User blog comment:Emptylord/Blogs/Time-themed abilities/@comment-5514182-20131220064303/@comment-1330314-20131222130539

I don't mean that your description isn't concise enough; your description is perfect and clear as can be, it's the ability itself: in-game, delayed damage means that while it's active you can't really figure out how much damage you're really taking, and so can't accurately gauge how exposed you can be before the resulting DoT kills you. It's a similar problem to Poppy's passive, in that there's no immediate or clear feedback on how much damage you're really dealing (or taking). LoL has complex mechanics, but practically all of them are designed with immediate visual feedback in mind: despite its very specific conditional, Last Breath is clear and visible to both Yasuo and his targets.

As for changing Zilean's abilities, I'm absolutely all for reworking him completely, but at the same time I think he has a strongly defined theme in both his look and playstyle, which doesn't include healing as part of it. Xerath's rework changed all of his abilities, but more specifically changed their functionality: his Q can be cast while moving, his E still stuns but is now a skillshot, his ult got moved to his W and his old W got turned into his new ultimate, with his penetration getting moved to his passive. Aside from mana restoration and a slow, Xerath's utility didn't change, and his new abilities are still very similar to his current ones. While I disagree that Riot is trying to shift from soft CC to hard CC, I do agree that they're getting rid of overpowering slows, which is why Skarner's getting his perma-slow removed as well. I'm pretty sure Zilean's own slow will have its duration reduced, but I also doubt he'll be getting abilities that would completely change his playstyle, which would include hard CC.