Zac/Strategy

Template:C-top

Skill usage

• Although all of Zac's abilities cost 4% of his current health, the cost is always compensated by picking up the blobs from Cell Division.
  • In fact, because bloblets recover 4% of Zac's maximum health, picking up bloblets has a net healing effect which is increased at low health. Therefore, do not be afraid to spam your skills provided you can safely collect the bloblets.
  • However, do not overextend to collect a bloblet if doing so will put you in danger of enemy damage or CC.
• Cell Division allows Zac to survive many situations that other champions could not.
  • For example, getting hit by Ignite at low health is fatal to many champions, but so long as Zac can reach safety, he will be able to "respawn" with 50% of his maximum health.
  • 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 30% of his maximum health.
• Stretching Strike is a powerful slowing ability with a deceptively long range. Use this ability to lock down targets when pursuing or escaping.
  • This skill can be cast backwards (opposite to the direction Zac is facing) without turning Zac around. This makes it easy to use as an escape skill.
• Unstable Matter is a great AoE damage ability. It's percent damage makes it perfect for clearing jungle camps and gives Zac strong sustained damage against enemy champions.
• Spamming Unstable Matter is a massive source of AoE damage in team fights since it has a low cooldown and the percent damage is effective against champions.
• The percent damage on Unstable Matter actually makes it a worse skill for farming minions in lane and killing the small jungle creeps because of their low maximum health.
• Zac can jump over walls with Elastic Slingshot, allowing him to avoid area with a Sight Ward in them. Therefore, this skill is invaluable both in setting up and performing ganks.
• 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.
• The combination of Elastic Slingshot and Let's Bounce! is an amazing initiation tool, which can easily stack a team fight in your favor from the beginning.
  • When using Let's Bounce!, try to hit each member of the enemy team at least once to maximize the damage and number of knock-ups that the ability can achieve.
• Although you cannot use Stretching Strike or Elastic Slingshot during Let's Bounce!, you can use Unstable Matter. Take advantage of this to maximize Zac's damage output.
  • Even when building very tanky, Zac has a 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.
• Using Let's Bounce! will result in the dropping of four blobs from Cell Division, which you can pick up for a whopping 16% of your maximum health (19.2% with Spirit Visage)
  • 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 this back so long as your resistances are hig Zac effectively has two build paths; full tank and AP bruiser.

Tank

• Randuin's Omen is a strong item on Zac for a tank build, since it provides health, armor, and useful passive effects.
• Spirit Visage adds sustain, health, cooldown reduction, and magic resistance, all of which benefit Zac greatly.
  • Since Spirit Visage gives cooldown reduction and no mana-related stats, making it perfect for Zac.
• For boots, your decision should be between Mercury's Treads, Ninja Tabi, Boots of Mobility.
  • 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
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter works well even for a tank build because it provides a lot of health and gives utility and bonus damage.
• Juggernaut can be useful because of the CDR, Tenacity, and the health.
• Sunfire Cape is amazing. It gives AoE damage, health, and armor, which all tanks need in order to be effective.
  • Be careful when using Sunfire Cape and Bami's Cinder together, as the 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 Zac's 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 proc takes higher priority over Cell Division, which makes Guardian Angel a worthwhile item.

Bruiser

• Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a core item for this build.
  • The slow, health, and AP all work perfectly with Zac's damaging style.
  • This item functions well in combination with Sunfire Cape or Bami's Cinder.
• Abyssal Scepter can be used to provide some penetration and magic resist to help in dealing with enemy mages.
• 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, CDR, or magic pen.
• Like with the Tank build, Randuin's Omen is recommended, as it provides armor and health to deal with the fact that Zac needs to be so close to deal damage by comparison to other AP's.
• 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 large amount of AP, not to mention the active effect.
• Magus offers AP and CDR, making it a very efficient source of damage for Zac.
• 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 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.

Other notes

• 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.

Recommended Builds

Countering

• Zac heals from the goo that separates from him. You can crush the goo by stepping on it.
• Kill all of Zac's bloblets when he splits apart to prevent him from reforming.
  • You can use Ignite and Smite on the bloblets.
• Silences, roots, stuns and knockups will all interrupt the charging of Zac's Elastic Slingshot.
• All forms of crowd control are especially effective against Zac, since without mobility to allow him to collect his healing blobs from Cell Division and he will, therefore, chop down his health.
• Building a Morellonomicon against Zac can be extremely effective, since it significantly reduces the amount that he can heal.
• 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 of five minutes. 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. Click Zac before a teamfight to see if his passive is active.
• Even though they take reduced AoE damage, you can still easily destroy all of Zac's blobets by using a mage with a lot of AoE damage. Champions such as Malzahar, Brand and Swain can easily kill Zac while he is with his passive activated.
  • 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.
• Champions like Gragas, Janna, Lee Sin, Tristana and Xin Zhao can throw Zac away when he uses Let’s Bounce! 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.
• Zac deals only magic damage with his abilities. As such, you can buy magic resistance to counter his damage.

Champion spotlight

Template:C-bot