Idea to Balance Zoe

Shadowphoenix··1 votes·1,008 views

So I think the broken thing about Zoe is that her E is very strong, especially with its low cool down. Now the thing is that her E is needed to make landing her Q easier, so straight up nerfing it would screw her over a lot. So I have thought of some adjustments to her E to make her more balanced and skilled based.

Riot could increase her E's base cool down, and then add some effects to it. The first would be to reduce the cool down on her E to what it currently is if it does not cc anything (this way it's more forgiving for less skilled players). The second effect would be to change how her E interacts with her Q. Her E, which currently doubles the damage of the first thing that hits the champion after they are cc'ed, should work differently for her Q. The E should double the damage of the first thing that hits the champion OTHER THAN her Q. Instead, her E should reduce the cool down of her Q, or maybe even reset it, if it's the first thing to hit the champion cc'ed by her E. This makes the combo do less burst, but still allows for her to do a lot of damage depending on the player's skill level.

I think this would be the best way to balance her. Please share if you think so too.

5 Comments

Mr Nicecall2 votes

better idea is delete.

Reaper55991 votes

She's a burst mage, she's supposed to be able to delete people who she can catch out of position with her E.

Also, her E's base cooldown is far from low, 14 seconds at max rank before cdr (I think with 45% cdr it gets lowered to around 7 or 8 is seconds?), if she misses it in lane, she gets punished for it due to hits higher cooldown, further nerfing it would just screw her over in lane even more.

Look at another burst mage like Veigar, if he misses his stun cage, he's heavily punish for it since without it, it makes it much harder to land his w, which is a huge part of his damage. Now lets look at Zoe, a major part of her damage comes from landing her E, when she does, expect to lose a bunch of health. But on the contrary, if she misses it, a chunk of her damage (mainly the true damage) is lost, making it much easier for others to be able to duel her.

Essentially, she needs to be rewareded for hitting it, and punished for missing it, which already happens, nerfing it further would just make her much harder to lane with.

Shadowphoenix1 votes

The problem with that is how her E works. Unlike Veigar, Zoe's E can be cast through walls to potential hit enemies a lot further away, and then it doubles the damage on the first damaging thing to hit them. Her E is important to her, WHICH IS WHY I SAID THAT, but it's just too overpowered with what it can give her. This is why I suggested the changes that I did.

Secondly, she IS a burst mage, which means that you will want to build cool down reduction on her. Although the cool down isn't very short right now it's also not insanely long nor a big problem. I also said to change the cool down to be reduced to what it is now if she misses it so that it is more forgiving.

Third, she does not need to have a super easy lane phase. She is very strong, and does not need to dominate lane phase to do well. Besides that, increasing her E cool down, which by the way I never specified if it should be increased by a lot or just a few extra seconds, would not increase her laning difficult as much as you make it sound nor would it be a big issue to her over all.

Poop Jelly1 votes

I think shes in a good spot atm. I play her frequently and getting equal amount of losses & victories, while not feeling either utter-dominating or useless.

Shadowphoenix1 votes

Yes she is over all in a good position, but it can still be very difficult to play against her once she becomes very strong later in the game (hence the whole delete Zoe meme). When you become good at her, and especially when you look at high level players playing her, her kit becomes a bit too good at its job. The changes I made aren't meant to make her stronger or weaker, but balance her better so that she wins and loses more because of the skill level of the people playing her rather than having a strong kit.

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