Zephys: Caveat Emptor

Build and Guide Zephys: Caveat Emptor

Cheat Sheet
Skills

Quick Level: 3>1>2

Talent:

Punish

Items:

Leviathan>Sonic Boots> Rankbreaker>Omni Arms> Hyoga’s edge> Spear of Longinus

Arcana:

9 AD/LS Reds, 9 HP Greens, 9 ARM/MD/CDS Purples

Intro
Zephys is a warrior/assassin that flourishes in the jungle as his kit has high damage output, mobility and a decently low cooldown cc. He is somewhat of an exclusive hero that can only be unlocked by making a micro transaction. Luckily, he is the cheapest hero as he can be unlocked for buying $1 worth of vouchers. I recommend simply buying 100 vouchers and using them on starting a guild so you don’t lose value on your purchase while still unlocking this powerful dual wielder. With the new release of NA servers, he is currently a very powerful jungler as many of his counters are currently unplayable. Zephys is a surprisingly tanky assassin thanks to his passive that can get in and out of a fight with ease.

Skill Build
Passive: Unwavering Death

For every 3% of hp lost Zephys gains 1% damage reduction.

Ability 1: Death Rift

Short range lunge that deals physical damage and grants Zephys’ next normal attack a damage bonus as well as applying a 25% slow for 2 seconds.

Ability 2: Death’s Flurry

Deals damage in a small cone in target direction dealing physical damage and healing Zephys for every enemy hero hit.

Ability 3: Death from Above

After a brief delay, Zephys lands dealing physical damage and knocking up in target location. Any enemies hit are given a debuff that grants Zephys bonus magic damage to his normal attacks against them.

Because Death Rift is Zephys’ main mobility and cc ability outside of his ult, it is maxed before Death’s Flurry. The most straightforward combo for Zephys is to engage with Death from Above followed by a full duration Death’s Flurry while they are knocked up before dashing through them with Death Rift and applying the 25% slow to hinder their escape. Alternatively you can engage with Death Rift’s slow to increase your chances of landing Death from Above.

Punish is the only real summoner spell that Zephys can take when played in the jungle role as it allows him to build desired items that help with his bruiser playstyle.

Equipment
Leviathan: The stacking hp effect of this item helps give Zephys early tank stats that synergize with his passive to make him a resilient threat in the early game. The aoe burn also works well when sticking to enemies for a prolonged amount of time. The 30% bonus damage to monsters and exp makes it a must take for Zephys.

Sonic Boots: Since the meta is still in a very physical damage focused state, Sonic Boots are a be help in surviving damage from most sources, including jungle camps. The movement speed helps you stick to your enemies and that passive makes you a much bigger threat to marksman as well as any normal attack focused hero.

Rankbreaker: The first major damage item for Zephys is important as it will be the difference between if he will be able to snowball and carry or fall behind into uselessness. Rankbreaker

Grants the most AD as well as a massive amount of scaling armor pierce making it one of the most effective early buys in the game.  Couple this with 10% cooldown speed and an out of combat movement speed bonus and it becomes a irreplaceable tool in Zephys’ arsenal.

Omni Arms: The reason Omni Arms is built after Rankbreaker is simply because it is much more expensive, thus it is better to spike early with Rankbreaker to earn money faster to buy the next major power spike in Omni Arms. This item has every stat that a Zephys could want as well as a passive that Zephys can easily abuse. 70 AD, 15% attack speed, 10% life steal, 10% cooldown, 500hp and a passive that empowers normal attacks after ability use, there isn’t a better item that Zephys could take. Use Death Rift as much as possible to constantly trigger this items passive.

Hyoga’s Edge: While Zephys does not need to build a large amount of resistances due to his passive, this item is a happy median between offense and defense. Granting equal amounts of armor and magic defense with a moderate amount of HP this item helps Zephys stay alive longer to benefit off of his innate life steal as well as the life steal he gets from normal attacking. This item also has a 25% slow that applies on every normal attacking making Zephys even harder to escape from.

Spear of Longinus: The final item in the build is one to help against the tankier opponents while still fending off damage from the squisher ones. At this point in the game, no matter what your last item is, Zephys should be able to kill marksman and mages with ease. The problem he will start to have is with the tanks that have stacked armor and are inhibiting him from getting to the back line. While the statline for this item are nice, including 80 AD, 15% Cooldown Speed and 150 armor, the main reason for buying this item is for its passive. Every hit decreases enemies armor by 50, stacking up to 5 times for a maximum of 250 armor loss. This item can basically negate the stats of two of your enemies items!

Talent
Punish is the only real summoner spell that Zephys can take when played in the jungle role as it allows him to build desired items that help with his bruiser playstyle.

Arcana
Red: Bonus starting AD helps Zephys clear the jungle while the life steal helps keep him sustained for ganks. So, go for 9x Bloodlust level 3 arcana with 2.5 ad .5% LS

Purple: Flat health is better than most defences as Zephys' passive rewards him for being low on hp. Grab 9x Colossus level 3 arcana for 75 hp each.

Green: The best Arcana for Zephys is Crusader, as it grants him some defense for the jungle while also giving him a good amount of starting CDS to help with early game clears and ganks. It's level 3 and stacks on 2.7 Armor, 2.7 Magic defence, .6% Cooldown speed

As always, if you can't afford level 3 arcana look for comparable arcana at the lower levels.

Early Game
Start off with Hunter’s Crossbow and head to either red or blue buff. You want to take the buff that has the most amount of teammates on the map, so try to take the buff closest to your duo lane. After you take the buff, run over and get whichever buff you did not take to insure it is not stolen by enemy junglers. After you have both buffs you can clear the smaller camps which should get you to level 4, unlocking Death from Above and allowing you to start making a large impact on the early game. Gank whichever lane is overextending or help a pressured lane.

Mid Game
After your second clear of the jungle you should begin to start looking towards Abyssal Dragon, find an opportune moment to either solo it or gank the closest lane to it to create a man advantage and make it less likely for the enemy to contest. A great time to take Dragon is when the enemy jungler is on the opposite side of the map so you can use Punish without the pressure of the enemy stealing it with their own Punish. Overall you want to look for isolated squisher characters and picking them off before their team can react.

Late Game
In the later stages of the game you have two choices in play style depending on how the game is going. You can either split from the rest of your team and try to gain advantages by soloing enemies or getting towers while your team defends. Or you play more of an off tank role in teamfights. If you decide to split from your team, look for opportunities to join fights late to get suprise kills or to hard push a lane to possibly get a tier 3 turret. When behind you want to stick with your team more often than not and enable your stronger members to help bring you back to speed. Make sure your team does not try to do dark slayer without you as Punish is a very strong way to secure the objective.

FAQs/Tips
Do not be afraid to use Death from Above simply to get in range for Death Rift, both have relatively short cooldowns so it is not a waste.

Use Death Rift to hop over walls for a faster clear time or to put yourself in position for a stealthy gank.

Try to take the sentinel whenever it’s up to keep your health pool topped off without having to back.

Matchups/Counters
Zephys struggles against enemies that can burst him as it takes a great deal of power away from his passive as the damage is obviously not retroactively reduced. Heroes that have large amounts of cc can keep Zephys from healing from his Death’s Flurry as well as taking away his mobility. Try to avoid heros like Aleister and Murad as they can usually burst you much faster than you can kill them or lock you down for their team to kill you.

Alternatively, Zephys excels against heroes that rely on constant dps as every attack starts to deal less damage against him thanks to his passive. Marksman like Yorn and Violet are easy prey for Zephys. Also, mages that rely on prediction can be great targets for Zephys such as Azzen’ka and Dioachan. Being such a highly mobile champion makes it hard for them to land their hard cc’s and negates some of their more powerful combos. Try to focus these types of heroes and avoid the ones that can burst or control you.