Zed Build Guide by

[14.8] Max-Depth Master Zed Guide

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Runes: NEW SEASON 13 BUILD (BEST IMO)

1 2 3

Inspiration

First Strike

Magical Footwear

Future's Market

Cosmic Insight

Sorcery

Transcendence

Scorch

Bonus:

+8 Ability Haste
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

1 2

Mid

Flash

Teleport

Items

Starter

Jungle

Against HARD Poke (Malphite)

Most Common Starting Items

Against Poke (Ziggs, Xerath)

First Back

Mid Game

NEW SEASON 13 BUILD (Eclipse/Duskblade)

Eclipse Crit Zed

Duskblade Crit Zed

Caster Zed

Goredrinker Zed

Items to Consider

Late Game

Crit Zed

Caster Zed/Goredrinker Zed

Full Builds (Sell boots for last item)

Eclipse Crit Zed

Duskblade Crit Zed

Duskblade/Eclipse Caster Zed

Bruiser Zed

Goredrinker Zed

NEW SEASON 13 BUILD (Eclipse/Duskblade)

Ability Order Ability Order

Zed Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Fizz

Extreme

Zed can never R a good fizz when he has E up, later you can never R him cause he has hourglass as well. There are options to win like building an eclipse to live his burst and because a skill gap can be involved as well.

Fiddlesticks

Ideal

One of the best synergies between mid and jungle in the game. His cc and ability power makes him such good synergy with zed.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Fiddlesticks

Ideal

One of the best synergies between mid and jungle in the game. His cc and ability power makes him such good synergy with zed.

Champion Build Guide

Introduction

Hey, I'm Cash also known as 🍎! I have been playing for a long time and have managed to reach Masters 200 lp with this champion in Season 11 and 12! I have achieved this rank in Mid and Jungle which allows me to play Zed in both roles. I have created this guide and I have linked my twitch to this guide. I've asked many players multiple questions to cover everything lower-ranked players want to know! I have created a donation link down below if anyone is interested in donating so I can upgrade my setup/stream. It isn't necessary at all, but thanks a lot if you consider donating, I appreciate it!!

Zed is my favorite classic assassin champion in LoL. He's one of the best at taking one champion out of the fight, but then loses a lot of his power once is on cooldown. My guide includes how to be proactive and fight without ! He doesn't have the best laning phase in this season which is why I explain many items and builds, which will help you snowball in the early game.

I hope you enjoy reading the guide as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Pros and Cons

Pros		Cons
	No Mana Issues		Short range
	Abilities are AoE		Weak early game
	Quite Mobile		Countered Easily
	A 1v9 Carry		Full AD Teams
	Good Teamfighter		Vulnerable to CC & squishy
	High Damage		Need to Land Skillshots

Abilities

PASSIVE ABILITY

Contempt For The Weak

✦ 's basic attacks against targets Health below 50% of their maximum health deal 6 / 8 / 10% (based on level) of the target's maximum health as bonus magic damage.
✦ Against monsters, Contempt for the Weak deals 200% damage, capped at 300.
Contempt for the Weak can only affect enemy champions once every ten seconds.

Razor Shuriken

✦ and his Shadows throw their spinning blades toward the target location. Each blade deals physical damage to all enemies struck in their path, reduced to 60% against units beyond the first.

✦ PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 80 / 115 / 150 / 185 / 220 (+ 110% bonus AD)
✦ TARGET RANGE: 925
✦ WIDTH: Range 100
✦ SPEED: 1700
✦ CAST TIME: 0.25
✦ COST: 75 / 70 / 65 / 60 / 55 ENERGY
✦ COOLDOWN: 6

Living Shadow

✦ PASSIVE: restores energy whenever he and one of his Shadows or multiple Zed's Shadows hit a mimicked ability on the same target. This may only occur once per cast ability.
✦ ACTIVE: Zed's Shadow dashes to the target location, remaining in place for 5 seconds and being able to mimic and while in range. can be recast at any time while the Zed's Shadow is dashing or within its duration.
✦ RECAST: While in range of each other, and his Zed's Shadow blink to their respective locations, swapping places. If was recast while the Zed's Shadow is dashing, the recast will instead occur once it has been placed.

✦ ENERGY RESTORED: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50
✦ TARGET RANGE: 650
✦ EFFECT RADIUS: 1950
✦ SPEED: 2500
✦ CAST TIME: NONE
✦ COST: 40 / 35 / 30 / 25 / 20 ENERGY
✦ COOLDOWN: 20 / 18.5 / 17 / 15.5 / 14

Shadow Slash

✦ ACTIVE: and his shadows slash, dealing physical damage to enemies surrounding them.
✦ Enemies hit by the slash of a Zed's Shadow are slowed for 1.5 seconds. Enemies hit by multiple slashes take no additional damage but the slow's effectiveness is increased by 50%
✦ Each enemy champion champion hit by Zed's slash reduces Living Shadow's cooldown reduction by 2 seconds.

✦ PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 70 / 90 / 110 / 130 / 150 (+ 65% bonus AD)
✦ SLOW: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
✦ EFFECT RADIUS: From Zed 315/From Shadow Clones 290
✦ CAST TIME: NONE
✦ COST: 50 ENERGY
✦ COOLDOWN: 5 / 4.5 / 4 / 3.5 / 3

Death Mark

✦ ACTIVE: becomes untargetable and, after 0.6 seconds, he dashes 125 units through the target enemy champion over 0.35 seconds, after which he marks them, gains ghosting for 3 seconds, and becomes targetable again. also spawns a Shadow at his casting position for 7.5 seconds which is able to mimic and while in range. Death Mark can be recast after 0.5 seconds of his reappearance while the Shadow is active.
✦ For the next 3 seconds, Zed stores a percentage of all pre-mitigation physical damage and magic damage he and his shadows deal to the marked target, detonating at the end of the duration to deal physical damage.
✦ RECAST: Regardless of the distance between each other, Zed and the Shadow blink to their respective locations, swapping places.
✦ If the target dies or is 1950 or more units away before the dash begins, Death Mark is cancelled, goes on a 5 second cooldown, and reappears at the cast location.

✦ PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 100% AD (+ 25 / 40 / 55% of damage dealt)
✦ TARGET RANGE: 625
✦ EFFECT RADIUS: Recast GLOBAL/Mimic 1950
✦ CAST TIME: NONE
✦ COOLDOWN: 120/100/80

Runes

Electrocute

The Electrocute keystone is good in many scenarios. It enhances your single target burst and is the most reliable keystone when you expect to get ahead early. It has good power in lane against short-medium ranged matchups you're likely to trade with (think of and . If you are playing against long ranged mage such as you will have a hard time proccing electrocute without taking a lot of damage.
A few downsides to taking this keystone is that it can be hard to proc on your target in large fights and other runes such as will do a lot better in fights. 's AOE is likely to hit multiple people and will only proc on the first target hit by three different spells. Taking will increase 's AOE damage!

Conqueror

This rune gives a ton of extra attack damage when you hit auto attacks or spells. This greatly increases your long trades and teamfights. It is not so effective in lane against champions that jump on you and win long trades like and , but can be easy to out-trade champions that don't want long trades and come close

also allows you to auto-attack and be more confident and aggressive in fights because the healing and extra attack damage will make your long trading combos powerful and harder to die. Also, the precision tree does give many offensive options to split push and do more damage when you are low on health and thus it gives more damage compared to other keystones. This will also make you take 3 for the lane as you will not have .

Advanced Runes

When taking the rune, the precision tree helps a lot compared to the domination tree. When fighting long fights, is really useful in killing multiple people as you will heal and they won't expect it. This also synergizes well with , as you will do more damage in those fights. The rune isn't good for the best zed players as you won't have energy problems if you combo correctly. can be swapped with if the enemy team doesn't have much .

The secondary rune sorcery is the best for zed since it allows for a lot more damage through the late game where zed power spikes in Season 11 and helps with ability haste. Ability Haste on Zed is necessary since most of his damage is from spell combos. enables Zed to throw two shurikens from one shadow in the early game and enables him to get multi-kills with abilities on reduced cooldown upon takedown. can be taken when you know the game will last longer, and you can guarantee enough ability haste in your build. allows for maximum scaling potential which improves 's scaling!

Combos

Simple Harass Combo: W -> E -> Q

During levels 1 and 2 you can throw Q's without trying to go pass through minions. Once you hit level 3, you unlock the full harass combo, when you feel it's safe to use your W offensively. Use beside the enemy, pressing while your is in mid-air so it instantly casts once your shadow reaches its position. While the enemy is slowed, you throw towards the enemy perpendicular to your W shadow. This will allow the best chances of landing both shurikens!

Basic Defensive Combo: W -> R -> W -> E -> Q

This is an important combo to learn. You start the combo by placing behind you, in a bush, or beside the enemy. After using , you blink back to your defensive and combo the enemy with and . You can take the shadow back to finish them off if they are standing beside it!

You can definitely auto-attack before blinking back to your defensive shadow, but you will have to care that if the enemy crowd controls you, you won't be able to take the back if the cooldown expires. As the slow applies while you blink back, it will be easy to throw 2 . As the enemy is zig-zagging, you can throw the shurikens in the middle of the zig-zag where it will most likely land! If the enemy uses , it's fine if you don't get the kill, as you will be able to get before the enemy is back up.

Fast Triple Q Combo: R -> W -> E -> AA -> Q -> R

This combo is also significant when learning Zed, as the triple q combo is the biggest burst Zed has! You start the combo with and place beside them while using . As soon as the enemy is extra slowed with two shadows, you will easily land your triple and the enemy will pop! Use according to the enemy's movement to try to kill them!

Gameplay

EARLY GAME

At level 1, you'll unlock and begin poking the enemy as well as last hitting minions if you can't auto-attack the minion. The best time to throw your is when the enemy is not behind minions and when they are attacking minions as they stand still while auto-attacking.

At level 2, you'll unlock if you are pushed up in case of a level 2 gank or to try to land 2 shurikens at the enemy if the angle is available. If you are being pushed into, you'll unlock so you can farm creeps under the turret a lot easier.

At level 3, you'll unlock your last ability to perform the simple harass combo. If the enemy is under 50% hp, you can land a simple harass combo and kill them with while using .

Before reaching level 6, you will need to track how many minions you will need for XP to reach level 6. This is significant because you can surprise the enemy with a triple q combo as soon as you reach level 6. If the enemy doesn't allow this, you will have to look for a kill during a roam, as shoving the lane mid will be easy with level 6 pressure.

The best lane to roam to is the bot lane as the ADC and SUPPORT will be both easy to kill as they are behind in levels. This doesn't mean disregarding the top lane, if the top laner doesn't have summoner spells or ultimate, you can kill them easily. When ganking the enemy, don't open with all your abilities at once, use your for a gap close and use your to dodge an ability such as Alistar .

MID GAME INTO LATE GAME

During mid-game, you usually want to switch with bot lane and split. This is important as this will help you transition into the late game with a really good build! Many champions can't side lane against a Zed as this champion has a strong potential of winning 1v1s. If you can catch side waves and kill the enemy in the side lane when appropriate, you will be really fed!

TEAM FIGHTING

When team fighting, you need to focus and kill the carries. Watch what summoner spells they have, and look at the items, like if they have a , , etc. It is important that you don't initiate the fight as you will die really easily and the enemy carries won't die. Let your team start the fight and try to find a flank angle. The best way to do this is to split in the side lane and flank the fight from the side lane. IT IS IMPORTANT TO WATCH YOUR SHADOWS AT ALL TIMES!
With crit zed, you will need to auto-attack a lot more to get the value of the build. With caster zed, you will need to play like a mage and poke them with your abilities until it's time to jump in and kill! With bruiser zed, you will still need to play like an assassin at some points. The different zed builds will make it easier to carry in different scenarios!