Riot Has Actually Buffed League's Most Hated Champion, Zoe

Patch 8.21 has just hit the rift and has brought with it some changes that quite a number of League of Legends players will most likely not be happy with. Zoe, the champion that everybody loves to hate is receiving a few buffs to put her back into the spotlight after her recent nerfs finally made her okay to deal with.

Most players were kind of happy that Zoe wasn’t seen much in-game as it’s quite a frustrating champion to play against. She can nuke you from a screen away and can constantly throw out Sleep Trouble Bubbles that can completely turn a game around if you don’t dodge within a millisecond. Not only that, if she actually misses her sleepy bubble it will create a zone on the ground which will still put players to sleep if they step on it. This means that Zoe’s E is very forgiving despite being a skillshot that can change a game around.

According to Riot, Zoe’s nerfs hit her a little too hard and they want to bring her back on the rift. The nerfs they gave her were in order to punish her when not landing skillshots so in order to stick with that philosophy they are buffing her skillshots. In theory, this is to reward players that land her skillshots whereas players that won’t be able to profit of the buffs that she has received. However, the buffs that she has received don’t really follow that principle.

Q – Paddle Star
BASE DAMAGE50/75/100/125/150 ⇒ 50/80/110/140/170

This change is obviously a good one to make Zoe stronger. People that land skillshots are rewarded with extra power so there’s really not much to say about it. I doubt most players will be happy with the change but it’s a fair change that works with the philosophy of rewarding skill players.

E – Sleepy Trouble Bubble
COOLDOWN16/15.5/15/14.5/14 seconds ⇒ 16/15/14/13/12 seconds

The change to her E, however, is the problem of her newfound buffs. Riot has decided to decrease the cooldown of her E which means that people who land skillshots will be able to land more. However, it also means that people who don’t land the Sleepy Trouble Bubble are given more leeway as the cooldown is a lot shorter now even though the skillshot was already very forgiving to players who missed it. Now players that are not as good on Zoe will still be able to land her bubble cause if you just keep throwing them out you will land one at some point.

I don’t think that these buffs are strong enough to make her a 100% pick or ban champion again, considering that Zoe will most likely still be overshadowed by other problematic champions currently in the game, such as Irelia or Akali. However, waking up to see that Zoe has been buffed is far from a pleasant surprise either.