Zaahen is the newest champion coming to League of Legends in 2025. He is the third champion to be released, after champions like Yunara and Mel. Zaahen can be played in multiple roles; however, our guide will mostly focus on Top Lane Zaahen, but some of the tips will help you when playing in the Mid Lane and if you face him in the Jungle.
In this Mobalytics article, we will go over several different tips and tricks to help you counter and play against Zaahen in League of Legends. These tips will help you throughout all stages of the game.
1) Pick Disengage or Ranged Champions Against Him
Zaahen’s biggest strength is that he can stick to melee targets and immobile champions. If he can get on top of you, then it’s quite hard for you to escape him, even if you have dashes or repositioning tools.
Your best bet is to pick champions who have built-in disengage, as they can interrupt him and create distance. A good suggestion is utility or peeling Support champions like Janna or Lulu. It can be really difficult for any champion who needs to engage and get on their target to deal with champions like Janna or Lulu.
Ranged champions are also a good choice against him, as they will often not get into melee range of him during the laning phase. Champions like Swain and Teemo have the range advantage, and as long as you can play to that strength, it will be quite hard for him to get into range and trade with you.
If you want to learn how to play as a ranged champion vs a melee one, give this guide a read.
2) Don’t Fight Him at Level 1
Thanks to Zaahen’s Passive, he gets stronger the longer he duels with an enemy champion, as his Passive generates stacks. The more stacks he has, the stronger he will be. This means that going for a trade, especially at level 1 is not recommended as he will out damage most champions in auto-attack battles.
He usually starts Q at level 1, which also empowers his auto-attacks, and gives him additional sustain, range and more. As you can see, he is really strong at level 1- so don’t bother fighting him!
3) Keep Eyes on His Stacks
Following on from our previous tip, it’s really important that you keep an eye on his Passive and see how many stacks he has at any given time. I would try to go for short trades where he cannot get up to 12 stacks, as this means he will get max damage with the bonuses. He can also reset the stacks, meaning he can maintain multiple stacks for a long period of time.
Similarly, going for an all-in where he has max stacks and killing him will result in him resurrecting, where he might be able to turn the exchange around and kill you. This is why it is so important that you see how many stacks he has throughout the laning phase.
4) Avoid Using Dashes
I will try to keep this one short, but having dashes or tools that can be used to create distance are really good versus him. They’re your best friend, so you need to hold on to these abilities and avoid wasting them.
If you’re playing someone like Lucian versus him, you need to avoid wasting your E as it can provide a gap and help you create distance. It is the same for any champion with any form of movement speed.
A good Zaahen will abuse these cooldowns, and if you keep them off cooldown, you can use them to escape his all-in. Often, having this ability available to you can be enough to make him think twice before using all his spells to try and kill you.
5) Always Keep Your Distance / Stay Out of Melee Range
As Zaahen is a melee champion, he is great versus other melee champions as he will always be in range of them. When you walk up to last hit minions, he can attack you. This is why it is crucial that you always keep your distance and limit time spent within range of him.
When playing as a ranged champion and when you want to last hit or secure minions, you can walk up to last hit, then run backwards so you’re not in range of his auto-attacks or his abilities. However, I understand that this isn’t always possible, but your goal is to limit the time spent inside or close to him, as he can use this as an opportunity to close the gap and trade with you.
If you’re a ranged champion, occasionally press A to see your range. Try your hardest to stay at max range whenever possible, so it is nearly impossible for him to get onto you and trade with you. If you’re looking to trade, go forward, and then run back out of range when finished! If you're a melee champion, run forward to last hit, before returning to a safe position and directly out of his all-in range.
6) Fight His Team When He is Split Pushing
He is a strong teamfight champion, and his kit lets him wipe out squishy champions quickly. If your team lacks the disengage tools and range to prevent him from closing the gap, then your best bet is to force team fights when he is not with his team.
You might have to focus on fighting in 4v4 situations with one person matching his push, or 5v4 if he is away from his team, such as if you’ve already killed him or if he has recalled.
If you do have tools to prevent him from closing the gap and lots of disengage tools, then you might not need to do this, but you could use your numbers advantage and force a team fight.
7) Match His Pushing Power
For our final tip, we recommend that you always try to match his pushing power and always send someone to stop him from split pushing. You need to pick someone who also deals a lot of damage and is quite tanky, someone who is a bruiser such as Fiora or Renekton as they both are strong in 1v1s and are generally quite tanky. You'll want to avoid picking someone who is squishy or behind, as he can just run you down and then get a kill and take your tower.
Usually, you’ll send someone who can match his wave clear, even if you cannot kill him. Sometimes, just sitting back, clearing the wave and then walking out of range is often enough to prevent him from getting a tower.
Final Thoughts
Zaahen is a pretty strong champion, especially due to his revive. Playing around him can be quite challenging, but as long as you can keep an eye on his Passive and use everything we have talked about in this guide, then you can make playing against him a lot easier.
If you’re on the ranked grind before the Season ends soon, make sure you ban him just in case your teammates don’t understand how to play against him, and so he doesn’t get fed and 1v9 the game. Zaahen is really strong, so he can easily take over the game with a kill or two.
