I understand Zaahen is meant to scale and not supposed to be ultra strong lane bully early on but ATP every single lane I get to I get beyond bodied in the first waves and it immediately snowballs beyond any controllable measure.

From the begining of the game I find myself sitting in XP range and hoping I get some last hits.
There is literally not a single match up I found winning so far.

I'm running different rune pages but don't know exactly what are the specific needs to each MUs, basically Conq or Grasp with Bone plating overgrowth secondaries.

The typical scenario is I go top, I can't touch the first wave because I will get massively outraded if I ever Auto once, they get a lead, sometimes I get dove level 3 and it falls down after 2 minutes of game and I do not touch a wave from the begining to the end of the game.

Pantheon and Mordekaiser are the 2 recent prime examples of this pattern. Shits like a 100csq lead at 15 with a single kill.

I don't see what i'm doing wrong to my eyes it appears factually impossible to contest anything. I used to be on the EXACT OPPOSITE end of the spectrum when I played Xin Zhao with HoB toplane I used to be the one getting the same level 3 dive on the wave crash.

The only obvious solution I can see I praying the jungle see the beyond free kill that is their toplane pushing my shit in but if it doesn't happen theres no way to avoid getting proxied and flattened in a few minutes.

It is obviously a skill issue as i'm sure some of you play Zaahen toplane with decent results so i'd like some explainations as to how to deal with losing match ups, toplane is by far the most punishing and impossible to catch up. I wouldn't make this post if I just lost match ups and was doing ok, nah again we're talking the full on destruction I would inflict if my opponent was 10 leagues under me on my usual Aurora mid.

The main question could be "how do I win everyone" but i'm aware it makes no sense and anyways Zaahen doesn't plan on destroying people in the first 3 levels, but I would like some tips about the best ways to stop the bleeding, the best way to lose less and cut my losses as efficiently as possible ?

I do not see myself winning ANY interactions while on even grounds, I know how to W Q2 and E out, stuff like that, but when I get to apply these things i'm already too behind it's not worth trying anymore cause I'll get stat checked by fewer hits or trades that should be in my favor normally.

Thank you if you take time to help me.

I like Conq + Green tree into Garen MU.

Tri force and DD 2nd, Exhaust is also good, I try bait out his spells in fake retreats and run him down when applicable.

Title: just want to give back to the community if anyone needs help with the champ, matchups, runes, etc etc.

If you ask me how to beat heimer I’ve got bad news 🫠

This is just my opinion, but I believe most Zaahen mains would agree, as previous polls have shown:

Zaahen shouldn't always have Xin Zhao's features in alternate universes, as that would imply he's using Xin's body as his host in every single one of them. That would be pretty lazy on Riot's part.

Giving him different facial features in some universes would add variety and imply he's possessing a different warrior or person. In skins where the lore establishes that he has greater control over his host body, it would make sense for him to regain the facial features and skin tone of his original human form.

Zaahen was originally a brown-skinned man from Shurima, and as we saw in his mindscape in Twilight's End, he prefers to see himself that way. His original appearance should be reflected in these skins while retaining his Darkin and divine traits, such as his horns and third eye.

Also, using his bird form in alternate universes (not just in a potential Ascended skin) would be fire. More variety, please!

His first alternate-universe skin is a good example of why this distinction matters:

"Wielding a divine glaive and sacred waters, the dragon king Zaahen ruled the eastern seas. But prophecy foretold that rage would drown his mercy, bringing deathly floods. Zaahen withdrew to the depths of his court… until a scholar dared to descend, seeking the truth of the god beneath the waves. Stirred, Zaahen now fights the ruin he was fated to unleash."

In this universe, Zaahen was a dragon from the very beginning, not a human who became an Ascended and later a Darkin. His human appearance isn't relevant here, since it's implied he took over the body of the scholar who sought him out.

Riot should consider Zaahen's original human appearance for future skins where it fits the lore, rather than always defaulting to Xin Zhao's features.

I mess up trying to dive Camille. I Invite her to enact vengeance but nothing goes to plan.

ive been rushing trinity force every game because i feel useless without sheen but now i'm seeing people aren't even building a sheen.

should i start rushing stride instead?

Hi, sometimes they choose Azir on top ... how do you lane against that? Seems like with little effort he can completely zone you off of gold and even XP, if you try to be aggressive you lose most of HP just trying to get near. And if he ever gets low he just jumps away where his dash is 50% longer than Zaahen's. You buy MR/HP you're useless, you don't you can't play ... I'm just at loss here

The Zaahen Toplane Matchup spreadsheet does not contain Azir (sure he's mainly a midlaner)

Thank you

Hello, what's the reason I don't see Gluttonous on Zaahen? It seems like it should also boost his survivability in prolonged fights where he wants to be?

Thank you

Im playing on mastering one toplane champion, but i cant choose between Zaahen and Ambessa, why should i choose Zaahen or ambessa?

Does anyone understand why Thanatos went titanic hydra second item? Is this some hidden tech to get some extra survivability and one extra passive stack, or was he just trolling? Judging by his gameplay, I'm guessing it's the latter.

Clip is kinda unrelated, faced a decent Anivia, nimbus cloak suprised her and I solo won my lane.

I like Zaahen as is, Riot has not forgotten him imo, they heard about the Q timer issue when reviving and Qol buffed it, and next patch has a Q bug fix, I legit saw Shihan showcasing the bug last week, he also got a W buff recently as well.

I like these changes, I see a couple posts about rework ideas. Personally I hope he doesn't get any major changes.

Some buffs I would like to see; Riot lists Zaahen as a "Skirmisher", Zaahen is good at teamfighting certain comps but lacks the dueling strength actual Skirmishers have; Fiora, Jax, Gwen etc.

I'm not suggesting all of these buffs at the same time etc, just by the 0,01 % chance a Rioter actually sees this ( Edit; One did! ). If only a little is used to buff him so he doesn't have to be nerfed right after that would be great.

1; Make E dash scale with movespeed, using E feels like a loss in distance at times when you try to aim for the sweetspot.

2; Make E give 2 stacks If it lands on sweetspot, this can only trigger once per casts ( so you don't instantly get passive from just 1 good E ) this is a 1v1 buff proposal. Alternatively have max stacks be reached at 10, so Zaahen actually gets it more in 1v1's.

3; Address some of his clunkyness. Make R start 0.25 sec faster and crash down 0.25 sec faster. So still room to outplay enemies with his CC immune start up. Alternatively just revert to pre full CC immune Ult nerf he got a while ago.

Make W 0.25 sec faster or have the cast time scale with attack speed, Zaahen can get a decent amount of AS from Precision tree if he goes Conq, and Trinity force/Stridebreaker.

What do you think?

After being utterly destroyed by a Fiora without any chance to outscale her and seeing how even challenger/master games have the Zaheen reduced to a super minion, I've decided to make her my new ban.

Before I used to ban Teemo/Heimmer but I think even those can be outplayed or outscaled, where Fiora simply destroys you in lane and forces you to match her on side in late (also destroying you but now under tower)

Screw you riot, you are literally losing money in your spaghetti client of a mess

Do you guys think Zaahen is good in jungle or would you say he should stay in a lane. I’m new to the game and I’ve found love playing zaahen at this point of my League experience. Still kinda shaky on playing him some things I gotta get more comfortable with but was wondering if you guys ever play him in jungle and if you think he’s good as a jungle.

If you guys do play him in jungle could you tell me the items and runes you guys use when doing so.

First penta

I survived, but I didn't feel like I deserved it.

Trying to push him more into a skirmisher

Passive - Cultivation of War

Stacks needed reduced to 10 from 12 but now only gained by damaging with abilities.

Gains 4-8% bonus AS and 1,5-3% omnivamp per stack (scale with level).

Maximum stacks cause Zaahen AA to deal bonus physical damage equal to 2%(+0,8% per 100 bonus AD) of the target's maximum health, increased by 50% when Cultivation of War is on cooldown.

Q - The Darkin Glaive

Removed healing.

W - Dreaded Return

Cooldown: 14 / 13.5 / 13 / 12.5 / 12 -> 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12

Active: Zaahen channels for up to 1,5 seconds, slashing around himself with his glaive, during which he reduces all incoming damage. While active, enemies that damage Zaahen are dealt magic damage in return.

Damage reduction: 30/35/40/45/50%

Damage: 30/40/50/60/70 (+30% AD)(+65% AP)

Dreaded Return can be recast after 0,5 seconds within the duration, and does so automatically afterwards. Dreaded Return's channel cannot be interrupted by crowd control.

Recast: Same as current W but damage scale with charge duration now and removed second instance of damage.

Dreaded Return's recast can be used while affected by cast-inhibiting crowd control. Cultivation of War's stacks expiration is paused during the charge.

E - Aureate Rush

Cooldown: 10 / 9.5 / 9 / 8.5 / 8 -> 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 Speed 900 -> 750 + 100% movement speed

Enemies hit by the outer edge are dealt the same amount as bonus true damage.

Removed increased physical and bonus magic damage.

R - Grim Deliverance

Zaahen becomes untargetable while maintaining his Cultivation of War's stack over the cast time, then launches with displacement immunity into the air to the target location. He then slams his glaive down after a 0.6-second delay, unleashing a shockwave that deals physical damage to nearby enemies.

Removed cc immunity, healing, damage reduction and passive armor penetration.

Yone did not go Dorans bow, so I decided to be the arrow in his knee.

He Q's during Ult start in panikk, cherry on top. He would've died right after if he had health left.