A League of Legends dev has explained why Zed will never be buffed no matter how bad the Champion is in the current meta.
Whether you’re playing all alone in the top lane, crying out for a gank from your jungler from the mid lane, or spam-pinging your roaming support as an ADC, just about every League of Legends player has a Champion that they dread to face.
For quite some time, one Champion in particular has been at the top of just about everyone’s ban list. Of course, we’re talking about the Master of Shadows himself, Zed.
The Champion has long had one of the highest ban rates in League of Legends. And despite being underpowered in the meta, the devs have explained it’s likely the Champion will never see a buff.
League devs explains why Zed won’t get buffed
In a recent live stream, one player pleaded to Riot Lead Designer at August ‘August’ Browning, claiming Zed is only going to get worse if the devs don’t intervene. “Do something about Zed, he’s D-tier right now and it’s going to be even worse,” they said.
Responding to the concerns, August revealed that it’s intentional that Zed is weak in the meta, and explained it’s because the Assassin is the “most frustrating” Champion in the entire game.
“So I’m just going to be very honest with you, that’s what we’re doing. You’re right, Zed is weak,” said August. “It is intentional, Zed must be kept weak because he is the most frustrating champion in League of Legends.”
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They added: “So for all of eternity, Zed will probably be slightly weaker than he should be because of his often he is banned and how frustrating he is.”
According to some players in a Reddit thread, the decision makes sense, explaining how Zed has been among the most-banned Champions for a long period.
“I mean, if I recall correctly, Zed has been one of the top 5 most banned champions every patch for a long time, so it kinda makes sense,” one wrote.
However, others explained there are far more frustrating champions such as Yone or Fizz that are “infinitely” more annoying.
Make sure our breakdowns of the new map changes, new void monsters, and dragon changes coming at the start of Season 2024.