Time In A Bottle
Zilean stores time as Experience and can grant it to his allies. When he has enough Experience to finish an ally's level up, he can right-click them to impart it. Zilean receives as much Experience as he gives.
Lore
Once a powerful Icathian mage, Zilean became obsessed with the passage of time after witnessing his homeland's destruction by the Void. Unable to spare even a minute to grieve the catastrophic loss, he called upon ancient temporal magic to divine all possible outcomes. Having become functionally immortal, Zilean now drifts through the past, present, and future, bending and warping the flow of time around him, always searching for that elusive moment that will turn back the clock and undo Icathia's destruction.
Abilities
Time Bomb
Tosses a bomb to target area that sticks to units that come near it (prioritizes Champions). It detonates after 3 seconds, dealing area of effect damage. If a Time Bomb is detonated early by another Time Bomb, it also stuns enemies.
Rewind
Zilean can prepare himself for future confrontations, reducing the cooldowns of his other basic abilities.
Time Warp
Zilean bends time around any unit, decreasing an enemy's Move Speed or increasing an ally's Move Speed for a short time.
Chronoshift
Zilean places a protective time rune on an allied champion, teleporting the champion back in time if they take lethal damage.
Playing the matchup
Playing as Zilean
- You can combine the use of Time Bomb and Rewind to place two Time Bombs on a target quickly. Placing the second bomb will detonate the first and stun all nearby enemies.
- Time Warp is an effective way to enable allies to finish off enemies, or escape from a losing battle.
- Chronoshift is a powerful deterrent to attacking your carries, but casting Chronoshift too early in a fight can cause the enemy to switch targets too soon, making it less effective.
Playing against Zilean
- If you're able to match Zilean's speed, it can sometimes be beneficial to wait until his ultimate has faded before landing the killing blow.
- Zilean is fragile if a team focuses on him, but otherwise he's very difficult to kill. Commit to killing him as a team.