~★☆★~Positive changes to Zed~★☆★~
Contempt for the Weak No longer works on minions.
Razor Shuriken Deals only 2/3 damage to minions. Damage to secondary targets is normal instead of halved, but only if the first target hit is a Champion. Context: Rewards Zed for hitting more than 1 Champion with his Shuriken while reducing farming ability.
Living Shadow Shadow missile speed returned to 2500. Context: Reducing the speed of Zed's shadows ruins the feel of being a speedy, dashy assassin. In addition, it reduces his gapclose/creation ability MASSIVELY because, just like release Zed, the time it takes for the shadow to get to its destination (if you are moving in the direction) will give you a very negligible gap close/creation. The reason it was changed to 2500 was to allow instant dashing, but bringing it back to its speed at his time of release will be a huge step backward for no good reason. Do you want him to be more catchable? Reduce his movement speed or health. Do something that doesn't ruin the champion's mechanics and feel. Don't nerf critical areas of a very VERY tightly-knit, flowing, mechanical kit.
Shadow Slash Cooldown brought back down to 3 seconds. Deals only 1/3 damage to minions. Base damage scaling increased. Context: Bringing the cooldown up to 4 seconds destroyed the flavor of Zed. He was built with the 3 second cooldown of his E in mind and bringing it to 4 ruined his pacing and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of every Zed player since the change was made. E wasn't the only thing that has felt slow and weakened since this change - everything about Zed feels slower and weaker. This single nerf made his skill cap a fair bit lower than it used to be. This isn't the usual "oh I feel bad about this nerf," I mean this drastically reduced the pace of his CORE MECHANICS. In addition, it was changed in order to prevent his farming ability, in which case all Riot had to do was reduce the damage Shadow Slash does to minions instead of increasing its cooldown. Increasing the cooldown did so many horrible things.
Death Mark Shadow appears behind the target, not at Zed's starting point. Untargetable time, dash time, and animation time reduced to 0.35 seconds. Context: The rework to his ult, just like the CD nerf to his E, also heavily reduced his skill cap. When you're smart, resourceful, and crafty, you can usually find a way out of a situation even if you don't leave a shadow behind you. No one that heartfully plays Zed needs this change. Most people will see this as a nerf, and yes it is true, but the champion feels a lot better with the shadow behind the enemy and it's up to you how you want to damage and find a way out/outmaneuver the enemy. I miss being able to do this. I don't want this crutch. No one does. And some see him leaving a shadow behind as OP. Do the smart thing instead of nerfing elsewhere on his kit.
Instead of nerfing Assassins because of wave clear, why not remove their wave clear? Give them kill potential, not straw hats. You tried by increasing the cooldown on his E, but that was wrong. The cooldown didn't need to be hit, the damage to minions had to be hit. You tried the same thing with his Q but only succeeded in making Zed feel bad for failing a double kill on enemy champions with a well aimed Q because of the damage nerfs that was aimed at MINIONS AND NOT CHAMPIONS.
