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Hello and welcome to another episode of Game Design. This is the series on my channel that takes
a look at games and breaks down the possible reasons for the developer's choices. I also
like to throw in some of my thoughts on them along the way.
Today's episode is on the recently announce League of Legends champion, Zoe the Aspect
of Twilgiht. This adorable little *** machine introduces a very powerful mechanic that rather
understandably has many shaking their head in disbelief, but we're getting ahead of
ourselves.
Before jumping into the gameplay, let's talk about the character and how she fits
into Riot Games's universe. Please forgive me if I make a mistake, League Lore is a complicated
beast of retcons and reworks scattered across spiderwebs of sources. God I miss the Journal
of Justice. ANYWAY, as Zoe's title suggests, she's an "Aspect" which is an mortal
possessed by a Targonian. Targonians are an advanced civilisation of demigods that tricked
Aurelion Sol into being a slave, they do not directly walk on Runeterra (League's primary
setting) since it's much safer for them to remote control a mortal's body (Like
an Airforce drone pilot not having to worry about death if the vessel is shot down). In
fact Pantheon was female at least once, well before she accidently ordered the sassy dragon
to drop nuke where she was standing. Ahh never change Pantheon, never change... This notion
of aspects raises some awkward questions since it would imply that Zoe stole the body of
the child. Since we don't have her full story yet, I suspect that she is the first
Targonian we've seen not piloting a mortal body. It also makes sense, she's an appointed
messenger for her people and her eccentric nature strongly suggests they gave her that
task to simply get them out of their hair which is why there doesn't seem to be any
repercussions for shirking her duties.
This theory is also supported by her visual design, none of the other aspects have her
rubber-like body or are kitted out with gear that looks to be gather from multiple realities
(Floating star necklace, jewelry from a Star Guardian... and the key to unlocking Riot's
SECOND game). The possessed aspects are mostly normal bar their glowing-eyes-of-power. Every
champion in recent times has recent a unique trait to help differentiate themselves. Tristana
always has an earring on one ear, Warwick always has-whatever-the-hell that thing on
his back is. It seems the key element of Zoe's design is her glowing-hair-of-power.
Let's do a rundown of her kit, we're gonna focus on the high-level design because doing
a low-level breakdown is super niche and I can already feel the viewer dropoff statistics
plummeting. Zoe's passive is very similar to a Sheen proc. Cast a spell? Great, now
quickly go hit something to do some extra magic damage. This is already a clue that
she's going to have a very spammy-ability based kit, but it's not enough for a proper
analysis... so ONWARD TO THE Q!
Paddle Star, is a multifunction ability... what you thought a League champ in 2017 would
have a simple kit? This isn't Alistar we're dealing with! Oh no, this demon child can
spit a projectile at you that pops on first target hit and splashes some aoe burst damage
to boot. Kinda like a space-lugie, hmm thematic? Anyway, what makes this ability devilish is
that it can be recast mid flight to fly off at a new angle... and does extra damage based
on distance of the last straight line.This is the part where Nidalee main's everywhere
go into cat form and howl at the stars. This ability is a simple farm/harass tool, with
optional high burst potential from throwing it behind her to wind up and fling into the
target, yo-yo style. Something I'm keen to test out is if her passive can be proc't
twice by attacking before redirecting and afterwards. If so, oh boy she might even be
able to cheer up Faker.
So we get to the wonderful W that is in no way going to be a killer headache for the
balance teams to deal with... /s. Spell Thief is a unique mechanic that breaks the core-gameplay
of League (I'm actually saving this topic about Dev-trap mechanics for a Shadowverse
video). But essentially when enemies use Summoner Spells or Item activates near Zoe they drop
orbs that she can pickup to use herself. An enemy flashed? Great, Zoe's W is now flash.
Was that a redemption? WHY THANK YOU! Surely you can imagine the crazy potential this ability
has. Now for the design choice, gamers have a conditioned habit to hang onto good loot.
To discourage players from storing the most powerful orbs Riot entices us to use them
rapidly by providing bonus movespeed and autoattack missiles that spawn on cast. Oh this is the
part where the Ahri mains (and her W) can now join the Nidalee players. The discouragement
of spell hoarding is further enforced by her basic passive. It's good to see Riot has
also considered that enemies will try to stagnate the game by not using activates, thus minions
also drop orbs so Zoe players won't be completely starved out of the fun.
Hmm, halfway through and already we have a hyperactive spell spammer that puts Ziggs
and Syndra to shame. What's missing? Ahh yes, some CC! Zoe's E, Sleepy Trouble Bubble
(actual name), is a skillshot ball that curses the first target hit. After a brief delay
the target will fall asleep and takes extra damage from the next spell or attack that
hits them. If the ball misses, it transforms into a AOE trap that has the same effect if
an enemy moves onto it. (breath) AND It gets extra range if cast over a wall. Oh boy, again
a spell that increases the next attack damage is practically demanding the player to walk
up and rudely awaken the sleeping target. Zoe's base passive gets to hit extra
hard making this a devastating combo tool for trading. Thankfully the victim gets
a few desperate moments to move away before the sleep takes effect. Of course, if they
use flash, Zoe still gets an orb to catch up. I suspect high mobility champions like
Zed will have an easier time trading against her. So far this kit is setting up Zoe to
be a great midlaner and support. The extra range from casting over a wall is clearly
there to encourage roaming.
And now for the most anticlimactic Ultimate Ability is league history. Zoe's R, Portal
Jump, teleports her a short distance for a brief moment and then back to her original
cast position. The first question I had to ask is: will CC break this movement chain.
The responses I got was no, the CC will be carried with Zoe back to her original position.
Okay, second question, why such an anticlimactic ultimate? The answer is the rest of the kit.
Every piece of her kit so deals additional damage or increases her damage output. A damage
based ultimate is not only stale thematically, but would turn this champion into a perma-banned
to super-nerfed future. A utility focused ultimate makes sense. Her ultimate allows
her to dodge enemy skillshots, safely grab key orbs in dangerous locations and can be
combined with the others spells for increased damage. Winding up her Q to travel even further,
and her E can become a 100% success hit by portaling to point blank range. Mechanically
skilled players can use that sheen-like passive to deliver shocking amounts of burst before
returning to safety. Overall, it can be used very creatively, especially if the cooldown
is fairly low by default.
So what are my thoughts on Zoe? I think her kit will be fun to use for a large majority
of players, even if they only play her sub-optimally. She's definitely going to be devastating
in the hands of a pro. I don't have the numbers on her gates (designer speak for levers
used to tweak balance), but I suspect mana regen is going to be a contesting point for
her. Denying her blue buff will be of great importance when playing against her, her kit
is built on mass spell casting, so forcing her to build mana generation at the expense
of AP will lower her oppressive lane. Also I suspect that dealing with large minions
waves will also be a challenge for her since she's only has a very small amount of AoE.
Zed, Morgana and Karma will be her natural predators with their kits being well suited
to deal with this prankster's tricks. Another important danger is Zoe's ult will return
her to the same location, in teamfights everyone will know where she is going to return to
and can preemptively attack that location.
Final thoughts, she's looking strong and I cannot wait to watch her being used to her
full potential in the pro-scene. I hope this video was entertaining and informative, leave
me a comment about what you think! Your participation really helps YoutubeAlgorithm senpai to notice
me!
This video would not be possible without the patronage of BloodPheonix and SlinkMaLinks.
That's all for today, see ya soon!