Making Zoe Less Frustrating

Regardless of her current power level, Zoe is frustrating to play against, more so than other similar champions like Ahri. To me, Zoe feels like she could use a few buffs, but if the "fun police" or "cancer" aspects of her kit isn't addressed, then she can't really get meaningful buffs in the areas that she needs it. Zoe is my go-to midlaner, but even I can admit that she causes issues.

1. Sleepy Trouble Bubble sniping people through walls, even if Zoe misses.

The first thing I'd like to address is Sleepy Trouble Bubble. Most immobile midlane mages have a form of CC for catching enemies out, and Zoe's even has a delay on it. The frustrating aspect of it is the extreme range it has that allows her to attack people unexpectedly and set up a kill, sometimes not even for herself. Zoe can even "miss" the skillshot, leaving a trap on the ground a screen away that applies the full effect to an enemy who steps on it. Even if they dodge the skillshot, they can get hit by the splat of it and get punished hard by Zoe.

To solve the first issue, give the Sleepy Trouble Bubble a sparkle effect on the terrain at its point of exit, similar to Kayn's Shadow Step. This change wouldn't reduce the range of Sleepy Trouble Bubble, but it would give enemies warning that its going to appear out of a wall so they have the opportunity to dodge it. Giving people the chance to interact with the ability more puts them more in control, so they can think "I should have noticed that spot on the wall sooner" rather than "Damn you CertainlyT for creating a champ with no counterplay".

To solve the second issue, **change the trap of Sleepy Trouble Bubble to be an AoE slowing zone **, rather than triggering the full effect. This is similar to the proposed (and scrapped) changes that were proposed a while back, but doesn't remove any cool particle effects from Zoe's kit. If Zoe does not land the skillshot directly, she doesn't get the sleep, period. She can't hurl it over walls and create a zone enemies can't walk through or get stunned. Instead, it would create a zone on the ground that slows everybody inside it, making it easier for Zoe to land Paddle Stars on enemies in the circle, to slow an enemy's engage through a choke point, or keep enemies from escaping her range.

2. Spell Thief has problems. A lucky balloon lets her stomp her lane with a free Redemption or Ignite and she can spam out every summoner spell used in a teamfight with impunity.

I'm not gonna sugarcoat this one; Spell Thief is bull****. Against Zoe, it feels like you aren't allowed to use your Summoners or Zoe will use it right back. Playing as Zoe, it feels like so much power is tied up into the RNG drop from minions and sometimes, you don't get the right spell for what you need.

To fix it, make the drop table from balloons depend on level. What types of spells she gets from minions should depend either on the rank of Spell Thief or Zoe's overall level. Prevent Zoe from getting offensive choices like Ignite or Protobelt early on, but guarantee she gets defensive options like Barrier or Heal. This would help smooth out her terrible laning phase with more defensive options while still letting her make plays with balloons in the later game,

For the other issue, allow enemies to stand on Spell Shards to destroy them, similar to Zyra's seeds or Bard's shrines. This would allow people to prevent Zoe from picking up a shard by clicking on it and standing there. This would make her far less oppressive to lane against and give enemies a way to deny her from powerful spells. On the flip side, this would also allow Zoe to use Spell Shards as bait. Just like Draven telegraphs his position, a powerful Spell Shard would tempt the enemy to stand there, letting her line up a potentially deadly skillshot. She would have the power to zone enemies away from her Shards, just like enemies could zone her away from them.

These are not the only changes I want to see to Zoe. If just these changes went through, Zoe would overall be nerfed, and that's not what she needs. These nerfs tackle how frustrating it is to play against her, but should be compensated with buffs to the parts of her kit that feel fair, such as a buff to her Sleepy Trouble Bubble damage, a buff to her Paddle Star damage, or allowing Tear to stack off both casts of Q.