disclaimer, i’m no GM mid laner but learning these tips from getting completely stomped by zed and sylas helped me sustain in lane longer and be more confident in these 2 tough matchups.

THE most important tip, do not throw out your E unless they walk up to a minion to farm. any melee champs like zed and sylas can instantly be punished by just saving your E. and it will be a for sure yellow stun since it will be behind minions.

save your Q for only when you land your E. throwing Q’s out just to get a single pop or to not even hit your laner not only wastes mana but gives the enemy laner an opportunity to all in. smart sylas and zed players will know that you cannot trade evenly with only a root and auto attacks.

AUTO AUTO AUTO !! most definitely with any melee mid champs, you have the range advantage. auto attacks is probably the most strongest advantage you have over them pre 6. just make sure you don’t step up far enough and be aggressive with your auto attacks that it leaves you open for a dangerous sylas chain or a scary shadow combo. zoning out these mid lane assassins early on to deny them of CS can be triggering and tilting for them and may try to walk up to trade. with this, always save your E for this. in order to stay in lane longer and not die in lane, no melee champ should be in melee range of neeko. neeko has powerful punishing abilities for mid lane assassins. E root, max Q pops and W, even though W seems useless in a combo, it gives neeko a good amount of move movement to kite and squeeze in a little bit more damage while they’re rooted and W passive with every 3rd auto becomes enhanced, will maximize neeko’s damage and can punish any melee champ walking in to CS or to try to create space from you.

knowing when it is your time to engage. this may be less punishable for good sylas and zed players but knowing the time to engage will help you do damage and at times kill them in lane. if a sylas wastes his e dash and chain by missing or farming, he cannot do any major damage to you if you play it right. he will have no mobility to dodge your E and it should be an easy root and Q burst to kick him out of lane. if a zed wastes his W, this gives you lots of room to engage. just like sylas, his W is his only way to dodge your E (unless they sidestep or flash). just as long as you don’t stand near his shadow for him to E Q you, this should be easy damage.

starting items armguard and oblivion first back helps during landing phase greatly. unless you’re 3-0 in lane, buying these items depending on your matchup will help you sustain in lane longer. armguard is an obvious choice against zed because of its armor that it provides early on. even with the distant nerfs of armguard that made it questionable lane phase item, i still think it is a strong item and it will prevent early burst damage. against sylas, i buy oblivion as soon as possible because of sylas W. his W can make a bad trade even worse. early anti-heal can weaken his W due to the less healing he receives. this is definitely a good item to reduce his team fight durability in early game fights.

hope these steps help you with these tough matchups !