How are Leblanc / Zed allowed to be perpetually dominant?

I've been thinking alot lately about this. I mean everyone already clearly understands how massively out of control champions like and are (even though nothing is ever done about them); with champions like and coming in close behind. But for the LIFE of me, I really cant understand how the 2 champions, and are forever allowed to remain the undisputed rulers of Mid lane. Every time I play in a game against one of these champions, I end up getting so angry at how frustrating and unfun they are to play against, it makes me not even want to play League at all.

It's been almost 2 years now, if my memory serves me correctly, that Zed and Leblanc have been dominating Mid lane so completely. It's really old and boring at this point, not to mention extremely frustrating. Neither of these champions promote any type of stimulating or challenging counterplay in the mid lane. Neither of these champions have any type of real skill cap (read never have to hit a skill shot) in order to be so overwhelmingly successful in almost every game. Neither of these champions are in reality ever punishable for serious misplays or bad decisions. They are so ridiculously safe and their obscene mobility is on such short cd that there are very few if ANY openings in which to ever "outplay" them or punish them for bad play. Yet BOTH of them do more burst damage and have a greater ability to secure kills than pretty much any other mid lane pick in the game, while being so ridiculously mobile and safe at the same time. I really have to ask, how is this considered healthy and balanced? By what metric do you consider this combination of strengths with so few if any weaknesses healthy for the game?

I can't tell you the amount of times, I've watched a that wasn't even big, very ahead, or overwhelmingly fed, W in, Q and Mimic Q (or some similar combo) and chunk an adc for 75+% of his hp, while only using 2 non skillshot targetted abilities, and never risking their own safety for more than 1 sec. I think most of the community has had experience with situations like this. Or how about the dreaded lvl 2 all in? Where an immediate Q > W + ignite and autos at lvl 2 kills just about any opponent or forces them to recall, and puts them behind in the lane from the get go. Or how bout how at rank 5 with 40% CDR, the cd on W is 6 sec, with the return function being within 4 sec. Meaning that twice every 6 sec this champion can change positions, jump walls, dodge damage and other wise be a frustrating pos. I know a large portion of the community agrees with me on the problem this champion is as far as affecting the enjoyability of the game. The only people who play this champion are people who A) Just want to abuse it for "freelo" (which it is) and B) enjoy playing this game in a fashion where their opponents have very little options to fight back. These type of people usually only play the other top cancerous offenders: Fizz, Nidalee, Riven, Zed etc. I have failed to find any interpretation of this champion where that amount of burst damage and frustrating mobility is healthy in any way for game balance. There should be a severe tradeoff in damage capability for having access to such ridiculous mobility, or vica versa.

Then we get to , another champion that just utterly blows my mind on how it's allowed to remain the undisputed King of mid lane. Where to start with the problems this champion creates. Lets start with how every non tanky AP opponent is essentially forced to rush and usually if they want even the slightest prayer of surviving in the lane past lvl 6. This alone totally screws over the build/mid game for these champions by having their opponent dictate that they rush defensive items, while Zed can happily rush his or other preferred damage items. Or lets talk about how his early game (pre lvl 6) auto attacks hurt as much as Riven's empowered autos or Tryndamere's autos; because apparently a "ad caster" champion needs to have super powerful autos along with having above average ranged poke (Red pot cheese start anyone?) The issue with the auto's segues into the next issue, where its apparently "healthy" for Zed to be able to delete any "squishy" target he wants by simply building/activating and when he all in's someone with his R and maybe an auto or 2. Yeah yeah, I've heard all the arguments about how high Zed's "skillcap" is and how difficult/necessary it is to hit his "skillshots" in order for him to secure a kill. But I'm here to tell you that's definitively NOT the case. I've recently spent quite a bit of time spectating high ranked Zed players, studying what happens when they assassinate targets throughout the game. So believe me when I tell you more often than not, this is how an all in "high skillcap" 1v1 Zed encounter goes.

The Zed starts off by identifying his target, very often he wastes his W to close the gap on player who is trying to maintain a proper distancing. The Zed will then activate his Youmuu's Ghostblade to further gain ground and in preparation for his R. He then R's his target which has in reality no way of escaping this type of gap close and movement speed. The victim kites backwards away from Zed's R shadow. As soon as Zed comes up from his R untargettable (so much counterplay in that) he immediately BotRK' his target making it essentially impossible now for the target to escape or kite without using flash (and even sometimes not then). There is in reality no running from a Zed with Youmuu's and BotRK active, unless you are a very specific champion with equally obscene mobility. So at this point the victim has death mark applied to them, the Zed usually manages to hit his target with his E sourced from himself (usually immediately after rising out of R and BotRK'ing his target), which even further slows his target. Now say hypothetically, Zed didn't waste W to gap close and was simply in range to R at the start. He would now use his W to attempt to gap close again on his target if necessary and position for the incoming Q bonus damage. The only ability now left to Zed is his Q, but having already wasted his W (or not) to gap close, and his R shadow being usually out of Q range by now due to a target futilely attempting to kite back, that leaves only his Q sourced from himself (or W). Honestly, it really doesn't matter whether he hits both Q's, one, or none. The target is usually dead regardless. Let's say hypothetically this encounter is taking place under his targets tower, from which Zed has been taking damage from the whole time. After an AMAZING display of skill his target dies, Zed simply R's back to his shadow (the range of which also blows my mind) and pats himself on the back for being a superbly skilled player....

Believe me when I tell you I've witnessed many occassions where a Zed (as with Leblanc) is not even very strong, fed, or in some cases is actually very behind, but still easily secures the kill on a non tanky champion, simply by R'ing, Youmuu's and BotRK, hitting E, and MAYBE......maybe one or 2 autos. It is entirely unnecessary for Zed to hit Q at all, or use his W or R shadows to generate an additional Q for bonus damage. There are NO skill shots in these scenarios, it's simply mash a few buttons that are undodgeable and auto once or twice and then R back to safety. The only way I've witnessed a victim of Zed survive a scenario like this is A) used flash immediately after R application (even then sometimes it's not enough) B) Zhonya's Hourglass (forcing itemization) C) get massive assistance from multiple teammates (sums, shields, peels) or D) be so MASSIVELY ahead of the Zed that you are able to simply absorb his damage and kill him in the process.

I know Riot has commented plenty lately on how "healthy" of an assassin Zed is, and how important it is for Zed to actually hit his "skillshots" and abilities in order to secure kills. But I'm here to tell you that is not the case at all. Will Zed do more damage if he manages to get 3 Q's to hit by appropriate positioning of R and W shadows during R application? Sure he will, he will do massively more damage. Is it necessary for him to use W or or R for extra Q damage or even hit a Q and E at all to kill a "squishy"? Nope not at all. Honestly the 2 active items, a few autos, and maybe ONE Q or E + ignite are MORE than sufficient to do lethal damage. I think this is ultimately what leaves such a bad taste in peoples mouths about Zed. Doesn't matter what you try to (or successfully manage to do) while being all in'd by Zed, you will still most likely die. Doesn't matter if you dodge all his Q's, doesn't matter if you successfully juke him the entire during of his R with your move blocks and/or flash. My honest analysis, a champion like this should be required to actually hit/make use of all his abilities to score such easy / low counterplay kills. The problem here is that Riot represents like this is actually the case. They represent that Zed is actually balanced around requiring him to connect with most of his abilities. I'm here to tell you after watching plenty of slow motion replays of Zed all-in's. This is not the case. I suspect alot of people already know this. The Zed players especially. I wouldn't have any problem with this champion if dodging his abilities or "outplaying" him meant you lived or won. I wouldn't have any problem with this champion if Youmuu's, BotRK, and E didn't make it almost impossible for most champions to "outplay" him. But this is not the case.

Unfortunately, I don't think champions like Zed or Leblanc will ever be appropriately balanced around their ridiculously mobility/safety. There should be major tradeoffs in damage or other areas (perma split pushing Zed anyone?) for having such power in the mobility area. I don't really see any. They are both primary mid picks in every game, for almost all of the past 2 years, which means the player base doesn't really see any weaknesses or tradeoffs either. The only time I can remember when they weren't insta lock ins for mid every game was when Yasuo was out of control (another champion with mobility problems), and Riven and Khazix were played mid almost every game. That was another fun time in League of legends (beginning of s4?).

And don't even start with the, "Well blah blah blah win rates blah blah blah statistics are all blah blah blah get good noob". Those type of ignorant comments have no affect on me.