The True Zarussy Build
Zarus build by
The Gungis
9,464 2
predecessor.pro/builds/1698069081-the-true-zarussy-build

Introduction
Ability level order




Crest Selection

Rogue Crest
+8 Physical Penetration
Rogue: Restore 3 health each time you deal damage to an Enemy Hero or Monster with an ability (once per ability), or 4 health when killing an Enemy Unit. Upon restoring 200 health, evolves into Assassin Crest.
Creep Slayer: Deal 15 extra basic damage to Minions.

Nex
+12 Physical Power
+15 Physical Penetration
Active - Reap: Dash a short distance and deal (+100% Bonus Physical Power)(+100% of Sow) physical damage to all nearby Enemy Heroes and Slow them by 80% for 1s - 90s CD.
Sow: Store 30% of damage dealt to Enemy Heroes (15% for AOE abilities) in the past 5s as Sow. Sow charges are expended upon using Reap.
Item Build
Full Guide
Zarus is an all around champ. In a game where most characters excel at one thing, this can be pretty bad. The benefit of it is he can build a menagerie of items and feel good even still. The trick is what items to buy and what situations to use them in.Lets talk gameplan. You picked Zarus, whoops, now you're here and need a guide. I'm not here to tell you that Zarus is the best character in the game, because he isn't. I doubt he ever will be unless he gets overbuffed into oblivion. Our friend Zarus is a cool guy, he is an incredibly good skirmisher, especially once he has mana to play with.AbilitiesPassive: GladiatorWhenever Zarus hits a non minion, whether it's with basic attacks, or abilities, he gets a stack. Each stack gives him 1% increased physical power. Stacks up to 8 times. After exiting combat (Which takes like four seconds of not taking damage) The stacks will start to tick off, each stack giving him 0.5% of his max hp back. This passive is incredibly good, not necessarily for the damage, but for the healing. It gives incredible sustain given how his kit works. It's why getting mana is so important. It helps you win trades. Though don't greed Just to stack it.Right Click: Spear of NyrThis is, One of the best right click abilities in the game. It's a spear stab. Damn. Crazy. It has incredible Physical scalings. Firstly, it deals 25% less damage to minions, making it a little bad for waveclearing. Secondly, it deals DOUBLE DAMAGE against enemies under 20% hp. Now the elephant in the room. Charging the spear. If you just tap it, you jab forward. It refunds half of its cooldown too, which is pretty much all you ever want to do. the ONLY TIME you should EVER charge it, is if it's to get a kill, or to maybe get a few minions when you're getting pushed out. THIS IS WHY MANA IS HUGE. This is your main damage/trading tool. It perfectly outspaces most AoE spins on champs like Greystone or Shinbi In order to trade, you'll be mostly wanting to hit em with this, and then either Evade away, or evade in and start to whale on them.Q: BarricadeThis ability alone can make Zarus a bastard to face. I wish I was joking. Barricade lets you hold out your shield for 1.75s, and reduce damage from 60-80% depending on the level of the ability. This alone makes it good. You can eat most big damage abilities with it, such as Countess Ultimate or other similarly big moves. Or to make your trades stupid effective. When you recast, or at the end of the duration, Zarus swings the shield and does damage in a lil aoe. Think of it as a sword champion basic attack. It's small. However, it does a good amount of damage, scaling with the amount charged. It also stuns for a half of a second. This is a fine tool for trades. Walk up, stab them, shield their poke, and then stun them and walk away. You can also Evade AND Blink during it, this can get you some shenanigans or great engages, especially when jungling. Dash stun, blink when they blink, and then ult. It can be used in so many different ways. I recommend trying it out. In jungling I typically use it either fully charged to walk up to a camp, or just as a quick little stun. Don't spam this early due to its mana cost.E: EvadeWHAT AN ABILITY BAYBEE BADDA BING. This little dash gives movement speed and attack speed. It's got a decent cooldown which sucks, but it's great for both trading, AND for running for your life! You can also dodge skillshots with it pretty easily. All around quite a good ability. Just don't spam it early game as its mana cost is high.THE ULTIMATE MOVE: COLLOSEUMFirst off, this word is mispellt and it makes me mad. It's Colloseum, from the word Collossus. Not fuckin' COLISEUM. Anyways, aside from that, this ability SLAPS. You leap at a hero, doing a decent amount of damage. Around you, an arena is summoned. This means there's walls that have to be jumped, or blinked out of. Your passive bonus is DOUBLED. So you get 16% Physical power instead of just 8%. If Zarussy kills the target inside the arena, he permanently gets some physical power. You can get an INSANE amount of Physical power from this, especially if you can start snowballing early. Now because this is blinkable out of, some heroes such as Countess or Gideon Can just use their movement ability and get out. Be careful to bait those moves first- or immediately kill them with it. Every ult where you don't get physical power is basically wasted.Now that was your whole kit, let's talk about-ITEMSFirst off I have to amend my final crest item. I can't tell you 'all of them work alright on him' However, they do all work on him (Mage crests being the exception) Warrior Crest works well for beefing up,
Fenix is good because the revive can save you from sticky situations.
Iceskorn Talons is great for some extra dps and a lil slow.
Brutallax can save your life against hard cc. On the flipside,
Rogue Crest exists. It's GREAT. All of them work incredibly well with his kit. The usual tossup is between
Nex and
Ortus because they're both good in their own right. Nex is objectively better for damage, or is it? It's Usually better for damage. Usually. Sometimes, you can get a slammer of a game with Ortus and get a good deal of physical power from it. My record game was a whopping 30 physical power with it. Which means every stack of Zarus' passive gives 3 more PP per stack. In ultimate that's 6 per stack, a max of 48 physical power at max stacks, which is a whole dam lot. That's an extra 52 damage or so on Spear. Let's take a quick break from damage to talk tank. Zarus can tank. I repeat can. I don't personally recommend it, I haven't seen it work, but he is a great skirmisher, he has good healing, and he has percentage damage reduction with Barricade. You could go any of the three tank crests and do alright. Though don't say ol Gungis didn't warn you.Early GameMana, Mana, Mana, Mana. your world revolves around mana. The SECOND. The fucking MILLISECOND that you can buy
Soul Chalice fucking DO IT. It gives you mana, it gives you some ability haste, and if you max it out it gives you damage! Not let ol gungoid let you in on a secret. Soul chalice' ability of Potent font is nuts. The item it builds into?
Mindrazor ? Sucks. It gives good waveclear, but little else. No, see, after you buy soul chalice, start building a
Resolution because you'll get even more damage from that guy, not to mention the stats it gives are so insanely good for Zarus it hurts. It gives Pen, attack speed, power, mana, AND restores mana on hit (which applies to your dirt cheap Spear of Nyr). Then it deals bonus damage equal to 6% of your max mana. If you max out soul chalice, you not only get 2.5% phys power from your mana, now you directly do damage from it! It makes your trades brutal because now you bleed them and never run out of mana. If you need heals, go slap a jungle camp a few times. Zarus is a phenomenal skirmisher, but he has limits. Trade as much as you can, but make sure you're getting enough out of your passive to make it worth it. Make sure you're still farming too. Your basic poke is hitting them with the Spear. Thrusting it into them over and over and pointing and laughing. If you want more advanced trades, throw Barricade in there for a stun and damage. You can also decide whether you want to either Aggressively or Defensively Evade. Whether you'll engage for the attack speed, or disengage for the speed to run.MidgameMidgame is where some people will say Zarus is strognest and I will tentatively say "Yeah, you're probably right". Because his skirmishes are so good, it's easy to poke an opponent to low health and then roam, allowing you to press your advantage. Alternatively, you can finish a
Mindrazor from your soul chalice and devote your life to farming. Both are very good. While he isn't the safest, Zarus is a pretty safe laner. Worst case, you can farm from a distance. Best case, you can just jump at people and wear them down until you finally ult them for some physical power. The more physical power you get, the easier it gets to get more. There are some problem heroes I've noticed, Most tanks will really crush you, because they can build an armor item or two- especially
Stonewall And make you really sad. Still, look for others to harass, your waveclear is better than most tanks too, so push and roam.LategameLategame is wild and wacky, jump on people and try to kill them, skirmish to the death. Build full assassin and murder their carry. Build warrior and fight for 30 minutes. Build tank and ????????????????????????????????. Lategame is really tough and different every time, just keep in mind that a lot of Zarus is limit testing. Figuring out what damage can kill who, how much you can do to play with fate. Zarus is the definition of fucking around and finding out.Whelp, that's pretty much all from me. Thanks for reading! Hope this helped! If you ever have any of your own personal advice or tips, feel free to comment!
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Comments
I really liked this guide. I'm starting to play zarus and I loved it. thanks for all the advice.
i would like to hear about doing support zarus, and what's your opinion about it.