Hey guys, My ign is ILikePogz. I am a Diamond player who has played since season 4. I main mid lane and specialize in assassin play with hundreds of games on leblanc,zed,and other assassins. The reason i want to write a zed guide is because zed has been my favorite champion since i started playing. I like zed because even though i have played hundreds or maybe even thousands of games with zed, every game i feel like there is something i can get better at with Zed or some mechanic that i could improve on. That being said, i still want to share my knowledge and what i know about Zed so that other players can pick up this champion too because i do think Zed is very fun and high skilled. Im also gonna add that Azoh was the one the zed players that i looked up to and learned from while learning zed and he definitely taught me a lot about how to play zed in all aspects of the game. I will be linking some of his videos in this guide since they helped me improve tremendously as a zed player and i think they will help you improve too. This is my Zed winrate and stats so far this season:

Zed is a high skill cap champion that has the potential to make a lot of flashy outplays, but if not played correctly, will be less effective. He is quite a situational pick in this meta tho unfortunately since he is very bad vs some team comps and gets hard countered by them.
He could be good vs some team comps and be completely horrible vs others. He has a lot of snowball potential but if you fall behind you are kinda useless since zeds main job is to assasinate, but if hes behind, he wont be able to effectively assasinate targets. If you are behind, just look to split push and get objectives for your team by either getting turrets in splitpush or letting your team get free objectives if the enemy send 2 for you. Even if you are behind, zed still has great dueling skills, which is why the enemy team might still have to send 2 for you.

Pros:
High Kill Pressure in lane
Good dueling skills
Qss doesn't negate Zed Ultimate anymore
Fun to play

Cons:
Hard to master
Not as effective in teamfights as control mages unless your team is ahead
Split pushing, which is one of Zed's strengths is not that good of a strategy in soloq
Gets nullified by zhonyas

Passive:Contempt for the Weak
This ability makes cs'ing on zed extremely easy since it makes it so that basic attacks against targets below 50 percent of their health deals percentage of their health as magic damage.
Its also a nice finisher to your all in.

Q:Razor Shuriken
This is your bread and butter. This is your main damage spell. Try to land Qs so that it doesn't hit minions and only hits the enemy champion since if it hits a minion it will only deal 60 percent of its damage to the enemy it hits after the first one.

W:Living Shadow
One of zeds best abilities. It serves as an escape, a way to poke your enemy from afar, and it helps make for some ridiculous outplays. Its passive also gives zed bonus ad which is neat.

E:Shadow Slash
Zed's second main damage spell. It serves as a slow with your w. Its a good spell for when fighting melees in close range combat.

R:Death Mark
This is the spell that Zed makes the majority of his outplays with. It primarily serves as a gap-closer and a finisher. It also drops a living shadow at where you land, which you can use to juke your enemies. Use this to dodge spells since it makes you untargetable for 0.75 spells and puts zed behind the enemy champ after. There are so many ways to use the ultimate. With the recent qss nerfs, champions cant use qss to cleanse the death mark anymore, which makes it even more deadly. Lategame you can ult an adcarry auto them a few times, and they should be dead if there are no interferences such as zilean ult or shields. You can also use this as an escape spell. If the enemy are chasing you, ult a target that you know doesnt have hard cc,use your w(living shadows) the opposite way of the direction you are trying to run to, and then if they commit to chasing you and leave your r(Death mark) shadow unattended, you can press r and go back to that shadow. This is one of the main jukes you can do with Zed.

During lane, look to harass the enemy with w-e-q and if they are low, press w again to go for the all in with your ignite. If the enemy is a lane bully such as azir, or lulu, dont be afraid to give up a few cs lv 1-2 and farm from afar with your q without taking too much damage. After lv 3 you can start harassing. Always look for opportunities to land your q preferably without hitting a minion first. Heres a video on zed poking techniques by Azoh . Play Video

If you have little to no kill pressure over your lane opponent. Look to shove your opponent and then roam. You need to understand what lanes have kill pressure and what lanes don't have it. Play Video

Zed's teamfighting is not as effective as your typical control mage such as viktor but he has somethings up his sleeves that he can offer to turn the tides of a battle. Look to stay out of vision or behind the enemy lines until you see some low enemies. Wait for your enemies to blow their main hard cc before going in so that you can freely do your damage. Think of it as playing as an assasin literally. Assasins stay away and then strike when the time is right. That is the key to teamfighting with Zed, wait for the perfect moment, and then go in with your ult and assasinate everyone. Another way to teamfight is if the enemy adc is very fed. You can go in blow everything on the adc, and they will most likely die. Although you might die,it is worth it if the enemy adc is their main damage and is their most fed. Just remember to go for squishy targets and distract people in fights. Dont over commit and get yourself killed and play around with your shadows. However if you guys have a weaker teamfighting comp, go for splitpushing. Zed teamfighting is very hard since you have to play it smart or else you will just get cc'd and blown up. Play Video

You can Q-FLASH so that there is no travel time on the q.

Some enemies cc you immediately as you come down from your ultimate. To avoid this you can place a w shadow before ulting and then pressing w immediately after you come down from your ultimate. I highly reccomend checking out some videos by azoh to learn more zed tricks since its easier to explain in video than in text. Here are some of his videos. Play Video Play Video

Zed is a champ that can take a long time to master, and even then its hard to play it since he is not as good in this meta. If you are new to zed, i recommenced not playing zed in ranked until you have played a couple of games in normals. Zed is a champ that you need to actually play games to get a feel of him and reading guides or watching vods of zed players won't do as much to actually improve your zed gameplay and knowledge. I wish you guys good luck in learning zed and good luck in soloq.