Hi, this is my second guide and it is on how to play Zed. In this guide I will cover runes, masteries, summoner spells, ability sequences, and items."

Pros
- When used properly, Zed's combo allows you to target and kill important enemies quickly.
- Great at farming
- You can dodge enemy abilities with Living Shadow or Death Mark
- High burst damage



Cons
- Squishy
- When your ultimate is on cool down it can be hard to kill enemies quickly
- Often focused

I take these runes because all of Zed's abilities scale off of AD, except his passive.

These help greatly to reduce your damage taken from minions and help increase your overall survivability.

Almost every champion has some sort of magic damage so these are all around good to have.

I take these runes to increase the damage of all of Zed's attacks and maximize his potential output.

Recommended:


Take it for an early kill and it works well late game to get some extra damage in and to reduce healing spells when you are playing against someone like Master Yi or Alistar.


I take flash for escape. You should still take flash instead of living shadow because you often use living shadow in your combo.

Optional:


Works well early game but in late game you will be killing enemies in 1 combo and chasing will not be necessary.


This is great for catching enemies but if they flash over certain walls you can't cast living shadow over it.


This is great for split pushing and coming in for team fights. It can also be used to get back to your lane faster to maximize farming.

Contempt for the Weak:
Whenever Zed autoattacks an enemy below 50% health, he deals an additional 6 / 8 / 10% of their maximum health as magic damage. This effect cannot occur on the same target more than once every 10 seconds.


Razor Shuriken:
Zed and his shadows throw their shurikens, each dealing 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235 (+1.0 per bonus AD) physical damage to the first enemy they pass through and a lesser amount - 60 / 88 / 116 / 144 / 172 (+0.8 per bonus AD) to enemies thereafter.

Living Shadow: Additional shurikens striking the same enemy deal 50% damage and restore energy.

Cooldown: 6 seconds
Range: 900
Cost: 75 / 70 / 65 / 60 / 55 energy


Living Shadow:
Passive: Zed's bonus attack damage is increased by 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 %
Active: Zed's shadow dashes forward, remaining in place for 4 seconds. Reactivating this ability will cause Zed to switch positions with this shadow.

Zed's shadow will mimic his basic abilities. If both strike the same target Zed regains 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 energy. Energy can only be restored once per mimicked ability.

Cooldown: 22 / 20.5 / 19 / 17.5 / 16 seconds
Range: 550
Cost: 40 / 35 / 30 / 25 / 20 energy


Shadow Slash:
Zed and his shadows create a burst of shadow, dealing 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+0.8 per bonus AD) physical damage to nearby enemies.

Zed's slash reduces the cooldown of Living Shadow by 1 second for each enemy struck. His shadows' slashes slow for 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 % enemies for 1.5 seconds.

If Zed and shadow striking the same enemy deal no additional damage but will incur an increased slow by 30 / 37.5 / 45 / 52.5 / 60 % and restore energy.

Cooldown: 3 seconds
Range: 290
Cost: 50 energy


Death Mark:
Zed becomes untargetable and dashes to target enemy champion. Upon arrival, he marks the target for death and spawns a living shadow behind the target. This shadow lasts 4 seconds and mimics Zed's abilities. Reactivating Death Mark will cause Zed to switch positions with this shadow.

After 3 seconds, the mark will detonate, dealing physical damage equal to 100% of Zed's attack damage plus 20 / 35 / 50 % of all magic and physical damage dealt to the target by Zed and his shadows while the mark was active.

Cooldown: 120 / 100 / 80 seconds
Range: 625
Cost: No cost

Now your ability sequence... I max Shadow Slash first because it is your only form of cc and it is great for farming because of the low cooldown. When you are using Shadow Slash try to hit an enemy as well as the creep wave. Only use Razor Shuriken to get creeps that are far away because of its high energy cost. I like to max Living Shadow second for chasing and the energy restoration. The low cooldown on Shadow Slash synergizes well with Living Shadow allowing you to get some extra damage on them. Wait to use Death Mark when the enemy is low so you can burst them down immediately after with your other abilities and the mark proc will finish them off. When you are involved in a team fight you will want to save your Death Mark for the ADC or APC.

Since you are an assassin you will want to focus on building armor penetration and damage. I don't take crit in my build because Zed is a spell based assassin.

Penetration items:


Last Whisper


The Brutalizer


Build this from The Brutalizer that you purchased earlier

Damage items:


The Bloodthirster


Mercurial Scimitar
The cleanse on this item is great for when you are getting focused and it can often save your life.


Blade of the Ruined King
Great damage against tanks

Defense Items:


Frozen Mallet


Maw of Malmortius


Warmog's Armor
Only buy a Warmog's Armor if you need more HP than the Frozen Mallet gives you.


Guardian Angel

13/4/2013 - Published (Items chapter not completed)
13/4/2013 - Added chapter summoner's spells
14/4/2013 - Improvement of English, special thanks to IVIimes