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The Zed Gameplay Experience

Sanghelios··29 votes·1,895 views
  • Every champion has Stopwatch
  • Every champion has assassin damage
  • I don't care I main Zed and do what I want
  • Lane against control mid and farm under tower
  • Roam once, nice play.png but mid tower is somehow at 30% HP
  • Malzahar/Anivia/Ori/ still afk pushing, interactive gameplay
  • Can't kill them because of Stopwatch/Zhonyas/Exhaust/Barrier/Stopwatch
  • 7 minutes into the game and their adc shows up mid, threatening to AA me
  • Yareyare.disrespect ULT W Q AA E R CTRL6
  • I confidently adjust my glasses waiting for the ult pop and bonus AD
  • Realize their ADC has Stopwatch and hit me for 95% of my HP
  • It seems I hadn't noticed their 1 item powerspike.foolishme
  • I back, type "Thanks Riot" into the chat and signal my botlane to cover
  • Botlane finally rotates mid, I rotate bot to maintain exp/gold advantage
  • Zedisntallowedtodealdamageunlesslv/gold/itemadvantagebecausethatwouldbetoxic.png
  • Watching mid while I splitpush, botlane somehow not waveclearing mid anymore
  • Enemy ADC rightclicks mid tower once, it takes 9 million damage and vanishes out of existence
  • Missingping.sfx
  • /fullmute all, I main Zed and I still don't care
  • We're 15 minutes into the lategame and I have finished my second item
  • I am the blade in the darkness and destined to reap the foul flesh from the enemy adc
  • It's 20 minutes into the whyhaventweffdyet and the first actual teamfight breaks out
  • I wait for the perfect opportunity, WQE the enemy team, W swap E AA, ult the adc, Q E AA R back
  • Cutthelastbreathfromthem.highlightvideo
  • Realize my team is dead and their adc has GA
  • Walk into base, CTRL 6, betterlucknextgame.afk
  • Enemy adc flashes in to twohit me while I'm recovering HP at the fountain
  • WhyamIplayingthisgame

46 Comments

Anatera11 votes

I mean, you could force the stopwatch. It's only a one time use. If they're rushing Zhonyas, then obviously you can't kill them, but it probably means you've delayed morello's. Zed is an extremely safe assassin. Don't really see what the problem is here.

Sanghelios7 votes

{quoted}

I mean, you could force the stopwatch. It's only a one time use. If they're rushing Zhonyas, then obviously you can't kill them, but it probably means you've delayed morello's. Zed is an extremely safe assassin. Don't really see what the problem is here.

The problem is that I have to win lane pre 6 if I want any possibility of snowballing the lane vs Stopwatch. This means that basically I am at the mercy of my opposing laner's stupidity as Zed gets shit on by most mids pre 6.

Being a safe assassin is nice but not entirely true as Zed's safety is also his trading ability that's on a 20 second cooldown. Zed isn't Kat/Akali who can get out of lane 0/0 or 0/5 and still get to impact the game, he needs to get an advtange to be impactful (which is why keeping up the gold and exp by splitting bot while botlane arams mid is essential).

If then Zed managed to win lane/snowball, there's ADC's running around with Stopwatches and/or GA which also happens to be a perfectly viable item for them, making them virtually unkillable in the lategame. Zed's drastic drop in WR% after the 20 minute mark supports this. (Obviously)

TLDR: Zed depends on getting an advantage early but Stopwatch and origami towers that punish roaming make it (too) difficult.

ISLAMICWARRIOR991 votes

True, but there are advantages besides 40 kills. Yea stopwatch may keep them alive, but if they stay in lane low its easy to combo and kill them once cd's are back and if they leave you get an xp/gold lead that makes them easier to kill next time.

StairCasexd1 votes

Try walking out of Lane 0/5 and see how much you can do as Katarina/akali.

rtbf906614562 votes

Stopwatch becomes active at 6:00, you normally hit 6 midlane at 5:00. you have a full minute to engage on them

xelaker10 votes

Because zed is such an unforgiving champ that just doesn't have the damage to force a stopwatch use...if you don't like how zed plays right now.....don't play him? I like quite a few champs that just don't mesh well with current league so I don't play them all the time.

Sanghelios6 votes

{quoted}

Because zed is such an unforgiving champ that just doesn't have the damage to force a stopwatch use...if you don't like how zed plays right now.....don't play him? I like quite a few champs that just don't mesh well with current league so I don't play them all the time.

You're right, and I'd recommend anyone who's looking to climb the same, but I personally choose to play Zed and have a lower probability of winning than to play champions that aren't nearly as enjoyable (to me).

Handin Out Naps10 votes

LOL. Alright this shit was actually funny. Ill give it to you.

LegitBusinessman9 votes

That helplessness you feel? That's what you Zed players have been giving to ADCs since the day he was released.

No sympathy.

To be fair, I think stopwatch is a stupid item. It is a giant cockblock to assassins.

Ben SwoIo3 votes

Someone has to keep ADC's in check. All they expect to do is stand still and auto to victory while their support shields / heals them through damage. One reason I love being an assassin is the potential to take out the ADC from most team fights, significantly cutting down the opposing teams overall damage.

NineTailedMystic3 votes

That's what you Zed players have been giving to enemy mids since the day he was released.

ftfy

Yaśuo Main1 votes

That's what you Zed players have been giving to ADCs since the day he was released.

Hurdurrrr, as if he only does that.

Yasuo Blitzcrank and more would like to have a word with you m8

Blåbæret8 votes

Lmao, as if Zed is struggling right now. If anything, he's in need of damage nerfs.

Masala Chai3 votes

lol he only does damage if he hits you directly with a shuriken, or hits you with two and gets close enough for an auto xd

DoktorKaiser4 votes

Which is hard because he is super immobile right? Lul.

Masala Chai1 votes

Honestly, if he uses his mobility to try and get in, then he's basically free food for the enemy jungler. He has very well defined windows of power, which make him susceptible to ganks if he goes aggro every 22 seconds.

DoktorKaiser2 votes

Doesn't need to go in at all, he can just harass over and over and over due to him having no resources. Once you are low enough for a 1 shot he will try to kill you, delete the try part if he is level 6 or owns a Duskblade.

Masala Chai2 votes

He has energy, if he whiffs his 22 second cooldown combo (slightly less if he lands his E), then you have all the free reign to poke him down as well. The concept is pretty simple. This also regularly applies to the likes of Blitzcrank and Thresh.

Plus, Zed has fairly high energy costs in comparison to his other energy utilizing friends, (barring Shen), and has a much less consistent way of getting his energy back. One of the problems why low elo continues to get smashed by Zed is because they don't have a conceptual understanding of opportunity power. It's really not that hard to get him down in lane, and relegate him to sidelane. He's OK as is.

DoktorKaiser2 votes

Would be ok if Hexdrinker was to be made more expensive or had its shield nerfed and if Duskblade was just deleted form the game already since it is 1000000000 times worse than the old DFG and it was removed for "encouraging no counterplay 1 shots". I see that item on 95% of AD roster and its worse than black cleaver in a meta that was fucking called black cleaver meta, so its mind-fucking-blowing how it is still untouched. I have no problems with Zed as a champion except his oppressive laning phase, let the silvers and bronzies complain about him, but items and the overall fuckton of damage in the game right now make him destroy people without his fucking ult, I mean its more than stupid lets be honest. I mean the sole reason I feel zoned by Zed these days even if I am Lux or Xerath pre 6 is because I know that if I go in to harass him and he lands his W-E-Q+aa+ignite I will not get chunked but rather I will instantly die and the game is over for me because he will purchase a duskblade soon and he can proceed to do the same with the safety of his ult, its very stressful and its not fun to play against, of course if Zed sucks he will spam his W instead of holding it for the right moment and I can happily harass him down, but then again fucking up should never be a form of counterplay.

Cika Jova Zmaj1 votes

That's why you're probably low plat high gold player.Maybe even lesser. Zed got nerfed a lot when his stats got lowered. Which was fine at the start. But then they nerfed all the items he uses which made him completely useless. Have Ornn Nautilus Xayah and Shyvana in the enemy team and have fun playing zed.

AHScoven5 votes

Do you think playing against zed with this item 3155 and nullifying orb as a burst mage and ap asssasin is any fun???

Atlas5 votes

Laning against Zed version 1.: Zed hits level 3 Zed W Q E W AA Electrocute Ded in 0.4sec me: "ok" Zed player: "hjahaha git gud you fukcinh noob piece of shiz"

Laning against Zed version 2.: Zed hits level 3 I won't even get close to that bs Zed dancing on the edge of my tower range & gets ganked & killed Zed player: "wow fkin pusy campr noob cant 1v1 buff zed"

ISLAMICWARRIOR993 votes

Don't get hit by more than 1 q and hell never kill you

Ben SwoIo4 votes

Thank you for posting this. I constantly read people crying about Zed + item 3155 and how oppressing he is, yet I seem to be wondering where the oppression is really coming from when going against most mid laners (example: Orianna Vladimir Lissandra Syndra Ryze Malzahar ). Combine their fast wave clear with safe, easy gameplay and easy zoning with item 2423 item 3157 and you have a very annoying, frustrating lane.

DoktorKaiser2 votes

Mages hava mana. Zed is manaless. By building stopwatch you have 0 mana regen and thus you cant push more than 1-2 waves before going oom, not to mention that you have no mana to harass. Zed can waveclear endlessly and harass endlessly because he is manaless. If you build Hexdrinker you will never die, if they buy Zhonyas they can still get outplayed, Hexdrinker is 2-3 times cheaper than Zhonyas. If you go for Duskblade which is again cheaper than Zhonyas you can 1 shot them without counterplay at any point if you have even an ounce of skill. Zed "hard" champ and has "hard matchups". L U L

Cika Jova Zmaj1 votes

Zed got double nerfed and he is one of the very unique champions in the game because of the variety of combos. He is extremely weak and everyone above plat knows that extremely well. Buying stopwatch? You ever heard of a totallynotbrokenstopwatchrune.png? You get FREE 600 gold item that you can use in so many different ways or situations. So your precious zhonyas cost 600 less. For nothing in return.

DoktorKaiser2 votes

Also forces me into a rune tree that I don't want to take but whatever. I am not saying that Zed is broken, I think he is among the most balanced assassins, I am saying that he is strong, if not very strong atm and that is caused by electrocute and lethality being extremely strong, especially duskblade, but then again duskblade is broken on every champ in the game, hell I saw AD leblanc going duskblade first item and dominating the game. What made me angry is that the guy above claimed that Zed straight out loses to mages, which atm is pure bullshit since he beats every single mage EASILY, maybe he can get cockblocked by Vlad or Liss but other than that he utterly destroys all mages and most importantly it takes almost no skill to kill a mage as Zed in lane which again is quite opposite from what the guy above me claimed and opposite from what it used to be few years ago when Zed required you to outplay the enemy mage not just W-E-Q-auto with duskblade to 100-0 them even if they have some armor and if they somehow happen to survive just pop your ult or ignite to finish the job and even you are so bad that you fuck up all of that you have your cheap hexdrinker and nullifying orb to block tons of magic damage. That is not how Zed is supposed to be played but hell its much better than Kata because it actually involves SOME skillshots.

Cika Jova Zmaj1 votes

Agree. That statement is nonsense. But, I don't think Zed's strong. Comparing to other assassins ( laning assassins ) he is pretty weak. Talon has bigger scallings and base damage unlikely of zed. Also, Zed should be supposed to get in get out and spam level 7 while waiting for the shuriken above your head to pop and kill you while he's spamming the laugh. But he can't. His kit is too weak at the moment comparing to absolutely every assassin in the game. I made a thread named "Zed buff" a few days ago and i mentioned what should he get buffed but I'll repeat it again. Q base damage ↑ W cooldown ↓ Attack speed ↑ Scallings ↑

Ben SwoIo1 votes

{quoted}

Mages hava mana. Zed is manaless. By building stopwatch you have 0 mana regen and thus you cant push more than 1-2 waves before going oom, not to mention that you have no mana to harass. Zed can waveclear endlessly and harass endlessly because he is manaless. If you build Hexdrinker you will never die, if they buy Zhonyas they can still get outplayed, Hexdrinker is 2-3 times cheaper than Zhonyas. If you go for Duskblade which is again cheaper than Zhonyas you can 1 shot them without counterplay at any point if you have even an ounce of skill. Zed "hard" champ and has "hard matchups". L U L

Wut. One W-E-Q combo and his energy is depleted. Doesn't regen as fast as a lot of mages' spell cooldowns either, so they can poke and wave clear easily. I'm not saying mages need a nerf or anything, but they definitely need to quit crying about Zed because it's NOT easy going against a lot of mid laners these days.

Ps: item 3155 doesn't = unkillable. One point and click stun/snare/root/whatever with a spell rotation and you just bullied him to back off.

DoktorKaiser2 votes

As I said multiple times in this post I myself am not crying about Zed, I am crying about 2 items - Hexdrinker and Duskblade. What tilted me is you claiming that Zed is actually having a hard time vs mages when in reality he stomps most of them except the ones who hard counter him like Vlad, Liss or Malza to some degree. I mean its ridiculous to compare mana to energy, its not about poking its about Zed being able to stay in lane indefinitely while mages will sooner or later go oom if they plan on trading poke with him. And hexdrinker + nullifying orb does make him near unkillable in lane which is what I am arguing about in the first place, Zed in teamfights isn't a problem at all and never was.

Ben SwoIo1 votes

{quoted}

As I said multiple times in this post I myself am not crying about Zed, I am crying about 2 items - Hexdrinker and Duskblade. What tilted me is you claiming that Zed is actually having a hard time vs mages when in reality he stomps most of them except the ones who hard counter him like Vlad, Liss or Malza to some degree. I mean its ridiculous to compare mana to energy, its not about poking its about Zed being able to stay in lane indefinitely while mages will sooner or later go oom if they plan on trading poke with him. And hexdrinker + nullifying orb does make him near unkillable in lane which is what I am arguing about in the first place, Zed in teamfights isn't a problem at all and never was.

He DOES have a hard time against mages. It's so easy to poke and zone him out, happens to me a lot. If I'm having an off match and missing my Q, then it's even worse.

Like I said, his energy depletes fast. It's not like I'm spamming W-E-Q every few seconds. By the time my W is back up they were able to rotate twice through a couple of their skills. Not complaining about it, just hate when people think a Zed pick = instawin instastomp instadamage ez.

I use him because he's not only fun, but when I do well in a match it feels good knowing it took some work to get ahead. I'm not a fan of easy to use easy to stomp with champs. For me personally, it's boring.

DoktorKaiser2 votes

Ok agreed to disagree, I still think he has easy af lane against most mages and it takes twice the skill from mage to outplay zed than the other way around due to superior items and resources. Still, Zed is a fun to play and fun to play against champion unlike some other champs cough cough ZoeYasuo cough , he is also balanced in teamfights and requires perfect timing and decision making again unlike some other assassins who just pop you before you know what is happening cough cough RengarDiana cough

WitchQueen Annie4 votes

Can't play Zed right now...

the enemy team:

Maokai JarvanIV Vladimir Xayah Taric

Troll for Trump3 votes

Zed's doing about the same as all the other laning assassins.

Dark Nephthys3 votes

Hey man, Anivia can't really mindlessly afk push as much as people always claims she does, at least not until Mid/Late game when she has item 3040 item 3027 both fully stacked and some levels (or blue buff). Obviously I'm not trying to say she can't easily push waves because she does have the best waveclear in the game but it does cost her a lot of her mana early game, and can be easily taken advantaged of....especially when she just hits level 6.

As for the topic...My problem isn't really with Zed but just how broken item 3147 is. If that item wasn't so stupid then I'd probably stop banning Zed.

PokladnicaZla3 votes

Doesn't Zed have like around 49% winrate with a 12.50% play rate? Popular champions tend to have a lower winrate,because of how many attempt to play them. -> Statisctics from Champion.gg ( Plat+)

JoeMG1 votes

{quoted}

Doesn't Zed have like around 49% winrate with a 12.50% play rate? Popular champions tend to have a lower winrate,because of how many attempt to play them. -> Statisctics from Champion.gg ( Plat+)

Don't let Riot see that or they might mindlessly buff him....

Yasuo

Yaśuo Main1 votes

pssst. Yasuo had around 46-47 winrate mid and 48-49 winrate top while he was buffed. wont happen to zed

Lùmen3 votes

yare yare daze..

Getting electrocuted by a level three Zed for 70% of my HP isn't so fun, and hexdrinker and nullifying orb aren't making it any better for me. come on fam.. you reap what you sow. This is quid pro quo for you

JoeMG3 votes

Duskblade is a little overtuned. In some cases, I'd argue electrocute may be as well, however, that may just be because of duskblade playing a part.

Besides that, I think Zed is in a pretty good spot. I don't like playing him when he's OP but he's been my go-to mid this season.

Yea stopwatch is annoying but isn't it unusable before 6 minutes or something? Plus, chances are you'll have an opportunity to all in them after they use it and before they finish zhonyas.

That being said, it is a very tough time to be a roaming mid-laner. I feel u on that.

PhantomGG2 votes

This one cuts deep..

Malix Farwin2 votes

This Gameplay experience isn't exclusive to Zed, this is just how mid in general feels right now, almost feels like top lane 2.0 but even the support ganks you now.

As far as Zed goes, Zed and Katarina are the two main assassins do well right now.

TheBlackKnight211 votes

I think the better combo is weq...

Sanghelios1 votes

{quoted}

I think the better combo is weq...

In lane for sure, later on, or when someone is walking into a predictable position, Q before E means they have less time to react. Also useful when you hide on bush and want to oneshot someone as quickly as possible. (QE damage comes out at the same time)

That helplessness you feel? That's what you Zed players have been giving to ADCs since the day he was released. No sympathy.

item 3504

I seem to be wondering where the oppression is really coming from

Probably because Zed can potentially snowball hard and when that happens it's almost impossible not to get oneshot as a squishy champion. Though I'd argue that's what a fed assassin is designed for.

aqours fanboy1 votes

try being diana and having the enemy team have stopwatches, hexdrinkers, disengagers, and watch your will to live diminish.

HeyBigGuyHeyBudd1 votes

Zed is not so good mid right now. He can get shoved out of lane easily with arcane comet. Most easy matchupsAhri Annie have become much harder due to arcane comet runes

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