Wow Zed... 800 death mark 2 items.

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If you have ever played Zed at all you will know that people having those items really does matter. No, having a QSS as an ADC will not allow you to 1v1 a Zed, but it makes it much harder for a Zed to assasinate a well positioned ADC. Same goes with mages and Zhonyas.

I have and I know that it may prevent deaths sometimes but at the very least you are going back to base to heal up during which time he either visits another lane or shoves yours and starts chunking your tower. The biggest problem I have with Zed is that the 'nerf' he received was a complete joke. It was intended to lower his split-push potential before other nerfs for his lane when in actual fact it did nothing for his split-push power and his lane bully status is still there.

A lone Q even at low level can still chunk 200 damage. You can dodge them all day but like a Blitz grab he only needs to land one to cause problems for you. That and his use of energy in a lane mostly occupied by mana users means he is almost guaranteed to win lane. Yes, junglers can gank but let's be real the chances of it happening in the majority of games is slim.

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Zed hasn't really bothered me. I play AP champs, so I rush Zhonya's against Zed. If you can Zhonya's his ult, and you play a bursty mage assassin, you win. At that point, it's his QWE against your QWER. Plus, you have armor, and he probably doesn't have MR.

That isn't really an answer though. 1 champion that forces you to pick a high cost, zero mana item in order to survive a ridiculous ult. Yes Zhonya's has a purpose later on but the stupid thing is that despite being melee his shadow and Qs make him able to get in melee / skill shot range without any risk to himself and poke you. He has no mana to sustain just rapidly regenerating energy whereas you have to be choose between poking back or trying to farm while you know you pretty much have to build Zhonya's first or risk him going all-in when you're at 50% health then getting out freely.

The worst that happens for him is that he may build Hexdrinker which is damage and MR with a passive MR shield and scales into a Maw of Malmortius later for added insult. There is no armour item at all that gives you straight ability power, armour and a passive shield against AD. The closest you'll get to something like that is Iceborn Gauntlets which is literally double the cost of Hexdrinker and offers a little armour and AP with mana. The passive slow isn't likely to be used much since the only times a mage would use basic attacks would be early to farm or trying to kill someone with a sliver of health left. You wouldn't have it early enough to use in farming and if a basic attack is going to kill them the passive doesn't matter.

He's an assassin in a typically mage heavy lane with poke similar to an ADC, wave clear better than an ADC early and an ult that gives him more dive potential than a tank while getting out free within 6 seconds. The fact he also has another shadow he can throw around that will give him double slows or more distance on a slow / Q just adds more to his dumb kit.

I'm not arguing that he should be gutted but he certainly needs a long looking at with some adjustments to stop his lane and split-pushing abuse. He's the Lee Sin of mid lane where a nerf that has practically zero impact on his kit is all he gets.