Zed Ulti Balance?

Glaedonx·1/7/2015, 3:26:55 PM·13 votes·3,174 views

Just a thought here. Everyone is complaining about Zed, Lee Sin, and obviously Sona being way to OP (Kappa).

Zed. Why not make his second Ult activation a reset? This would mean Zed has to kill the target that he uses his Ult on in order to activate the shadow to escape. So if he goes balls deep into a Zhonyas, or Ults a tank to dodge a skill, he can't just get right back out. Edit: This wouldn't make his Ult cooldown reset, it would just allow him to step back to his Ult shadow.

Zed's problem seems to be that he has too much kill potential and mobility. This would take at least some of his mobility out and add some counterplay to his kit.

Let me know what you think..

47 Comments

Raise Dongrs1/7/2015, 3:46:11 PM8 votes

Love how people still complain about Lee when he's in 3rd tier right now

SmokinSickStyle1/7/2015, 3:40:37 PM6 votes

Only if the ult has something like this:

If the damage is enough to kill a champ the mark pops sooner.

Waiting all the time for 3 seconds to get a CHANCE to get away is too much.

In that time if you didn't get already CC'ed you'd be dead.

EVERY assassin has a way to get out of a fight, they are not fighters that once they go all in they have to stay and tank.

Touching these kind of things off an assassin is bad.

With that change he still retains his strong lanephase that, is the only thing i admit he's strong.

Yet an assassin SHOULD be allowed to stomp squishy mid laners that are dangerous only from midgame onwards.

Nerf all assassin and mage overlords will become stronger than they are, having an assured lanephase that let's them transition safely into their strong moments.

DarthSpectrum1/7/2015, 3:43:07 PM5 votes

This idea does have potential; however, one major problem is that the mark triggers at precisely the same time the shadow expires. This means that when Zed does get his reset, it will often be too late.

Killing his targets without the extra damage from Death Mark wouldn't be a problem if Zed had the ratios of other assassins, such as Talon. Unfortunately, one major aspect of his kit that most people don't notice is that his damage without his ult detonation is rather sub-par unless he is insanely fed. With this change, Zed essentially would never be able to port back with his shadow if he has to kill the target first.

However, I had a similar idea a while ago, which is to allow Zed to only port back after 3 to 4 seconds. He doesn't have to kill the target, but it doesn't allow him to escape from a poor engage immediately either.

Decrit1/7/2015, 3:30:19 PM2 votes

Supporting the idea for the ulti - really too much at times while he already has w for mobility, but i am no zed used, so...

DatPikachuTho1/7/2015, 5:54:21 PM1 votes

I actually really like this idea.

The way you have it stated, it looks like he can only return to his shadow if the marked guy dies, while also having an extra duration for his R shadow being there. But what if he only gets the extended R shadow duration if he kills the target? That could be his bonus.

DSRM Mobius1/7/2015, 6:37:52 PM1 votes

no just no

Grimspeake1/7/2015, 6:57:45 PM1 votes

i dont wanna be an asshole so im going to try and sugarcoat my response to this idea... it was poorly thought out and im sure there is better ways to nerf zed if riot wanted too. this suggested nerf would just ruin him and make him useless for anything but splitpushing and even nerf his getaways on that. zed is like the only assassin in the game that actually takes a little skill, look at talon, kat, akali, its just point mash buttons and ez kill, hell even leblanc if u miss all your skillshots try again in a couple seconds...

Grimspeake1/7/2015, 6:59:55 PM1 votes

i love akali too but shes way easier to play then zed will ever be.

Kuroi861/7/2015, 8:20:29 PM1 votes

Zed's problem seems to be that he has too much kill potential and mobility. This would take at least some of his mobility out and add some counterplay to his kit.

I don't think Zed has too much kill potential. Unless he gets grossely fed, like legendary in lane going 8/0, he remains entirely ult and Bork reliant in order to get kills.

His mobility is good, but hardly the best as one is predictable (his ult), it's a targeted ability so he can only use it on a champ. His shadows are visible for the entirety of their duration so you know the one of two places he's going to be if he is trying to shadow out.

I think the thing to look into with Zed' kit is shortening the duration of death mark from three seconds to two, it forces Zed players to get better on their combo in order to get max damage or else lose out and risk losing a kill. The other thing would be consider lowering the duration of his shadows by a little, give him slightly less window of safety to jump in and out of a fight.

Genova Fearbane1/7/2015, 11:35:16 PM1 votes

His ult is already balanced. His ability to get out with his ult only works if he ulted from a location that is vacant of enemies, and having a zhonya's or quicksilver-sash already negates all his ult damage, making it practically useless except to force the usage of said item. Zed doesn't need a nerf. (At least not like this)

LuckyReden1/7/2015, 3:43:17 PM1 votes

So just trying to clarify here, so is it if he kills the target the shadow able to be returned to, or if the deathmark is confirmed to be deadly (if the damage from death mark will kill the target, not has killed the target) the shadow is returnable.

Because if he has to wait for kill thats a bigger nerf than getting deathmark kill. plus the deathmark kill forces him to hit all of his abilities meaning that a zhonyas or cc by team would save a teamate and trap him.

Junkο1/7/2015, 4:07:09 PM1 votes

This wouldn't work. You ult in, give a GIANT warning that you are going in and die. Akali, Talon, LB and Kass have no warning and except for Talon they all can get out without getting a kill fairly easily.

Unless the mark pops as soon as it can kill, but this would make Zed patheticly hard to counter early game as Zhonya wouldn't help since the mark would kill you instantly as Zed does his combo early game.

Gank in Progress1/7/2015, 4:43:08 PM1 votes

great idea. i dont care what theyre doing, as long as they do something. but since riots balance team is full of gold players seeing sona as a higher threat than zed we can wait for a solution for many more months. **** it