Forum talk:Neekerivittu/@comment-201.8.211.87-20121123081233/@comment-218.186.15.10-20121123101815

Most people aren't talking about his late game damage when it comes to Zed. It's more of his early game damage, especially when around the mid game transition period, before Zed hits level 11. 20% damage amplification is really bad (I did a similar calculation somewhere further down the comments) and Zed doesn't have as much straight up burst when you compare him to other assassins. His ratios and base damage are naturally lower than other champions like Talon and Akali.

Another problem is that while yes, Zed can do tons of damage later in the game, you'll realize that the bulk of his damage comes from his ult alone. His ult has a CD that is also painfully long at earlier levels, considering how reliant Zed is on it. Many times, I am only able to poke with mediodre damage whenever my ult is down, as I cannot actually be a threat until my ult is up again. Compare this to Talon/Akali, who has a much, much shorter CD on their ults, meaning that they stays as a threat more often throughout the game.

Of course, this is not to say that Zed is underpowered, but the combination of Zed's low early game ult damage and his reliance on it throughout the game (plus the horrendous CD) lowers his potential. Of course, this could be to make up for the fact that he runs on energy, but this makes it such that Zed has to pretty much stay semi-passive with 2 skills that only do rather average damage (plus his Q is dodgeable at times) for a large portion of the game.