Another Zoe Rant.
I made a previous thread about Zoe that got a fair few views and a ton of comments. Naturally there were alot of people who disagreed with my views, so I'm creating this thread to rant more and also to present counter arguments to alot of what was said.
One of the main issues with the previous thread was the fact that it was abit too big. Way too many people constantly throwing the exact same arguments towards me dozens of times over when I had already presented my counter arguments to people who'd previously commented the same thing. I got real tired of saying the same thing repeatedly so I left the thread alone.
"She's an immobile artillery mage. How is she any different from lux, Syndra, or other long range mages." Great question. The difference is in her sheer range, ease of set up, and safety.
Where as someone like Lux who is similar would require proper positioning in order to get within range for her combo, and also ensure that she can't be caught out once she initiates her combo, Zoe is capable of engaging from outside of the vision range and RETURNING to that range and thus staying at a constant safe distance.
Which leads me to my next one: "But you can just aim your CC at her return point of her ult!" No, you can't. Granted if you find a Zoe who is initiating her combo from an unnecessarily close range then you can probably chase her down. But a normal Zoe, or at the very least a good Zoe will abuse her obscene range. There is physically not a long enough range CC that can catch her when she initiates from her normal range. There are a few champions who can cover the initial distance, but they're going to be wasting some ultimate level CD's to cover that and passed that the Zoe will easily just flash out, maybe even double flash depending on her W.
Similar long range mages like Xerath and Ziggs have clear cut weaknesses to their range. For one they are NOT going to simply kill someone from their max range without at the very least using their respective Q's and ulties. From that those abilities are extremely easy to react to and very easy to dodge. Even if you fuck up and get hit then you're going to be a good ways off from actually dying unless you're a pure squishy, and even then they can't kill you off of a single ability. They need a Q and ulty at minimum.
Zoe compared to these 2 is actually capable of killing most champions in a single rotation right from the point of having a few component items and hitting 6. She can actually kill you even earlier but it's at this point where she can guarantee kill level damage from getting the additional range from her blink, but otherwise at the very least she can hit you with enough damage to force a back with nothing more than a single E Q that she can get off of some easy walls.
The only thing she shares in terms of the weaknesses of her fellow artillery mages is the inability to run from a fight, but her range of engagement allows her to go in for outright kills from a safe distance. A safer distance than any other champion has. If she manages to get dove then she'll play like a similar artillery mage, but if her W RNG is working like it normally is then someone will be up that'll give her an opportunity to survive.
A fed ziggs for instance might, and I mean just MAY be capable of comboing a squishy with a Q and ulting for the kill. Now that squishy can flash out of the ult, survive, and be prepared for the next encounter. That's an ultimate level cooldown before ziggs even gets another chance for that to happen again, not even taking into account IF he'll beable to pull that off again due to how slow and easy his kit is to dodge. Zoe? Zoe in that situation would've just spent cooldowns that are going to be up again in 6 whole seconds maximum. That's of course if she some how managed to miss the combo in the first place considering she has arguably the best CC ability in the entire game.
On to the next point, her W. At this point Zoe's RNG is never bad RNG. At every instance, both through personal experiences, stream experiences, youtube experiences, Zoe just doesn't get anything bad. Technically speaking getting anything at all is already a laughable mechanic and anything gained will have some use, but out of the possible weaker options she just doesn't get them. I'm actually starting to believe that the drop tables have a higher chance for the high tier stuff: Ignite, barrier, Exhaust, heal, Gunblade, ect.
Do you know how fun it is to watch a Zoe miss EVERYTHING, then get a protobelt into a gunblade active back to back at level 3 then kill their laner because of it?
It's a worrying trend to see Zoe's consistently get lane changing actives and summoners to trivialize the early game, which would've been her only weakness, before hitting 6 and starting her bullshit. Again, the fact that she can get summoners AT ALL from RNG is ridiculous.
I could've actually put more into the rant but I'm tired. I'll read the comments and start the long debates again once I wake up in the morning.
