Boards›Concepts & Creations

Help me Balance a Zed Rework

Insta4k·10/11/2018, 7:34:46 PM·2 votes·2,677 views

Adding on to my previous thread, https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/PMOEQoPz-a-cool-way-to-make-a-zed-rework-read-entire-thing-before-hating-plz, balance was massive issue. Even though I have stated that it was made to be fun and not balanced, and that balance comes later in the process, people were not satisfied.

So I have decided to try balancing it myself. I DID NOT FULLY BALANCE IT! I tweaked it to be less broken, but this is not the balanced version, this is a slightly less powerful version of the old one. But I do ask one thing, help me balance it. I am open to criticism (as long as its constructive and not just "DUDE ZED SO FKING OP JUST DELETE HIM ALREADY")

(P) Shadow Slash + Looming Shadow Cd: 4 - Shadow Slash: After using an ability, auto attacking will make Zed and his shadows strike in a circle, dealing bonus physical damage and reducing base armor by 20% (for Zed) for every slash hit. Looming Shadow: When an enemy champion comes in contact with a shadow, they get feared and slowed for 0.5 second. The same target can not be feared twice by the same shadow.

Cd: 6 - (Q) - Razor Shuriken - C: 55/50/45/40 Energy Zed and his shadows throw spinning blades forward (900 units), each dealing physical damage, reduced to 70% against units beyond his first.

Cd: 14/12/10/8/6 - (W) - Twin Shadow - C: 80/75/70/65/60 Energy Zed conjures a Shadow, which dashes in the target direction and persists for 12 seconds. The closest shadow to zed is active, being able to mimic Razor Shuriken and Shadow Slash while within 1950 units of each other. Inactive shadows can not copy abilities, and can not proc Looming Shadow, but can be shifted to. Passive: Zed restores energy whenever a shadow lands a mimicked ability on the same target he does.

Cd: 14/12/10/8/6 - (E) - Shift - C: 60/55/50/45/40 Energy Zed switches place with a movable entity/shadow (1500 units), or blinks behind an enemy champion (600 units). If activated on a shadow, the cooldown resets. If casted twice on the same shadow, the shadow disappears. This ability is not a blink or dash unless used on champion, considered a shift (bypasses roots).

Cd: 120/90/60 - (R) - Death Mark - C:0 Energy Zed vanishes for 0.75 seconds during which he goes through the enemy champion, marking then, resetting his Twin Shadow cooldown, making all shadows active for 4 seconds, and spawning a shadow at the cast location which lasts for 8 seconds. For the next 4 seconds, the mark stores a percentage of all pre-mitigation physical and magic damage Zed deals to the target, detonating at the end of the duration, or when recast to deal physical damage. Passive: If you kill a marked target, your energy resets to 200 and Shift resets to 0.

16 Comments

Velzard of Koz10/11/2018, 8:44:25 PM3 votes

This indeed looks much cleaner and nicer. I'll just throw in few things. I am pretty confident the Shift and Ult would be broken or hard to balance. The rumping up through slashes and multiple shadows while only one is active might be good direction, though.

  1. It being delayed and not reactivable is giving the little counterplay to point-click damage-spike as you can react and use shield or stasis.
  2. Assasins should not be able to chain kills so easily. Given low CD of his Q, the reset of Shift and Energy reset, he would be able to pick another target in teamfight instantly. And it would make his dives easier, safer and unfairer than needed.
  3. Katarina is not fair when strong because of the blink versatility. Zed is better off being only able to Shift to Shadows so you can better guess where he is heading. In teamfight there's way too many options.
  4. Zed cannot swap back to shadow so that the enemy has chance to trade. Your iteration of Shift would allow him to shadow-dash in, deal damage and swap back.
  5. Many of these broken tools you gave him would be unusable due to Energy costs. This is the Hard to balance rather than Broken part. When he is balanced around hitting multiple Qs, he can virtually never use the most of his kit and would be nerfed. When Energy costs would be more generous, he would be too safe and broken.

But I do like the whole idea of him required to stay in fight longer to rump up slashes and possibly being forced to use more shadows correctly.

Hi lm Zoe10/11/2018, 7:54:13 PM2 votes

Imo the only op thing in his current kit is ult soooo do something bout that otherwise ur only a bich lasanga

BlueFlamePheonix10/11/2018, 10:01:52 PM2 votes

Hia There, Balancing Changes (My Suggestions, Take with a grain of salt) P CD from 4s>0s Base Armor Reduction (20%)> Removed Damage (Not Mentioned)> 100--150(Rank 1-5) +60% AD Q CD 6>12/11/10/9/8 Damage (Not Mentioned)> 80-180(Rank 1-5) +80% AD W Changed: -Can hold 2 charges (Shadow Charge) Cost 1 Shadow Charge Active: Zeds Shadow dashes forward remaining in place for 5 seconds mimicking each cast of Q and P. Additionally Zed gains 3/6/9/12/15% Bonus AD Per Shadow Charge. When you have no Shadow Charges you gain Shift Shift Zed switches place with a movable entity/shadow (1500 units), or blinks behind an enemy champion (600 units). If activated on a shadow, the cooldown resets and Zed gains one shadow Charge destroying the shadow. E Zed empowers his next auto attack dealing 150-190(Rank 1-5) 30% AD damage and marking the target. Marked targets can be hit by multiple procs of passive and dont take reduced damage from Q going through other targets. Dealing damage to a Marked Target with BOTH P and Q resets the cooldown of "E" R Zed vanishes for 0.75 seconds during which he goes through the target enemy champion, marking them, becoming Ghost ghosted for 3 seconds, and spawning a Shadow at the cast location which lasts for 6 seconds. After 0.5 seconds of his reappearance he can activate Death Mark For the next 3 seconds, the mark stores a stack for each instance of physical/magical damage Zed deals to the target, detonating at the end of the duration to deal 50(10% AD) Damage Per stack

Just my thoughts

ModThe Djinn10/11/2018, 11:32:02 PM2 votes

So...how does he MAKE Shadows? Q doesn't do it, W doesn't do it, E doesn't do it, and R makes one -- that's from what I read, anyway.

FlameHalbrdOkido10/13/2018, 5:38:22 AM1 votes

I think this kit only makes it Zed's job easier

The current issue that many have with Zed now isn't exactly his base kit, infact its not even his numbers, its how easy it is to complete certain tasks and get away with it, and his outrageous numbers only make it easier. His current kit needs some additions and tweaks to require MORE skill for Zed to be successful, thats the issue the current kit just isn't as difficult as other assassins

Addition I personally think Zed could use "shadow magic" in his kit a LOT more as he's supposed to be the preeminent shadow magic master on Runterra, and as the only of 2 examples of users in the game I'd like to see Zed use it in a more integrated way in his kit and thus I like that you added the addition of blinking to enemy's shadows, BUT that would be bad for his game health as others has stated

Pls review this kit i've come up with

Passive - Shadowed Contempt for the Weak: COOLDOWN: 10 EFFECT RADIUS: 2000/200 Dark Shadows spawn behind enemy champs relative to Zed's location over 0.5 sec marked as an AoE. Every 20 sec the Dark Shadow will update its position. Zed's 2nd basic attack against champions he's hit with an ability within 8 sec while within their Dark Shadow below 25 / 35 / 50%(scaling with lv) maximum health deal 6 / 8 / 10% of target's maximum health as bonus magic damage. Shadowed Contempt for the Weak can only affect the same target once every few seconds.

Alternatively

Passive - Contempt of Shadows: COOLDOWN: 10 Zed steals the shadows of his target by damaging them with an ability, increased by damaging an enemy with a Shadow and when the target is below 25/35/50% HP. Zed stores stacks of Shadows for up to 20 seconds up to a max.

Zed's basic attacks against below 25/35/50% maximum health deal 4/6/8% (based on level) target's maximum health (+ target's Shadow Stacks) as bonus magic damage while behind the target. Contempt of Shadows' bonus basic attack damage can only affect the same target once every few seconds.

Q - the dmg is nerfed a little

W - Living Shadow TARGET RANGE: 475 EFFECT RADIUS: 700 SPEED: 1600 (Ranges and speed nerf'd) COST: 40 / 35 / 30 / 25 / 20 ENERGY COOLDOWN: 22 / 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 ENERGY RESTORED: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 Living Shadow FIRST CAST: Zed's Shadow dashes forward, remaining in place for 5 seconds and being able to mimic Razor Shuriken and Shadow Slash. Zed restores energy whenever a Shadow lands a mimicked ability on the same target he does. This may only happen once per cast ability. Casting at the same time as Razor Shuriken grants 175 bonus range.

SECOND CAST - SHADOW SWAP: (COST: 20 ENERGY) Zed and his Shadow blink to their respective locations, swapping places after a 1 sec delay. The range is increased to 1300 If Zed's Shadow is within a Dark Shadow.

E - Shadow Slash: EFFECT RADIUS: 290 ANGLE: 40 PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 35 / 47 / 60 / 70 / 85 (+ 40% bonus AD) CONE BONUS DAMAGE (50% + 40% bonus AD) ACTIVE: Zed and his Shadows slash, dealing physical damage to surrounding enemies dealing bonus damage in a cone in the direction Zed is facing. This does not interrupt Zed's previous orders. Enemies hit a Shadow's Shadow Slash Cone are slowed for 1.5 seconds. Enemies hit by multiple slash cones take no additional damage but instead are slowed by a 50% stronger slow. SLOW:» 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% Each enemy champion hit by Zed's slash cone reduces Living Shadow's Cooldown by 2 seconds. Only the enemies hit by the cone restore energy.

R - Death Mark TARGET RANGE: 625 EFFECT RADIUS: 300 COOLDOWN: 120 / 90 / 60 FIRST CAST: Zed creates a shadow area around the target champion and vanishes for 0.75 seconds during which he goes through the target area if the enemy champion is within. If he passes through them, he marks them, becomes ghosted for 3 seconds, and spawns a Shadow at the cast location which lasts for 6 seconds. After 1 second of his reappearance he can activate Death Mark Shadow.

For the next 3 seconds, the mark stores a percentage of all pre-mitigation physical and magic damage Zed deals to the target, reduced if Death Mark is recast, detonating at the end of the duration to deal physical damage.

PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 100% AD (+ 25 / 40 / 55% of damage dealt, reduced by 15% if Recast) SECOND CAST - DEATH MARK SHADOW: Zed and the Death Mark Shadow blink to their respective locations, swapping places.

FéliXXX10/13/2018, 12:18:07 PM1 votes

i think zed needs a change in his kit and maybe changing the passive is the way to go then he can gets buffs in his w cd and get the way he gets ad changes like it was back then or maybe lower but the rework that you did kills his gameplay too much the passive has too many things and with the w change it feels more like an azir than a zed xd