Rise of the Thorns
(Innate): Upon death, Zyra returns to her plant form. After 2 seconds, she can press any ability to fire a Vengeful Thorn towards her cursor, dealing 99 + (25 × level) true damage to each enemy it strikes.
Tips :
Zyra transforms into a plant once she’s dead.
You want some more ?
The afterlife
Zyra’s passive allows her to deal damage after her death, more or less like Kog’Maw. However, instead of moving and catching her target, Zyra has a skillshot with a pretty high range which will deal pure damage to the enemies it hits.
This passive can be used to end the life of an opponent after you yourself died too quickly, which can happen often after a gank when playing mid lane. You should absolutely not count on this passive damage when you’re dueling someone, but if your estimation of what the fight would be was wrong, the passive may be be a way to take your revenge.
Be careful, it is not triggered instantly, Zyra has to transform into a plant first, which takes apporximately 2 seconds.
Deadly Bloom (Q)
(Active): Thorns shoot from the ground, dealing magic damage to enemies within the area.
Rampant Growth: If Deadly Bloom hits a seed, a Thorn Spitter grows. Thorn Spitter attacks with long range and deals magic damage.
Tips :
You can push easily thanks to the short CD of this spell.
Harrass or push ?
Plants from afar
Deadly Bloom allows Zyra to deal damage to targets in the area of effect after a short delay.
Since the spell also has an activation time, you have to predict your enemy's movement to use it correctly.If used on a seed, it will create a plant that will attack your enemies who have range attacks dealing magical damage. This plant is very useful to push the lane, take buffs, fulfill objectives faster, or even to steal wraiths easily.
Note that the spell has a really short cooldown and can be spammed to push the lane or harass the opponent if you have enough mana. Be careful to not empty your mana bar by spamming.
Cost: 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 mana
Cooldown: 7 / 6.5 / 6 / 5.5 / 5 seconds
Magic Damage: 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235 (+0.6 per ability power)
Rampant Growth (W)
(Passive): Grants bonus cooldown reduction.
_____Zyra periodically stores seeds and she can hold up to 2 seeds at any given time. Zyra cannot plant any more than 4 seeds at a time.
Cast spells on seeds to grow plants. Plant damage is based on Zyra's level. Extra plants striking the same target deal 50% less damage.
Tips :
This screen shows the three different states of Zyra’s seeds
League of Legends’ botanist.
Green fingered and red haired
Planting seeds is a good way to gain vision and transform these seeds into plants thanks to your two other spells.
Planting more seeds will be easier of you have cooldown reduction. Also note that you can’t stock more than 2 seeds at the same time but you can place up to 4, knowing that a seed can stay on the ground for 30 seconds.
Stacking the seeds can be interesting to kill big monsters such as the drake or Nashor faster.
The plants can also be used as wards during the lane phase, similar to Nidalee's traps. If the jungler or another champion steps on it, he will be revealed for several seconds.
Finally, the plants also allow you to quickly push your lane or to kill minions in the jungle without losing health. You can also pull the drake with plants from afar in order to earn some time while dealing damage.
Cooldown Reduction: 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 %
_____
Seed Recharge Time: 17 / 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 seconds
Grasping Roots (E)
(Active): Sends forward vines, dealing magic damage and rooting enemies for a short duration.
Rampant Growth: If Grasping Roots hits a seed, a Vine Lasher grows. Vine Lasher has short ranged attack that deal magic damage and slow by 30% for 2 seconds.
Tips :
The roots pin an enemy to the ground.
An AoE root!
Perfect to invade or do a bit of zoning
Grasping Roots allow Zyra to ensnare enemies in a straight line from her. Thanks to this spell she can engage or kite the opponents.
Using Grasping Roots on a seed will create a Vine Lasher. This plant will only do melee attacks, but it will kill enemies at good distance thanks to its slow.
This effect can have several uses like allowing you to ensnare the enemy with seeds so he’s dealt damage from plants during the root. Once the root is over, he will still be slowed by the plants that will attack him, which is the perfect time to hit him your Q and some auto attacks.
It’s also a very useful tool to escape. You can use the slowing plants and the grasping roots to run away. Only a few champions will be able to catch up.
An interesting thing to note is that the slowing plants works with Rylai’s Scepter which then increases the slow up to 34.5%.
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 mana
Magic Damage: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+0.5 per ability power)
Root Duration: 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 seconds
Stranglethorns (R)
(Active): Summons the fury of nature, growing a twisted thicket at target location which deals magic damage to all enemies in the area as it expands. After 2 seconds, the vines snap upward knocking enemies into the air.
Rampant Growth: Plants within the thicket are enraged, increasing their attack speed by 50%.
Tips :
Your ultimate is perfect to earn some time or to engage.
Downtime!
A big trampoline
Stranglethorns, Zyra’s ultimate, is perfect to make an even better engage or disengage from a team fight (which makes Zyra a really viable pick).
If you have an Amumu or a Malphite, wait for them to use their ultimates before engaging and then use yours. You will then be able to add some insane crowd control in addition to your allies’ ones in order to block your opponents for quite some time.
Note that the ultimate allows you to buff your plants, so try to throw some seeds before using it or you will lose some potential damage. It is important that the plants benefit from the attack speed buff in order to deal huge damage in the middle of the team fight.
Finally, if you wish to disengage, the ultimate is very useful since it starts by slowing the opponents then bumps them in the air, which can allow you to escape or to punish your enemies if they do a bad engage.
Cost: 100 / 120 / 140 mana
Cooldown: 130 / 120 / 110 seconds
Magic Damage: 180 / 265 / 350 (+0.7 per ability power)
Pros
Can push a wave easily
Has a lot of CC
Has great range to harass in lane
Her ultiamte can win fights on its own with great damage and a knockup
Can help take objectives quickly with her plants tanking
Her W grants CDR and gives vision
Cons
Can be ganked easily in the early game when she pushes the wave
Very squishy
Many champs she counteres often outscale her in the late game
