Zeri was released at the beginning of the League of Legends 2022 Season and has seen a lot of changes! Honestly, the changes made have been both good and bad! It really depends on how you look at them and who you are! Of course, if you really like Zeri’s kit of zooming around the battlefield, you’re probably more upset about the changes overall because Zeri has fallen out of favor with the changes all said and done!

Where Zeri currently lies, it’s definitely in her best interest to be built as a more traditional Marksmen that prioritizes damaging stats and Critical Strike Chance. This is obviously a real transition from her original release favoring her as a tankier bruiser-like Marksmen. When she’s described this way, it’s clear why it was a little unhealthy for the game, and how she’s in a much more stable place. Regardless, Zeri’s opportunity for skill expression is significant and any Marksman player that enjoys styling on opponents will love to continue playing Zeri.

Let’s dive into this complete guide on how to play Critical Strike Zeri. Let’s begin with the pre-game knowledge.

Runes

Like most Marksmen, the Keystone is standard, and the rest of the tree and the Secondary Rune options are up to preference and the situation. The best Keystone for Zeri is Lethal Tempo. Lethal Tempo provides Zeri with bonus Attack Speed after attacking an enemy Champion, and when stacked, provides her with bonus Attack Range, and even unlocks the Attack Speed cap at 2.5 attacks per second. You might want to compare Zeri with her use of Spark Surge unlocking Burst Fire to penetrate through enemies to Twitch with his Ultimate ability. In the same way, the more attacks the merrier!

Continuing on to the rest of the Precision tree, Overheal is a great option if Zeri is in a tougher lane matchup and could use the additional shielding. Since this shield increases heavily based on how much health you have, it pairs well with the Resolve tree as her Secondary option. When taking the Resolve tree as the Secondary, it’s best with Conditioning and Overgrowth (provides her with up to an additional 45 health, and then a bonus of 3.5% afterwards). This is certainly worth consideration because Zeri’s kit revolves around repositioning around the fight and to ensure landing her Burst Fire onto the ideal enemy, the closer she is to them the better (it is a skill shot after all).

Of course, with being closer to your enemy, the easier you are to hit! For the third and fourth options of the Precision tree, it truly depends on the compositions. Zeri will either need additional Attack Speed with Legend: Alacrity or could use the sustain from Legend: Bloodline. Traditionally, the best way to consider these options is how long you think the game will go. If you need to end the game sooner, Attack Speed is generally a better option, whereas in late-game scenarios, lifesteal can have insane value! Finally, Coup de Grace is a great standard option, but against beefier opponents, Cut Down is insane!

Depending on the matchup, Zeri can always change her Secondary tree to Domination, which will also open up the second option in Precision for Triumph! In the Domination tree, most Zeri players will want to opt for Taste of Blood and Treasure Hunter. Alternatively, Zeri can take Eyeball Collector and Treasure Hunter as well. The difference between Taste of Blood and Eyeball Collector is personal preference mostly. Many players complain they don’t notice the heal of Taste of Blood or at least consider it ineffective and prefer the consistent option of the Adaptive bonus stacking.

Summoner Spells

As for Summoner Spells, again, like most Marksmen, it’s a clear priority to have Flash. The options Zeri can choose from are essentially between Heal and Cleanse. In most games, Heal will provide more value for the speed boost and healing it provides in close fights. However, if the enemy team has heavy crowd-control and especially point-and-click crowd-control, Cleanse is crucial. For the most part, if there is skillshot based crowd-control, Heal will be better because you should rely on dodging the skillshot rather than Cleansing it, and you can always Heal for the movement speed to help dodge it as well!

Build

Zeri’s best Mythic Item right now is Immortal Shieldbow. As previously mentioned, Zeri will get into the middle of the fight and needs to survive as long as possible to get the most out of her Lightning Crash stacking. The added sustain and shield Zeri gets from this item is irreplaceable and should always been prioritized first. As for boots, the best overall option is Berserker’s Greaves, but occasionally there may be a valid reason to take Plated Steelcaps (however, it’s not recommended).

Zeri still has build options despite her nerfs, so the core build isn’t as straightforward as comparable Champions. Most players will opt for Phantom Dancer second, but if you like running Essence Reaver on Zeri then there isn’t room to also build Phantom Dancer.

It’s really one or the other, and regardless of your preference, it should be built second! If you prefer Phantom Dancer, then the third item is Infinity Edge. If you build an Essence Reaver, you should build Runaan’s Hurricane instead. For the fourth item, you’ll want to build whatever of Infinity Edge and Runaan’s Hurricane that you didn’t get as your third item! These four items are the core build for Zeri that will depend mostly on preference, but there is good reason to keep it as options in every game depending on the enemy team.

The tankier the enemy team is the better the Phantom Dancer build will be, and so the squisher teams will make Essence Reaver a better alternative build. The remaining slot is for situational builds, but it’s generally recommended to build Bloodthirster and/or Guardian Angel, or swap out Bloodthirster for Wit’s End or even Lord Dominik’s Regards as needed. It’s worth noting that there is room in these builds for two situational items if the opportunity presents itself by subbing out Runaan’s Hurricane in either build. Of course, remember that Lord Dominik’s Regards will not be useful if you’re taking the Resolve tree as your Secondary Runes because its greatest benefit comes when attacking enemies with 2000 health more than you (or more)!

Matchups

Zeri needs some consistency in her laning phase to curve well into the mid and late game stages. In general, this means Zeri does not do well in lane against stronger early game Champions. Draven, Swain, Lucian, Tristana, and Kalista are great examples where Zeri can be punished extensively in the early game. Remember that these deficits can be compounded even further when these are paired with aggressive Supports like Leona, Pyke, or Blitzcrank! In these matchups, Zeri should always aim to come out with minimal deficits and should not feel pressured to trade or take fights. Clear communication will help remind your Support that Zeri cannot do much in the early game and prevent any issues stemming from miscommunicating! Zeri should try to prioritize keeping the wave in a healthy state where she cannot be zoned from the farm, and ideally, have it set up for a great ganking opportunity. These matchups are the ideal situations to run Overheal and take the Resolve tree as her Secondary Runes!

Zeri performs much better against Champions with similar early game struggles. Karthus, Aphelios, Varus, Kog’Maw, and Xayah are fantastic laning opponents for Zeri to have some needed breathing room to scale. However, these opponents will want to do the same! It’s in these matchups that Zeri will need to push a bit harder to generate leads and think smarter to set up opportunities for Jungle ganks or mid lane rotations to snowball her lead. These champions are all easily punished when their Flash is on cooldown so aggression to blow cooldowns is a must! In these matchups, Zeri will want to instead run Triumph, and Domination as her Secondary tree with Treasure Hunter! The Treasure Hunter bounties are fantastic for getting Zeri to snowball when she gets those early kills!

When to Play Zeri

The best Zeri players can realistically play her in any matchup and pick her at any point in Champion Select, but we’re not all Zeri one-tricks. As a rule of thumb, Zeri is better picked later in the draft in solo queue because she can be countered way too hard if picked early on. Zeri struggles into lane phase aggression, and also sucks against heavy disengage teams or long-range poking teams! By delaying picking her to one of the last slots, you’ll have a much clearer picture of what you’re up against. If the enemy has drafted an Enchanter Support, Zeri actually works really well! The reason for this is that they don’t punish her much in the early game, and in the later stages of the game, even if the Enchanter heals their teammates and prolongs the fight, it only makes Zeri stronger if she’s still able to continue stacking her Lightning Crash stacks! If the enemy team is overall moderately short-ranged and with little-to-no disengaging tools, Zeri will work well!

The best teams to draft Zeri with teams that can provide good engagement for her. A beefier team will keep the fight lasting longer and have a better chance for Zerit to pop off! The Support partner is very important for Zeri. Zeri works best with Supports that have great teamfighting, or Enchanters. She can work well with pick-oriented Supports, but only if she is against a weaker lane matchup that she will need to get priority over. The best options with Zeri are Renata Glasc, Sona, Yuumi, Lulu, Nami, and Taric! All of these Supports can provide healing, some significant form of area-of-effect crowd-control, and stat buffers for Zeri!

Laning Phase

The laning phase is important to set the building blocks for the remainder of Zeri’s game. Zeri wants to aim for a neutral lead in bad matchups, or a slight advantage in easier matchups. It’s not a hard laning phase, but you really want to pay attention to your positioning and ensure you can survive and just build up your gold for your items! There’s really no need to go aggressive unless you’ve set up for a gank and you’re simply following up on the gank. Ideally, these ganks will come in pairs to get a real advantage generated. The first should force the enemies to use their Summoner Spells, and the second should be to capitalize on that and get some kills. If Zeri can go through a laning phase on par for CS but have two kills or even two assists as the main gold difference, that’s more than ideal!

Mid Game

The mid game is very important for Zeri. Zeri needs to continue gathering resources to get to her core item power spikes. Zeri’s Spark Surge is a great way to roam around the map in the mid game with a teammate to catch opponents off-guard and pick up some extra kills. Besides that, she just wants to continue gathering gold, and be in a good position before any fights around Dragons or Rift Heralds. Zeri should try her best to time these item completions with the Dragon spawning because the difference in power will almost guarantee a won fight!

Late Game

The late game is where the zoomer mechanics are on full display! Zeri is a threat in the late game and will lay waste to her enemies easily if she’s not put to rest. When Zeri has three or more items finished with her boots, she just wants to survive and thrive! Try not to get caught out by their assassin or bruiser before or during the fight, and Zeri should win the fight; eventually!

Mechanics and Combos

Zeri has some moderate combos that are useful in the laning phase to close out a kill or get off a quick trade. The simplest relates to buffering her Ultrashock Laser with another ability to either deal a burst of damage or apply the slow and close the gap with her enemy!

When Zeri wants to use a quick burst of damage, but initiate an all-in on a Champion, she can start with her Lightning Crash and immediately follow up with a passive-charged Basic Attack, Burst Fire, Spark Surge (resetting the Burst Fire cooldown), and Burst Fire again! If Zeri is not already within her Lightning Crash range of the target, she can instead use Burst Fire, passive-charged Basic Attack, Spark Surge (resetting Burst Fire), Burst Fire, Lightning Crash, and then buffer Ultrashock Laser with the third Burst Fire. At this point, Zeri should be able to continue chasing down the target even if they Flash. This is a great way to kickstart a teamfight as well because she will be halfway to stacking her Lethal Tempo and eventually destroying the enemy team!

Teamfighting

Teamfighting as Zeri is all about patience and knowing your limits. Like Vayne, you’ll want to experiment with pushing your limits, but you can’t get cocky! Zeri can truly crush a teamfight, but point-and-click crowd-control is the bane of her existence! Keep wary of these abilities and keep your distance if they are up! Once used, go to town on your enemies and run circles around them! It’s really that simple!

Conclusion

Zeri, the Spark of Zaun, is a fantastic Champion in both her design and kit! True to her style, the player must have lightning-fast reflexes and decision making to make full use of what Zeri has to offer. In a way, Zeri is a mixture of both Twitch’s scaling surprise teamfight prowess, and Vayne’s hyphy outplay potential! Zeri really is a great Champion for Marksmen players to learn and invest the time to get really good at her. It’s safe to say, she will likely be an incredible marksman for years to come!