Clutch honey fruit plant, clutch ally Jungler

I want to be clear, this is not flame at all. I have nothing against the champ, I just don’t see the point aside from playing a more benevolent daarkin champ.

When I look to learn a champ, it’s because I like their vibe, and they do something unique that no other champ can do. When I think about the champs that I play, I play Urgot because of his shotgun legs, Garen because of late game Garen passive and the fact that I can basically turn my brain off on the guy, Mundo because I can tank 20k damage in a fight and still heal to full, and I’m learning Kled because his remount is very interesting. I just don’t see something like that with Zaahen and I feel like I’m missing something. His kit feels like an overall well rounded classic bruiser, and he doesn’t really do anything that no other champ can. He feels very inoffensive to me.

Again I have nothing against Zaahen, or the people that play him, I just want to see what I’m missing about the champ.

Does anyone know high elo zaahen mains thats play him jgl and create content around it? Gameplay/tutorials/opinions on builds?

Kinda cant find any. Dantes made some vids like 6 months ego, and there are the typical „this build is so broken“ videos of those guys smurfing and building clickbait shit

I was thinking Last Stand makes more sense but every site such as op.gg or mobalytics.gg recommends Coup de Grace. Can anybody explain why?

Hi guys, i m trying to add zaahen to my champ pool since i like darkin and self healing champs (like aatrox renekton)and wondered if he is worth to main, i noticed with new releases like mel smolder naafiri are kinda of unstable champs because of how their kits work and had to be nerfed reworked a lot of the times, so i wondered if zaahen is a good design which means he isnt a balance nightmare and is stable to play instead of suffering from the same syndrome as these champs and getting change almost every 3 months.

Never gets old

Hi everyone, I'm a Vlad top main trying to learn Zaheen to get some AD in the champion pool.

I need some advice.

When do you choose Hail of Blades instead of Conqueror? Against Garen or Darius? Trundle and Morde?

I'd also like to ask you for a couple of builds, including a fairly all-around one, especially regarding stridebreaker. Do you use it almost always? As a second item after trinity?

Vlad tilted Shaco so hard oml.

First game of the day and I got a Penta to win it, Ya love to see it

please let me know what u think, and criticize my build if possible

Does yall know anyone that has a body like zaahen irl?

i think his upper body is way too big compared to his waist.

im attaching image below as a referance;.

I was wondering if it might actually be better to rush Stridebreaker, or at least delay Trinity Force by buying Tiamat first

I've noticed that in a lot of matchups, even if I'm managing the wave correctly and keeping the lane even, some champions simply outshove me. Garen is the biggest example. I don't really struggle in the 1v1, but I do struggle to match his tempo.

He clears waves so quickly that he gets priority almost every time. By the time I finish clearing the wave so I can reset, he's already there. Even when I get him low enough to kill, he just runs away and I can't stick to him long enough to finish the kill

That got me thinking: Wouldn't Stridebreaker solve both of these problems?

It gives Tiamat for much better wave clear, helping match champions that constantly shove, and the active slow seems like it would make it much easier to stick to targets that would otherwise just run away.

Or is delaying Trinity Force's spike too big of a sacrifice? Has anyone experimented with rushing Stridebreaker or grabbing an early Tiamat before finishing Trinity? I'm curious if there's something I'm overlooking

I am pretty new to league so not great yet but started playing Zaahen recently and I can see how he is not terrible on lane into many matchups, but things like darius and morde and urgot just destroy me, and I feel like if I play safe they end up with a CS lead which let's them be spike faster and I never really get a chance to play.

With the darius case specifically, darius scales really well but is also a lane bully, does zaahens Lane weakness mean that given equal gold, I should always beat a darius when we both have 3 4 5 items?

How good is this champs scaling really?

Thanks for all the help!

I'm a newly born Zaahen main and I'm struggling slightly with rune choices. My Emerald friend says you pick hail of blade into poke/ranged lanes but should default to conquerors in most cases. The way I understand it you default to HoB for strong laning and only switch to grasp in super specific matchups (no idea why or what matchups). He usually gives advice and who am I not to listen to someone that's way higher ELO than my sad low self. But I can't help but doubt this advice. How do I decide whether or not I pick HoB?

Zaahen really needs attack speed to build his passive up. Idk if it’s worth it.

Several pro players tend to go stride->dd->maw into every matchup. They take stride first almost every game.

I'm primarily a jungle main, but I recently switched my secondary role from mid to top

I used to play a lot of Zaahen jungle before Riot gutted his clear, and now I'd like to pick him up in the top lane. The problem is that his runes and builds seem a lot more flexible than they used to be

Runes

From what I've seen, the three main keystones are Conqueror, Hail of Blades, and Grasp, and I'm not sure when each one is optimal

From my understanding:

• Conqueror is the default scaling option
• Hail of Blades gives you a much stronger laning phase but scales worse
• Grasp is the one I understand the least

Is the stronger early game from Hail of Blades generally worth giving up Conqueror's scaling?

And when should I take Grasp? Against tanks, I'd assume Conqueror is usually better since they don't pressure you much, which lets you scale for free, so idk

Items

I'm also confused about the current top lane build

When I played Zaahen jungle, my core was usually:

Sundered Sky → Stridebreaker → Death's Dance

But looking at top lane builds, I barely see anyone buying Sundered Sky anymore

Is the standard core now something like:

Trinity Force → Stridebreaker → Death's Dance → Endless Hunger

Or does the build change significantly depending on the matchup?

Hey! I've been a long time jungle/support main, and I recently started branching out towards the other roles. I figured the worst that could happen is that I gain some understanding about the role that allows me to play better around it, which is already bearing fruit!

Now when I tried toplane, I decided to play the champion I was super excited about before he released. Initially I was expecting a cool bird darkin, not a handsome guy, but I came around to his design and I absolutely love his gameplay.
I decided I want to stick to the toplane, and that I want to OTP Zaahen. However, I have some difficulty with itemization, dueling etc. A lot of it doesn't feel super intuitive, and guides will only tell you what to build, not why to build it.

So in that spirit, I humbly present myself to the Zaahen mains to hopefully gain some new wisdom.

TO PREFACE THIS, I'M NOT LOOKING FOR SIMPLE REPLIES LIKE "BUILD TRIFORCE INTO X AND THEN Y". I want to know why I build something or do something, rather than just blindly following advice. These are the points that aren't super intuitive to me yet:

1. How do I decide whether I play passive or aggressive? Against a lane bully do I stay away? Do I punish? Against someone with a weak early do I push into them? Freeze lane etc? How do you decide on a gameplan?

2. Which items have good value, in which order do you build them, which items are really good situationally etc. In other words, how do Itemize? Again, knowing WHY I build items is the important part here

3. How do I decide what runes to take into my game? As I understand it conquerors are runes that are better for scaling, while HoB allows you to be a competent fighter early. Do you just take HoB against lane bullies and Conquerors when it's safe to scale?

4. I heard that it's good to do short trades on Zaahen until later on in the game. How do I decide when I'm ready to go for longer trades?

5. What is Zaahen's general gameplan? Purely looking at his kit as a total amateur he seems to be a good teamfighter and not a super good split pusher, should I always be looking to play around my team?

6. What summoner spells do you pick in which situations and why?

These last two questions are bonus questions just for fun, so feel free to leave the answer out of your reply if you don't feel like it:

1. What made you personally decide to play Zaahen? Did you fall in love with the playstyle? Do you love the design?

2. If Zaahen gets banned or picked, what is your go-to secondary? I was thinking (though it might not be the OPTIMAL choice) that it would be nice to honor Xin Zhao by having him as my secondary. What did you end up choosing as your secondary?

Hello, I reached challenger playing top lane from a minor region(SEA). Might not be impressive to some but hey, still the top somewhere at least.

I main gwen(#1 in region), zaahen, olaf, and xin zhao

Feeling bored, AMA. I will help best I can.

https://u.gg/lol/profile/sg2/objection-8765/overview

Hi,

never played Zaheen but against him and always had pema prio even with weak early champs like Gragas.

Dont know If its skill issue, but Zaheen seems to be losing all matchups early and has to give prio and hope the enemy doesnt freeze (Which I am always doing as enemy when playing vs Zaheen).

Some small questions about his early levels.

I am wondering If I would try him out, can he contest level 1 wave when he stands in his own minions vs Darius, Urgot (level 1-3) and Morde level 6?

Or can he not fight back and need to give up prio? How can Zaheen react to bounce back of wave which will lead to freeze when facing Darius for example? Can he contest the freeze on first wave bounce back?