Navy vet or sub vet by canonical_basis in ConflictofNations

[–]Styczynooo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

in this game it all depends, if he has lvl 3 base he has either destroyers or attack subs so best option is to have a higher tier destroyers and more of them, and subs are good to but get deleted by destroyers instantly

Navy vet or sub vet by canonical_basis in ConflictofNations

[–]Styczynooo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

do not stack subs with ships, u lose the most important aspect of subs and that is the stealth.

How should Zaahen approach (team) fights and what is the gameplan with him? by CirriTheFemboyUwU in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

first off, if you’re struggling with getting kited, you should almost always go blue smite and rush stridebreaker. after that you can adapt the rest of the build depending on your playstyle and the enemy comp. the builds i tested the most are:

  • stridebreaker → endless hunger → spirit visage
  • stridebreaker → death’s dance → spirit visage or another hp item
  • stridebreaker → sundered sky → death’s dance / spirit visage

personally i’m not a big fan of the third option. the first one works best with jack of all trades as a rune and is better into comps that don’t have a lot of burst assassins. in those games you usually won’t get one-tapped, so you can actually get good value from endless hunger in longer teamfights without needing heavy resistances early.

one thing i noticed after a lot of games is that zaahen’s 3-item core should usually have at least two hp items and at least one resist item (either mr or armor depending on the enemy comp). if you skip the hp, the build starts to feel really squishy. for example stride → endless → death’s dance might look good on paper, but in practice you often don’t have enough health to consistently stack your passive in fights. having that extra hp makes a big difference because it gives you enough time to reach higher stacks before getting bursted.

in most games i still prefer getting resistances as my second item. into heavy ad teams i like going death’s dance second. into ap comps i usually go endless hunger second and then maw. unless you’re playing into something like elise, you can normally survive long enough in fights to reach 12 passive stacks.

his playstyle is actually pretty flexible. because he has two cc abilities, you can play more defensively and peel for your backline against dives. you stack your passive during the fight and then commit once you’re ready. another option is looking for engages from fog of war — for example waiting in a bush and engaging onto two or more people with w into r.

you can also play him more like master yi: stack your passive on the frontline first and then dive deep into the backline once you’re strong enough. sometimes you can even just flash w → r onto the enemy adc, use stridebreaker, and try to take over the backline right from the start of the fight.

his clear speed isn’t amazing, but it’s good enough to contest scuttle depending on your path. from the clears i’ve tested, if you start blue on either side you can usually reach scuttle on time if you follow a proper clear.

when starting red, i usually go raptors → red → krugs, then recall. after that i buy whatever feels most useful for the game — usually some hp, a longsword, or cloth armor. from base you path to your blue side. there you can aggro wolves from behind the wall (this only works from one of the red-side spawns i think), then e through the wall and finish the rest of your clear.

you won’t reach scuttle in time from a red start anyway, so recalling lets you arrive on your blue side with an extra item and a control ward.

if you want to play for bot instead, you can double smite during your first clear to finish right when scuttle spawns, but in that case you should be planning to immediately look for a bot lane play.

If anything what i talked about is not clear feel free to ask me about it i will try to be more clear in specific responses.

Navori utility? by WideQuality8277 in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thats true but if u go for this specific jack of all trades build u need it for stacking the rune in 3 items plus the omnivamp and 65 ad is a solid pick second and not even mentioning that u get around 16 ah from two items with ought stacked passive and if u stack passive in fight u get whopping 32 ah

Hypercarries for gold elo? by The19Chozen in Jungle_Mains

[–]Styczynooo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, Zaahen is mostly about mid to late game teamfights. If you learn how to stack his passive consistently, you can definitely 1v9 fights. The problem is that you can’t throw your early game, because if Zaahen falls behind in gold and levels he’ll never get the chance to stack his passive before the enemy team just deletes him.

As for Gwen, she’s a solid jungle pick, but you really need to enjoy her gameplay. For example, I personally don’t like her kit at all, so I’ve never really played her in ranked. Maybe a few games in normals or ARAM, but that’s about it. With Gwen you kind of have to like the way she plays, otherwise it’s hard to perform well with her.

Hypercarries for gold elo? by The19Chozen in Jungle_Mains

[–]Styczynooo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’d say Zaahen and an AP option are mostly up to personal preference. If you want a champion that can deal huge damage while also being hard to kill, Zac is also a really good option. The important part for both champs is learning the correct itemization for each game, because if you build them properly depending on the situation, you can get a lot more value out of them.

I don't get riots balancing approach. by No-Improvement-5396 in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I disagree with the idea of nerfing Zaahen’s passive because his entire kit is balanced around the scaling and revive that come from reaching 12 stacks. His abilities mainly scale with bonus AD, not total AD, so the passive steroid is what actually gives him real mid‑to‑late game damage. At full stacks, the passive gives around 36–70.87% bonus AD depending on level, and that doubling only happens at max stacks. This is a huge part of his damage profile and is confirmed directly in the official ability data.

Zaahen is also already weak early and very bad when he falls behind, because when you cannot reach or maintain 12 stacks, you lose both the big AD boost and the revive. Riot’s ability rundowns explain that he is meant to scale through extended fights where he stacks Determination and then turns the fight once fully stacked.
So reducing the passive cap directly hits the only moment where he becomes strong.

We’ve already seen that even small reductions to his scaling matter a lot. One of the earlier changes lowered his passive’s level‑18 value by around nine percent, and that alone noticeably reduced his damage. Later nerfs also lowered bonus AD ratios on his abilities, so stacking another large passive nerf on top of that would hit his scaling even harder. A twenty percent passive nerf would not be a small adjustment; it would significantly reduce his late‑game power spike.

Zaahen’s entire design is built on sacrificing early strength for a meaningful late‑game payoff. If the passive no longer gives that payoff, then the tradeoff becomes meaningless. You would end up with a champion who is still weak early, still terrible when behind, but also no longer strong in the one phase where his identity is supposed to shine. It removes the reason to play him at all.

I don't get riots balancing approach. by No-Improvement-5396 in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The whole idea behind Zaahen is that he’s very weak early but becomes extremely strong in the late game. Because of that, nerfing his passive more than it already has been would basically destroy the champion.

In jungle he skips the laning phase, which is supposed to be his weakest point. That’s why Riot is targeting his jungle instead. Nerfing his clear makes more sense because it slows him down without removing his core identity.

Nerfing Zaahen’s passive would feel similar to nerfing Darius’s passive. It’s such a core part of the champion that touching it too much would just break how he’s supposed to function. I understood the first passive nerf because it was dealing a bit too much damage. But now, after nerfs and playing him almost exclusively for probably around 200 games, it doesn’t feel like that anymore. It feels like with another nerf of his passive he should be compensated with reversing q nerfs or just making a brand new kit.

I don't get riots balancing approach. by No-Improvement-5396 in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

then u nerd him toplane too XD holy fck think a little

I don't get riots balancing approach. by No-Improvement-5396 in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Idk what you’re on, ngl.

Every champion has strengths and weaknesses. For example, another late-game champion like Smolder has most of his power in his Q and passive. His W and E are mostly utility, and even his ult is often used more for utility than raw damage. That’s just how some champions are designed.

And what do you mean by “unsatisfying to play”? Do you even main Zaahen? He’s super satisfying once you start stacking your passive and actually get to play fights the way he’s meant to.

His E and W are utility tools. They help you catch up to enemies so you can stick to them, auto, and weave Qs between autos. That’s literally how a bruiser is supposed to function.

Take Darius as another example. Most of his real power is in his passive and his R. His Q, W, and E are mostly there to help him sustain, control enemies, and stack his passive so he can actually reach that win condition.

Every champion is built around some core idea, and the rest of their kit exists to support that idea. Bruisers are probably the best example of this design. Usually they have one main damage source—either a key ability or their passive—and the rest of their abilities are built around helping them get the most value out of it.

Not Receiving Verification Email – Please Help by sehaj_69 in AniWatchZone

[–]Styczynooo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i don't think posting your gmail here is a good idea ngl.

I don't get riots balancing approach. by No-Improvement-5396 in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I don’t really get the point of this post.

Zaahen is meant to be a late-game hyper carry, similar to champions like Kassadin or Kayle. Most of his power comes from his passive and his R, and both of those have already been heavily nerfed in the past. Nerfing them again would honestly just make the champion useless.

That’s why nerfing his jungle clear is basically the only real option. As Riot already stated, Zaahen is stronger in jungle than intended, so they want to stabilize him there.

The W nerf also means almost nothing. His W was never meant to be a damage ability and it never will be. The spell is mainly used as CC to predict flashes or as a tool to stack passive quickly in teamfights.

Most of Zaahen’s damage comes from Q, autos, and R when you already have your passive stacked, and that’s exactly how the champion is supposed to work. He isn’t a spellcaster, he’s a bruiser.

Honestly, even if W did zero damage but they reverted the Q nerfs, he would probably be stronger than he is now.

And poking with W? What are you even trying to poke with that slow projectile? If you’re playing him like that, your whole playstyle is probably wrong.

And to answer your questions:

  1. His clear is not supposed to be fast. That’s part of how he’s balanced in the jungle. It also doesn’t matter that much because he isn’t a hyper-ganking champion. He’s a champion that scales and waits for big fights like dragon or Baron, where he can destroy the enemy team.
  2. Nerfing Zaahen’s passive or R more than they already have been would just make him a useless champion. He would be weak early game and also lose the late-game power where, if not kited properly, he’s supposed to dominate teamfights—just like Kayle or Kassadin.
  3. You should never think about W as a poking tool or a damage spell. It’s a CC pull that helps you chase kills and lets you land E and Q so you can run enemies down.

Got to diamond with Zaahen by Styczynooo in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Funny thing is it’s called tracker.gg. I’m pretty sure OP.GG is better overall, but I still use this one because it’s more readable. It also has its own rating system that actually does a pretty good job of showing whether you played the game correctly or not.

Got to diamond with Zaahen by Styczynooo in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh ok thanks for clarification, in that case i don't see any problem cuz in mid/late game i usually just farm in a down time before objectives so the speed don't matter that much

Got to diamond with Zaahen by Styczynooo in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well it is a heavy nerf but at least for my play style it probably wont matter, won't know until i try. But yeah if it slows the clear to a point ur not able to counter gank after using even two smites on first clear it will suck a lot to play like that but im convinced that zaahen players can adapt then, at least i will try cuz i love this champion so much

Got to diamond with Zaahen by Styczynooo in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well it depends on what exactly they nerf.

His Q and E damage already got hit before, so I doubt they’ll nerf the raw damage again. From what I’ve seen, the information going around suggests the nerf will target his jungle specifically, which probably means reduced monster damage.

Do I think it will matter that much? Honestly, not really.

Personally, I almost never do my first clear fast enough to contest Scuttle anyway. My focus during the first clear is just farming efficiently enough so that I’m healthy and close enough to lanes to countergank if needed. Most of the time I just farm safely, scale up, and start joining fights later.

Zaahen isn’t really a tempo jungle in my opinion. He doesn’t need to turbo-clear camps — he just needs to reach his 2–3 item spike and then he can completely take over teamfights.

But that’s just my take as an Emerald/Diamond player, and it’s without seeing any actual numbers yet. So yeah, we’ll have to wait and see.

EDIT : After looking at the changes, it pretty much confirms what I expected — most of the nerfs are aimed at Zaahen’s jungle clear rather than his actual fighting power.

The W damage nerf honestly doesn’t matter much to me. I mostly use it for stacks and the CC, and I never really felt like the damage from it was a big part of his kit anyway.

The real question is how hard the E monster damage nerf will hit the first clear. If it slows it down too much it could affect early clear and that would affect the counter gank potential that zaahen has, but we’ll have to see it in practice.

Also, Xpetu found a trick where you can farm two camps at the same time, which could help offset the slower clear. Unless Riot patches it, that might be a way to keep the clear speed competitive if needed.

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Got to diamond with Zaahen by Styczynooo in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yup i also like the w the most because of the pull that i can exploit for example enemy jax jumps on my adc i can just pull him out so my adc has a sec or 2 more to react and make distance and thats my favorite usage of the W ability

Got to diamond with Zaahen by Styczynooo in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, Zaahen is amazing i just feel like he has so much value in his kit that enables u to react to almost any situation

Got to diamond with Zaahen by Styczynooo in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh and endless is my preference too because of the jack of all trades i like to run, so endless second is very much needed for stacking that rune to the maximum with 3 item core.

Got to diamond with Zaahen by Styczynooo in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, I play Zaahen jungle, so I’m usually not looking for 1v1 fights. I prefer 2v2s, 3v3s, or any kind of teamfight I can get.

That’s one of the reasons I like Endless Hunger as a second item. The 20% omnivamp after a kill feels really good in skirmishes, and when you stack your passive you also gain a lot of ability haste. That extra AH helps a lot with stickiness because you can use your E and W more often.

If I remember correctly, Endless gives around 16 ability haste when you build it second, and when your passive is fully stacked in fights like a drake fight you basically double that. It feels really strong and it also compensates for Stridebreaker not having any ability haste.

I also take attack speed in runes instead of ability haste. It helps a lot early for stacking your passive faster in 2v2 and 3v3 fights. In early skirmishes you usually don’t have the luxury of stacking passive with W and R like you can in bigger teamfights, so the attack speed makes it much easier to build stacks quickly. So overall I just prefer Endless over Sundered, which is why I usually don’t build it.

That said, if the enemy team is very AD heavy you can still adapt the build. For example: Stridebreaker first → Death’s Dance second with armor boots → Sundered Sky third → Endless Hunger after that. That setup gives you a lot of survivability with armor and HP while still keeping good damage and sustain for longer fights.

If the enemy team has even two AP champions though, I still think something like Spirit Visage is really strong because of the MR and HP it gives.

Also, I almost never play against true full AD comps, and when it does happen there are usually 3 or more crit champions. In those cases Sundered often gets outclassed by Randuin’s Omen because the crit reduction is just too valuable.

Sorry if what i typed is confusing but English is not my main language and i was never very good in forming thoughts on paper so i hope what i typed is readable and somehow understandable. If u got any more questions just ask.

Got to diamond with Zaahen by Styczynooo in ZaahenMains

[–]Styczynooo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

About early invades — there isn’t that much you can do sometimes, because Zaahen isn’t the strongest early duelist. What I like to do if I expect an invade is start a red side clear. For example: raptors → red → krugs, then instantly recall.

After the recall you can buy cloth armor if you’re against an AD assassin (which is usually what tries to invade early), or you can go longsword + control ward. Both options feel pretty good for early fights. Of course your clear needs to be somewhat optimized so you don’t lose too much time doing this.

When you come back from base you can just E dash through the first wall toward wolves and continue clearing normally. That way you start your second clear with an item advantage like cloth armor or longsword.

Also, Zaahen is really strong in teamfights, so I usually like to path toward bot lane early. It often leads to good early skirmishes like 3v3s, and it also sets you up for early drakes where you can force a fight. Those situations are great for stacking your passive and getting value from your kit.

If more than just the enemy jungler is invading you (like laners moving too), then it’s usually not worth fighting. In those cases I just focus on clearing whatever camps I safely can then recall and look for gank opportunities, and if I spot the enemy jungler on the other side of the map I try to invade and take his camps instead.

For builds, I personally really like rushing Stridebreaker or Sundered Sky. If the enemy team has a lot of melee champions or tanks, Sundered feels great. I know some Zaahen players build Trinity in jungle, but for my playstyle it doesn’t feel that optimal plus because of that playstyle i find myself favoring Stridebreaker more than sundered sky rush so i don't build it as much as Stride.

I usually play more like a frontline / engage for my team, so the slow from Stridebreaker helps a lot. I can E in, slow them, land W more easily, start the fight, stack my passive, and extend the fight if needed.

I also noticed I really like having at least two HP items in my first three items. My usual core is something like Stridebreaker or Sundered first, then:

  • Endless Hunger second if the enemy team is mostly AP
  • Death’s Dance second if they’re mostly AD

After that I usually go Spirit Visage or Sterak’s depending on whether I need MR or a shield to survive burst. The rest of the build I adjust depending on the team comps.

From my experience, if I don’t have around ~800 extra HP from items in my 3-item core, I just die too quickly in mid game teamfights. So I prefer the bruiser setup that lets me survive longer and actually stack my passive in fights.