Help - Countering Zed

[Jewster925]

So the other night I was matched against a Zed at top where I was Renekton (9/21/0 with ArP marks, Armor seals, scaling MR glyphs, and MS Quints). I started with cloth armor and pots. I tried playing under my tower to keep my cs while mitigating his harass but his range abilities are ridiculous and I couldn't handle his damage output.
Now granted that particular game our jungler (Lee Sin) was quite atrocious and even died at golems in his own jungle, so I normally would call for a gank on him but that wasn't going to happen. The one time Lee Sin came to help at top, he didn't come from a gank path; he just ran straight down the lane from base *face palm*.

So my question is, how do you counter Zed? How do you play against him? I know Renekton is amazing at top, but perhaps there may be some other champions that may be better? I'm open to suggestions and would like any advice on how to deal with Zed.

[hasslehoof]

Diana is pretty good too. There isn't a lot of champions that do well against him (imo), Renekton is a hard counter to him, but you need to play aggresive and back off before you drop below 50%, that's when you'll start losing trades.

[Deleted]

go beefy.
you can always count on zed to be building damage therefore you can go beefy.

the main problem is a lot of people try to beat zed at his own game (damage) or have terrible farm (zed is faceroll to farm on) thus automatically lose that way.

[Vvhooya]

Rumble or Garen

[Deleted]

Anything AP who rushes a Zhonya is basically a counter for him. As Renekton, try to build mostly armor and abuse the fact that his W early on is on a fairly high cooldown, so you can harass him when its on CD.

[Shiny212]

As renekton, kill early jungle, go fort pot and try to kill/weaken him at lvl 2, then just press your advantage and force him to farm at his tower. And yeah a chain vest or wardens mail does wonders against him

[Kasierith]

Know his kit. Zed is a fairly mechanic-dependent champion, and so understanding how his spells work will make a big difference. If he gets you low, he can leap on you with his ult and do a substantial amount of finisher damage; his shadow can spin and throw shuriken as well, so you have to get away from it when you can and watch for a double-skillshot. He can quickly engage or escape with his switch as well.

For champions, get champions that can deal well with gap closers. These are typically going to be your bruisers; if you go someone squishier, he can poke you and then quickly engage to capitalize on the poke. Chances are you're going to eat a few shuriken, so be able to eat up that damage and stay in lane without him forcing you out. Build armor, and focus on outlasting rather than out damaging him (at least to start out). Against a good zed, I wouldn't risk going for a kill unless it's a sure bet or your jungler is there. Get a good grasp early on about that particular zed and when he pokes so you can escape his poke.

Zed is a fairly player-specific champ; ultimately, the only way to really play well against a Zed is to have the experience to quickly understand how the other player plays. Play Zed after buying him or during a free week so you can get a feel for his abilities and cooldowns and such, practice against him when you can, and you should be the better for it fairly quickly.

[Deleted]

Against Zed - Hourglass DURING ult, or slightly after for his Mark?

[Deleted]

Slightly after is better, but it works both way. If you ult as he does, you're going to avoid most of his damage/cooldowns but the ult will still go off. If you wait a second or so the explosion is completely nullified.

[FoShizzleMyGrizzle]

Well..he snowballs really fast if he gets a kill or two, even out creeping you. Well, mostly ever assassin will snowball after 1-2 kills at the start of a game. Then again, playing agressive with your jungler helping ganking alot will make a difference...so you'll have lane control (get wards btw). I personally hate zed, cus I cant play him and its hard to counter his burst with his ultimate as a bruiser. Can build a Chain vest after the first back if you feel the need of more armor, or you can go the giants belt for more hp. I'd say vamp scepter paired with a chainvest is a really good choice, but try to get him down after the ADC (or apc depending on farm/items/kills).
gl !

[Deleted]

Against Zed - Hourglass DURING ult, or slightly after for his Mark?

It is hard to say. Personally I'd say 0,5-1 sec into his ultimate. During his ultimate he gets 1 extra shadow, which means more damage coming from his Q. 3 seconds after he used his ultimate he will get a percentage of the damage he did to you during his ultimate (plus 100% AD) done to you. So if you can avoid either his Q or E plus the damage from the death mark triggering that would be best. Using hourglass bit too early isnt bad either, as you will deny him the damage form his Q and E (but not the R damage).

[Fenth]

I haven't played this match up yet but I have fought a Zed it was easy mode as J4 just kept poking him with EQ combos...

[Jam]

I've found that akali counters him really well. Your trades are basically even and when you hit 6 you can out trade him. The built in sustain that akali's have really help you stay in lane with him and even help you outlast him. This is all coming from a mid player though. But since akali can also play top lane i would assume the match up is the same and you can even buy 1 less ward and buy more hp pots to start!

[Jewster925]

I have never had a problem against Zed top. I don't really know what to say besides maybe he outplayed you?

But armor seals sure didn't help you. You are better off with HP seals.

I am pretty sure he outplayed me, but that may also be because I haven't had to face that many Zeds and I'm not too familiar with his kit (I know what his kit does but not too familiar on CDs and such).
HP seals over armor? I figured having armor seals and starting with cloth armor + 3x health pots would have been enough but I was wrong. I haven't used health seals in quite some time now.

Is Renekton good against Zed? because when I tried playing aggressive and defensive he still just ripped through me. I couldn't do anything to him, even my E, W, auto, Q, E harass combo didn't do jack to him. He won all of the trades we did.

How would a champ like Elise do against him? Or Shen?

[Rampant Rabbit]

Hourglass and Kayle are your best options. Perhaps Lissandra will become a great option as well.

[Jewster925]

Hourglass and Kayle are your best options. Perhaps Lissandra will become a great option as well.

What's the ideal kayle build for top? AS marks and Quints but build her AS/AP? Or AD? I usually build her with Nashor's Tooth and more AP items using AS marks and quints in my rune page with her.

[Projali]

Although more situational and dependent on the rest of their team's comp, QSS (if fed, Merc Scim) is a valid option for the AD's who wouldn't build a Zhonya's as it removes Zed's Mark. The MR is wasted on him, though.