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Zed player's opinion on his current state

Chris Chiaki·1/4/2016, 1:12:12 PM·68 votes·6,943 views

Now this is only my opinion so take it with a grain of salt.

I believe Zed is in a good spot at the moment but is perceived to be a little bit too strong which I feel stems from AP mage players who were shafted with price increases in the pre-season. This is not a problem with Zed perse but a lot of AP mages being very poor at the moment ( still seem very strong) because they reach power-spikes slower and items like are far too expensive and offer much less then in earlier seasons.

The upcoming AD assassin item is also I feel is a poor idea as it may push him into the OP territory, not because of the passive really but the movement speed makes him stick to targets easier. Without this item I think he has well defined strengths and weaknesses.

His laning phase is definitely strong but it needs to be because without snowballing he isn't going to be useful later on. His teamfighting is belong average, especially into comp with lots of CC/peel and if he isn't strong his split-push is useless too which would make him a liability. What some people fail to understand is he should beat squishy mages in lane, that's normal for a 1v1 assassin against an AOE/teamfighting mage. Get a early Seekers before going Mana Regen (Frostfang is cheap and offers 100% mana regen), take Exhaust and you'll have a smoother laning phase and wait until you outscale.

If you want to beat a Zed in lane, options like do quite well against him and are stronger lategame too. Lulu only when paired with a good AD though.

tl;dr -> Zed is in a good spot currently. -> Assassin item is a bad idea and will likely make him overpowered. -> AP items suck dick at the moment apart from -> Get early and and play safer if you are a squishy mage. Malphite will easily 1v1 an ADC, Zed will easily 1v1 a mage. That's why you have a team.

169 Comments

shadecrapper1/4/2016, 2:51:17 PM24 votes

Nah, its just the AP mages got fucked. Items nerfed and cost more. Although once you save up, sell your wife on ebay, and mortgage your house and get that item 3089 you start dealing some disgusting damage.

Indominus Blade1/4/2016, 1:20:07 PM21 votes

From diamond 2 rank 8 best Zed EUW:

Assassin item is garbage and not good on Zed, it will only be good on Talon.
Zed is balanced, the majority of midlaners have the tools in their kit to just outplay Zed's telegraphed abilities (shurikens and ult).
Counterbuilding with items is pretty easy and effective, yet most people who complain about Zed don't do it because they are bad at the game, simple as that.
AP item do not suck and are a lot better than AD items.

Leu071/4/2016, 4:44:19 PM18 votes

My complaint with Zed is that no matter how much you outplay him/bully him in lane, he still is gonna get every freaking CS easily with his Q. He is such an easy farmer... Also, if you missplay and get hit by a double Q, you lose like half your health, wtf.

Cosnirak1/4/2016, 5:30:04 PM12 votes

"What some people fail to understand is he should beat squishy mages in lane, that's normal for a 1v1 assassin against an AOE/teamfighting mage."

That may be the intent from Riot. The problem is that isn't fun at all. I'm not ok with just having to cede a lane and become weak because X champion was picked. Especially when I'm playing a champion that I picked specifically because in most cases it's capable of both farming well and getting kills when I outplay my opponent.

Zed just takes away all of that and says "no, sit there and get mediocre cs and have 0 impact in the laning phase except to spam MIA pings when I roam." Outplaying him results in being down in cs and a 0/0/0 score. It'd be different if I pick a champion that typically has a weak laning phase or is meant to farm hard and be strong later from just that (like Nasus).

Zed's laning phase is simply too oppressive vs mages. He's far too good against skillshots and pokes very hard. People often say that this is compensation for his bad team fighting later. So I say give him better team fighting later and make his laning phase less of a giant pain in everyone's ass.

venomous frost1/4/2016, 3:12:46 PM6 votes

why does everyone think Lissandra is a good counter to Zed ?

the only thing she does is counter zed's ult with her ult, apart from that zed has equal waveclear, no mana costs (big issue on liss), way longer range harras, more damage. she will just get pushed out of lane or die to zed without using ult at all.