Just don't do it. People should stop complaining about zed's ultimate, it has so much counter play to it already. (Barrier, Heal, Zhonya, QSS, shields of somesort, e.t.c).
Assassins aren't supposed to be too safe. Considering his long--ranged poke and excellent laning phase, Zed does need some vulnerability in his kit so they added this.
People were tired of his safety, and Riot listened. His ult does have counterplay, but only specific items and kits. This will add counterplay that anyone, regardless of items, can possibly take advantage of, including their team before Zed just escapes.
Zed's ultimate's counterplay is 2 summoner spells on a longer cooldown, 2 items, and sometimes other shields maybe?
That sounds pretty sketchy.
No one experienced with Zed would suggest this heavy of a nerf. Or suggest this nerf without understanding just how badly it would affect his matchups. How are you going to outplay Ori ult/Liss ult/stray skillshots immediately after ulting anymore? If you don't want him to have unparallelled safety after he ults, revert his ult back to the way it was when he was released and increase his W shadow speed back to the way it used to be. That way he has the ability to dodge, and requires presence of mind in order to do so.
You don't take away skillful outplay potential from a champion with extremely conditional and predictable mobility. If you honestly feel Zed is overpowered right now (which is quite a silly thought in this current meta and the state of current items) this is not the way to nerf him. This is his playmaking we're talking about here. You're not supposed to touch that.
Azoh's thoughts on the change:
It blows my mind. I haven't been this furious about a balance change for a long time, I can actually not remember a worse change (not counting league of cleavers) in balance. I will make a video on this, will be out wednesday, but let me quickly explain why this is downright... just dumb.
Any skillshot mage who is even slightly knowledgable about any kind of assassin will never lose to Zed when he ults. You know how Faker can pull off those sexy charm behind him when Zed ults? Yeah, the worst Ahri in the world will be able to do the exact same thing after this change. Any skillshot cc mage that saves it will be safe from Zed. Lux? Yup. Brand? Yup. LeBlanc? Rofl, yeah.
AOE. Same as above. Unless you want to commit 100% to one kill, and set it up way in advance and make sure that you have no escape, you can't dodge timed AOE by jumping back. Same principle as above.
Teamfighting: Yes. Any competent support will be able to peel and kill you with team now. What you're supposed to do with Zed lategame is: ult adc, bork aa, jump back, EQ. Well that's out the window now. Any support will be able to cc at this point, even if you save W (which will mean you would never be able to get in range to ult without flashing, which you would be better off doing after ulting, so yay, you have to flash every fight to survive). So your teamfighting is fucked, guess Zed is supposed to be a splitpusher? Except no, they didn't want that, they nerfed his attack speed.
THIS IS A TANK META. I'm playing every other game versus chogath and urgot in mid. Or even ad carries, because they are proficient at taking out tanks. WHY ARE YOU NERFING ASSASSINS? And if you are nerfing assassins, why are you nerfing Zed? LeBalanced gets no nerfs, but her counter does? WTF. The risk of pickign Zed and getting a full AD team in this meta right now is so much higher than it ever was, because it's possible you're going up against four tanks and an urgot, most of them with 300+ armor and a thornmail.
What the actual fuck.
Azoh's thoughts end here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKHbH61oKjY
He can still use W, but in a much less active and adaptable way. You're basically forced to use it now. Or to place it somewhere away from your target before you ult so you can dodge something, and then end up needing flash just to get back to them again? You shouldn't force him to fall back to that and make him more binary and less mechanical in the first place anyway.
His skill cap was already reduced when they reworked his ult while at the same time giving him a really cheap ass escape.
Right now, if they want to do anything to Zed, they need to decide between bringing his ult back to the way it used to be (shadow behind the target, no escape, W shadow speed increased to give him the chance and capability to dodge a skillshot if he has to) or keep it the way it is right now (shadow back, 6 seconds, can R back immediately if the situation calls for it.) Taking away choice, mechanics, and gameplay isn't how you balance a champion. You don't take away outplayability. You don't take away fun. This isn't how you nerf a champion.
I would prefer if his ult shadow had a limit for it's range (Also LeBlanc W)
One second just doesnt seem that bad...if you want to port back in the exact same second you ulted, it probably means you fucked up hardcore.
I mean, zed needs something done to him, but i've never had a problem with his ult. I'm fin with him having assassination power it's his splitpushing, waveclear, free cs-ing from his passive, base tanky-ness, resourceless nature, sustain, etc... that has always been my problem with him.
