Wild Rift Guides
Zed Jungle Wild Rift Guide
Zed jungle counters include Rengar, Pantheon, and Vi. See the best build, runes, matchups, and game plan for Wild Rift Patch 7.3.
How to play
- Keep your camp clear moving Place your 2nd ability beside a camp, then aim your 1st ability so both you and your shadow throw through the monsters.
- Save a shadow swap for the way out Your 2nd ability leaves a shadow; cast it again to swap positions. Keep a shadow somewhere safe instead of spending every swap to approach the enemy.
- Use your ultimate on an enemy you can finish Land your damage while they are marked, then swap back before their team catches you.
Strengths
- Elite single-target burst that removes one carry from a fight before they can react.
- The shadow swap works as both engage and escape, closing the gap on a gank and pulling him back out of a dive.
- Snowballs hard, because one clean pick funds the next and a fed Zed decides where the map fights.
Weaknesses
- Squishy with no hard crowd control, so a lost early skirmish leaves him with no way to lock down the escape or peel the return damage.
- No hard crowd control and no peel, so he does little once the enemy stays behind their frontline.
- Dies to lockdown and burst, since getting caught before his swap is up means he simply dies.
Build Snapshot
Rune Setup
Summoner Spells
Zed Jungle Counters
Who counters Zed Jungle in Wild Rift (WR)? These champions beat Zed in the jungle matchup, with how each one wins. Learn to play around them or ban them in ranked.
- Rengar: Rengar kills you before your combo starts: he leaps from a bush with full ferocity and bursts your squishy frame before your shadow lands, so your swap never gets to save you.
- Pantheon: Pantheon bullies you through your weakest window: his level-three burst arrives before yours, his Aegis (3rd) blocks your shuriken poke, and his stun-leap pins your squishy frame before you can swap out.
- Vi: Vi removes the escape your whole game depends on: her ultimate is point-and-click, so the shadow swap only delays the pin, and her knockup catches you mid-combo.
Champions Zed Is Strong Against
Zed's best matchups in Wild Rift. Zed holds an edge against these picks in the jungle role, so look to press the advantage and contest objectives.
- Morgana: Morgana's bind is her only real answer to you, and once it is down she is a slow, fragile mage with no follow-up against your shadow swap and detonation.
- Viego: Viego wants a long duel he can reset from, but your burst kills him inside one rotation, before his sustain or passive heal ever matters, leaving him no corpse to take.
- Talon: Talon mirrors your squishy assassin frame, but your shadow throws a second combo from a range his blink cannot answer, and your ultimate marks him for damage he cannot dash away from.
Early Game
Your first clear is about clean overlap. Place Living Shadow (2nd) so Zed and the copy can hit the camp with the same Shuriken (1st) and restore energy, without forcing the missile through another unit first. Shadow Slash (3rd) adds damage, but monsters do not trigger the champion-only Living Shadow (2nd) cooldown reduction. Reach level five with enough tempo to punish an overextended lane rather than forcing an early duel without hard crowd control. Clear toward the lane with the best setup, but do not force a gank when the target is healthy and protected by the wave. Contest Scuttle only with enough health, cooldowns, and nearby lane priority to survive the duel. If the enemy jungler controls one crab, take the other or return to camps instead of forcing a losing river fight. Track the opposing route and ward your entrances so an invade does not remove the farm Zed needs for level five.
Mid Game
Zed gains more from a pick before the objective than from standing in the pit during a fair contest. Watch the side lanes for a carry who pushed up without vision and collapse on them, then take the objective while their team is down a body. Contest when your team is ahead; in an even game take Herald, since your peak is now and a tower cashes it in. Between objectives, counter-jungling works well, because you out-duel a lot of farmers in their own jungle and a swap gets you out before help arrives. Keep an eye on the enemy jungler's position, though: a Zed who dives into a waiting counter-gank hands the lead back in one trade.
Late Game
Late game you are a pick threat, not a brawler. Your job is to find the enemy carry and kill them, which means flanking from fog, waiting until your swap and ultimate are both up, and committing when their backline is actually reachable. Group with your team but fight from the edges: walking through the enemy frontline gets you locked down and bursted, while a clean flank puts your shadow on the target that matters. Baron and dragon fights are where your picks matter most, so hold your engage for the carry instead of wasting it on the frontline, and let your own tanks create the moment of chaos you need. An alive Zed who kills one carry per fight wins the game; a dead Zed who dove the tank wasted his ultimate.
Teamfights
Choose the target and exit shadow before entering. Approach from a side angle, apply Death Mark (Ult) when the carry has spent a defensive tool, and land the energized basic attack plus abilities before swapping back. If tanks block every route, wait for the formation to separate or help damage the nearest target. Do not chase a second takedown when the return shadow is about to expire or the enemy control remains available.