Zoe quality of life/balance change

Zoe is a champion that the majority of the community feels is unbalanced. She boasts over a 90% ban rate which means that players either do not want to play with it, or they do not want to play against it. Playing against Zoe is a challenge, her primary skillshot (Q) lands as a small AOE which means hiding in minions will not help. However pre 6 she feels viable to play against, you can contest her for CS and trade with her smartly. The issue with Zoe lies after level 6. Zoe is a champion that can push waves almost instantly with the extended range of her Q. Whilst dealing with minions under tower you have to deal with a barrage of Q's whilst trying to farm. An extended Q from Zoe can deal around 75% of a mages health around level 8. Followed up by an e at the same time whilst extending sets up for the final blow which is easy to finish based on the time it takes for the E to activate and the cooldown of Q.

Balancing Zoe is an issue, with only 2 castable spells that deal damage without having to pick something up means that it is difficult to find a way to keep her from being overpowered or for her to be underwhelming. I do not believe that the damage from Q is an issue, however the way in which it is applied is. By redirecting the Q first then extending it with R gives opponents very little time to react to something that can deal a very significant amount if damage. I believe that a way to balance this is by changing the way which the extension of the Q works. Instead of extending it after recasting Zoe would now have to jump to a different location with R which gives the extension range and then recast the Q to redirect it. This will give opponents time to react to what is about to happen reducing the time to kill, at the same time it gives them a window to trade with her as she is vulnerable for a small time. This will overall increase the skill cap of Zoe which in turn will promote and reward people who are good at her.

Thank you for reading this suggestion.