Hello, and welcome to my first guide. I have seen many guides for Zed but I did not quite like any of them. I hope that you will find this guide useful, and enjoy using it. Take in to consideration that this guide requires time to learn so do not head off into ranked and wonder why it is not working. Practice on blind pick first.

Also, note that this is plainly a strategy guide, not a Zed guide. Yes this guide does involve playing Zed but it expects you know how to play him in the first place.

As for the runes I do not think there is a stronger set up than this. The only thing you might want to change would be the Mark of Armor Penetration and switch it for the Mark of Attack Damage for a head start. But the Mark of Armor Penetration is really useful late game, especially if you are not prepared to build any item that would give you this stat.

As for the Masteries, we are looking to make Zed the most efficient killing monster. This set up will definitely help you at chasing your enemies down, and will give you the edge on both of your summoner spells. The extra damage output will also help you last hit.

Okay, here we go. Zed is fully dependent on items. This build does take risks, however, they are minimized by having an AP Carry bot with you. I will explain why AP Carry later on. To begin with the Long Sword at the beginning. This thing will give you a head start over your enemies. You will be able to tear down whatever comes your way but do not go all crazy... yet. Harass their AD Carry as much as you can and do everything to get that First Blood once they are down on health. Make sure to effectively use your AP Carry to blow out as much damage as you can. After you get your First Blood, you should have enough for your Sword of the Occult and a few pots. From then you have to get your stacks up as fast as you can so you will be the ultimate, damage and speed beast there.

Also, the reason why we get so much of life steal is because, what we want to do with Zed is let him stay on the battleground for as long as possible and gank everything so that the enemy is not even able to gain gold in the first place. The only problem you may encounter is if your team has feed them.

Now for the bonus movement speed. Phantom Dancer. With this, the chance of someone escaping is minimum. To add to that, ganking will be a piece of cake, not to mention the fast bursts of damage you will be able to deliver.

Finally the last item. This is completely your choice, and it depends on the game for which item you choose.
1. Mercurial Scimitar
You should only get this item if their AP Carry is quite feed and is giving you a pain. Make sure to use it when chasing one down. The amount of dash boost you will have will be crazy. Plus it will help you get away from champions like Nasus
2. Frozen Mallet
A nice item to counter both AD and AP Carries. Bonus damage, bonus slow on top of your own slow, and sustain.
3. Black Cleaver
Get this item if their Tanks/Fighters are giving you a hard time to kill them and you still need the sustain.
4. Last Whisper
If none of them is able to hurt you enough, for you to have to worry about sustain, go for this item. It will tear down their full defence.
An item, which is rather useful, that I have not listed is the Guardian Angel I simply do not believe that you will need this one. The idea of this build is to make you unkillable, but if you feel like you just might loose those stacks go for it.

The only thing I will say about this one is, if you are pushing them, then pick Living Shadow (W) first, over the Shadow Slash (E). But if they are pushing you go for Shadow Slash (E) first over Living Shadow (W), as it will just make it more difficult for them to escape.

Depending on your play style, you will either stick with Flash, to give you the edge on getting the last hit or escaping. Or Teleport, which is the most useful thing you can ever have with Zed. If your team wards top lane in one of the bushes you will be able to easily Teleport to it, and destroy everything there, as you will leave no room to escape for the enemy. Careful when targeting champions which counter auto attack champions.

Pros

• Very powerful damage output early game
• Destroys late game
• Massive sustain from Life Steal
• Incredible ganking capabilities
• He is a NINJA

Cons

• Squishy
• If you can't kill anyone fast enough you will fall behind
• Everytime you die you loose 1/3 of stacks
• Highly dependent on AP Carries support

Okay, so finally your bot partner. He will have to be the support in this case, therefore he will be responsible for warding the place and helping you secure the kill. Once you reach 15 stacks you can start letting your AP Carry have the kills. At the start of the game warding is not as vital, it is after the first recall that you should get two wards. One should be placed in the bush between mid and bot, and the other in the bush closest to the first enemy turret on bot.

In my opinion your best partner here will be in fact Teemo, as he can spam his mushrooms in the bushes and ward the place up. Also, his poison abilities, and the slow from mushrooms will help you both get away safely most of the time. Also when Teemo, requires help he can place a mushroom down to allow you to immediately help him out and secure a kill for your team.

Otherwise choices would be champions like, Varus, or Twisted Fate. Anything with a decent CC and/or range.

And finally the reason why it should be an AP Carry is so that your lane wont be able to protect them selves efficiently enough from both of you. If you had an AD Carry bot with you it would allow them to simply get armor, and make it a hard time for you, but since you will both 2 sources of concentrated power they will be the ones having a hard time.

To summarise, this guide should only be used for those experienced enough with Zed, and know quite a bit about what counters him and how to deal with it. It is a very risky guide, I highlight, but if played right you can quickly dominate the battleground and destroy the enemy team.

Also things you can when you get your fifth item. You can solo Baron, when your team is distracting the enemy. Quickly get Dragon. And be a gank pro xD Here is proof that it works.