How to Fix Zoe

** ** Here's my ideas for a few simple Zoe changes to both make her more powerful and less frustrating to play against.

Portal Jump

• Moved to W, as a basic ability
• Cooldown changed to 13/11/9/7/5 (was 11/8/5)

Sleepy Trouble Bubble

• When travelling through a wall, it displays a sparkling effect at the point where it will exit, similar to Kayn's Shadow Step.
• The trap no longer inflicts the effect on the first enemy that steps on it. Instead, it imposes the Drowsy effect on all enemies standing in the zone and for 0.5 seconds after leaving it.
• Damage increased to 90/130/170/210/250 + 40% AP (was 60/100/140/180/220 + 40% AP)
• Bonus true damage dealt to sleeping targets is halved if the triggering damage is not dealt by Zoe.

Spell Thief

• Moved to R
• Starts the game at rank 1, and can be increased at levels 6, 11, and 16.
• If an allied champion kills a balloon-holding minion that Zoe has damaged within the last 5 seconds, the Spell Shard is still dropped
• Every enemy siege minion and super minion will hold a balloon, but only those minions will hold balloons.
• Spell Shards dropped by minions last 5/6.5/8 seconds, at levels 1, 6, and 11 (was 20 seconds)
• Spell Shard drop table changes with rank
• Rank 1: Heal, Barrier, Ghost, Smite, Cleanse
• Rank 2: Heal, Barrier, Ghost, Cleanse, Ignite, Exhaust, Challenging Smite
• Rank 3: Ignite, Exhaust, Challenging Smite, Redemption, Teleport
• Rank 4: Ignite, Challenging Smite, Redemption, Teleport, Hextech Protobelt-01, Hextech GLP-800, Hextech Gunblade, Flash
• Bonus movement speed changed to 30%/45%/60%/75%
• Bonus movement speed duration changed to 1/2/3/4 seconds

Moving Portal Jump to W allows Zoe to pick it up during the laning phase. This improves her damage and range with Paddle Star, her ability to dodge skillshots, and how often she gets to proc More Sparkles, making her laning phase much more forgiving and making her "feel" more like Zoe pre-6.

She gets to keep the E circle on the ground, but doesn't get full value for "missing" her skillshot. Enemies who avoid it won't get hit by it splatting on the ground next to them, though it will slow them. It deals more damage when she does land it, meaning Zoe's combos can pack a lot more punch, but those moments where Zoe launches it through terrain and catches an enemy who thought they were safe are far less punishing and frustrating since her allies don't deal as much damage on the followup and the enemy can see it coming. Her damage is better, but it all depends of Zoe landing her abilities.

The changes to Spell Thief, besides moving it to R and making it a "level 1 ult" like Jayce and Elise, reduces the impact of RNG on Zoe's laning phase and introduces more counterplay to the ability. Pre-6, Zoe gets zero Summoner spells from minions that allow her to all-in her enemy. The spells she gets from balloons early on are almost all defensive, with the exception of Smite, which can allow her to tax the jungle, help take/steal an early dragon, or push her lane. Minions will only start dropping Ignite and Exhaust after level 6, and Smite gets upgraded to Challenging Smite. At level 11, she loses the defensive spells in favor of more playmaking spells like Redemption and Teleport, and at 16, she gains the badass Hextech options and Flash. Only in the late game will she get fight-winning Summoners from Spell Shards, not anywhere near the laning phase. Since the balloons are tied to cannons and super minions, Zoe will have access to more spells the longer the game goes on, but her enemy can effectively zone her off of cannons and Spell Shards due to the reduced duration of the shards and contested nature of the cannons.

Overall, Zoe would have a more potent early game with access to her unique mobility and a solidified role as an artillery mage, but her enemy has the the chance to avoid her sleep even if she chucks it at them through terrain and free Ignites and Redemptions have been removed from her laning phase. Dying to her would be less a case of "Damn you CertainlyT for making this dumb champion" and more on you for not noticing the sparkle effect on the wall or zoning her off of a powerful shard.