Why do people assume zed is easy to play?

Succubús GF·Aug 19, 2016·18 votes·5,683 views

I mean his energy costs are pretty high and his escape is a 20 second cd. Like i had a riven (A RIVEN GUYS) tell me that he was brainless. Like can someone explain?

85 Comments

redniwediSAug 19, 201611 votes

People will always assume certain champions are easy and brainless. It doesn't matter what kind of reflexes, muscle memory, or game knowledge is required to play them.

In truth every champion takes skill. There are different kinds of skill in League, and the people who claim a champion takes no skill are only looking at one type.

LordGeovanniAug 21, 20161 votes

No every champion does not take skill but all champions can be bettered with skill.

redniwediSAug 21, 20161 votes

Same thing buddy. Same exact thing.

LordGeovanniAug 22, 20161 votes

nope what you say implies that you cant do well if you dont know a champion. what i said implies that even if you arent well trained with the cahmpion you can still beat people with sub par moves because the champion is strong by itself and when you are good with the champion you are essentially yorick where no one can counter you because your champion has something for most if not every situation. Shit ton of mobility knock up aoe stun sheild exicute ad buff all on redicilous ad scaleings and though you low ish health lots of weaker champions have lower hp and having such high ad life steal is an easy fix . oh this is a zed thread not a riven thread same thing though shit ton of ad even though zeds q isnt the highest scaleing spell its strength is hidden because he gets 25% extra ad for free 1 -2 free escapes with an exicute and q's base damage isnt low by any means

redniwediSAug 22, 20161 votes

What you said and what I said are not mutually exclusive.

You can beat people without playing well. You can win lane with shitty CS and no wards. Playing well means you're actually making good plays and making good decisions. You do not have to play well in order to win, particularly if you're relying on a strong champion rather than skill.

So I say again that it's the same thing.

Death by GlamourAug 19, 20165 votes

They mistake easy for forgiving.

Sure zed isn't the easiest champion in the game to play but he is one of the most forgiving.

Troll for TrumpAug 20, 20165 votes

Zed is hard to master, but, for the power level of the champ, the skill floor should be harder. It isn't difficult to be a decent Zed. But a decent Zed is better than a lot of decent other things (i.e. a decent kat, in this meta).

Handin Out NapsAug 20, 20161 votes

Im actually confused how people think Zed is strong, he is in such a bad spot right now lol. A decent Zed is useless currently, not only do you have to be a good Zed, you also need to be a better player to make Zed work. Btw Kat is doing way better than Zed right now, zed is legit one of the weakest mid laners right now.

SplitgripsAug 20, 20162 votes

ZED is a pain to deal with for myself.. the reasons i hate dealing with him.

a reliable escape his ability to split push.. (first annoyance plays into this)... then escape from danger Priority target nuking.. and being able to get away..

basically what i hate about Zed is his ability to slip away .. sometimes even after he makes a Bad play.

Split pushing is a viable strat and when Zed is in a favorable match up it makes dealing with him taking 2-3 players at a certain point or just have this annoying guy constantly pushing a random lane...

LeBlanc has a escape 'similar' to his by way of place swapping... but she cant push towers downs..

If riot ever.. freaken ever started changing the way champions do damage to towers.. he would be less of a annoyance.. like you want an assassin.. guess what .. 50% reduced damage to a turret.. Not.. build damage .. delete people.. delete tower... LOL

on another direction.. Riot and their idea of babying their assassins.. there was a time of Feast or Famine then they tweaked them so they are at least functional behind.. instead of dead weight.. The QSS Zed buff .. that was a .. lets not put this under patch notes as a zed buff, buff..

Handin Out NapsAug 20, 20161 votes

Thats cool i guess, Zed still has the 4th lowest winrate in midlane. Calling him strong is a joke, he is borderline useless.

LordGeovanniAug 21, 20161 votes

and thats why you felt the need to have his name in you name and most likely main him because hes so bad and weak

Handin Out NapsAug 21, 20161 votes

I have mained Zed since I started playing this game in season 4 if you dont believe me check my ranked stats. He has had his ups and downs, he has been borderline useless and completely broken. I main him because he is a fun champion to play, there isn't any other reason. Currently he is weak, there is no denying that. You simply have to look at statistics to see how bad he is.

LordGeovanniAug 22, 20162 votes

statistics dont and wont ever mean much until they can cleanse troll games and people who dont know how to play the champion from the statistics same with enemies they champion is faceing statistics have all sorts of different stuff in it and none can be picked out or differentiated. Zed is permanently popular so even if he isnt known how to be played with he will be picked and noobs to zed can do better than most other noobs to other champions.

Handin Out NapsAug 22, 20161 votes

Just by reading this i can tell you have no clue what you are even arguing about. Why is it that so many circlejerkers cant even use logic properly?

LordGeovanniAug 24, 20161 votes

useing your logic youd eat a cake where half of the cake's ingredents is dirt just because its shaped like cake. The formula for those statistics sites cant filter out the metaphorical dirt from the equation. hence the stats wont ever be accurate just on the state of the champion.

l Helios lAug 20, 20161 votes

a reliable escape

Ekko , Katarina , Shaco , Khazix (after evolved E even moreso) , Fizz , Leblanc (you did mention LB below, but for consistency's sake.)

Here are six other assassins who all have reliable escapes, some being more than one ability. LB has ult W as well, Fizz has Q + E, granted it's circumstantial, Kha'Zix has R + E, Ekko has W, E, and R. Beyond assassins, many other champions have similar abilities. I'm assuming you refer to the combination of all features in one, so I'm going to break that down later.

his ability to split push.. (first annoyance plays into this)... then escape from danger

See...this is what every split pusher wants to do and should be able to do. If you get caught and die as a split pusher, you're doing something wrong. However, beyond the conceptual aspect of splitting, here's a few champions who do this equally well: Tryndamere , Trundle , Udyr , Ekko , Fiora , Jax , Kled (still early on this, but the possibility is there) , Ezreal , Shaco , Hecarim , Azir , Gnar , just a few who can do that. Some are extensions of reality, Azir probably wouldn't be solo pushing top, even when he was strong, but if needed he could.

However, here's the point: there's a multitude of champions who can split and get away. That's half the reason the option even exists is because people can do it.

Need I also remind you we've already had nerfs specifically for Zed to deal with this? His attack speed was nerfed last season to cut down on split push Zed.

Priority target nuking.. and being able to get away..

Obviously I need to treat this as a package deal; Chogath has arguably the best single target nuke in game, but getting away is another story.

Leblanc , Fizz , Katarina (assuming reset occurs) , Khazix (again, reset) , Shaco , Udyr , Ekko , Fiora (a stretch, but Q + W works wonders)

basically what i hate about Zed is his ability to slip away .. sometimes even after he makes a Bad play.

Sounds reasonable. A guy getting away after messing up is certainly annoying, but if he still gets away, he clearly didn't do everything wrong. Moreover, Fizz , Leblanc , Ekko can all do the same thing. As you may notice, the are some of the most complained about champions in game. I'll refer to this later.

Split pushing is a viable strat and when Zed is in a favorable match up it makes dealing with him taking 2-3 players at a certain point or just have this annoying guy constantly pushing a random lane...

I can substitute "Zed" for any champion I listed above and that statement would still be true.

LeBlanc has a escape 'similar' to his by way of place swapping... but she cant push towers downs..

We did make AP factor into tower damage, so it's possible. Amazing? No, but she can get some damage down and get away. Basically every split pushing champion can do the same, only exception being blinking, which Shaco and Ekko have to some capacity.

If riot ever.. freaken ever started changing the way champions do damage to towers.. he would be less of a annoyance.. like you want an assassin.. guess what .. 50% reduced damage to a turret..

I get this was an exaggeration, but it's silly to suggest anything like this for anyone. In doing this, you'd force a certain function or role onto a champion and prevent them from doing anything but that one role. Plus, what does it mean if Zed is with his team, and he's attacking a tower trying to get it down so they can take inhibitor before the enemy respawns, but his damage is terrible on it so they have to leave and don't get a tower just because he picked Zed. That doesn't sound very fair. It's on par with saying, "Tanks should deal less damage to champions because they aren't the ones who should be killing champions," or "Champions without smite shouldn't be able to deal damage to camps because they're not the jungler."

Not.. build damage .. delete people.. delete tower... LOL

Build more damage, deal more damage. What's wrong with that?

on another direction.. Riot and their idea of babying their assassins.. there was a time of Feast or Famine then they tweaked them so they are at least functional behind.. instead of dead weight.. The QSS Zed buff .. that was a .. lets not put this under patch notes as a zed buff, buff..

Wasn't the former a good thing though? Before that, having an assassin meant that a game was decided within about 10 minutes, probably less. No one should be rendered dead weight because they don't get fed; that principle is quite ridiculous and makes for a very stale experience. Moreover, you use the term "functional," which implies a sense of balance or fairness. If League continues to become more functional, that's a good thing.

The latter was a buff, no argument. However, and hear me out on this: Zed was not the only one who benefitted from it. Trundle and Fiora are two big ones who got something from this, and Zed was just the most obvious. We had a period where Maokai should've built QSS for the sole purpose of negating Trundle ultimate. What other reason would Maokai build it? Stronger AA's? I doubt it.

An item's existence should be hinged on countering one champion's abilities. It's almost akin to the situation we find ourselves in with Grievous Wounds: is it OK to have a champion's success hinged on building one item? Idk, not going into that right now, just a parallel that may exist. Obvious caviat: QSS negated ults completely while Grievous only reduces it. That is a key difference.

In looking back over all of it, several champions, mostly assassins, are the ones who can do things Zed can do. That obviously makes sense since that's Zed's class in the first place; Zed should be capable of assassin things just like other assassins. So here's my main point: you, like many others, seem to have more of a frustration with assassins, specifically mobile assassins, rather than anyone specifically. No hate on that, don't misinterpret me, it's just an observation based on what I can see about the community and the champions. I think if you make it a system where it's just immobile assassins who can't get away after killing or are so dependent on stats and burst to kill a target, then we just end up with a bunch of Rengar 's and Talon 's, which I would argue are two of the most unhealthy assassins in the game, the epitome of feast or famine, something that I think we can agree is bad. Mobility isn't bad, and I don't believe that's your point, nor anything else I've brought up. What your point is seems to be all these abilities in one guy, specifically Zed. However, as I've shown, many other champions can do the same thing, all assassins, with a few exceptions here and there.

In light of all of that, the scapegoating of Zed kind of needs to stop. I don't fully understand why people feels it's bad if something frustrates them when they lose or someone simply does something better than they do it. If I get beat by another player, it's possible that either I messed up and died for it, or he/she is simply a better player than me. That should frustrate me, but that has nothing to do with game balance; that had to do with me not being good enough to beat that player, and that's the nature of any competition. If I play worse or don't play to an adequate level, I lose. If I lose to a Zed player, does that mean Zed is busted? Not necessarily. It's possible, but maybe it has more to do with me or the other guy/girl than it does with Zed. Just a possibility.

SplitgripsAug 20, 20162 votes

you can give me facts about why everything i hate about Zed is miss guided.. or i should have hate others more...

but what i hate... seeing this item: item 3147 on his build, Hearing this item get activated.. item 3142 and knowing i am about to get popped because this is part of his masteries http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/5/58/Thunderlord's_Decree_mastery_2016.png/revision/latest?cb=20151103094742

But i can tell you that .. Leblanc Fizz are not building the above items..

But some items that are no longer in the game .. actually made me happy. I had a moment to breath without getting blown up .. until the AD cousin showed up creating another layer of annoyance. http://balkanesport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/B7_vJgRIQAE4yVS.jpg

also.. average skilled players on the ones you listed.. i still feel average Zed players fair better than out of the list you gave..

also.. your quote here "In doing this, you'd force a certain function or role onto a champion and prevent them from doing anything but that one role."

you tell me why i can no longer Alistar jungle.. why Fizz is no longer AD.. why Yi will never feel the full power of AP again.. Here are my thoughts.. you picked an assassin.. my idea of an assassin is someone who blows someone up.. not some guy who can knock down a wall..

and to clarify... https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k7biZWt52Ns/UQ7J5_1wafI/AAAAAAABnRA/C2Kqf9QtZww/w426-h665/%25D0%25BA%25D0%25BE%25D1%2582%25D1%258D-%25D0%25B3%25D0%25B8%25D1%2584%25D0%25BA%25D0%25B8-556643.gif this is what i expect assassins to do to towers/walls. not split pushing and destroying them.

l Helios lAug 20, 20161 votes

but what i hate... seeing this item: on his build, Hearing this item get activated.. and knowing i am about to get popped because this is part of his masteries http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/5/58/Thunderlord's_Decree_mastery_2016.png/revision/latest?cb=20151103094742

But i can tell you that .. are not building the above items..

Ok? I can almost guarantee both of those champions will burst you faster than a Zed will. Zed at least gives you 0.75 seconds before his ult even triggers to know what's about to happen. On average, LeBlanc will deal more damage than Zed will, get more kills than Zed will, and die fewer times than Zed will. Fizz will also statistically get more kills than Zed, but deal about 1000 damage less, and die more times than a Zed will. Source below.

But some items that are no longer in the game .. actually made me happy. I had a moment to breath without getting blown up .. until the AD cousin showed up creating another layer of annoyance. http://balkanesport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/B7_vJgRIQAE4yVS.jpg

I'm not going to argue the removal of DFG, primarily because I didn't play AP mids that much during it's existence. I neither know nor fully care whether it was good or not. I do, however, think it's quaint that you could control DFG's burst effect while Duskblade requires an auto attack, supposedly from melee assassins. That's a little different, imo.

also.. average skilled players on the ones you listed.. i still feel average Zed players fair better than out of the list you gave..

Statistically speaking, the average Zed player is more experienced on Zed than the average LeBlanc player, yet Zed's ban rate is over 30% higher. Moreover, the average win rate for LeBlanc is still higher than Zed's. Clearly, there's at least some disconnect here; it would seem to be fair to infer one can play LeBlanc for a shorter period of time and get better rewards than playing Zed for a longer period of time. I'm not trying to fully justify the issue with win rates, so I'm trying to branch out some. However, the simple fact of the matter is win rate is a decent indicator of health, and if it's low, then something is at least worth discussing, especially when the average Ashe player has played 27 games and Ashe has the 2nd highest win rate in ADC (53.66%) while Vayne has an average player base of 106 games (pretty much 4x that of the average Ashe player) and her win rate is 47%. Clearly, my time is better spent on Ashe than it is on Vayne by a factor of 4, and I'm not sure if that's OK balance-wise.

http://champion.gg/statistics/#?sortBy=general.totalDamageDealtToChampions&order=descend&roleSort=Middle

Here's the chart if you don't believe me. I'm not saying any of this as a final conclusion, just that the data would suggest such.

also.. your quote here "In doing this, you'd force a certain function or role onto a champion and prevent them from doing anything but that one role."

you tell me why i can no longer Alistar jungle.. why Fizz is no longer AD.. why Yi will never feel the full power of AP again..

I'm not telling you you can't do Alistar jungle; I've had people do it in my games. I'm not telling you don't build AD on Fizz (Fizz was never AD if you're referring to the Tri-Force bruiser Fizz of last season, it was just when the DoT proc'd if I remember correctly). If you want to build AP on Yi, do what you want. I just want people to pull their weight, and I'm skeptical if an AP Yi can pull his weight in a game.

I'm not going to argue pushing out random builds and such things; people always find a way. You can't expect people who want to advance in rank to not use the most effective thing they can find to get there, and you can't fault them for expecting such a mindset from everyone else, especially in ranked.

Here are my thoughts.. you picked an assassin.. my idea of an assassin is someone who blows someone up.. not some guy who can knock down a wall..

That's fine in reality, but we've sacrificed many forms of reality for the sake of consistency within the game. We can't just say, "You aren't allowed to participate/be effective in something that is essential for your team to win the game just because you wanted to pick someone who kills just champions." There's a level of consistency across champions that needs to be preserved in that manner. Doing otherwise would simply make other classes or the champions who blur lines more optimal until the game would become too class-specific. In that situation, your desire to play anything beyond what is in the mold of the League meta would be removed beyond reason, moreso than it is now. It's just what meta does to games. It happened with Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, and everything else. It'll happen here to. It sucks, but you can still build that team of 6 Bidoof if you want. I won't shame you for it.

and to clarify... https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k7biZWt52Ns/UQ7J5_1wafI/AAAAAAABnRA/C2Kqf9QtZww/w426-h665/%25D0%25BA%25D0%25BE%25D1%2582%25D1%258D-%25D0%25B3%25D0%25B8%25D1%2584%25D0%25BA%25D0%25B8-556643.gif this is what i expect assassins to do to towers/walls. not split pushing and destroying them.

That's adorable. Seriously. I love cats. A wall-climbing champion would be fun. Use it to dodge skill shots and stuff. I'd be down to see how it goes.

SplitgripsAug 21, 20163 votes

They are not cute.. they are murderous assassins..

also regardless of common sense.. i am a Zedist..

when i see zed i raise the Flag of frank and i want zed dead.

LordGeovanniAug 21, 20161 votes

putting more assassins that shouldnt have a reliable excape doesnt make this ones any less annoying . its stupid putting escapes on assassins in the first place they jump in and kill a priority target what should happen after than is have them fight with the numbers advanatage (which isnt hard since any champion ment to do damage has a spell that that has less than 8seconds cooldown some cases less than 4 seconds cooldown come late game team fighting)

l Helios lAug 21, 20161 votes

But see, the problem with that is that it's always a situation where either you die or the opponent dies. There's no room for any other option since you can't do anything but go in; you essentially create a bunch of high damage XinZhao and Rengar . And hey, Rengar is probably considered the unhealthiest assassin in game for that reason. If you make it about nothing but a stat check for killing and don't give any other option, what you're left with is either I get fed enough to kill or I just die when I try to kill someone, ergo, the feast or famine concept. It's pretty bad if there's not even a chance for outplay in fights or some level of conscious thought on both sides to evaluate how either player should proceed in the fight.

LordGeovanniAug 22, 20161 votes

hence an assassin in the first place assassins should have to enter the fight after the inital engage but at the moment thy go in first rip sone ome or a few people then the team engages. that is the healthiest thing they can do with assassins or they have to take away their assassination powers and just make them fighters which they kinda are now pushing fighters into tank roles and tanks out of a role

Troll for TrumpAug 20, 20161 votes

It isn't that he is super broken, but his reliability and power in his kit is really powerful. He's probably the best "true" assassin. A really reliable assassin, with a really REALLY safe early game, who hardly has to take risks early game. He's basically guaranteed to take out the ADC now, with QSS no longer cleansing people, assuming he has an ounce of common sense.

Handin Out NapsAug 20, 20161 votes

How the hell is a 46% wr champ reliable. You either snowball hard and end early or you are useless. Zed isnt guaranteed to kill anything unless he is extremely fed, which is very hard to achieve currently. I dont understand how anyone can say anything about Zed right now, even corki, cho and urgot are doing better than him. You should probably try playing him and see how it works out for you.

Troll for TrumpAug 21, 20161 votes

Not about winrate. Yas and Lee Sin are really reliable, and they have low winrates. A Zed who is neither fed or behind will kill a squishy who isn't ahead, too. Most assassins can't do that. Zed still has feast/famine, but not to really great extremes. Csing with Zed is easy due to his range and passive. If zed ults you, you will have a higher chance of dying as the ult target than you would against many other assassins. I have played him, I easily survive laning every time and get feed off either farm or roaming kills. You shouldn't blindly throw around winrates.

Handin Out NapsAug 21, 20161 votes

This is the first time I've ever seen someone call Lee Sin a reliable pick. Lee Sin is known for being one of the hardest characters to play consistently, the definition of not being reliable. Also let me help you out here, you dont seem to understand what reliable means. https://www.google.com/?ion=1&espv=2#q=reliable%20definition Reliable - consistently good in quality or performance; able to be trusted.

Consistently good, aka consistently winning games, aka shouldn't have a shitty win rate, aka because they are reliable. I hope that clears things up for you, these champions aren't reliable they are the complete opposite. Reliable is better used for champions like VIktor, Anivia, Gangplank, Cass, Annie, etc. Champions that win consistently because their kits are good at winning, coincidentally they all have high win rates aswell. Go figure. Honestly if you cant get this through your head its best if we stop because this will go on forever.

Troll for TrumpAug 21, 20161 votes

????

You don't have to be easy to play to be reliable. Lee Sin is a safe, strong pick, who probably won't be useless.

When looking at definition, you need context. Even if we are using the dictionary definition, you're literally taking words out of the definition and treating it as the entire definition.

You can probably trust a Zed, Lee, or Yas, because they are very likely to have a good performance. Yas and Zed can have a safe early game and don't have to get kills. Lee is just a really consistent champ. Both Lee amf Yas are really safe, so you won't get bad performances. Zed is one of the most safe assassins because of range, easy farming, even under turret, and has an escape. Not super mobile, but a escape is better than no escape.

Champs with high winrates are as you say. Consistently Good. They always do really well. They perform even better than "reliable" champs.

Don't use a dictionary definition if you just take 2 words out of context.

Troll for TrumpAug 21, 20161 votes

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reliable

There's more than one definition of a word.

WolfChasesAug 20, 20161 votes

Zed is far from strong right now, I simply do not want him in my team. People are just dick who heard something and than they just folow the rule. I would rather lane against or have Zed in enemy team than Lux...lol.

Troll for TrumpAug 20, 20161 votes

Most "true" assassins are kind of weak now. The best ones have gone to a bruiser build, but the best "true" assassins right now are Zed and Talon, with Zed being far more reliable.

Vistha KaiAug 31, 20161 votes

Zed's skill floor is actually pretty high.

Sure you can go with some quasi-ADC build, it doesn't matter and sure he isn't as hard to grasp as, say, Azir, but he isn't as easy as you make it to be.

UltraGigaNigaAug 19, 20164 votes

He's not easy whatsoever. It's just low elos get worked up when a zed snowballs and blame it on him being overpowered or easy since all the high elos complain about him. In all honesty he's not even cancer until you get to diamond.

DrDiagaAug 20, 20164 votes

Lol zed is pretty easy. Good waveclear, range, safety, essentionally resourceless, high safety.

Sure being really good takes work, but anyone could pick up Zed and become component with him fairly quickly

AvienalAug 19, 20163 votes

{quoted}

I mean his energy costs are pretty high and his escape is a 20 second cd. Like i had a riven (A RIVEN GUYS) tell me that he was brainless. Like can someone explain?

Part of the reason is his kit allows him flexibility and its a 'energy cost system' so that puts him under the roster of champions who aren't screwed by mana costs or are forced into building mana and can concentrate more on items to help him sustain or kill gap close. Same kind of gag that came before when Cassiopeia got her new passive that lets her skip boots, 'a hidden gold efficency schmick.'

His costs seem high but you have to recall how fast it recovers (not counting when he is actually attacking), his combos to regain energy fast, the costs going down as he ranks them up and plus the fact you once again can focus more on 'juking opponents' more easily then other champions can with mana. When you can throw out the worry of a critical weakness on any type of class (Example, running out of mana or hp in some other RPGs because you have mechanics that let you ignore those things and easily regain them), it acts as one of many stepping stones to let you get ahead in matches.

When a champion like Zed could especially rush penetration items, all he needs to do is damage clip you to likely bait you into trying to start a trade and you get attacked by his minions while he rushes out of your trade attack attempt, likely throwing in using his shadow to escape, then E and then Q or even double Q hit you if done right.

You literally can't say any 'ninja' or energy champion (This includes Kennen, Akali, Shen, Zed and Lee sin) are trash tier in any way, since they all are extremely potent in regular matches and several being devastating in rank mode.

Plus just like Leblanc, Lee'sin and other particular kinds of champions, he can use his W as also a wall jump escape tool, double it if he has flash ready too, i myself never was much of a wall jumper, but the potent use that people make use of it is ridiculous to the point it should really be the reason why Flash needs a hard nerf to prevent these silly double wall jump jokes that occur, namely the wall jump gimmick if they need something legitimate, since its pratically a 'advance technique' you can say that players with exceptional skill will know what walls can be flashed over and what cannot be and know how to potentially use it for dive ins and dive outs like its second nature, with champions like Zed, even a 'normal player' could plus the same schmick multiple times, which once again is much easier since he can rush build full CDR without 'mana issues' to ruin him over, especially long as he doesnt try to do some long prolonged 1vs3 or 1vs5 type of fighting.

So yeah, Zed is 'strong', can mow down solo'que matches pretty easily but he isn't as ridiculous as Yasuo in terms of what he can actually do.

[slayer-jinx-unamused]

Unlucky47Aug 20, 20163 votes

I feel like for an assassin, zed can be considered easier to play as he can do most of his damage through poke from a distance. Throwing your shadow into someone and then e q really isn't that difficult and is much safer than an assassin like khazix who has to be on top of someone to do his damage. Not saying that zed doesnt do that also but he does a good amount of his damage before he even faces any real danger

VasilisGreenAug 20, 20161 votes

the key difference is the way the damage applies... Skillshots vs Point and click. Good luck hitting someone that has proper footwork.

Unlucky47Aug 31, 20161 votes

it's really hard to dodge something when you get slowed by more than 20 percent...

MistroTTCAug 19, 20162 votes

Because easy op noob champ means I got beat by them in League speak.

CrazFight Aug 19, 20162 votes

I play orrianna and people don't realize she is pretty hard to :C

Gear KittyAug 19, 20162 votes

Because I've played him all of 3 times (possibly 4, way back in an ARAM). All unwillingly, being that the matches were OFAs. And yet, all 3 times, I've S/S+'d with him, even in a lost match against Yasuos. He is abysmally easy. It's downright unfair to other assassins, like Talon.

He's an energy based assassin with great waveclear, decent poke, and one of the best all-ins in the game. He is the training wheels equivalent of Assassins.

The Real SanicAug 19, 20162 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoYEJ10uhD4 :^)

NotCounterAug 20, 20162 votes

As far as assassinating I think Zed is balanced and is skillful. It's mostly the laning that people complain about, like not being able to miss CS, having poke that doesn't cost mana on a short cooldown, etc.

VasilisGreenAug 20, 20162 votes

main damage is his Q. 6 sec cd. Main poke tool is W, 22 sec cd Point blank aoe damage ability is his E, 4 sec cd. E has somewhat of less damage than his AA. Q damage stacks, but a Full damage combo is only available every 22 seconds at 0% cdr and 13.2 seconds at 40% cdr in rank 1. You only lvl up your W once at either lvl2 or lvl3 depending on matchup and from that only at 14 and beyond. So, up to that point you are stuck at a 22 cd that will not go down significantly before you have at least 2 cdr minor items and that's not in any way sooner than lvl14 unless overfed to the point of having enemies running it down mid.

So, his full poke combo takes 22 seconds before his first recall, and depending on gold income by that time, it will remain at 22 or go down a bit. For comparison, LeBlanc's full combo has a 18 second cd at worst and lb rushes cdr while Zed rushes armor pen. LB's combo is a point and click Q and a huge AoE nuke that can't really be dodged uless you have a blink ability. Lux's combo has a downtime of about 15 seconds or less with it being ranged, AoE and a cc skillshot that guarantees the damage if it hits. Zed has no reall cc. Katarina has literaly no resource, her longest ability cd is 12 seconds and all 3 of her main abilities are damage focused and her E also gives her 15% dr. Her Q is a point and click projectile that does damage on impact and later again on activation by hitting other spells on the target. Her W is a point blank AoE that has a wider area of effect than Zed's E. Her E is a point and click blink that deals damage and gives her dr. all of her spells detonate the Q debuff and she has a considerably lower downtime than Zed. Oriana's longest basic ability has a cd of 9 seconds and all 3 of her abilities deal damage upon touching an enemy champion, her E is trickier to use offensively tho. Her downtime is essentialy 9 seconds. Talon's highest basic spell cd is 18 seconds, his poke with W has a 10 second cd and his All in pre 6 has 18 second downtime, the cd of his E.

Compared to all those, Zed's downtime is his longest basic spell cd, that's his W, with 22 sec cd. His poke combo is also tied to this downtime and it has at least that downtime. I say at least because, if you are forced to use Q and E to farm, either for long range Q hits on minions, or for under tower with E, you are using your energy and Zed has a significantly lower energy pool than any mana based caster. Zed is essentialy useless after one spell rotation, especialy if he doesn't hit his shit and gets no enetgy return, while the mana based caster has still enough mana for more spell rotations later. Yes, mana conservation is harder early than energy because of the high energy regen but, if played carefully, at lvl6, any mana based caster has eough mana for an All in and also more spells after the all in, compared to zed that will be useless if he wiffs one W-E-Q combo that is all skillshot based.

So, tl;dr Zed has longer downtime than most mid lane champions and also is easier to fuck up with than others. Proper track of that downtime will let Zed's opponent to abuse him hard. Also, Zed is practicaly helpless after one failed spell rotation and ranged casters can take advantage of that easily. All you need is proper footwork.

WolfChasesAug 20, 20161 votes

Btw....Zed's W is not affected by CDR so CDR items do not reduce it's SC.

VasilisGreenAug 20, 20161 votes

what? lmao? only CDs i know that are unaffected by cdr are Yasuo's Q and E... Zed's W is affected by cdr normaly like almost every other spell.

WolfChasesAug 20, 20161 votes

As far as I know Zed's W CD is not affected by CDR unless Riot changed something. Last time I checked it somewhere It said "IS NOT AFFECTED BY CDR" and I am pretty much sure that I read that. I know that hitting both E's (real and shadow one) reduces W CD by 1 second and restores his energy a little bit even tho reducing CD of his W by 1 second isn't mentioned in spell description but it was confirmed on reddit, it may be a bug or unseen intended ability because...unseen is the deadliest :D

Anyways, I will check his W and CDR stuff in custom later tonight. I am really curious now because, as I said, I was completely sure that I saw it on Wikia or something, dont remember well, won't lie to you.

VasilisGreenAug 21, 20161 votes

His W is affected by cdr normaly. i don't know what you read and if it wasn't before season 4 but, since i started playing Zed in season4, All his spells were affected by cdr as normal. Also, if his spells were not affected by cdr, he wouldn't be so popular in URF.

LuxrathAug 20, 20162 votes

Zed, like riven, has a relatively low skill requirement to play semi effectively. So people try em, get some kills, snowball a match and go HEY EZ CHAMP. Both of their skill ceilings are very high tho. It also is a little bit of a circlejerk cuz champs like zed, riven, yasuo, ekko have large amounts of time were they go beyond annoying to play against and are inbalanced from patch to patch. So people get stomped, get salty and never lose the salt. (I also find it amusing that you are implying to one circlejerk about how riven is a faceroll champ while asking why people circlejerk that zed is faceroll. Ironic shit.)

Only Play DariusAug 20, 20162 votes

Because people will complain about everything in a circlejerk

DoktorKaiserAug 22, 20161 votes

I dont know, everybody has their opinion on some champs being easy. I never thought Zed was easy, when I played Zed even in his most op state ever, I still sucked because I just couldnt master him. But I think Yasuo is easy faceroll champ, because when I was forced to finally pick the bastard I wasnt surprised how easy it was to abuse the resourceless kit. Same as Riven. Champs without energy or mana who have infinite mobility can never be truly hard to play. My only problem with Zed is when I die early game from his ulti without him hitting his q and e , but just auto 2-3 times, that is the only thing that gets me angry, everything else is skill based, he doesnt have LeBlanc q-r, or Akali button spamming and takes time and skill to learn.