Zyra Update Concept (Roughly Gankplank-level)

Hey all,

With some minor QOL changes to Zyra hitting the PBE this patch, Riot's hints at how they do intend to look more into her, and myself being an avid Zyra fan I figured I would throw out my suggestions and see what people think. Please read through all of it before commenting as a lot of the abilities may look weaker if the entire kit isn't taken into consideration when evaluating it. I feel this kit (while it may have issues as I'm still an aspiring game designer) really accents Zyra's whole "plant mage" theme much better than her current one!

Here's a pre-summary for those that don't want to read:

TL;DR: If you don't want to read, at least read this!

• Passive: Death flower gone. Passive now makes plants invulnerable and gives attack speed when near Zyra.
• Q: Same as live, but does less damage and grows ALL plants near Zyra into Thorn Spitters.
• W: Same as live, but more seeds in the mid and late game. Seeds last longer.
• E: Same as live, but does less damage and grows ALL plants near Zyra into Vine Lashers.
• R: Same as live, but does less damage and also resets affected plants and gives them Zyra's passive.
• Thorn Spitter: Same as live, but does significantly more damage.
• Vine Lasher: Same as live, but does significantly more damage and damages/slows in a line.
• Other: Plants now have 2/4 HP instead of 3/6 in order to offset the invulnerability mechanic

Take the numbers with a grain of salt as I'm not a balance expert, Here we go:

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Passive "Vengeful Thorns"

• On-death effect REMOVED
• Zyra's grown plants are immune to damage and gain 40% attack speed while she is within 450 units.

The purpose of this change is to add counter-play to Zyra via forcing her to stay close to her plants if she wants the most benefit from them, allowing an opportunity for the enemy to capitalize if she miss positions by staying too close, and weakening her plants if she runs away. It's a risk/reward decision for the Zyra player. Plants are bit easier to focus down than on live in order to really encourage Zyra to decide on positioning with this new passive (see Pets below).

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Q: "Deadly Bloom"

• Range: 800
• Cost: 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 / 95
• Cooldown: 7 / 6.5 / 6 / 5.5 / 5
• ACTIVE: Zyra sprouts thorns at the target location after a 0.75-second delay, dealing 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 / 190 (+ 55% AP) magic damage to enemies within the area.
• PASSIVE: On cast, ALL planted seeds within 1000 units of Zyra grow into Thorn Spitters that last for up to 10 seconds, attacking the nearest enemy with long-ranged attacks.

1) Mostly unchanged stats, the notable changes to the skill itself here are the slightly decreased damages. The goal of that change is to be able to push a bit more power into Zyra's plants in the mid to late game. 2) The other change is how the plants grow. Now whenever Zyra uses Q, ALL nearby plants turn into Thorn Spitters regardless of whether or not the Q hits them. This lets Zyra focus more on creative/skilled plant positioning in fights without her having to give up the ability to use her damaging spells on enemies.

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W: "Rampant Growth"

• Range: 850
• Cost: 1 seed
• Recharge Time: 15 / 13.5 / 12 / 10.5 / 9
• PASSIVE: Cooldown reduction per level REMOVED. Zyra stores a seed periodically, up to a maximum of 1 + (1 x R: Stranglethorn's rank) stored at once.
• ACTIVE: Zyra plants a seed at the target location for 1 minute, granting sight of a small area around it. Up to 4 seeds can be planted at a time, and planting an additional seed destroys the oldest. More than 4 plants can exist simultaneously.
• After 1.5 seconds, enemy champions can step on a seed to destroy it, but doing so grants true sight of them for 2 seconds.
• If Zyra uses Q: Deadly Bloom or E: Grasping Roots, a plant grows from it and automatically attacks nearby enemies. Plants beyond the first striking the same target deal one-third damage.

1) Recharge time is slightly lower at rank 1 and a lot lower at max rank (9s instead of live's 11.7s, or 5.4s with max CDR vs live's 7.02s), in order to focus more on plant-related shenanigans. Due to Zyra getting seeds much faster, seeds living for 1 minute instead of 30 seconds as on live, and her ability to make plants immune to damage; Zyra is only allowed to carry 1 seed at a time in the early game as to not be overbearing in lane. As the game progresses Zyra can hold more seeds to use, up to a maximum of 4 at level 16. As Zyra can now have more plants out simultaneously (place 4 seeds, wait for 4 stacks, grow the 4, place 4 more, grow those 4 with your other ability = 8 plants in a super-ideal-optimal-world-that-will-never-realistically-happen), plants beyond the first hitting the same target now only deal one-third damage instead of half. 2) In addition, W no longer grants free CDR as the charges stack much faster and her plant game is generally stronger. This will force Zyra players to decide if they want to focus on maximum damage output (ignore CDR), or maximum utility (capping CDR) in the mid to late portions of the game, instead of getting both for free. 3) Getting more seeds more often is also helps out with wave clear as this is something she'll lose a little bit of with the suggested ability damage changes.

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E: "Grasping Roots"

• Range: 1100
• Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
• Cooldown: 12
• ACTIVE: Zyra sends a surge of vines in the target direction, dealing 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+ 50% AP) magic damage to enemies hit and rooting them for 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 seconds.
• PASSIVE: On cast, ALL planted seeds within 1000 units of Zyra grow into Vine Lashers that last for up to 10 seconds, attacking the nearest enemy with short-ranged attacks that hit all enemies in a line, damaging and slowing them by 30% for 2 seconds.

1) The basic stats of this ability have not changed at all. 2) E gets the same treatment that Q gets where when you cast E, all seeds within 1000 units of Zyra grow, allowing her to place plants more strategically without having to intentionally miss her spells. 3) Vine Lashers now attack with piercing attacks that hit enemies in a line (think Twitch ult or Azir soldiers), slowing and damaging all of them. The point of the piercing attack is to make the use Vine Lashers still relevant if the Zyra player buys a Rylai's. As it is on live, Thorn Spitters are strictly better than Vine Lashers once a Rylai's has been purchased. This small change allows Vine Lashers to apply the Rylai's slow in a line, whereas Thorn Spitters only apply it to a single target. The line attack also helps restore the wave clear power and AoE in a team fight that the base ability damage changes cause her to lose.

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R: "Stranglethorns"

• Range: 700
• Cost: 100 / 120 / 140
• Cooldown: 130 / 120 / 110
• ACTIVE: Zyra summons a monstrous thicket at the target location, dealing 170 / 245 / 320 (+ 60% AP) magic damage to all enemies in the area as it expands. After 2 seconds, the vines snap upward, knocking up all enemies caught in the thicket for 1.5 seconds. Plants hit by Stranglethorns during its initial growth have their duration and health fully restored, and gain the effects from Passive: Vengeful Thorn (regardless of the distance from Zyra) for 3 seconds.

1) Mostly unchanged stats, slightly less damage for the same reasons as listed in Q. 2) Zyra's ultimate now has a lot of power loaded into it if it is used well with her plants, but isn't as effective without proper plant management (due to the lower damages). Fully recovering plants to full health and duration, along with granting them the effects from her passive allows the cast of her ultimate to really feel like it's amping up the potency of her thorny friends.

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Pet: Thorn Spitter

• Stats almost entirely unchanged except for:
• 2 Health for single-target hits instead of 3, and 4 for AoE instead of 6.
• Deals 30 + (9.5 x Zyra's Level) + 30% AP magic damage per attack.

1) The only real difference is a bit more base damage, damage per level, and AP ratio to make up for the lowered amounts on Zyra's ability casts and push her into a more plant-focused gameplay pattern. 2) Still has 750 Range, and all the other stats are the same.

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Pet: Vine Lasher

• Stats almost entirely unchanged except for:
• 2 Health for single-target hits instead of 3, and 4 for AoE instead of 6.
• Deals 30 + (8.5 x Zyra's Level) + 30% AP magic damage per attack to all units in a 400 unit line and slows them by 30%

1) The only real difference is a bit more base damage, damage per level, and AP ratio to make up for the lowered amounts on Zyra's ability casts and push her into a more plant-focused gameplay pattern. 2) Still has 400 range, and all the other stats are the same. 3) Attacks now slow enemies in a 400-unit line. This has to do with Rylai's and helping wave clear when needed - read the quote from E: Grasping Roots for more info.

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Hoorah for walls of text - lemme know what you think! :) Also if this is in the wrong board let me know, it's somewhat ambiguous...

The goal is to make her more plant-focused and area-control focused, rather than the current mix up of "is she an AoE burst mage... or a dps mage... or a zone control mage...?".