How do I lane against ZED?
I used to ban Zed back in the bronze V Zed/Yasuo mid every game meta, because I know how to play into Yasuo, but what are some of the best champions to play into Zed mid, and how do I play them into the matchup?
35 Comments
Your best bet would be to pick a string generalist mage like ahri or orianna. They scale decently into the late game.
Karma or lulu can easily endure the lane but they take a more supportive role later in the game.
Vlad is decent into him, just play safe early. Same with gragas.
Many will recommend Annie akali fizz and talon, while they have an easy enough time surviving a zed lane they are prone to getting shoved in resulting in zed getting a double kill in botlane.
Double dorans and seekers is likely the best first back buy.
Ahri, Ori, Liss, Malz, Swain, Diana.
Ahri imo actually matches against Zed alright, it'll come down to skill. Knowing that Zed's ult always appears behind you, and you can use Ahri's spirit Rush defensibly to get Zed under turret for the Charm when he comes out of Ult and he should have to go straight back to his Shadow allowing you to use the other two charges offensively if you think you can get the kill. Run barrier too, pop it as soon as he comes out of ult to negate a bunch of the ult charge damage. (it won't start stacking until he breaks through shields.
any one of the 40 something ranged AP mages.
play fizz or talon and take 
, no ult = no zed
Use 
. Parry his ult, make him cry. I do it all the time (coming from a Zed main).
lissandra, kayle, jax, irelia, zillean, mordekaiser, malphite, riven....
First, watch his energy. Zed is not limitless resources. If he doesn't manage his energy well, use those times to poke him and win the trade. Second, buy armor. If you are vs a zed as an AP mage, conserve your mana and your cooldowns, and rush the seekers armguard. Assuming you have armor yellows, that plus seekers will help you come out on top.
Zed is one of those champions that you simply need to accept the fact that going vs him will dictate some of your build. You can't just rush whatever you normally rush to bust down your opponents because he had the ability to force engagements and all-in you at-will. But the thing is, once you put yourself in a position to not be killed by him, you can very easily deal with him when presented opportunities to do so.
Go pre rework Galio and max W first, Rush a thornmail. Walk inti a wave and hit W. He cant hurt you and you insta clear waves. Later in team fights whenever he uses ukt on you or someone else just push R. Youd easiky do 900+ damage just with ult and thorn and tenacicty doesnt effect your ult. Easy match.
Malz is pretty good too.
Pick 
, 
or 
and tilt him into oblivion. But if you are on a more traditional mage...
Harass him before level 3. Once he's level 3 you back off and let the minion wave be near your side of the tower (so he's more likely to get ganked than you).
Rush 
. Dodge his WEQ combos and hit him back when his W is down. Every time you miss a spell you should back off because he could hit back with WEQ if its up. Be aware that he can switch places with his W at any time.
The key is to dodge WEQ. Its okay if you get hit by a single Shuriken (damage is quite low) and trade back, just don't get hit by the whole thing.
If he roams, Ping your team and push to his tower. Don't follow.
Once you have and he doesn't have kills on you, he's pretty useless. His team fighting is god awful compared to any decent mage.