amazing build every time i use this build then i can solo anyone from the enemy team! though the build is weak at the beginning which is its main con

Hey, even though your guide is above mine, I acknowledge that this is actually pretty good. I never considered Blade of the Ruined King, or combining Actives. Good job!

Thanks theramenking. To be clear, it's not just veigar's, that was my example. Use it for other similar abilities such as Jarvan IV's Cataclysm.

Everyone try to spread the word about the guide! I'm trying to update it with new info on how to play zed. I finally realised that you should always be roaming once the first tower dies. Hit people from the back so they can't run in every lane randomly. People say Zed is bad... it's because they never worked that out.

I like your build and explanations a lot. I couldn't help but grin as I read your method for evading Veigar's abilities.

I'll look into coding in large icons, I debated using them when i created the guide and decided since i wasn't using columns (at least in the items section) it wouldn't look good. I'll try it out though and look, because I actually foolishly never did.

Second, I think I said this already, but readers, Isthatok's zyra guide is insanely good. If you're looking for a new champ, choose zyra and use that guide.

Third, for those of you that don't like glasscannon zed, please add an a) thornmail, b) atma's impaler, or c) guardian angel to the build in place of item of your choice. The only item that I would say NOT to replace is Black Cleaver. That item is so necesarry it's rediculous.

Hey zergkops,

Thanks for your input on my build - I too have found myself using chalice more lately but I guess it's pretty situational. Sometimes it doesn't seem to hit hard enough for me. I also shared your doubts with GA as I was adding it in a few months ago. Still think it's nice as do a lot of other people so I left it in; plus it's an "alternative".

Anyways regarding your guide I've had zero experience on Zed so I'm afraid I won't be much help. But consider using large icons like these!

+1 Keep up the good work!

OK, in answer, I'm going to disagree with teleport at least. Ghost lasts 10 seconds and gives 35% move speed. (that might be outdated, not sure) anyways, that means you can chase longer, getting in maybe a total of 5 (more likely 3-4) hits on a target above 50% hp. With ignite, you can deal damage (and you'll be in range to do this during a chase) that get's them down to 50% health. The reason 50% is so important is Contempt for the Weak. Also, flash can be used to catch up to enemies instead, while Death Mark and Living Shadow both have a chasing function. Finally, ignite can do damage that helps with Death Mark's damage because if ignite takes them down to 50%, your basic attacks deal 6/8/10% more damage, so it does benefit you Death Mark damage.


To The Whole Community:
P.S. If you leave a comment that involves a specific thing, please put double square brackets ( ) around it so that I don't have to look up the thing in question to answer. It just makes answering easier for me, and it makes my answer easier to validate for readers. Thank you!

OK, in answer, I'm going to disagree with teleport at least. Ghost lasts 10 seconds and gives 35% move speed. (that might be outdated, not sure) anyways, that means you can chase longer, getting in maybe a total of 5 (more likely 3-4) hits on a target above 50% hp. With ignite, you can deal damage (and you'll be in range to do this during a chase) that get's them down to 50% health. The reason 50% is so important is Contempt for the Weak. Also, flash can be used to catch up to enemies instead, while Death Mark and Living Shadow both have a chasing function. Finally, ignite can do damage that helps with Death Mark's damage because if ignite takes them down to 50%, your basic attacks deal 6/8/10% more damage, so it does benefit you Death Mark damage.


To The Whole Community:
P.S. If you leave a comment that involves a specific thing, please put double square brackets ([[ ]/] this but without the slash, that just deactivates it so that you can see) around it so that I don't have to look up the thing in question to answer. It just makes answering easier for me, and it makes my answer easier to validate for readers. Thank you!

Hey, is Ghost or Teleport a viable choice instead of Ignite? Those are improved with Distorsion, and Ghost gets benefit from Summoner's Wrath. As Ignite dosn't help with the Death Mark's damage, I think some extra attacks while chasing are a better choice.

Just want to clarify before I begin my customary in-depth response: BC means Black Cleaver correct?

First and most important thing: I never said I don't like the Blade of the Ruined King. I said, specifically:

This is here because I don't think selling the Bilgewater Cutlass is a good idea because of how well it works with Zed. This item adds a heal to the active, which heals you for the amount dealt, and also gives you +30% move speed at the same time as the champion you activate it on loses 30% move speed for 2 seconds. Fun for chases :D.

Basically, what I said is that I don't want to sell the Bilgewater Cutlass and get something else because of how well the Bilgewater Cutlass works with zed's ultimate. I actually quite like the Blade of the Ruined King. What I meant by "here" is at the end of the build. If I had sold it I would have done so sooner. The Blade of the Ruined King doesn't add much (except a heal) to the Bilgewater Cutlass active. Therefore, I buy the Blade of the Ruined King last. It's not that I don't like it (in fact I actually like it quite a lot) it's that you pretty much already have everything it does and the gold is better spent on other things at that point. However, I will look into other things that build off the the Bilgewater Cutlass.

Now, as for your stuff about Black Cleaver:

I did some pretty solid research into this as I had very similar thoughts. It has exactly 15 more AD than the Last Whisper. 55 AD is great, but 40 is almost as good.

On the other hand, the black cleaver has 10 CDR. I actually missed this (*blush*), but this is really good. 250 health also reduces our zed's glass cannon-ness. So Black Cleaver wins here too.

But finally, the black cleaver has exactly 15 ArPen (45 ArPen at full stack, which only lasts 4 seconds). The Last Whisper has 35 ArPen, but it's permanent. The reason I did this is that you will mostly be doing main damage through use of your Razor Shuriken. ArPen works on everything (and zed's abilities scale AD so this IS a true AD assassin build) which means it affects Razor Shuriken. Because the damage you deal isn't effected by Black Cleaver stack caused by it (this is tested, the stack triggers AFTER the damage is dealt), the extra 7.5 ArPen can't do anything. You probably will not be able to land another Shadow Slash, assuming you landed one in the first place, and Razor Shuriken's CoolDown is 6 seconds. Now, if you land one e and one q, that's +15 ArPen. So now this item has 30 (15+15) right? Wrong. The first bonus 7.5 isn't used until you land the next ability, and then the bonus 15 is never used. So you really only had 22.5 at most. On the other hand, all of your attacks would land 35 ArPen with the Last Whisper. Finally, when your Death Mark detonates, you should have landed: 3 (4 if lucky, but I'm not going to count that here) shadow slashes and 2 Razor Shurikens. Let's break this down. That's 2 shadow slashes first. They hit at EXACTLY the same time, so NEITHER benefits from the other's ArPen. That's 15 each. next: 2 Razor Shurikens. These both hit separately, so the first one gets 30 ArPen and the second one receives 37.5. Finally, one more Shadow Slash receives 45 ArPen. Then the Death Mark detonates and gets 45 ArPen.

As I'm writing this, I'm actually redoing some old experiments (pre-season 3) and the newer testing was done by a friend. So this is actually the first time I've run through this.

OK, so for Black Cleaver, this is 15+15+30+37.5+45+45 = 187.5 total Pen'ed armor.

For the Last Whisper, this is 35+35+35+35+35+35, or 35 * 6 = 210 total Pen'ed armor. So we actually get MORE ArPen from the last whisper during a Death Mark combo and during a Ult-is-on-CD poke combo. So the Last Whisper wins 2 points there. Now it's 2-2. It's pretty even, they both have their strong points.

I just ran through the entire reason why Last Whisper is an item that you HAVE to buy, and Black Cleaver is the top recommended option to the Phantom Dancer. However, Last Whisper won by a lot more before pre-season 3. Because of this I will probably make Black Cleaver the buy in the build as opposed to Phantom Dancer.

That good enough explanation for you? xD.

OK. I actually never considered spell vamp. I'll look into it. I most definitely will. In fact, it gives me a reason to stop trying to work out a tanky build (which I found kind of not worth it) because you cast your Death Mark, you nearly die, everything casts, and suddenly your practically full health :P. Incidentally, spell vamp does not affect zed's w, as it deals no damage.

GA is not necessary for zed. It wastes an item slot that could be much better spent with another AD item :P. As I said in this guide: GA is not necessary because you can die. You will generally be going 2 kills to one death, but in teamfights it will probably be 1 kill to 1 death. With all the dives and charges you have to do to deal good damage ( Death Mark has a dash as part of it, remember), GA won't be off CD often enough to do much. However, it IS one of the options that you can take over Phantom Dancer if you want.

I am currently in the process of increasing my own gameplay (this was made w/ the help of my buddy Mohagnar) and I'm currently not even level 30. Therefore, I'm waiting on him to help create a match-up list, which neither of us currently has time for. However, for now I would recommend NOT Death Marking any other burst champion. They can probably take you as fast as you can take them, which is almost never worth it (teamfights are the exception, of course).

I will begin work on a "When to take zed" chapter. I definitely agree with your points there.

You don't NEED a tanky initiator OR jungler. The reason is you are an initiator. However, it is always a good idea to have a separate tank, and they should generally go top with you.

Last point: god I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO agree with that. Guys, wait up, "When to Take Zed" chapter coming up!

Up vote for me , because your guide is serious and pretty complete , you do a great job there .

BUT :

This is my point of view, i'm not a pro but with my Zed Experience i can say :

-BC > LW .
More AD, Good Pen Armor , when your death mark explode , BC is full stack.
i don't make the math about this but maybe against Tanky Team LW is better and even in this is not sure (more AD on BC )

Some people take both, and try to make a true Dmg AD caster . Never test by myself but that sound fine for me .

-i wanna talk about spellvamp .
In the case of you think i'm crazy, i explain to you this :
Spellvamp works with all skills who is not considere like auto attack .
basically we can say all skills on Zed .

Sometime i like to use gunblade as a first item .
high suvivability with life leech + Spell vamp , that allow you to survive a little more on your combo .
+/-200 Hp healed by this .
i talk about this because you seems to don't like alot the blade of the ruined king .

As a conclusion, it seems you like to play Z with some auto attack .
Why not but as a AD caster i'm not sure about this, or i have no idea if it's a good idea at all .
but as all high deal champion , GA is a must have . Even on Evelynn or Talon you have to take it .

if in your opinion i'm wrong, it's fine, but could make a video to show us how you manage your team fight with that build.

and Do you have a project to make some match up list for top/Mid lane ?

Ps : Sorry for my english
pps : could you add a part of when take Zed ? he is not a good champ in all team composition .
For exemple if you take it top, you must have a good tanky initiator Jungler/mid like Malphite, shyvana etc .
I guess most of poeple have a bad experience with Zed not because they pley him bad but because they took him in a bad team composition .

@m4trickx: The funny thing is that posted that at 2:00 AM my time, yet I actually added Black Cleaver as the highest recommended alternative option to the Phantom Dancer about 11:00 PM last night. Check the notes next to "options for item #5". Also check the item explanation chapter.

I agree, Black Cleaver is a very good item. I think, however, we both managed to work out that everything else in the build is more important, which is why it was not originally included.

thanks!