Zilean

Zilean is a ranged support built on three ideas: shared experience, shortened cooldowns, and a button that flat out refuses death for an ally. Time Bomb drops an explosive on a target and damages nearby enemies on detonation, which works both as harassment and as punishment for a grouped-up wave. Rewind cuts down all his other cooldowns, meaning the more he uses it, the faster his bomb and his time distortion come back.

Time Warp speeds up an ally or slows an enemy depending on the target chosen, one spell doing the job of two. And his ultimate, Chronoshift, marks an ally or himself: if the marked target dies from damage, they rewind through time and heal instead of falling. No other champion on the roster removes death from a fight quite like that. His Time in a Bottle passive also grants him and nearby allies bonus experience, which speeds up the whole lane he's standing in.

His biggest strength is as much psychological as mechanical: once the enemy knows an ally is marked, they either have to ignore the target or spend extra resources to be sure they finish the job a second time. Time Warp is one of the best engage and disengage tools in the mode, able to seal a chase or save an isolated ally with a single cast. And his cooldown reduction, self-feeding through Rewind, makes him one of the fastest-scaling characters into the mid game.

In return, he has no hard crowd control at all, no root, no silence. An enemy who plays around his ultimate instead of into it neutralizes a lot of his value. Time Bomb requires anticipation, it detonates after a delay rather than on impact, which leaves it dodgeable against an attentive opponent as long as you have no way to set it off yourself. And without Chronoshift available, Zilean brings almost no damage threat in a straight duel.

As support, your priority is dropping Time Bomb on the enemy right as they step in for a last hit, never on a random minion: the delay before it explodes needs to line up with the moment they're still in range of your allies. Use Time Warp on your own marksman to speed up a dodge or catch an enemy who overextends, it costs little and comes back fast thanks to Rewind.

Above all, learn the double bomb, because it is what makes you a threat and not just a caretaker: dropping a second Time Bomb on a target that already carries one detonates the first one instantly. The delay vanishes, and the dodge window goes with it. The sequence works because Rewind hands your bomb back to you between the two casts. It is your only way to guarantee damage on a mobile opponent, and your most punishing trade in the whole laning phase.

Don't hoard your ultimate for the late game. From level six on, marking your ally carry before an enemy engage completely changes the trade math: the enemy either commits everything to erase the mark before it expires, or backs off from the trade entirely. Always keep yourself at a safe distance, you have nothing to soak a direct engage.

Your first real spike lands at level six, when your ultimate becomes available for the first time: from there, every bot lane fight is played with a death held in reserve in your pocket. The second spike is quieter but just as real, the point where Rewind shortens your other cooldowns enough to drop another bomb and recast a time distortion on nearly every wave.

In items, cooldown reduction is your most valuable resource: every extra percent shortens your ultimate, your bomb and your distortion all at once, because of your own W. A Zilean who hits the cooldown cap can support two lives in a single teamfight if the timing lines up.

Stay fully back, your job in a teamfight is neither to tank nor to initiate. Before the engage, mark whichever champion the enemy is most likely to focus, usually your team's carry or main mage, never yourself unless you're the obvious target. The mark needs to go up before the fight starts, not the moment the ally hits the ground.

During the fight, Time Bomb punishes a tight enemy grouping, and Time Warp either speeds up an ally who needs to reach a key target or slows the enemy carry trying to flee after being weakened. Keep an eye on Rewind at all times: recasting it the instant it's up, even without an immediate need, shortens everything else for the rest of the fight.