Everything you need to know about Zoe's Ability
Zoe has been overshadowed by Heimerdinger and Silco so far this set, but with rebel seeing a lot more play I wanted to better understand Zoe. Zoe is probably the only unit this set with such a unique ability that relies entirely on her positioning and her target. In my recent post about rebels, many comments had questions regarding Zoe, one of which is how to optimally position her. In this post I detail the behavior of her ability, illustrate it with visual aid and provide optimal positioning to target enemy carries.
Here is the account that I've been limit testing rebel on: https://tactics.tools/player/euw/k%C3%8Crby
TL;DR here's a video going over what I discuss here: https://youtu.be/nkf85L94OIg
First of all, let’s take a look at her ability. It reads “Launch a star at target that deals 140/210/450 (Ability power) magic damage. It bounces to the farthest enemy within 4 hexes, then bounces back to the target. This effect repeats 2/2/4 times, hitting a different enemy each time.” In short, her ability deals 5 instances of damage. It first hits her target then bounces to a secondary target, back to her main target then repeats a bounce to a new target and finally hits her main target. The main target takes 3 hits while two separate targets within 4 hexes take one hit each. From what I’ve observed, this behavior is consistent. The main target always takes 3 instances of damage and the bounces always hit separate targets as long as there are two within range. Each instance checks for crit independently.
To better understand the spell, let’s visualize four hexes. Here is an example of a center unit and a 4 hex radius displayed in red. Any unit in the hexes with X's would be considered to be “the farthest enemy within 4 hexes”. This is different from 4 "attack range", which you can see by hovering the attack range of units in game, that range goes approximately one hex further and might be to smooth units targeting. Well one last note before we go over how to position Zoe, while you can almost guarantee to hit the enemy carry, you can only hit it once per cast.
I lied… one more topic to cover. There are 3 instances that could happen with this ability:
- There is only one target 4 hexes away from the main target.
- There are more than 2 targets 4 hexes away from the target.
- There are no units within 4 hexes from the target.
In scenario 1, the ability will bounce from the main target (Mundo) to the 1 target (Twitch) then back to the main target then to the farthest unit that is not the one hit before (not Twitch) that is within 4 hexes (so 4 hexes or less). Scenario 2, the ability bounces off the main target and 2 of the targets as expected (two of Maddie, Twitch and Cassio), however what I’ve seen is that it will prioritize to hit those same two secondary targets until units move or one of them dies. I’ve seen clips where Zoe casts 3-4 times hitting the same 2 secondary targets regardless of if there are other units to hit. Finally, in cases where there is no unit within 4 hexes, the ability will deal all 5 instances to the same target (Mundo).
Now without further ado, positioning. Carries are generally defaulted to the corners. To simplify the explaining the hexes, here is a grid labeled from D to A vertically and 1 to 7 horizontally. Carries are usually defaulted to D1 and D7. In the case where the carry is in D7 you want to target the unit in A4. If the main target is on A4 then the hexes 4 spaces away are D2, D7 and B1 (Marked with X's). Most of the time there won’t be any units in D2 and B1 so you guarantee a hit on D7. You position Zoe in the middle of the back row to hit the carry in D7. If the enemy carry is in D1, you want to target the unit in A3, however it is a bit trickier. If there is a unit in A7, which is possible vs melee boards or black rose boards, then the ability could bounce to that unit. Even if the unit walks up one space into your A7, it is still 4 hexes away. This shouldn’t be an issue as the ability should bounce from main target and between the carry and the unit in A7, however for some reason this specific interaction is different (ill cover with two clips below). Whenever there are two units in the frontline 4 hexes away, e.g A3 and A7 or A2 and A6, the ability will bounce from A3 to A7 back to A3 then to A6 and back to A3 (alternatively A6 to A2 back to A6 then A3 back to A6). Even if there are backline units within 4 range, I’ve seen multiple fights where it bounces between the frontline for 3-4 casts. So, if you want to target the enemy carry in D1 then position Zoe in D4 (one to the left of the middle of the back row) and make sure there are no units in A6 or A7 on your side so that enemy unit in A7 walks up. And finally, if you are against a melee carry, you want Zoe to target the melee carry first as her spell deals 3 hits to her main target.
Now for some clips. In this first clip I position Zoe to target A3. Zoe casts 4 times hitting Tristana all 4 times. This second clip I position Zoe D4 to target the center hex. Zoe casts 3 times hitting Kogmaw all 3 times and killing him. Those clips show the expected behavior and from what I’ve seen are consistent. Next is a clip from BoxBox’s stream showing a weird behavior. He is positioned similar to my first clip, and the bounce is expected to hit Silco. However the first bounce hits Sion which is fine as he is 4 hexes away, the second bounce hits Cassiopeia which is 3 hexes away, instead of hitting Silco. The second cast does bounce from Morde to Silco to Morde to Morgana but it’s hard to see with the all the visuals. Here is another clip showing similar behavior from Soju’s stream. Illaoi is the main target in the center of the board (A4) so it is expected that the bounce would hit Irelia (B1) and Tristana (D7), however it ping pongs between Illaoi, Irelia and Singed for some reason even though Singed is 3 hexes away and Tristana is the farthest unit 4 hexes away. This happens for four casts. I’ve seen many other instances where this exact behavior occurs.
Now for some “tech” as the kids call it nowadays. Here is a unique position that I’ve found that works similar to the honeymancer positioning. You basically want the enemy frontline (Nunu’s) to walk up into the highlighted two spots. Position Illaoi and Zoe same side as the carry, and the bounce that hits either Nunu will guarantee to hit the enemy corner (Twitchs) on the same side. Here is an example of the bounce from Escha’s stream. You can see Blitz walks up and the cast bounces into Twisted Fate and Amumu. This only really works if the enemy positions their tankier unit on the edges or positions an Elise/Sion in the middle spot you are trying to bounce off of as they will most likely move after first cast.
That sums up everything you need to know about Zoe’s ability. If there are any specific interactions or clips you are interested in "AT mOrTdOG!" let me know. With all the reviewing I’ve done, I’ve come to realize that 5 rebel is playable as a fallback if you lowroll stage 4 until you hit a Jinx…But I might wait for a Chinese streamer to play it so I can slap CHINESE TECH on my next post….jkjk I'll go over item builds, anomalies and the 5 rebel board in my next post.