Seriously, you guys have not said a single thing about him and how he's pretty much worse than Talon ever was in terms of counterplay and Talon wasn't even picked much before you guys removed the silence, and he was one of the few that could go against Zed. So what's the deal? Why won't you guys look into it and all the complaints against him?
Zed's strong when well played, no argument, particular when picked into the right matchups/with the right team. Because of the delay and need for follow up on his ult's initial cast however his all in combo gives his target a number of options. They can activate defensive items/effects, try and get away from Zed so he can't stack up damage, kill (or at least damage) him, reposition before he reappears to try put him in a position where he has to get out immediately etc.
Talon by contrast when he had his silence executed his entire combo very quickly leaving the enemy unable to respond apart from a second or so of basic attacks and slow movement. As a result we felt changing Talon was necessary - he's not able to cover as much distance quickly as Zed can, but with a silence he shut down too many of the basic responses to an assassin diving onto you.
If anything, he may have the most counterplay out of every assassin.
Basic counterplay: Dodge his poke. Basic Death Mark Counterplay: Crowd Control him.
His damage is more than manageable once you have a Seeker's. Death Mark becomes a non-issue once you have Zhonya's.
Anyone with long range, mobility, shields/sustain or CC can deal with him easily. If you put yourself in a position to be picked off for free (i.e.: no CC, away from your turret) you deserved to die.
Seriously, you guys have not said a single thing about him and how he's pretty much worse than Talon ever was in terms of counterplay
A lack of counterplay doesn't mean a strong pick.
Zed is strong, but he isn't without countermeasures. You can Zhonya's during his ultimate. Or a defensive skill. You can simply move out of the way when he ults so his fallow-up is significantly impaired. You can dodge his shurikens, shadows, and slashes by simply moving out of the way.
The issue with Talon is that once he blinked behind and silenced a champion without warning, you can't react in any way outside of turning around and auto-attacking him. Which he could opt out of happening if he stealthed immediately afterwards, seeing as stealth grants untargetability against auto-attacks. Talon's blink is also instant, so there's not much warning he's casting it outside of moving within 700 range of a target (50 further away than Caitlyn's AA).
Silence disables summoner spells (Flash, Barrier), item actives (Zhonya's, Kingblade), as well as abilities.
Buy an hour glass when he ults. Try side stepping a few times
I beat Zed in lane with Diana the time I had that matchup in mid; Nerf Diana and buff Zed.
That's how it works, right?
because midlane is in a strange place right now because of the attacks on assassins.
I remember when pre-rework Xerath countered Zed, those were the days.
wait til people find out that lee sin counters zed if the lee sin is fast enough just q the zed before he blinks away
Or you know, try letting your team tank go in first, or play champs who become untargetable like Fiora, Fizz, Master Yi, or can hella juke like Wukong, Kha'Zix, Twitch, or even Corki.
Or you know, play a tank yourself like Volibear with 30 points defense and a full armor build, and then frenzy your way to a win.
The frustrating aspect of Zed is early game when he hits 6, he can pretty much guarantee himself a free kill with his ult and get out of anything safely thanks to the super long range shadow teleports. Early game people won't have Zhonya's and by the time you do, he's most likely snowballed already. And then QSS for ADs is a wasteful item if the other team has low magic damage but I know it's there too, probably is Scimitar is highly expensive too.
Zed has tonnes of counterplay man, exhaust, zhonyas, QSS. I personally think he's in a great spot
