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Zed vs Locke

Zed
You
VS
Locke

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Who Wins

  • Pre-6 you win this lane clearly: your Q poke outranges his Q, your W-Q-E combo at level 3 deals more reliable burst than his stack-dependent setup, and his E is telegraphed enough that you can W away before he arrives.
  • Post-6 the matchup tightens significantly — his R's 99% slow can lock you in place during your R animation and the execution threshold punishes you for diving in at low health, so you need to kill him before he gets his full combo off rather than trading back and forth.
Confused by a term? Check the Glossary

How to Trade

  • Your best trade pattern is to use W shadow to bait his E, let him blink to a position, then reactivate W to swap back and punish him from behind while his E is on cooldown — his E reset only triggers on takedowns, so if you survive the initial blink you have a long window where he has no mobility.
  • Poke with Q repeatedly to bring him below 60% health before committing to a full W-R-E combo, because his passive bonus damage scales with your missing health and fighting him at low HP is increasingly dangerous.

Wave Control

  • Control the wave by pushing with Q to force him under tower where his Q stack application is riskier and his E blink angles are more predictable — a Locke who is shoved in cannot safely walk up to apply Q stacks without eating tower shots.
  • Avoid letting him freeze the wave near his tower at mid-game because that creates a safe environment for him to stack Q on you repeatedly without you having a clean escape route from his E follow-up.

Mistakes to Avoid

  • Do not place your W shadow aggressively into melee range when his Q stacks are already on you — swapping to that shadow puts you exactly where he wants you for an E consumption burst into W all-in.
  • Also avoid using your R at high health thresholds thinking you can burst him down, because if his R is available and you're below his execution threshold mid-combo, the 99% slow will prevent you from repositioning to your shadow in time.
Created on 06/25/2026
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