Hey guys!

This is my second official guide on MOBAFIRE. My first guide on here was a Sona support guide. I really like Zyra support but I find that when I play here there is no really good Zyra support guide on here. So honestly, I made this so that I could have one page open where I'm able to see items that were thought out with abilities for Zyra.

3.15 - No significant changes to Zyra or any of the items in this guide. No revisions needed.

Being in the pre-season right now it is hard to say what will come of season 4. But right now I consider Zyra to be one of the best scaling supports. As of this moment (patch 3.14) she is one of the only 'support class' champions that dodged the 3.14 bullet.

Using patch 3.14 riot basically said "Here you can now afford amazing AP items, they just won't be as good on you". They gave supports slightly better CC while drastically reducing their AP ratios. This in my opinion makes supports like Janna, Lulu, Nami, Sona and Soraka less palatable options.

So given patch 3.14 we have a couple options left.
1. Go with a tanky support (Leona, Taric, Alistar, Thresh) and build full tank (because health/armor/magic resist ratios remain unaffected).
2. Go with an "unconventional support" (Annie, Zyra, Fiddlesticks, etc).

So why Zyra specifically?

Pros + Amazing poke. + Great crowd control. + Good AP ratios. + Great at pushing lanes. + Great Cooldown Reduction.

Deadly Bloom

Cons - She is squishy. - With 325 movement she is slow. - No good escape mechanism.

Greater Mark of Hybrid penetration Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration - This mostly depends on your style of laning. I personally like to poke with my auto-attack and obviously deal some damage with my spells. If you want to see in great detail why I chose these marks please check out this blog.

Greater Seal of Armor - Pretty well the only standard Seal that I am aware of. Especially in the duo bot lane if you are up against an ADC.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - I usually go for the scaling magic resist for help against the enemy APC later in the game. On rare occasions I will get the flat Magic Resist if the enemy support is a strong AP champion like Nunu & Willump or Lux.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - I used to recommend getting a Greater Quintessence of Gold but it isn't needed any more. This will help you deal a little more damage in the early levels.

The goal of my mastery setup is to help improve three major things:
1. Income: I spent 6 mastery points to improve your gold income.
2. Cooldown reduction: I spent 7 mastery points to improve your cooldown reduction.
3. Sustainability: I spent 10 mastery points to improve your sustainability (or your ability to stay in lane).

Aside from this I used 1 mastery in Phasewalker , 3 in Summoner's Insight , 2 points in Inspiration and 1 point in Wanderer .

Income

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I look at income as an investment. Zyra is already a very great champion early game. She has amazing CC and damage. Having 6 points in income will allow you to become a beast in the late game.

Cooldown Reduction

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Zyra was recently hit with a nerf which made it so her Rampant Growth only provides 10 cooldown reduction at max level instead of 20. I am spending 7 points in cooldown reduction so I don't have to change my items just to max out my Cooldowns.

Sustainability

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I always make it my goal to stay in lane as long as I can before having to go back to buy items. In addition, throughout the laning phase I stay very aggressive on the enemy adc to try and prevent him/her from last hitting. To this end I spend 10 points in sustainability to allow Zyra to stay in lane as long as possible so she doesn't succumb to a level or gold disadvantage.

Other

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Phasewalker - This is a personal choice. This 1 mastery point has saved me time and time again when I'm trying to recall and an enemy is near.
Summoner's Insight - Again a personal choice. This spell is fairly obvious as it allows your Flash and Exhaust to be off cooldown faster.
Inspiration - Supports and Junglers are the most susceptible to falling behind when it comes to experience. This is something I highly recommend. If you can hit level 6 before the enemy support (nevertheless ADC) and you can engage you will have a HUGE advantage.
Wanderer - This helps when warding the enemy jungle.

Starting Items

Vision Ward - I know it is no longer stealth. That doesn't mean that this item (at 25 less gold) isn't valuable. I have taken to using these vision wards to ward our own jungle. I will explain a little more in the vision/warding section.
Stealth Ward - This should go without saying, but you need vision to protect yourself from ganks. Again there will be more in the vision/warding section.
Health Potion - Grab some health potions so that if you get hit you don't have to sit around at half health and play passive. If you get hit hard take a pot and stay in lane.

Essential Items

Sightstone - Essential early warding item. This should be the item you strive to get on your first back. If you can stay in lane long enough to get 950 gold feel free to back and grab this.
Frost Queen's Claim - This is one of your main sources of gold income while also having some ability power, mana regeneration and a great target AoE slow. After getting your Sightstone get this item as soon as you can.
Banner of Command - This is the core to your entire build. This is the item that will allow you to push lanes like a beast. It's unique aura "Valor" effects all your allied minions AND your plants! The Banner's active effect creates a more powerful siege minion which will push a lane on it's own if it is undisturbed by enemy champions.
Twin Shadows - To put it simply this item allows you to run into the enemy jungle and ward key locations.
Boots - Grab these whenever you can as Zyra is one of the slowest champions in the game.

Offensive items

Rabadon's Deathcap - If you are ahead feel free to grab this item to increase your ability power.
Sorcerer's Shoes - This item is slowly becoming a standard grab for me since this build has very little Magic Penetration built in. Some people may ask "why not Ionian Boots of Lucidity?". To that I answer you already have the 40 Cooldown reduction which is as high as it can possibly go.

Defensive items

Mikael's Blessing - If you are up against a team with a lot of CC it can really hurt Zyra along with your other carries. This item will allow you to get a carry out of a bad situation fairly quickly.
Mercury's Treads - It goes without saying that if you are up against a lot of CC that you will need some tenacity. Otherwise you won't be able to help your team at all. This item will give you some magic resists and provide you with 35% tenacity.

Spells

Rise of the Thorns
Rise of the Thorns is fairly obvious as far as what it does. It also makes her a great duelist. With this build I have gone against other squishy champions (enemy ADC/APC) and won or come up close. When you come up close, you might die but you can use this to - well - "fire a Vengeful Thorn" which could kill your enemy.

Deadly Bloom
MAGIC DAMAGE: 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+ 65% AP)
I usually don't upgrade this spell until there are no other spells to upgrade. I take one point in it at level 1. It does some damage to enemies but not enough to spam it. I usually only use this in conjunction with Rampant Growth.


This plant is very useful against champions such as Blitzcrank, Nami or pretty well any champion who will try to sit in a bush and nail their crowd control. The second that one of these guys goes into the bush, toss this plant their way and it will at least keep them busy.

You can also use this if you are at the enemy tower. Cast your plant just out of range of the tower to keep your enemy from last hitting minions.

Rampant Growth
COOLDOWN REDUCTION: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

The cooldown reduction here is what allows you to not have to buy too many cooldown reduction items. Be thankful!~



This is the ability that allows you to create plants. Plant the seed then cast one of your other spells and it shall become a plant.

Grasping Roots
MAGIC DAMAGE: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+ 50% AP)
ROOT DURATION: 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75

This in my opinion is Zyra's key spell. I max this first so that you can get as long of a root duration as possible. This will also make landing your ultimate (which has a 2 second delay) a lot easier.



These plants have a short range so try to cast them just behind the champion. You will want to cast Grasping Roots BEFORE you cast Rampant growth. If you don't you will give away the fact that the Grasping Roots are coming. So you cast Grasping roots (rooting them) and cast Rampant growth behind your enemy (which will turn into a plant by the time grasping roots reaches it). Then when your enemy runs, they will be slowed by the Vine Lasher.

Stranglethorns

This is your ultimate ability. This is a very large Area of Effect Knock up. What is the downside? 2 second delay.
This will take some practice but you can overcome this delay by using Grasping Roots and predicting where your enemy will go.


Fairly obvious, but plant your plants before casting Stranglethorns so that they get the 50% increased attack speed.

FULL COMBO

Your full combo should be something like this:

Grasping Roots, Rampant Growth, Rampant Growth, Stranglethorns, Deadly Bloom.

The grasping roots holds your enemies down while the 2 seeds become Vine Lashers. Stranglethorns will knock your enemies up allowing maximum damage from the Vine Lashers and slowing your enemies. Deadly bloom will deal a bit of extra damage at the end.

Vision Ward
- This item has changed. It is now visible, and you have to hit it 5 times to kill it.
I recommend if you are playing on the blue side of the map to place your 'pink' ward here:
The reason why I recommend this spot in particular is because the enemy support (or adc) will have to go very deep into your bush in order to take it out. Or try to contest it with a Stealth Ward of their own which you can obviously take out faster because it only has 3 hits as opposed to 5.

Stealth Ward
- The name of this item has changed but it remains the same as the old sight ward.
I recommend placing it here:
This not only allows you to see Dragon but also allows you to see if anyone is coming from their jungle or the river. Be careful when walking up to ward this though. If they have the river bush warded they could pincer you from both sides if they are fast enough. Watch enemy movement when placing this ward.

If you're doing fairly well you could consider also warding the enemy blue buff:
Note the placement of this ward. It allows you to see all around it. If you place it too close to the wall you will block vision of enemies potentially just passing through to bot lane.

Later in the game I recommend warding both blue and this position:

This allows you to have superior vision over the enemies jungle.