Welcome to my in-depth Season 12 Zed guide! My name is lolzed5, a Grandmaster Zed one-trick with 2.3 million mastery points. Why should you play Zed? Zed is one of the most mobile champions league of legends has to offer. If you like outplaying your opponents in the most flashy way possible, then Zed may be the champion for you! He is near impossible to stop when ahead due to his insane amount of mobility and burst. With good mastery of his kit, you can snowball your games, destroy your opponents and look fantastic while doing it! This guide will show you how to play like the best Zed player in the world, ZED99.

PROS + Insane mobility + High burst damage + Extremely difficult to catch + Faster than sight Zed has always been one of the best picks in solo queue due to his aggressive playstyle and ability to snowball the game. He has an insane amount of mobility that allows him to completely outmaneuver his opponents. With the surprising amount of damage Zed has he will often score tons of solo kills.

CONS - Difficult to master - No Crowd Control - Very squishy Almost all of Zed’s Damage is scaled into his Razor Shuriken, if they all find their mark, this could make the opponent feel hopeless against Zed, but zed has no Crowd Control to set up for the Razor Shuriken, this could result in missing out a ton of damage.

SUMMONER SPELLS - IGNITE With Ignite added kill pressure, Zed can easily snowball out of control with the amount of solo kills you can score. FLASH Hands down the best summoner spell in League of Legends, and it’s even better on Zed. it adds a whole new layer on top of Zed’s already insanely mobile kit. Flash just makes it nearly impossible for the opponent to predict you with the amount of options it provides.

	ELECTROCUTE Standard rune gives Zed more burst, you can almost never go wrong with this rune.
	FIRST STRIKE Zed is able to reliably proc First Strike with his Living Shadow and Shadow Slash, and able to gain even more gold with Razor Shuriken,the gold you make will enable Zed to spike items ahead of the opponent. Be careful when taking this rune as you are losing a lot of damage in comparison to the other runes
	CONQUEROR Conqueror is extremely good in extended fights, this rune is often overlooked by a lot of players, and would highly recommend this rune into bruisers and tanks that are difficult to burst down.

	DOMINATION
	TASTE OF BLOOD Zed can reliably proc taste of blood with his Living Shadow and Shadow Slash very solid rune for sustain in lane.
	EYEBALL COLLECTION One of the best ways to stack up attack damage is Eyeball Collection, with mastery over Zed’s kit scoring kills should be no issue.
	ULTIMATE HUNTER Zed’s ultimate is one of his most useful tools. Ultimate Hunter will greatly reduce his ultimate haste and allow Zed to have access to his Death Mark as often as possible.

	SORCERY
	NIMBUS CLOAK This is actually one of my personal favorite runes to take. I cannot count how many times I have escaped with the movement speed after casting Flash, or how many solo kills I got by chasing them down with autos after using Ignite on them.
	TRANSCENDENCE Very solid rune, helps Zed gain more Ability Haste, Zed is able to reliably throw two Razor Shuriken with two Living Shadow when he has 40 Ability Haste.
	SCORCH Very solid rune, helps Zed gain more poke. Great rune for laning if you want to focus on poking and finding solo kills.

	INSPIRATION
	MAGICAL FOOTWEAR Great rune if you are going the inspiration page, free 300 gold and extra movespeed from Magical Footwear added on top can help you move around the map.
	FUTURE’S MARKET If you are going First Strike, this is the rune to be taking. Future's Market can help you spike your items way ahead of your opponents in combination with the additional gold made from First Strike.
	COSMIC INSIGHT Really solid rune having Flash and Ignite more often will help you significantly.

	PRECISION
	PRESENCE OF MIND Energy is extremely important, and Presence of Mind can help Zed regen a lot of energy, in clutch moments, and in lane.
	LEGEND: TENACITY Often the best out of the 3 legend pages, Legend: Tenacity helps Zed the most against crowd control, Zed does not make very good use of lifesteal or attack speed as much as tenacity.
	LAST STAND This rune can be extremely good in down to the wire situations, Zed is able to output almost all of his damage in the blink of an eye, Last Stand can greatly increase Zed’s damage output in clutch situations.
	CUT DOWN If the opponent has more than 2 champions that likes building HP items Cut Down will give you the most amount of damage out of the 3 choices.

	RESOLVE
	BONE PLATING Bone Plating can be extremely annoying to deal with as an melee assassin since they have no way of procing Bone Plating without all in trade against Zed, would recommend taking into certain champions such as Fizz, Pyke, and Qiyana.
	DEMOLISH This rune can enable Zed take tower plates much faster when the opposing mid laner roams, and also helps later on when Zed is split pushing in the sidelane.

STARTING ITEMS

	LONG SWORD Long Sword is the standard starting item for Zed.
	HEALTH POTION Zed is one of the few champions who is allowed to start 3 Health Potions, you will have more sustain than most Mid Laners, utilize this to your advantage..
	REFILLABLE POTION The Refillable Potion is extremely valuable when you do not need as much sustain matchups such as Twisted Fate, Veigar.
	DORAN’s SHIELD Doran's Shield is extremely good in lane vs heavy poke matchup such as Syndra, Orianna, Viktor you will be playing HP for Mana in most mage matchups as Zed. Note to take every single chance you can to not buy Doran’s shield, First back 750 Serrated Dirk Spike is very powerful, you could potentially miss out on some serious DAMAGE on Zed.

WHAT BOOTS TO BUY?

	IONIAN BOOTS OF LUCIDITY Ionian Boots of Lucidity is almost always the best choice for zed. Insanely cost efficient.
	MERCURY'S TREADS Mercury’s Treads is a viable option when both opponent mid and jungle are ap, and have cc,the extra millisecond of cc reduced could make the difference of Zed casting Death Mark or Living Shadow.
	PLATED STEELCAPS Plated Steelcaps is rarely a good choice on Zed, as the way Zed rarely take damage if his kit is utilized to the full potential, but if the opponent’s damage is mostly one-hit: champions such as Fiora, Gangplank, Yasuo, Yone, etc.

WHAT MYTHICS DO I BUY?

	DUSKBLADE OF DRAKTHARR The invisibility can be extremely good in teamfights (If utilized to its full potential), gives Zed the most amount of burst damage in your Living Shadow+ Razor Shuriken+ Shadow Slash+ attack combo for squishies. Zed.
	PROWLER’S CLAW By far the best item for split pushing, if you want to mainly play for sideline pressure on Zed, I would highly recommend Prowler's Claw.
	ECLIPSE Eclipse is an item that you could almost never go wrong with, but note that it gives the worst stats out of all 3 mythic Items, but its shield can be extremely useful into melee burst champions such as Talon, Qiyana, and Fizz.

SITUATIONAL OFTEN

	YOUMUU’S GHOSTBLADE Youmuu's Ghostblade is a very useful item overall, if nothing else is needed the movement speed can significantly help Zed in roaming, split pushing, flanking, returning to lane and even during fights.
	EDGE OF NIGHT Edge of Night is great for teamfights, despite not providing as much damage as some alternatives, it can enable you to play in a more aggressive manner, which opens up Zed's options to access backline carries, a good option into reliable crowd control.
	SERYLDA’S GRUDGE Serylda's Grudge: this item will by far give you the most amount of damage second/third item if the opponent is building any amount of armor at all.
	SERPENT’s FANG Serpent's Fang needs very little explanation, the passive is extremely good at breaking shields, just note that you are losing a lot of stats for purchasing this item, be careful to analyze if it is needed or not.

SITUATIONAL SOMETIMES

	BLACK CLEAVER Black Cleaver is a good defensive item overall, gives more armor penetration for the team as well, if your team is heavy on AD Black Cleaver can give an insane amount of damage amp for the whole team.
	DEATH’S DANCE Death's Dance is a very good item against a heavy AD team because you will straight up take half the damage you normally take if you can get kills to reset the passive.
	UMBRAL GLAIVE Umbral Glaive is a good item for clearing vision for the river and contesting objectives. The stats are not ideal, but overall a useful item. I will rarely buy this because most of the time Control Wards and Oracle Lens is enough, however if you feel like your team is not playing towards vision enough, you could do all the work yourself.
	MAW OF MALMORTIUS I rarely finish this item, holding Hexdrinker gives enough value, but when it comes to the last item that you have to complete, and you cannot miss out on the defense against AP it would be time to complete this item.

MY OPINIONS ON AXIOM ARC

AXIOM ARC Frankly I wouldn't buy Axiom Arc unless I'm extremely fed. Youmuu's Ghostblade provides better stats along with movement speed which provides constant value. On paper Axiom Arc seems broken, however pursuing ultimate haste has two ultimate objectives, 1: to have your Death Mark available in every fight, and 2: the ability to Death Mark twice in a single fight, and seeing as Zed's Death Mark cooldown is already short enough without Axiom Arc to fulfill the first objective, and the chances of reliably obtaining a second Death Mark in a single fight are slim (3 or more kills) and even if you find yourself obtaining your second Death Mark, chances are the fight will most likely be over and you won't be casting your Death Mark until it would otherwise be off cooldown again.

ROAMING

Identity of a Mid Laner

Mid lane is located in the center of the entire map, granting mid laners the ability to move to nearly every skirmish occurring on the map. Junglers are akin to the friend who is always trying to start something, and mid laners are like the buddy on speed dial always ready to back up the squad. Whether it’s helping your jungler with a skirmish in the river, invading with your jungler, helping your jungler when he is getting invaded, or looking to dive sidelines together.

Where Do I Roam?

When roaming as a mid laner, it’s very important that you try to roam towards the side that your jungler is located/moving towards. This is vital due to the fact that if you move to the opposite side of the map, the opposing jungler could be on that side, and you will be down in numbers which could result in a one sided fight in the opponent's advantage.

LANING ON ZED

Zed's Power Spikes

Zed’s laning is extremely weak pre lvl 3, and you’ll want to focus on positioning yourself outside of the opponent’s range while farming all creeps available to you and allowing the wave to shove to you. After spiking lvl 3, Zed can look for more aggressive trades with the Living Shadow + Shadow Slash + Razor Shuriken combo, chipping away at the opponent's health, and potentially setting up a solo kill for lvl 5-6.

Mage Matchups

In most Mage matchups, you want to be trading health for mana, if you are successful at trading health for mana while remaining relatively healthy in lane, the opposing mid laner will be forced to reset before you at a disadvantageous time and wave state, therefore gaining you a better reset timer where the opponent is forced to miss minions / use teleport to come back into lane.

Importance of Health

Note that it is very important for a mid laner to maintain as high an amount of health as possible, so you can be as ready as possible to react to any fights that could potentially break out. Staying healthy is the primary goal, csing creeps is not nearly as important as staying prepared for what will happen on the map for mid lane.

How to Play Hard to Get with Junglers

Avoiding jungle ganks. You’ll want to lean towards the side that your own jungler is situated in, this way when the opposing jungler ganks you, the worst scenario will be a 2v2 instead of a 1v2 resulting in you completely getting bullied by the enemy mid/jg. If you know which side of the map the opposing jungler is currently on, you should lean towards the opposite side of their jungler. This is to ensure that when the opposing jungler looks for a gank on mid lane, you can simply walk into the opposing river.

Mid game usually occurs when the outer turrets start falling and people begin to rotate around the map. In this stage of the game as Zed you want to position yourself in the sidelane closest to the coming/current objective , shove out the wave, and transition into the fog of war. Create pressure on the sidelane while looking for opportunities to pick off opponents rotating towards the pressured lane or catching them after they have shoved out the lane and are looking to deny vision with control wards and oracle lens.

SPLIT PUSHING

Split Pushing, this topic is talked about by nearly everyone that has ever played League of Legends, but what does it mean to split push? How can you generate pressure by split pushing? I have broken down split pushing into 3 different subtypes, and will explain each and every way you can create pressure by split pushing in your own games. Note that each of these methods can transition into another based on circumstance.

Attack

Attack splitting is the most straightforward of all the methods. You split push in a sidelane and aim to destroy towers, and if someone from the opposing side comes to match you, you’ll solokill them and continue pushing. This form of split pushing can create an enormous amount of pressure as the opponent has to constantly worry about their base falling apart while simultaneously watching out for the objective that your team could be taking.

Float

Float splitting is one of the best ways to create an advantage for your team to contest objectives, if the opponent sends 2-3 players to try to catch your split. Instead of continuing to push, Zed could kite away and bait the opponent into chasing you, creating a lot of time for your team to take objectives on the map.

Flank

Flank splitting is when you shove in waves and move towards the objective that your team is contesting, note that flank splitting is not the same as float splitting, flank splitting is when you shove in the wave and immediately run towards the objective, not waiting until the opponent shows up before running away. This method allows you to reach the objective as soon as possible after creating a wave advantage in the side lane. This could force the opponent to pick up a wave resulting in a numbers advantage at the objective.

TEAM FIGHTING

Understanding how to teamfight with Zed first begins with understanding Zed’s identity and roles in a teamfight. Most people tend to think Zed is an Assassin , but this is not always the case. Zed does not solely play for assassinating the enemy backline all the time, Zed’s role in teamfights differ from case to case. I have broken down the different ways Zed could potentially choose to play out teamfights.

Assassin

The easiest role to understand is obviously Assassin . With proper usage of Zed’s elusive kit, Zed is able to assassinate backline carries in the blink of an eye before the first shot is ever fired. Being able to assassinate the enemy backline before they get any of their damage off can be the difference between a resounding success or a bitter defeat.

Protector

Sometimes, it’s better to peel for your backline carries instead of playing to assassinate the opponent’s backline. Zed is able to output an insane amount of damage in an instant, if your backline carries have enough damage to destroy the whole entire enemy team, it can be more beneficial for Zed to save his abilities to oppose the threat to your backline. This ensures that any assassins looking to obliterate your backline carries gets blown up before they are able to blow up your carry.

Disruptor

If your team has another Assassin that is stronger than you the role of disrupter becomes viable. Disrupters go in first with the aim to distract the enemy team, and waste their abilities, while keeping their attention fixated on you, setting the stage for your teammate to pop off and win the engagement.

Comming soon :D

Special Thanks to KaoriB0t and TsuyoKaze for assisting in creating this guide.