Honestly, I like to get Ionian Boots because his abilities are on such a long CD and to invest in a separate item with CDR would take up an inventory slot that can be used for a damage item ^_^

I prefer exhaust over ignite.
You're not supposed to be close enough to ignite, and exhaust is so much better to kite/tank bruisers/assassins jumping on you.
+ it offers a free landed ult while snared, without having to rely on your E.

Is Brand or Ziggs better ?

And what about Spellvamp on Ziggs ?

ziggs has more range ,low mana cost spells, jump,cc aoe too far range ulti so i think is beter from brand. no you no need spell vamp.

What's the opinion on Lich Bane now? I remember it used to be standard on Ziggs as a 3rd or 4th item, but its not even on here anymore. Is it just not as great anymore? I find it extremely helpful still.

Maybe it's removed cuz your passive is almost the same, but using lich bane and passive will do a great amount of magic dmg

I strongly recommend getting an early Tear on Ziggs. He is extremely mana hungry, but the Tear lets him spam all day. It also is cheaper and it's worthwhile upgrading from it now aswell. 

My 'go to' mid is ziggs.  I have never found a hard counter to ziggs.  There are some champs I may need to play more conservatively against, but none that truly hard counter.  The range on the bouncing bomb is incredible when you play the bounce.  It keeps going for two bounces outside the target ring! - perfect for out ranging every champ in the game.  You play that bounce and no one can touch you while you farm minions.  I use the same bounce to slowly beat down the other mid forcing them into multiple recalls, using their champ skills, or staying in lane with 1/4 health.  Its an easy ult then to finish them with a timely minefield or bouncing bomb.  

Spend the gold on site wards for the river bushes   and set your jungle up for easy ganks when their mid pushes.  I like to let their mid push - it makes them feel powerful and in control when they aren't. You can unload the ult on them when your jungle hits, add a bouncing bomb - or best you lay a mind field in their escape route and its over.  Those same site wards allow you to push the lane when you want to for your own protection from their jungle.

For more sustain in lane - I have been able to stay in lane up to level 8 and could have stayed longer if I had to - I use clairvoyance rather than ignite.  As soon as my mana gets low enough to take full advantage of clairvoyance I use it.  I do not wait until I am out of mana.  In that way it is back up sooner.  Why would I need to stay in lane until 8 or 9?  When the other lanes are in trouble and the jungler does not have time to gank everywhere I can maintain without "blue  buff" and give the team some relief.  It also allows me to level faster than the other mid, as I out cs them and if I control the cs they don't have the gear to challenge me anyway.  

With the long range of the bouncing ball and the long sustain of clairvoyance I usually do not need to get Doran's rings which I will replace later at a gold loss.  I can go into cooldown and AP items that build mid and end game gear.     I just don't need to buy the doran's rings to own my lane.

There may be better champs to chose from for end game and killing ability, but ziggs played well keeps them in check.  But ziggs always has his ult - a great tool in any team fight.

Eve and Akali come to mind as strong counters. They can get really close to ziggs and stay on him. long enough for them to kill him. At that point, Ziggs' only really option is to use all of his abilities at point blank range, which may lead to wasted abilities on Eve (600 MS as point blank range means that she can literally run circles around you making it impossible to hit her) and Akali has so much spell vamp and MR from her bubble that it won't even matter. Same with LeBlanc and Kassadin. They both have silences built into their combos so Ziggs' one escape is effectively useless. Also, building Abyssal on ziggs ends up hurting him because he never gets close enough for the debuff to be effectively. Considering how all of the champions I mentioned are very mobile, I cannot imagine Ziggs' being able to hit them very often. I saw something about a Veigar and I would only say that veigar is a counter if he always flash-E because any caster that doesn't have a lot of MR in their build (basically all of them since AP melee champs almost always use Abyssal) will get destroyed by his ult. When laning against a Veigar, I would recommend Athene's, Abyssal, and then Deathcap. You want to stall deathcap as long as you can whenever laning against Veigar. Or just use Talon. Teh free teleports of out AOE stun is pretty OP.

Ziggs' ability to keep his enemy under their own turret is what really helps him out-cs his opponent. 

Also, clarity is a noob-trap. You think you're getting so much more sustain, but I can stay in lane about the same time without it if I play mana-conservatively, and only need one back if I'm not, just to pick up Chalice. After that, I can kill my opponent, gank a lane, kill my opponent again, then back. But you should always have blue anyway. Hell, just ward enemy blue and ult-steal it. Or do it blind when you know your opponent is getting it, which is pretty easily predictable. Managed it twice in one game cause the noobs didn't learn.

I think you need to add veigar at ziggs Counter list

I really had a hard time sustaining my lane when veig got a Deathfire Grasp is was just 1,2 and boom DEAD! :((

Same happens at clash also.

Elementz, I noticed with a lot of the ap builds you guys don't use Athene's.  Is there any reason you guys don't? I have found useful on champions like Ziggs which benefit from being able to have their abilities constantly being used.

Quote from ArchAlChemist »

Elementz, I noticed with a lot of the ap builds you guys don't use Athene's.  Is there any reason you guys don't? I have found useful on champions like Ziggs which benefit from being able to have their abilities constantly being used.

Because guides like this one were made before Athene's Unholy Grail even existed.

Hey there, how's it going? So I was just looking at the runes and how much they are all roughly worth and I came across something nice. It's not anything HUGE but it could be something to consider. Marks and seals stay the same but you can tweak your Glyphs and Quentenenses a bit. 

2 AP purples, and 5 AP blues.

1 ManaRegen/Lvl purple, and 4 ManaRegen/Lvl blues.

You get more AP this way at the cost of little mana regen. You can also change it to 4 AP blues and 5 ManaRegen/Lvl if you want a little extra regen at the cost of little AP. Like I said, it isn't huge, but its something to consider.