Looking for a basic, but rewarding assassin to play? Look no further than fan favorite Zed.
One of League of Legends oldest champions and most notorious assassins, Zed is responsible for some of the most impressive outplays in LoL history. As a champion designed to thrive in 1v1 scenarios, Zed can be daunting to play. Contrary to popular belief however, Zed is one of the easier assassins to master with proper knowledge of his abilities, builds, and role.
In lane – Poke and look for 1v1 opportunities
The first thing you should notice about Zed is that he is one of the few non-mana users. Instead, Zed’s abilities use energy, a self regenerating casting cost. Inherently this gives you a greater amount of sustainability in lane, which you can exploit to obtain better laning differentials and poke out your opponent.
Your Q (Razor Shuriken) will be your primary poke tool but also provides an important farming tool especially when facing a ranged matchup. After chunking down your lane opponent, you should look to trade early and often. The more time you force your opponent out of lane, the more advantages you will gain. This basic combo is the cornerstone of any decent Zed player.
W (Living Shadow) -> E (Shadow Slash) -> Q -> W
You should target your living shadow directly on top of your opponent to maximize your E. Proper placement should also ensure a double Q stack from both yourself and your living shadow.
Team fights – Punish damage dealers and land your advanced combos
Since Zed is built largely around single target damage, he falls off into the late game more than most champions. Zed is also not well-equipped to split push, meaning he has a very specific and singular goal in the late game, finding picks. Zed’s R (Death Mark) allows easy backline access, making you an incredible threat to enemy ADCs or other squishy damage dealers. The only thing you should keep in mind is that your ultimate teleports you behind your opponent. Experienced players may already know this specific aspect of Zed’s kit and will aim their CC backwards, so try to time this after these abilities have already been fired off.
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Though a single target damage focused champion as previously stated, a second combo will allow you to deal damage relatively evenly across multiple opponents. This is a more advanced combo and necessitates synergy between your ultimate and W.
W -> R -> E -> Q -> E
For this combo, you want to place your living shadow adjacent to your opponent. This way, when you cast your ultimate on your initial target, you create a triangle containing two living shadows. After this, you should quickly fire off your shadow slashes and razor shurikens, catching anyone caught in this triangle. Once again, this is an entirely interruptible combo and only works best when you time it after your opponent’s primary CC abilities. The good thing is Zed’s ultimate makes him untargetable for a short time, guaranteeing you can put up two living shadows. Also, living shadow provides a fall back plan should things go awry as pressing W will give you some amount of peel.
Runes & Builds
For runes, Zed has always synergized best with the Electrocute keystone. The bonus adaptive damage dealt on the third hit only re-emphasizes Zed’s 1v1 focus. Taste of Blood grants you additional lane sustainability and rewards a trading heavy playstyle by healing when you deal damage to enemies. Zed’s secondary keystone is far more customizable, but I typically prefer sorcery runes given Zed’s proclivity to ability damage. Transcendence and Scorch improves both your ability haste and gives bonus ability damage that could be the difference maker in a close 1v1.
The item and shop overall massively changed Zed’s item priority. Zed players should rush Prowler’s Claw for this first mythic item. Besides giving a huge increase to AD, the Sandswipe active ability gives an extra dash that drastically increases Zed’s movement. Ionian Boots of Lucidity should be your next focus, increasing both movement speed but also decreasing cooldown timers, giving you more opportunities to poke out your opponents. After this, The Collector is the last of Zed’s core items. From here, you can diversify your build based off your opponents composition and build response.
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