Welcome!

Hello ninja padawans! My username is BT BunnyLord (if you want to add me), a Zed main, who usually gets 20/10/5 KDA in a game. Zed is by far my favorite champion in the game, he has easy to earn skills but is very difficult to master. Zed is a mechanically hard champion to understand, but once you do you can pretty much one shot ADCs. The pre-season 6 kind of hit Assassins pretty hard... but Rito made some changes that makes Zed the new nightmare of the century. So do you want to get so many kills that you make Hitler jealous? Do you want to one shot ADCs 4 times faster than Rengar? Do you want to have fun? YES, YES, and UUUHHH... YES! So then follow through my guide for free candy :)
and make sure to CTRL+4 all the time.

Pros

+ Master of Shadows... need I say more? + He uses Energy. + Very good farming thanks to Contempt for the Weak. + His burst damage is HUGE! Thanks to Death Mark. + Can make really sick jukes and escapes. + Amazing split pusher. + Razor Shuriken deals so much damage early game. + You can poke from really far with Living Shadow. + He is really fun, and it is so rewarding when you do a sick play.

This champion is sooo fun, killing ADC's in 3 seconds and returning back to your original position is really rewarding. He has tons of damage and is an amazing Early-Mid game champion. He is probably one of the best champions escape from a gank. You can towerdive enemies and returning without a scrath.

Cons

- Easy to miss spells. - Dependent on Death Mark - Death Mark damage countered by Zonia and QSS - Hard to play in team fights - Very Squishy - Has no CC except for his Living Shadow > Shadow Slash which is a slow, but you can make the slow stronger if both Shadow Slashs hit the target. - He no longer has "this unit is a flippin ninja" tooltip.

Zed is very squishy (low health) if he gets caught with CC he is usually dead. He is reliant on his Death Mark to get a kill, and he is hard countered by tanks. But the Pros easily outweigh the Cons.

Zed is an amazing early to mid game champion, but he does fall off in the late game. This build is meant for Zed in the middle lane, and his high point is mid game. Why mid lane? First off he can't go jungle, trust me I tried... He has no early sustain, he uses energy, and his abilities use lot's of energy so they go down pretty fast, and that is not not you want for jungling. His ganking potential is really high, but he only has one source of CC. Top lane can suit him if you play carefully. Top lane is filled with heavy armored targets, they are the best counters of Zed. They have high armor but low mobility, if you go top lane Zed go for health and dps, don't go for burst. Do not go Zed BOT, no, don't!"
Now for Wards. Here is a map where you should ward in the laning phase.

• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: Zed is an AD champion and relies heavily on AD
  
• greater mark of Armor Penetration: This helps you against tanks or anybody who buys armor.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: This is to say "Screw you AP midlaners!"
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: This is generally good because with my build you won't get much armor, so it is better if you get +9 armor.

These masteries might seem weird because I'm going into the cunning branch. But soon you will find out why. So the reason why I am going to go into the cunning branch is because of Thunderlord's, this keystone is so strong and almost broken on any assassin. But I think personally people are using this too much, like the other day I saw a support and ADC use Thunderlord's. Don not use that keystone mastery on an ADC or support if you are an ADC use Fervor or Bloodlust. Anyway... Thunderlord's is quite strong on Zed because it deals 10 extra damage every third AA or spell on a champion and that's for each level, so at level 18 it will deal 180 damage. It also deals 30% of your AD as magical damage, it also deals 10% of your AP but you have none. Also like I said it deals 30% percent of you AD in 'magical' damage, if your opponents are any good they will build armor to counter you, but they won't build magic resistance because Zed has no magical damage. So basically you are countering the opponent in every way, and that my ninja padawans is broken. Now I choose Savagery over Wanderer because its easier to last hit minions... ALRIGHT you got me I suck at last hitting... so choose Wanderer if you godlike at last hitting. The I chose Assassin because duh, mid lane is always alone early game. I chose Sorcery over Fury because as an AD assassin you won't get 1 or 2 in your combo, so it is actually better to get 2% added damage in your abilities. You want to get Vampirism over Natural Talent because Natural Talent doesn't give much bonus AD as we would like, I mean it's only 10 AD at level 18! Vampirism at least gives you more utility in the sense that after a fight you can hit minions and get some HP back. I choose Bounty over Oppressor because Oppressor is good early game, but Zed already excels at early game, so go with Bounty to be better at late game. Also Dangerous Game will save you from ignite, in those situations...

Youmuu's Ghostblade

You want to rush this item. Why you ask? First off it's active gives you a speed boost so that you can run away from enemies or catch up to them, it also gives you attack speed. Then It gives you 65 AD that's lot's of raw damage! Then It gives you 10% cooldown reduction and that is always great for spamming abilities.

Duskblade of Draktharr

Before I tell you what this item does and why it is good on Zed I have to say that I am 100% against the creation of this item, and I was since it was released on the PBE. It removes the uniqueness of Zed and is completely broken. Now this item... all you need to do is get the enemy down to half health when you ult them and just auto attack the once and they will die, NO JOKE. It gives so much AD and movement speed, and armor pen and the best passive this rift has ever seen. Buy this item on every Zed or Talon.

Ravenous Hydra

Hydra is a good item on Zed. I would have said to get BORK before but it got GUTTED. It got nerfed so hard. Why Hydra? Well it gives you lots of AD, and more life steal than BORK. This is also an AA reset. So use the active to maximize your burst. This also is a really good item at split pushing because it does AOE damage and goes really well with Death Dance.

Mobility Boots

I love these boots because they give you 105 added movement speed only out of combat though, but combine this with Furor and you get the added 12% speed boost when in combat. Other wise take Mercury or Tabi depending on enemy team.

Death Dance

This might seem like a weird item on Zed but it is actually really good. It works well with Hydra because of its passive and the AOE damage of Hydra. It also gives you survivability with the other passive.

Black Cleaver

Black Cleaver is a good item on Zed because of the added armor pen, health and damage. This would be better on a top laner fighter person, but it works well with Zed too. He does need the 300 added health late game.

Guardian Angel

Zed is all about dealing damage and taking none. But sometimes we f*ck up and we get killed, well say no more, guardian angel is here for you. This item gives you armor and magic resistance but if you die then it will revive you, this is really good on zed because it gives him more survivability.

Maw of Malmortius

Maw is great on zed because it gives him damage and lots of magic resistance, so if the enemy team has 3 or more AP champions than buy this. It also gives him lots of life steal if you go below 20 % of your health and gives you a shield. I would go for this instead of GA or LORD. You might even consider taking this item second if the enemy team has 3 or more AP champs.

Lord Dominik's Regards

Before the pre-season 6 update, Last Whisperer was the go to item for AD assassins, but times have changed my ninja padawan. Last whisperer sucks, and so does Lord, but if there is a lot of tanks on the enemy team make sure to take this because it is better than nothing.

Zhonya's

Zhonya's Hourglass is the nightmare of the nightmare... Zhonya's Hourglass is the ultimate counter to Zed. If Zed does his ult and the enemy does a Zhonya's Hourglass then Zed's ult went to waste. To try and prevent this from happening is quite tricky. What you need to do is know that they have the item. When you know they have it you can trick them into thinking you will ult but instead you ult someone else. They will be scared and Zhonya's Hourglass them self. This is not great, but it's better than nothing.

Quicksilver Sash

Quicksilver Sash is cheaper than Zhonya. What is does is simple, it removes the Death Mark trigger, but you can still kill them with your combo. Make sure you know that they have it, and if they do try to kill them without the trigger.

Barrier

Barrier is not that big of a deal, because it doesn't remove the trigger or make them invulnerable, but it will stop the death mark from killing them if they time it right. Barrier is not that used of a spell, but if they do have keep in find to ignite them during your combo or after your combo.

Heal

Heal is quite annoying and every ADC has heal. Make sure to deal lots of damage and try not to rely on death mark to kill them as heal will usually be enough to stop the mark. But you can still kill them, ignite them also.

Contempt for the Weak: (PASSIVE) Zed's basic attacks against targets below 50% of their maximum health deal 6 / 8 / 10% of their maximum health as bonus magic damage.
This effect can only occur on the same target once every few seconds.


Razor Shuriken: (Q) Active: Zed throws his spinning blades forward, dealing physical damage to the first enemy they pass through and 60% damage to enemies thereafter. Any living shadows also throw a shuriken in the direction of the mouse cursor location. Additional shurikens striking the same enemy deal 50% damage and restores energy. This is your primary damage dealer, you want to spam this ability as much as possible in the laning phase of the game.
Living Shadow: (W) Passive: Zed's bonus attack damage is increased. Active: Zed throws out a shadow at a desired location and the shadow will mimic any of Zed's abilities. You can reactivate this ability to switch position with the shadow only once, so choose wisely and the shadow will only last for 4 seconds. You can escape sticky situations with this.

Shadow Slash: (E) Active: Zed spins his blades, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies and reducing Living Shadow's cooldown by 2 seconds for every enemy champion hit. Active shadows also slash, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies and slowing them for 1.5 seconds. Mimicked slashes that hit targets affected by the primary slash enhance the Slow icon slow by 50% and restore energy, but deal no additional damage. This is what makes Zed really good a clearing minion waves and split pushing. This ability has no AA reset, you can AA while doing this ability, keep that in mind... THE MORE YOU KNOW!

Death Mark: (R) Active: Zed becomes untargetable for 0.75 seconds and dashes behind the target enemy champion. Upon arrival, he marks them for death, and spawns a shadow at the cast location that lasts for 6 seconds. After 0.5 seconds, Death Mark can be reactivated to make Zed swap places with this shadow.
At the end of its duration, Death Mark triggers, dealing physical damage plus a percentage of all physical and magic damage Zed dealt to the target while they were marked. I think this ability is the best ult in the game, it is so fun to use, and you can really get behind enemy lines and kill some one and revert to your cast location. A helpful tip is when your death mark trigger can kill somebody a spinning blade will be over there head.

So, we want to max Q first because it is your primary damage dealer. It got needed really bad over the ages, but it is still good. Once you are level two you want to get Living Shadow W because it gives you more poking range and mobility, though you can get Shadow slash if the enemy is poking you hard so that you can trade some damage. At level three choose the spell that you did not pick yet and then follow the procedure. Max Q Then E Then W and choose R whenever it is available.

In teamfights Zed plays a huge role. Normally AP midlaners have lots of CC and deal small amounts of damage to everybody to kind of tip the teamfight in your favor. Zed on the other hand is an assassin, like Katarina or Yasuo. They don't have huge CC abilities, fore example Veigar has his E which stun or holds the enemy team in one place, so that the your team has control for that moment. That is what an AP midlaner is for, but what about Zed? He is different in the sense that he focuses the damage dealers of the enemy team, such as ADC's. With Zed you want to quickly demolish the ADC and return to your team with the least amount of damage taken. So that a 5v5 fight turns into a 4v5, and let me remind you that ADC stands for Attack Damage Carry, so if you take out the enemy team's source of damage they kind of lost the team fight. If you play Zed you have to have some one replace the CC. For example Zyra has huge knock up ult that will capture the entire enemy team. When the enemy team is under CC is when you want to engage.

Pros

+ His passive Contempt for the Weak makes farming super easy, like a dream. +If you somehow miscalculated the minion health, you can Shadow Slash right afterwards and get the CS. + If you hit a minion with your Razor Shuriken and the Shuriken will pass through the target. +Late game, you can clear waves in 4 seconds.

This champion is super easy to farm with thanks to his passive and high base damage, and his low cooldown E which is a instant cast.

Cons

-He is not a ranged champion so trying to get CS will eventually lead to the enemy poking you. - Zed is low health, and if you try to get a CS the enemy will poke you hard, and poking you will be easy for them. - Minions are surprisingly smart and will completely outplay you sometimes, so watch out, minions are hidden op ;)

This champion does have amazing farming capabilities but he has the few disadvantages that most melee champs have, like range.

The Pros easily outweigh the Cons in this one, Zed is an amazing farmer. He should try Farming Simulator 14, I'm sure he will be good at that game. Also make sure to E first then AA if you want to execute any enemy, you can AA while you are using your E, it is not an AA reset.

Now I do not play ranked...But I know enough to give some good tips to beginners. Take Zed if:

enemy team has immobile champions
and/or not a lot of CC
and/or an ADC with low escape
and/or a squishy top laner like Yasuo or Yi
if your team has a support or champion that has a AOE CC ability like Zyra or Sona
if your team has lot's of AP already
if you want to win! ;)