Zilean Counters: How To Counter Pick Zilean

In the wastelands of Urtistan, there was once a great city. It perished long ago in a terrible Rune War, like most of the lands below the Great Barrier. Nevertheless, one man survived: a sorcerer named Zilean. In this article, we explain how to effectively counter Zilean.

Best Zilean Counters

• Annie
• Sivir
• Blitzcrank
• Amumu
• Morgana
• Lux

Old Saint Zilean

Zilean Counter Picks

Now that you know who counters Zilean, you can finally counter pick Zilean in any matchup. Let’s take you through some tips on how to use a few of these champions who are counters to Zilean. After, there is a general section explaining how to use any LoL champion as counters for Zilean. After all, if you know how to play against Zilean, you can play safely and effectively to defeat Zilean in a lane.

Groovy Zilean

Tips For Playing Against Zilean

• Zilean’s early harassment power can be mitigated by sending a tanky or healing champion to lane against him. You are more likely to win a battle of attrition due to his high early mana costs. Champions with the ability to silence also have an upper hand on Zilean due to his low defense stats
• When caught by Time Bomb, you can force him to push the lane by intentionally damaging your minions with the explosion.
  • Remember to stay away from your allies when he uses his Time Bomb on you so you won’t unintentionally damage them.
• Ideally, you should attempt to take Zilean down quickly with enough burst power to prevent him from making use of Chronoshift. If this proves impossible, consider that you may need to focus on which of Zilean’s allies you can kill the fastest over which one is dealing the most damage.
• Zilean’s mobility with Time Warp makes it difficult to finish him off without a well-orchestrated ambush, for he can easily bait and win a fight with Chronoshift. However, his low natural defenses make him a good target for assassins.
• Time Warp is one of the strongest movement speed reduction abilities in the game. Boots of Swiftness reduces its effectiveness.
• Zilean cannot usually afford to increase his ability power by late game and his utility is less dependent on his item build. Attempting to kill Zilean during the laning phase should be a very low priority compared to farming minions.
• Chronoshift is less useful versus teams with high sustained damage combined with crowd control like Kassadin and Jax.
• Zilean is heavily susceptible to silence effects. If you have enough silence in team, you can try to silence Zilean when he is about to cast Chronoshift on one of his allies or kill him before he can use it on himself.
• Building a Hexdrinker or Zhonya’s Hourglass could save you if you get bombed twice and are running away. The shield from Hexdrinker will activate before the 2nd bomb detonates. Activate Zhonya’s Hourglass when the bomb counts down to 1.

Blood Moon Zilean

By using the champions who counter Zilean and the LoL Zilean counter tips above, you can now develop a strategy to help you, as a summoner, become an effective counter to Zilean players.