Zac/Strategy

		Strategy is highly subjective and may become outdated without any notice. Because of this, the League of Legends Wiki has decided to retire strategy pages and would recommend using other platforms (such as YouTube) to find guides. For more information visit this thread. This page continues to exist for archive purposes.

Champion Spotlight

By David 'Phreak' Turley

Learn to punish your opponents with an elastic beatdown in this episode of the Champion Spotlight, where we showcase Zac's high-speed jungle potential.

Zac quickly tears through monster camps using a combination of high-sustain mechanics and potent area damage. With a little setup, Zac also has some of the longest range initiation potential to date, enabling a variety of particularly devious ganks. Add in a powerful AoE ultimate and you've got one boisterous blob that's ready to lead the charge on the Fields of Justice.

Find out more about this amorphous combatant with tips, tricks, sample mastery builds, and more in the Zac Champion Spotlight.

Recommended Items

Summoner's Rift
Starting
Early
Essential
Defensive
Situational
Consumables

Summoner's Rift (Jungler)
Starting
Early
Essential
Defensive
Situational
Consumables

Twisted Treeline
Starting	2
Early
Essential
Defensive
Situational
Consumables

Twisted Treeline (Jungler)
Starting
Early
Essential
Defensive
Situational
Consumables

Howling Abyss
Starting	3
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

Tips

Playing as Zac

• The combination of Elastic Slingshot and Let's Bounce! is an amazing initiation tool, which can easily reposition a teamfight in your favor from the beginning.
• Even when building very tanky, Zac has surprising damage output in teamfights. The enemy team will either be forced to focus you (allowing your ADC and APC to wreak havoc) or else take lots of damage from Zac's abilities.
  • This makes Zac's a deceptively tanky initiator. You will likely lose a lot of health during Let's Bounce!, but you can gain most of it back so long as your resistances are high. As such, Zac effectively has two build paths: full tank and AP bruiser.

Playing against Zac

• If you are very weak in close quarters, avoid engaging in dangerous territory when you cannot account for Zac's engage.
• You can crush Cell Division blobs to prevent Zac from healing in a fight.
  • All forms of crowd control are especially effective against Zac, since he is unable to move to collect his Cell Division healing blobs.
• You can use Ignite and Smite on the Cell Division bloblets to prevent Zac from reviving.
• Silences, roots, stuns and knock ups will all interrupt the charging of Zac's Elastic Slingshot.
• Building a Morellonomicon or Executioner's Calling against Zac can be extremely effective, since it significantly reduces his healing.
• Zac needs to be very close to you in order to deal the majority of his damage, which makes kiting a very viable strategy.
• Cell Division has a very long cooldown. Popping this before a teamfight or other major engagement can cripple his effectiveness.
  • Be sure to keep an eye on when this is available, as it will allow you to more accurately determine whether you can win a 1v1 with him.
• Even though they take reduced AoE damage, you can still easily destroy all of Zac's bloblets by using a mage with a lot of AoE damage.
  • It may be helpful to wait to use AoE abilities against Zac's Cell Division until the blob chunks have come close enough together that all can be targeted at once.

Playing with Zac

• Zac can gank from a very far distance with Elastic Slingshot, but can only succeed if the lane is set within range.
• Since Zac's bloblets count as minions, allies can Teleport to them to give Zac a brief period of invulnerability while reviving.

Playstyle

Zac is a tank that excels in disrupting enemy positioning through direct interceptions, whiel being equipped with excellent sustain and a revival mechanic that allows him to extend more than most engagements.

• Although all of Zac's abilities cost a percentage of his current health, the cost is always compensated by picking up the blobs from Cell Division. Since there is a net healing effect from consistent retrieval, Zac can spam his abilities without much repercussion.

Ability Usage

Cell Division [Innate]

• Zac can survive many situations that other champions could not, but only when the result plays out evenly. If you aren't confident in the success of the fight, might as well not bother.
  • This also includes tower diving. At maximum range of the turret, at least two of Zac's blobs will land out of range, allowing him to survive and come back with over a quarter of his maximum health.

Stretching Strikes [Q]

• Casting this skill does not interrupt Zac, making it easy to use as an escape skill.

Unstable Matter [W]

• Spamming Unstable Matter is a massive source of AoE damage in teamfights since it has a low cooldown and the percent damage is effective against champions.
• Note that the damage deals more if the target has more health, but is limited on non-champions.
• You can use Unstable Matter during Let's Bounce!, take advantage of this to maximize Zac's damage output.

Elastic Slingshot [E]

• Zac can gank from a very far distance, avoiding warded areas almost entirely.
• When initiating using Elastic Slingshot, be sure to jump towards the back of the enemy team in an attempt to hit and focus the AD/AP carry.

Let's Bounce!

• Using Let's Bounce! on the entire enemy team will result in the dropping of four blobs from Cell Division, which you can pick up for a whopping amount of free health (even more with Spirit Visage)

Items

As a tanky initiator, Zac should purchase items that offer survivability stats such as  Health,  Armor, and  Magic Resistance. To play into his sustainability, he benefits from stats like  Cooldown Reduction and items with effects that can assist in weakening the enemy.  Ability power and  Magic Penetration can also be considered if ahead or if his team needs more damage as Zac's AP ratios and base damage are quite high.

• Randuin's Omen is a strong item on Zac for a tank build, since it provides health, armor, and useful active and passive effects.
• Spirit Visage adds increased sustain, health, cooldown reduction, magic resistance, and no mana-related stats, making it perfect for Zac.
• For boots, your decision should be between Mercury's Treads, Ninja Tabi, or Boots of Mobility. However, Boots of Mobility should only be used if you need to be getting back to lane very quickly, or if you're jungling and need more mobility.
• Warmog's Armor should be taken to provide tons of health as well as very strong health regeneration effect. It is especially effective when combined with Spirit Visage. It also gives CDR which is a bit hard to come by as most tank items that give the stat also give mana which is useless on Zac.
• Cinderhulk can be useful because of percent health boost and area damage.
  • Sunfire Cape is amazing, since it gives AoE damage, health, and armor, which all tanks need in order to be effective.
    • Be careful when using Sunfire Cape and Cinderhulk together, as the Immolate passives do not stack.
• Locket of the Iron Solari is really effective on all tanks, since it gives health and magic resist, as well as an active that allows you to shield your entire team, making your strong initiation skills even stronger.
• A Guardian Angel is a good item to rush on Zac. Since the item synergizes well with Cell Division he is granted a 'second life', which makes Zac incredibly difficult to kill and adds extra turret diving capacity.
  • Guardian Angel's revive passive takes higher priority over Cell Division, which makes Guardian Angel a worthwhile item.
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a core item for a bruiser build. The slow, health, and AP all work perfectly with Zac's damaging style, plus this item functions well in combination with Sunfire Cape or Cinderhulk.
  • Rylai's Crystal Scepter works well even for a tank build because it provides a lot of health and gives utility and bonus damage. However, it should be noted that the passive only really works with his Unstable Matter as all his other abilities already have CC.
• Abyssal Mask is a good defensive item, offering health, MR, CDR and a passive that reduces enemy MR. The passive is especially effective as Zac's abilities have high base damage and have ranges that work with the aura.
• For boots, you should use Mercury's Treads, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, or Sorcerer's Shoes. The decision is based on whether you want survivability, cooldown reduction, or magic penetration.
• Rabadon's Deathcap is not recommended, but can be used if more damage is necessary.
  • Consider substituting it with a Warmog's Armor for more survivability.
• Zhonya's Hourglass is a viable purchase because of the survivability it provides as well as the AP and CDR, not to mention the stasis active.
• Runic Echoes offers ability power and movement speed, making it a very efficient source of damage and mobility for Zac despite wasting the mana restoration.
• Liandry's Torment is basically a must on him, since he is so heavily based on health and that penetration will make his percent damage on Unstable Matter even more potent. This is a particularly effective pick in combination with Rylai's Crystal Scepter.
  • Since penetration works so well in combination with Unstable Matter, Void Staff is also a viable pick.
• Try not to waste gold on items with mana or mana regeneration components, as these are wasted on Zac.
• Any slots not taken up by AP items should be slotted to increasing survivability, since Zac needs to be so close to enemies to effectively deal damage.
• Spirit Visage is highly effective on him, and it is recommended that you pick it up regardless of build path, unless there are no champions on the enemy team that do significant magic damage. It is extremely strong because Spirit Visage's passive gives Zac more effective healing due to the healing from Cell Division being partially negated by the health cost of his abilities. E.g. you're at 50% HP, you cast an ability which puts you to 48%, and then you pick up a blob which heals to up to 52.8% (rather than 52% without the Spirit Visage which is an effective healing increase of 40%).

Counterpicks

• Champions like Gragas, Janna, Lee Sin, Tristana and Xin Zhao can throw Zac away before he uses Let's Bounce!, by using their own ultimate abilities.
  • Alternatively, champions with knock up CC available like Janna or Nami can keep Zac from moving around a teamfight if used after Zac activated Let's Bounce!. This can significantly reduce the effectiveness of the ability.