How does this review work:I'll be going into four 'main' topics: Cheatsheet, Content, Presentation and What can be Improved?. All of these topics alone can turn a great guide into an even better one. Just knowing the ins and outs of your champion alone won't be enough if you're not able to properly convey said information. The end goal is always to make it easier for the readers that come to your guide of course.I'll specify these main categories with purple text within this review, as well as some subcategories which will mostly depend on your guide chapters and for that I'll use the following rating system:

Cheatsheet

>Runes: Inadequate

Taste of Blood tends to be used way more than Sudden Impact for the "Lane Pressure" rune page. I like that you explain that this page is good into mages/squishy comps, is there anything else you can add that explains the reasoning behind going this page? Is there a specific reason as to why squishy comps and mages are the sole target. Is it because they're low health? Easy to kill? Why not go this against tanks? Why not go this against other assassins? Explain!

I honestly don't see the justification for going Legend: Haste and Cut Down in your secondary rune page "Assassin w/ reset combo" -- if we're going to use Precision for secondary runes then both Triumph and Coup de Grace are used way more often. Curious to hear your thoughts considering you explain in your notes that you yourself do not prefer this build over Sorcery, rendering it kinda redundant if it's not a viable pick anyhow.

"Burst, Heavy sustain" rune page has no notes at all, menaing there's no way to understand what makes this page good or why people should pick it. If I were to just refer to statistics, then this page sucks, why would I ever bother going this page if I can just run Sorcery instead that seems much stronger for me on Zed? Explain! If the page isn't useful or viable, it should be removed.

In the actual First Strike rune page you finally explain your reasonings behind going Legend: Haste and Cut Down, why was this not explained in the other Electrocute page more properly? It seems to have a purpose, against champions your burst isn't too useful against, this should be explained. Cosmic Insight is also way more popular and way more used (15% more) than Jack of all Trades -- I'd switch them. JoAT is actually almost the least picked rune in that tree altogether, coupled with some others, I wouldn't personally recommend this choice.

Your Conqueror page explains nothing at all. Objectively, conqueror is the least used keystone out of the 3 that you can actually run on Zed, and yet you haven't explained when this page should be built, if at all. Why would I ever run this page compared to just going Electrocute or First Strike? Personally I feel like the others are going to be way better for me than this one, either I get burst potential or I can farm economy if the lane is rougher. If Conq has no purpose or isn't viable, it shouldn't be recommended.

>Summoner Spells: Adequate

I would honestly put Flash + Ignite as the first one of these, as it is the most popular and honestly the most used one. With Flash + Teleport being the closest 2nd. Ignite + Teleport is not something anyone runs that much on Zed and having 'confidence' as the only reasoning behind picking them doesn't really seem like a strong argument to me. Especially compared to the other 2 you have, being ignite against high kill pressure lanes you can easily destroy, or teleport into any other harder matchup. I'd do flash/ignite, then flash/tp, then ignite/tp if anything.

Anti CC mix is absolutely horrible. You don't need Cleanse -- dodge correctly, if anything try to explain to the readers how to dodge effectively when it comes to important spells, say e.g. Chum the Waters or Scatter the Weak. Goes much further than these spells. Same goes for the other page at the end that also has cleanse. No other spells besides flash/tp/ignite are useful on Zed, you're an assassin after all, you don't need these.

>Items: Inadequate

For the recommended build, what makes Profane Hydra as the final 5th item a better choice than just running Axiom Arc which everyone else is running at the moment? I feel like going profane so incredibly late feels absolutely redundant, just seems better to run Axiom that is 200g cheaper, you get -5 attack damage but you gain a much stronger passive than a profane AoE, being that takedowns reduces your ultimate -- which is the entire point of Zed to begin with, to use his ult and make quick kills. Especially if the game is already stalling enough to this point that you're buying a 5th item for a full build.

I'd change the titles of starting items to "Confidence" -> "Easy Matchups" -> "Hard Matchups" -- you can explain why these are the case within your notes. Such as confidence only being picked if you have confidence but is severely lacking poke damage in the matchup, easy matchups for ones you will trade with a lot and can easily win and hard matchups for ones that you will most likely lose, most likely get poked a whole ton and should try going even.

Switch your "first back" titles to just say "350+ gold" -> "650+ gold" -> "875+ gold" "1337+ gold" instead. Anything else can just be explained within the notes, such as the reasonings behind each option. The titles don't actually need to be longer than this, it takes too much space and doesn't look good. Your notes for these are a lot better though.

I'd move over first items into the options set instead and rename it to "Item Pool" or "Zed Item Pool" whatever fits you more. You can explain all of them either way in here and it would look better.

Your options for items have no notes at all, just a barrage of items and no context or explanation as to why you should be running them at all. Explain!

I'd also move example builds above the item options as these are again, only examples, should be shown first. Also elaborate on your notes for these builds, they are terrible. What makes each build good? When should you go which one? Do they have a purpose?

I'd completely remove Glowing Mote from here. It's just an absolutely worthless spot, especially when you're already building items that have glowing within them anyway. It's unavoidable and feels practically pointless to even have here.

I would personally structure up your items something like this to look cleaner:


>Ability Order: Exquisite

>Threats & Synergies: Exquisite

Content

>ToC / About Me: Exquisite

>Pros / Cons: Exquisite

>Abilities: Adequate

I would honestly re-structure your explanations for this section altogether. It looks good and I like the clips you have to showcase, but the descriptions don't explain anything to the readers that they don't already know (or can figure out by just hovering the tooltip). Instead for this section, I would re-do the text to explain what you think of this ability and where it can be useful.

Let's take Orb of Deception for example, it deals magic damage when you send it out and true damage on the way back, it'll also always return back to Ahri when casted no matter what happens. This gives plenty of ways to play or create combos due to Spirit Rush repositions, Fox-Fire movement speed or other ways, knowing it'll always return back to you so the entire purpose is to get that true damage on the way back. -- Something like this is not explained in the tooltip, is a useful tip in general and doesn't just vomit the same stats numbers from the tooltip that you'd probably know already if you play the champion.

>Summoner Spells: Adequate

Sylas doesn't actually heal much at all, Kingslayer is not that broken. Ignite for this purpose is pointless. If you want another example of healing I'd just go another prominent midlaner like Karma / Swain.

If Cleanse is a spell people rarely take, don't include it. If it's not viable then it's a bad spell. If the reason is to take it against Lissandra / Zoe / Lux then it's a bad reason, to be completely blunt I'd just suggest to learn how to dodge their spells properly. Zed never needs this spell at all and it shows from how little it's used (infact, it's never used). High CC comps is also a bad reasoning when Mercury's Treads exist, after all you're an Assassin, not a Mage or ADC where this spell could have merit.

You explain the reasoning for Teleport way better here and to me as a reader, I'd only pick Ignite or Teleport from reading this section.

I wouldn't say a flashless setup has "finally" reached Zed -- considering it's still never ever used and Flash + Teleport or Flash + Ignite has a combined 95% usage rate. Unlike Camille who has a major movement ability in the form of Hookshot and Katarina who's entire kit and playstyle plays around being able to move to wherever she wants, at any time she want, they're not really good comparables to Zed who really doesn't have that same freedom. They can freely engage and disengage however much they want and any takedown on Katarina just resets all her abilities to do it again, your champ doesn't work like that. Camille is also extremely tanky whilst being able to engage and run other spells, not to mention it's for toplane where Flash matters even less, you on the other hand is still squishy to the point anyone could 1shot you with relative ease if you get caught, even Katarina would be tankier with her versatile builds if we were to go that way.

>Runes: Decent

Will quote this: "Just because I didn't list a particular combination at the beginning of the guide, doesn't mean its bad!" -- Any combination of keystones that aren't Electrocute or First Strike are terrible, they just are. Even Conqueror is debatable here considering how little it's used and how useful it is for you. If you're referring to different combinations of secondary runes to use with say Electrocute then I would re-phrase this to mention that instead. However, that still doesn't mean every secondary rune is good here, because they aren't. Because if they were, then Transcendence + Scorch wouldn't have a 60% usage rate together, out of all secondary runes.

You mention the reasons behind Conqueror here, and yet these aren't explained in the cheatsheet. How come? If it's a good keystone and rune page, I would attempt to explain the reasonings behind why that is so, since it's just better overall. If it isn't good, remove it.

I would never pick Ghost Poro over Taste of Blood -- ignoring the fact Ghost Poro / Zombie Ward is used for like 0.1% of games and just isn't strong, the reason behind picking it, being for "being mindful of the jungler" is a terrible reason for such an obsolete rune. Take Taste of Blood and learn about jungle tracking or how to ward effectively. If anything you could also teach your readers this, it'll be way better than just picking a rune that will do nothing all game because you're scared for enemy ganks. You also don't need to mention Zombie Ward if you believe it's a bad rune. You're only showcasing the runes for the sake of presentation, the ones highlighted by borders after all are ones you want to take on Zed.

If Ultimate Hunter is the best rune for this slot then there's no reason to talk about any of the others if they're inherently worse by default. You mention yourself that they don't compare to the value Ultimate Hunter provides, so just don't mention them.

Your explanation for Cosmic Insight is great, but it once again solidifies to me that Jack of all Trades is a worthless rune choice. I'd just go Cosmic 100% of the time here. If Cosmic is a) already activated and b) gives the same gold value, then going JoAT simply for a 2 item spike is a complete and utter waste.

Again you explain your reasons for Conqueror quite well here. It just confuses me why this wasn't explained in the cheatsheet. Since you explain here the reasons for why this rune page is actually good, but just judging from the cheatsheet, this entire page sucks. So which one is it?

I'd also never pick Absorb Life -- it's just not as useful over the other 2 options, into any situations. If the point is for sustain, this rune ain't it. It becomes even less of an option if the reasoning behind picking it is "harder matchups" but you're already picking Doran's Shield for said harder matchups, giving you the sustain you need.

I'd say the ability haste from Legend: Haste is 10x more useful to Zed than the attack speed from Legend: Alacrity. Your champ doesn't really benefit from attack speed much, it's also picked way less, but you benefit tenfold from more haste. I'll leave the choice here to you but those are my 2 cents.

I would like to know your reasonings behind Cut Down and Last Stand here, I am quite curious. Everyone is currently running only Coup de Grace into everything (and sometimes Cut Down into specific instances) and yet it's the one rune you recommend the least out of the 3, how come? If everyone uses it, it's bound to be quite good/viable right? You actually talk and argue the most about Last Stand despite it being the rune that nobody ever goes so I'm only curious about this choice here. (●'◡'●)

What I've already said is the same thing for the secondary runes you talk about later in the section. Things like Absorb Life being bad, Legend: Alacrity not being so useful over straight up haste, Resolve just being a bad pick overall etc.

I've also not seen anyone pick Flat Health or Ability Haste as stat shards -- and especially if you don't recommend them yourself I would just not include them and focus on the stronger shards.

>Builds: Exquisite

Note: Truth be told I don't really have much else to say for this section that I haven't already mentioned before. My main issue is still just with Profane Hydra as a final item, I think it's bad personally. As for the rest, since I do not actively OTP Zed I trust that you know the correct/good builds.

>How to Play: Exquisite

Note: I believe this section is very well made. If you want you could delve deeper into topics you've already talked about to make them more in-depth e.g. Late game / Teamfights -- otherwise it's just formatting to make the information easier to present.

>Combos: Exquisite

Note: Same reasoning as what I said for "How to Play" goes here. Alternatively you could also create some clips where you showcase how the combos are supposed to be made. At the end of the day showing a video of the exact way to do a W+E+Q combo is way easier to grasp and understand than reading about someone talking about the combo, it gives a lot more perspective.

>Summary: Exquisite

Note: Only thing I'd mention here is maybe if you can find a darker color for the special thanks. The brightness of it is quite hard on the eyes (and I'd imagine more for readers). Otherwise, cute section.

Presentation

> Execution: Inadequate

If there's one thing I'd say about your guide that I feel like you can improve on, it'll definitely be this. I know very well that making use of BBCode can be a very tedious task in of itself to make use of or just to be able to get familiar with in general, but when it comes to presentation, making use of some more code can really make your guide become more alive, so to say. I can already see that you've gotten a lot of well made BBCode in your guide already, but I feel like some sections can be improved on. Mainly formatting and just making it more presentable.

Here are a few coding guides that we already have on the site that could help you if you'd be willing to dedicate some more time to learning it (or if you just want some quick templates to make your guide look a bit more tidy):

- Making A Guide (has lots of free to use templates)
- BBCode Guide (the actual bbcode guide if you'd want to know how different codes work)
- A Table Coding Guide (talks about the bbcode that is called tables)
- Responsive Columns (talks about responsive columns; mainly for mobile side coding)

>Theme of guide (color scheme): Adequate

I feel like having a bit of a color theme would go a long way for any guide. This will be especially clear if you were to incorporate more BBCode for your sections. When I say the word 'color theme' I mean using colors that best represents the champion & guide you're trying to make. For example, you're currently using the Championship Zed skin for the top of your guide, why not also use it as a color theme? This means that a good color theme to have could be e.g. Blue & Gray to fit with the skin. If you were to use the Classic Zed skin, you'd use a color that comes from that skin e.g. Red/Black and so forth.

What can be Improved?

Making guides more extensive takes a very long time and a lot of dedication, but if you want to spend more time making your guide more informative try to explain more topics such as:

- How to play around objectives & around your jungler
- Explaining the actual midlane matchups - It's never the same playstyle against everyone
- Lane Priority -- and how to effectively make use of it
- Objectives in more detail -- Which are more valuable than others & which should be more played around
- Potential win cons - If any, again objectives play a good part here
- During the midgame you ideally want to go to a solo lane whilst Bot takes up mid -- You explain shadowing as a concept but not why you want to solo lane/split for gold/xp --- Especially if you're someone that is behind and could really use some gold/xp.

These topics can all be useful topics to explain, and of course there can be multiple more I haven't mentioned that you can talk about when it comes to Midlane as a role, but I feel like these are some of the more important ones to consider.

Overall Thoughts

For your first ever guide you've made, it's very well made. The information as previously mentioned is good, just need to be expanded further if your idea is to delve deeper into certain aspects. Your explanations for runes/items are good but could be better if you already know some options are better than others. If you add some more gameplay sections and work more on the presentation aspect of your guide, then this guide can definitely become a very good source for players looking to pick up Zed. I hope this review is of help. (●'◡'●)