Zed vs Smolder Counter Pick

A 66.7% record on patch 16.13.1 is a wide margin, and 117 games is a narrow base to draw it from, so the figure reads as a strong signal rather than a settled number. The mechanism behind it is not in doubt. Dragon Practice rewards Smolder for hitting champions with abilities and finishing them with Super Scorcher Breath, a stacking process that needs both time and safety, and Zed exists to deny both. Smolder carries 575 base health and 2,275 at level 18 behind 24 base armour and 92 at level 18, the softest body in this lane against damage that is entirely physical.

His 550 attack range is what he is meant to survive on, and Zed‘s kit is built to cross that distance without walking it. Living Shadow projects Razor Shuriken and Shadow Slash from a second position, forcing a champion with 330 base move speed to dodge two angles at once, and Death Mark makes the approach untargetable before echoing part of the damage dealt inside its three-second window. Flap, Flap, Flap ignores terrain and bombards the lowest-health enemy, which is escape rather than counterplay, and MMOOOMMMM! slows through its centre without stopping a committed jump. Zed’s 654 health and 2,337 at level 18 mean a returned burst rarely kills first, and Contempt for the Weak closes out targets left on a sliver.