@Riot - Lets talk about Zilean

I've been a major fan of Zilean for a while now, long before he was reworked. His theme and design where what started me playing league all those years ago, and I still play him as much as I can.

However, as much as I enjoy Zilean, I definitely think he could use some improvement, and as such have started this post to gather people to talk about him, and to give my thoughts on him.

For those reading, forgive the length of this post, as I have had this idea in my head for a while now.

Zilean's Current Problems

The rework, imo, was a step in the right direction to make Zilean more fun, and for me it succeeded. However it produced a series of problems in addition that made him less popular and less used than ever, and for some made his previous flaws more obvious.

1. Unreliable damage, limited utility

Zilean's strength pre-rework was that he transitioned from an early-mid game mage (due to guaranteed high damage on Q that was generally unavoidable) into a late game support (thanks to his damage becoming less and his E-R becoming more important). While the power of his E/R hasnt been changed much (except you cant perma-slow/speed up people like you used to), his skillshot makes it difficult for him to function as a mage currently (or be seen as a mage) because it contains all of his damage, and is a difficult skillshot to land (Especially with high ping).

In addition, as a support, Zilean's unique element of utility (doubling up with Rewind) makes his power much more significant at higher levels than at lower ones. As supports are generally not level-dependent (and usually have more elements in their kit to compensate), this puts Zilean at a disadvantage both in the support and mage roles until he has enough points in his skills.

In other words, Zilean's early game was reduced in reliability and therefore damage, while his late game support role remains mostly unchanged, This has the unfortunate result where he gets the most out of solo-lane experience, but is difficult to justify as a mid-laner.

2. Blitz-esque super-reliance on one ability/ability combo

One of the things that Riot has mentioned over the years is that they dislike feast-famine champions and champions overly reliant on a single ability. I believe that in the same way that Blitz is super-reliant on his game-changing hooks, Zilean's usefulness is super-reliant on his game-changing double bomb now. He has 2 extremely gamechanging elements in his kit, his guaranteed Ult, and his double bomb skillshot stun. However, the power of his stun is so strong that making his Q any easier to land would make Zilean significantly overpowered as a result. I have turned multiple games around by landing clutch double bombs, as I'm sure the other Zilean mains can attest.

The issue is, this ties to his aforementioned unreliability. If you cant land bombs/double-bombs, you have lost a significant amount of your usefulness.

3. Seen as boring to play/Ult bot

Zilean, of all the supports and mages out there, is either seen, due to this unreliability and/or the nature of his kit, as either an ult-bot support or boring to play. There are many arguments against his being a viable mid stemming from this nature. He has less damage and more utility than a lot of mages (except maybe Orianna), and tends to have a lot less utility than most supports out there until he gets more levels on him.

4. Lacks cohesion in theme/gameplay

While this one is my opinion, I've seen quite a few people mention this on other places. Zilean is supposed to be a Time mage. The power to manipulate time (along with space) is something that tends to be extremely powerful, and very useful. However, Zilean, aside from his other wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey-stuff... throws bombs. This, among other things, makes people think he's less interesting (it doesnt stop me, just saying)

The next part is how I personally would like to improve Zilean, but I would like to see other peoples views on Zilean's theme and how that could tie into gameplay.

Theme of Zilean

To summarize Zilean's lore, he was a powerful mage who, to help save his people, sought to unlock the secrets of time in order to prevent his people's doom. However, ironically, when he did so, he lost perception of the present, and was not there to help them when they were attacked. He then finds out that his chrono-displasia makes his mind wander through time un-anchored to the present. However, given the limited quotes he has, he can see some of the future too ("The way is always the same", "I knew you would do that").

So we have a time mage whose mind is un-anchored to the present, but who can access the past/future at any given moment unintentionally.

In the old (not updated) story, Zilean went to the summoners to find a cure for his malady. What if the answer is to find some way to anchor his mind in the present?

It is this theme that I base the following Rework idea on.

Zilean Re-Rework Idea

Let me summarize the problems I listed again for you all:

• Unrealiable damage, limited utility (between Mage and support, has issues with being either)
• Blitz-esque reliance on a single, very strong ability (or ability combo as in this case)
• Seen as boring to play/ult bot
• Lacks thematic/gameplay cohesion.

Now, having seen all sorts of complaints about his passive, I've thought of this idea that I think people will find useful, and which would tie into his rework.

Passive: Heightened Learning > Transcendent Learning Zilean's actions generate memories, which continuously anchor him to the present. Each time he levels up without dying, his current memories become permanent and translate into bonus EXP for himself and nearby allies. At 0/50/100/200/400/800 permanent memories (to be streamlined) he learns recalls ways to use his abilities.

Remember The Future (Time Bomb) / The Past (Time Warp)

Time Echo or Time Break

Tick-Tock or ClockTower

Time Vortex or Echo Repeat

The idea behind this is as follows: Zilean gains memories through everything he does in the present, further anchoring his mind in the present time. As he does so he also 'remembers' (learns) other ways of using his abilities that would provide more damage (Time Bomb) or more Utility (Time Warp). All learned skills would be combinations of abilities (Q-W-Q, QE, etc). Additionally, this further cements Zilean as a late game champion by allowing him to access all combinations available to him in the super-late game (akin to nasus' or Viegar's Q Farm) simply by casting (and landing) spells.

As a result of this change, several changes would need to be made to the skills he has already.

Q - slightly faster landing speed (QWQ no longer stuns), AP ratio = .8 +.1 per point in Future (so no change if you want to mid and go Future)

E - E now has a on-ground AoE slow effect, slow reduced to 40-60% at max rank, duration on slow increases to double on allies per point in Past (so you can speed up allies consistently like you used to without the perma-slow)

R (Might be necessary given the number of potential things Zilean may be able to do) - slightly more powerful base healing, significantly more clutch (buff duration reduced).

For the combinations, I had a few base ideas, but nothing too detailed:

Future Combinations

Q+W+Q (damaging an enemy) - Time Echo: The second bomb gains additional damage equal to a percentage of the damage done by Zilean during its windup time (previous bomb always included) to all enemies hit by the first explosion. (Future Combination)

E (on ground) + Q - Tick Tock: Throwing a bomb in a field damages all nearby enemies instantly for 75% of the damage, and deals an additional 50% as damage over time.

Q+W+Q (on the ground) - Time Vortex: Throws time in an area into flux, dealing heavy damage and continuously interrupting all enemy champions in the area.

Past Combinations

E+W+E (on ground) - Time Break: Essentially how QWQ works currently , except without damage, with a delay (at least 1 second), the zone being smaller, and with the caveat of leaving Zilean vulnerable afterwards (no escape). (Past Combination)

Q (on ground) + E - Time Warping a bomb creates a replica of the clock tower from Zilean's memory, binding nearby enemies to near its location for around 1-1.5 seconds, dealing damage over time.

E+W+E - Echo Repeat: Over the next 6 seconds, the target receives a rapidly decaying speed-boost/slow every 2 seconds, dealing minor damage each repeat.

As for how to determine what Zilean is doing/what he is capable of, I have several points:

1 - All of the ability combinations that Zilean would be able to do would be repeats on the same target or on the same space, this makes Zilean's powerful abilities avoidable, but allows him to control the battlefield continuously in a similar way to Zyra, but for shorter time periods.

2 - To signify what Zilean is capable of, I would have several shining gears (moving clockwise/counterclockwise respectively) similar to the floating ones he has now, orbiting the giant clock on his back.

For those who have read this post through, I hope that you find this idea interesting, if nothing else. I hope to read what other people think of Zilean and what areas they think he needs improvement on.