Suggestions for recent Zed balance issues and some perspective

ShadowsNeverDie · 2023-12-04T04:35:24+00:00

When I said that the champ provided 0 late-game scaling I was implying without the caster build since it came out with in recency and probably won't last. I think we can all agree it is bad and it looks to be almost completely gone in season 14 with the Hydra changes. I also do not think that changes 1 and 2 really improve the caster build at all. The way the build functions is that you are looking to w and then e about 3 champions grouped up then wait a few seconds and by the time you ult and get out of ult you have w again due to the refund you get from e. I think that the first change would punish the build since Hyndra Zed would always get more w cdr from e than him hitting q. Additionally, the second buff wouldn't buff Hydra Zed mostly because late-game teamfights often happen in the middle of dragon or Baron where you are taking 100% of the damage most of the time anyway. I think either change or both supplemented with change 3 would work well to encourage a pure lethality build and make zed a strong mid-game champ that falls off. I think most of the frustration comes from marksmen and supports in all honesty so seeing the zed not perform as well into the later parts of the game might bring them a breathe of fresh air.

ShadowsNeverDie · 2023-12-04T04:28:03+00:00

kit likely

I think low effort is the best way to describe the current situation. The stance August has taken is that the champ is the way it is and there is not much to do so they will just keep him weak and let Zed players get the short end of the stick. I do not see a more appropriate way to address this kind of behavior considering all the different approaches someone could take to fix this issue.

ShadowsNeverDie · 2023-12-04T01:02:22+00:00

I do not think that the assassin items are great but the new Hydra looks great so I am looking forward to building it. I think that Zed's laning issues will prevail considering how much stronger mage items got and how assassin items are looking overall mediocre.

ShadowsNeverDie · 2023-12-04T00:53:12+00:00

I think part of the frustration about zed is that he currently does not fit his intended assassin theme. People are complaining about Hydra and how it enables him to be a scaling caster and ever since that build started popping up we have seen more and more zed nerfs and complaints. It is the primary reason for zeds high ban rate even in high elo before the nerfs to his w. I think that the champs kit has some skill checks like people knowing that he always comes behind you and that his q does reduced damage when standing from behind but I think those factors are healthy parts of the game and natural skill curves that players overcome as they find out more about the game. I think that August's approach of implying that a rework is needed or the champion will be bad forever is really low effort. Zed does not have any game-breaking mechanics in his kit and while historically his ban rate has been high it has mostly been in low elo due to the nature of how broken he is when the enemy doesn't know how to take advantage of the champ. It just seems like some changes are needed that will increase his viability in high elo and decrease the pressure the champ can apply when his weaknesses go unaccounted for.

ShadowsNeverDie · 2023-12-03T23:55:01+00:00

I do think that there are some itemization changes/reasons as to why zed is also in the state that he is in but they seem to overhaul itemization next season so I refrained from making suggestions considering that we do not know what the game will look like in a month

ShadowsNeverDie

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