[Champion] Zyra, Rise of the Thorns

RANGE: 1500
Upon death, Zyra returns to her plant form for up to 8 seconds. After 2 seconds, she gains the ability to cast Vengeful Thorn using any learned ability.
Rise of the Thorns VENGEFUL THORN - ACTIVE: Zyra spits a vengeful thorn in the direction of the cursor, dealing 80 + (20 x Zyra's level) true damage to every enemy it passes through.

RANGE: 800 COST: 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 MANA COOLDOWN: 7 / 6.5 / 6 / 5.5 / 5
ACTIVE: After a short delay, thorns sprout from the ground at a target location dealing magic damage to enemies within the area.
MAGIC DAMAGE: 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+ 65% AP)
Rampant Growth.png RAMPANT GROWTH: If Deadly Bloom hits a seed, a Deadly Bloom Thorn Spitter grows that lasts for 10 seconds. Thorn Spitters have a long ranged attack and deal 23 + (6.5 × Zyra's level) (+ 20% AP) magic damage.

RANGE: 850 COST: 1 SEED RECHARGE TIME: 16.7 / 15.4 / 14.1 / 12.9 / 11.7
PASSIVE: Zyra gains bonus cooldown reduction.
COOLDOWN REDUCTION: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%
Zyra periodically stores a seed and can hold up to 2 at a time, and can only have 4 seeds placed at any one time.
ACTIVE: Zyra plants a seed at a target location for 30 seconds, granting sight of a small area around it. After 1.5 seconds, enemy champions can step on a seed to destroy it - but will be revealed for 2 seconds. If one of Zyra's basic abilities hits a seed, a plant will grow that automatically attacks nearby enemies. Extra plants striking the same target deal 50% less damage.

Plants have a modified HP bar and take modified damage from abilites. Their HP doesn't change throughout the game nor does the damage they take.

Auto-attacks from minions and monsters deal 1 damage.
Auto-attacks from champions deal 2 damage.
Area of effect abilities deal 3 damage.
Single target abilities deal 4 damage.
DragonSquare.png Dragon's attacks deal 4 damage.
Turrets deal 6 damage.
Smite and Consume deal 6 damage.

RANGE: 1100 COST: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 MANA COOLDOWN: 12
ACTIVE: Zyra sends vines forward in a line, dealing magic damage and rooting enemies hit for a short duration.
PROJECTILE SPEED: 1150
MAGIC DAMAGE: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+ 50% AP)
ROOT DURATION: 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75
Rampant Growth.png RAMPANT GROWTH: If Grasping Roots hits a seed, a Grasping Roots Vine Lasher grows that lasts for 10 seconds. Vine Lasher have a short ranged attack that deals 23 + (6.5 × Zyra's level) (+ 20% AP) magic damage and Slow icon slows enemies hit by 30% for 2 seconds.

RANGE: 700 COST: 100 / 120 / 140 MANA COOLDOWN: 130 / 120 / 110
ACTIVE: Summons the fury of nature, growing a twisted thicket at the target location which deals magic damage to all enemies in the area as it expands. After 2 seconds, the vines snap upward Airborne icon knocking enemies into the air for 1 second.
MAGIC DAMAGE: 180 / 265 / 350 (+ 70% AP)
Rampant Growth.png RAMPANT GROWTH: Plants within the thicket are enraged, increasing their attack speed by 50%.

Poke with your q-w combo and keep the lane warded. If you're doing your job the lane will be consequently be pushed and the enemy jungler will gank the lane. You can use your seeds as temporary wards, although they don't last long or give much vision.

Most of the laning phase consists of poking with q-w. A good way to always land your snare is to hide in the brush and throw it so the enemy can't see the windup animation. Try to estimate where the enemy will move to when they see you wind up your snare and throw it there. Generally speaking, you should wait to use your snare as a disengage for a jungler or reactively as it's easier to land than proactively trying to land it. When it does land, go all in and ult. A full e-q-w-r combo should take an enemy atleast from 100% to 25% hp considering plant damage. You might even get a solo kill if you add ignite into the mix.

Playing mid/top Zyra is a lesson in survival. Sure, you can out trade the enemy early on using her range. Her q harass is really easy to land and does respectable damage. Keep in mind, you're Zyra, you have the lowest move speed in the game and lower base hp than Sona. There's no point in going overly aggressive in lane and even less of a point in trying to land a snare. The only time you ever want to use your snare is when the jungler comes to gank you. I assure you, the jungler will come to gank you. When he does, you're also going to want atleast one seed to lay down with your snare so you can slow an enemy during your retreat. Your job in lane is simply to farm up and not die. That's all you have to do. If you're able to stay fairly even in lane and you don't die, you win the game. If you're against an assassin, use your q to farm from long distances.

Jungle Zyra is super fun! Despite the low HP she can do close to a full clear without a leash. It is a little tricky and requires some finesse to accomplish. When you get a regular pull things go much smoother and you'll be able to gank easier. Your skill order will be R>Q>E>W. There's no reason to level up W second with jungle Zyra since she'll be building Magus enchant fairly early and the 20% cdr will reduce the time it takes to recharge her seeds. There's only one reasonable choice for a jungle item and that's Stalker's blade. You could go for Ranger's Trailblazer but it's overkill. You'll never take much damage in the jungle past level 2 since her plants will tank most of the damage and her Q is on a low enough cool down to quickly clear the jungle. Stalker's will also apply a slow which will double your Liandry's damage.

Blue side Blue buff start

This is probably the best start she can get. She'll be able to gank after wolves or after red buff. In the video I cleared as quickly as I could, but keep in mind your seed charges. The more charges you have the less damage you will take. She can easily do red buff without taking as much damage as I did. Another advantage you have is how your mid/top laner don't need to help you leash and can start in lane which will deny the enemy information on your starting location. Alternatively, you can save your smite for red buff rather than using it on wolves to stay healthier and gank directly after taking red.

Red side Blue buff start

On the red side you can't pull the blue buff around the corner and leash it that way so you'll be forced to face tank it and blow all your pots at the first buff. It'll go a little better if your bot lane helps you, but don't expect miracles. You can try kiting to mitigate some of the damage but it's not really worth it. Again, if you do it properly, you can gank after wolves or red buff.

Blue side Red buff start

This route is basically the same for both sides. Except on Red side you'll have to tank a few hits on the blue buff in order to get the max damage out of your plants. It's worth noting how I mess up the pull on blue. It's very important to make sure the minigolems don't get pulled before the large golem or he'll get stuck on one of the small ones and get reset.

In these clears, you should particularly notice how I tank the jungle monsters so my plants can deal as much damage as possible before I let them start tanking. I place the seedling just behind me so I can immediately switch aggro to them when I need to. Also, since using two plants at the same time will decrease the damage from the second plant, I try to always only put one plant down at a time. Another aspect to keep in mind is how all autos are weighted the same against Zyra's plants. This makes the small Golem's autos equal in strength to the large Golem and hence the Gromp and Krugs are the easiest camps to clear.

I use the generic rune page for these clears but a stronger rune page for early clear speed would be flat AD marks, flat armour seals, flat AP glyphs, with flat AP quintessences. The runes I used scale better and give stronger ganks though.

No one really knows what to expect from a Zyra jungle. She's definitely underestimated. As such use this to your advantage. Her clear times are unlike any other jungler. Therefore laners won't expect your gank timings. Zyra's gank are particularly potetent since she doesn't need to land her snare to get a kill. Of course, it's optimal if she does. However her vine lasher plants will continually proc a slow or at the very least create a strong zone of control to block off a reasonable escape route. Her AA range is very high along with having one of the more crisp AA animations allowing her to proc red buff frequently and easily.

You should always be wary of counter junglers. Good vision control through proper warding is a pretty basic concern all junglers should have. On top of that, I suggest keeping your E off cd so you have a reliable peeling tool for escapes. Another thing to keep in mind is pulling the wolf and raptor camp closer to the lanes so if you do get counter jungled you're closer to a tower and safety.

This is where Zyra shines. The differences between which lane or position you take her is a bit of a moot point. It goes without saying, but if you're top Zyra, you have to do top laner things. Push out side waves, set up side waves to push into the enemy tower, and communicate teleport cds. Support has to ward things. Jungle has to smite things. Mid has to take blue buff and push out waves.

Other than that, she basically serves the same purpose. She's a CC machine with mediocre burst and strong magic based DPS. Her optimal combo for highest damage is e-w-w-q-r. You want her snare to hit the seeds to create vine lashers to slow the enemy and proc Liandry's double damage passive(if you don't have a Rylai's). You also want your ult to hit your plants which double their attack speed. Her team fighting is a lot like her laning. Use q-w combos to poke at the enemy. If Liandry's procs once it'll do significant damage no matter who it hits. One thing to keep in mind is enemy flash potential. Since Zyra is all skillshots that are either slow moving or highly telegraphed. It's not uncommon to see someone flash your full combo. If you see someone charging in your direction, it doesn't hurt to q-w combo them first and wait till they're on top of you to use E. Sometimes they'll see the Q skillshot and flash it while your snare is still off cd. It's very difficult to flash a point blank snare. When the enemy decides to engage or commits to a fight, it's your opportunity to land a multiperson ult. Her ult is one of, if not, the best disengage tools in the game. It's about 1400 range in diameter and provides a 1 second AOE knockup. You don't want to try to start fights with your ult. It's best used as a counter engage since the knockup effect takes a full 2 seconds to happen.

You can also use your plants as zoning tools in the middle of choke points or to keep a jungler from attempting a dragon steal. Plants last a full ten seconds, and vine lashers apply a 30% slow that lasts 2 seconds. Zyra has some of the strongest zoning potential in the game because of this.

Alternatively you can switch Runic Affinity for Alchemist if you don't think you'll ever get blue buff. You always want 3 points in Fleet Foot because Zyra has the lowest move speed in the game.

You simply switch from 9 points in utility to 9 in defense since the support should almost always be the one initiating battles in bot lane. You also won't need runic affinity or mana regen from utility as much. In any event, taking more than 9 points in utility is a noob trap on any champ. Don't let the Koreans fool you, it's wrong to do it! Just say no. If you want a more indepth reason as to why, you can ask in the comments.

Basically the same as mid lane except moving the point from runic affinity to Summoner's Insight to reduce the cd on Teleport. You could also move a point from meditation to alchemist/culinary master. I just don't prefer it. I'm a strong independant plant lady that doesn't need help from consumables.

Shouldn't be a shocker, she needs some defensive stats to handle clearing the jungle.

Here's a recent support build. You want to get your Frost Fang asap. Zyra should never have a problem proccing the gold generation passive every time it's up. The vast majority of your damage comes from your plants. Your plants, along with your entire kit, have pretty low AP ratios. Which means, rush penetration. A great second damage item for Zyra is Rylai's. It doubles your Liandry's poke damage and gives all your plants a slow. It gives you the flat hp to be a quasi front line for your ADC. The Rylai's/Liandry's combo on AP DPS champs is just ridiculously strong. Alternatively, you could skip finishing the Liandry's or skip Rylai's and go into an Hourglass if you're worried about getting blown up.

Most importantly, never finish the Frost Queen's Claim. It hasn't been a good item since they raised the price. The extra AP is negligible and you don't need the cdr on Zyra. You're much better off leaving it as a Frost Fang and getting your flat pen/hp from Haunting Guise and Sorcerer boots.

Here's a recent mid game. I'm a big fan of Chalice vs AP mids and never upgrading it until you get your core damage items. The idea behind this build is similar to support. You want to rush flat penetration. I built a Void Staff instead of a Rylais because the Void Staff will give you higher burst damage. Of course, build accordingly, sometimes you'll want to rush amrguard/hourglass for AD mids.


Here's a recent top lane game. I finished off my Hourglass first because I got a blue buff off the enemy Ziggs early on; after that my jungler gave me all the blues since I was on blue side. If we hadn't snowballed the game so hard or I was on red side; I would've built a Chalice or second Doran ring after A`rmguard. You might want to start Flask and pots rather than Doran ring depending on how much brawling you feel the enemy will want to do. I also strongly recommend building Hourglass first before a Haunting Guise so you can survive AD bruisers, ganks, and tower dives. Against AP tops, I recommend getting Haunting Guise then going directly into Hourglass so you can survive ganks better.

Jungle Zyra isn't wildly different from top/mid. Machette into Stalker's Blade into Sorcerer's boots into Magus Enchantment into Haunting Guise/Hourglass. You get your boots 2 first because it'll make your ganks much more effecient. Zyra ganks are frightening and the faster you can get around the map the better. The Magus enchantment is simply too good to resist. You get 80AP and 20% cdr for 1500 gold, less than a Needlessly Large rod. While keeping your seed charges always up.