WildPick
Back to Champions
Zed
the Master of Shadows

Zed

Passive · Contempt for the Weak

Zed's attacks on low-health enemies deal bonus magic damage based on their max health.

DamageDurabilityMagicDifficultyMobilityCC
Champion profile (Riot)
  • Damage9
  • Durability2
  • Magic1
  • Difficulty7
  • Mobility8
  • CC3
Counters by laneEach lane has counters + tips
Top

How to play as Zed

Top: hold CS, run TP or Ghost depending on the matchup.

How to beat Zed

Top: punish wave-states and ward river/jungle to dodge ganks.

Jungle

How to play as Zed

Jungle: track Scuttle, gank weak lanes, scale to objectives.

How to beat Zed

Jungle: ward objectives, never walk blind into brush.

Mid
Primary

How to play as Zed

  • Use shadows to double-up Q poke from two angles
  • R behind squishy carries — damage stacks per shadow
  • Always save second shadow swap for escape
  • Build Duskblade of Draktharr + Edge of Night for burst windows
  • Lane: WEQ on the enemy then back off
  • Passive resets on kill — roam side lanes for picks

How to beat Zed

ADC

How to play as Zed

ADC: kite the frontline, hit the closest tank then the carries.

How to beat Zed

ADC: stay behind minions and focus the enemy ADC in fights.

Support

How to play as Zed

Support: keep vision + peel for ADC, build Locket Enchant + Knight's Vow.

How to beat Zed

Support: dodge hooks/engages, buy Mikael's into heavy CC.

Abilities

Contempt for the Weak

PC
Passive

Innate: Zed's basic attacks against targets below 50% maximum health are empowered to deal % 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 cannot occur on the same champion more than once every few seconds.

Razor Shuriken

PC
Q

Active: Zed throws a shuriken in the target direction that deals physical damage to enemies hit, reduced to 60% against targets beyond the first.

Cooldown6

Living Shadow

PC
W

Passive: Zed restores energy whenever he and his 20px|border|link= Shadows or multiple Shadows hit an ability on the same target. This may only occur once per cast ability.

Active: Zed creates a 20px|border|link= Shadow that dashes to the target location and remains there for 5.25 seconds, being able to mimic Razor Shuriken and Shadow Slash regardless of range. Living Shadow can be recast while within range of the Shadow.

Recast: Zed and the 20px|border|link= Shadow blink to swap places. If Living Shadow was recast while the Shadow is dashing, the recast will instead occur once it has been placed.

Cooldown20 to 16

Shadow Slash

PC
E

Active: Zed slashes to deal physical damage to nearby enemies.

Enemies hit by a 20px|border|link= Shadow's slash are slow for 1.5 seconds, with multiple slashes dealing no additional damage but the slow's effectiveness being increased by 50%.

Living Shadow current cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds for each enemy champion hit by Zed's slash.

Cooldown5 to 3

Death Mark

PC
Ultimate

Active: Zed becomes untargetable and, after 0.6 seconds, he dashes 125 units through the target enemy champion over 0.35 seconds. Afterwards, he becomes targetable again, renders the target Marked for Death for 3 seconds, and gains ghost for the same duration.

Zed also spawns a 20px|border|link= Shadow at his casting position for 9 seconds which is able to mimic Razor Shuriken and Shadow Slash regardless of range. Death Mark can be recast after 0.5 seconds of his reappearance while the 20px|border|link= Shadow is active, though not in the last 1.25 seconds of its duration.

Marked for Death: Zed stores a portion of all pre-mitigation physical damage and magic damage he and his 20px|border|link= Shadows deal to the target, detonating at the end of the duration to deal physical damage.

Cooldown120 to 100