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Riot ought to nerf Zoe's Q/E instead of her W

Rins Thigh Socks·7/14/2018, 10:23:38 PM·1 votes·864 views

The thing is there's currently 2 directions Riot can go with Zoe, due to how her kit functions.

The first option is one shot surprise, she hits you with an E over walls then RQ's you and hey, you got a free back with 8 seconds shaved off your recall time.

The second option is a very W/passive centric build. She can chase you down with surprising ease and stick on you while autoing you and using Q's for passive procs and waves of burst.

Try thinking Nidalee or Ahri. They're both very hard to catch and with powerful skillshots. Riot's approach was to have them be forced to get really close to land their reliable damage and I think that would be a neat option for Zoe. Instead of "oh this champion instagibs and on top of that she steals summoners" it would be more like, "this champion uses your summoners to chase you down and whittle you with bursts of damage."

And if you force her to play around Q/E, her W and passive will still be there and will still be monstrously oppressive if she gets a Gunblade in lane. The spell just won't feel as good to use. With a passive/W build you don't effectively have to remove anything from her kit, just tweak her numbers.

The problems this comes with are that it's more homogenized and reliable damage. She's going to slap you with her autos and W a lot and that'll be a good source of damage.

It does fix a number of problems though.

  1. Nerfing Zoe's Q will also hit her waveclear, forcing her to be a little more interactive in lane or miss more cs.
  2. It plays specifically around her unique identity. Lots of champions do tons of damage from range. Stealing summoners is unique and I would rather her play to that because it gives her a specific niche that would be enjoyable and satisfying for one tricks and mains.
  3. If she's using W and passive to run you down, it's safe to say she's getting much closer to you. While she does still have defensive options (R will still pop over walls, juke skillshots, pick up summoners, and E will still CC you), she's going to be closer to her target for a longer amount of time. This gives you more opportunities to fight back against her.
  4. Lower burst = less one shots. You'll still probably eat dirt and have to go back to base if she gets a full combo off on you but there's less opportunity for her to instagib, and she'll only be doing it at a much later level (unless you get unlucky playing against her summoner spells).

I would much rather they keep speedy, Lich Bane W Zoe than "just pink ward the spears" Zoe. Hit the Q and E instead of her W.

2 Comments

Junkο7/14/2018, 10:48:55 PM1 votes

  1. Zoe already has shit waveclear early and mediocre past the laning phase.

  2. Her W stealing spells is completely unaffected by the damage getting nerfed (which is the problem, last patch in pro play there was a Zoe killing Yasuo with just W procs and Ignite after missing every other spell).

  3. Her W gives her 70% movement speed, not even including stuff like Ghost, Heal, Youmuu, Shurelia all giving MS, or Flash giving mobilty, good luck hitting Zoe that just kills you with no aim required Ws.

  4. Her ERQ burst is fine, it requires 3 abilities to use and you can avoid getting caught out over walls by warding. You can also Cleanse sleep, or QSS it, or Zhonya before you fall asleep. Many champions can also dash before they fall asleep so if you were slept over a wall you will most of the time get out of her RQ range. The problem with Zoe right now is her killing you with W when she misses everything. Specifically if you use Ignite and Zoe picks it up, Zoe is at an advantage since she evens out the damage with your Ignite AND gets the damage on W, meaning you used a high CD summoner spell only to put yourself in a worse spot.

ZackTheWaffleMan7/14/2018, 10:52:49 PM1 votes

I thought you weren't able to get a random Gunblade active