Expert Tips You Need Before You Play Zeri In League Of Legends

"League of Legends" is known for its crazy-big character pool, and the all-new Zeri is just one of the dozens of bot lane champions players can pick from. The Zaun-based champion is already gaining a level of fame within the game, to the point where she could even make an appearance in Season Two of "Arcane." In-game, her abilities are a unique blend of magic and physical damage that opens the door to a variety of builds to help players in any and every situation.

Because of this fact, Zeri also lends herself to varied playing styles. Anyone can pick Zeri up and play her in either ultra defensive or hyper aggressive strategies. For players, that means she has the ability to turn into a hyper carry, but she's also great at getting into and out of a fight quickly.

Although Zeri's kit sets her up to be pretty useful in every situation, players will still want to use their heads quite a bit when playing her. Deploying Zeri properly requires quick and careful thinking, which only practicing can give you. Players can jumpstart their Zeri gameplay with the following tips and tricks as of Patch 12.2, which launches January 19, 2022.

If you're used to playing in the bot lane in "League of Legends," then you already know that auto attacks are generally the biggest way you'll do damage. While Zeri operates similarly to other champions in this area, her auto attacks have a bit more flair to them.

As fans might have noted in Riot's official rundown of the character, Zeri's auto attacks and her Q essentially go hand-in-hand, because her Q Passive is actually her auto attack. The biggest impact here is that players will need to constantly tell her to auto attack something, whether that's minions or enemies. Unlike other champuions, Zeri won't just auto attack anything in range, regardless of a player's settings.

Additionally, when her Q is activated, her auto attacks are able to be fired in any direction, instead of being locked on to an opponent. As one YouTube viewer commented, this effectively lengthens her range and provides interesting escape opportunities. Her Q active also changes to do additional physical damage, as opposed to her Q passive, which does extra magic damage. Players may find that they need to deal certain types of damage, depending on the situation, and will need to strategize accordingly in the heat of the moment.

Practicing Zeri's auto attacks might be the best way for players to get a feel for how she plays, especially during the laning phase when killing minions and making money is extremely important. Her attack speed is also pretty slow, as one Reddit thread discussed, so it'll be important to get adjusted to her speed before hopping into a match.

Zeri's abilities mix magic and physical damage, which makes building items for her less straightforward than other champions. In fact, since her auto attacks (i.e. Q passive) increase with magic damage, her item builds are generally going to look a bit different than other bot laners, many of whom focus on strictly physical damage in auto attacks.

During public beta testing for Zeri, people were building her for solely magic damage, typical bot lane items, and even jungle items, which may show how many options are truly available for the character. However, the ideal Zeri build will change from game to game. Players will need to build against their specific opponents, and a good build strategy will keep enemies at bay while Zeri's power ramps up through the game.

Because of this, general build guides may not be especially helpful. The best thing to do is get an idea of the various items that she can utilize and which to use in different situations. Luckily, Zeri's flexibility as a character allows her to adapt to multiple scenarios. 

While Zeri's abilities are pretty straightforward in terms of how they work, the real fun arrives when players start experimenting with them. Considering she can zap through walls and extend her ranges, use walls as skateboard ramps, dash around, use her "autos" as skill shots, and can chain hits with her ultimate, there's a lot of potential to set her up in creative ways.

In "League of Legends," some of the best plays are the ones that take opponents by surprise. With Zeri's ability to hit from a variety of angles, a good Zeri player can become dangerously unpredictable in the same way that a good Ezreal player can. Experimenting with angles can be a quick way to get some free kills with Zeri. For example, if a player positions correctly in a jungle fight, Zeri can hit an entire enemy team with her W from a safe location.

As one Reddit user pointed out, Zeri is relatively easy to play, but she's not easy to master. Take your time to practice with her and understand how to use her abilities (and different item builds) to the fullest.