Inb4 they stay behind minions and im not a champion i try to r infront of minions then i insta die cuz LoL if i try to push in a leblanc or any assassin to get a minion or trade advantage i get ganked cuz junglers so how do u play this champions and not int legit question
Zoe's in a pretty bad state. Most mages are in this damage heavy meta. People get frustrated fighting her but honestly shes at a point where Zoe can't really do anything unless she gets way, way WAY ahead. hr burst has been nerfed multiple times and she only has 2 spells that guarantee damage, her W requires a gimmick for her to pick up Summoner Spells and its not always active.
shes gotten some buffs to try and make her viable but most people will tell you compared to assassins that just kill anything in their lane in one rotation, picking a mage, especially Zoe is just never the right option.
Unless your opponent is playing like an Ape you aren't gonna get kills with Zoe in lane. You have to start/join every skirmish you can in the early game to get a lead. She is really good in river skirmishes and jungle invades with your jungler since there are no minions around. So yeah, you have to play her like an Ekko or something and create/join these types of engagements.
Try to keep in mind that not every Q needs to be a max-range one-shot, especially in the laning phase where minions make it hard to land.
Don't R in front of minions. That won't help you land anything. Instead, R to the side to open up a new angle or get a wall between you and your enemy to land a cheeky sleep with the extended range.
Throw Q backwards at an angle to make it harder for them to use minions to block it. Even a short-range Q that barely goes anywhere is better than a Q that doesn't land. Toss it right at somebody for poke, no redirection needed, or zig-zag it through the middle of the wave. If you take runes like Summon Aery and Scorch, this becomes even more effective.
Prioritize shoving the wave with your Q and using your passive-empowered autos to get CS or trade with your lane opponent. They can't block your autos with minions, and Zoe can do a surprising amount of damage with More Sparkles.
Ward, ward, ward. You need to be placing wards all the time as Zoe. You should never leave base without a Control Ward, even if you already have one up. You need to know where the enemy jungler is at all times so you know when it's safe to stay and harass. You should always be pushing, but unless you see the enemy jungler on the map, back up once the wave hits the tower and either place a deep wards, back for a buy, or just chill while the wave resets. Assume the jungler is camping your lane because that is the right move to keep you behind. Play it safe, always.
One of my favorite builds for Zoe is what I call the "Screw you for picking an assassin, I just wanted to play Zoe" build.
Glacial Augment
Domination secondary
This build lets you stay super-safe in lane and survive ganks so you can get enough gold to be relevant in the late game despite a bad matchup. Glacial Augment allows you to slow enemies to keep your spacing from a melee enemy or land easier skillshots. It gives you a way out of tricky situations. Taste for Blood and Biscuits give you more sustain, Stopwatch gives you a free 600 gold towards Zhonya's and an emergency way to survive an all-in. Cosmic Insight is just good, and Ingenious Hunter not only lowers the cooldown of your active items (which you build a lot of with this build), but also lowers your trinket cooldown, which means more wards.
With this build, you want to rush 
as your first item, then get 
. GLP gives you another escape on a pretty short cooldown that doubles as a catching tool, and Zhonya's gives you armor on top of yet another way to avoid dying. I usually go Lich Bane after that for damage, then Deathcap for a huge late-game powerspike.
Erm, I have a guide for playing against Zoe, might help you a bit in what to do when playing as her, especialy against those who know how to play against her: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/7TRVZ3Qr-playing-against-zoe
Best advice? Be creative. Don't get stuck int he rut of "every Q mus be the longest range possible" or "throw Q behind then infront" be creative in how you angle ur skillshots. Pay attention to the positioning of minions and how they'll move weave around them when trying to hit champs (in doing this it's best to know the general range and size of the splash dmg... it hits more perpendicularly than in a true circle. When possible, maximize ur passive. Q procs it twice, once per cast... so try to know the deadline u have before the recast time runs out.
You don't have to get to every single shard drop, though you should try to get each CS, weigh the costs of getting to the shard and the likelihood of u getting hit, then weigh the benefits. It's also a good idea to have a general idea of when you want to recall and which shard ur gonna pick up in that case as it can give u a ms buff to return to lane a bit faster. Keep track of the summoners dropped. And I mean over the entire map. They give a small zone of vision so can be extremely useful in keeping track of the jg/other laners.
E... try to land them lol.... remember it can go through walls, but will only go through one instance of terrain, and it's pop out range is gonna be based on how close u were to that wall. Keep in mind that the E can also be used in trap form to zone away from CS or block off choke points. Remember there is a windup before the sleep becomes activated.
R is where everything becomes even more decided based on how creative ur thinking, since it directly impacts her other spells by temporarily displacing you, this allows you to pop up unexpectedly over walls... or even when in lane quickly switch positions, thereby allowing you more opportunities. That being said, it's generally better to not use it to appear right infront of the enemy unless ur using it to land ur passive. People often base trajectories and predict them based on the champion's position, that's why R can be so devastating since it doesn't just allow for greater dmg from Q, but can let u land shots that wouldn't be possible without that quick position change.
In terms of creative uses for Q alone, u can throw it straight, throw it to the side then to the front, throw it behind then infront or even zig zag it through units to be even trickier. R emphasizes this.
In terms of Macrogame.. ward, as u should with any champ, they removed the vision granted from ult so it becomes even more important. Try to keep track of where ur E landed and whether or not it got triggered, Comet is the best rune to notify u on this, tho Aery also works (they both land before the sleep becomes activated so don't worry about sleep being popped).
My go-to build used to be Ludens/Seraphs, Lich, Sorc boots, Morello, Rabadons, Voidstaff... with a Morello substituting where needed.... Now, i almost never go lich, just cuz the Assassin meta really punished close combat fights, plus HP, penetration as well as Grievous wounds seems more important than flat extra dmg... So now my build is more often than not Ludens, Sorc, Morello, Zhonyas/Banshees, Rabadons and Voidstaff. Generally take Arcane Comet, Manaflow, Transcendence, Scorch, Future's Market and timewarp tonic... but that's me, ik Dark Harvest, Aery, Electrocute and even Unsealed spellbook are great on her... The precision treeline can also be excellent as a secondary, what with Coup de Grace and Triumph.
You can start with Dorans, Corrupting or, if ur feeling ballsy, Dark Seal.
LB u really don't want to mess with too much, especially if they're good, so try to get help from ur JG as often as possible, generally matchups are soemthing ur gonna have to learn by urself as it's largely based on ur playstyle. Sometimes it's best to hard push and roam, other times its best to stay in lane and try to keep it frozen and pray for a gank (kinda boring sometimes), always be on the lookout to be aggressive and land an E tho, as E- Passive Q passive can deal a huge amount of dmg, especially once paired with R. Standard combo once uve gotten ult is QRQ, a good Zoe will instead do QQR. It gives you slightly more range, and is less predictable... however depends on you having a good estimation of where the enemy will move unless paired with E.
Hopefully this helps, good luck, have fun playing Zoe. [slayer-jinx-wink]
