A Zyra main's opinion for the incoming update

Zyra is my go to champ. She is my only level 5 mastery. I main support, but if i don't get support, i'll mid with her. I'm learning jungle so i can pick her up in jungle as well.

when i saw that she was on the list of potentials for the mage update, i was a little worried (as i'm sure anyone would be if their main was slated for update), but everyone is speaking up about changes and likes and dislikes so i'll go in on it a bit

Things to like about zyra:

1. Her damage. There are higher damage burst champions in the game, but if you want some serious, aoe OOMPH in your teamfight, look no further (and her own burst damage with the ewqwr auto combo is not to be underestimated). Even as a support, she often leads her team (or the game) in total damage, and once you learn her playstyle you can easily dominate most lanes with her.

2. Her cc. Given that her e, e+w, and ult all provide pretty useful aoe cc, and that your standard zyra build always includes a rylai's at some point, zyra is a veritable cc machine.

3. Her item builds. Zyra doesn't have the most versatile build path in the game, but her core builds always make you feel good. The best zyra mains out there will tell you it's all about magic pen. the fact that she synergizes very well with both rylai's (her q and q+w are easy to lay down damage with, making slows easy) and liandry's (magic pen and synergy with rylai's) means that you often have a pretty set build path that you don't have to worry about differentiating TOO much.

4. Her play pattern. When you start to get good with Zyra, she is just outright fun to play. Especially with thunderlords in the mix now, zyra is able to poke effectively and safely, and laying down some plants to zone enemies off cs while keeping up in cs yourself is entertaining.

Things to dislike about zyra (note, this does not mean "she's slow" or "she's squishy." i mean real things that need updates)

DISCLAIMER: a great, or even just an experienced, Zyra player will learn to play around/with her plants to get the most out of them. However: i don't think there's a zyra player in the world that can claim they have better control of their plants than an Azir player of the same level does with his soldiers.

1. Her plants. Zyra's plants are a core part of her character, both thematically and mechanically, but the plants themselves can feel rather clunky and unpredictable. There was a recent update to the plant ai that represented a significant buff to zyra's gameplay, but the plants still feel somewhat silly and are impossible to control if you can't direct them with an auto. When compared with Azir's soldiers, Zyra just feels a bit too weak in her ability to use plants as a zone control threat if instead of the enemy worrying about the Zyra player's skill, he just has to play pve.

2. Her mobility. Again, not just saying "damn zyra is slow," i mean the girl is slow. She has no mobility, which can be healthy for someone with her damage output, but compounded with the fact that after her plants are out she has virtually no control over them, she feels very weak when attempting to move around to make plays. This goes hand in hand with the fact that as a squishy, it's difficult for her to get any vision down safely. the active on FQC solves a lot of that now as she can scout while she scouts, but she's still at great risk whenever she tries to ward. I wish the vision off her seeds was more significant.

3. Her cooldowns. As magic pen is a major priority for Zyra, she is unable to get off as many spell rotations in a fight as, say, Ahri, and she doesn't have any super low cooldown spam spells like Annie's Q. And given how dependent her teamfight is on her plants, the fact that she only gets 2 charges on her w (which she usually maxes last), compounded again with the relative difficulty in controlling her plants once they're OUT, make her feel very very very weak when she is on cooldown.

4. Her plants (again). I know i'm beating a dead horse here, but given how she's supposed to be a master of plant combat and all that nonsense, it's a bit weird that she has so little control over her plants. This is more of a theme thing than a gameplay thing, but they should match up, right?

5. Csing. Zyra has a lot of trouple csing, as her auto attack damage is so low and her mana costs are high enough that she can't easily spam spells to clear waves, unless she builds tear, which would make her basically useless until 6 items (and even then, inferior)

6. Her passive. Zyra's passive is honestly a really neat idea, and it deals true damage in a line, so if you die in a teamfight you can still do significant damage after you die to try and help your team. the problem is, if zyra dies, it's not in the middle of a teamfight with a full enemy team up: it's either when she's caught out, making it basically useless, or well after you've dealt your entire burst combo, likely killing a couple enemies, but it makes her highest potential burst include a suicide. not to mention, it's an incredibly unresponsive skill and one can't help but feel she might benefit more from a passive she can use while she's alive.

Overall Impression and Ideas

To be honest, i think with a small buff to her plants, she would be one of the strongest picks in the game. Her ability to burst down a squishy AND SIMULTANEOUSLY root the rest of her enemies in place to allow for follow up makes her a force to be reckoned with in a teamfight, so her actual damage and build paths are perfectly secure.

The biggest changed i'd like to see are

1. Plant AI improvements, first and foremost. I could see a massive improvement to zyra's play rate if her plants were more reliable.
2. Possible kit changes, including either giving her a spammable spell to give her some strength while on cd, or changing her w to an entirely different spell and changing the way she makes plants appear (although that could go very bad). Most importantly, she NEEDS a new passive.
3. Wave clear. Zyra is theoretically great for wave clear, but her csing is very weak early because of her low basic stats and her mana costs/cooldowns
4. the only way she could get an item buff would be to add cdr onto rylai's (ridiculous) or to make a new item with magic pen AND cdr, also ridiculous. this would be an alternative to changing her kit or her cooldowns

Overall, i'd say Zyra is pretty strong already, despite her weaknesses. Especially in the current, double AD meta, she is a very strong support pick that still does support things while doing a respectable amount of ap damage. If i had to pick a new direction for her, i think she could use more than anything a new passive and maybe a tweak to how her plants work and how she summons them.

Thanks for reading!