Zed Mid Build

Zed Champion Guide

Role: Assassin

Lane: Midlane

Zed Mid performs best with a build featuring Eclipse, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Voltaic Cyclosword, Serylda's Grudge, and Edge of Night. The most effective rune setup for Zed Mid includes Electrocute, Taste of Blood, Grisly Mementos, and Ultimate Hunter in the primary tree, paired with Scorch and Transcendence in the secondary tree.

Zed Champion Abilities

Contempt for the Weak

Whenever Zed attacks an enemy below 50% health, he deals an additional 6 / 8 / 10% of the target's max health as magic damage. Enemy champions can only be hit once every 10 seconds. P

Razor Shuriken

Zed and his Shadows throw their shurikens, each dealing 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+1.0 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to the first enemy they pass through, and 48 / 72 / 96 / 120 / 144 (+0.6 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to each additional enemy. Q

Living Shadow

Passive: Zed gains 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 energy whenever he and his shadows strike an enemy with the same ability. Energy can only be gained once per cast ability.

Active: Zed's shadow dashes forward, remaining in place for a few seconds. Reactivating Living Shadow will cause Zed to switch positions with this shadow. W

Shadow Slash

Zed and his Shadows slash, dealing 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 (+80% bonus AD) physical damage to nearby enemies.

Each enemy champion hit by Zed's slash reduces Living Shadow's cooldown by 3 seconds.

Enemies hit by a Shadow's slash are slowed by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% for 1.5 seconds. Enemies hit by multiple slashes take no additional damage but the slow is increased by 50% instead. E

Death Mark

Zed becomes untargetable and dashes to an enemy champion, marking them. After 3 seconds, the mark triggers, dealing 65% attack damage as physical damage and repeating 25 / 40 / 55% of all damage dealt to the target by Zed while the mark was active.

The dash leaves a Shadow behind for 9 seconds. Zed can recast this ability to switch positions with this Shadow. R

Zed Summoner Spells

Flash

Flash is a location-targeted summoner spell that causes your champion to blink to the location in range of your cursor.

Ignite

Ignite is a unit-targeted summoner spell that burns an enemy champion for a few seconds, dealing periodic true damage, applying healing reduction, and revealing the target over the duration.

Zed Runes

Zed Items

Zed Ability Order

Zed Matchups Overview

Strong against

Taliyah

Corki

LeBlanc

Kassadin

Yone

Pantheon

Weak against

Irelia

Qiyana

Diana

Fizz

Akshan

Zoe

Zed Tips and Tricks

Before looking for the all-in, try to get the enemy as low as possible. This will reduce their chances of escaping or surviving once you commit to using your R. Keep a constant eye on your resource bar. Zed needs as much energy as possible before committing to the fight. Avoid playing too aggressively when you’re low on energy. In team fights, focus the squishiest enemy champion or somebody without defensive tools. This will make taking someone down much easier.

Zed Best Build, Runes and Items

Most Popular

If you want to use the most popular Zed Mid build, you should take Flash and Ignite as your Summoner Spells. For runes, you should pick Electrocute as your keystone, followed by Taste of Blood, Grisly Mementos and Ultimate Hunter in the primary tree, as well as Scorch and Transcendence in the secondary tree. For rune shards, you want Adaptive Force in offense, Adaptive Force in flex and Health Scaling in defense, though it depends on the matchup. Finally, for your items, you should build Eclipse as your first item, followed by Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Voltaic Cyclosword. For your last three items, you should build Serylda's Grudge, Edge of Night and finish with Serpent's Fang. For the skill order, you want to stick with Q - E - W.

Alternative

If you're looking for alternatives, you can use Flash and Ignite as your Summoner Spells, with runes being Electrocute as your keystone, Taste of Blood, Grisly Mementos and Ultimate Hunter in the primary tree, and Scorch with Transcendence in the secondary tree, as well as Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force and Health Scaling as your rune shards. The items that this build incorporates are Voltaic Cyclosword as your first item, then Ionian Boots of Lucidity as a second item and Eclipse as a third item. You want to finish the build with Serylda's Grudge, Edge of Night and Serpent's Fang. As far as ability max order goes, you want to keep it Q - E - W.

Off-Meta

If you want to try an Off-Meta Zed Mid build, try Flash and Ignite as your Summoner Spells, First Strike, Cash Back, Triple Tonic and Cosmic Insight as your primary rune tree, and Cut Down with Legend: Haste as your secondary tree. Use Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force and Health Scaling as your shards. For items in this build, you want to complete Eclipse as your first item, then finish Ionian Boots of Lucidity as your second item, and Voltaic Cyclosword as third item. The last three options are Serylda's Grudge, Edge of Night and Serpent's Fang. The ability order for this build is Q - E - W.

Situational Zed Runes and Items

Depending on the context of your game, your matchup, and enemy champions, you might want to consider building some situational items or taking specific runes. Carefully examine your team, enemy team, game state and your matchup to plan your Zed build accordingly. For example, when it comes to rune shards, you might want to take either Armor or Magic Resist, depending on which champion you are about to lane against.