Hello, welcome to my Zed guide. I am Triscent, a TW server player who reached Diamond in two accounts, plat in KR server within two days. I mainly play mid lane and supp. My main champions are Zed, Fizz and Orianna. Let's start of introducing Zed. Zed is a solo mid assassin which seeks out skirmishes and assassinations before teamfight starts. Zed has strong laning phase, dueling ability and solo kill potential. He kills mostly by a combo of burst through his ultimate deathmark. He has high roaming ability which helps snowballing, if he gets fed he can pretty much kill people without his ultimate.
Here is a few screenshots of my accounts

My win rate on my smurf
My Main account

My smurf

My decayed OP.GG KR Server account

Pros + High dueling potential + Good snowball and roaming ability + Escape abilities + High burst + Good Early, Mid and Late game damage + High Skillcap

Cons - No Crowd-Control - Difficult to master - Require good mechanics - Low Teamfighting ability - Highly focused - Scales AD which might make your team heavy AD

Zed is not a frequently banned champion in ranked but a frequently picked one. The main reason to this is he is not worth a ban, when he gets behind he will really be pretty much worthless but if he snowballs, he snowballs hard. All in all it is a very skill dependent champion which if you are able to perform well, you will get them freelo especially most zeds below platnium doesn't really know what they are doing. Zed is definitely a balanced champion that can help you climb elo in the right hands.

Contempt for the weak (P)

Zed's basic attacks against targets below 50% health deal 6 / 8 / 10% of the target's maximum health as bonus magic damage.
This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds on the same target.

Zed's passive that deals a ton of burst damage, allows easy farming last hits and damage when you put autoattacks in between your burst combos.

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.
PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235 (+ 100% bonus AD)
SECONDARY DAMAGE: 45 / 69 / 93 / 117 / 141 (+ 60% bonus AD)
LIVING SHADOW: Active shadows will also throw a shuriken in the direction of the target point. Additional shuriken striking the same enemy deal 50% damage and restore energy.

As zed's main damage ability, it is maxed out first as it also grants you poke ability in lane. Use it to farm safely in lane when zoned out by long range mages such as orianna Orianna. Beaware that the shuriken does half its damage to the second target it goes through so aim it carefully. Also remember shurikens after the first one hit does 50% its damage and it doesn't matter which shuriken it is. Just which shuriken is first.

Living Shadow (W)

PASSIVE: Zed's bonus attack damage is increased by a percentage.
BONUS ATTACK DAMAGE: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% Bonus AD
ACTIVE: Zed's shadow dashes forward, remaining in place for 4 seconds. Reactivating Living Shadow will cause Zed to swap places with this shadow.
LIVING SHADOW: Zed's shadows mimic his basic abilities. If a target is struck twice by a mimicked ability, Zed restores some energy. Energy can only be restored once per mimicked cast.
ENERGY RESTORED: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40

Living shadow is your main mobility ability. It allows you to escape easily from ganks, it also acts as a damage source which mimics abilities you used. Use it to poke in lane or amplify your damage. The Shadow Slash by your shadow also slows. Any abilities that the shadows hit will restore you energy.

Shadow Slash (E)

ACTIVE: Zed spins his blades, creating a burst of shadow energy and dealing physical damage to nearby enemies. Each enemy champion hit reduces Living Shadow's cooldown by 2 seconds.
PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 80% bonus AD)
LIVING SHADOW: Active shadows also slash, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies and slowing them for 1.5 seconds. Enemies hit by both slashes are slowed more and restore energy but will not take additional damage.
SLOW: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
OVERLAPPING SLOW: 30 / 37.5 / 45 / 52.5 / 60%

Shadow Slash is your close range duelling ability. Use it with your autoattack as it cancels your autoattack animation.

Death Mark (R)

ACTIVE: Zed becomes untargetable for 0.75 seconds and dashes behind the target enemy champion. Upon arrival, he marks the target for death, ignores unit collision, and spawns a shadow that lasts for 6 seconds at the cast location. Reactivating Death Mark will cause Zed to swap places with this shadow.
After 3 seconds, Death Mark will trigger, dealing flat physical damage plus a percentage of all physical and magic damage dealt to the marked champion while it was active.
PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 100% AD + 20 / 35 / 50% of damage dealt

Death mark is your ultimate and also your main burst ability. Remember all abilites you used durinh the death mark duration is amplified in the final burst. You also ignore unit collision during death mark, you become untargettable when you cast it so use it to dodge any abilities. Be careful as you always appear behind your enemy, they know where you land but also, use the shadow swaps it provides you effectively.

*Remember Zhonya's Hourglass and Quicksilver Sash are you biggest counters, they negate your Death Mark damage, be aware.

Razor Shuriken ---> Shadow Slash
This sequence allows you to quickly get an auto off at the end of your shadow slash without the autoattack animtation. Doing it the other way round will not cancel your autoattack animation but instead decreases the animation for your Razor Shuriken

Living Shadow ---> Shadow Slash ---> Razor Shuriken
The best poking combo from long range, safe but deadly. You Shadow Slash slows the enemy which helps hit your Razor Shuriken more easily.

Living Shadow ---> Razor Shuriken ---> Shadow Slash An alternative which is more risky in missing the Razor Shuriken with the lack of slow which your Shadow Slash applies. But it is a bit faster.

You can always use Living Shadow again to swap places, autoattack and Shadow Slash again if you want to go in or duel with someone when you feel confident enough after poking them down.

There are many variations to use your Death Mark combo but here are the most common examples you will find people using.

Death Mark ---> Ignite ---> Shadow Slash ---> Living Shadow ---> Razor Shuriken ---> Living Shadow ---> Autoattack ---> Death Mark ---> Shadow Slash
The most common one Faker uses, you can use your cutlass/BOTRK active anyway in the combo when you feel the need to buest or the movement speed to kite. This is the combo you can use when you are in range of Death Mark with the enemy without the need of closing the gap with Living Shadow

Living Shadow x2 ---> Death Mark ---> Shadow Slash ---> Razor Shuriken ---> Autoattack
This combo is when you are out of range of the enemy, using Living Shadow to close the gap, you can always chase if they Flash by using one of your own or the item actives such as Youmuu's Ghostblade or cutlass/BOTRK. Use ignite when burst damage is needed.

Living Shadow behind yourself ---> Death Mark ---> Shadow Slash ---> Living Shadow ---> Razor Shuriken ---> Death Mark ---> Autoattack
Dueling combo in 1v1's which provide you mobility to avoide skillshots enemy makes. Performed quite often by Bjergsen.

Death Mark ---> Shadow Slash ---> Living Shadow ---> Death Mark ---> Razor Shuriken ---> Living Shadow ---> Autoattack
The fancy sequence which isn't always pratical and can be replaced with more efficent combos. Nonetheless it allows you to go back in to your enemy after using your Death Mark part two to dodge an ability such as Orianna 's Command: Shockwave.

A ton of other combos exist which is limitless, it's all up to your own imagination and clutch moments to make them.

Generally poke the enemy down with your Razor Shuriken everytime they try to CS, or else just farm up safe with it when you are zoned. Be careful of using your Living Shadow as it leaves you vulnerable to ganks. Use it wisely. Even though you have low kill potential pre6, the moment you reach 6 is where you can burst down the enemy. Try to poke enemy laner down before 6, race to 6 and kill them when you reach 6 first. You can always roam when you push lane, your Death Mark and Living Shadow provides enough mobility to snowball from other lanes.

Zed is a very hard champion to teamfight with, you rarely see Faker teamfight with Zed. I only see one pro player who actually uses Zed to teamfight but proficently as one of the best Zed's in the world. It is Dade, though you tend to not teamfight with Zed unless forced to. Try to burst down one of enemy carries before the fight over objectives such as dragons or baron even start. When forced to teamfight, just try to burst down the enemy carries as your shadows provide you save escape routes. If possible where you know you won't die, you can stack all your shadow's on top of everyone and do an AOE burst which may even kill the whole team, but that is when you are relatively fed. Try your best to assassinate during teamfights if you are playing from behind.

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All in all I hope this guide will help you through knowing more about the champion Zed leading to more better Zed players in ranked. However, Zed is a highly mechanical champion with unlimited possible ways to combo his abilities, everyone has their own playstyles so the amount I can teach you through a guide is limited. All I can show you is the most common scenarios you will see from a Zed, you need to practise Zed to apply all the knowledge and combos you know in different situations which I can't help you just from a guide. Overall, thank you for reading this guide, you can put up any suggestions or feedback for me to change but honestly, this is quite a lazy guide. Thanks, I am the writer of this guide Seiiko.