How to Balance Zed: The Fizz Treatment

Two keywords in the title right? Don't you boards people just love those names?

I recently realized a method that could make Zed the assassin he was meant to be, instead of the early-mid game resource-less pushing monster he is to this very day. It's a very simple change that wouldn't have to change his kit what so ever, only some numbers. It would change his playstyle without a rework. I'm not going to talk specific numbers in a lot these cases, because those can be fickle. Instead I'm focusing on the broader number changes.

Simply give him the Fizz treatment.

Lower the base damages on his abilities fairly significantly. Maybe even change his scalings to scale with the levels he puts into his abilities. This will significantly lower his ability to push waves while poking for virtually free early in the game. This is when mages are the weakest, and the supposed wave-clear masters get dominated by Zed's ability to relentlessly push SAFELY.

"But isn't that just a flat nerf to him?"

But wait! There's more!

Now because of the gap in his power budget, his ult can be slightly changed. Simply change his ult so it causes the target to take increased damage to the target before the mark procs. 20-30% increased damage perhaps, totally depending on how the damage on his basic abilities are altered.

This promotes Zed's ability to function like an assassin, focusing single targets down while paying for it in lane-presence and teamfighting. Currently Zed is able to effectively out-poke mages without even using his ult. Yes, you can dodge his abilities, but when he can cast them as soon as they are off cooldown in lane, you're going to be hit eventually and it WILL hurt, if not immediately, over time.

His abusive early game poke and waveclear will be removed, instead focusing on his assassination attempts. He won't have to poke his opponents down, because his damage will be higher than pre-change DURING his ultimate.

This is just my opinion, but I feel it would be a healthy way to balance Zed, preserving his identity while making him feel less unfair and unfun to play against. Mages will be able to poke him down instead of the other way around. But he will be able to kill them easier if they misstep. Sounds fair and fun to me :)

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing what YOU guys think! -your (favorite) sandwich

Edit: Link to the original post I came up with the idea on: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/f7FmfoZ2-sandwichs-slice-of-the-previous-week-1316-11016-a-new-weekly-recap