Zyra Is Underwhelming And A Bit Conflicted.

Hello I am kinda new to Zyra. I love the champion to be quite honest and think she is my favorite so far. I am not really sure what she has been through over the years in terms of nerfs and such. Right now she is a 'support' but I have some issues with her utility and usefulness in the overall picture.

• Her Ultimate: For one, her ult is very easy for enemies to dodge and doesn't seem to do much damage on its own as a burst. I also never seem to have enough seeds/plants during my ult due to the RNG passive/fast paced games. The plants attack very randomly, sometimes even hitting minions instead of the champions. In this case I feel that plants should prioritize champions as it is a super plant and you did blow your R to enrage them. Seeing them hit minions and then get one shot by the enemy or just sit idly is just sad.

• Her Passive: It's very difficult to reach a high level for better passive spawn rates as support. The seed spawn radius is... i almost feel like the seeds should only randomly spawn in a frontal area wherever zyra is facing so that you can use them to poke enemies instead of what it is now, where seeds spawn behind her and way off at 7 o'clock or something. Very odd, very frustrating-- especially at low levels. I would have to stand still in one spot for a hot minute to set up my seeds how I would like to and by then the enemy has either left or pushed me out of that spot as a group. Seeds like to nestle in the mobs which, as a support, isn't great. CS with spellthiefs isn't what you want. Hitting the whole wave of minions isn't what a support is supposed to do. I don't really enjoy how Zyra is forced to push waves because her random seeds are always around the minions. Her plants always end up attacking them even if you don't cast a spell on the wave too because your enemy will most likely step out of their range to change the target. I feel like there's a conflict between Zyra who used to be a midlaner and is now a support but some things are still not quite lining up for the role.

• Her Plants: Melee one hits them. AOE spells decimate them. Ranged is like 2 hits early game. Mid game ludens proc even one shots them... I don't quite understand why her plants are this vulnerable when they are her lifeblood. Without them she is nothing. Considering she can only control one seed with her W every 20-12 seconds it really is rough to burn all that mana and two cooldowns for what a simple Lux E could do. She doesn't exert map pressure when enemies know they can simply plow through them (even super plants).

• Her Utility: As it stands currently all I feel like most games is a CC bot. Land root, R, poke if possible, and hope I can get some good seed placements for trade contribution. I am still learning how to best place her plants so that they will last through a fight but it's .... it's rough, man. I envy casters like Lux who are super strong without the RNG, even getting half their ULT cd refunded if they get a kill with it. Zyra as a mage support is leagues below other options that simply do it better. Other support mages have shields or some kind of self buffs but Zyra does not. At all. I can't shield anyone, not even myself. I don't heal teammates or anything like that. All Zyra does is damage and peel/disengage. So why is she so feast or famine with her damage? Her passive is so random and doesn't feel fun or engaging at all. Rarely does it bring anything to the table. Being able to poke when I see an opening instead of when RNG blesses me with the possibility of one, considering the seeds aren't instantly trampled or the enemy doesn't one hit them before they do anything.

I have some suggestions though for improving her kit. It would be really nice to see her passive either changed completely and the current one is piled into her W or it stays as is and is made a little more predictable and viable. So many seeds go unused currently and to be quite honest they often can be bad for me because the enemy knows where I am if one passively pops up on the other side of a jungle wall. For her ranged plant, I feel they should target champions a little better than they currently do. Zyra isn't a champion you want to walk up and AA someone with. You rely on your plants for that and currently they are in a really bad spot if your enemy knows at all how feeble they really are.

It's confusing to me how a champ like Heim can have a tank turret and mini turrets that take a lot to break but Zyra? Nah fam. Squishy all around and very feast or famine. Teemo has his nuke shrooms that are invisible and tankier than Zyra's plants. I could go on and on about both types of plants, their AI, casting and growing them just to see them smack a caster minion, etc. but it would be a long post if I did.

Aside from that I guess it would be nice to do something negative to the enemy when they trample a seed, similar to teemo's mushrooms but not as severe. A DOT or some kind of stacking rage that builds in Zyra as she sees the enemies trample her babies. Even making the enemy stand on them longer like you would with Reksai's burrows would work. That way you have at least some chance to do something with the seed almost as a bait for your adc or your own counterplay. Just something really because at the moment Zyra is very difficult to play when her kit works so hard against her. She is such a cool champion and I won't stop playing her even if she is sub-optimal.. but I do hope that one day she will be in a better spot where players want to choose her at about the same rates as a Lux/Morgana.

PS: Where's the Elderwood Zyra skin at? It would really suit her! PPS: this post was long anyways. lol