Hello everyone,
First of all i want to thank you for reading this guide :). My name is LeMiffin and I am a diamond Zed main. Since I am playing this game for already three years, I have noticed that I often have a different play style and item build than other players. That's why I have never found a guide on mobafire that I liked. So I decided to make my own guide and share my Zed knowledge with other people. English is not my mother tongue so I beg you to excuse me some mistakes. This is also my first guide so I would be happy if you could give me some useful feedback. Feel also free to visit my Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdvnfUocYiiRpaLDsOyCEHw

Can delete enemies very fast
Experienced players can make strong 1vs5 outplays
Good split push potential
Good waveclear
You can spam your spells for farming because Zed uses energy

Can be countered by ranged champions
Can be countered by items like Zhonya's Hourglass, Quicksilver Sash or Mercurial Scimitar
Can be countered by CC
High skill cap
Having energy isn't good for long fights

You need the bonus AD to get the early game dominance.

Since your Living Shadow and your Death Mark have a high CD, you need the scaling CDR to avoid the high CDs in the late game. Together with Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Youmuu's Ghostblade you will have 40% CDR at lvl 18. This is very useful in teamfights.

Take this to get some MR against AP enemies.

Take this to get some armor against AD enemies.

Greater Mark of Armor Penetration This is necessary to avoid losing damage because of enemy's armor runes or Doran's Shield/ Cloth Armor in the starter items.

As in chapter "Runes" mentioned, Ionian Boots of Lucidity combined with Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction and Youmuu's Ghostblade is a good method to avoid the high CDs of Living Shadow and Death Mark.

If you or your team got some early game problems on the lane, it's important to roam because this will help you and your teammates to come back to the game. In the late game you sell Mobility Boots and buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

This item helps you to kill enemies, you attack with Death Mark. The slow and the speed buff of Blade of the Ruined King give you the ability to chase enemies who try to run away and also make it easier for you to hit your Razor Shuriken. The damage you deal with this item increases the damage of Death Mark. It can be also use to escape enemies.

Combined with Blade of the Ruined King the AS and MS buff helps you to land as much AAs as possible on the enemy. This is very useful in the early game and mid game, where your damage is too low for fast oneshots. The buff also helps you to get to the enemies you want to attack with Death Mark without wasting Living Shadow that gives you a huge adventage because you can use your Living Shadow then to increase the damage and you will also have an easier chase/escape. It's also an important item because the CDR combined with Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction gives you 40% CDR at lvl 18 and the armor penetration combined with Last Whisper helps you to make quick oneshots in the lategame.
If you are split pushing, Youmuu's Ghostblade is a perfect item because you destroy buildings in a few seconds and it also has a low CD.

As already mentioned, this item combined with Youmuu's Ghostblade helps you to make quick oneshots.

This item gives you some extra damage and livesteal. The AD you get from this item combined with the passive of Living Shadow gives you a lot of AD that helps you to make quick oneshots. The lifesteal and the shield give you a good sustain in the teamfights.

This a good item when the enemy team deals much magic damage which is hard to avoid. Since the item gives you 60 AD you wont lose much damage with spending an item slot on it.

This is an alternate item for Maw of Malmortius. It gives much AD and MR too and has an active what removes all debuffs from your champ. This is useful when the enemy team has much CC for stunning you while you are ulting someone.

This item is very useful if you want to get more critical damage because combined with Youmuu's Ghostblade you will have a critical strike chance of 40% what is every third hit. Its also giving as much AD as Bloodthirster and more than Maw of Malmortius and Mercurial Scimitar.

If you prefer extra HP, armor and an additional slow, you should take this item.

If you prefer exra armor, MR and a revive because you know that the chance of dieing is very high for you, you should take this item.

The most people max Razor Shuriken at first. But I don't because in my opinion maxing Shadow Slash is more useful because:
1. The CD and costs are lower so you can use it more often in a fight. In early levels you are already able to use it twice everytime you use Living Shadow.
2. If you hit more than one enemy the damage of Shadow Slash won't get lower like the damage of Razor Shuriken does.
3. It's easier to hit your Shadow Slash than your Razor Shuriken so maxing your Shadow Slash makes sure you won't miss all damage with not hitting your Razor Shuriken.

In the early game you are just farming and harassing. If your enemy has ranged spells you just stay behind you minions and farm with your Razor Shuriken. At lvl 3 you can start to harass him with your Living Shadow --> Shadow Slash + Razor Shuriken combo. After using this combo you should go more behind because without Living Shadow you won't have any other escapes except Flash. If your enemy is low after the used combo, you can try a surprising attack with swapping with your shadow and using AAs, Flash, Shadow Slash and Ignite (mustn't happen in this sequence) for the kill. One of the AAs will have an additional damage from Contempt for the Weak.
Here is an video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asveA06xdKs&feature=youtu.be&t=2m40s
At lvl 6 you can start to go more aggressive. You can start snowballing on your lane or roaming to other lanes.

In teamfights you have to kill the enemy ADC. Since Zed is an assassin, he is very good in deleting his enemies. You just have to engage on the enemy ADC with Death Mark and hit 2 spells, one AA, your Blade of the Ruined King and probably your Ignite and after this you just swap with your shadow from Death Mark to get out. This is often enough to kill an ADC. When you have your full build you dont even have to use your Blade of the Ruined King anymore. The biggest problem is that the enemies can stun you and ruin your combo so the adc won't die and the teamfight is lost. That's why you have to try to dodge their stuns with Living Shadow or you have to be very fast so they won't be able to stun you. But stuns like Malzahar's Nether Grasp are hard to avoid so you have, like already mentioned, to use items like Mercurial Scimitar or at least Quicksilver Sash. Another problem could be that the enemy ADC has Mercurial Scimitar or Quicksilver Sash too. If this is the case, you have to try to stay a little bit longer on the enemy ADC and to hit him with more AAs. But since the AD damage of Zed is huge in lategame, it shouldnt take long. If the ADC has Guardian Angel, you damage him until he is reviving and while he is doing it, you help your team with the other enemies and kill the ADC together when he is alive again.

Split pushing with Zed works very good because he has a good waveclear and additional AD from the passive of Living Shadow. You can also destroy turrets very fast with the active of Youmuu's Ghostblade. You should only go split pushing if your team is behind and you are able to win against everyone of the enemy team in a 1vs1. You should also have some wards on the map to know if someone is coming and who is coming.

● People often forget about your shadows. Use the shadows of Living Shadow and Death Mark for outplays.
● Death Mark can be used to dodge spells and AAs such as Requiem, Pick A Card or Ace in the Hole but you will still get damaged by spells like Ignite, Death Mark, Chum the Waters or Hemoplague. It's like Playful / Trickster of Fizz or Sanguine Pool of Vladimir.