How to Counter featuring ZED "The Master of Shadows"

Zed is a melee assassin, he relies on sending out living shadows that mimic his basic abilities, allow him to reposition in mid fights and quickly strike down his foes. When expertly played zed can kill his opponents before they even know what hit them.  

  

Now, Let's talk about zed's abilities.

                   

Zed's passive ability is CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK   

Zed's basic attacks against targets below 50% health deal 6 / 8 / 10% of the target's maximum health as bonus magic damage.  This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds on the same target.

Zed's first ability is RAZOR SHURIKEN (Q)  

Active: Zed throws his spinning blades forward, dealing physical damage to the first enemy they pass through and 60% damage to enemies thereafter.

Living Shadow: Active shadows will also throw a shuriken in the direction of the target point. Additional shuriken striking the same enemy deal 50% damage and restore ENERGY.

 Zed's second ability is LIVING SHADOWS (W)

Passive: Zed's bonus attack damage is increased by a percentage.

Active: Zed's shadow dashes forward, remaining in place for 4 seconds. Reactivating Living Shadow will cause Zed to swap places with this shadow. 

 Living Shadow: Zed's shadows mimic his basic abilities. If a target is struck twice by a mimicked ability, Zed restores some ENERGY. ENERGY can only be restored once per mimicked cast.

  Zed's Third ability is SHADOW SLASH (E)

Active: Zed spins his blades, creating a burst of shadow energy and dealing physical damage to nearby enemies. Each enemy champion hit reduces Living Shadow's cooldown by 2 seconds.

Living Shadow: Active shadows also slash, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies and slowing them for 1.5 seconds. Enemies hit by both slashes are slowed more and restore ENERGY but will not take additional damage.

 

 Zed's Ultimate ability is DEATH MARK (R)

Active: Zed becomes untargetable for 0.75 seconds and dashes behind the target enemy champion. Upon arrival, he marks the target for death, ignores unit collision, and spawns a shadow that lasts for 6 seconds at the cast location. Reactivating Death Mark will cause Zed to swap places with this shadow.

After 3 seconds, Death Mark will trigger, dealing flat physical damage plus a percentage of all physical and magic damage dealt to the marked champion while it was active.

Source: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Zed

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                  So the question is?, How will you counter Zed, especially his ultimate skill? 

Think about his ultimate ability, Death mark has a second ability that will explodes dealing physical and magic damage base on his exerted damage while it was active. The logic is? You need to find a way to not be attacked by zed, when he casts his ultimate ability on you. In short, you need to untargetable or invulnerable. OR do the opposite way, that zed will not move to attacked you . In short, when he casts his ultimate ability? IMMOBILIZE him, so he can't exert damage on you when his ultimate ability is active.

Immobilize: to keep (something or someone) from moving or working : to make (something or someone) immobile such as STUN, SNARE, KNOCKED AIRBORNE, KNOCKED BACK and SILENCE.

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/immobilize

I'll put more focus on the most effective champion who have untargetable ability.

Now, Here are the champions that have untargetable ability and the items that have invulnerable ability.

Champions: 

1st is Fiora "The Grant Duelist" - I think fiora is the best champion to counter zed in top lane (but it depends on how you use her).

Why Fiora?, Because of  her second and ultimate ability.

Fiora's second ability RIPOSTE (W)

Passive: Fiora's attack damage is increased.
Active: Fiora parries the next basic attack within 1.5 seconds and deals magic damage to the attacker. Works against champions, large monsters, and large minions.


Fiora's ultimate ability BLAZE WALTS (R)

Active: Fiora dashes around the battlefield — becoming untargetable in the process — dealing physical damage to random enemy champion(s) 5 times. Successive hits against the same target deal 25% damage. The first and last attack will be against the same target. Each strike applies on-hit effects.

So if Zed uses his ultimate ability? Just use blaze walts to be untargetable.  

 2nd is Fizz "The Tidal Trickster" - This is a good pick to counter zed in mid lane.

Why Fizz?, Because of his first and third ability 

Fizz's first ability

   

Active: Fizz dashes a fixed distance in the direction of the target enemy unit, dealing 100% of his AD as physical damage plus bonus magic damage. The physical damage applies on-hit effects and the magic damage applies on-ability effects.

 

Fizz's third ability: Fizz's first ability

Fizz's third ability is a double skilled ability, The Playful and Trickster. 

PLAYFUL (E)

Active: Fizz hops onto his trident in a nearby location, becoming untargetable for 0.75 seconds and gaining the ability to use Trickster for no additional cost before the effect ends.

 TRICKSTER (E)

Active: Fizz hops off from his trident to a nearby location, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies within 270-range. Trickster does not apply a slow.

 So if Zed uses his ultimate ability? Just use Fizz's third ability then quickly use his first ability to get away from him and to reposition if you want chase him.

Source: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Fiora

Source: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Fizz

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Items:

The Best items to counter Zed's ultimate ability is ZHONYA'S HOURGLASS and MERCURIAL SCIMITAR (I think so).

ZHONYA'S HOURGLASS

UNIQUE Active: Places your champion into Stasis for 2.5 seconds, rendering your champion invulnerable and untargetable but unable to take any actions. 90 second cooldown.

 So if you're in mid lane chasing with zed and you are using a champion you think can't counter zed's ultimate? I think this item will solve your problem.

MERCURIAL SCIMITAR

Unique Active – Quicksilver: Removes all debuffs from your champion and grants +50% movement speed for 1 second. 90 second cooldown.

 This item is effective to counter zed's ultimate ability, but most of the time it's not necessary to build because of the stats.

Here are my Tips (Suggestions) to counter Zed.

So many champions to counter ZED, I didn't mention them because it's to many and also in the end of the day, It depends on how will you use that champion to defeat zed.

Next champion to counter: Pantheon "The Artisan of War".