Predecessor Builds > Zarus > In-depth bruiser offlane Zarus

Zarus is a fun, mobile, and short-mid ranged offlaner that excels at poking opponents down at safe ranges and out maneuvering them to avoid damage.
Zarus does not win many straight trades, so playing the hit and run game until you can go for a quick kill is one of the best ways to get ahead in lane.
Depending on how you build for mid and late game Zarus can be a scary back line diver to pick off squishies, a tanky front line disrupter with his CC and damage threat, a team fight initiator with his Dash and ult, or whatever else you want or need him to be

Build concepts:
In any MOBA you should have a build plan to counter your opponents team, however there are a lot of options to go so I like to have a flowchart or tree of items to go for most games

The general concept is:
1st Item - Directly counter your lane opponents type of damage
Reasoning: the longer you can stay in lane, the more farm you can get, the fast you get items, the faster you can get big and kill

2nd and 3rd Items - Damage for easier lane clear, as well as extra tankiness against your lane opponents damage
Reasoning - Same as 1st item, as you will be in lane for most of the time you are getting your first 3 items
Also Augmentation dealing True damage is extremely strong

4th Item - Universally good items against any team
Reasoning - 4th team fights are starting to happen so having items that are tanky against everything as well as extra damage helps
You WILL do enough damage with these items to be a serious threat to everyone, especially with backup, just not enough to 1 shot them from full but thats not the point of a bruiser
I also put a lot of emphasis on Frostguard as it has both armour types, as well as reducing attack speed which is very good right now

5th and 6th Items - Specific counter of flex items
Reasoning - If there is something on the enemy team that is too strong, like Crit or healing, then these are decent picks
However you can be more flexible in these item choices, as its really about what you feel like you need
- Do you still need extra tankyness for teamfights? get more tank items
- Do you want to do more damage to assassinate squishies? go more damage
- Do you need to break through tanks? get armour pen or shred
- etc etc

General laning phase gameplan:
- Focus on farming at a safe-ish distance from your opponent, as last hitting is the most important thing in laning phase
(15-20 minions is more than a kills worth of gold and exp)
- Poke enemies with your spear if they move up to get minions
- Use your shield stun if they move into your minion wave so they tank damage
- You only need to do 1 or 2 hits per interaction, an ability and a follow up auto, any more and you are losing the trade
- Save your dash for dodging abilities or disengaging
- Use spear to get last hits if needed
- Don't spam every ability if you can help it, as mana conservation is important. Only if you have the opportunity to
- If they try to all in you, disengage as you will lose the trade
- Ward after the first minion wave, as that is usually how long it takes a jungler to clear (if they gank you level 1 or 2, they wont be strong enough to kill anyways)
- Once the lane opponent is below 33%-ish health, you can start playing more aggressive as you are more likely to get a kill if they try fight
- It is fine if you get pushed back, it just means they are more at risk of getting ganked
- Zarus's passive has nice sustain to it after not attacking for 5 seconds, so make use of not attacking if you want to heal

General mid-game and end-game gameplan:
- If you are behind, keep farming until you have 3-4 items (but also respond to calls and defenses if need be)
- If you are equal or ahead, you can hard clear/shove your lane and go roaming for ganks or teamfights
- Keep an eye on the minimap to see where the enemy team is at most times
- Ward ward ward
- Teamfights are really only good if you can get objectives after a successful one, or stopping an objective being taken
- Keep your dash and stun up for counter engages, especially if flash is on cool down
- If possible don't start fights in the jungle, unless you are ambushing the opponent
- If there is no real enemy threat pushing anywhere on the map, split pushing your lane hard and taking towers is excellent
- Defending is extremely important, so react immediately if there is a threat of a tower going down
- GET FANGTOOTH AND ORB WHENEVER YOU CAN and its safe, pester your team if needed as they are stacking permanent team buffs, as well as team gold and exp
- Try and not die as much as you can. you not being in the game is not a good trade for an 1 opponent death

Team fight gameplan:
- Depending on how you built, and what the team needs/is lacking in, choosing your role in each team fight is important
- Does the team not have that much protection/peel for the ADC? play defensive counter engager and tank for them
- Does the team not have much front line defense? Play the front line tank threat pushing
- Does the team not have a much engage or dive? Play on the side lines and surprise gank/dive when the enemy over extends
- Etc etc, It is your call on what is the most important role is for a successfull teamfight in that given moment
- Keep an eye on the minimap to see where the enemy team is at most times
- In team fights you are still not super tanky, so do not all in unless there is a major advantage to
- Just being in the front line puts pressure on the enemy team, as you are still very threatening, and may stop a unwanted fight from breaking out or stopping the enemy team from taking an objective
- Be ready to counter engage if an enemy dives from behind or sides
- Keep your dash and stun up for engages or counter engages, especially if flash is on cool down
- Call for retreat if the fight is too unadvantageous for your team, or you cant get or save any other objectives after
- Always at least just out of range of enemies abilities in the pre-team fight size up
- When fighting, choose a high value target such as their ADC or midlaner, or whomever is on one of your high value targets, such as if a jungler has dived for them
- Ward ward ward

Some damage calculations:
At level 10 with Citadel and Augmentation, A spear jab into Auto-attack is roughly 350 damage to anyone (roughly 16% of a LvL 10 Grux's max health)
Barricade into AA is 290 damage, and a full all in combo is roughly 1000 damage, which will kill most characters at half health
At the same time you are mitigating 47.5% all physical damage

With the top example build, Spear AA combo does roughly 550 damage to most things, whilst a full combo does roughly 2000 damage
At the same time mitigating 64.5% all phys damage, 52.9% all magical damage, and with 4133 Max health
Effect health being around 8500 for both, and your passive also heal 24% of max health after 10 seconds

You are not hurting for damage with this build, and you can take a lot of damage whilst still being very slippery and safe

I will try and proof read and update this build whenever I can, so please leave any comments of feedback if you disagree or have any suggestions!