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Threats & Synergies
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Zed
# Overview ################################# Zed is actually a very winnable matchup. The only reason he's major is because it becomes un-winnable if he gets ahead early. His roams are also potent, and your job is to stay put against him. Ping MIA and mute all if you're getting flamed for not following. ################################# ################################# # Summoner Spells # ################################# Exhaust + Flash ################################# ################################# ## Exhaust ## ################################# Most of Zed's damage is delayed so exhaust is easily applied as he exits his ultimate. His ultimate--Death Mark--multiplies his damage, so decreasing it has DOUBLE the effect on reducing his damage. ################################# ## Flash ## ################################# Allows you to flash away _after_ he lands from his ultimate. Don't always flash immediately, wait for his Qs to be cast and dodge them. ################################# ################################# # Build # ################################# ################################# ################################# ## First Back ## ################################# 1100g+ Seekers Armguard (unless you had to waste Exh and Flash, then Stopwatch and whatever armor you can buy) ################################# ## General Build Order ## ################################# Seeker's Armguard -> Lost Chapter + Boots -> Stopwatch -> Luden's Echo/Zhonya's Hourglass Whenever you use the stopwatch finish Zhonyas, depending on your summoner spell cooldowns you can buy the blasting wand or the fiendish codex if you know you'll need to have Zhonya finished rapidly after your Stopwatch. ################################# ################################# # Lane Play # ################################# ################################# ## Level 1 ## ################################# At level 1 you're going to try to punish him as much as possible. Start Q and get presence over the wave forcing him out of melee range of it. Make him use his Qs to get last hits or miss them when he tries to poke you. If he goes to auto, punish him with Q and AAs. When his Q is down, he has literally no way to damage you as long as you space yourself properly. ################################# ## Level 2 ## ################################# At level 2 he can begin to put some serious damage into you, so watch his shadow use. I typically stay outside of the range of his physical body Q so that he can never get both the shadow and physical body Qs on me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I get W level 2 and try to let the wave bounce back to my side, using W as needed to stop it from crashing into my tower. You can still be aggressive here whenever he uses his Q to CS or poke as it is his only damage ability. IF he shadows towards you, back off and auto the hell out of him. Without his E (slow) you can easily get in more autos than he can. As long as he doesn't hit the double Q from the shadow you win the trade. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Also whenever he uses his shadow, wait for it to go down. Begin to position closer to his physical form as the shadow begins to fade, getting ready to punish him hard without his shadow. ################################# ## Level 3 - 5 ## ################################# He's really watching to be able to W close enough to slow you with his E (this gives him free double Q, and can TP to his shadow to auto you down hard). So NEVER let him get in his WE range. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Whenever he uses his shadow, stay back as you wait for it to go down. Begin to position closer to his physical form as the shadow begins to fade, getting ready to punish him hard without his shadow. He can still TP to his shadow even after he casts his Q so don't get ahead of yourself here. You should be able to punish like this continually until you get to level 6. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You should get E level 3, and afterwards put two more points in W for strong safe waveclear. Your spells should be levels, 1-3-1 respectively. Pay attention if you're going to hit level 6 first. You can easily kill him by positioning to hit both his shadow and his physical body but you have to make sure he can't turn on you while ulting. His early ignite damage is deceptive and cannot be diminished with exhaust. ################################# ## Level 6 ## ################################# At level 6 onwards you should always have either Exh or Stopwatch up if you want to be near him. Otherwise just max range Q for whatever CS you can get. Flash can work too, but I try to save it for more dire situations. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I buy stopwatch once I have used my Exhaust. I don't finish Zhonya's until I've used my stopwatch to reset the stasis CD. Instead I begin to work on lost chapter ludens/boots. Once those are finished I will finish Zhonya's regardless. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If he gets fed (it happens), consider buying Dead Man's Plate (I will still finish off Ludens and Zhonya first) I suggest this item all the time, but I rarely see people abusing it. It gives you the movement speed to dodge his Qs, outrun his Youmuu's Active, and the armor and health to survive his all in. Yes you sacrifice a ton of damage for defenses, but Vel'koz has such high base damages with his ultimate and true damage passives that you can afford the luxury. Any damage is more than none (dead). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Remember that when he ults you can cast your E immediately behind yourself and it will nearly guarantee a knockup. He'll also be knocked back towards your side, so I usually move forward into lane rather than back to tower and keeping my distance from his shadows. He should be dashless at this point so you can easily kite him, and also punish with your own combo. ################################# # Notes # ################################# High level Zeds will know about your E-during-his-ult play, and prepare a trick of their own. While they cannot swap to their ultimate shadow immediately after landing, **They CAN swap to their W shadow**. Using Youmuu's to get in close, they'll W in front of you, then they'll ult you. If you drop your E behind you they'll swap to their W shadow dodging it. They may decide to continue the chase if they were able to slow you or if the time remaining left on their ghostblade is enough to catch up. ################################# Stasis-ing his ultimate immediately when he is fed will not save you. While you will dodge the ult mark, he will still have all of the damage from his 3Qs, and the ease of not having to aim. With Ignite and some autos you might still die when you come out. Instead, you should stopwatch the Q cast. It's got a pretty long cast animation, just practice watching for it. You know it is coming when the ult comes out.
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