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Let's talk about Zed

BestRumbleNALCS··9 votes·1,321 views

I want to talk about Zed. I want to discuss my thoughts about him and his overall balance. I think that Zed is strong. However, I would not call him overpowered. I actually think he is balanced fairly well overall. I have played against Zed countless times, and I truly feel that he is not overpowered.

Zed has lots of counters, probably some of the harder counters in the game. From bad matchups to items to negate his ultimate, Zed has so many counters that can make him nearly useless. QSS is a cheap item for carries and it pretty much guarantees that Zed can't kill you in fights, given that he isn't too far ahead. Zhonya's Hourglass is much more expensive, but it always a really good item against Zed, since Seeker's Armguard is a really good laning tool, and it even allows you to start more defensive with a cloth armor and 5 potions since the build path is so good too. Zhonya's hourglass also gives 120 ability power and 50 armor, so it's not really a loss in damage at all, and it makes Zed's ability to assassinate you extremely difficult.

Zed has fair energy costs for his cooldowns. Yes, Zed has some of the lowest energy costs. He also has the least reliable refund and extremely low cooldowns. If you just spam your abilities off cooldown, you'll run out just as fast as any other energy champion. It only takes his full combo plus one other ability before he runs out. His Living Shadow also has a very long cooldown, and he needs this ability to trade well with most laners and he is vulnerable while this ability is on cooldown.

Zed's safety comes at a price. I can agree that Zed is quite safe. He has a lot of range, but at the same time his entire kit would have to be changed to remove this. Again, his shadow has a high cooldown, and he's fairly easy to zone when he is forced to farm with his shadow. He can't harass well when he's sitting back and trying to farm defensively, since his Razor Shuriken's damage is low when it hits another target first.

Zed has poor teamfight potential. I'm not gonna pretend Zed is bad at teamfighting. He can definitely be good in some scenarios, especially during the mid-game where most carries haven't bought QSS yet. However, in the late game, Zed can't always reliably do his job of assassinating. He's too easy too peel off and since most of his power budget is in his ultimate, if it's completely negated, his power in a fight is fairly low.

Zed's ability to escape with his ultimate shadow is normal for an assassin. Most assassins have ways of getting in and out of fights. It's fairly telegraphed, you always know where he's going to end up. It's also predictable, since you can usually tell when Zed will swap back.

Conclusion I think Zed is balanced. He has strengths, but he also has huge weaknesses and a lot of counter play. Thanks for reading, and if you disagree with me, tell me why.

15 Comments

LifeCyclesTWA6 votes

I think people only call Zed OP because the game is overpopulated. Back in S1 us players would have tagged Zed as a "QSS" champ and moved on. Zed is basically an AD Malzahar, if you don't build QSS vs Malzahar you will get ulted and die. If you don't build QSS vs Zed you will get ulted and die. If you do buy QSS, these champions lose a drastic amount of power.

Because the game is overpopulated though, people that lack any knowledge of the game neglect buying QSS and then bitch about him on the forums, which leads to a loud outcry of morons. These morons are what ruin the game and get champions that we all know and love nerfed to the ground. Hopefully this doesn't happen to Zed, all the other Assassins have taken a hit. I agree in that Zed is the most fairly balanced Assassin in LoL.

1000angrybees3 votes

I think the fact that zed has such one or the other type of conditions on his ult makes me feel it wasnt designed well.

It's either:

A.) divert gold into a qss/rush a zhonya's, losing power or mana regen but increasing survivability. Zed's ult doesnt really work on you anymore.

or

B.) Dont do either of these things and get destroyed by his ult at some point.

Needs a rework or a new ult that isnt bullshit.

LifeCyclesTWA4 votes

God, you are the scum of League of Legends and I hope you have to lane against 1000 Malzahars and each game you got 1-shot by his combo until you finally bought QSS.

1000angrybees1 votes

Actually I was making the insinuation that Zed is either really really effective and gets ahead or that after you buy an item he sucks. Other champs really dont have that problem like he does.

Nidalee SO NYAAA2 votes

Only thing I really want changed is his passive. Make it where it only works on champions. His way to easy to last hit with

Errastas4 votes

You guys whine about his passive, but when laning against anything with range, he's usually last hitting with his q.

Dedrius2 votes

Saying his energy refund is the least reliable isn't very accurate when it refunds on hitting anything (aka minions as well). I have more or a problem with his passive and his R shadow. Make his passive only work on Champions and make it so he cannot jump back to his R shadow until the mark has popped. This would make him a lot better to play against rather than have him use everything on you then jump back to his shadow and hope you don't die.

AMYS GRAVE2 votes

Zed has fair energy costs for his cooldowns.

a lv 18 zed can spam his weq followed by his eq, back to weq on cd for 1:45 seconds. compare that to other energy champions and you will be shocked.

QSS is a MR item agaisnt and AD champ, not really good here, Zhonyas is better but i hope you are ap and have no mana issues because otherwise you wont be getting your core items for a while and be forced into a weak mid game.

Nidalee SO NYAAA3 votes

Most champs can spam their skills at level 18. By then most mages should have all their items unless Zed got really far ahead which means that the Zed was just a better player

AMYS GRAVE1 votes

Most champs can spam their skills at level 18.

Except energy based champions, that's supposed to be their trade-off for not having to deal with mana issues in the laning phase.

BestRumbleNALCS1 votes

One thing you should note is that at level 18 energy is generally worse than mana is. Also, compared to the other energy champions, Zed has the lowest energy refunds, and probably the most difficult way to even refund the energy in the first place.

Kennen's abilities costs 170 energy with a possible 40 energy refund for hitting any target with Lightning Rush, or 25 energy for each target stunned by Mark of the Storm.

Akali's abilities costs 160 energy with a possible 40 energy refund for every Mark of the Assassin proc.

Lee Sin's abilities costs 240 energy with a possible 15 energy refund for each Flurry basic attack.

Shen's abilities costs 210 energy with a possible 40 energy refund for each target he hits with Shadow Dash, plus the 30 energy from Ki Strike.

Zed's abilities cost 135 energy with a possible 40 energy refund for each mimicked ability that lands on the same target. It's also worth noting that the reason this total is so low is because his Living Shadow costs 20 energy compared to the 60 and 80 of Twilight Shroud and Lightning Rush.

Though it's not that difficult to land two shurikens on the same target, it's still the least reliable refund mechanic (unless you're Shen, but that's a whole different topic). Akali and Kennen have lower costs on their two main damage abilities, so they can actually spam more given that they are able to get their respective refunds. Lee Sin also has the most reliable refund mechanic, and he can refund a good chunk of his energy pool.

AMYS GRAVE1 votes

If you actually look at how long these champions can spam their abilities on cd it's nowhere near the 1:45 that zed can (with the possible exception of lee sin, but everyone complains about him).

Zed's shadow can return 80 energy with his mimiced abilities. Double hitting his q and his e will refund 40 energy each. Both of these energy refunds proc on minions so its not like they can dodge your abilities making it nearly the most reliable energy refund mechanic.

PokladnicaZla1 votes

Many champions are screwed by QSS&Zhonyas... Spamming from 1300 range isn't good enough anymore? Again energy costs cant be compared to mana costs.You can say what ever you want,but in Zeds case Mana/Reg is inferior to Energy/Reg.

But really people were getting mad,because all mages got their manareg lowered which unabled them to keep up against his constant harras pattern(while playing safe).On top of that he has a really good wave clear. Also,Mages had to rush Zhonyas(a high priced item,which cant be afford to early in the game) to survive early game against.They could buy Cloth+Pots,but lost even more mana reg,AP+Dorans passive. If they rushed Zhonyas,they survived lanning phase,but werent close enough to beat him(aside from a few picks). The sugar coatting on top was the he never had to adjust his buildpath to win,while mages had to drop even Mana/Reg to not feed him.

EDIT:Sry for any grammar erros wrote this in a hurry.

BestRumbleNALCS2 votes

Many champions are screwed by QSS&Zhonyas...

Not to the extent that Zed is. Some champions are much weaker to QSS and Zhonya's than others. Zed is one of them. QSS doesn't really do much against most of the roster anyway, it's really only effective against longer CC's and suppresses. Hourglass is a defensive item, so it works well in a lot of situations. Against Zed, though, his ultimate can just be removed and forgotten about. It goes on full cooldown and does pretty much nothing else for Zed except move him to the untargetable target and spawns a shadow.

Again energy costs cant be compared to mana costs.You can say what ever you want,but in Zeds case Mana/Reg is inferior to Energy/Reg.

I didn't compare energy costs to mana costs. I just said that they were fair for his cooldowns. Energy has it's strengths, it's better in lane and in more prolonged engages, while mana allows the user to spam more, but eventually you'll run out.

because all mages got their manareg lowered which unabled them to keep up against his constant harras pattern(while playing safe).On top of that he has a really good wave clear.

I don't think it's fair to say that mana users should have the ability to buy a 2600 gold item that gives them virtually everything a mage would want and then completely forget about having mana in the first place. It's been buffed anyway, so it's better, but not the "buy this item and you become resourceless" that Athene's was in seasons past.

I actually forgot to talk about his waveclear, but is there really huge issue with being able to clear waves by using your entire combo? Zed even has to use his only escape as well, and again, the shadow has a fairly hefty cooldown.

Also,Mages had to rush Zhonyas(a high priced item,which cant be afford to early in the game) to survive early game against.They could buy Cloth+Pots,but lost even more mana reg,AP+Dorans passive.

You really don't have to fully commit for Zhonya's Hourglass, anyway. Seeker's Armguard is a strong laning tool that gives a fairly large amount of armor and ability power at the cost of 1200 gold. You may delay your mana regen items a little bit, but you can always buy mana potions or ask for a blue buff.

AcidDrops1 votes

People want Zed is banned and nerfed because he looks cool. That is all.

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