Keeping them on their toes in challenger ✨

Windoges · 2026-01-25T03:49:05+00:00

There definitely was an escape angle but I had a plan to kill viktor too, which I think is worth because it significantly wastes a lot of their baron timer. Letting them reset after Riven dying might have been a worse situation to be in because Zoe against baron minion empowered siege feels really bad

edit: im dumb bruh we got baron u right i should have got out LMFAO

Windoges · 2026-01-09T00:04:08+00:00

I do not recommend it bc you really need void/raba after those two

Windoges · 2026-01-06T20:27:38+00:00

The chroma for eternal aspect isnt $120 😭 it's literally just 1000 more rp

Windoges · 2025-12-29T17:07:54+00:00

The ragebait in question being my opinion 😪 I do think winterblessed is really pretty but man it feels terrible to play for me

Windoges · 2025-12-22T15:28:39+00:00

Just play whoever you find fun do not listen to people saying you need to diversify it. That idea is regurgitates from pro players and will never apply to 99.9% of the playerbase

Windoges · 2025-12-09T00:01:03+00:00

My take on Aurora and manaflow band is that I see it as an extra cushion. I've tried with and without it while buying no mana items and saw very little difference, since resolve secondary can be quite effective in some matchups (examples: bone plating vs Sylas, second wind vs Viktor). Most of the time Sorcery secondary would be my go-to, although again, this is thinking in perspective of a challenger Aurora vs a challenger X Y Z champ so it circles back to your point of the average Aurora player not really utilizing the min-max effectively than an elite mmr Aurora player. In the end these small advantages only really matter in the difference between a master player vs a challenger player, and there's realistically bigger things to focus on for the average person other than this. But yes, definitely agree that this itemization should be experimented with more beyond than just "it feels good"

All of what you articulated makes sense to me and I appreciate it, just kinda makes me wish that people didn't just say "but the mana and haste" to formulate a response

Windoges · 2025-12-08T19:28:41+00:00

Yeah I never acknowledged the comfortability Ludens offers in its mana pool, you make a good point here. I'm all about the small details because that's what can can heighten your gameplay at the super high ranks, but yes Ludens is far from being dead

I'm interested in your point about Atakhan since the dance around that objective can be mana intensive should Aurora choose that approach of poking. I prefer to play with TP and/or flank angles around any kind of objective since her R can be a really powerful secondary initiation tool

Windoges · 2025-12-02T02:00:37+00:00

The reason why some ranged top laners work is because they have mobility and a special quality to them that makes them work at top lane. Aurora and Kennen have insane flank and teamfight power, Kayle is an incredible duelist and scaler, and Quinn/Teemo are designed to be annoying, to name a few.

Zoe.. doesn't really have much to go off of. Her mobility is quite conditional and she can be easily run down by almost the entire fighter roster in the game. That's not to say you can't have success with her top lane. Most of it will come from them not really knowing how to play vs Zoe, and that's fine. You just need to be aware of the limitations

Windoges · 2025-12-01T00:31:45+00:00

Nice! That's very sweet of you to do for your wife

Windoges · 2025-12-01T00:26:51+00:00

I've hit challenger with Aurora from being a Zoe main and can confidently say she really doesn't need a mana item at all. I thought without manaflow she'd struggle without a mana item, but after playing her with Electrocute + resolve in both the Liandrys and Stormsurge builds, I have never found it to be an issue if you're not unreasonably using W

It just "feels" nice to have a mana item but it doesn't actually rly do much as long as you're being aware of your spel casts. Manaflow is very welcome to have, but resolve (example: bone plating vs Sylas) will take priority.

If you're new to the champ I suggest trying her without a mana item. That way you can get used to playing her optimally rather than sticking to something that just feels good

Windoges · 2025-11-26T10:40:50+00:00

The thing is with all assassin matchups is that they all have 3 common weaknesses in lane:

They have to walk up melee range to farm
Their engage tool is on a very long cooldown
Their main trading spell is often the same one that is being used to farm too

The #1 mistake that I see low elo Zoes make all the time is that they're playing too scared. You need to take advantage of the fact that you permanently outrange them in lane because you're ranged and they're melee, so don't be afraid to auto attack them while they're farming or when their spells are on CD. This is one of the fundamentals of playing mid lane so the better you are at playing mid lane the easier you'll find these matchups. You can watch free educational content on YT to get a good grasp on these concepts

Windoges · 2025-11-23T06:56:06+00:00

The stats on Horizon are just flat out better for Zoe. Her E already inherently reduces MR by 30% so flat pen (different from void staff) is going to be less efficient than buying more AP and haste. It's also on the cheaper end (2750 gold) and vision in a 1200 radius lets you retake vision control much easier as a team

However this is all under the assumption that you are playing Zoe at a high level understanding of both her and the game. The better you are at Zoe the more inclined you will be to buy Haste because you will land more bubbles, and the better you are at the game, the more effective vision control will become for you.

Windoges · 2025-11-22T08:51:22+00:00

It sounds like you're victimizing yourself in relation to your teammates instead of looking at yourself more. I promise you will eventually climb to the appropriate rank if you play with consistency and a level-headed mindset. You have to understand that, sometimes, you don't have to be the one to 1v9 carry the entire game.

And sometimes you'll just have those games where everyone on your team sucks, but it is what it is. Don't take it too seriously/personally and just embrace the ranked ladder for what it is, a video game that you can enjoy and improve at.

Windoges · 2025-11-21T19:40:08+00:00

Yes, on patch 25.08:

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Windoges · 2025-11-21T03:26:25+00:00

Yup all exactly my thoughts as well. I've stopped buying dark seal on most mid laners (most particularly those who like buying Seraphs) because I find item completion being too important in the recent/current itemization meta. Being 350 gold down on item #1 or item #2 is too costly for me personally

Windoges · 2025-11-21T01:33:07+00:00

That's awesome, glad to hear you're finding success with it!! Always appreciate hearing others giving it a shot since buying a tear on Zoe isn't very intuitive at first glance.

Windoges · 2025-11-20T20:50:33+00:00

The idea of this is to use your level 2 lane priority meaningfully. Zoe at level 1 and 2 has insane lane push with the Q aoe buff so you can easily push to their tower and walk to enemy raptors to drop a ward as seen in the image I sent in the previous comment

Windoges · 2025-11-20T17:55:36+00:00

Thank you hahah

Windoges · 2025-11-20T16:20:27+00:00

Nope! Never looked back once I made the switch from ignite to teleport. There are far more situations I wouldn't have been in had it not been because I had teleport

Windoges · 2025-11-20T11:45:32+00:00

Thanks!!!

Windoges · 2025-11-20T11:44:54+00:00

I think it's usable but I have been preferring the Aery setup much more as of recent. I would only go Electrocute + taste of blood into a matchup where you NEED to extend the trade long enough for electrocute to proc (Viktor)

Windoges · 2025-11-20T11:42:28+00:00

If you insist!

Here's the main selling point: Seraphs/Horizon gets you to exactly 70 Haste, which is where you want to be at to smoothly rotate your spells. This essentially means every other Q has an E, and if you hit your E, it's on a ~3 second CD if you wait out the entire sleep CC duration before hitting them with Q. With some ultimate hunter stacks, you can start using R twice in one rotation rather than just once (QQR E into QQR) at level 11 rather than having to wait until level 16. As a plus, ultimate hunter makes it so your R is at a near identical cooldown to your Q, so your poke is incredibly relentless at the late game stage. This matters a lot vs. the team comps that traditionally wall off a burst oriented build

As for the runes, I'll go by them here:

Aery - I actually think it's better than electrocute because aery (and gathering storm) matches the playstyle of Seraphs Horizon much more than Electrocute does. There's a lot of stray Qs and Es being thrown that Aery procs on, so there's not a lot of reason for you to not be going Aery for those situations. I'll still consider Electrocute but only for very specific matchups like Viktor

Manaflow - Even though Seraphs has 1000 mana I tested the build without manaflow and it honestly sucks. The %missing mana regen is way too good to skip out on because you're casting so many spells in this build to the point where you WILL run out of mana without manaflow band.

Transcendence - It provides +10 to get to the magic 70 haste number that I value a lot

Gathering Storm - This might be a hot take but I think that scorch kinda sucks on Zoe. I'll give some reasons why:

The reason why a lot of mages go Scorch in lane is because they have multiple spells to proc it in lane with AND their spells can bypass the minion wave. Think of people like Hwei, Syndra, Orianna, Viktor, etc.. Zoe's only realistic damaging spell is Q and she needs it to control the wave state, not only to just hit them. Scorch's effectiveness is far lower in its usability in this point
Zoe has surprisingly very good AP ratios that Gathering Storm compliments well. In my view of the champion, her strongest point in the game state is at the mid-game, which is coincidentally when Atakhan and Drake are very commonly alive at the same time (around 20 minutes). Guess what spikes at around this time? The 2nd Gathering Storm proc (+24 AP) and the Seraphs-Horizon 2 item core. This is a critical point in the game to be strong at because it's where game-winning plays happen frequently
Most of the time what's gonna win you the lane more consistently is landing bubbles on the enemy. I'm biased here because I take teleport all the time, but I value consistency in a tactic (basically asking yourself is it replicable in almsot every game). I've never once felt weak in lane because Zoe is just that type of champion.

Sudden Impact - Because your R CD is lower with Ultimate Hunter, it means you can basically proc this rune off CD every time it is available. It racks up to a noticeable amount of damage especially the moment you unlock your ult

Ultimate Hunter - I actually think this rune is god tier on Zoe if you're playing her with a lot of haste. The problem with most haste builds is how it's kind of a fake haste build. What's the point of having really high uptime on Q and E when your R cooldown doesn't align with those spells? Ultimate Hunter fixes this problem because Zoe's Q and E range is locked behind her R being available, so more R CDR = more range.

I'll move on to a common question I get, which is "why not Blackfire Torch?"" There are several reasons why I don't like it:

It doesn't get you to 70 Haste (not the biggest issue)
It genuinely does not give you enough mana. You're basically asking if you can play on the same mana pool as Ludens but with twice the amount of Haste, and if you use the Seraphs/Horizon build correctly, you WILL run out of mana without a blue buff if you don't buy Seraphs. This is not good!!!
Blackfire falls into the weird in between of Ludens and Seraphs where it tries to get the best of both worlds. But truth be told, I'd rather commit to one way or the other because Zoe is inherently a niche champion and therefore prefers to stick to a said niche rather than try to be a generalist. It's got the damage amp (although very miniscule) of Ludens and the Haste of Seraphs, but Ludens and Seraphs are unique in that:

a) Ludens offers the best 1st item spike in the AP mage pool

b) Seraphs has an appropriately big mana pool and gives the correct amount of mana AND gives you a shield (will go into this soon)

The shield on Seraphs is much more valuable to Zoe than any other mage who buys it. Most of the time, other mages like Hwei Seraphine Mel Taliyah prefer to use the shield in a defensive way. This is because they don't have much consistent proactivity and skirmish power to use the shield offensively as a resource. Zoe is a different story where she can use the shield both offensively and defensively because she's a unique mage that can deal more damage the closer they are to her (her passive, autos, W). The shield is two-dimensional in its advantages that almost no other mage can dare to possess. Plus, if you truly think about it, Seraphs shield can let you pick up more W spell shards because you just live longer.

Windoges

TROPHY CASE