Is Zilean a bad support?

Worst Kench NA·Mar 21, 2017·2 votes·5,902 views

I had an ADC complain to me today that Zilean was "a tier 2 pick" and that I should have gone something else (for some reason they chose until after I locked in to do this). Since Bronze is a pretty unique elo, and what happens down there won't necessarily translate to other elos, I don't know how much weight my opinion would hold. I think that he can be fairly strong though, if you can land your combos and keep slowing people.

Is this not true though? Is he only a support that's strong in low elo, but weak everywhere else?

15 Comments

RequiemsfireMar 21, 20173 votes

Wrong Zilean is a tier 1 support, that's top of the line and a strongly preferred choice in the hands of someone competent with him. His Q provides very powerful poke, which when stacked creates an Area of effect stun that is fantastic for team fights. His slow is probably one of the strongest which can also be used to speed allies up. He is a fantastic support and I do recommend him.

Also tier 2 supports aren't bad at all.

Also http://www.nerfplz.com/2017/03/2017-best-champions-tier-list-solo.html

InTheoryMar 21, 20172 votes

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LexyyMar 21, 20172 votes

I agree! I love Zilean but that stun is really hard to hit (sometimes... most of the time... for me at least ahahah).

Handy Sandy Mar 21, 20172 votes

"a tier 2 pick"

Those tier picks like don't even matter unless you're in the lcs. OTPs hold high winrates using stuff like Evelynn Kindred

420 gramsMar 21, 20172 votes

He's not bad. Although it's easy for a zilean who doesn't know what they're doing to mess up the minion wave and make it hard to last hit.

SirΤeemοMar 21, 20171 votes

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Worst Kench NAMar 21, 20172 votes

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zilean is bad in general... you must be really good or play passive to get the match... his ultimate is good though.. but as a support he sucks , because no shields,heals etc. he has only the revive thing.. and mov.speed "buff"

I don't think not having heals or shields is necessarily a bad thing. MS buffs could make the difference between getting snared by a Morg Q or not. Granted, Morg can provide shield and block abilities, but someone like Lux who I find is played fairly frequently as support can just shield and snare, and that's it.

LexyyMar 21, 20171 votes

You forgot stun. So stun, mov speed, revival..... sounds pretty good right?

grugMar 21, 20171 votes

first mistake : listening to a bronze player LUL

yeah man when i started learning graves, my first authority on deciding whats good and bad was my multiseason bronze 5 friend instead of renowned toxic high ELO player Tarzaned and the results it yielded were excellent.

zilean is a damn good mage. since playing support makes people rush cdr by default because of the wonky item builds, you'll potentially have an aoe stun up every ~10 seconds providiing you took intelligence for that fat 45 cdr and a free GA every ~50 secs

SOLOQSUPERHEROMar 21, 20171 votes

Like all supports, it kind of depends greatly on the lane match up.

Zilean in lane and Zilean late game are pretty different champions. In lane hes a poke champion, outside he has very good peel and protection from 1 shot combos.

He falls to the same types of lanes that poke fall to, strong sustain lanes. If you've got like a vayne, against a sona/caitlyn you're probably not going to have a fun time unless you can really consistently land your stun. This is absolutely no different than if you were Zyra.

I find also Zilean is one of the only supports who can actually address hecarim super effectively - most others have tools to do this but they're harder to do. That perma slow reduces his damage and his speed to such a point that your adc can now kite him effectively.

He as a support I think will never be the BEST but he will always be GOOD. I do feel though he works better as a mid laner overall. It's really the experience and the rate at which he can get to high CDR/Mana that makes the difference.

137434Mar 21, 20171 votes

Zil is _extremely _ underrated and underestimated. Playing Zil as a mage support, instead of a more utility focused support, is so much fun although probably only effective at lower elos. His Q base damage is good enough against adcs (who usually don't have much MR) to still be effective until you can start getting AP items after your equinox, and of course it has great scaling.

Have to be good at landing those Q though (there is a learning curve but you will quickly get the hang of it), and should probably only do it if you already have a tank/utility champ on your team. Assassins will hate you (ult denying their kill), people with zhonyas will hate you (put those two bombs on top of them so they pop it as soon as out of stasis), you will be having a blast.

As someone else mentioned sustain lanes are annoying, as are lanes that have a spammable shield (i.e., Janna). Also keep in mind you don't have to land every Q, they are also a great zoning tool.

Friendly RamMar 21, 20171 votes

nah zil is pretty strong but just has an annoying learning curve and mana is annoying small.

Nick Da ChipMar 21, 20171 votes

Zilean has a weakish early game but becomes great at controlling zones later on. People just assume they know what they are talking about in this game. It's disgusting. I'm probably not even totally correct.

CrymoricusFeb 5, 20181 votes

Fuck Zilean support. Just go mid, Zilean is goooood.