Welcome summoners to my build of Zed the Master of Shadows. I use Zed as a "Vampire" Assassin allowing him to steal life while in combat through his melee attacks in order to stay in lane sufficiently. However, the build doesn't really depend on life steal, but more on damage output against enemy champions. As you start to play with Zed using this build, you will see the criteria of his usage. Also a very import aspect of Zed is his cooldowns, particularly his Living Shadow with about a 21 second cooldown.

For Runes focus on physical damage marks in order to start off with some early damage output early game. Seal runes can be optional depending on your team, but armor seals are good when laning to stay in lane longer when able. For glyphs I prefer cooldown to spam your abilities faster and able to use your Living Shadow more frequently.

For masteries focus on offense with the cooldown points as it is the point of the built to have cooldowns for Zed. Offense is most important prior to defense and utility.

Remember, timing your abilities right can save your life and others. Be aware of your surroundings when laning alone. Think like an assassin and predict your enemies moves. Your abilities and cooldown sets are all that you need to survive in a battle with your teammates