On Zed I prefer using following runes, as they are very reliable
from early to late game:

9x Greater Mark of Desolation

- Simple. More armor pene = more damage.

9x

- Again standard pick. Flat armor helps much at early game.

9x

- Flat magic resist. Why not.

3x Greater Quintessence of Desolation

- More and more armor pene = more and more damage.

Other choices:

- 10 flat attack damage at start is very good, but I still prefer armor penetration.
- Greater Seal of Vitality Not much in early game but results in free at late game.
- Great early game damage boost but well, I think it's everybody personal choice beetwen armor pene and attack damage. I would still pick armor pene.
- For Glyphs, I don't see much other choices and I see
as most useful.

I don't think there is anything to discuss either. 21/9/0 path is best for assassins like Zed. I picked up because it's simply better than nothing. is a must for all AD, like the rest of tree. Feel free to change points for some CD reduction from or for easier last hiting at early game.

In this part let's look at build step by step...

We will start with... surprise....

and 3x

I recommend this, as Zed have no sustain in lane. Movement speed is
allways good and 3 potions help you to stay in lane to farm at least 1337g.

And the next item is...



This is great early game item, that nicely incerase your damage output and
reduce your cooldowns by 10%. Later we can build this into
or sell it for better late game item. Anyway I think Ghostblade is quite good
even in late game. Use passive to escape from death.

Follow with...



Again, we need some more damage, but now we will focus on getting some HP that
greatly help us to stay alive, and cc passive that secure our kills.

Next....



Great item to ignore even more armor, with this your opponent dmg reduction will
be around 10-20%, and that's very low. With the preseason patch it's much better
than Y. Ghostblade I think.

..and finally some heavy damaging item...



A must for any AD character. Fully stacked offers 100 attack damage and a lot
of lifesteal. Just be carefull to don't die often!

And now the hard choice...

- -

All of this boots offer GREAT utility, but you can pick only one. If you are
really facing hard AD team (Jax, Jayce, Caitlyn...) you should pick Tabi for
nice 10% dmg reduction. In 90% of battles I pick Treads because of CC reduction
and MR that is useful in 99% of games. If you are doing very well, you can also
go for Mobility Boots. Escaping will be easier and you can gang very often.
But I pick these only in rare cases.

Let's start finishing:

or Mercurial or

I recommend build Frozen Mallet first, because of great passive and huge HP boost that you really need. Next item order depends on situation. Facing heavy or fed AP? Get Mercurial. It also have very good active, something like free Cleanse with some speed boost. Facing heavy AD? Get GA. If The Black Cleaver won't be enought, build instead of anything that you feel is not that useful.


Tier 3 boots:

If your team is getting pushed much, get homeguard. If not I prefer that thing incerasing your movement speed by 25. (Forgot name -_- )

This will be your main damaging skill. You throw
a shuriken that do nice damage. Max it first.
Remember you can easily and often harrash with it,
as it have quite low CD and you are using energy.



This is what makes Zed unique. You spawn a shadow
that copy your attacks. Don't forget about it's passive,
5/10/15/20/25% incerased AD. That's quite a lot, but
because of CD and no other utility than shadow, we
will max it last.
Also it's the reason why Zed don't need flash.



This is very usefull skill. It has low CD and nice
AoE damage. Combine it with your Living Shadow and
you get a damaging-AoE-CC skill with very low CD.
If are enemies chasing you, throw your shadow,
teleport there and use this to slow them down.
You should escape in most of situations. Max it second.



Zeds ultimate. You dash to your opponent making you
untargetable for about a second and spawning shadow
behind him. I recommend using E fast and than AIM your
Q. If you miss your Q damage will drop by a lot.
After 3 seconds it deals 100% of your attack damage
+20/35/50% of damage you done in that 3 seconds.
Great for assassinating AD carry. Use this only
if you know your opponent won't flash away, otherwise
it's a wasted ultimate.



And at last.. Zeds passive. It doesn't sound like
something great, but you will find it's very usefull.
10% of target health as magic damage will result in
fast finishing of fight. If you are lucky enought
and you hit that while your ultimate is active, your
damage output will incerase greatly!

Since we don't need thanks to our W, we can
pick something else. This is in my opinion one of the
most usefull summoner spells so pick it.



Classic pick. Decerases healing and does true damage.
Use this with your ulti to incerase damage even more!



You can change one of the upper spells for this one,
but you will lose great utility. Still good choice.


I don't talk about other Summoner spells, but if
you are stupid and want to pick or something
that will be completly useless, just go on...

I made this guide just to help Zed players, that plays him very bad.
( stacking L:OL]. I will be happy if you suggest
some new ideas for this simple build. If everything goes OK, I will
update it as much as possible.