League of Legends New Champion Zeri: A Player’s Perspective

Debates continue to pile as League players estimate the true potential of Zeri, the Spark of Zaun, and the newest champion. Doubters say her early game is too weak, which could ruin her scaling capabilities during the laning phase. Believers defend by pointing out her unique skill set, both geared for high mobility and destruction in the late game.

The dissent has spread across various media platforms including Reddit, Twitch, and YouTube. This is fresh since in the previous League of Legends new champion releases of Vex, Akshan, Gwen, and Viego, the community’s general opinion can mostly be pinned on either “balanced” or “okay”. With Zeri, however, the boundary between pros and cons is blurred, the jury is still out yet.

League of Legends New Champion Zeri: The Pros

Players who find success with Zeri claim that her burst damage is worth all the trouble of stressful farming in the early game. Most believe that after the breakthrough of purchasing her first item, her damage output is already solid enough to make a decent impact.

That first item, as Zeri users have mostly agreed on, is Kraken Slayer. With her first ability “Burst Fire”, which also acts as her basic attack, Zeri shoots 7 bullets that can spill to several targets. Combining this with her third ability “Spark Surge” (as can be seen on the latest League patch notes), Burst Fire projectiles pierce through enemies, allowing her to gain stacks faster.

While the ability to deal damage across multiple enemies is made common among other LoL champions (primarily ADCs) by Runaan’s Hurricane, Zeri’s concentrated damage is hard to copy. Her ultimate, “Lightning Crash”, supercharges her attack speed and movement speed as well, making for an unusual kit that is more versatile than other ADCs.

With enough items and with her ultimate on, Zeri’s Burst Fire attacks seemingly become long-range Draven spinning axes that bounce from target to target. Her dashing agility and Magic Power output give her explosive control during team fights.

Many clips and montages now showcase an electrifying Zeri dancing around enemies and tearing them down. In one, she’s equipped with Ravenous Hydra and Runaan’s Hurricane first. One prioritizes Trinity Force and Black Cleaver. Another rushes Immortal Shieldbow.

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League of Legends New Champion Zeri: The Cons

Players on the opposing side are mostly unhappy with Zeri’s early game. Because her basic attack deals petty damage, last-hitting is hard. Her champion spotlight and the latest League patch notes have been honest with this. Even though Riot has set it up so that it deals extra damage to low-health enemies, many aren’t convinced.

There are also complaints regarding Burst Fire, which is supposed to be the original way to kill minions. Because it doesn’t pass through targets, it gets tricky to farm minions who are dying far behind enemy lines.

Most professionals who have expressed their opinions on Zeri think this to be one of her crucial flaws. In one recent video titled “Is Zeri a bad champion?”, eight-time LCS champion Doublelift mentioned that playing her in the competitive scene can be challenging if she’s facing enemies who can “get advantages in lane and snowball from lane”.

Other streamers have also weighed in with the same dim remarks. In one of his recent streams, famous ADC player Gosu even called Zeri’s laning phase “abysmal”. Imaqtpie complained: “My auto doesn’t do damage. How am I supposed to lane?”.

According to U.GG, Zeri currently has a win rate of 40.96% at the bottom lane, the lowest win rate out of all champions. Looking at probuildstats.com, pros from different regions aren’t having much luck with her either. Most of them have lost using Zeri. Further, only a tiny percentage of those who have won have an appealing KDA.

League of Legends New Champion Zeri: Conclusion

The consensus is clear: Zeri’s laning phase is terrible due to her limited damage and weak laning phase. However, given enough space to scale, she can deliver devastating damage to pick enemies apart one by one. It’s undeniable that she skates with amazing speed.

Whether she makes it to the late game where she sparks the brightest, like all ADCs, is the main question. Is playing her in solo queue doable? Most players in some forums have reached a consensus. The games that can be won with her are games that can be won easier with other LoL champions. If you’re feeling lucky about Zeri and want to see how she performs in the pro leagues this season, we’ve reviewed the top League of Legends betting sites too!

In any case, debates like these are a great sign of a well-balanced champion. Whether Zeri gets buffed or nerfed in the upcoming patches will surely reflect her real powers that everyone is still getting a feel for at the moment.