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Thoughts on Zyra's Update (✿◡‿◡)

Chortle·1/22/2016, 8:19:11 PM·49 votes·3,738 views

Hey Everyone! Another Zyra main here. I figured I should comment on her current state and her future update since the update team is giving us the opportunity to do so!

First off, I would like to thank the update team for starting the conversation ahead of time. Really, great job with communication on your end! This batch of updates already feel more promising just because of your transparency.

[slayer-jinx-catface]

Disclaimer: I prefer to play Zyra in mid or in the jungle over support (just not my play style). So this thread is written from a mid/jungle Zyra perspective.

Likes:

  • Underestimated burst potential
  • AOE cc with her E and R
  • Ability to easily fight over walls and out of harm's way
  • Ability for her plants to tank jungle monsters (just recently been playing a TON of zyra jungle and am in love with it)
  • Plants proc item effects like Rylai's, Luden's, and Liandry's
  • Can be played in multiple lanes
  • Plants!

Dislikes:

  • Passive feels unrewarding. Even when sniping a kill or objective, it just feels clunky and alien to the rest of her kit.
  • Only 2 types of plants available (The game takes place in a magical forest for Christmas sake! There are plants everywhere at her disposal.)
  • Her toenails (Zyra gotta get some hedge clippers for those bbs)

I really love Zyra's playstyle.

{quoted}

We haven't yet started work on Zyra other than ideation, but one of the things we tended to be excited about was more plant interactions, like she brings the forest alive around her. Not sure where that means we're going to take her, but I am excited to see what the team comes up with.

This is exactly the direction I want to see her taken in Rito. #Plantinfestation2k16

Gameplay Suggestion:

I know it is hard to balance since she gets a ton of free damage in the form of her plant autos, and for that reason I propose a third plant type.

A vision-based plant. (Mandrake Ward? Xypherous?)

Temporary plants that can be placed on the walls at certain choke points that will alert her team of an enemy's presence. This could be in place of her current passive. Placing a seed on top of the designated wall area will create the plant causing her passive to go on cool down (it could stack up to 3 or so) and consume a seed. Only lasts for a certain amount of time and can have maximum of 3 on the battlefield at a time.

I think something utility-based would be a great way for zyra to keep her power levels the same while adding to her survivability where she really struggles. Especially focusing in on making her a vision-based mage might be a cool thematic to differentiate her from the other mages. This would also allow her mid, jungle, and support roles to be similar while also having their own feel and uses.

I reallllly love Zyra. She's pretty much all I play. If you want to ask me any questions rioters, please hit me up :]

Zyra Zyra Zyra Zyra

p.s. I got a zyra tattoo a bit ago figured I would share if you didn't see

https://41.media.tumblr.com/7673ebcd6bcf9ef89a03082a7f8c901d/tumblr_o1cayak6rd1tvmyy6o1_540.png

46 Comments

CarameI Frappe1/22/2016, 10:58:12 PM14 votes

You know, while it might be frowned on ... I admire your love for Zyra to the point of getting a tattoo of her. Thanks for sharing- it actually looks pretty awesome overall :) also yea nice OP too!

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Bladerunner77771/23/2016, 3:00:53 AM5 votes

I'm a zyra player who only plays her support, so here's my perspective:

I want her to stay as an all-in mage that can initiate (the solo Q dream), not a Heimerdonger 2.0

I think of her plants as an extension of her spells, not her main niche. If her plant life time was increased it would just be annoying to deal with as the enemy.

I think her passive fits her lore and playstyle pretty well. The way I play her: Flashing into the enemy team and getting off a 5 man snare + ultimate all while plants rip em to shreds. This is why I prefer to play her support, because I'm sacrificing myself to deal loadsadamage and my team can follow up with more damage. But her passive still kinda sucks because you can only do one thing. I would be more than happy to have her passive the same as karthus' (being able to summon plants with increased power and limitless mana), but it's kind of unoriginal and Riot's going for more diversity.

I think Zyra is the perfect opportunity to do "terrain-interaction" right (bad example would be Skarner). I think it would be neat if her passive was changed to let her leave her body vulnerable in one place to control plants that spawn around her (might be too similar to illaoi). These terrain interactions would make most sense if they were restricted to the jungle/river (aka jungle zyra buff).

What I like about Zyra is that when you go all-in you actually feel like a living jungle killing it's prey because you just summon a bunch of plants that wreck havoc (death passive included), I think they should emphasize that.

Solidair31/23/2016, 4:48:52 PM5 votes

My only problem with "bringing the forest alive" is does she become another skarner?

I don't think anyone wants that.

EfficientDynamo1/23/2016, 7:36:44 PM3 votes

Love the new passive idea! Just to clarify, would her W -> Q/E interaction still be there under your conception?

Also, another option would be to remove her W with a utility spell and cause ALL her non-ultimate spells to spawn a plant, either when they connect with a champ or at the end of their reach. This would require some pretty heavy balancing though.

Biff Manly1/23/2016, 3:53:57 AM3 votes

Yay, more constructive feedback! Hopefully the Vel'Koz mains will move their "Do Not Touch" threads to the side so these others can get a little more attention.

kunkudunk1/23/2016, 3:50:28 AM3 votes

I love playing zyra and if anything is changed in her rework i think it should be her passive. Also I think it would be cool if she could have an easier time getting more plants up, such as lower cds, mana costs, and base damage on her q with a lower recharge on her w, allowing her to set up many more plants and have a sorta movable garden so it feels like she is constantly springing her plants from everywhere.

PenguinOverlord81/23/2016, 4:30:25 AM2 votes

Wow that tattoo is SUPER cool. As for a changes I think those are cool. I Definitely think they will most certainly touch on her passive. I like the occasional Zyra jung too . It will be difficult to appeal to all her possible roles ( Mid supp and Jung ). New plants or more plant interactions are interesting. Azir has his soldiers, Heimer has his turrents, but Zyra should have the wrath of nature. I hope they don't screw up Plant Mama Zyra . I think a good comparison to how she should be updates is like cait. Some new tricks up her sleeve and minor changes to make a compelling and fun character.

Primadonna1/23/2016, 4:48:53 PM2 votes

I love playing Zyra too, and your tattoo is really beautiful.

Another con I would like to add to your list is her clunky kit. How she always has to stop to use her abilities except W. I feel like the plants should come alive around her as Riot said instead of her having to literally stop and bring them to life.

Great post! I agree on pretty much everything.

z14GaKI7TO1/23/2016, 8:04:06 AM2 votes

I also main Zyra mid/jungle. One of my favourite champions by far. She's so underestimated so I love blowing up entire teams in fights :D

9kPluzZ1/23/2016, 4:31:22 AM2 votes

The "(✿◡‿◡)" suggest your a girl, so i feel obliged to request a reveal of the zyra tattoo on your arse as well.

L0ve Is Blue1/23/2016, 5:04:46 PM1 votes

I only want one thing at any cost for her rework

Make auto attack vine whips instead of spikes. PLEASE! Like she do when she recalls or taunt, where she extend her vines on her arms. I think it would be amazing for her to do this to attack too! (Saw this on a thread, can't find it XD)

FistOfSharkiesha1/23/2016, 7:17:44 PM1 votes

I think it would be cool if somewhere in her kit she had something like Xerath's ult. She roots herself and plunges her arms into the ground and controls vine lashers from a large range.

TBakes1/23/2016, 8:47:12 PM1 votes

I think the "bringing the forest alive" concept could also overlap with Illaoi's tentacle-mechanics a bit.

If they decide to keep her passive as something activated at death, maybe it could be some sort of obstruction? Like Anivia's wall or Trundle's pillar, except made of plants? I imagine a plant-mancer's death calling a bunch of roots up from the ground to retrieve her, which could block enemies from crossing? Or it could be similar to Rumble's ult with a slowing DoT effect? Just throwing out ideas here.

I believe most people enjoy her root ability and her plant minions. Maybe her ultimate would be her seeds, and she starts with it automatically (like state-change champions: Nidalee, Jayce, etc.). Then her Q, W, E just interact with the seeds in some way, and her passive takes the power of a champion's typical ultimate.

KoKoboto1/24/2016, 3:40:26 AM1 votes

I just don't think suicide Zyra is her theme

Chortle1/22/2016, 8:59:38 PM1 votes

Here's a video from the FEK boards tournament I participated in.

I mainly want to highlight how strong her team fight and plants are. Zyra should be able to position far enough away from the fight and wait for the right moment to decimate her enemies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEpygjwmlwk

  • First blood on Anivia 16:54
  • Bursting of the sad mummy 22:10
  • Over the wall kill with Mundo 22:37
  • Plant autos on Jinx 29:16
  • Luring enemy team into a choke point for easy wombo 32:48
  • Plant zones Gnar and kills Jinx 40:02
LoquaciousKumqat1/24/2016, 6:37:02 AM1 votes

I hope they don't turn her plants into a stupid Skarner-esque mini game. I'm worried with the 'brings the forest alive around her' statement.

Scoroct1/23/2016, 12:47:16 AM1 votes

really great post, and interesting idea to have more plants that maybe provide utility or cc instead of damage, good stuff!

Sythriel Draken1/23/2016, 4:03:12 AM1 votes

I recently purchased poison ivy and I agree that her passive seems a little out of place.. she's almost like the kogmaw of mages. I hope they don't ruin her and make her more of a plant master mage than plant morgana.

Also, amazing tat :D

sirwaterfles1/23/2016, 5:08:47 AM1 votes

This post summs up exactly how i feel about zyra except that i also feel that her ult is a bit chunky to use. Like your idea about a new passive. Also would like it if they uped her movementspeed just a tiny bit like 2-3 so she would be a lit less immobile early on.

Silver Fluffenbu1/23/2016, 5:14:16 AM1 votes

I only played zyhra briefly and on Poro King. Likes: Sneaky passive, especially during a push against a squishy backline, in a target rich environment, where deaths aren't horrible. Mid battle- seed plant seed otherplant combo Bush traps Dislike: So squishy Bush traps aren't effective after the first face check

Matt Loss Zone1/23/2016, 9:02:23 AM1 votes

I'd like it if she could do more "plant things" like change her passive into a different seed that blooms into a new flower.

Clyp30 4fun1/23/2016, 9:03:59 AM1 votes

is riot gonna rework her into a support or a mage though? if she's gonna be a supp, i'd love to see a healing plant, like a fungus emitting spores which deal damage to enemies, maybe there's no need to throw her passive away, what if as her ulti she becomes a plant herself, beeing rooted etc which can attack like her live passive, but multiple times and having different abilities

Saianna1/23/2016, 9:56:00 AM1 votes

I've used Teemo as my smartfone wallpaper and that I cosnidered little bit too much.

...

Dengeden1/23/2016, 12:53:57 PM1 votes

Interesting suggestion, if it offers some sort of anti-invis, it'd give here a niche to fill.

Zyra has the Ezreal problem right now. Too much periodic damage that's way too safe with some on-hit effects and/or CDR. (Or that's how I see it.) Not that I'm complaining, the item spikes on Zyra are fun as hell. Regardless, it'll be interesting to see what they'll do with her. I want splody plants, portable plants, hyperranged plants. IDC if they gut her spell damage for it!

Cressilia1/23/2016, 3:07:15 PM1 votes

I play her as support and I think it would be nice if her seeds gave like +5 health to ally champs nearby every 5s or some sort of sustain. I dunno. I just wanna have more use for her seeds. And when they said bring the forest to life I was thinking someone along the lines of Illaoi's tentacles of the sort.