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Zyra - Considering a new passive

Snakethrower·10/7/2014, 6:25:56 AM·2 votes·1,004 views

Zyra is fun to play. Sadly she is horribly unrewarding at times. Low cooldows, low scaling, low projectile speed combined with high mana costs are components which don't go well together. These however are thing for another topic. What I'ld like to discuss is her horribly unrewarding passive.

If you die you transform into a plant and got a horribly low but true damage skillshot.

If you play out Zyra's strength, her range and manage to do relatively well you're playing a champion completely without a passive.

If your passive is triggered it's a completely disappointment, rather than a joy. The delay of the skillshot is long, the projectile's speed is slow and the damage is not worth mentioning.

I'ld love to her your opinion on Zyra and especially how satisfied you're with her passive. Later on I'll post some suggestion to rework it, but for now gathering opinions feels more important.

Edit: Currently Zyra ia one of the least played champions and has a horribly low in rate of 41.94% http://www.elophant.com/league-of-legends/champions/most-played

7 Comments

Nagoh Shan10/7/2014, 6:46:46 AM1 votes

Personally I feel it's pretty par for the course. There are better passives and worse, but it's smack dab in the middle really. True, it deals less damage than Kog'maw's, but I think that's more a result of perceived role differences than any lack of parity.

I mentioned it in the thread I started that it's her W that bugs me. 1 point buys everything, no real scaling per rank at all. CDR is more easily and more reliably covered by items, and not worth the point over damage in Q or E. The last 5 levels would all feel the same if you didn't get to R3 your ult.

Personally if they do anything with Zyra it should be giving her W a level of meaningful growth. Her passive is what it is, and at least it's not Strut or Salvation. You at least get to feel pretty badass when you snipe a person or two after going down. YMMV, but that's just my take on it.

deadlychuck10/7/2014, 7:00:47 AM1 votes

Playing on the idea that it's Zyra Rise of the Throns.

What if it was similar to nami, passive, but damage based, so almost like a reverse Leona passive. It would make her more viable as a support, and while it might not be great for solo lane, it still would be noticeable in team fights.

Thorns: When Zyra's abilities hit an allied champion or towers they become covered with thorns for 3 seconds. Dealing (10/20/30) (10% AP) magic damage to enemies whenever they basic attack the affected target.

A few mechanical points would be that the damage is considered Zyra's so if she uses it on an ally under tower, she would pick up the aggro from the damage. Also as a result minions killed would be considered her kills.

Alternatively you could remove the scaling and maybe increase the number of level increments, then keep it as true damage.

deadlychuck10/7/2014, 7:10:12 AM1 votes

Edit: Currently Zyra ia one of the least played champions and has a horribly low in rate of 41.94% http://www.elophant.com/league-of-legends/champions/most-played

I think this has more to do with the reason that riot stated behind azir, she is just a generic mage. She has a main attack, a secondary damage spell, some CC, and a powerful ult. Her passive is just another basic mage kind of passive.

As a result there are a lot of other mages that just do it better in the meta cough ziggs cough...

doubleguac10/7/2014, 7:23:14 AM1 votes

Well, on release, it seemed as though they wanted Zyra to be a high damage but squishy control mage. So, I guess, the logic is you would blow your CDs in team fights, and if you died, you would get to follow up with additional burst.

Definitely doesn't make as much sense now that she's typically played as a support.

The reason she kept getting nerfed is that she was doing a LOT of damage while also having a LOT of CC/utility. So Riot nerfed both of her strengths, and now she pretty much just has a powerful disengage ult going for her.

In my opinion, a thematic way to solidify her niche would be to focus more of her power on her plants, and really ramp up her zone control. I'm sure Riot could easily come up with a passive that better fits that role

12tales10/7/2014, 7:27:53 AM1 votes

Currently Zyra ia one of the least played champions and has a horribly low in rate of 41.94% http://www.elophant.com/league-of-legends/champions/most-played

I have no idea where elophant is getting their data, but the sample size is ridiculously small (Volibear has been picked five times? Total???). In soloq as a whole, Zyra actually enjoys a consistent 52% win rate or so.

http://www.lolking.net/champions/zyra&region=all&map=sr&queue=1x1#statistics

Snakethrower10/7/2014, 7:29:30 AM1 votes

Suggested new passives:

Rise of thorns. Upon casting deadly bloom on herself Zyra returns to her plant form for 2.5 seconds. In her plantform she can spitt out seeds at her normal attack speed but can't cast or attack. She receives 10/15/20/25/30 armor and magic resist. This passive has a 40s cooldown.

Snakethrower10/7/2014, 8:14:26 AM1 votes

Suggested new passive

2.) One with the forest

Upon entering a bush Zyra gets the "One with forest" buff. It remains for 3 seconds after leaving. This effect has 180/ 150 /120 / 90 / 60/ 30s cooldown. If Rampant growth i cast while under the effect of "One with the forest" you regain 1 seed and the buff ends.

Assists grant Zyra 1 seed. Champion kills spawn 1 Thorn Spitter.