Zed Item Build
ARMOR PEN LOADOUT · ZEDOnce Last Whisper joins The Black Cleaver, Zed's shadow combo becomes an armor-penetration plan, with Blade of the Ruined King anchoring the primary core. Living Shadow mimics his spell casts. Razor Shuriken and Shadow Slash can arrive from Zed and the shadow during Death Mark, concentrating the build inside one marked window.
Armor Pen Zed reserves core slots for Last Whisper and The Black Cleaver; Blade of the Ruined King, The Bloodthirster, and Maw of Malmortius fill the rest. Shadow Slash leads the skill order; Living Shadow comes next, leaving Razor Shuriken last and putting the spinning attack before the ranged blade.
Create your own Zed build with the free build planner: swap the items, starting buy, summoner spells, runes, masteries and skill order, then save it to My builds or share it with a link.
Zed Masteries Classic
21 / 9 / 0
Zed Runes Classic
~16,500 IP
9×Seals
9×Glyphs
9×Quints
3×
The full Zed build guide
Build guide · every build, explainedThese are the Zed builds our editors keep coming back to. Each entry: the full loadout in game order, then the case for it.
No lane sourcedFlexZed Builds
Armor Pen Zed reserves core slots for Last Whisper and The Black Cleaver; Blade of the Ruined King, The Bloodthirster, and Maw of Malmortius fill the rest.On the board
Armor Pen Zed Build
Armor PenAll three Zed builds carry 
The Bloodthirster and two carry 
Youmuu's Ghostblade, which suggests these pages were built around sustain and cooldowns rather than burst. The Armor Pen page is the most complete, running 
Blade of The Ruined King and 
Last Whisper with 
The Black Cleaver and maxing 
Shadow Slash first. The AD page swaps to 
Infinity Edge and 
Trinity Force with a 
Madred's Bloodrazor. The Bruiser page adds 
Frozen Mallet and 
Randuin's Omen and never leaves 
Boots of Speed, the one purchase across the set that looks unfinished. 
Contempt for the Weak makes its health items less wasteful than they seem.
AD Zed Build
AD
Infinity Edge and Madred's Bloodrazor establish that route, while 
Living Shadow (W) passively increases attack damage. The setup commits twenty-four mastery points to Offense, backing the item line's carry focus. The three remaining core slots complete the same route without changing that offense-first purpose.
Bruiser Zed Build
BruiserFrozen Mallet opens that core and Randuin's Omen closes it, with the original three middle items placed between those endpoints. The mastery spread uses twenty-one points in Offense and nine in Defense, explicitly keeping offense ahead of defense. Shadow Slash (E) creates a burst of shadow energy, and the shadow's spin slows, adding control to a setup already divided between offense and defense.