Welcome to my Ziggs guide

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Let me introduce myself first. I'm Churchie and I've been playing league of legends since late season 3. After learning the game and experimenting with all the lanes and roles I ended up maining bot lane since season 5. I'm Silver 5 in solo Q at the moment, but I'm not playing a lot of ranked games right now. Even though I mostly play marksmen, I've always loved to play Ziggs and from the moment he became a viable off-meta pick bot lane I immediately started to try him out. And with succes. I'm holding a 94% win rate with him right now.

With this guide I'll try to let you know why Ziggs is so fun to play with and why he is so strong in the bot lane at this moment. Since this is the first guide I'm making, feel free to give me feedback so I can make better ones in the future.

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Here is a little introduction on Bot lane Ziggs by the well-known LoL youtuber Phylol
Play Video

Pros + Lots of poke + Best Sieger in the game + AoE Damage ult + Zone Potential with E + Some light CC (Slow, knockup) + Off-meta pick (hard to counter) Ziggs is well known for one thing. Sieging turrets. Early game you can quickly get 1st turret blood because of his Satchel Charge which kills turrets instantly when below 25% at level 1. This makes him a threat since he snowballs easily. Later in the game you can easily 1-shot turrets with an Passive + Lich Bane empowered Auto Attack. His poke in teamfights with his Bouncing Bomb can easily eat a lot of HP. His Ultimate ability Mega Inferno Bomb can easily deal up to a 1000 hp damage to carries when you aim the center on them.

Cons - Can fall off late - Susceptible to CC - Vulnerable to Ganks - Ult takes time to land - Needs some Mana-management early - Teammates might think you troll. As with all champions, Ziggs has his strengths, and his weaknesses. His only escape when the enemy collapses on him is the small knockback from his Satchel Charge. In lane, any hard engage like Thresh' Death Sentence or Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab can easily mean your death. You need to be careful with your mana in lane as well, since you need to use your Bouncing Bomb a lot and it can quickly drain your mana if spammed too often. His damage can fall off late if he gets behind, making his bombs feel like waterballoons.

The most common masteries for Ziggs are the 18-12-0 masteries. Deathfire Touch works best with Ziggs' kit because your damage mostly relies on your Bouncing Bomb Sorcery is obvious because you don't need the extra Attack Speed. I go with Feast for the extra sustain in lane since you won't benefit from lifesteal. Natural Talent since you won't be needing spell vamp and the AP@18 is a nice little extra. And, of course you'll want to go with the Magic Pen that Piercing Thoughts gives you.

These runes are the typical ones for AP Mages like Ziggs.

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: The Quintessences give you a flat 15 AP at level 1, which is a nice damage boost to your spells. Your Bouncing Bomb does ~10 extra damage level 1 which can make the difference between a won and a lost trade.
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: The Magic Penetration is useful for most of Ziggs' skills, as he is an AP Caster. It ignores that little bit of Magic Resist and means your abilities will deal a tad more damage.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Particularly useful when laning vs. an Magic damage dealing support like: Zyra, karma or Malzahar which are frequently played right now in the bot lane. With the extra Magic Resist their spells just hurt a bit less.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: Since you'll be laning against an AD Marksman, Armor runes are really useful to be able to outtrade your opponent just a little better. Their spells and auto attacks often will be physical damage which is going to be reduced with the extra armor you get from these runes.

Flash: Flash is the most important summoner spell for almost all champions in the game. Ziggs is no difference. Flash is useful for gap closing to secure kills, create a gap to survive the killing blow and gives you an escape when ganked by the enemy jungler or roaming mid laner.

Heal: Heal is basically the number 2 go to item for bot lane carries. When you are about to die just pop the heal and it might save you from death. The fact that it heals one of your allies as well makes it possible to use it on your support when he is about to die as well. The extra movement speed also makes it possible to create a bigger gap between you and the enemy's who are chasing you for the kill, allowing you to manage to survive the fight.

Short Fuse is what makes Ziggs such a powerful sieger. Every 12 seconds he gets an empowered auto attack based on his Ability Power. The attack deals double damage to structures. Combine this with a Lich Bane and your auto attack can deal up to ~1500 to turrets in 1 hit. It also upgrades your duel potential since the empowered attack can also deal ~600 extra damage to enemy carries in a fight, meaning a Q+AA combo can almost 1-shot the enemy ADC. Your Q is the bread and butter of fighting enemy's with Ziggs. It's low cooldown combined with the nice AP Scaling makes it a strong poke ability. Before any engage in teamfights. Just spam this ability to chunk down portions of health from the enemy's frontliners. When you're able to hit carries with it, you might bite off 1/3 of the carry's HP. Combine this ability with your passive proc for tons of damage in trades with the enemy. The 850 range means it outranges any champions AA Range meaning you can trade without getting dealt any damage. This is the basic ability you need to finish levelling first (after your Ult) to increase the damage of your poke. Maybe the biggest reason why Ziggs is the best sieger in the game is his Satchel Charge. It takes down turret below 25% at skill level 1 up to 35% at level 5. In the laning phase this means that if the bottom lane outer turret is at ~875HP just point and click your W at the turret to immediately wipe it out. What makes this item versatile is the fact that you can launch yourself with it to escape ganks and hard initiation. Mastering the use of this item is key in mastering the Hexplosive Expert. Level this item second, since the lower cd and the increased turret HP% makes it more important than his E Your Hexplosive Minefield is a great zonal tool. Enemy's don't want to walk on the bombs you lay down since it deals a nice amount of damage and slows them so you can hit your Bouncing Bomb easier. Level this ability last because the extra slow and damage won't be a gamechanger. Mega Inferno Bomb is a powerful AoE damage ult. After a small delay (based on the distance it travels) the bomb will damage players in a huge AoE radius. Enemies in the center take the most damage, other champions receive a portion of the damage. This ability is great in teamfights since it is easy to hit all 5 enemies for a big chunk of their health. In lane the ability is great to finish off fleeing enemies. It also effects minions and monsters so you can use it to clear a big wave of minions at your turret or even steal dragon or baron. You want to level this ability as soon as you can (levels 6,11 and 16) for the extra damage and the reduced Cooldown.

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We want to max out Bouncing Bomb first because it is our main damage dealer. The low cooldown makes it easy to spam it and the AP Ratio is quite nice as well. Then Satchel Charge for the lower cooldown and the higher HP% from tower destruction. We level up Hexplosive Minefield last as the first level slow and damage are sufficent and you don't have to upgrade it immediately. Level up your Mega Inferno Bomb as soon as you can (levels 6,11,16) because it's your ultimate ability.

We want this item for the Magic Penetration it provides, so that we deal extreme damage with our abilities. This items is better than the Cooldown Reduction boots since the extra damage is better than the cooldown you can get, Morellonomicon already gives you 20% and you will get the 40% cap with the items you will be buying.

This item is key for Ziggs. The combination of Ability Power, Mana and Cooldown Reduction is just great. The Ability Power adds a nice amount of damage to your abilities and Passive. The mana is necessary since you will be spamming your Bouncing Bombs a lot and the CDR so you can spam your abilities more often. The Grievious wounds on the passive, means ADC's can't drain much hp from you when they're low, meaning their chances of escaping are even lower.

Since Ziggs scales incredibly well with Ability Power this item should be picked up every time. The 120 AP combined with the passive 30% AP increase means you will get around 200-250 AP from it. This makes your poke even scarier and you sieging even more destructive.

More Magic Penetration to nuke everything and everybody you want to. It's sitautional to pick up if you are ahead and want to deal even more damage to everything in your path.

Survivability against AD carries. The active means you can spam all your abilties quickly and when they're landing you are untagatable. I once got 2 carries down using all my abilities and then using the active, giving them no chance to collapse on you me I happily walked away. This item isn't core on Ziggs, but my favorite 5th item certainly.

Take this when comfortably ahead and willing to crush your opponents even harder. The passive makes the burst on your combo even deadlier. Recommended not to pick when behind since you will be needing more survivability

The combination of HP and AP makes your abilities do a little more damage. The HP gives you a bit extra survivability. The passive slow isn't that useful on Ziggs

Gives you a second life. Useful when up against a fed assasin who can 1-shot you in teamfights. Only take this when the enemy has a fed Rengar, Kha'Zix or assasins like them.

Extra MR to receive less damage from Magic Damage dealing champs. The spell shield is useful since youre easy to kill when someone lands some hard cc on you. However, you should be positioned well enough not to take any CC at all, so only buy this when the enemy has a lot of AP and hard CC.

Like every bot laner. Ziggs has a few support that synergize good with him.

Best Brand's Synergy Ziggs probably will have the best laning phase alongside Brand. With Ziggs you want to harrass the enemies and Brand just fits the bill perfectly. His high damage and AoE damage spell Pillar of Flame along with the stun on his Q Sear makes him a big threat in the laning phase. All the games I played alongside a Brand I got fed and snowballed the game heavily with.

Lane pusing Karma's synergy with Ziggs Whereas Brand is good with harrassing opponents and making it a kill heavy lane, Karma is the best choice when you want to shove the lane. Her Q Inner Flame is a good poke tool as well as pushing with. Her E Inspire gives you a good shield to trade with. When Karma is your support. Make sure you push the lane hard and force the opponents under their turret.

#1 sustain supp Janna's Synergy with Ziggs When it comes to sustain champs. I feel like Janna is the best one. Especially when up against poke heavy lanes or hard engagers, Janna's Q Howling Gale and E Eye of the Storm gives you the tools to survive the earlier stages of the laning phase. Nami is a great pick as well in these circumstances.

As well as supports that have a lot of synergy with Ziggs, there are a few support who can make your laning phase a living hell

The hooks Thresh countering Ziggs Thresh is a big counter for Ziggs. He can harrass you with his Auto attacks, but that isnt your biggest concern. Thresh is best know for his Q+E combo. When Thresh hits your with his Death Sentence followed up by a Flay. You can easily die when the enemy adc is someone like Lucian or Jhin. A good Thresh player will constantly punish the smallest mistakes and when his lane gets ahead, just back off under your turret and don't get caught

Grabs Blitzcrank vs. Ziggs Just like Thresh, Blitzcrank has a Grab/Hook ability. His Q Rocket Grab can pull you into him and his adc already at level 1, maybe taking out some of your summs is the process. Make sure you stay behind your minions and avoid getting grabbed. If his Q is on cooldown you can play more aggresive, but keep the cooldown in mind. Also try to take a tanky support with you. F.E Braum or Leona. Janna and Nami work well too is this lane.

Lots of poke Why Malz is such a pain Malzahar can be a pain in the arse when playing Ziggs. He has a lot of poke and lane pusing spells. His Q Call of the Void can silence you which makes you unable to trade since you rely on your spells for damage. His voidlings can push a lane pretty hard back to you and his E Malefic Visions can spread on to you when you stand too close to a dying minions. And of course his Ultimate Nether Grasp can shut you down completely at level 6. I think that Soraka is the best support for you in this matchup, since she can heal the poke you recive and her E Equinox can stop a Malzahar ult.

I will put the most important patch notes down here. Only the changes that can impact Ziggs in a way.

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Patch 7.8

[*] Xayah and Rakan are released. I feel like Ziggs is pretty strong versus Xayah and since people will be playing them a lot in the first weeks, Ziggs might be a little stronger of a pick right now.
[*] Malzahar received a small buff. His armor got reduced from 20 to 18. His voidlings only have 2 bars of health instead of 3 but also gives less gold when killed 10-->5.
This buff reduced his pushing power, so this is nice for Ziggs. The base armor nerf doesn't affect Ziggs since you don't deal physical damage.

Now It's time for probably your biggest question. Why are you playing Ziggs in the bottom lane?

Let me tell you why. Ziggs became viable in the bottom lane because of the changes to first turret blood and the bottom lane outer turret. This combined with the lane potential Ziggs has it makes a deadly combo.

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Let's talk about the first turret blood first. In the beginning of season 7 (correct me if I'm wrong) first turret blood got implemented in the game. The player who succesfully destroys the first turret of the game gets a 300g gold bonus (if you solo it, otherwise you share the bonus gold with the champions who helped you in the last few seconds). Ziggs is a strong sieger with good pushing potential because of his Short Fuse and Satchel Charge, meaning you can easily get first turret blood singlehandedly. From this moment on you can easily snowball lane and help other lanes by roaming.

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Second, the bottom lane outer turret got weakened at the start of season 7, meaning it is easier to take down anyway and a big objective for your team early game. If your jungler gives your lane some attention and pressure, you'll be sieging the first turret in no time. Poke your opponents to half HP, let them push back a little and then strike with a 3v2 gank. If you're able to kill them or force them out of lane, ask your jungler to kill the turret with you and tadaa, you got an early lead.

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Then comes the 3rd part, roaming. After you finished the outer turret at bot lane. Push the lane into their inner turret and look for a gank mid. If you're able to force their mid laner out of lane. Start attacking the mid outer turret and with a little luck, you have a 2 tower lead in the beginning of the game. Occasionaly push back the bottom lane waves and keep on looking for turret to destroy with your Satchel Charge.

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Remember that every champion has it's weaknesses and so does Ziggs. When you're up against a hard engage support like Thresh or Blitzcrank, play it safe and don't get caught by any means. You'll also have a hard time against supports like Malzahar and Zyra who have strong early games and can poke you out of lane hard.

You've taken the first line of turrets and the pressure made it easy to take your first dragon of the game. Good, but what are we going to do next?

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You probably have finished your Sorcerer's Shoes and Morellonomicon by now. Now you got to ask yourself what the possibilities are. Make sure you got their jungles warded well to keep being able to push safely. Keep pushing the mid lane and side lane waves. Ward the neutral objectives as well and since you're ahead, try to force your enemy's in fighting over objectives. Remember that you're a fed carry now so they will likely want to lock you down so make sure you're positioned well behind your frontline. In teamfights you want to harrass the enemy with your Bouncing Bomb and when you see the chance, throw a Mega Inferno Bomb on their carries. From then on it should be easy to clean up their team, but remember, don't get too greedy since you are the squishy carry without a reliable escape tool. When you win the fight, take objectives like a inner turret or drake (maybe even baron if your team is still strong enough). In no time your team will be leading comfortably and your enemy's just see their tower getting destroyed without being able to do a thing.

You hopefully got a big lead and you want to use it to slowly win the game. After all you are the fed sieging carry who destroys turrets like they are icicles. But well, they still have 5 champions who stop you from doing it so how are we going to do it?

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By the time late game shows up, you want to be fighting your enemy's at their inhibitor turrets. Keep their jungles warded and bait out a baron try. If the enemy baits, fight them. Let your front line engage on them and slowly take them down with your Bouncing Bomb and Hexplosive Minefield. Remember to carefully aim your Mega Inferno Bomb at as many enemies as possible. When you win the fight, choose which objective is safe to take. If you can safely kill baron, do it. Otherwise try to get an inhibitor out of it. When you get an inhibitor down. Threat the other lanes. Slowly force your lead into objectives. When you see the chance, try to ace the enemy and end the game. However, don't force it since 1 mistake can throw an entire game.

Ziggs is a powerful pick for the bottom lane right now. His kit makes it very easy to siege turrets and his Mega Inferno Bomb guarantees you a lot of AoE damage. As long as you can snowball the game Ziggs is one fun champ to play with, but even when behind you can still have an impact on the game. Just make sure you won't get caught by hard CC and you will be a big threat in teamfights due to the sustained poke Bouncing Bomb gives you. I hope Ziggs can become your 1-trick champion in ranked solo Queue just like he is for me. If u think this guide is useful, feel free to upvote it, since I would greatly appreciate positive feedback. When you have questions, feel free to comment and I'll try to respond quickly to it. Also feel free to point out mistakes I've made so I can change it to make the quality of the guide even better.

My last few games are down below here. The 6-2-6 game I lost was with a Teemo supp going afk and a heimer mid building lethality.

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Down below i made a small video of me playing Ziggs. The plays aren't incredible and remember this is from a normal silver elo game, but it shows the potential of Ziggs.
Play Video

April 11th 2017: Apparently the guide was already published for me, but obviously it's not ready yet. I'll finish it As soon as possible so you guys can read the whole thing.
April 12th 2017: The guide is complete now. I'll add some gameplay footage soon so you can see the power of ziggs
April 13th 2017: corrected some spelling and grammar flaws. Also inserted a screenshot of games i played a while ago.
Added a video. Quality sucks a little, but I just wanted to put some gameplay in the guide. When I get better gameplay I will make another one
April 16th 2017: Added Support Synergies and Counters.
April 17th 2017: Added a video to the introduction. It's made by Phylol so he gets full credit for it.
April 20th 2017: Added kalista, xayah and varus to the vs. champion section
April 24th 2017: Added patch changes and the ones that affect Ziggs