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Proposed Zilean Changes (New Passive and Abilities. REWORK)

Antonella·10/31/2015, 11:26:09 AM·1 votes·576 views

INTRODUCTION

Hey there. I'm Limpah. Zilean is my favorite champion in the game, and it's quite obvious that he has had a HUGE identity crisis. Something I've liked that riot has been doing recently is taking a champion and analyzing what he or she is, and changing their kit to reflect their identity. A perfect example of this is the new Graves. The current Zilean, is um. To be honest. The current Zilean is a mess. I'm sorry. He's just downright terrible. While I don't like comparing a champion to another (and riot doesn't either) there is never a reason to pick Zilean over another champion. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about Zilean the Chronokeeper. What makes him different from other champions and so fourth. A lot of thought and love went into these changes. Please don't hesitate to comment on anything you like or dislike.

OLD Passive: Zilean stores time as experience. When he has enough Experience to finish an ally's level, he can right-click them to impart it. Zilean receives as much Experience as he gives. Cannot be used in combat.

NEW Passive: Time around Zilean is faster. Zilean and Ally's projectiles missile speeds are increased by 8% (projectiles leaving radius lose the missile speed buff)

OLD Q: Zilean Tosses a bomb to target area that sticks to units that come near it (prioritizes Champions). It detonates after 3 seconds, dealing area of effect damage. If a Time Bomb is detonated early by another Time Bomb, it also stuns enemies.

NEW Q: Passive: Zilean can store up to 3 bombs (2 seconds between casts). Zilean tosses a bomb to a small target area. It detonates after 1 minute dealing massive magic damage. By holding down the ability key, you detonate the bombs placed manually, immediately. (NO LONGER STICKS, No small circle in radius, Smaller area of damage, NO LONGER STUNS. ONLY TWO BOMBS CAN BE PLACED AT A TIME)

OLD W Zilean can prepare himself for future confrontations, reducing the cooldowns of his other basic abilities. Reduces Zilean's other basic spell cooldowns by 10 seconds.

NEW W Zilean looks into the future and finds his enemies weak spots, empowering Zilean's Projectile Bounce. (Cast W, while blocking with E to make the projectile hit harder.)

OLD E Zilean bends time around any unit, decreasing an enemy's Movement Speed or increasing an ally's Movement Speed for a short time.

NEW E After a short cast animation (delay) Zilean bends time in a cone, reversing enemy projectiles as a skill shot. Deals 50% of the damage. Does not apply effects. (75% with W) *Take Annie's stun for example. With this ability, Zilean can block, and shoot back Annie's fireball. However, Zilean would not be able to block Annie's Tibbers, even if he predicted her instant cast.

OLD ULT Zilean places a protective time rune on an allied champion, teleporting the champion back in time if they take lethal damage.

NEW ULT Zilean slows down time in a large bubble, slowing the tide of battle by 80% for 2 seconds. In this time the following things occur

  1. All animations on both teams are reduced by 80%. This includes Auto-Attacks, Spells and Movement. (Picture slow motion)
  2. Monsters animations are also reduced by 80%.
  3. Zilean selects himself or an ally champion. The selected champion will be able to move freely and cast abilities normally inside the bubble.
  4. If a champion enters the bubble, time will be slow for them as well. If a champion leaves the bubble, they return to normal time.
  5. All spells entering the bubble are slowed by 80% as if they were casted inside. All spells exiting the bubble are then sped up to normal speeds.
  6. Time Bubble originates from Ally champion selected. Not an instant spell. Time begins to distort around champion for 2 seconds then explodes into a massive bubble.

LANING PHASE: (MID) Zilean naturally has high mana costs. Building tear would still be recommended, delaying Zilean's damage in favor of mana pool later in the game. Zilean would use his bombs to clear waves much like he does now, or he could use them to poke. He could also use his bombs to zone his enemy. Mana cost to use two bombs would be the same as live (mana cost of bombs would go up by 20 extra mana). Depending on the enemy laner, you might be get more use out of your projectile bounce. With a cooldown similar to that of Yasuo. You cannot panic "bounce" an enemy's projectile or bounce an enemy projectile if the missile speed is faster than your cast animation. In combination with the projectile bounce, you can empower your bounce to deal a little extra damage, which is great because early game your damage will be very poor. Nothing changed about Zilean's laning phase other than he can't speed himself up or slow enemies without using his ult in a unique fasion. Zilean now has a playmaking ability, which will seperate average Zilean players from the great Zilean players, who start casting at the beginning of their enemies cast animation rather than waiting to see the actual projectile coming at them. Setting up two bombs to explode on an enemy is going to be a challange with the delay between casts. Reliably speaking, one bomb at a time is going to be the way to go when it comes to poking. However, whenever the jungler decides to gank and being lvl 6, you can ult your jungler and form a time bubble around them and they enemy laner. Give you time to set up two bombs, and possibly set up a really good solid projectile bounce for a lot of damage.

(SUPPORT) Support Zilean is already pretty bad. This reworked version of Zilean will be miles better, but should only be played as a support into certain lanes. Zilean is going to be a great counter to Blitz, Thresh, Morgana, Leona and Braum. Being able to block their skill shot, and send back a skill shot, you could hit the enemy ADC instead. You could also time it so enemy ADC and Support both attack you at the time you are bending time, to shoot a more powerful skill shot back. The ADC's Zilean would be good going against are Caitlyn, Varus and Ezreal. Zilean would also benefit pretty much any champion you lane with as it makes their projectile 8% faster. Great tools for zoning and neutralizing enemy spells as well as setting a good 3v2 gank with Zilean's ult. Also a very good disengage tool when top tele's bot, 2v4.

TEAM FIGHTS: Zilean would place his bombs in key locations before taking objectives zoning the enemy team from taking a certain path or risk the damage from bombs. Again being able to block projectiles is important, and predicting when to use the bounce is going to win fights. Like blocking a sejuana ult, or ashe ult. Placing ult on an assassin would give that champion a 2 second window to jump on a carry (assassin still needs good positioning, they enemy team can still attack). Placing an ult on a malphite, while the malphite ults, traps the enemy team in Time bubble while malphite can walk out, giving Zilean time to set bombs and the rest of the time to rep up attacks.

OBJECTIVES: I just thought of this write before I wrapped this. If you ult your Jungler, and he or she jumps into baron pit, the enemy team's smite will be delayed giving your jungler faster smite and a possibly, your team can steal baron//dragon. Zilean could ult Tristana for example, standing at the enemy turret. She get's to attack the turret as fast as normal but if there is no minion wave the turret auto's would hit her less, like 0-1 time/s instead of 3-4 times.

2 Comments

Bootleg Gay10/31/2015, 11:46:47 AM1 votes

This really isn't a good concept. You're extracting the concept of Ekko through the idea of "backwards". To me, Riot and many others, Zilean has a place as a wise old man with knowledge of magic nobody else has. To make his abilities play so reactively makes him seem like another cliche time traveling archetype.

Also, the proposed W is even worse than the current one. Why empower something that depends on whether or not your opponent attacks you? Why not empower something useful, like that bomb he has on live that actually has an effect?

Antonella10/31/2015, 4:58:02 PM1 votes

You're right in a lot of ways. However there's a few things I disagree with. Zilean doesn't have a place at all in the game in his current state. He was unique in the fact he dealt with time, until Ekko was released. You used the word "backwards" however I think you're farther off base with that comment than you think. Current Zilean is all about rewinding time, with his ult and him rewinding his spells to when they were available to use, is all about "backwardness". My proposed Zilean is about manipulating time either by slowing down time in a radius or speeding time up.

My proposed W is bad. I've splept on it and talk to a few people about it. The current W would actually better in my new kit, then the current W is in current Zilean's kit.

Zilean should have a playmaking ability or a "reactive" ability. Out of all the champions in the game, Zilean makes the most sense, by bending time and sending back projectiles. I can't think of a better champion that could utilize this concept.

I wrote this last night with no sleep and was pretty tired. I think I made him sound more complicated than he really is. His new Q is now activated by holding down Q, allowing Zilean to explode his bombs immediately. His W should be the same as it is now. His new E is a blocking mechanic, but can be used offensively to send back an attack in form of a skill shot. His ult is best described like this. Everything inside of the bubble is in slow-motion except for one ally champion for 2 seconds.

Thanks for your comment! I will be going back to the board on this. I would really like to see some of my changes make it to Zilean. It needs to feel Riot quality. This quite an amateur attempt at a concept pitch.