Cross-posting my comment from the LoLForums:
We're balancing her for the Support Role
I strongly disagree with this, Riot. As someone who has mained Zyra Mid since Season 2 (with 2000+ Zyra Mid matches), I'm very disappointed with this decision.
Zyra has always been a Mid-Lane Mage first, and Support second. Most Zyra players I know enjoy her more in the mid-role, but are only forced to play her support (over the last 2 seasons) because you nerfed Zyra to be a less-than-optimal pick in the Mid-Lane.
The Majority do not PREFER her as a Support, but have simply DEALT WITH IT and RELUCTANTLY ACCEPTED IT because it's currently the only role where she's more than mediocre at.
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Look at her Most Frequent Build on Champion.gg: "Sightstone, FQC, Magic Pen Boots, Liandrys, Rylais, Void Staff"
Apart from Sightstone and the Gold-Gen item (which are mandatory on all Champions playing Supp), where do you see the Support items in her build??? Where??? Since when does a Support build full Magic Pen (especially Void Staff) unless they intend to do nothing more than deal tons of damage and delete enemies on their own, without having to rely on the ADC?
In your supposed "Recommended Items" page for Zyra, you're telling us that we should buy: "Mobility Boots, Mikaels, Banner, and Zekes", but when have you ever seen a Mid/High-Elo Zyra player frequently buying these actual Supportive items???
I will tell you now, not a single Zyra Main picks Support with the intention to actually aid their ADC. We play her as "APC Bot" and nothing else. It's just another way for us Zyra Mains to stick by our favourite Plant Mage and continue to deals tons of damage to enemies, regardless of which role we've been forced in.
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I was really hoping that you'd finally bring her back to the Mid-Lane with this update (as some Rioters previously stated so), but now I'm just crushed.
Why even balance her around Supports? Apart from her AoE crowd-control, she doesn't even have any of the utility that a true support has (shields, heals, ally buffing, enemy debuffing, auras, tankiness, mobility to roam, etc?). Heck, even Morgana and Lux have more "support utility" than Zyra does (with their ally-casting shields; one which blocks enemy crowd-control), yet everyone knows that Morgana and Lux are Mid-Lane Mages first, and Supports second.
Why balance Zyra around Supports when her combo can deal more AoE burst than most of the current Mages in the meta?
Why balance her around Supports when most ADCs don't even appreciate a good Zyra player because they'd rather a "real Support" that can heal/shield/buff them?
Why balance her around Supports when her entire kit pretty much screams "AP Carry!"?
Seriously Riot...