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"The Zed Effect"

BIG TITO 23·4/21/2014, 2:54:09 AM·1 votes·867 views

So there are many builds in this game that are viable with many different champions and I know RIOT loves to see all of them used to a certain extent. But what happens when builds begin to lose diversity on certain champs simply because of how they work? One champion I would like to point out in this theory is Zed.

Now Zed by himself is a strong champion who excels at dealing massive burst damage in very little time which may get annoying to lane against. A simple counter would be to build armor but recently that does not seem to work well against him. Ever since his major popularity in Ultra Rapid Fire, many players have found that to build Zed you don't really need to think much. Since U.R.F has come and gone I have seen a multitude of Zed players using the same build and all of them seeming to dominate using it. The build consists of a item 3035 item 3071 item 3117 and finally 3item 3072 . The usual combo I see is Zed ults in, spawns a shadow, throws a shuriken and follows up with a spin or an auto attack and it ends with instant destruction.

My point here is, building basically a single item to deal all of that damage for you isn't really strategy based which is what RIOT tries so hard to implement. Gameplay wise builds like these have a lot of power and don't add much depth to the gameplay.

So tell me, what is your opinion on champions that seem to dominate by stacking the same items? Are you for it or against it?

6 Comments

hawkman58794/21/2014, 3:25:55 AM2 votes

While I mainly play ranked I have seen this twice. While I do agree that there shouldn't be on build that is always perfect for a champion, it is like that on most champions. People have simply realized that those are core items on him. Almost every champ in the game has core items. In the end of this confusing post as I don't even know what I am saying anymore, I will say that odds are, core items typically don't change no matter how much you want to diversify yourself. I don't think that made any sense but o well, hope I managed to say something of value in that jumbled mess ;)

Remlap12234/21/2014, 2:25:40 PM1 votes

But... Armor pen doesn't stack.

itsxjchivs4/24/2014, 2:56:44 AM1 votes

As a Zed player myself, I usually just build accordingly to how the game is going. Black cleaver. mobility boots, and ravenous hydra are my three go-to items. I understand that the item set you listed is pretty over powered, and I have need it used way too much especially with him being free this week, but, like the previous commentator had said, those 4 items are core items.

Where I think something should be implemented, is when the BT passive stacks. That, off the bat, with three of them, gives 300 AD and a ton of life steal. The passives SHOULD be unique. Other than that, I think that the build would be fine and easily countered with a thorn mail and an Omen.