The 3 SMALL changes Zilean needs to be relevant.

Hello. My name is ioki, I am a hardstuck shitter support streamer. I am most known for my Leona and Zilean play, both of which I feel are deserving of more love and updates to their kits. Over my lifetime and accounts I have well over 1,500 games of Zilean. I also had a Zilean support-only account reach Diamond 1 in Season 6 before I realized that I was garbage and brought it back down to low Diamond.

Today I am here to talk about Zilean and what I feel he needs to be relevant, played more, and have a much nicer-feeling cohesive kit.

Sticky Bombs

Zilean has one form of hard CC. It works as follows: Zilean throws a Q (bomb) and uses his W (Rewind) to revert the cooldown of his Q and use it again. If the Q's hit the SAME TARGET it creates an AoE stun. Sounds great, right?

It's great in concept. A devastating AoE stun, but the downside is that you have to hit two skillshots. More than that, the "standard Zilean combo" is as follows: E (to speed yourself up or slow your opponent down) Q (bomb) W (Rewind) E (to do the opposite of whichever you did first E and secure the second bomb) and finally Q (bomb). So it looks like this: EQWEQ

That's five button presses to land your only form of hard CC. Hey no problem with that right? Not every champ can just have a point and click stun. The issue arises when you do your entire combo, or even just a simple QWQ, and throw the bombs in the same spot and the bombs select different targets. This not only means that most of your damage is not going to land, as the first bomb does not auto-detonate unless two of them hit the same target, but you didn't land your stun. You're then left with NOTHING left but auto attacks to defend yourself with.

And this happens a LOT. What I recommend is that a level of "stickiness" or "target priority" is added to the bombs. The game shouldn't play itself, you still have to aim, but the game should realize you aren't trying to target Jhin and the minion standing on top of Jhin... You're trying to target Jhin with both bombs. It seems wildly inconsistent and random at times, and I"ve lost entire games because the bombs can be finnicky and select different targets.

It's even worse in crowded teamfights -- you'll aim to quickly throw both Q's on that bulky Malphite in the middle of his team and OOPS SORRY ONE OF THEM LANDED ON SCUTTLE CRAB BETTER LUCK NEXT TEAMFIGHT :)

Use of redemption while you're Reviving

Firstly, I want to let it be known that I realize this is intentional. You are not technically dead when you are being Zilean ult'd, you are put into what's known as Stasis. However, Zilean ulting yourself gives you a real feeling of helplessness as you cannot activate items, input commands, or activate Redemption to set yourself up for a healthy chunk with good timing on revive.

What I mean is this: Zilean ults himself then dies, and while he is being resurrected is able to activate Redemption, timing it so that he gets a healthy burst the second he is revived and thus has a higher chance of surviving the hordes of enemies that stacked on his corpse waiting to kill him again. It takes practice and it rewards that practice + timing and doesn't make you feel like a helpless duck. Many other champions have "get out of jail free cards" such as Ryze being able to Zhonya + ult away, or Anivia being able to Teleport as an Egg, but Zilean gets to just... sit out of the game for a few seconds before his inevitable death.

Make him able to Flash out the second he is revived

One of hte most frustrating parts of playing Zilean, especially on patches where she is popular, is playing vs Cait. Cait is able to set trap, or 4 traps if she really feels like, right on and around the spot you are going to resurrect. To my understanding traps are supposed to give Caitlyn leverage in and vs. sieges -- why is there absolutely no counterplay to her putting a trap on my corpse and waiting for me to revive, other than the Korean "don't die"?

These are my opinions what Zilean needs to be considered a more cohesive, fun, and competitive champion. Let me know your thoughts on this.