Zilean's passive

I still like his W as is. His real power is the ability to permaslow/haste teammates to get them where they need to be. Q W Q doesn't work anymore, E Q W Q works wonders.

Rewind on a 3 second cooldown with 40% CDR means he is always doing something. He can drop wards and get out of bad situations easier than anyone in the game.

His passive is outdated and to be honest, I rarely notice a level swing in bot lane because of it.

I definitely don't like Zilean's current passive, being a mid Zilean player. However, your proposed change would effectively force Zilean to build mana (rather than mana regeneration; ex: Seraph's Embrace over Athene's Unholy Grail), and Chronoshift doesn't need a buff (it's probably the largest chunk of Zilean's power budget, and it's already on an extremely low cooldown). Zilean's current passive strongly encourages him to support because he can double the benefits of his passive (extra experience for two champions); yours would strongly encourage him to build mana items. He doesn't need his build paths to be constricted, just like he doesn't need his choice of lane to be constricted.

I think the main problem with new Zilean is that his bombs' "sticky radius" is a bit too small for the delay in throwing it + a second bomb's target prioritization seems buggy (this may be due to the sticky radius being so tiny).

As for a new passive... I would be satisfied if Zilean's current passive simply gave a larger XP bonus if it affects fewer allied champions at once (more for Zilean if he's alone; less for each ally in the AOE if he's with friends). Although, that would still be a dull, non-interactive, invisible-power passive that doesn't really explore Zilean's "time mage" theme. I'd prefer some sort of minigame... Perhaps if Zilean puts his bombs or speed boost on an ally, he decreases their cooldowns, but if he puts his bombs or slow on an enemy, he increases their cooldowns. If that is too strong, it could be changed so that he has to "doubletap" allies or enemies in order to affect their cooldowns (two bombs or speedboosts, maybe a combination of one of each); it could also be changed so that it doesn't affect ultimates.

I hate the current one. You win experience wise without doing anything in lane. It's the exact thing Rito said is bad in a champion's kit. No counterplay and boring, lack of use (allies can't tell they're being helped).

However, the proposed one is iffy because he already builds into Seraph's and it's not like he doesn't have room for a RoA, Frozen Heart or Righteous Glory. A mana scaling passive seems kinda OP on him, plus it's not really thematic. It'd be better than what he has right now though.

I like the skillshot bombs, but I'd like to see the improved in one of two ways. Either:

A) Bombs move faster

OR

B) Bombs have a larger "pickup" radius

It's just really difficult to land those bombs on opponents while they're moving around. Pickup range is so tiny. I'd also like to see his passive changed, maybe to something interactive. Something like "When Zilean's health reaches 20% he casts his current rank of Time Warp on himself without mana cost and without affecting it's cooldown. Can happen once every 100 seconds." Or something. That's his speed up/slow for those who don't know. Or maybe "Every 10th/8th/6th Time Bomb creates a temporal rift when it explodes, dealing (10/13/16% AP) magic damage per second to enemies within it's radius". Or even something like **_ "Upon taking fatal damage, Zilean leaves an Empowered Time Bomb where he died, exploding after 1.5 seconds and dealing 135% AP magic damage in the radius." _**Which is 50% stronger than his normal Time Bombs.

Zilean has a lot of potential, and I feel like it's largely wasted as he is now.

You mean a passive on the Ult or a new passive all together? The latter one SUCKS. His passive is very good, in season 3 they nerfed the ranged which made his winrate plummit, but I think bringing back the global range will make him a lot stronger pick.

i much rather they change his W, it really lost most of it's use when it lost it's synergy with his ult. Just add an ammo system to his Q and then change his W to something actually useful

Is there anyone out there who believes a new passive is NOT in order?

Riot, please address this.

Uhhh I dunno... typically Chronoshift's best uses are the MOMENT its receiver is about to die, increasing its duration doesn't seem like the best idea.

Also, his passive allows him and his lane partner to reach level 6 a whole minion wave before their opponents, which means you can make plays with their ults!

If I was going to make ANY change, I would perhaps slightly increase the missile speed of his Q, which would, hopefully, allow for more precise bombing and, when you aim well, more aoe stunning!

Alternatively, just slightly increase the slow/buff on his E at rank 1. It's pretty unimpressive right now.

Passives that apply to single abilities are not innate passives: They are passive attributes of that ability.

Zilean needs a ground-up rework. One of the ones I saw ages ago basically moved Rewind to his Innate Passive slot, giving him the ability cast a basic ability a second time on a static 20 second cooldown. Bam. Fitting, interesting passive that doesn't result in him just spamming the W key after every spellcast.

He need a real passive because the actual is not "notable"