Cover-Credits:
It has been only two days since Zeri’s release in League of Legends and already players are spamming her on Solo Queue. Unfortunately, Zeri’s 39% win rate over 17K matches indicates that they’re not playing her well. The Zaunite attack-damage carry (ADC) has debuted with one of the worst early win rates for any new champion. The latest addition to the champion roster has left players scratching their heads, wondering how to best utilize her.
Zeri as an ADC is unique as traditional auto-attacks for her are a skill shot in her kit. Since players are trying to wrap their heads around the auto-attacks and understand her playstyle, her low debut win rate does make sense. Players are yet to understand that Zeri needs to hit one or two items to really dish out damage and stay relevant. With her hybrid kit allowing her to dish out both magic and attack damage, there is considerable confusion around her item choices, too.
Who synergizes well with Zeri
Zeri’s passive, which helps her gain brief movement speed, means that she does really well in the lane with enchanter supports like Lulu and Janna. She also absorbs the energy of shields she damages and shields herself.
Secondly, Zeri can synergize well with tanky supports like Alistar or Leona as they can lock down the enemy in one place, making it easier for Zeri to land her skill-shot auto-attacks. Since she gains value from her allies while dueling opponents, it is best to play Zeri in the bot-lane rather than taking her to mid or top.
What runes to build on Zeri
Ever since Zeri’s release, players have been experimenting with different runes to identify which work well around her kit. Though it might take a considerable amount of time before players come to a consensus on the runes, players are currently primarily picking two keystones from the Precision tree: Lethal Tempo and Conqueror.
Lethal Tempo:
This rune gives players attack speed per stack to a maximum of 10 stacks and at full stacks, players are granted a 75 bonus attack range. Lethal Tempo works well with Zeri’s kit because it will increase the range of her Q. Apart from this, her Q cooldown is also based on the attack speed, but it caps out when the champion hits 1.5 attacks per second. If one ends up getting more attack speed over the cap, then 50% of the extra attack speed will be converted into extra AD. This rune will come in handy and help players max out attack speed stats earlier into the game without having to spend gold on attack speed items.
Conqueror:
This rune gives champions a scaling amount of attack damage (AD) per stack and players get a maximum of 12 stacks which can be achieved by using auto-attacks or abilities. Since the rune stacks with both basic attacks and abilities, it might be a perfect rune for a champion like Zeri. She has to constantly switch between spamming her autos and abilities and stacking Conqueror is very easy on her. Players opting for this rune will miss out on the early attack speed and extra range that Lethal Tempo offers, but it can be compensated by buying attack speed items. This rune will help Zeri deal an immense amount of damage in the laning phase and early game.
Itemization on Zeri
All of Zeri's abilities have ability power (AP) ratios except for her Q which is solely AD. Going the AP route on Zeri would mean that she can only do magic damage and she could be easily countered if opponents build Magic Resist (MR) items. So, going AD on Zeri makes the most sense because that way she deals both AD and AP damage and it becomes harder to counter her.
Most higher-tier players have been itemizing traditional critical strike on Zeri rather than going for lethality. The two important core items to build on Zeri are Kraken Slayer and Essence Reaver followed by an Infinity Edge as these items allow her to do tremendous amounts of damage.
For boots, Zeri can go for Berserker's Greaves because it gives 35% attack speed and will help Zeri reach her attack speed cap faster.
Zeri's laning phase is straightforward and it is evident that she is not a lane bully like Draven or Lucian. It is important to remember that Zeri’s Q is blocked by minions just like Ezreal’s and hence it requires Zeri to constantly move around the lane, looking for perfect poke opportunities.
The best win condition for Zeri is to scale during the laning phase and look for fights after hitting level six.
Patience seems to be the name of the game with Zeri for now. Play it slow early and scale like a maniac into the mid and late game. Whether Zeri’s low win rate has more to do with her stats or if it is the wrong itemization by players can only be deciphered with time. For now, hop on to the rift and test out Zeri’s kit.
