How to Play Zeri in League of Legends

Want to know how you can play Zeri in League of Legends?

Zeri, The Spark of Zaun, is among the latest champions added to League of Legends. She’s a unique marksman with a very different playstyle than other champions in her role. With proper gameplay, Zeri can be a fun champion to play on the Rift.

Designed by Riot to be League of Legends’ anti-shield AD carry, Zeri’s mixture of mobility and burst abilities make her a tough matchup for most champions.

She also has a unique auto-attack mechanic that gives a one of a kind playstyle that overwhelms enemies in your lane during the early stage. Zeri also provides a fantastic skill expression in the late game.

With this, Zeri is one champion that you should not pass on.

In this guide, we’ll give you some pointers on how to play Zeri in League of Legends.

Let’s begin!

Abilities

Zeri generates one charge for every 40 units she travels by any means and ten charges every time she casts Burst Fire, which can stack up to 100 chargers. Her basic attacks also consume charges to deal modified damage.

She gains maximum charge at the start of the game and upon respawning.

Basic Attack

Zeri zaps her target, becoming non-projectile, applying spell effects as spell damage, and triggering on-cast effects. Her basic attacks cannot critically strike or trigger on-hit and on-attack effects.

While not at maximum capacity, Zeri’s attacks consume ten charges to deal 15 to 40 (+4% AP) magic damage. If targets are below 35% health, this damage is increased by 300%.

Zeri can also still use an uncharged attack even when below ten charges.

At full charge, Zeri’s next attack consumes all charges to deal 90 to 200 (+80% AP) magic damage and slow the target by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% for 1.5 seconds. The damage based on the target’s health ratio is capped at 300 against monsters.

Living Battery (Passive)

Innate – Zeri absorbs the energy of shields she damages, converting it as a shield for herself equal to 60% of the post-mitigation damage dealt to the shield. Each instance of the shield gained by Living Battery lasts for 3 seconds.

Innate – when Zeri receives a shield, she gains 10% bonus movement speed for 3 seconds.

Burst Fire (Q)

Zeri’s Burst Fire is her bread and butter. This ability starts as a one-second cooldown and gets reduced as Zeri gains attack speed, making Burst Fire her primary source of damage during fights.

Burst Fire is a skill shot and could miss your target. Due to this, you’ll notice a significant gap in terms of effectiveness between long-time Zeri users and new players trying her out.

Ultrashock Laser (W)

Zeri’s Ultrashock Laser is a simple line skill shot that is very similar to Jinx’s Zap. However, Ultrashock Laser has the ability to extend when used through walls. When you use it on walls, its length and width increase on the other side and grant you vision, making it a handy tool when fighting around the jungle.

Spark Surge (E)

This ability also has two effects depending on whether it’s used near terrain or not, just like Ultrashock Laser. When Spark Surge is cast in the open, Zeri will dash a short distance and reset her auto-attack cooldowns.

When used on a wall, Spark Surge functions like a Bard Portal. Zeri can glide over the length of the terrain as long as she’s unobstructed and untouched.

This gives her much-needed mobility and travel options across the map.

Lightning Crash (R)

Lightning Crash is Zeri’s ultimate. This ability opens a large AoE burst of magic damage around Zeri. When she hits an enemy champion, Zeri becomes Overcharged.

Overcharge is a stacking buff that increases with targets hit with the initial AoE and with every charged attack and ability that strikes an enemy champion, refreshing her status duration with every stack.

While Overcharged, Zeri transforms into a real monster. She gains movement speed that makes it impossible for enemies to pin her down. She also gains extra attack speed, added on-hit damage, and bonus mini-Statikk Shiv.

Zeri Gameplay

Zeri’s strength as a champion shows up with her mid-game power spikes. However, she can’t do much during the laning phase. Champions like Jinx, Jhin, and Caitlyn can quickly push her back and gain lead in net worth and EXP without sweating.

She also doesn’t have much potential with melee support, so your focus on the early game is really to farm items and avoid getting killed.

Now, once you hit her item power spikes, that’s when you can start to take off.

Zeri benefits the most when she can kite around team fights, constantly dealing DPS with her Burst Fire and stacking up her Overcharge.

While her Burst Fire has a max range of 825 units, it’s ideal to play around 500 to 600 range so you can land her basic attacks and ensure her Burst Fire lands. This makes her gameplay similar to champions like Kai’Sa and Vayne, who don’t just sit back on clashes and auto-attack.

Runes

Precision

Domination

Bonus

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Item Build

That ends our guide on how to play Zeri in League of Legends. If you have questions or other concerns, please let us know in the comment section, and we’ll do our best to answer them.

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How to Play Zeri in League of Legends