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What exactly is wrong with Zed?

Anin777·8/17/2018, 2:43:41 PM·2 votes·2,546 views

People keep saying "Zed is unbalanced", "Zed is frustrating to play against", "Zed is overpowered", "Zed is a poorly designed champ", etc but I disagree. Zed, design-wise, can be viewed as a champ made to deal with Ranged pressure and have pressure of his own. Let's look at his abilities.

Passive: Bonus dmg on one aa when enemy is below 50% hp. Basic.

Q: Projectile that deals dmg but dmg is reduces when it passes through units. Basic.

W: Projectile that is basically an extension of Zed and mimics abilities. Not Basic.

E: Deals dmg in a circle. Slows when used with Shadow. Basic.

R: Makes Zed untargetable for a short while, deals dmg and marks target. Mark stores dmg and "detonates" after a few seconds. Also spawns a shadow. Basic.

Zed's kit is the definition of a model assassin. He has engages and disengages. Pre-6 he's open to poke but can also dish out his own but at a cost. His W has a high cd and is maxed last so if he uses it and doesn't deal good poke dmg, he's at the mercy of the enemy and very susceptible to ganks. Post-6, his kill potential increases depending on how pre-6 went. His kit allows him to roam and take out targets especially squishy ones.

When I first started playing Zed in S3, his basic build was: BoTRK, Black Cleaver, Hydra, Boots, Last whisper, Ghostblade/Maw. Now how much has Zed changed? Not much. A few kit changes that aren't entirely buffs or nerfs. But look at these items I listed. There was less CDR, less armpen, No keystones, etc. Zed wasn't feast or famine. If he does well early, he could assassinate in less time allowing him to escape instead of dying. If he was behind, he could comeback. Same with most assassins back then really. But now with Electrocute, lethality, things like Stormrazor and Duskblade and the multiple runes that grant offensive stats, it's obvious that he'll be stronger than he used to be. And this applies to EVERY champ. We've seen Sorakas poking ADCs out of lane at 2:50.

What I'm saying is, instead of blaming champs for being OP, blame Riot for making changes without adequate foresight.

33 Comments

l MrD l8/17/2018, 2:48:55 PM5 votes

its the runes and items that come with him .... you used to be able to get resistances such as armour MR etc with the runesbut we lost that in the new rune system which leads to now where zeds build the same lethaility items maybe add hexdrinker or GA in there and its just full AD lethaility .. standard assination build .. zed did used to rush botrk for dueling power rather than assasination but with the new runes and lethaility you can just straight up kill which little skill well i mean with just simple W E Q youre chunked massively and thats in teh laning with 0 effort ... its too punishing on top of his snowball potential .. i dont mean to say zed is a simple champion he does high a high skill ceiling but this season its like his skill floor is lowered

SwiftKitten888/17/2018, 7:52:25 PM4 votes

Zed has been a problem LONG before new runes

the problem is.. he has safety.. he has manaless wave clear.. and if u want to not die to him..u are forced to rush item 3157 which then delays your mana regen which which u at a heavy disadvantage until they have 2 complete items

meanwhile he can sit back and buill full damage and or a item 3155 if you are of any threat to him.

stop pretending the issue is "runes" the issue isnt runes.. it never has been.. runes COMPOUND the issue.. but they are not the cause of the issue.

The Bad Touch8/17/2018, 4:28:25 PM2 votes

The biggest issues is he doesn't use mana, has the ability to waveclear/poke from range as a melee (who gets the bonus stats all melee get) and can delete squishies from full hp with 1 combo + ignite after 1 item.

His engage range with R is long as hell and timing the exact moment to CC him after he ulti's is damn near frame perfect.

Zed should be there to pick off squishies who are under 2/3 HP and to roam/gank... No be a 100-0 machine cause he hit level 6 with more than 30 CS and less than 3 deaths.

ChargeItDownMid8/17/2018, 4:02:27 PM1 votes

[deleted]

heroikc8/17/2018, 4:40:23 PM1 votes

OK, now factor in buffed ignite, Duskblade, Youmuu's, Stormrazor, GA, Maw, Electrocute, no need for mana, Sudden Impact, and/or Edge of Night...

VoraciousX8/17/2018, 6:33:05 PM1 votes

My problem with Zed is that he procs Electrocute without any risk, then has adequate time to decide if he wants to go in on it. It's electrocute's fault not his. Of course I also have a problem with his untargetability because that gets annoying when you're an assassin going in on him, but that's not really a major problem. Electrocute needs a revision in how it's procced, as I've been saying for a while. It's too easy to proc for most champions, and some(like Zed) can proc it without putting themselves in any risk. As an assassin rune, you should be forced to put yourself in close range if you wanna proc it. That's just my take on it. They need to either make it more risky to proc, or remove it entirely of a new keystone for assassins. They have enough damage without electrocute anyways tbh. I'd much rather have a rune that maybe gives more gold on kills in exchange for making yourself give more gold when you're killed. That would be a more assassin like rune and would help them get ahead and keep ahead of the enemy, which is what assassins need to do in order to be relevant. It'd also be able to act as an opposing rune to Dark Harvest, as it allows you to scale into the late game.

Also I've always poked ADCs out of lane with Soraka. Most Soraka's just wanna be healbots though.

As for damage being nerfed across the board, there are better solutions, like reverting GA, Banshee's Veil, Abyssal Mask, Athene's, and all the other items that were nerfed/turned into mostly offensive items/etc. The reason we take so much damage now is that we no longer build at least one completely defensive item on carries. We no longer really even have that option because most tanky items now are designed specifically for tanks.

KlydeFrog8/17/2018, 7:10:22 PM1 votes

Umm thunderlords is like the same thing. People cry about any champ in this game. Zed has no counter play umm sure thing buddy. Zilean counters him. But people forget abput him

MLDzXnRRR8/17/2018, 3:36:54 PM1 votes

Zed's kit is Ok, but he does way too much damage these days thanks to the runes and items. All tank items got nerfed to the ground over the years, now you can't even itemize to survive Zed (also QSS could remove his mark).

The only assassin that feels fair to play against today is Kassadin - deals little base damage (compared to every other assassin), weak laning, has mana costs, to 1shot he needs to buy many items (that even require stacking). He can delete faster than Zed lategame, but games are decided these days in 10 minutes and take 10-15 more to push everything. (I really miss old league - season 4 the most.)