I wish Yasuo would get the Zoe treatment, i remember when he was the hot topic.
Yes, I play Zoe and yes she is strong but shes also very risky to play. She's what I like to call an investment champion whereas your team has to invest resources into making her strong in lane or she's not going to snowball.
The truth of the matter is people complain about Zoe because they don't like being one shot by her combo. But there are other champions who do the exact same thing she does but with fewer risk.
Let's compare, shall we?
damage gimmick comes from her Sleepy bubble trouble if you get hit by it your going to take extra damage from her follow up paddle star. If you get hit by it. Sleepy bubble trouble can be blocked by minions, monsters, pets, clones, even things like shaco's boxes. If you do get hit by the bubble you do have a little time to prepare by using your minions or even jungle monsters to block the incoming paddle star.
Has no gimmick to his damage. he hits level two and all-ins you and your dead. You cannot stop this unless you are under turret and even then his tower diving is fairly safe because of his wall leaping ability. If you do somehow survive and return to base to heal he punishes you by roaming to another lane. You cannot out push him in lane, you cannot out farm him in the lane, there is no risk to his damage, he does it, his rotation costs little to no mana and he will always out trade you no matter the item or level advantage.
Another good example. W-Q combo means your going to be out poked hard. Even on Champions like Xereth or Ziggs, Zed is going to be able to trade with you very easily, and once he does widdle you down to nothing he can gap close and win the lane very easily. the same defensive items that work against zed can also work against Zoe. 
a very popular item vs zed, also good vs Zoe, you hourglass a zed ult yes, you can also hourglass a Zoe bubble, the difference here is that Zoe cannot follow up on you once the hourglass is over, Zed can, he just needs to swap with his shadow an he's right there to finish the job, Zoe on the other hand only has 1 second to recast her paddle star and hourglass effect lasts 2.5, if she doesn't it vanishes and goes on cooldown. Not to mention Zoe ult forces her back to her location where Zed has full control where he wants to be when you come out of hourglass.
once he gets 
your laning phase is done, Yasuo is huge right now in the meta especially with the crit item revert. he got to keep his compensation buff and he's dishing out massive damage with amazing mobility and even more defensive options open to him. when it comes vs Yasuo is going to obliterate Zoe everytime. He need only block the bubble with Windwall and then dash in on her. he gets a massive, MASSIVE power spike with a single crit item, can wave clear very well with Q, gets free defensive stats from passive and windwall and has the mobility that is second only two Talon I'd say when it comes to mid champions. I honestly feel right now Yasuo has the more annoying kit, Zoe can be punished in lane, you can get some free damage off on her when she tried to pick up a spell shard, a good reaction time means you can hit her while she's in her ult The weaknesses are there. None of these things can be done to Yasuo He does everything and scales into a champion so powerful in the late game I'd honestly say he is THE strongest late game champion in the game just because of how much free stats he gets from his kit.
That's just some example, I'm not going to get into other champions like 
or 
The other thing I want to address thats pissing people off is yes, Zoe's W spell theif. Even I think this move is stupid but not for the same reasons everyone else does. The idea behind it is cool but I think CertainlyToxic just went too far with his ambition this time around.
Here is my take on Spell thief and why it shouldn't have ever been created.
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Summoner spells are powerful. VERY powerful, Especially 
and 
right now. In the laning phase summoner spells can make or break it, A lvl 3 ignite can force an opponent out of lane and allow you to push the wave under their turret and back, ignite is so strong right now its not even being used to secure kills its literally being used to force the opponent back to base when you go back as well. Both you and your lane opponent have half HP and you want to back while punishing them? pop ignite on them, while they run back to turret burning you can hyper push the wave to their turret and back, they are either going to have to back as well, or stay and risk being killed by the jungler or you, either way, you win. So imagine Zoe getting 2 or even 3 ignites from her W? its very strong, on top of that it does grant even more damage with the 3 bubbles she gets as well.
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The RNG to is so unhealthy for anyone, it either screws you or it screws Zoe. Zoe puts a point into W at lvl 2 and gets a redemption or proto belt or that uhh, other ice shooting item? Well, your fucked. Becuase not only does the skill itself offer damage but so does the activate she just got. On the other hand you could put a point into W and never ever get a bubble minion to appears until like 7 minutes in, in which case laning phase is over, leaving Zoe without her W damage to fight. There is no in-between for this RNG, its either really good or really bad. You Either win lane with It or lose lane with it.
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A healthy skill either rewards you, or punishes a player. Never both. this is just my personal opinion and Zoe's not the only one guilty for this but I find if a skill does both reward and punish at the same time, then there is something wrong. Engaging on enemies with Zoe's W will always be in your favour. Flash into your opponent and force them to flash away, You get another Flash and some easy damage, they lose their flash, you get rewarded, they get punished, is the same if shes running away, she can flash away and you can flash to follow her but you'll take damage while she gets a speed boost, you get punished, she gets rewarded. That to me creates a balance slope so steep that the skill itself is worth the entire net of a champion. I have tried the W build on Zoe where you max W and go hextech flash and just rely on the W for your damage. Its fucking disgusting, and I say that AS a Zoe main. The skill just does too much, it rewards you and punishes your opponent when it should really just do one or the other, not both. Now, as I said Zoe is not the only champion guilty of doing this but i think in her case she is one that takes it to the extreme.
With that said, I think if the core problems Zoe has were to be fixed, it would have to be the removal of her W for a new skill.
I had this idea for a W rework.
W - Sparklefly Fun!
Range: 550
Cooldown: 0.25
Passive - Colorful Sparkle flies will periodically spawn around the map when Zoe is in the game, Zoe can collect these Sparkle flies to gain a stack of Sparkle Fly Fun. Occasionally, A Sparkle Fly will fly to her automatically every 50/40/30 (6/11/16) seconds granting her a stack (Max 1 stack per skill lvl for a max of 5)
Active: Zoe consumes a stack of Sparkle Fly Fun, granting Zoe 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70% bonus movement speed as well as summoning three Sparkle Flies that orbit her for 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 / 2.75 / 3 seconds. The Sparkle Flies autonomously hurl themselves at the nearest enemy, prioritizing her attack target, dealing 75 / 105 / 135 / 165 / 195 (+40% of ability power) magic damage per 3 Sparkle Flies.
This move is smilier to spell theif but less powerful, there is no RNG and it doesn't reward Zoe and Punish the enemy at the same time. This is just the idea off the top of my head though.
In conclusion yes Zoe is strong but there are other worse offenders out there, however the community is right to say that Zoe's W is an issue and needs to be changed.
- they've gone WAY too far in putting power onto her charm, just like 
