I am a Gold 1 (Around ~1700 elo) player on the NA server, last season I had around 50 games on Zed, but I have played him at least 200 times in normals. I have 2 accounts, Cheeks On Fire and Beastfromtheeast (smurf). I am by no means an expert on Zed but I have some insight and experience on him that I hope can help.

Pros :
Very strong laning
Safe from ganks
Extremely high kill potential at 6
Crazy outplay potential
High skillcap


Cons :
Can't duel bruisers early/mid game
Countered by QSS/Zhonyas
High skillcap
Falls off late game
AD mid laner

Always take Ignite + Flash for kill pressure. The only time I would take something else is if I am playing Zed top lane against someone like sion who just farms, then I would take tp.

Some other viable items besides the ones I put in the core are : BC instead of Youmuus, Hydra instead of BOTRK, BT/Hydra instead of IE, and hexdrinker if they have a heavy burst mage (Leblanc, Syndra). QSS is also viable if you are against someone like Annie or Malzahar.

Even with the tank meta, Zed is still viable in soloq. You will dominate lane hard if you are a good Zed, but the main problem comes after that. You MUST snowball other lanes and disrupt their jungler if you want to carry a game as Zed. Most Zed's just win lane and then keep staying mid or try to roam aimlessly. Every time you roam make sure you have at least a 100% chance to burn summs and a 50% chance to get a kill, otherwise it is not worth it. As for disrupting the jungle, place deep wards around their buffs and ask your jungler to come help you either steal it, kill them, or preferably both. You must build up an advantage in the early-mid game to have a good chance of winning as Zed. Late game you still do loads of single target damage but your teamfights are weak and you can no longer instagib carries that have GA or mages with zhonyas.

Combo 1 : NO ULT. W-Q-E in that order. This is the fastest combo and gets off your burst really fast. Good for securing kills and harassing in lane, but be careful as this takes a lot of energy.

Combo 2 : NO ULT. W-E-Q in that order. This is a slightly slower combo that still can get off your burst. The advantage to this is flexibility as you can wait for a few seconds to land your shurikens.

Combo 3 : ULT. R-W-Q-R-E in that order. This is your kill combo. IF you have ult and there is someone you think you can kill, ult them, w behind them in a parallel line to your first shadow then throw your shurikens at them. Dash back out to the original shadow and then use your e. This is almost always a guaranteed kill mid game if they do not have zhonyas or QSS. Throw in an ignite if necessary.

If the enemy you are trying to assassinate, use your ultimate then immediately place a shadow behind them blocking their escape route. Save your ignite and spells for after they zhonyas. Once they zhonyas hop back to the original shadow if you are in a bad position otherwise wait for the zhonyas to expire, finish them off with your spells, then jump back to the original shadow (it will be up assuming you have killed them quickly).

Original to be Faker, Shockblade to be Ryu. Your call.