Zed is an AD assassin that is played mostly in the middle lane. He is highly favored among many match ups due to his kit. Zed is a mechanical champion that requires a great amount of skill to play and has insane outplay potential when mastered. He has a strong laning phase, dueling ability, and excellent wave clear due to his passive. Additionally, he is a great split pusher, especially if you take Teleport over Ignite in lane. He can also roam after level 6 which allows him to snowball and gives him a great mid game lead. He can easily assassinate targets and you "OP" will be spammed in All Chat throughout the game. Zed is extremely rewarding and fun and he will never get boring! Season 6 is a great time to play Zed because of the many new and buffed AD items designed for Assassins as well as the new masteries (Thunderlords Decree) which reward players who snowball.

Pro's

- Uses energy
- Insane mobility
- Insane damage to AD Carries
- High burst damage
- Fun/Rewarding
- Easy farming because of Passive
- Excellent duelist/splitpusher

Con's

- Melee
- Squishy
- High Skillcap
- Prone to CC
- Useless when behind
- Countered by QSS/Zhonya's Hourglass

Flash is a must have spell on any champion, including Zed. It allows you to escape dangerous situations, dodge skill shots, secure kills and it allows you to even outplay your opponent. You are squishy and in order to survive you must carry Flash with you every game.



Ignite is an excellent choice on Zed as your second spell. Zed is an assassin. The extra damage from ignite will almost always secure a kill.



Teleport is a spell that can be taken over Ignite. Only take this spell if you happen to go Top lane Zed or if your're confident enough to win your lane Mid. It's essential for split pushing and it allows you to join a team fight from anywhere.

These are the standard runes for Zed in the current meta. Since most mid laners are AP based, this rune page is very beneficial. You take:

3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage runes because you are and AD champ that deals physical damage.
9x greater mark of armor penetration runes for mid game damage when your enemies start getting armor.
9x Greater Seal of Scaling Health runes that allow you to survive those extra auto's from AP champs.
9x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist because your'e almost always up against a magic dealing champion.

The only change you should make to this rune page is when you go up against another AD champion. In that case, swap the 9x Greater Seal of Scaling Health runes with 9x Greater Seal of Armor runes and the 9x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist with 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist.

(Passive) - Contempt for the Weak

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

This is extremely useful for farming in lane as well as providing extra MAGIC damage in conjunction with your ultimate.



(Q) - Razor Shuriken

ACTIVE: Zed throws his spinning blades forward, dealing physical damage to the first enemy they pass through and 60% damage to enemies thereafter.
Living Shadow: Active shadows also throw a shuriken in the direction of the target point. Additional shuriken striking the same enemy deal 50% damage and restores energy.

This is Zed's main source of poke with a pretty long range with a low cooldown.



(W) - Living Shadow

PASSIVE: Zed's bonus attack damage is increased.
Living Shadow: Zed's shadows mimic his basic abilities. If a mimicked ability strikes a target affected by its primary effect, Zed restores energy.
ACTIVE: Zed's shadow dashes forward, remaining in place for 4 seconds. Reactivating Living Shadow causes Zed to blink to its location, swapping places with it.

This is Zed's primary escape and gap closer. It allows him to harass with W E, W Q and W E Q combos.



(E)- Shadow Slash

ACTIVE: Zed spins his blades, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies and reducing Living Shadow's cooldown by 2 seconds for every enemy champion hit.
Living Shadow: Active shadows also slash, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies and slowing them for 1.5 seconds. Mimicked slashes that hit targets affected by the primary slash enhance the slow by 50% and restore energy, but deal no additional damage.

This ability helps you deal consistent damage with its low cooldown, similar to Zed's Q. Using your E when you have your W out will slow your target.



(R) - Death Mark

ACTIVE: Zed becomes untargetable for 0.75 seconds and dashes behind the target enemy champion. Upon arrival, he marks them for death and spawns a shadow at the cast location that lasts for 6 seconds. After 0.5 seconds, Death Mark can be reactivated to make Zed swap places with this shadow. At the end of its duration, Death Mark triggers, dealing physical damage plus a percentage of all physical and magic damage Zed dealt to the target while they were marked.

This ability alone makes Zed, Zed. Using this ability late game guarantees you a kill. It allows you to pull off insane plays and allows you to use your combo effectively. What's unique about this ability is that it leaves a shadow where you cast from for a free escape.

This is the best skill sequence for Zed. You max Razor Shuriken first because it's your main poke and primary source of damage. Second, you max Shadow Slash for more burst damage and Death Mark when you get the chance to. Lastly, you max Living Shadow because although it increases your bonus damage by a certain %, it's not worth maxing until the end since your Razor Shuriken and Shadow Slash are much more bursty and your Living Shadow is more of a utility based skill.

These are the options you have for boots on Zed. Mobility boots are excellent for roaming and split pushing. Lucidity boots gives you 10% CDR which is good for snowballing, but only buy it if you feel like you need it. Mercury's Treads are the best option in my onion because they give Zed tenacity. Lastly, only get Ninja Tabi against heavy AD comps.



RUSH THIS ITEM!! Ever since Pre-season buffs, Youmuu's Ghostblade is an excellent first item choice on Zed over BotRK. It provides armor pen, cdr, good amount of AD and its active allows you to chase down your target.



Blade synergies extremely well Zed. It is effective in assassinating a single target. BotRK allows you to stick to your target very well and has an active that amplifies your ultimate. It gives some AD, attack speed and life steal. Complete this after Youmuu's Ghostblade.



Lord Dominik's Regards is a very good item for its price. I Pick this up almost every game.The passiveis great at taking down tanks. Lord Dominik's Regards combines with in conjunction with Blade of the Ruined King take down high health targets fast.Blade of the Ruined King and Youmuu's Ghostblade also assures you that no one squishy will be making it out alive once you use Death Mark.



Maw of Malmortius is now an item on Zed worth completing. Mainly because you're up against mostly AP's in the middle lane. Maw gives you Armor penetration, Magic resist, AD and an amazing shield that can save you from death. However, you can always substitute it late game for a Bloodthirster.



When you hit level 9, it's highly recommended to swap your Warding Totem for Farsight Alteration because it's a much better now in Season 6. You can use it when chasing enemies and you don't have vision of them. It's also excellent for checking dragon or baron from a father distance. This item is also very helpful when you're split pushing.

Black Cleaver is also a good item on Zed, but ever since Season 6 I hardly buy it because I believe Lord Dominik's is much better at taking out tanks as well as squishy's. This doesn't mean it's bad, as it can allow you to achieve 40% CDR while still giving some AD, health and movement speed. I would recommend getting this item along with Lord Dominik's Regards if the enemy team is tank heavy.



Death's Dance is a new item released during the Pre-Season that has become very popular. I've been picking it up a lot post 6.1 because it received a very good buff. Death's Dance's stats are very cost efficient and the passive gives great AOE damage and makes you last longer in fights. It might work well with Hydra, but further experimentation needs to be done.

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These items should be 4th or 5th buys. Both of these items are really good on Zed, however, each is unique in its own way. If you are fed, it's better to purchase an IE to increase your damage. Its crit chance will wipe out carries. Only buy Bloodthirster if you're going to split push or you need it to avoid a good chunk of damage in team fights. It has a sustainability benefits such as a shield that stores additional health and +20% life steal which Zed benefits from tremendously.



Mercurial Scimitar was buffed during pre-season and is a very good item now. It has life steal,75 AD, some MR and of course its active which is needed for champions like Malzahar.

Item Not Included In This Build

I do not like this item on Zed at all. I don't hate it, but I believe Zed benefits more from BoTRK. Mind you, this item does have a great active that allows you to wave clear faster, as well as, 75 AD and 12% life steal but NO Attack Speed which Zed needs. The active Hydra provides is in fact built in Zed's kit already, especially with his passive. It's still a good item against immobile champions but BotRK does that job, overall.

The standard combo you use in lane with Zed to harass is > >

Full Zed Combo

> > > > > >


Advanced Zed Combo

Combo #1: > > > > >

Combo #2: > > > > >


Although there are many Zed combo's, these are the four you will use most of the time. There are so many ways you can outplay your opponent using Zed's kit that it's merely impossible to explain all his other combos in written format. Most of the insane outplays out there must be learned on your own through practice, as well as visually seeing them yourself done by others on Youtube such as Faker, Bjergsen etc.

Positioning with Zed isn't very difficult. Most of the time you should be split pushing and in the case that you aren't, your job as an assassin is to single out the AD carries and squishy's and kill them. However, when you do group, make sure to use your + + combo to poke as much as you can. The main thing here is to make sure that you don't waste your . Instead, when you do poke with + + , look for an opportunity to go to your shadow and get a kill with your Ultimate. Make sure that you prioritize your ult and use it on a target worth killing and not wasting it on a support or a tank.

Zed is an excellent assassin to pick up this season. He has the ability to win almost all of his match ups, an amazing late game (if you're not countered by EVERYONE on the enemy team) and although his kit is somewhat complex, he can be picked up at any level. The easiest part about playing Zed is winning your lane. The difficult part is correctly closing a game. He considered OP by many because of his raw damage and insane outplays but only in the right hands. Zed is Extremely fun and you are almost always guaranteed to have a great time playing him.