Apparently Riot Didn't Learn the First Time...

The Yetii Rider·Nov 8, 2017·2 votes·584 views

"Fire a missile that deals increasing damage the further it travels -- [min damage] (+66% AP) to [max damage] (+165% AP) magic damage."

Okay, so the second I heard about this ability (before numbers), I thought "Wait, we've been down this road before... "

But Riot nerfed Nidalee from max 145% AP to max 105% AP. And now we're getting a champ even crazier than that?! And the damage is based on Zoe's character level, it seems, so she doesn't even have to max it (and why would she, leveling it increases the mana cost).

This...hoo boy. This is a problem.

13 Comments

kattzkittiNov 8, 20171 votes

To be fair, Zoe's Q requires you to first fire it in the opposite direction, which gives your target plenty of time to react. Nidalee's spear only needed to hit her basic attack range to hit max damage... and ultimately the damage was the lesser issue with her spears.

The Yetii RiderNov 8, 20171 votes

Unless she's ganking with it, then the target has no time to react and that's a massive amount of damage to come out of the fog of war.

kattzkittiNov 8, 20171 votes

If you see a Zoe coming in for a gank, you know the Q is following her in. You'll know that she likely fired it off angled towards her fountain (ideally a 45 degree angle, to maximize damage on your retreat), and can use that knowledge to adjust your angle of retreat to minimize the chances of having to alter direction to dodge.

Granted, this requires you to not be Bronze.

The Yetii RiderNov 8, 20171 votes

With the range of her E being increased over the wall, I imagine she will gank from behind hard walls, similar to Zac ganking with his E. It's likely that she can get kills or assists without going near predictable ward areas.

kattzkittiNov 8, 20171 votes

For her to gank over walls like that, she'll have to burn additional resources to actually get over the wall herself. Those additionally burned resources give the potential payoff of a stronger gank, making it fair.

Ultimately though, we can sit here and theorycraft until the end of time. What matters is how things actually play out ingame, and we'll have a rough idea on that within a month or two of her hitting live.

The Yetii RiderNov 8, 20171 votes

In what world does she actually need to get over the wall? She can toss bubble and Q from the fog or war. If she misses, she leaves. If she hits, they're dead or she lets her allies secure. The cost for this kind of gank is very low compared to the enormous reward of a long range 165% AP ability.

kattzkittiNov 8, 20171 votes

Her Q only has 800 range from herself on both casts. It doesn’t recast from itself.

RaoulNov 8, 20171 votes

Wanna hear the best part? Its AoE damage

QuephaNov 8, 20171 votes

CertainlyT is allowed to ruin the game.

ShibeybeNov 8, 20171 votes

I think there's a big difference here. Nidaru got a huge rework which incorperated her cougar form a lot more than before, increasing a ton of damage and combo ability. (Think q transform w q, does much more damage than old Q alone would do, equally as fast).

Zoe seems like an extremely high skill cap champion. Her Q is not easy to hit, she's extremely easy to punish in lane from my testing and lacks any other sources of damage. Her Q and kind of her E are her only damage options. While the numbers I'm sure are still open to tweaking, I'm fairly confident that her stats are relatively fair. I spent a good few hours practicing lane match ups with and against Zoe with a friend, we're both "" high elo "" ( diamond ) and I can say she has some extremely poor match ups, like cassiopia, and some easier ones in champions like ori or syndra.

It's wicked easy to miss her Q, especially in high pressure situations, and there's also a chance you'll fail to recast due to cc.

The Yetii RiderNov 8, 20171 votes

Her passive is a huge source of damage for her.

And Zoe can support. If her mid lane matchups are too rough, she'll just go bot lane. Mages with high base damage do very well as supports, and Zoe's Q has 145 base damage at level 1 if you hit it from max range.

ShibeybeNov 8, 20171 votes

Auto slipped my mind, but it's not too crazy till you combine it with lich bane mid game. And as a support she gets punished easily, especially moving into tank support meta with a lot of cc, her main weakness. She doesn't offer a lot as a support, since her sleep is unreliable form of cc if not coordinated, and even if. I played her support once in an actual game and it wasn't too fun. She's pretty squishy, and probably will be a less impact full version of zyra.