User blog comment:JuneReil123/RIOT PLEASE! BRING BACK SUPPORT ZILEAN!/@comment-5556439-20130528095921

Zilean isnt trash, hes just not usable in most scenarios. Zilean plays mid the EXACT same way Shen plays top (excluding Shens R).

He works as what is essentially a push deterrent. Hes not their to snowball the lane and push it into the dirt, hes there to hold it, and never die. Becoming more usefull as the game goes on is just a added bonus to never losing your lane.

Chronomancers are extremely bad concepts for the MOBA genre in my mind since they cant directly affect enemies, only allies. The most they could do with him is give him something like

"Stasis: Disable a target/ally for 1.75 seconds (monsters included, yes even drag/baron) granting them invulnerability for a short duration but disallowing any action."

Even this is pretty damn strong. Time themed characters all share the common element of the ability to indirectly affect their worlds, but this attribute is virtually useless in a MOBA since the only things you wanna be able to do are DIRECT actions. Im not saying a time themed champion is bad, but it would have to be done *in a special way* to be truly viable. This only stays necessary if your wanting to COMPLETELY hold onto the champions theme though so Riot could deviate a little to fix him.