Kayle vs Zilean

Over the course of Season 4, Kayle has seen some pretty brutal nerfs to her offensive power but some decent buffs to her defensive power. Her ultimate no longer costs mana, but Q and E have been pretty badly beaten down, With Q's Ratio dropping to .6:1 (60%) from 1:1 (100%) and E's magic damage Ratio dropping to .25:1 (25%) from .6:1 (60%), but having her W given a scaling percentage movement speed bonus, and having it's AP Ratio buffed as well. AP Kayle is no longer a force to be reckoned with. She's used solely as a defensive pick most of the time for her ultimate.

Invulnerability is so valued on a team comp because when the Season 3 League Of Assassins carried over to Season 4, Everyone bought into the fact that there was counterplay to being deleted in an instant by the enemy assassin without having to itemize for it.

As a disclaimer, I'm not even good at this game. Nor do I claim to be, I ranked Bronze and I really don't care about my rank because I know that I'm mechanically bad at this game and that doesn't bother me. I'm saying this from a spectator perspective of watching LCS and High-Level play, Over the course of this Season though, I've started to realize that Zilean is exactly what Kayle was in the of Season 4 before she was pummeled by the nerf bat: An insurance policy.

Now, normally I wouldn't complain about this. It's frustrating to see one of my favorite mid laners go down the drain, but I can get over that. It was nice seeing my absolute favorite mid of all time get some screen time at the LCS but just as that happens, Riot decides to nerf the champions that perform best in the LCS because that really distinguishes how abusable they are as champions.

But Zilean? No. None of that for Zilean. Chronoshift lasts an entire 7 seconds on someone, and in that timeframe you're basically forced to kill them. Yes, I know there is counterplay to Zilean's ultimate. Don't focus whoever it's on/kill whoever it isn't on but sometimes that isn't a realistic approach because of all the AoE spells involved in teamfights or because if the inherent danger of NOT focusing whoever it's on (I.E. Bursty Assassins). It's basically a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card for anyone who's affected by it.

That's fine though. His ultimate is one of his absolute biggest strengths and to nerf it would basically mean his death in competitive play. His ultimate is fine, but my problem is not his ultimate, but the rest of his kit.

Time Bomb is a targeted debuff that does AoE damage after expires. It's range is 700 (50 more than Kayle's Q) and can be placed again to detonate the previous bomb, dealing damage and replacing the debuff. It's AP Ratio is .9:1. (%90)

You sort of just have to sit there and take the damage. You COULD retaliate, but that would result in getting slowed by his Time Warp, which is the same range as Time Bomb (700 Range) and can recast after two uses of Rewind.

Zilean's damage NEEDS to be toned down. His kit is extremely toxic to play against and there is very little you can do to negate his damage other than "Buy a spellshield" or the generic response: "Buy MR."

Playing against him is not fun, it's not rewarding, and it's frustrating to deal with him.

I burned out on writing this rant halfway through. My apologies. I tried making a reasonable argument against him and I just think it's unfair that Kayle gets this treatment when Zilean is actually being considered for a buff.

I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this. Any insight would be appreciated.