Forum talk:Neekerivittu/@comment-4167645-20121128144117/@comment-218.186.15.10-20121128155410

Not necessarily true. Zed does have good poke potential through his WQ/WE combo. Early game, the long CD on his shadow does kinda make sense, because if it was like, say, 6s, you'd be harassing the enemy from an untouchable range non-stop.

Later on in the game, one tactic (especially when you are retreating), is to plant your shadow behind you as you run. When enemies walk by, they either have to walk around it or get slowed by your E. His shadow is a proxy - you don't have to cast a spell immediately after throwing down your W. You can leave it there and zone enemies through pure uncertainly. Anything can come out of that shadow within 4s; be it your Q, your E, or even yourself! Zed can scout cliffs by planting his shadow there. he can check brushes by planting a shadow there. He can use it to dash or trick enemies before juking back to it. His shadow makes Zed slippery. You can double the effective AoE of your E with your shadow, allowing you to farm large, wide creep waves with a single WEQ combo. You can plant it as you're running to slow enemies and maybe even juke back to it if they dash past the shadow and towards you.

I agree that the CD is still a bit too long at higher levels, but a simple pair of CDR boots/Brutalizer helps a lot; it's even almost mandatory to get a Brutalizer on Zed, simply because it allows you to spam your skills more and use your E twice in a single ult.