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Stop saying zed has no counterplay

FeistyPoptart·8/10/2018, 4:11:09 AM·7 votes·2,202 views

I get that he has insane kill potential after lvl 6 and it can feel pretty unfair to play against, however there are still ways to counter him. Most of the matchups that favor him are mages, which can easily deal with him if you don't mind a boring first 10-15 mins. Though it might seem shitty all you really have to do is just give up almost all of your lane dominance. Once he hits 6 you sit back and farm with abilities or wait for the wave to get to your tower. Deny his ability to make good roams by making sure to prioritize vision, ping whenever he goes missing even if you aren't sure he actually left, and hard push the wave every time he leaves. You are essentially starving him of a snowball by making sure he doesn't get any kills. Plus, at lower elos at least, the zed will probably get bored/annoyed because he cant fight you and he might try to dive you which can result as an easy kill if you play it right. Do this until you have enough for a zhonyas then try to roam and use your utility as a mage to peel for allies and get picks. That's just for mages, but most assassins have a pretty easy time against him. Champs like yasuo, Kat, and ekko can beat him with relative ease unless the zed is playing better than them.

Edit: Im pretty sure most people aren't even reading the post, they just see someone that SLIGHTLY sides with zed not being gutted and they just have to downvote it and move on. :/

14 Comments

Madsin258/10/2018, 4:26:17 AM8 votes

You can counterpick him easily and make his life hell.

However counterpicking is not counterplay.

Ahpe8/10/2018, 4:20:54 AM6 votes

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/018/489/nick-young-confused-face-300x256-nqlyaa.jpg

MagicFlyingLlama8/10/2018, 4:34:09 AM5 votes

The only counterplay to zed is avoiding him.

This is most easily achieved by banning him in champ select.

Yenn8/10/2018, 8:52:17 AM4 votes

{quoted}

Though it might seem shitty all you really have to do is just give up almost all of your lane dominance. Once he hits 6 you sit back and farm with abilities or wait for the wave to get to your tower.

Okay, so you sit back and farm under your turret. Let's assume it's a shitty Zed who can't kill you under your turret (spoiler: there are many immobile casters who can be safely dived 1v1 by a skilled Zed with no possible counter play, and even more who become diveable if he ever lands a double Q).

{quoted}

Deny his ability to make good roams by making sure to prioritize vision, ping whenever he goes missing even if you aren't sure he actually left, and hard push the wave every time he leaves.

Every time you go to ward, you're potentially walking into Zed. You can spend all of your gold on pinks, but you can't defend them, making it impossible to maintain vision. You can't push the wave unless you know he's gone; if he's not gone, he'll pop Ghostblade and kill you for leaving your turret. If he is roaming, you don't know until it's too late. If you ping on every wave, your team becomes desensitized to it and stops caring.

{quoted}

Do this until you have enough for a zhonyas then try to roam and use your utility as a mage to peel for allies and get picks.

If you rush Zhonya, you can't wave clear. You'll have to recall for mana often, and he'll just take your turret and/or roam while you're gone. Virtually no mage can fight Zed 1v1 even with Zhonya, so every time you roam, you're praying that he doesn't catch you in the river.

The rest of your post is irrelevant because the initial premise that you can maintain vision control and farm safely as long as you don't leave your turret are both completely wrong, and only apply to unskilled players.

Warlord Rhinark8/10/2018, 11:56:37 AM1 votes

Once he hits 6 you sit back and farm with abilities or wait for the wave to get to your tower.

This is assuming he doesn't just tower dive you.

Deny his ability to make good roams by making sure to prioritize vision, ping whenever he goes missing even if you aren't sure he actually left,

Half the time people don't actually listen to pings.

The entire "counterplay" here depends on your allied laners listening to you.

and hard push the wave every time he leaves.

How am I supposed to hard push the wave if I'm to give up all of my lane dominance?

If he comes back, I'm just straight up dead because "I didn't wait for the wave to get to my tower".

he might try to dive you which can result as an easy kill if you play it right.

"Play it right"?

How am I supposed to outplay a Duskblade, Electrocute and Ignite?

Do this until you have enough for a zhonyas then try to roam and use your utility as a mage to peel for allies and get picks.

If I rush a Zhonya's I don't have any mana and if I don't have any mana I can't wave clear when he leaves without having to back a lot.

And if I back I lose my tower to him because I can't push it back.

And if I roam, he might catch me alone in the river, which means I'm dead because I don't have a tower, and if I actually make it to another lane he'll take my tower because I'm not pushing him back.

It's a lose-lose situation.

Napoleon38/10/2018, 1:32:33 PM1 votes

before new runes when lethality stacks up to 84 lethality zed was totally unfair right now yes ofcorse he can be countered with only 48 lethality and lord dominiks nerfs and black leaver but before those nerfs he was totally unfair i played and i main him bro and i totally know what im saying season 7 zed was totally so strong and can 1vs1 the most enemys

Jesi Oni10/11/2019, 12:35:31 PM1 votes

Zilean is a counter - pick play

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/GlossyWelldocumentedAcaciarat-small.gif

Just Pick to Play him

Titanium7010/11/2019, 5:14:51 PM1 votes

Well, from what you wrote:

Zed gets lane dominance by existing. All you can achieve is farming save and deny him a snowball.

Question: What am I doing against the 3-0 Draven at bot who will soon snowball into oblivion?

If I just banned Zed playing against ANY other champion in the entire roaster I could push aggressively creating a roaming opportunity my selfe! Against Zed? No chance! A single important ability used is a free all in for him. Walking into the river is a freekill for him. And even if you somehow got lane priority he can oneshot the wave and follow you or take like 4 plates!

Every single Assassin in this game is lacking something that gives them counterplay. Waveclear most commonly, but also mana or range. He lacks not a single one of them even excells in some parts! (His poke range even exceeds FREAKING XERATH!)

Lethal Zedstér8/10/2018, 5:28:19 AM1 votes

I agree, you just need to play passive rush tabi and zhonyas and he will not be able to kill you cuz armor is too op against him. Just dont give him kills and rush armor easy counterplay lmao

Thecampingrusher8/10/2018, 5:32:29 AM1 votes

i completely agree with this post

BlueBilberry8/10/2018, 7:38:04 AM1 votes

Zed had counterplay for the last few seasons. Does he have counterplay currently? Yes, but unfortunately, with snowballing being so bad in this meta for most assassins and bruisers, any existing counterplay can be rendered moot so easily.

Plus, with most tanks being rendered useless this patch, dealing with a post-level 6 Zed who has a couple of kills under his belt is difficult at best.