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Why Zed has an oppressive laning phase

Spinning Axes·1/6/2016, 12:42:58 AM·6 votes·1,491 views

I've always loved playing Zed, and have been playing him to a great degree of success recently, so I feel as though I should give my input as to why Zed is oppressive.

He has a strong laning phase, arguably the strongest of all AD assassins. However, I think his strong laning phase is justifiable, and here's why.

Like most assassins, he's expected to be able to blow up a squishy and get out. On any other assassin, having an oppressive laning phase would be OP if you could instantly delete someone during teamfights. And yeah, Zed can delete squishies quite easily. However, not all the time.

See, not only are there a ridiculous amount of champions that can counter him very hard (Fizz Lissandra Chogath Janna, etc ), but there are specific items that are almost designed to make Zed's life a nightmare in killing squishies. (item 3157 item 3140 )

When you look at someone quite comparable to Zed like Talon , you can see that Talon's burst isn't as cleansable or preventable as Zed's. Talon pays for his near un-negatable damage and aoe burst by having a mana gate and a weak first few levels.

Zed as a champion is a lot like Renekton , in a sense. He has a weak level 1, a decent level 2, and a very powerful laning phase from there on. However, he starts to become negligible the later the game goes, as he falls short being able to teamfight as well as other assassins.

People often claim that Zed has a pretty good lategame, due to his splitpushing power, and some have even claimed he has the same splitpushing power as a Tryndamere . However, while Zed does have splitpushing potential, he doesn't have the ability to outdo another split pusher like Shen Tryndamere or Fiora .

Overall, Zed pays for his strong laning phase by having negatable damage and a negligible late game. Other assassins don't pay nearly as much a Zed does.

Of course, since I do love to play Zed, take what I say with a hint of salt. However, I honestly think that he's on the slightly strong side at the moment, but definitely not as overpowered as many people make him out to be.

17 Comments

insaiyanbacca1/6/2016, 12:52:43 AM6 votes

too bad this reasonable and thought out post will be downvoted by the sheep. :/

Spinning Axes1/6/2016, 1:50:08 AM3 votes

For the most part, comments on this thread are arguing that Zed's laning phase is ridiculously strong.

My post agrees with you! I'm not saying his laning phase isn't strong - I' m saying that's his strong point in the game!

With so much potential to negate Zed later in the game, he needs a strong laning phase in order to dominate his lane and push his team into an advantage. That's how Zed is supposed to work.

Zed isn't any other champion. Stop holding them to the same standards. Mid laners generally have the goal of pushing their team into an advantage during the mid-late game. That is Zed's goal as well - just in a different manner.

WalkingInACircle1/6/2016, 1:22:09 AM2 votes

Yes yes, a strong laning phase is fine. However he had a strong laning phase before he was buffed. And he needed some form of buff too. But right now its too strong of a laning phase. Zed has no excuse for losing to anything mid currently. He completely controls the lane and is quite capable of getting an enemy under their turret. And is nearly ungankable with his own very strong roam. Other lane bullies like Leblanc do not even compare to how strong Zed is in lane right now.

Verxint1/6/2016, 1:00:12 AM1 votes

I think the place that the majority of Zed complaints comes from is this feeling that he doesn't really have to do anything good because he's so safe.

My usual experience with a Zed is him trying as hard as possible to kill me and usually failing, but it's really hard to punish him for it. On its own this wouldn't be so bad, but once he does get you, he can basically completely control the lane.

For me I just hate seeing a champion with so much skill potential being reduced to spamming a single combo and running away from danger. I get upset whenever I see a Zed get a kill with just ult + bork + ghostblade, even though that isn't very common.

tl;dr it feels like you have to do everything right vs zed, and all he has to do is play okay. If he messes up, he's usually fine, but if you mess up, you die and lose lane.

I won't claim to know the best way to address this.