EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/B9fQL.jpg)
We don't have a Ziggs thread and I kinda have a thing for grinning crazy ass characters that cackle away while killing stuff and right now he is my #1 ap choice so here we go.
Champion description:
Ziggs is in my opinion the best underused ap mid out there right now.He's farm potential is insane due to his clear speed and the ability to hog wraith camps.Armed with a very strong poke coupled with skills that grant you very good zoning ability and a 5300 range ult he is a bundle of explosive fun and you won't regret picking him up.He's weakness is his mobility and mediocre scale on most of his ability's,high mana costs so you are highly dependent on blue buff,longer cast animations on most of his spells and he is a very squishy champion.Good news is you can repair his crucial weaknesses.
Patch notes:
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Hexplosive Mines
Mana cost reduced to 70/80/90/100/110 from 80/90/100/110/120
Slow duration reduced to 1.5 seconds from 2
Damage from 2nd and subsequent mines reduced to 40% from 50%
Fixed a bug where Ziggs' Mad Scientist skin was leaving particles on the map (Hotfixed 2/21)
Bouncing Bomb
Mana cost reduced to 50/60/70/80/90 from 60/70/80/90/100
Satchel Charge
Knockback range on Ziggs has increased
Knockup height on enemies has increased
Mega Inferno Bomb
Secondary damage increased to 80% from 75%
Mana cost reduced to 70/80/90/100/110 from 80/90/100/110/120
Slow duration reduced to 1.5 seconds from 2
Damage from 2nd and subsequent mines reduced to 40% from 50%
Fixed a bug where Ziggs' Mad Scientist skin was leaving particles on the map (Hotfixed 2/21)
Bouncing Bomb
Mana cost reduced to 50/60/70/80/90 from 60/70/80/90/100
Satchel Charge
Knockback range on Ziggs has increased
Knockup height on enemies has increased
Mega Inferno Bomb
Secondary damage increased to 80% from 75%
Ziggs abilities:
Passive:
Short fuse
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/v4gnh.jpg)
(Innate): Every 12 seconds, Ziggs' next basic attack deals 13 + (7 × level) (+0.35 per ability power) bonus magic damage. This cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds whenever Ziggs uses an ability.
This is what makes ziggs a very strong lane champ.Trading with ziggs early on is generally a very bad idea because of this passive.You will also have a very easy time last hitting with ziggs than with any other ap mid.
The passive is best utilized as harass once you get comfortable with ziggs.
Q:
Bouncing bomb
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/eHYWc.jpg)
(Active): Ziggs throws a bomb to a target area. If the bomb doesn't hit any enemy in the area, it will bounce two times more or until it hits an enemy. The bomb will explode and deal magic damage in an area upon hitting an enemy or bouncing twice.
Details:
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Range to First Bounce: 850
Maximum Range: 1400 (estimate)
Explosion radius: 150 (estimate)
Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 mana
Cooldown: 6 / 5.5 / 5 / 4.5 / 4 seconds
Magic Damage: 75 / 120 / 165 / 210 / 255 (+0.65 per ability power)
Maximum Range: 1400 (estimate)
Explosion radius: 150 (estimate)
Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 mana
Cooldown: 6 / 5.5 / 5 / 4.5 / 4 seconds
Magic Damage: 75 / 120 / 165 / 210 / 255 (+0.65 per ability power)
Your bread and butter ability that you take first and should max first after ult.Use it to harass people in lane,clear creeps,poke people to death,etc.The interesting component to this spell is the bounce,now it feels kinda awkward the first few times you play ziggs because the bomb may end up skipping over your target if you fail to correctly estimate where to throw it.Once you get used to the bounce there are some really sneaky things you can do with it.Because of the insane range on this spell its very hard for most champions to zone ziggs(if you get killed for instance and fall behind).By correctly placing the bounce you can overshoot the first line of melee creeps for instance to hit the back line if you find yourself in a position where you don't feel comfortable coming near to kill them with the innate range let alone to last hit with your auto.The other great component to this ability is that it has a blast radius,and well,the best part about that is barely killing someone within the radius and watching him type in allchat
I wasn't even close to it.Gets me every time. W:
Satchel Charge
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/dfpir.jpg)
(Active): Ziggs flings an explosive charge to a nearby target area that will detonate after 4 seconds or when the ability is activated again. The explosion will deal magic damage to enemies knocking them away slightly. Additionally, if Ziggs is caught in the explosion, he will be knocked away a greater distance, without taking any damage.
Details:
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Cost: 65 mana
Range: 1000
Explosion radius: 225 (estimate)
Maximum knockback distance:
Enemy: 500 (estimate)
Self: 700 (estimate)
Sight Radius: 400 (estimate)
Cooldown: 30 / 27 / 24 / 21 / 18 seconds
Magic Damage: 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+0.35 per ability power)
First things first.THIS IS NOT A NUKE ABILITY.Do not treat as such.It has terrible scaling,a long ass cooldown and terrible damage as you max it last.Resist the temptation at all cost to try to damage people(unless you are going to kill them ofc) with it or clear creeps.
This is a mini flash and your only escape outside of your summoners(well you kinda have E to slow people chasing you but I wouldn't count on that later on to get away safely) .Using this ability the right way is what separates good ziggs players from great ones.In lane phase when you are getting ganked,try to avoid placing it directly under yourself,throw it rather a few steps behind you unless someone jumps directly on top of you and you really need to make some space between yourself and the enemy.The reason is you may panic and catapult yourself into the wrong direction by accident.Also avoid using it at the last second,the spell has a longer cast animation than comfortable for such a important escape mechanism.The bomb itself,when you drop it down,stays there for 4 seconds so as soon as you see someone coming close to you drop it down behind you and use it if you need it.The best way to position yourself with ziggs in teamfights is close to a ledge or a wall as you can easily jump over with this if you find yourself in danger.
That being said,in a situation where you are chasing a enemy and trying to secure a kill you can use this to knock them back towards yourself.But again,you must be certain that you are in no innate danger of getting jumped on.
The last thing you can use this ability as,and sometimes its not the worst idea,like a short lifespan ward as you approach a unwarded brush.
It's a very good idea to take this skill at lvl 2 right after your Q as it can be a life saver against champions that gank early.
E:
Hexplosive Minefield
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7s5G1.jpg)
(Active): Ziggs scatters 11 proximity mines in a circular area nearby, each will detonate on enemy contact, dealing magic damage and slowing them for 1.5 seconds. Enemies who have already hit a mine will take 40% damage from additional mines. The mines are visible to all players and last for 10 seconds.
Details:
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Cooldown: 16 seconds
Range: 900
Minefield radius: 250 (estimate)
Activation radius: 75 (estimate)
Cost: 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 mana
Magic Damage from First Mine: 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+0.3 per ability power)
Magic Damage from Additional Mines: 16 / 26 / 36 / 46 / 56 (+0.12 per ability power)
Total Possible Single Target Magic Damage: 200 / 325 / 450 / 575 / 700 (+1.5 per ability power)
Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
Range: 900
Minefield radius: 250 (estimate)
Activation radius: 75 (estimate)
Cost: 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 mana
Magic Damage from First Mine: 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+0.3 per ability power)
Magic Damage from Additional Mines: 16 / 26 / 36 / 46 / 56 (+0.12 per ability power)
Total Possible Single Target Magic Damage: 200 / 325 / 450 / 575 / 700 (+1.5 per ability power)
Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
Great zoning skill.This will allow you to hit your Qs more consistently as it will either slow your enemy or force it to move in a predictable pattern.It plays a important part in your farming as well.EQ combo enables ziggs to clear creeps very fast and push the lane.Once you clear all the creeps in lane use the combo to clear the wraiths.Throw the E over the wall first and than follow up with a quick Q and one auto with your passive on the big wraith will usually be enough to clear the whole camp.People for some reason are magically attracted by these cute little bombs and love to trip over them.It has pretty wide radius and you can close of entire path ways with the mines to escape or prevent people from escaping.
You can take it at lvl 2 if you feel like you are not in danger of getting ganked early on by someone like jarvan,lee,rammus,alistar or maokai.If you think you need W more take this skill at lvl 3 and max it after Q.
Ultimate:
Mega Inferno Bomb
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jo8hR.jpg)
(Active): Ziggs deploys the Mega Inferno Bomb, hurling it an enormous distance to a target area. Enemies in the center of the explosion area will take a great amount of magic damage, while enemies away from the primary blast zone will take 80% of that damage.
Details:
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Cost: 100 mana
Range: 5300
Primary explosion radius: 275 (estimate)
Secondary explosion radius: 550 (estimate)
Sight Radius: 700 (estimate)
Cooldown: 120 / 105 / 90 seconds
Primary Magic Damage: 250 / 375 / 500 (+0.9 per ability power)
Secondary Area Magic Damage: 187.5 / 281.25 / 375 (+0.675 per ability power)
Range: 5300
Primary explosion radius: 275 (estimate)
Secondary explosion radius: 550 (estimate)
Sight Radius: 700 (estimate)
Cooldown: 120 / 105 / 90 seconds
Primary Magic Damage: 250 / 375 / 500 (+0.9 per ability power)
Secondary Area Magic Damage: 187.5 / 281.25 / 375 (+0.675 per ability power)
A heavy long range nuke with terrific scale.
This is one of the things that makes ziggs a high skill cap champion.The ability to time your ult correctly to hit people running away or sniping a dragon,blue buff or baron is crucial to learn if you want to be a effective ziggs.
The feeling when you snipe a baron with the ult is priceless.This ult has a +0.9 scale in the primary blast radius and late game will hit for 1k+ damage in the center.
If used correctly it's pretty had to dodge and often the enemy has to flash or gets zoned so hard that it guarantees a certain death.
MS ZIGGS GUIDE
Description:
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Ziggs suffers from two crucial weaknesses and that is why he is unpopular.He has high costs and is slow as balls but he doesn't have very good mobility apart from his jump.You can fix these things with runes and early itemization and he will become outstanding.
MS Ziggs will enable you to completely trash lanes that simple don't have the range to hurt you consistently or a blink like kassadin.It will also allow you to escape ganks and survive dives.
MS Ziggs will enable you to completely trash lanes that simple don't have the range to hurt you consistently or a blink like kassadin.It will also allow you to escape ganks and survive dives.
Summoners:
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Ignite and flash are pretty much a no brainer.Consider cleanse against something like veigar maybe.
Masteris:
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21/0/9
If you didn't know already take brute force and not shitty mental force.Depending on how you plan to play either take swiftness or meditation,if you want to harass early with your Q take meditation.If not take swiftness,you'll get enough mana regen soon enough anyways.
If you didn't know already take brute force and not shitty mental force.Depending on how you plan to play either take swiftness or meditation,if you want to harass early with your Q take meditation.If not take swiftness,you'll get enough mana regen soon enough anyways.
Runes:
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Quints:Move speed-just do it,trust me.In combination with chalice ziggs goes from a frail and slow hamster,to speedy gonzales,you will be able to escape ganks,dodge any kind of spells,poke people safely,just anything,MS quints is one of the most important things on ziggs imo.
Blues:ap per lvl
Red:magic pen
Yellow:what ever you prefer here honestly,you can go for mr,ap,mana regen,health per lvl w/e.I know mana regen seems like a no brainer but you will get your chalice and rings pretty fast and pushing lanes until you get lvl 4 isn't a good idea anyways so you shouldn't starve yourself out on mana at the start.
Item build:
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Start:boots+3 always,do not go to lane without boots ever,ziggs move speed is atrocious you need them to harass,escape and to prevent getting abused in lane in general
Early:first back if you went back early grab a quick ring and a ward if you have enough money,if you went back later get ring and chalice.Chalice of harmony will make your life so easy on ziggs it's unreal.Ziggs without chalice is one of the most blue dependent ap mids,with chalice and 1-2 rings he is perfectly fine even without blue buff and can still farm like a mad man.
Core:Rush deathcap.It's the most damage for gold cost and the best ap item so no need for explanations there.
After Dcap if you are doing really good and farmed your ass off,rush a lich bane,if think you won't be able to complete any time soon and you are getting your blue buff denied,finish up your grail.What ever you do do not rush grail,it's pointless,chalice of harmony is all you need for lane phase.
Finish your build with void staff and zhonyas.
So a full build on ziggs should look like this:
Sorc boots,Deathcap,Lichbane,Grail,Void Staff,Zhonyas.
Early:first back if you went back early grab a quick ring and a ward if you have enough money,if you went back later get ring and chalice.Chalice of harmony will make your life so easy on ziggs it's unreal.Ziggs without chalice is one of the most blue dependent ap mids,with chalice and 1-2 rings he is perfectly fine even without blue buff and can still farm like a mad man.
Core:Rush deathcap.It's the most damage for gold cost and the best ap item so no need for explanations there.
After Dcap if you are doing really good and farmed your ass off,rush a lich bane,if think you won't be able to complete any time soon and you are getting your blue buff denied,finish up your grail.What ever you do do not rush grail,it's pointless,chalice of harmony is all you need for lane phase.
Finish your build with void staff and zhonyas.
So a full build on ziggs should look like this:
Sorc boots,Deathcap,Lichbane,Grail,Void Staff,Zhonyas.
Play style
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Early game you just want to focus on cs generally without pushing the lane,unless its a kassadin/leblanch/veigar/fizz,than you want to try to harass them as much as possible and push the lane as you reach lvl 4,you can generally escape ganks pretty safely without burning flash due to your MS quints.If they have something like a maokai or alistar refrain from pushing too hard until your first back and buy a ward.Early on it's irrelevant which side you ward but stick to the side you warded if you push.
As soon as your get chalice and rings start pushing,and I mean it.Just pretend you are a mordekeiser.Clear the caster minions with a Q+E combo,eventually you will start to outscale the caster minions are you will be able to one shot them with Q alone,if not and you have a pretty good ward coverage you can clear the back with Q and W to conserve some mana and save the E for the front melee row,I generally advise against this tho as W is your only escape.
When you are done with your wave clear your wraiths and rinse and repeat until you need to go back or go OOM.
So the idea is to just farm,farm farm.When you go back ALWAYS buy a ward to ward their wraiths.It is extremely unsafe to go for them if you don't have the side warded even tho you can clear the camp with Q+E and a auto on the big wraith.Do your wraiths as well,heck if you have time and jungle isn't around do the wolves as well,generally you can't do this early as you don't have enough ap to do it before the wave comes again.
ALWAYS be aware of other lanes once you hit 6 and ult accordingly.I generally advise against roaming unless it leads to a dragon fight,you have enough map presence as it is just be sure to ping when your lane goes mia.
You should aim for at least 200-210 cs by the 20 minute mark,it's actually scary easy to do it with ziggs.
Teamfights are the most demanding thing with ziggs,you need to learn how to position properly and when to auto with your lich bane proc and when not.This is where MS ziggs shines though,you will have more than enough move speed with lich bane and ms quints to move around,reposition and kite.
Having a ziggs is a lot like kogmaw,poke people with Q and zone with E force them to move and bully them away from their tower.
That's about it,playing ziggs properly has a lot to do with experience because it is really not easy as it sounds but once you get it he is amazing.
As soon as your get chalice and rings start pushing,and I mean it.Just pretend you are a mordekeiser.Clear the caster minions with a Q+E combo,eventually you will start to outscale the caster minions are you will be able to one shot them with Q alone,if not and you have a pretty good ward coverage you can clear the back with Q and W to conserve some mana and save the E for the front melee row,I generally advise against this tho as W is your only escape.
When you are done with your wave clear your wraiths and rinse and repeat until you need to go back or go OOM.
So the idea is to just farm,farm farm.When you go back ALWAYS buy a ward to ward their wraiths.It is extremely unsafe to go for them if you don't have the side warded even tho you can clear the camp with Q+E and a auto on the big wraith.Do your wraiths as well,heck if you have time and jungle isn't around do the wolves as well,generally you can't do this early as you don't have enough ap to do it before the wave comes again.
ALWAYS be aware of other lanes once you hit 6 and ult accordingly.I generally advise against roaming unless it leads to a dragon fight,you have enough map presence as it is just be sure to ping when your lane goes mia.
You should aim for at least 200-210 cs by the 20 minute mark,it's actually scary easy to do it with ziggs.
Teamfights are the most demanding thing with ziggs,you need to learn how to position properly and when to auto with your lich bane proc and when not.This is where MS ziggs shines though,you will have more than enough move speed with lich bane and ms quints to move around,reposition and kite.
Having a ziggs is a lot like kogmaw,poke people with Q and zone with E force them to move and bully them away from their tower.
That's about it,playing ziggs properly has a lot to do with experience because it is really not easy as it sounds but once you get it he is amazing.
Champions that are hard matchups for Ziggs:
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Leblanc:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RZ6Dl.png)
She's a pain in the ass for most ap mids.You can beat her early on but if you don't score a kill with your jungler or something drastic you wont be able to hurt her later on.Ziggs is weak against champions like that who can just jump you and you can't do much to retaliate.The moast annoying this is she will anticipate your projectiles and than jump you.Avoid picking ziggs against her.If you get counterpicked I suggest you ask your jungler to try gank her early over and over.Chalice and rings will help you survive but if you still find it's not enough get buy mr boots and another mantle(it's a component of lich bane so it won't go to waste).Kassadin:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/isu8O.png)
Ok so against kassadin you will be in a slightly different situation.The huge difference in this machup is that kassadin is a melee auto attacker.This enables you to absolutely dominate his ass pre 6 and get a decent lead on him which will help you survive later on.When he goes in to last hit a creep just throw mines around him and you will chunk him for a decent amount of his health,you can punish him really really hard and make him sweat for every cs before 6.Do the same build as with LB.Others:
These are pretty much the only two champions I have a problem with right now.I used to have problems with ahri as well and fizz but with this build you should be able to farm no problem and never be in danger of getting one shotted.
Zyra and Gragas are pretty OP now and I think that they are a hard matchup against anyone now really,don't put yourself in danger against them and just clear your waves and farm from a safe distance.
Happy farming!
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