How do you play against Zilean support?

How do you play against Zilean support, especially when he has Ignite?

He just seems to zone you and you feel powerless as he deals more damage to you than you can actually do back.

When he is with an ADC with a strong early game, like Lucian or Caitlyn, I really don't know what to do.

Solution 1:

To know how to play against a Zilean you have to know what his strenghts and weaknesses are.

Zilean does exceptionally well in poking The enemy ADC. He has a huge range (600 on autoattacks, 700 on Q) and incredible base damage on his Q. So basically if you are a ADC with average range (550) you will lose poke trades. He can also get in and out fast thanks to his movementspeed buff which will also make hitting skillshots harder.

But there are three things about him which make him easy to counter.

• He has no real gapcloser. Sure he's got that annoying 55% Movementspeed buff but it will be hard to get away from someone with Hard CC for him.
• He Is incredibly squishy. As far as I know He's among the top 5 lowest base HP champions. Also his base armor isn't too great.
• He is really mana hungry. A zilean will do good amounts of damage of course but it will also cost him a lot of mana. Unless he's running mana(reg) runes he will have trouble harrassing too often. And if he does include them in his runepage he will be even squishier due to the lack of armor/health.

Now how to play against him? You should definitely take a Supporter with hard CC (Leona/Thresh/Blitzcrank). Also a really important thing is to hit level two before him. If you are level two and he is level 1 you will have a guaranteed kill. Also if you are ahead once you will be ahead the whole game since Zilean really relies on early snowball and he will even drop off lategame regardless of how many kills he got in early/midgame.

So you could say the main key to victory against a Zilean is a successful aggressive all-in playstyle.

Solution 2:

Zilean is really squishy so your ADC or you can poke him and do some damage to him so that he won't play so aggressively. If you go all in in a fight on bot the enemy will most probably lose that fight. Also, he doesn't have hard CC and he doesn't have heal as well. Considering those cons of his, I believe that you can play better against him now.

Solution 3:

I also agree with Jutschge's answer, with Leona/Thresh/Blitzcrank as a counter support to Zilean, but don't forget the shielders.

I just want to add this info since I usually play as Zilean.

The common Zilean moves are: (from a less active to a very agro type)
1. Wait on a lane and do nothing. (could be DC)
2. Get into range and Q the ADR (+ or - AutoAttack), then run back.
3. Expend more mana, using E to get into a closer range, Q to the ADR, W, then Q to the ADR(+ or - AutoAttack) and then run back.

On which the answer to 2 and 3 are shielder support, since Zilean's Q has a huge delay. (the enemy shielder can even count three seconds before actually shielding the ADR or the support, or whoever needs it)

I get really upset if the enemy support use shield, because everytime I cast the bomb, most of the time, there would be a shield that will somehow soak up the damage, and less damage means I need more mana to expend so that my damage would really get through the shield. And since mana is Zilean's problem then it really is problematic.

So, try teaming up with Janna/Lulu/Lux against a lane with Zilean support if you usually play passively/bait. And Leona/Thresh/Blitzcrank if you play actively.

Sorry I can't comment yet but I just want to share one of Zilean's weakness.