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Zed: Changing Him From Current Zed to "Shadow Combo Master"

Meep Man··5 votes·1,153 views

What are we doing here? Currently, Zed is at a place to where a lot of people see him as the following:

  • Assassin generalist

As in, he is an Assassin that can do majority of what any Assassin can do. This includes poke, mobility, and defensive cool downs. What we are looking to do is change Zed from being seen as "Assassin Generalist" to "Shadow Combo Master". With these changes, an inexperienced Zed is going to be hit hard! I mean, really hard. Zed might become the hardest to play champion in the game. However, a good Zed will actually be buffed. Scary right? Maybe not, since majority of Zed's are newer players to the champion. So, without further explanation, let me throw out the change list.

Contempt for the Weak

  • REWORKED (slightly)
  • Every time Zed hits an enemy champion with a mimicked ability and his own version of the ability in one cast, his next basic attack against that target will deal 5.5/6/6.5/7% of the target's max health as bonus magic damage.
  • Per Target Cool Down removed
  • At Level 14, this passive will also affect minions and monsters.
  • Increases in damage at Levels 1/6/11/16

Razor Shuriken

  • Base Damage reduced to 65/95/125/155/185 from 70/105/140/175/210
  • Bonus AD Ratio reduced to 80% from 90%
  • Cool Down increased to 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 seconds from 6 seconds at all ranks
  • Shuriken damage no longer falls off when a target is hit with multiple shurikens. Shuriken Damage Calculations 1 Shuriken Old: 70/105/140/175/210 (+90% bonus AD) 1 Shuriken New: 65/95/125/155/185 (+80% bonus AD) 2 Shuriken Old: 122.5/183.75/245/306.25/367.5 (+157.5% bonus AD) 2 Shuriken New: 130/190/250/310/370 (+160% bonus AD) 3 Shuriken Old (rare): 161.875/242.8125/323.75/404.6875/485.625 (+208.125% bonus AD) 3 Shuriken New (rare): 195/285/375/465/555 (+240% bonus AD)

Living Shadow

  • Cool Down reduced to 14/13/12/11/10 seconds from 22/20/18/16/14 seconds
  • If Zed reactivates this ability to swap positions with the shadow, the cool down is doubled
  • It now costs 15 extra Energy to use this ability's position swap with the shadow Total Energy Cost with Reactivation: 55/50/45/40/35 Energy Cool Down when Reactivated: 28/26/24/22/20 seconds

Shadow Slash

  • Base Damage reduced to 50/75/100/125/150 from 60/90/120/150/180
  • Bonus AD Ratio reduced to 60% from 80%
  • Enemies hit by multiple Shadow Slashes will now take 50% of the damage from the last Shadow Strike from the second Shadow Slash from taking no damage
  • Cool Down changed to 5/4.5/4/3.5/3 seconds from 4 seconds at all ranks Shadow Slash Damage Calculations Shadow Slash Old: 60/90/120/150/180 (+80% bonus AD) 1 Shadow Slash New: 50/75/100/125/150 (+60% bonus AD) 2 Shadow Slash New: 75/112.5/150/187.5/225 (+90% bonus AD) 3 Shadow Slash New: 87.5/131.25/175/218.75/262.5 (+105% bonus AD)

Death Mark

  • Zed's shadow will now also cast Death Mark when Zed casts this, causing a shadow to appear behind the target as well increasing the max shadows at one moment to 4 (will not apply another Death Mark!)
  • Zed cannot swap positions with this additional shadow. The only purpose of this shadow is to cast spells from it.
  • Reactivating this ability will destroy the shadow created by the shadow that cast Death Mark
  • Enemy champions can only be damaged by two mimicked abilities at one time (max of 3 instances of damage from one spell, same as currently)
  • Cool Down increased to 130/110/90 seconds from 120/100/80 seconds

The aim of these is to make Zed much deadlier up close, but a lot less threatening when he is not up close. It also makes it a little harder to last hit with him until Level 14, upon which such things shouldn't be a problem anyway. A good Zed will likely see this as a decent power swap. Zed has much more limited mobility with his W at the cost of much more potential damage from his abilities if used with his shadows. His poke is reduced, so it hits his early game, but his late game assassination potential has been DRASTICALLY increased, meaning that late game Zed is much harder to deal with. That may sound scary, but early game he is much easier to deal with, having greatly reduced poke damage unless Zed is constantly hitting you with mimicked Razor Shurikens, upon which that either means that Zed is incredibly good at controlling your movement somehow or you are really bad at dodging. I can see how these changes might make Zed a harder matchup in Top Lane, but there you are a lot tankier early so it's not like Zed was just killing it there AT ALL right now. I want some feedback on these changes and am wondering what others think. Should more changes be made? Less? Explain below.

7 Comments

Leopards Ghost1 votes

that's a huge overhaul. what happens when someone gets hit by all 4 shadows?

Meep Man1 votes

Enemy champions can only be damaged by two mimicked abilities at one time (max of 3 instances of damage from one spell, same as currently).

I put that in to make sure his damage, no matter how hard this would be to accomplish, wasn't just god levels. This means that if an enemy is hit with a 4th mimicked ability, they will not take any additional damage. Any other spell effects that do not rely on damage to activate will still apply however for hitting the fourth.

I feel like, no matter how much I try to tell people they are way overestimating Zed's power, people can always fall back on the fact that he is annoying, which is true for the most part. His high ban rate is likely showing this, so taking away some of the annoying parts of his kit (Free Last Hit Assist, Great Early Poke, Extreme Safety Especially Early), should help remove some of this annoyance. However, Zed isn't OP, just really annoying and oppressive to deal with, if that makes sense. He can dictate a game to an extreme extent without being outright overpowered and that annoys people. So, removing the annoying side of him while compensating should solve these problems. By the way, all the people complaining on how ADCs feel helpless against Zed need to learn that Assassins were made to kill squishy targets, specifically high value squishy targets like the ADC. ADCs should NOT be able to solo an Assassin and should rely on their team to help them out with them.

Leopards Ghost1 votes

so which ones deal damage and which one doesn't?

Meep Man1 votes

Say you throw 4 shurikens with the shadows. First One that Hits the Target: Normal Damage Second One: Normal Damage Third One: Normal Damage Fourth One: No Damage

Since they all throw shurikens, if all four hit the target, all but the fourth one to hit the target will deal damage. Meaning the first three shurikens to hit the target deal damage while the last one does not not. If multiple Shadow Slashes hit the target, only three Shadow Slashes worth of damage can affect one target since they all happen instantly.

Leopards Ghost1 votes

right but i'm talking from a coders perspective. that's alot of unnecessary legwork to code & implement, and opens doors to alot of client hacks where they somehow activate the 4th shadow damage.

Meep Man1 votes

Well, I mean, that's already in the game with a ton of champions. Also, hacking isn't something that should be thought of in a champion design. Also, mechanics like this are already in the game, so it's not just extreme amounts of legwork. I would be disappointed if Riot didn't put a mechanic into the game simply for being too hard to code. If it's impossible, that's another thing. Hard to code shouldn't be a reason however.

SpongebobIsLife1 votes

he needs some sort of energy return though especially with the new w, i'd recommend granting some upon hitting a mimicked ability.

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