Zed, as an Assassin, has the LAZIEST & SAFEST burst damage in his kit

Q alone is a slow projectile at long range & has a predictable W which causes his opponent to be cautious of his surroundings. If he wants to do meaningful damage, he has to commit utilizing his full kit on his opponent by diving in with his E to proc the 3 stacks damage.

Most of her burst damage requires her to jump into her opponents face after throwing her Q, or risking herself to stick near her opponents face with her E for a few seconds to successfully root her opponent.

Does not have much damage burst pre-6, as his Q alone isn't that detrimental to fight against since it doesn't do that much damage early on. Obviously, the only way he can fully burst his opponent is, similar to LeBlanc, jump into his opponents face alongside his combo to do so.

Q alone, again, doesn't do impressive damage, and isn't something you can depend to spam it for poke damage. Only meaningful damage she can deal is jumping into her daggers for quick burst, and knowing the means to jump back to safety. A thing to note is that enemies will always be fully prepared for that burst since they can just group up around, but not inside, her daggers should she choose to jump in.

Literally everyone one of his skills requires him to be at melee range. His only escape is through the use of his E, and after that, he becomes fully vulnerable to incoming invades.

Now with Zed....?

His basic Q ability actually hurts a lot compared to other Assassin's basic ability especially when being hit first. He has completely no risk in fully throwing out his full WEQ ability anytime & anywhere to deal damage since his shadow Q doesn't deal reduced damage anymore, as long as he doesn't brainlessly blink to his shadow into danger at pre-6. Almost most of the time, his WEQ combo alone is more than enough to seriously deal massive damage to squishy opponents when he reached either Duskblade or Ghostblade, making his ult simply an extra Ignite & escape rope out to danger. What's more is that the Electrocute rune makes his job simply easier to do it less than one combo in-lane.

The main difference between Zed & other assassins is that utilizing counterplay against other Assassins is rewarding & at the same time, doesn't force you into building alternative buildpath while sacrificing early game sustain items. Meanwhile, Zed's mentioned facts can be very frustrating to fight against at most times, where majority of the game forces his opponents to buy an early Zhonyas or Stopwatch, which can be a serious nuisance.

It doesn't matter whether or not he's being played in proplays or not. Similar to Yasuo before his popularity kicks in after the troubled ADC meta changes, he's not a very fun champion to fight against in almost all occassions, especially for Mage mains. Something needs to be done about Zed's early-mid game damage, such as putting more penalties into his Q like making it deal more reduced damage, or making his shadow deal 40% less damage. It's just not fun playing Mid lane at all if this nuisance is allowed to roam free, especially in PBE, Stopwatch rune activation is getting reverted to 10 minutes...