Hello guys, Flowstylex here with another guide on Mobafire this time in english. :) Yeaah I'll try to make less mistakes than in my english essay's :p This time I'm talking about Zed. Zed is a Melee AD Assassin with high burst potential. He can be played in Mid- and Toplane, but is viable in the jungle, too. Because he is so item dependent I prefer playing him on lanes, tough.


Notice: If you see any mistakes in this guide, if it's spelling, grammar or anything else, write it in the comments so i can fix it :)


As an Assasin Zed has to take out the enemy carry and then escape safely if possible. Some people say that Zed has a weak Laning phase, but i don't think so. He can farm safely with his abilities, has a good harass/poke and an reliant escape skill ( Living Shadow)

In this guide I'll show you my way to play Zed.
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Pros + Damn high burst + Good poke/harass + Awesome jukes with Living Shadow + He can dodge skills with Death Mark + One of the best splitpushers in the game

Cons - Squishy! - Has to go all in to kill the enemy (out of positon after killing him) - Melee autoattack range - vulnerable to ganks if Living Shadow is on CD - He is a flippin' ninja (for every ninja like Akali, Shen, Kennen he looses 1 max. HP)

Flash: This summoner spell is very important for Zed. If he kills an enemy with his burst combo he is nearly everytime in a dangerous situation. To save your life u can simply use Flash, nuff said.

Ignite: This summoner spell fits perfectly to our burst combo, because it synergizes very well with Death Mark. And it is good to finish off low life enemys or to reduce strong healings (from e.g. Volibear)

Teleport: An let's say okay alternative to Ignite if u want to have some map presence, go back to lane fast or plan to do some Stealth Ward + Teleport ganks, in my opinion Ignite is better though.

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• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: More AD for easier last hitting and more damage, especially in early-game, and it improves his level 6 all-in damage by alot.
  
• greater mark of armor penetration: Again to improve your damage, but consider mixing greater mark of armor penetration with Greater Mark of Attack Damage. DAMAGE!
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Mid-Late game is where most of APC's shine (except LeBlanc or AP Tristana). So take scaling mr glyphs to avoid getting one shotted
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: AD damage. AD Damage everywhere. So take some Armor seals with you so you get less damage from physical attacks. Now afer the armor seals got nerfed I highly recommend mixing in some Greater Seal of Health or Greater Seal of Scaling Health You can try 6:3 or 5:4, depending on what fits to you the most.
  

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Offense Tree

We want some damage so we go pretty deep in the offense tree,so we take Double-Edged Sword , Brute Force , Martial Mastery , Executioner , Dangerous Game and Havoc to increase our damage output. We want to skip Warlord because its a pretty bad mastery. For each 100 bonus AD you get 5 extra AD, which isnt worth 3 points at all, and we won't take Fury either, because I think for an ad caster like Zed 5% ATK Speed < 5% CDR. Butcher and Feast are very good masteries for the laning phase.

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In the defense Tree we want to take Block , Recovery , Unyielding , Juggernaut and Veteran Scars to be a bit tankier overall to prevent that we get one-shotted all day, these are really good for surviving the early few levels. (Side Note: We don't take Enchanted Armor because the %-bonus is just to low for Zed, these masteries are better for tanks)

Defense Tree

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Contempt for the weak: Zed's basic attacks against targets below 50% health deal 8% of the target's maximum health as bonus magic damage. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds on the same target.


Contempt for the Weak in combination with Executioner makes the perfect finisher. And it helps last hitting minions. :)


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Razor Shuriken: Zed and his shadows throw their shurikens, each dealing 75/115/155/195/235 (+100% bonus AD) physical damage to the first enemy they pass through, and 45/69/93/117/141 (+60% bonus Attack Damage) physical damage to each additional enemy. Additional shurikens that hit the same enemy deal 50% less damage than the previous shuriken.


Razor Shuriken is our poke skill. It has an quite high energy cost in early ranks, so using it constantly will make Zed running out of energy very fast. Our Living Shadow will throw an Razor Shuriken too, if we use that ability. With this tactic we can extend the range from the Razor Shuriken to finish off people who are even far away.

You're going to want to max out Razor Shuriken before Living Shadow and before Shadow Slash.

• If you use Razor Shuriken while Living Shadow and the shadow from Death Mark are active, you'll throw 3 Razor Shurikens. tons of damage
• It can be hard, but if you throw your Razor Shuriken on an enemy without hitting a minion it will deal significantly more damage
• state Living Shadow + Razor Shuriken on an incoming minion wave will let you clear waves like there is no morn

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Living shadow: Passive: Grants 5/10/15/20/25% additional bonus Attack Damage.

Active: Zed's shadow dashes forward, remaining in place for 4 seconds. Reactivating Living Shadow will cause Zed to switch positions with this shadow. Zed's shadows mimic his abilities. If an ability strikes any target twice, Zed restores 20/25/30/35/40 energy. Energy can only be restored once per mimicked ability.

You're going to want to max out Living Shadow after Razor Shuriken and after Shadow Slash.

• if you use Living Shadow in combination with Razor Shuriken or Shadow Slash you can easily harass your enemy without getting in danger
• You can jump over the wall if you use Living Shadow behind a wall and press W again to swap the places
• You can confuse your enemy if you use Living Shadow and then press /t :D

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Shadow slash: Zed and his shadow slash, dealing 60/90/120/150/180 (+80% bonus AD) physical damage to nearby enemies. Each enemy champion hit by Zed's Shadow Slash reduces Living Shadow's cooldown by 2 seconds. Each enemy hit by a mimicked Shadow Slash will be slowed by 20/25/30/35/40% for 1.5 seconds.Enemies hit by both Shadow Slashes will be slowed by 30/37.5/45/52.5/60% but will not take additional damage.

You're going to want to max out Shadow Slash after Razor Shuriken and before Living Shadow.

• Shadow Slash is an amazing tool to clear minion waves
• Only your shadow's Shadow Slash slows the enemy!

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Death mark: Active: Zed becomes untargetable and dashes to target enemy champion. Upon arrival, he marks the target for death and spawns a living shadow at his starting position. This shadow lasts 6 seconds and mimics Zed's abilities. Reactivating Death Mark will cause Zed to switch positions with this shadow.

After 3 seconds, the mark will detonate, dealing physical damage equal to 100% of Zed's attack damage plus 20 / 35 / 50% of damage dealt of all magic and physical damage dealt to the target by [[Zed] and his shadows while the mark was active.

You're going to want to max out Death Mark at lvl 6,11,16

• You can dodge abilites when you use Death Mark
• Prefer AP/AD Carry as the target from your Death Mark
• Death Mark will spawn another Living Shadow, that means you can throw 3 Razor Shuriken at once
• Damage from Bilgewater Cutlass / Blade of the Ruined King or Ignite benefits from Death Mark, too.
• So the new Death Mark is here! Some people say that it got nerfed, but I don't think so. Okay, if you get knockbacked you have to use Living Shadow/ Flash to close the gap again. But remember, if your Shadow spawns from where you engaged with Death Mark then you'll have one of the biggest disengage spells in the game!
• The travel time has been increased to 0.75 from 0.33, that means you'll be untargetable for a longer time, which is very useful in teamfights, especially if you engaged a bit too early
  
• Death Mark got buffed, yay! Now you stand behind your target after using your ultimate, which is really helpful. When you use your Death Mark in the laning phase you will most likely stand between your target and their tower, that means if they want to Flash towards their tower you will still be in range to attack them, making it really easy to kill them.

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Possible sequence

Alternatively you can max out your Shadow Slash first if you want more DPS. This is very recommended if you are playing against a melee champion and want to zone your enemy completely. But your Razor Shuriken will have high energy cost if you max it second, so be careful if you spam it, because you'll run out of energy very fast.

Doran's Shield along with 1x Health Potion is the best start for Zed in most cases at the moment. It is so strong right now, much regeneration in combination with tanky stats are so good for Zed's early game. Take this especially if your enemy is ranged and/or can poke you alot.

This is a very aggressive start. You'll have less sustain but more damage. Only take this if you have to dominate your enemy in early game ((e.g. Akali, Nasus).

this start lets you move efficiently in lane and provides much sustain through 4x Health Potion. If your enemy is very skillshot reliant, you can dodge them much easier with the extra movement speed

Very useful for the laning phase to spot the enemy jungler, avoid facechecking, very useful overall

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This is my first item for Zed because we get some damage and sustain through lifesteal from it, it is very cheap and the active effect from it has a good synergize with Death Mark.

Choose either Mercury's Treads if you want magic resist and tenacity or Mobility Boots if you wanna gank your lanes to help the team.

Perfect stats for a cheap price, perfect early game item to buy, should only be upgraded in Mid-Late game. It gives more Damage and Armor Penetration to fulfill our role as burster assasin.

The first big item on Zed It gives you all you need to burst the enemy, AD, AS, HP shred and an awesome active that works wonder with your Death Mark. But don't take the Dagger's ... They are not very useful and only waste item slots for consumables. Get Bilgewater Cutlass and then wait until you have 1800g

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_ _ In Early-Game Zed should be focusing on farming and not taking too much harass. The good thing is that Zed can safely last-hit with his Razor Shuriken. Play pure passive until you hit lvl 2 to get your escape skill ( Living Shadow. If it's on CD, consider to go a bit in the direction of your tower to avoid getting killed by a gank. Of course he can poke his enemy too with his Razor Shuriken and Shadow Slash, too. When Zed reaches lvl 6 he has the potencial to kill his enemy.

But before you go all-in you have to think about some things:

- can i deal enough damage?
- do i have enough health to survive
- does the enemy have escape skills/summoner spells (e.g.: Safeguard from Lee Sin or Flash)
- where is the enemy jungler?
- where is my jungler?

Here are possible Combos with Zed:

Early Poke:

This "combo" is is pretty straight forward and can be used to harass the enemy. But be careful, you won't have your Living Shadow anymore to escape.

"The lvl. 4 combo":

This combo will use all of your available basic abilites (Q,W,E). You will want to place a Living Shadow in front of your enemy, hit him with Shadow Slash and immediately after that throw your Razor Shuriken. Then swap the places with your Living Shadow and start autoattacking your enemy. Like above you won't have your escape skill anymore. If u want to go for the kill u can use Elixir of Fortitude and/or Ignite

"The all-in combo":

So THIS is your biggest combo, the damage from it is ridicoulus. You can even burst tanks with it, trust me. If you look at the combo it could seem to be hard to do it, just practice!

Okay what happens here? First of all we engage with our Death Mark then we pop Ignite and use the active from Bilgewater Cutlass or Blade of the Ruined King, depending on which we have. Then we use Shadow Slash for damage and then Living Shadow followed by Razor Shuriken. Because we used Living Shadow we'll throw 3 Razor Shuriken's now. After the combo we can use either Living Shadow or Death Mark to switch the place with our shadow to escape. Congratulation, your enemy should be dead now!

Okay, now i want to show you something. Please don't scream ...



And what shall i do when i get behind?

There are 2 options to recover, you can do 1 of them or both.

1. Grab your Mobility Boots and try to gank the side lanes, look for overextended lanes or champs with low life to pick them up. Communicate with your team so they know you're coming! And don't be afraid to use your Death Mark.



2. Get some counteritems (like Hexdrinker, Warden's Mail) and ask your jungler for some ganks.

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At this point of the game team fights start all around the map and the fight for towers/objectives begins. Zed is very good in mid-game because he can take out the enemy's carry in teamfight and is an awesome splitpusher.

Okay, how do I act correctly in Teamfights?

Zed's main goal is to kill the enemy AD/AP Carry and then GTFO as fast as he can. The key is too wait for the right moment when to jump in with Death Mark. If you jump on the enemy carry at the beginning of a teamfight you'll just get CC'ed to death. Just wait until most of the CC is burned before you jump in.

Here are some examples to use your Living Shadow to jump over walls:


_ _ If you come to this point of the game, everyone should be full equipped, fighting for the last towers and the very important Baron Nashor's Buff. Your goal is the same: Splitpush, kill the ADC/APC in teamfights and AVOID DEATH AT ALL COST! The Respawn times are soooooooo long in late-game. (50~70 seconds) Play with your team and communicate to win the game!

Zed has his easy lanes, and his lanes where he has much problems. I'll list up some match-ups now and rate the difficulty from 1 to 10. Here we go!


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• Okay this guy is a thorn in your eye. You can't poke him because his sustain is way too high with his Blood Thirst
• If you try to kill him at lvl 6, he may die but he'll revive because of his Blood Well and then either run away or kill you
• Ignite is a must to decrease his healings!
• Play defensively, farm up for the late-game and win in teamfights
• If you have to 1v1 him, try to place your Living Shadow behind him, so the shadow can still hit him with Razor Shuriken and Shadow Slash. If he tries to Dark Flight on you, you can dodge by reactivating Living Shadow

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• This is an quite easy match up, just don't get hit by her Charm
• You can outdamage her at lvl 6 easily and if you swap you place with your Shadows you can dodge her skillshots very good
• Her Spirit Rush can make her dash very far, so be careful if you just Death Mark on her

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• This fight is very balanced. The one with more experience will win.
• You can dodge Chum the Waters with your Death Mark or a fast Living Shadow, but he can dodge your Death Mark with Playful / Trickster. Wait for the right moment to kill him.

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• This match-up should be very easy. She has no sustain against your poke and you can outtrade her at lvl 6
• Only engage on her with Death Mark if her Shunpo is on cooldown
• Try to constantly push the lane so she can't roam and get fed
  
  Spoiler: Click to view

  
  Suggested items
  
  Starting items: Long Sword + 3x Health Potion
  Helpful items: /
  
  
  
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  Difficulty: 10/10!!
  • This is your main counterpick! She can easily harass you in lane with her modified range auto attacks or her Reckoning. If you try to poke her she can easily heal herself with Divine Blessing. Her Intervention counters your WHOLE COMBO!
  • Avoid this match-up, swap the lane with top/mid depending on where Kayle will be.
  • Play defensive until your jungler comes for a gank. If you are not able to kill her try to bait out Intervention at least. If you still have your Death Mark you should be able to kill her
  Spoiler: Click to view

  
  Suggested items
  
  Starting items: Boots + 4x Health Potion
  Helpful items: Randuin's Omen, Mercury's Treads
  
  
  
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  Difficulty: 8/10
  • Here the same, the better player will win. But Lee Sin has a little advantage because he can outsustain you in lane and deny your poke
  • Here it is recommended to use Death Mark only when standing next to Lee Sin, so if he uses his Ult you can swap back to him
  • So only engage if you know you can kill him and there is no minion wave nearby / he has no wards anymore
  • He has to build some Armor if he want to survive against you. This will make him do less damage
  Spoiler: Click to view

  
  Suggested items
  
  Starting items: Elixir of Fortitude + 3x Health Potion
  Helpful items: Randuin's Omen
  
  
  
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  Difficulty: 8/10
  • She has a built in Zhonya's Hourglass with her Frozen Tomb, keep that in mind when you all in her
  • Don't stay behind your minions, Ice Shard will get an "expanded range" if it hits something
  • Your Death Mark has a slightly lower CD than Frozen Tomb. You can make use of that!
  • Poke her out of the lane, she has no sustain
  Spoiler: Click to view

  
  Suggested items
  
  Starting items: Doran's Shield + Health Potion
  Helpful items: Mercurial Scimitar, Mercury's Treads, Hexdrinker
  
  
  
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  Difficulty: 6-8/10
  • Finally this match-up is related to the reworked Xerath!
  • now this lane is all about how well you can dodge his skillshots, the more poke he lands on you the more likely you will loose your lane
  • Try to bait out his Shocking Orb before you all-in him with Death Mark, after he used his stun he has no escape
  Spoiler: Click to view

  
  Suggested items
  
  Starting items: Boots + 4x Health Potion
  Helpful items: Mercurial Scimitar, Mercury's Treads
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  More coming soon!

Here I'll show you some Zed games. Feel free to send me yours if you want me to publish it here :)
-Flowstylex

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-Flowstylex

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-Flowstylex

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-Parahdoxal (+Penta)

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-Shockblade Zed (Yeah, that's his name!)


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- CizisKrayst


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-AncestralValor


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-Irascibilem


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Okay guys, that was my Zed guide! Hope you enjoyed it and my english wasn't too horrible :)
Zed is an awesome funny Champion with high juke potencial who is highly underplayed IMO. If played right he can turn the tides in teamfights or simply backdoor with out the enemys noticing it.

Feel free to give me some Feedback or some tips how i can improve my guide! :)


Things in work:
-Match-Ups
-More Games for the "Hall of Assasin"
-even more in-depth information


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-Thanks to DR34MK1LL3R for creating those awesome images!

-Credits to jhoijhoi for her guide Making a Guide

-Credits to Karatekeks because he gave me some very helpful tips! (especially with the match-ups)

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