FOTM Report: "Marksman/ADC" Ziggs Bottom Lane

It's no secret that high division players are big fans of Ziggs. Despite having four skill shots, his sustained burst damage game-breakingly good if you manage to land the majority of his spells. In fact, he's so popular that some players like Shipthur have taken to playing him bot lane to replace the classical glass cannon marksman (ADC in 2016 LOL).

How does it work though?

Introduction

It's no secret that high division players are big fans of Ziggs. Despite having four skill shots, his sustained burst damage game-breakingly good if you manage to land the majority of his spells. In fact, he's so popular that some challenger players like Shipthur have taken to playing him bot lane to replace the classical glass cannon marksman (ADC in 2016 LOL).

How does it work though?

How to Play

Runes: Flat Ability Power Quints, Magic Penetration Damage Reds, Flat Armor Yellows, Cooldown Reduction Per Level Blues (Magic Resist vs Sona or other AP Supports)
Masteries: 12-18-0, Thunderlord Masteries
Abilities: Q, E, W then prioritize R > Q > E > W
Summoner Spells: Flash + Heal
Starting Items: Doran Ring + 2 Potions
Core Items: Sorceror's Shoes, Morellonomicon, Luden's Echo, Rabbadon's Deathcap, Lichbane, Void Staff

Why It Works

Excellent Turret Destroyer

The current meta bot lane is to shove as hard as possible to the enemy turret and crush it for the early tower gold. As a champion with strong wave clear and his 25% execute on his Satchel Charge (W), Ziggs is extremely good at pushing the lane and taking down enemy turrets. His passive combined with Lichbane late game also allows his team to rotate around the map and destroy turrets in the span of two or three tower shots.

Good Auto-Attack Trades
Generally, when marksmen trade with AP champions in an auto for auto, the marksmen win out as a result of their higher attack damage. However, because of his passive, Ziggs actually wins when they trade autos.

Tons of AD Based Mid and Junglers
Because of the latest jungle changes, most of the AP based junglers other than Zac and Evelynn are largely out of the picture. Additionally, Yasuo, Zed, and Talon players are quite common, and thus your team may end up lacking a source of AP damage. Ziggs performs most of the jobs that marksmen are responsible for (sustained damage and ranged tower siege). As a result, putting Ziggs bot gives you damage diversity for higher chances of victory.

Better 1v5s
Bot lane is the land of double teleport and jungler ganks. As a result, most marksmen die quickly without being able to fight back during mid-game. However, as an AP mage, Ziggs powerspikes at level 6 with his massive AOE ultimate. Combined with the rest of his kit, Ziggs can actually demolish multiple champions quickly for large teamfight impact, even when he's being ganked. His built-in escape/peel also gives him an extra tool to get out of sticky situations that most marksmen don't have.

Potential Pitfalls

Mana Reliant
Different from most marksmen, Ziggs is highly mana reliant when it comes to waveclearing and sustained trading. As a result, if he wins a fight and ends up out of mana, it is difficult for him to quickly push the lane to tower to deny minion gold and experience.

Low Tank Shredding Power
The majority of marksmen are responsible for shredding tanks by kiting them back during a team fight. However, as a squishy mage, Ziggs is generally unable to do too much damage to tanks, and will be reliant on his team to peel them off. However, he can ult the enemy backline without moving forward.

No Lifesteal for Extended Trades
The majority of the time, marksmen build some sort of lifesteal item and can sustain back up from poke or ending a team fight for continued siege or objective control. However, Ziggs cannot sustain back up. As a result, if he ends a fight out of mana and low on health, he can't go into the jungle to bring his health back up to par.

100% Skillshot Reliant
Where marksmen can auto attack and simply focus on dodging skillshots, Ziggs is also purely skillshot based. As a result, it is still possible for him to do zero damage during a teamfight sheerly through lack of skill or good enemy dodging.

Conclusions

Ziggs as a bot laner is very good in the right hands, and with good rotations it can net your team a ton of global gold. He covers a lot of marksmen weaknesses in the form of AOE damage, and also performs the siege role much better than most. However, as a very skillshot reliant champion to begin with, he's probably not going to be a popular marksman pick for quite some time.

Suggested Rating: High Tier 2/Tier 1

What do you think about Ziggs Bot? Comment below!