Despite the Zyra update being a slight disappointment, there are things worth complimenting on, but

Now that 6.9 has hit even the Asian servers too, there's more things to discussed about the Zyra update. As much as Riot did give Zyra a half-assed update, there are a few things that they deserved to be complimented on...

• If the update was meant to solidify Zyra as League's plant mage, the update was more or less a hit in the mark

Zyra players can now fulfill the fantasy of being a walking garden that sprouts deadly thorns from the wild. She is literally nature herself. Unfortunately, if Riot wants to cement her identity as being _the _ premier plant mage in League, they are far from it.

• Improved AI on plants

This was the biggest plus point that Zyra had received. Her plants definitely feel much more responsive and that responsiveness is what allows players to feel that zone of threat when they walk in to the plants' attack range. Overall, plants attack faster due to the increased rate in response, and the contribution of damage from plants is noticeable.

• +15 MS and Increased Health Pool

The first being everything a Mid Laner Zyra could ask for. The extra 15 movement speed is a blessing that every Mid Zyra player has been asking, it gives her up-to-par roaming capabilities, without making her overly mobile (in roaming). It allows her to make some nice outplays by dodging skillshots but still slow enough for players to hit her with skillshots if they time it well. I'm alright with the increased health pool, it's something I've always made do with in the past, but it does lend to the fantasy of Zyra being a great duelist, as mentioned in her spotlight video years ago.

So, what are the good things about Zyra 6.9?

1. Overall improvement to her general fluidity, Zyra feels smooth to play with
2. Her plants are really accentuated with the update, and you will feel like you're playing the role of a lethal mother nature with deadly garden of thorns (heh).
3. Her base stats, particularly the Movement Speed was taken in the right direction.
4. Previously 20thCenturyFaux mentioned Zyra's damage was consistently bananas in late game. This is not true, BUT, Zyra does definitely feel strong in all phases of the game, particularly in late game if you can get maximize the number of plants you spawn. The DPS is great.

BUT, having said all of that, it doesn't mean I don't think the update was half assed. There are a few problems with the changes.

• Passive feels very situational and overly random. The massive spawn range for seeds could be a nerf/buff, depending on how you look at it. But in situations where you want to ambush someone, concentrate the spawning of seeds in to a single localized area, this passive feels weak and in most cases, random. I'm not going to comment on whether the range needs to be nerfed. But I recalled players mentioning it spawns based on your distance traveled, if Riot could tweak that to work in players' favor, the passive definitely feels great.

• Q feels unique, but falls flat in wave clear. The mana cost buff didn't do it justice, having it drop from 210+65% to 180+55% was horrible. No matter what rank Q is, wave clearing with the spell feels sad. Ranged minions are always left with a sliver of health. On top of that, because of how it functions now (like Vel Koz's Q or Anivia's W), its a hassle to position yourself to hit the entire wave of creep in a straight line. The base nerf was understandable, but the ratio nerf was too much. A .70 ratio would have been fair compensation.

• W now feels like the least interactive spell with Zyra. Aside from the vision that Support Zyra would provide, this spell is everything that the update team hoped to had avoid for. I was disappointed with the changes because I genuinely had high hopes that Zyra's Passive and W were good abilities to change, instead of focusing on Q. Unlike the old Zyra where you had the freedom to max Q, and level up W and E alternatively, W is now the last thing you want to max. Mainly because your plants damage come from your new passive, and W provides the lowest benefit to max as a second spell. In the patch notes, Riot mentioned they wanted to avoid the notion of planting two seeds down and watch them die quickly. The passive solved half of that notion, but W preserves the other half of it. W feels like exactly like the ability you plant two seeds down, sprout your plants and watch them down quickly. Nothing about W changed in terms of interaction, in fact its now much more boring because of how the rest of the abilities has been changed to interact with the passive. I was truly hoping the new passive would have provided Riot with an opportunity to develop something new for W, ie: new plant. This is the main reason why the update feels half-assed, and why I think the goal of making Zyra League's most premier plant mage was only half successful. So much could have been done with the skill, but Riot left it as it is. And I'd like to think its sheer laziness/lack of dedication to make a champion feel better.

So, let's review what 20thCenturyFaux had to say about Zyra and her update, and see if half of the things were rightfully delivered. (Crossed out points means they've achieved it).

> Here’s where we think she’s at: > > Stuff that’s good > >

• Strong identity as a counter-initiate mage. >
• Preserve her ability to catch and burst people who enter her domain. >
• You feel the plant theme strongly playing against her. >
• She dies quick if you catch her. >
  *~~ Her ult is powerful, distinctive, and satisfying.~~ > > Stuff that’s less good > >
• She doesn’t have enough ways to play around plants. >
• Her passive isn’t as fun as a passive should be. >
• Plant behavior often feels inconsistent / buggy > > Here’s what we’re trying to get out of the Zyra changes > >
• Zyra’s playstyle has more opportunities to play around plants. >
• Players who attack an entrenched Zyra should be very afraid. >

• Zyra’s strategic nature as a counter-initiator is even stronger.
  

>

Overall, Zyra's plant theme is definitely accentuated. She gets more plants to play with, but it doesn't necessarily equate to having more opportunities to play around them. Aside from Thorn Spitters and Vine Lashers, there's very little plant to play with. Her passive definitely feels much more to play now and true enough, the AI feels better and fluid as I've mentioned. I don't think Zyra's counter-initiation is stronger, in fact it feels the same, which means she's always been okay with counter initiating. Most of all though, I think the update did the rightful job of returning Zyra back to Mid, and making Support Zyra less meta and more of a situational pick, which was always the intention.

If I had to rate Zyra's update, it'd be a 7/10. That 3 missed points for the fact that the update team didn't give in 110% effort in making her better.