How to win lane as Talon against Zed · 50.37% win rate over 2,053 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Talon | Level 1 favours you — Zed's Q shurikens poke but your W and passive out-trade in melee where he must farm. |
| Level 2 | Talon | Level 2 stays yours since your second W point out-clears and out-pokes before Zed has his shadow combo online. |
| Level 3 | Talon | Level 3 is your kill spike: a full Q-W-auto rotation bursts Zed and his only escape is the W shadow you can bait. |
| Levels 4-5 | Talon | Levels 4-5 remain yours because Zed still lacks Death Mark and can't survive or reset off your committed all-in. |
| Level 6 | Zed | Level 6 is Zed's cell — R Death Mark plus shadow swap gives him the burst and reposition to out-all-in you. |
| First item | Zed | First item favours Zed: his lethality spike sharpens the Death Mark combo and his double-shadow dodges your gap-close. |
| Two+ items | Zed | With two items his mark-reset burst and shadow juke keep out-trading your single rotation in a fair duel. |
Levels 1-5 are yours. Zed is forced into melee-range CS and his only pre-6 escape is the W shadow, so bait or track it and then commit — Q in, W to slow and stack passive, autos to bleed for the kill. If he uses W aggressively to land Q poke, that's your cue to all-in the recovery window before the shadow is back up.
The full Talon vs Zed report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Zed vs Talon guide →
All Talon mid lane matchups →