If you stun an enemy with Shocking Orb, follow up with a guaranteed center hit on Eye of Destruction.
It's easier to land Arcanopulse on an enemy when they're moving toward or away from you, rather than side to side.
Eye of Destruction will make landing Arcanopulse easier as the target will be slowed.
Zed's Shadow Slash can only slow you if his shadow hits you with it.
Zed receives bonus effect from Attack Damage items he purchases, so Armor is super effective against him.
After Zed uses his Living Shadow, he is at his most vulnerable as his damage, slow, and mobility are both dependent upon it.
The stat comparisons provided here highlight some strategic Xerath versus Zed counter statistics that can help you interpret the distinctions between the pair. As an example, Xerath’s KDA ratio ([kills + assists] / deaths) of NaN is greater than Zed’s KDA ratio of NaN, indicating that Xerath may be more central to his team's team fighting capability than Zed. This observation is in large part a result of the differences in assists.
Xerath typically has a slightly smaller longest killing spree than his foe does. On average, he receives less damage than Zed. This commonly reflects differing health capacities, yet it can also hint that the champion with more HP has less agility and thus is unable to escape further harm when poked or engaged.
Both League champs are great. Both champs have their strengths, weaknesses, and counters. In League's current meta, Xerath usually fairs equally well when playing against Zed, with a 50.9% win rate. Therefore, Xerath makes an ok counter to Zed.
While Xerath does have a higher winrate compared to Zed, when on opposite teams, Xerath also has a greater learning curve that makes him a more difficult character to learn and master. You still need to be cautious when picking Xerath into Zedas his relative depth means that you may not be able to reach his full potential without a lot of practice beforehand.
Additionally, Xerath has some amount of CC and other utility, a similar amount to Zed. This often makes her just as valuable during teamfights, especially when facing champions with a ton of burst damage.
While there isn't a single best champion overall in League of Legends, in Xerath vs Zed matchups, Xerath is the better champ with a similar win rate, more champion depth, and a similar amount of utility to help out your teammates during late stage team fights.
Xerath is a decent counter to Zed. Focus your play on increasing your gold income and taking out objectives. If you are able to do that, you should hold your own as Xerath against Zed.
To truly master Xerath in order to counter Zed during both the lane and mid / late game phases of League of Legends, you should keep reading to gather a few extra tricks and insights into this matchup. If you mind the build and tips presented here, you will increase your win rate by a lot and be closer to League of Legends pro players.
Xerath most often gets less CS relative to Zed. Champions who typically don't acquire many minion kills often don't require much CS to be effective, such as support champions. These kinds of champions are able to scale well off of their abilities and first items alone. Yet, champions with large amounts of CS, such as hyper-carries, usually have to have a lot of items to be effective. In either case, try to surpass the values shown here to do well.
The best items to prioritize in your Xerath versus Zed build include Rabadon's Deathcap, Shadowflame, and Stormsurge. When Xerath bought at least these three items in his build, he did a lot better vs. Zed than with most other typical counter builds. In fact, Xerath boasted an average win rate of 50.9% when playing against Zed with this counter build.
To have the best likelihood of annihilating Zed as Xerath, you should equip the First Strike, Magical Footwear, Biscuit Delivery, Cosmic Insight, Manaflow Band, and Gathering Storm runes from the Inspiration and Sorcery rune sets. Out of all the rune builds players picked for Xerath vs Zed fights, this combination of runes yielded the best win rate. Notably, these runes gave a 50.9% win rate overall.
By default, tips, stats, and builds on how to beat Zed as Xerath are presented for every ranked division. To scope the statistics and builds to an individual skill level, you can use the selection menu earlier on the page.