Zilean Update — Designing a more defined role for The Chronokeeper.
Zilean was a part of the first 40 Champions released in 2009. But as of 2021 when there are more than 155 Champions, how well has he aged?
An Overview
Zilean is considered by many as the most “balanced” champion in League of Legends. The last time he received a major nerf or buff was in Patch 5.21, almost 7 years ago and that was when he received the update to his passive.
Even though he’s one of the older champions, he has a very healthy pick rate at 4.5% according to League of Graphs. But if that’s the case, why should we update him again? That’s a great question. The main reason being, he doesn’t have a well defined role when it comes to supports.
Well Defined Role?
Enchanters are supports that specialize in protecting allies from threats. This is usually through the use of heals and shields. Janna, Lulu and Soraka are some examples of Enchanter Supports.
Next, you have the “Carry Supports”. It sounds like an oxymoron since supports aren’t usually supposed to carry games but champions like Zyra, Swain, Xerath and Brand have found their home in the Support Role. The main role of these supports is to bring another form of damage for the team and they carry by helping win the lane and subsequent teamfights.
Then, you have the Tank Supports. These are usually the champions that engage hard and are very tanky to deal with. They also bring very strong forms of Crowd Control and Target Lockdown. Alistar, Nautilus and Leona are examples of Tank Supports.
Wardens specialize in protecting their team in rather unconventional ways. Braum can block projectiles, the old Tahm Kench can essentially make an ally untargetable and Taric can make his whole team invulnerable for 2.5 Seconds!
There are a few champions that belong to a combination of these 2 classes. For example, Rakan is a “Tank Support” that isn’t as tanky as other Tank Supports but brings heals and shields to the table like an Enchanter.
Bard is an example of a champion that doesn’t belong to any of these classes but he has a very unique playstyle of being able to roam as early as level 3 due to his E, Magical Journey. Unfortunately, I would say that Zilean tries to be an amalgam of the “Carry Support” and “Enchanter Class” but doesn’t do a justice to either roles.
The Problem with Zilean
He brings some very good damage with his Time Bomb [Q] but that is his only damaging ability. Usually, “Carry Supports” have 2 or sometimes even 4 damaging ability but that is due to the fact these champions were designed for the mid lane but are now Supports after the mid lane was overridden with damage, utility or mobility.
He is more of a specialist. He is the only champion in the game that can help bring back an ally on-demand.
He brings a lot of utility in the form of Time in a Bottle [Passive] and Chronoshift [Ultimate] but the main problem being he doesn’t synergize well with any of the Enchanter Support items.
How can we update him?
Adding some sort of heal or shield in his basic ability will be the best way to make him fit more into the Enchanter Role.
Time Bomb [Q]:
Idea 1 — The Simple Solution:
New Effect: If the attached unit is an ally champion, the ally champion gains a shield of 80 / 115 / 150 / 185 / 220 (+ 75% AP) when the bomb explodes. Casting another bomb on an ally champion carrying a bomb will instantly grant them a shield.
This adds more skill expression to his kit as he has to put his Q on allies before they are heavily damaged as it only activates after the bomb explodes (After 3 Seconds) rather than when it was casted. This can be thought of as a reverse Ivern E. It does the damage first, then grants the shield.
Idea 2 — The Complex Solution that fits his kit:
New Effect: If the attached unit is an ally champion, the bomb will store a 10/20/30/40/50 % of damage they receive in 3 seconds. When the bomb explodes, it heals the ally for 30/40/50/60/70% of the amount.
This sounds incredibly broken and that’s because it is. Healing for a % of damage they receive might be too strong in some situations. And since his Q has a very low cooldown and since it can be reduced with rewind, this doesn’t sound healthy for the team playing against it but it most certainly is a creative solution.
Time Warp [E]:
New Effect: Zilean bends time around the target champion, slowing them by 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 99% for 2.5 seconds if they are an enemy or granting them 20 / 27.5 / 35 / 42.5 / 49.5 % movement speed and 10 / 13.75 / 17.5 / 21.25 /24.75% Attack Speed for the same duration if they are an ally or himself.
This will make him a much better support for synergizing with the ADC’s. Granting an ADC 50% Movement speed along with 25% Attack Speed at Max Rank will be an incredible buff.
The Topic about Power Budget
Zilean has an incredibly powerful ultimate, making all teamfights a 6 v 5 rather than the conventional 5 v 5. Because of this, we cannot make his basic abilities and passive too powerful or he will be difficult to balance.
But he only has 2 abilities in retrospect. His Rewind [W] is used to reduce his own cooldowns and cannot be used on allies [Rightfully SO!]. Reducing the damage of his bombs and the AP Ratio can be a good solution as a shield with a 90% AP Ratio will be absolutely broken.
Another issue would be that by the use of his W, he will be able to Shield more often than all other enchanter supports but the counter-argument will be that their shields are on-demand [Shields as soon as it is casted] while Zilean has a 3 Second Time Delay. Zilean players will have to be more careful of when they cast their Q and they will also have to think about if casting the Q on the enemy for a double bomb will be more beneficial in that scenario.
Conclusion
I think this will give Zilean a more defined role as an “Enchanter” support and obviously, his numbers will have to be adjusted after a lot of rigorous testing.
I hope you guys enjoyed this and I’ll be sure to write more update ideas for champions!
