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Zyra. A Gameplay Proposition with the help of the Mandrake Ward

Chortle·10/5/2015, 9:16:15 PM·13 votes·2,440 views

Zyra is bar-none my FAVORITE champion in the game.

That being said, I think she is not hitting her mark as a plant-controlling champion as much as she could be.

I mostly play Zyra mid so this is being thought of from that mindset.

Right now she a very risky pick in both mid and support. She is immobile and has one of the SLOWEST base MS of any champion in the game.

I propose a bolstering of safety to her lane via non-interactive plants.

Zyra uses a charge of her W to plant a seed on a wall. When the seed interacts with the environment, it becomes a Wall-watcher. These watchers do not attack enemy champions, but they simply alert your team that an enemy is within their circular field of vision (mandrake ward much?). The placement of these watchers could even be pre-determined similar to how Skarner has his crystal shrines in certain locations. After so many seconds of neglect from Zyra, these watchers will wither and become inactive. To replenish their strength, Zyra must walk within their vision range with 2 charges of Rampant Growth. The watcher will take the two buds as sustenance to continue its watch once more. Additionally, these watchres would change the look of the walls they are perched upon (vines spread across the top and sides).

I feel like these changes would further push Zyra into her role of counter-engage and zone control mage while helping her achieve her rise of the thorns badass fantasy :]

TY if you have read this far

Edit: I guess I should be more clear that I think she is already strong with what she does. I just don't think she has fulfilled her fantasy of plant-controlling mage as much as she could. Having two plants under your control is a little underwhelming when you are a plant mage battling in a magical forest....

Also the balancing around the watchers is not something I am super sure of. I simply think zyra needs more plants and that the feel of controlling the plants around her could be better than what it is currently.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/1c7fe8a3accca8116d3fab635a2f11d5/tumblr_nc8ekkd0Xe1tuqzano1_540.jpg

38 Comments

Martyrofsand10/5/2015, 10:18:52 PM6 votes

Am I the only one who finds it odd that a champ that is suppose to be all about the plants has zero interaction with the brush all around the map? Creating her own pants is fine but really give her a passive that actually works with the brush around the map, something like bard chimes for example where seeds randomly spawn in the brush around the map and can be activated with her skills or hell even picked up to give her plants various types of abilities in addition to what they already do. Maybe let her have an "active" passive like Azir's that allows her to turn the brush into impassable terrain for enemies or something.

Don't have to be exactly that but if she's gonna be the Rifts personal poison ivy then really emphasis those plants far more than they currently are.

Chortle10/5/2015, 9:59:58 PM5 votes

I feel like Zyra should have more control over the plants and environment than she currently does. Having 2 plants seems VERY lackluster for the rise of the thorns.

ModIts Yuu and Mi10/6/2015, 12:43:58 AM2 votes

I--

What the shit this is actually one of the best ideas I've seen.

Jbels10/6/2015, 1:36:20 AM2 votes

You know what this idea gives me a vibe of? That eye light sensor thing from the beginning of super Metroid. the one that activates when you get the morph ball and alerts the space pirates that you're there. Man, that sounds cool for league

Raven Redeemed10/5/2015, 10:20:36 PM1 votes

Woah! Neat idea! I suspect it may be a bit too good given the relatively low cd on Zyra's W, but I may be wrong. Also, the opposing team should probably have a way to kill the wall plant. I definitely agree that Zyra big weakness is her lack of mobility. What if Zyra got a small ms boost when her plants are attacking champs :)

Jbels10/5/2015, 11:14:23 PM1 votes

Wow, I completely forgot Mandrake ward was a thing. I guess Riot gave up on it. Pity, it looked like a promising counter to Eve

TNHA Baritone10/6/2015, 12:22:17 AM1 votes

genius

CGJung10/6/2015, 1:19:03 PM1 votes

this idea is awesome and would allow zyra to get closer to the meta since right now she's the least safe mage on the game :)

RisenDarkKnight10/6/2015, 3:48:58 PM1 votes

It seems kind of strange that it would cost 1 charge of w to activate the "wall watcher" but 2 to refresh them. Why not just leave it at 1? You give up a good amount of lane presence if you can't use your plants for 30 seconds. Why not 2 to activate them and 1 to refresh? That way you have to make a trade-off early game to activate the watcher when people have fewer wards and jungler ganks are more dangerous, but in the mid/late game you can still poke with your plants without losing vision. It also just seems strange to be punished for activating them early by having the cost doubled later on.

HentRex10/6/2015, 4:26:34 PM1 votes

Change her buds cd to something more reasonable like gp's barrels, and make the "wards" targetable like kalista's roamer.

Chortle10/7/2015, 8:11:56 PM1 votes

@Meddler @Xypherous @Riotrepertoir

Thoughts on Zyra's achievement of her overall character fantasy?

Stonington10/5/2015, 10:14:56 PM1 votes

That's a cool idea if they ever decide to rework her kit. Which I hope they don't. I'm really loving the new plant AI, her plants are really significant now. I switched from building liandry's to rylai's since the plants are so reliable. I also started to prioritize CDR so I could keep a steady stream and zone of plants out on the map at all times.

ChickenWrap10/5/2015, 10:16:21 PM1 votes

Zyra is broken. She doesn't need more added to her kit.

Rito Staff10/5/2015, 10:18:09 PM1 votes

Never played her I think but she looks really cool and I'm all for innovation c: but I'm against more visual polution in the map like skarner thingies... =| imo they suck, they don't look good on the map, they don't feel right personally.

It could just be an ability that she placed (but doesn't appear on the minimap) as a ward