Any Zed can get kills. But not every Zed can make it out.
Zed is an incredibly fun assassin, arguably the hardest AD assassin in the game to REALLY learn. When I say really learn, I mean yeah, you see some Zed's cast simple W, E, Q combos and ult and spam their E and Q to get kills. But damn is that sloppy. Zed is a champion all about timing, and misdirection. Zed as a champion is much like his lore. Zed is a very on his own type. Even in team fights Zed does his own thing. You don't really want to focus the same person everyone else is as Zed, because you have to potential to erase two or three champions without your team.

Learn to play Zed as if you are all alone and everyone on your team is bots. Zed has a high skill cap, but he is very rewarding. And so long as those with kits about as versatile as a bath mat stay quiet and Zed maintains a 47% win rate we should be okay.

Hope you enjoy this guide, and that it helps you better yourself.

PROS

Impressive looking plays and a sense of pride for playing a hard champion.
High damage output and high mobility make him excellent with roams and 1v1's.
Jukes and high mobility also make you a huge threat in team fights.
Hard to gank when shadow is up, and shadow provides excellent lane pressure.

CONS

Hard CC will shut Zed down.
If you fall behind, its an incredibly hard uphill fight.
People WILL hate you.
Extremely high learning curve.
Early laning phase with Zed is bad right now forcing you to play passive
Literally any shielding champion will shut you down. (Lulu, Karma, Orianna, Barrier, Zhonya's. Don't these things unless you are experienced enough to abuse the duration gaps between Zhonya's and your ult.

Ferocity

Sorcery - Sorcery works with AD as well, as it increases the damage done by abilities. Not only AP as you would get from say, Luden's Echo. You will have plenty of attack speed later and the 2% damage increase late game from abilities is intense.

Feast - Feast gives you a little extra sustain in lane as every 30 seconds you get a fairly free 20 HP.

Vampirism - The lifesteal from Vampirism is important for early sustain against most mages and champions like akali and yasuo who also have no mana to worry about.

Bounty Hunter - Once you've killed everyone on the enemy team, you do a total of 12% additional damage to enemies below 50% HP when no teammates are around. This only drops to 7% if they are full HP and your team is close.

Cunning

Savagery - The additional single target damage gives a tad more trade early game as well as makes farming more simple.

Assassin - 2% damage is better than potions, and you dont need to lengthen buff timers.

Merciless - 3% additional damage to those under 40% HP combined with your passive, your auto's and abilities will hurt that much more making you all the more lethal.

Bandit - You can't always secure every CS, but the gold you get from AA your lane opponent helps more than Greenfather's.

Precision - Extra lethality for free considering you wont be building much of it.

Thunderlord's - This gives your burst more damage and is really the only option you should consider.

I take two Zed pages, One for Vs AD, and One for VS AP.

Vs AP

Against an AP lane opponent you will most certainly need MR.
Glyphs - 9x Scaling MR (25.92 MR @ LvL 18 or 8.64 @ LvL 6.)
Seals - 9x Scaling HP (215.46 HP @ LvL 18 or 11.97HP per LvL)
Marks - 9x Flat AD (8.55 AD)
Quints - 3x Lethality (9.6 Lethality)

Vs AD

Against AD, it is a preference. You can take scaling HP seals or flat armor.
For me, I chose armor.
Glyphs - 9x Scaling CDR runes. (o.81% CDR per LvL or 14.58% CDR @ LvL 18)
Seals - 9x Flat Armor (9 Armor)
Marks - 5x Flat AD (4.75 AD)
4x Lethality (6.4 Lethality
Quints - 3x Flat AD (6.75 AD)

Early game before you have ult, you want to focus on CS. Against a ranged champion like Taliyah, your Q is best saved for last hitting poke. You will want to start out Q, W, E then put all your points into Q until you hit 6. Your trades will come down to you dodging skill shots and managing your pots better than your enemy laner. Harass with W, E, Q and if they are below 50% HP remember your passive. If your enemy laner is below 40$ HP, 99% of the time a full combo will kill them or force flash/barrier/exhaust.

If you are against a melee champion, you will start Q, then E, then W third. Still maxing Q first. Your trades will start with an auto attack when your lane opponent is close enough. The best melee combo trade with Zed is, AA, W,W(Throw your shadow behind you and take it immediately.) E, Q. This combo will usually prevent you from taking damage and you can proc thunder lord's with it.

Team fighting with Zed is more like a casual drive-by. You'll want to be team fight adjacent. If the team fight is happening under the Red Team's Mid Lane Outer Turret, you'll want to engage from Raptor Pit for example. Watch the fight start, look for the hard CC to be casted by the enemy team so they cannot stop you. It is best if there is one, to cast your ult on the lowest HP target there, E, AA, and use your shadow to gap close on the next squishy target within range. If you are low, and you need to, you can use your W to get out, or simply take your ult shadow back out. Keep close track of where your shadows are, and do your best to make sure your shadow, and you are hitting spells. When you and your shadow both hit enemies, you gain energy. And if you hit the same target as your shadow, you reduce the cool down timer on your 2 seconds per enemy hit. So if you are 2v1 a Yi and Rammus, you cast your shadow and land both E's on both targets, and you hit the Q on both, thats 6 seconds CDR on your W.

Feel free to check out my YouTube, Fed Zed Bot


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