Can Zilean suck less, please? The rework made him unplayable vs. a semi-competent player

xDeagle·May 26, 2015·6 votes·1,290 views

I don't want to sound all whinny and stuff - in fact, I made this thread for feedback purposes because I REALLY do believe this champion needs some adjustments. I understand why a rework was needed, and I appreciate the fact that you paid attention to him and tried to make him better, but do you understand how much this reworked messed him up?

Let's start with what irrates me the most: the new skillshot Q is nearly impossible to land and isn't nearly as half as rewarding as landing any other skillshot in the game and in order to stun someone you actually need to hit someone with the damn thing twice, and in the League of mobility you'll never manage to do that while playing vs. a semi competent player with a functioning mouse. Not every champion in the game needs to have skillshots, Riot. Zilean's Q was a targeted ability in the first place that triggered after a delay, which was already a decent downside. Now, not only it has a delay (allowing enemies to plan ahead) but it also has a tiny-ass AoE skillshot if you want the stupid bomb to actually stick to the damn target, and if you dare to miss then you'll just have to watch your precious bomb lying on the ground as any player with a brain will simply not get any close to it.

In order to actually hit Q you need to get put an E on them first, which means getting extremely close to your target and taking heavy punishment, wether you're playing him mid as an AP mage or a bot lane support. You can't send him mid, because other mids already have more reliable poke than him without putting themselves in much risk while also having built in mobility or something to justify picking them. The only thing they don't have and Zilean doesn't is his ultimate, Chronoshift.

Right now, Chronoshift is pretty much the only reason you would ever pick Zilean, and even then you might as well pick someone else and build a Guardian Angel later in the game.

And even if someone went ahead and picked him, where shall he send him? He's a mediocre as a mage at best and does not offer as half as much utility as other supports offer. Except for Chronoshift.

But even with Chronoshift being very powerful, he still stands on a 0.90% pick rate. It's really frustrating, really, because he's such a unique champion, and despite that I still get yelled at for picking him in ranked. Because in ranked, everyone wants to win.

And people truely want to win, will just pick the safest option, most powerful option they have.

For now, the most viable option is to just pick another champion.

10 Comments

Kawaiian PizzasMay 26, 20152 votes

i think zilean is fine, i like his skillshot

xDeagleMay 26, 20151 votes

{quoted}

i think zilean is fine, i like his skillshot

"Fine" in terms of what? Is he fun? Conceptually, yes. One may argue that skillshots are fun, but not every champion in the game needs to have them in order to make them "fun". Is he balanced? No, in fact he's very underwhelming in compharison to other champions that you can pick instead of him.

"Fine" could mean a lot of things.

TenryushinMay 26, 20152 votes

Here is my take on some changes that I think would be really fun for Zilean: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/dYBervck-ok-new-zilean-idea

Tell me what you think? :)

xDeagleMay 26, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Here is my take on some changes that I think would be really fun for Zilean: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/dYBervck-ok-new-zilean-idea

Tell me what you think? :)

Definitly looks interesting! The untargetability on his W seems a bit weird though, I don't really know if Zilean actually needs it but I do think that Rewind should be more of an actual ability that does something useful by itself rather than just "Rewind makes his other two basic skills suck less", because lets be real here - Timebomb and Time Wrap are pretty crappy without Rewind and they don't do anything spectacular even WITH Rewind, so he pretty much has no W.

I think it would be nice niche if Rewind did other things that both fit him thematicly and his role in the team. For example, if it reduced the cooldown on activable items, that might open up a lot of playstyles and new build paths for him such as prioritizing activable items and maximizing their efficiency - something that no other champion in LoL can do.

(By "role" I mean uniqueness, you know, the thing that Zilean AND ONLY ZILEAN can do, and no one else can. Otherwise, picking Zilean would be a question of "does he fulfil the mage / support role better than the other champions? If yes, pick him. If not, then don't.", just like it is now.)

Ahura Mazda PiMay 26, 20151 votes

Maybe change his q, that it is like Soraka and Corki q.

insaiyanbaccaMay 26, 20151 votes

just learn to predict enemy movements and you should lane your zil q's a lot

xDeagleMay 26, 20151 votes

{quoted}

just learn to predict enemy movements and you should lane your zil q's a lot

That applies to every skill shot ability in the game. The problem is, that Zilean's Q much more unreliable (tiny AoE to attach the bomb to an enemy while other champions just throw a projectile at an enemy with a much bigger hit box, etc.).

insaiyanbaccaMay 26, 20151 votes

its actually got a reasonably sized hitbox to hit with

TenryushinMay 26, 20151 votes

Well the super brief intangibility helps give that super quick window to cast the second bomb or cast time warp and do a "non dash dash" by combining the 2 skills. The window is small enough to not become a full burst mitigating skill is just enough of a window to miss maybe one skill from the enemy champion and pushes you to be more strategic on it's use.

I want Zilean to keep doing what he does but thing is his skillset is not impactful enough compared to other supports (with the exception of a brilliantly placed Chronoshift maybe).