Overview
If you are the kind of player who really wants to kill one specific enemy (but in a cool guys don't look at explosions kind of way), then look no further than Zed. One of the premier assassins in the game, Zed offers plenty of tools to jump onto an enemy and delete them from Summoner’s Rift. Click here for the latest data on his best builds, including Runes, Items, Summoner Spells, and more.
Keys to Remember About Zed Mid
Between Living Shadow and Death Mark, Zed offers a lot of room to trick opponents with where you are or where you will be. Knowing when to snap forward with W or backwards with R, or oftentimes both in the same fight, is what will make you truly fearsome to play against.
Zed’s shadows also use his abilities, so you can deal a lot of extra burst damage if you and your shadow are both able to land attacks.
It’s very tempting to continuously jump on the enemy carry, especially the ADC, but sometimes it’s better to ult an enemy diver to help peel for your team.
Strengths
Zed is a manaless champion that can dish out a lot of damage early with a simple WEQ combo onto your enemy laner. Landing even a couple of these combos will force them to play back and cede space for you to CS without fear of being poked down. And once you’re level 6, opposing laners need to stay nearly topped off in health or else they’ll risk being killed if you are able to land your whole combo on them. Late game, even a Zed that is behind can still delete an enemy carry -- there is a lot of damage in the kit so long as you hit your abilities.
Weaknesses
If his strength is in having a lot of damage when landing his abilities, then the reverse is also true. He is extremely useless, and his ultimate will not do enough damage, if you miss your E and Q during the Death Mark window. Zed is also very susceptible to CC and being killed if you go in without anything to really back you up. Summoner spells like Exhaust and enchanter champions that specialize in peeling can also ruin Zed’s day, so don’t be too gungho about blind picking him early in a draft.
Game Plan
Early Game: Use your abilities to harass the enemy laner -- you will outlast many of them as you aren’t limited by mana. You just need to be patient and avoid taking free trades from them. Once you hit level 6, you can look to all-in most opponent as soon as they drop down to even 75% HP.
Mid Game: Zed will want to focus more on side lanes and look for favorable one-on-one matchups. This typically means you’ll want to avoid the enemy top laner. You can also find fights by warding the enemy jungle and trying to catch them mid-rotation.
Late Game: If they have a lot of tanks and ways to peel you off, it’s usually better to just split push and try to draw one opponent to you. Otherwise, you’ll need to rely on flanks to get good value out of your ultimate.
