~~~ Zed Abilities Simplified ~~~
Passive - Contempt for the Weak, Do more damage with autos to enemies below 50% health.

Q - Razor Shuriken, Shurikens that do normal damage on first hit, less damage after it passes through target. Zed’s main poke.

W - Living Shadow, Puts out a shadow that mimic’s your other abilities. If you hit the same target with 2 or more of the same ability (W shadow and/or R shadow) you get energy back.

E - Shadow Slash, Does area damage around you in a circle. If one of your shadow’s E hit an enemy it slows them. If 2 or more hit the enemy, they are slowed even more and you get some energy back.

R - Death Mark, Zed goes untargetable for a moment and a mark is put on the target. The ult then pops after a few seconds doing MORE damage based on the damage dealt during the few seconds.

~~~ Runes ~~~
The secondary runes and 3 mini runes can also be situational and change to your preference.

I generally take either:
Precision - Triumph and Coup De Grace.
or
Sorcery - Transcendence and Scorch.

The 3 mini runes can vary but I tend to take 10% attack speed to help with csing. You can switch it out for 10 adaptive. The health mini rune can change to armor, or magic resist depending on the enemy team. If they consist of heavy AD or heavy AP, change the rune to the corresponding mini rune. This is also the same with if the champion does a ton of damage in lane and you need more resistance against them in lane.

~~~ Items ~~~
Start 1 longsword and 3 health potions. It depends but you can start with a refillable pot.
(IMO: It is best to start 3 health potions and buy a refill afterwards)

Core Items: Duskblade of Draktharr, Youmuu’s Ghostblade

Item Pool: Core items, Black Cleaver, Edge of Night, Lord Dominik’s Regards Bloodthirster, Ravenous Hydra, Titanic Hydra, Sterak’s Gage, Maw of Malmortius, Death Dance, Storm Razor, Phantom Dancer, Guardian’s Angel.

Standard Item Build: Boots, Duskblade, Youmuu’s, Black Cleaver, Lord Dominik’s, Death Dance
(Last Item here can be switched to whatever item to maximize your effectiveness in game. For example, taking Storm razor for better deletes, or taking Edge of Night for more lethality, hp and the spell shield.)

Boots very from game to game. You might need ninja tabis if they are all AD, or Mercury’s Treads if they are AP and/or have a lot of CC. You can get Mobility Boots if you will roam a lot, etc. Buy accordingly to your game.

Zed’s laning phase varies a lot from champion to champion which is something you will have to learn for yourselves.. But I will generalize each ‘type’ of enemy mid laners you could face.

Ranged AP Mages (Syndra, Brand, Karthus, etc.) -
Facing ranged AP mages will require your dodging skills to be half decent. You don’t need to be faker level, but you must make sure you can dodge around 60% of the enemy attacks. If you cannot dodge, you will have a very hard time. Generally (depending on the enemy mid laner) you can walk up and farm with autos, but you have to be wary of their attacks. They can just come in and auto you continuously to punish you. If they do, sit back and farm with your Q’s, soak up as much xp as possible and farm safely.

Ranged Melee Mages (Ekko, Fizz, etc.) -
With these matchups you can be less cautious about autoing to cs and trading. There isn’t much to be said about these matchups as it depends on your skill and the enemy’s skill. If you have to you can build hexdrinker to help you in laning phase. I’d say get E second so you can Q E Auto when they go on you to trade.

AD Matchups (Yasuo, Talon, etc.) -
Just try to dodge most pokes from them and outpoke them. You can farm with autos more often with these matchups. It mostly depends on your skill and their skill.