Talk:Zoe/@comment-32156284-20171112041251/@comment-7709681-20171112055426

The right comparison is none of those, she's more akin to the old Nidalee spear in behavior: A thin, spammable, low cost, high reach projectile that would nuke you from afar because of damage increase based on distance travelled, the difference between now and then is that originally had no damage increase cap.

The rest of the kit is just more damage increases for Q with some utility to be somehow relevant, with W being the other relevant part of the kit. And all of those other comparisons you brought up still have other things to do beside damage and spamming a single button.

Being "new and different" is precisely the only reason why she's picked right now, as it does with all new champions and reworks, only time will tell us if she becomes an experience worth picking, but as with most CertaintlyT designs, only those who play her will favor her, the rest will hate her just because going against her is an frustrating and sometimes unfun experience, and joy comes out of relieving that frustration when you finally stomp her.
 * 1) That's not a burst mage weakens, that's an artilery mage's one. Body blocking is a traditional and functional form of countering, but sounds fair that is the only form of countering against her, other than positioning and attention to her audio/visual queues? Because unlike other burst or artillery mages she can bypass two of the three counter-measures simply because of vision, and is encouraged to do so, much like the old Nidalee: If she is in sightless area with a target in sight and range, the only thing that protects the target from her is her ineptitude.
 * 2) Damage across her kit is not the problem, is her skill expression. All those instances of damage are designed solenly to empower Q with some utility to ease targeting, else they don't pack that much punch, and you cannot count W into the equation unless in melee range of her and burns one of her own summoner spells and W is one of the Hextech item actives, because the rest either doesn't scale, scale but per level, or scale with a stat that she doesn't use.
 * 3) She has no mobility unless W is Flash, Protobelt or any MS boost is available, as R is just for repositioning, and a gimmicky one. Sure, works much like the rest of the kit to empower Q, and used well can help you avoid danger if well timed (which rarely happens), but most of the time you can confuse yourself much like a LeBlanc does, however she can control when to return, Zoe does not. Also arguing that knowing what she picks as a counter measure doesn't help much.
 * 4) Being squishy isn't a valid point when is intrisec to the role, her character weaknesses are the problem: Missing Q turns her harmless, W is too unpredictable to rely on and is down most of the time, and Innate and R are useless by their own. Other than sleeping a single enemy and getting lucky to get an active on W that affects allies, she only offers damage to her team.

And her design is irking not because she one-shots as a potential but as a gimmick: Other champions in the game do so because they reached a point of advantage in a match, but Zoe? from the very start of the game does so, as she depends of it to be relevant, else sits idle until Q becomes available again, and as of the nature of her kit as unit targeted, sucks at organized teamfights and can be countered by simply being body-blocked by a tank.

She isn't bad gameplay-wise, but design-wise: Numbers are right, and when they are not are gated fairly, the kit is simple with satistying mechanics and enough (non-player) interactions to keep her fresh and entertaining, but is a designs that only works to satisfy her user with the "100-to-0 or nothing" concept and seeing enemies' health chunk away, as her allies have little to do with her and enemies to do to play around or against her.