Zilean Rework

"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like banana."

Preface:

Does anybody actually remember the old geezer of League? I do. He had a little time in the spotlight a few months ago with a decent pick rate, but the fad died just like the team he was trying to support. The problems with Zilean are due to an inherent balancing nightmare.

First off he has a global passive with minimal effect, just like Janna's old passive it can be either balanced or noticeable, but not both. Too much of an exp boost and every lane has a wild advantage, too little, or rather, just right, and people start to wonder if Zilean's passive actually exists.

Second, he has all of one single damaging ability. A single damaging ability provides a conundrum with the power curve league is balanced around, if it's base damage / scaling is designed to be relevant late game, it becomes a monster early game, if it's base damage / scaling is designed to be balanced early game, it becomes irrelevant late game. Currently his Time Bomb (Q) rests at an unhappy medium, it is slightly oppressive early game and slightly irrelevant late game, quickly becoming wholly irrelevant if he builds Support instead of AP.

Third and finally, he only has two abilities that scale off a primary stat (AP), and one of those is his ult. This makes him scale most strongly with CDR (Cooldown Reduction) in the vast majority of cases. For a support this would be ideal, but Zilean's only form of CC and utility pre-6 is a slow to an enemy OR speed buff to an ally which has a lengthy cooldown unless he uses his W which in turn has a lengthy cooldown itself, causing him to only be able to cast it twice in a reasonable amount of time during lane. His Ultimate certainly is the premiere skill of his kit and is his strongest selling point, however the price the rest of his kit pays for it is why he's not considered a strong pick.

I hope to address these concerns and provide a concept that would be easier to balance and fun for folks to play while keeping the flavor of everybody's favorite Grandfather... clock.

Skills:

Passive - Paradox

Every 8 spell casts, Zilean's next basic ability (Q, W, E) costs no mana and triggers no cooldown. This is reduced to once every 6 spell casts at the 11th level, and every 4 spell casts at the 16th level.

Q - Time Bomb

Mechanics unchanged, but can now be balanced on a proper curve from early game to late. I did have an idea for visuals however, instead of a mechanical floating bomb that appears out of nowhere, how about a floating blue wispy orb of magic whose explosion shifts to red as it blows outward. If the "orb" is prematurely detonated by a Q-Rewind-Q combo or by recasting Q after a Paradox Q, the orb explodes and begins redshifting, but stops halfway and blueshifts back to a floating blue orb above the target's head. It would give a nice effect of something being manipulated back and forth through time I think.

W - Unstable Chronofield (Range: 600, Mana Cost: 50, Cooldown: 11/10/9/8/7)

Places a field of unstable time magic around a target enemy champion, slowing them by 20% for 3 seconds, if the target takes non-minion damage during this time they are stunned for 0.75 seconds and take an additional 30/50/70/90/110 +(0.3) AP magic damage. This can only occur once per cast, however the stun is cumulative meaning that the target will be stunned for a total of 2.25 seconds if you cast it 3 times in a row, regardless of whether the stun is repopped while the target is already stunned by the ability or not. The slow is simply refreshed upon recast.

E - Time Warp (Range 600, Mana Cost: 80, Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/12)

Hastens the time field around Zilean or an ally champion, increasing their movement speed by 12%/14%/16%/18%/20% and their attack speed by 20%/25%/30%/35%/40% for 3 seconds. The duration is cumulative, potentially granting a total 9 seconds of the buff if cast 3 times.

R - Rewind (4 Ranks, Available @ Level 1 (Mana Cost: None, Cooldown: 18/16/14/12)

Instantly refreshes the cooldown of the last basic ability used (Q/W/E).

Explanation & Strategy:

While I know the loss of Zilean's old ult will hit some folks hard, the cost required to balance it made it difficult to balance his other abilities. With this, he is now a combo focused champion like the rest of his kit wanted to be. His playstyle is now focused around deciding what order of abilities to use for the given situation. During lane, he can use W-Q-R-Q to for impressive burst damage and a brief stun. For escaping a gank he can cast E-R-E with the second E on himself or his ally to assure they both can reach safety in time. For killing the enemy laner, a W-AutoAttack-R-W combo can prime them to be stunned and killed by your ally after you buff them with E and use Q on the enemy to help with damage. With his passive the combos can be even longer and more intricate. W-Q-R-pQ-Q (pQ is Paradox Q), is Zilean's bustiest combo while W-R-pQ-Q-W provides the same kill securing potential as W-AutoAttack-R-W in addition to providing moderate damage, and replacing the pQ with a pW provides the maximum amount of stun provided you or your ally is actively attacking your target. The above combos can also be used effectively later in teamfights, however another option is simply using E-R-pE-E as it gives your ally an impressively long lasting buff for about the whole teamfight.

In a nutshell, Zilean is now hip with the times AND groovy. Let me know what you all think down in the comments below, I hope this gets some visibility as I put a lot of effort into it.

And @Zileas if you ever see this, I hope you like it. May you forever stand strong against your Armored Bear nemesis.