Zaahen
Matchup Summary
Zaahen's playstyle revolves around using his CC combo to short trade against Renekton, allowing him to cheese off damage while trying to quickly disengage in the lane. Renekton's whole advantage in the match up is simply to counter Zaahen as he engages, Renekton should always wait for him to engage then use W, otherwise if you E into him he will simply dash away, while potentially CC'ing you in the process. Doing counter trades back into Zaahen allows Renekton to chunk him out, allowing Renekton to kill him on the second or third trade. As Renekton, buying antiheal or using Ignite, rushing Eclipse or BoTRK and maxing W, are all high priority in being able to put Zaahen at a constant disadvantage. When fighting Zaahen, make sure to wait off your ult timer and make sure not to stun or full combo into his R, otherwise you will lose out on all damage. Taking long trades is also not advised, as he will be able to hit his passive and simply win off that. Within the mid game, Renekton can still steamroll Zaahen with W max and item advantages, however its in your best interest to simply play for your teammates and objectives, otherwise Zaahen will try to use chaotic fights you're not involved in towards his own advantage.
Detailed Tips
- 01
Level 1 Q Start - Level 1 Q starts allows you to hit level 2 before Zaahen, allowing you to chunk him out and obtain level 2 priority. Level 2 priority is important to allow you to chunk his HP out, allowing a level 2 or level 3 kill within the process.
- 02
Avoid His Q Heal + Knock Up - These are the most important tools for Zaahen to leverage good trades. Whenever Zaahen activates his Q, simply let it time out or buffer your W click on his knock up auto attack. If he’s able to get his knock up, Zaahen can be very frustrating to get trades against, so make sure you’re always punishing him by avoiding the auto attack, or timing your W on the knock up.
- 03
Respect Zaahen Full Passive Stacks + Revive - Long trades with Zaahen isn’t recommended unless you’re clearly stronger than he is, otherwise he will be able to utilise Conqueror and his passive, to help him sustain heavy damage through long fights and obtain his revive. Zaahen getting his revive isn’t the end of the world if you’re fed, however if you’re even, he’s able to get the second wind needed to survive the fight, while also allowing him to heal a ton of HP within the process. Try to play for short or mid timing fights, as this will allow you to squeeze enough damage against him, while he’s also unable to get his passive. If he has stacked passive, try to walk or dash away until he loses all stacks.
- 04
Avoid His Short Trades - Zaahen has a very annoying combo where he can stack his Q1, then use W > AA > Q2 > E away. This combo can be very frustrating, allowing him to always get the upper hand in trades, as well as spacing away from you to deal damage. Like I already mentioned, you can try to W him as he knocks you up, or you can try to retaliate back after his E if he’s in range with your own dash, holding your E2 to disengage back after dealing your damage.
- 05
Counter Zaheen's Engages - Renekton vs Zaahen works similar to the Ambessa match up, where you must wait for her to come into you, before you use your E and fight back, otherwise it can lead to very awkward and unfavourable trading patterns. If Zaahen only uses E to disengage, then hold your E’s to follow up against his E. If you dash first vs Zaahen, typically he will use his E to dash away, or use his W or Q2 to CC you at the end or mid animation of E, allowing him to easily escape. Use your dash optimally and you won’t ever have problems.
- 06
Abuse Renekton's Early Game - In this match up Renekton is essentially able to do whatever he simply wants. With that said, really hone into your strong early to mid game strengths to help you dominate and win the game. Play to deny your enemy of gold and xp, play to proxy and generally lead any top side skirmishes with your insane lane advantage.
- 07
Play Wave On Your Side - Playing the wave on your side essentially means playing wave states on your side of the map, via abusing wave manipulation tactics or freezing on your side of the map. Simply use this to help you combo on your laner, taking away any space from them being able to trade you back (This also helps prevent the enemy running you down with their extended or sustained movement speed abilities). You can also use this wave state to run down your opponent with your abilities up, helping you obtain kills a lot easier vs stalemate or ranged match ups. Look to do this when your opponents are below 50% HP, or potentially make a mistake to provide you an all in opportunity to run them down.
- 08
Abuse Renekton's R Powerspike - Once you reach level 6 your ultimate will essentially help you consistently stat check and dominate any match ups you were winning or losing. Make sure to always wait for your R CD to help you make plays, otherwise it will lead you towards a major disadvantage in dueling your enemies. Against Zaahen, this will be vital in being able to beat him in 1v1’s later on within the game.
- 09
3 Points Q > W Max - This playstyle allows you to constantly have W’s to help you stay onto Sylas while abusing your high damage ratios, allowing you to easily snowball and permanently shutdown Kassadin within all stages of the game. Make sure to put 3 points into your early wave clear and poke, then look to max W throughout the rest of your points. Once completed, max your E for additional mobility to help enable your up close stun abusing playstyle. Having more W’s against Zaahen is important to snowball within the mid stages of the game, as it gives you the side laning power needed to keep dominating.
- 10
Respect Zaahen R - Zaahen’s R is a giant power play of an ability, as if timed right he can completely negate your whole combo’s damage, crucial for own win condition of beating Renekton. Zaahen can negate 50% of your total damage within his cast time of R, allowing him to heal based on all the champions he hits. Typically whenever Zaahen is low, try to bait out his R before tower diving him, otherwise he will be able to survive your combo, as well as bait you into a death. Whenever Zaahen ults earlier within a fight, try to just bait that alone and disengage until he has no passive stacks. While Zaahen ulting early is a good thing, him being able to have longer time to stack his passive isn’t, so opting to disengage isn’t a bad idea if you want to ensure you have a statistically higher chance of winning a 1v1.
- 11
Build Eclipse, Black Cleaver or BoTRK - Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. / Go Black Cleaver for additional CDR and other versatile stats for utility based gameplay. / Go BoTRK to one shot and snowball with a damage focused build.
- 12
Mid Game + Teamfighting Tips - Zaahen is a very chaotic champion when it comes to fighting, he will try to use any skirmish or teamfight as a way to create win conditions, so playing away from that playstyle is within you and your team's best interest. Typically within this match up, putting Zaahen behind is a pretty easy feat, however by the mid game that’s where the challenge really relies. With the season 16 changes, Zaahen has the function of staying in side lane longer to help him scale a lot harder within the game, becoming more problematic within the mid game. To deal with Zaahen, try to always be first towards mid game objectives, try to initiate fights and remove the enemies' win conditions (Adcs or Mid laners), try to always make sure you’re using your lead you have gathered in the lane. Any complacency will always aid Zaahen in being able to comeback, so make sure you’re always using your lead 100% of the time to really put him behind and outscale Zaahen as the better teamfighter. If Zaahen does join a fight, try to stun him with your W max and nuke him before he’s able to get his passive.