||Zilean, the Chronokeeper: Rework Ideas||
Currently, Zilean is not in the healthiest place. Him gameplay is rather unreliable and he only serves two purposes: poking early, and ulting late.
My WORK-IN-PROGRESS rework is intended to fix this and create interesting and balanced gameplay for him throughout the game. That being said, all suggestions will be considered and opinions are always appreciated. I will definitely need help with units and stuff because this is my first champion editing attempt!
All abilities aimed at not only his time wizard theme, but also his interesting physical appearance. This is written with the hope that if Riot were to alter his model in any way, he would maintain the same general appearance.
All original abilities will be written as well to give reasoning behind any changes.
Zilean, the Chronokeeper
Old Passive: Heightened Learning Increases experience gain of all allied champions by 8%. This bonus is unavailable while Zilean is dead.
This passive offered no real involvement in gameplay. With another global ability like Janna’s, Riot bound it to a certain range to only effect surrounding champions, forcing her to consider positioning when wanting to speed others. Zilean’s passive does not involve this. His new passive had to be something more… time-y as well. Being a time wizard, in my opinion, would not be related to being extremely intelligent as much as it would be to being extremely wise.
New Passive: Heightened Prediction Zilean has experienced so much conflict that he is able to predict the movement of enemy champions. Zilean and his allies are granted vision of an enemy champion within xx units who leaves Zilean’s vision for 1 second.
While it may seem silly not to just extend his vision range, this allows vision into brushes for the first second or two. This is especially useful during lane phase when the enemy support may enter the bush in order to go aggressive or give extended vision of a jungler after the split second travelling between bushes.
Zilean’s Q: Time Bomb --NO CHANGE—
Zilean’s Old W: Rewind Cost: 50 Mana Range: Self Cooldown: 18/15/12/9/6 Zilean can prepare himself for future confrontations, reducing the cooldowns of all of his other abilities. Reduces all of Zilean's other spell cooldowns by 10 seconds.
While this ability allows a lot of spamming, it does not truly serve one’s team.
Zilean’s New W: Gear Shift Cost: 20 Mana Range: Self Cooldown: 2/2/2/2/2 Zilean shifts the gears in his clock to one of 3 modes to cause his Time Warp to change function.
This ability is meant to alter his old speed buff to do new things. It’ll make him more useful as a team player and will involve much more decision making than just “who do I ult”. It also removes the insanely stupid short cooldown on his ult just by spamming this button.
Zilean’s Old E: Time Warp Cost: 80 Mana Range: 700 Cooldown: 20/20/20/20/20 Zilean bends time around any unit, decreasing an enemy's Movement Speed or increasing an ally's Movement Speed for a short time. Zilean increases an allied champion's Movement Speed, or slows an enemy champion, by 55% for 2.5/3.25/4/4.75/5.5 seconds.
This ability just… didn’t feel good. It was boring and served no purpose in teamfights aside from helping a carry kite. Now, it’ll serve tons of purposes.
Zilean’s New E: Time Shift Cost: 50 Mana Range: 700 Cooldown: 11/10/9/8/7 Mode 1 (Time Shift: Augment Movement): Zilean increases an allied champion’s Movement Speed, or slows an enemy champion, by 50% for 2/2.75/3.5/4.25/5 seconds. Mode 2 (Time Shift: Augment Ability): Zilean augments an allied champion’s time-based abilities for 3 seconds. Any damaging ability used by the allied champion is now fulfilled within half the time but with the full effect. [[For example: Zilean’s Time Bomb will detonate in 2 seconds, not 4, and deal the full amount of damage. Malzahar’s Malefic Visions will resolve in 2 seconds, not 4, and deal the full amount of damage. Each proc of damage will occur every .25 seconds instead of .5. If the single instance of Malefic Visions lasts past the 2 seconds due to a unit dying while effected, it will continue to resolve at the original rate. Red buff would not be effected because it is not an ability.]] Mode 3 (Time Shift: Augment Cooldown): Zilean reduces the cooldowns of an allied champion’s abilities by 2/3/4/5/6 seconds. This ability can be used to increase the cooldowns of an enemy champion by 2/3/4/5/6 seconds. This ability can only be used on the same champion once every 20 seconds. [[Using the ability applies a debuff similar to Nautilus passive. I don’t feel the numbers are quite balanced but I like the concept a lot.]]
Now, this ability serves many purposes. It also allows for more skillful play. It really touches on the various aspects of controlling time. Much of this could use tweaking.
Zilean’s Old R: Chrono Shift Cost: 125/150/175 Mana Range: 900 Cooldown: 180 Zilean places a protective time rune on an allied champion, teleporting the champion back in time if they take lethal damage. Zilean marks himself or an allied champion with a protective time rune for 7 seconds. If the target would take lethal damage, they are instead transported back in time, regaining 600/850/1100 (+200% Ability Power) Health.
This ability is strong but offers no decision making aside from choosing who to use it on. This is meant to make it easier to use, but also balance it.
Zilean’s New R: Chronoshift Cost: 125/150/175 Mana Range: 900 Cooldown: 110/100/90 Zilean places a protective time run on an allied champion, teleporting the champion back in time to the time it was cast if they take lethal damage. Zilean marks himself or an allied champion with a protective time rune for 6/7/8 seconds. If the target would take lethal damage, they are instead teleported back in time, returning to the health and mana they were at when they were targeted by Chronoshift and returning their cooldowns to what they were at the cast time.
This is really the cherry on top in my opinion. It’s not just a random heal anymore. This literally rewinds the champion. It puts the individual back at the same health and cooldowns as before.
Overall, I feel these changes would make him much more fun and strong. Many of them are unbalanced and I need everyone’s help to fix them! I know it’s not really a possibility or anything but, in my opinion, it would be cool to see this become a well-rounded kit.
Help, community! Let's make it work!
Side-note: I would really like to think of something to replace Time Bomb or give it some meaning aside from damage. Not really sure how. Maybe damaging structures as well?
