Karthus vs Zed
How to Beat Zed as Karthus
based on 1,735 Karthus vs Zed matchupsHow We Analyze LoL Champion Counters
Karthus vs Zed Matchup Summary
Best Karthus vs Zed Counter Build
Items
Starter Items
Early Items
Core Karthus Items
Optional Items
Summoner Spells
Skill Order
Runes
Guide to Countering Zed as Karthus
Tips for Playing as Karthus against Zed
Lay Waste is very strong at farming minions and harassing enemy champions.
Ask your allies to help point out when you should use Requiem to get kills in different lanes.
Advice to Win Against Zed
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.
Karthus vs Zed Counter Stats
How to Counter Zed with Karthus in LoL
The stats shown here clarify several strategic Karthus vs. Zed counter stats that can help us distinguish the differences and similarities between the two. Karthus’s KDA ratio ([kills + assists] / deaths) of NaN is greater than Zed’s KDA ratio of NaN, showing that Karthus may be more central to his team's team fighting capability than Zed. This observation is largely a result of the differences in assists.
Karthus typically has a slightly smaller longest killing spree than his matchup does. Commonly, he takes more damage than Zed. This is usually reflective of different amounts of tankyness; however, it can also imply that the champ with increased health has less mobility and thus is not able to flee from additional harm when engaged or poked.
Differences between Karthus and Zed
Damage Types Compared
Champion Playstyles Compared
Who is Better, Karthus or Zed?
Both League champions are great champions. Both champs have their strengths, weaknesses, and counters. In the game's current meta, Karthus usually fairs equally well when playing against Zed, with a 50.2% win rate. Therefore, Karthus makes an ok counter to Zed.
While Karthus does have a higher win rate than Zed, when facing one another, Karthus also has a greater level of difficulty that makes him a more time consuming champion to pick up and master. You should be careful when picking Karthus into Zedas his relative depth means you may not be able to reach his full potential without a lot of practice beforehand.
Additionally, Karthus has some amount of CC and other utility, a similar amount to Zed. This often makes her just as valuable during team fights, especially when fighting champions with a ton of burst damage.
While there is not a single best champion in League of Legends, in Karthus vs Zed matchups, Karthus is the better champion with a similar win rate, similar champion depth, and a similar amount of utility to help out your team members during team fights.
Karthus is a decent counter for Zed. You will do well by focussing your strategy on maximizing your CS and destroying objectives. If you can do that, you should do very well as Karthus against Zed.
Other Champion Matchups Against Karthus
Additional Information for Karthus Players
How We Calculated Our Karthus vs Zed Build and Stats
Other Useful Resources
Further Insights to Win this Matchup
To learn all of the intricacies of Karthus in order to counter Zed during both the lane and mid / late game phases of League of Legends, you should continue reading to gather a few extra lessons on this matchup. If you listen to the build and suggestions presented above, you will grow your win rate significantly and be closer to League of Legends pro players.
Karthus on average racks up less CS compared to Zed. Champions who typically don't earn much CS typically don't need much CS to be valuable teammates, such as sup champs. They are capable of scaling properly off of their abilities and first items alone. Yet, champs with large amounts of CS, such as hyper-carries, usually need several high cost items to be effective. In either case, try to do better than the numbers shown here to do well.
The most important items to focus on in your Karthus versus Zed build include Rabadon's Deathcap, Malignance, and Liandry's Torment. When Karthus incorporated at least these three pieces in his build, he performed a lot better against Zed than with most other common item sets. In fact, Karthus had an average win rate of 50.2% battling Zed with this build.
To have the best chance of defeating Zed as Karthus, Karthus players should equip the First Strike, Magical Footwear, Future's Market, Cosmic Insight, Eyeball Collection, and Ultimate Hunter runes from the Inspiration and Domination rune sets. Of all the rune combinations players used for Karthus vs Zed clashes, this combination of runes yielded the best win rate. In fact, these runes provided a 50.2% winrate overall.
If you would like to view Karthus versus Zed tips and matchup stats and build suggestions for a a particular division, please select one from the selection menu above. By default, the statistics and build suggestions shown are computed using all matches played with these champs.