FINALLY A NERF THAT ACTUALLY WORKS FOR ZILEAN

No it doesn't work. The enemy can just dodge all your attacks. You can't even place your bomb on allies anymore because they always run all over the place. The change to his Q is bad and was not necessary. If I wanted to play an AoE champ then I would have chosen one...
Why does riot always have to go and change champions that don't need to be changed!

He got dumpstered. GG Zil, was fun having you in games for a while. Now good luck ever landing a bomb on the same target with the horrible sticky targeting when it matters.

zilean has been pigeonholed for support only. i guess if you like champions being viable in only 1 position then cool? great game design?

Yes, now it will feel funner to use and potentially more rewarding to land. (That aoe stun)

My only problem with his new bomb is how it decides which unit to stick to when you throw it on a clump. Does not seem very consistent and can make cs'ing really annoying compared to before.

The AoE stun thing is nice. I do think in league of mobility his chances to do well in mid lane are low. Those bombs are awkard and given its his only damage spell not reliable enough.

I don't know, his gameplay feels really clunky and forced now. The time bomb reliability is out the window and it's still not clear to me how it decides to latch onto targets. I can put two time bombs down on the same place and they will latch on to different targets and i won't get the stun. When i do get the stun then what? I have no damaging spells left and his AA wont do much good because hes a mage.

it's actually a huge buff

the bomb can be used to scout bushes/dragon/baron because it grants vision

the aoe is large enough that zilean (even as a support) has super strong waveclear with very little ap.

the aoe stun I don't think needs explanation as to how awesome it is.

Also, the bombs can be picked up even if you miss, I've missed a bomb, then the enemy picked it up, then I hit the other bomb and stunned them and then they died.

Yes because they buffed the hell out of him everywhere else.

ok so as someone whos got some pretty extensive zil experience.

the Q change is a nerf to mid zil and a buff to support zil, it makes support zil much easier to play but it forces you to become nothing more than a stunbot with a revive ult.

the w change i s just a blatant nerf to his ult if you went max cdr. with max cdr his old ult had a 22 sec cd. now with max cdr his ult has a 34? sec cd. this change combined with the change to e makes max cdr unneccessary on zil, and in fact max cdr makes zil very clunky to play as q and w do not interact well at all when you have max cdr

the change to e is a nerf if you get max cdr, is a nerf if your opponents have tenacity, and is a nerf in mobility. but, the change is a "buff" in that it makes zil "easier" to play. with max cdr, you could speed up/slow down 2 targets with 100% uptime when both w and e are max level. so 2 targets at permanent 55% speed. now, with max cdr, you can speedup/slow down 1 target with 99% speed for 2.5 sec.

as people have said, theres huge diminishing returns which makes the 99% speed completely irrelevant, making ranks 4 and 5 almost useless (net 30ms per rank, ish)

the difference on e is hugely felt vs targets that have tenacity. have fun slowing irelia for .5sec

completely useless skill vs some targets

so overall, huge nerf to e as well.

lastly, change to r is of course a nerf if you had max cdr AND just in general. 12ish sec increase in cooldown making it impossible to ult twice in the same fight and the ult lasts for 2 seconds less.

overall, rito felt it necessary to nerf a champion that had a 45% winrate and a 1% pickrate. zilean has been olafd but he probably still has a spot in very specific teamcomps where you want a support that does very little damage but has a fairly reliable aoe stun on a 6 sec cast time

Tbh, I like the new changes more. It's faster, and less clunky. Plus, it's easier to land my Q from a safe distance, so I don't have to risk pointing my cursor on enemies to land one while going near to their face.

Especially,...that 99% E.....

Soooo, Zilean mid? I've ran it a couple time before and its pretty hilarious to see the bomb chunk people, only now it have a stun atached

It has an aoe stun, obviously I'm glad. I also like his E change.

Its not really that much of a nerf. The damage and ratio went down slightly and its not that hard to hit. Also 1.5 second stun.

While I agree that the other abilities were nerfed, his Q seems better. While it's not a point and click anymore, it's range is further and it seems godlike for seiges. The zoning it provides is nice, plus if you fo ever land that double bomb (sad that it's hard now), it will have a big impact. Plus it seems more fun. I've been playing Sona and Soraka before their reworks and even though they were really strong, it was boring af. At least these skills are now more skill-based so they're less annoying to play against but more satisfying when landed.

ITT we got so many people butthurt over not being able to play Zilean mid anymore.

Riot wants him to become a utility support, just like Bard will be. He's always been about his utility since he only has ONE damaging spell anyway.

Making Time Bomb a skill-shot was the best thing they could've done for him, because old TB was targeted and not fun to go up against because you simply had to be in range of it for him to tag you with unavoidable damage. Now you can check bushes with it, you can lay double-bomb traps as you flee from enemies, it's a lot better now.

You still want to buy AP so that TB has some kick to it, and to revive people with really high amounts of health, but his kit screams utility first and damage second.

is very happy.

I'm still going to harass the hell out of everyone who lanes against my mid Zilean. I'm happy with the changes, other than E's duration being lowered and the unnecessary range reductions.