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Zoe is a champion that rewards bad gameplay.

HongChongDong·12/12/2017, 7:57:42 PM·144 votes·10,718 views

One of the main issues that is inevitably swallowing modern league of legends design is the fact that more modern champions just don't have any punishment to them. No matter how you screw up, or how badly you play them, they always have too many mechanics that hold the hands of the players who're using them until they inevitably score those kills, sometimes the wins, and then the player can feel good about themselves.

Zoe is a very toxic example of this. Designed around a 1 use combo? Stupidly low cooldowns. Love to spam your abilities off cooldowns? Low mana costs and mana regen from items and runes is through the roof. Lots of skill shots? Along with the low cooldowns, she has blazing fast missile speeds and massive ranges. Missed your primary damage? As long as you hit you hit your CC then it will amplify your passive and will hit like a truck. Just out right dropped the ball? An RNG system that outright destroys and mocks the concepts of summoner spells and investing gold to actually obtain an active. Someone build MR? Free true damage build into her rotation.

Did you know that with the +5% max CDR rune zoe can actually CC a champion and then have her E back up in 2.2 seconds?

There's legitimately nothing to actually exploit or look for in Zoe's kit that would give you a window of opportunity. Technically you could count on the player being bad, but that's any champion period and doesn't really work as a practical means of counterplay.

She's a no risk all reward champion. She's basically an assassin with the ability to pick someone from extreme ranges then engage for an almost guaranteed 1 shot with little to no risk to herself.

I can get behind how her kit operates, I think most can. But there needs to be a shit ton more punishment for screwing up than there is now.

Swap her E and R. Her sleepy bubble gets turned into her ult and given a full ultimate level cooldown. Then make it so she only gets the CD refund if she actually damages the target after they've been put to sleep.

Remove the guaranteed return on her blink. If she gets hit with hard CC during her blink then she shouldn't beable to return.

Finally, remove the ability for minions to drop her W stacks for actives and summoners. Instead make it so it drops blank bubbles that simply allow her to activate her W for free and make this effect available on every minion wave rather than RNG. That, or at the very least massively reduce the duration that bubbles stay around and then reduce the effectiveness of actives and summoners that are dropped by minions.

274 Comments

Crede77712/12/2017, 8:25:20 PM81 votes

Zoe is a "high skill cap" champ because her Q and E are skillshots and she is very reliant upon positioning in order to land those abilities or maximize use of her W and R in the combos.

Except Zoe excellently demonstrates why this narrative is a false one for Riot. Maybe she is "high skill cap" compared to many other champions who have abilities which are easier to land or who aren't as reliant upon positioning. Except for a couple things:

  1. She is a very forgiving champ due to her low CD's, mana costs, and the power that W gives her in gaining extra item actives or summoner spells (pre-6 teleport dropped by minion = free buy and lane pressure).

  2. She has insane pick potential similar to that of Nidalee and Blitzcrank. You can miss 100 Q's but once you land one that's it.

  3. Most importantly - high skill cap is a relative term. None of the champions are what I would define as "difficult" to play. Spend a couple of games with them, learn their abilities, their strengths and weaknesses, etc. Great, now you can play that champion decently or very well. But since Riot thinks that champ is a high skill cap champion, you now have access to more power than you would with similar other champions. There's now no reason not to play him/her until that power gets nerfed.

I've played a good bit of Zoe since she came out. I currently ban her if I'm not first pick. Is that because I think she's extremely overpowered? Not really, I've faced Zoe's mid and I know I can handle her. But she is REALLY ANNOYING to play against and I'm not sure my teammates know how to play around her. So she gets banned.

Veraska12/12/2017, 8:12:24 PM25 votes

Give her e a 16 second cooldown flat

DunkinNoobs12/12/2017, 9:35:28 PM25 votes

Lots of exaggeration from OP.

Fairyfleur12/12/2017, 9:41:28 PM23 votes

If you remove the return on her blink when hit by CC it'll just feel like garbage. You won't be able to go in safely and hit a Q when you land a, now much higher cooldown with your changes, bubble in any situation that isn't a 1v1.

I can agree with a higher cooldown on E but it shouldn't be ultimate level, especially if you can't go in safely with R against multiple enemies.

Edit: I'd also like to say that if she loses a lot of her damage/pick potential she'll become useless. She doesn't have as much waveclear and wave management abilities as other mages, so if she loses her niche as a pick mage there will be no reason to pick her since every other mage has more consistent damage, better waveclear, and more AOE.

The best way to nerf her right now is hitting her E cooldown and maybe decreasing the speed along with the length that the trap stays on the ground for. This'll bring her in line with other immobile mages in terms of vulnerability and make her a bit less frustrating.

SpecterVonBaren12/12/2017, 10:55:24 PM13 votes

I'd rather her W be like Bard's chimes. Make it so she has to collect say, five shards of summoner spells to get a free one (She still gets a full summoner if an enemy uses one). The shards can be different types and if she can get at least three of the same kind then she gets that specific spell, otherwise what summoner she gets will be random.

Make it so the randomness is the punishment while also making it so there's more to getting summoner spells than just hoping a minion drops the one you want.

SuperLuigiLXIV12/12/2017, 8:33:20 PM11 votes

Upvoting in the hopes that a Rioter has something to say.

I mean, I know it's not as easy for them to actually respond to points as it is to talk about being misquoted, but one can hope.