Ziggs never has to be in the fight. He shoves the wave, drops a minefield on the only path forward, and pokes you off the map from behind it.
Losing to Ziggs doesn't feel like losing to a champion. It feels like being told where you're allowed to stand for thirty minutes. He shoves, he zones, and the fight you wanted never happens. That's a real complaint. It also describes a champion with one escape button and no self-healing at all.
Check out our top Ziggs counters below for more information on how to beat him!
Counter Guide
How to Beat Ziggs
Ziggs never has to be in the fight. He shoves the wave, drops a minefield on the only path forward, and pokes you off the map from behind it.
Losing to Ziggs doesn't feel like losing to a champion. It feels like being told where you're allowed to stand for half an hour. He shoves, he zones, and the fight you wanted never happens. It's exactly why he keeps turning up in the bot lane section of our solo queue tier list. It's a fair complaint, and it also describes a champion with one escape button and no self-healing whatsoever.
Tristana- A gap closer that crosses his zone in one motion rather than walking through it
- Lockdown that lands from further away than he can react to
- A plan for the wave, since he shoves faster than almost anyone in the role
Ziggs Overview
Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous
- Hexplosive Minefield [E] is area denial rather than damage. It decides where you're allowed to walk, which matters more than the numbers on it.
- He clears the wave and pokes you with the same button. Bouncing Bomb [Q] is on a 4 second cooldown by rank 5, so there's no version of the lane where he has to choose between the two.
- Satchel Charge [W] gets him out of an engage for free, without dealing him any damage, and it can finish off a weakened tower on the way out.
- His poke feels relentless because it is. Every spell he casts shortens the cooldown on a bonus damage attack.
- Mega Inferno Bomb [R] reaches 5000 units, so he takes kills out of fights he never walked to.
Weaknesses: Where You Get In
- Everything he owns is a projectile or a delayed zone. None of his damage is guaranteed and all of it can be walked out of.
- Satchel Charge [W] is his only escape. It's 20 seconds at rank 1, and after it he's a slow mage standing in the open.
- He's extremely squishy and heals for nothing. There's no sustain anywhere in the kit and no defensive item in a standard build.
- His only crowd control is a slow. Nothing he has stops a champion who's already standing next to him.
- His close range game doesn't exist. Once the Satchel is used, he has no answer to anything at melee distance.
Countering Ziggs
Based on the strengths and weaknesses above, beating Ziggs comes down to champions who can accomplish at least one of the following:
- Cross the minefield in one motion. It punishes walking, not arriving. A dash, a blink, or a charge takes one detonation instead of four.
- Bait the Satchel. Threaten once, make him use it, then commit properly during the 20 seconds where he has no exit.
- Lock him down from range. He can't dodge what's already traveling and he can't disengage from what's already landed.
- Match the wave, don't fight it. He will shove faster than you. Play for the freeze on your side or for the roam, rather than for the CS war.
If you're already locked into the matchup without any of those tools, these strategies still work:
Playing a Bad Ziggs Matchup
Stand at the edge of your wave rather than the middle of it. His clear is fast and the wave is where every Bouncing Bomb [Q] is aimed anyway.
Never path through a minefield to answer a poke. That's the trade he's asking for and the damage stacks per mine.
Buy a Null-Magic Mantle on your first back when the poke is landing. His damage is entirely magic and his numbers early are much less impressive against 25 magic resist than they look.
Play for the 2v2 or the roam rather than the farm. You won't out-CS him, and the answer is to make the lane irrelevant rather than to win it.
Best Ziggs Counters
Three ways to answer a zone control mage: land on top of him, lock him down from further out, or refuse to be targetable when the bomb arrives.
Tristana Lands on Top of Him
Rocket Jump [W] crosses 900 units in one motion, which is the exact problem Hexplosive Minefield [E] is designed to prevent and can't. She arrives past the zone rather than through it, and Ziggs' only answer is a Satchel Charge [W] that pushes him a fraction of the distance she just covered.
Explosive Charge [E] then does the rest, and the Rocket Jump [W] cooldown resets when the charge kills its target, so the escape she used to engage is often back before he is. Buster Shot [R] also removes his positioning entirely, which for a champion whose whole plan is standing far away is worse than the damage.
Ashe Punishes from Max Range
Enchanted Crystal Arrow [R] is fired from anywhere on the map and stuns for longer the further it travels, which is the cleanest possible answer to a champion who wins by never being near the fight. Ziggs' Satchel Charge [W] does nothing about a projectile already in flight.
Frost Shot [Passive] then slows on every attack permanently, and Volley [W] applies it across a cone at 1200 units. A slowed Ziggs can't walk out of his own minefield's radius any faster than you can, and the range advantage he was counting on stops existing.
Xayah Untargetable on Command
Featherstorm [R] lifts Xayah into the air, untargetable and ghosted, for a second and a half. That's more than enough to sit out a Mega Inferno Bomb [R], a Satchel detonation, or the exact moment a minefield was supposed to catch her, and it leaves feathers behind while she does it.
Bladecaller [E] then recalls those feathers from up to 2000 units and roots everything they pass through, which reaches Ziggs at the distance he's chosen to stand. Clean Cuts [Passive] also means her attacks pass through the wave he's hiding behind rather than stopping on it.
Itemizing Against Ziggs
Ziggs is entirely magic damage, delivered at long range and in repeated chunks rather than one burst:
Maw of Malmortius is the strongest single purchase for a carry, because the lifeline triggers during the poke rather than after it. Mercury's Treads cuts the minefield slow that stops you leaving, Wit's End turns magic resist into damage for anyone still trying to reach him, and Banshee's Veil eats the Mega Inferno Bomb [R] that was aimed at your back line.
Where Ziggs Actually Sits Right Now
Counter picks age with the patch, so check the current numbers before you trust a matchup:
- League of Legends Solo Queue Tier List, updated every patch
- Tier List Changelog, for what moved and why
- How to Beat or Counter Series, for every other matchup guide
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