Zed Counters: How To Counter Pick Zed

Zed is the first ninja in 200 years to unlock the ancient, forbidden ways. In this article, we go through how to effectively counter Zed on Summoner’s Rift.

Best Zed Counters

• Kayle
• Jax
• Lissandra
• Irelia
• Malzahar

Championship Zed

Zed Counter Picks

Now that you know who counters Zed, you can finally counter pick Zed in any matchup. Let’s take you through some tips on how to use a few of these champions who are counters to Zed. After, there is a general section explaining how to use any LoL champion as counters for Zed. After all, if you know how to play against Zed, you can play safely and effectively to defeat Zed in a lane.

Kayle

Kayle is strong against Zed because she counters him at all stages; laning, mid game, and late game. Her ultimate completely negates Zed’s Ultimate but you must time it to block the damage. Her ultimate is after 3sec, you should wait for 1.5 before ulting.

Lissandra

When Zed ults on to you, wait a half second and ult yourself so you hit him with the AoE and avoid all of the damage from his ult including the damage tick at the end of it. Don’t use it on him since the 1.5second stun is not long enough.

You can bait Zed extremely hard with this cool trick. If you are lowish on health, enough for him to immediately jump on you, fire your E back into your tower and move towards him to bait it then reactivate the E as he ults, bringing him into the tower.

Save your W in case he ever tries to jump on you, it isn’t worth using it for wave clear against him since he will use it as an opportunity to attack you if you put it on cooldown.

Project Zed

Tips For Playing Against Zed

• After Zed uses his Living Shadow and Death Mark, he is at his most vulnerable as his damage and mobility are both dependent upon it.
• Razor Shurikens deals less damage if they pass through other units before hitting your champion.
• Escaping laterally, rather than directly away, from Zed when he uses Death Mark will slightly limit his ability to slow and pursue your champion.
• Be aware of Zed‘s Living Shadow as he can use it to mimic Shadow Slash and Razor Shuriken even when he is out of sight, giving him deceptively long range.
  • On that note, be very careful when tower hugging at low health, as he can easily kill you while only taking a minimal amount of damage from the tower.
• Beware that with a full build, Zed can potentially duel even full tanks. However, he is extremely reliant on Death Mark to do so; even against squishy targets, he relies on his ultimate to get a kill, as it’s his ultimate that deals the majority of his damage. He will most likely use all of his abilities and auto attack a lot to do as much damage as possible.
  • If you have any hard CC, try to save it for after Zed activates Death Mark (and if possible, Living Shadow), as this will both reduce the time he has to combo the mark and give the marked champion a chance to escape.
  • If you are an AP champion, purchasing Zhonya’s Hourglass can counter Death Mark; activate it just before it’s triggered to become completely immune to the damage. The armor also helps to reduce Zed‘s damage.
  • If you are affected by Death Mark and a SHURIKEN appears over your head, try to heal or shield, because that means that its damage is enough to kill you.
  • Some champions can activate their own abilities when Zed uses Death Mark, to prevent him from dealing enough damage for the ultimate to kill because these abilities either CC Zed or make his target untargetable or take reduced or no damage at all. Examples: Kayle’s Intervention, Tryndamere’s Undying Rage, Fiddlesticks’ Terrify, Lissandra’s Frozen Tomb, Vi’s Assault and Battery, Lulu’s Wild Growth, Warwick’s Infinite Duress, Malzahar’s Nether Grasp, and Vladimir’s Sanguine Pool.
• Zed is surprisingly dangerous, especially when assassinating low-health champions due to Contempt for the Weak, so beware.

Shockblade Zed

By using the champions who counter Zed and the LoL Zed counter tips above, you can now develop a strategy to help you, as a summoner, become an effective counter to Zed players.