Best Zed Build Guide | Runes | Spells | Items in League of Legends

One of the most popular Mid Lane champions you will always see in your League of Legends games, because of his one-shot potential, his Death Mark and his ability to get awesome fade-away kills with his shadows! This is only possible if you have built him correctly and have the right runes!

These are the best Zed runes, the Zed build, and Zed’s matchups in Riot Games’ MOBA!

Best Zed Build

Best Zed Runes

Zed has the Domination tree as a primary and the Sorcery tree as a secondary!

Best Rune Path	Domination	Sorcery
Best Keystone	Electrocute
Best Slot 1 (Rune)	Sudden Impact	Transcendence
Best Slot 2 (Rune)	Eyeball Collection	Scorch
Best Slot 3 (Rune)	Ultimate Hunter

Electrocute to add the extra burst damage when hitting an enemy three separate times is ideal.

Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collection, and Ultimate Hunter all increase Zed’s attack damage, whether it be after using teleports, or two scaling increases in AD Taste of Blood is also viable instead of Sudden Impact!

Sorcery is the best secondary. Transcendence gives Zed ability haste. Scorch burns enemies, meaning more damage!

Best Zed Rune Shards

BEST RUNE SHARDS	EFFECT
Flex	+9 Adaptive Force (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
Flex	+9 Adaptive Force (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
Defense	+15-90 Health (based on level)

Two Flex rune sets is ideal for damage. Defense is the best third rune shard, as you can be against AP and AD champions, so go for Health!

Best Zed Summoner Spells

BEST SPELLS	ICON
Flash
Ignite

Flash is a go-to on almost any champion in the game unless you are the likes of Nasus or a Hecarim, who take Ghost! Ignite is there for extra true damage onto enemies, so it is a must!

Best Zed Abilities Order

Level the right abilities at the right time! This is crucial for your one-shot combos! This is the best Zed skill order:

Grab your Q, Razor Shuriken first, as it provides some range. Next, take W, Living Shadow so you can dash away if you get ganked., or the enemy jungler ganks you. Finally take E, Shadow Slash level three, so you can go all in and combo!

Max Q first, then E, then finally W, with your Ultimate ability, Death Mark, getting upgraded at levels 6,11, and 16. Q is the main damage, as it can hit multiple times with your shadows. Your E damage increase is nice and finally, your W is only a teleport mechanic!

Best Zed Items

FIRST ITEM	SECOND ITEM
Long Sword	Refillable Potion

Zed builds raw lethality and attack damage on his items. Here are Zed’s best starter items!

Best Starter Zed Items

A Long Sword builds into almost every item Zed will be building, so you can be flexible with what you build first. Being a melee champion, Zed needs some sustainability - the Refillable Potion gives him that!

Best Mid Game Zed Items

These are your core Zed items that you want to build towards first!

FIRST ITEM	SECOND ITEM	THIRD ITEM
Eclipse	Ionian Boots of Lucidity	Youmuu’s Ghostblade

Your first item should be the Mythic item Eclipse. The item gives you an increase in Damage, Movement Speed, and even a shield when you hit an enemy with two separate attacks! It also has a default of 55 Attack Damage, 18 Lethality, and 7% Omnivamp!

Ionian Boots of Lucidity give you cooldown reduction, so you can get your bursts and combos out a lot faster.

Youmuu’s Ghostblade gives more movement speed when you activate it - great for Zed to gap close and chase down enemies! The item gives 55 Attack Damage, 18 Lethality, and 15 Ability Haste too! The movement speed helps you roam to side lanes too!

Best Final Late Game Zed Items

This is the final build that you want to aim toward when playing Zed.

FIRST ITEM	SECOND ITEM	THIRD ITEM	FOURTH ITEM	FIFTH ITEM	SIXTH ITEM
Eclipse	Ionian Boots of Lucidity	Youmuu’s Ghostblade	Serylda’s Grudge	Edge of Night	Black Cleaver

Serylda’s Grudge provides 45 Attack Damage, 30% Armor Penetration, and 20 Ability Haste. It also slows enemies by 30% for 1 second when attacking them. The 30% Armor Penetration is the main thing, to cancel out armor items that your squishy targets have built - such as Guardian Angel and Zhonya’s Hourglass.

Edge of Night gives a spell shield that will block the next attack from any enemy champion. It does have a 40-second cooldown, but if it is up, it is great for avoiding CC when you engage! It also gives a default 50 Attack Damage, 10 Lethality, and 325 Health to make you tankier!

The final item is Black Cleaver. This gives stacking Armor Reduction (up to 30%) on enemies that you damage, as well as giving you move speed for attacking them! The items also give you 45 Attack Damage, 350 Health, and 30 Ability Haste!

Best Champions to pair Zed with

Zed doesn’t have CC, so he needs a jungler who does have CC to gank him, especially if his enemy has some movement abilities!

CHAMPION	WIN RATE %	ICON
Olaf	55.9%
Fiddlesticks	55.8%
Amumu	54.4%

Strongest Champions against Zed

These are champions that Zed struggles with, and the theme is that they aren’t super squishy champions!

CHAMPION	WIN RATE %	ICON
Malphite	45.1%
Swain	47.5%
Akshan	48.5%

Malphite and Swain are very good at absorbing damage, as Malphite has his Granite Shield, which gives him an Attack Damage shield that is 10% of his maximum Health! Swain has an incredible amount of healing and innate durability. 

Akshan is different as he is just hard for Zed to get on top of, and between the range, invisibility, and swinging all over the place, Zed can easily get kited.

Weakest Champions against Zed

So finally, we have the best League of Legends champions to play Zed into in patch 12.13, the ones that he will absolutely stomp with no problem! 

CHAMPION	WIN RATE %	ICON
Taliyah	55.0%
Lissandra	53.4%
Kassadin	53.2%

Taliyah doesn’t have enough escape, and with Zed’s Shadows, he can easily avoid her Seismic Shove. Lissandra struggles against Zed, rather surprisingly. She has to get close to poking Zed down, so he can just jump on her and win trades.

Kassadin is good late game, whereas Zed is good early game. Meaning Zed can easily put Kassadin behind if he plays it well!

Hopefully, this Zed build was helpful, and you can destroy the enemy team as the Master of Shadows and win your team fights now! Don’t forget, always jump on the enemy carries!