It only took some very slight adjustments to uproot a certain League of Legends champion and replant her where she could flourish once more.
As support players have continued to explore the variety of changes impacting the role over the past several patches, the prevalence of Zyra as a priority support champion has become increasingly apparent—despite how plentiful engage champions are at nearly all levels of play. The plethora of tools that the Rise of the Thorns has to poke her opponents in lane has led her to once more plant her reign within the role, likely only to continue terrorizing opponents as more players experiment with her recent changes.
Zyra players have been clamoring for buffs of any kind for a number of months. Despite her position as a mage with adequate crowd control, she struggles immensely with low range—while other options like Lux and Morgana can oftentimes do her job better. Fortunately, the Rise of the Thorns was given significant buffs in Patch 13.14 that appear to finally be contributing to an increase in her win rate and sheer dominance of Summoner’s Rift.
Though these buffs didn’t alter any of the damage that Zyra deals in her intended support role, they did offer much-needed quality-of-life adjustments to her early-game plant placement, as well as how her ultimate interacts with her positioning. Thanks to these changes, Zyra’s win rate—currently fluctuating around 52 percent, according to OP.GG—now rivals that of Rakan and Rell, who both have held dominant positions at the top of the support meta for a number of patches.
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As of now, there is no indication that Zyra will be nerfed in the near future, likely due to her low pick and ban rates. The build path for the Rise of the Thorns has remained fairly streamlined since Mythic items were introduced—with a Liandry’s Anguish/Rylai’s Crystal Scepter core continuing to be her best build. Though some players have been experimenting with other Mythic items like Radiant Virtue, as well as the no-longer-Mythic Imperial Mandate that synergizes great with the crowd control in her kit.
Another mage support, Xerath, has also made a resurgence thanks to a handful of massive buffs that have allowed him to thrive once more across two roles. Players can also look forward to the imminent return of Brand as a popular support thanks to the changes impacting him that will launch this week with Patch 13.16.
