PCZaahen
Fighter / Assassin
League of Legends (PC)
Zaahen was last nerfed in Patch 26.6 (). Across 4 patches, Zaahen has received 1 buff, 1 nerf, 1 adjustment since release in Patch 25.23.
AbilitiesLeague Wiki
Zaahen has caught on as one of the strongest top laners and junglers in the game. In our view his jungle performance is farther over the line, so we're delivering some nerfs with a moderate jungle skew to them. His W is more core to his ganking than it is to his laning, and this E nerf is jungle-skewed and will reduce his ability to create and react to pressure early on.
Dreaded Return
- Second hit base damage reduced to 30/50/70/90/110 from 40/60/80/100/120.
- Second hit bonus AD ratio reduced to 30% bonus AD from 50%.
Aureate Rush
- Bonus monster damage reduced to 50 from 75.
Zaahen was meant to have a secondary player base in the jungle and while he's great in the top lane, he's not performing well enough elsewhere. So we're delivering some straightforward jungle-specific buffs to bring him back up where he was at the end of last year.
The Darkin Glaive
- Monster damage increased to 200% from 175%.
Aureate Rush
- Bonus monster damage increased to 75 from 50.
These changes went out as a micropatch during 25.23, but we wanted to capture them here for posterity and offer some thoughts on how we think Zaahen's release went. For 25.23, overall Zaahen released a bit too strong. His damage was a bit high and had room to go down while still feeling satisfying, so we decided to target that over other parts of his kit. We're being cautious here, so we're taking a little more time to see how he settles before we make additional changes, but we'll be keeping our eyes peeled and will make additional changes as needed. Now we’re at 25.24 and Zaahen is still a bit strong, particularly in higher ranks, so we’ve got some skill skewed changes here which should bring him down a bit. We also want to compensate his jungle a bit as we expect it to lose some power as a result of these changes, so we’re upping his Q’s monster damage mod.
Cultivation of War
- Bug Fix: Amended multiple issues during the resurrection.
The Darkin Glaive
- Cooldown increased to 10/9/8/7/6 seconds from 9/8/7/6/5.
- Monster damage increased to 175% from 150%.
- Undocumented / Bug Fix: Cooldown is now affected by basic ability haste.
Aureate Rush
- Sweet spot magic damage reduced to 4/4.5/5/5.5/6% of target's maximum health from 4/5/6/7/8%.
Grim Deliverance
- Undocumented / Removed: No longer retains the cc-immune during the dash and the slam delay once the cast time completes.
- Undocumented / New Effect: Now grants displacement immunity during the dash and the slam delay.
- Note: Zaahen transitions from having cc-immune during the cast time to displacement immunity for the remainder of the ability's animation.
Zaahen added to League of Legends
Cultivation of War - Innate
- Innate: Zaahen generates a stack of Determination for each enemy champion damaged by his basic attacks and abilities, lasting for 5 seconds, refreshing on subsequent triggers, and stacking up to 12 times. After the duration, the stacks expire by 1/2/3/4/5 (at level 0/0.5/1/1.5/2) (based on seconds elapsed) every 0.5 seconds.
- Determination: For each stack, Zaahen gains bonus attack damage equal to 1.5 to 3.3% (based on level) AD. At maximum stacks, this is doubled to 36 to 79.2% (based on level) AD.
- Periodically, if Zaahen would take death while at maximum stacks of Determination, he enters resurrection for 4 seconds: becoming invulnerable, untargetable, and lockout. Additionally, he restores 30 to 75% (based on level) of his maximum health over the duration.
- Static Cooldown: 300/240/180/120 seconds.
The Darkin Glaive - Q
- Active: Zaahen empowers his next basic attack within 5 seconds to have an uncancellable windup and gain 25 bonus range. On-attack, he strikes the target twice and heal himself for 5/6/7/8/9% of his maximum health. The strikes deal 15/30/45/60/75 (+ 100% AD) (+ 30/40/50/60/70% bonus AD) modified physical damage and the heal is reduced to 50% against non-champions.
- Each strike applies on-hit effects and can critically strike for Zaahen/2 AD bonus physical damage.
- After 1.5 seconds of using the empowered attack, The Darkin Glaive can be recast within the next 5 seconds at no additional cost, modifying it with a new effect.
- Recast: Zaahen empowers his next basic attack within 5 seconds to have an uncancellable windup, gain 25 bonus range, deal 30/60/90/120/150 (+ 30/40/50/60/70% AD) bonus physical damage and airborne the target for 0.75 seconds.
- The Darkin Glaive deals 150% damage against monsters.
- Both casts of The Darkin Glaive basic attack reset Zaahen's basic attack timer.
- Cost: 25 mana.
- Cooldown: 9/8/7/6/5 seconds.
- Cast Time: None.
Dreaded Return - W
- Active: Zaahen extends his glaive in the target direction, dealing 40/60/80/100/120 (+ 50% bonus AD) physical damage to enemies hit. Upon reaching maximum range, all enemies hit are dealt the same physical damage, stun for 0.25 seconds, and airborne 225 units toward Zaahen.
- Cost: 50 mana.
- Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds.
- Cast Time: 0.5 seconds, Target Range: 850, Width: 70, Speed: 2900 / 900.
Aureate Rush - E
- Active: Zaahen dashes to the target location. Upon arrival, he flourishes his glaive to deal 40/60/80/100/120 (+ 50% bonus AD) physical damage to nearby enemies.
- Enemies hit by the outer edge are dealt 60/90/120/150/180 (+ 100% bonus AD) increased physical damage and 4/5/6/7/8% of the target's maximum health bonus magic damage, with the latter capped at 400 against monsters.
- Aureate Rush deals 50 bonus physical damage against monsters.
- Cost: 40 mana.
- Cooldown: 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds.
- Cast Time: None, Target Range: 350, Effect Radius: 200 / 375 200 / 375, Speed: 900.
Grim Deliverance - R
- Passive: Zaahen gains 10/20/30% armor penetration.
- Active: Zaahen dash into the air to the target location. He then slams his glaive down after a 0.6-second delay, unleashing a shockwave that deals 250/400/550 (+ 200% bonus AD) physical damage to nearby enemies and heal himself for 33% of the pre-mitigation damage dealt to champions.
- Zaahen is lockout and gains cc-immune and 50% damage reduction from the start of the cast time. He retains these effects until 0.9 seconds after the dash.
- Cost: 100 mana.
- Cooldown: 110/95/80 seconds.
- Cast Time: 0.5 seconds, Target Range: 10 / 600, Effect Radius: 550, Speed: 2800.
