How to balance Zed by removing the toxic aspects of his kit while compensating with healthy options.
What is most complained about Zed: 1-Spammable poke with shuriken (this is stupid considering all other champions have to use mana to poke, toxic) 2-Free AD from shadow passive (just free stats with no gameplay added, toxic) 3-Free escape after ulting by pressing R again (Zed doesn't need to commit because he can just swap back to his shadow, toxic)
How to fix those issues: 1-Increase the shuriken cost by 10 at all levels, this will make Zed think before spamming it to harass. To compensate the shuriken should apply on-hit effects and the damage is no longer decreased by hitting multiple enemies. 2-Remove the free AD from shadow as it's downright toxic, replace it with: "Shadow mimicked abilities now deal 5/10/15/20/25% (+ 5%/100AD) of the target's max health as true damage". 3-Remove the extra shadow so he can't safely return anymore (forcing him to commit), instead Zed now becomes an untargetable shadow himself for the duration (can still attack/cast ofc). The target is also unable to use item actives for the duration.
I'm sure those changes will separate bad zeds from good zeds which will be healthy for the game overall. Thanks for reading!