When I first learned to play League of Legends, Zed was the first champion I fell in love with. He does everything I could ever want. He can dominate lane, has great burst damage, insane ganks and all-ins, mobility, and most importantly, creates map pressure with his ability to split push. The Zed of old patches was an absolute split pushing animal. You had the ability to quickly clear waves, duel anyone who came to stop your push, and took towers with relative ease. To compliment his kit, there was no better item around to rush on Zed than Blade of the Ruined King. Blade of the Ruined King gave Zed extra attack speed, which was crucial to his split pushing power, and the ability to deal percent health damage to tanks. Most importantly however was Blade of the Ruined King's active ability.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with BORK (Blade of the Ruined King), BORK's active ability deals 10% of a champions maximum health, heals for an equal amount, and then steals 25% of the target enemy's movement speed. This was a huge component of Zed's dueling capabilities. The 10% max health damage contributed to the damage of Zed's ultimate, Death Mark, and the movement speed steal allowed for Zed to stick to his targets through escapes and flashes. However, after some hefty changes to BORK, Blade is no longer a core item for Zed, and as a result, Death Mark has become much easier to play around. Other changes to armor penetration items have made it so that Zed relies solely on upfront damage to squishies instead of sticking to his opponent and skirmishing. While it's curiously satisfying to make people explode before they have time to react, there are going to be times where you have to skirmish during Zed's Death Mark to get the job done. And, without BORK as a key component, there is a large window of opportunity for enemies to escape or outplay our favorite ninja. But fear not, ladies and gentlemen! I have a solution! Summoners, I present to you, Stormraider's Surge Zed!!!

Stormraider's Surge is incredibly useful in all-in skirmishes. If your champ has upfront burst and wants to duel, Stormraider's is a pretty great keystone to have. The resistance to slows also allows you to power through Exhausts and enemy debuffs to finish the chase, and squeeze in that last bit of damage needed to secure the kill. Stormraider's Surge Zed picked up in popularity after SKT T1's very own Faker played Stormraider's Zed on his stream. People assumed he was trolling at first, but quickly realized the benefit of having the sticking power that old BORK Zed used to have. But, Stormraider's Surge Zed is not without its drawbacks. Let's visit some of the pros and cons to the keystone before you decide to try it out for yourself.

Pros

After playing with Stomraider's on Zed, the strongest addition to his kit with this keystone is how much more effective his roams become. Often times without BORK or Stormraider's, your ganks could only get an enemy lane to blow their summoner spells. And while this is fine, because your team will have an advantage, we're Zed. We care about our gold and our KDA. Usually a player can survive a Zed's Death Mark by timing a good flash or dash out and getting out of damage range. Stormraider's helps close the gap by giving Zed a huge movement speed steroid making chasing down people much easier. For enemies that think they can just juke Zed with some fancy footwork, think again. When Stormraider's procs, Zed will be stuck to you until you die. Also, having a 75% slow resistance gives you the ability to fight through Exhaust and other debuffs such as Lulu's Glitterlance, and Nasus' Wither. Backline carries also become that much more accessible to a Zed dive if the enemy team lacks hard CC.

Using the move speed increase to stick to the enemy and dodge CC

Cons

As soon as I put on Stormraider's Surge onto Zed and got to lane I was giddy at the thought of running circles around the enemy mid laner after bursting them down. I got the level 3 advantage in lane and attempted a Shadow Slash + double Razor Shuriken combo. I landed all skills, but something didn't feel right. I dealt a considerable amount less damage than I had anticipated. It was in that moment that I realized how much I loved and missed Thunderlord's Decree. Thunderlord's is usually the main keystone to take on Zed. Seeing as how his main harass rotation is a 3 hit combo, and you want as much upfront burst damage as you can get, Thunderlord's is the most obvious fit. Without it, you lose a lot of laning phase pressure and your early game suffers noticeably. There were about 4 or 5 instances throughout my games where I would have secured a kill if I had had the Thunderlord's damage because I hadn't hit level 6 or because my Death Mark was on cool down.

Thunderlord's damage...that's the stuff

When it comes down to it, choosing to take Stormraider's Surge is a matter of how you want to play Zed. Stormraider's makes dueling and roaming rewarding and fun. The sticking power it provides makes extended fights much easier and soft CC such as slows become less effective. You literally get to run circles around the enemy team's carries. However, I cannot stress enough that if you like being a lane bully, Thunderlord's Decree is the way to go. The damage you miss out on during your harass is a significant amount. You also lose a considerable amount of lane pressure and zoning potential without the burst damage present. If you're in a matchup where you should be looking to get an early kill or shove your enemy out of lane pre 6, take Thunderlord's. If it looks like you're in it for the long con, and the late game will be more relevant, try out Stormraider's Surge. Regardless of what you decide to do, I can confirm that Stormraider's Surge Zed puts a new fun spin on the champion that feels very reminiscent of Blade of the Ruined King Zed. Have fun mowing down ADCs while laughing at their support's Exhaust!

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