Zed isn't OP?

Penta Penguin·May 12, 2015·5 votes·1,662 views

Then can some of you proponents tell us what is his signature weaknesses are? What do you do against Zed to counter him or what do you fear as a Zed player? I'm really curious.

24 Comments

jjookkeerrMay 12, 20156 votes

besides Kayle and Lissandra there is no counter play to zed. item 3157 counter his ult but zed can still kill someone with his basic skills

9001May 12, 20151 votes

Personally I play Xerath and stay far away from him post six. Just poke when you can and clear waves. He will eventually start getting poked out of lane and won't be able to get close enough to kill you. He will try to roam so just ward the sides of your lane and warn your team, then push mid to tower punishing him.

My gameplan is pretty much just to try and prevent him from getting any kills while I farm up and if he commits to the roam just follow safely to ult distance and assist team after you push the lane to tower. Seems to work fine for me.

Mat7itanMay 12, 20152 votes

item 3140

SerevasMay 12, 20154 votes

Chogath Fizz Leblanc Malzahar Xerath Urgot item 3157 item 3140

InphernalMay 12, 20153 votes

he's squishy as hell, just another assassin. Zhonya's, focus, wards, etc

Penta PenguinMay 12, 20153 votes

Invulnerability to avoid bursts and critical CC, undo button on Ult if you zhonya'd

HelmightMay 12, 20153 votes

Sure, he gets OUT for free, but Zed's burst is entirely reliant on his ultimate. A Zed with no ult has very little assassination power and will be forced to wait for it to come back up. Naturally this isn't quite as effective if you're already almost dead and by yourself, but in teamfight scenarios it's hugely crippling to the Zed player.

Zed also telegraphs his intended assassination target, allowing for your team to properly position to peel for your carry, or giving your carry a heads-up to use Zhonyas/QSS. This is in direct contrast to other assassins like LeBlanc and Talon, which give you no chance to react to their all-in. Zed is safer, sure, but his assassinations aren't nearly as strong as theirs.

Yes, he has a safe laning phase. Yes, he'll still annihilate you in a 1v1. But he's far from unbalanced - and this is coming from a guy who plays squishy midlane champions that Zed likes to assassinate.

Malix FarwinMay 12, 20151 votes

{quoted}

he's squishy as hell, just another assassin. Zhonya's, focus, wards, etc

you know... there are other situations where you have to use zhonyas and if zed sees you use it, he will murder your face.

InphernalMay 12, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Malix Farwin,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=XUao3AAi,comment-id=00010001,timestamp=2015-05-12T21:45:33.564+0000)

you know... there are other situations where you have to use zhonyas and if zed sees you use it, he will murder your face.

do you want an answer or do you want to argue?

"X has a good ult" "uhhhh well not when X's ult is on CD" ......no shit.

Troy242621May 12, 20151 votes

Most assassins don't have 2 escapes with nothing gating its use except short cooldowns.

Only Play DariusMay 12, 20153 votes

After playing Zed, I realize his strengths and weaknesses. His strength: He has a very safe laning phase, one of the things that make him frustrating to deal with. As a free week Zed I was winning lane 90% of the time, so no arguments there. And he is a single target assassin. If his ult is up and he wants you dead, then you are already dead, you just don't know it yet. He is going to ult you, kill you, get out safely, and there is little to nothing you or anyone else can do to stop him, which also makes him extremely frustrating to deal with. Other than that, he doesn't provide utility for his team, and doesn't have the resets to go on pentakill rampages like MasterYi Katarina Akali , which is why you rarely see zed get anything more than a double kill regardless of how fed he is.

XeroKimoMay 12, 20154 votes

So where's weakness: ?

Only Play DariusMay 12, 20153 votes

I kinda stated that after his ult he doesn't do much, so doesn't bring much utility or damage to teamfights once it's burned.

GodhriMay 13, 20152 votes

You are full of shit. I just checked your match history and not a single Zed game in sight from present time all the way down to 11/13/2014. Even if there was a zed game before then, your opinion cannot be used since many changes have occurred since that time. A look at your history also indicates you aren't even a mid main either.

While I don't think he is OP, I don't agree with him being completely useless after busting his ult either. Yes his ult is where much of his assassination power comes from, but his scaling is high enough for him to still be relevant even after his ult is down. His weakness? Simple. Just like any other all in assassins. Anyone who can disrupt the burst combo. Lulu, Janna, Leona, Maokai, etc. You get the idea.

VidiotMay 12, 20153 votes

I don't understand why people say it is so hard to counter Zed. Like seriously. If you play a mage or ap assassin against him (Leblanc,Kat) just rush Zhonya's and if you have range, abuse it when he goes to farm. (AA him as LB, Q him as Kat etc.) Zed has a safe laning phase but you can punish him if he uses his shadow to farm. Once you have Zhonya, you can basically just counter his ult if you time when to use Zhonyas..(I say this bc ppl complain about Zhonya's not enough against zed.) If your an ADC, you WILL have to build QSS. (No matter what) Unless you want to get popped every team fight. Sure building it lowers your damage for a while, but you also counter Zed's main source of assassination. He isn't that hard to play against really. (Unless your playing against a God Zed like Faker,Bjergsen etc.) LUL

Mecha MaIphiteMay 12, 20153 votes

Late game. I have to try and abuse my laning phase to end the game before their carries get item 3157 item 3139 item 3026

His teamfight is pretty mediocre too.

GodhriMay 12, 20153 votes

http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/41648735 People like you are his signature weakness. He received a nerf in PBE already. What more do you want? It's not implemented yet but it will be eventually. Even if I explained how to beat Zed in great detail, you would just write me off as a Zed Main (I'm an orianna/Lissandra main) and therefore, my opinion is invalidated. Even if that were not the case, you wouldn't be able to understand how to execute properly some of the things I tell you. You probably won't even know what I was talking about either.

That is all I wanted to say. Good day sir and I will not explain to you how to beat him because I have done so in many similar threads. Do your research and apply that knowledge until you become adept at it. People keep thinking there is this magical formula as to how you beat Zed in lane but there isn't. It's all situational and you really only learn how to do so with meaningful experience. You've already been given the information you need. All that's left is the application of that info.

MetikulusMay 12, 20153 votes

If you play a melee champ against Zed, make sure it is a champ that is tanky enough to survive his initial burst or one that can burst/damage just as much. This is difficult since Zed is very good at what he does with a good, reliable escape.

The best method is to play someone ranged that doesn't push the wave. If you push Zed onto his tower, he will have a field day. He can just sit back and farm, and, because he has a pretty good escape, he is relatively safe from dives. Then, he hits 6 and kills you or forces you off of lane. If you are not pushing the wave, it is easier to keep him from picking up all of the cs, and you can punish him, with little retaliation, if he overextends for cs.

Also, someone else mentioned that he doesn't have resets. Which is a very good point. In team fights, he can only kill one target, which he will blow everything on. Since he is melee, if he fails to kill his target, he can be kited/CC'd to keep him off the carries (this is because he no longer has his gap closers, having used them to initially get on your carry). He is too squishy to survive the damage for long, and he will have to get out or die. After using his full combo, he will have to wait on his spells to come off of CD (while not particularly long, they aren't terribly short either), and his energy pool is very small, only allowing for around 4 spells before he has to wait for it to recharge. Basically what I'm saying is, if he can't kill the first person he jumps on, then he will die or not have enough range/spells/energy to deal as much damage as other carries.

ElisaiMay 12, 20152 votes

Just go in after he uses his ult on someone that's not you. Or just hourglass his pop on the ult.

Trash MammaIMay 12, 20152 votes

His laning phase (mainly waveclear) is the issue. I don't give a shit about him afterwards. Unlike Leblanc or kata who are indeed OP

JustMyBassCannonMay 12, 20152 votes

His signature weakness is that most of his damage is easily avoided. Pre-6, he doesn't really have a good gap closer. Between the travel time and cast delay, his W is only slightly faster than walking in the same direction. So he can't reliably use basic attacks or his E, unless his opponent just walks too close to him.

Post-6, his ultimate's damage is not that hard to interrupt, unless you have no mobility or CC and can't just tank the damn thing; in that case, why did you take Ashe mid when it's no longer pre-Season 1?

SnowfoxMay 18, 20152 votes

Zed's biggest weaknesses Early Game - Being ganked whilst W is on CD !!!!! You have to bait it out and gank when he can't escape

Early Armguard for AP champions
The CC goes behind you when he ults (Time it right and theres a dead Zed)

Mid Game - Zed is very powerful here, grouping and warding needed

Late Games - You may not kill Zed here but with a grouped team with tanks it can be very hard for him to pick out and eliminate targets. He may have to peel or splitpush to remain useful.

Just some of my thoughts, though now he's nerfed his pretty easy to deal with at any level of play.

ThaJabesMay 19, 20152 votes

Zed's weaknesses are the fact that he doesn't offer his team any crowd control which is common for a mid laner. He is all damage and for him to utilize his damage fully with his shadow he loses his mobility. Zhonyas makes his ult worthless on you and qss which mitigates his all in (unless you are an adc and hes strong in enough in the game he can jump on you and kill you). Kayle can ult anyone that zed targets taking away his damage (zed is all damage as a champion and that is it). Lissandra can ult him during his ult or ult herself. Fizz can use his trickster. basically any champ that can make themselves untargetable completely counters his small ult window. He is shut down by cc like riven if he were to go all in as well. Zed offers great targeted damage but when he uses his burst he literally can just assist the team with auto attacks, so if the team isnt doing too hot he has nothing after his ult since his sustained damage sucks. He is great champ but there are plenty of ways to stop him

thinking manMay 12, 20151 votes

He is generally okay but he falls off late-game since his assassination is in no way guaranteed. He's only good at getting out and accruing early advantages through farm/capitalizing on bad plays. Having a Talon or Rengar late-game would be better since they'll either do a shitton of AoE damage while insta-killing their target or become super tanky for a few seconds to get some more hits in before he drops after insta-killing their targets.

He's like Lee where he's really meh on his own but usually can't get snowballed off of as easily.