of god.

Obviously you may encounter some situations other than fed people in your games, ergo you need situational items! These items are not every game picks! Only grab them when they are called for!


Abyssal Scepter
Don't build this on Ziggs 99.9% of the time. The SOLE time you should build this item is if they have a Rumble top, a Swain mid, a Fiddlesticks jungle, and a Lux support who is building ap. The trend here being lots close range AP carries. Please note that you must be close for the MR reduction to happen, which is why I take Void Staff over this.


Mercury's Treads
If you are facing an AP heavy team with a lot of CC, it's not a bad idea to grab this. You should also buy this if you are losing to a kill lane mid, like a LeBlanc.

Archangle's Staff
If you are having mana problems with Ziggs, this will solve them. Buy an early Tear of the Goddess and build this after your boots. You will want to build rylies next, then Rabadon's Deathcap.

tear of the godess Tear of the Godess
Tear is a good idea if you are wining your lane very hard and are not concerned at all about their damage. Unlike Chalice of Harmony, this item is pretty much impossible to go oom with. Also, if you plan on buying tear, get enough gold to buy one, shove the lane VERY hard, and go home at once in order to get full stacks ASAP.


Quicksilver Sash
OMG THIS ITEM IS SO UNDERRATED IF YOU'RE GETTING STUNNED DON'T SUCK IT UP BUY QSS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! When you're fighting Brand, Malzahar, or Morgana, this item will remove all stuns they lay out on you, effectively blocking their combos. Honestly morg mid can't kill you if you have QSS because her stun is negated. Also it costs less than a dead llama.


Rod of Ages
This will be taken when they have a lot of jumpy champions like Akali, Nocturne, Kassadin, and Jax. These champs will jump right on top of you, and you should buy this first to live through their burst. Only get this if they have something like an Akali solo top, a Nocturne jungle, and a kassidin mid.


kage's lucky pick Kage's Lucky Pick
Take this item if your farm is not the best, which will happen. Also, do not be one of those people who tries to say an item will pay for itself in X amount of time. View this as bonus gold, for like a blasting wand or something, not paying for itself.


Seekers is the anti-ad mid item. Ideally you will have an ap-armor page set up (If you don't I highly recommend it!) to go along with this item. Once you purchase it you automatically receive 30 armor and 20 ap. After killing 30 minions you will get 15 more ap and armor. This will give you 45 armor and 35 ap, giving you a really nice edge against that annoying Talon. I would always buy this item against any ad mid.


On a side note, any item that is under 2650 is a good pick for when you are not doing well.

Ziggs is a champion who can be built in a lot of different ways. I will point out some of them incase this build is not your style. I do not endorse them nor support them, but simply list them as not recommended options.

THE PATH OF SURIVAL
This build centers around not dying while still pumping out a good amount of damage. With this build you have great sustain, great survival, and decent damage.
Masteries: 9-0-21 Make sure to grab the spell vamp and mana regen in the utility tree, and the spell vamp and AP in the offensive tree.
Runes: Yellow mana regen, magic pen reds, AP per level blues, spell vamp quints.
Build: Normal start, Tear of the Goddess, Rod of Ages, Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Rabadon's Deathcap, Will of the Ancients, Archangel's Staff.

PURE DAMAGE
This build is about (gasp) pure damage. No survival, just damage. You will destroy and die just as fast.
Masteries: Same as the ones we already have.
Runes: Same as the ones we already have.
Build: Normal start, Tear of the Goddess, Rabadon's Deathcap, Zhonya's Hourglass, Archangel's Staff X3 (the passive stacks)

Now to talk about his spells. They are all rather unique and it's rather important to understand their function and why you max what first. Also, if you don't fell like reading all of this info just watch this:
Play Video
Short Fuse (passive)
This passive is great, it scales off AP and it gives you your only "reliable" damage. Every 12 seconds Ziggs's hands will glow red. When this happens your right click will hit harder. The amount of time it takes to charge up can be cut by 4 seconds every time you cast a spell. With this your right click will hit for the enough damage for it to actually hurt when you hit the enemy with it. Also very nice for farming those high HP minons early on.
Bouncing Bomb (Q)
This spell is Ziggs bread and butter, thus it should be maxed first. It has A LOT of kick *** little bits to it.

• #1: It bounces 3 times before exploding, the distance getting cut by about 1/4 for each bounce, i.e. if it goes 10 yards, it will go 2.5 yards, then .625 yards.
• #2: It explodes when it comes in contact with any impassable object or enemy(minons, champion, walls, turrets, ETC)
• #3: Totally spammable, on a 3 second cool-down with relatively low mana cost.
• The hexexplosion is wider than the detonation range, meaning that you can cast it at minons, walls, towers, and still have it explode to hit a champ.

Satchel Charge (W)
This spell gives Ziggs his epic ability to be completely unpredictable. If an enemy stands on it, it will knock them in a direction about a few paces. However, if you stand on it, it sends you around half the cast range of your q. This spell should be maxed last due to the fact it is for utility. A few things about your spell:

• Great cast range (the best you have besides your R)
• You can jump walls with it. Do note that it's harder to get over a pit then it is down it. (Ergo jumping the wall INTO the enemy base is a lot harder to do then jumping OUT of it.
• Reveals brush area.
• The direction you jump in is based on where you are standing on it, and it is rather sensitive on your position. Fail jumps will happen, so get ready to be mad.
  
• You can cast skills while mid flight! This means that you can pull some epic mid flight casts. Personally, I don't find this aspect of the spell to be overwhelmingly helpfull, but it still can be fun =D
• Channeling spells ( Nunu & Willump's ultimate for example) can be interrupted with this spell. Make an enemy mad when you interrupt that pant ult, the nunu ult, or the fiddlesticks casting crowstorm!

Hexplosive Minefield (E)
This spell is what(in my opinion) makes Ziggs as strong as he is. Even with the fact that the damage is cut in half for every extra mine they hit, it does insane damage. If some fool decides to charge you, you can drop mines in front of them and deal around 20% of their health or more. With this damage you can also use it as a zone controller. This means that you can actually seal off exits, forcing them to take one path. When they do this and are low, the only place they can go is the other path, meaning its relatively easy to land your R. You should max this second as it isn't your bread and butter but it's not utility. It's a lot of damage and some utility.
Mega Inferno Bomb (R)
This ulti....
dis...
ulti....
DIS ULTI is crazzzzzzzzzzzzy for so many reasons, let me list a few reasons why

• The AP ratio is .9
• Its range is insane, about the range of Pantheons ult or better.
• It has a pretty nice sized hit box.
• He screams something hilarious every time he uses it!

Now here is why his ulti is not the most OP thing since bread...

• It gives off a warning before it lands (about 1.5 seconds)
• To do full damage they have to stand in the center, which even the worst of players would try and move out of that
• It takes a while to land after it is shot, around 2 seconds if you cast it on yourself. (it's longer the farther you punt it)
• Enemies can dodge it if they are not slowed or stunned, meaning that long ranged snipes are rather difficult to land.
• Can be dodged or survived due to flash, ghost, jumps, heals, shields, passives, potions, Jesus, team mates pulling them out of your ult, endless rage, hourglassing, and Chuck Norris randomly eating it mid flight.

Wow, that's a lot of cons with only 3 pros, why is it so good?
Because its challenging and very rewarding.... and damn it I like a challenge.

By the way, here is a nice way to use your ultimate. Play Video Oh, did I mention this was me? (swaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag)

So, you know Ziggs tool kit eh? Now let's look at see what you can do with it. We shall start with your basic combo i.e. any time you're in mid and you engage in a fight with them you should do this.

• First off throw down E on top of them. It may be hard at first to guess where they are going, but ideally they will be standing in the middle of the field.
• They should be slowed now, so cast Q at them. It will be easy to hit them.
• Check wards extremely fast to make sure the jungler is not near. If he is, back off as you're about to be ganked. If he isn't move on to step 3.
• Now this is the tricky part. You need to knock them back into one of your mines with your W, then cast an ultimate to where the center is right on them. Then ignite, right click (for your passive), and they should be dead. If not, pull off or spam more q's.
  
  It should look something like this: Play Video
  I slowed down the combo so you can see exactly what I do. Ideally you should be casting your spells faster than this, like, breaking the keyboard, luticris speed fast mashing.

Bring the enemies to the hexplosives!

Keep in mind that your allies can pull (or push) enemies into your Hexplosive Minefield. As shown in the video below, a champion like thresh can hook a squishy target and yank them into a cluster of landmines for a tasty free kill.
Play Video

For escapes only? Says who?

Satchel Charge is not only good for re-positioning yourself in fights and knocking back enemies; it can also be used to slay foes when you have used up all of your skills. Here I whiff some spells when hunting down this Galio and land a kill using my W.
Play Video

One of the many qualities that separate the good from the bad is map awareness. To truly be helpful to the team, you must know how to gank and how to use your ulti to help bottom, top, and jungle.

M.I.B. TOP AND BOTTOM

• HERO MODE IS NOT ALLOWED. Don't try and snipe enemies at their turret when they get out with nothing. Kills are not everything, if you ult and it brings them low enough for Ashe to kill them, you did a good job.
• Predict travel times. You need to be at dragon to get a reasonably accurate shot with your ult. It will take around 2.5 seconds for the ult to land near the back end of enemy brush. Lead with it, as they will most likely run right back to their turret. Watch how this Ziggs does it when Phreak ganks bottom. (skip to 3:38 for gank) Play Video
  • As I said before, he had done everything correctly. He was at dragon and he shot his ult right where they were standing. This is because he knew Phreak would stun and snare the ganked. HE DID NOT HERO MODE. Point to you Dannamoth.
  • For those of you who are wondering about top, do the same but from Baron pit. However, solo top will be beefer and usually won't be caught in a 2v1 where your ultimate is needed.
    
    
    GANKING IN PERSON
  • First off, always let the lane know that you are ganking. Normally a ping or saying "ganking" is more than enough to alert them to your presence.
  • Unless the ganker has hard CC (which Ziggs doesn't) the lane should start up the fight if they can. Have a Sona ult them or Taric flash stun.
  • Start by dropping mines just behind them, but to where the mines in the back are touching them. This way they are slowed and will have to walk around the field.
  • Just do your standard burst from here on out.
  • Receive praise for being a boss!
    

    When do I roam?

    Simple! Essentially, when there is nothing else to do. Did you poke your enemy laner back to base? Shove out that wave and roam bot? Just got back to lane and Anivia is taking her blue buff? Take advantage of this lapse in time and go grab a kill.
    

    Hey! I killed some people!... Now what?

    Take some objectives! That means have your jungler help you take dragon, kill the enemy tower, or steal a buff. Anything to take advantage of a lack of enemies.

Your ultimate is a very devastating move, and it sucks when you use it and you hit nothing. First off lets get a few things straight about sniping.

• If you are trying to snipe a player with it when they are low, the longer you wait the more likely they have juked you out.
• You should use it when you have a good chance of landing it. Use it after that Jarvan IV Cataclysm's or after Taric stuns someone who is low
• This spell can steal dragon and Baron.
• Most importantly of all, do not be afraid of using it pre-maturely in a fight. I mean, don't open with the thing, but going back to rule one, using it early with a guaranteed hit will be more likely to kill someone then trying to pick them off as they run.

The key to sniping is predicting movement and knowing your enemy.

• If you're playing a spaz who (when low) loses it and runs in a straight line mashing the move click and sweating bullets, don't be afraid to shot it just in front of him.
• If you are playing someone who has a shield or heal and knows how to use it, try and remember if they have used it recently. These things usually are on a longer cool down. The best guess is that if it hasn't been used in around 7 seconds, don't snipe. 1-5 is ideal as it is most likely on CD.
• Magic resist is key! This chart will help you know if you can kill someone with an ult.
  0-20= 20% reduced damage
  20-50= 30% reduced damage
  50-100= 50% reduced damage
  over 150 MR= 70% reduced damage
• Don't try and snipe people who are any good at dodging. They will dodge you if they are not in a choke point.
• Last but not least, a good leading shot is key. Judge by how fast they are going, are they going to be CC'd, and are they trying to dodge. If someone is moving in random directions, don't try and lead, just cast M.I.B. on top of them. They will be spending so much time looking for it in front of them, they will be unpleasantly surprised that it is on top of them!

MIB Choke Point Explanation

Using choke points (CP's) to your advantage takes skill, timing, and quick thinking. Lets watch this video of me using choke point to my advantage:

So, what is there to learn? Let's look at the Warwick's and Veigar's situation:

They were in a CP! A CP is any time you or an enemy is in a position to where they have a very limited list of places to run. A CP is based on angles. Not to get into math but...
If you stand in an open the field, you can freely move in any of the 360* at your disposal. You could potentially go in any direction.
Now you are in a long, narrow, tunnel. You want to go forward. You could move in a range of 45* in front of you.
So, knowing this, you know understand what a CP is. The less of a range of movements you can use, the more of a CP you are in. Being stunned, ergo, is 100% CP. Being in midlane, not stunned, with no enemies near is 0% CP.
Now it is time to ask an important question: Where could those poor two souls have gone in the CP they were in?

• Forward? No. My team was in front of them.
• Run left? Possibly. However if they did they would be running into yet another CP. They only had 2 places to run from that point, which is the fork at the brush. This means if I cast my ultimate into the cross roads they would be unable to juke it.
• Run right? No. I would be able to kill them without my ultimate if they ran right due to my positioning.
• Run back to your base? Maybe. That is kind of predictable though. However, you have about 180* to juke with. That would be your best bet.

Wow Agoney, that is a lot to think about in the split second you have to snipe. Is there any sort of rule that will tell you where people will usually go?

There certtainly is! Read this to understand what would cause your enemy to move in the direction they would logically move to. Remember, people will generally:

• Move in the direction of a turret.
• Move away from you.
• Move to places where they have multiple places to go, like a brush or a fork in the road.
• Move towards allies.
• Move toward walls to flash or jump over.
• Move to warded areas if they have a "friendly" jump spell.
• Move to enemy mininons or champs if they have a "harmful" jump spell.

I hope this helps, and remember, PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. Please do not be afraid to fail snipe. You will learn more as you go along. Obviously I cannot teach you everything, a lot of skill comes from experience. So, go out and play!

P.S. This is a list of what the average player will do. I have failed at some snipes because they preform none logical actions (like, run toward my 4 allies while low -_-) or they will do something smart like move in a different direction that you would expect them to (move into a brush, then when you get close run straight at you, effectively jukeing your MIB). Sometimes it is hard to tell if they are good or just really... really stupid.

Farming on Ziggs is incredibly easy. Your passive lets you secure minion kills when they have higher health, and Q lets you pick off minions in the back that are low. Don't spam E while farming, you will go oom very easily! However, using Q to farm is a good idea, and should not only be used to farm but harass. I have hit CS equal to professional gamers many times as Ziggs just because he is so easy to farm on.

HOWEVER

Keep in mind that there are good and bad times for when to push. For example, you have blue buff and you are fighting a Veigar. You have one side of the river warded and you are wining the lane. You should push that kid to the tower all day every day. Why? You will force him to miss last hits, you will not miss ANY last hits (Your aoe, if used correctly, will 100% let you take every minion and not miss a single one if you have blue buff.) and you will allow yourself to be able to take wraiths or wolves, gank other lanes, take dragon, the benefits are HUGE! Just keep your lane warded and this will give you a ridicules lead.

Well when is a bad time to push, you may be asking? Alright, so here's the deal. You are fighting an Akali (ER-MAH-GAWD, A COUNTER PICK... WITH A DASH!), you are losing lane, and the enemy team has a Lee Sin jungle. This is worst situation to push I can possibly imagine. Why? If you push the lane, you won't be near the turret. This means that you are open to ganks from a jungler who has a slow and a knock back ganking for a mid, like Akali, who can follow up a gank VERY well with her ult. If you do die to one of these ganks, say bye-bye to your tower or dragon or a buff or two!

You will also risk killing her tower, meaning Akali can roam and feed the other lanes, take dragon and buffs, and further advance her lead. Not only that, Akali can last hit under the tower really well with her Q, so pushing her to her tower won't actually deny any notable amount of cs.

As a final note, please do not get into the mentality of "Oh, i'm winning the lane, I should push," or "Damn it, I am losing lane, better let the enemy mid shove me to the tower." Your decision to push or not should be based solely on the enemy champion pick and their jungler, nothing else. I base it off of how good the enemy jungler is at ganking and how good the enemy mid is at last hitting under the tower.

For instance, it's pretty likely that you are going to die to a LeBlanc in lane due to her amazing kit that is solely designed for killing APCs. But, as i'm sure you are aware, Ziggs is one of the best farmers in the game, LeBlanc is one of the worst. She, and I am not exaggerating, can not last hit under the tower to save her soul. Even when losing, you should always push a poor last hitter to his/her tower, period. The same can be said for someone who is good at last hitting under the tower. Not a huge point in shoving an Anivia to her tower, she can get all 6 pretty reliably.

So, how do I know if i'm doing ok on CS?
Good question, here is some time frames for you to see if your keeping up on CS.

• 10 minutes
  You should have 50-75 CS by now
• 15
  You should have 100-125 (if you're just farming like a boss you can hit 150, but this is rather unlikely as you will miss some while harassing/running from a gank/ganking)
• 20
  By now you can be around 175 CS, and at 25 if you stayed in lane long enough hiting 200+CS will be no big deal.
  
  Please remember that this CS is only obtainable if the enemy mid isn't letting you kill them all game or you aren't being ganked. In a lot of ranked games you will end just farming by your side of the lane, as all mids are fearful of ganks. In a lot of normal games you may end up having 3 or so kills but being behind around 50 CS. Just add 15 CS for every kill you have. That is your total CS.

As Ziggs your job in team fights to lay down a lot of damage early on and drive the knife home with an ultimate. You're also rather good at kiting, so keeping that Sion chasing you around during a TF would really help. Ziggs is rather good at saving people's lives with charges and mine fields. Due to the fact you have extremely high burst, you should be focusing a squishier guy like Ashe, Caitlyn, LeBlanc, and Veigar. Your ultimate can be used early on to force them to retreat, thus giving you an easy win. You can save it for when things are not looking up to turn the tide in your favor. It all depends on how well you and your team are doing in the game thus far.

Good= Most dragons are yours, and your team has a positive KDR overall with nice farm
Ok= Even dragons and team KDR/farm
Bad= You are outfarmed, little dragons and a negative team KDR

If you are just stomping, save it for later to give them a false sense of security and cause them to commit. When they do, take out a carry and MIB when they are all around 40%.

If you are doing normal, then use it earlier on to make sure your strong guy can wipe out your enemies when they have low health.

If you are not doing well, then use your ulti right away with mines to bring them rather low and cause them to act irrationally.

REMEMBER THAT POSITIONING IS KEY
You must be near enough to the team fight to deal damage but far back enough to not be focused. Remember to stay in the back and FLING MORE BOMBZ.

You may not always be able to pull off full damage on only one carry, so don't be afraid to try and hurt a support or someone squisher at the front. The carries may be in the back doing what you are doing (i.e. playing it safe and not over extending). In that case just focus an off tank or support.

Save your satchel to escape. Someone is bound to jump on you, and you shouldn't stick around to see just how badly they can mash your face in.


DON'T CHASE. If you are chasing after someone mid teamfight, then your team is as behind as they are! Let them go, your team fight is more important than the life of one dude.

Try not to fight when they have baron! The buff is really powerful and only unless you have to or are in a 5v2 situation, DO NOT ENGAGE.

You are not the tank! Do not engage! Too many times I have seen people wandering in the front of their team, only to be jumped. A good rule of thumb is to stay a little behind the tank. Then you won't get caught and can get right into the upcoming fight.

Team Fight Videos and Explanations

Here I will post some teamfights and explain what the ziggs player did right and wrong. Here is case 1.
Lets look at a few things this player did well in a teamfight.
1- He kept the correct distance from the enemy team. This way he would not be eaten in a second.
2- He used his MIB when he KNEW it would hit. This is because of galio's ultimate, which is an area of effect taunt. Know what your allies can and can't do in a TF.
3- He used his satchel charge offensively! Remember that this skill is versatile. He saw that his team was obviously winning a TF so he could use his W to disrupt enemy positioning.

Skip to the 1:39 mark for another example: it's me on the top 5 plays with a sick turnaround team fight. More of an entertainment video than an educational one. Enjoy!


Alright so i'm going to show you guys a pretty dramatic turn around in a team fight. First of all let's watch it and we can break down what exactly happened.

So immediately one thing should of caught your eye when the video started; Amumu's engage. Only 3 people were there to back him up while the enemy team had all 5 players there. I was still running up mid lane and Nami was no where near close enough to help us. After a terrible engage, Amumu then ulted their front line, effectively wasting it. Vayne also decided to Tumble into the enemy Trundle, which as you saw resulted in her swift death.

Meanwhile, Lee Sin was trying to dive onto the enemy Zyra, but was rooted so he could do nothing. At this point in the fight there is almost no hope for victory. However I come and launch my Mega Inferno Bomb and melt a huge chunk of their hp, hitting 4 targets.

While attempting to land damage on the enemy Zyra and Twisted Fate, Tristana ults me into her team. However at this point in time the enemy team is quite low on hp, and while attempting to collapse on me they are hit with even more of my AOE spells. Lee Sin then uses his Q onto Tristana and we are able to clean up 3 kills right off the bat.

While Lee Sin goes off to finish Zyra, Trundle and I duke it out. This sort skirmish right here is a great example of the kind of outplay Ziggs is able to preform. Trundle under estimates my burst and i'm able to flash our before he lands a single auto attack, resulting in an ace for our team.

The moral of the team fight is that even if things are going really rough, you aren't diamond one. Out plays can happen despite there being very little chance of victory.

Many times you will notice that the enemy will be trying to take dragon, and your team just is not near by. This is when you must steal it! Remember; Steals are almost impossible and very hard to do. Follow these tips in order to steal these big dudes for your own.

HOW TO STEAL BARON AND DRAGON

• You must use your ult when the monster has around 30% health! This is key due to travel time, and the fact that they will try to burst Baron/dragon before your ulti lands. If you launch it 30%, by the time it lands it will be around 5%. So it will be a battle of their junglers reactions with smite and your damage.
• Be as close as possible in order to be the most accurate.
• Most of all, don't be afraid to try! You will never get better if you don't!
• Also keep in mind that if the enemy team takes baron, FIGHT THEM RIGHT AFTER THEY TAKE IT. They will be really weak from taking it, there is a lot of potential to pick up some kills (2 in the case of my video bellow)
  
  Play Video
  Timing is everything...

This section is all about your other not-so-friendly mids you may encounter in your quest for domination! I will discuss how to counter them and give a threat level. Anyone with a threat level 8 or up should be avoided. (btw it's on a 1-10 scale)
On a side note, I will only be covering main stream mids. Yes I know that you "can" build AP chogath but you 1.) never see it 2.) it's just not viable.

Power level: ????
Ahri is a 100% skill based champion. She is all about landing her charm and then rapeing you while you are cc'd. Her ulti is annoying, as in a TF she can dodge all of your spells. However, a bad Ahri is easy to deal with. A good one... let's not go there. Generally you want hide behind minions, as you outrange her and Charm is a single target skill shot. Fox-Fire will also fly at minions. Again, minions are your best buddies here!

Power level: 6
Akali isn't horrible to deal with, but can really mess you up if she is good. A lot of Akalis will simply dive onto you thinking that she can eat you. However, in this case you will be able to burst her down easily. In lane deny her early on and you won't have any problems end game. If she goes into Twilight Shroud punish her for it. Drop your minefield into it for some nasty damage. NEVER GO INTO THE BUBBLE! That is a big no-no. Last of all, try to hit and run. She has a lot more sustained damage than you do!

Power level: 5
Anivia's one weakness is that she has to slow you before doing any real damage. Before she hits 6 her ability to combo is horrible. Punish her for this, but don't try to kill her. Unless she is asking for it passively farm. However, keeping her semi low is not a bad idea, as she will stay because she knows she can revive, but she won't try to poke you if you have high HP. This will hurt her farm and you will win the lane via higher CS. Due to her passive killing her is a real pain in the ***, as you have to do it twice. Try to always be in lane after 6 as she can push it really hard. AVOID THE ICEBLOCK, IT'S EASY BUT IT HURTS WHEN SHE HITS YOU!

Power level: 4
Some people may disagree with me on this, but Annie is really weak against Ziggs. Ziggs doesn't just have range on her, he has vastly superior farming and escape kit. Her range is really bad; all you have to do is not get very close. Annie tends to try and bully you out of the lane, so just "let" her do it for now. However, every time she gets close, Q her then run back. Eventually she will have to stop doing this because she is simply loseing these trades. Now all that is left to do is out farm her and not over extend.This will be easy because, again, you just naturally are superior at this. If you do get stunned by her, don't panic. Again, her range is so bad that if you flash she won't be able to hit you again.

Power level: 4
Brand is rather easy to beat out. Again, all skill shots so you can dodge. The key thing to beating him is to harass him after he W E's the minion wave (this is his farm combo). After he does this, he can't really fight back why you go after him. Also, if you are always moving while fighting him he will have a higher chance of missing. Remember, most ap's mid have to stop for a split second to cast, so cast when he casts at you. Runing side to side instead of up and down will throw him off as well.

Power level: 7
Cassiopeia is a force to be reckoned with. She is one of the few champions who has better CSing and spamming than you do. Her Twin Fang spam is devastating and Petrifying Gaze gives her a guaranteed kill if she lands it. Her Noxious Blast gives her a speed up, so she can use this to run right at you to slow and kill you. My best advice is to avoid being hit by her Q at all costs, and let her push the minions to your tower so you can CS safely. If you two do get into a fight, turn around about 1.5 second into it. She will probably miss her stun because of this, and now she is in trouble. Remember, dodge Q and R and you're golden.

Power Level: 4 pre 6: Power level raises to 5 post 6

Diana pre six is super easy to deal with. First of all, unless she gets close to you, all she can hit you with is crescent slice... bagel... french... spell... ANYWAYS, her only form of defense is her shield-bubble spell. The ideal time to attack her is when she doesn't have a bubble shield up, meaning you can max out your damage. Pre 6 she also doesn't have any escapes, so ganking is ALSO very easy. Keeping this in mind, you should try to take advantge of this and crush her in lane pre six with ganks and harass. Don't get too cocky and get ganked! However, once she gets moon-leap-jump-attack-gosquirtleusemoonjumpattackonziggs spell, she becomes much more... interesting to deal with. Now she can actually jump on you when you get close and unleash the full fury of the moon on you. This is bad, but preventable. I do not know EXACTLY how her skill set works, but most Diana's do back off if they miss their crescent strike. So, if you can dodge crescent strike you can stop her combo. Ergo the best suggestion I have for you is to AVOID ALL CRESCENT STRIKES AT ALL COSTS. First of all, you need to know how crescent strike moves. This spell moves in an odd crescent sort of shape(orly?), so just moving to the side won't help. To be more exact, it curves to the left first, then makes a curve right, like the curve of your left parentheses key. However the main flaw in the spell is it's range and a "null zone" in the center where the crescent doesn't actually touch. Going in the center is normally a bad idea, so backing up (despite what your instincts say) is actually the best plan here. More precisely, move at an angle where you go to your back right, because this means it will take slightly longer for the crescent to curve in your direction and and hit you. So in conclusion: Early preasure, early ganks, always dodge cresent strikes, get money, get deathy-hats, get ELO

Power level: 2
You eat his soul. He just can't deal as much damage as you, like, not even close. It's kind of sad.... The only reason he even has a power level is his Arcane Shift. This can be used to jump over all of your abilities. Just try and make him use it to dodge a Q, then drop your E. Don't try and snipe him. If he is trying to snipe you run to the jungle and run in front of a buff. Usually people don't fire it off that way. Fair warning, it could be warded =D.

Power level: 5
Fiddle is kind of anoying mid. His silence is killer, and God forbid you get caught in his crowstrom. Your best defense is your range. Most fiddles max their drain and fear first, so the silence doesn't last long. Just let him fear drain and silence you, but after the fear is off drop mines and a satchel under him. This will break the cast of drain, and at this point you can just eat him. Don't try and out DPS his drain, you won't win. If you see him casting Crowstorm you can interrupt it. Toss satchel under it and it will interrupt the ult and put it on cool down. A real pisser if you are fiddlestick =D

Power level: OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fizz will dodge all of your spells at an annoying extent. Beating him is almost impossible unless you are an extremely better player. There really isn't much you can do against him, ask for a lane change. However, if you must lane against fizz you have to rember that he is an assasin. Therefore he is very weak at pushing a lane. Ziggs can mega-farm a lane NP, so what I would recomend is warding both sides of your river and keeping fizz pushed as much as posible. Try to do this from afar, so for runes (if you can) grab mana regen yellows, MR blues, and spell vamp quints. Your damage won't be the best but you can atleast lane against the dude.



If you disagree with any of my power levels, fell free to PM me. If you present a legitmate arguement I will change it! Don't PM me this...

lawl baddie i never lose mid as annie kbyenow.
WHY U NO HAVE HOW TO COUNTER JARVIN MID U NUB I WIN MID AS JARVIN ALL DAY EDREY DAY

Power level: 6.5
Gragas can be a real pain to deal with. The best thing to do is stay as far away as possible. Doing this will make it easy mode to dodge his Q. If he does use it run at him as he will expect you to run back. He can deal some nasty burst with his Body Slam and knock you into a turret with his explosive casket. Again, range is your friend here. He will be really beefy so harass will be less effective. He can also jump walls with his Body Slam. Due to this, sniping will be hard, so you may want to avoid it all together. Gragas also has much better lane sustain and tankyness. You may really need some mana regen and spell vamp to keep up with this hunk of fat. If the gragus is really good he will try and combo you. This means he will cast the barrel in front of you, ultimate you INTO the barrel, body slam and kill you. Just farm and stay away from his fat ***...

Power level: 6
Much like Karma and her re-work, the Heimerdinger re-work was a great buff to a champion that... well... no one really liked then and no one likes now. Don't assume this is because these champions are bad though, quite the contrary. Heimerdinger is a great champion now, but frankly he relies on people fighting on his terms to excel. Thus, it's very easily to crush him into the dirt if you play smart. For instance, the ****er relies upon fighting around baiting you to get into the range of his towers, stunning you, and then melting you with a rocket swarm. If you know what you are doing, you can easily deny him the chance to do this. Laning against him is very easy if, again, you play smart.
However, fighting against him in a teamfight is exceptionally difficult. He absolutely dominates and wrecks mid to end game. No longer confined by a narrow mid lane, Heimerdinger can stun entire teams with one single bouncy grenade, obliterate their health with a rocket swarm, or create a legion of turrets to overwhelm opponents. The issue here is that he doesn't NEED his turrets anymore to kill your team; he has an adc to do the damage for him.
Thus it's imperative to get ahead of him in the lane, where he is weak, in order to outscale him into late game. Ziggs is exceptional in team fights for his ability to wipe out entire teams. Therefor, simply acquire more gold in him to deal more damage than him (because in reality the ****er can now obliterate teams with his rocket swarm, effectively becoming Ziggs for 2 seconds) to just snowball into a biger threat. There isn't a real way to shut down his biggest threat; the bouncy grenade. So in all actuality, just play the matchup in lane like you used to (don't fight near turrets, poke him down, don't get baited into ganks, win) and you will be just fine. Good luck!

Power level: 4
"Karma does not mid often but she can be an annoying one to face. I play Karma as support but I have midded with her before. Her Q can do decent damage. With Mantra activated it will do damage AND heal her. Because of this you might want to take Clarity or get blue buff so her sustain does not outdo your mana pool. She does need to get kind of close to poke you so you should be able to win with no problem but like I said her heal can be ridiculous so do not underestimate it."
-BlackIceT, Link to his page




Power level: 3
He is easy to beat in the same way that Ezreal is easy to kill. His damage really isn't impressive and is easy to dodge. If he Wall of Pains behind you, just use your Satchel Charge to jump over it =D. If you have around 300-400 hp in lane B back so he doesn't land his req. YOU CAN INTERRUPT HIS R! If he is dumb enough to cast it not behind his turret, drop satchel under him and save your teammates *** ftw. Tell your allies when he hits 6. Buy some early mana regen to keep up with his pushing.

Power level: OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah yes, the purple man eater of death... what a *****. If the Kassadin plays the match up correctly there are 0 chances for outplay due to his silence and jump. Further more the fact that he roams just as easily as a Gragas and still has insane kill power makes him one of the hardest mids for Ziggs to fight against. The main thing you can do when fighting a [kassadin]] is to never let him get away unscathed after he uses his ult to blow his load on you. Even while silenced, follow that guy with your right click and land a q or two until he gets to his tower. This is really risky due to junglers, but if the enemy jungler is camping you in a kas v.s. Ziggs lane... well okay that's several miles above overkill. Finally be SUPER aggressive early game! His level 1-5 is terrible in terms of trading, so if you can catch him out, take that first blood and go buy a chalice for the love of god.

Power level: 6
She shouldn't be horrible. You can interrupt Death Lotus with your satchel, so that kind of stunts off a lot of her damage. However, shung-po will make it impossible to snipe her and land skill shots. Her daggers hurt, and she has not mana so she can spam all day every day. Try and bait her into fighting you. If she does use her jump on you, you will win. If she walks up to you, then don't full combo her. Fight her when the jump is down!

Power level: 5
Her heal is annoying as it boosts her speed and gives her health back, making harass harder. I have found that you can out damage her, but be careful when fighting her when she has ult up. Don't blow your load all at once, watch her for an ultimate and back off. Only engage when you at least 30% more HP.

Power Level: 7
Kennen can be really tricky to deal with because he has a lot of stuns and speed. Both of these are pretty much the bane of our existence as Ziggs. However for him to combo he has to get close to you, which means that he has to come over our Hexplosive Minefield. When he does this satchel charge or flash away from him if he ultis and beat him up from a distance. DO NOT STAND IN HIS THUNDERSTORM! Hide behind your minions so his Q can't hit you. A lot of his damage comes from you being hit by his Q, but that can only happen if you are in the open. Avoid getting a Q, kill his damage. If he does rush up to you, try and kite him. Distrance is your friend, slows and stuns are your... supah best friends!


I will update this once I face him after the void spike changes. Will be a 100% different game after the change in 3.8. See ya soon =D

So umm hi. It's way past 3.8 and I haven't fought against a kha'zix mid yet. So umm... sorry! In case you do for some reason, just make sure to watch out for him when you are alone. He does extra damage when you are isolated! Be especially wary of this if he evolves his claws first. They will be bigger than normal and deal extra damage. If he evolves his wings (he will actually grow wings) then be careful about the jump reset. If he kills or gets an assist off of someone he can jump again. Keep that in mind. Also as a final note his void spikes slow, so dodge them if you can (the missal speed is slow so it will be a piece of cake for a pro like you =D) and his stealth re-sets his passive, so he can slow and deal extra damage after every stealth. Just remember to never underestimate his damage and always call mia on him if you can't see him. His ganks are wicked good.

Power Level:10
Her burst is really stupid, but she is beatable (unlike fizz and kassadin) if you can live through her burst she is dead in the water. I would recommend taking Heal and trying at all costs to dodge her W and her E. If you don't get snared and can live through her silence you can eat her alive. Be careful when she gets low, as her passive will momentarily make her invincible. Don't try and snipe her. Although many people do not know this, QSS brakes silences. MR+ a silence braker, not half bad against her.

Power Level: 4.5
Not exactly a tough champion to deal with. Her burst is nasty, but if you can dodge her snare that burst goes down the toilet. Snipping could go wrong as she has a shield, so don't try to if the snipe won't kill her with a margin of 80-100 HP. Her AOE ball is extremely hard to dodge, so you may just have to take it. As with Gragas, run at her when she uses this skill. She is decent with receiving ganks if she can catch you out with a snare, but other than that she is only adequate at best.

Power Level: 6
This guy can deal some serious burst damage with his ulti, and his visions are just too strong for farming and harass. Never get close to a minion with visions, as if it dies you will get it. Visions will also spread between champions if one dies. Never stand in his circle as it deals percentage damage. Stay far away and wear him down gradually, and try not to engage in a 1v1. You will most likely lose. Do not push, as his ult is un breakable, un missable, and long as hell. Very good in lane, very bad in team fights if you know how to take advantage of it. Sure, he is melting your adc with a death beam, but he can't move. A swift combo will blow him off the face of the earth. In addition to this, you will be doing serious pain to his team mates as well as killing him; unlike Malzahar who is only hurting one person and doing a bit of aoe to your team.

Power Level: 7 Take build 3
He has a short range but his shield can actually block a ton of damage with his passive. Your best bet is to only hit him when his shield is down, and be careful when he has his ult. He will steal a lot of your HP with it. Be aware if he is ulti baiting you. Try to kite him if you can, which is easier said than done. He gets shield based on how much damage he does, ergo if he hits a whole minon wave he will get a lot more shield than if he hits one wraith. Therefore harass him before he can use his skills on the wave, not after. His major weakness is that he uses health as his resource; we can abuse this by buying morels. Hextech Revolver is a core item for all Mordekaiser players, as it helps them not burn away all of their health while pushing. Not only will you cause him to now hurt himself while pushing, his ult is much less effective with the healing de-buff.

Power Level: 9
Her farm... The Black Shield makes her immune to her slows, stuns, and knock ups. Which is a pain. Her ulti will stun you hard and most likely kill you. You need to buy a QSS to break that slow and her Q, which in turn will break her damage. QSS is the key to victory! I have found it more than doable to keep up on farm with her, you just need to get a lot of mana regen and spell vamp to keep up with her staying power. Morgs tend to not want to fight until they have one quintillion CS (in all seriousness morg is only that much better than you if her farm is that much better) and pre-6 her full combo can only deal 30-50% of your HP without her ulti. Your early is a lot stronger. Again, QSS will brake her. Try to farm and don't go too crazy on the harass. Spell vamp OP I guese.



Power Level: 5
"For ziggs it's really important to punish Nidalee from levels 1-5. Throw bombs constantly, your passive, anything you have that will deal damage to her. Try and use your auto attacks to last hit. It's also important to push up the lane a lot, this will leave you susceptible to ganks, but there's nothing a Nidalee can do really do aid a jungler gank pre-6. So you should be fairly safe. Nidalee isn't good at last hitting at the tower, unless it's an exceptional player, in that case they'll still miss a few last hits. After level 6 you need to play extremely cautiously because she can punish you with cougar, maybe even kill you with 1 burst and a spear. Additionally, I don't think his satchel charge really boosts him enough to keep him out of danger. A good Nidalee player will most likely take advantage of his satchel charge and throw a spear when he uses it because it's pretty much a guaranteed hit. So that's why I think Ziggs can kind of lose control of lane post-6. I suppose the most important thing is to make her feel uncomfortable and force a lot of her mana to go to spamming heals. For team fights you'll need double shurelyia's or atleast a really good initiation. Nidalee is very weak in combat so killing her probably won't be a problem if you can rush her and catch her team off guard. Another way to do this would be to force baron, you lack fight control with Nidalee so Ziggs would be very strong because his total damage output over time is more than Nidalees."
-MoonInite, look up her guide on nid here!


Power Level: 5
She is nerfed pretty hard, but can still be a problem. Don't get to close to her, and remember that the ball can deal damage when it passes through you, so don't stand in her general direction with the ball behind you. Her ulti will mess up your positioning. All of her damage comes from the ball, so don't get near the ball. Not extremely hard. Her damage is also a bit low, unless fed. In which case she will lay waste to your team in 2 seconds with little to no trouble. Like TF, she is very high skill cap. In low elo there are literally 3 people that can play her well. Most likely they will screw up somehow and give you can easy lane.

Power Level: 4-6 Consider build 4
He is a spam champion, so you can really hurt his damage with a bit of MR. His ultimate gives him a lot of lane sustain and burst, so be cautious about that. A lot of Ryze's will cage you, then just sit and mash buttons. You will out burst him, so just beat him this way. However after you dumb your load, you need to get back. His cool downs are very low, and he can turn and burn no problem. If you are losing to a Ryze you should go for a morells. His healing is huge if he gets big; this will cut it down to size. In my opinion he is one of the best champions receiving ganks wise. Ryze has a hard cc that is unpredictable, instant cast, and it can't miss. Ward to prevent easy kills for him.

Power Level: 3-8
Alright alright! Silence your muttering about the power level being to vague. I've told you guys I've laned against Syndra literally once, so this is all based off of hypothesis and that one game 4 months ago. So obviously in general do your best to dodge her balls. You outrange her with your q, so play safe from the back and try and punish her early on with a Q into sort fuse. Even if her q lands you will out trade her pretty badly. If she is going for a stun she will drop a ball like right in front of her and fire it off in your direction. If the Syndra don't move and it will miss. If she is bad move to the left and it will miss. It's all about anticipation homeslice =D Other than that, just be aware of how many balls she has on the field when you go to fight. If you fight her when she has 2 already out you're going to be crushed by her ult.




Power Level: 6 Use build 4
A few swains are really good, but most are not the best. His lane sustain is killer at level 6, so burst is your best friend. Don't get snared and don't let him heal back up the damage you have delt! He can also be played as a poke mage, so again a bit of MR goes a long way. Swain is a very easy champion to gank and a champion that receives ganks very well. Try getting your jungler to help you kill him at least once to get your morels ASAP. Once this happens just make sure to tag him with a quick Q to chop down his healing when he tries to get health back via ult.

Power Level: 5
His Q is extremely easy to dodge, and until he gets Lich Bane and some AP his damage is nothing special. If he has his yellow card primed be ready for a flash-stun-gank. Call when he hits 6 so no one gets a surprise visit from him =) TF is a very high skill champion, if he is good he can go up to an 8 in difficulty. However most lower elo players don't have the patience to learn a tough champion so 90% of you don't have to worry about him. It is, sadly, almost impossible to stop him from ganking with his ult. However when he does run to the lane he tp'd to; a well placed mega inferno bomb could quite possibly turn the tide of battle.

Power Level: 7 Use build 3
Talon can be rather hard to lane against. His silence jump, slow, and ultimate means he deals and CC's almost as much as you do. However, his silence lasts less than internet fame, so all you have to do is let you jump on him and UNLEASH HELL! If he does go invis stand on your minefield if you can or run away to your tower. He is very fast while invis, so in a lot of cases running is futile. However with seekers and armor yellows you should have a much smoother time laning against him. Be really really percise when calling mia and make sure to let the other lanes know that when you call mia to back the f-uck up. You do not want this guy snowballing off of other lanes, it's crucial to stop him from doing this.

Power Level: 3
His early game is just terrible, and until 6 he deals little damage and will go oom if he tries to fight you. Honest just kill him and suppress his farm so he can't snowball, then he will literally be useless. If he does stun you're screwed if he has DFG, so yah... don't get stuned =D Very easy lane match up in my opinion. You have to be agressive; buy wards and shove this kid to his tower all day. Make sure to make him B a lot, get a level advantage, kill him early and often.

Power Level: 6.5
Viktor is different depending on what kind of aug he grabs. He can be supporty, a heavy burst champ, or a CC support guy. If he is heavy burst (death aug) dodge his deathray at all costs. Most likely he wont do this but go for the supporty burst kind due to the fact that if he gets this he will get a speed buff after he Q's. Watch out for his ultimate as it will silence you for a brief second and hurts a lot. He has no real burst without it, so if it's down he is yours. Harass early and often, as you outrange him. Try to move in unpredictable ways so he misses with his deathray.

Power Level: 8.5 Use build 4
He can heal through a lot of your harass and dodge your spells with his pool. Don't try and snipe and use caution when engaging. Ignite and range are your best friends, use both of them to your advantage. He is one of the few champions that can move and cast with 2 of his spells (hemoplauge and tides of blood) This means he can dodge your spells even more easily. Try to not fight him. Ganking him on paper may seem impossible, but keep in mind pool lasts for only two seconds. If he blows in early in a gank, most junglers have some sort of slow or stun. Use it after a pool and you will most likely get a flash or a kill.

Power Level: 6
At 6 his combo is much stronger than yours, but he does have a lot of burst (to a fault). Once he does his full burst turn around and do yours. If he does land his E you can't dodge his ult, but you may be able to dodge 1 or even 2 if you are lucky. He is 100% skill shots, so if you are good at dodging stuff (or, more than likely, he is a bad shot) the lane is yours. He has range on you, so you might as well poke him and try to dodge his stuff. Remember, arcano-pulse travels in a very long, but straight line with a slight delay before actually firing. If he has to jump into cannon mode with his W, it takes even longer. An easy way to dodge this harass is to pace left and right. He will try and lead it, and if you know it's coming it's not to hard to just run in the opposite direction. A neat trick is to stand on top of him when fighting him pre-6(or after he burns his ults up). Again, his spells are in a straight line. You can run around the world in 2 seconds if you at the top of it. The same goes for dodging his Q; it's so hard to lane a skill shot that travels in a straight line when the radius of the circle is tiny.

Power Level: 7.5
Yasuo can be a very dangerous opponent for Ziggs. His passive makes him deal with your harassment quite well and his wind wall could stop literally all of your spells but your ultimate. Knowing this, the match up must be handled with delicacy and utmost care.
In terms of dealing with his passive, try to proc it with an un-buffed auto attack. Wait for the shield to dissipate, THEN unleash a q into short fuse auto attack. Be wary; he will start to understand your strategy after a few rounds of bombs and learn to dash onto one of your minons when you get close to Q him. Then he's on top of you and unless you can E under yourself quickly he can wind wall it and proceed to slash you down.
Your best bet for sucess is to let your jungler know to gank mid. He's a meley mid, this if he wants to fight he has to get close. Try and capitalize on this weakness with lots of poke and ganks. You can also out push him quite well (I mean, who doesn't our little hexplosive expert out push anyway?) so use this to shove and gank once you hit 6.
I wish you luck against this nemesis, bring your A game because this lane won't be easy!

Power Level: 9



Just watch this. Everything you need to know.
Edit: That feel when you forgot to crop the end of the video. IF you wanna see some Vayne tips... stay tuned... he-he...

Power Level: OVER 90000000000000000000000000000000000000
If they have read this guide, you're done. Its GG man, they are an unstoppable killing machine whose power is like the kind we have never seen. Truly a monstrous creation that enjoys eating the souls of children and drinking the blood of OP champions. Your one advantage: you have also read this guide. Use what I have taught you well, my apprentice, and all shall be clear in time...

"but I lost the lane..."

YOU F UCKING DISGRACE WTF WERE U DOING!?!?!?

Power level: 7
Zyra is an extreamly powerfull mid, even after the nerf. However, we outrange her and have another trick up our sleves: insane burst. Zyra has to get close to you to really do her full damage. If she does get close, you WILL be able to out damage, her, no questions asked. Try to avoid geting rooted, but if you do (assumeing you have equal gold and hp) you should win the engagement. Poke with a lot of bombs, out damage her, watch for roots. They are very slow, so it's really easy to dodge them. Finally, don't fight near her plants. That's 50% of her damage. IF you get caught in her R, simpley hop out of it. She won't be able to keep up with her megar range.


Welp, that's all the champions that are designed to go mid. Again, If you don't agree with my powerlevel or think I am missing a champion PM me plox.

If you have a fantastic game/games as Ziggs let me know so I can post it, let's start with:
Snowflaxe who just went absolutely balls to the wall crazy as Ziggs and went 7-0 as him, carrying most, if not all, of those games! Oh, and did I mention these were his first few Ziggs games?



FreddyKrugersmum who had one of the best perfect Ziggs games I have yet to see!
OppaGangamStyle decimated his foes using one of my favorite builds!:
(Sorry mobafire won't post this T_T, he went 30-9-24!)

Porkgorkmork completely dominated his first game as Ziggs with yet another classic build!:

GermanB showed no mercy these 4 games as Ziggs ending his destructive rampage of 4-0 with an astounding 17-1 KDR! To sumise: DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYMMMMNNNN
Toader63 "blew" away the competition in these games as our explosive yordaler! (he-he... get it... blew away, as in blew up? Because he... never mind..)

Chrisalad... well he just owned everyone everywhere at once in these 6 games. Well done, these scores are wicked!


Aquilegia scores a tasty pentakill in this ARAM match!


Daw447 had a really solid game as Ziggs, crushing a counter lane and taking home a well fought victory!

Ziggs is one of the better champions in the league, and his ability to kite, burst, snipe, and save people is unprecedented. I hope you enjoyed my guide, and if you have any suggestions or have found some cool things about Ziggs I didn't mention leave me a comment.



Thanks for reading, and don't forget to vote!

CasterMaster for the positive remarks and suggestions. Having a total boss say that about my guide feels pretty good =D. Look up his review shop, again he helped me make dramatic improvements to this guide and he can do the same for yours! Caster Master's Review Shop link

Solace9- Solace helped me out a ton by pointing out my guide had some, eh, outdated information. Frankly I forget to add stuff, and it's guys like him that help me keep this guide in tip top shape. Thanks again man!

jhoijhoi for her Guide on How to Make a Guide. Carried my *** through the coding and how to actually make this thing xD.

My friends for getting me started. Tanks!

Sadly I can not find his guide, but "Ezreal, Pub Stompin and Bar Hopin" gave me the idea for the MR calculations. If you're reading this, thanks a ton bro!


AChubbyBaby for the great advice about WOTA! (pre nerf of course)

Irialis for her grammar and spell checks. I needed them... so.... badly....

JustDieDontTry: For just being an overall awesome summoner. His cho-gath is wicked good, if you like top he's your man.

Special thanks to all of the votes I have received. Couldn't have done it without you!