I am an EUW player known as BZ that has played a variety of champions but mainly have played Zed since season 9. I have personally been able to reach Rank 1 Zed in EUW as well as get to challenger and have maintained 3+ accounts in Grandmaster. I had started playing League on the NA server around season 4 to play with online friends but I had to endure higher ping therefore in season 7 I had decided to play on EUW. I have never took ranked seriously until this year since I had time to actually play being stuck at home and had managed to get masters on 3 accounts of mine as well as getting rank 1 Zed euw and top 10 in the world. I have also gotten high numbers on other champs such as Sylas.

I would love to be able to become a streamer and climb the ladder and building up my own community but I felt like these Zed guides had lacked a lot more information so I think mine stands out a lot more than the others in terms of knowledge. I will continue to keep updating this guide as much as I can. If anyone could help me out with coding, I would appreciate it. :)

Link to my twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/project_bz
Link to my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVz5XVhw8gA&ab_channel=BZ

Reading this guide will boost your LP. Thank me later :)

Zed from my experience will only really swap between 3 different rune tree's are viable. These 3 would be Domination, Sorcery and Precision. Zed only has a few keystones that are viable on him so he's not very versatile with what he runes since there are only few that benefit his personal kit. Zed will also use Resolve in some matchups that require the extra tenacity from Unflinching

Electrocute Core Zed rune, always safest option since it's provides that extra damage on top of the burst. Electrocute itself provides burst and harass throughout all stages of the game. It is extremely easy for Zed to proc Electrocute as he can just WEQ in lane, he can aa e q etc etc. The cooldown is relatively low for Electrocute which means the rune is very consistent to use in lane. Its very versatile in the sense that you can go this rune into almost any matchup you have as Zed since there are a few occasions where I personally prefer Conqueror in the matchup instead of Electrocute.

Dark Harvest Dark Harvest I don't personally recommend on Zed. I don't think it's good at all since the damage is extremely low throughout the game from this rune. You can only proc this when a person is low for just a little amount of damage. The only advantage this has over Electrocute is that it can have more uptime in team-fights. With that being said, I don't think a rune for a little bit of more team-fight damage is worth to run over Electrocute because its just more consistent in the part where Zed struggles hardest in the game which is laning.

Hail of Blades This rune is extremely niche as it is rarely used but has more value than Dark Harvest. In matchups where you could perhaps want to just cheese early like melee matchups, you could use this but I personally don't recommend it. It does work on Zed but I would prefer you guys to only use the two runes I use which are Electrocute and Conqueror. Hail of Blades can help into matchups with early fights like Talon or Diana because they will jump on you and fight therefore you can fight back without fear.

Taste of Blood I only run Taste of Blood out of these 3 runes because i prefer having that sustain that it provides in laning. When you q and hit your enemy, you will heal from this in lane which can help to survive laning phase. I don't like Cheap Shot or Sudden Impact because the damage it provides is extremely mediocre and I think its unrequired. Sudden Impact would work too but I personally would prefer Taste of Blood.

Sudden Impact I don't personally run this rune because I think you don't require the extra damage. This rune comes to personal preference. You can go this rune if you don't care about sustaining in lane and want to go raw damage. Taste of Blood would be the safer option and this would be more risky.

Zombie Ward This rune is very valuable the higher the elo you are. The reason for this would be that be each ward you destroy gains you 1.2 AD up to 10 times which would be 12 on top of that you gain an additional 12 to make that 22 AD from this single rune. Not only that, ward takedowns will provide wards so you will have a lot of vision around the map. This rune synergises insanely well with Umbral Glaive. The only issue with this rune in my opinion is in lower elo there will be less wards placed so the value of this rune is not as impactful as it would be in the higher elo you get making it have insane value in high elo. If you want to be safe, you can go Eyeball Collection since you don't need to worry about ward takedowns.

Eyeball Collection If you don't want to consider taking wards down for ad you can run this, or if you are in low elo where the people ward less in that environment then this would be fine.

Ravenous Hunter This rune can work if you want to play safe and want to just sustain your lane and have a lot of healing to work around. I personally would never go this because I don't think Zed requires this healing since he is so mobile that you should be avoiding majority of damage that enemies provide. If you want to learn Zed or aren't very confident, running this rune would be fine.

Relentless Hunter If you don't care about lane and want to just get around the map quicker, this rune would work. I also have never used this rune just because I value Ultimate Hunter a lot more.

Ultimate Hunter This is my go to rune and what I value more than the keystone itself. Ever time I play zed, I will always have this rune. Having your Death Mark up that much quicker is so important to have for Zed so that you can make more plays around it. You wouldn't want sustain from Ravenous Hunter because you want to play mechanically to avoid the damage by being evasive as Zed is made to be.

Conqueror If you don't need burst and would need DPS, you go Conqueror. This is better in long fight matchups like tanks or hard to kill opponents. Examples could be Malphite or Galio. Electrocute would be useless because the burst is irrelevant therefore you would want DPS which is what this rune is all about.

Presence Of Mind This rune is extremely good on energy champs because there is no way to increase energy in terms of items. Zed is extremely nice with this rune because in lane you will poke with Q and that would mean you get more energy return if you hit them. If you get takedowns, you get energy refunded too which is extremely good and gives you much more windows of opportunity to make plays.

Legend: Alacrity If the team has no CC whatsoever, theres no point to run Legend: Tenacity so just go Legend: Alacrity as it is the next best option.

Legend: Tenacity If the team has CC, prioritise this rune since its extremely useful to have. Most of the time I don't run Mercury's Treads so I use this to make up for it so that I can have my Ionian Boots of Lucidity for the CDR.

Coup De Grace These runes don't provide that much damage therefore you can't really go wrong. This is probably the best because of the additional damage you're provided on Death Mark and Contempt for the Weak.

Cut Down I don't ever go this because if you are going Conqueror, you will gain HP from this build from items such as Black Cleaver therefore you will be quite healthy and won't utilise this rune.

Last Stand This rune is preference compared to Coup de Grace, but you obviously want to be low HP to make this rune show its effectiveness

Phase Rush Zed Bot lane works with Yuumi and some lanes you want to have that extra mobility to combo and disengage immediately. This rune would work in this case so that you can kill and leave fights. I only recommend this rune when you feel you need the survivability in botlane Zed such as into heavy crowd control or assassin style compositions.

Nullifying Orb If you want that extra bit of survivability vs an Ability Power champ, this rune will work well as it scales with your Attack Damage. Its really good especially into Ability Power Assassins or Ability Power Mid alongside Ability Power Jungler.

Nimbus Cloak If you want that extra mobility after your Summoner Spells, this rune will do fine. This is a personal preference type of rune so nothing mandatory to run so far.

Transcendence Transcendence is the only reason you would ever to go Sorcery as it is the most valuable rune for Zed in this rune page. This rune is extremely mandatory if you ever go Sorcery as it provides 10 additional ability haste when you reach level 8 and when you are level 11, your takedowns reduce your cooldowns even further except your Death Mark. Having this rune will be an insane buff on Zed because he is a haste reliant champ.

Absolute Focus I use this rune for 1v1's only really, just a honourable mention if you ever want to 1v1 your friends.

Scorch Scorch is good to have that extra lane damage and sustain it can provide with Taste of Blood. That little bit of extra damage can be the difference between that early crab fight skirmish or that solo kill.

Gathering Storm If you want to have that extra late game damage instead of having the early damage, this rune is valuable since the longer the game goes, the more Attack Damage you will gain from it.

Flash is core for almost every champion in this game. It provides for escapes, making plays, gap closing and for dodging abilities. Its almost essential for Zed as its a tool that you can use to make you extra slippery. Zed can also utilise Flash by channeling q and instantly flashing afterwards. Flash is vital for many champions in unique ways such as the interactions it can provide. Different Champions can make different uses for this such as Ezreal can double his distance by Arcane Shift into Flash right after you click Arcane Shift.

Ignite is always taken on Mid Lane Zed for the pure reasoning that you get extra kill pressure in your duels. Having that extra damage could be the difference between getting the kill and not getting the kill. In some lanes it can even be useful for that fact that it provides Grievous Wounds which can help you to kill Champions that heal a lot in their kit such as Sylas, Vladimir etc etc.

Teleport would only be viable if you were to play Top lane Zed only in my opinion. Teleport is more valued because it is the furthest lane away from the rest of the map in terms of where majority of fights would be taken place such as near Dragon. I wouldn't recommend this for Mid lane because you would be able to rotate for these fights generally as you are in the middle of the map therefore it is just up to you to roam for these scenarios therefore this summoner has less value for Zed mid.

Mark/Dash works when you play Aram because you can Mark/Dash and then you can Living Shadow behind yourselves so that you can go in on your Mark/Dash then go back and do your combo from a distance. (Shown in the Combo Chapter below.)

Smite would only be used if you are Jungling. Zed in the Jungle isn't anything special but it does work so it is worth mentioning since that means it has more value than the other summoners which I wouldn't use at all.

Zed's passive is important for last hitting minions in his rough laning phase. It can help to ensure you get some minions when you are pushed in under tower for easier last hitting. It can also be useful for trades as it can provide extra damage within your combos/trading. It is also good objectives as you can do a lot of damage with Zed's passive against Dragon or Baron Nashor for stealing them from the opponents.

Zed's Razor Shuriken is good for being able to last hitting minions as well as poking in lane. Since Zed is easy to punish at close range, it's important for him to keep distance for farming minions otherwise the opponent can abuse Zed if he gets close.

Living Shadow is good for being able to escape ganks and trading in lane. Its essential to know how to use this properly because if you waste this and then get ganked, you will have no escape for 20 seconds.

Shadow Slash can further help for farming minions in lane especially under tower. It can help for quick and effective burst by Razor Shuriken with an auto attack and Shadow Slash which will also proc Electrocute. This trade is really good into champions that jump into you such as LeBlanc. A fun fact is each champion that is hit by your Shadow Slash will reduce the cooldown of your Living Shadow by 2 seconds which is extremely important to know.

Death Mark is important to use for instances such as dodging abilities, to provide extra damage and also as an escape option. Knowing when to use this and how to manage is extremely important for learning Zed.

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