If you’re looking for a champion in League of Legends that can outplay the opponents, then this Zed guide will be perfect for you! Here’s a full guide to master this insanely fun assassin!
New to League of Legends? Or, maybe you want to change Champion… This fully-explained Zed guide is perfect for you! It has all the information you need in order to learn more about the Master of Shadows
Due to it being the preseason in League of Legends, this Zed Guide will be updated as and when patches go live. That means it’ll be relevant for whenever you find yourself needing it! We also have other League of Legends Champion guides for you to check out here!
League of Legends Zed Guide – Runes & Summoner Spells
Zed has two sets of runes which are mainly used. More technically, one is an universal set which will work in 90% of the cases.
Running Electrocute on Zed is pretty self-explanatory. Having more burst damage is better in almost in every situation Zed wants to fight in.
Taste of Blood is good for sustain, especially if you are against mages which abuse the range advantage.
Eyeball Collection gives more AD & Ultimate Hunter is useful because more Ults = more damage.
For the second tree, you can run two different trees: Precision or Sorcery.
If you go Sorcery, Transcendence & Gathering Storm are in most cases the best choices.
Instead, if you run Precision, Presence of Mind (PoM) & Coup de Grace are best for bursting enemies down while not running out of energy.
The second set instead revolves around Conqueror. It’s best when you want to go for extended trades. Apart from the Keystone rune, everything else is very standard. However, your playstyle will change a lot if you run this set & you will feel it a lot by playing some games. You can’t rely on bursting down enemies anymore so you can’t afford to go in & get out as easily.
Make sure to see which suits better for you & stick to that one: changing playstyle back & forth is not recommended when you’re trying to pick up the champion.
League of Legends Zed Guide – Build & Skill Order
Similarly to Pyke which we previously covered, Zed builds Lethality-heavy items. You will have at least 3 items in your build that include lethality as it works best with him.
Be careful with the choice of the Mythic Item: everything works on Zed, it’s just a matter of what you want to focus on. Duskblade of Draktharr & Prowler’s Claw are best for added burst. In particular, Prowler’s Claw makes you stick to the enemy target more & basically guarantees you a kill if you land the Shurikens.
Eclipse, on the other hand, is the best for duelling & good in most of the occasions. Omnivamp & the Shield allows you to survive just a little longer in order to kill the target.
After building the Mythic Item, choose at least 2 out of the 4 Armor penetration Items. Most of the time, you will go for Youmuu’s Ghostblade & one between Edge of Night/Umbral Glaive.
Zed needs to finish off at least one person in a team fight in order to be useful, so resistances will be important for him in order to last long enough. Guardian’s Angel & Maw of Malmortius are the go-to-options. Death’s Dance is better if you think that the revival is not as useful.
As for boots, Mercury’s Treads are your usual pick due to Tenacity. Plated Steelcaps are good against Fed ADCs or AD heavy compositions. Ionian Boots of Lucidity, instead, are good if you need extra ability Haste.
 Razor Shuriken | 1 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 | |||||||||||||
 Living Shadow | 2 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 18 | |||||||||||||
 Shadow Slash | 3 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 | |||||||||||||
 Death Mark | 6 | 11 | 16 |
Zed’s maxing order is straightforward. Max Q first, E second, W last and R whenever you can. You could take some points into your E if you have troubles landing Q’s but it’s not really recommended as you will feel a big difference in damage output.
During the Early Game…
As Zed, you want to focus on harassing your enemy with the W-E-Q combo & last hit safely. It’s really easy to last hit under turret thanks to its passive, so don’t be afraid to let the enemy push into you. One very important thing, make sure to get lv 6 before the enemy does: that guarantees you a kill in most cases since the enemy won’t be able to respond.
After that, look for roams around the map, especially with your jungler. You also have good diving potential so work around that as well.
Mid-Late Game
In the later stages of the game, your main goal is to kill the enemy carries. Killing any of them will turn into a big advantage for your team. If you’re really ahead, you can also split push & create pressure on the side lanes.
Remember, however, that enemies will build items that will slow your burst down. Avoid going for champions that have a Stopwatch or Zhonya’s Hourglass: you won’t be able to burst them down in most cases.
Takeaways
Zed became very popular after the famous Zed 1v1 outplay between pro players Ryu & Faker. I was so amazed back then that I decided to pick up Zed.
I’ve always wanted to play a champion that truly felt like an assassin. Zed was everything I could ask for. He’s one of the first champions I mastered & making a good outplay every now & then was extremely satisfying.
Hope you can have the same amount of fun as I did with this champion & I hoped the guide helped you in mastering Zed!
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