League of Legends Designers Are "Working on What It's Like Playing Against Zoe"

Riot Games is currently looking examining Zoe once again, this time looking to better understand [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

Riot Games is currently looking examining Zoe once again, this time looking to better understand what it's like to play against the champion.

Since Zoe was released, she quickly surpassed Yasuo, Teemo, and other champions as the most frustrating pick to have to play against. Her kit's structured in a way to make sure the player controlling her has fun while the enemy just wants it to be over, something that's held true regardless of the champion's power highs and lows.

To remedy some of the frustrations felt by Zoe's opponents, Riot's now planning to work on the experience of playing against the powerful mage. Andrei "Riot Meddler" van Roon, the former lead gameplay designer for League who's now moved on to the role of lead designer, said after outlining some of the buffs and nerfs planned for future patches that a Zoe change could be coming in Patch 8.17.

"We're also doing some work on Zoe, which is less about power and more about improving what it's like to play against her," Riot Meddler said. "Not certain exactly which patch that will be in yet, or what the specific changes will be. Could be 8.17, more likely somewhat later though."

Riot Meddler responded to another commenter's question about Zoe to say that Riot's not sure on the details just yet but plans on sharing more info after the areas they want to change are identified.

Zoe also came up elsewhere over the weekend when it was announced that Greg "Riot Ghostcrawler" Street would be moving up to the role of head of creative development within Riot Games. In a Reddit thread discussing the move, Riot Ghostcrawler was asked about Zoe and said that the game's QA lead summed it up well by saying "When I play as her, I have the most fun I've ever had in LoL. When I play against her, I have the least fun I've ever had in LoL."

That being the case, he was then asked why Zoe was even allowed to be released. He responded to say that Riot had several internal discussions about Zoe but ultimately decided that the game would be better with her in it.

"We certainly talked a lot about her. If we had felt that she did more harm than good, then of course we would not have released her. League is a game with high highs and low lows. When you win, it feels great, and when you lose, it can feel pretty terrible. I think that is part of the emotional attachment that we all have with the game, and I fear if the team tried to make champions in which you didn't really feel much at all when they beat you, then their attachment to LoL would erode."

Zoe's changes could be released as soon as Patch 8.17.

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