League Of Legends ’ newest champion Zoe is an interdimensional flopping pixie who really doesn’t fit into the game’s lore. On top of that, she’s a nuisance to deal with in-game, so much so that many players feel Zoe might be overpowered. Faker, the mid laner for the (second) best League team SK Telecom, told INVEN Global: “It might be because we're still in the preseason, but she seems pretty unbalanced right now.” If a pro player, and not just your Bronze teammate playing Xerath, claims Zoe might be busted, then there could be a serious problem here.
Zoe is a mage with high mobility, sustain, burst and poke damage. She’s the first champion to use a new form of crowd control, Sleep, that completely immobilizes a target until it takes damage. She can throw a fairly husky bubble at the field that causes anyone that touches it to pass into a deep slumber. It’s an amazingly powerful ability, one that completely dunks on any champion without a dash or Flash up. Combined with Paddle Star, her Q ability, she can deal insane damage to enemies that literally can’t fight back. It works a lot like Nidalee’s spear, getting stronger the farther distance it travels. One of cougar lady’s biggest weaknesses is her lack of CC, which makes Zoe an even more frustrating incarnation of the “get touched by an ability and you die.”
In my (many) games this Preseason on Annie, I’ve dreaded going up against an enemy Zoe. If that snooze bubble touched my precious angel, I said goodbye to half of my health bar. There’s literally nothing you can do besides take that damage or use Cleanse. Minions do block Paddle Star, but since Zoe can maneuver the ability like a tiny race car, it’s easy to find just the right angle to slap you with hundreds of damage. On top of all of that, her abilities cost very little mana and allows her to spam them over and over without losing out on creeps or wave clear. Once she hits six and gets her ultimate Portal Jump, your lane is pretty over. Unless you can stun Zoe while she’s bouncing towards you, she’s going to get a free poke and force you to leave lane.
We haven’t even touched on Zoe’s ability to pick up random Summoner Spells and items, which gives her even more of everything. In my last game against Zoe, she got two free Redemption active heals off of dead minions, which is just rage inducing.
I am just a Gold scrub, so looking at the data gives us a much clearer picture of Zoe’s predicament. With a 48 percent win rate in the mid lane and 43 percent on support at Platinum rank, according to Champion.GG, Zoe might not seem like that big of a menace on paper. But, if you take into account that it’s the Preseason before ranked play, when players tend to take the game less seriously, the numbers do seem pretty absurd. Most champions at release tend to suffer from lower win rates because nobody really knows how to play them yet. It took months and dozens of buffs before Ivern became one of the most dominant junglers in Season 7. Ornn, the champion released prior to Zoe, is only starting to see some play after he received significant buffs multiple patches in a row.
In Patch 7.24, Zoe is getting a nerf to her sleepy time and Paddle damage, so hopefully this will keep her from spiraling completely out of control.
