Best Zilean Build Guide | Runes | Spells | Items in League of Legends

Zilean isn’t an incredibly popular champion, but he is mainly a Support. He has a 51.64% win rate there, so he is pretty good!

These are the best Zilean runes, the Zilean build, and Zilean’s matchups in Riot Games’ MOBA!

Best Zilean Runes

Zilean has the Sorcery tree as a primary and the Domination tree as a secondary!

Best Rune Path	Sorcery	Domination
Best Keystone	Summon Aery
Best Slot 1 (Rune)	Manaflow Band	Cheap Shot
Best Slot 2 (Rune)	Transcendence	Relentless Hunter
Best Slot 3 (Rune)	Waterwalking

Summon Aery helps with poke in the lane, whilst Manaflow Band helps with sustainability with the amount you are using your abilities. Transcendence gives you scaling AP, and Water Walking is great for roaming up to Mid Lane with the increased movement speed.

Domination secondary gives you access to Cheap Shot, which does bonus damage to CCed champions - this is great considering Zilean can stun! Relentless Hunter gives Zilean out-of-combat Movement Speed, so he can roam faster!

Best Zilean Rune Shards

BEST RUNE SHARDS	EFFECT
Offense	+8 Ability Haste
Flex	+9 Adaptive Force (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
Defense	+6 Armor

This rune set starts with Offense, which allows Zilean to have his abilities up more often, meaning more poke! Flex gives that poke more damage, and Defense is best because the ADC will be Attack Damage normally, so a little extra armor is welcome!

Best Zilean Summoner Spells

BEST SPELLS	ICON
Flash
Ignite

Flash is a go-to on almost any champion in the game unless you are the likes of Nasus or a Hecarim, who take Ghost! Ignite is there for extra true damage to enemies. It can be traded for Exhaust in a more defensive matchup!

Best Zilean Abilities Order

Level the right abilities at the right time! This is crucial for your burst in the lane. This is the best Zilean skill order:

Level Q, Time Bomb first, so you can poke level one in the lane. Next is W, Rewind, allowing Zilean to reduce his cooldowns on abilities and get a double Time Bomb off. Finally, get E, Time Warp, to slow enemies or speed up allies to make it easier to get onto enemies or escape!

You should always max your Ultimate, Chronoshift level 6,11, and 18. Your Q should be maxed first for damage output, then your E for the speed boost or slow debuff. Lastly, your W should be maxed, as you only need it for the 10-second cooldown reduction, so it can wait!

Best Zilean Items

Zilean builds ability power and utility on his items. Here are Zilean’s best starter items!

Best Starter Zilean Items

FIRST ITEM	SECOND ITEM
Spellthief’s Edge	Three Health Potions

Spellthief’s Edge will grant Zilean gold in the lane and give him extra wards when upgraded. It also gives 40 AP, 75 HP, and 115% base Mana regen! Three Health Potions gives him sustainability!

Best Mid Game Zilean Items

These are your core Zilean items that you want to build towards first!

FIRST ITEM	SECOND ITEM	THIRD ITEM
Shard of True Ice	Ionian Boots of Lucidity	Shurelya’s Battlesong

Shard of True Ice is an upgraded Spellthief’s Edge, that gives more wards. Ionian Boots of Lucidity give Ability Haste, so Zilean can spam abilities even more! Shurelya’s Battlesong is Zilean’s mythic item, and the active increases the movement speed of nearby allies! The item gives Zilean 40 AP, 400 HP, 20 Ability Haste, and 100% Base Mana Regen too!

Best Final Late Game Zilean Items

This is the final build that you want to aim toward when playing Zilean.

FIRST ITEM	SECOND ITEM	THIRD ITEM	FOURTH ITEM	FIFTH ITEM	SIXTH ITEM
Shard of True Ice	Ionian Boots of Lucidity	Shurelya’s Battlesong	Chemtech Purifier	Zhonya’s Hourglass	Archangel’s Staff

We have covered the first three items, but the final items are slightly more damage focused, still with some utility in there! The first is Chemtech Purifier, which applies scaling Grevious Wounds to enemy champions for 3 seconds. It gives 60 AP, 20 Ability Haste, and 100% Base Mana Regen! 

Zhonya’s Hourglass gives Zilean invulnerability for 2 seconds as an active, as well as 65 AP, 45 Armor, and 10 Ability Haste! This is when you power spike! The last item is Archangel’s Staff, which gives Zilean more mana! The base stats are 60 Magic Damage,  500 Mana, and 200 HP!

Best Champions to pair Zilean with

Zilean has some CC, so he will want to poke until you can engage, he needs a strong damage-dealing partner!

CHAMPION	WIN RATE %	ICON
Yasuo	59.1%
Seraphine	55.9%
Draven	54.5%

Strongest Champions against Zilean

These are champions that Zilean struggles with, and most of them are mage supports!

CHAMPION	WIN RATE %	ICON
Janna	46.8%
Amumu	49.1%
Nami	49.1%

Janna can prevent Zilean or whoever he has empowered from getting onto the enemy with her Howling Gale and Zephyr. Nami is similar with her Aqua Prison, except she can out-heal his damage too with Ebb and Flow. 

Amumu is interesting as he can just chase down Zilean, and the large AOE CC of his ultimate, Curse of the Sad Mummy will catch both Zilean and his ADC!

Weakest Champions against Zilean

So finally, we have the best League of Legends champions to play Zilean against, the ones that he will absolutely stomp with no problem! 

CHAMPION	WIN RATE %	ICON
Leona	57.3%
Rakan	55.5%
Blitzcrank	54.7%

These are all engaging Supports. Zilean smashes these as he can just kite away, get his ADC away or buy time with his ultimate, Chronoshift! Leona and Rakan can get onto him, but he can use his Time Warp and Rewind to prevent them from using the full combo on his ADC. Blitzcrank is easily pokeable if Zilean just stands behind minions! He can also speed up himself or his ADC if Blitzcrank fires his hook!

With any luck, you now know how to play Zilean support, and being officially involved in The Global Gaming fanbase means we are super excited to see your League of Legends games, with Zilean’s item build and best runes active!