A Positive, Detailed Analysis of 5.4 Zilean
Hello! I've always been a huge fan of Zilean and despite significant kit changes I noticed there hasn't been a lot of talk on his rework. I'd like to open a discussion about the New Zilean, offering a few of my observations along the way. I'm not terribly concerned with damage numbers or similar as I know the balance team will make sure our favorite time mage is in a good place.
Before diving into the changes, I feel like the best way is to start a discussion of a rework is by first defining the champion's identity and current play patterns.
CHAMPION IDENTITY - WHO IS ZILEAN?
“Zilean has a dark and mysterious past. Which is also your future.”
Zilean is a wizened sorcerer, specializing in time magic. He is League’s only elderly champion and has a unique role, starting out as a strong burst caster who transitions to a second support. Viable in both the mid and duo lanes, he has one of the strongest early power spikes as well as a unique Ultimate that gives an ally a second life.
League’s Chronomancer Zilean is League’s only time manipulating, explosion loving sorcerer. He floats through the air like a badass, wearing a giant clock on his back while hurling gears at his enemies. He turns back the clock to double-cast his spells, dilating time around his enemies and allies on a whim. He forecasts his major damage with a ticking countdown, and is perhaps best known for his troll-like habit of killing opponents long after he’s already walked away.
Mage with Shifting Roles Zilean starts off as one of the strongest Burst Mages. This is due to the nature of his W, ‘Rewind.’ Mages are by definition spell-dependent, often ranking their bread n’ butter damage spell as soon as possible, until they max it out at level 9. Up until that point most mages get one cast of their most damaging spell per exchange along with one or two lesser damaging spells. With just one rank of Rewind, Zilean gets two casts of his best damage spell, ‘Time Bomb,’ which often gives him the burst advantage in lane and for the early half of his mid game.
Since only half of his abilities deal damage, Zilean’s burst and sustained dps falls off quickly in the mid-late game. As other mages gain more ranks in their Ultimate and secondary spells they often outdamage Zilean in both burst and sustained damage potential. This forces Zilean to switch roles as the game goes on, eventually taking on a more Support style play; slowing down enemies, speeding up allies, and saving lives with Chronoshift.
**CURRENT PLAY PATTERNS **
“YOU’RE ULTED, GO BACK IN! GO BACK IN!!!” ~ Frustrated Zilean Player
Role: Mid Lane vs. Support As recently as last season, Zilean has been seen in both Mid and Support roles. He has been success in the competitive environment and seen as a “must ban” vs. some teams. Even Faker played him in the mid lane in OGN!
In the mid lane he’s mainly a safe, farming champion. He has a lot of harass potential vs. champs with a lower a range and strong burst levels 5-9. He’s able to his opponent up for a gank with his slow and roam well with his speed up. Once he gets his first item (usually Athene’s) and a blue buff, he’s ready to teamfight.
As a support he’s a lane bully, utilizing his superior auto attack range vs. lower ranged carries and supports. Since leveling is slower when laning with two champions, the relative amount of time he is at his best burst potential is lengthened, but only in regards to his own lane. Since he is leveling more slowly and is typically not building AP, his damage falls off sooner and proper Ultimate use becomes even more defining to his teamplay.
Passive Use and Abuse Though not an exciting passive, Heightened Learning allows Zilea and any other allies around him an experience advantage. In the solo lane, this means he hits level 2 after the first wave and level 6 a whole wave sooner than his opponent. As a support, both his carry and him can hit level 6 two waves before their opponents (though this math varies with jungle starts and other factors). Gaining a level advantage on opponents can be very advantageous, but since Chronoshift is a reactive ability it is especially vital for Zilean to learn his Ultimate before his opponent if he wants to use it in time. The Math!
“Double Bomb” - One of Old Zilean’s moves was to “Double Bomb” or, quickly target an enemy with a Time Bomb twice in a row. This would immediately set off the first bomb, allowing Zilean players more ability to choose where that initial damage went to (instead of letting their opponent have time to move away from allies).
Rewind - Explained under “Changes”
Itemization - Old Zilean needed a variety of stats to be effective, prioritizing Mana (as his mana costs were high overall, along with needing to Rewind often in the late game), AP, CDR, and the occasional Defensive items. Midlane Zileans often bought Tear of the Goddess, Athene’s Unholy Grail or Morellonomicon, and Rabadon’s Deathcap. This hasn’t changed much with the update.
5.4 ZILEAN REWORK
“I knew you would do that”
Rework Information, including New Animations/Icons/Numbers
Passive (Unchanged)
Time Bomb (Changed): The biggest change to Zilean is that he now lobs Time Bombs instead of placing them daintily on other’s heads. His Time Bomb is now a skill shot following a trajectory much like Corki’s Q “Phosphorus Bomb”. Overall it’s less reliable and he is unable to “double bomb” instantaneously like before. His bombs do a bit less damage than before and has a longer cooldown at ranks 1 and 2.
However, it’s also received many buffs. Time Bomb’s costs less mana and it’s cooldown is lower ranks 4 and 5, which makes it a lot more usable as a bread and butter spell (making him more like other mid laners like Ahri and Ziggs), though even with 40% CDR he is unable to get a “double bomb” off without using Rewind.
When he does successfully “double bomb,” he is now rewarded with a short stun that effects everyone caught by Time Bomb, a significant buff. Time Bomb’s range and AoE is also significantly increased, which allows skilled Zilean players the potential to deal much more overall damage in a teamfight than before.
Another new feature of his Time Bomb is that it lands on the ground if there's no nearby target and attaches itself to the first champion or creep that comes its way (kind of like a missed Fizz ult). This means a forward-thinking Zilean can potentially use his Bomb to zone out opponents like Zigg's does with his Minefield.
**Rewind (Nerf): Rewind no longer affects Chronoshift. This is a sizable nerf, though some of the power loss is subtle. Mid to late game, Zilean was formerly able to have Chronoshift up for almost every engage, sometimes being able to use it twice in a teamfight. With max CDR and liberal Rewind usage, his ultimate’s cooldown could be as low as 27 seconds (whereas now, decoupled from Rewind it’s cooldown at max CDR is now 54 and 36 seconds at ranks 2 and 3).
Also, because his Ultimate’s cooldown was static and because it’s base heal was often enough at rank 1, skilled Zilean players often maxed Rewind over their Ultimate, allowing more bombs, time warps and Chronoshifts. As a side effect of not Rewinding just to lower Chronoshift’s cooldown, Zileans should have a little bit more mana.
New Zilean’s Rewind’s main use is to set up a successful “double bomb” for an AoE stun. It’s also more vital to be used to keep an enemy slowed down with Time Warp’s duration being nerfed.
Time Warp (Changed): Time Warp’s duration took a huge hit, losing 3 seconds at max rank. This means that Zilean can no longer perma-speed/slow an ally/enemy at later levels, when combined with Rewind. This significantly hurts his overall roaming and chase ability.
Another big nerf was to it’s range, which went down from 700 to 550 meaning Zilean has to put himself in harm’s way more often to slow down an enemy.
The buffs it received include costing less mana and a shorter cooldown, and ranks 3+ it has a higher % buff/debuff to movement speed. It should be noted that there is a soft cap on both increases and decreases to movement speed which makes the effect of a higher % less than one might think.
Chronoshift (Nerfed): Chronoshift’s duration has been “decreased” from 180 seconds to 120/90/60 seconds, but as explained in the Rewind changes, this is an overall nerf.
{{summoner:2}} DESIGN GOALS OF NEW ZILEAN {{summoner:2}} "You can't kill the Zilean! Well...now you maybe can" 20thCenturyFaux's Explanation
In addition to 20thCenturyFaux’s listed reasons for the changes, here are a few of my personal thoughts.
Power: Zilean’s “double bomb” reminds me a lot of pre-rework LeBlanc with her Mimicked Sigil of Silence (R.I.P.). Having that much damage on a point and click ability is obviously unhealthy and absorbs a huge amount of power budget. Nerfing his Time Bomb seems like a natural choice in order to make his kit both more interesting and in a healthier place.
Counterplay: Old Zilean had fairly little counterplay in his kit. Often, the only counterplay to be found was deciding to run away from your teammates after Zilean’s second timebomb detonated and trying not to kill any golden glowing enemies (unless they can be killed again immediately).
New Zilean has a lot more room for counterplay in his kit. Having a bomb already on their head now gives enemies more time and knowledge to avoid being “double bombed”. If Zilean has recently used his Ultimate, there’s a good chance it’s not going to be up immediately after. While an enemy can be slowed for 5 consecutive seconds (and probably another 1.5 seconds of Stun), they can no longer be perma CC’d by just Zilean which allows them the ability to escape him more feasibly.
Clarity: Since he has to lob both bombs at someone, the damage from his “double bomb” move is a lot more obvious to newer players. In addition, Zilean’s stun now “Time Stops” enemies, freezing them, which is very cool and thematic. “Time Warp” has a new particle beam that zips from Zilean to an ally or enemy, so players know where the ability originated from.
Champion Diversity/Identity: As a master of time, some of Zilean’s abilities have seemed outdated by other champions. Some champions have stronger speed ups (like Lulu’s Polymorph) while many others have stronger slows. It makes sense and is much cooler that Zilean’s speed up and slow reach 99%. Zilean’s “double bomb” stun adds a significantly more utility to his kit and the little “time freeze” animation (lack of animation?) is amazingly flavorful.
CONCLUSION
Time flies like a arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." aka "TL;DR"
I believe Zilean’s rework has met it’s main goal: modernization. Whether he remains competitive or not, Zilean has more room for skill growth, offers more counterplay and most importantly to me - he is a much more interesting chronomancer than before. I believe while his damage will be less reliable, he will bring significantly more of it to the table in a teamfight, along with the occasional, impactful AoE Stun that isn’t Ultimate-gated (like a less reliable Annie!). I look forward to playing his reworked version on the Rift.
What’s your opinion?
(A few of you may remember Stirge as the writer of 'A Positive, Detailed Analysis of 3.9 LeBlanc' which was sadly gobbled up in the changing of the new boards. The reddit version can be found here.
In his spare time, Stirge loves trolling his enemies as 
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can get away with that kind of stuff because of his mad scientist identity. It would make more sense to have Zilean toss the giant clock on his back like a boomerang or something.
