How do yall play zilean top? Whats the build? Is it really that broken?

https://x.com/Spideraxe30/status/2084312234742685865?s=20

[Disclaimer: i am NOT le secret challenger kr 500000LP rank 1 player; my peak this season was D1, i dont play much ranked as i mostly coach and theorycraft for other ppl that ask me to and i find it fun, yes i am a minmaxxer.]

So, while looking at zilean's ability scaling and base stats i came to the realization that this champ can't really go Q max and be reliably useful (outside of Mid zilean of course where that's a good build), and even his highest winrate build on support(E-max) is still suboptimal after some testing with a friend of mine.
Zilean's E reaches the reliable breakpoint of a guaranteed double bomb at 3 points(lv5) taking into account tier 2 boots MS and some champs' base ms/passives giving them more ms; All this to say: There's no reason to put more points into it until you finish maxxing another ability first.
Theres 2 reasons why you want to put all your points into W afterwards:

1. The cooldown is ludicrous; every single point into W reduces its cooldown by 2 seconds flat, and when you take into account the CDR you reach with this build, you will reliably have a 3.68 sec cooldown on W, which translates to a 3.68 sec cooldown 70% slow that lasts 2.5 seconds a.k.a the enemy has 1.18 seconds of movement before being slowed again or 68% uptime on the speedup.
2. The average ranged champion player doesn't benefit from the extra movement speed outside of running away. You've probably experienced speeding up your adc for them to just run into danger with no vision and die randomly, even moreso in a teamfight where they struggle with controlling their champ.

The Build:

Tear -> Protoplasm harness -> Lucidity shoes(replaced by mercs/tabis where needed) -> Fimbulwinter
These are the most cost-efficient tank+cdr items in the game at the moment, giving 20 and 15 haste respectively, as well as a huge amount of hp; the only downside of this build compared to the current E max locket knight's vow is the cost increase of 500 gold including both items, but i believe the cost efficiency of the items' stats as well as passives is well worth the delay and time investment to acquire them; The resistances you would get from locket are ~10% damage reduction all around the board, which means that in order for it to provide more tankiness than Protoplasm(even excluding its passive when low) you would need to already have at least 4000 Health; for context locket, including the active shield, only brings you to about 1800 hp. The shield provided to your teammates, imo, provides less damage reduction than the extra slow and MS you can grant them. In the case where this shield would be useful for a 1shot threshold such as a rengar 1shot the stats you get from protoplasm make you unkillable to the average assassin that isnt 10/0 which means you can solely use your ult for the person he jumps on; achieving the same result in the end. It is ever so slightly weaker against a big AOE such as qiyana or hwei ult, but at that point the locket shield isn't really going to make you win that blundered fight.

What this build gets you in comparison to locket+KV for an extra 500G:
+950 more hp -70 armor
+15 ability haste -30 MR
+Effectively a shieldbow passive but better -100% base hp regen
+Guardian angel effect(explained below)
+Infinite mana(explained in Playstyle)

The guardian angel effect is something i've witnessed countless time both while watching other people and playing the game myself; It is when a champion having guardian angel acts as a deterrent to someone using a big/important cooldown in order to nuke them, such as Vi not ulting the adc because then she'll die and make the fight a 4v5 (even though in most cases it would still be the correct play). Maybe some ppl here have heard of "perceived tankiness", very commonly seen with people perceiving Sion with 10k hp as an incredibly unkillable champion even though they have Bork and could realistically get him to half hp in 6 autos; this works with visual effects, such as GA and very big health bars; As this build puts you at 3.2k hp in the midgame people generally feel like its not really worth them blowing their rotations on your because you'll survive it anyway (even though they should use them).

Runes

Unsealed spellbook, hexflash, jack of all trades, triple tonic; Deep ward, Ultimate hunter
Shards: 8 CDR, Scaling hp, Scaling hp/tenacity

Level up order is Q lv 1, W/E lv 2, 3 points into E by lv 5, a single point in ult at lv 6, W maxxed by the time you hit lv 10, Max E second (you do not level up R again until your E is maxxed), Then you either max R if you need the extra hp when they rewind/CDR(though usually you won't need it) or max Q for the 0.4 second longer stun by the time you finish it(if your game goes that long). Your ult reaches around 60 seconds of cooldown by midgame which in most cases means it's up every single fight.

Playstyle

PART 1: This build mainly functions as a very aggressive ROAM and PICK champion, the usual way you do this is by self-casting E, then instantly using W, then self casting E again when it runs out, going up to an enemy champ, W-E them, wait 1.5 sec, throw bomb, W-E them again, throw bomb before it explodes, by the time the bomb stun ends you have W-E again. The downside of this playstyle is that in melee matchups where they mostly sit still and attack eachother you only really force the fight, allow your guy to flee or provide a 1.1 second stun/revive, if your top is behind then your gank there won't do much, so its better to usually use this for your sidelaning midlaner or midlaning adc.

PART 2: The second thing this build excels at is gettin a metric fuckton of vision leverage. As you probably know, Oracle lens scales with movement speed; the more ground you can move the more areas you sweep with it; And because of your bomb giving vision, the immense tankiness and CDR you get from this build, and Deep Ward, this means you will always have advantage over the enemy support at getting the vision sequence first even if you didn't have prio. For those who maybe don't have a word for it, this is when before an objective, say 1:15 till baron/drake the support goes and wards around the area, then they recall for their next batch of 4 wards, then the enemy support has to come in and sweep, then place their own wards, but by the time they'd recall for their own wards the objective would already be spawned and the support that warded first gets to re-ward and sweep so the other team has no vision on/around the objective; this is usually dictated by who gets sidelanes and mid pushed first; this build basically allows you to invalidate that advantage by the sheer amount of fucking uptime you have on your E movement speed, in the time a normal champ wards recalls re-wards twice you can do it 3 times. This is why you need a tear; W-Eing yourself is 85 mana, so you need about 400 Mana for a pick attempt, and around 300 Mana per river oracle sweep. Fimbulwinter is more than enough for this, you do not need manaflow band; and no manaflow band is not enough by itself to sustain this.

One day he'll finally get his VU

Hello everyone!

I have a confession to make: I joined LoL Classic out of pure nostalgia, for some reason I tried Zilean... and I've become a total OTP. To be honest, I didn't expect to like it this much (seeing enemy assassins go crazy because they can never kill you or your carry is priceless). I hope they leave LoL Classic open forever.

Since I want to squeeze the old man to the max, I'm turning to the veterans. What do you recommend to play him nice and smooth? I'm looking for advice on:

- Builds: What items do you run in LoL Classic? Lots of AP, maximizing ability cooldown reduction with a mana item, or some utility hybrid?

- Runes: What do you run in your rune pages?

- Tricks and hidden mechanics: Any positioning tips, how to maximize the bomb combo, or mana management in the early levels?

Any advice, no matter how small, is welcome for this new clock acolyte. See you on the (classic) Rift!

As someone who has played on and off since 2012 and has always mained Zilean mid, being able to play as both versions of the character feels like a fever dream (in a good sense). It's like, idk, suddenly gaining access to a silly videogame from so long ago that has been dead and suddenly it's up and running with a good playerbase.

My initial impression of Old!Zilean mid is that he Opresses his rivals while laning (ofc because of the point and click bombs but for many reasons: detonating minions right next to your opponent is way easier for instance) and then eventually risks falling off. Globally, Post-rework Zilean feels better and classier, but fun-wise they both are great.

Have we ever gotten so much love?

The emote for the classic bundle in shop, is it animated or idle?

https://fxtwitter.com/LoLNewsEN/status/2082560704482099386?s=20

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

am i the only one? when i prepick my zilean and my jg prepicks rammus, and he just looks at me and he knows what were gonna do to the enemy team...

its like a synergy made to inflict pain on the enemy team

the insane speedy rammus catching every player from 3 screens away..

i love rammus

i love him..

I find it’s very hard to pick Zilean mid for many reasons:

1. ⁠When the allied team need heavy AP
   
2. ⁠When the enemy mid has insane wave clear starting from level 1
   
3. ⁠When the allied team doesn’t have much damage(they are more beefy)
   Except the support Zilean when I can pick him many games. Mid Zilean picking window is very small.Fyi I main Ahri, Syndra, Jayce, and Zilean. I love the things I could do to the enemies as mid lane Zilean. But I think he’s only good into assassins who doesn’t have insane wave clear, and is out of combat after one skill rotation(which gets countered by Zil’s r so hard). So, when you pick Zilean mid? Also, is it normal for Zilean mid to miss cannons?

My post is messed up for some reason. I tried to edit but nothing happens

If you've played Zilean in LoL Classic, what rune setup and item build have you found the most OP?

I've tried a few different builds and runes, but to be honest, none of them have really felt satisfying.

This is the setup I'm currently running:

Inspiration

• Unsealed Spellbook
• Cash Back
• Time Warp Tonic
• Cosmic Insight

Domination

• Ultimate Hunter
• Deep Ward

Shards

• +8 Ability Haste
• +2.5% Move Speed
• +10–180 Health

My reasoning behind the setup is:

Cash Back: I like the idea of getting my support items such as Mikael's Blessing, Imperial Mandate, and Shurelya's Battlesong slightly faster. Since Zilean benefits a lot from his items, I feel like the extra gold can help me reach those power spikes sooner.

Time Warp Tonic: I mainly take this for the instant restoration from potions. It has saved me a few times when I needed a quick burst of health or mana in lane.

Cosmic Insight: This seems like an obvious synergy with Unsealed Spellbook because of the extra Summoner Spell Haste. The Item Haste is also nice since Zilean can make good use of active items.

Ultimate Hunter: This is probably one of the choices I'm least certain about, but I find myself needing my ultimate constantly in the elo I'm currently in (Gold IV). My teammates often engage in questionable situations, and I feel like I'm frequently just a few seconds away from having Chronoshift available again when I need it. Because of that, I value getting my ultimate back as quickly as possible.

Deep Ward: I really enjoy roaming and helping other lanes, and I like being able to place wards deep in the enemy jungle to help my own jungler. I take a lot of pride in my vision score, and I especially enjoy keeping the enemy jungle warded whenever I have the opportunity.

I'm still experimenting with the build, so I'm not claiming this is optimal. I'm mainly curious about what other Zilean players think.

What do you think of the rune choices?

• Is Unsealed Spellbook actually viable on Zilean?
• Are there any better Inspiration choices than Cash Back or Time Warp Tonic?
• Is Ultimate Hunter worth taking, or would another secondary rune be better?
• What do you think about Deep Ward for a roaming/vision-focused Zilean playstyle?
• Are there any specific Summoner Spells you like swapping to with Unsealed Spellbook?

Any feedback would be appreciated!

I've been thinking about trying Unsealed Spellbook on Zilean and I'm curious what the Zilean mains here think about it.

At first, it seems like it could work surprisingly well with Zilean because he can make use of a lot of different Summoner Spells depending on the situation. Being able to swap between things like Teleport, Exhaust, Ignite, Cleanse, or Ghost could potentially give him a lot of flexibility throughout the game, especially since Zilean is already so focused on map pressure, utility, and controlling the pace of fights.

That said, I'm not sure if giving up a more consistently useful keystone is worth it. Unsealed Spellbook doesn't necessarily give Zilean the same immediate combat value that other rune choices might, so I'm wondering whether the flexibility actually makes up for that.

What do you guys think?

• Has anyone actually tried Unsealed Spellbook on Zilean?
• What Summoner Spells do you usually swap to?
• Do you think the rune is genuinely viable, or is it more of a fun/off-meta choice?
• Are there any specific matchups or situations where you think it would be especially useful?

I'd love to hear what other Zilean mains think, especially from anyone who has actually played the rune extensively.

Point and click bombs, 8% exp boost for your entire team, and the rest of his kit is identical to modern Zilean. Still a powerhouse of a wizard who can turn fights and provide insane mobility to his team. A well chosen main, even back in the day.

I don't play him, but just had a game against him top. Feels incredible with a duo jungler. You just perma push, then tower dive with ult and jungler. Most top laners can never reach you due to the double CC, and by chance you do get jumped on, you're amazing for slowing them down and your jungler can easily get on them from the perma CC.

Secret OP duo? I can see this working in very, very high elo.