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Lux vs. Zed: What a friggin' obnoxious lane matchup...

darkdill··7 votes·4,633 views

Harass him? Zed's tend to rush Bilgewater Cutlass, and his 7.1 base HP regen is enough to shrug off the amount of harass Lux can safely send his way. Once he has that lifesteal, harassing him is worthless, and going in to trigger your passive on him will get you killed. Early on, he can also trade favorably against you with his W+Q combo, since you'll run OOM quickly if you use E+W and he'll never run dry.

Passively farm? Zed will zone you, forcing you to farm with Lux's underpowered E, which costs too much and doesn't do enough damage to oneshot the lane minions. Going in to autoattack farm will just prompt Zed to dive you.

Rush armor? Lux will suffer frequent mana burnouts as a result, so all Zed needs to do is force a long-term fight and he wins. Besides, Lux is too squishy for armor to make any real difference on her. To her, it's mostly a trap stat.

Snare him? Trying to throw your Q at him will generally result in him dodging it, and then going all-in on you because it's on cooldown. Throwing it onto him after he dives you won't help either; he'll still rip you apart. You're dead!

Did I miss anything? Downvote away, but it doesn't change the fact that Zed is a total bastard to fight mid-lane.

21 Comments

masterdragon4816 votes

First of all, you got counter picked. And yes it sucks. But the reality is that Zed's design is more the problem, and its not as easy to fix that.

Zed is a little too strong at first glace. He is very safe in lane, maintains high pressure on his opponent, farms well, split pushes well, and duels well. He even has escapes to ensure that he is very hard to kill. Its boring and annoying to play against him. I would LOVE to see Zed nerfs.

That being said, look at the game from the Zed's perspective. Once the enemy mage picks up an hourglass (an item that is typically bought anyway due to its high ap and powerful active from both an offensive and defensive view point), Zed looses a valid ultimate target. Just like that. Similarly, though not as effective, QSS removes the death mark, and a large portion of Zed's burst. My point is that no champion in the game is shut down by items as badly as Zed is.

So while I would love to see nerfs for him, it would take him completely out of viability. Because if it was easier for mages to survive the laning phase vs him (get the hourglass faster/easier), he wouldn't be any good at all. While he is a pain in the ass to play against, his win rate is a little below 50%. Now of course win rates aren't everything, but they are certainly an indicator of champion health. If you nerf his numbers, you are just weakening his strong points while giving nothing back to his weaknesses; something that really shouldn't be done based on his overall performance.

darkdill1 votes

If you want a nerf that doesn't affect Zed's kill power, I'd go with nerfing his base health regeneration. He presently sits at 7.1 per 5 seconds, a little high for a manaless mobile assassin. Meanwhile, Katarina recently got nerfed down to 4.5 per 5 seconds at level 1. That gave her a more defined weakness in early game: poke sticks hard to her.

Zed, on the other hand, has good regeneration (for an assassin) AND tends to rush lifesteal. That makes harass against him kinda useless. Nerfing his health regeneration early on would make poke attacks stick more to him unless he goes ham with his lifesteal.

masterdragon4811 votes

Yes but you missed my point. If Zed isn't strong (and borderline oppressive) in the laning phase, he has no place in the game. Katarina could come out of an average or even bad lane phase and teamfight -snowball her way to success.

Every game is a game on a timer for Zed players because once specific items are bought, his threat is almost eliminated.

To use your example, if you nerfed his health regen and he was able to get bullied out of lane easier, his opponents would be picking the items that shut him down that much faster. He has no late game once these items come out. Katarina doesn't have the same problems.

To be clear, I think Zed has too much and is too strong. I just don't think you can nerf him because you will completely take him out of viability. He has too much and is too strong, but his weakness are so easily exploited that he can't be fine tuned. Its a champion design problem. The thing is that while he is frustrating to play against, he isn't over powered. So its likely he won't change.

Leti the Yeti4 votes

welll uuuuh.. yeah Zed's kinda obnoxious to nearly every mage

darkdill1 votes

EDIT: Ninja'd. =_=

SmokingPuffin3 votes

Lux doesn't have that bad a time against Zed.

If you struggle with Zed in lane as a mage, try right clicking him more.

Nameless Voice3 votes

That pretty much applies to every mana-using mage.

Zed has a toxic kit, the only thing you can do is try to survive until late game where he falls off a bit.

Or ban him. Every single game.

Sir Yamazuki3 votes

Why are you ever using Q offensively? Zed literally can not do anything to Lux when he's 6+ because you are then guaranteed to land Q while shielding and walk away from him. The game isn't just about early lane phase, Zed can't do anything while Lux is around, she can always Q him when ever he jumps on her or any ally while shielding herself or them.

Zed is going to do well against any mana user in lane that can't straight up kill him quickly since he himself isn't using mana, so he simply out lasts them, but he loses to some of them later on due to some of their kits invalidating him, and Lux is one of those mages that beat him beyond lane phase. So, assuming you don't feed him in lane as one of those champions you pretty much end up destroying him and his team in fights.

Dreadlocks2 votes

yeah u did miss something, lux has higher than normal mana costs and zed uses energy.. ur not suppose to win lol. Zed does pretty well vs champ swith skill shots and because all of lux's abilities are skill shots you are bound to lose.

darkdill4 votes

That's my point. Why should the matchup be completely unwinnable?

Just lower Zed's base health regeneration and Lux would stand at least a tiny chance if she can make her harass stick.

Dreadlocks3 votes

But you are missing the bigger picture.. its not JUST lux that would lose the match up or JUST zed that would win it.. even sm1 like talon would do good vs her.. its about mage vs assassin.. mobility vs non and single target burst vs aoe...

darkdill2 votes

Zed's a nasty case, though, because he's manaless, mobile, and can harass and clear waves easily. Zed's too versatile and doesn't have enough weaknesses.

That's why I think he needs a HPR nerf.

Dreadlocks1 votes

but hes wondering why he lost as lux to an assassin.. and im simply saying on TOP of this fact.. Lux has high mana costs which means clearing is gana be even harder to keep up with.

darkdill1 votes

I CAN beat a Zed as Lux, but it's a STEEP uphill battle. Generally, Lux needs jungler help.

Lightsing1 votes

{quoted}

That's my point. Why should the matchup be completely unwinnable?

Just lower Zed's base health regeneration and Lux would stand at least a tiny chance if she can make her harass stick.

Exactly!! Lux stands no chance against Zed. It is unfair that this is an unwinnable lane.

Swollwonder2 votes

Hint: you don't have to get a kill to win lane Another Hint: you don't have to even win lane to win the game as long as you don't feed

Lux into zed isn't that bad Imo. Your shield negates his ults final damage (any damage taken by a shield isn't factored in at the end) and you have a snare. Surely that is at least enough to stop him from killing you right? Should be

Leblancs Boob2 votes

Yeah pick literally any mage into Zed and the same thing will happen. Has nothing to do with Lux and everything to do with Zed being annoyingly overtuned.

darkdill2 votes

It's just a lot worse in Lux's case because her E is too damn expensive for not enough damage when she can't go and proc Illumination on him. If she tries to attack him for it, he'll ult her.

thinking man1 votes

Kass vs. Zed is the easiest matchup ever tbh

Sirsir1 votes

Honestly I was expecting this to go the other way around from the title since... ya know, lux.

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