Zilean needs nerfs or rebalancing! Riot pls

So, after watching several NA LCS matches recently where zilean is the instant blindpick midlane lock in that fits into virtually any teamcomp(because making any teammate not die is such an incredible level of utility it is inescapable), I think we all need to sit down and take a look at what a monster zilean is and why he needs either direct nerfs or changes and discuss some potential changes to make his kit still viable whilst remaining fair and balanced and still fun to play.

As it stands, his ultimate is a get out of jail free card at worst and at best a teamfight winning ability if time correctly when the enemy burns all of their cooldowns on the targeted champion. However, this is pretty unfair considering it is a point and click ability with no cast time and the resurrection heal is typically your whole health bar considering ap zilean mid builds, well, ap which feeds into his ultimate scaling, which is 200%(I think a little bit absurd). The gold value of the ability alone is greater than guardian angel which has a much longer cooldown and doesn't resurrect you with a full hp bar, although it does not provide ad or defensive stats, but a scaling resurrection ability seems awfully out of place in a just recently damage shifted and tank heavy meta where enemies take much more time to kill rather than being one shot.

I understand how frustrating it is to get popped like a balloon by an assassin, but considering the nerfs to assassin runes and items I think it's in a spot where the balance between player skill and input makes it justifiable to reduce the power of resurrection type abilities as well. Currently, you can have a team consisting of kindred, zilean, and aatrox, all of which can build a GA. The amount of times that team can get brought back to life is pure insanity and lacking counterplay.

I think kindred's ulti is the most balanced of what I mentioned considering it is an aoe that also heals and benefits enemies and monsters, causing great reactions/interactions by players with the skill to protect a team against a wipe or causing the enemy team to try and displace them out of the ult and still land a kill. But, on top of that, having a GA and zilean ulti AND possibly aatrox ulti? come now. having to kill aatrox what, 4 times isnt enough?

At least with items like Zhonyas Hourglass, you have to actively use the item and additionally not be cc'd...although stopwatch as an item still seems a bit unbalanced considering the gold value of the ability. It appears to me that all the effort it can take to kill an enemy champion now being stopped by legitimately one button is beyond frustrating, especially when it brings them back with full health. I recognize that in the early game this is generally not the case, but in that way the early game has more counterplay for the ability. why does that change the more time that elapses in a game?

Here are some of my thoughts on rebalancing zilean's ultimate, because I think truthfully the rest of his kit is fairly balanced and requiring skill to play and set up as a zone control utility mage:

a) increase the mana cost on his ultimate. the cost/benefit scale on this ability does not add up. this is an ability that prevents ANYONE on your team from dying, which is often effectively the difference between winning and losing the game or at the least a teamfight and potentially an objective. While it is great counterplay to assassins, it allows players to get out of bad play semi free, assuming their escape or flash is off cooldown by the time the ability resolves. pro players know this fact very well and that's why it's played very often(at least recently in NA).

b) decrease the range on his ultimate; hear me out here. Zilean being forced to cast his ult on himself might seem like a good 'balance' where you focus him instead so it cant be used on someone else...meanwhile the enemy carry or toplaner peels your team and can damage you or you leave them with just enough health where the buff expires THEN proceed to kill Zilean...but imagine if Zilean had to be nearly hugging the person he was casting the ultimate on. This puts Zilean at huge risk himself which makes considerable sense to me because then the zilean has to coordinate a lot more effectively to actually be using this ability to full effect. the current range is pretty massive!

c) increase the cooldown significantly on his ultimate, keep the scaling. this ability, as I have mentioned several times in this post, is a teamfight ability or skirmish ability to help yourself or a teammate survive a gank. But, especially at later ranks where the cooldown is a whopping 1 minute for nearly an entire whole carry's healthbar or MORE, it becomes increasingly difficult to punish players who are caught out. Keeping the cooldown the same across the board but allowing the scaling to exist makes the ability still rewarding and impactful, but makes the opportunity window to catch a team that 'outplayed' your own by saving their potentially dead teammate larger, meaning actual counterplay. This makes the team have to adjust their playstyle and ward coverage/control and assess the risks of the enemy team's dives. This should be on the level of taric's ultimate where its use is a key ability on the champion that you need to play around as both the enemy or the ally.(okay, maybe not a 3 minute cooldown, let's not gut the champion. :] )

d) keep the cooldown the same, significantly decrease the scaling on his ultimate. Getting a whole entire health bar back for basically free(at the massive mana cost of two of his time bombs + 15 with both at max rank) seems pretty unfair when all other resurrection abilities come with a drawback, such as kindred's affecting the enemy team and monsters and healing at the end of the duration but requiring good placement to be effective, aatrox's ultimate requires him to activate it through cc(aka before being blown up), or GA not reviving you with full health and costing a decent amount of gold to purchase whilst taking an item slot in the meantime...the scaling is too dang high! 200% ap ratio? i get that he has a lot of utility, but this is clearly a bit too much power loaded into one ability. reducing the scaling allows for those players who do get caught out and saved to still have a chance of dying if they don't play correctly and requiring their team too to coordinate and help peel for them as they resurrect.

e) (this one is my personal favorite because it would change the way zilean and teamcomps involving him play) Make his ultimate a smaller aoe effect that stops the death of exactly one person on your team in the aoe and resurrects them if they die while they are still in the aoe. add some fancy clock particle effect on the terrain that ticks down as the effect expires and have a little icon above the head of the champion who is currently the lowest HP(and thus, likely to die and activate the resurrection effect.) this allows the enemy team to perhaps disengage and then jump back in on the correct target or use effective targeting to spread out the damage so they can still 5v5 and 'play around'(wow, counterplay, what a concept!) the ability itself. I know this seems a heck of a lot like kindred, but consider what Zilean is as a core concept. He controls time and is able to level up his allies and resurrect himself or his allies by turning back time. Is it so far-fetched to consider that he could do such a thing but in a small area where he warps time and reverts the first ally to suffer death back to life?

Also, can we please add some lore to Zilean and kindred? I feel like the embodiment of death would despise someone who cheats it constantly for both himself and his allies on the battlefield.

TLDR; zilean needs some changes because he certainly feels a bit too powerful in the utility department and it is especially noticeable in pro play. From massive 99% slows(at max rank, of course), double bomb stuns and damage with a 90% ap ratio, resurrecting himself and allies and leveling them up with his passive, some aspects of his kit(but I feel mostly his ultimate) needs to be nerfed or adjusted. Let me know in the poll below what you guys think!